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  • Making sense of community policing

    One of the distinctive features of governance in the 21st century is the progressive weakening of the all-powerful-state and the rise of a myriad of non-state actors – corporations, regional organizations, personalities, alliances, international institutions and transnational networks. In 2016, the 10 biggest corporations globally made more money than 180 countries in a list that includes Ireland, Indonesia, Greece and South Africa. The outsourcing by governments across the world of punishment, detention and state violence is becoming widely popular; a 2017 UK Guardian newspaper report states that at least half the world’s population live in countries where there are more private security workers than public police officers. The concept of governance and government has changed radically; Nigeria will not be an exception to this trend, police and policing is now the collective responsibility of all stakeholders.

    The answer to the question- what is government and who governs – has no simple answer again and this has great implications on security governance, especially police and policing in Nigeria. The police are the most visible symbol of state power and one of the primary institutions of social control in Nigeria; and with a size of over 300,000 personnel (305,000 or 370,000 depending on who you ask), no agency or department of government in Nigeria can rival its spread and size.

    The Nigeria Police is the sole policing agency throughout the diverse Nigerian state. The police in Nigeria operate a centralized command and control structure in which the Inspector-General of Police, an appointee of the president determines both policy and operational matters. Since the discontinuance of dual policing system in 1966, successive Nigerian constitutions have prohibited the establishment of local police authorities. I ask in light of contemporary realities- what really is a local police authority?

    There is the near unanimous conclusion among Nigerians on the failure of the current centralized model of policing and the poor performance of the Nigeria Police, with multiple studies designating the force as the most corrupt and inefficient public entity in Nigeria. So much that ubiquitous checkpoints manned by armed policemen in different shades of black, extracting bribes and ostensibly demanding vehicle registration documents is symbolic of Nigeria as windmills are emblematic of the Netherlands.

    The economic and social consequences of the failure of our national policing policy are enormous. More than 2.5 million Nigerian citizens are displaced internally because of conflict and insecurity; Niger Delta militants destroyed more 1,447 pipelines in 2016,  impairing the implementation of the 2016 budget and costing Nigeria at least N1.4 trillion; ongoing conflict between farmers and herdsmen across Nigeria is costing at least $14 billion in potential revenues annually; the North-east Recovery and Peace Building Assessment (RPBA) team has put the cost of rebuilding destroyed infrastructure in the region blighted by Boko Haram insurgency at $9 billion; and nothing summarizes Nigeria’s security challenges than the fact that Boko Haram insurgency has claimed more civilian lives than ISIS has done.  One deducible fact from this grim statistics is that Nigeria will not achieve sustainable economic development except it fixes the problems with her police force and her concept of policing.

    Despite the constitutional prohibition of the establishment of local policing outfits, community based informal policing groups and networks are present across Nigeria and are an integral part of the security landscape; these seemingly constitutionally prohibited local policing authorities are responsible for providing security services in Nigeria’s ungoverned spaces. A number of these community based policing outfits collaborate with the Nigeria Police, which did launch a Community Policing Policy Framework in 2004.  Currently, community based police groups/networks in Nigeria can be subsumed into four broad categorizations, viz- structured national community policing networks, this group is dominated by the Vigilante Group of Nigeria, which is represented across all local governments in Nigeria. Secondly, there are ethnic based platforms that also operate as policing outfits, the Odua People’s Congress readily comes to mind. There are also state government financed community policing outfits that are paradoxically established by state laws, in spite of seeming constitutional prohibition of such and finally the indeterminate and loosely structured community organized and funded policing services.

    These community policing outfits are a response to the Nigerian state’s weakened capacity to protect life and property on one hand, and the continuous increase in criminal activities with its attendant burden on communities on the other. Community members resorting to establishing informal policing structures is an indictment of the security apparatus in Nigeria. Now that there is renewed vigour in the polity on integrating community policing and informal policing networks into the formal security system, there is the need to coherently address five critical issues that might determine the effectiveness of the policy thrust.

    The first is the question of the ownership of the Nigeria Police Force. Who is the owner of this legitimate singular police force – the national government or the whole federation? The answer to the question has implications on the relationship between community policing networks in Nigeria and the Nigeria Police Force. The constitution places the force under the overall command of the IGP, who is an appointee of the president. In the proposed community policing framework, who will own existing community based informal policing structures and what would be the relationship between the heads of these community based informal policing outfits and the IGP?

    Secondly, there is the need to coherently define the concept of ‘community policing’ within Nigeria’s peculiar socio-political environment. Community policing as one of the latest buzzwords in law enforcement across the world, often times have varied definitions depending on context and state.  Therefore, the managers of Nigeria’s security architecture must communicate lucidly what the concept of community policing would be in Nigeria. Would it signify in the Nigerian context, a new crime fighting tactics? Or would it represent an overarching philosophy guiding the entire policing outlook? Or is it just going to be the newest slogan pressed into service in Nigeria’s long line of crime fighting catchphrases- operation fire-for-fire, operation sweep, operation flush, anti-crime patrol, dancing pythons and grinning crocodiles among others? Or is it an exercise to launder the very sordid reputation of the Nigeria Police Force by creating platforms of engagement between communities and the force?

    Thirdly, what would be the strategic and structural outlook of the community policing framework and informal policy networks? Will it be a continuation of the community policing policy that was launched by the government in 2004 or will it create a new relationship framework between the Nigeria Police and informal policing platforms? Are current community-based policing structures going to be integrated even if loosely into existing the Nigeria Police structures?  Considering Nigeria’s diversity and the multitude of informal policing networks and platforms that currently exist in Nigeria, how are they going to be grouped for regulation, monitoring and management?  Putting constitutional prohibition in perspective- what is the definition of local police authorities? Are all existing state financed neighbourhood watch groups, traffic enforcement agencies, the vigilante groups outside the operation of this prohibition?

    Also, who are the critical stakeholders in the new community policing framework? What will be the role of other government agencies, community members and community based platforms and associations, not for profit organizations, private businesses, the media, traditional institutions, religious platforms in this new overlapping system? What will be the nature of the collaborative partnerships between the police, communities and organizations that the police serve and how can trust in the police be increased?

    Finally, to effectively undertake community policing in Nigeria, there is a need for extensive reform of the Nigeria Police Force structures and processes and how much of this can be accommodated within the political environment? For the Nigeria Police to effectively deliver on community policing, its organizational structure, human capacity and operational assets and protocol must be realigned to support community partnerships.

     

    • Osasona is of the Centre for Public Policy Alternatives, Lagos.

  • NIMASA: Driving Nigeria’s ‘Blue Economy’

    Formed on August 1, 2006 when National Maritime Authority was merged with the Joint Maritime Labour Industrial Council, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) is responsible for Maritime Safety Seafarers Standards and Security, Maritime Labour, Shipping Regulation and Pollution Prevention and Control in the marine environment. Also, NIMASA is responsible for domesticating conventions of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions as well as Promotion of Commercial Shipping and Cabotage activities.

    Considering the huge maritime traffic it supervises in a country with a population of over 180 million people and a coastline which measures about 850kkm, NIMASA is well positioned to rake in a lot of revenue. Sadly, since its inception, this has not been the case and contrarily, the agency has been in the news for different kinds of allegations of corruption. Not anymore.

    With the intervention of the Dakuku Peterside as NIMASA Director General since March 2016, there has been a turn-around for the better. And the new catchphrase within the agency is ‘Blue Economy.’ But just what is Blue Economy? Well, simply put, it refers to economic activities derived from the maritime sector.

    And overnight, NIMASA seems to have transformed into a huge revenue earner for the country that in August, the agency was commended by the finance minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun for contributing N9.975bn and $46.025 million to the federal government coffers for the year 2016 – more than 100 per cent increase from its 2015 contribution of N4.955bn. That is part of the dividends of the Blue Economy being driven by the Peterside-led NIMASA.

    The agency is however, not resting on its oars. Rather, Peterside, who was elected chairman of the Association of African Maritime Administration (AAMA) at the third Association of African Maritime Administration conference which held in Abuja in April, is seeking how to derive more benefits for the country.

    At the recently concluded 23rd Nigeria Economic Summit which held in Abuja and with the theme, “Opportunities, Productivity and Employment: Actualizing the Economy Recovery and Growth Plan,” Peterside charged Nigerians to invest in the opportunities afforded by the Blue Economy stating that it is the fastest growing sector in the world with enormous business potentials.

    “Developing the blue economy is paramount across the globe now, and the public and private sector have to collaborate to sustainably harness the potentials of our maritime sector for the benefit of the Nigerian economy especially as the federal government continues the economic diversification drive,” said Peterside at the summit.

    The NIMASA-DG stressed the need for investment in the Nigerian maritime sector which he said had similar opportunities that exist in countries such as Singapore, Ukraine and South Korea which thrive on their maritime sector.

    At this year’s event which had notable maritime stakeholders like Olisa Agbakoba, the Executive Secretary Shippers council, Hassan Bello and Captain Iheanacho amongst others, present, the NIMASA boss assured stakeholders that backed with political will, and improvement in maintenance culture, adequate data management and statistics, Nigeria will be a leading light in the comity of maritime nations.

    Under Peterside’s watch, NIMASA has fully automated and made secure all of its operational and payment process. And realising the need to boost workers’ morale for motivation, the DG promoted over 300 staff that had remained stagnated, some for upwards of over a decade.

    Also at the NES, Peterside promised better maritime security to reduce piracy and other related sea crimes, while advocating synergy within stakeholders and saying that with the support of the federal government, the agency is working to ensure Nigerians reap bountifully in the sector.

    In the latest piracy report released recently by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), Nigeria got a knock. The report stated that out of 20 attacks reported against ships in the first nine months of 2016, 16 of the attacks took place off the coast of Brass, Bonny and Bayelsa. It also disclosed that 39 of the 49 crew members kidnapped globally occurred off Nigerian waters in seven separate incidents.

    “In general, all waters in and off Nigeria remain risky, despite intervention in some cases by the Nigerian Navy,” the Director of IMB, Pottengal Mukundan, was quoted as saying.

    “We advise vessels to be vigilant. The number of attacks in the Gulf of Guinea could be even higher than our figures as many incidents continue to be unreported.”

    It is good news to know that Peterside was already giving the issue of quelling piracy on Nigerian waters attention before the IMB report was even published.

    And just some days after the NES, NIMASA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) in Lagos to further develop the Blue Economy. Aside boosting bilateral relations between both countries, it would also reduce crimes such as piracy and terrorism on the oceans and seas. The MoU focused on knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer, capacity building initiatives and Cabotage implementation and enforcement processes among others.

    “Africans must come together to solve their own problems,” Peterside said, while addressing the press.

    “Piracy attack is universal and that is why we need to come together. There are some areas where they are stronger than us, and there are other areas where we are stronger than them. Ghana has maritime university which we are yet to commence our own.

    “What we here to do, is to put our house together and ensure we maximize the potential of the blue economy. It is our dream that we become the giant of maritime administration in Africa.”

    Already, the place of Nigeria in global maritime is incontestable. And the GMA Director-General, Kwame Owusu, also commended Peterside for better repositioning the Nigerian maritime sector and by extension the entire African continent.

    “We are here to strengthen the bilateral relationships that exist between both countries and to learn international best practices from you,” said Owusu.

    That Peterside is particular about reaping from the Blue Economy should be getting familiar to industry watchers. At a recent Harmonised NIMASA Stakeholders Interactive Forum organised by the agency in Lagos in August, and with the theme, “Synergy: An Instrument for Sustainable Development of the Blue Economy,” Peterside had also charged stakeholders to participate in the Nigerian maritime sector in order to support the growth of the Blue economy.

    For a man that has transformed an important sector as maritime amidst its challenges and turned it into a money spinner, the country would do well to listen and support him. For the good of country, it’s high time our economy went ‘Blue.’

  • Buhari and South-east rapprochement

    The past two years and a half of President Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency has been a trying period for the South-east political elites particularly those of them in the ruling  All Progressive Congress (APC). This is substantially because of their significant exclusion from the inner vortex of the federal executive power which made APC or even nationalism a hard sell in that region. The noxious view was that Buhari hates the Igbo and one significant fallout was the emergence of Nnamdi Kanu and the agitation for Biafra by the now proscribed IPOB.

    As the exclusion simmered, Governor Rochas Okorocha, who took a chunk of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) into the alliance that coalesced into APC became a butt of jokes. Some foisted a fake paternity on him. Chris Ngige and Ogbonaya Onu, considered members of the inner circle of APC and political heavy weights within their locality, lost weight considerably, after they were rewarded with what is viewed as lowly ministerial positions.

    With 2019 general elections knocking at the entry door, is President Buhari working to change the paradigm, or are the two recent positive developments a mere flash in the pan? I refer to the payment of the entitlement of the Nigerian police men and women who also served Biafra while it lasted from 1967 to 1970; and the terms of settlement filed at the ECOWAS Community Court over Biafra-war claims in which the federal government accepted to pay N88 million partly as damages to claimants in the suit, and for clearing unexploded land mines in the war area.

    To show how deft the move is, there is report in the social media that the beneficiaries are taunting IPOB for almost scuttling their entitlement with its agitation for Biafra. On its part, IPOB is taunting Ohaneze, the Igbo socio-cultural organisation and the South-east governors for failing to clinch the vacant position of Secretary to the Government of the Federation despite working against the agitation for Biafra. Regardless of what precipitated the payment and the terms filled, the Buhari presidency deserves praise for the decisions.

    Few weeks ago, this column had argued that President Buhari had no intrinsic hatred for the Igbo as many argue, but that their exclusion is his reaction to the shellacking he received in the South-east during the presidential election. My argument was that the President sees himself as a headmaster punishing those who didn’t obey his instructions to vote wisely. Of course, the exclusion of the South-east from the top echelons of national security and the president’s inner bureaucracy are unconstitutional and does great harm to APC sympathisers in the south-east.

    Section 14(3) of the 1999 constitution, as amended unequivocally provides: “The composition of the government of the federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or any of its agencies.”

    So, perhaps the Buhari presidency is having a rethink or a change of tactics as the 2019 election approaches; or is the President satisfied that enough punishment has been meted to the political non-conformists in the South-east, who did not vote for him in 2015? Again, with the Buhari integrity persona wearing thinner with the allegation of corruption buffeting some of his trusted aides, which will result in the loss of votes, are Buhari’s handlers seeking to expand the nest of potential voters and supporters?

    Or is the quick double favour, just to wow potential supporters, as the governorship election in Anambra State gets close? Of course, the political control of Anambra State is a major prize in the South-east, and if APC can prize it from the other major contenders in the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a new vista would be opened for APC in the South-east. To seriously turn around the fortunes of APC in the South-east, President Buhari’s presidency would need to give more than the two tokens.

    On Anambra elections, if the salacious tales about the candidate of APC, Tony Nwoye is true, then he has a lot that may count against him. With a huge reputation as an enforcer to the notorious Chris Uba political machine, candidate Tony Nwoye, would need to convince the voters that he is the right choice. The PDP candidate, Oseloka Obaze, despite his huge international credentials, would succeed or fail depending on the marketing ability of former governor, Peter Obi. The incumbent, Governor Willie Obiano has the best chance to win but he is bogged down by stringent allegation of non-performance particularly by his predecessor, Peter Obi. The Anambra election will be a test of how well the rapprochement between President Buhari and South-east is coming.

    To show that the recent benevolence of the Buhari presidency breed excitement and confidence among APC leaders in the South-east, Governor Rochas Okorocha last week announced gleefully that the President would soon embark on a tour of the South-east. A tour long overdue. Rochas also boasted that he will contest the 2019 presidential election if President Buhari fails to contest. But for Rochas’s occasional unforced errors, a stint in the Senate from 2019 will position him as a strong presidential contender in 2023 when, according to his school of thought, the presidential ambition of the Igbo will mature after presumably President Buhari would have completed his second term.

    Of course, whether that permutation will yield a President of Igbo extraction in 2023, is a matter for another day. What is important for President Buhari and the South-east political elites who feel alienated from each other to manage their political differences more maturely. It is also important for the peace of the country for the South-east to get their due in our convoluted federal republic. Going forward, the Igbo political elite will do well to hammer out a consensus of the primary political interests of the South-east. They would also do well to have a leadership cadre even if loosely. Part of why they have not fared well politically is their excessive individualism.

     

  • INTELS and drama of ‘cannibal’ politics

    Keyhole views of the mass hysteria generated by the termination of the pilotage contract between Integrated Logistics Services (INTELS) Nigeria Limited, and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) make it appear as a mere politicization of policy issues. However, a parallax view shows it is a drama of cannibalistic politics. This claim is best appreciated against the backdrop of the alleged role of the management of NPA.  According to INTELS, the NPA deliberately frustrated attempts to address the issues raised by the introduction of the TSA in the execution of its pilotage agency agreement.

    Some public commentators are strongly advancing the notion that the political ambition of former Vice President of Nigeria, and ex-presidential aspirant of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar (GCON), who is a co-founder of INTELS is the root cause of the ongoing debacle.  Worrisomely, there are no evidences that decisively relegate this popular view to counterfactual realm of reality. One thing is evident; its popularity shows that many Nigerians think instruments of state are often used to achieve malevolent political and economic goals.

    The termination of the pilotage contract between INTELS Nigeria Limited, and NPA presents grave security concerns. It could fuel social anomie in the Niger Delta region. It may spur restive youths to engage in violent economic crimes, when they become jobless. This point was succinctly underscored by Niger Delta youths. Recently, under the auspice of Niger Delta Youths Coalition (NDYC), they appealed to the federal government to rethink its directive to terminate the agreement. In a similar fashion, the Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide (IYC) has asked for a peaceful resolution of the debacle. The spokesman of the group, Daniel Dasimaka, notes: “We are calling on the management of NPA and the federal government to rethink their decision to give Intels Nigeria Limited, three months to round up and hand over the pilotage services to the NPA. As of today, thanks to Intels, the Onne Port is about the only port in Nigeria outside Lagos that is viable, thus, any attempt to stifle it is considered an attempt to cripple the port.”

    This contract termination without due consultation to resolve the disputes arising from the implementation of TSA policy is antithetic to Nigeria’s quest to foster economic development through foreign direct investment. Economic victimization of political actors vying for public offices does not only narrow the orbit of participation, it makes a mockery of economic development plans. It also makes the business environment inordinately hostile, gravely infantilizes public institutions, and erodes the confidence of local and foreign investors.

    The urgent need of the moment is public-private sector partnership for economic revamping, partnership that would create jobs. The possibility of the agreement reversal to plunge 15,000 Nigerian families to the morass of destitution has inspired the House of Representatives, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), the Maritime Energy Media Practitioners of Nigeria (MEMPON), and a broad consortium of stakeholders in the sector to denounce it in unison.

    The President-General, Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Adewale Adeyanju, rightly enjoined the federal government to “avoid anything that will send wrong signals to investors that Nigeria’s environment is not safe and conducive for business.”  Furthermore, he noted that: “Most of these employees are Nigerians with families and responsibilities. We are therefore, worried that if this issue is not resolved amicably, their jobs could be on the line. The socio-economic implications of most of them losing their jobs in a volatile area like Rivers State can be better imagined than experienced,”

    The ethics of citizen-centred politics proscribes anything that can undermine people’s right to flourish economically. There is a human cost to this raging subterranean political battle. If the antics to bury INTELS succeed, inadvertently, it would bury the happiness and dreams of countless Nigerian families. The essence of politics is self-defeating, if it thwarts the socioeconomic well-being of citizens.  Destroying people’s means of livelihood, because of intra-elite squabbles is a relapse to Stone Age morality.

    Expecting elephants to fly seems more plausible than expecting politicians to fight ethically. Campaigns that heralded recent elections and referenda around the world, Nigeria’s 2015 election included were festivals of shame. In telling manners, they demonstrated how lust for power turns men into political cannibals, and deluded them into thinking that political cannibalism is essential to human flourishing, moral renewal, national transformation, and cultural revivalism.

    As 2019 approaches, the likelihood of economic disruption and political parricides becoming commonplace is very high.  It seems that INTELS ordeal is a prelude.   Already, the political elite are shifting allegiance, and secretly encoding their modus   operandi. Shortly,   this might ignite a contagion of betrayal and gruesome exploitation. This poses a question: Must the quest for political supremacy be debased to the low level of dog-eat-dog?

    Sadly, some men of conscience would say yes. For they have become staunch defenders of this retrograde practice that mainly fans the flames of primitivism. The only reason why some of them have not manifestly lost their equanimity of mind is their tendency to rationalize that they are “savage” for a noble cause.  It assuages the pang of their conscience.

    The amazing growth of INTELS from a container office at Apapa Port, Lagos is a glowing tribute to the tenacity and resourcefulness of the Nigerian spirit. Its incremental yet astounding growth right of over 30 years shows that clarity of vision is an essential growth incentive. It negates the notion that Nigeria’s business environment is hostile to long term investment.

    As Nigeria seeks to position herself at the front end of knowledge-driven service economy, companies like INTELS should be showcased as model of business success.  As Hon. Hassan Saleh (Benue, PDP) rightly noted “it is saddening that an indigenous firm is undergoing such disdainful treatment.”  He also noted that it is puzzling that “the relevant authorities failed to renegotiate the terms of the contract before terminating it.”

    If there is any reason for optimism, it is the fact that history shows that INTELS is not unacquainted with the perils of cannibalistic politics. During the Abacha era, it suffered untold economic hardship.  The pro-democratic crusader, late Shehu Yar’Adua, was a director in the company, which was known as Nigeria Container Services (NICOTES). When Shehu Yar’Adua demanded that General Sani Abacha should announce a date of restoration of democratic rule, NICOTES became a victim of the machinations of state actors.

    Atiku Abubakar’s refusal to disassociate from Shehu Yar’Adua made the regime to seize the company, and render it almost comatose. Atiku Abubakar and his allies were unlawfully dismissed from the board. However, in 1998, General Abdusalami Abubakar returned NICOTES to her legal owners, then it was renamed, INTELS.

    This historical parallel has deluded some public commentator into thinking that President Buhari is a moral equivalent of Abacha. This is most untrue and uncharitable. His illustrious pedigree and record of altruistic services put him in an echelon of nobility that Abacha could not aspire to. In fact, ethical prudence is a lodestar of Buhari’s enterprising quest to provide good governance.

    Those pigeonholing Buhari into Abacha’s moral category should desist from doing so. They have failed to factor in the roles of political zealots that inadvertently inflict reputational harm on their heroes. The tragedians who scripted this drama should hearken to the voices of reason and history. They should toss the script to the trash can of history, at least, for the unblemished moral honors of President Buhari.

    They should consider the fact that the logical outworking of the doctrine of political cannibalism is dreadful.  It exudes the possibility to push Nigeria to the backwaters of civilization. If unchecked, it could destroy the spiritual, moral, and material building blocks of a thriving economy. Retrogression is foreseeable when vendetta animates economic regulators.

     

    • Ibie is a Lagos-based public commentator.

     

  • DSO and future of broadcasting

    Television broadcasting is of so much importance to citizens and the Nigerian state as a means of national integration and cultural development in a fast-paced global arena which is driven mainly by communication technology. Nigeria has fallen far short in its bid to catch up with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standards in terms of quality and timing in switching over to digital broadcasting.

    Whereas Nigeria has missed more than two deadlines in the digital switchover process to the disappointment of many Nigerians and ITU, what has become more embarrassing is the claim that the transmitters installed by Integrated Television Services (ITS) have been discontinued by the original equipment manufacturer more than 10 years ago. Tony Dara, an acclaimed broadcast engineer who had acted as a consultant to the National Assembly on Nigeria’s digital switch over brought this fact to the public sphere and the famed Nigerian factor has begun to set in.

    Responding to the finding on installation of obsolete transmitters that have been discontinued by the original equipment manufacturer, ITS General Manager, Rotimi Salami did not contradict the finding but instead sought to rationalise using them on the ground of “room for backward integration” existing in broadcast technology.

    At a time the rest of the world is striving to keep pace with the innovations and dynamism of digital signals broadcast,  while Nigerians  make do with antiquated modems so that the technical epilepsy associated with  electricity supply will be transferred  into our broadcasting infrastructure’s  “compatibility” hardware.  It was the same sickening surrender to stagnant development that led ITS into retaining old buildings and facilities to house the Digital Switch Over (DSO) in Jos and Ilorin, another flaw identified in the Dara Report that ITS failed to debunk. According to ITS GM, there was no reason to even consider new buildings for the DSO process because nine years ago the White Paper on DSO recommended that the “existing and massive” broadcast transmission infrastructure of the NTA, VON and FRCN should form the backbone for the new broadcast signal distributor. Someone should ask ITS why these old buildings were not even considered for renovation.

    Again, to add pseudo-savvy to the idleness of its initiatives, ITS GM exposed the fallacies integrated into decisions by declaring that “a building does not determine the quality of transmission, rather (sic) it is the state of the equipment”. This evidently cannot be technically applicable to a backwardly integrated compatibility-chasing choice of obsolete equipment that will be depending on perpetual coupling and combinations to deliver digital output from analogue inputs! What would it have cost to put up new buildings designed with the spatial and other specifications suitable for workflow in the DSO which is not comparable to the decades old analogue equipment “existing” in NTA?

    It is unfortunate that these are the untenable, illogical and technically bankrupt responses that ITS churned out in a vexatious attempt to dismiss the clear compilation of the deceptive and defective foundation laid for the DSO in Nigeria by the federal government’s own agents and agencies.

    The crux of this disturbing matter is that over N1.7 billion was collected by the NTA-ITS from federal government coffers specifically as take-off grant for the DSO pilot project! With such a humongous budget, why should their DSO project be relying on discontinued obsolete equipment when at every material time there were latest successor models of the digital transmitters by the same manufacturer which are in fact future-assured technology and not the retrograde discarded systems being foisted on the country? Does Nigeria have to wait until the analogue-fanatics pushing backward integration in Nigeria while the world is on digital fast track to the future in broadcast technology are themselves rendered obsolete by age and tenure before we can catch up with the rest of the world in digital broadcasting?

    It is also intriguing that the industry regulator, National Broadcasting Corporation(NBC) which is charged with monitoring and supervising the broadcast industry in Nigeria has so far maintained a loud silence while the ITS scandal unfolds. NBC should have been the first to identify any deviation from set standards and impose the necessary regulatory sanctions to ensure compliance, especially at the critical stage of commencement of the DSO. The only conclusion this surprising negligence of duty and aloofness to the exposure of malpractice raises is culpable collusion. This deplorable attitude was responsible for the initial installation of obsolete equipment by ITS as well as the cover-up of the scandal during and after the celebrated launching of the Jos pilot project.

    An indication of the culpability of the NBC was given the other day on Channels TV when Armstrong Idachaba, the NBC director specifically charged with the monitoring of broadcasting erased any doubts about the Dara Report findings  and the implication that his organisation failed to perform its fundamental duty of monitoring and regulating the very first official roll-out of the DSO in the Jos Pilot Project . Confronted with the Dara Report’s shocking revelation that ITS commenced the implementation of the DSO in Jos by deploying equipment that have been discontinued by the original equipment manufacturer, Idachaba declared that ITS more competent to respond and even offered contact details for Channels TV to “Bring them in and let them explain”. In other words, NBC as the government regulatory agency in broadcasting and the DSO in particular, could neither deny nor confirm that ITS actually rolled out obsolete analogue equipment for the Jos pilot digital switch over project!

    The same Idachaba had earlier bragged that “Jos was a fantastic experience for NBC”, that “all the theorising and planning we did regarding framework for DSO we had a chance to implement in Jos” and crowed about how the local people in Jos were enjoying digital terrestrial television free of charge on 30 channels. He obviously was not expecting to be asked about the Dara Report and was visibly flustered having to literally eat his own words by admitting also that ITS had not met the 30 channels requirement and had still not covered the entire Plateau State (not even the entire Jos township according to Dara Report), since the fanfare launch in 2015 in violation of the timelines set by the NBC.

    The NBC cannot feign ignorance of the damning revelation of the Dara Report without admitting deliberate negligence to perform its statutory responsibility as government regulator of the broadcast industry. Idachaba’s self-censoring refusal on national TV to give a honest and transparent response to the Dara Report as NBC’s head of broadcast monitoring is not good enough. By an unexpected turn of events, the NBC has been caught on camera exposing the deliberate derailment of its regulatory role from public interest to the pecuniary interests of a mafia-type cult of government officials intent on a digital swindle operation under the cover of the DSO.  Against the background of several deliberate failures of NBC to meet set deadlines for the project launch in the last five or more years, the confessional conspiratorial conduct of the regulator in the “pilot” plus the weighty material evidence of the Dara Report should convince the federal government beyond reasonable doubt that corruption will not kill DSO NIGERIA if the culprits can be brought to book.

    It is therefore necessary to urge the federal government to revisit and expand the scope of the initial investigation by the EFCC that resulted in the sacking and arraignment of the former DG of the NBC. It is quite clear now that it is not only the handling of the contracts for set top box “manufacturers” that was riddled with financial irregularities and violations of due process but also the entire process of implementing the DSO. Indeed even the surreptitious manner by which StarTimes hijacked and proceeded to subjugate its supposed license holder NTA in the pay TV sector calls for thorough investigation.

    The House of Representatives Committee on DSO should take the lead by concluding its investigations and releasing a report of its findings. Sad it is that the jinx that has bedevilled our DSO since 2014 remains a cog in the wheel of progress in 2017. Now that we know where the problem comes from, we stand a better chance of eliminating it once and for all. The revelation by Tony Dara is the best thing to ever happen to DSO in Nigeria.

     

    • Yakubu Esq is a legal/government affairs analyst.

  • Economy: The way forward

    The Nigeria of today is certainly not the Nigeria of 1960. Nigeria in 1960, had 15,703 primary schools with 2,912618 enrolled; 883 secondary schools with 135,364 enrolled; 29 vocational/technical educational institutions with 5037 enrolled; 315 teachers’ training institutes with 27,908 enrolled; and three colleges of technology, 1 (one) university college. Nigeria now has over 150 universities (NUC, 2017) and produces over 300,000 graduates in the year. So, the Nigerian educational system has grown tremendously in quantitative terms and has produced many educated/learned people. Nigerians have also been travelling abroad to virtually all nations to acquire education in various areas of knowledge. Nigerians have learnt a lot in about 57 years. Nigeria is a more knowledgeable nation than she was in 1960.

    Sadly, Nigerian politicians have not changed; indeed they are worse than they were in 1960. This article, in response to the article, ‘Positioning Nigeria for prosperous future,’ written by Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun, and published in various national dailies, explains why the political group called PDP which ruled Nigeria in the period 1999-2015, could not fix the Nigerian economy and promote democratization, and why the APC which has been ruling the nation since 2015 also cannot fix the economy and promote democratization. The article also suggests how Nigeria can promote rapid industrialization and save Nigeria.

    Nigeria needs political parties because the political groups in Nigeria remain political machines and political machines who seize power. President Dwight Eisenhower (1956) of the United States, reflecting on the issue of a political party, said, a political party deserves the approbation American, only as it represents the ideals, the aspirations and the hopes of Americans. If it is anything less, it is merely a conspiracy to seize power. About 20 years later, Daniel Boorstin (1973), American historian, again reflecting on the issue of a political party, said, a political party is organized for a purpose larger than its own survival; a political machine exists for its own sake, its primary purpose is survival. I agree with President Eisenhower and Boorstin.

    Political groups in Nigeria do not represent the ideals, the aspirations and hopes of Nigerians; they exist for their members. Politicians at the local government, state and federal levels get into government and become very rich people in three months. Despite the millions of barrels of crude petroleum sold daily for over six decades so far, over 70 per cent of Nigerians are very poor. Nigerian governments tell long stories and claim that the nation is doing well. They would not accept the well-known bases for assessing the performance of a government – the state of the economy measured by the levels of employment, productivity and inflation, and peace and harmony. Also, Nigerian political machines would not accept globally accepted reports like the UNDP Human Development Report, because they would clearly reveal that they are political machines and conspiracies with no plans to develop Nigeria. They would rather cling to the reports of obscure bodies like Fitch and deceive the ignorant people that Nigeria is rated BB-, BC+; Nigeria has the highest GDP growth in Africa that will trickle down one day; Nigeria built roads and bridges, dams; etc.!

    Political machines connive with foreigners to deceive the ignorant people to adopt programmes which though have beautiful names, lack growth elements and do not promote growth and development. Nigeria adopted the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1986 when the military government of Ibrahim Babangida was ruling the nation. All governments, including PDP and APC governments since 1986 have continued to implement SAP. That is, PDP implemented SAP in the period 1999-2015. The APC has been implementing SAP since May 2015. SAP has three principal elements. They are, 1) the mandatory foreign exchange market (FEM), 2) the sale of public enterprise and liquid assets to the rich nationals and foreigners and 3) adoption of deregulation (laissez-faire economics or market economic philosophy or profit consideration, individualism) as the basis for assessing the performance of public projects and activities. African SAPs were introduced to Nigeria and other African nations in the 1980s by the World Bank and IMF.

    The original document (Bellow, 1986) claimed that the Nigerian SAP has four main objectives. They are to: 1) restructure and diversify the productive base of the economy, 2) achieve fiscal stability and positive balance of payment, 3) set the basis for a sustained balanced non-inflationary or minimal inflationary growth, and 4) reduce the dominance of unproductive investments in the public sector. However, the analysis of the Nigerian SAP in the book entitled, “Understanding why Privatisation is promoting unemployment and poverty and delaying industrialization in Africa (Ogbimi, 2007), showed that the Nigerian SAP lacks growth elements and could not achieve any of its claimed objectives. SAP is merely promoting unemployment and poverty and delaying industrialization. Consequently, SAP has completely sapped and destroyed the Nigerian economy and impoverished the people. All that is left of Nigeria is a sapped majority of people and a destroyed Naira. There are also a few economists, accountants, bankers, lawyers, others in government and business who do not understand the science needed for increasing productivity and transforming an agricultural economy into an industrialized one, daily repeating the financial clichés associated with SAP and the stock market.

    An important warning to every Nigerian is pertinent here. Margaret Thatcher, a former Prime Minister of Britain, once said that to destroy a nation, you first destroy her national currency. She was speaking in relation to the experience of Germany when the nation implemented the German SAP 1919-1923. Germany lost WW I in 1918 as the leader of the Axis powers. The Allied powers demanded $33b from Germany as war reparations. Germany could not pay. The Germans were forced to implement the German SAP principally characterized by the mandatory forex market (FEM). The German Mark exchanged 4.2 units to the US$1 in 1919. In 1920, 63 Mark exchanged for one dollar. The Mark further depreciated in 1921; it exchanged 200 units to the dollar. The Mark depreciated catastrophically in 1922; it exchanged 2000 units to the dollar. In 1923, the Mark collapsed; it exchanged 4.2 trillion units to the dollar and stopped being a national currency. (Stolper, et al.,1967; and Glahe,1977).

    The Germans and Germany were seriously humiliated. But the strong will of the Germans saved them. They abandoned SAP in 1923 and printed another currency, reverting the exchange rate to 4.2 units to the dollar.

    Nigeria’s planning has always been devoid of growth elements. What Nigeria needs is industrialization, not privatization, not mere erection of infrastructure to attract foreign investments, not entrepreneurs. Industrialization is promoted through learning – education and training. The Nigerian economy has been stagnating hence it is experiencing mass unemployment. Stagnation is the problem (disease), mass unemployment is the symptom of the disease. Only mass training and mass employment can link the educational sector with the rest of the economy, enable our educated youths acquire complementary practical skills, promote rapid competence-building growth and  industrialization to save the Nigeria of today. Industrialization is the only solution to poverty in a nation.

    • Prof Ogbimi writes from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
  • Dickson breaks 40-year jinx

    Dickson breaks 40-year jinx

    For Governor Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, his words are his bonds. He is not just a keeper of promise, his promise are bankable!

    But Promise keepers are hard to find on the country’s political landscape, especially when the promise to be kept has been made for 40 years on the trot. That length of time, naturally, makes the beneficiaries of the promise wonder if they are not jinxed.

    That was the story of the people of Bayelsa West Senatorial Zone who had waited in vain for the construction of the Sagbama/Ekeremor/ Agge Road before Governor Dickson came to their rescue, 40 years, after the road was officially conceptualized.  The road was first listed in the budget of the old Rivers State in the second Republic under Governor Melford Okilo but didn’t see the light of the day. It was subsequently taken over by the Federal Government but remained a still born.

    But that is now history! On Saturday, October 14, Bayelsans witnessed what could be described as the triumphant entry of Governor Dickson to Ayamasa and Aleibri communities, two major oil-bearing communities in Ekeremor Local Government Area. What perhaps made his entry unique was that vehicles were going to Ayamasa, Aleibiri and the interlocking communities for the first time ever.

    He was accompanied by his Deputy, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah, the Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Rt Hon kombowe Benson, Chief Judge of the state, Justice Kate Abiri, Senator representing Bayelsa West Senatorial District, Foster Ogola, Member representing Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency, Chief Fred Agbedi, top government functionaries and community leaders, who drove from Yenagoa, the state headquarters to Ayamasa and Aleibiri respectively for the first time.

    The people of Ayamasa and Aleibiri were understandably happy. Many of them were seeing vehicles in their communities for the first time, in their life time. Before now, they were accessing their communities only through the sea with the attendant risks of accidents and pirate attacks!

    So, it was understandable that the beneficiaries of the Dickson’s developmental strides, all thronged to Aleibiri town, defying a heavy downpour, to welcome their governor who they describe as “Talk Na Do Governor,’’ which could in this context, also mean a redeemer of promise.

    At his inaugural in 2012, Dickson promised to fix the road, and he immediately swung into action by starting the construction of the road up to his community, Toru-Orua. During his re-election in 2015, he reiterated his willingness to take the road to the terminal point, Agge. Today, he is delivering on his promise so much so that the road is over 60 percent completed.

    As the governor drove from Toru-Orua, his ancestral home through Angalabiri, Ofoni, Ayamasa to Aleibiri that fateful Saturday, he was simply reconnecting with his past too. The story of Governor Dickson is synonymous with the Ayamasa and Aleibiri, as he too never saw a vehicle until he joined a Canoe from Toru-Orua to Patani, Delta State. This was after his secondary education at age 18. The only difference is that while Government under Dickson’s watch is constructing road to Ayamasa and Aliebiri which now enables the people to sight vehicles in their communities, Dickson’s Toru-Orua community neither had road nor saw vehicle until he became Governor in 2012! In deed the Governor only had the luxury of knowing how a vehicle looked at Patani.

    This ugly experience, coupled with his desire to rapidly develop the state, clearly fired him to take over what was originally a federal road in a national recession.

    Governor Dickson knew there was no better way to attract development to the rural areas than linking all the communities.   It was, therefore, not a surprise that the people of Angalabiri, Ofoni, Ayamasa and Aleibiri in Sagbama and Ekeremor local government areas came out in huge numbers to welcome him and his entourage.

    The governor had stopped by in the four adjoining communities while on an inspection tour of the multi billion naira road.

    The project, which ýis expected to be fully completed in December 2018, was previously handled by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). But like what befell many other projects handled by the commission, no progress was made. This prompted the Governor to take over the project and awarded the contract at the cost of N30billion to Dantata & Sawoe and Setraco construction giants, a move that has understandably accelerated the construction of the road. The distance of the road from Toru-Orua where the Governor hails from to Aleibiri is over 90 kilometres.

    In each of the communities, the people rejoiced, danced and praised the governor for his effort to construct the road which they say will bring modernity to the communities, fast track development and increase economic activities in their area.

    They assured the Governor of their unalloyed support and expressed confidence that with what the governor is doing, their communities will not remain the same after his tenure.

    Chief Suru Oyarede, Spokesman of the Aliebiri Traditional Council hailed the Governor for confronting the mangrove forest and constructing road out of the creeks, rivers and rivulets. The spokesman of the Aleibiri Federated Communities, Mr. Egenikabowei Goldpen, said the road was conceptualized in 1979, during the tenure of Chief Melford Okilo, Second Republic governor of old Rivers State, but added that no administration mustered the political will to execute the project.

    “…It is in this context that, when in 2012 you came on board and announced the take-over of the project and your desire to go all out to construct the road, not many thought that it would ever see the light of the day.

    “ Your Excellency sir, today you have shamed the doubting Thomases, the cynics, the political jobbers and all those who have over the years played politics with this critical road. We lack words to appreciate you for what you have done for us as a people. You have wiped away our tears, you have made us feel that we are part of this country,” he said.

    An elated Governor Dickson thanked the people for the reception and show of love, saying what they were experiencing was the fulfilment of a promise made in 2012. The Governor said Sagbama/Ekeremor/Agge road is one of the three senatorial road projects he promised to deliver in order to open up the state from three flanks.

    While stressing that the recession has slowed down his infrastructural revolution, the Governor assured them that ýby December, all manner of vehicles will travel along the road and directed the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure to make that a reality. He promised to be in Aleibiri during the Yuletide season to assess the level of compliance.

    The governor, who spoke mainly in Ijaw language, explained that the need to connect communities in the state to the capital, Yenagoa necessitated the vision to construct the road and the other two senatorial roads.

    While assuring them of the commitment of his government to improve on their living conditions, the governor announced that the few communities around the area that are yet to be connected to the national grid will soon be linked up.

    Former Deputy Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Murktar Shagari, who was also on the Governor’s entourage marvelled at the boldness of the governor to construct the Sagbama/Ekeremor/ Agge road on such a swampy and treacherous terrain. While acknowledging that the economic recession slowed ýdown the pace of the work, Shagari said the governor must be commended for persisting with it against all odds.

    When completed, the Sagbama/Ekeremor/ Agge Road, will be one of the legacy projects of the present administration and facilitate access to far-flung communities in the Bayelsa West senatorial zone.

    There are many Aleibiris in the Niger Delta and particularly in Bayelsa. The pathetic story of Aleibiri is a metaphor for the neglect of the entire region by the Federal Government. As we speak, many oil producing communities across the state including Brass which hosts one of the oil major terminals is not accessible by road.  It is inconceivable that a people whose ancestral lands produce the mainstay of the country’s economy are cut off from civilization. The Federal Government must quickly wake up to its responsibility, by partnering with the state to construct the  Yenagoa/ Oporoma/ Koluama road otherwise known as the Bayelsa Central Senatorial Road as well as, take the Bayelsa East Senatorial Road to Brass as quickly as possible. Until the three senatorial roads are fixed, the Cargo International Airport, the Agge Deep Seaport, Brass LNG and Brass Fertilizer come to fruition, the glory of all lands will continue to remain in the backwaters!

     

    • Agbo is Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Bayelsa State

  • Public debt burden and corruption

    The tangled web of falsehood and deceit had enmeshed the very soul Nigeria’s state and its political actors”. Some of them certainly have a great deal of fancy and a very good memory, but with a perverse ingenuity. They employ these qualities in sleaze and malfeasance when serving in public offices of trust.

    The maxim that; “no one does anything from a single motive” is very apt when discussing the cancerous proportion of corruption in the Nigerian government at any time in history. Successive governments since independence kept preaching, pontificating high moral ground in the fight against corruption. It was just a mere 10% contract kickback that angered some young overzealous Army Officers’ into staging the first military putsch in Nigeria.

    “All happy families are alike, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” So, at independence, all countries on the African continent shared the same characteristics of dependency, but peculiar proportion of corruption. It is on this premise that Nigeria, the giant of the continent, has continually shown the world that it is truly the African giant. A former Britain Prime Minister once without mincing words described Nigeria as fantastically corrupt.

    This historical background intends as merely a corroborative detail, to add verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and cliché narrative of corruption trajectory in Nigeria. “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward.” Now, I will fast-forward this conversation through the passage of time into the present. In spite of the huge natural resources deposited under the ground that the territorial sovereign state of Nigeria covers, the country is rated poor by World Bank index. Other international economic and financial institutions have the same verdict for Nigeria.

    To exacerbate what seems an endless cyclical trend among successive ruling elite, international financial institutional and donor agencies have conspired in a concerted pattern of pervasive capital flight  to impoverish Nigerians and enslave them the second time. This is a clear case of the second era of slavery some young  African revolutionaries cried out as a warning long time ago.

    Walter Rodney, Frantz Fanon, Amicar Cabral, Patrick Lumumba, Kwame Nkuruma, Thomas Sankara, Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Bob Nesta Marley in their lifetime raised their prophetic voices against at independence and shortly after. Social Development Integrated Centre (Social Action) in its media parley recently has this poser as the focus of interrogation. I do not need to belabour myself and my esteemed reading public the summary of Nigeria’s total public debt, stock and external.

    It is on this understanding of the working of the system that “Foreign Loans”, Budgetary Allocations are perennially diverted from its original purpose to the unknown. This is why there exist a scary proportion of poverty, infrastructure deficits, crime, religious fundamentalism, terrorism and general disillusion by the masses.

    Nigeria’s parliament must show leadership and place moratorium on further borrowing by the country and order immediate investigation into the usage of the past borrowings. Details of past borrowing and the projects executed with the funds must be made available to the public and compliance with the letters of the FRA.

    Secondly, I am equally in support of mobilizing the masses for a revolutionary from below to uproot the dominant capitalist status quo and enthrone Socialism as a possible alternative for a better society.

    Ameh is National Convener Generation for Revolutionary Change from Below

  • Stella Obasanjo: A Collector’s Biography (2)

    Stella Obasanjo: A Collector’s Biography (2)

    I was grieved to hear of the passing of Barrister Babajide Tinubu, the eldest son of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.  I commiserate with the entire Tinubu family, may the good Lord comfort you all at this time. – Princess

    She was a onetime Miss Ogbe Hard Court Beauty Queen. But Stella was petite in stature – and you know how smallish people are!  She would mount a rostrum and the podium would cover her up to the rim of her glasses – real quick, she would ask that the podium be removed.

    ‘People want to see me’, she would say unabashedly and laugh.  And it was true, too.  Like all smallish people, they just have to be the star attraction.

    If Stella Obasanjo liked you she liked you.  Like the actress Empress Njamah, Timaya’s onetime flame for instance.  She said she was Mrs. Obasanjo’s favourite actress, and she would know, Stella must have said it and shown it.

    Her school daughters and friends from Ibadan all enjoyed the benefits of having a First Lady School mother – so did all their spouses!  Mrs. Dupe Jemibewon and Ms. Evelyn Oputu (former MD, Bank of Industry) are just a few of them.  Her friends were always around her.  The flip side is where she DIDN’T like you.  This fate befell hapless Amina Titi Atiku Abubakar.  Titi, in less than 5 months after husband was sworn in as Vice President, set up WOTCLEF, the Woman Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation in October 1999.  Before this time, the Nigeria government had been playing the ostrich over Nigerian child trafficking and sex slavery which had become a monumental problem in Italy, the end destination [then].  It was only in 2003, 4 years later that the Federal Government established NAPTIP (anti – trafficking in persons agency) – before then all trafficked girls were being catered for single handedly by Titi; maybe by a few well-meaning people as well.

    THIS DID NOT SIT WELL WITH STELLA! One day someone asked – “Does Stella Obasanjo have a pet project? I thought it was only Titi Abubakar who had one!”

    Good grief, it was as if that question mysteriously reached Stella’s ears!  Stella actually had a pet project, Child Care Trust but its impact was not quite the same as Titi’s.  To put it mildly.

    So Stella could not stand Titi.  She put her in a sad position at every turn.  Meek Titi never once whimpered.  That was in contrast to her husband who finally had to cry out under OBJ’s cruel oppression, for ‘disloyalty’ to him (OBJ).

    Stella and Titi had so much in common and it all should really have gone the other way.  They were both Catholics both married uniformed men.   Beautiful women in their own right; fair ‘white’ ladies, they both loved the use of heavy makeup, something that really bewildered many; A 2005 write up described Titi as a seemingly unfading beauty.  Titi, I first saw in Yola in 2003 and then at a wedding last year.  She’s still the same beauty in over 10 years.

    Whatever blemishes they felt aware of could have been handled by a touch of concealer, surely!  But they LOVED their baby pancake.

    Then Stella did the unthinkable.  She admitted Nikki, a much younger beauty queen and socialite into her circle of friends; forming a part of her entourage.  Nikki then was a known lady friend of her enemy (Titi’s) husband!

    One would be quick to shout – women and their ugly jealousy – but I will only counter; LIKE HUSBAND; LIKE WIFE.  Would you know that even Stella saw hell from OBJ over her perceived role in the Atiku loyalty/disloyalty saga!

    You’ve got to understand that in Nigerian public office, one swears loyalty to the federal republic ONLY for the camera – you must pledge your loyalty to the BIG MAN AT THE TOP OF YOU at every level you are, or he will deal with you viciously and mercilessly.

    Woe betide you if you have higher future political ambition – NO, not in Nigeria’s political dispensation; (that was Atiku’s crime).

    The Atikus, husband and wife really suffered under the Obasanjos, husband and wife.

    As they say, no human being is perfect.  I myself writing this, am far from prefect!!  But this is just an account, I cannot paint Stella as being perfect the way some people have done. Beyond this, she was a silent but real achiever.

    It is strange(!) how mail has a way of going missing when sent to Aso Rock Villa!  But if any letter successfully got to the Office of the First Lady, Stella treated it, and every single letter, personally.  Then there was no social media.  I remember one letter in which a policewoman who had been stagnated on one rank for about 16 years running, had written to Stella to intervene.  Stella’s treating the issue promptly rectified the injustice.  She always championed women’s causes.  But men also wrote to the First Lady with their issues as well!  During her tenure Stella handled everyone’s issues: man, woman, regardless.

    The very sociable Stella had no airs or pretenses about her; in fact she had nothing to do with proud or high – minded people.  Stella loved ‘functions’ and would always show up dressed to the hilt.  Ade Bakare Couture London was a staple; he designed clothes for the English aristocracy and for international celebrities.  Stella even introduced Ade to OBJ and he was designing for both, at a time.  Ade Bakare would be flown in from London with fabric samples and take dress measurements, then fly back in from London with his garments.  Stella was avant-garde.

    Party loving, she also threw big ones.  Her grandmother’s burial of all things literally brought the nation to a standstill.  All high ranking functionaries were there!  Yep, she knew how to work the system.

    Still, she cherished relationships.  People get into positions of authority and then become too ‘high’ to visit or even associate with their friends (for those who used to go visiting before).  Not so Stella.  It is no wonder that you see women who were once at the very top; but when they or their spouses leave office and they return to their villages – no woman would care to go see them.  Be Nice To Those You Meet On Your Way UP…

    In the concluding part: The day Bola Tinubu named a Black Sunday.  And Beyond.

     

    • 07055547031. SMS/Whatsapp.

     

  • No armour against fate, Asiwaju Tinubu

    No armour against fate, Asiwaju Tinubu

    There is no time more apt to recall the expression above than now for our leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on the loss of his first son, Jide.

    What do you explain to a man whose son was devoured by a lion? Or, what sermon, of standing straight and ramrod, does one preach to a hunch-back? But the Holy Books tell us that we will go through trials, tribulations, etc but that none of them will subdue us. Or, can anyone suffer a fate worse than Job’s?

    The loss of a son is a pain, deep enough and more so when he is the first one; but trust the Yorubas rich philosophy. They explain this type of tragedy away by saying “the child that’s destined to bury his parents, will not exit the world before them.”

    I know that Asiwaju Tinubu’s life is sufficient testimony on the goodness and greatness of the Almighty God to want to belabour the point of trying to sermonise to him to take heart on this great loss of his. He’s in the good company of great politicians and statesmen like one of his heroes, Chief Obafemi Awolowo who got better, not bitter, by such tragedies.

    “Difficulties (and tragedies) mastered are opportunity won. A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.”

    May our revered Asiwaju be consoled from Above!