The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Still on the American elections

    Still on the American elections

    SIR: The American national elections might have come and gone with all the interest and anxiety generated, political permutations and projections, both within and outside the shores of the United States. The Winner had emerged and the loser accepted the faith, but what are the lessons inherent for African leaders and particularly Nigerian politicians, political parties, electorate, electoral umpire, security agencies, and indeed the media to learn from this world’s beacon of democracy?

    Let us start from the emergence of candidates, particularly the Republican Party flag bearer Mitt Romney who emerged through rigorous and tedious party primaries. Immediately after he won the primary every other aspirant queued behind him and gave him the needed support. It is instructive that none of them defected to any other political party in a desperate bid to seek nomination or to vent anger on the party. Same was applicable to the Democratic Party flag bearer, Barrack Obama who emerged consensually without the power of incumbency playing any visible significant role.

    The electioneering campaign itself was so interesting and enlightening, as it was issue driven. Candidates focus majorly on how to revamp the economy, tackle growing unemployment rate, strengthen the middle class, and improve foreign policy direction among others. These are the fundamental and cardinal objectives on which the candidates canvassed to get Americans’ votes.

    This is contrary to what obtains in Nigeria where election campaign is far from being constructive. Contestants mount the podium to rain abuses on the oppositions and castigate one another relegating serious and fundamental issues to the background. It is difficult to recollect when elections and party politics in Nigeria were defined by ideology.

    Today, almost two years into the Jonathan presidency, the federal government is yet to grapple with the myriad of problems facing the country.

    It is also quite instructive that the election in America was violent free. Most often, the two leading candidates; President Barrack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney campaign simultaneously in the same State or even in the same county without any eruption of violence. What a disciplined party followership. This is the hallmark of civilised democracy. Unfortunately, violence has become an embodiment of electioneering campaigns in Nigeria, and indeed Africa. It is equally interesting to note that even with some of the challenges faced by the electoral body in some polling units in the American election; the electoral body was not castigated by the Politicians to undermine the outcome of the election. There were polling units where election did not start on schedule because of lack of electricity to power the voting machines owing to the stormy sandy that left many cities without electricity few days to the presidential elections. Voters waited patiently on a long queue to take their turns. Both the electorate and the Candidates believed in the impartiality of the electoral body. There was no snatching of ballot boxes or other election materials, no reported case of collusion between the electoral bodies with any politician for electoral advantage.

    Their Umpires conducted themselves impartially to win the confidence of the stakeholders.

    The question is: when will INEC gain the sort of credibility that would earn it the trust and respect of Nigerians as a truly independent body? The Media also has a role to play in this respect. First and foremost, the media has a sacred responsibility to inform, educate and enlighten the people, as guaranteed by the constitution. Hence, the media need to constantly remind political actors about the rules of the game and civilised ways of political conduct.

    Perhaps, the most amazing episode in the whole process of the American election was the manner the two principal Candidates accepted the popular will of Americans. Despite the fact that the result was still a forecast and projection from exit polls, the supposed looser had accepted defeat and winner accept victory.

    All these are pointers to the fact that we still have a long way to go for our democracy to be firmly rooted. But we will get there if all the stakeholders in the Nigerian project decide to abide by the simple dictate of democracy and do things right all the time.

    • Tope Ojo is of the PR Unit, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Alausa, Ikeja.

  • Respite for Lagos – Ibadan Expressway?

    Respite for Lagos – Ibadan Expressway?

    SIR: If there are indices to measure how low we have sunk into in matters of leadership in Nigeria for years now, I think the conditions of Lagos – Ibadan, Shagamu – Benin, Onitsha – Enugu, Enugu – Port Harcourt expressways etc will tell the story better. You do not need to go too far to measure the dept of our leadership crisis in Nigeria for nearly four decades. Our problem has not been money, it has not been bad weather, or bad soil, it is the failure of a people to come to terms with those who govern them.

    Lagos – Ibadan expressway was commissioned in 1976 or thereabout when there were not too many vehicles in Nigeria. Under our own very eyes, things began to change; economic activities increased, population increased, vehicles increased houses, churches, industries etc increased on the corridor but that road has remained like that for nearly forty years.

    The criminal neglect of the Lagos – Ibadan expressway and other federal roads in Nigeria has lingered on with a huge price. Billions have been lost, thousands of lives lost, millions of man hours lost. For 13 years since 1999, we have been talking about Lagos – Ibadan and Shagamu – Benin expressways, the busiest in the country. Former President Obasanjo and the late President Umaru Yar’Adua saw the disaster and put up huge billboards with their photographs on them deceiving Nigerians that actions will soon be seen on these critical roads but all to no avail. Soon, we began to hear about Bi-Courtney and the concession agreement with the Federal Government signed since 2009.

    For three years, Bi-Courtney has been speaking from both sides of the mouth offering one reason or the other why work has not started on this critical road. Two years ago, I began to notice mobilization of men and equipment on Lagos – Ibadan expressway only for them to vanish into thin air. What we continued to see are signboards telling motorists that work will commence soon on the road. The soon has winded to years and the road continues to decay to an unbearable state.

    Only God knows how much Dr Wale Babalakin has pocketed since this rigmarole started in 2009 as either mobilization fee or other sundry payments that are in tune with the rotten Nigerian contract culture. It is only in Nigeria that this kind absurdity can take place. It is only in Nigeria that this kind of impunity will be tolerated. It is only in Nigeria that we do not use sanctions or punishment to call people to order.

    The truth is that if the economy of Nigeria is to be propped up quickly, we need to invest seriously on critical infrastructures like roads and power. The mobility of the federal Government to reconstruct and rebuild Lagos – Ibadan and Shagamu – Benin roads has drastically reduced the rising economic strength of Lagos State. Realizing the potential damage these unattended critical roads have brought to the economy of Lagos and South West states, ACN Governors met recently to begin plans of building an alternative road to the existing Lagos – Ibadan expressway. Perhaps, the Federal Government was rattled by this decision and now decided to act even though belatedly.

    The time you wake up from sleep is your morning. If after 13 years of democracy, the PDP controlled Federal Government is now realizing that Lagos – Ibadan and Shagamu – Benin roads need to be fixed quickly, I say good morning PDP. We expect such quick and decisive actions on the many dilapidated federal roads in Nigeria; be it the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway or theUmuahia-Ikot Ekpene Road. And Nigerians demand that for once, this government should match its words with action.

    • Joe Igbokwe

    Lagos.

     

  • We need concerted efforts against rape

    We need concerted efforts against rape

    SIR: What a sweeping generalization, that the evil winds of rape and its ferocious storms leave a sour taste in the mouth. It is now rampant and daily escalating and its menace is highly worrisome, saddening and embarrassing.

    The ugly monster, a thorn in the flesh, a disease in the blood, a societal defilement, a threat, is also a fear of every sane woman, young and old, including kids.

    But it is disheartening that events of the past have proved it without any iota of doubt, that this ugly monster, sucking the pride of our girls, continues unabated, because those who are supposed to end this notorious evil are not helping matters.

    As a matter of fact, the failure of government to create enabling environment for the security of lives and property, is the cogent factor that opens the evil door for the injurious activities of rapists as they continue to flourish. This reminds one of the words of Thomas Jefferson that”the care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction is the first and legitimate object of a good government.”

    And also, Article 3 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 6 of African Charter on People’s Rights, hold that everyone has the right to life and security. Honestly, we cannot rule out the essence of security, and we cannot say that the failure of government to provide security for the citizenry is not part of what exposes our ladies to falling victim of rape.

    Another crucial causal factor is the docility and unwillingness on the part of victim to expose the rapist(s) or to demand justice. Without any fear of contradiction, many ladies have experienced the bitterness of rape, and yet, keep it to their chest, as topmost secret, which they will carry to their grave, out of fear or shame. Therefore, they give rapists more audacity to further perpetrate the heinous acts. Many of them refuse to confess that they have been raped when they fall victim, and despite the fact that the perpetrators are known to them

    Another cause of the menace of rape today is the incompetence and unwillingness on the part of the enforcers and dispensers of law, by completely deviating from the legal maxim, “justitia nemini neganda est,”which means “justice is to be denied to no man.” Another maxim says “quiqlupoe ignoscit uni suadet pluribus,” which implies, “pardon one offence and you encourage the commission of many.” “Qui pacet innocentis innocentibus” is another, meaning, “pardon the guilty and you punish the innocent.”

    With due respect, our law enforcers and even the dispensers, seemingly lack the will for ex-debito justitae, the obligation to do substantive justice. Our police are seriously overlooking the case of rape brought to them out of flimsy excuses, thereby killing most rape or defilement cases, having forgotten the maxim, “suppressio veri,suggestio est falsi” (suppression of the truth is equivalent to expression of what is false).

    It seems our law dispensers do not aver their hearts to the cases of rape as crimes against humanities and instead of doing substantive justice; they too hide under the canopy of legal technicalities to foster injustice. The time is no more when disputes are dealt with rather on technicalities and not merit and this was buttressed by Aloysius Kastina Alu (JSC) as he then was, in the case of Amaechi v Omehia that “the court shall rise up to do substantial justice, without any regard to technicalities.”

    Our judges in particular, must always bear in mind the legal dictum, “ad officium justitiae rio rium spectat unicuigua corameis placitatanti justitiae exhibere,” which means “it is the duty of those who discharge judicial functions to render justice to everyone who comes before them in accordance to their oath of office.”

    To clip its evil wings of this monster, all hands must be on deck. The victim must be able to come out and report the perpetrators to the appropriate authorities; the law enforcers must ensure the prosecution of the perpetrators, and the dispensers of law must be willing and expedite action to dispense justice for all and sundry to see. The government should also create an enabling environment for the protection of lives and property and for quick dispensation of justice. It was the late legal icon and irrepressible human rights crusader, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, S.A.M, S.A.N, who once held that “a nation that is not interested in providing an enabling mechanism for dispensation of justice will be inviting chaos and instability.’’

    It is time every one of us put heads together and put an end to the scourge of the evil sucking the pride of womanhood.

    • BelloDestiny Paul

    Faculty of law, University of Ado-Ekiti.

     

  • Jaded response to terror attacks

    Jaded response to terror attacks

    On Sunday, suicide bombers operating in the mould of Boko Haram terrorists struck at a church inside the prestigious Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, killing, by official count, some 11 people and wounding more than 30 others. It was a great embarrassment to the military’s claims of making steady progress in the fight against terror. It is also significant that the twin blasts occurred at a facility that accommodates Nigeria’s only counter-terrorism training centre run by the military, the Nigerian Army Counter Terrorist and Counter Insurgency (CTCOIN) Centre. It was as if the bombers thumbed their nose at the military and indicated that no place was safe from terror attacks in the northern part of the country. But in reacting to the attacks, the military authorities rightly issued an official statement, and then barred reporters and government rescue teams from reaching the blast site. In addition, they briefly closed a part of the Kaduna-bound lane of the Zaria-Kaduna Expressway. Perhaps in the next few days they will explain the lockdown.

    The audacity of the Jaji attack is underscored by the seeming helplessness and hopelessness of the government’s anti-terror campaign. With all the resources at the disposal of the government, the war on terror has not gone as smoothly or as efficiently as the government has hoped. Killings are still rampant in the Northeast, with schools, places of worship and individuals at the mercy of Boko Haram militants and other imitation terrorists. At will, the terrorists also sometimes go out of their main operational areas to carry out devastating, even if symbolic, attacks on both soft and hard targets. The government has been smart enough to get the messages. This, for instance, explains why the presidency has been reluctant to conduct certain public and official ceremonies outside the safety of the presidential villa.

    In spite of the valiant campaign of the military against terrorists, a campaign that is sometimes attenuated by government’s dithering, the Boko Haram militants and other autonomous terror cells have seemed to loom large in the Northeast, and are even looming much larger. It was barely three days ago that the government placed bounties on the heads of Boko Haram leaders. If the sect claims responsibility for the Jaji attack, it will be their own way of mocking the government’s bravery. On the contrary, however, the sort of response the government has become used to is to strafe the terrorists with affected verbal denunciations and perfunctory outrage. “All of us condemn this dastardly act,” one group of outraged officials would say. Another would denounce “the uncivilised and barbaric act of the terrorists.” And yet another would describe the attacks as “cruel and wicked.” Finally, the government would follow with a string of condolences, “sympathising with the bereaved and promising to bring the perpetrators to book.”

    If the government will be honest, they must already be feeling quite numbed by the ferocity, ubiquitousness and seeming endlessness of the attacks. Against these, they have no new ideas, not even dainty new phrases, thus worsening their agony. Given the temerity of the Jaji attacks, it may in fact be far-fetched to expect that anyone would come forward with information, useful or useless, on Boko Haram leaders. If the terrorists could exact terrible revenge for the government’s anti-terror war, the human imagination can’t grasp what they would do to adventurous and freelance spies and bounty hunters?

     

     

     

  • Towards good healthcare delivery

    Towards good healthcare delivery

    Health, they say, is wealth. A nation without healthy people is good for nothing- a living dead. So also a nation without sound and qualitative healthcare policies will have its population peopled by weaklings and the sickly.

    For a nation to progress, its first priority must be how to develop its human capita base. And the first means of achieving this is through provision of qualitative healthcare programs. Part of what worked for President Barrack Obama in the last United States’ election was his healthcare policy tagged Obamacare, which placed healthcare at the doorstep of the American populace.

    The late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, had the foresight and quickly put free qualitative healthcare in his four cardinal points agenda blueprint before he became the Premier of the defunct Western Region. When he came to the saddle of leadership, he pronounced what is today known as Awoism (Awolowo’s political philosophy) in a four-point program called Regime of Mental Magnitude.

    For Awolowo, this was necessary because it complemented his free education programme. He knew at that time that only a healthy man could seek knowledge. Hence the aphorism: sound mind in sound body.

    Nations with the highest life expectancy ratio, if properly examined, have as their prime, a priority of an all-encompassing healthcare policies backed by states-of-the-art facilities.

    In Europe, a focal point for Africa in terms of solution to health conundrum, countries, who got their health care policies right, essentially enjoy some of the longest average life expectancies at birth – variously put at an average of 75 years in most countries. Here in Africa, the situation is diametrically contradictory. Death rate in Africa seems like 100 a penny. A 2005 figure puts it at 14.2 deaths per 1,000 people, which is considered the highest in the world.

    Tragically, however, the countries of North Africa have significantly lower rates than those of sub-Saharan Africa according to the global health monitor, World Health Organisation (WHO). WHO further observed that infant and child mortality from medley of communicable and parasitic diseases are usually major death catalysts?

    Vaccination campaigns have helped to lower death rates among children significantly since the last century. Nevertheless, over the same period, a swelling prevalence of infection with the killer Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has actually resulted in the decline of life expectancy in some countries.

    The situation seven years after is not any better today. And this is due mostly to the sloppy manner with which health and health-related issues are handled in this part of the globe. Zeroing on Nigeria, the statistics signposts an unpleasant reality and bleak future, should the health situation be left unattended to. Our infant mortality rate is put at 94 in 1,000 live births and a life expectancy of 48 years.

    Also, the global heath watchdog identified malaria as the leading cause of death and is likely to remain so, due to the growing resistance both of the malaria parasite to drugs as well as of the mosquito, which transmits malaria, to insecticides. Other preventable diseases that the country has been unable to halt include measles, whooping cough, polio, cerebrospinal meningitis (prevalent in the North), gastroenteritis, diarrhea, tuberculosis, bronchitis, waterborne infectious diseases such as schistosomiasis, and sexually transmitted infections.

    Expectedly, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is becoming more and more prevalent in the country with Federal Government paying leap service to controlling and subsequently eradicating it. For instance, statistics captured about 2.6 million Nigerians as having been infected with HIV and 170,000 lost to the deadly disease in 2005. This situation has nosedived at present.

    This explains why today, Nigerians and other countries in Africa go to these technologically advanced countries of Europe, America, and lately Asia, for treatment of numerous ailments no matter how trivia.

    Leaders of the country, while instilling confidence in the people to believe in what they have, junket around the world whenever they have slight ailment. They do not believe in the competency and proficiency of their own hospitals.

    National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has remained, like any other white elephant project of the Federal Government, chiefly inoperative. Nigerians only get to hear it work in the number of advert placements on television and in the pages of newspapers.

    On the contrary, the State of Osun under Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has decided to have a break with that coarse tradition of ineptitude, not only in the health sector of the state but also in other sectors such as education, agriculture, rural integration, economy, transportation, tourism, etcetera.

    The focus here is the health sector and what the government has done and is doing differently. Therefore, part of this administration’s plans includes urgent need for the restoration of healthy living for the people of the state.

    Following this resolve, government has focused on healthcare delivery including provision of effective and efficient healthcare delivery for all irrespective of age.

    The Osun healthcare programme is planned in such a way that the people, whether living in rural or urban areas, would have direct access, to the provided health facilities effortlessly. Consequently, the government planned the location of those facilities in such a way that the citing of the main hospitals, referral hospitals and healthcare clinics to fall within reasonable radius to one another across the state.

    A specimen: Primary Healthcare clinic within 10 (ten) kilometres radius of every Osun town with special attention to the needs of the children, women and elderly; a functional General Hospitals within twenty (20) kilometres radius of human habitation and Referral Hospitals within 30 (thirty) kilometres radius of human settlement.

    All these are in addition to the establishment of free blood pressure checks in conjunction with private organisations at every local government office, 30 in all. Besides, there is also provision for free treatment of malaria for children below the age of 18 as well as senior citizens in the state.

    Even with all these in less than two years, Ogbeni believes the health sector has not been uplifted to his set optimum standard. Thus, he has shifted his attention now to upgrading existing health infrastructure. Oddly, this has not been done in the history of the state since its creation twenty years ago. Medical personnel too are being sent on retraining programmes.

    The idea behind this retraining is for the medical personnel to be exposed to latest medical technologies and techniques in various fields of medical practices. Hence, the State of Osun Government has committed N18 million for sponsorship of six medical personnel to the University of Magdeburg Teaching Hospital, Germany.

    This first phase drew professionals from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital (LAUTECH). Soon, the second phase will follow. This is a manifestation of Aregbesola’s strong conviction and well-founded resolve to give people of the state qualitative, affordable and integrated healthcare facilities.

    As Federal Government defers its millennium healthcare goal, the State of Osun believes ‘the time is now’ to achieve the MDG standard healthcare for its people. This administration does not believe in a dream deferred.

    • Kunle Owolabi is of the Bureau of Communications and Strategy, office of the Governor of the State of Osun.

  • Still on the Port Harcourt Four

    Still on the Port Harcourt Four

    SIR: Is history fair? No tale told by man is ever accurate just as history is mostly told from the perspective of the victor. In the circumstance, how can history be fair? History can be fair and a tale told by any man can come close to perfection if careful effort is made to examine issues involved so as to give sides in the subject matter a chance.

    The Aluu killing of the Port Harcourt Four has been an over flogged issue in recent times. The Jungle Justice meted out on four undergraduate of the University of Port Harcourt has boiled the emotion of many within and outside the country. Many have condemned the people of Aluu for the senseless murder of four young Nigerians. Without doubt the killing is unjustifiable!

    The Aluu killing has soon become an historic event with a lot of lessons for mankind: young or old. The victims in the historic event were accused of stealing phones and computers and they were tried by an incompetent court that lacks jurisdiction. The illegal jury of irate mob found them guilty as charged and passed the verdict of death sentence on them. Legal principles were violated: as the accused were not given fair hearing, neither were they allowed to employ the services of a lawyer. Who is surprised? No right thinking person is. Because, it was a kangaroo court that tried them.

    In all honesty, in the Port Harcourt four scenario, the victims of this historic event are fast emerging as the victors of the drama. If the historic even that transpired in Aluu would offer any meaningful instruction, one must look at the issue from the perspective of the vanquished. Then will history be fair.

    Five young men embarked on a journey. They left their campus by 5.00am to pull debt from a debtor in Aluu. One of the five was owed the debt, the other four were carried along to put pressure on the debtor or threaten him to pay his debt. This kind of odyssey is not new or strange. The strange thing here is that, it was an odyssey of no return. As they got to their destination, knocked on the door and demanded the door be opened; one thing could have been clear in their mind, “we will collect our money or….”Opening the door, the house holder would have been shocked to see his creditor accompanied by four other people whom he does not know. In the circumstance, he would be scared. His thoughts could be assumed,” have they come to kill me”. In his panic state, he must have shouted for help. Calling his uninvited guests thieves as a eleventh hour measure to save his life.

    In view of the poor security situation in Aluu at that point in time, what would you have done, if you were paid such a surprise visit? The lessons from this historic odyssey of no return are many. What prevents them from taking the matter to the police? They assumed the role of the enforcer of the law. One was even alleged to be with a gun: which aided his escape and as such the whole truth of the historic event could come to light.

    The lesson is obvious, youths must guard against blind followership. They should learn to act based on reason. Guard against peer pressure and never forget parental advice in a hurry.

    Jungle justice is not new in world history. The Aluu killing was therefore not the first in that line. Its popularity is due to the publicity given to the barbaric act. History helps us study past event so as to be able to understand the present and be able to act wisely in the future. There are definitely many lessons we all can learn from this journey of no return. History is a teacher you ignore at your own detriment.

     

    • Williams Orukpe

    Lagos.

  • The family needs deliverance in Nigeria

    The family needs deliverance in Nigeria

    SIR: It is worrisome that there has been consistent destruction of those values that had kept the family functional. The family (with of course, marriage) has been so battered that even most contemporary social scientists are now confused as to what actually the family definition is. The direct and indirect attacks on this most crucial human aggregate include those from individuals, organized groups and governments of nations.

    The unjustifiable ‘assaults’ on the family are borne out of mad pursuit of self-satisfaction; growing ideology of individualism; the dream of evolving man at the pace of technological advancement; pressure from deviants and their sympathizers for recognition and approval; bad and insensitive governance of the human societies in the last four decades; affluence that come with the industrial revolution, and poverty that come by reason of public corruption; and neglects, etc.

    Particularly involved in the vicious social assault on the family and its institutions are the technologically advanced nations like the US, UK, France, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, etc.

    The consequent rots which include escalating youth delinquencies; runaways; rising illegitimate births; rise in divorce; rising domestic crimes; proliferation of unhealthy alternatives to the traditional nuclear family (cohabitation, gay-couplings, homosexuals and lesbians); increasing legalization of prostitutions; expanding drug problems; unemployable army of adults; and low productivities; etc now overwhelming and the efforts to curtail these phenomenal social decays, is gulping annually billions of dollars!

    The global war against the family is evident in such areas as loose public/political definition of the family; careless interpretation of human rights; legislation of anti-family state acts (e.g no-cause divorce and gay-coupling bills); encouragement of deviant alternatives to the traditional nuclear family; sex liberalisation, and legalization of prostitution; unregulated access to the mass media, whose family value-eroding crusades are cleverly concealed in entertainments; shifting the landmarks on the social meaning of modesty and morals; cutting down of funds available to departments and ministries directly concerned with human development and the health of the family; political insensitivity to the plight of families; mass corruption, looting, and so on.

    The forceful western culture infiltration with resultant social pollution, coupled with large-scale corruption and culture of insensitivity and social injustice of the successive governments have enlisted Africa especially, and Nigeria in particular, into the bunch of nations where the family and its institutions are under growing hopelessness, increasing jeopardy and decay. In Nigeria today, not even the strongly cultured easterners or the highly religious westerners are exempted.

    Today, many Nigerians have swallowed hook, line and sinker, deviant behaviours from the West, in exchange for our family-centred, rich cultures and values. These socially deviant practices are wrapped up in TV Entertainments; Outdoor Advertisements; College civilization, Women liberation campaigns; Child’s Rights protection; Globalization; Culture transfer and so on. What will be your reaction of you wake up tomorrow to hear that a Bill on Incest is to be debated by the House of Representatives? Thanks to God that saved us from the West-orchestrated Gay Bill from sailing through! The stoppage of the bill gave me some hope in some of our representatives.

    The growing neglect, relegation, perversion and vicious attacks on the family, as prevalent today among western cultures, which like wild fire, are consuming the globe, were not so from the start. It came with the Industrial Revolution, and its attendant unconventional behaviour and adventure into wild values, under the cover of social changes.

    The war against the family, whether as subtle as the smuggling into school curriculum, anti-family sexual freedom philosophies as it happened in the United States in the 20th century, is immoral. The battle against the family, whether as violent as the legalization of prostitution as it is in United Kingdom or the passage of no-cause Divorce Bill as it currently is in some western nations, is a social disruption inimical to human development.

    Families in their millions are breaking down as the result of the insensitivity of our leaders and their lip-service. The war against the family, whether its as ‘interesting’ as promoting promiscuity by the TV Media –showcasing naked array of ladies under ‘Beauty Contests’ or featuring ‘stars’that have married ten times with six children for ten fathers, is an immoral revolution! The TVs don’t show the pains and shame behind the fames! The war against the family, its values is a subtle means towards the extinction of humanity. It is an immoral revolution and Nigeria must rise against it.

    Oluleke Petersen

    Director, Omegalph Foundation

    olupetersen@yahoo.com,http://www.omegalph.com/

  • Bounty hunters in Boko Haram territory

    Bounty hunters in Boko Haram territory

    Feeling expansively generous, the federal government has put a N250 million bounty on the heads of a number of militants in the Boko Haram fold. The five-member Shurra Committee, which is the highest decision-making organ of the violent Islamic sect, predictably attracted the princely sum of N25m on each head, with their leader, Abubakar Shekau, having the mouthwatering sum of N50m offered as reward for his capture. It is not known why the military authorities fighting the sect have not gone beyond placing a reward for information leading to the capture of the Boko Haram leaders. Why not a reward also for their heads on a John the Baptist-type platter if capture proves difficult? The military statement simply said: “They are wanted in connection with terrorist activities particularly in the North East Zone of Nigeria that led to the killings, bombings and assassination of some civilians, religious leaders, traditional rulers, businessmen, politicians, civil servants and security personnel amongst others.”

    But even without modifying the statement to embrace “dead or alive,” the government seems hopeful that bounty hunters will swamp the Northeast to capitalise on the largesse. Whether anyone will take the risk of ratting on Boko Haram militants is a different thing altogether. For it is obvious that anyone who claims a bounty on Boko Haram commander’s head knows invariably that for a far cheaper price, Boko Haram would in turn place a bounty on the head of the snitch. But you never can tell what amnesia the aroma of tens of millions of naira could cause a man to suffer. However, even if the bounty does not look tempting enough or practical, at least it seems to indicate that the government is finally quitting its pussyfooting on whether to fight Boko Haram or not. That is, assuming the government is not as Janus-faced as we think.

    Bounty hunters, any 50-year-old will recall from comic books of the 1960s, are an integral and indispensable part of American folklore. Who can forget the inimitable Charlie Siringo, a Texan cowboy who began working as an undercover detective for the famous Pinkerton Agency in Chicago in 1886? Using his Western guns, he tracked rustlers and bank robbers for his agency, travelling tens of thousands of miles throughout the United States, and infiltrating the famous Butch Cassidy gang of train robbers. After a very successful career, he even had time to write two books entitled, A Cowboy Detective and Further Adventures of a Cowboy Detective, and helped popularise detective work and bounty hunting.

    The federal government is of course at liberty to spend handsomely on anything that catches its fancy, not to talk of what it describes as sensitive national security issues. Perhaps more than the rest of us, it is best placed to determine the appropriateness of putting a bounty on the heads of guerrilla fighters rather than the classical fugitives from justice which detectives like Siringo battled. Perhaps it can also best weigh the benefit to a snitch of ratting on Boko Haram in a country notorious for its inability to keep secrets, and where police informants typically have sad tales to tell. And of course, in a country where officials descended on Abacha loot in foreign banks and profited from it, and also harvested humongous gains from Nigeria’s debt repayment, who can say whether Boko Haram commanders captured during regular operations will not be submitted under the subhead of bounty hunting?

    Well, by oil subsidy standard, N250m is nothing for Nigeria to lose sleep over. Indeed the surprise is why N100m or even N200m was not put on the head of Shekau. If nothing was put on the head of former Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf, and he was captured and extra-judicially murdered, and the sect easily replaced him, would it mean anything to the sect if bounty hunters secured the capture of Shekau? Somebody please quickly look for a metonym for the Joint Task Force (JTF) fighting Nigerian militants, whether in the Niger Delta, Jos, or Boko Haram territory. Their quaint ways, and now quaint ideas, put them in line for a superb and original metonym.

  • Kogi and its wise elders

    Kogi and its wise elders

    Recently, Kogi State elders came out to express their mind on happenings in the state. To their minds, the state is not making appreciable impact like other states in the country.

    Since the election of the present government of Captain Wada, we cannot point to any physical development the state has witnessed; hence the elders came out to say their minds at the right time to arrest the drift. Any lover of Kogi State would not be happy with the present situation of the state.

    When the governor came on board, there were great expectations that he would right all the wrongs associated with the past government under former Governor Ibrahim Idris. But what we are witnessing today stem from man-made disaster and natural causes which have greatly affected the strides of development.

    The administration of Captain Wada should look critically into all the issues raised by the elders and come to terms with the reality needed to move the state forward. He should not consider these elders as enemies.

    Many people are at present not happy with the look of things in the state; he should consider this opportunity from the elders as true reflection of things that need to be addressed in all ramifications.

    Kogi State is now the focus of the entire country due to what happened during the recent flood, resulting from the failure of the past government to address the issue of ecology.

    The government has an over-bloated executive, with some recycled and expired political members drafted to serve as special assistants. This has made the government a laughing stock in the eyes of the public. He should understand that the state is in dire need of purposeful leadership, he should be focused and visionary enough to ensure the state is reckoned with amongst fast developing states in the country.

    The state as of now cannot boast of good transportation system like other states. The roads are deplorable, especially in Lokoja, the state capital. We cannot boast of a state- owned television station after 21 years!

    The state owned newspaper remains a weekly without a printing press; the paper has to be taken to Ibadan for production.

    Lokoja is not any better in term of infrastructural development, it remains the only state capital without functional street light. The plight of the state is too numerous to mention. These are what the elders deemed fit to draw the attention of the world to. Recently, the state House of Assembly made history by producing two Speakers all under the tenure Governor Wada.

    The peaceful nature of the people of the state has contributed a lot to the seeming tranquillity and understanding being enjoyed without recourse to people carrying placard demanding that things be done accordingly. It is time to act before they revolt.

    By Bala Nyashi,

    Lokoja.

  • Mama Awo at 97

    Mama Awo at 97

    I once wrote in 1995, when Mama HID Awolowo was celebrating her 80th birthday that: “The holy Scriptures teach us; “To number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.” As we gather today to rejoice with mama on her 97th anniversary, it is wise to recall that “our days are three score years and ten” but those that the Lord blesses with strength, live to celebrate beyond three score years. This is why, as we rejoice on this occasion, with Mama our celebration song should be: “to God be the glory”.

    I was with Mama few weeks ago in Ikenne, as we discussed on today’s celebration, Mama enthused, “Folu, I give God all the glory for allowing me to stay alive till today, someone told me days ago that he is warming up to my centenary anniversary and I replied Mama: “So shall it be in Jesus Name.”

    For Mama, the “Jewel of inestimable value,”has her ancestry in the Obara ruling house of Ikenne Remo, having been born to Chief Moses Odugbemi Adelana, the Ayangbuwa of Ikenne and Deaconess Elizabeth Oyesile Adelana on November 25th 1915, life took her through elementary and high school education in both Ikenne and Lagos, a three-year teaching stint in Ikenne until a blissful and happy married life which began on December 26, 1937 with the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and was later blessed with children, grand children and great grand children.

    Mama’s siblings are always quick to share the loving and helpful way in which she had been and still is a great pillar and pride to them. Prince Oluwole Awolowo describes Mama in her biography titled: “The jewel” as “a mother in a billion”. He goes on: “As for her strength of character, I continue to marvel at the degree of her resilience, endurance and patience when confronted with a grave situation. I should recall that Mama Single-handedly took care of all our needs as little kids when Papa was away to the United Kingdom in the mid-forties in search of the Golden Fleece. Equally, she also rose to the occasion in a marvelous and exemplary manner to the eternal admiration of all; she also rose to the occasion in a marvelous and exemplary manner to the eternal admiration of all. When all things turned terribly bleak for the family. When Papa as the head of the family was being persecuted in the early sixties. We the children lacked nothing in terms of material comfort during those very dark days”.

    Mama is not only a loving and caring mother, she is also a disciplined and enterprising business guru, who stays committed to whatever she believes is right. Her perpetual disciplinarian stance naturally ends up shaping right all those who work directly with her and scares off all the lazy and indolent ones.

    This trait of hers has remained a potent force that saw to the rise of her enterprise from a modest beginning to the business empire that it now is.

    Perhaps the strongest positive influence on her life is Mama’s Christian back ground which molded her into a devout Christian that she is. On account of her loving husband being a Methodist in Ibadan. Mama Awolowo became a staunch member of Agbeni Methodist Church in 1940, where she played and still perform the worthy role of matron to many Christian and social organisations within the church and without. Mama is currently the Iya Ijo of Saint Saviours Anglican Church, Ikenne as well as the Diocesan Mother of the Remo diocese. She now has a church named in her honour at Sagamu.

    She has not abandoned the business of serving the people. For her it is a lifetime commitment. That is why Mama has continued to be involved in several events that affect the lives of the people by way of social service and religious obligations.

    Added to this are the obligations that she must perform as a leader in Yorubaland.

    Because of the political stature of Papa Awo in Yorubaland and Mama’s contributions to the progress of the Yoruba people, many people look up to her for inspiration, wise counsel and assistance in matters affecting the race. She cannot but make herself available for these obligations, which sometime, can be very demanding; because, she must continue to provide a rallying point for the unity of the Yoruba people just as Papa did.

    Before Papa’s transition in 1987, he was the undisputed leader of the Yoruba both on the political and social-cultures fronts. Papa enjoyed the cooperation of all including the royal fathers who are the custodians of the history and native of the Yoruba race, political leaders and Yoruba born captains of industry and down the ladder to farmers, professional groups and students.

    Since 1987, things have not been the same. The Yoruba race suffers leadership crisis, which is seriously affecting the unity of the race. In this circumstance, Mama could not ignore the spirited calls of well meaning sons and daughters of the land that she should contribute to the efforts to restore unity and love among Yoruba leaders and create a credible leadership that can speak for the race with one voice and one purpose. This she has started with the regular meeting of the Yoruba Unity Forum at Ikenne.

    It is indeed worthy of note that in spite of her age, she is still as mentally alert as ever and radiating youthfulness that only a very meticulous mind is capable of, at 97 years.

    Mama has often said that it is not possible to be married to Chief Obafemi Awolowo and not be so alert. Having therefore developed this sense of smartness and talent of “never forgetting” over the years. It has reached such level that her mental picture of attendees at ceremonies is outstanding. Notwithstanding, Mama will always know whether you came or not and you cannot ‘hide’ making it difficult to claim you were there when you were not.

    A woman to my mind is only complete in her husband. It is heartening to recall the completeness of Mama in her husband, our own dear Papa Awo who transcended to higher glory on May 9, 1987’. Papa confirmed this himself in his autobiography: “With my wife on my side, it has been possible for us to weather all financial storms. Because of her charm, humility, generosity and ever ready sympathy and helpfulness for others in distress, she is beloved and respected by all our friends and acquaintances. She has courage of a rare kind. I have that too. But I am no match for her at all, in her exercise of infinite patience and forbearance under all manner of circumstances. She absorbs without a word of complaint all my occasional acts of instability. By her unique virtues. She has been of un measurable assistance to me in the duties attached to my career as a public man.”

    Mama cannot have a better testimonial. And that is not all. Papa goes on to say. “ I do not hesitate to confess that I owe my success in lie to three factors, the grace of God, a spartan self-discipline and a good wife.

    “A good wife”. The scriptures say, who can find? Chief Mrs. Awolowo is indeed a good wife. According to her husband “throughout all the changing fortunes of my life, since I married her on December 26, 1937, my wife, Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo has been to me a jewel of inestimable value, she is an ideal wife and I am sure she too regards me as an ideal husband. The outpouring of her love and devotion to me and to our family is exceeding and beyond words.

    Against the background of such an overwhelming credential and an evident testimony of her continued inestimable value to her children, family members loved ones and society in general; who says the toast to the continued health of Mama, Chief Doctor Mrs. H.I.D. Awolowo is done! For H.I.D. the Jewel at 97. ‘to God be the glory, great things He hath done.”