The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Nigeria’s image: Good news from Barcelona

    This headline will surely elicit excitement or scorn. Let me go straightaway to announce the good news: that Nigeria, this year, made it into the list of the 50 Most Reputable Countries in the World in 2012! This was the result of the 2012 Reputation Track conducted by the US-based Reputation Institute (RI), the world’s foremost organisation that imparts reputation knowledge and monitors reputation of organisations, places and leaders. The announcement was made at the just concluded 17th international conference on Corporate Reputation, Brand Identity and Competitiveness held from June 5-7 in Barcelona Spain. Nigeria was noted to have made some significant improvement in its reputation. Before now, the country was not even considered for ranking.

    The not-so-good news, however, is that Nigeria was rated 47th out of 50. It scored only 31.54% mark above Pakistan (26.59%), Iran (21.34%) and Iraq (20.32%). All the eight countries that scored below 40% (China, Colombia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, etc) were noted for poor/bottom tier reputation. Two other African countries – South Africa (33rd) and Egypt (39th) made the list in the weak/vulnerable reputation category. Canada, Australia and Sweden topped the list of countries with strong/robust reputation.

    The criteria for the ranking were three-fold: effective government, advanced economy and appealing environment. Under “effective government”, a country with robust reputation is expected to have adopted progressive social and economic policies, is a responsible participant in the global economy, is a safe place and operates efficiently. Under “advanced economy”, a reputable country is supposed to produce high quality products/services, have many well-known brands, is an important contributor to global culture, is technologically advanced, has a well-educated workforce, and values education. And under “appealing environment”, a reputable country is supposed to be a beautiful country, is an enjoyable place, offers an appealing lifestyle, and the people are friendly and welcoming to visitors.

    That Nigeria was indeed mentioned among the world’s 50 most reputable countries was therefore cheering enough for me at the conference, especially with all our concerns about corruption, insecurity, challenges of governance, poor economy, weak institutions, decayed infrastructure, high unemployment, among others.

    The fact that Nigeria was mentioned among the most reputable countries in the world would certainly excite many Nigerians, especially government officials who would now incorporate the information into their campaigns. But for serious minded professionals, this is a wake-up call for strategies to pull Nigeria up the reputation ladder in the ranking for next year. Besides, this result shows that reputation is not earned by sloganeering, propaganda or the so-called “image-laundering” which is the practice of quacks. Reputation is the result of hard work — effective governance, appealing place, good people and strong economy. Slogans are only devised to communicate the goodness.

    As the Reputation Institute clearly stated in its report, just like companies, the world’s places – its countries, states and cities exist in a reputation economy. How they are perceived by stakeholders, tourists, investors, students, workers and consumers can make the difference between having a robust or depressed economy. The economic impact of good reputation on countries is enormous: they attract more foreign direct investments (FDI), increased exports and foreign knowledge and talents.

    Investors want to invest in countries where their investments would be profitable and safe, where there are infrastructures to harness the investment, where the people are friendly, and where there is respect for the rule of law. Tourists want a beautiful place where they can go, watch exciting scenes, meet friendly people and go back home safe. Spain has no oil. Its economy is sustained mainly by tourism. In 2012, the country recorded 57 million tourists. Out of that number, Barcelona, where the RI conference was held – a very beautiful city- had more than 43 million tourists!

    The Nigerian government must find a way to build and manage its reputation through a strategic approach. Whoever is in charge must understand the concepts of corporate reputation and branding. Such a person must work very closely with the President (as is done in companies) and the key ministers of government. Indeed the Country’s Chief Reputation Officer (CCRO) is the President himself. What he says or does adds or subtracts from the country’s reputation.

    If the President truly leads by example, if he truly fights corruption, if he is truly in effective control of governance, if he truly promotes rule of law – all these will enhance the country’s reputation. That means that the minister or special adviser in charge of the country’s image/reputation must be the President’s and the Government’s key advisor. Indeed, like in the companies, he must exercise some level of oversight on all ministries and agencies of government, and report directly to the President.

    The government in Spain for instance, takes the country’s reputation very seriously. Two years ago, Spain found itself on the throes of serious economic crisis. The government appointed a Minister in charge of Brand Spain. The Minister, Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros addressed us at the conference and spoke very strongly on the strategies the government devised to rebuild the reputation of Spain and keep tourists coming in again. Spain was on the 18th position in the 2011 reputation ranking. In 2013, they moved up to 16th position. This was not achieved by mere sloganeering that Spain is good, come to Spain!

    Monteros told the conference that his office monitors every credible reputation ranking, every important newspaper article about Spain, every comment about Spain by critical stakeholders, every report of any misbehaviour of any government official or agency — and follows up to ensure that the right things are done. He was not employed as an attack dog. Monteros also ensures that good things about Spain – its strengths—are communicated effectively through various channels in many parts of the world, especially the G-8 countries where the major economic decisions of the world are made.

    I have a story to illustrate my point: When I arrived Barcelona Airport on June 4, my luggage was missing. I reported at the airport’s help desk. The officer in charge promptly contacted the airline which promised to deliver my luggage that evening. The officer went further to contact my hotel to confirm my reservation. Thereafter, she asked me to go to my hotel and wait for the luggage, which she promised would be delivered to me the next day in my hotel. By the time I got to my hotel, the information was already on display. And as promised, the next day, my luggage was delivered to me in good condition. The system worked for me; and I felt even better about Spain.

    Nigeria has a lot to learn from the Reputation Institute and Spain!

    · Sir Nkwocha, a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), is currently Head of Corporate Communications at Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Limited, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

  • Reforming the judiciary

    Nothing perhaps can illustrate the disillusionment regarding the delivery of justice in the country as the reported lamentation of Mr. Justice Okechukwu Okeke who recently retired from the Federal High Court. Speaking at a reception on his retirement, Justice Okeke informed his audience that 35,000 cases were pending in his court when he was presiding at the Federal High Court. He said he learnt that the number has since gone up to about 70,000 since he left; yet, only one judge still presides over the cases.

    Justice Okeke is just one of many judges to have gone through similar experiences. The learned judge hit the nail on its head by his simple deduction that the increase in the number of cases pending in law courts is attributable to shortage of judges and high rate of litigations. Obviously that inference is begging for official acknowledgment as a reason for the slow machinery of justice dispensation. But a situation whereby a judge battles with 35,000 cases is a recipe for corruption. So those who believe that the Nigerian judiciary has become tainted with the pervasive corruption in the land have a strong factor in their favour. When that factor is laced with the cumbersome processes of court; the often cramp court-rooms and court environment; the absence of facilities, the unreliability of power supply (both from the PHCN and the generators), the malfunctioning air conditioners, the tedious long-hand recording of proceedings by the judges; the non-availability of legal research assistants and the predisposition of the judges, as human beings, to these looming factors, the result is anybody’s guess but certainly in dissonance with smooth administration of justice.

    It is notable that the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar is all too familiar with these scenarios in court. She went through them on her way to the Supreme Court which in itself is heavily saddled with pending matters. Justice Aloma has had several occasions to speak publicly about the problems of the judiciary, vis-à-vis her own vision, which includes zero-tolerance for corruption and un-productivity. She recently told judicial officers: “As you are well aware and as I have reiterated on so many occasions, we have a vision of a justice system that is simple, fast and efficient. It must be responsive to the needs and yearnings of the citizenry. If the public loses respect for the Bench, the society may gradually be creeping back to the days of jungle justice, as less and less persons and institutions will be willing to entrust their disputes to us”.

    Speaking at the official commissioning of the permanent site of the Appeal Court, Ibadan last month, Mrs. Mukhtar said Nigerian courts, like many others in developing countries of the world, struggle to cope with situations like absence of standard libraries and out-dated legal infrastructure. Quite appropriately, she summed it all up with a verdict that, for courts to discharge their role of dispute settlement and interpretation of law effectively, they must not be denied of requisite infrastructure, expertise and technology.

    Justice Mukhtar has not been alone in seeking to unravel the delay in administering justice in the country. Former Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta had also pinpointed corruption as a factor. Justice Auta is perhaps more blunt when he accused the police, lawyers, prison officials and fellow judges of contributing to the slow pace of criminal justice delivery by acts of omission or commission. “Corruption is the only reason that can explain the snail’s speed at which the administration of criminal justice is moving in Nigeria.”

    The CJN certainly cannot be found wanting in articulating the problems of that all-important sector she heads; and consequently seeking to solve them. In practical terms, the challenge ahead is far greater. Surely, Justice Mukhtar did not create the loopholes afflicting the judiciary and thus causing the slow grinding of the wheel of justice. But if after all said and done, there is little or no change for the better, who else can one blame but the Chief Justice? All cases are important but criminal matters, which often involve the liberty of the accused, are more important. Many such cases have been pending in court, for one reason or the other, for too long. The CJN ought to be particularly interested because the effect, locally, is that of justice denied – following the dictum that justice delayed is justice denied. Internationally, such delays have deeper implications, one of which is the clog it presents in attracting enduring Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the country. Justice Mukhtar may not be a fund keeper for the judiciary, but she is a fund manager and adviser. She has a role to play in directing appropriate expenditure first, towards meeting the infrastructure deficits she has identified as the bane of quick justice dispensation; and, not being directly in charge of all aspects of the judiciary, particularly in the states, she needs to advise the various governments accordingly.

    The judiciary is continually under scrutiny and test of performance and reliability. Fortunately for the institution, it has continued to survive as the hope of Nigerians despite the serious reputational bashing it has also suffered in the recent past. As a woman and the first female Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mrs. Mukhtar should strive to make a difference regarding court rules and procedure. There must be a way of ensuring that judges have research assistants to enable them sift the whiff from the chaff of legal submissions.

    There must be a way around the ready exploitation of countless loopholes by which some lawyers cover up their inadequacy or unpreparedness by seeking and obtaining adjournments endlessly. There must be a way of managing epileptic power supply to at least achieve a minimum condition of ventilation and safety for the courts. The Chief Justice has admitted on some occasions that many Nigerians laws are archaic, amounting to no more than relics of colonisation. Given that law reform is slow and often expensive, there must be a way to identify the more inglorious of such archaic laws and bring them to civilization; or dispense with them altogether. Importantly, there must be a way- indeed conscious effort must be exerted-to ensure fairness of trial, and accordance of due respect to accused persons in the course of trial.

    Nothing must be allowed to trample on section 36(5) of the 1999 Constitution, to the effect that an accused person is presumed innocent until his guilt is proven by a court of competent jurisdiction. Justice Mukhtar has a holistic assignment of correcting these and other ills afflicting the judiciary and thus sustaining the notion that the courts are indeed the last hope of Nigerians. However, running Nigeria’s judiciary in public like the CJN does with her public statements of late seems at variance with the standards expected of that otherwise normally conservative arm of government. These public pronouncements are reminiscent of the military style era of the 1970s when the whiplash of ‘sack with immediate effect’ was visited on the civil service with its horrendous and damaging effects. Is this the future we want for the judiciary?

    When you threaten your judges in public with fire and brimstone rather than through the process of administrative circulars, the discerning public is left wondering what the motives were.

    The challenges are not going to be solved through knee-jerk approach, but through articulately thought-through solutions rather than public statements about judicial cleansing that would have the unnecessary result of putting the judges on edge.

    • Nelson, Attorney At Law, wrote from Lagos.

  • Who are the Yoruba people? (Part 3)

    Who are the Yoruba people? (Part 3)

    Up until 1292 BC and the ascension of King Menpehtyre Ramesses, all the Pharaohs of Egypt were black. These include some of the better known ones such as King Horemheb (who preceeded King Ramesses), King Khafra (who was depicted by the Great Sphinx of Giza), King Tutankhamun (the young Pharoah whose tomb was discovered with enormous riches and a terrible curse by a British archeologist and explorer called Howard Carter), Queen Cleopatra (whose beauty was enchanting, who captured the emotions of Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony, who divided the Roman Empire and whom this writer honoured with a poem titled ‘’The Nubian Queen’’), Queen Nefertiti (who was the wisest of the wise and the most compassionate of all the Egyptian monarchs), King Piye (who was the conqueror of Egypt, the master of Nubia and the greatest of all the Cushite warrior kings) and the two Pharaoes that the biblical Moses and the biblical Joseph knew respectively and that had such a great impact on Jewish history and the fortunes of the Jewish people. All these Pharaohs were black African Nubians who were to be later referred to as the ‘’Sudanese’’. The fact of the matter is that right up until the establishment of the 19th dynasty and the coming of King Ramesses in 1292 BC the rulers of Egypt were all Nubians and not the ‘’brown and olive-skinned’’ Euroasiatics and Arabs that the Ramessesian era ushered in.

    The Nubians not only ruled Egypt for thousands of years but they also constituted the majority of those that made up the Egyptian middle class and intelligensia including the clerics, theologians, artists, writers, poets, medics, artesans, builders, architects, astrologers, mathmatecians and professionals. The Ancient Egyptians themselves referred to their homeland as ‘’Kmt’’ (which is conventionally pronounced as ‘’Kemet’’). According to the celebrated historian Cheikh Anta Diop, the Ancient Egyptians referred to themselves as “Black people’’ or ‘’kmt’’ and ‘’kmt’’ was the etymological root of other words, such as ‘’Kam’’ or ‘’Ham’’, which refer to ‘’black people’’ in Hebrew tradition. Diop, William Leo Hansberry, and Aboubacry Moussa Lam have argued that ‘’kmt’’ was derived from the skin colour of the Nile valley people, who they claim were black. And they were absolutely right. These are the facts though some western and Arab Egyptologists find it hard to accept and often seek to deny it. Yet whether anyone likes to accept it or not the fact remains that the greatest civilisation that the world has ever known, which is the Egyptian civilisation, was led and established by people of colour and those same people were the custodians of the deepest mysteries and secrets of our world and of the human race.

    The final batch of ancient Cushites that remained in Arabia for thousands of years after all the others had left and that had refused to leave those lands for Africa with their Ethiopian brothers and sisters eventually migrated to the Egyptian Nile Valley from Mecca and Medina. Thousands of years later this last wave of Cushite migrants were to be referred to as the ‘’yoruba’’. Yet for thousands of years before the word ‘’yoruba’’ was even conceived and after their arrival in the Nile Valley these same people constituted an essential and vital part of the ruling and middle class of the Sudan, Nubia and Ancient Egypt. The Cushite forefathers of the yoruba were a learned and mystical people that were well versed in philosophy, the arts, history, the mysteries of the age, science, anthropology and the secrets of the spirit realm and human existence. Their contribution to Ancient Egyptian culture and art was second to none. Most importantly the pantheon of gods that they had worshipped, guarded jealously and served for thousands of years whilst in Mecca and Medina before their migration to the Nile Valley were accepted by the Egyptian ruling elite and were fully integrated and superimposed on the Egyptian religious stratosphere. As a matter of fact those gods were not only accepted but they eventually became the cornerstone and foundation of Ancient Egyptian culture and religion. That is the level of input that the yoruba made into the affairs and development of Ancient Egypt.

    In our quest to further explore the ancient Egyptian roots of the yoruba permit me to qoute copiously from an excellent contribution titled ‘’YORUBA- THE EGYPTIAN CONNECTION’’ which was written by Olomu and Eyebira. The write-up is utterly fascinating in terms of it’s depth and research. In the section titled ‘’The Oduduwan Revolution’’. The authors wrote the following-

    ‘’In this chapter, we shall talk of a possible migration from ancient Egypt. Many traditions point to a fact that an alien group (Egyptians) immigrated to Yoruba land and mixed with the original population.Many oral traditions are replete with these stories. The Awujale of Ijebu land has shown that the Ijebus are descended from ancient Nubia (a colony of Egypt). He was able to use the evidence of language, body, scarification, coronation rituals that are similar to Nubians’ etc, to show that the Ijebus are descendants of the Nubians. What the present Awujale claimed for the Ijebus, can be authenticated all over Yoruba land. The Awujale even mentioned (2004) that the Itsekiri (an eastern Yoruba dialect) are speaking the original Ijebu language. Since the Nubians were descended from the Egyptians, the Ijebu, and by extension, all Yoruba customs, derived from the Egyptian as well. Many traditional Yorubas have always claimed Egypt as their place of original abode, and that their monarchical tradition derives from the Egyptians.

    Apostle Atigbiofor Atsuliaghan, a high priest of Umale-Okun, and a direct descendant of Orunmila, claimed that the Yorubas left Egypt as a result of a big war that engulfed the whole of Egypt. He said the Egyptian remnants settled in various places, two important places being Ode Itsekiri and Ile-Ife.Chief O.N Rewane says “Oral tradition has it also that when the Yorubas came from South of Egypt they did not go straight to where they now occupy. They settled at Illushi, some at Asaba area – Ebu, Olukumi Ukwunzu while some settled at Ode-Itsekiri,.” (O.N. Rewane Royalty Magazine A PICTORIAL SOUVENIR OF THE BURIAL AND CORONATION OF OLU OF WARRI, WARRI 1987). Since these oral traditions are passed on by very illiterate people, we can augment whatever is recorded with written sources.

    Concerning the migration of some of the Yoruban ancestors from the east, Conton says: ‘’The Yoruba of Nigeria are believed by many modern historians to be descended from a people who were living on the banks of the Nile 2,000 years ago, and who were at the time in close contact with the Egyptians and the Jews. Sometime before AD 600, if this belief is correct, these people must have left their fertile lands, for reasons which we can not now discover and have joined in the ceaseless movement of tribes west wards and south-wards across our continent.We can only guess at the many adventures they and their descendants must have had on their long journey and at the number of generations which passed before they arrived. All we can be certain about is that they were a Negro people and that one of the many princely states they founded on their arrival in West Africa…..was Ife’’- Conton.

    Although we agree with Conton that some of the Yoruban ancestors migrated from Egypt, we tend to toe the scientific line of Cheik Anta Diop, that the ancient Egyptians were pure Negroes. Aderibigbe, an indigenous scholar, also accepts that the Yorubas migrated from Egypt. He says:”The general trend of these theories, most of them based on Yoruba traditions, is that of a possible origin from “the east”. Some scholars, impressed by the similarities between Yoruba and ancient Egyptian culture – religious observation, works of art, burial and other customs – speak of a possible

    migration of the ancestors of the Yoruba from the upper Nile (as early as 2000BC – 1000BC) as a result of some upheavals in ancient Egypt”. (AB ADERIBIGBE 1976). Unlike Conton, Aderibigbe was able to pinpoint a cause for the Yoruban migration – war. Olumide Lucas did a lot of job to show similarities and identities between the ancient Egyptians and the Yoruban peoples. The date that Aderibigbe gave (2000BC – 1000BC) is much earlier than that given by Conton. Aderibigbe’s date corresponds to that of the Hyksos invasion of Egypt 2000-1500BC.

    On the possible eastern origin of the Yorubas, Tariqh Sawandi says:”The Yoruba history begins with the migration of an east African population across the trans-African route leading from Mid-Nile river area to the Mid-Niger. Archaeologists, according to M. Omoleya, inform us that the Nigerian region was inhabited more than forty thousand years ago, or as far back as 65,000BC. During this period, the Nok culture occupied the region. The Nok culture was visited by the “Yoruba people”, between 2000BC and 500BC. This group of people was led, according to Yoruba historical accounts by king Oduduwa, who settled peacefully in the already established Ile-Ife, the sacred city of the indigenous Nok people.This time period is known as the Bronze Age, a time of high civilization of both of these groups. According to Olumide J. Lucas, “the Yoruba, during antiquity, lived in ancient Egypt before migrating to the Atlantic coast”. He uses as demonstration the similarity or identity of languages, religious beliefs, customs and names of persons, places and things. In addition, many ancient papyri discovered by archaeologists point at an Egyptian origin’’ (Tariqh Sawandi: ‘’Yorubic medicine: The Art of divine herbology).

    (TO BE CONTINUED)

  • Nigerian presidency and the northern death spell

    Nigerian presidency and the northern death spell

    The Presidency of any Nation determines the course of such society; hence, Wisdom is essential to leadership. A particular dimension of Wisdom apparently unknown to the Nigerian political leadership is the way of understanding and utilising the spirituality and power of iconic art forms that may come in literary, sculpture, or other art craft models through adoption of functional and regenerative metaphysical and aesthetic intelligence. A principal art form of particular reference in this piece is the Nigerian Coat of Arms and its connection with the ‘proposed’ and ‘adopted’ Bayelsan Coats of Arms.

    When these iconic art forms are not understood, the human consciousness in material creation may be subjected to the directions of lower astral ambience. Hence, the mental state of human consciousness, which is higher than the astral, is subjected to leadership of the lower astral ambience and man is cut off from the purity in the plane of spiritual ambience of God through the sub-conscious bridge. Consequently, there is a reversal of roles in the directions of the power of thought and will. The place of God is given unto astral forces which are lesser than man. Due to the subjection of human mental ambience, there is bound to be a problem of bankruptcy in reasoning, consequently raising issues of ethical concerns in the course of statecraft. Human behavioral patterns would expectedly reflect instincts of lower animals. Hence, in socio-political philosophic theory, the organised human society finds a befitting definition according to Thomas Hobbes’ State of Nature.

    By 2008, in the course of a private study of the evolution of the Nigerian Coat of Arms in direct relations to the course of social-political and economic evolution of Nigeria, I discovered that the Nigerian Presidency was operating under a degenerative spell emanating from the Coat of Arms—particularly from its Northern space. It was then presumed that the adoption of the Coat of Arms in 1975 was a ‘State suicide’ which shut the doors of Nigerian presidency against good leadership. The suicide was deemed to be the correct astral foundational root cause of majority of Nigeria’s current problems that God had revealed to some churches but which their leaders did not understand and erringly arrived at the disastrous conclusion that God was referring to FESTAC 77. What is more, it was presumed that even in the event of an ascension of a good leader by chance to the Presidential throne, such leader will not last long in the position. Presently, the problems of the Presidency has increased by the influence of the adopted Bayelsan Coat of Arms in association with one of the proposed versions which was also briefly used by some Bayelsa State on-line outfit as the Coat of Arms. This version operates in stronger cosmic dimensions by virtue of the replication of the Red Eagle from National Coat of Arms on its apex.

    To validate propositions made so far, I shall state reality incidents of Nigeria’s evolving but mutable metaphysical history, from the ‘death of Yar Adua’ to the ‘enthronement of Goodluck Jonathan’ and the ‘death vibrations threatening the current first lady’, the ‘death of Kaduna State Governor’, the ‘permeating of international cosmos of nations through the British cosmic lot’, and the ‘potential martial cataclysm by the evolutionary ghostly clash of talons and the water beast’.

    At this moment in time and history, the Red Eagle on the Nigerian Coat of Arms spells doom for the entire country. However, the worst doom is spelt for the North to which it has attracted ‘self destruction’. In order to properly lay a foundation for the proposition of evolutionary danger and the Red Eagle nature, it is necessary that I refer to a write-up by the present author, titled ‘An Artistic Analysis of the Nigerian Coat of Arms’, which was published by The Nation News paper on July 2, 2007. In the write-up, the author made preliminary historical interpretations devoid of deep metaphysical considerations of, and reference to, inherent futuristic prognosis.

    Summarily, of the eagle, I wrote that “it is a mythological bird that symbolises the sun and regenerates its energy from it through a fasting-ritual in which the eagle focuses on the sun…The sun rises in the East and sets in the West. However, the Nigerian eagle, in a fixed state, faces the West where the sun sets…Worse still, it is colored red…In esoteric science, the West hemisphere is the abode of water. Naturally, eagles’ motion towards that aquatic direction is for food. It is readable from this perspective that the will to power and leadership in Nigeria is governed by the appetite and vices of lower self. This is a formidable astral foundation of rabid greed and corruption in Nigeria”. The eagle positioning was also noted to be the “determinant of Northern educational incapacity, symbolic curse and cause of extreme poverty…”

    The down-south does not have any animal symbolic representation like the North (Eagle), East (Horse) and West (Horse). The down-south, determined by the wreath, is like a non-entity and imaginary beast of burden on which the East, West, and Northern structures rely on for subsistence. Unfortunately, by the 21st century astral evolution of the Red Eagle, a deathly art spell is evoked from the Northern cosmos upon the destiny of all other cardinal zones of Nigeria.

    The anti-intellectual eagle positioning sets the course of a cosmic curse of degenerative witchcraft and glories’ destruction upon the land. The error of mystic art has transformed the Eagle into its opposite: the Vulture. What is consequently attracted to the Nigerian presidential space and social space (in secular, economic and spiritual activities) is the manifestation of the spiritual culture of the Vulture (Eye Igun) which thrives on deadness and exudes stench and filth magnetism. These are translatable to mean a mutable predestined degenerative social, religious, political, economic intelligence

    The northern decline

    and Yar’adua’s death

    The Red Eagle’s decline from its cosmic plunge in 1999 physically translates into a terminal decline of Northern Nigeria. The region began its journey down the abyss from year 2000 without any hope of recovery so long as the Nigerian Coat of Arms is in force. There are worse indicators for the Northern destiny in the 21st century through renewals of nature cycles at periodic crossovers that spell doom for Nigeria. Presidency headed by a Northerner ceased by May 29, 1999, during the closing periods of Nigeria’s 38th year of self rule. By October 1, 2000, which is the beginning of the 4th decade of self governance, the presidency was headed by a South-Westerner, Rt. General Olusegun Obasanjo. In 2007, he handed over to a Northerner.

    By 2009, a Northern President faced serious health crisis that was attracted to his spirit by the etheric vibrations of the Coat of Arms. By the cosmic evolution of the Eagle’s fate from the vibrations of Nigerian Coat of Arms, it was determined that the late President Yar’Adua was never going to survive the luminous evolution of 2009 which was to complete the prism of 2000 and 2009—both being the first complete set of foundational luminous prisms for the 21st century human existence. The millennium began in 1999, and not 2000, on a count of 1. 1999 is 1+9+9+9=28 that transforms to 2+8=10; i.e., 1+0=1. Automatically, the proceeding number from 1 is 2; hence, the proceeding year from 1999/1 is Year 2000/2. 2+0+0+0=2. A symbolism of 2, from the Jewish mystical tradition, is of illumination as the biblical theme of divine act of creation where Jehovah or Jah commanded that ‘let there be light’. The more intense of these luminous numbers was bound to manifest in 2009; i.e., 2+0+0+9=11. 11 transforms to 2 as 1+1.

    In this period, the intensity of cosmic light was bound to dominate the space of leadership, and every spiritual art directing national fate but which is creatively inclined to darkness will be drained of energy and vanquished. The presumed physical evolution of this cosmic agenda was expected to manifest in the form of an emaciated cadaverous being in prism with the Northern Iconic eagle.

    •Okunmakinde is Artiste-in-Residence

    Institute of Cultural Studies, OAU, Ile-Ife

    Tel: 0813 818 3456

  • NAFDAC: Using hi-tech to fight fake drugs

    NAFDAC: Using hi-tech to fight fake drugs

    Counterfeiting and faking of drugs and food substances have become a global industry, so also are the worries and concerns over the development. Particularly for Nigeria, the challenge has been the impetus needed to frontally and aggressively confront the menace. To the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigeria’s health boosting agency, falls that responsibility. The efforts of the Dr. Paul B. Orhii-led agency, especially its deployment of cutting edge technologies to fight and win the anti-counterfeit drugs war has gained global recognition.

    Take Truscan. NAFDAC’s successful deployment of this technology brought it global consciousness. There are also Black Eye and Radio Frequency Identification system (RFID). I hasten to add the Mobile Authentication Service (MAS), the world’s first anti-counterfeiting contraption which uses the SMS platform. Dr. Orhii is enthralled by MAS, especially for its cost effectiveness and immediacy of result. The simplicity of MAS is awesome. The programme involves the packaging of drugs with a scratch card placed on drug packs from the point of manufacture. When scratched, the hidden codes revealed on the packs could be sent free of charge via SMS to 38353 on the MTN, Zain and Globacom networks. Shortly afterwards, the sender will receive a reply confirming whether the product is genuine or not.

    Fantastic you will say! What it means is that NAFDAC may finally have succeeded in placing the responsibility of detecting counterfeit drugs in the hands of Nigeria’s over 114 million mobile phone subscribers. It will thrill you to no end to know that the agency is applauded globally as the world’s first drug regulatory authority to deploy and use hand-held devices at borders for on-the-spot detection of counterfeit medicines with resounding successes!

    While MAS may be a first choice because of its mass involvement appeal, Black Eye, Radio Frequency Identification system and Truscan equally have their own attractions. Black Eye has the capacity to screen multiple drug samples at the same time. This is how it goes: It compares a tablet that you are trying to check and tell you whether it is genuine or fake; and if you ask from the machine, it will break the product down into its active pharmaceutical ingredients; if counterfeited, it could reveal the inactive pharmaceutical ingredients. It is a ready tool in the hands of NAFDAC’s operatives because it can take up to 1000 different tablets at the same time and break them down and tell you which one is good or bad.

    The Radio Frequency Identification system has the ability to track and trace regulated foods and medicines and also prevent the forgery of sensitive documents. As hinted above, Truscan is a hand-held device using Roman Spectroscopy to detect counterfeit products. With this technology, NAFDAC officials can quickly scan imported products at the ports and release them on time without compromising their quality. Nigeria is now the first country in the world to use it to detect quality of medicines. Truscan’s efficacy is underlined by the glowing tribute from Roxy Nader of the London-based independent information provider on country risk and industry research, Business Monitor International. Nader, an authority on Nigerian pharmaceutical market has this to say on the agency’s deployment of Truscan: “NAFDAC has recorded a major food and drug regulatory milestone with the acquisition of the Truscan device”. It is instructive to know that following its success in Nigeria, the Food and Drug Administration agencies in the United States, Germany, Sweden, Canada etc, have also started using it.

    So much is the public confidence in the technology-driven war against counterfeit and fake drugs and food items in Nigeria by NAFDAC that critical stakeholders in the sector are ready to throw in everything and synergise with the agency to win the war. Removing the burden of tariff payment from consumers of the drug is a veritable incentive for its use. And so, key stakeholders in the sector (drug manufacturers) have come to the aid of consumers by accepting to fund it, although it is currently applicable to malaria drugs and antibiotics, being products most cloned and adulterated by the murderous counterfeiters. The NAFDAC has assured that efforts are also on to extend the service to other general purpose drugs.

    The Mobile Authentication Service guarantees befitting and enduring positive corporate image for pharmaceutical companies and their products, thus ensuring high level product patronage with the attendant high revenue yield for such firms. For pharmaceutical companies that are reluctant to key into the strategy because of its perceived cost implications, they might have placed higher premiums on profitability than the lives of their customers. From the larger interest of the society, this attitude is unpatriotic.

    Let me say unequivocally that Dr Orhii’s ongoing revolution in NAFDAC has succeeded in placing Nigeria in the league of serious countries of the world ready to do anything to protect their people from the merchants of death that drug counterfeiters have become.

    • Ikhilae, is a Lagos-based public affairs analyst

  • Tackling transportation problem in Abia

    What is truly lacking in many parts of the country today which has continued to inhibit development and opening up of the hinterlands is lack of access roads and adequate transportation system.  Successive governments at all levels especially during the long years of military regime did not help matters at all.  Several efforts and inputs by private individuals and organizations in the transportation sector has not been enough because majority of Nigerians rely on land transportation system to move around. Besides, the cost of such transport scheme is always unaffordable for some Nigerians especially in the rural areas. But in Abia State today unlike in the past, the situation has changed and is still changing for good with the present administration’s policy on massive road construction and rehabilitation across the senatorial zones in the state.

    The policy has brought about the opening up of access roads several parts of the state, especially in the agrarian communities in the hinterlands where farmers reside. Before now, some of the people in the rural communities in the state have not seen caterpillars talk much of using tarred roads. The state government under leadership of Governor Theodore Orji has remained consistent in pursuing the policy which is one of the cardinal programmes of his government.

    Apart from the ongoing construction and rehabilitation of roads across the state, the government has completed the following roads since the assumption of office. They include Abia Tower (Ossah) dualised road, Okpara Square dualised road; the Uwalaka Ahia-Orie Ugba road; Ibeku Road extension, Ozuitem Street, Abam-Orie Ugba Street, Umuovom Nkatta Road (Ochendo Bye-Pass), Ahieke-Okwuta-Isieke Road with spur to the Cenotaph, Uyo Street, Okwulaga-Afaraukwu Road, Umuafai-Lodu-Ahieke Road, Link Road between Aba Road and Timber Market, Nkata Ameke Road, Nkata-Alike Ring Road, New Secretariat By-pass, Ubakala-Old Umuahia dualised Highway, internal Roads in Abia State House of Assembly, Abia Transport Road, Enyiukwu Road, Okigwe Park Bye-pass and the asphalt overlay of over 25 streets within Umuahia the state capital and these roads were also beautified with streetlights and pedestrian walkways on the both sides.  The development has restored nightlife in the state capital amidst secured atmosphere devoid of crime of any sort.

    In the commercial city of Aba alone, the state government has completed the Okwu Street, Ezeogo Road (Opposite Ngwa High School), Nwala Street, Mount Zion Street, Ikonne Street, A-line and F-line, Ariaria Market. Other roads include Umule Road, Umuocham Azikiwe, Okigwe, Faulks Road, Orieohazu street, Unity Garden/Osisioma Ring Road, Timber and Allied Products Market internal Roads, Uratta Road, Dualization of Aba-Owerri Road with the spur at the Osisioma Ngwa end of the Enugu-Port-Harcourt expressway completed, dualization of Aba-Port Harcourt Road, Udu Street, Umugo-Ugwunagbo Road, Uratta, Ngozi Avenue, Omenazu, Okigwe Road, East Street and the recently commissioned Brass street, Milverton Avenue, Azikiwe Road, George Street and Constitution Crescent.

    Knowing that lack of adequate drainage channels have always been the bane of road durability in Aba, the present government demolished all illegal structures in the city which made it possible for the construction of giant drainage channels at Ama-Ogbonna and Ngwa Road by East to control flooding in the city. Apart from the completed roads in the city, the perennial flooding at Binez junction of Aba-Owerri road where motorists spend hours before crossing over has been tackled.  Beside, work is ongoing in other roads in the city and will soon be completed before the rainy season sets in proper.

    Also not left out in the roads revolution by the state government is the rural communities where majority of the people of the state are residing. Some of the rural roads that have been constructed include Ozu-Abam Ndi-Okereke Road, Amaekpu-Okagwe-Ohafia Road, Amankalu-Alayi-Akoli-Imenyi Road, Ariam- Usaka-Ikwuano Road, Nunya-Eluama-Isuikwuato Road, Ovim-Isuikwuato Road, Aba-Obikabia Road, Umugo-Alaoji-Umunka-Umuodo-Ugwunagbo Road, the Ntigha-Mbawsi Road, Iyienyi-Okwoi-Ozuitem Road, Umueze-Agbo-Ubani Ibeku Road, Nkata Mbom Road, some internal roads in Ossah, and the Achara-Ihechiowa Road.

    Being mindful of the popular saying that vehicles have become an article of dress without which we feel uncertain, unclad, and incomplete, Governor Orji had in 2009 rolled out the Abia City Transport Scheme which aside creating employment for the people, had equally resolved the perennial problem of lack of adequate and befitting intra-city transportation in the state. Since then till today, more than 1000  vehicles have been given out by the state government under the Transport Loan Scheme and the beneficiaries of the scheme are giving testimony today. That is why it has been possible for the state government to able to provide free transportation for indigenes of the state living in different parts of the country during yuletide celebration.

    With the ongoing revolution in the roads construction and transportation system by the present administration in the state, which are two key factors in industrial growth, the state is now on the verge of reclaiming its past glory as the industrialized giant of the country.  Especially at this point that the commercial city of Aba is getting adequate attention from the state government in the area of massive infrastructure development.

    • Dr. Uwa, a medical practitioner wrote from Aba, Abia State

  • From the cell phone

    For Gbenga Omotoso

    I am yet to recover from the shock I got, watching Governor Jang, a grandfather for that matter, claiming victory of an election he was roundly defeated. Could this be the reason many states of the federation have become killing fields? I wonder what those that fall over one another to give Governor Akpabio awards are doing now that the whole world has seen that the man is everything but democratic.What Nigerians need now is development rooted in credible democratic principles not building of roads, bridges and airport that is a cover up for dictatorial tendencies. From Ifeanyi .O . Ifeanyichukwu, Abuja.

    Imagine Gov. Jonah Jang who cannot make peace between two tribes in his state fighting to become the NGF Chairman. Wonder they say shall never end. From Kunle Adeyemi.

    Are you the chief spokesman for APC? There was no trace of balance in your piece-Govs go gaga.To you, the President is meddling in the activities of NGF while Gov Amechi does not know anything about dissolution of Obio/Akpor elected council. Tell us about the election of ALGON Chairman in Rivers State. Anonymous

    Gbenga, your article on When governors go gaga is a classic and must read. It shows clearly the type of politicians and decietful leadership we have. Kudos to you. Anonymous

    ‘Doing what they know how to do best’ encapsulates the Nigerian politicians, most especially of the PDP stock.They lie, rig, steal, impoverish, kill, maim, exploit, blackmail, deceive, confuse and misrule, among others they know how to do best. From Alhaj ADEYCorsim, Oshodi, Lagos

    It is sad to see people like Mimiko and Obi who were initially victims of a rigged election and therefore had to fight a long drawn battle to secure their mandate, support another daylight rigging and arbitrary position. Are they saying they no longer believe in democracy? Anonymous

    Don’t forget one of the acronyms of the PDP is ‘People Destroying People’. The nation’s political landscape is littered with bones of innocent citizens, high and low, who dared to confront the powers that be in the PDP, especially during elections. They thump their chest and call it ‘do or die’, because they must be in power to control and plunder the national treasury. Any wonder we are the way we are after 14 years of the locust? But the blood of the innocent don’t rest easy. So, it’s pay back time. That the PDP ‘ll self-destruct is like destiny foretold. Let’s pray they don’t take the nation down with them. Regards. From Olu.

    Jang should stop decieving himself and respect his old age. You don’t endorse a defeated candidate after a very transparent election has been held. PDP should bury their face in shame and throw the towel instead of displaying their act of always wanting to steal other contestants, victory in election. From Mathias Val.

    Having succeeded in exposing the majority of Nigerians’ lives to years of unadulterated unhappiness through injustice, poverty, discrimination, hatred, unequal rights and opportunities, the administration of President Jonathan is again planning to extend its hold on power beyond 2015 with or without legal votes. In the plan, any opposition must be crushed like they are currently doing to Gov. Rotimi Amaechi. But can’t they allow civility to prevail? Is the government not aware that if we all resort to lawlessness, the only thing we can hope for is civil war, bloodshed and the end of our dreams as a nation? Chief Anenih and his co-travellers should please pause to think. From Adegoke O. O, Ikhin, Edo State.

     

    For Olatunji Dare

    Cry my beloved country. Uncle Dare these people are making mince meat of governance.They do not have regard for us and have demonstrated that they are just educated thugs desecrating the exalted office of the governor.What a pity.Can we now conclude that Nigeria is held by the jugular by a cult who must have their way while the people have their say? I am indeed afraid for the entity called Nigeria, for these people care for nothing,no one but themselves. Anonymous

    I don’t know what you people take Nigerians to be,we know the truth Jang won and Amaechi lost,(no propaganda pls).your Governol Idris Wada was at the election venue and he said the election was rigged,hence he was at the press briefing of the autentic chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum is he a liar? Anonymous

    Nothing good is coming from what they know how to do best if not lies, deceit, blackmailing and name calling. Can the ruling party sustain this democratic setting by all these atrocities? If the ruling party thinks witch hunt Amaechi or perceived opponent can earn the president second term, they must be joking. The president will fall like a pack of cards. The president is playing God, forgetting yesterday in his life. The president has allowed himself to be fixed by an expired PDP crooks who feed fat from every crises. Mr fix it is doing what he knows how to do best now, but he should also remember that the most high will do him what He knows how to do best. Mr fix it should think three things in life, 1. when he started, 2. currently and 3. the future. From Hamza Ozi Momoh Apapa Lagos.

    If Jonah Jang thinks Jonathan is his friend by calling him to contest NGF election, he must be joking. Where was the president when Jos boiling? If the president said he is so much in love with Jang, let him anoint him his successor. Enough of this president harassment of those he called his enemies. Take my words, the president will regret his actions very soon. A lie can travel 1000 kilometres in a seconds but at the end, truth will prevail. From Hamza Ozi Momoh Apapa Lagos.

    Dear Olatunji Dare, what is playing out in NGF election is what happened in 2011 election. Some of the actors now did not win the election as governors. They are masters of rigging, harrasment and kidnapping of opponents. Above all, what money cannot do, more money can do. That’s their belief.

    Having succeeded in exposing the majority of Nigerians’ lives to years of unadulterated unhappiness through injustice, poverty, discrimination, hatred, unequal rights and opportunities, the administration of President Jonathan is again planning to extend its hold on power beyond 2015 with or without legal votes. In the plan, any opposition must be crushed like they are currently doing to Gov. Rotimi Amaechi. But can’t they allow civility to prevail? Is the government not aware that if we all resort to lawlessness, the only thing we can hope for is civil war, untold bloodshed and the end of our dreams as a nation? Chief Anenih and his co-travellers should please pause to think. From Adegoke O O, Ikhin, Edo State.

    Amaechi suspended himself from PDP when he refused to accept the consensus candidate of the PDP. I believe that as a member of the party,its majority decision is binding on you otherwise you resign or face disciplinary action. Anonymous

    Good day sir, it was for your comments that I still have the desire to read any Nigerian newspaper. I pray that Almighty God will add to your days on earth. From Sunday Adepoju.

     

    For Segun Gbadegesin

    Obj started it by building on rigging Anini gave them direction but one day the lier wlll have no lie to tell. From Sam Orah, Port Harcourt

    He who makes trouble for others, the great Chinua Achebe had said, also makes trouble for himself. The attack Jonathan unleases on Amaechi at all front through the backdoor is bound to backfire later, that is if it hasn’t already started doing so.To me, turning the open and clean victory won by Amaechi to that of Jang,all of a sudden, courtsey of the powers from the above is simply a public relay of how the last general elections were clandestingly won and lost at various levels especially that of the presidency. And with this, who then still needs extra-sensory perception to know what PDP could be up to, in 2015? I think this scuttling of Amaechi’s victory before our very eyes especially, should serve as a wake-up call to whichever political party that thinks itself a viable alternative to the embarassment that has been the PDP governments over the years. From Emmanuel Egwu,Egwu.

    What do you expect Jonathan to do now when he has enslaved himself with pycophants who are not telling him the bitter truth. We all thought he was going to be a listening president, but he has made himself a regional president. This is a man that Nigerians voted for massively because of how he humbled himself, but now he has turned to a terror rather than a listening man. Jonathan is the architect of his problem. Now he is supporting a loser, automatically he is also a loser. His puppets are praising him now forgetting those who did that yesterday are nowhere to be found today. The earlier he does away with those praise singers the better for him. From Hamza Ozi Momoh Apapa Lagos.

    US runs her democracy through crystal clear modus operandi that allow a loser to congratulate a winner with a handshake; a gesture that usually douses after-election fist blows on cheeks and major upheavals, and make US great. May Nigeria be exalted through righteous acts. From Samuel Ojo Sanni Mopa, Kogi State

    I read The Nation and saw your comments on the president,what you say is the truth but how many of us like and accept the truth.KEEP IT UP !.Thanks. From Emughedi Arthur youth Leader Arukwo Community ABOLGA Rivers State.

    If I were Jonathan I will rather listen to those who are cruising me, because he said it yesterday May 30 when he organised PDP family meeting that, if people are clapping for you examine yourself. Some governors are praising him for supporting Jang while others are criticing him. Now he has shot himself in the leg for supporting praise singers. From Hamza Ozi Momoh Apapa Lagos.

     

    For Tunji Adegboyega

    Re: ’Welcome ‘Opon-Imo’; goodbye to ’Igba aimo’. The introduction of ‘Opon-Imo’ really signifies the beauty of democracy such that when one regime administered less and subsequent one excels, then, the mediocre would work harder so that in future, both may meet at equilibrium. More power to Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s elbow for executing a good education policy for the people of Osun State. From Lanre Oseni.

    You are right my brother; however, ‘Opon-Imo’ should be complimentary rather than substitute to conventional classroom. The role of the teacher is a force to reckon with. If all ‘APC governors’ can work like Fashola, Aregbesola, Almakura and Yari, then, sooner than later, Nigerians would realise the mistake they are making if they do not give the APC a chance. If only my other northern governors, (excluding those of Kano, Nasarawa and Zamfara) can borrow a leaf from Aregbesola then, in no distant time, nobody would contemplate calling us parasites again. Anonymous.

    Your article on ‘Opon-Imo’ was a masterpiece. I wish it is introduced in other states in the south west. Anonymous.

    Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s developmental stride in education sector is a welcome move to make education sustainable and affordable in Osun State; other governors, particularly those in the south west, have a duty to sustain Awolowo’s tempo in education. From Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, Abia State.

    It is my practice to read your newspaper at this hour – 4.00 a.m. to 5.00 a.m., especially the Comment and Analysis section. This is to enable me to read between the lines. I have just finished reading your column. Please I will like to know how I can get the ‘Opon-Imo’, your subject-matter in your write-up of June 9.Thanks. Anonymous.

    Your write-up on ‘Opon-Imo’; are you an objective journalist or a a paid ACN gent? Anonymous.

    My brother, Awolowo’s West meant Lagos, (excluding Lagos Island and Mainland), Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Edo and Delta states). This West continued under Chief S.L. Akintola for four years before Edo and Delta got away as Midwest Region. . The rest continued as West Region through SLA, Fajuyi and until a year into Adebayo when Lagos left and the remnant became Western State in May, 1967. Please refer to yours in The Nation on Sunday on ‘Opon-Imo’. From Wole Adebola Esq.

    Your write-up on ‘Opon-Imo’ is interesting; please keep it up. From Prince.

    I am on the same page with you on the piece on ‘Opon-Imo’. It is a good idea but can it impel education to grow out of the environment so that the learning process will relate to the pattern of work in the society? Simply put, can it change the neo-colonial state which religion and ethnicity lubricate? Thanks. From Amos Ejimonye, Kaduna.

    While the whole world still marvels at the innovation of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in the giant strides he is making in his emancipation programmes, one of which is the introduction of ‘Opon-Imo’ (Tablet of knowledge), regrettably, my own governor, Olusegun Mimiko, is busy chasing and leading in the inanity of defending his ignoble roles in the controversial election of the chair of the Nigeria Governors Forum in which his principal was roundly trounced. A pity you might say! Instead of wasting time, let him go to Osun to understudy the concept and the actual conception of ‘Opon-Imo’ and replicate the same thing in Ondo State. From Olu Ajayi, Abeokuta.

     

  • Soyinka’s drama of sound and fury

    By a fascinating coincidence, “Anglo-Nigerian” writer Adewale Maja-Pearce, who turned 60 on June 3, was recently in the news as the target of a devastating public verbal assault by Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, whose performance turned out to be a sensational “drama of existence”, to appropriate the categorical phrase of the Swedish Academy in awarding him the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, which made him the first African to be so decorated. The titan of letters was superlatively adjudged a lord of that dramatic definition. Interestingly, he staged his mastery in a well-circulated interview granted Sahara Reporters, the daring and thorny online news portal. The interaction coincided with events leading to the May burial of novelist Chinua Achebe, another big name in the literary universe, and Soyinka’s peer in the so-called “first generation” of champions of Nigerian Literature in English.

    It was a platform for Soyinka, who turns 79 next month, to express his mind on contextual front-burner issues, especially his relationship with the departed author, a subject that has generated intense storm over the years. However, in the course of his clarifications, there was a side show. Soyinka devoted quality time and space to an individual writer who had attempted to probe in a book the relationship between himself, Achebe, playwright and poet JP Clark and poet Christopher Okigbo. It is instructive that following Achebe’s death, Soyinka and Clark had issued a joint statement saying, “Of the ‘pioneer quartet’ of contemporary Nigerian literature, two voices have been silenced”, referring to Okigbo and Achebe.

    The focus of Soyinka’s lavish attention was Maja-Pearce. Reacting to Achebe’s 2012 controversial last book, There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, here is how the distinguished dramatist characterized Maja-Pearce: “The saddest part for me was that this work was bound to give joy to sterile literary aspirants like Adewale Maja-Pearce, whose self-published book – self-respecting publishers having rejected his trash – sought to create a ‘tragedy’ out of the relationships among the earlier named ‘pioneer quartet’ and , with meanness aforethought, rubbish them all – WS especially. Chinua got off the lightest.”

    Qualifying the work as “that hatchet mission of an inept hustler”, Soyinka also called it “A compendium of outright impudent lies, fish market gossip, unanchored attributions, trendy drivel and name dropping.” He added, “This is a ghetto tract that tries to pass itself up as a product of research, and has actually succeeded in fooling at least one respectable scholar.”

    Not done with name-calling, Soyinka referred to Maja-Pearce as “that ignoble character I’ve just mentioned, who was so desperate to prove the existence of such a thing that he even tried to rope JP’s wife into it, citing her as source for something I never uttered in my entire existence.” He lamented, “I cannot think of a more unprincipled, despicable conduct. These empty, notoriety-hungry hangers-on and upstarts need to find relevance, so they concoct.”

    How did Maja-Pearce find himself on the wrong end of Soyinka’s tongue? Ironically, before releasing the book that drew Soyinka’s ire, he had published a work on the dramatist which didn’t receive such harshly critical treatment from Soyinka, perhaps because it was flattering. The instant drama, therefore, seems to betray the logic of human nature. In August 1991, Maja-Pearce published Who’s Afraid of Wole Soyinka? Essays on Censorship. He has also edited Wole Soyinka: An Appraisal. He is an active essayist, book reviewer and publisher; and has published a number of books, including biographical and fictional works.

    In chronological terms, it is likely that Soyinka’s problem with him predated November 2010 when he published the biographical account, A Peculiar Tragedy: J.P. Clark-Bekederemo and the Beginning of Modern Nigerian Literature in English, the book that the playwright considered offensive and deserving of his rage. Maja Pearce had earlier done a review of Soyinka’s 2006 memoirs, You Must Set Forth At Dawn, for the London Review of Books, which apparently triggered his resentment. Maja-Pearce titled his 2007 review “Our Credulous Grammarian: Soyinka’s Dubious Friendships”.

    In an interview he granted Daily Independent a year ago, Maja-Pearce gave the background to Soyinka’s displeasure with him and provided an insight into behind-the-scenes interaction between them. So Soyinka’s sourness is not new; nevertheless, the fact that he revisited the issue of Maja-Pearce’s book in his recent interview speaks volumes about his state of anger. Maja-Pearce narrated: “I wrote to him because I was working on JP Clark’s book during the time they were launching Femi Osofisan’s book on JP. I said “do you have any piece on what you said about JP Clark?” This was because Soyinka alleged that Clark had been going around telling everybody that he (Soyinka) when he was in detention, he was suffering from terminal syphilis. It was a big thing, of course they went to court and everything and Clark eventually withdrew from the case. I said to Soyinka I’m engaged in JP book and I just want to know if you have further thought on your allegation. He said ‘no, no, no,’ he doesn’t have anything; that he stands by himself and that by the way, “I am glad to get in touch with you.”

    Maja-Pearce added: “He said he was willing to tell me that he had heard from so many quarters that I had written negative reviews of his book; that he hadn’t read it and he was not going to read it. I applied for a fellowship at the University of Nevada, United States of America with about $50 for one year nine months. I didn’t know that Soyinka was on the board. He said by the way I understand that you applied for this fellowship. I have to excuse myself from any consideration of your candidateship. So, I just wrote back to him that well, it was my fundamental human rights to say if I don’t like a book, that you yourself have reserved the right to say what you like about other people’s works. I know that censorship takes many forms. I said it was his choice to do whatever he had done.”

    Indeed, beyond Maja-Pearce’s asserted right to self-expression, and his concession that Soyinka also had a right to express his views about other people’s works, there is the significant question of integrity. Who should be believed in this drama of colliding narratives? In an interestingly persuasive appeal to authority, Maja-Pearce’s contentious book is described by the publisher in the following terms: “Much of this book is the product of research conducted in Nigeria and the U.K., interviews from time spent with Clark over two years in Lagos and his country home of Kiagbodo, the setting for most of his early writings, and access to the writer’s personal papers. It throws new light on the famous quarrel between Achebe, Soyinka and Clark, and brings forth new responses from some of the actors themselves.” It is striking that Soyinka himself admitted that “at least one respectable scholar” had found the book’s contents worthy of belief. However, in the light of Soyinka’s bilious reaction, it is logical to ask, “Could Maja-Pearce have sexed up the information, or manipulated the material to serve his own ends?”

    Surely, Soyinka’s sound and fury in this joust cannot be enough. Perhaps unwittingly, though, he provided an illuminating ray when, with reference to his peers, he explained, “Life is sometimes strange – rich but strange, and inundated with flux…It would be stupid to claim that it was all constantly harmonious.”  By this admission, it would, therefore, make sense to ponder whether a present state of relative harmony invalidates the reality of past discord.

    It is food for thought that signals from Soyinka indicate an open-ended battle. “There will be more said, in another place,” he assured the interviewers. Where, when and how?

    • Macaulay is on the editorial board of The Nation

  • Reporting today

    In this sixth year of the Babatunde Raji Fashola administration in Lagos State and the 14th year of uninterrupted civil rule in Nigeria, the media can be said to give a fairly decent account of happenings in society. In terms of providing general intelligence on happenings in society, our media often capture fairly well the sense of the occasion. Periodically, they provide flashes of brilliant reporting that bring a warm glow to the heart. Compared, however, to the craft of opinion writing, which boasts of a good number of outstanding columnists, I think the quality of reporting in our media today especially print requires urgent attention. On radio and television, most of what passes for news reporting is too fleeting for any exhaustive treatment. Once upon a time, there was a tradition of news features on radio but that, painfully, now appears to belong to the realm of folklore in Nigerian broadcasting.

    It is all too easy to predict media content these days. The subject matter is strikingly similar, the treatment, painfully predictable. Politics remains the main staple of the media, with the economy, a distant second and episodic interest in stories of conflict, disaster, prominence, consequence, and novelty bringing up the rear. If our media are not emphasizing the trifles of daily governance, they are busy throwing heat without light on issues crying for media clarity and direction. Too often there are gaping holes in the stories we publish, which tend to suggest insufficient attention to detail.

    Take for instance the story of the chairmanship of the Nigerian Governors Forum. In our fixation with conflict, controversy, and orchestrated drama as useful tools to boost sales, we have been carrying on as if the country is about to disintegrate over who becomes the chairman of the forum. Some of us can’t even make up our minds on who won a simple thing as an election among an electorate of 35. If we, media professionals, are not clear about the issues, how can we inform and educate the public? We regurgitate stories by vested interests without the moderating voice of the reporter whose investigations should help the public to resolve the doubts. Balance is not achieved simply by giving various parties access, but by also examining through interpretative reporting what they bring to the public space. Central to the role of journalism is to bring attention to the issues of the day, serve as an honest mediator among contending forces in society, defend the public interest, and hold government accountable to the people. In other words, we are to serve as the eyes and ears of the public so that we can competently give voice to their yearnings.

    Have we been serving as honest mediators? What are the issues in the NGF chairmanship election? There was an election to pick a chairman of the forum between the incumbent and a challenger. Does the rule of association allow the incumbent to seek a second term? What are the forum’s electoral rules? Do the rules allow pre voting in the form of a political party collecting signatures of its members outside the election venue or before the election date and presenting same to other governors from other parties for adoption? What really happened that Friday when the governors met to vote? We have read that the procedure was filmed. Is it impossible for our journalists to watch the proceedings in the effort to have a better understanding of what really happened and educate the public appropriately?

    Rather than help the public to come to clear terms of what is happening some of us are being pussyfooting because we want to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds without clear appreciation of the damage being done to the national psyche. If there is so much confusion on an election conducted by 35 gentlemen, what should we expect from the coming general elections? I know that the media reserve the right to reject advertisements brought for publication for various reasons. Most times it is because the claims cannot be verified or the contents are libelous or offend public morality. In this regard, I wonder if an advert that purports to congratulate a loser for ‘winning’ an election does not amount to publishing an untruth and offending public morality and should have been rejected. Such contemplation apparently does not cross the mind of our media houses that have been publishing such adverts that patently contradict what they have presented to us as the truth. Obviously, the power of naira conveniently deodorizes immorality.

    Another issue that is germane to our discourse is the prevailing insecurity in the land, especially the menace of kidnapping. A few weeks ago, one of us, Kehinde Bamigbetan was the guest of kidnappers. I regret to say that we endangered his life with some of our reports. A good number of us were eager to inform the world that ransom was going to be paid with premature announcements of how the said ransom was being raised. We all know that it is not everything that comes our way that we publish or should publish. True, ransom has been paid in many kidnaps; it is also true that some hostages have been freed without any payment. When we rush to announce such payments we give the impression that it is fait accompli thereby strengthening the hands of kidnappers, losing faith in the law enforcement officers, dimming hope in the citizenry and spreading fear in the land.

    Still on the issue of insecurity, not too long ago a handful of our media houses devoted weekly space and time to addressing security challenges; I know two of such offerings have disappeared from two newspapers. I used to enjoy them. I wish they would resuscitate them as they speak to our current national situation. Indeed, there exists opportunities for our media houses to carry out some crusades on security consciousness for the good of society. Such would help in cultivating new patrons by helping the media to deepen the sense of community that is so crucial to media growth and indeed national development.

    If the media must continue to play creditably the positive role envisioned for it in a democracy such as we are building, we as journalists need to enrich our news judgment and treatment. We need to equip our journalists to interrogate our social conditions much more deeply by challenging governments to do more, by commending them when they get it right, by recommending alternate viewpoints outside partisan circles, and by condemning them when they get it wrong. We can only do that honestly when we are professional in our conduct and output.

    The media also needs more understanding and support from the public, especially our governments.

    • Excerpts from the address given by Idowu, CEO Diamond Publications & Trustee of the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence Trust Fund, at Governor Babatunde Fashola’s dinner with media executives on Democracy Day.

  • Ajimobi: Nemesis of Ibadan ‘ancients’

    Ajimobi: Nemesis of Ibadan ‘ancients’

    Governing Oyo State is very complex but governing Ibadan is more complex. The paradox that makes the city more complicated to rule than the state can only suggest one thing; that Ibadan is a primitive city that will not easily and positively be receptive to any idea of transformation or modernisation that amputates a part of them that is ancient. Or it can also suggest that Ibadan and its people will be ambivalent towards any policy, idea or action that will deny a part of them that is tied to their culture, habits, idiocies and behavior.

    In the midst of this dilemma, there is that residual expectation that Ibadan should be transformed and developed if it was to rank with other advanced and developed cities of the world. But over the years, the governors that had ruled Oyo State, whether in Khaki or agbada, had behaved like timid administrators, pampering the people and treating them with kid gloves thus encouraging them to continue to indulge in their old habits for whatever reason(s). The emergence of Abiola Ajimobi as the governor of Oyo State was later to change the city’s landscape. He came with a transformative agenda that will change Ibadan and instill a new culture of discipline into the people. Drawing up an agenda for Ibadan is one thing, perfecting such agenda requires a strategy that will align with the realism of Ibadan “peculiar mess”.

    J.P Clark’s poem on Ibadan written in the late 1960s or early 1970s talks about Ibadan’s “splash of rust and gold”, but even the gold of Ibadan had been contaminated and polluted by filth that permeates the city. The filth, the rust and the rot of Ibadan have all grown to a blinker that competes with the “seven hills” Clark refers to in his poem. So, the first “peculiar mess” that Ajimobi had to contend with was the customary filth and the heaps of refuse that dot the landscape of Ibadan. Without a blitzkrieg on the filth and the dirty habit of stooping to poo anywhere it grips them, there cannot be a new image or any sensible transformation.

    Knowing that the development of Ibadan in all its ramifications needed to be driven by an aggressive attitude, policy, character and action, Ajimobi established two strategic agencies to tackle Ibadan’s filth and traffic. The first agency is Oyo State Waste Management Authority (OYWMA) and the second one is called Oyo State Road Traffic Monitoring Agency (OYRATMA). Anybody who is familiar with Ibadan’s past cannot but commend the aesthetic appreciation of Ibadan landscape. Today, the roads are clean, garbage dumps are gradually disappearing, street trading that used to be the source of refuse generation on the streets has been outlawed but has not been totally eradicated. Ibadan is experiencing a new landscaping culture and all road medians and kerbs are well painted. Though, when you climb the Bower’s tower to have a panoramic view of the city, the rust of the corrugated metal sheets looms large, you can only feel the freshness of a new Ibadan when you walk its streets. The ancients that are used to the habit of indiscriminate garbage throwing are gradually being swept away by the tide of change.

    It is an open secret that off-loading of faeces is like a carnival In Ibadan among the ancients who still prefer the gutter-side method and the “Abe Igi style” because of the natural cooling system of the environment especially in the heat of ejecting the waste from the “underground zone”. But today, things are changing because of Ajimobi’s tough environmental laws. The irresponsible habit of littering Ibadan metropolis with ‘power-pack’ faeces in different colors of polythene bags and leaves is now forbidden.

    Traffic in Ibadan is still hellish. Driving against traffic excites an average Ibadan driver. But there is hope that things will soon change. The roads are now being expanded, dualised and upgraded. Traffic lights now work in Ibadan. Broken down motor vehicles are towed without delay. There is a new traffic order. The OYRATMA whose duties are not different from LASTMAs now go about with the new traffic mantra of the state so that all motorists can operate within the ambit of the law. Driving within Ibadan is chaotic today because the entire city is now a construction site.

    The Mokola flyover also known as “Mokola Miracle” is a very creative remedy to the gridlock at Mokola round-about. For years, no administration ever came up with any idea as to how to solve the challenge of the Mokola traffic chaos. In less than two years, Ajimobi not only came up with the idea, he also ensured that the flyover was completed in record time. The transformation of Iwo road and its beautification is another major testimony to Ajimobi’s giant strides in road management. For so many years, Ibadan people and regular users of Iwo road were held hostage by the Iwo Road gridlock. But now, Iwo road is free of the usual traffic jam as traffic now flows without obstructions. The OYRATMA always go round to ensure that those who contravene traffic regulations are apprehended for possible sanctions and penalties.

    Ajimobi has really shown that he is a warrior, a reformer, a moderniser, a transforming agent and the nemesis of the Ibadan ancients. The so-called untouchables have been touched. Those who contravened building laws are being dealt with. To accomplish his dualisation projects, Ajimobi had to demolish some buildings. But instead of doing it indiscriminately, he adopted a PPDP approach meaning Public-Private Demolition Partnership-a consensual policy or action which encourages violators of set-back rule or affected victims of government demolition exercise to engage in self-demolition of their structures in public interest without the active involvement of the government. All that can be traced to the government is just the marking of affected structures.

    It was unthinkable that any governor would have contemplated dualising the roads around Onireke, Dugbe, Golf club, Eleyele, Jericho and Aleshinloye considering the massive human congregation and business ventures and structures scattered all over these places. But Ajimobi did. He even went as far as Isokun and Owode in Oyo where another dualisation is going on in addition to the one at Abiodun Atiba Road and Palace Road.

    The road dualization/expansion that generated furore was that of Challenge-Iyalode Efusetan-Toll-gate interchange. The controversy centred around the personality of Yinka Ayefele whose studio/office would have been consumed by the dualisation project. But on compassionate ground, the government spared the gigantic office as the road project only chopped off part of his fence and security house.

    For the people of Ibadan to enjoy the benefits of these new roads, all street traders are to be relocated to neighbourhood markets being constructed in scout camp, Temidire Motor Park, Nitel, on old Ife Road, toll-gate Ibadan, Akinyele, Molete and Samonda, a private sector driven initiative. The Ibadan ancients who see street trading as a cultural activity are being told to start getting used to diplaying and selling their wares in the ideal place-market.

    Ajimobi’s audacity, candour, truculence, daring exploits, political aggression, war-like tendencies and tempestuous adventurism place him in the same league with past Ibadan warriors like Basorun Oluyole, Basorun Ibikunle, Basorun Ogunmola and Aare Latosa. A city like Ibadan whose source of strength and existence lies in the many wars of consolidation fought by these great warriors could not have prayed for a better leader at a time when underdevelopment was posing serious threat to its very foundation. Ibadan was almost caving in to maladministration, inept leadership, corruption, owambe governance, and administrative complications when a new warrior emerged to fight a war of his life in order to save Ibadan from obvious paralysis. Ajimobi may be wearing agbada but his vision is like that of a warrior on a mission to salvage whatever was left of Ibadan before it finally crumbled. But he did not only save Ibadan from disintegration, he reproduced the tenacity of Oluyole, the bravery of Ibikunle, the fearlessness of Ogunmola and the shrewd diplomacy of Are Latosa to reconsolidate Ibadan and put it on the path of greatness and fame so that it would not be “like broken china in the sun”.