The Nation Newspaper

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  • Nigeria’s foggy educational landscape: The way out

    WHAT Nigeria’s Educational landscape is not in the best of shapes is like stating the obvious. Here is a country where the yearly budgetary allocation for education is abysmally lower than the UNESCO recommendation of 26% of the annual budget of a nation, a country where its citizens think they could give birth to children and donate such children to government to train for them. But should this be allowed to continue before our very eyes? Are there no ways out of this unfriendly quagmire? To borrow the language of Nigeria’s pop Musician, Olamide: “Se ba se ma wa leleyi?” which translates roughly to “Is this the way things will continue to be?” But Nigeria’s frontline legal icon and Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, seems to have an answer as he has posited that Nigeria’s crave for accessible, affordable and available education may remain a mirage unless its constitution recognizes the basic right of its citizens to education as a justiciable and enforceable right. A man who should know, the former Pro Chancellor and Chairman of Council of University of Lagos, UNILAG, frowned at the situation whereby the 1999 constitution foisted on Nigerians by the Military put the all-important subject of Education under Chapter II of the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy which provides that: “The Government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy; and to this end Government shall, as and when practicable, provide (a) free, compulsory and universal primary education; (b) free secondary education; (c) free university education; and (d) free adult literacy programme”.

    As good and robust as these provisions are, Section 6(6) (c), of the same constitution however provides that the Judiciary shall have no powers to decide on any issue or question as to whether any act of omission by any authority or person is in conformity with the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy. Wittingly or unwittingly, this provision makes it impossible for citizens to sue the government for failing to provide free or quality education. In essence, like a Greek gift, the constitution in one breadth contains wishful aspirations or dreams about education, and in another breadth takes it away from the citizens. Babalola therefore stressed that there is an urgent need to modify these archaic provisions, including Chapter IV of the Constitution where the right to education is sadly cosmetic, being a chapter that cannot be enforced in any court of law in Nigeria, and recognize education as an important and enforceable fundamental human right in Nigeria.

    His words: “While other serious countries have guaranteed the right to education through enforceable legal instruments that empower citizens to hold the political class accountable for failing to finance education, Nigerian citizens are left to depend on the goodwill of the ruling class or to pursue incessant strike actions, due to the failure of the political class to protect, defend and fulfill the Fundamental Human Rights to education”. He added: “Not only have governments failed to finance and equip our educational systems to be qualitative, competitive and functional, they have also failed to address barriers to educational access such as endemic poverty and conflicts. “In the light of the gaps in Nigerian laws, and the perennial failure of the political class to properly finance and equip our institutions of learning, a complex paradox and dialectic faced by University reformers like myself is the challenge of how to achieve educational security, i.e. the Accessibility, Affordability and Availability of quality in Nigeria”.

    But Babalola who spoke as the Guest Speaker at the 2017 Edition of the Annual Lecture of the Faculty of Education of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, yesterday saw a ray of hope now that Nigeria for the first time has a Professor of Law (Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN), as Vice President. According to him, expectations are high now about positive reforms to provide more robust protection for educational rights in Nigeria given Osinbajo’s understanding of the gaps created by this provision. Speaking on “The Difficult March Toward Educational Security in Nigeria: Law, Policy and Governance Imperatives”, Babalola xrayed what he described as “Pathways to Education Security” including Enforceable Constitutional Right to Education, Sustained Budgeting and Funding and Investment in Research and Innovation as well as the Peculiar Nigerian factors. In his view, unless factors like population, philanthropy, giving and attitude of Nigerians to giving as well as the place of Alumni in the running of Universities, which are peculiar to Nigeria are effectively and decisively dealt with, all efforts to actualize educational security would end in vain. Worried that Nigeria has found it increasingly difficult to relate the growth in its population to the resources available to government in the midst of several needs it has to provide for, he said perhaps the time has come for government to peg the number of children per family to two.

    His words: “When China woke up to the reality of population explosion starring it in the face, it pegged the number of children per family to one. When the growth in population stabilized, China recently amended the law allowing a family to have a second child. However, any family which chooses to raise a second child will be responsible for the education of the second child while the government will be responsible for the education of the first child only”. He added: “On the contrary, Nigeria continues to revel in the unwholesome habit of giving birth to a multitude of children. For example, a friend of mine called me three weeks ago and with relish told me that his 13 children and 34 grandchildren came to visit him. One recalls the story of a 93 year old Mohammed Bello Abubakar who has 97 wives and 185 children.

    As a matter of fact, Bello at some point had 107 wives but the number got reduced to 97 after he had divorced 10 of them. “With this type of horrendous picture, the time has come for the government to frankly convince the people of the need to moderate the number of children they raise. I, on my part would recommend only two children per family. “The government must make it abundantly clear that there is a limit to the amount of money it can provide for education in the midst of competing areas of need.

    The politicians particularly those angling to be governors should stop deceiving the populace that, if elected, they would provide free education. This is how we came about several State Universities which are only universities in name and are not better than glorified Secondary Schools. You must have read reports on how students in a State University hire sheep pens for accommodation and the surrounding bush as toilets”. But it would appear that all hope is not lost if all stakeholders in the education sector appreciate that they have pivotal, sacred and indispensable roles to play in contributing their voices, ideas and opinions to debates on how qualitative education can be more accessible, available and affordable in Nigeria, with Babalola stressing that “government inertia or failure is not the greatest loss, the greatest loss is when educated minds fail to inspire the next generation”. • Olofintila wrote from Ado-Ekiti

  • ‘We are ready to pick the next Olota’

    ‘We are ready to pick the next Olota’

    Since the death of the last Olota of Ota Oba Salami Oyelusi Oyede, about a year ago, a successor is yet to be installed. However, the traditional council has been up and doing in the making of a new traditional ruler of Ota. The general secretary of Ijemo- Isolosi ruling house(the next ruling house to produce a successor), Alhaji Abdulramon Adesoji Asalu speaks to ADENIYI ADEWOYIN at the Office of the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Abeokuta, Ogun State, on the challenges facing the selection of the next Olota and the preparations so far. Excerpts:

    FOR some time now the throne has been without a king since the demise of the late king about a year ago and I understand that it takes approximately 3months for the traditional rites… what has been happening? Yes, like you said the ritual took only three months and that is almost eight months ago since we completed the entire traditional rite for the late Olota but it usually take long to enthrone a new king even as far back as 1927 it hasn’t been easy to select a candidate because there is usually many intending contestants. Okay, which family is next to produce the Olota? The next family to produce the Olota is the Ijemo-Isolosi ruling house which is the first ruling house in Ota. When was the last time that particular house produced a king? It was in 1947 How do you get to decide which family produces the Olota? It is in rotation.

    After the death of the then Olota which is Ikowogbe ruling house in 1947 because the then Olota’s (Oba Salami Oyelusi Oyede) it was the turn of Ijemo-Isolosi again to present the next Olota.

    There were too many candidates but the two most prominent of them were Chief Titi Dada and Timothy Fadina which became a ding dong and they had to go to court. However, the elders consulted the oracle and it favoured Titi Dada (he is the father of the present Senator Gbolahan Dada) but the other side felt it was not right so they went to court at Ibadan but eventually the judgment wasn’t in favour of Titi Dada, they said the way he was selected was not in customary with the chieftaincy law as of that time but Chief Titi Dada appealed that judgment to West African Court of Appeal (WACA) but at the end of the day they court dismissed the case and asked the court to install Chief Titi Dada. Since there was a political involvement, the backers of Timothy Fadina then were very strong so as soon as they heard about the judgment at Tinubu they quickly ran back to Ota and asked all the traditional chiefs to disappear from the town so from 3months after judgment Titi Dada couldn’t see anyone to perform the traditional rites which would confirm him as the Olota.

    Meanwhile, during that three months they had taken his opponent to Abeokuta where he performed his Ipebi rites and suddenly we just heard that they had selected the Lusa and there was nothing anybody could do and that was how Timithy Fadina was installed in 1949 to 1954. At that time, this ruling house was unable to put another candidate forward because it was now our (Ijemo- Isolosi) own turn that he spent five years on but the same Titi Dada was related to the next ruling house (Ilesi) so he was installed as Olota from Ilesi ruling house where he spent about 38years from 1954 to 1992. Now that we know the next ruling house where the next king would be picked; is there a selected candidate already? The candidates are too many, there are about 23 of them now but the only opportunity we have is to present the princes to the traditional council so they are the ones to select whom they like among the presented candidates but we know who ever they choose belongs to this ruling house.

    But is it about who the traditional council wants or who is qualified? No, you know it’s about the one that fits their standard. We have a data by which we screen them, and then we were able to categorize the first 13 that came into three. According to the information we have from the traditional council; whoever wants to be a candidate must meet or surpass the standard of the past Olota. What we look for is that the person must be well educated, if somebody is too short (a dwarf) he doesn’t fit in, if he’s too young we won’t take him, then he must be able to speak fluently because the last Olota was very vocal and he speaks both English and French fluently, we must know where he had worked, his financial muscle not that we want to take money from him but we don’t like to install an Olota that will go to villages to collect bribe and install a Baale.

    He must be well exposed and connected within Nigeria and outside Nigeria. So those are the qualities by which we look in our candidates. What if in a situation whereby the Ifa chooses someone who isn’t qualified in the ways of the traditional council? Is the Ifa still relevant in the making of Olota? One thing you must know is that court does not recognize Ifa then before we can ask Ifa you must have fit in our data already. From what age is a candidate selected? Not that we stated the age but we believe that experience is not read in the text book, you acquire experience either working under somebody or the other way round. That way we are able to know if a candidate can sit among the elders and make decisions.

    We interview them personally to be able to know what they can do So what is the kingship situation like within the traditional council? We are ready but by Friday we will meet the chairman of the local council to write us demanding the list then we go and inform the head of the family that they have demanded for the list. Then we will sit down with the Olota council and the representative of the commissioner. How long more should be people Ota wait for their next king? All things being equal, before august ending but it would be left to the governor or whoever is supposed to take the next step after choosing somebody that will give us the date to install the next Olota.

  • Tribute to Justice Itam (1955-2017)

    Tribute to Justice Itam (1955-2017)

    The day man unravels the mystery of life and death that day man becomes Divinity. That day will certainly not come as matters of life and death will forever remain in God’s province exclusively because He is the owner and giver of life and He takes it as He pleases. As mortals we can only ponder on the subjects in the firm knowledge that once there is life in our corporeal world, there must be death. Death in essence, though terminating life, is a consequence of life.

    Today, we mournfully and tearfully assemble to ponder on the death, and life, of the Honourable Justice Okoi Ikpi Itam, Chief Judge of Cross River State who died in office on March 19 at the age of 62 years, the second Chief Judge of Cross River State to die in office after the Honourable Justice Emmanuel E.E. Effanga. Death is like rain that must drop on every roof.

    The Holy Writ says “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die….” Ecclesiastes 3.1. For Justice Itam, he has had his time to be born, and now his time to die. We will celebrate his worthy life, a life of love, service, sacrifice to family, humanity, community and the Almighty, his service to his profession, the Law, a profession he was he was passionate about and which gave him definition, and his service to the judiciary. We also mourn his loss, a huge loss to his family, his friends, his community, state, profession, the judiciary, the country and humanity at large. The death of a loved one or someone we know is a sober opportunity to reflect on our own lives, and indeed our own deaths, an immutable certainty, the futility, vanity, emptiness or meaninglessness of life. This reflection should lead us to reconciliation with God and fellow man and woman. What is the meaning of life?

    Again let me resort to the Bible.

    “What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that that there is nothing better than for men to do good while they live.” Ecclesiastes 3. 9-12.

    As faithful mortals we can only but accept Justice Itam’s death as God’s will. Jusice Itam was not just a friend, he was a brother. I recall our undergraduate years and his visits to me in the University of Lagos and mine to him at the Enugu Campus of the University of Nigeria. In 1975 he represented Nigeria in the Philip Jesuit International Law Competition in New York, USA, a competition that attracts the best undergraduate students of international law worldwide and participants would have won their national contests. On his way to New York, he had spent the night with me in my hostel room. Winning the national competition was a feat and he had become a celebrity. He inspired my friends to take part in subsequent national competitions.

    I remember our years as young lawyers, the mutual visits, sharing our dreams of the future, trying to define our professional personae and our roles in society. He was a role model to the younger ones to whom he was” Lobito”. He was colourful. He understood the Law deeply as he did the culture and traditions of his Yakurr people and became an adviser to the Obol Lopon of Ugep at a very early age. His understanding of mechanical devises was even more remarkable. I recall how he spent his weekends dismantling car engines and building them back up. He singlehandedly converted his Volkswagen Beetle car into a sensational sports car.

    He had a remarkable career on the Bench both in Nigeria and the Gambia where he acted as Chief Justice.

    On occasions like this, I ask the question, ’’ when is the best time for someone to die”?

    Before I attempt an answer let me invite us to reflect on the state of our judges and the judiciary in Nigeria today. Though I was not born in the judiciary, I grew up in it. It is for this reason that I was christened “Judiciary pickin”. I grew up in a judiciary where our judges were considered the best in Africa .Our state’s judiciary was so good that our Chief Justice as Chief Judges were then called, Justice Darnley Alexander was appointed Chief Justice of Nigeria. Nigeria exported judges (including Justice Itam) to other African countries and beyond. Judges lived in well maintained and well-furnished homes with standby generators. They had well stocked libraries at home and in the chambers. They had brand new official vehicles with backups. They were entitled to medical check-ups and treatment where necessary abroad. Judges were well looked after by the state and were dignified and incorruptible.

    Can we say the same today? Certainly not. Today Judges live in ramshackle called homes, move around in contraptions called vehicles, are left to their fate regarding their health, and a collection of a few ancient texts for libraries at home and in their chambers. The judiciary also has been in the news for reasons that are not edifying. While the judiciary must do some introspection and self-cleansing to regain public confidence and trust, government, at all levels, must live up to its responsibility to the judiciary. Funding of the judiciary is a constitutional matter and the constitutional provisions should be strictly adhered to. Our judges should be well looked after. Government must use Justice Itam’s death to reflect on whether it did all it could have done for him. If it did, so be it, if it did not let no other judge die where he or she could have been helped.

    My Lords, learned colleagues, the best time to die is when one dies. For Justice Itam, it was his time to die. The appointment with death does not admit of adjournment or postponement and so it shall be for each one of us. It is an appointment that must be promptly kept. For Justice Itam like St. Paul – “He has fought a good fight, he has finished his course, he has kept the faith, now there is a crown of righteousness, which the  Lord, the righteous judge will award to him on that day – not only to   him, but also to all who have longed for his appearing .”

    Goodnight My Lord, farewell and rest in perfect peace in the bosom of your Maker, a rest you have earned eternally.

     

    • Senator Ndoma-Egba is Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)

     

  • Tribute to Justice Itam (1955-2017)

    The day man unravels the mystery of life and death that day man becomes Divinity. That day will certainly not come as matters of life and death will forever remain in God’s province exclusively because He is the owner and giver of life and He takes it as He pleases. As mortals we can only ponder on the subjects in the firm knowledge that once there is life in our corporeal world, there must be death. Death in essence, though terminating life, is a consequence of life.

    Today, we mournfully and tearfully assemble to ponder on the death, and life, of the Honourable Justice Okoi Ikpi Itam, Chief Judge of Cross River State who died in office on March 19 at the age of 62 years, the second Chief Judge of Cross River State to die in office after the Honourable Justice Emmanuel E.E. Effanga. Death is like rain that must drop on every roof.

    The Holy Writ says “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die….” Ecclesiastes 3.1. For Justice Itam, he has had his time to be born, and now his time to die. We will celebrate his worthy life, a life of love, service, sacrifice to family, humanity, community and the Almighty, his service to his profession, the Law, a profession he was he was passionate about and which gave him definition, and his service to the judiciary. We also mourn his loss, a huge loss to his family, his friends, his community, state, profession, the judiciary, the country and humanity at large. The death of a loved one or someone we know is a sober opportunity to reflect on our own lives, and indeed our own deaths, an immutable certainty, the futility, vanity, emptiness or meaninglessness of life. This reflection should lead us to reconciliation with God and fellow man and woman. What is the meaning of life?

    Again let me resort to the Bible.

    “What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that that there is nothing better than for men to do good while they live.” Ecclesiastes 3. 9-12.

    As faithful mortals we can only but accept Justice Itam’s death as God’s will. Jusice Itam was not just a friend, he was a brother. I recall our undergraduate years and his visits to me in the University of Lagos and mine to him at the Enugu Campus of the University of Nigeria. In 1975 he represented Nigeria in the Philip Jesuit International Law Competition in New York, USA, a competition that attracts the best undergraduate students of international law worldwide and participants would have won their national contests. On his way to New York, he had spent the night with me in my hostel room. Winning the national competition was a feat and he had become a celebrity. He inspired my friends to take part in subsequent national competitions.

    I remember our years as young lawyers, the mutual visits, sharing our dreams of the future, trying to define our professional personae and our roles in society. He was a role model to the younger ones to whom he was” Lobito”. He was colourful. He understood the Law deeply as he did the culture and traditions of his Yakurr people and became an adviser to the Obol Lopon of Ugep at a very early age. His understanding of mechanical devises was even more remarkable. I recall how he spent his weekends dismantling car engines and building them back up. He singlehandedly converted his Volkswagen Beetle car into a sensational sports car.

    He had a remarkable career on the Bench both in Nigeria and the Gambia where he acted as Chief Justice.

    On occasions like this, I ask the question, ’’ when is the best time for someone to die”?

    Before I attempt an answer let me invite us to reflect on the state of our judges and the judiciary in Nigeria today. Though I was not born in the judiciary, I grew up in it. It is for this reason that I was christened “Judiciary pickin”. I grew up in a judiciary where our judges were considered the best in Africa .Our state’s judiciary was so good that our Chief Justice as Chief Judges were then called, Justice Darnley Alexander was appointed Chief Justice of Nigeria. Nigeria exported judges (including Justice Itam) to other African countries and beyond. Judges lived in well maintained and well-furnished homes with standby generators. They had well stocked libraries at home and in the chambers. They had brand new official vehicles with backups. They were entitled to medical check-ups and treatment where necessary abroad. Judges were well looked after by the state and were dignified and incorruptible.

    Can we say the same today? Certainly not. Today Judges live in ramshackle called homes, move around in contraptions called vehicles, are left to their fate regarding their health, and a collection of a few ancient texts for libraries at home and in their chambers. The judiciary also has been in the news for reasons that are not edifying. While the judiciary must do some introspection and self-cleansing to regain public confidence and trust, government, at all levels, must live up to its responsibility to the judiciary. Funding of the judiciary is a constitutional matter and the constitutional provisions should be strictly adhered to. Our judges should be well looked after. Government must use Justice Itam’s death to reflect on whether it did all it could have done for him. If it did, so be it, if it did not let no other judge die where he or she could have been helped.

    My Lords, learned colleagues, the best time to die is when one dies. For Justice Itam, it was his time to die. The appointment with death does not admit of adjournment or postponement and so it shall be for each one of us. It is an appointment that must be promptly kept. For Justice Itam like St. Paul – “He has fought a good fight, he has finished his course, he has kept the faith, now there is a crown of righteousness, which the  Lord, the righteous judge will award to him on that day – not only to   him, but also to all who have longed for his appearing .”

    Goodnight My Lord, farewell and rest in perfect peace in the bosom of your Maker, a rest you have earned eternally.

     

    • Senator Ndoma-Egba is Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)

  • Ambode: All clear for airport road project

    On Wednesday, May 31, acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, ended the controversy between Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode and his predecessor, now Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, when he granted the latter the permission to go ahead with the total reconstruction of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), road in Lagos.

    Those who have followed the development, would recall how Ambode, on March 8, cried out to the whole world about how the minister, was practically constituting a stumbling block to the road project, one of the components of his vision to make Lagos stand at par with other mega cities of the world.

    Of course, Fashola, in his counter, with behind-the-scene engagements between Abuja and Lagos, depicted the governor as being economical with the truth, insisting that it was the need to go through the full process that caused the delay and not other sinister motive(s) as Ambode implied.

    Well, other bits and pieces, odds and ends that followed thereof, not only went further to emphasise that all was not well with and within the camps of the two very significant and highly relevant personalities of the Lagos politics, but that the said road, was going to be a victim of the ostensible mortal feud.

    Even with the later-day photo-ops of smiling faces of the two during subsequent meetings, many people still found it hard believing there is a significant thaw in their apparent frosty relationship.

    That Fashola, was virtually missing in action, during the events that commemorated the 50th anniversary of Lagos State, when he was supposed to be one of the visible figures, only went to emphasise, the half-empty narrative, with the concomitant interpretation that the project was still caught in the crossfire of the fight of the elephants.

    Perhaps, it might even be true that both have since truly mended fences, after that first apparent public spat, thus, leaving leave everything else in the domain of mere conjectures. But what cannot be regarded as such is the implication of the intervention of the acting President.

    Ambode, had told his audience at the press conference that he had gathered enough money to get the project going and completed in record time and only needed the approval to get on.

    Now, only those not conversant with the said road would be lost on what reconstructing it in the manner the governor suggests would imply. This is a stretch that could constitute a significant distress if not a fatal end for the uninitiated. For a motorist exiting the airport, a single mistake, made in a matter split-second-decision at the maze of its intersections, had actually led to a sort of point-of-no-return in some cases.

    Some of the victims, had actually found themselves at Mile 2, in which case it took them some hours to make a simple U-turn or even as farther as Apapa, where, having been unlucky to get caught in its legendry gridlocks, they spent a whole day to correct the error.

    Now, this is what Ambode wants to remedy, with his enticing option of a complete reworking, not only in concept, but in the actual facilities on ground.

    Hear the governor: “The state currently has a design of 10 lanes from Oshodi to the International Airport with interchange and flyover that would drop towards the local airport. The contractor is set to go and everything as I said has been completed and we already have the cash, but alas we are having challenges with the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. This is a Federal and not a state road. The Federal Ministry of Works believes that they should do the road, but they have not been able to do it all these years past.”

    The fact that the governor has completed similar projects in the last two years, is a demonstrable evidence, which naturally would inspire confidence that the airport road might not be a mirage stirred by politics. Such projects like the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu link bridge at Mosan in Alimosho, the Ajah Roundabout connecting bridge and the Abule-Egba Bridge, as well as the Berger corridors, done within the period, readily come to the fore.

    Much has also been said about the quality of the said projects, meant not only to solve the age-long legendry Lagos traffic, but ensuring that they meet the standards of the governor’s idea of a mega-city.

    In fact, the complete illumination on these roads, one of its major features has ensured that Lagos is today, the only city outside Abuja, the Federal Capital City (FCT) where motorists could conveniently drive at night in virtually all the major roads without headlights, as seen in other developed nations of the world.

    Naturally, when Ambode is cited in some quarters as one of the stars that signpost the change mantra of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in real and positive terms, many hardly begrudge him, as these landmark projects come into view.

    Osinbajo’s intervention, therefore, should be a jolt in the arm to the governor in his bid to transform the state. It also strikes a chord that will change the music in terms of people’s expectation that the governor would hit the ground soon.

    Indeed, it is a tempting option for many Nigerians to take sides with the governor were he to continue feuding with his predecessor for the singular reason that Lagos does not only enjoy a special status as a mini-Nigeria, where virtually all citizens maintain one link or the other, but a veritable international player, through which Nigeria is measured in the eyes of many foreign countries.

    That Osinbajo, has cured the dog-in-manger factor in airport road project, assuming there was one, is therefore a significant development, but one to be applauded.

    Incidentally, no one person has been able to build a country, or in this case, a state alone. The best such individual efforts have achieved, for which they enjoy their specific space in history, is to produce and provide the architecture and mechanism.

    For the Lagos governor, the situation becomes even more pointed that he does not enjoy the latitude or longevity in office of the likes of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, Malaysia’s Prime Mahathir bin Mohamad or the autocracy and iron-fist character of South Korea’s Park Chung-hee, with which they brought about the transformation of their countries into modern day giants.

    He has just six out of his eight years remaining through which he must accomplish his dream Lagos or step aside to watch. Within this period, he could actually put the state on such a galloping pedestal that the mega city project would emerge quicker and irreversibly, or stand aside and watch at the mercy of his successor what comes next.

    Much suggests that the governor’s cup for now is actually half-full rather than half-empty. By the time the airport road project is added to the list of what is already in the kitty, there is no doubt that even if the mega city project is not achieved in full, he would have successfully nailed all the planks together to form a platform for its foundation or even erect the permanent structure, which would only need mere paintworks or shining to complete.

    There is no reason to suspect any negative change in the picture as events unfold within the remaining period, if things do not go significantly awry outside what the governor could manage.

     

    • Igboanugo, a journalist, writes from Abuja.

     

  • Onalaja: Activist judge, compassionate Christian

    The passage of the Hon. Justice Moronkeji Omotayo Onalaja has, deservedly, elicited an outpouring of tributes on the rich lessons his exit represents for Nigeria, the legal profession, the Church of Nigeria and humanity.

    I first met him in 1985.  I had gone to see his eldest child, Lawunmi. After being ushered into his Ikeja GRA sitting room, there, on a brown sofa, alone, was a bald, chubby man, wearing a pair of white vest on blue shorts. It was my first visit there. I wasn’t expecting to meet him so casually dressed. “Good evening sir”, I managed to greet him, accompanied with a bow. He looked at me sternly, toes to head, and answered “Good evening”. “I’m here to see Lawunmi sir”, I added. He kept looking at me and after a while, he waved me to a seat. He took a sip from a cup beside his seat, watching me as I lowered my gaze. Shortly after his daughter introduced us, Justice Onalaja excused himself and made for his study. He was to remain there until I took my leave an hour later. Soon after I learnt that the shorts and vest were his preferred uniform when writing judgments at home.

    Over time as his son-in-law, I was to learn that whilst “Milord” may come across as stern, he was truly a warm soul, wonderful ally in worthy causes, and witty conversationalist whose face always brightened whenever the subject veered to law, the church or a new book he had just read or heard about. Indeed, his life was governed by four forces: the Church of God, his family, the rule of law and a deep notion of friendship.

    All his life, the church loomed large in his socialisation, cementing the training he received at home. His spiritual foundation was laid at King’s Church, Enuwa where he attended Sunday School, nurtured further at Holy Trinity School and Christ Church Cathedral School Lagos where he had his primary education and at CMS Grammar School, where he received his secondary education. Throughout his stay in the United Kingdom for his law training, Onalaja deepened his knowledge of Christ.  On return to Nigeria, he was one of the founding members of St. Anne’s Church, Ibadan in 1961, where he was available for laudable causes. Later he served the Diocese of Ibadan as Chancellor 2001-2011, and as Lay Deputy President, 2012-2017.

    This joyful devotion to please and serve God Almighty and ask for his direction without counting the cost shaped a regimen of fasting which his children felt was injurious to his health and needed moderation. Six years ago, on observing a drastic weight loss, the children arranged for him to see a doctor in Lagos and moved him from Ibadan. Listening to his conversation with the doctor, you would think Justice Onalaja was the doctor and the doctor, his patient. He did not agree his fasting routine was injurious to his health or his workload was too heavy. If he needed any medical opinion, he would consult Professor Ladipo Akinkugbe, his friend. He had only agreed to see this Lagos doctor to humour his children. After much persuasion, he agreed to embark on the course of treatment, and to the glory of God he became much better.

    Born July 24, 1933 to the family of Daniel Tekumo, a World War II veteran, and Susanna Onalaja of Ijebu Ode, Omotayo Onalaja studied Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, earning his LL.B and LL.M degrees in 1956 and 1958 respectively. He was called to the English Bar in Inner Temple on June 16, 1959, and enrolled as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on June 14, 1960. As a private practitioner, he was diligent. He was defence counsel to Prof. Soyanwo who was charged with obstructing the convoy of then Premier of Western Region, Chief Ladoke Akintola. Prof. Soyanwo was discharged on Onalaja’s ingenious defence that a moving vehicle could hardly constitute an obstruction.  He was also part of the legal team that successfully defended Prof. Wole Soyinka in the Mystery Gunman case in 1965.  While in private practice (1960-1980) he was a founding editor of the Nigerian Monthly Law Reports, from 1964 to 1980.

    His industry in practice earned him a seat on the Bench of the Lagos High Court in September 1980. As a High Court judge, he was a renowned judicial activist, whose guiding maxim was Fiat Justitia uat cælum: Let justice be done though the heavens fall. This principle underpinned his landmark ruling in the Constitutional Rights Project v. President of the Federal Republic suit of 1993. The CRP had approached the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights to restrain the government of General Ibrahim Babangida from executing Major General Zamani Lekwot (rtd.) and six others as the Judicial Tribunal on Civil and Communal Disturbances in Zango-Kataf had decided. The African Commission assumed jurisdiction and duly restrained the government. Since the trial was held under the Civil Disturbance (Special Tribunal) Amendment Decree 43 of 1992, which forbade any appeal to civil courts, save only a plea for mitigation to the Armed Forces Ruling Council, the government raised a preliminary objection at a Lagos High Court asking for a dismissal of the CRP’s action for lack of locus standi of the applicants. Justice Onalaja disagreed, holding that not only did CRP have locus standi but also that he had jurisdiction to entertain the substantive issues of the matter. He held that an international law to which Nigeria is a signatory is superior to a domestic law, which purports to oust the court’s jurisdiction. His courageous decision saved the lives of the Zango-Kataf seven and created a precedent in Nigerian judicial history.

    In 1993, Justice Onalaja was elevated to the Court of Appeal where he served in the Port Harcourt, Lagos and Ibadan divisions. His erudition ensured that throughout his career on the Bench, none of his judgments was ever upturned by the Supreme Court. No wonder the respected Hon. Justice Kayode Esho, JSC, declared in 2004 that “The Hon. Justice Onalaja is, by any standard anywhere, a great judge. He has consistently been a pride to the Nigerian law, and would feature forever in our judicial history even yet to come.” With his judicial record untainted, he bowed out of the Court of Appeal on July 29, 2003 at age 70 with honour and dignity.

    In another first for him, Justice Onalaja compiled his various speeches whilst serving on the Bench into four volumes of Commentaries from the Bench, a wellspring of legal scholarship, which further bolstered his scholarly credentials. Two books on Law (The Pursuit of Justice and Development and Legal Issues for Contemporary Justice in Nigeria) were published in his honour. A third, Oracle of the Bench: A Legalpaedia of Hon. Justice M. O. Onalaja’s Landmark Judgments, captures his landmark judgments. In 2006, he was honoured with the LL.D degree (Honoris Causa) of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye where he served on the Governing Board for 19 years. The university’s law faculty, to date, has organised three annual lectures in his honour. As Chairman of the Council of Legal Education 2003-2011, he received the Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR) award in 2004.

    He saw in a free and responsible media a necessary partner for national development, which was why beyond filial consideration, he endowed in perpetuity the Judicial Reporting prize of the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) in 2002. He was later named the first Independent Press Ombudsman by the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria in 2009.

    He couldn’t have achieved all he did without God’s favour who blessed him with a good wife and a loving home. His marriage to Margaret Folasade Onalaja (nee Ogunsanya) provided the perfect vessel to bring into the world six delightful children. With her death on October 19, 2002, a part of him also died. As his remains are interred on Saturday, June 16 (the 58th anniversary of his call to bar), we pray his rich legacies would endure in the land he loved so much.

     

    • Idowu, is a Trustee of the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME).

  • Lagos chaplain’s sack: Facts behind emotions

    It all reads like a fairy tale. Bolanle, wife of Lagos State governor, Akinwumi Ambode got the chaplain of Chapel of Christ The Light Alausa, Venerable Femi Taiwo sacked for allegedly disrespecting the First Lady during an anointing service on May 14.

    The sacked chaplain allegedly incurred the wrath of the ‘all-powerful’ First Lady when he refused to anoint her ahead of other members of the church. For his audacity, the innocent chaplain was booted out in 24 hours from his official residence with the hapless family.

    No one will read such a report and not been gutted. A ‘common’ chaplain has been relieved of his job for doing virtually nothing wrong. The First Lady, like most elite Nigerians, wanted preferential treatment and stormed out of the chapel, refusing all entreaties to be appeased.

    It’s all so easy to take sides in a matter of this nature. In fact, most Nigerians have. But it’s better to separate facts from fictions. It’s safer to consider the issue dispassionately without holding brief for either party. It’s nicer to get over the emotive reactions to consider what’s really at stake.

    First, I am of the considered opinion that the sack was reported to the media. Punch newspaper, which broke the story with several follow-up reports, couldn’t have discovered the development without a tip-off. So, who tipped off the media? Could it have been the aggrieved priest or sympathetic members?

    Like most initiates are aware, when the media is tipped-off for such a sensational story, there is always a motive. So, what’s the motive? Could it have been to get ‘justice’ for the priest? Or is to fight back a perceived powerful force? To put the First Lady where she belongs?

    Okay, let’s review the events of May 14 based on media reports.  The First Lady, a member of the church, reportedly arrived the service early. For some time, according to the media, she had been nursing resentment towards Venerable Taiwo. Who goes to a church where the officiating priest is seen as hostile or not well-meaning?

    When it was time for the anointing, Mrs Ambode reportedly chose to go forward along with other willing church members. If there was a no love-lost, pray will she want to be anointed by the same priest? Won’t she know that the intercession of a priest you don’t believe in cannot be answered?

    The Punch’s report said she stormed out of the church. But if such an important personality had other urgent issues to attend to, could that be said to be a storming off? I guess Nigerians like to play the victim’s card. It’s a ploy that many guilty Nigerians play on to maximum effect.

    If the First Lady indicated interest in getting the anointing oil, protocol dictates that she is attended to first. Didn’t the Bible ask we give honour to whom honour is deserved? The church, in a rejoinder on May 27, also admitted that protocol was breached.

    Away from the events of that day, where is the evidence the sack had anything to do with the First Lady? Did the sack letter originate from her desk or bear her signature? This is germane to ask because the chapel also formally stated its day-to-day operation is not under the office of the First Lady. The Ministry of Home Affairs, as it is well-known, coordinates activities of the chapel.

    What beats discerning minds is the desperation to pin the sack on the governor’s wife. Could someone somewhere be targeting her to rubbish her husband whose performances in two years even the blind attest to? Why is this coming right on the dot of the administration’s second anniversary? Is there a chance that someone thinks this is a perfect diversion from the good works of the governor?

    Media reports already indicated the priest involved had been queried in the past by the chapel’s management. Has anyone bothered to check up why he was queried?

    This is pertinent ask to instead of allowing emotions to override our reasoning. Can the priest, in all honesty, face God and claim to be above board? If the Lagos State government hired him, can’t it also fire him?

    To those playing the well-rehearsed religious card, it is necessary to let them know that palace priests are always vulnerable to such likelihood. God designed the church to act as a check to government. But when the church chooses to align with government, it is always have a bad ending. It creates the infamous ‘CAN, my foot!’ explosion of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    When government appoints you as a priest, you either leave on a high or get booted out. Those are the two possible scenarios for those who choose to play such delicate games.  Our Christian leaders should learn to stay off government patronage. They should focus on God, instead of government. If they do and government still goes after them, then they can petition God to fight their case. And God has always vindicated them when they allow Him to fight their battles.

    If indeed Venerable Taiwo has been wronged, let him leave the battle to God. Isn’t that what they preach to us every Sunday? Now is the time to do the same.

  • Facts behind Nigeria’s impasse

    Facts behind Nigeria’s impasse

    Demands for the restructuring of Nigeria have become an irresistible flood. In desperation, opponents of it are saying strange things. The strangest in the past week is the claim by some in the northern political elite that it is the North that has always provided the revenue for developing the rest of Nigeria! In the interest of truth, and especially in the interest of our youths, most of whom are now so disenchanted as to want Nigeria dissolved, there is need to state the basic and well-known facts of Nigeria’s history. It may not help to save Nigeria – Nigeria seems to have passed that point. But it would, I believe, eliminate some serious errors in our youths’ perception of the course of Nigeria’s failure.

    Before the British came as empire-builders, hundreds of different nations inhabited what is now Nigeria. Each nation had, and still has, its own homeland where it has lived for millennia, its culture and language, and its pattern of governance. The British empire-builders conquered or made treaties with these nations. By and by, the British established two protectorates – a Southern Protectorate and a Northern Protectorate. In 1914, they amalgamated the two to make the one country which they called Nigeria.

    But, in spite of the amalgamation, the British continued to rule the two protectorates separately and differently. The only thing connecting the two was that, because the Northern Protectorate could not generate enough revenue to fund its administration while the South generated surplus revenues, funds were taken from the Southern to pay for the Northern administration.

    It was not until 1949 that the two protectorates were at last given the same constitution as one country. In effect, therefore, Nigeria really became one country, not in 1914, but in 1949.

    In the 1949 Constitution, Nigeria was organized as three regions. The Northern Protectorate was preserved as one region, while the Southern Protectorate was split into an Eastern Region and a Western Region. It was generally understood that Nigeria would soon become an independent country.

    In the course of the 1950s, all the leaders of the three regions (with Sir Ahmadu Bello leading the Northern leaders, Chief Obafemi Awolowo leading the Western leaders, and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe leading the Eastern leaders) agreed on a federal arrangement. In a number of Constitutional Conferences, they spelt out the details of the federal arrangement. The leaders from the Northern Region proved the most difficult to persuade about the arrangement. The Northern Regional leaders were fearful that their region was in danger of being relegated to the status of a second-rate part of Nigeria after independence, because the Western and Eastern Regions were very far ahead of the Northern Region in Western education and modern development generally. The northern regional leaders insisted on much autonomy for their region. On occasions, they proposed that Nigeria should be split into three separate countries joined together only by a customs union. On other occasions, they even wanted to secede from Nigeria altogether. So strong was their desire for regional freedom and autonomy.

    Ultimately, the agreed federal structure was finalized and sealed in 1957, giving the three regions, and other regions that might be created afterwards, much freedom over their governance, resources, and development. Each region had its own constitution, coat of arms, and even its own representative in London. On the basis of this federal constitution, each achieved considerable socio-economic success – by developing its own resources: groundnuts and some mining in the North, palm produce and some mining in the East, cocoa, some mining and port revenues in the West. Among these agricultural export products, cocoa was the biggest revenue and foreign exchange earner, making the West the richest region. Federal revenues were derived mostly from subventions from the regions.

    But, in the preparations for independence, the British manipulated Nigeria’s politics and elections, and imposed the northern regional leadership over control of the federal government. They wanted to hand Nigeria to “a friendly people” that they could depend upon to protect British interests after independence.

    And the northern leaders then took advantage of their new position to begin to widen the control of the federal government over the regions – in sharp rejection of their earlier stand for regional autonomy. They planted northerners in key positions in the military.

    Their urge for control resulted in the federal declaration of an emergency, and the imposition of a federal sole administrator, over the Western Region in 1962 – and the rigging of elections in order to impose a federally dependent regional government. These actions provoked a rebellion in the Western Region, and that resulted in January 1966 in a military coup, which removed federal and regional governments and replaced them with a military dictatorship. The coup planners and the resulting military dictator happened to be of Igbo origin. Attempts by this military ruler to cancel the regions infuriated the northern leaders. And the first mass killing of people in Nigeria began, with northern masses killing tens of thousands of Igbo citizens in northern towns. In the course of this, in July 1966, the northerners in the military took over through a coup. The killing of Igbos continued in the North. The Igbo then tried to secede, and a 30-month civil war ensued, resulting in nearly two million Igbo deaths. Thereafter, northern military officers organized coup after coup, and appointed northern military dictator after northern military dictator. Hausa-Fulani control, and the centralization of power over Nigeria, advanced.

    As these conditions have worsened, more and more Nigerians, mostly from the South (especially, at first, from the South-west) have raised their voices to demand that Nigeria should return to the federal structure agreed upon in 1957. In the face of escalating poverty and chaos, the cry for “restructuring” has become very widespread and intense.

    But most of the northern political elite have rejected restructuring point-blank. Some have even threatened that their North would start a war rather than agree to restructuring.

    What, then, are these northern elite fighting for by resolutely defending the present structure of Nigeria? First and foremost, the present structure represents a very high level of success of the Hausa-Fulani ambition to dominate Nigeria. They see Nigeria today as, more or less, their “conquered territory” – and they cannot resist behaving like conquerors. And then, there are the enormous material gains from their position of dominance. It is commonly publicly stated that at least 80% of the allocation of oil blocks from the Niger Delta are, at any time, held by northerners. In fact, the northern elite often cannot restrain themselves when talking about the Delta oil. For instance, in a recent meeting whose deliberations became public worldwide – a meeting of highly placed elders of the North – speaker after speaker rose to claim that the oil of the Niger Delta does not belong to the people of the Niger Delta but to the North. Some have even made the strange claim that the oil should belong to the North because it originally flowed from the North to the Delta! The northern elite are also defending the present structure of allocation of funds from the federal centre to the states. The federal allocations are mostly from revenues derived from the Delta oil as well as the Value Added Tax (VAT) derived mostly from Lagos State. That has left most of Nigeria’s resources undeveloped.

    In contrast to this, those advocating restructuring want that each state should develop its resources, develop much Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) just like the pre-independence regions, and thereby make its own contribution to the overall progress of Nigeria. The northern elite mostly reject it; they want the federal centre to remain all-controlling, rolling in funds, and generating wastefulness and corruption.

    Frightening chasms now separate our different nations? We have allowed over-centralization to do irreversible damage all round. Almost all the youths of all our nations now want separation. And we their parents mostly agree. Most of our nations are tensed up, and bloody conflicts lurk close to the surface. Must we wait until violence, war, chaos and streams of blood actually materialize?

  • Towards a road maintenance regime

    On May 31, the acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, granted permission to the Lagos State government to embark upon a total reconstruction of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Road from Oshodi in Lagos. He was responding to the argument presented by the Lagos State government on the issue, the core of which is that the “the road linking Oshodi to the International Airport…is a national embarrassment. In the spirit of the regeneration and urbanisation that this administration has set out to achieve, we believe strongly that the image that is exhumed by the decadence of that road must be repaired and we took it upon ourselves to appropriate the 2017 budget that the House of Assembly should approve the total reconstruction of the Airport Road from Oshodi to the International Airport”.

    But, on May 25, the House of Representatives passed through the second reading the bill seeking to set out conditions to guide state governments which intended to rehabilitate federal roads with the intent to get reimbursed. What became clear as the debate wore on was the concern that the federal government is “currently indebted to states to the tune of over N400 billion” and how this is traceable to absence of laid down regulations to guide the execution of such projects, thereby leading to abuse of standards and procedures. A few months before that, Babatunde Fashola, the Minister for Power, Works and Housing, had said that the federal government was at home with reimbursing state governments that repaired federal roads provided they followed the due process.

    While the case the Lagos State government took to the federal government signposts what one can call the problem of the ‘distance’ between federal roads and the federal ownership, the concerns expressed in the House of Representatives as well as the conditionality conveyed in the works minister’s reservation speaks to a crisis of managing the ‘distance’ problem.

    Obviously to reinforce and reify federalism, the federal ownership of roads scattered far away in the states came about. But, in the process, what seems a contradiction especially as it refers to maintenance has emerged. That contradiction refers to the fact the federal government which owns the roads is an Abuja affair as against the situation whereby the people who use the roads are in the states. When and how does the federal government know that the roads have become deplorable and due for maintenance or reconstruction? Clearly, this is what the argument brought to the federal government by the Lagos State government reveals. However, this has to be matched unto the fears and concerns of the legislature and that of the minister.

    Before 1999, there was, to a great extent, a framework for maintaining or managing federal roads in Nigeria. Whether it was maintenance or reconstruction, it was handled by a section of the Federal Ministry of Works. That has been the regime since 1960, with varying degree of efficiency and effectiveness. Then there was the onset of crisis, ranging from dwindling allocation of resources to the ministries, the diversion of such funds via different forms of corrupt practices and general laxity across the system.

    From 1999, many governors explored an additional approach of making the case for reconstruction of specific federal roads that had become deplorable directly to the President. The requests were usually that they be authorised to repair and be refunded subsequently by the federal government. It worked well in many cases but it signalled that a problem was emerging in terms of a ‘distance’ between the roads and its real owner which is Abuja. There could have been  no better acknowledgment of the crisis in question than the creation of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency, (FERMA) in 2002. Fifteen years after that, we appear to be back to square one as borne out by the concerns expressed by key officials cutting across the legislature, the federal executive and the state governments as cited above, leaving us with a case of what is to be done?

    In this regard, the approach of the House of Representatives would look adequate. That is having a law which sets out the parameters by which states can repair federal roads that have started going bad before it reaches embarrassing status. In the age of sophisticated construction technology, this is achievable. It is possible for a mechanism backed by law to guarantee a uniform standard in the quality of work done on federal roads by state governments. Such an arrangement solves the problem of ‘distance’ earlier referred to. And it is a problem worth solving. Spending so much to open a federal road only to fail to maintain it till it no longer serves the purpose is not only wasteful, it is lack of collective discipline.

    But, seconding a mechanism which literarily cedes the maintenance of federal roads to state government invites us to also think about and come up with a mechanism for mapping and boosting federal government presence in the states. Law is a good instrument. But the logic of federalism has a different demand in this instance. Federalism everywhere requires the presence of the national government in physical terms. There must be that presence so that the idealism of federalism does not clash with the realism of ethnicity and other centrifugal tendencies. This is a major point in federalism in the African context where state and nation-building have been largely very conflictual arising from perceptions of exclusion and marginalisation.

    One way of assuaging such feelings and under cutting conflicts associated with it is the reification of the state in the far flung corners of a mega state such as Nigeria. In other words, road networks have a symbolism that is as powerful if not more powerful than their functional essences in our context. That symbolism cannot be served by parcelling the responsibility for management of federal roads to legal, technicist mechanisms which anybody or system can supervise. It is necessary and critical that the federal government constructs, reconstructs and rehabilitates all its roads across Nigeria on its own terms and by its own standards. Doing so has a unifying impact that cannot be quantified in numerical or cash terms.

    In the Second Republic, this was part of what the idea of Gubernatorial Liason Officers was to achieve – the muscular and qualitative presence of the federal authority in every state. Unfortunately, the idea went off course as is typical in Nigerian politics. The substance was lost while the ephemeral dimension of it was celebrated. In the end, the confusion and disagreement over it transformed the idea into a conflictual one. It has not been reinstated ever again because it has got a bad image. But time and space changes meaning or should change meaning. Without advocating for a same concept, there is something that recommends a clear means or mechanism for mapping and enhancing federal presence in the states even when, for practical reasons, we formally cede maintenance of federal roads to state governments. The something in question goes beyond roads to other aspects of presence. In an age when federal presence is the dragging fire of heated claims and counter claims of marginalisation, this is something worth thinking about. The shift to that level of depth and seriousness would not be possible if we remain prisoners of the issues we ought no more to be splitting hairs over after 57 years of independence.

     

    • Chief Lawani, a businessman and philanthropist, was Deputy-Governor of Benue State.
  • Ambode –the coconut philosopher at 54

    Ambode –the coconut philosopher at 54

    The intriguing fact that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is celebrating his 54th birthday today, June 14, as the 14th governor of the Centre of Excellence, Lagos is no mere coincidence. It is divinely ordained; piloted by the hand of God! That indeed, underscores the significance of the noble role one’s personal relationship with God plays in shaping his destiny. This raises the salient questions: Could he have fathomed that he would clinch the elusive status of becoming a chartered accountant at the tender age of 24? Of course, not. Could he also have dreamt about the feat of clinching the number one citizenship of the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria, back in his teenage days? Not in his wildest imagination.

    Here was a young man who was written off by his concerned uncle, at an early age. That was when he expressed his desire to becoming an accountant, in response to the question about his dream profession.” No, Akin, you are too playful, too un-ambitious to become one. You better think of something else”, the man had laughed him to the point of scorn.

    But by a twist of immanent fate and more like Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin, who were similarly written off in their youth, Ambode has gone ahead and broken the jinx!  Newton was derided by his class teacher that he, “would never amount to someone of substance”. Einstein was described by his Chemistry teacher as a nonentity. Darwin was told off by his own father that he would be better off as hunter of rats and rabbits! But none of them gave up.

    While Newton, now regarded as the Father of Physics defied his teacher to discover the gravitational force and Einstein gave the world the Theory of Relativity and was unanimously voted TIME Magazine’s Man of the 20th Century, Darwin broke the rules with the ground-breaking evolution phenomenon. In a similar vein, Ambode has today become not just the governor of Lagos State, the 5th largest economy in Africa but is widely acclaimed as one standing tall, head and shoulders above his peers. As Bruce Lee (of blessed memory), had once admonished, “great people turn their stumbling blocks into stepping stones”. From it they climb to higher heights, just like our ever amiable, humble, focused and highly determined governor has done. That is life for you and a lesson for all.

    Indeed, the hand of God guiding Ambode’s life has been most instructive and inspiring. For instance, when the Ibrahim Babangida regime liberalized the banking sector, the young Ambode, then fully qualified as a Chartered Accountant, saw that policy as a golden opportunity to make his mark in the private sector. He was enthusiastic about it. He was thrilled and passionate as he junketed from one bank to the other. But surprisingly, not one of them employed him? Did he fail their interviews? Not at all. So, what was really happening? Unknown to him the all-knowing God had a different career path well cut out for him.

    He too had a change of heart. If the private sector was not the one for him, so be it. Ambode focused on his civil service. He took off from Lagos Waste Management Board (LAWMA) to Badagry LGA as an auditor. The chequered journey spanning 27 years took him from there to Kosofe, Alimosho, Ojo, Mushin, Shomolu and some others, numbering 13 out of 20 LGAs. He was either an auditor or accountant, eventually rising to the enviable post of the accountant-general of the state. What was unique about this was the fact that he became that below the age of 50. Again, like most great achievers, it seems Ambode is one born to break the rules. The rest, as they say is history and an interesting one at that.

    Or, how do we explain the situation that Ambode was just four years old when the state was created? What about being in the saddle as the governor when it recently celebrated 50, seen as a celebration of freedom and jubilee? This follows the Biblical dictum that: “Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings. They will not serve before officials of low rank”. (Prov. 22:29).

    The hand of God is therefore, evident in all the remarkable achievements made so far in the sub-sectors of the economy such as higher inflow of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), unprecedented in the history of Lagos State, massive infrastructural development, transportation, education, and healthcare delivery. What about food security, employment generation and internal security? Despite the challenges, he is squaring up to them with a lion heart, all because God is with him. “And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom 8: 28).

    Another significant factor that has seen to the governor’s success is being blessed with a sound, strong and solid family of his own. Both he and Bolanle, his loving wife have their lives firmly rooted in God.  Both of them seem to be made for themselves by God as they both born at Epe General Hospital. She is there as a pillar of support and as one who has stood by him through thick and thin. Unknown to  many, she is   an epitome of humility, as manifested in how effectively she treated Ambode’s support team before, during and after the campaigns for the governorship in 2015. Even as the First Lady of the state, she has carried herself with dignity.

    When translated to the public service, such exemplary passion for wife and children, unqualified humility, dedication to God and duty, courage, candour and loyalty will continue to see the state rising to heights of more laudable achievements. As he rightly noted in his speech at the birthday of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he too has become a blossoming symbolic coconut, imbued with tremendous attributes of all the parts, useful to mankind as food and a unique plant with healing powers. He is a God-sent leader for now and the future. For a man who has no iota of betrayal in his DNA whose youthful energy is fully focused on fulfilling his party’s vision for the state, Ambode is set to score more goals.

    I, therefore, wish my boss, mentor, leader and our beacon bearer 54 hearty cheers and more glorious years in the service of Lagos, God and Mankind.

     

    • Ajanaku, is Senior Special Assistant to Lagos State governor on Media & Strategy.