The Nation Newspaper

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  • Re: Gov. Bello and probe of Kogi ex-governors

    Re: Gov. Bello and probe of Kogi ex-governors

    Kogi state prides itself as the Confluence State. And this is for good reasons. Lokoja, its capital city, is the meeting point of two of Africa’s largest water bodies- Rivers Niger and Benue. It is also home to the historic Mount Patti, from which top, Nigeria’s former colonial master, Lord Frederick Lugard assisted by Lady Flora Shaw, his mistress, invented a suitable name for the world’s biggest concentration of black people. That is not all. Kogi State is believed to harbour in commercial quantities about 27, out of Nigeria’s 35 solid mineral resources.

    However, it is not only in the foregoing, that Kogi’s confluence status consists. Her true confluence is in her rich human resource content. The state is inhabited mainly by the Igala, Ebira and Okun people. Other ethnic groups include Bassa, Ogori and Kakandas. These groups are highly resourceful. But Kogi has also been a confluence of the absurd. The mother of the absurdities is in the emergence of a man who did not participate in the general election, as governor, about two years ago, through supplementary election. Alhaji Yahaya Bello, the governor was not even a registered voter in the state, let alone voting. So unprepared for the luck fate thrust on him was Bello, that he did not have a running mate upon inauguration on January 27, 2016.

    Since coming to office, the young man has demonstrated crass incompetence, an affectation for juvenile misdemeanours and arrogance. The governor’s poor performance has attracted more negative comments to the state. Every now and then, Kogi has been in the news for the wrong reasons- unending staff screening and verification exercise, a haphazard probe of two former administrations in the state, death of a civil servant in kidnapper’s den while pursuing screening, suicide over unpaid salaries, declaration of 24-hour total curfew (state of emergency?) in a senatorial zone, the governor’s criminal double voter’s registration and shameful denial, his procurement and commissioning of a Mobutu-style country castle to mention but a few.

    Not surprisingly, Bello’s style has attracted unsavoury commentaries and turned the state to a banana republic of sorts where theories and undue generalizations are being made about Kogi’s leadership misfortunes. For instance, The Nation of Saturday, December 16 on Page 3, writing under the caption, ‘Gov. Bello and probe of Kogi ex-governors” the UnderTow page paints a gory and hopeless picture about the state’s yearning leadership question, declaring it is ‘a state where cynicism and sarcasm reign.’

    The writer’s starting point is a comment allegedly made by a former governor of the State Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, CON. Idris, aka Ibro, one of the former governors being probed by Bello had been accosted by journalists who asked of his reaction to the exercise. The elder statesman responded in a metaphor that the probe was like ‘chasing shadows.’ The former governor went on to echo a popular belief about the present occupant of Lugard House, the Kogi State seat of power. He said the government has failed and that ‘the people know their leader,’ a euphemism that Bello will be voted out in the next election.

    Undertow agrees with Ibro on Bello’s poor performance as the writer describes Bello’s government as ‘peculiarly incompetent.’ The writer goes on to mourn the leadership failure in the state and (perhaps inadvertently) lumps Ibro, along with his immediate successor Capt. Idris Wada in the same club of failed leaders of the Confluence State. He argued that both are ‘simply incapable of determining what is wrong and what is right’.’ He added that they are ‘too prejudiced, too self-centred and parochial to know better.’ The writer declares with a tone of finality that ‘Kogi people are themselves not fond of Mr. Idris’.

    It is not clear how the writer reached his findings on Idris, apart from the lame charge that ‘Mr. Idris helped to foist an incompetent successor on the state.’ What is clear however is the fact that he has grossly underrated the former governor’s altruistic qualities and abilities as his political opponents are wont to do. Since it is safe to pass his comments as coming from an unbiased social analyst, one may assume the errors are out of ignorance.

    To start with, the charge of tribalism against the former governor is untrue. While in office, projects were located on the basis of needs and equitably. In fact, throughout his nine years governorship, Omala LG, where he comes from never had a commissioner. In addition his finance commissioner was always from outside his Kogi East zone. These do not fit into the profile of a tribalist.

    Most people living in Kogi today know the difference between the trio of Ibro, Wada and Bello. As light is far from darkness, so is the difference between the public perception of each of these men. Ibro has unequalled follower-ship in the state. Humble, hardworking, prudent and detribalized, his political influence span from his records of achievement while in office and his yet unbroken chord with the grassroots even six years after he left office.

    Ibro’s achievements touched at the heart of where it mattered most. As a policy, his administration saw staff welfare as priority. Salaries and allowances were paid as and when due. The two months unpaid salaries which he inherited from his predecessor were cleared in record time. He introduced relativity and was the first governor to implement minimum wage in the north-central. What is more? For the nine years he was in office, Idris did not owe salary, not even for a month. Closely related to this, Ibro paid scholarship and bursaries to all deserving indigenes of the state in higher institutions across the country. In addition, he lifted a heavy burden off the shoulders of indigent parents as he introduced and implemented to the end of his tenure, the payment of WAEC/NECO fees for all final year students in secondary schools in the state.

    Clearly, Idris had distinguished himself in his service to the people and should not be ranked along with inept leadership and a rudderless administration. In the area of infrastructure development, Idris may not have built skyscrapers or castles in the air, but he laid the foundation on which future administrations could build. One of his most enduring legacies is the Greater Lokoja Water Scheme with installed capacity of 50million gallons of water per day. He built the International market, Specialist Hospital, 40,000-capacity Confluence Stadium, more than 2,000 housing units in Otokiti, Ganaja estates and in all the Local Government headquarters.

    He gave Lokoja a face lift by changing all its major roads to dual carriage ways with appropriate bridges. He also built about 2,000 primary school blocks, state secretariat Phase II and three-star Confluence Beach hotel extension. He also built new governor and deputy governor’s offices, rehabilitated all ministries, parastatals and other government offices. He established College of Education (technical) in Kabba, and Confluence Fertilizer Company in Agbeji and gave generous financial backing to the state university which ensured full accreditation of all its 29 academic programmes in 29 months. By the time he left office in January 2012, the NUC had declared KSU as the best state owned university in Nigeria.

    Whereas his achievements are too numerous to mention here, it is noteworthy that Ibro recorded all the transformations, without borrowing a dime from anywhere or pushing the state into debt burdens. In fact, his clean records and prudent management of resources enabled the state to approach the capital market for a bond of N20b, which his immediate successor, Capt. Wada collected. The Debt Management Office, Ministry of Finance and the then Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala still hold his records in awe for his commitment to due process.

    It is instructive that since Ibro left office he had been free from incessant arrest, invitation or harassment by the EFCC, ICPC and other law enforcement agencies. This is the background of Ibro’s ‘chasing shadows’ response. It is an allusion to his responsive and responsible management of Kogi’s lean resources while in office. A clear conscience, they say fears no accusation, for even if accused he shall be vindicated at the end. Little wonder that whenever the man visits Kogi, people mill around him and still look up to him to lead the way out of the current leadership quagmire in the state.

     

    • Achadu, an indigene of Kogi State, writes from Lokoja.

  • Rekindling Lagos’ rebirth hope

    Unrelenting onslaughts, since 1999, against a myriad of developmental challenges confronting Lagos has begun to yield commendable dividends. It was a turning point year for Lagos.  That year, the state’s handlers commissioned some form of a Marshall Plan to save the megalopolis from the path of ruins to which the military had led and left it.

    The comprehensive rescue and rebuild plan, which has come into operation since the inception of the Senator Bola Tinubu administration, has the mandate to battle filth – because of which Lagos was internationally classified as one of the dirtiest cities in the world. The plan was to rescue Lagos from the degradation of almost 100 years as federal capital, which was lately abandoned for Abuja, un-remediated.

    Indeed, it was a grand plan to remake the city state, which one of our former presidents, in his heydays of power and arrogance, described as a state in decay. And, he did nothing to help, even though he was a Lagosian until he amassed unspeakable wealth and relocated to his state.

    The self-same Tinubu grand Lagos plan was also a project formulated to engender a sophisticated economic policy as opposed to the inherited primitive practice left by authoritarian military rulers. And, above all it was a plan to salvage and massively construct the infrastructure.

    One of the earliest testimonies that Lagos was making bold strides for the accomplishment of these laudable goals it had set, was at the environment ministry, then manned by Tunji Bello as commissioner. In no time the legendary Lagos heaps of wastes were disappearing. The Lagos populace began to live by the discipline of orderliness and cleanliness.

    The roads and expressways as they passed through the township were swept clean of rubbish and sand. People could no longer throw their wastes unto the streets through the windows of their vehicles. Pedestrians also couldn’t throw cabbage anyhow.

    Market places were swept speak and span. Sewages were evacuated. Roads were lined with decorative trees. Parks and gardens were built and adorned with well-watered and well-groomed trees and flowers.

    In no time, the international observers that once assessed Lagos as one of the dirtiest cities in the world began to rate Lagos as one of the cleanest cities in Africa.

    The same Tinubu Lagos plan that unearthed Tunji Bello as a performer also spawned Babatunde Fashola as governor for eight years.

    He literally turned Lagos into one giant infrastructure development site. As he was building the 10-lane Lagos – Badagry Expressway, so was he building an aerial railroad atop of it, simultaneously.

    Fashola had a major project or two for every community in Lagos. In my own part of Lagos, he built the Canoe Bridge, between Ajao Estate and Oke Afa to upgrade Oke Afa into a city status overnight.

    The left handed gangling governor was so successful that by the time his party, the APC, was going into the 2015 elections, Fashola was paraded as the poster-boy – the example of how the APC would perform if given a chance to rule Nigeria.

    Additionally, we are all witnesses to how the Tinubu team has built the Lagos economy into an enviable status. Not only has it become nonpareil among other states in Nigeria, it has become about the sixth largest economy amongst the countries of Africa.

    And, when you add all these up, plus the fact that it was Lagos power that galvanized two and a half other parties to dispossess the PDP of power in 2015 – then you know the great force that Lagos constitutes today.

    Yet, Lagos is not where it ought to be! Like Nigeria it has not been able to fly. Centrally because electricity, the heartbeat of development that has held Nigeria down, has also deterred the development capacity of Lagos State.

    This is why the onerous decision of Governor Akinwumi Ambode in his 2018, N1.04 trillion budget, to construct a facility to generate 3,000 megawatts, and have 24/7 power in Lagos, within the next three years, is the key.

    Sufficiency in electricity supply in Lagos is the key for the liberation of the state for unfettered productivity. It is the key to the rebirth of Lagos as the foremost centre of commerce and industry in Africa. It is a project into which the last naira can be invested without regret.

    As one of the reporters in the early 1980’s, on a tour of NEPA facilities across the nation, we were told at the Kainji Dam that Lagos alone needed 60 per cent of the total electricity supplied to Nigeria by NEPA. Remember that as at then the federal capital was still in Lagos, and the international corporations were still flooding to Lagos.

    It will be a miracle if Lagos State today gets 25 per cent of public electricity supplies. The answer therefore is in this brilliant step that Governor Ambode plans to take.

    The good idea is not to depend on getting a share of the national resource of power. By political consideration Abuja will always come into reckoning before Lagos.

    And, with electricity supply still in the doldrums, despite the fact that a brilliant minister like Fashola is in charge, it means expected solution may still be a long way ahead.

    Sufficient power resources in Lagos will bring back major industries that have fled to neighbouring countries. Electricity power is the business that gives muscle to every other business. It will wake up small and medium scale companies to produce at full capacity, instead of the fractional capacities at which they now operate.

    This means that more jobs will be created. More goods will be produced to reduce high cost of commodities. Air pollution will also reduce, thereby reducing health hazard rate for citizens. Security will also be better enhanced as there will be power to keep the lights aglow to expose criminals.

    Indeed, this is hoping that the House of Assembly at Alausa will see the great importance of this budget item and give the governor their fullest support on its urgent passage.

    It is also hoped that Governor Ambode himself will fully appreciate the importance of the 24/7 Lagos electricity supply challenge he has set for himself.

    Because it squarely constitutes the stepping stone of the Tinubu-Lagos grand plan’s manifestation and success.

     

    • Amupitan writes from Oke-Afa, Isolo, Lagos State.
  • Saraki, like father like son

    Saraki, like father like son

    Again, the world stands up for Senate President Bukola Saraki, the Turaki of Ilorin as he clocks 55 years. It is a significant milestone in the evolution of the medical doctor who became a banker before turning his full attention into politics. Since he was picked as a Special Assistant on Budget to then President, Olusegun Obasanjo, which marked the beginning of his foray into the political landscape, Saraki has not looked back; climbing the political ladder in his state of Kwara where he holds the record as the first governor to serve a two-term tenure and now, at the centre as President of the Nigerian Senate.

    Many things have been said and written about Saraki, who has fully taken over the leadership of the political structure left by his father, the late Dr. Olusola Saraki; the man noted for his consensus philosophy in political arithmetic as well as his profound philanthropy.

    On a day like this, many are wont to compare Saraki, the son, with Saraki, the father. While this is plausible because the son mastered the father, it may also not be totally right, particularly where differences exist in methods, although not in principle. In principle, Saraki is still Saraki: the consensus philosopher, the philanthropist, the dogged fighter, the committed son of Ilorin and proud apostle of the Ile Alimi heritage of the ancient city, the man committed to the welfare and well-being of Ile Arugbo; that melting pot of the old and aged whose care he inherited from his father.

    But, Saraki, the son, has upscaled. He has added issues of youths to the agenda inherited from the father. Or, may be, he has refined the commitment of the Saraki political dynasty to issues affecting youths across the country. Whether in the area of personal support for their educational pursuits or in his role as a legislator, Saraki, the son, has shown the world that he is youth-friendly politician who can be counted upon to advocate and defend their rights at all times. His support for the #NotTooYoungTo Run Bill is just one clear testimony to this dimension of his politics.

    At home, we look at his personal intervention in the school fees controversy that rocked the Kwara State Polytechnic where the Senate President took time to listen to complaints by students through phone calls, examined documents they placed before him and publicly supported the state government’s effort at providing quality education at minimal discomfort to the people despite prevailing economic distress in the country. Or, consider the number of young people of unknown background who have risen to limelight through his political structure.

    But, Saraki is still Saraki; the bridge builder who has ears and is well received in virtually all sections of the Nigerian political system, a detribalised Nigerian who will not place religion or tribe at the forefront of his political agenda, relationships and decision-making.  Can we forget his decision to dispense of his own presidential ambition in favour of the incumbent President in 2015 without being lobbied or pressured by any and to the consternation of his supporters across the land?

    His understanding of the country’s political landscape is awesome and his political networking is phenomenal. But, Saraki is still Saraki; the depoliticised politician, the man who sets aside political affiliation in the overall interest of the common goal for a better and greater nation. That perhaps was a great factor in his emergence as President of the Senate, his survival of a dire political trial and his ability to continue in the office without falling for the banana peel that swept away many before him in that office. All these were also the hallmarks of the late Saraki.

    Saraki the son may not smile or laugh as much as Saraki the father did. He might have a suave personality unlike his father’s boisterous nature, and this Saraki might not mix well with the crowd and sit in their midst as his father was wont to do, but that has not disrobed him of the sobriquet Ilorin people gave his father and which he inherited, Agoro bogun bolu; the man who has capacity to take care of a community’s military force and still feed the entire community itself. I am sure many in Ilorin and across the country today will testify of the generosity of the Waziri Ngeri, Baba Oloye Saraki, the late Waziri who spent for the masses like he never worked for it; but the one who gazed the ground knows what he wanted. And Saraki got what he wanted; his today is sweeter than his yesterday. Few politicians are that blessed; his demise has not diminished his relevance.

    Saraki is still Saraki; a devotee of traditional institution. Like his father, Saraki courts traditional leaders like a man would court a beautiful damsel. In the northern part of Nigeria’s politics, religion and the traditional institution are interwoven and Saraki is not one to offend any. Little wonder he has a close rapport with both traditional and religious leaders, not only in his state but across the nation.

    His pragmatic leadership of the National Assembly, especially the Red Chamber, can be described as years of significant bills. Despite several political odds and mudslinging, the Senate under Saraki has been one of the most productive, breaking many grounds and setting many records.

    Three of such bills have introduced significant differences to the ways things are done in Nigeria. First, there is the Secured Transactions in Moveable Assets Bill. This bill which was passed in May has created a new ‘specie’ of capital that can now be used in our financial system. With the bill, everyday Nigerians can now use invoices and receipts for loans and for creating working capital, the market woman can go to the registry and convert her receipts into loans or capital, formalizing transactions become more important and we now have more accessibility to loans that will encourage the informal sector to come into the formal sector – because more people will now be engaged in startups.

    Another significant bill is the Credit Bureau Services Bill passed in May. With the passage, the bill will help to reduce the risk of lending or engaging in business with individuals or companies with a financial history of not paying back. Also, it must be noted that credit reporting scheme reduces the risk of lending for everybody and reduces the potential for all the non-performing loans. The bill on its own is a fundamental behavior-changing bill. For employers, it cuts down the risk of employing people with questionable financial histories, while for banks and people that lend others money, it helps to show the pay-back record of the ‘borrower’.

    There is also the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill SB237 (passed May) which had been in the works since the Olusegun Obasanjo era but continued to meet dead walls until the Senate under the current leadership fashioned a pragmatic approach to its enactment and got it done. The bill aims to introduce new operational and fiscal terms for the management of the revenue that is accrued from the sector. It will allow the Nigerian government to retain a higher proportion of the revenue that is derived from oil industry operations. The bill will create a conducive business environment for petroleum operations and other SMEs, enhance the exploration and exploitation of petroleum resources for the benefit of Nigerians and provide for the inclusion of more local content in the petroleum industry.

    There is also the Customs Service Management Act (Repeal and Re-Enactment) which scaled legislative hurdles and was passed June. It provides penalties for violation of customs and excise laws as it has significantly increases penalties for violations. It is argued that stiff penalties for infractions would help enforce compliance by traders. The bill provides an alignment with global best practice for Nigeria on trade facilitation, trade reviews and dispute resolution. It will help the Customs block leakages and generate revenue for the government and it can open and create more employment. Another inherent benefit of the bill is in the area of transparency and accountability: In the past, excise duties were fixed without reference to the National Assembly. Now, all such changes are backed by law, because a legislative framework that entrenches transparency and efficiency in our customs operations has been established.

    Then we must not forget the Witness Protection Bill, Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill and of course, the Whistle Blowers’ Protection Bill. The last bill, as a matter of fact, has enabled Nigeria to rake in billions of naira in public fund that would have gone into private pockets. It is perhaps the most celebrated bill today in Nigeria. These bills are 2017 bills.

    As the Senate President marks his 55th birthday, it is an opportunity to toast a dogged and focused politician, a great and reliable leader and mentor to many, a successful husband and father and above all, a true son of Ilorin.

     

    • Oba is Chief Press Secretary to Kwara State governor.

  • The Cross River budget

    When Cross River State governor, Professor Ben Ayade presented a N1.3 trillion budget christened budget of “Kinetic Crystallisation”, he was no doubt building on the foundation of the N301 billion budget of 2016 and the following year’s N707 billion budget of infinite transposition. Indeed, Governor Ayade should be credited with a budget philosophy and an intellectual financial architecture model in budgeting that demystifies the limited edition of budgeting that preserves the glass ceiling of trillions.

    Those who know and understand Governor Ayade must first give him credit for his capacity of intellect, his audacity and faith and his infinite desire to set high targets and stretch out his soul to achieve same. In his inauguration speech in May 2015, Governor Ayade promised and assured that he would strive to pay salaries and complete a few legacy projects of the outgoing administration.

    But he stunned everyone present at the Calabar International Convention Centre when he promised to decouple the state from its dependence on federation allocation and reliance on inflows from the federal government.

    He also gave his words to the effect that he would navigate the state from a civil service-plantation -service economy to an industrial-enterprise economy, build the first Nigerian 274km super-highway spanning from Bakassi to Katsina Ala in Benue State with various evacuation corridors and a deep seaport as a conveyor belt.

    The audacity of that inauguration speech gave a clear signal that Governor Ayade will definitely demystify the old normal and create a new normal with a fresh narrative context. Obviously, this offered Ayade impetus to launch a new budget philosophy for Cross River State and Nigeria to copy from. He elected to advance the deficit budget strategy against the envelope suffocating budget architecture that limits states to the size of their federation allocation and internally generated revenue.

    As it is, an envelope budgeting strategy will suffocate and quarantine the deep seaport and super highway to the footnotes of history as mere future research projects.

    Interestingly, just a few days ago, the Lagos State also migrated from its previous N817b to N1.046 trillion, leaving a window underneath for a deficit of over N400billion. The federal government’s 2018 budget of over N8 trillion acknowledges a deficit of over N2.59trillion and a sinking fund of over N200bilion.

    What is significant of note in the Ayade model of over N1trillion budget is that it creates a recovery space for government to accommodate all its immediate vision and development as well as  undertakings to the people within a fiscal threshold. It also allows government the evacuation vent to achieve Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), joint venture and various concessions of major capital projects within its immediate fiscal projection

    Also of interest is that the 2018 Appropriation Bill ensures that government does not annualise its budgetary allocation and expenditure especially for seamless capital projects that require nonstop development cycle beyond annual restraints.

    Indeed, the budget of a state should be seen beyond being a document of expenditure and estimates dependent upon the size of the state IGR and federation allocation. The budget must be pre-emptive and presumptive about the endless opportunities available to a state and yet only possible from the independence of thought about the model of development peculiar to a state separated in some part from dependence on the federal government.

    Above all, the budget must represent the prosperity agenda set by their government and an exhibition of the cause of action designed to put the prosperity of the people on a timeline.

    Indeed the Governor Ayade budget model is both legal and constitutional, this is because, there’s no provision of the 1999 Constitution (as amended ) that limits the state government from a specific budget size or to design their budgets only inspired by their federation allocation and internally generated revenue. Section 121 of the Constitution is very recondite.

    Finally, it is obvious that both Governor Ayade and Governor Ambode of Lagos share something in common.  First, both Calabar and Lagos are former capitals of Nigeria, and upon the re location of the capital from Calabar to Lagos and Lagos to Abuja, it has left a massive void of infrastructure deficit, a shattered economy and a need to recalibrate the new order.  Second, both Calabar and Lagos are surrounded by Atlantic Ocean, high sea and play host to the major sea corridor into Nigeria with dependent African countries like Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome in the case of Calabar, and Benin Republic, Togo etc in the case of Lagos.

    While Lagos is fortunate to have its infrastructure and the federal sea port fully developed and functional with a strong economic and industrial base, Calabar is virtually abandoned and forgotten, and left at the mercy of hostile neighbours like Cameroon. While Lagos can leverage on her internally generated revenue and federal allocation to fund its budgetary expenditure based on the size of her pocket, Cross River State requires a deep vision and an infinite audacity of courage to develop its potential to reality. This is where the power of intellect, the audacity of hope and faith and ability to leverage on deep intellectual resource becomes an asset that cannot be quantified or discounted with a wave of the hand.

    Ayade is intellectually resilient and restless, he knows no limitation, once he sets a target, it comes with a timeline of realisation. Regularly, he is engaged in the intellectual adventure to discover new challenges confronting the state because without challenges, the sense of invention hibernates.

    It’s is only the federal government, Cross River and Lagos states budgets that seek to depart from the reliance on federation allocation and internally generated revenue thereby insulating their people from developing only from the size of what is internally expected.

    The size of the pocket is naturally bigger than what is inside, because the potential of it therefrom is its greater true value…and can only be realised from a mind-set that thinks…as if there’s no box limiting our development coordinate.

     

    • Omaku, a Development Economist, writes from Ikeja, Lagos.

     

  • Anniversary and thanksgiving

    We are in a season of thanksgiving as the world races towards the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, otherwise known as Christmas. For many in this part of the world, it is a rest period from the daily struggle that life has become. With or without salary, it is a time to spend money as children look forward to new clothes and accessories. It is also a time for family members to aggregate, and spend quality time together.

    Christmas is for feasting. One of the joys in the years of yore was untrammelled feasting. Before rice completely ensnared Nigerians as a daily staple, it was a season to eat rice for days, instead of the Sunday-Sunday delicacy, it was. Back in those days, the feasting was from house to house, for children from a common Umunna. At every home, a bowl of rice will be downed before a few kobo is donated into the booty, to be shared later.

    Then, there were dance troupes, crisscrossing each other as they visit homes to entertain and gain gifts from an appreciative audience. Amongst the most popular dance ensemble in my village, Amofia, Ogowfia Owa, were Ojionu and Adamma. Looking back, I wonder where those musical genres were learned from. For the adults, you had Obunoji and several musical groups from neighbouring villages that make up the town. I remember my father hosting Obunoji on a few occasions.

    A host will provide food and drinks and some cash at the end to appreciate the great honour of hosting the foremost village masquerade. There were other communal musical groups and feasts at Christmas period which excites more if the moon shone, usually at the village square. With beach like sand in abundance, the children had the whole square to frolic, building castles, doing races and somersaulting with reckless abandon. The joy was unlimited.

    Each Umunna making up the village will bring gourds of palm wine and in the later years, beer, which is shared freely. With liquor and food in abundance, the villagers bonded, amidst conviviality and commensality. Fear was anathema. Everybody knew and trusted each other. Stealing or robbery was unheard of. Of course, there were age grades keeping watch at the village frontiers, against invaders, but I cannot remember any incident.

    Traveling, is an integral part of Christmas. It is a season to come together to share love with loved ones. While quite a number travel to joy centres, or overseas, many just head to the villages to spend time with the umunna. Where I come from, it is now a time for bazaar at the local church, meetings to discuss the community challenges, marriage, birth or death ceremonies, and of course the most popular festivity, the village league football, organised by the visiting youths.

    Unlike before, modern children who still visit their neighbours are not interested in a bowl of rice or even meat. If you hesitate to celebrate the season for them, they will make a direct demand for money. With communal trust eroded, many families simply head to the town’s public space for common entertainments like football. Parents now warn their children to be mindful of where they visit and who they take any edible from.

    Still Christmas, is time to share. Those who keep the village warm, especially the aged, expect that those visiting will bring some gift items, like clothes, uncooked food, drink and meat. Those with large hearts, kill cows, and invite the umunna to come and share. They buy drinks in large quantities and share. For the generous, it is a time for feasts, entertainment and music.

    Those with smaller hearts, merely show off their big cars, raising dust in their trails. Because there are now regular security incidents, armed security are in the entourage of those in government and those who can afford it. Village and town meetings are now more rancorous, as communal lands have become economic assets, with some coveting them. Even heading the town unions have become contentious, as service is no longer the primary motive.

    Some local and state governments now intervene in town unions as it has become a focal point for mobilizing votes. State governments now give direct funds to town unions, and that breads acrimony, as those in-charge determine how the funds are disbursed. In many big towns, the town union elections have become as contentious as those between political parties. A do or die affair, between contenders.

    This time last year, I was already home with my siblings preparing for the burial of our mother, Ezinne Bernadette Uzodimma Amalu, which took place on December 21, 2016. Even though she died in September, we chose December to lay her to eternal rest principally because of the advantage of the holiday period. For us, having attained a ripe age of 86, the ceremony was an opportunity to give glory to God, for a life well lived.

    Generous in giving, just like her late husband, Michael Ejiofor Amalu, my siblings and I have agreed to immortalise their memory by setting up a foundation: Michael and Bernadette Amalu Foundation, as a vehicle with which to imitate them. The focus will be in giving and providing opportunities to the less privileged, as much as we can afford, considering that we are of modest means. But as we all agreed, the more important consideration, is to have a generosity of spirit, not the magnitude of giving.

    The six of us, with the support of our spouses, have agreed to make Christmas period our foundation anniversary. That way, while we will separately partake in the conviviality of the season with our families; our joint families will have opportunity to further bond together. So, as we celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Christ, we will also participate in family thanksgiving. With the addition of children and grandchildren, our numbers keep increasing.

    Sometimes I have a sense of nostalgia for the 1970s and 80s, when I partook in those classical entertainment genres, of the Christmas period. A time when communal love was palpable. When it was fashionable to partake in commensality, a time when young stars were at liberty to traverse the village and neighbouring villages, in search of dance halls, without fear of molestation. A time when our uncles and aunties, doing regular jobs, could afford to buy Christmas clothes for all the young persons, in the Umunna. A time of dance and feast.

    Unfortunately, those times are gone. We are now in a self-serving era. While earphones, Mp3 and similar gadgets have replaced dance groups, visual entertainment has displaced the real thing. But still, I clutch at a past, in retreat. For two weeks, this column will go on annual holiday, as I visit my umunna, and to honour the memory of my parents. So, here is wishing my readers, a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year, in advance.

     

  • The grand deception of 1961

    Nigerians especially those living in urban centres of the country are very knowledgeable about political and social events in our country and elsewhere on the globe. We have to thank our ever vibrant press for this situation. Our numerous radio and television stations together with equally numerous newspapers daily bombard us with all sorts of political and social news, some of which are sordid and depressing especially those from our political front where we read daily about unbelievable political and economic malfeasances. The latest is the Maina pension scam, the end of which nobody can predict. However, one important foreign news item that has been given scanty attention by our news media is the news from the Republic of Cameroon, our immediate eastern neighbour where there is an ongoing serious political agitation by the people of the former Southern Cameroon. It will be recalled that this part of Cameroon was part of Nigeria until 1961.

    On October 1, one Sisiky Ayuk Tabe, who called himself the chairman of Southern Cameroon Governing Council formally declared the independence of Southern Cameroon to be known as Federal Republic of Ambazonia. This followed an earlier declaration in 1984 after Paul Biya, who has been ruling the country in a draconian manner since 1982, unilaterally changed the name of the country from United Republic of Cameroon to Republic of Cameroon. This action virtually destroyed the federal arrangement agreed upon when South Cameroon left Nigeria to join French Cameroon in 1961. Southern Cameroon citizens living in Nigeria have also joined in the fray. Under the aegis of Southern Cameroon in Nigeria (SCINGA), they are agitating for a total independence from the Republic of Cameroon. In order to fully understand the reasons for this agitation by people of former Southern Cameroon, we need to make a brief incursion into the history of Southern Cameroon especially on how it severed her relationship with Nigeria.

    Cameroon has chequered history. It was a German protectorate in West Africa and administered as a League of Nations mandate after the First World War. After the Second World War, it was administered as UN Trust Territory by France and Britain. The French Cameroon became independent on January 1, 1960 and took the name Republic of Cameroun. The southern one-third of British Cameroons inhabited mainly by Christians joined the Federal Republic of Cameroun on October 1, 1961, while the northern two third of the British Cameroun inhabited mainly by Muslims joined Nigeria on June 1, 1961 and was renamed Sardauna province to honour the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto who campaigned vigorously for the unification of Northern Cameroon with Nigeria. That province is now in Adamawa State.

    Before independence, South Cameroon was administered with Nigeria by the colonizing Britain. Initially, it was administered as part of Eastern Nigeria and by 1953, it became autonomous and was administered like the other three regions. Dr. E. M.L.  Endeley, a personable medical doctor of Kameroun People Congress became the Leader of Government Business and his party was in alliance with Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group. The party took part in the pre-independence national government of 1957 when Alhaji Tafawa Balewa became the Prime Minister for the first time. In this government, Victor Mukete from Southern Cameroons was made a federal minister in charge of research. Things were going on very well and people felt that at independence, Southern Cameroon would be completely integrated with Nigeria. Suddenly in 1958, the political equation changed with the defeat of Dr. Endeley at the regional election by John Ngu Foncha who led the opposition party. On becoming the Leader of Government Business, the feisty Bamenda-born John Foncha had no stomach for Nigeria as he did not hide his hostility towards Nigeria at every opportunity. He wanted nothing but unification of his part of the country with the French Cameroons to form a new nation at independence. Unlike the situation in the Southern Cameroons under John Foncha, there was no hostility towards Nigeria in the Northern Cameroons which was administered seamlessly with Northern Nigeria under Sir Ahmadu Bello. In fact during this period, the area produced Alhaji Habba Habbib a reputable politician who was the Secretary General of Northern People’s Congress (NPC).

    Foncha had the opportunity to realize his dream of taking Southern Cameroons away from Nigeria on February 12, 1961, when the UN sponsored referendum was conducted to determine the wishes of both parts of Cameroons with regard to their relationship with Nigeria. As written earlier, Southern Cameroons opted to join the republic of Cameroons while the Northern Cameroons voted to remain with Nigeria. The terms of reunification of Southern Cameroons with Republic of Cameroons were hammered out at the Foumban conference held between July 6-12, 1961. Foncha wanted a confederal system but he could only negotiate for a federal system.  In the new nation, he was made the Prime Minister of West Cameroon and Vice President of Federal Republic of Cameroon. The new country was declared bilingual where French and English were regarded as the official languages.

    Before long, Foncha found out that he had led his people into a union where his people are no more than serfs. By 1966, tension started to brew in the new Republic. Foncha’s parties and other political parties from Western Cameroon were dissolved to give way to National Cameroon Union (CNU) controlled by President Ahmadu Ahidjo. By 1972, a new constitution replaced the federal constitution with a unitary constitution. The country changed its name from United Republic of Cameroon to Federal Republic of Cameroon. Most decisions about Western Cameroon were taken without consultation and the naive John Foncha who led his people to political quagmire himself was removed with ignominy and replaced with S.T. Muna who was another lackey of Ahidjo.  The diminutive John Foncha consequently became irrelevant in the scheme of things in Cameroon. By 1994 he was disgraced out of Biya’s constitutional consultation commission where he described the unification of southern Cameroon with French Cameroon which he championed with abandon in 1961 as an annexation and a grand deception.

    John Foncha carried his regret to his grave in 1999 as a broken man who led his people because of his hatred for Nigeria into political and economic oppression, subterfuge, intimidation, cultural emasculation, government sponsored violence, forced occupation and misappropriation of his people’s resources.

    There is no doubt that the people of former Southern Cameroon are having more than a raw deal in the Republic of Cameroon where they have been emasculated politically. Unfortunately, nobody is listening to their genuine grievances. The African Union (AU), like its precursor, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) is well known for its impotence when it comes to solution to African problems. Its latest failing is manifested in its ability to put an end to the thriving slave market for black Africans currently going on in Libya. The AU is pretending as if all is well in Cameroon as it did in similar situations in Sudan, Central African Republic and other hot spots in Africa in the past.

    The situation in the Cameroon presents a delicate diplomatic problem to Nigeria. Nigeria who fought the Biafra secessionists in the eastern part of the country in the late sixties and at present trying to emasculate the resurgence of such a tendency in the same part of the country cannot be seen to be sympathetic to any secessionist group in the Cameroon no matter how just is the case of such group. Moreover, Nigeria needs the support of The Republic of Cameroon under the aging dictator, Paul Biya in the fight against Boko Haram in the North-east of our country. One can only hope and pray that one day, the beleaguered people of the former Southern Cameroons will be liberated from the unholy union foisted on them by their myopic leaders who are longer around to witness the misery they have visited on their people.

     

    • Professor Lucas writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan.

  • Flight of fantasy

    An idea is much like beauty, its appeal is in the eye of the beholder. That must be why there’s been so much firestorm over the sheer ingenuity in statecraft unveiled lately in Nigeria’s southeast state of Imo.

    State Governor Rochas Okorocha came up with the brainball of an idea and he’s just not being appreciated for it. He minted a crisp ‘Ministry of Happiness and Purpose Fulfillment’ out of the state’s dreary bureaucracy and named his biological kid sister, Mrs. Ogechi Ololo, to oversee the portfolio. But no one seems happy with this governance novelty other than the appointed happiness commissioner and, of course, the governor with his camp. What philistinism!

    How much else can artsmanship in the handling of a bogus bureaucracy get? Ololo was among 28 commissioners sworn into cabinet by Okorocha penultimate Monday to administer Imo – a state with a population of some 3.9million people, going by the grossly outdated but only available official data of the 2006 census. That is not counting the army of aides and advisers to the governor, of which Ololo was one before her emergence as happiness commissioner. Let’s be clear that straight comparisms hardly ever reflect all the factual underpinnings of reality. But just to make a point, you could match the Imo bureaucracy against the 18-ministry structure known to exist in Anambra State with a population of 4.1million people, courtesy of the 2006 census data; or the 24 ministries in Lagos State with a hotly disputed population of some 9million people, using the same 2006 census benchmark. Okorocha’s administration of Imo State is a swamping bureaucracy, and the governor surely needs as many structures as fancy can throw up to sustain the sprawl. So, what’s the fuss?

    Even the designation and mandate of the new ministry appear to yet be patchworks in motion. How then could anyone in good conscience foreclose its deliverables?

    At Ololo’s swearing in, her portfolio was cited in official records as ‘Ministry of Happiness and Couple’s Fulfillment’. And as the public erupted in uproar against the statecraft masterstroke, she jumped in to educate the undiscerning on the bounties that her brief holds. “I am truly surprised by the outbursts…(against) His Excellency, Dr. Rochas Okorocha. If you don’t understand something, keep quiet, read and research. Make good use of your senses,” she wrote on her Twitter handle @MrsOgechiOlolo, which she only recently signed up to, apparently to take issue with critics of her appointment. Ololo said the mandate of her new ministry included ensuring that Imo people remain happy despite all odds, and that couples in the state have a more fulfiling experience. Her words: “In a time when couples’ divorce is at all-time high, I will use my good office to ensure couples in Imo (are) fulfilled and serve as examples to the world.”

    It however seems doubtful that Ololo got her job description right at her inauguration by the governor. Because shortly after her tweet, the Okorocha administration renamed the portfolio ‘Ministry of Happiness and Purpose Fulfillment.’ The governor’s spokesman blamed the initial tag on the printer’s devil, saying: “There was a typographic error in the first statement issued on the swearing in of the new commissioners. The word ‘couple’ was inadvertently written, instead of the word ‘purpose.’ We regret that.” Error noted. And Madame Commissioner had been stomping the waves to deliver on couples!

    But that is just by the way. The point is, the design of the new ministry and its mandate remain in a flux, never mind that the attached cabinet post is squarely nailed down for the governor’s kid sister. So we can’t in honesty prejudge that the innovation is superfluous, can we?

    Actually, Okorocha himself said as much. In the face of public fury at the seeming prodigal nepotism, he said the impact of the new ministry would confound critics. “At the end of the day, the achievements of the new Ministry of Happiness and Purpose Fulfillment will be so amazing that critics of the initiative will not only be shocked, but will also regret to have drawn the curtain (against) the new ministry even before it takes off,” his spokesman said in a statement.

    The governor acknowledged the confidence crisis spilling over from his recent unveiling of South African President Jacob Zuma’s statue, to which N520million price tag was attached. He insisted though that Zuma deserved the controversial honour. “The criticisms that greeted (the) Zuma statue were all anchored on corruption allegations against the South African President. Yet, the fact remains the man is still the president of that country. He has neither been sentenced to imprisonment nor impeached as president following these corruption claims,” the government statement added.

    But if you take the Imo doctrine as scripture, Zuma could well be the proverbial prophet without honour in his home. Because only last week, the embattled leader lost two court cases linking him to corruption in one day. Pretoria’s high court ordered him to raise a judicial inquiry into graft charges against him, calling the president “seriously reckless” for challenging recommendations to that effect by the country’s watchdog. In another suit, the judge ruled that he abused judicial processes by trying to block a report linking him to corruption, and ordered him to pay the legal fees out of his own pocket.

    Ololo’s throwback to global precedents in justifying her new brief gets quite instructive upon scrutiny. “Let me educate Nigerians on this, for those lacking ignorance (sic). United Arab Emirates has ministers of happiness and they are ahead of us,” she had tweeted.

    Well, the UAE is the first and only Arab nation thus far to cite citizens’ happiness as a portfolio of government, naming a minister of state for happiness in February 2016. But it is moot that is the reason “they are ahead of us.” Leadership in the oil-rich country is relentlessly posterity-minded in developmental exertions and resource application – goals that seem helplessly a mirage in our clime. Isn’t the country a favourite playground for pleasure seekers, including Nigeria’s wealthy class? And the country isn’t letting up just yet. At the same time that he appointed a happiness minister, the UAE premier reformatted the Cabinet ministry to take an additional brief for future strategies, thus becoming ‘Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the Future’.

    Even then, expectations from the UAE happiness minister have not been so clear-cut. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times sometime this year, Ohood Al Roumi said she gets strange requests like: ‘My parents won’t accept my marriage. Can you help convince them?’ or ‘I got a traffic ticket. Can you fix it?’ Sometimes it’s just a simple plea: ‘Please make us happy,’ the paper reported. What Roumi was clear about, though, were the obligations of government. “We have no intention as government to impose happiness, or mandate it, or force it. We’re just doing the right things for our people … so they can have a better life,” she reportedly said. If you look into Okorocha’s Imo, would you say you couldn’t see the ‘better life’ genie running lose?

    There are a few other countries in the happiness race. Remote Himalayas kingdom of Bhutan enshrined the goal in Article 9 of its law and measures growth, not by the conventional gross domestic product (GDP) instrument but by the gross national happiness (GNH) index. Venezuela in 2013 created a Supreme Social Happiness ministry; and just last week, the only Indian state with happiness ministry, the central state of Madhya Pradesh, declared the minister wanted for murder.

    It isn’t very clear how much inspiration these parallels hold for Okorocha’s experiment. But Ndi Imo, Ndi Nigeria, a genius is at work. Let us be happy!

     

    • Please join me on kayodeidowu.blogspot.be for conversation.

  • Ajimobi: Keeping faith with Oyo workers in prosperity, adversity

    These are indeed challenging times for state governors, majority of whom, indubitably, are not ‘sleeping soundly’ because of the financial dire straits currently buffeting the country. At the end of each month, the state’s helmsmen are, expectedly, torn between committing the available pittance to the backlog of benefits of the dark and grey-haired on their pay role and fulfillment of their electioneering promises to transmute their states into the El Dorado.

    Since 2015, regular payment of salaries and pensions had become a daunting task, forcing states to evolve several strategies and formulas to defray the accumulating arrears. The timely intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari, through the payment of budget support facility, bailout fund and the Paris Club refund to states to cushion the effect, has been heartwarming. By this sheer altruism, the president has shown himself to be a caring leader and father of the nation. Curiously, some commentators, who are seemingly pontificating from their comfort zones, have opposed the release of the last tranche of the Paris Club refund on a rather superficial premise. In their jaundiced views, the states deserve no further pity because majority of them did not utilise past interventions judiciously. This is tantamount to cutting the nose to spite the face. Surely, decapitation is no solution to migraine.

    That the Nigeria Labour Congress could be in the league of those with this pernicious stance still beggars belief. Permit me to join President Buhari in asking the NLC and the other antagonists if they ever pondered ‘how the workers feed their families, pay their rents and even pay school fees for their children’ in these trying times. Do they spare any thought for the senior citizens, particularly those in their dotage, who need to buy drugs regularly to keep their enfeebled bodies in shape? How many more Citizen Zoje’s self-annihilation cases must the country record before we realise the enormity of the crises that have befallen many families?

    For this Christmas to be merry for workers and pensioners, let those concerned fast-track the release of the Paris Club refund. Although, the cushioning effect may be for a fleeting period in states where salaries and pensions have piled up, but half bread is better than none. The payment will not stop the anti-graft agencies from poring over the financial records of the 36 states, as was done in the past, to sanction those harbouring roaches in their cabinets.

    Since 2011, it’s on record that Ajimobi has kept faith with workers and pensioners. In adversity and prosperity, the governor has made workers the capstone of his administration.

    Oyo State has about 101,000 public servants and pensioners on its pay roll, which, unarguably, is one of the largest workforces in the country; with a monthly wage bill of about N4.5bn. The figure had dropped from the erstwhile N5.2bn due to the suspension of some budget components, in agreement with the labour unions. Suffice to say that the oscillating monthly allocation from the Federation Account, in the region of N3.5bn, and internally generated revenue of about N1.5bn is grossly insufficient to meet the growing developmental needs of Oyo State. Today, 100 per cent of the allocation from the central vault is committed to payment of salaries in a rare gesture by the governor, while other recurrent and capital expenditures compete for the IGR. Thus, Ajimobi deserves plaudits for successfully navigating the conundrum of managing the expectations of the workforce, state-owned institutions and those of the more than six million other citizens of the state. To all intents and purposes, citizens crave the dividends of democracy, notwithstanding the vagaries of the economy.

    To the governor’s credit, only few workers with bogus credentials and other grave violations have so far been relieved of their appointments after a forensic audit, in spite of the cash crunch. And those that suffered collateral damage in the process of the purge, but with proven innocence, were reabsorbed into the system and paid arrears of their salaries.

    For the record, the Ajimobi-led administration was the first to pay 13th month full basic salary for three consecutive years (2011-2013) in the history of the state before the pervading paucity of fund made the largesse unsustainable. The governor has also increased workers’ salaries by 300 per cent in the last six years. Before the economy began to experience a downward trend, the governor made payment of salaries on or before the 25th of every month a policy.

    On the receipt of the N17.3bn bailout in 2015, the governor ensured that all the four-month arrears of salaries, spanning May to August 2015 were cleared. And to liquidate the freshly accumulated arrears, he had in December 2016, as well as in January, March and July 2017 paid double salaries that left the arrears at just two months as at July before rising to the current three months.

    Whereas, the FG appealed to states to utilise 50 per cent of the first tranche of the Paris Club refund for payment of salaries and pension, the Ajimobi administration used 60 per cent of the N7.2bn received; while it committed 100 per cent of the second tranche of N5bn to the payment of salaries, as against the proposed 75 per cent. Thus, out of the total N12.2bn received, about N9.3bn was used to defray salaries of state and local government employees, representing 76 per cent of the total sum.

    Convinced about the transparent utilisation of the first bailout, the Senate Committee on State and Local Government Administration, led by Senator Abdullahi Gumel, had, during an oversight visit to the state on January 25, 2017, given the state a clean bill of health.

    To incentivise the workers, over 30,000, including teachers, have been promoted in the last six years. These included those that had been condemned to the awaiting list between 2008 and 2011. Similarly, more than 8,000 workers have received car loans, which was jacked up to N500,000 from the erstwhile N200,000; while close to 1000 got loans of N2m each to put roofs on their heads; up from the N1m they used to get. For effective service delivery, over 16,000 civil servants have been sponsored on local and overseas training under Ajimobi’s watch.

    Ajimobi is also the first governor in the history of the state to purchase shuttle buses (10 units of 63-seater) for the transportation of workers to and from work, free of charge.

    The governor, who is known for his excellent sartorial taste, has also successfully changed the dress sense of workers, including political office holders. Not only this, the once-squalid Governor’s Office has now been transformed into a picturesque edifice with tranquil ambience. Today, the roving courtiers of praise singers, drummers and rapacious praise singers that used to serenade past governors and VIPs have been banished from the façade of the Governor’s Office.

    Without any equivocation, the fortunes of senior citizens have been enhanced under the Ajimobi-led administration, starting with the implementation of the 142 per cent increase in pension, which gulped about N2bn, plus arrears. Also worthy of note was the payment of six and 15 per cent pension increases in 2013, donation of operational bus to the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) and harmonisation of the pension of retired heads of service and permanent secretaries.

    Paradoxically, among the vociferous latter-day critics of the Ajimobi-led administration are some incorrigible individuals and corporate tax evaders who are culpable in the leakages stymieing the development of the state. Their ilk includes public officials aiding and abetting tax evasion. Some of these economic saboteurs even print their own receipts, which they substitute for official ones. Those adept at cutting corners by patronizing touts at revenue collection centres or bribing collectors instead of paying appropriate levies and rates cannot also not be exonerated from this group. Among these unpatriotic citizens are residents who hide under the cover of darkness to dump refuse indiscriminately, particularly on median strips.

    As part of its financial reengineering, the state government had taken bold steps to enhance its internally generated revenue. Therefore, efforts must be intensified in this direction. Although, this may not be the best of times to increase taxes and rates, it is nevertheless the most auspicious time to aggressively expand the tax net by co-opting every taxable citizen. Those saddled with this responsibility should brace themselves for the challenges, while every loophole in the process of collecting and remitting must be plugged. An Indian philosopher, Kautilya Chanakya, once said ‘test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune.’ May we all pass this acid test of patriotism.

    Please join me in toasting to the continued good health of the quintessential leader and game changer, Governor Abiola Ajimobi, as he celebrates 68 years of God’s abiding grace.

    • Oyedele is Senior Special Assistant on Media to Oyo State Governor

     

  • MATTERS OF THE HEART – an expose you don’t want to miss!

    MATTERS OF THE HEART – an expose you don’t want to miss!

    One good place for the Imo Happiness Commissioner to start is with the State Deputy Governor 

    All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy! So this year-end, this column will go on a lighter note and resume the hard stuff next year.

    In this series on the Princess Files you will see EVERYTHING on romantic dalliances. I am a sucker for a love story, I guess you are too, and these following HAVE EVERY RESEMBLANCE to the persons mentioned!

    Be aware though: they did not confide in me – many of them I do not even know! But whatever the Princess Files (P.F) tells you, you can take it to the bank.

    …For those of us born in the For Better For Stay; For Worse For Go generation, I have had the singular privilege of attending a 40th wedding anniversary! It’s inconceivable for me to imagine that in this world today, 2 human beings would be married for 40 whole years. But it was even my own uncle, my father’s brother and wife’s anniversary! By the way, the 40th is the Ruby wedding anniversary, the ruby being one of the traditional cardinal gem stones.

    That rare celebration I’ve seen just the one time in my life was also quite thought – provoking for me considering that seemingly every weekend there is a marriage, a wedding of some couple, taking place somewhere or another.

    So it would appear to me; probably to all For Beta For Stay people that these marriages simply fade away with the ending of the wedding ceremonies!

    And maybe that’s why the Imo Governor Rochas Okorocha created a Ministry for Happiness; he did say it was to find solution to the high divorce rate in that state.

    One good place for the Happiness Commissioner to start is with the IMO DEPUTY GOVERNOR (Prince) Eze Madumere who married 5 months ago. Twice divorced, this is his third marriage and counting. His first marriage ended after 4 children.

    His second marriage to Barrister Adaego Nosiri didn’t last either. In June he tied the knot with a young girl, Chioma in a small ceremony which, understandably, even Governor Okorocha did not attend! Let’s hope he is 3rd time lucky.

    TIMI & ALAERE Alaibe were said to have been college sweethearts in Unilag. The former NDDC boss and his wife were very close and lived ‘happily ever after’ until 2009 when, after battling lung cancer, Alaere tragically passed away. She is said to have passed on in Timi’s presence, in his arms at a London hospital.

    Timi returned to Nigeria a widower, vowing to remain so for 5 years minimum to care for his young children; before thinking of remarrying. But by mid 2012 the rumour was everywhere that Timi was planning to marry AGBANI DAREGO, the First African Miss World!

    Agbani Darego MFR, model and fashion entrepreneur denied the rumour, in The Vanguard. Timi’s aides too refuted the story, in Premium Times.

    Timi has continued solo, but now the beautiful Agbani has just been taken! At a private ceremony in a Marrakesh, Morocco resort (only 35 people invited) the beauty queen said I Do to her handsome beau in April. Who is he? ISHAYA DANJUMA, son of billionaire oil magnate and former Defense Minister Theophilus Y. DANJUMA!

    Ishaya & Agbani have been friends for long, since when they were much younger and still single. Both in their mid/late thirties, they looked wonderful in their wedding picture posted on Instagram. Both are blessed with very good looks – they absolutely look ten years younger!

    Ishaya has lived largely in America; he had previously married an Asian lady, Chelsea Yoo but they divorced with no children. It appears he is back in Nigeria now, he is fully involved in his family business.

    The sweet couple were seen together for the very first time just last weekend at T.Y Danjuma’s grand 80th birthday party in Lagos. This is wishing them happy married life.

    BIANCA & OJUKWU – One time Anambra Governor C.C. Onoh must have had the greatest shock of his life the day his daughter Bianca came to tell him she wanted to marry Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the Ikemba Nnewi.

    Bianca’s father had probably been praying that his daughter would soon come to her senses and quietly settle down with some young man!

    Bianca, a former intercontinental beauty queen was a lady that men were dying to be with, including former ministers, and the big boys of the time. She still is!

    Ojukwu, several times previously married was old enough to be Bianca’s grandfather, certainly he was her own father’s senior. Was her father going to have to answer his son in law, Sir?!

    In Part 2 Bianca/Ojukwu Continued. Plus: Old-Firewood Couples!

     

    • 07055547031 SMS or Whatsapp.
  • Understand feelings

    Understand feelings

    No do garagara for me” this idiom was boldly printed on the T-shirt of a dwarf I saw yesterday at the crowded Lagos Island market. I guess the short man was intentionally saying to everyone “watch what you say and/do to me…don’t take advantage of me..don’t you dare!”. Wonders will never cease. I believe this must be a self defense tactic. If a tall man engages him in a tussle…the fight will never end!!! Victory doesn’t always go to the ‘tall with Six Pack Abs’…but to the strategist who employs the most effective strategy. One of the essentials for victory is that; they will win who know when to fight and when not to fight. Not all battles are meant for you..you’ve got to learn to walk away from some, remember he who fights and runs away, may live to fight another day. In every situation it is best to review the possible outcomes before you begin to choose your course of actions.

    On my way back home on Monday, December 11,2017 at 2.15pm, I saw a one legged middle aged woman with a bag. She was using crutches to help herself along the road and moving towards me. Under the scorching hot sun, I observed that she was sweating profusely and groaning with pain…what a pity! This touched me deeply and got me thinking about how I could help her. Fortunately, as she passed by me, she stopped and asked; “Hello, please I was told I could board a bus to Yaba around here…’’ hmmm…I was not too familiar with this route..I tried thinking on my feet but had no clue and in a bid not to complicate the matter, I sincerely responded “I am not sure ma, kindly ask the policemen nearby” Suddenly, I was rudely interrupted by her yell, I noticed she lost her temper and yelled at me “ Go, I don’t need you!!!” I was befuddled! What was my offense? Honestly, I had an intention to follow her to the policemen, and help carry her bag to the bus stop but her yell hit me like someone stoned me. “Ouch! That was mean’’ I  painstakingly walked away without saying anything but kept wondering why did she yell??? I noticed after I moved away that she tried to engage another passerby but the man never gave her attention.

    This experience taught me some vital lessons on understanding feelings. I perceived that this woman must have yelled out of frustration, she needed a practical solution and not a further complication. Obviously she was in excruciating pain however I felt her attitude was not comely and she might end up in the wrong direction if she continues to yell at everybody. I guess the other man observed the way she treated me and  was afraid to face her, so he neglected her call for help. I could not help her with direction but I was willing to help with her bag, her reaction gave me a severe fright. Please take note; even if people do not have what you are looking for, understand the fact that they have something you might need, ‘No do garagara’! She might have had bad experiences maybe with passersby or even policemen taking advantage of her however she missed a dose of goodness while avoiding evil. I chose to quietly walk away because it was pointless reacting to her as this would definitely compound her situation.

    ‘Empathy is a non judgmental openness to other’s feelings and experiences that builds connection and awareness. It starts by noticing both the pleasant and unpleasant feelings and genuinely caring what the other person is experiencing. Generally, the emotional health of an average Nigerian is not good, it is far from ideal, little wonder rates of stress, depression, suicide, anxiety and violence are increasing. There is a great need to help people understand their feelings and how to adaptively process them. When you understand your feelings, it would definitely aid you in understanding another person’s feeling, then you can better address situations constructively. Feelings are literally emotions. Emotion is simply the capacity to feel and to care. Love, joy, happiness, hurt, anger, sadness..these core emotions are at the heart of our behavior. They drive us and they form the base of what we feel almost all the time. We tend to believe that experiencing positive or negative emotions reflects forces outside our control, blaming everything from our genes, family to even the government. However, what many people do not realise is that we can control our emotions. Research has shown that when people don’t acknowledge and address their emotions, they display lower wellbeing and more physical symptoms of stress, like headaches(negative emotions are disempowering). A report shows that 95% of diseases happen because of negative emotions.

    Emotions don’t have to be positive (and many aren’t) but they can be used to strengthen our positive outlook and actions. Everyone of us needs a more nuanced vocabulary for emotions not just for the sake of being more precise, but because incorrectly diagnosing our emotions makes us respond incorrectly. There is a high cost to avoiding our feelings.

    On the flip side, the ability to identify our emotions allows us to see the real issue at hand- to take a messy experience, understand it more clearly, and build a roadmap to address the problem. To be emotionally intelligent is empathy.

    Emotional intelligence increases the capacity of speedy parents, teachers and managers to stop and check. We really need to be more genuine and polite in our communication and relationships. It seems trust is the basic factor that’s missing. Since it needs time and sacrifice to develop. The other day, I was asking a friend ‘Do you really like things when you click ‘Likes’ on your facebook?’ it generated a thoughtful reelection on the issue. So if you really want to know how to understand people better, and have more sustaining relationships you have to dig deeper. Be emotionally intelligent. Remember a right attitude wins always.