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  • Buhari and Niger Delta development

    Buhari and Niger Delta development

    When President Muhammadu Buhari took over the running of governmental affairs at the centre in 2015, not many believe he was going to show any serious commitment to the development of the Niger Delta region. The thinking was that the Niger Delta under Buhari would witness another round of total neglect that has made the region to remain completely backward in terms of development, despite being Nigeria’s oil hub where the country’s main revenue comes from.
    Buhari, however, appears to be proving those with such pessimistic view wrong with the great concern he is currently showing about the plight of the Niger Deltans and the needed attention being given to the issues of the region. This is apparently  why many have continued to call on the people of Niger Delta, particularly those involved in militant activities, to allow peace to reign so that the good plans of the present administration for the area can be easily actualised.
    The Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), for instance, at the board’s inaugural meeting, cited the increase in the budgets of the Niger Delta Affairs Ministry, the NDDC and the Amnesty Programme, the fresh urgency for the completion of the East-West Road, the East-West rail line and the Ogoni Clean-up as efforts showing Buhari’s determination towards the advancement of the Niger Delta.
    In a statement by his Special Assistant on Communication, Clara Braide, the ex-Senate Leader also noted that the ongoing tour of major communities of the Niger Delta by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, to have a direct interface with the people of the oil-producing states, was a further demonstration of the commitment of the Buhari-led Federal Government (FG) towards the development of the region. Pleading with the people of Niger Delta to wholeheartedly embrace the option of dialogue and consultation being carried out by the FG, the NDDC chair, who had always remarked that Buhari’s administration meant well for Niger Deltans, said only the entrenchment of peace, can guarantee an overall development of the oil-rich region.
    According to him, destruction of oil facilities, pipeline vandalisation and damage done to other national assets within the Niger Delta would only help to further exacerbate the monumental infrastructural and environmental challenges confronting the region, rather than solving them for the benefit of the general public. The NDDC board helmsman expressed optimism that the time for change and solution to the numerous problems facing the Niger Delta has come, stressing the need for the people of the Niger Delta area to give the present administration all the required support and encouragement for it to continue in its positive drive to transform the region.
    The Managing Director (MD) of NDDC, Mr. Nsima Ekere had equally at a forum asked the people of Niger Delta to be calm and cooperate with the administration of Buhari towards the provision of infrastructure in the region. Regretting that the Niger Delta region had nothing much to show in the area of development for the five years a son of the soil ran the affairs of the country, Ekere said it was clear Buhari had the interest of Niger Delta at heart from the moves he has so far made to tackle the problems of the zone. The NDDC’s MD vowed that the interventionist agency will work vigorously and tirelessly in line with Buhari’s vision to bring sustainable development to the Niger Delta.
    While hailing the FG’s commitment to Niger Delta development and the adoption of its 16-point demand as a working document for the development of the Niger Delta axis of the country, the Pan-Niger Delta Elders Forum (PANDEF) stated that “beyond rhetoric, the federal government has given definite approval for the opening of the Nigeria Maritime University, Okerenkoko, as well as the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) comprising the Gas City Project at Ogidigben and the Deep Seaport in Gbaramatu, Warri South-West LGA, Delta State. These projects, when fully operational, will definitely cause a turnaround of the socio-economic and security landscape of not just Delta State, but the entire country.”
    Appealing to the youths and all aggrieved stakeholders in the Niger Delta to continue to maintain peace, and shun any act of vandalism and destruction of key government-owned assets, PANDEF said: “Let us give the federal government a chance to carry out its plans for the development of the Niger Delta region. We believe, and will continue to uphold the ideals of a peaceful Niger Delta, hinged on equity and justice, a united and prosperous Nigeria.”
    Also arguing that Buhari has shown enough commitment to improving the lives of the people of the oil-rich region, a former acting MD of NDDC, Pastor Power Ziakede Aginighan, urged the Ijaws, Urhobos and Itsekiris to bury their differences and support the FG’s renewed efforts to positively change the face of the Niger Delta region. According to him, “There can be no stronger expression of Federal Government’s understanding of the situation in Niger Delta than the pronouncement by the vice president that the region should be treated as a special development zone.”
    Chief Mike Loyibo was part of PANDEF delegation led by Chief Edwin Clark and His Royal Highness, Diete Spiff, to visit Buhari on November 1, 2016, where the 16-point item of the group was presented to the President. Loyibo, who later led another high-powered delegation of the Niger Delta Peoples Congress (NDPC), to meet with Osinbajo, in an interview published in a national daily, observed that “For us as leaders that are the true representatives of the people, there is no better time than now. The visit of the presidency to the heart of the problem, that’s the core Niger Delta area, is the best thing to be able to assess first hand; it is a fact-finding visit. What are the problems? How do we get out of it? For us as leaders, it shows that the presidency is actually committed and genuinely concerned in addressing in a very holistic manner the age-long neglect of the Niger Delta.”
    He emphasized the reasons why the efforts of the Buhari-led government must be appreciated and supported by all well-meaning Niger Deltans, saying: “After all, the problem is not Osinbajo’s problem. It is not Buhari’s problems. The problem was caused by we Niger-Delta people because when you blame the centre every day for all these problems, we have not asked questions about our 13 percent derivation money; what do the governors at that level do with the money? So, every day we run to the centre, saying you have not done this and that, we have not been able to ask questions among ourselves. There is a leadership problem in our area. As far as I am concerned, the problem is not a Buhari problem. It was caused by us, the Niger Delta people. Have we also asked questions? Our son and brother was there for years, what was the take home achievement?”

    •Michael Jegede, a media professional , wrote in from Abuja.

  • Reaping education harvest in Taraba

    For education in Taraba State, the harvest season is here. And it has never had it so good. One major signpost of the good times is the state’s performance in the West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE) last year. It scored 67.3 per cent, the best score recorded by the state in over 25 years of its history. It came on the heels of the magic touch which the educational sector in the state is currently experiencing under the leadership of Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku. That this happened despite the dislocation caused to schools and life generally by the series of communal crises of the time previous to the coming of the present administration underscores the huge amount of effort that went into the revival of the educational system in the first one year of the Ishaku administration. It is also a signal of hope that greater things are in the offing for education and other areas of socio-economic development for the state.
    What was achieved last year is a big contrast with the situation the administration inherited when it came into office in 2015. In that year, the state had no WASCE result. The government of that time was unable to help its students settle their WASCE fees which it had promised to pay and the foremost examination body withheld the state’s results. In the years preceding that incident, the story was only slightly better. The state recorded low performances. At no point in time before last year did it record anything above 48 percent score in WASCE. But the new Ishaku administration rejected that annual ritual of dismal WASCE results and insisted that things must change.
    Things, indeed, changed but only after the Governor had read the Riot Act to teachers and school administrators in the state. He assured them that his administration had come with a more pragmatic attitude to the development of education and demanded that they played their roles with a greater sense of dedication and patriotism. He followed this up with series of workshops and training programmes for head teachers and later for teachers and administrators in the educational chain. The programmes exposed participants to modern methods of record keeping, tests and measurement of performances of teachers and students, how to organise result-oriented programmes and maintain discipline generally in schools.
    Teachers in Taraba State are now constantly on their toes and so are their students. The new attitude in education has become infectious. This has impacted positively in the number of indigenes of the state gaining direct admission into Taraba State University. Before now, the state could hardly fill its admission quota there. Most of the students had to take the longer route that remedial studies offered.
    The new attitude in education in Taraba is a product of the realisation that education is the cornerstone of human development. Jigem Johanes, Commissioner for Education in Taraba State, said: “It is my most fulfilling moment since I have been in the education sector. Governor Ishaku will be remembered glowingly in future as the Governor who made the most positive and remarkable contribution to the development of education in Taraba State.”
    Education in Taraba is a pleasant story of magical recovery from neglect and communal crises that had held the state prostrate. Many schools in Gasol, Wukari, Bali, Ibi and to some extent, Gashaka, were closed down for many months as a result of persistent crises. Teachers and students fled their towns and villages and education virtually collapsed. It took the pragmatic steps and effort of Governor Ishaku for peace to be achieved and for the schools to re-open. Governor Ishaku ordered the erection of security checkpoints on the roads to these towns and villages and even on roads leading to the educational institutions. Emirs and village heads were also drafted into the apparatus for the maintenance of peace and security in educational institutions in their domains at the instance of the governor.
    The Rescue Watch team, an innovative feedback mechanism created by the Ishaku administration for keeping the Governor constantly abreast of happenings in the local governments and rural communities has been outstanding in its contribution to the improvements in education. Johanes said the group moves from village to village to monitor developments in schools – the number of children enrolled, the reporting time of teachers, their attitude to work generally and the condition of schools. The Ministry of Education now has a comprehensive documentation of all schools in the state – primary and secondary – and their conditions.
    The state’s team of Rescue Watch contributed immensely to the preparation of this document. The exercise is preparatory to the imminent comprehensive renovation of schools. Governor Ishaku released about N900 million for the project from the 2016 budget and the bidding for the projects has been completed. In 2017 budget, 1.7 Billion Naira is allocated for the building of new classrooms, other school buildings, toilets, laboratory buildings and equipment, computers and computer accessories and furniture. The idea is to enhance the school environment and make it more conducive for teaching and learning.
    Governor Ishaku’s administration has always been eager to release government’s counterpart funds for all UNICEF educational programmes in the state to ensure that the state derives maximum benefits from them. In December last year, when 12 students from the state were stranded in Venezuela after completing their studies due to lack of money to pay their way back home, Ishaku played the fatherly role by giving N1.6 million to each of the parents to bring them back.
    The state government also paid WASCE fees for exchange schools in the state and special education centres in Mutum Biyu and Garbabi. Also, every term, the state government hires buses to take exchange programmes students from the state studying in the 19 Northern states to and from their schools. This costs the state millions of Naira each time but Ishaku believes that it is a sacrifice the state is making to ensure the safety and comfort of its students.
    Computer gift is also part of government’s annual package for students of Taraba State origin studying at the Taraba State University. Last year about 300 computers were distributed to the students through balloting. The gesture is aimed at making studies less stressful for the students. Also to reduce the stress suffered by WASCE candidates in the state, a branch office of the examination body has been opened in Jalingo. The building to be used was built and donated by the Taraba State government. With the opening of the WAEC branch office in Jalingo, candidates do not have to take the risk of going to Yola, Adamawa State, as it has been the case for many years, to register for the examination anymore.

  • Candidate Mugabe’s Corpse

    Candidate Mugabe’s Corpse

    At 93 years of age, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has shambled into an alley of history that is exclusively his own. Not only is he the world’s oldest head of state, outpacing United Kingdom’s famously enduring Queen Elizabeth II by more than two years, he will be the oldest candidate in electoral history anywhere when he stands, as he looks set upon, in his country’s next general election due next year. He has said he wants to live till 100 years and plans to rule for life.
    The Zimbabwe leader turned 93 penultimate Tuesday. And as in previous years, he celebrated the milestone with a weeklong fiesta that climaxed in a lavish birthday party at the weekend that followed. Speaking at the bash in a public school in Matobo, on the outskirts of Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo, the nonagenarian slapped down widespread expectation that he would now give some hint of his retirement plans. “People are busy forming their own groupings saying ‘Mr. Mugabe must go.’ I ask myself, where should I go?” he said in a speech that was broadcast on state radio and television.
    Pa Mugabe wouldn’t even contemplate anointing a successor at this time because that, in his rulebook, would amount to undemocratic imposition. “Others are saying ‘President, choose a successor before you retire.’ Is that not imposition? Me, imposing someone on the party? No, I don’t want that,” he said in his address at the Matobo bash.
    The aged ruler allowed a gambit, though, saying his retirement, if it must happen, would be the ruling Zanu-PF’s call. But he as well foreclosed such a call by the party because the question, as he holds, was already decided by the people. “This is an issue for the congress to choose. We can have an extraordinary congress if the president retires. But you already said I should be your candidate in the next election,” he noted.
    Not that the old man was unmindful of his mortality, saying: “It’s not always easy to predict that, although you are alive this year, you will be alive next year. It does not matter how healthy you might feel. The decision that you continue to live and enjoy life is that of one personality we call the Almighty God.” But then, he had earlier also signalled there was no alternative to his candidature for the 2018 presidential poll. “If I feel that I can’t do it anymore, I will say so to my party. But for now I think I can’t say so. The majority of people feel that there is no replacement,” he said in a commemorative interview aired on Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) television penultimate week to mark his birthday.
    Well, give it to the liberation struggle hero: he is uncommonly strong for his advanced years. He yet ambles around on his own feet, and manages to give long speeches – the address at the birthday party in Matobo, for instance, lasted over an hour. Truth also is, even though he has been ruling Zimbabwe since 1980 and has seen the southern African country from a promising regional economic power to what clearly now is a basket case, Mugabe yet commands cult following among a huge number of his country folk, largely owing to a historical national debt for his liberation legacy – he led Zimbabwe in guerilla warfare to snatch independence from Britain’s colonial stranglehold, remember? Besides, opposition players in Zimbabwe are too far in disarray to offer any coordinated challenge to his incumbency, and lone crusaders like #ThisFlag protest movement leader, Pastor Evan Mawarire, are readily leashed with insurgency charges.
    Still, Mugabe is inexorably slowing down with age. He stumbled notably on the red carpet in 2015, fuelling frantic questions about his physical fitness. At other times, he has appeared increasingly frail and less than steady on his feet. In the pre-recorded birthday interview penultimate week, the nonagenarian paused at lengths between sentences and spoke with his eyes barely open. He frequently groped for the right word, looked visibly tired and was scarcely audible, with his famed oratory eloquence mostly absent. By late last week, he was reported to have headed out to Singapore for medical checks and is being expected back in his country early this week.
    But despite the invading debility of age, Mugabe remains a reference point for the 2018 presidential run. And he is being egged on by close allies who apparently have hitched their political wagons to the nonagenarian’s slowing engine head. The ace player in this club is Mugabe’s 51-year-old wife, Grace, who once said if need be, the aged ruler would be taken to campaign rallies in a wheel chair to make a stump for votes. Grace Mugabe escalated that rhetoric lately by saying her husband could contest the next election even as “a corpse.” She accused some members of the ruling party of plotting to oust her husband, saying if he dies, supporters should still put his name on the ballot and vote for him to show their loyalty.
    Grace was in 2014 installed head of Zanu-PF Women’s League and a member of the party’s politburo by President Mugabe; and speaking at a rally south-east of Harare to kick off the League’s campaign for the 2018 presidential poll a couple of weeks back, she said: “One day when God decides that Mugabe dies, we will have his corpse appear as a candidate on the ballot paper. You will see people voting for Mugabe as a corpse. I am seriously telling you – just to show how people love their president.”
    There were, of course, apparent connotations to the First Lady’s statement. She is viewed by many as a major contender to succeed her husband, even though she faces bitter opposition from a faction of the ruling party aligned to the current Vice President, Emmerson Mnangagwa. And she refuses to rule the speculation. “They say I want to be President. Why not? Am I not Zimbabwean?” she once said.
    Her latest suggestion that Mugabe could run for election as a corpse is widely construed to imply the possibility of  proxy rule by the old man, if he dies, through her. And you could say she made that much clear at the recent rally when she told challengers who belonged to the war era – like Mnangagwa – that while Mugabe might be advancing in years, they are in the same age bracket and too old to take power. “Anyone who was with Mugabe in 1980 has no right to tell him he is old. If you want Mugabe to go, then you leave together. You also have to leave. Then we take over because we were not there in 1980,” she said.
    I would say the unfolding scenario in Zimbabwe is a shame; but then, it is illustrative of the power disease that is quite notable in Africa. And let’s be clear: this disease isn’t restricted to just presidential offices, it applies to many other public offices too. It is the reason people cling to public office, with scant regard for public accountability and a warped notion of entitlement and indispensability. And it is such mentality that bred the Nguema Mbasogos, Eduardo dos Santoses, Paul Biyas, Yoweri Musevenis and others in their African clan.
    Here is the catch: it is as well such mentality that informs pervasive claim by elected officials in our context to sanctity of their right to a second term when they are yet to justify the mandate by voters for a first term. This mentality is a strain of the Mugabe disease.

  • Bouncing back from recession

    In order to fully understand the issues surrounding Nigeria’s economic challenges and to find out what the government was doing to take the country and Nigerians out of recession, I visited the Ministry of Budget and National Planning in Abuja recently.
    It occurred to me after my visit that in spite of the prevailing perception of lack of strategic policy direction aimed at reviving the economy, there are strong indications that the federal government and its agencies are working round the clock to pull the economy out of recession and set the country on the path of sustainable growth and development within the shortest possible time.
    I also observed that government efforts to revive the economy are not receiving commensurate level of awareness among critical audiences and stakeholders. As the government approaches its mid-term, it is highly recommended that the country’s growth and development initiatives should be vigorously promoted in the mainstream and international media to give Nigerians, foreign investors and our trading partners some hope for the impending economic revival.
    After more than a decade of seemingly steady economic progress, the Nigerian economy contracted and is currently in recession. This was attributed to both external and internal pressures which the country’s fragile mono-cultural economic fundamentals could not absorb.
    Several reasons have been adduced for the economic downturn, the most fundamental being the sharp drop in global oil prices and steep declines in domestic oil and gas production which resulted from the sabotage of oil export terminals in the oil-producing Niger Delta region. The crux of the matter, however, is our over-dependence on crude oil exports for government revenue and export earnings; consumption-driven instead of productive and investment-propelled growth and huge leaks in government resources through corruption and inefficient spending.
    All these factors combined to negatively impact government revenue and export earnings as well as the fiscal capacity to stimulate the economy during the period. Lack of fiscal buffers, unbridled corruption and reckless spending exposed the economy’s vulnerability to external shocks, and consequently constrained government’s spending capacity and a gradual movement towards recession.
    The dramatic fall in oil revenues has resulted in an equally dramatic fall in the revenues projected in the 2016 Budget to come from non-oil sources. This is because the fall in oil revenue has resulted in a serious reduction in Nigeria’s foreign currency earnings (95% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings come from the oil sector).
    This shortage of foreign currency has affected the level of trade activities, the level of manufacturing activity and revenues from independent revenue generating agencies including Customs and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). As a consequence of the foreign currency shortage, there was a concomitant shortfall in the level of non-oil revenues projected in the 2016 Budget. Invariably, as long as the non-oil sector is largely dependent on the oil sector for its foreign exchange requirements, volatility in the oil sector will affect the performance of the non-oil sector.
    As long as the crude oil enjoys fair pricing and production levels go up, with the consequent steady flow of revenue, diversification of the economy from dependence on oil can wait for another day. This is an economic challenge that we must overcome as quickly as possible. For example, turning Nigeria into the ‘Food Basket of Africa’ is one way to move away from our over-dependence on crude oil. It is indeed heart-warming to note that Nigerians are embracing farming in greater numbers in different parts of the country and turning it into viable businesses for our local requirements and export opportunities.
    Unfortunately, in the last few years, crude oil sales account for less than 10% of the country’s GDP, but contributes about 90% of foreign earnings in government revenue.  The non-oil sector which contributes about 90% of the country’s GDP contributes only about 10% of government revenue.
    To move away from the current state of recession and ensure that the economy does not slide into this condition in future, government decided on measures that will ensure the diversification of sources of revenue as well as opening avenues for critical investments. The core focus of this new thinking is on massive infrastructure development, return to agriculture and exploitation of solid minerals. The reason is basically that these focus areas have great potential for massive employment generation, enhancement of export activities and expanded foreign exchange earnings.
    Even the 2017 Budget is aimed at achieving economic growth, diversification, improving competitiveness, improving ease of doing business, creating more jobs and social inclusion, improving governance and security. Spending is targeted at areas that have quick transformative potential such as infrastructure and agriculture, manufacturing, solid minerals, services and so on.
    More fundamentally, government has come out with a set of plans to head off the economic headwinds. It started with the 2016 Budget when the federal government developed the Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP). The SIP was a short-term plan intended to keep the economy from further contraction by avoiding austerity measures and maintaining growth while articulating sector strategies that would form the basis of a medium-term development plan.
    This was followed by the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), a Medium Term Plan for 2017 – 2020 which builds on the SIP, and is developed for the purpose of restoring economic growth while leveraging the ingenuity and resilience of the Nigerian people. It is also articulated with the understanding that the role of government in the 21st century must evolve from that of being an omnibus provider of citizens’ needs into a force for eliminating bottlenecks that impeded innovations and market- based solutions.
    To give vent to the plan, 59 Strategies have been developed for implementation to achieve the major objectives of the ERGP.
    Out of that number, 12 have been prioritized based on their importance to the success of the plan. These include:
    ·  Restoring oil production to 2.2mbpd and reach 2.5mbpd by 2020
    · Privatizing selected assets
    · Accelerating non-oil revenue generation
    · Drastically cutting costs
    · Aligning monetary, trade and fiscal policies
    · Expanding Infrastructure especially Power, Roads and Rail
    · Revamping the four existing refineries
    · Improving Ease of Doing Business
    · Expanding social investment programmes
    · Delivering on agricultural transformation
    · Accelerating implementation of National Industrial Revolution Plan using Special Economic Zones
    · Focusing on priority sectors in order to generate jobs, promote exports, boost growth and upgrade skills.
    The key industrial and trade policy initiatives include:
    · Resuscitation of the Export Expansion Grant geared towards providing export policy orientation for foreign exchange earnings diversification and global competitiveness;
    · Strengthening the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Committee (PEBEC) to facilitate the improvement of the country’s business environment;
    · Leveraging ICT to improve global competitiveness of the country Establishment of an ICT Ecosystem
    · Expansion of Broadband coverage and establishment of “Innovations and Experience” centres and ICT clusters
    · Enhancing support to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to maximise their contribution to growth, employment and export earnings
    · Promoting the policy of Made-in-Nigeria
    To achieve these objectives, the federal government repeatedly made commitments to provide the leadership required to establish a well-governed society with stable macroeconomic conditions, and a dynamic, competitive environment that enables the private sector to thrive.
    Government is also determined to build strong institutions, but the point must be made that every Nigerian is a critical stakeholder in the task of nation building.

    •Braimah is the Chairman/CEO of Neo Media & Marketing, Ikeja, Lagos.

  • Defeating Boko Haram: We must act now to save lives and build peace

    We are delighted to be visiting Nigeria this week, especially during the UK’s Presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

    We agree with new UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that the UNSC must prioritise preventing conflict and sustaining peace. That is why we are focusing our Presidency on conflict prevention in Africa, starting with a UNSC visit to the Lake Chad Basin. Nigeria itself has long played a major role in international efforts to tackle conflict and build peace. Many Nigerians will be familiar with images of the famous blue helmets and berets worn by UN peacekeepers. But they may not know that more than 2,100 Nigeria military and civilian personnel are currently deployed on UN peacekeeping missions in countries including Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Sudan, South Sudan, Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

    We applaud Nigeria’s contributions to UN, ECOWAS and AU efforts in support of peace. The world saw the value of Nigerian leadership in this respect again in January, when President Buhari played a leading role in brokering a peaceful resolution to the political crisis in The Gambia.

    Of course, Nigeria also faces its own threats to national and regional peace and stability. The UK strongly supports Nigeria’s campaign to tackle the scourge of Boko Haram’s violent extremism and terrorism, and its cooperation in this fight with neighbouring Lake Chad Basin countries.  We are very proud that the UK is training Nigerian troops fighting Boko Haram. The UK is also providing life-saving assistance for those affected by the conflict. In 2016, £70 million in UK aid for North-East Nigeria provided food to more than 1 million people, treatment for 34,000 children at risk of dying from malnutrition, and access to clean water and sanitation for more than 135,000 people.

    Nigeria and its neighbours must maintain their military efforts to defeat Boko Haram, and do all they can to ensure that aid reaches those in need. But lasting security and stability will require a broader approach. As the UN Secretary General said in his first address to the UNSC this year, we cannot take peace for granted – it requires difficult decisions, hard work and compromise.

    Communities and governments will need to find ways of working better together to address a range of underlying causes of conflict: countering extremism; addressing the effects of climate change; protecting and promoting human rights; tackling corruption, and creating economic and educational opportunities. Nigeria’s recent pledge at the Nigeria and Lake Chad region conference in Oslo to spend US$1 billion dollars supporting Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and reconstruction in the Northeast of Nigeria is welcome. Such leadership is required from Nigeria to help address the urgent and longer term needs the North-East faces.

    Building peace also requires wide participation, starting at the grassroots and engaging civil society, faith leaders, youth and minorities. The involvement and empowerment of woman and girls at every level will be indispensable.

    All too often, women and girls suffer most in conflict, and are not represented in the pursuit of peace. But we know that when they are involved in negotiations, the chances of peace increase by 20% to 35%.

    The UK will continue supporting Nigerian-led efforts to counter violent extremism and terrorism and build peace, just as we support Nigerian initiatives to tackle corruption and achieve sustainable and inclusive economic growth.  The UK is committed to standing by Nigeria’s side as a friend and partner in difficult times, because a more secure, stable and prosperous Nigeria is good for Nigeria’s citizens, good for the UK and good for the world.

  • Kayode Sofola: 40 years at Nigerian Bar

    Kayode Sofola: 40 years at Nigerian Bar

    Accomplishment is not just a mere wish but a mixed grill and pot-pourri of perseverance, hard work and integrity.

    Kayode Sofola: Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Commercial litigator, tax specialist, Jurist and a legal luminary made his mark as an epitome of excellence early in life, sharp witted and exemplary. Being the scion of the late Kehinde Sofola, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, a legal icon and a legend; he comes with great pressure, responsibilities and expectations. He tenaciously strived very hard to live out of his father’s shadow.

    He was born in Lagos February 14, 1949 to the illustrious family of the late Kehinde Sofola an erudite lawyer, cross examiner per-excellence and litigation guru who hails from Ikenne-Remo, Ogun State.

    The young Sofola attended Yaba Methodist Primary School, Lagos from 1956 to 1962; at his elementary school he was appointed a captain for his zeal and good conduct from where he gained admission into the prestigious King’s College, Lagos, He was equally appointed a school prefect and House Captain in 1969. Upon the completion of his Higher School Certificate Examination (HSC) at the King’s College Lagos, he proceeded to the Norwich City College in England. He finally berthed at the popular Birmingham University, England, where he bagged his LLB (Hons) in flying colours in 1974, and proceeded promptly to obtain a Master’ Degree (LLM) at the University College, London in 1975. The young British trained lawyer excitedly returned to his fatherland to attend the Nigerian Law School, Lagos. He was there and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1976.

    The young lawyer cut his legal practice tooth with Kehinde Sofola and company, Public notaries, Solicitors and Advocates in 1976. He rose through the ranks at this foremost legal firm by dint of hard work and for being highly cerebral as a counsel, to principal counsel and founder of Kayode Sofola and Co. In clear terms it’s incontrovertible that KS as he was popularly called is an old war horse who has walked the legal turf for forty years. In his unchequered four decades (40 years) of practice.

    KS leaves his footprints everywhere: he was executive member Nigerian Bar Association, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Member VAT Tribunal (Western Zone), Ag. Chairman VAT Tribunal (Eastern Zone), Current Chairman Tax Appeal Tribunal (Lagos Zone), Director United Bank for Africa (UBA), Chairman UBA Group (2004 – 2007), Legal Adviser Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Director EMIS Etisalat Nigeria Limited. Kayode Sofola is an octopus of some sort whose formidable profile cannot be encapsulated in a piece. By virtue of presiding over a tribunal constitutionally he is a Jurist. In his capacity as Chairman Appeal Tribunal, Lagos zone, he gave landmark judgments which have become reference points. For example in one of such remarkable cases: Mobile Producing Nigeria Unlimited was ordered by the Tax Appeal Tribunal Zone to pay $83.4 million (N13.09 billon) to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as education tax liability for the year 2008.

    Kayode Sofola is a legal juggernaut who has appeared in nearly all leading commercial cases in Nigeria. The “K.S” firm legal mindset is focused on practical and achievable solutions to legal conundrums and knotty issues well beyond sixty  years in existence, the K.S legal firm has provided outstanding legal services in tandem with international best practices. It is no doubt a foremost Nigerian Firm defining the course of Nigerian legal jurispudence, complex commercial disputes and contentious business transactions.

    It is a firm and conglomerate of expertise in specialized areas of: banking, energy and gas, infrastructure, export and import, funds, investment management, insurance, real estate, tax, telecoms, technology et-al. “K.S” legal firm sees social responsibility as sacred. The firm earmarks packages for the vulnerable and indigents who would ordinary have no access to legal representation and serves as a breeding ground for the best legal minds for the Nigerian judiciary. The KS and Co. Chambers of Solicitors and Advocates parade the best legal minds in Nigeria, with the crops of young bright minds and the “ancient wise men” those who trained and qualified 40 years back. KS legal firm is located at an exclusive and serene environment at the Osborne, foreshore in Lagos, e-compliant with a large volume of books, encyclopedia and compendia dating back to the 18th Century. It’s indeed a gallery of law and archives, which is a veritable resource centre for law research and legal minds. Interestingly, he recently clocked a mile stone of 40 years at the Bar. He bestrides commercial law practice of the horizon as a colossus, and follows suit in the tradition of his father Kehinde Sofola the late elder statesman who was so passionate about matters affecting Ikenne community and the Ansar-ud Deen mission in general.

    On this premise, he is a philanthropist; this is evident considering the large number of people who massively find a way to his Ikenne residence. The crescendo is the yearly Eid-el-Fitri and Eid-el-Kabir festivals where all manners of people converged unhindered for hand-outs and myriad of assistance; a legion of hangers -on mill around his residence to eke a living at such periods. Kayode Sofola has contributed significantly to the development of Ikenne community, by empowering the youths through educational scholarship scheme, paying hospital bills, assisting the aged to set up small scale trade and also contributing significantly towards infrastructural development in general. He is a Patron of Ikenne Development Association, the Metropolitan Club, Victoria Island, Lagos and Ikoyi Club 1938, Chairman Board of Governors Ansar-ud-Deen. The respected Senior Advocate of Nigeria is happily married to Darlin Sofola, and blessed with exemplary children.

     

    • Balogun, wrote in from Abuja

     

  • PMB please forgive them for they know not what they do

    Whenever I hear a news item how the President will be jetting out next day on a trip to the UK, it translates in my mind that my mentor Femi Adesina is traveling to the UK, and so I immediately made a call to Femi and told him some titles I wanted him to buy me.

    Oh, I am in Nigeria, in Lagos, and didn’t travel with PMB.

    Oh, I replied noting that a medical checkup was also on the bill for PMB’s trip.

    Emm, is everything all right with Mr. President?  He’s fine?   Oh yes, SURE, SURE he’s fine, he’s ok, it’s a routine medical thing.

    Ok Ok and thanks, have wonderful day, I rang off.

    But like the media assistant to the Ogun Governor Yemi Soyombo describes, even before PMB’s plane landed in London, the social media was awash, with the news he was dead.  My experience was Have you Heard (AMEBO).  The president is really sick/dead.  They don’t want to say it yet (who are the  They!!) Just EVERYONE was assailed with these rumours – I went to visit a sick person and on her SICK BED she asked anxiously about the news of the death of the president.

    Into another week and the death – wishers got more and more active, inundating us with their grim version of things in spite of categorical denials from the President’s media team:  The President Is Not Dead they emphasized.  Very dead, death-wishers kept saying. So  I called Femi Adesina again.

    Sorry, how is PMB now, is he alright?

    Sure yes yes, fine, he’s fine.

    Oh I really thank God because emmm (I didn’t complete the death tale!).  Oh, don’t mind them he said – he understood at once!

    Thank you, thank you, you have made my day, thanks, I rang off.

    Rumours could fly to space for all I cared, I was ‘doubly sure’ by the double assurance, and I coasted along on my Planet Joy.  Until the mischief – makers” (PMB called them!) decide to up their game.

    Having waited long and PMB wasn’t forthcoming, almost as if to buttress their point, on  February 1st  the social media EXPLODED with: PMB is dead, even all the African presidents held a minutes silence that morning on his behalf.  Is that so, I laughed- and appeared mad to everyone else.

    But you see, Femi Adesina is a Christian.  Not one Apostle – bracketed – Doctor, but a child of God: he had said No and I believed No.  I NEVER CALLED HIM AGAIN.

    5 days later, the president called for a leave extension and the next week even released his photographs.

    Mad Drama, Mad Drama yes, but now Femi has gotten a call from London, a call that like me, he never once asked to be connected to PMB to respect his vacation time out – once he was ASSURED the man was fine, Femi was fine with that.

    And as I regularly pray for his speedy return with a whistle clean bill of health knowing all is well that will end well; I urge him to also forgive his transducers.  They were only over-reacting: the fact is that OBJ SPOOKED this nation.

    When ex-President Obasanjo summoned then Governor Umaru Yar’Adua his late friend’s younger brother to Aso Rock Villa, he sent one of the then 2 presidential jets to Katsina to bring Umaru with dispatch.

    OBJ made him a proposition Umaru could not resist.

    Umoru, I’m going to make you president – would you want to be president?

    OBJ had already known that Umaru wouldn’t turn it down.

    Annoyingly, what he also knew but which was carefully concealed from Nigerians was that Umaru was gravely ill. So very ill was he that after managing his health condition for years (called Chung Strauss Syndrome), he actually disappeared altogether for six consecutive months and was even presumed dead in Katsina during his tenure as Governor. It turned out his long absence made very little difference because his presence in the first place was always off and on throughout, with varying lengths of layoffs!  OBJ had declared state of emergency in other parts of the north, but left Katsina the whole time.

    During that encounter OBJ had asked Umaru only one other question.

    Are you well, sure you strong enough to take up the job?  Umaru said Yes.

    My question: why the question in the first place?  Out of over 170 million able-bodied people, OBJ intentionally foisted the feeblest of men, one with an incurable disease on us, to entrench Paddy – Paddy government (Fela’s expression).

    Well, many can remember that after Umaru slumped the second time while campaigning, OBJ made his now famous though totally bogus phone call of Umoru, Are You Dead?  (You phone someone and he picks – can a dead man answer?!)

    Umaru who had been rushed abroad for treatment, returned with the decision to completely drop the charade of campaigning – clearly to keep his life. I guess he decided to simply commit himself to the rigging machine (of OBJ again) for his election “victory”.

    Touching, he did have the grace to admit to same, openly.

    I saw him for the first time in 2008 in Uyo where   I and some others had been contracted to supply protocol services, as well as MC work, as required.

    By virtue of my protocol pass, I got right up to the helipad landing spot when President Yar Adua arrived – and had the greatest shock of my life.  Barely 8 months in office, Umaru looked to me like a WALKING CORPSE – only the second person I had seen in such state in my whole life, then! Just one prayer left my lips:  Dear God, don’t let the President die here and now, in Akwa Ibom.  Thank you God.

    Too ill to even last some commissioning and event proceedings, by mid-afternoon he was back in Abuja “by arrangement” and V.P Jonathan jetted in and completed the event.

    From then on, he was in and out of Saudi for hajj whether there was hajj or not.  His frequent medical trips abroad naturally began to creep the people. 

    By the end of the following year Yar’Adua left for another ‘hajj’ in Saudi, without transferring power as required, creating the greatest constitutional crisis our democracy has even witnessed. In addition his refusal rendered the VP redundant – that time Dame Patience had said “No be only newspaper them want make my husband dey read here?”  Unlike Yar’Adua PMB is the first President to comply with the provisions of Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution as amended on the Acting President.

    Well, three months later Yar’Adua was literally smuggled into the country awaiting death – Top Secret I understand he was a mere vegetable.  A couple of months later, he was announced dead.  That was after another half a year of secrecy, lies, deceit and misinformation as well as s complete VACUUM in the Presidency.

    NIGERIA WAS SPOOKED.  Terrified and Completely Lost.

    So you see by the time PMB left on vacation and added the rider – a medical checkup, the scepter of Umaru – Umaru reared its head again and this time it was made out to be real!

    Now many people have justified the death rumour on the basis of the President age. But I make bold to say that whether PMB was 74 or he was 47 it wouldn’t have mattered, people had already been spooked by the Umaru-Saga, one that had made the whole country suffer.  OBJ did this nation a willful disservice.

    I believe there is a simple way out though.  Its called Full Disclosure.  Remember the time PMB jetted out for some medical attention on his ear?  No one got spooked cos everyone knew the deal.

    If he is running some tests now – Nigerians will willingly be calmed if they are made to know FOR WHAT.  Oh yes.

    And so for now, it is – Shame to bad people Hossana (that’s Daddy Showkey).  God bless.

  • Restoring public education’s pride

    It is not uncommon for Nigerians to bemoan corruption, the collapse of moral values, insecurity, decaying public infrastructure, unemployment or the high cost of doing business in the country. What is most uncommon is the correct diagnosis of the disease rather than the symptom, which all these represent, or its origins.

    Once upon a time, Nigeria’s politics was relatively clean. Our best and brightest like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, or the golden voice of Africa, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, or Ahmadu Bello, dominated the political landscape of our country. Colossuses like the Great Zik of Africa, Aminu Kano, Chief Mike Opara, Anthony Enahoro, Uncle Bola Ige – the Cicero of Esa Oke – with their education set the pace. Politics was not for dropouts, 419 kingpins and drug pushers as it has become today. What then happened? How did Nigeria find herself in this mess? How did we become the basket case of Africa?

    The origin of Nigeria’s malady can be traced to the abandonment of public education that provided quality learning to ALL irrespective of their economic background.  Which can by itself be traced to the trauma of the 60s, when Nigeria zigzagged from various bloody coups to a civil war that severely damaged the national psyche.

    One need not be a psychologist to see how the ruinous civil war, that cheapened human life and left 10 million Nigerians cashless and desperate, broke the bond of communal responsibility that underlined the hitherto strong education system and brought upon Nigeria a generation of educated idiots who later made it into her state house in the last dispensation. If that result were not enough parable for Nigeria to pay more attention to the education of the common man, then one would wonder what will wake us up from our perilous slumber.

    Nigeria’s civil war was a traumatic national experience, irrespective of the vain glorious declaration of “no victor, no vanquished”.

    First was the traumatised and impoverished vanquished left with nothing but self and strove to nothing but self-enrichment to escape the throes of poverty that the war had brought upon him; of what use is community to such a man? Of what use is education, when material acquisition was the route to fame, recognition and honour? Thus a generation of the vanquished that have been educated by missionaries and community scholarships took to trading and selling of everything and anything including our values.

    Trumping the imperious circumstances of the vanquished was the traumatised victor, whose sense of entitlement to the articles of state led to the abandonment of enterprise and self-sufficiency. After all, he had lost friends and put limb at risk to keep the nation one, why should he not benefit from the spoils of victory? Seeing people die also have a way of making man realising the brevity of life to aimless acquisition to which end the Nigerian moral is now bankrupt and crying loud for salvation

    The emerging Nigeria after the civil war had no use for solid education system, for it negates the objectives of the new national mindset for materialism courtesy of a deep-seated trauma to which we were all in denial. Perhaps education shone a light of transparency on the racketeering group the new system purposefully developed.

    Thus developed, the Nigerian penchant for “sharing the national cake”, and creation of alternative truths to justify the privatisation of profits and the socialisation of losses now emblematic in AMCON, CBN intervention funds, subsidy payments, among others – for after all, the nexus of material acquisition in the absence of morality is corruption. So when we say corruption will kill Nigeria if we don’t kill corruption, we can only mean that until we reverse the trauma that led to the abandonment of education as a value system, Nigeria is dead.

    The inflow of dark money courtesy of mineral wealth post-civil war of course did not help matters. Who needs the community when the federal government can afford to pay for it? Thus went out of the window the basic building blocks of our education system. Nigeria is yet to recover from this nightmare.

    A generation of community or missionary school trained children decided to debase education for the poor, and instead set up mushroom private institutions for themselves and their children only to fall victim to the overall destruction of the nation’s value system.  The public school system was under funded, children went to schools without shoes and one of the traumatised fellas became president and came to inflict a revenge on the national psyche courtesy of our miseducation!

    The education system of any society is the only systematic instrument for transmitting its value system, the only framework for enabling the next generation, its economy and instilling patriotism. All these elements were missing in the post 1970 education system we signed on to, and which is why today Nigeria churns out unemployable individuals from glorified primary schools we call universities.

    Patriotism or history are not taught in our schools, most of our school curriculum is detached from the need of real society, and foreign curriculum aside from currencies are now the fad in fast rising puppet elite institutions that rot at their moral core. Of what use is British-American curriculum to a Nigerian child? Are we preparing these children to grow British and American economy?

    Our education sector lacks a plan, from the bottom-up and we instead have replaced this with grandiose centralised planning that has no bearing in the real world. It is time for us to say never again. It is for us to realise that no amount of time spent fighting corruption will be meaningful without capturing a whole generation untainted in our schools before the work-life in Nigeria pigeon hole them into vice.

     

    • By Micheal O. Oluwagbemi II

     

     

  • Bello: Taming the tides of insecurity in Kogi

    Bello: Taming the tides of insecurity in Kogi

    As we journeyed from Lokoja to Okene enroute to Akure for the swearing-in ceremony of the Ondo State Governor-elect, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), my mind dwelt on a number of things that have changed in my journeys along the familiar road with deep reflections on the innate capacity of purposeful leadership to fully transform failing infrastructures for people’s benefit. I realised once again how much our everyday life is affected by governance, anchored on leadership or the lack of it, and how inexorably linked our access to infrastructure is to our living standards and what difference a visionary leadership could make in a short period of time.

    Being from Ogori, Kogi State the road is one I had plied very frequently. And as we moved smoothly and swiftly for that matter, I recalled how torturous transiting through this road used to be few months down the fading past. The experience was always a nasty one with intermittent descent into wide gullies bestriding the un-motorable road amidst insecure grunts of apprehension. As my mind lingered on the ease and comfort now experienced on the road, compared with what obtained in the not too distant past, I became suddenly overcome with emotions and overwhelmed with deserving appreciation to His Excellency, Governor Yahaya Bello from the hordes of social commentators who are frequent users of the road.

    Of the several journeys through that road that I can remember, there has never been one that felt like this one. The journey was smooth and quick. There have been several leaders at the helm of affairs in our dear Kogi State, but I make bold to say none has given this road this much attention at renewal, no one, not even close. Never mind the question of the consistent window dressing of majority of our prominent roads by successive administrations with purchased or rented crowds to cheer the leaders for variegated political plaudits at the bogus commissioning –those are plays upon the stage. What is truly unprecedented in the mind of the patriotic and discerning Kogi people is the propelling love of the people by the governor, the desire to improve on their access to functional road infrastructure, and the sheer magnitude of quickening heartbeats in millions of Kogi people who are filled with appreciation for the uncommon transformation of their once ruined road networks which they hitherto plied largely buffeted within and without by the simmering ache of dread.

    In a similar vein, I have never seen transformation so vivid with clear evidence of committed work and applauded performance so unencumbered by questions of divisiveness, tribalism, and other base considerations.

    One thing about performance is that it cuts across all the people as ultimate beneficiaries without undue interference by a tangled web of conflicting interests. Despite the pageantry of unity that accompanies any accomplishment that cuts across everyone in Kogi State, there is a piercing sense of fulfilment that touches close to home that the one doing these exploits is the revolutionary game-changer governor.

    Apart from the cogent and limitless benefits to travellers on this road and many others in form of easy and comfortable drive, less wear and tear on vehicles and the tyres, faster and safer travels, there is a more important reason why people of good conscience continue to applaud the Governor Bello for working on the road: this is the improvement brought on the security apparatus – something that earned him recognition as the governor with the greatest strides in security improvement in the country in the past year.

    It should be recalled that these bad roads hitherto contributed to the insecurity challenges faced by the state as they made it easy for robberies and kidnaps to happen unfettered on that axis. Journeys on that route were previously characterised by reasonable apprehension, palpable fear of imminent danger over carefully orchestrated robbery ambushes and hostage-taking owing to the slowness of journeys accentuated by structurally defective road infrastructure.

    This move to further improve on security which the Bello administration considers as priority was informed by intelligence reports that criminals hide behind bushes along the roads to perpetuate crime. And so in line with the Kogi State government’s unalloyed commitment to ensuring security, the governor directed a construction company to be engaged to clear five metres on both sides of the roads from Kabba Junction to Otite in Okehi LGA; Check Point in Okene LGA to Okpela; from Check Point in Okene LGA to Ajaokuta to assist the road networks, open up the lingering hideout of criminals on that route and ultimately contribute to nipping insecurity challenges in the bud once and for all.

    The second phase of the road clearing and widening project is billed to commence from Kabba Junction through Odo-Ape to Kabba Town while the third phase will equally commence from Lokoja through Ganaja to Ajaokuta Township and the link road between Igalamela/Odolu to Ofu and several internal road path in Omala LGA which have been previously considered to be flashpoints for the unbridled infestation of crime in the state.

    It is instructive to note that the Kogi State government has completed the clearing of the roadsides between Koton-karfe and Abaji in fulfilment of the administration’s strides towards delivering on its promises to improve on the road networks and ensuring the security of lives and property of the commuters in a continuous bid to making Kogi safer and more secure.

    The fact that one of the multi-dimensional approaches the Bello-led administration is taking to curb insecurity challenge in Kogi State is to improve on the road network confirms his faultless genius as solving the people’s peculiar infrastructural challenges and delivering the dividends of democracy to all Kogi people irrespective of their political affiliation despite the limitation of resources. It is worthy of note that these worthwhile huge investments in the road and security infrastructure is already paying off as seen in the substantial improvement of security in the state.

    One can only wish the hard-working, diligent, extremely focused governor, Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello, more wisdom, strength and sound health as he continues in his laudable efforts towards repositioning the state as contained in the New Direction Blueprint in the years ahead.

    •Onyegbule is Chief Press Secretary to Kogi governor.

  • On Xenophobia in South Africa

    On Xenophobia in South Africa

    This is, of course, not the best of time for a section of the estimated 15 million Nigerians who reside abroad. This is because, apart from the fact that some of them have been passing through self-inflicted ordeals, many are truly victims of xenophobic attacks by the citizens and the governments of their host countries. For instance, the tales brought home by those Nigerians recently deported from Libya have been those of woes – rape, forced labour, forceful prostitution, modern slavery and physical attacks. Forty-three Nigerians were also on February 23, deported from Europe to Nigeria. While Nigeria is still awaiting more deportees from Libya as reported by the Nigerian media, then came the bad news report (The Nation of Sunday, February 19, P.5)that, “businesses operated by Nigerians came under attacks by South Africans in Pretoria West of the country. According to Ikechukwu Anyere, President, Nigerian Union in South Africa as quoted in the report, “as we speak, five buildings with Nigerian businesses, including a church have been looted and burned by South Africans”. “One of the buildings , a mechanic garage with 28 cars under repairs, with other vital documents, were burned during the attacks”.
    As a phenomenon of hate, xenophobia is the hurling of anger, fear and hatred towards foreign objects or people in a country; at its extreme, it entails killing of aliens. Indeed, xenophobia is not an eerie phenomenon in human relations even in global context for it has manifested in numerous parts of the world under different guises and circumstances. The anti-blacks antics of the Ku Klux Klan in the USA; the incident of Japanese internment camps in the USA during the World War II which culminated in the inhumation of thousands of Japanese-Americans; the killing of over six million Jews by the Nazi government in Germany between 1941 and 1945; and the killing of nationals, such as the Poles and Gypsies during the Third Rich in Germany among others, are clear manifestations of xenophobia.
    The xenophobic attack of February 18 in South Africa was of course not the first of its kind in recent times in that country. It will be recalled that in April 2015, large scale attacks were targeted at African immigrants from countries such as Nigeria, Mozambique, Somalia, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was reportedly provoked by the lamentation of Zulu King, Goodwill Zwalithini that foreigners were making life difficult for South Africans as they had taken over the South African economy. In that incident, the News Agency of Nigeria reported that, apart from lives, Nigerians lost properties valued at about 1.2million rand (about N21million then). Several other incidents of xenophobic attack had earlier been recorded in the country between 1995 and 2006.
    Traced to racial discrimination which prevailed in the country in apartheid years between 1948-1994, xenophobia today, has assumed the national character of the South African state. According to a study based on a citizen survey across member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) published by the South African Migration Projects (SAMP), South Africans have been found to hold the most intense anti-foreigner sentiment, with 21% disposing to complete ban of entry by foreigners and 64% expressing preference for imposition of stringent conditions for foreigners to be granted “entry visas” into the country. The germane question at this juncture is this: what are the underlining causes of this attitude of hate towards aliens particularly towards fellow Africans, by South Africans?
    The undercurrents of this attitude of no love lost, range from the serious to the unserious, though with very serious consequences too. According to a report of the Human Sciences Research Council, xenophobia in South Africa can be hinged and blamed on the quartet of: relative deprivation of South Africans allegedly caused by the aliens in the country which is a consequence of keen competition for jobs and social facilities; group processes, including psychological categorization processes that are nationalistic rather than superordinate; South African exceptionalism, or a feeling of superiority in relation to other Africans and exclusive citizenship or a form of nationalism that excludes others. Prominent among the frivolous ones though with equally damaging consequences is the competition between South African young men and other rich African young men especially Nigerians, over South African girls, a game in which Nigerians have been adjudged winsome because of their munificence.
    Indeed, the challenge of xenophobia has far reaching implications not only for the development and standing of South Africa in Africa and in the world at large, but also for the lofty goals of integrating the continent of Africa and promoting sustainable development. For example, in a paper presented by Professor Akinsola Alaba Agagu and I, on: “The Challenges of Xenophobia and Terrorism for the Development of Higher Education in Africa” , at a Conference held in the 95-year-old University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2015, we had raised the sobering alarm that, following incessant incident of xenophobic attacks in South Africa, the image being created for the country to the outside world is that of a state that is hostile to foreigners. This we observed might discourage fellow Africans to gravitate to South Africa for the pursuit of any form of socio-economic activities including higher education. This being so, the cross fertilization of ideas and values which ought to occur through cross-border seminars, workshops and conferences among other web of interactions , may be slowed down. Besides, as xenophobia is also against the philosophical underpinning of the concept and processes of African Union, proper integration of the continent cannot of course take place in an atmosphere of hate.
    Let it therefore, be said that , the South African authority should realize that other African countries also have the capacity to retaliate. Should this be done, South African economic interest and of course the interests of the countries hosting South African investments will be in jeopardy. Thus both ways, the continent is the loser.
    If this growing wave of xenophobic attacks is not arrested, it may constitute a major setback on the parts of higher education institutions in Africa to provide common front in strengthening themselves in capacity building as well as solving the continent’s sustainable development challenges. As the emergence and growth of xenophobia is largely attributable to perpetuation of relative deprivation and misrule by many African leaders, it is recommended that African leaders embark on restorative justice; cultivation of liberal political attitude; eschew politics of winner takes all; creation of empowerment and employment opportunities for the teeming jobless youths and enthroning social security system to mitigate the problem of acute poverty. In addition, genuine Africa leaders must frontally fight corruption. Successful war against corruption will certainly free more resources to the states which can be used to promote development and reduce poverty and by extension stem the tide of violent actions. Furthermore, it is also imperative for African regional and continental bodies like the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States and the Southern African Development Community to use their platforms to evolve mechanisms which can enhance the African philosophy of “be your brother’s keeper”. African governments should re-orientate their citizens that humanity is one. We are all one in the family of souls. If Africans do condemn Europeans discrimination against Africans, discrimination among Africans should therefore be unjustifiable under any condition or circumstance. As a book of life has asserted, anybody who says a man’s place of birth is necessarily the only place he must earn a living, is guilty of war. True it is that, the reality of African politics is ethnic struggle, however, it is high time our ethno-political relations are tempered with love and sense of oneness.

    •Dr. Adebisi is of Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State.