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  • Forest of a thousand wonders

    (For  Moyo Ogundipe 1948 – 2017)

    On the first day of  March this year,  the art world lost  Moyo Ogundipe, one of Africa’s most gifted artists and original thinkers. Moyo was my class mate at Christ’s School, Ado Ekiti in the late sixties, and for the past 50 years this remarkable human being and I have been friends and fellow workers in the turbulent vineyard of art and culture. Generous, proud,  humorous, amiable, easy-going, and refreshingly unconventional, Moyo impacted the world with the depth of his mind and genial currency of his spirit. Reproduced below (in a slightly modified form) is my contribution to his first major exhibition in Nigeria  eight years ago upon his return to the country after many years of busy sojourn abroad. I can never get used to missing this kindred spirit and unique human being….

    In one of our epistolary exchanges in the late 1970’s, Moyo Ogundipe explained why he had decided to quit a high-profile advertising job some had thought would be his ultimate answer to the challenge he had always craved. But that expectation fell flat after the first two weeks! Tired of the world of sound bites and pretty phrasing, of celebrated clichés and tendentious imaging, Ogundipe began to yearn for new frontiers where words and images roam and range, unencumbered by hackneyed lingo and special interest.

    I was hardly surprised at his dissatisfaction with any preoccupation that would turn him into a ‘desk artist’. For Moyo Ogundipe has always been an ‘artist on the go’: restless, mercurial, dynamic, but also deep and rooted, playful and utterly serious, sometimes comically transparent, sometimes intimidatingly opaque. In whatever mood his Muse places him, in whatever medium he chooses for his expression, Ogundipe remains the quintessential myth-maker and poet, one who sees Word and Image in verbal and visual terms, and the space between. His words on the open page are as protean and seamlessly suggestive as his strokes on the canvas. His ‘pictures’ are visual proverbs with a sinuous lyricism and inescapable musicality. To merely see an Ogundipe painting is to do it an egregious disservice; you have to hear it as well. Then think it as you feel your way around it.

    Ogundipe’s lifelong fascination with the word and the image began a long time ago. When I arrived for the Higher School Certificate course at the famous Christ’s School, Ado Ekiti, in January 1967, one of my first objects of curiosity was the school magazine. (My abiding interest in such publications began at Amoye Grammar School, Ikere, where I had been editor-in chief for the school magazine). I was impressed but not surprised at the quality and diversity of the contents of Christ’s School’s magazine, considering the high status of the school and the caliber of its students. What kept me completely engaged were the illustrations and cartoons by a young artist who signed his name as “Lancey M”. Page after page, these drawings served as visual reinforcements for the written texts, or curious representations of the young artist’s own unusual imagination. Almost instinctively, I knew this artist and I would soon find areas of collaboration and engagement, but I was not sure how exactly it was going to be.

    But Fate has its own drama, complete with baffling plots and teasing serendipity. A few days later, I found that the person sitting next to me in Mr. S.A. Oloketuyi’s literature class was none other than the famous “Lancey M!” Thus began what has now turned out to be a lifelong personal and professional relationship. I soon found out that the artist whose ‘hands’ I had seen in the school magazine was also a budding poet with a deep and passionate interest in poetry and drama. We traded enthusiastic ‘gists’ about Shakespeare and Soyinka, Okigbo and Wordsworth, John Pepper Clark and John Keats. Even at this early stage, I discovered that Ogundipe adored Soyinka’s poetry, but was absolutely dazzled by Okigbo’s hypnotic lyricism. This lyricism, this running fusion of myth and matter, music and magic, became the hallmarks of Ogundipe’s poetry and, later, his works as a visual artist.

    Soon, our classroom chattering blossomed into practical demonstration. With the encouragement of the school principal, Chief R.A. Ogunlade, we revived Agidimo, the school’s occasional magazine, with me as editor-in-chief and Ogundipe in charge of art and design. A drawing of Agidimo, the rhinoceros insect (namesake with the hill on which Christ’s School is sited), superbly done by Ogundipe, occupied the masthead of the magazine, providing an irresistible visual appeal. Buoyed by this impressively artistic cover and its insightful and lively contents, Agidimo caught the fancy of the characteristically critical Christ’s School readers and became the toast of the entire community.

    Ogundipe’s artisitic talents took him straight to another stage, literally speaking. In 1968, he and I were involved in two major dramatic events. The first was the annual inter-house drama festival, a keenly contested and robustly inspiring competition for which Christ’s School was justifiably famous – and respected. With enthusiastic input from gifted members of our house, Dallimore House, I composed the two plays (one in English, the other in Yoruba), but it was in the English play that Ogundipe played a major role as Heir of a powerful but embattled Emperor (played by me). The same year, with the active support of the Principal and under the able and disciplined directorship of Mr. V.A. Daramola, the school’s Drama Group produced This Is Our Chance, undoubtedly the most frequently performed play by James Ene Henshaw, Nigeria’s late doctor-playwright. Again, Ogundipe played the role of Prince (while I played the role of King Damba). For many nights, this play set the stage of the school quadrangle aglow, and its success was so rapturous that the Principal encouraged the group to take it to neighbouring schools.

    Without doubt, Christ’s School brought out the growing essence of Ogundipe the poet, the journalist, and the actor, but it was in his capacity as maverick artist that he made his name. Rebellious, sometimes mischievous, and suspicious of authority, Ogundipe was neither a law-breaker nor a passive genuflector at the altar of what he considered intemperate commandments. His love for freedom was passionate and intense. His impulse was ineluctably democratic, even demotic. Junior students threatened by campus bullies came under his wings, as did free rangers and would-be artists in need of a kind mentor. His bedside in Dallimore House was always thronged by a motley gathering of pilgrims from other houses, while his easy-going ways made him one of the most popular students on Agidimo Hill. Wherever he went on campus, a chorus of “Lancey M” from passers-by sweetened his passage. Even the birds in campus trees seemed to recognize the name.

    Christ’s School had its own community of artists: talented, focused, proud, keenly aware of their special gifts, sometimes posing as the chosen tribe of the Muse. Under the tutelage of V.A. Daramola, a devoted teacher and art educator, a generation of future Nigerian artists and allied professionals fledged and soared: Macaulay Iyayi, Morakinyo Olugboji, Sesan Ogunro, Susan Ilugbusi, Funmilola Olorunnisola, Iyabo Oguntusa, Femi Mosuro… (To this list must be added the likes of Ben Tomoloju, one of the most richly talented artists and cultural impresarios in Nigeria today, who was many years Ogundipe’s junior). The incubating chamber and cluttered workshop was the Art Room, strategically sited on the upper floor of a tower-like structure which loomed like the lighthouse over the school quadrangle and the rest of the campus. What moments of admiration and envy for the rest of us as we watched the young artists going up and down the stairs that led to this tower, spattered with paint, their brushes held aloft like rainbow spears! This was Moyo’s inaugural professional tribe, the first appreciators of his then precocious output. But the wider Christ’s School community sometimes had a glimpse of the artist at work as Mr Daramola stood with visible pride by his protégé and his prodigious explorations on the canvas. It surprised no one when Ogundipe emerged from the Higher School Certificate exam as one of the best Fine Arts candidates in West Africa in 1968, and was instantly snatched for the B.A by the then University of Ife. Thereafter, Ogundipe’s canvas became wider, his brush more adventurous, his insight more profound. Thereafter, he became an artist of the world… .

    • • •

    When Ogundipe left for graduate studies in the United States about a decade and half ago, many were afraid that this highly gifted artist might become a victim of the “immigrant disease”, that terrible affliction of the artist torn from his/her roots, now surrounded by the sights and overwhelmed by the sounds of another land. Would the deeply indigenous sound fade into a mongrel echo? Would erstwhile sharp and penetrating sights blunder into visual blurs? Would the pulsating hyperbole of the native idiom attenuate into a half-remembered hint? Just how would this artist survive the tempting, sometimes lucrative hype of the American system without losing his way in its “post-modernist, post-structuralist, post-hermeneutic, post-representational, post-industrial, post. .  post. . “ maze and its literal, frequently modish presumptiveness? How would he draw from the astounding richness of the American world without losing his African soul in the process?

    Ogundipe’s prolific output in the past two decades has given the lie these fears. Home is in the heart, Ogundipe often philosophizes during some of our many informal brainstorming sessions and reminiscences; everywhere you go, it never leaves its place in your chest. Every land has its song, but Humanity has a large choir. When the snail goes on a journey, it never leaves its home behind. And so Ogundipe has taken full advantage of the vast American space, tapped into its infinite possibilities. The result is an outpouring of an artistic genius that has been struggling for an outlet for many years and was happy to get one at last. The Agidimo Muse is on the ascent. . . .

    That home that travels so ineluctantly in Ogundipe’s ‘heart’ frequently finds expression even in the strangest space. It is a home that is telluric in its tenacity, bristling with sound and silence, sign and sense, the ludicrous and the sublime, the apparently simple and the hermeneutically complex. It is an essentially plural home, whose mathematics works through the maxim of this plus that, whose matrix rests on the principle of rational inclusiveness. It is a complexly polyphonic, polyvalent, and polydimensional home which locates the specific in the general, the general in the specific. A home that is self-assured and tolerant, accommodating without losing the faculty of rational discrimination. That home derives from  the Yoruba worldview which waters the very root of Ogundipe’s creative tree, bestowing the flair and freshness that looks so native to his art.

    A sensitive apprehension of that worldview is necessary for an adequate appreciation of the predominance of what I call the forest idiom in Ogundipe’s works. Like a typical Yoruba forest, his canvas is thronged, haunting, and quick with surprises. The soil is moist with fecundity; undergrowths are thick with mystery; ropy climbers swing and interlock in every direction; the canopy lends a spell of brooding shadows. There are unmistakable hints and echoes here of Fagunwa, Tutuola, and Soyinka (especially the Soyinka of A Dance of the Forests and Forest of a Thousand Daemons). For Ogundipe, this wild and wondrous site, this intimidatingly promiscuous space, is the theatre for the real drama of existence, or oftentimes an alternative stage for the marvelously impossible. For in Yoruba belief, the forest is not simply the opposite of the cultivated city. In many ways, both sites are complementary and mutually reinforcing. The forest is the abode of innumerable spirits, some benign and benevolent, others dangerous and forbiddingly mean. It is also the home of the dead and/or the living-dead whose communion with the world of the living – and the unborn – is considered vital for the sustenance and survival of all states and spheres of existence. Its essence is as plural as the leaves on the trees, its power as potent as the vital forces that populate its zone.

    Intimations of the forest breathe through Ogundipe’s canvas – in the ubiquitous green, its dense and crowded ambiance, and the lines which criss-cross the space like traveling branches. But this forest is hardly ever a region of unrelieved darkness and monochromatic gloom. A playful yellow often lets in the sun, and there are times when a brown or bright orange lends the hint of the dry season. Dappled in their detail, arrestingly colourful, Ogundipe’s paintings remind us so forcibly of Ankara, that textile brand so beloved to people of West Africa. Jungle of Magical Feats vibrates with forest echoes, while in Emperor Sundiata’s Daughter (a painting whose subject possesses the stunning gaze and immortal poise of an African Mona Lisa), the background is lush like Ijesa-Isu forest in the rainy season.

    Water and the water motif also capture our attention in these paintings. Here Ogundipe’s imagination waxes solidly liquid, and his images swim in a sweet, seductive blue. Mermaids are the predominant denizens of this zone (Queendom of Mermaids, The Memaid and the Piscean Princess etc). Here Ogundipe has invited us to the dance of deities: Olokun, Yemoja, Osun, Oya, all staple goddesses, invariably come to mind as we watch the Mermaid swing and splash across the canvas. There is a mythical boldness in these double-bodied beings that compels comparison with their pastoral counterparts in Three Negritude Princesses, the sassy debutantes in Three Lagos Socialites, and the regal, statuesque figure in Emperor Sundiata’s Daughter. From mermaid to madam, women throng Ogundipe’s canvas whether in their Negritude nudity or bejeweled modern mode. Critical spectators might see these women and marvel at their mythic grandeur while wondering why the woman that ‘draws the water and cooks the food’ never makes it to the artist’s canvas. They might be anxious to know why the ‘hue and cry’ of a harsh world hardly troubles the music of Ogundipe’s visual symphony.

    Such spectators would be asking questions that are so fundamental to Ogundipe’s philosophy and practice of art. For his journey in these works is an essentially interior one, a journey into that world of endless transformations and magical mutations in which centaurs serenade the universe with saxophones, and the fumes from a smoking pipe morph into raging cobras. Perhaps these works are conceived as an imaginative escape from the ugliness of the world we know, a psychic journey into the universe of root and essence, into an African past whose value has been violated by reckless modernity, a quest for a vision that challenges contemporary blindnesses as a way of confronting them.

    Indigenous laakaye, global flair, constant wrestling with memory and remembrance, lyrical celebration of nature and life; a bardic brush, a canvas bristling with incantations, a forest of endless music and marvel . . .  these are some of the gifts presented here from the “sacred and secret territories of [Ogundipe’s] soul”. They are his ultimate testament, the unfolding narrative of his canvas of tales. From Agidimo’s budding artist to a global master; from Christ’s School’s quadrangle platform to the world stage, from “Lancey M” to “Moyo Ogundipe”. . . the journey has been long, frequently rough, colourfully impressive – but not yet complete. The works on offer here are from Ogundipe’s forest of a thousand wonders, his “painted harmonies” (to borrow Okigbo’s memorable phrase). They are music in motion, songs which thresh the colour of fertile dreams.

     

  • National Automobile Policy: A call for a review

    I deign to begin this article by making oblique reference to your well-researched piece published in The Nation, February 26th, 2017 with the title: ‘Vehicles import ban: It’s business as usual.’ That piece, to say the least, was very informative and deserves commendation. That said, I wish to state here that a careful perusal of the different policy pronouncements of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in the last 18 months shows that nothing much has really changed in the way government works, especially if one takes a very dispassionate look at the policy matrix of government in terms of its objective purpose.

    For the avoidance of doubt and confusion, a few examples would suffice here. Take the recent ban on the importation of vehicles through the land borders announced on 5th December 2016 and whose implementation began 1st January 2017, that policy has clearly shown that this government lacks tact and diplomacy.

    I daresay that the outright ban of vehicles through the borders is not just a kneel-jerk approach to issues but does appears to be a hand-wriggling gesture by a government utterly confused about how to handle a less complex problem at hand.

    Clearly, rather than rely on executive fiat or brute force as the case may be, a more holistic approach which recognises the unintended consequences of state policies should be readily adopted.

    If anything, the Pareto Optimum Principle clearly states that no policy(s) of government, however well-meaning, should be injurious to the socio-economic, physical and psychological wellbeing of the people to whom such a policy(s) was intended in the first place.

    This latest ban, from all appearances, is clearly at variance with the principles and letters of the Pareto Optimum Principle.

    However, before I go any further, at this juncture, I wager that it would be most appropriate to take a short historical excursion into what actually led to the new policy regime banning vehicle import across the land borders.

    The last administration, it may be recalled had initiated a new automotive policy that raised the duty paid on imported vehicles from 20 percent to 70 percent, covering 35 percent duty and 35 percent levy, effective from 2014.

    The policy was aimed at discouraging importation and increase patronage for locally assembled cars. It may however interest you to note that that policy from all intent and purpose has been totally counterproductive, to say the least.  The reason been that the policy favours just a few at the detriment of the vast majority, whose livelihoods and businesses depend solely on import, especially car dealers who buy between 5-10 cars, make small margin and continue the cycle.

    From available information, the famous Vaswani brothers, owners of Stallion Group, appears to be one of the few that may have benefitted from Jonathan’s National Automotive Industry Development Plan as it flooded the market with imports well ahead of the takeoff of the policy, which in itself is undue advantage.

    This is particularly troubling because the federal government is being denied the opportunity to earn revenue as a result of the waiver which the policy offers, albeit overtly, just as the local capacity for growth is equally being defeated. And this should not be.

    With a few exceptions, most of the so-called vehicle assembly plants across the country exist only in name. For instance, PAN Nigeria Limited, the leading manufacturer of automobiles in Nigeria, assembling Peugeot vehicles incorporated in 1972 has an installed capacity to produce 90,000 cars per annum in three shifts with ample space for future expansion and can generate direct employment for over 5000 people.

    Today, the plant has a capacity to produce 250 vehicles a day, assembling two models Peugeot 301 (with four variants) and 508 (two variants). They make significant contributions to the industrial sector by the company’s heavy reliance on a large pool of local content in both material and human respects for the production of vehicles – all built and maintained to the highest international standards in automobile manufacturing. The PAN model is a good one to follow but unfortunately that has not been so with many of the assembling plants.

    Investigations revealed that some of the assembling companies camouflaged under the processes and import almost a readymade vehicle that may not necessarily require engaging the kind of manpower the government wishes they would engage in the first place.  Aside been a loss of revenue for the Federal government as they may not get what would have been accrued to them as taxes and levies, it appears a disservice, deception to Nigerians.

    Of what benefit then is the less than 10% importation levy on the completely knocked down parts (CKD) and the semi knocked down parts (SKD) given as rebate for these companies to provide jobs for Nigerians, particularly the youth? While not making a case for importers of readymade vehicles who import and paid 70% on their imported vehicles, it is feared that this imbalance may not bring anything positive to the Nigerian economy both in the short term and on the long run.

    While the government has a right to make policy pronouncements as it deems fit this should however be done with a human face and not selectively as to give the impression that such policy(s) is to favour some people ab initio.

    Going forward, what the government needs to do therefore is to first consider tinkering with the subsisting automotive policy and weigh in on it because the policy as it is presently implemented is a disincentive to business both in the short, medium to long term.

    More than that, there is a serious need for the reorientation of the officers and men of the Nigerian Customs Service, who are expected to enforce most of these policies in question. They are human after all and hence can be malleable as past experience has shown.

    Whatever efforts being made can easily be jeopardized if the moral laxity of these law enforcement agents are not factored into the measures being taken.

    Methinks that if the federal government takes a step further and scrap the high import duty regime imposed on vehicles by the administration of President Jonathan in 2013 and return the import duties on vehicles to 20 percent from the prohibitive 70 percent tariff imposed by the former administration, the reversal will serve as an incentive for Nigerians to import legitimately through the seaports and make appropriate payments to government. This will boost revenue collection by the Customs and also lead to the return of lost jobs at the affected ports.

    Timothy, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja

  • Why is Ekiti so unlucky? 

    The successful collaboration between Lagos and Kebbi states which resulted in the production of Lake Rice is not just an indictment of the innovation-starved Fayose administration, but of every Ekiti son who has had the opportunity of being called Ekiti State governor. I understand perfectly if military administrators and the Olurin emergency misnomer didn’t achieve any lasting thing. What I cannot fathom is why sons of the soil pay/paid lip service to so-called regenerative projects, which, of course, turned out to be avenues to enrich themselves. Some of these characters need to look in the mirror and honestly ask themselves what their bank account(s) looked like before they became governor and what it looks like now. No, we don’t need their answers in public, for that will push them to lie again.

    While I’d agree that Ekiti is just developing, which means that certain infrastructures need to be put in place to make life easier for the people and attract investors, the truth is that no state can thrive without a sustainable source of income besides the Abuja monthly handouts. One should also ask if any of these ex-governors and the present one were/is sincerely thinking about infrastructures when they committed huge Ekiti funds to their so-called projects. It is no strange fact that Nigerian politicians embark on huge no-benefit-to-the-people projects to ‘enhance’ their pockets and steal enough for the next election, as it is always two things for most of them: to become rich  overnight, and to prepare and politick for the next election in actions and thoughts at the expense of governance and the poor masses.

    Ekiti is no doubt blessed with intelligent men. What is, however, lacking is that while the Ekiti man may boast that he says it as it is, he is pathologically incapable of the truth. Present-day Ekiti is one place the truth offends both the old and the young when such truth does not align with their interest(s), alliance(s) and loyalties. They’d blow hot and cold with big-for-nothing grammar, which are to further confuse the unsuspecting, but when critically probed, means nothing other than what it actually is – confusion.

    Growing up in Ekiti and being close to some of these politicians taught me to easily spot insincerity in them, including those who will shout on rooftops to convince people that they’re not politicians. This lack of truth and the fear of being tagged ‘betrayer’ have kept the state down for years and will continue to keep it down. What loyalty abuses someone behind his back and genuflects in his presence? What loyalty expresses reservations at the back and commendations in public?

    This attitude is why many of the former governors failed to secure re-election. While there are many followers, there were and always are few believers. Some of these so-called leaders ‘can’t’ hear the truth. Every truth is an act of betrayal, so is every dissension. Many of their so-called followers have zombied up.

    Of all who have been governor in Ekiti, Segun Oni accommodates the truth the most. Fayose is the worst, a prophet of doom in his own class, imprisoned by his own truth and driven solely by the spirit of Beelzebub.

    Niyi Adebayo may readily be discountenanced by some as a party-loving governor during his time, but in the areas of regenerative projects, he remains the best till today. Those properties he acquired for Ekiti in Lagos and Abuja continue to rake in money. He may not have built a N1.6 billion pavilion which roof is blown off, while many of its rooms remain unpainted; he may not have completed an Oba Adejugbe General Hospital that remains till date uncompleted, but was however commissioned. Adebayo, however, has a record of creating sustainable sources of income for Ekiti.

    Kayode Fayemi is the most urbane of them all, but he also has nothing that generates money for Ekiti to his name. Some may mention Ikogosi and the Pavilion. Well, I ask them to visit both. And then: at what cost? Fayemi took a N25 billion bond and it saddens me that no one, at least publicly, and out of pathological insincerity as mentioned above, is asking what the money was used for. Oh! I have heard those explanations and I need not be burdened with them anymore. Is the pavilion in Ekiti worth N1.6 billion, in spite of its un-completion? Was N1.6 billion actually spent to refurbish Ikogosi Warm Spring? How could N25 billion have been injected into the economy of Ekiti State and not only did it not reflect in the economy by trickling down to the people, there’s hardly anything on ground to point to as the regenerative dividends therefrom?

    What is the level of work on the uncompleted and abandoned civic centre at Fajuyi? How much of the 25 billion Naira was injected into it? Why was Oba Adejugbe General Hospital hurriedly commissioned when it remains uncompleted till date? What is happening at the over-hyped Ire Bricks Factory? Has it started churning out burnt bricks? If it has, Ekiti people are yet to start seeing those ‘bricks’. Sincerely done, the factory would have been a money-spinner.

    Many have argued that four years are not enough. Well, Lagos State Governor Akinwumi Ambode, in less than two years, realised his dream of Lake Rice. So, is it that Ekiti is cursed with grammar-spitting pseudo-intelligent insincere characters? Is it that we are unlucky?

    Whenever we criticise Fayose, and rightly so, for all his childish inanities, let us remember that others were governor here too. What regenerative projects did they embark on with our commonwealth? We must not absolve them of this blame. It is a collective failure of all of them who have been governor in Ekiti State: Niyi Adebayo, Ayo Fayose, Segun Oni and Kayode Fayemi.

    It is a collective shame that none of these poeple ever thought of turning our Igbemo rice into something like the Lake Rice. Igbemo rice has a good quality that I’m yet to savour in any other locally produced rice. Why must our people continue to battle pebbles in it? Why must we continue to deal with the husks in our plate? Although Nigeria has so much on its plate right now, had our Igbemo rice been sincerely and properly attended to, Ekiti’s plate would not have been piled this high.

    2018 beckons! Many are already gearing up to contest the governorship seat. Some of them once had a bite. Ekiti State is still battling with the tetanus from some of those bites. What Ekiti wants at this time is not the typical civil service-minded Ekiti person or those who only became rich via politics, but someone who is business-minded and can turn N10 into N20.  In other words, Ekiti needs a leader that will not mouth development, but will institute sincere and people-centred development, which successive administrations can build on.

     

    • Ojo wrote in from Ado-Ekiti

  • What did Obasanjo’s generation do for Nigeria?

    Let me start by congratulating the Ebora Owu on his newest title of Baba Onigbagbo Ogun (leader of Christians in Ogun state) conferred on him by the Christian Association of Nigeria, Ogun State branch, on Sunday 26th February 2017 in commemoration of his 80th birthday. This is a position that should make Baba speak the truth no matter the condition he finds himself, but alas it isn’t so.

    On Monday 27th of February 2017, at a programme organised by the Kaduna State Chamber of Mines and Commerce, Chief Obasanjo added another lie to the existing third-term lie among other lies that have refused to go (thanks to El-Rufai for confirming what we know in his book The Accidental Public Servant that indeed there was a Third-term agenda that failed).

    Chief Obasanjo challenged Nigerian youths by asking them what their generation will do for Nigeria. He stated that his generation fought for the unity of Nigeria and laid the foundation for democracy, but he has forgotten that his generation also undid the two things they did for Nigeria. His generation fought for the unity of Nigeria and still introduced disunity in like manner. The democracy that was given to Nigeria by his generation was a fake one as it was “lootocracy,” a democracy that is based on looting, looting and looting.

    Nigeria gained independence in 1960. That independence was truncated by Obasanjo’s fellow military men when we had the first coup and General Aguyi Ironsi emerged as the country’s leader.  The casualties of the coup included the Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of the Western Region, Samuel Akintola, the Finance Minister, Festus Okotie-Eboh, among others. These shining stars were lost to the coup plotted and executed by Obasanjo’s generation and Nigeria has not remained the same since then. After this, there were coups and counter-coups, including the one involving Obasanjo in 1975 that saw to the removal of General Yakubu Gowon from office and the circus continued until “democracy” came back fully in 1999 with the same Obasanjo as President of the Federal Republic.

    The coup activities of the military regime were the first actions that created division in our country – the same unity that Obasanjo’s generation claimed they fought for. The coups were plotted and executed based on religion and ethnic colouration and till today Nigerians are reaping the fruits of those ignoble actions.

    The military governments headed by Obasanjo’s generation were characterised by looting, state-sponsored assassinations, mysterious disappearance of people from the country and other evils. When Major General Buhari as a military officer toppled the democratically elected Shehu Shagari from office in a bloodless coup in 1983, and took over the reins of power with his deputy Major General Tunde Idiagbon, they succeeded in leading the country into its worst economic mess, the value of the Naira dropped and there was hardship everywhere; and there was the fifty-two suitcases issue too. So what has Obasanjo’s generation done for Nigeria?

    Buhari was removed in a palace coup by General Ibrahim Babangida in 1985. The Babangida administration was a continuation of the maladministration of the Buhari regime, from assassinations to looting and other evils, including the introduction of the failed Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP); this tenure stood out. Under the leadership of IBB, also called the Evil Genius, Dele Giwa was killed in a parcel bomb on a black Sunday. That was the first and only time that a Nigerian died by parcel bomb; and this was long before Boko-Haram started deploying bombs everywhere. Under General Babangida, the June 12 election which was adjudged the freest and fairest election in Nigeria’s history was annulled for no reason. Till today, what happened to the 12 billion dollars oil windfall under Babangida remains a mystery. His Minna mansion and other properties acquired by him and his fellow officers are from state funds.  So what has Obasanjo’s generation done for Nigeria?

    As if that was not enough, a greater evil befell Nigeria under the leadership of General Sanni Abacha, another man in Obasanjo’s generation. Abacha dissolved the interim government headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan by forcing him to resign. He came into power and the looting continued with more assassinations. From Chief Alfred Rewane to Kudirat Abiola and others, it was killing galore and the looting was unprecedented. Even Obasanjo escaped death under Abacha death by luck. Till today, the Abacha loot has not been recovered fully by the Federal Government of Nigeria. So what has Obasanjo’s generation done for Nigeria?

    In 1999 democracy returned to Nigeria and Chief Obasanjo emerged as president and he served a complete two terms from 1999-2007. In these eight years, Nigeria experienced so much drama under the man that came to office with less than a million Naira in his account but left as a billionaire in 2007 (well done sir). Under the leadership of Chief Obasanjo, corruption became a part of our lives as it was found everywhere. Under his watch there was stealing by all and sundry. The leadership of the National Assembly was removed several times due to Obasanjo’s interference. When it was time for his Third-term agenda bid, he introduced bribery into the National assembly.

    He tried to elongate his tenure but failed. Under his tenure as President 16 billion dollars was expended on electricity generation but we ended up generating darkness. Till today, Obasanjo has not explained how the money was spent. The National Assembly under the leadership of Dimeji Bankole set up a committee to probe the issue but in the long run it failed as Obasanjo refused to appear before the committee. The rest as they say is history; today Obasanjo is a billionaire with lots of interests such as Ota Farm, Bells University and other numerous properties. So what has Obasanjo’s generation done for Nigeria?

    The maladministration of Obasanjo’s generation continued with the government of Yar’adua/ Goodluck Jonathan. This government will be in competition with Abacha’s tenure based on corruption perception index. It was all about looting, looting and looting. We can’t forget so soon the missing twenty billion dollars among other looted funds as was revealed by the EFCC. So what has Obasanjo’s generation done for Nigeria?

    The same Muhammadu Buhari that was a beneficiary of a coup that removed Shehu Shagari from office in 1985 is now the President of Nigeria after winning the 2015 presidential election; and as it was in 1983, so it is in 2017. The Nigerian economy is experiencing its worst recession in twenty-five years courtesy of the Muhammadu Buhari led government. The security situation is still a mounting challenge. From the north to the south, it’s all shades of civil unrest and terrorist attacks and our President is currently in London on medical treatment after campaigning against foreign medical treatment. It’s ironic that Obasanjo’s generation didn’t build a world-class health system for Nigeria. So what has Obasanjo’s generation done for Nigeria?

    After 50 years of independence, Nigeria is not in the league of developed nations in the world. We are still battling with corruption, poor civil service, a poor human rights record, unemployment, election rigging and other evils. So what has Obasanjo’s generation done for Nigeria?

    Now what’s the way forward? Things that marred their generation include corruption, nepotism and lack of innovation. Youths should participate in politics to replace the gerontocrats that have refused to leave the stage. Acts of corruption should be eschewed as corruption stunts the growth of nations when the national commonwealth is pilfered away; therefore accountability should be our watchword. We should see ourselves as patriots and put Nigeria first.

    The unity needed by Nigeria will come when we place Nigeria first and this will douse ethnic uprising as found in the actions of IPOB members and others. Youths of this generation should be innovative in their doings so as to confront the problems of economic downturn, unemployment and security challenges confronting the country. With this our generation will be able to do something remarkable for Nigeria.

     

    • Adesina is a Nigerian youth

  • Rage of natives

    In the past few days, South Africans’ resurgent violent attacks on foreigners, particularly Nigerians, have been a major news item in the Nigerian media and threatening Nigeria-South Africa relations. Nigerian youths, who have been largely docile on the many pains inflicted on the Nigerian people by capricious elite, suddenly got their adrenalin worked up enough to demonstrate in Abuja against South African business interests in the country, targeting its most visible asset – MTN, the telecom giant.

    Xenophobic attack is an extreme, violent manifestation of nativity angst about foreigners when institutions of state fail to proactively address fears of indigenes. Xenophobia is generally not spontaneous, but rather a product of simmering resentment. So, what are the lingering resentments of South Africans which find expression in repeated violence against foreigners?

    Perhaps, we need to start with definition of terms to put matters in contextual balance. To citizens of host countries, calling non- citizens ‘foreigners’ is a generic, cosmetic flavouring of a stark reality – the reality that such non-citizens who are generally engaged in informal trade and small businesses are simply economic refugees or economic irritants.  Who can be expected to be accommodating of irritants? Such perception shapes relationships. The issue is: What will make someone leave what normally should be his/her natural comfort zone – the native homeland – in search of greener pastures if not for economic deprivations and unfulfilled aspirations at home?

    In the recurring episodes of xenophobic attacks by South Africans against foreigners, and particularly those from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, DR Congo, Pakistan, two charges have endured – economic ascendancy and drug trade/prostitution by the foreigners.

    While many of the commentaries in the media by Nigerians on the xenophobic attacks have a nationalist fervor against so-called ingrate South Africans ignoring Nigeria’s sacrifices in liberating them from the shackles of the racist Apartheid regime, two critical areas have been largely ignored or glossed over. One is the failure of public governance in both Nigeria and South Africa that has left masses of their people marooned in poverty. For instance, given the economic endowments of Nigeria, Nigerians should not be economic refugees in other lands but for the mindless looting of its public treasury by unconscionable elite, which has led to stunted economic growth thereby forcing thousands of its citizens to flee the land in search of economic refuge abroad. For the South African government, making scapegoats of foreigners by its citizens for their economic woes is convenient as it diverts attention from its failure to deliver on the good life promise of Black majority rule.

    The other xenophobic trigger is the seeming lack of humility by prospering foreigners seen as putting on airs and being denigrating in relating with their hosts. A mix of aggressive, rich foreigners and pauperized indigenes is a recipe for violent eruptions by the natives. Xenophobia, the South African brand, is also a repudiation of globalization that preaches tolerance of migration/mobility of labour, capital and innovation to any part of the world to generate maximum returns. The natives are demanding localization – South Africa for South Africans – and telling the strutting foreigners to let charity begin in their home countries! That is the crux of the matter.

    The victory of Donald Trump as American president in the November 8, 2016 general election is seen as Xenophobia by Ballot!  Isn’t it ironical that such virulent anti-foreigner sentiment should be exhibited in a country of immigrants and a leading proponent of globalization?  It indicates times are changing, with an undercurrent to reverse globalization and the return of nationalist sentiments.

    Another sticking point is the association of foreigners with escalating crime in South Africa. Foreigners have been accused of importing violent crime, drugs and prostitution into South Africa, with many fingers pointing at Nigerians. This perhaps explains why South African President Jacob Zuma described the violent attacks as anti-crime protests and not anti-foreigners’ xenophobia. If crime surge seems to accompany immigrants’ influx, can South Africans be honestly blamed if they linked the two developments?

    There could also be the sense of entitlement among Nigerians in South Africa given the huge sacrifices Nigeria made in the struggle to dismantle the racist Apartheid regime. Even an intellectual, Prof. Bola Akinterinwa, a professor of International Relations, could not resist the notion of Nigerians deserving special treatment by South Africans. In his Sunday, February 26, 2017 column in THISDAY newspaper he declared :  ”South Africans can be hostile to foreigners but Nigerians ought to be an exception…South Africans, no matter their grievances , cannot have any legitimate animosity vis-à-vis Nigeria and its people who did what was humanly , financially, educationally, materially, diplomatically and culturally possible to support the liberation of black South Africans from the shackles of domination of segregationist white South Africans.”

    The danger here is that such attitude could unwittingly induce arrogance among Nigerians in South Africa which can be offensive to the sensitivities of indigenes. When such perceived arrogant foreigners are linked with crimes, it creates a volatile situation. Prof. Akinterinwa pointed out that even where allegations of drug peddling and prostitution are levelled against Nigerians; it is for the police to tackle. That was the point made by South African High Commissioner to Nigeria Lulu Mngulu that police ineptitude in handling the allegations led the people to engage in self help.

    The reality of Nigeria-South Africa economic relations is that Nigeria cannot flex the muscle of reciprocity – reprisal against South African companies here will create job losses for Nigerians and as such counter-productive. Rationality, not emotion, should guide Nigeria’s reaction to South Africans’ xenophobia. We need to educate our people on proper conduct in foreign lands and have our embassies document allegations against and convictions of Nigerians in the Diaspora to empirically establish the justification or otherwise of their criminal tag. That Nigerians abroad don’t want to return home, in spite of the attacks they suffer, is the shame of a nation.

     

    • Dr. Olawunmi is Senior Lecturer, Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State

  • Electricity: Challenges and prospects

    With a population surpassing 170 million, Nigeria targets an ambitious 20,000MW of electricity generation by the year 2020 and to rank among the top 20 economies in the world. Nigeria’s current available generation capacity, estimated at approximately 6,000 MW, is inadequate to meet the unsuppressed demand estimated at approximately 15,000 MW.  According to World Bank Report, only about 55% of the population currently have access to electricity; and for that segment of the population, only 30% of its needs are currently met. Meeting the generation targets set for 2020 requires substantial private-sector investment in the supply chain, including gas to power infrastructure, generation, transmission and distribution networks. Most of these are now private-sector-operated (except the transmission system).

    Purpose of Privatisation

    The purpose of the privatisation was to ensure increased electricity supply in the country, through enabling and preservation of efficient industry and market structures, while also ensuring the optimal utilisation of resources for the provision of electricity services. The reform also sought the maximisation of access to electricity services, by promoting and facilitating consumer connections to distribution systems in both rural and urban areas.

    The reform, however, provided that the prices charged by licensees are fair to consumers and are sufficient to allow the licensees to finance their activities and to allow for reasonable earnings for efficient operation. The reform also made adequate considerations for safety of lives and equipment as well as protection of consumer rights.

    Concept of Electricity Pricing in Nigeria

    The privatization programme was premise on the provision of a cost reflective tariff – as relates to every business endeavour, having the right pricing is an essential requirement for success. Balancing between a cost reflective tariff and an affordable tariff is one of the biggest challenges facing the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).

    Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) is the methodology used to set wholesale and retail prices in the NESI. It is a unified way to determine total industry revenue requirement in a building block approach; total cost associated with generation – total cost associated with transmission – total cost associated with distribution as well as regulatory charges.

    Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), being the regulator for the industry has the mandate to approve tariffs. In an effort to make electricity tariffs more affordable, NERC adopted sculpting of the tariff such that Discos are required to under-recover now (by charging less than the cost reflective tariff) and are allowed to recover in the future. This model, while bringing temporary ease on the retail tariff, comes with attendant challenge of how to manage the huge shortfall resulting from the sculpted tariff.

    The sculpted average tariff for Kaduna Electric in 2016 was N30/KWH while the actual cost reflective tariff was N48/KWH. This was approved based on economic indicators (inflation, exchange rate, gas prices) prevalent in 2015 and the resulting shortfall from the sculpted tariff in 2016 amounts to more than N25 Billion.

    The MYTO model also requires bi-annual review of these economic variables which has not been done since January 2016. By the time the exchange rate variable is adjusted in the model, the average cost reflective tariff for Kaduna Electric will be around N74/KWH.

    Cost-Reflectivity vs. Affordability

    The crucial role energy plays in the development of the economy cannot be over emphasised. Industries in this part of the country can only thrive with reliable and affordable access to electricity. While this is much desired by all, the current structure does not fully support the realisation of this objective.

    Charging a cost reflective tariff of more than N70/KWH at this period of economic recession is not only irrational but detrimental to the growth of the economy. Therefore, Kaduna Electric fully supports a fair and affordable tariff that will support growth and development within our franchise states. It is however important to note that as privately run company, decisions are guided based on its business case that does not jeopardise the interest of all major stakeholders.

    The government has the overall mandate and authority to steer the course of economic direction in this country and she has a critical role to play in ensuring that this balance is achieved.

    The Role of Government

    Government interventions are necessary to moderate prices and make electricity more reliable and accessible. Government intervention can come through a combination of all or some of the following; by subsidizing the price of gas to thermal power plants, bearing the burden of exchange rate shock on the retail tariff, taking up responsibility of tariff shock due to low generation capacity as a result of security issues, support the Gencos and Discos to access cheap finance through international, regional or local developmental initiatives among others.

    Conclusion

    A clear link has been established between electricity consumption and economic growth. With an annual population growth rate of around 3% and an unemployment rate of nearly 15%, Nigeria is in pressing need of boosting its productive activities to curb crime and reduce poverty levels.

    Manufacturing and other SMEs are the key drivers of economic growth, which is mainly challenged by reliable and affordable electricity supply.

    For the reform in the electricity sector to be achieved, all stakeholders – Discos, Gencos, Government, all categories of consumers – must holistically work, and in some cases make difficult sacrifice towards the success of the industry.

    As a Disco, we are committed to improving the quality and reliability of electricity supply within our franchise states. Significant investments have already been made in acquisition, studies, foundational ICT systems, working tools, metering, safety systems, replacement of existing systems, expansion of grid, maintenance of existing systems, working towards providing alternative payment channels through web, POS, ATMs, mobile etc. Further investments is being put in place to close the metering gap, have a robust Customer Relationship Management Systems, advanced Distribution or Operations Management Systems, as well as new infrastructure and grid expansion.

    Our customers across all categories – Industrial, Commercial, MDAs and residential – have a responsibility to behave ethically and pay their electricity bills regularly and timely to enable us meet our market obligation and serve our customers well.

    The government even has a bigger role to play in ensuring stability of the industry. The liquidity challenge currently faced must be addressed and issues currently affect the industry that are macroeconomic in nature such as FX risk, security challenge affecting generation capacity, impact of inflation must be owned and addressed by government to make electricity supply more affordable and reliable.

    The synergy amongst these different stakeholders is necessary for electricity sector to become the catalyst of economic growth in Nigeria.

     

    • Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar, OON, is Chairman, Kaduna Electricity Distribution Plc

  • Where the North fails

    Those of us who read Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson’s Why Nations Fail, have seen, in the best-selling book, some convincing arguments on how countries of the world can seize the momentums of critical junctures of their histories to achieve economic greatness.

    Likewise, we have seen, in the same book, how elite’s phobia of Joseph Schumpeter’s “creative destruction” can either stunt growth or completely truncate it.

    Yet, while Why Nations Fail is a book rooted in political economy – from capitalistic perspective – its numerous analogies clearly abound everywhere, in terms of the realities of our dear country, Nigeria.

    Although, the parallels one seeks to draw in this piece are much nuanced from what the book presents, it suffices to say that nowhere are its numerous examples more vividly expressed than in the northern part of the country. Since the moment the Union Jack gave way to the green-white-green flag to herald the nation’s independence in 1960, the two major geographical divides in the country have tried to rival each other. Paradoxically, however, it is the North that appears to have been muddling along in this competition— in spite of its comparative numerical strength.

    In pre-independence times, there had been a glaring struggle to convince the large portion of the society to embrace western education. The North was, and still is, left to do a catching-up job as a result. The disparity between the two regions in terms of the population of private universities simply speaks volumes. Ditto commercial banks.

    The North, therefore, might have succeeded in producing more political leaders of the country at the centre compared to the South; and even now boasts of giving to the nation the richest black man in the world. But this cannot mask the fact the region is also top in churning out abject poverty, in addition to the infamy of giving us the deadliest terror group in the world, Boko Haram.

    One could, therefore, be forgiven if, by juxtaposing the present North and the South, the picture of Nogales Sonora and Nogales Arizona in Why Nations Fail naturally spring to mind.

    Apart from millions of male children who are roaming our streets under the guise of seeking Qur’anic education, which they rarely do now, there are also multitude of girls of school age who are either roaming the same streets hawking their life for their survival or enslaved in the homes of self-centered elites who employ them for all sorts of domestic drudgery, while their own children are chauffeur-driven to expensive private schools.

    Over the years, majority of the northern elite has not proven to be proactive in confronting the numerous challenges bedeviling the region. For instance, while Boko Haram insurgency is a product of doctrinal mutation of a particular Islamic creed, the group made the most of the opportunity pervasive poverty in the north-east presented to it to tap its human resources.

    If the elite in the North had been thinking strategically, they could have seen the danger ahead and devised the means of nipping it in the bud before it got out of control. Nevertheless, even the horrible experience of Boko Haram does not seem to have served as rude awakening for the region. The dangers posed by continuing to produce children that are sent to urban areas to beg their way to adulthood need no over-emphasis. With its alarming divorce rate, the North is also a place for many broken homes.

    But there’s a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel. And, it’s coming from Kano where the Emir, Muhammad Sanusi II, is championing efforts to codify family law in accordance with true teachings of the religion and culture of the people.

    According to Emir Sanusi II, “Our people are facing serious challenges in their family affairs. We have heard series of complaints where a father forced his daughter to marry someone against her wish. We have heard so many cases where people marry additional wives while they could not feed them well, clothe them well or give them good shelter even though they have the means to do so.”

    Then, he warned, “In this case, the proposed law provides that, a court of law would take something out of the man’s wealth to feed his family, give them shelter and clothes. In the event the man makes any attempt to resist the court’s directives, then the law takes necessary action against him. If you know your salary cannot take care of more than one wife, you should not get additional wife.”

    The Emir built his position on the strength of Quran 24:23: “Let those who find not the wherewithal for marriage keep themselves chaste, until Allah gives them means out of His grace.”

    Even one of the region’s most popular clerics in recent times, the late Sheikh Ja’afar Adam, held similar views. In a video clip that emerged following the raging debate on the proposed law, the late teacher is seen saying that the three conditions that must fulfilled for a Muslim seeking to have an additional wife are: Fairness, sufficient income and sexual capability.

    Indeed, some of those dissenting voice against the proposed law erroneously thought that its primary target was the common man. Nothing could be far from the truth! The explanations of both the Emir and the cleric are very unmistakable. Both the haves and the have nots are not exempted.

    However, no matter how the proposal divides opinion, no one can discount the fact that the vigorous debate it has, so far, generated is timely. Many are now flipping through their Islamic books with a view to understanding the true teaching of the religion, which has been corrupted by misogynic culture of the people.

    The North is now at another critical juncture. It therefore behooves the region to make a strategic choice. Emir Sanusi II is spearheading the defining revolution we await. Like Serethe Khama of Botswana who right from the independence put his country on the path of inclusive growth, which resulted in sustained economic gains, all hands should be on deck to see that the trail blazed from the commercial nerve-center of the North reverberates across the whole region.

    The choice before us is to either stick to the status quo, which has produced one million divorcees in Kano alone, or regulate the institution for our common good and a stable society.

    In this era of globalization, where the world is moving toward Artificial Intelligence, the North should aim at producing a digital generation that can stand on their feet anywhere in the world. Our Quranic memorizers should be using ICTs applications on their tablets to commit the book to memory.

    And no one should be allowed to subject them to the burden of roaming the streets barefooted, bowl in hands in search of morsel to assuage their hunger. The North should make it part of its strategic agenda to churn out more Sarki Abbas, Abba Gumels, and Jilani Aliyus of the future. This is how to harness a burgeoning population and not placing it at the doorstep of Boko Haram for harvest.

     

    • Musa wrote in from Abuja
  • Obasanjo: A true legend at 80

    Obasanjo: A true legend at 80

    I am truly grateful to God that I had the uncommon privilege of having a front-row view of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as he made a series of sacrifices for Nigeria when he returned to power as a democratically elected President of Nigeria in 1999. For the few years I served as his Special Assistant on Public Affairs, I was perpetually amazed (and dazed sometimes) at his uncommon intelligence, tenacity, work ethic and of course his intense and unalloyed love for Nigeria.
    The nation’s interest trumped, shaped and guided every decision or move he made as President. No aide, minister or other official of the Obasanjo government would dare contemplate bringing any matter that did not put national interest ahead of any other considerations for the President’s approval. He loathed mediocrity and primordial sentiments. He resented all forms and shades of nepotism. With  Obasanjo, it must be what is best for Nigeria and he would always ensure that the most qualified person was picked to do any task at all times. In fact, I recall that on a number of occasions, President Obasanjo would bluntly tell either a minister or an aide that he or she was not appointed because he liked the person but because he or she was the best for the job.
    It is no wonder that Obasanjo would always recall with nostalgia the glorious era of NNSL and Nigerian Airways. “When I was in office as Military Head of State, 19 brand new ships were specially built for Nigeria and we did not take delivery of some of them until I left office in 1979. When I came back in 1999, NNSL had been liquidated with all 19 ships and the five already in existence gone,” Obasanjo once told us at a meeting.  Also, he readily recalls that while he was leaving office in 1979, Nigeria Airways had 32 aircraft in its fleet but on his return to power 20 years after, the National Carrier had just one aircraft that barely flew. Of course, Nigeria Airways has since been liquidated.
    Obasanjo became the toast of the world and deservedly earned the status of a globally acclaimed statesman when as military Head of State, he conducted free and fair elections that ushered in democratically elected leaders into all the three tiers of government in Nigeria and voluntarily handed over to the nation’s first Executive President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1979 and retired to his now famous Ota Farm in his home state of Ogun.
    Obasanjo’s glittering record as President from 1999 to 2007 is well documented for posterity to judge. However a few achievements stand out and deserve generous mention as we celebrate Obasanjo who turns 80 this month. The infractions of the successive military administrations, particularly the regime of General Sani Abacha had made Nigeria a pariah state at the time Obasanjo assumed office in May 1999. To bring Nigeria back to reckoning in the comity of nations, Obasanjo embarked on intensive diplomatic shuttle.
    His efforts paid off handsomely and in a matter of months Nigeria returned to global reckoning. Being an international colossus himself,  Obasanjo played key roles in the repositioning of the African Union, including helping to establish the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), designed to promote democracy and good governance. From the outset of his administration, Chief Obasanjo consistently supported the deepening of regional cooperation through the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Co-prosperity Alliance Zone incorporating Benin, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo. With Nigeria’s image looming large internationally, it did not come to many as a surprise when  Obasanjo at different times was either elected, nominated or appointed to serve as chairman of the Group of 77, chairman of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, and chairman of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee.
    With Nigeria now fully opened to the world, Direct Foreign Investments began pouring in, the most compelling being the huge investments that brought about the revolution in the telecommunications sector. We have Obasanjo to thank for access to telephony and high-speed data services being enjoyed by millions of Nigerians today.
    With the cooperation of the then relatively young National Assembly, Obasanjo enacted the enabling laws that led to the establishment of two highly revered anti-corruption agencies: the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). These anti-corruption bodies as well as the Code of Conduct Bureau were given sweeping powers by President Obasanjo to move against corrupt persons and institutions. In a matter of months, EFCC in particular under the indefatigable Nuhu Ribadu was already recording timely prosecution and convictions and the world generously applauded Nigeria.
    Equally bent on buoying the nation’s economy, Obasanjo sought to decisively stem the restiveness in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Again, working with the National Assembly, President Obasanjo introduced an executive bill that led to the establishment of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). In spite of the persisting complexities and contradictions in the Niger Delta, the NDDC remains a beacon of hope in the region. Nigeria has Obasanjo to thank for this.
    With his eyes set on the next generation, President Obasanjo, in a move that confounded even his worst critics, secured an $18 billion debt relief from the Paris and London clubs and Nigeria was free of debt!
    For most of  Obasanjo’s eight years in office, the naira stayed firm and stable against other international currencies, particularly the United States’ Dollar. When President Obasanjo was leaving office in 2007, Nigeria’s foreign reserve stood at a staggering $43 billion. Statisticians are also in agreement that when President Obasanjo left office in 2007, the nation’s GDP had grown from 3% to 7%.
    As President, Baba listened to wise counsel from even the least of his aides. He over-indulged us some times though. I can vividly recall two occasions that Chief Obasanjo’s humility dazed me. The late Chief Gani Fawehinmi had, as usual, lampooned him in an interview that was widely published in the national newspapers. Infuriated by Chief Fawehinmi’s choice of words (not the criticism) in the interview, President Obasanjo called me and insisted that I should reply Fawehinmi and in fact suggested a few strong words that should be in the reply. Of course I did not say no to Mr. President but I took my time and waited until he brightened up and returned to his usual jocular mood.  I quietly approached him and begged him to rescind his order that the Presidency replies Gani Fawehinmi in the words he suggested. He asked me why I did not want the reply issued. Picking my words carefully, I reminded the President of the numerous wars Fawehinmi fought on behalf all political prisoners including him during the dark era of military regimes. “Is that why he should be abusing me all the time?” Baba queried; but he graciously rescinded the instruction he gave me to reply Chief Fawehinmi.
    A similar incident played out when President Obasanjo felt Col. Dangiwa Umar (retd) was harsh and unfair to him in an interview and wanted a harsh reply. Again I prevailed on him that like Gani,  Umar made huge sacrifices and even lost his commission in the Army during the struggle to achieve democratic rule in the country and I further reminded him that Umar was a thorn in the flesh of the Abacha junta that unjustly jailed him. Baba rocked his head from left to the right, and right to the left,  a few times and said “Okey, don’t reply him. “
    Despite being from Zaria in Kaduna State, as President Obasanjo’s Special Assistant on Public Affairs, he treated me like a son and held nothing back from me. I continue to draw bountifully from those lessons I learned from him. I am truly grateful to him.

    •Sani is Special Adviser to the Governor of Kaduna State on Political Matters and Intergovernmental Relations.

  • Peace Corps: Cocktail of fallacies

    Peace Corps: Cocktail of fallacies

    It was with considerable effort that I managed to restrain myself from shedding tears when I saw the visuals of the parade of the National Commandant of the Peace Corps of Nigeria (PCN), Amb. (Dr) Dickson A. O. Akoh, and 47 other officers of the Corps before newsmen on Wednesday, March 1, 2017, in Abuja.
    It would be recalled that Akoh and his officers were abducted on Tuesday, February 28 , 2017, around 11:30pm at the new Corporate Headquarters of the Corps situated opposite Jabi Lake, Abuja, after a highly successful unveiling of the new office, an event that was beamed live to the whole world by the NTA and AIT.
    In trying to justify what millions of Nigerians youths regard as a calculated attempt to silence their leader, tissues of lies were dished out, all aimed at hoodwinking the unwary members of the public. According to an adage, lies told repeatedly, if they are not corrected, over time assume the status of truth in the minds of unsuspecting members of the public.
    It is for this reason that I feel constrained to respond to some of the lies told about the PCN with a view to setting the records straight.  It is indeed laughable to say that the arrest of Akoh and his men was an attempt to halt and rid the country of illegal and unlawful security outfits constituting a threat to national security. Nothing can be further from the truth! PCN has never claimed to be or acted as a security outfit. The pertinent question to ask the accusers of PCN is: How does a legal entity duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) constitute a security threat? If the nation’s security agencies can invest half of the overzealousness it used in pouncing on the officials of the PCN, then kidnapping, armed robbery and other ancillary crimes threatening the foundation of Nigeria would become history in Nigeria today.
    To further add salt to injury, those who decided to play Pontius Pilate over PCN went to the ridiculous extent of saying that the Corps flag and beret have resemblance to that of Gambia and officers on UN mission respectively. In what way is resemblance in colour a crime?
    In a case reminiscent of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it, the traducers of the PCN said that intelligence reports had it that the Corps was acquiring weapons and conducting covert military training in different parts of Nigeria. The question to ask (and answer) is: Was any weapon found when security operatives conducted a search on the headquarters of the Corps? The answer, of course, is a resounding NO!
    The truth is that anytime the Corps is embarking on training of its personnel, it usually invites DSS, Police and Civil Defence etc to its training Camps to ensure that the process complies with laid-down rules. To also say that subversive groups and terrorists have infiltrated the Corps is another cheap lie that is not worth dignifying with any response.
    Similarly, the allegation of extortion of money from applicants levelled against the Corps remains just that – a mere allegation. This is an allegation that the Police and ICPC have investigated in the past and given the Corps a clean bill of health.
    At this juncture, it is also necessary to tell the whole world that in a report on its investigation of the activities of the PCN dated April 25, 2008, which was signed on behalf of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Force Criminal Investigation Bureau, by Shehu Babalola, the then Commissioner of Police in charge of Administration, the Nigeria Police Force exonerated the PCN from any form of shady deal. Part of the report reads: ‘’since its eleven years of existence (1998—2004) it has operated in twenty-six states and the FCT, the Corps as an entity has not been involved in any shady deals or any anti-social or subversive activities that constitutes any security threat.’’ What more can we say? It is on this clean record that the Corps under Dickson Akoh’s leadership has been operating till date.
    It is indeed confounding that anyone could suddenly wake up to brand an organisation that has been in operation for the past 18 years plus as an illegal entity. Happily enough, a high preponderance of Nigerians are not on the same page with the accusers of the Corps on this issue.
    It is pertinent to state here that probably enamoured of the success story of the PCN, both the United Nations and African Union granted it a Special Consultative Status under their Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It is heart-rending that instead of appreciating the enormous sacrifices Akoh has made in empowering Nigerian youths, a cardinal responsibility that successive governments have shirked, this illustrious Nigerian is being harassed, hounded and humiliated. In civilised parts of the world, the likes of Akoh are eulogised for their patriotism in giving the monster of youth unemployment a good fight.
    What majority of Nigerians find irksome is that this is happening at a time a Bill to give the Corps statutory backing has been passed by the National Assembly and awaiting presidential assent.
    It is either that the accusers of the Corps are being economical with the truth or standing honesty on its head to assert that the Corps members have no right to wear uniforms. On this issue, Dr. Akoh has this say: ‘’There is a national youth development policy that spells out roles on how youth organisations can operate and we have 47 uniform youth organisations. We have been operating within our scope…’’
    Though, the overzealousness of the nation’s security agencies  has been over-flogged in the past, it is pertinent to state here that the latest invasion of the PCN office by a large contingent of security personnel armed to the teeth is taking over-zealousness to another dangerous dimension. It is this kind of pseudo-official opposition to well-intentioned private initiatives that has rendered Nigeria prostrate and devoid of private developmental projects.
    Instead of dissipating energy on anachronistic ventures like hounding officials of the PCN and trying to drive the organisation aground, the nation’s security agencies should rather invest that energy in fighting all manner of criminal elements and groups that are currently holding the nation by the jugular. I rest my case!

    •Ochela, a commentator on national issues, wrote in from Abuja.

  • Nigeria’s wildlife status needs urgent action  

    “My interview with hunters and most recent research across protected areas in northern Nigeria revealed that there is lesser wildlife in our wild than we perceive.” – Seyifunmi Adebote.

    After the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly on December, 1983, the 3rd of March was adopted as a day to celebrate World Wildlife Day yearly.  The day is observed to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild fauna and flora. World Wildlife Day also seeks to recognise the important roles of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in ensuring that international trade of Wild Flora and Fauna does not threaten the survival of species.
    The theme of World Wildlife Day 2017, “Listen to the Young Voices, “is a step further from last year’s theme, “The Future of Wildlife is Our Hands,” to ensure the realisation of CITES objective in the 182- member states of the United Nations, Nigeria inclusive. It is believed that one-quarter of the world’s population is aged between 10 and 24; hence, as the future leaders and decision makers of the world, they could give more vigorous efforts if properly enlightened and encouraged to call the shots in making and taking decisive actions at both local and global levels to protect endangered wildlife.
    The peculiarity of wildlife in Nigeria is highly disturbing, calling for urgent action, especially when one considers that the level of wildlife literacy in the country is next to none. With reference to last year’s World Environment Day, June 2016, Amina Mohammed who until her recent UN appointment was the Minister of Environment, said: “The status of wildlife in the country leaves much to be desired, as the rate of depletion of the population of animals like the elephants, leopards, giraffes and crocodiles amongst others is frightening. Today I know that if somebody says, what is really the status, or figures for wildlife in Nigeria? I am not sure I can tell you as the minister of environment. And if I am going to say something, it is probably 10 years old in terms of its information and data.”
    It’s almost a year after Amina Mohammed promised that the government would develop the capacity to know what the baseline was, what animal was where, which was endangered, what needed to be done to protect those animals and to increase their population in Nigeria for the sake of the wildlife. The truth today is that presently Nigeria’s wildlife is fast disappearing than before, thus, begging the question of what wildlife heritage our generation will preserve.
    For long, Nigeria has rested on an erroneous notion that our wild animals were plentiful and not under any threat of extinction. However, following the recent publication of the IUCN red list of globally threatened species which revealed that 148 animal and 146 plant species found in Nigeria were threatened at various degrees including some species near extinction, we hope it is not too late to right the wrongs. Out of the very large landmass that Nigeria boasts of, we are not assured of the functionality of our  seven National Parks, we are not sure they really are a refuge for what we have left of our wildlife population, we are yet to see wisdom in prioritising our wildlife heritage, we have chosen not to take a cue from smaller countries like Gabon with 13 well-managed national parks, Egypt with 25 national parks and Kenya with 23 national parks aside from game reserves, wildlife sanctuary and other forms of protected areas in countries like Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania and Madagascar, which are  clear examples for Nigeria to follow.
    “100 Cross River gorillas remain in Nigeria”; “There are approximately 450 savanna elephants in Nigeria”; “Fewer than 50 lions remain in Nigeria”; “Value of illegal wildlife trade is 50 – 150 billion USD per year”; “Over 56 billion farmed animals are killed by humans every year”; “Half of world’s wildlife was lost in last 40 years”; “100,000 African elephants were killed in last three years for their ivory”; “Less than 7,100 cheetahs remain in the wild”; “Population of birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish has declined by 52 percent globally between 1970 – 2010.”
    Reading these and many more true anti-wildlife statistics tells that the time for urgent action is now. My interview with hunters and most recent research in protected areas within northern Nigeria revealed that there is lesser wildlife in our wild than we think. Regrettably true, human factors like hunting, domestic grazing, land deforestation, mining, road/rail/dam construction, aerodromes, power line, and related activities have destroyed our wildlife flora and fauna than natural factors like climate change and fire occurrences by over 40 per cent in the last 25 years. Another adjoining factor is that occupants of host communities earmarked as protected areas see their surrounding areas as traditional hunting grounds and strongly believe it is legal to kill whatever and at any rate.
    The Ministry of Environment must stand up to its pro-wildlife responsibilities, and not just dwell on sanitation and other urban activities. The Federal Ministry of Environment and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development, must create an operational synergy between associated government and non-government stakeholders among which are: Nigeria National Park Service, the Forestry Research lnstitute of Nigeria, State Ministries of Agriculture and Natural  Resources, the Division of Wildlife Services and Conservation, Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA), games reserves, zoological and botanical gardens, World Conservation Society, Nigeria Conservation Foundation, Biodiversity Conservation Programme, etc.
    If Nigeria must go for wild, if we must have something to teach the unborn ones about our wildlife heritage, the foundation is in placing wildlife as a priority sector, then the appointment of competent and devoted hands that will faithfully uphold the hundreds of excellent national and international conventions, acts, frameworks and legislations without compromise which Nigeria has agreed to, among other UN member states.
    Monitoring and data compilation must complement environmental education and awareness; the fiercest of wild animals cannot protect themselves from those out to poach or illegally traffic them.  It’s up to us; together we can restore Nigeria’s wildlife heritage.

    •Adebote, an environmentalist and wildlife researcher, wrote in from Abuja.