The Nation Newspaper

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  • Between Tuggar and his traducers

    Between Tuggar and his traducers

    • By John Adekunle

    Part of the enduring damage to the culture of public debate over the years is the hijack of the civic space by the uninformed who peddle false narratives with astonishing vehemence.

    Sadly, today, the malady seems to have assumed epidemic proportion. I blame this partly on the permissiveness of the social media which enables idle minds, mischief-makers and paid mercenaries to pollute the air with what is now generally known as “fake news” or “alternative facts” easily.

    A clear illustration of this syndrome can be seen in a very sensational report syndicated in some online publications few days ago which blatantly twisted facts in Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar in particular and misrepresented the reality of Nigeria’s Foreign Service in general.

    Laden with inconsistencies and contradictions, the report came short of sounding the death knell on Nigeria’s foreign policy, accusing the foreign minister of the Tinubu administration of junketing the world instead of “staying in office in Abuja”.

    The author of the report want the foreign minister crucified for what they described as the “diplomatic fiasco” in Niger due to the inability of ECOWAS to rein in the coupists in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali after suspending them and later readmitting them. Just as they blame Tuggar for the non-appointment of substantive ambassadors to Nigeria’s missions abroad since those serving were recalled last year.

    Perhaps, before going ahead to address those stated allegations, it may help to understand the undercurrents. Well, it is open secret that there has been a “clash of interests” in the Foreign Ministry in recent times which has necessitated the ruffling of some feathers  as well as the suspension of some personnel over alleged unethical conduct. Just as it is also a known fact that, in the eyes of right-thinking Nigerians, the foreign minister has exhibited thorough professionalism by insisting that due process be followed to establish the truth or otherwise over a serious allegation levelled against a powerful officer in the ministry. Rather than allow the matter be swept under the carpet in the name of “espirit de corps”.

    It is, therefore, not unexpected that those affected or afraid of scrutiny or searchlights would try to fight back. As they say, corruption always fights back when challenged. Well, a fight-back is quite legitimate in the contestation of interests in a given polity. But in this particular instance, the least one expected is fidelity to facts and not recourse to character assassination of a damn good career diplomat who has added value to Nigeria’s Foreign Service over the years.

    I say this from the insight of a retired ambassador who, therefore, has more than a passing interest in the defence of national interest in the Foreign Service.

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    Having followed Tuggar’s career in the Foreign Service, I can vouch that he is one of Nigeria’s very best among his generation. His last posting before being appointed by President Bola Tinubu last year was Germany which, in world diplomacy, is classified as a Grade A country. Germany is undoubtedly the biggest economy in Europe. You don’t send a nonentity to such province.

    To begin with, let us even pretend that the referenced report is not a hatchet job sponsored by some wounded interests. By suggesting at all that the Foreign Minister should “siddon put” in Abuja and be “treating files”, the author of the report only betrayed an abysmally poor understanding of diplomacy and the job of a foreign minister for that matter. Seriously? But there is clearly a big distinction between Minister of Interior and Foreign Minister. The former fits the expectations of the author expressed in that report. In any case, only the thoroughly uninformed will assume that the foreign minister could have embarked on foreign shuttles without informing the president and securing his approval. Again, the author seems unaware that part of the duties of the Minister of Foreign Affairs is to represent the president or the vice president on occasions as may be asked.

    The allegations that the ministry is understaffed, polarised by internal rivalry and that the minister’s absence creates a vacuum are mere gossips because ministries have established bureaucratic system headed by the minister who executes the policies and decisions of the president by delegating responsibilities.

    Like him or not, one of the most influential figures in world diplomacy in the last century is America’s Henry Kissinger. While contextualizing the dynamics of foreign relations in contemporary age, this is what he has to say: “The revolutionary character of our age can be summed up in three general statements: (a) the number of participants in the international order has increased and their nature has altered; (b) their technical ability to affect each other has vastly grown; (c) the scope of their purposes has expanded.”

    Against this backdrop, the germane question then: is it by staying put in Abuja that these critics expect Ambassador Tuggar to best serve Nigeria’s foreign policy interest?

    Look at the case of visa ban on Nigerians by the UAE. This was inherited from the last administration. But through constructive engagement spearheaded by the Foreign Ministry under Tuggar, the matter has now been resolved with the authorities in Dubai opening their doors for Nigerians to visit again.

    The issue of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso should be situated within the broader context of regional politics involving the heads of states of ECOWAS. Nigeria’s intervention in Niger following the coup by General Abdourahamane Tchiana was not unilateral. It was a collective decision of ECOWAS leaders who appointed President Tinubu as their chairman. It is, therefore, uninformed to think that a Foreign Minister in Nigeria could have stood in President Tinubu’s way in form of writing a counter advisory.

    Again, while it is desirable that Nigeria should, by now, have filled all the ambassadorial vacancies abroad, the truth of the matter is that Tinubu administration inherited a bad economy that has limited its ability to mobilize resources to fund the foreign missions sufficiently. Even under the Buhari administration, the common lamentation among Nigerian ambassadors then was paucity of funds such that, in some cases, ambassadors had difficulty paying their children’s school fees due to poor or delayed salaries.

    So, getting the ambassadors recalled last year was partly an economic decision. To get their replacements back to all the missions abroad will certainly cost tens of millions of dollars. I think President Tinubu is quietly scratching his head at the moment, thinking how to mobilize funds to do the needful in this regard. It is, therefore, most mischievous and fallacious to blame the delay on Ambassador Tuggar.

    •Dr. Adekunle, a retired ambassador, wrote from Lagos.

  • The silent burden of post Covid-19 health impact

    The silent burden of post Covid-19 health impact

    • By Titilope Dokunmu

    Covid-19 is no longer a scare around the world because the pandemic is over; it is now a long-term disease just like any other infectious disease that is treated according to standard guidelines. However, there is a silent creeping burden of post Covid-19 impact on public health with post-covid consequences even at very low transmission rates.

    The silent burden of covid-19 arises from complications from previous Covid-19 exposure. These conditions called Covid-19 post-acute sequalae (or long covid) refers to aggravation of pre-existing conditions, or development of new symptoms ranging from neurological conditions, fatigue, brain fog, multiple organ damage, etc.

    The silent undetected burden of long covid presents differently in people, hence it is sometimes difficult to identify. It is therefore necessary to consider previous history of Covid-19 in patient management of seemingly unrelated new diseases to reduce public health burdens that soon will arise from covid-19 complications or long covid.

    Also, there is a need for public awareness of the spread of new variants (forms) of covid and post-covid conditions (long covid), which can develop into serious conditions that lead to death.

    Back in the year 2020, who would guess that a new virus which emerged in late 2019 would cripple the world in a pandemic that has infected to date over 760 million people and killed over seven million persons globally?

    Coronavirus disease 2019 known as (covid-19) is an infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 virus) characterized by rapidly spreading respiratory illnesses affecting multiple organs in children and adults. Covid-19 causes a barrage of mild to moderate symptoms and in severe cases leads to death, but long covid presents like chronic conditions. In most cases, long covid is identified months after recovery from Covid-19.

    The acute infection involves viral attachment to a receptor on the surface of host cells, in particular Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 receptor on lung cells, to infect humans. Several other events take place after the virus attaches itself to the host cell and these include viral replication, viral release which causes the acute infections but long covid continue to develop over a long time.

    Covid-19 pandemic put the world to a stop in 2020 because public health experts and scientists were caught unprepared with the magnitude of the widespread of the virus, the overwhelming effects on the health systems and unprecedented deaths. Covid-19 was a newly discovered virus, but it was later found to be very similar to the known SARS and MERS viruses which cause severe respiratory illnesses.

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    In the early months of the pandemic, there was no drug known to treat the unknown virus or vaccines to prevent its continuous spread. Several strategies were used to manage patients, many of whom developed severe cases that led to the high number of deaths. It then became apparent to the world–including first world countries, that we were not pandemic ready!

    This was due to high shortage of ICU facilities, staffing, as well as shortage of medical supplies. Strategies included social distancing, whereby movements were largely restricted and social gatherings–this reduced the transmission, but the virus soon defied this strategy and continued to spread therefore therapeutics and other preventive approaches were quickly developed.

    Another public health concern of Covid-19 virus is the changes in parts of its genetic makeup (genome) – a term called mutation, just like other viruses. These variants differ slightly in their genetic makeup, the severity of Covid-19 illnesses they cause and the ease of transmission. As a prevention strategy of Covid-19, many vaccines were rolled out globally. In the wake of the pandemic, some vaccines prevented infection but soon the Covid-19 virus continuously mutated causing many vaccines to be discontinued or booster shots (2nd, 3rd, 4th doses) introduced.

    New variants are now causing rising cases of Covid-19 in western countries, like JN.1 and KP.2 variants in the UK and US as of July, but in Nigeria, transmission has been insignificant, and BA.2.86 variant circulating according to CDC, however the burden of long covid is not yet known. Scientists are still in search for more treatments for Covid-19 emerging variants, and more importantly understanding the silent burden of long-covid.

    The currently used drugs including Remdesivir, Molpunavir, etc only treats the acute early stage infection but drugs are yet to be developed to prevent or treat long covid which may impact the world masked as an increase in chronic diseases thereby increasing the public health crisis. Scientists will continue to research for new therapies and strategies to combat Covid-19 and its consequences to prepare for any future pandemics and post-covid sequalae.

    •Dr. Dokunmu is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry; she has expertise in pharmacology, biochemistry and molecular biology.

  • Ukraine, Gaza and NATO’s selective humanity

    Ukraine, Gaza and NATO’s selective humanity

    • By Charles Onunaiju                        

    Between July 8 and10, Western military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held a summit to mark the 75 years of its founding in 1949. Despite that’s its founding mission of confronting the defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) has largely disappeared with the collapse of the USSR, the alliance still waxes strong as it finds new adversaries.

    Its Washington summit, where it all began 75 years ago, was high on intense sabre-rattling and extreme belligerence especially directed at its current and foremost strategic adversary, the Russian Federation. It claimed Russia’s military operation against Ukraine was an aimless and provocative wandering of an aggressor, despite an unwritten rule among great powers, that none shall seek or aim to foster a puppet state within the neighbourhood of the other.

    The former Soviet Union learnt this rule the hard way when it secretly deployed nuclear capable missiles in Cuba, just about 70 kilometres to the USA in the 1960s. Washington set out its right to bring the world to ruins if the missiles were not withdrawn, and even the pledge that Cuba was a sovereign nation, with rights according to international law to choose its own partners and host whatever it wishes on its territory, was a non-starter that Washington would not countenance. More than five decades later, Washington and her military alliance members, claimed that Ukraine, located in the strategic neighbourhood of the Russia Federation could join the alliance and host its arsenals, pointing directly and menacingly at Moscow, without consequences.

    In its summit declaration, it declared that “every nation has the right to choose its own security arrangement….” And also “reaffirm our commitment to NATO’s open door policy in line with articles 10 of the Washington Treaty.”

    However, the conflict in Ukraine was the fulcrum of the alliance 75th anniversary. The “Washington Summit Declaration”, mentioned Ukraine 51 times, reaffirming “our unwavering solidarity with Ukraine” giving muscle to its earlier pledge to help Ukraine inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.

    But NATO, the western military alliance with claims to commitment to values of human rights, democracy and sovereign rights of peoples to live in dignity, has not one word to the brutal genocide that Israel enforces in Gaza, a Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people.

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    Nearly 40,000 Palestinians, mostly children, women and elderly have been brutally massacred, with no single building, a worship place, school, hospital, market left standing. Yet the Palestinian people have no formal army, air force or navy which makes them the most defenceless people on the face of the earth. Unborn babies ripped off their mother’s womb by Israeli relentless bombing, young men summarily executed in their hospital beds, the carnage in Gaza largely executed with weapons furnished by the Washington-led NATO alliance members could not find a word in their summit declaration of 38 point plus six-point annex devoted exclusively to Ukraine.

    Neither a call for restraint, ceasefire or even a humanitarian lull in the ongoing onslaught against the Palestinians could be found in NATO’s Summit declaration. NATO, an alliance of selective humanism is utterly bereft of humanity and its audacity to invoke universal human values is a violent, bloody lie. The 32 Euro-Atlantic nations boast endlessly of cultivating mankind’s most cherished universal values of human rights and democracy but could maintain silence in the face of the world’s most brutal onslaught against a defenceless people, makes its complicity even more louder.

    With impunity and arrogance, NATO summiteers’ wagered fingers at China, calling Beijing a “decisive enabler of Russia’s war” in Ukraine, despite that not a single ammunition or any piece of military equipment has been found in the battle field with a trace to Beijing.

    On the other hand, it is rather NATO and its foremost cheer leader, the United States that is the “decisive enabler” of Israel’s war of genocide in Gaza, against a defenceless people without any formal military.

    NATO’s selective humanity that blinds the alliance to the ongoing carnage in Gaza leaves it naked in the market place of global public opinion. How does Ukraine have the right to defend itself but a people displaced from their home for more than six decades, have no right to lay claim to any piece of their former homeland as home, where they can live in peace and pursue their national aspiration.

    In weapons supplies, political and diplomatic support, economic life-lines, NATO is Israel’s most decisive enabler and therefore NATO is compellingly complicit in the crimes in Gaza.

    Despite that it did not occur in a vacuum, the attack on Israel by the armed resistant wing of the Palestinian group HAMAS, on October 7th was widely condemned.

    Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel prime minister who has built a career as “Mr. Security” for guaranteeing security to Israelis even as that has come at the expense of massive crackdown on Palestinians, launched a brutal vendetta, driven by rage. Having declared his intention to eradicate HAMAS, the Israeli regime unleashed an unprecedented military campaign that is less of a war but a callous murdering spree. The United States of America and her allies in NATO, turning logic and common sense on its head, called the Israeli actions, defensive and Washington has repeatedly claimed Israel’s right to defend herself. Israel with the strongest army in the region threw its entire military might against a people who have no standing army. As an urban guerrilla, the HAMAS resistance force has no more effective or viable military strategy than to hide within the civilian population and around civilian infrastructure. And it is common sense that the HAMAS fighters would not need permission from the civilian population to either hide among them or use civilian infrastructure.

    Israel has been totally indiscriminate in the mass killing of Palestinians and it is obvious that all 2.3 million Gaza residents would not have been HAMAS supporters. If Israel only aims to eradicate HAMAS, its actions so far have been to eradicate the entire Palestinians and it has no less a supporter in the horrendous enterprise than the United States and its allies.

    At the 75th anniversary summit, the 32 nation military behemoth which has doled out over $300 billion to Ukraine in combined military, economic and humanitarian aid could not muster a single word for the most defenceless people in the world, currently under the most brutal military assault perpetrated by one of the world’s most armed state.

    Non-Euro-Atlantic peoples and nations in the world do not need any further to take serious the empty slogans of democracy, human rights and universal values by the West. The United Kingdom (UK), complicit in the historical travails of the Palestinians along with other members of the Western alliance has maintained a deafening silence on the ongoing tragedies of the Palestinian people.

    The NATO 75th anniversary summit in Washington has shown the true colour, the true face of the West that their civilization and values, far from been universal is an exclusionist, ideologically narrow and race-tinted world view.

    For now, Israel is on the loose and totally unhinged, murdering Palestinians in their numbers with approval from those who urged one of the world’s strongest armies to “defend itself” against the world’s most defenceless people. It’s, anniversary summit in Washington is another reminder of the root of all the world troubles, reaffirming eloquently that it’s NATO against the world.

    •Onunaiju contributes from Abuja.

  • Time for Southwest governors to embrace farming for regional prosperity

    Time for Southwest governors to embrace farming for regional prosperity

    By Sola Olatunji

    “Why should there be hunger and deprivation in any land, in any city, at any table when man has the resources and the scientific know-how to provide the basic necessities of life?”, Martin Luther King Jr once argued.

    But the issue lies not in a lack of resources but in a lack of willpower. Amplifying this philosophy further, good governance is also about humanity and human existence is not guaranteed if there is perennial hunger without swift intervention by the political authority in any society. 

    In 1954, when Chief Obafemi Awolowo became the Premier of Western Region of Nigeria, he initiated a social revolution with impactful policies in health, education and agriculture. These policies transformed the region’s socio-economic landscape, leading to food security and prosperity. Through strategic agricultural expansion schemes, rural farm settlements and farm estate development, the Western Region became a food hub, with farmers transitioning from poverty to affluence. The region thrived on cash crops like cocoa, oil palm and rubber, as well as food crops like yam, cassava and vegetables. This agricultural boom led to significant infrastructural development, such as the iconic Cocoa House in Ibadan and the Western House in Lagos. The prosperity from farming amplified the region’s diversification strategy and enabled the region to diversify into other profitable ventures, sustaining growth and development and these astronomical developments attracted the envy of other regions.

    However, from the mid-1990s onward, successive political leaders shifted focus away from agriculture, the goose that laid the golden eggs and began to embrace white elephant projects or at best, elitist projects, neglecting the sustainable farming policies that once ensured food security. Today, the region, once renowned for its agricultural abundance, is struggling to feed its population and has to rely on other regions for food supplies. It is regrettable that a region naturally blessed with arable land and a youthful population has since abandoned its agricultural heritage.

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    Our political leaders must revive Awolowo’s legacy by reinstating rural farm settlements and promoting estate farming development as edifying his cap alone without embracing his philosophy will amount to nothing. The current governors of Oyo, Lagos, Ogun, Kogi, and Niger states have shown commendable efforts in agricultural development, and their initiatives should be adopted and replicated across the region. The 76 agricultural clusters model by Governor Usman Ododo in Kogi State should be embraced. The Agbowa Rice Mill projects by the Lagos State government that can sufficiently meet the rice needs of the West Africa region ought to be fast-tracked. The Epe Agric hub and food supermarket projects should be crystallised to really redeem our agricultural heritage in the region.

    There is nothing bad in replicating what is good in other countries in Nigeria. India once experienced acute hunger and food shortages, reminiscent of Nigeria’s current situation. The Indian government took decisive action by importing massive quantities of food, stabilizing prices, and ensuring food availability. This strategy, combined with the Green Revolution, which introduced modern farming techniques and high-yield crop varieties, transformed India’s agriculture, making it one of the world’s largest food producers today. Nigeria can learn from India’s proactive approach by adopting modern agricultural techniques and ensuring food security through strategic interventions. The 150-day food import duty-free may not have any meaningful impact with the kind of food inflation ravaging our economy. It would make more sense if this window is extended to 12 months so that the federal and sub national government can roll out their strategies for food security and possibly with some of them already stabilizing food prices.

    In Brazil, the “Zero Hunger” programme, initiated in 2003, significantly reduced hunger and poverty through integrated policies focusing on social protection, food security and support for family farming. The programme’s success is its comprehensive approach, combining immediate food aid with long-term agricultural development and social inclusion strategies. Nigeria could implement similar integrated policies and possibly exhume its Green Revolution and recalibrate Operation Feed the Nation to address both immediate hunger and the underlying causes of food insecurity. It is compelling we adopt the multidimensional approach to substantially end hunger in Nigeria.

    Today, Rwanda has achieved remarkable agricultural transformation through the “Crop Intensification Programme”, which focuses on land consolidation, improved seeds, fertilizers and farmer education. This has significantly increased food production and reduced hunger.

    By investing in farmer education and modern agricultural practices, Nigeria can enhance productivity and achieve food security. 

    To address food insecurity, it is essential to integrate farming into public education, from primary to tertiary levels, converting idle lands in schools into productive farms. This hands-on approach will ensure students gain practical agricultural knowledge, making the curriculum relevant and impactful.

    Hunger should not be downplayed by any political leadership. Nigeria must avoid food riots by consistently designing and implementing sustainable agricultural policies, ensuring every citizen’s basic need for food is met. By doing so, we can honour the enduring legacy of Chief Awolowo and secure a prosperous future for the Western region and, by extension, Nigeria. With the latest baptism of Local Government autonomy by the Supreme Court, barring any further manipulation by the kleptocracts, it’s expected to open up the grassroots for socio- political and economic engineering to achieve prosperity for all. The penchant for multiplicity of taxes on citizens and the economy by political authority is counterproductive as no nation in modern history has taxed its way to wealth. The ingenious way to reflate our economy is to expand production, especially agriculture.

  • Dare: Encourager, mentor, not just an essayist

    Dare: Encourager, mentor, not just an essayist

    By Adekunle Ade-Adeleye

    Professor Olatunji Dare makes writing a tribute to him enormously easy. In an interview he granted this newspaper’s, Olakunle Abimbola, last Sunday, no topic was off limits. He spoke about himself, his apprehensions, his body, his mind, his family, and any other thing a reporter would ordinarily be chary about asking, wondering whether it would not amount to an insolent invasion of his privacy. The genial mass communication professor, journalist, mentor and teacher, is completely comfortable in his own skin. He turns 80 today, having replicated many of his values in numberless mentees who have rolled out the drums to celebrate a great human being, intellectual and mentor. By being comfortable in his own skin, in a curious and disarming manner, he makes it pleasurable to talk about him and pen a tribute to him.

    By global life expectancy standard, Prof. Dare has been very fortunate in a world where old people die on average at a little under 74 years using 2023 figures. In specific terms, however, he belongs to any number of 43 countries where life expectancy is 80 years upward, with Hong Kong and Macao leading with a little over 85 years for both sexes. For male life expectancy, the highest global average is about 70.8 years, with Hong Kong and Macao still leading at about 83. As far as longevity is concerned, Prof Dare has had a great and fulfilling adventure. He has fulfilled most of the goals he set for himself, except perhaps one, but unsure whether he still has the strength or time to apply himself to the demanding rigours of that unresolved assignment. It is possible to celebrate an exceptional person who achieved fame but died early, but it is to the credit of Prof. Dare that he excelled at his vocations of teaching and practicing journalism well into advanced age. As one sage said with a gutsy sense of irony, outlasting one’s enemies is the ultimate revenge.

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    But much more than his longevity, most of those who celebrate and idolise Prof. Dare do so mainly because of his exceptional writing skills, his felicitous use of language, his incomparable turn of phrase. He knows this without a shred of doubt. He has been complimented more than a thousand times since he penned his first newspaper piece, his academic distinction presaging his years of excellence in newspapering and even journalism teaching. He says he squirms in discomfort when complimented, but he knows he is not being flattered. Many decades after, he still leaves his readers wondering how on earth he strings his words together, how immensely comfortable he is with the written word, such that if you were not told, you could not tell whether his writings are a product of diligent learning or they are intrinsic, or whether his essays are written by someone for whom English is mother tongue or second language.

    Some writings are improved or redeemed by the sheer degree of intellectualism brought into them; others stand impeccably wholesome, resplendent and unaffected, like a full-bodied wine that leaves a lingering taste in the mouths of connoisseurs. Prof. Dare’s writings are a product of the latter. After all, “Of all those arts in which the wise excel,” wrote John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, “Nature’s chief masterpiece is writing well.” Oddly enough, the Duke of Buckingham was author of Essay on Satire.

    However, for me whom the professor had mentored as if from a distance, his greatest appeal rests on the principles and values that undergird his life and vocation. That is where the example he bequeaths us lies; that is why his appeal has never waned. Had he possessed twice the skills attributed to him without the character that sets him apart, it is unlikely he would be as celebrated today as he has been. He relishes the archetypal story of his disengagement from The Guardian newspaper in 1995 during the military dictatorship of Gen. Sani Abacha. He had been asked to accompany Publisher Alex Ibru and a few other top managers of the paper to importune Gen. Abacha who had shut the paper since 1994, and obviously to also consequently abnegate the editorial independence and sanctity of the paper to the whims and caprices of the country’s military leadership. His farsighted son, he recalls, warned him of the immolating consequences of begging the dictator. But there would also be repercussions of breaking ranks with the publisher, he had told his son, especially seeing that they resided in official quarters. Two days after The Guardian team conciliated the military, Prof. Dare resigned his appointment, and walked into the wilderness with eyes wide open. Knowing him for who he is, he would still have resigned even if his family had balked and his official residence had not become a bargaining chip. That is his appeal. He may exude geniality of a very profound kind, but he is as implacable as they come when it comes to matters of principles and character. He has not changed a whit. Despite his seeming readiness to consult his son or family on far-reaching challenges, he consults only with himself when it comes to matters of principles, regardless of the cost. It is a rare gift, a great example to imitate, an indication that beyond the fascination with prose or satire, not to say multiple awards, the man and essayist has substance and mettle.

    In the referenced interview with this newspaper, he comes across as incomparably candid and self-effacing. He acknowledges that age has taken a toll on him, and that his gait may not be as ramrod and steady as before. He even confesses that he has been fortunate not to have suffered “appreciable loss in cognition or mental functioning”. Except I err greatly, and having read him consistently over decades, I confess I can find no trace of the little loss in cognition he so self-effacingly speaks about. One of my brothers, a medical practitioner, read him again a few months ago and enthused that Olatunji Dare remained as stylistically vibrant as he had known him since he last read him, which was some years back. What is clear to me is that he will remain a lucid thinker and great stylist well into his late 80s. What might fail him, and nature has been kind to give him some notice having come under the knife a few times, is his body. Fortunately, for so bold and candid a man, he is not apocalyptic talking about his twilight years. I may, therefore, take the liberty to say that, yes, there will probably be some dissonance between his body and his mind as the years wear on, but he should take solace in the fact that what he has gifted us and will leave with us is the brilliance of his mind and the effervescence of his prose, not the texture of his ageing body.

    That is the essence of the man we will keep, the memory we will take with us, a great and unquenchable mind, a career much garlanded and appreciated by his publics, readers and scholars alike.

    His life and examples, including his battles and triumphs, not to say his defeats and regrets, all of which are potent enough to have made him a misanthrope, teach a philosophy of life and living that cannot be given or received in a classroom.

    Here is wishing the great encourager and exemplar, whose poised approach to existence is truly remarkable, a happy 80th.

  • Insecurity: Focus on Zamfara State

    Insecurity: Focus on Zamfara State

    By Isa Mohammed

    The Northwest zone, comprising Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina and Kano states, has come under siege from non-state actors, particularly bandits and terrorists. Zamfara has been worst hit as the state has come under an intense wave of insecurity that has severely impacted the lives of its residents. Experts have attributed the spectre of insecurity in Zamfara to multifaceted factors, the dimensions of which have had far reaching consequences on the livelihoods of the people of the state in particular and the zone as a whole.

    Successive governors of Zamfara State since 2011 have been either fingered for contributing to the birth of banditry or romancing them through inertia, patronage and vicious politicisation of the situation. Without making it too obvious, this attitude has not only emboldened notorious bandits like Bello Turji, Dogo Gide, among others, but has also mainstreamed a somewhat safe environment for Turji wannabees to spring up in pockets of the many ungoverned spaces that litter the entire zone.

    In the course of public discourse, experts have revealed that a significant factor exacerbating the insecurity in Zamfara State is the evident lack of coordination or synergy between federal forces and local authorities. Bandits’ attacks, which can last for several hours, often occur without any timely response from national security forces. Local officials have repeatedly expressed frustration over the slow and sometimes non-existent intervention from federal troops. This disconnect has allowed bandits to operate with impunity, conducting raids that devastate communities and erode public trust in the government’s ability to provide security. The government of Dauda Lawal Dare has been particular about this lack of control and the frustration that comes with the inability of subnational governments to take charge of the security of their domains.

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    As a response to this lack of control, the Zamfara State government late last year floated a local vigilante known as the Zamfara Community Protection Guard (ZCPD). And although the ZCPD has been as equipped as is allowed by law, the agency has not been able to forestall the wave upon wave of attacks on defenceless communities, thus reigniting the imperative for synergy between local authorities and federal forces as well as calls for state police.

    Alarmingly, many attacks in Zamfara occur in close proximity to military checkpoints, yet there is often no response from the officers stationed there. This has raised serious concerns about the effectiveness and willingness of the military to protect civilians. In some instances, communities have reported hearing gunshots and cries for help while military personnel remained inactive. The reasons behind this inaction are complex, ranging from alleged corruption and collusion with bandits to a lack of adequate resources, intelligence and maybe vicious politics. Regardless, the result is a pervasive sense of vulnerability among the local population. It must be said that these federal forces have enjoyed a great deal of goodwill from the state government ranging from the donations of many operational vehicles to other incentives all in a bid to up the morale of troops and enhance operational efficiency. Sadly, all these have yet to really tilt advantage to the people.  

    The insecurity in Zamfara has severely disrupted many activities that support the livelihood of the people, the worst hit of which is agriculture. This has contributed to high prices of farm produce and widespread hunger all over Nigeria. This is because Zamfara and states in the Northwest zone are major producers of grains and other staple foods. Unfortunately, farmers are often too frightened to tend to their fields, and many have abandoned their farms altogether. The constant threat of banditry means that planting, harvesting, and transporting goods to markets have become perilous endeavours. This disruption has had a cascading effect on food supply chains, causing prices to skyrocket and contributing to food insecurity not just in Zamfara, but also across Nigeria. The once fertile and productive zone now struggles with declining agricultural output and increasing poverty.

    Recently, residents of Magami, an area in Gusau local government area of Zamfara State, browbeaten by years of banditry, welcomed a bandit kingpin, Dogo Gide, who recently relocated to their area with lots of pump and pageantry. A song released in his honour praised him as the saviour of the people, even as he was quoted as saying farmers should return to their farms and tend the land without fear, assuring them of protection from other bandits operating in the area. This event not only came off as a big source of embarrassment to Nigeria’s battle against insecurity, but also represents a significant setback to the state’s efforts towards stamping its authority on and protecting its territorial integrity.

    Commerce and other business activities, especially small-scale businesses, have also been deeply affected by the insecurity in Zamfara. Markets that once bustled with activity now see dwindling numbers of traders and customers, as fear of attacks keeps people away. Transport routes, crucial for the movement of goods and services, are often targeted by bandits as scores are either kidnapped for ransom or killed, making travel risky and unpredictable. This has led to a significant economic downturn in the zone, with small business owners bearing the brunt of the losses. Many businesses have closed down, leading to higher unemployment rates and further economic distress.

    Indeed, the persistent insecurity in Zamfara, as in other parts of the zone, has had a profound impact on the social lifestyle and psychological well-being of its residents, particularly women and children. Constant fear and anxiety have become a part of daily life, as communities brace themselves for the next attack. The trauma of witnessing violence, losing loved ones, and living in a state of perpetual uncertainty has left deep psychological scars. Children, who should be in school, often stay at home due to safety concerns, depriving them of education and a sense of normalcy. Women, who are often the primary caregivers, bear the heavy burden of maintaining some semblance of stability in their homes, despite the overwhelming challenges. This is despite the state government’s best efforts.

    Above notwithstanding, the insecurity ravaging Zamfara State has proven itself a really complex crisis with far-reaching implications. The first obvious approach that needs to change is the lack of effective coordination between federal forces and local authorities. The crisis is begging for synergy; collective and concerted efforts that will break the ranks of the militia who at present appear more coordinated than state forces. More action must replace the inertia that hitherto allows the alarming proximity of bandit attacks to military checkpoints to happen unchallenged.

    Let it be known, that safeguarding Zamfara State, and the nation at large will profoundly impact agriculture, commerce, and social well-being, thus underscoring the urgent need for comprehensive and coordinated solutions. Addressing these issues, therefore, is critical not only to Zamfara State, but also the nation at large.

    •Mohammed writes from Gusau, Zamfara State.

  • Terrible signals from America

    Terrible signals from America

    By Zayd Ibn Isah

    The build-up to the forthcoming elections in the United States of America has once again exposed the country’s deep fault-lines. Tensions have reached fever pitch between the two major political parties of this foremost democracy, and the present state of things is ominously reminiscent of W.B. Yeats’ ‘The Second Coming,’ where the falcons can no longer hear the falconer.

    As the Presidential candidate of the Republican Party, Donald J. Trump’s second foray into American politics has been unsurprisingly marred by crises and controversies, what we are witnessing now is anarchy in ‘God’s Own Country.’ And yet, no one could ever have correctly predicted that an assassination attempt would be made on the 45th American President. As it is, only time will tell if this significant event will be the last straw that truly breaks the camel’s back.

    At the weekend, Donald Trump narrowly escaped death during a campaign rally at Butler, Pennsylvania. If the assassin had not missed his target by a mile, Trump would certainly have met the same fate as other assassinated US leaders like Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.

    The gunman who fired shots from a semi-automatic AR-style rifle has now been identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. Although Crooks was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper present at the rally, one wonders how an event of such magnitude could have unfolded in America of all places. If this had happened in Nigeria or another third-world country, many would have been quick to say that such a thing would never have happened in America. Now that it has happened, what do we call it?

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    If anything the political crisis in America has demystified some of the widely held beliefs about America. The US is often referenced when discussing our country’s shortcomings in meeting 21st-century standards. I won’t blame us for such references. America is one of the oldest democratic countries in the world. In fact, the US President is unarguably the most powerful person in the world. As such, it is normal for a developing country like Nigeria to be encouraged to borrow a leaf from America’s book on democracy and governance.

    But while we are encouraged to do so, we should not lose sight of the fact that America is a country and Americans are human. They are flawed people often blinded by narrow interests and liable to disagree on even the clearest of issues. They are not infallible at all. No country in the world is perfect. Even now, following Donald Trumpʼs revelation in a social media post that the assassin’s bullet only pierced the upper part of his right ear; and President Joe Bidenʼs public condemnation of the heinous act against his rival, many Americans have begun stirring up conspiracy theories to drive the narrative that the entire assassination attempt was staged.

    While this case is still being actively investigated by the relevant authorities, I think it is ultimately telling that not everyone in America believes that someone genuinely wanted Donald Trump dead. This exposes just how deep the divisions run in America that even clear facts are subject to scrutinising doubt and rude dismissal.

    In the hours following the attempted assassination, I have taken my time to read comments on social media from Americans about what they think of their country in the wake of the attack which claimed one life. No American has called their country names like “zoo.” Trump’s loyalists are not threatening fire and brimstone if anything happens to him, although they are quick to tear down anyone who thinks the assassination attempt was a staged affair. Although emotions are high, it is safe to believe that true Americans are surely disappointed by the unfolding events, even though the love for America trumps all, no pun intended. Now, this is how you define patriotism.

    There are many lessons that we, as Nigerians, can learn from this American incident and its aftermath. One is that the love for our country should supersede our primordial sentiments. We can disagree on several fronts, but always do so with love for the country we call home. Secondly, we should not give up on our country and its nascent democracy.

    If America, with a democratic system that dates back to 1776, can still be struggling to get on its feet, yet its citizens trust its process, why shouldn’t we trust ours while engaging our leaders constructively? Our institutions should be allowed to get it right, even as our leaders should always be held to the highest standards. People who consistently proclaim that Nigeria is beyond redemption are not only destroying hope for our nation, but hurting our image even worse than certain criminal elements.

    This does not mean that no one should criticize government policies or draw attention to undeniable realities. Rather, our criticism should always be fair and constructive and our mind-set should not always be rooted in unyielding pessimism. Nigeria will work in our lifetimes. Nigeria will work for all of our good. And the Nigerian Dream will require all of us to stay awake with our eyes on the same goal: the restoration of Nigeria’s glory in all ramifications.

    At this point, one would wish African leaders would serve America a taste of their own ‘travel advisory’ medicine in the face of the crisis in the country. It is now obvious that the country is no longer safe for foreigners there. But away from this, another lesson to be gained from the unfortunate incident is the realization that harmful rhetoric can sometimes guide or galvanize dark intentions. It is yet to be ascertained the motive which drove a young man to seek Donald Trump’s death, but one can only imagine that he must have harboured a deep hatred of the Republican candidate before putting his nefarious plans into motion.

    I don’t believe any sane Nigerian would wish for our beloved president to be harmed. But the world is a cruel system of things, and the best way around this is to never be surprised, but to always be on the alert. Henceforth, the Department of State Services must always be on the lookout for certain inflammatory outbursts capable of inciting violence to destabilize our democracy. Freedom of speech is not an avenue to spew vicious hate. The democracy of our nationhood supersedes any individual or group, and nowhere is that democracy firmly invested than in the constitution, the citizenry and the captainship of Nigeria.

    For all our divisions and differences, we should always gravitate towards the strongest pillars of our unity as a nation, because these strong pillars and foundational truths are the very things that will ensure Nigeria never fails, and that we will keep getting closer to the realization of the Nigerian Dream.

    •Isah can be reached via lawcadet1@gmail.com

  • Playing politics with the power sector

    Playing politics with the power sector

    • By Mon-Charles Egbo

    Nigeria is held down by economic losses and threats to lives due to the perennial insufficiency in public power supply. According to a report, “what Nigerians spend on self-generation of power – on fuelling and servicing their generators – is N16.5 trillion” yearly. Imagine the economic outcomes of investing this sum elsewhere. Though there have been successive attempts the power sector is still yearning for robust interventions.

    The latest was the privatization of the generation and distribution segments of the electricity value chain with Nigeria retaining the transmission component. It was designed to last for 10 years, from 2013 to 2023, for possible renewal.

    Presently, the 10th Senate is investigating several messy deals perpetrated during the last administration which cumulatively heightened the debt profile of the country.

    One of them is the Make-Up Gas (MUG) transaction involving the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited and the Calabar Generation Company Limited.

    Nigeria recorded a scandalous loss in this project.

    Going by the preliminary outcomes, Nigeria cannot attain availability and affordability of electricity except decisive actions are urgently taken.

    Establishing the overall ineligibility of NDPHC, the panel, through its vice chairman, Senator Lola Ashiru, retorted that “looking at all these things, there is issue of capacity to enter into contract. When there is no capacity to enter into contract, what it means is that the existence of your business is in doubt. The only way we can get out of this is a total renegotiation and when you are doing total renegotiation, you must be sure of your own capacity to do business. If you are not sure of it, we will just be going round and going deeper into debt”.

    The committee further lamented that “now we are talking of our own GenCos and every day of our lives we are going deeper and deeper into debts. I don’t know what we should do at this stage, but I think it is important for you to carefully restructure your business, to carefully restructure yourself and repackage all these indices into a new contract renegotiation”.

    This is just a reinforcement of the persistent outcries that the licensed operators lacked the integrity, competence and capacity to discharge their obligations.

    But sadly, political expediency and sundry narrow interests would not allow for necessary actions.

    Recall that Senator Ahmad Lawan, sitting then as the president of the Senate once observed that “the federal government in recent years has invested billions of dollars in this sector, most of which money appear to have gone down the drain as the problems of inadequate power supply continue to plague Nigeria. Even the subsequent privatisation of the sector has had no visible impact. In fact, many Nigerians believe that we allowed ourselves to be further defrauded through the privatisation of the sector”.

    Continuing, he said “the truth is that we all know what is wrong. What we really need to do is to have the political will to take on the challenges generally. From the electricity power reform of 2005 to the privatisation of GenCos and DisCos and to what is happening today, we know that everything is a fraud”.

    Exactly four years after Lawan’s outburst, nothing appears to have changed. The minister of power, Adebayo Adelabu, stunned Nigerians when he revealed that “for this sector to be revived, the government needs to spend nothing less than $10 billion annually in the next 10 years”.

    He had earlier justified the outrageous electricity tariff increase with the claim that the federal government owed N3 trillion to the operators in addition to about N1.5 trillion for the 2024 subsidy.

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    Meanwhile, the privatisation terms provided that Nigeria would generate 40,000 megawatts by 2020. Yet, 10 years later, it remains a herculean task to exceed 3500MW despite all the successive noises about economic prosperity.

    But the craving for political correctness would still not allow for the acknowledgement that the inefficiency of the regulator, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, catalysed the “fraud” referred to by Senator Lawan in the first place.

    Realizing that the operators lacked the financial capacity and convictions to invest, but were only out to make profits, a patriotic regulator would have saved Nigeria the harrowing experience.

    Tinubu is the third president in the lifespan of the ill-fated privatization. His first five months in office were coincidentally the last five months of the deal. He admitted that “10 years on, I believe it is fair to say that the objectives of the sector privatisation have by and large, not been met”. But moving forward, he also said that “the poor performance must not continue to drag the sector down. All licensees must not only have the technical capacity to deliver on their license but must also have the financial muscles to invest to improve their operations”.

    Supporting Mr President, the power minister had equally emphasized that “10 years down the line, the licenses are expiring, and it is high time for renewal. Renewal is not automatic. Any of the privatized companies that have not lived up to expectations will not have the license renewed. We have to consider whether you have complied with the terms and conditions of the licence you were given. We will look at the technical capacity of the GenCos and the DisCos. We will look at the financial credibility”.

    That was a reassuring presentation!

    But right then, both the assurance of the president and his minister were punctured with the subsequent revelation that the failed operators’ licences had since been renewed!

    According to NERC, “it has been rumoured that the licenses of the DisCos will expire this year, but the truth is that the DisCos were given a 10-year licence, but as they took over, the commission extended their license by five years. So, the DisCos have 15 years license. So, their license will expire five years from now which is 2028”.

    This is enough proof that somebody is actually playing games!

    Who says that Adams Oshiomhole was not right in his assertion that the people driving governance are the ones sabotaging the economy?

    President Tinubu has fairly demonstrated a sense of commitment. Within his first week in office, he exhumed and signed into law, the Electricity Bill passed by the 9th Assembly but was not processed. Ideally, this legislation holds a great future for the power sector, especially in the areas of empowering the states and other independent entities to produce electricity as well as the vast opportunities in the Green Economy. Again, he approved the settlement of the debts owed to the operators and exempted them from paying “withholding taxes” and also, removed the electricity subsidy, albeit, ill-timed.

    Then, he created the Presidential Economic Coordination Council to among other targets, achieve energy security.

    But respectfully, Mr President, there are already, sufficient policies. Implementation is the issue. You can only extract views from critical stakeholders to enrich the existing frameworks for purposeful implementations. Rather than billions of naira, it is better to inject discipline and efficiency in the power sector, primarily, to diminish the ‘saboteurs’. Nigerians are eager to know what informed the questionable renewal of the operators’ licences.

    To fully unleash the inherent potentials of the Electricity Act, the headship of the MDAs should be about competency and capacity rather than political patronage. The minister should embody the policy direction, key performance indicators and operational framework for productivity.

    The president is further enjoined to demonstrate that his’ is a forward-thinking government. It is time to restore and renew citizens’ hopes with available, accessible and affordable electricity towards revamping the economy. It is only in this that Nigerians can believe that truly, the era of playing politics with the power sector is now buried.

    •Egbo is a parliamentary affairs analyst.

  • How jumbled regulatory regime inhibit private sector growth

    How jumbled regulatory regime inhibit private sector growth

    • By Perching Hawk

    The Bola Tinubu administration has been making pronouncements and effecting changes in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government in furtherance of its electoral promise to provide enabling environments for private sector operators to lead the charge in revamping the nation’s economy.

    While these changes are expected to ignite positive strides in regulatory functions to provide necessary encouragements to existing and prospective investors in Nigeria, it is also important that the activities of MDAs align with the economic environment and to local and international best practices.

    Given that a quarter of the administration’s tenure is already gone, it would not be out of place to examine how regulatory activities of the MDAs are impacting the growth or otherwise of the private sector and conversely the socio-economic wellbeing of the people in general.

    One recurrent complaint by the organized private sector (OPS) in Nigeria is ‘overregulation’ by governments and their agencies.

    Analysts have sometimes linked the perceived overregulation to attempts by MDAs to increase their internally generated revenue, following dwindling funding from government; others point to ambiguity or overlap in legal instruments setting up MDAs as well as overzealousness by officials of regulatory institutions in carrying out their respective mandates.

    Globalisation has however necessitated that regulatory functions especially in developing economies like Nigeria be harmonized and rationalized for more efficient output to support the growth of industries in order to promote increased capacity utilization, quality and competitive products and services, thus providing the much-talked about employment opportunities for the teeming youths.

    Recent occurrences in some sectors suggest that not much has changed in wide gaps between policy objectives and implementation by regulatory authorities.

    Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) in Nigeria are playing discordant tunes on Pre-paid meters in the electricity sector, while the regulatory authorities seemed unable to stand their ground in ensuring that consumers get the best services possible.

    Efficient and effective metering should be a sine qua non to properly account for services rendered against charges applied to the consumers.

    Another critical area is the regulation of quality of goods where agencies like Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and lately the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) among others hold sway.

    In spite of the continuous calls by the OPS for harmonisation of regulatory functions to reduce the burden on industry and subsequently consumers, not much seemed to have changed.

    I read the other day about an agency’s fact finding visits to steel manufacturing plants across the nation to investigate perceived infractions relating to poor quality and anti-competitive behaviour following intelligence and surveillance reports. This writer learnt that not only samples of the products in question were taken but computers and even telephone handsets of operatives of the steel companies, not without a Court Order though.

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    What the regulator has done can be likened to tactically shutting down the steel companies’ production processes, which presumes guilt rather than innocence until proven otherwise as provided in Nigerian legal jurisprudence.

    Regulatory activities should balance meeting standards, quality, safety, regulatory, environmental, and socio-economic requirements with the provision of job opportunities and the attendant positive impacts down the social ladder.

    The investigation being carried out, in this writer’s opinion, should be in close collaboration with SON, especially on verifying the quality of product samples taken, in order to save scarce government resources.  Regulation of anti-competitive behaviour should be done with care and diligence, so as not to get drawn into dirty fights among industry players in trying to outplay and outwit each other.

    The federal government over decades is said to have invested billions of Naira building laboratory competencies in such agencies as SON, NAFDAC, FIIRO, NAQS etc., with some already attaining ISO/IEC 17025 (Standard for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) accreditation and international

    recognition status.

    Thus, MDAs requiring laboratory tests and analysis should ensure maximum patronage of such existing infrastructures, except where the competency for testing a particular product is non-existent locally, in the nation’s interest.

    Also, the Nigerian National Accreditation System (NiNAS) I understand is building necessary capacities for accreditation of laboratories with the required global recognition that goes with it.

    Another issue is the avoidable amount of government resources being expended on procuring management systems training and certification services from abroad that SON readily have available in content, accreditation and global recognition. Such competencies as in the renowned ISO Quality (QMS), Environmental (EMS), Food Safety (FSMS) and Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Management Standards amongst others.

    Thus, no MDA of the federal government should expend scarce foreign exchange on services that SON, NAFDAC, FIIRO, NiNAS and other local institutions with similar competencies can creditably render.

    The Tinubu administration should work towards harmonizing and rationalizing government regulatory structures to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in order to provide the much needed enabling environment for the private sector to thrive, in furtherance of the Renewed Hope Agenda.

    •Hawk writes from Lagos.

  • Tribute to WS at 90

    Tribute to WS at 90

    By Kayode Fayemi

    The name Wole Soyinka aka WS evokes sundry emotions across the spectrum. Regardless of where one stands on the spectrum, we can all agree that Wole Soyinka  is one of Nigeria’s most celebrated personalities, certainly Africa’s most iconic literary maestro and one of the world’s most influential citizens. Even though I know him to treat public celebrations of his birthdays with studied indifference and a hunter’s disdain, it is still almost unbelievable that WS is 90, given his frenetic pace of work and travels. And whether he likes it or not, this is one celebration he cannot stop!

    For me, WS is not the unfathomable mystery that many perceive from a distance and he is not the mythological pantheon that exists in the realm of the gods in the imagination of many. He is a mentor, a role model, a father figure and a thought-leader with whom I have had the rare privilege of communing and sharing  great moments of significant historic importance in my life.

    My first physical encounter with Professor Wole Soyinka was in 1994 in the course of the struggle to return Nigeria to democratic order. My familiarity with WS however preceded our opportune encounter. My first interaction with him was in his prison notes, The Man Died which I first struggled to grasp in 1975. While the motif of the book was a seductive topic of interest, the inscrutably elevated language and discursive point of view of the book made it a hard nut for me to crack at such a young age. Since then, I have not only read all his other writings I have come across – particularly the autobiographical series – Ake, Isara, Ibadan: the Penkelemes Years and You Must Set Forth at Dawn, I have gobbled them with obsessive enthusiasm. His writings and public advocacy for good governance, social justice, democracy and freedom had always made him a godfather and mentor whose association I had deeply coveted.

    Consequently, when the opportunity to meet Prof happily came my way through his son, Olaokun in 1994, it was a dream come true. Professor Soyinka (who was already familiar with my work as a democracy activist in the UK through the activities of the New Nigeria Forum and its journal, Nigeria Now which I edited and regularly sent to him in Nigeria), seized the opportunity of our meeting to invite me to be part of his newly established National Liberation Council of Nigeria (NALICON) as Director of Communications.

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    Without giving it much thought, I enthusiastically jumped at the rare opportunity to work closely with Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in literature. I had reasoned that his international reputation, connection and clout would greatly enhance our struggle for the return of democratic order in Nigeria. And I reasoned right!  As I indicated in my memoir of the exile years, “I came close to being labelled a passionate enthusiast and defender of the Soyinka mystique, especially having shared his worldview of the Nigerian struggle as one between authoritarianism and democracy, and not purely an ideological fixation between socialism and capitalism” (Fayemi, 2005:210).  Throughout his time in exile in the 1990s, I worked closely with him on numerous projects in NALICON and the United Democratic Front of Nigeria(UDFN) along with several other patriots – the most popular of which was the underground opposition radio – Radio Freedom, later Radio Kudirat.

    There is no doubt that I have always shared an ecumenical ideology and kindred spirit with Kongi. His natural spur to resist oppression, instinctive spontaneity to defy authoritarianism and his impregnable commitment to civil liberty makes him a natural inspirational mentor. In both the youthful and sagely Soyinka, has been a consistent resurgence against brutality and inordinate absolutism. As he often opines, “justice is the first condition of humanity”. His resentment against state terror and abuse of power burns like the inferno of the mythical Hades.

    For WS, humanity and its happiness are the tunnels through which he travels his mind in the visualisation of social problems. Anything that denies man his inalienable rights, is for Soyinka, an abhorrent act that must be condemned in the strongest terms. He is predictably obdurate and conscientiously unapologetic for his repetitive fidelity to the triumph of human freedom, primacy of his liberty and elevation of his essence as the sole creed that all gods must serve.

    His temperament rejects every iota of practices that suborn human happiness. Even in his old age, he continues to prick the conscience of the nation with penetrating homilies that poke a revelatory finger in the nose of public decadence.  WS is that bitter remedy that purges a poisoned belly of its troubling constipation. His corrective words are like the surgical knife that cuts out the malignancy of a petulant lesion. He refuses to suffer fools gladly and would rather be misunderstood by people too thick to decode his angst against all governmental decadence.

    He is classical in all aspects of his artistry. For some and for his obscurantism, he is the African Homer; some others say he is the ultimate Aristophanes; some even think he is the rebirth of Socrates and not just for the accident of initials, WS is our own William Shakespeare and John Milton rolled into one. He is the agglutination of literary reincarnation of the best that history can recall.

    Like his ancestral forebears, WS untiringly rages against the foibles of governmental chieftains and their foreboding delinquencies.  He has spoken vehemently against the cowardice of intellectual ambiguity that continues to indulge venal characters in public places. For him, no space must be yielded to the debauchers who gorge the nation’s wealth and fritter its assets in the realisation of their gluttonous hedonism. 

    Soyinka is impatient with the loud silence that punctuates clear cases that should strike a thunder of a mass anger. For him, until the obscurity of silence gives way to visibility of voices, any unexplained figuration about the existence of Nigeria will remain an empty indoctrination that serves the hypocritical cowardice of the nation’s power barons.

    Soyinka is a patriot who has used his innate talent to serve humanity at every opportunity. His radical posture has come handy in dangerous times when only persons of sterner stuff could stand. In 1967, he was imprisoned because of his audacious antagonism to the genocidal assault that the civil-war represented. Before then, he had intruded a radio station in Ibadan in 1965 to frustrate the broadcast of an electoral heist that was meant to entrench an unpopular government. The “Man” lives in Soyinka like the ageless Olumo Rock. His stout courage, broad repository and undeniable conviction radiates his writing in plays, fictions, poetry, essays and public interventions. He uses the power of words to carry out corrective surgery and as a righting atonement for the transgressed. When he chooses his object for critical scrutiny, he deploys the elegance of humour and the pettiness of satire to disrobe the social psychopaths wherever they might be.

    Soyinka is spiritual but not religious, ideological but not bigoted; for, he could not submit his intellect to the whimsical machinations of another being. He acknowledges, as he found out through his teacher, Bonany Dombree, that all spirituality sprouts from the relationship between nature and man and that the quest to create a meaning for its inscrutable foundation gave expression to the concept of deity.  Thus, Soyinka’s spirituality is in the primacy of humanity and the pursuit of universal egalitarianism; this, I think, is the basis upon which his ideas of the ideal is anchored.  No wonder he remains a respectable voice for human advancement in the global arena.

    Even though Professor Soyinka has been an “unsuccessful” politician in the narrow manner success in politics is defined in our clime, his contribution to the political development of Nigeria is undeniable and inspiring. Apart from constantly being in the trenches for the enthronement of democracy and rule of law, he has floated a political party in the past to advocate a set of political ideas that he believed could provide an alternative answer to Nigeria’s predicament. More importantly, Professor Soyinka has been one of the moral giants who continue to point the nation to the path of rectitude in politics, constitutionalism, justice, equality and good governance. His life has been a watershed and a blessing in every aspect. 

    I have been a beneficiary of WS’s generosity in innumerable ways for which I owe him a great deal of gratitude, not just for writing a rare Foreword to my 2005 exile memoirs, Out of the Shadows but also for his unflinching support when I chose the partisan political route. He kept a regular watch on my political journey and was quick to commend my edifying strides in office  whilst also upbraiding me whenever he found any untoward development difficult to fathom. He honoured me with the commissioning of the iconic Ekiti Government House in  2014.

    At 90, WS reminds me of those unforgettable lines in Alfred Tennyson’s Ulysses:

    Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;

    Death closes all: but something ere the end,

    Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

    Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.

    The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:

    The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep

    Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,

    ‘T is not too late to seek a newer world.

    Push off, and sitting well in order smite

    The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

    To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

    Of all the western stars, until I die.

    It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

    It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

    And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

    Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’

    We are not now that strength which in old days

    Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

    One equal temper of heroic hearts,

    Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

    To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

    On behalf of myself and my wife – Bisi who adores him, here is wishing our timeless Nobel Laureate, an esteemed mentor and a humanist extraordinaire, a happy 90th birthday. Long live, Eniogun!