The Nation Newspaper

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  • Agenda for ‘Born Again’ JAMB and TETFUND

    Finally, the Buhari administration seems set to pay what appears a reasonable attention to the education sector with the recent appointment of new heads for no fewer than 17 agencies in the sector. This is one sector in which everyone directly or indirectly is a stakeholder.

    Most visible in the news today is the reality that the administrators of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) have exhausted whatever was left of their creativity. I recall with nostalgia that this same board had been so efficient in the past that it even made us believe in the post office system in the country. At a time JAMB didn’t have an examination centre in my community, I wrote its examination way back in the early 1980s having to travel more than 20 kilometres. The scores were eventually released to different universities. There was no unpleasant story. The local mail man, as he had done with several ordinary mails in the past, strolled to our family house one morning to deliver my admission letter.

    As a university teacher and one that has also had the uncommon advantage of undertaking academic programmes in some high performing institutions with highly rated scholarship and fellowship awards, one cannot but feel for today’s children in schools.  What exactly are they made to get excited with? A couple of weeks back, a 300-level student of  mine had excused herself from one of the classes I teach  so she could go and process her admission letter which was yet to be released by JAMB!

    It is most disturbing that the hope of several ambitious children of this digital generation of a world with no boundaries again has been shattered by JAMB because some officials simply elected to be unduly callous and unpardonably out of tune with the trend in the sector. How do we explain the deployment of slow and low-performing computers for fate-deciding tests like Universities Matriculation Examinations that JAMB conducts?  The unpalatable consequence of this is that some unlucky candidates assigned such systems end up with scores below their real capability. Anyone who reads the interviews often conducted for first class graduates of some of our universities would readily recall that some of these students have had to write this examination more than once perhaps not because they didn’t deserve to pass at the first sitting.

    Added to the challenge of infrastructure now is the rather absurd confusion which JAMB is currently exhibiting with regards to deciding the parameters of candidates’ admission.  What has happened to the findings of studies conducted on these by our colleagues in the realm of test and measurement? What has happened to the easier option of consultation with relevant experts who may have conducted such studies in the first place? What is the trend in other parts of the world?

    It’s commendable that the Buhari administration announced that its crash employment programme for 500,000 graduates includes the most indispensable tool of this age of techno-literacy. Without further delay, it should, for now, initiate a strong collaboration with computer manufacturers for the setting up of computer laboratories for tertiary institutions.  This idea should serve the purposes of examination centres for JAMB candidates and even assorted recruitment and promotional examinations through which it could attract at least maintenance revenues.  It will as well function as training centres for relevant courses in the same institutions.  Computers still constitute scarce facilities in our tertiary institutions!

    Having been celebrated by his contemporaries globally, the new JAMB helmsman Prof. IshaqOloyede surely knows what to do with the human factor in JAMB being a most incorruptible academic and administrator of a most admirable standing.

    Not the least needed is the radical strategy to deal with the so-called special centres for JAMB examinations. How did we get here? A JAMB that will surrender its sovereignty to “private ownership” does not deserve taxpayers’ support.  It is shameful enough that the degeneracy that has befallen our public education system has given rise to unwieldy outside-of-school interventions to restore the hope of our ambitious youngsters.  To continue to sustain the extension of the conduct of JAMB examinations to private arena will be most indecent and unprofessional.

    For the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, it’s been comparable to what the renowned playwright, Ola Rotimi, calls “one slender body of joy” with a great measure of lethargy and territorialism injected into it. It, indeed today, functions as if it isn’t the outcome of the rigorous vision of members of the community it has been established to serve.  Be it known by the world that it is one of the many recommendations following the research efforts of some of our fine scholars to relieve the sector of some burdens.

    Today, a casual tour of a number of our academic institutions readily reveals conspicuous interventions of this fund. One cannot imagine what the state of the nation’s tertiary institutions could be without the support of this fund. The fund has indeed done well to also advance out invaluable support to institutions for personnel development. Some otherwise disoriented scholars have been purged of hopelessness. It is particularly commendable that under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the Fund published a list of some institutions that failed to retire some funds that they had collected. It is however not certain if the Fund still does this.

    An establishment like TETFUND with monumental resources has the capacity to accelerate Nigeria’s return to glory as envisioned by President Buhari and shared by a number of patriots. It is quite interesting that the accolade the University of Ilorin attracts to itself today also derives partly from TETFUND’s support. It will therefore not be out of place for TETFUND to learn from the tradition of high performers like the universities of Ibadan and Ilorin both of which ensure that certain dates are sacrosanct.  For instance, it is well known across all institutions that collaborate with TETFUND that there are deadlines for the submission of applications for conference grants to lecturers. On the other hand however, TETFUND does not seem to have control over specific dates when such grants may be released to the potential beneficiaries. The potential beneficiaries are made to wait pitiably without explanation. This becomes increasingly surprising in an age in which computerization has substantially demystified precision. TETFUND, the new head, Abdullahi Bichi Baffa, should realize, has competitors in local and international grant-making organizations from which their supposed beneficiaries also benefit without having to genuflect to suggest corruption.  Indeed, hoping the new head has experienced it, the various philanthropic organisations in town relate with their beneficiaries as partners and collaborators.

    The practice of whimsically cancelling programmes for which applications are sought by the fund is also most discourteous.  It is unimaginable that TETFUND will solicit applications in form of proposals from university lecturers, get professors to assess same only to summarily announce that it would no longer be in a position to support such without any apology to the professors who assessed the proposals nor the ‘perceived’ beggars who had sweated it out to submit the proposals.  Development work has zero tolerance for asymmetrical relationship between partners.  It is imperative to register one fact with TETFUND managers here.  TETFUND grants are not spectacularly outstanding.  Grants given by other charities for the same purposes are often fatter. They also need to check out the fact that the same brilliant minds they do not deem as deserving courtesy are most specially treasured by several other development and donor agencies. I recall with pride how, for a particular contract, DFID realizing I was a university teacher gave me the courtesy of the freedom to budget the specific measure of time I could spare for them as a consultant yet with a fantastic reward.

    Whatever level of transparency TETFUND currently lays claim to can also be improved upon in the spirit of the change mantra of the Buhari administration. For instance, it would not be out of place to publish its annual report and accounts in details.  One can imagine if TETFUND will not be answerable to its partners, how does it get to reckon with their input in conceptualizing plans?  Again, all credible grant makers publish annual reports and accounts, so this peculiarity of half measure approach to transparency by TETFUND is better revised immediately.

    For JAMB and TETFUND, tertiary education in Nigeria is a common denominator from which a lot is expected. Will they measure up this time with new heads to captain their ships?

     

    • Dr. Akanni, teaches journalism at the Lagos State University.

  • AMCON, debt recovery and national interest

    Debt recovery is as daunting atask as anything. Ask anyone with banking experience, he/she will tell you how staff in debt recovery departments are loathed by bank debtors. This is what we are witnessing today: the loathing of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) by some recalcitrant debtors in the wake of its heightened activities in debt recovery.

    It is tempting in Nigeria to side with a debtor narrating his ordeal at the hands of debt collectors because of the picture such encounter evokes in our minds due to the experience we all share of the bad reputation rent collectors acquired in our communities due to the manner they employed to recover their debt including subjective use of law enforcement agents. It is even more tempting to believe when such narratives are told in our news media with a measure of sophistry. But reading between the lines will show a strenuous effort to stand truth on its head. But the reality isover the years, there has been developed a body of laws to ensure fair dealings in debt collection in Nigeria and globally. So, that portrayal of the debt collector as reprehensible villain out to wreck lives of a struggling debtor— either as an individual or a business concern—belongs to the past or in the warped imagination of the portrayer.

    Therefore, before a statutory body in the league of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), established and operating with the purview of law and under a regime committed to laid-down rules, is seen in open dispute with a debtor, all amicable options must have been exhausted. This aside, if truth must be told, no company or individual is forced to borrow money in the first place. Ultimately, if companies owe a debt, it’s because they chose to borrow money. Their lenders made that loan, or offered the credit line, contingent upon a documented pledge to pay it back. This means creditors do have a right to their money, and a debt collector is simply trying to reclaim what is legally and ethically owed by the debtor.

    I once argued that the world economy is supported by debt. This means that we are operating a debt-dependent economy. In essence, therefore, debt in itself is not always a bad thing. The problem of debt arises when there is default. So the question is how do we avoid defaults, and if they eventually happen, how do we manage the crisis that follows? There is no one-size-fits-all answer to these questions. Every nation studies its economic peculiarities and adopts the best approach that will mitigate the potential for a catastrophe.

    We all can recall that Nigeria has had its own fair share of the impact of the 2008 global financial meltdown on its banking sector. And we adopted some innovative measures to prevent systemic collapse of our banking system. Three prominent ones stand out – bailout, bridge banking and, perhaps the most significant of all, the establishment of Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) in 2010.

    Lest we forget, AMCONwas created to be a key stabilizing and re-vitalizing tool to revive the financial system. It went ahead to efficiently resolve the non-performing loans (NPL) assets of the banks in the Nigerian economy. Its objective include: assist eligible financial institutions to efficiently dispose of eligible bank assets; efficiently manage and dispose of eligible bank assets acquired by it; and obtain the best achievable financial returns on eligible bank assets or other assets acquired by it.

    So far AMCON has acquired about 13,774 Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) worth N3.6 trillion from 22 commercial banks in Nigeria and provided financial accommodation of N2.2billion, protected N4.7trillion of depositors’ funds and interbank takings as well as saved approximately 14,000 jobs. No one can deny the fact that, through AMCON’s intervention, the Federal Government successfully managed our debt crisies and saved our banking system from imminent systemic collapse. But this achievement will not be complete until and unless it recovers those bad debts, which it uses taxpayers’ money to purchase.

    Lest we also forget, the debtors AMCON is dealing with now have passed through all the three stages of a normal debt recovery process.  They have failed to settle their debts with their initial creditor’s internal collectors (bank loan recovery teams) referred to as first-party agency, which is the first stage in the process. The second stage is when a third party is introduced to play the role of debt collector. The third stage is for the original creditor to write off the debt and sell it, which is where AMCON came in. AMCON has acquired the Non-Performing Loans of the banks using taxpayers’ money; so it is in the national interest that it recovers these loans from the debtors and to do so in order to turn a profit on its purchase.To do otherwise is to short-change toiling Nigerian taxpayers.

    To help it in this recovery task, AMCON has recently inducted successful firms that qualified as its Asset Management Partners (AMPs). The AMPs are consortiums with specialist skills required to ensure recovery and debt resolution from banking, legal, valuation and accounting backgrounds. The move is AMCON’s strategy to resolve over 6,000 accounts with loan balances of N100million and below.

    I believe these AMPs are familiar with all the provisions of the Nigerian laws and with global best practices that advocate for fair treatment of debtors. Perhaps they are aware or even belong to professional associations such as ACA International, the world’s largest non-profit trade group representing collection agencies, creditors, debt buyers, collection attorneys and other industry service providers.

    The ACA requires its members to abide by all laws and regulations, as well as its own codes of ethics and operations. For example, the ACA requires its members to “treat consumers with consideration and respect” and “communicate with consumers with honesty and integrity.” It also prohibits collectors from engaging in “dishonorable, unethical or unprofessional conduct likely to deceive, defraud, or harm a consumer.”

    Indeed, debtors are in safe hands with the current Managing Director/CEO of AMCON Ahmed Lawan Kuru. His vast experience as a risk management expert is widely acknowledged. He knew his onions well, having played at the top echelon of the defunct Bank PHB as executive director overseeing critical areas like Risk Management, Compliance, Commercial Banking, Northern Operations, Public Sector, Multilateral Agencies and the West Coast, East and Central Africa expansion programme of the bank. Before assuming his current position of MD/CEO at AMCON, Ahmed was the MD/CEO of Enterprise Bank Limited. He was also Executive Vice Chairman, Emeritus Capital Limited, a financial service firm with speciality in international business development focusing in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Surely, he is the type of chief executive who knows that loans are the engine of progress of modern economy; so he will never see debtors as enemies as insinuated in some quarters. On the contrary, he is committed to supporting businesses with a view to enhancing their productivity. And, more than that, he wants tohelp them transform their NPLs to RPLs (Re-performing loans). Doing this, Ahmed believes, will provide liquidity to the banks, which will help them meet their own obligations as well. So he knows how to balance his act between giving a breather to debtors to meet their obligations and the need for AMCON to realise its own mandate.

    So what we are seeing today in heightened AMCON activities is nothing short of adoption of an aggressive recovery strategy that has led to increased repayment from hitherto recalcitrant obligors. As said earlier, AMCON is simply trying to reclaim what is legally and ethically owed by the debtor. Period. There is no room for any sentiments here. It is business, pure and simple.

     

    • Hassan is a business and financial analyst.

  • Of Blind Spots and Soft Spots

    What is the functional objective of the Nigerian Senate’s screening of presidential nominees for appointments? That question rankles, with the recent screening and confirmation of 47 ambassadorial nominees of President Muhammadu Buhari by the red chamber. Let me be clear that I know the procedure to be a broad requirement by our country’s laws. The question here is whether, beyond fulfilling the statutory code, there is any value added to the overall quality of governance.

    The President had on June 9 sent his list of career nominees to the Senate for consideration and confirmation as ambassador-designates. Though there was an initial challenge to the list over non-representation of some states, and in-service grumbling about alleged career shortchange, the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs got down to screening the nominees from July 26 to July 28. It is safe, perhaps, to posit here that all the nominees have been given a clean bill for posting.

    But it is common knowledge that the first day of screening exposed blind spots in some of the nominees for basic information about the Nigerian nationhood and critical symbols of our nationality. Apparently though, the screening panel of legislators harboured soft spots to egg the nominees through the process and, as they say it, ‘let my people go!’ According to reports, the nominees were asked questions ranging from diplomatic issues to simple matters of record – like the number of lawmakers in the Senate, names of senators representing some of the nominees’ states, and how many local governments exist in the states among others. It is moot whether those questions were particularly relevant to the nominees being screened, but many of them managed to fumble through.

    Asked to sing the national anthem, Hakeem Balogun from Lagos State, who currently serves in the United States, set out on the discarded old anthem before he was interrupted and asked to start again, upon which he got it right. Shakirat Ogundero from Oyo could recall only two of the candidates that contested the 2015 presidential election, namely Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari. Janet Bisong from Delta began to apologise for not being able to state the number of local government areas in her state when one of the panelists, Senator James Manager, also from Delta, jumped to her aid, saying: “You know it, it’s 25.” The most unflattering of the encounters involved Vivian Okeke from Anambra, who mangled the lines of the national anthem as she sang amidst helpful hints from the panelists. And there was Ibrahim Isah from Niger, currently serving in Turkey, who was asked to recite his pledge to his country and he began with “I pledge to my country to perform the best…” When the panelists jumped in to remind him there is a standard national pledge, he stumbled through the first three lines and rendered the fourth as “To defend her unity and integrity” (correct line: ‘To defend her unity and uphold her honour and glory’) before the legislators interjected and prompted him with the outstanding lines, which he simply recited after them.

    Public conversation since that screening has trended on whether it was excusable for potential ambassadors of this country not to be familiar with basic symbols of our nationhood like the national anthem and pledge. Being career civil servants, some observers questioned their service commitment and raised doubts about their career competence. There were others though who recognised that it really might be a cultural problem. Let’s face it: not a few Nigerians would be hard pressed to sing the two stanzas of the national anthem and recite the national pledge without flaws, especially in an ambush situation and without prior rehearsal; after all, there are records of public officials getting fired of suspended for failing to deliver on those national symbols when some past leaders stumbled upon them at their duty posts. The caveat here is that the ambassadorial nominees knew beforehand that they were going for Senate screening, and they could have prepared. It just happened that they didn’t.

    If you asked me, citizens’ conversance with their country’s nationhood symbols typically should derive from individual sense of national pride and patriotic commitment. But those are extremely fluid values in Nigeria, given the historical blight of leadership failure that has located us as it were at the backend of civilization. To be sure, mere citizenship imposes the obligation and there is no justifiable ground to willy-nilly renounce those values. But the reality also is that in a country where leadership at best had been for self-aggrandisement and the common till was routinely pillage by a privileged few, leaving the majority in throes of deprivation and sub-human existence, it is difficult, really difficult, to conjure national pride and patriotic commitment. Leaders who rapaciously feathered their nests at the nation’s expense were anything but patriotic. And it is a tough call holding the shortchanged citizenry to the task.

    You could argue that the ambassadorial nominees were of the privileged class; but remember also that some of them, in soliciting better funding for Nigerian embassies abroad during the screening, let slip that they were being owed many months’ salary arrears. Having said that, it isn’t unlikely that the nominees faltered in their knowledge of our nationhood symbols because they hardly expected that would be the focus of their screening. And that brings me to considering what the exercise is all about, and whether the legislative output justifies the national investment made (I mean, every legislative sitting has special costs involved, hasn’t it?). We could ask: what do senators look for in presidential nominees when they screen them for confirmation? If the idea is to ascertain merit and competence, the desultory nature of questioning and tendency towards preemptively asking nominees to ‘take a bow’ leaves much to be desired.

    I hesitate to make the United States the gold standard in everything, but it becomes inevitable since we chose to adopt that country’s model of governance. Mr. John Kerry was for 28 years in the U. S. Senate, and was for more than four years the chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee. When he faced the same committee in January 2013 for confirmation hearing as President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of State, he was grilled for nearly four hours on his views about a wide range of issues including the Middle East and Israel, China’s appetite for African energy and resources, the North Korean gulags, and indeed his personal (and private) support for Boston Red Sox team.

    Part of the challenge facing Nigerian senators is that the presidency obliges them very little information about specific postings intended for nominees. It is also limiting that the country has no defining national ideology, such that whatever administration is in office, everyone has a fair idea of where we stand on nuclear politics, human and civil rights, economic alliances and balance of world power, among others. But I think legislators could as well do with some preparation for screening nominees. For instance, the ambassadorial candidates in point were career nominees, and the screening panelists could have sourced their service records and interrogate them on details of trends therefrom.

    If such painstaking preparation could become overreaching, considering the high traffic of nominees from the presidency, we might as well revisit the level of nominees to which the statutory requirement should apply. But I think the Senate would do well to redirect its screening of presidential nominees from what it is now – an empty ritual.

  • Scrap Housing Ministry

    President Muhammadu Buhari and all Nigerian leaders before him have continued to lament over the poor state of the kind of houses Nigerians live in or how government have continued to labour to provide “adequate and affordable” housing for all citizens. It is perhaps true that all the various governments have tried, but as far as I am concerned, their best is not good enough in the sector and so they have failed woefully and tragically.

    Let me explain what I mean: In the light of the tragic and woeful failure that all their efforts have turned to; I am strongly suggesting that the ministry charged with the provision of houses should be scrapped immediately and the humongous budget for that ministry should henceforth be ploughed into a more productive use. The decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to saddle Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), former Lagos State governor with the three ministries of power, works and housing is superfluous. I have many reasons: One; that the ministry of housing, as far as many of us are concerned is not necessary, it just exists in name and has not affected the lives of majority of Nigerians. When last did the ministry, either at the federal or state level build any housing unit which was made available to majority of Nigerians? From my own memory, the last time that any government (federal or state) did that was between 1979-83 during the administration of former President Shehu Shagari.

    I make bold to declare that the greatest housing project in this country was embarked upon under this dispensation. However, the biggest success in the housing sector was never recorded at the federal level but at the state level under the dynamic leadership of Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande (aka LKJ). With the little resources available to Lagos State, Chief Jakande, through frugal management of resources was able to build houses across the state in far flung places. The houses popularly called ‘Jakande Houses’ may not be the best as of that time but they were habitable and affordable to majority of the low and middle classes for whom they were meant. Anytime I move around Lagos metropolis today, more than three decades after LKJ left power and I see the estates built during his four year tenure as governor of the state I marvel at what would have happened if he had had eight straight years.

    Some years later he tried to reenact this magic again when he came under the regime of the late Gen Sani Abacha and he was assigned the ministry of works and housing. Although he did not record the same feat he did as a governor, however, his imprimatur in this sector is still visible till today. Some of the houses built then are still standing today.

    At the federal level, the Shagari administration tried in its own little way to put its stamp on the housing sector by building what is today widely called ‘Shagari Houses’. Across the country today, some of these houses are still dotting the landscapes, although most of them were not fully completed before they were allocated to the winners, but one could at least say that they were allocated to people who really needed the houses then. Although abuses here and there may not have been ruled out but one could attest to it that they were built and allocated to real people.

    Why I am therefore advocating for the scrapping of the housing ministry now is the fact that after these modest success stories –Jakande as governor, Shagari as president, the return of Jakande as minister of housing- the ministry, both at federal and state levels, has failed woefully to add an inch of block to the housing deficit in the country. It has therefore contributed nothing to the well being of citizens in the country. At federal and state levels the ministry should be scrapped and the budget that usually goes to it every year should be transferred to other ministries. For instance, why budget for a ministry of housing when in actual fact the money should have gone to ministry of works? From my little observation of what is going on in various part of the country today, what most Nigerians demand from their governments at all levels is simply good roads, nothing more.

    Nigerians have moved on building their own houses and hovels as long as they have roofs over their heads, so the government should just forget about provision of housing and face the issue of building of roads. In Lagos for instance, many live in as far as in Ifo in Ogun State and work on the island, so why not provide good roads and affordable mass transport system for them and forget about wasting money to build house which they would not be able to afford in the first place? How many houses built by any of our governments are affordable to the low and middle income earners? Are these houses not usually bought by the rich and in turn given to the poor/middle class to sublet? Who killed the Federal Mortgage Bank? Was it not the same people who in the first instance don’t need the housing loan? To what benefit is the bank and its loans when it can’t give to those who need it?

    The truth is that what Nigerians demand from the government are no longer houses; many of us as citizens have given up on the ability of the government to be able to address the housing needs of the masses. For instance, from Ajah to Lekki, Agege to Akute and other far flung places in the metropolis many citizens either as hovels or as proper houses have taken care of their needs in that direction.

    This is the time to scrap the housing ministry and save the country further waste of scarce resources.

  • Hubert Ogunde: Nationalism and retrospect

    Hubert Ogunde: Nationalism and retrospect

    Struggle to free Nigerians and Africans from the hands of foreign profiteers, the gruesome imperialists and suckling economic bourgeoisies left no one out in the colonial regime. The quest for self-government and independence became a common priority for the rich in the West who traded in Cocoa; the Hausa/Fulani herdsmen in the North and Aba women in the East, who believed their husband, must not be taxed. It further became a goal later to be pursued by the well-to-do; poor, illiterates, politicians, artists, writers, lawyers, educationists and clergies. In fact, the area called Nigeria was at its best in terms of unity as a colony than after October 1st, 1960.

    Those factors that unified us were unequivocally more than those that divide us. The degree of unity to rise against a common enemy found in the colonial masters cannot but be respected.  Moreover, before 1897, there was no country or area called Nigeria until it came into being as a result of an article sponsored by Flora Shaw (later Mrs Lugard) in The Times of January 8, 1897. Who argued that since all the towns and villages or protectorates in this area consists of many ethnic nationalities; the area therefore should be called ‘Nigeria’ (Ajayi, 2009).

    Of course, this argument might not represent view of many, but then, that was what was said by Mrs. Luggard, wife of Nigeria’s Chief Administrator in the colonial Nigeria.

    “By May 1906, Sire Lugard had become high commissioner in Northern Nigeria. Before this period, Britain had been ruling the three groups or countries (Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo) separately, independently and indirectly through the use of the existing local chiefs who were responsible to the queen of England. However, because of difficulties in administration and the cost of maintaining these protectorates, his wife named the three conglomerates territories ‘Nigeria’… _ (Culled from the book Chief Obafemi Awolowo: The Political Moses by Adedara Oduguwa; 144-145).

    But shortly after the amalgam procedures were concluded, Nigeria witnessed massive exploitation in terms of raw-material and manpower under the colonial regime which was only an attempt to milk-Nigeria-dry-alive.   Abuse on Nigerians by foreigners made many Nigerian families to adopt English names like- Johnson, Jones, Anthony, Simpson, George, Thompson, Macaulay, Ebenezer, Clark, Ransome, Thomas, the list is endless. The purpose of adopting these foreign names was to give themselves face in a country owned by their forebears in the hand of ruthless but diplomatic business negotiators.

    Crusade for independence became heightened in the mid forties through activities of the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM), an offshoot of Lagos Youth Movement (LYM). Apart from the Trade Union,  Market Women Association, traditional institutions, politicians, and the Student Unions that added their voices in fighting against this mordant and mercenary regime. There was this man, out of his devotion and commitment to seeing a free Nigeria, echoed ‘freedom’ through the fearless and adroit acts of art. He was Chief (Dr.) Hubert Adedeji Ogunde.

    Ogunde was born on Monday, 10th of July, 1916 in a small town of Ososa (Ogun State) to Elder Jeremiah Dehinbo Ogunde and Mrs. Eunice Owotunsan Ogunde. Elder Jeremiah Ogunde was a convert of Baptist church, Ijebu Ife and a strict disciplinarian.  At the age of nine, young Ogunde entered Saint John’s Primary School, Ososa for his elementary education and left the school in 1928 for Saint Peter’s Faji School, Lagos State where he was until 1930.  Between 1931 and 1932, Ogunde was at Wasimi African School, Ijebu-Ode. His graduation from Wasimi African School actually marked end of his entire formal education. He altogether spent approximately seven years.

    Despite few years spent acquiring formal education, Ogunde’s command of English was not only superlative but much better than many university graduates of his time. More so, in Ogunde’s personal submission, his limited formal education might have contributed to his successes as a playwright. According to him: “I thank God today that I didn’t go to that college or University at all. Because, possibly, I could have been exposed to some classical way of life or some classical way of doing drama that I could not have been able to do what I am doing today.”

    Ogunde grandfather’s influence was great on him throughout his life time. As a young man, he adopted him by providence as his early mentor.  His forebears were committed Ifa worshippers and founders of Ososa Township. According to Chief Ogunde: “My grandfather was an Ifa Priest. My grandmother too was an Idol worshipper and in our house, we have several Idols – the Ifa, Sango and all these. And so, as a result there were ritual ceremonies taken place at every day. So being born into all these, drumming, dancing, incantations and then these rituals ceremonies, I think might have had some influence on me. My father was a Baptist missionary. In fact, he became a pastor. He was a pastor, an organist and a disciplinarian. And so, I think I might have been influenced by both.” (Culled from the manuscript, Hubert Ogunde: Odyssey of Renowned Nationalist by Adedara Oduguwa).

    Between the ages of 17 and 25 (1933-1941) young Ogunde was a school teacher at Saint John’s Primary School, Ososa and a dedicated church organist.  However, in December 1941, Ogunde joined the Nigeria Police Force in a bid to better serve his mother land.   By March 1945, approximately four years in the Force, Ogunde resigned in order to pay full attention to his passion- acting, since his passion for opera was mind-boggling. His resignation was spurred by reckless and gross misconduct of the colonial regime, which was demonstrated by Ogunde in his much talk about 1945 opera entitled ‘Worse Than Crime.’ The opera was a political satire on the colonial masters which set to establish that ‘Colonialism in any shape or form is worse than crime.’ This earned Ogunde and Mr. G.B. Kuyinu (His co-director) two days in the Police custody.

    According to Oxford Dictionary, nationalism can be defined as “patriotic feelings, principles, or efforts; policy of national independence.” Similarly, James Coleman in Nigeria: Background to Nationalism describes nationalism as:

    “Broadly, a consciousness of belonging to a nation (existent or in the realm of aspiration) or a nationality and a desire, as manifest in sentiment and activity, to secure or maintain its welfare, prosperity, and integrity and to maximise its political autonomy. Nationalism is directed towards the attainment, maintenance or restoration of its political independence as a nation-state in the international state system.”

    However, with my terms of reference, Ogunde is more qualifies to be called a nationalist, having fought rigorously alongside others to secure independence for Nigeria.  Ogunde, unlike many other nationalists was a determined dramatist who believed in freedom for all and life more abundance (Awolowo, 1959).  His nationalism struggle originally started in 1944, when Ogunde added his voice to the agitation for Western Nigeria’s self-rule by writing operas that are thought provoking and colonial masters anger infuriating, such as Israel in Egypt (1944), Strike and Hunger (1945), Nebuchadnezzar’s Reign and Belshazzar’s Feast (1945), Worse than Crime (1945), Tigre’s Empire (1945), Bread and Bullet (1950) among many other similar titles (Clark, 1979).

    However, for these titles, Ogunde was not only arrested, jailed, humiliated or intimidated; he earned himself series of bans for standing for truth and what is right. An act which is extremely rare in modern day Nigeria. A point in reference was in September 24th, 1978 when the veteran Television Presenter, Mr. Mike Akiode asked Chief Ogunde to comment on Strike and Hunger (1945), an opera that led to1945 Workers’ Strike. On this, Ogunde enunciated:

    “…Yes, I wrote the Play on the strike of the Workers of 1945. The play was very successful in Lagos here. But then, it was trouble for me in the North. Not only ‘Strike and Hunger.’ I was detained in the Police Cell for one week for writing ‘Worse than Crime.’ And then, another three days again for writing my play ‘the Tigre’s Empire.’ Because I likened the colonial government to a Tigre’s government-the government of Tigers.” _(Culled from the manuscript, Hubert Ogunde: Odyssey of a Renowned Nationalist,  by Adedara Oduguwa).

    Moreover, Ogunde was culture and tradition enthusiast, who was ready to die for the preservation of African beliefs. Between 1968 and 1969, he took his group on tour of Europe and Britain for a full year. Then, his group was chosen to perform at the International Musical Architecture they called it ‘Wales 1969’, so after the performance, he had an interview with the world Press. A Briton BBC interviewer asked him questions on polygamy, the extract is below:

    “… ‘Chief you have six of your wives in this group performing on this tour and then, I understand you still have another six, making twelve in all. May be you still have more, why is that so?  How can you even cope with twelve wives? Do you think it is good for one man to have twelve wives?’ _A BBC Interviewer opined.

     In response, Chief Ogunde said: ‘In Africa, we don’t pretend to be what we are not. We are faithful people. We are truthful people. When we marry one wife, we say it is one. When it is ten, we say it is ten. When it is twenty, we say it is twenty and people know. But here, you marry one officially for everyone to see and you have ten, probably twenty outside. So, you are hypocrites! We are sincere’.”

    While many artists ,musicians, writers, clergies, journalists and social commentators of today are working as mouthpieces of government in power and the economic profiteers, artists of old were majorly into the ‘complementary institution.’ By complementary institution, we refer to the totality of institutions established by God and man to augment efforts and activities of government and the poor masses of any given institution or country (Gagliardi, 2014). These institutions are saddled with singular responsibility of speaking for people and check-balancing abuse of the rule of laws.

     Sadly, that role is today bedevilled by evil of corruption and monetization of the political economy, which has seen complementary institution compromised and forcefully whisked into dungeon of falsification and shadowy of self-induced greed. Thereby becoming a tool of torture for the poor, who themselves look up to be saved by the complementary institution.

    Modern complementary institutions do not see when politicians do not want them to see. They do not say when they are not heavily paid to say and they do not write when brown envelop is yet to be given to them. ‘Everything is now for sale’ Said one journalist.  Disappointedly, we do not read the truth any longer than voices and opinions of the ruling class.

    Ogunde was an outspoken Hercules and contemporary political commentator, like Caesar, was ready to risk the possible destruction of his Theatre in order to fight for the freedom of his people from alien rule. According to an Editorial in Zik’s West African Pilot Newspaper (1947): “Ogunde’s preoccupation with projection of the cultural as well as the political identity of his people were enough for the nationalist movement to call him ‘a genius’ who did not seek ‘wealth or fortune’ …nor self inflation or any other artifice of fame, a genius who was once a poor police officer, perhaps one who shared with three others ‘ten by eight’!! A day came when he sat down, racked his brain, composed nature airs and dramatized them and by 1947, had become  ‘Nigeria Theatre King’ … It is courage to take risks and determination to forge ahead in spite of manmade handicaps…”

     More so, Ogunde was one of the few African dramatists that worked tirelessly against the colonial dictator in the 40s and 50s. By 1960, he was joined by other radical and prominent political writers and musicians to help stabilised Nigeria’s baby independence. Among which included: Prof. Wole Soyinka, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Chinua Achebe etc.  Let’s not forget that, Ogunde complemented the Nigeria’s fathers of nationalism found in Sir Herbert Macaulay, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, Sir Tafawa Balewa, Oba Samuel Akinsanya, Chief S.L Akintola, Ernest Ikoli, Mrs Olufunmilayo Ransome Kuti, Sir Anthony Enahoro, Tai Solarin and Chief Adeleke Adedoyin.

    In 1964, there was a political tumult in the then Western Nigeria. Chief Awolowo was incarcerated on treason accusation and Chief Ogunde, wrote the highly controversial account for his indictment entitled it ‘Yoruba Ronu (Yoruba Think!).’  This account put him at loggerhead with Chief S.L Akintola who was at the time Premier of Western Region since the play directly attacked him and his government. For this, Ogunde Theatre was banned for two years (1964-1966). This ban had grave financial effect on him since majority of his audience were in the Yoruba speaking Western Region.

    In the words of revered Historian Prof. (Mrs) Ebun Clark, describing Ogunde:

     “…for all the Nigerian Playwrights in Yoruba Nigerian Theatre and indeed in English, Ogunde was the most consummate social commentator and satirist, who easily make his views on people and events known through his sketches and characters (Clark, 1979).”

    Ironically, Yoruba Ronu was presage of days to come. By January 15 1966, the presage came alive and Akintola’s government was not only ousted out of power, but many had paid with their lives. The military had taken over and on request; the ban on Mr. Ogunde and his company was lifted by Lt. Col. F.A Fajuyi, the newly appointed governor of the Region. Hence, to say that message ‘Yoruba Ronu’ is still valid for present crop of politicians in Yoruba land today is not out of point.

    That sincerity, patriotism and sense of obligation as a citizen of this great once united nation is continually lost to greed and ignorance.  Somebody says our artists, journalists, musicians, writers, clergies and social commentators are now ‘Pocket pickers’ like Judas, had derailed from the righteous path, dived  into roads once trekked by tyrants. They make hypocritical noises just to get carrot or national honours.

     Today, the name Ogunde is only synonymous with that popular Nigerian Musician and Dramatist of all time. July 10th, 2016 marked 100 years of his posthumous birthday and 26 years in death, tomorrow, what do we say about you?

    •Oduguwa, a is social commentator, who writes from Sagamu, Ogun State

  • Still on the OAU crisis

    One image that lingered on the screen of my mind for a few days as I consciously monitored the crisis invented by the Non-Academic Staff of University (NASU) and Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) of Obafemi Awolowo University over the process that produced Prof. Ayobami Salami as the 11th Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the university is that of the mob in William Shakespeare’s plays. Specifically, the mob depicted in the eponymous Julius Caesar possesses everything but tact, character, discipline, and structured thinking.

    As a matter of fact, as the seminal play shows, the first casualties of the mob’s actions are those adumbrated virtues. To achieve their nihilistic goals, the mob dispenses with discretion and organised thinking, speaks in decibels higher than their numerical strength, and believes its own lies and passes them off as truths. As the mob loathes civility, so does it detests justice. It does not care about the corroding consequences of choosing evil as good.

    Let’s not pretend about it; the actions of NASU and SSANU members in OAU against the process that threw up Prof. Salami were glaringly in tandem with that of a mob. These unions repudiated civility, embraced indiscipline, and acted lawlessly. The present fragile resolution puts in place by Abuja also satisfies the hankering of the mob.

    In their organised violence, they demanded two things and got them.

    They wanted the Governing Council of the university dissolved. President Muhammadu Buhari, the visitor, granted it without first investigating their claims that the body was incompetent and manipulated the process leading to the appointment of a new Vice Chancellor. They demanded an Acting VC and the visitor obliged them. The two unions boasted they could commit punishable offences and get away with them. They did – they disrupted a meeting of the Governing Council at a point and locked up the members before the Ooni of Ife came to secure their release the following day. The offences of disrupting a lawful meeting and the one of false imprisonment were freely committed by the unions without any corresponding condign legal retribution.

    Even the defunct leadership of NASU in the university hardheartedly beat up representatives of their national executives and seized their vehicle. No comeuppance greeted that behaviour.  The unions said they could determine when the school opens and close. They got it. It was on account of their conducts that the university was shut down in June. They have also swanked that they would only ‘hand over’ the control of the school to the Acting VC of their liking. They abhor dialogue as a means of solving social problem. It is the reason they went to court but decided to take laws into their hands, declaiming that the court would not dispense justice.

    The two bellicose unions did call on the visitor and the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu (someone The Punch newspaper in one of its editorial aptly carpeted for his ‘reckless desecration of university values’), to intervene in the contrived crisis (to quote Femi Macaulay, a columnist with The Nation newspaper) before they carried on too far with their campaign of impunity. The improper intervention of the visitor via the Education Minister in the OAU matter is another striking illustration of the present central administration’s telling incompetence in crisis management.

    The sacking of the OAU Governing Council without an investigation to establish whether it was guilty of the imagined crimes levelled against it by the two unions in the university was hasty and improper and remains an example of how the Visitor picks and chooses when it comes to obeying the law of the land. The law is clear that the Governing Council of a federal university whose tenure has not ended can be disbanded by the visitor where an investigation proves that it is incompetent and corrupt. In fact, the Universities Autonomy Act No.1, 2007 (Section 2A) clearly states that ‘The Council so constituted shall have a tenure of four years from the date of its inauguration provided that where a Council is found to be incompetent and corrupt it shall be dissolved by the visitor and a new Council shall be immediately constituted for the effective functioning of the university’.

    One recalls here the unlawful sacking of 13 vice chancellors of federal universities and their Governing Councils last March. Not even the admittance of the wrong by the visitor compelled a reversal of the illegality.

    Let it be noted that the new peace in OAU is brittle. The solution generated by the visitor is insubstantial. It is a rape of justice that will still boomerang. The visitor ought to know by now that anywhere justice is contemptuously denied as in the case in OAU, unity and peace cannot reign. The cockeyed action of the OAU visitor, to wit doing the bidding of a party to a case without even the least understanding of the core issue, has widened the gulf of disunity in that university. He has done exactly what Chinua Achebe’s Obierika in Things Fall Apart says of the coloniser: ‘He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.’ The undisputable fact is that, to borrow the words of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the visitor and the unions in OAU have only ‘scotched the snake, not killed it’. And because the brazenly belligerent unions were not made to account for their follies and lawlessness, they will soon behave like the camel of the Bedouin in a story which after his master acceded to its request to allow it warm its nose in the room later brought in its whole body and deprived its master of his abode. It is a matter of time; the mob is forever besotted to the logic of anarchy and impunity. Anytime SSANU and NASU in OAU or those of the branches in other universities rake up impossible demands and insist on who they want as VCs but get turned down, they will resort to the rule of the mob and make the universities ungovernable.

     

    • Alawode writes from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

  • Party in need and man without baggage

    What qualifies me to write about a political party and in this case the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)?

    Firstly; I was not just a founding member of the PDP in 1998, but indeed one of the six founding convenors of the party in Imo State in 1998; there were two convenors from each Senatorial District and late Senator EmekaEcheruo and my humble self were the two from Okigwe Zone.

    Secondly; I subscribe to the view that for our democracy in Nigeria to survive, we need a very strong and credible opposition party in order to keep the ruling party on its toes and ensure accountable governance and sustainable development in accordance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic Nigeria.

    Thirdly; the gravitas of the leadership of an opposition party determines its credibility and even momentum and capacity to be considered and perceived as another government in waiting or a shadow government as my friends in the United Kingdom will call it.

    Fourthly; I am now a member of a party in opposition (which is the opposite of not being in government) and I believe that for the opposition flank to muster, a leader from the biggest opposition party which is PDP must have respectability and must be bereft of political baggage.

    Finally, I have looked at the field of contestants for the post of the national chairmanship of the PDP and if you put in perspective the ongoing internecine debilitating warfare between the Makarfi Caretaker Committee and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, you don’t need a soothsayer or Nostradamus to tell you that the last thing a party like PDP needs now is another “Strong Man”; what the party needs is a man with pedigree, excellent education; high name recognition, and absolutely no reputational or political baggage.

    If you consider the field of aspirants for the national chairmanship, you will find that many of the seasoned “political heavyweights” are flaunting sheer hubris; people who matter are waiting for PDP to make the final mistake and bury itself forever by presenting another “big man” in the mould of Ali Modu Sheriff and chant its Nunc Dimittis, yes a dirge will be sung for PDP if it does not make the right choice at the Port Harcourt convention holding this August.

    Historically, PDP is marinated in impunity and imposition and I bear first-hand eye witness testimony; this was entrenched by then President Obasanjo; in circa 2001, I was on the threshold of becoming the National Secretary of the PDP at its National Convention in Abuja; when two days to the convention, Obasanjo ordered his then Minister for Economic Planning; Chief Vincent Ogbulafor who was then, still a member of ANPP (the party nominated him to the cabinet) to come and become the National Secretary, even before he joined the PDP. I still continued my campaign; when the recently deceased Chief OjoMaduekwe CFR saw the intensity of my campaign, he called me and said; “Ziggy why are you stressing yourself?The Convention tomorrow will not be an election but a coronation”. Alas; a coronation it became; even though I refused and rejected all offers and entreaties to withdraw, I attended the party’s screening and insisted I would be on the ballot to see the result of my efforts. At the convention ground, I was given the seat as a candidate, but my name was not even announced or mentioned as a challenger/candidate; Vincent Ogbulafor was returned “unopposed”, and that continued to be a recurring trend all through the Obasanjo era. That was quintessential PDP.

    Now, with the “lesson” Sheriff is teaching the party, I am sure that the hierarchs, aka the governors and other “powerful” members must know that the days of impunity should be over.

    To rescue, revitalize, re-energize, reposition, reorient, reinvigorate and re-vision PDP, the party needs a chairman whose persona and aura exudes HOPE and Renaissance; he must be charismatic; of sound repute and professional pedigree; his name must resonate with men of goodwill as an apostle of truth even in the quagmire of Nigerian politics; PDP needs a man of sterling integrity; a man the people can trust; I even dare say that Nigerian politics of today in order to engender hope must have men of such character leading all the parties, I believe that what PDP requires in a national chairman is that man whom even other opposition parties apparatchik and leaders can count on to give inspirational direction while the parties are in the shadow of the party in power.

    I am a member of the Board of Trustees of APGA; and I have no intention now or in the future to abandon my own party which I know is the most appealing brand in the South-east where my political constituency lies and a party I know to be the default choice of every Igbo man; and as every politics is local I  hold unto APGA which has expanded beyond its niche Igboland frontiers and become a veritable platform of choice in diverse places and constituencies like in Nassarawa State; FCT Abuja, Taraba and even Sokoto. But we are in opposition and as opposition goes, there must be some unanimity within the opposition flank except the party in power expands its embrace in a veritable Government of National Unity, which APC of today has absolutely no interest in.

    For those who might not know the leading aspirants within the fold of the PDP for the position of national chairman are all formidable in their individual rights and would ordinarily give a good account of themselves if put in that position; men like Chief Bode George; Alegho Raymond Dokpesi; Professor Tunde Adeniran, JimiAgbaje; Prince UcheSecondus and others are quite accomplished and have a lot going for them; but only one man; one man only has the gifts to alter the public perception of PDP as a Fuji House of Commotion, a bedlam and a congregation of those who ruled and “destroyed” Nigeria in the last 16 years.

    If the narrative of PDP as told by APC and other opponents must change, then a man who never participated in the PDP government and governance yet remained a leading light of that party must lead it. Only JimiAgbaje can give this leadership at a time like this; a Fellow of the Nigerian Pharmaceutical Society and governorship cof the PDP in 2015 elections where he led the party to win National and State House of Assembly seats; the Jury is still out about what actually happened in the governorship election 2015 in Lagos State.

    Jimi is loved by Lagosians; only Jimi can give the National PDP a new lease of life, PDP as a political party is in need of a man without political, sociological and character baggage. PDP needsJimi Agbaje as national chairman.

     

    • Chief Azike, Ksc, member of the Board of Trustees APGA, writes from Lagos.

  • Oshiomhole: Finishing well

    Call it whatever, three basic issues are under discourse; a bastardized economy bequeathed to us by the former behemoth in Africa; the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), a gang of disgruntled blackmailers rooted and domiciled in the state with a hand-full of decimated allies scattered abroad and lastly, the succession project of finishing well.

    From bottom-up approach, the now famous concept of finishing well was born from one of the several retreats organized by Edo State Government Economic and Strategy Team and the last one in the series the year ended, harped more on this concept.

    It would not have been possible to develop this simple concept without the formation of this team at the outset of this administration where a dozen major economists whose careers span the last two decades were assembled by Governor Adams Oshiomhole and this was not without inaugural lectures from Lagos State government officials, being the first retreat in 2008.

    My single greatest torchbearer in the area of rational thought is a great orator whose innovations in the field of volitional science, and his penetrating analysis of current societal issues offered me my first glimpse of the simple, natural laws that govern human behaviour. I would have preferred him unnamed but I did mention him earlier.

    Addressing his audience during courtesy calls and other state functions were like lectures for me; though I would normally select the ones I would show appearance, but they provided me with the most profound intellectual experiences in my life, and permanently altered my view of the world.

    Although most of my writings are influenced by him, (paying the piper, dictating the tune), he would not necessarily agree with all my arguments, nor with my ultimate conclusions but we have come along to this finishing line; the last mile of the way.

    I credit the stream of knowledge which constitutes the concept of finishing well to the chairman of the team, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, who is also the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the September 10 election. It was his school of economics and governance which provided the verve and lifeline with which workers in the state go home monthly, with their pay-check till date and this also provided the basis of my understanding of values in governance and service to the people for which Comrade Adams Oshiomhole is now famously known in Nigeria. Iron sharpeneth iron.

    I owe a particular debt of gratitude to him. Obaseki. His brilliance and selfless industry to fatherland and common sense illustrations of how governance should work during retreats is unparalleled. He’s been an inspiration to all those who came across him.

    What about his tradition of clear thinking and simple exposition? Aren’t they admirable? No doubt, he has influenced our modern generation positively though I cannot vouch if others who came across him have imbibed these core values wholly.

    Let me add, quickly, that the development of the specific ideas for which this government has successfully implemented and which we are better for today as a state, was enhanced by discussions at the various retreats. The team leader’s careful and methodical analysis of the ideas and achievements today, not only made it more imperative for a perfect compliant successor but will make these policies more consistent and cohesive, thereby helping us to better understand the larger picture that Oshiomhole espoused ab initio.

    So, there is therefore, no gainsaying the fact that he started well. He came. He is focused. He saw. He is finishing well…..he is conquering. I had wish this is an advertorial, it would have provided me the opportunity to give detailed achievements of this administration, both in what I termed “tangibles and intangibles”.

    However, how can you finish well, when the odds seems rising, not against you, but against us; the people, the ultimate beneficiaries and your yet-to-be completed projects? This takes us to the next sub-issue: In times like these.

    “These are the times that try men’s soul,” said Thomas Paine in Crisis. Some, especially prophets, say its doomsday or better put, end times.

    “No salaries”, majority of Nigerian governors told their workers. No money anywhere, everywhere. Economy in doldrums, Boko Haram still around the corner, militants up in arms, crash in price of crude oil, acute shortage in production of crude, Biafra unrest, increase in pump price, inflation, among other enemies like these here and there.

    The people of Edo State just as Nigerians are undergoing and enduring agony in times like these. The finishing well governor is not immune from these harsh economic realities. In fact, but for foresight, he could have been affected by “these times” , since government also faces an anxious, uncertain struggle for economic security.

    He is doing well for the people, no doubt. He wants to finish well. Yes, he is on track. He increased workers’ salary and Edo State stands out among others in the country, when it comes to minimum wage; while other states in the federation pay N18,000, Oshiomhole’s Edo is N25,000.

    In finishing well, the sum of N3 billion would be invested into school infrastructures in Edo just as small and medium scale businesses got N2 billion as loan. Yes, we know. No second term fatigue, our man is still working without fainting. Roads are being constructed just as governance is running at full throttle. All these in times like these!

    Will we survive financially after Oshiomhole? If our man finishes well without a credible successor, can he be said to have finished well? Will we enjoy the style of governance with human face after Oshiomhole? What about the democratization of governance and collective responsibility? Or will the future, after Oshiomhole mean less of those, and more hardship and sacrifice as the probability for turbulent times seems certain?

    Back home, an average citizen in our most politically enlightened state today can’t help but feel uncertain about the future after Oshiomhole’s tenure. From every newspaper, magazine and bookstand, from every newscaster and commentator and from every politician, civil servants and market women to civil societies come agitations for a successor that will build on a predecessor’s legacies just as warnings of dire peril for our future, if we miss this golden opportunity for the best.

    We are told most states can no longer run the affairs of governance. This is not from history books or tales from moonlight but before our very eyes, we have a sense of empathy for workers in other states whose nine months salaries and above are being owed. We learn of layoffs in times like these but not in Oshiomhole’s administration. Aren’t these not a source of worry as we approach the finishing line of this administration?

    This anxiety gripping us is not unfounded. There really is a crisis in our lives and the future really does hold economic trauma. In fact, the future is far less safe than most people imagine but even in this anxiety, the typical worker in Edo State has a far more optimistic view of the future than is warranted. How then do we secure this future after Oshiomhole? We all have a role to play towards finishing well, especially as the September election is less than 40 days away.

    We owe it a duty to relocate to our roots, units, wards and constituencies to educate our party men and women on the inherent dangers of casting a vote for the Peoples’ Democratic Party which is capable of worsening our woes. The future depends on whether enough people understand the urgent need to take action to defend themselves and the legacies of this government in times like these.

    Finally, the last sub-issue is the never-do-well politicians who want to draw us back; this is a pitfall we must guard against. They are there both in and out. You are not new to their antics, I suppose; I mean the PDP capers. They white-wash and make-belief to blackmail just to hijack our future and derail the ship of progress. We must be eternally vigilant and remain focused because, ultimately, we are all losers, if we give in to them.

    Summarily, in times like these, we need a successor, no doubt but that must be among the believers and disciples of the finishing well leader; a successor who is an anchor and repository of all the ideals of this administration. Be not idle. Be counted; it’s a joint project and we shall all meet on the other side of Godwin Obaseki’s historic victory in times like these.

     

    • Mayaki is Executive Director, Media and Public Affairs, Governors’ Office, Edo State.

  • The race for Ekweremadu’s seat

    Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State was his usual boisterous self recently, when he boasted in a magisterial audacity, to oust the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu. And as the latest political Mr. fix-it, he declared that his man-Friday, Benjamin Uwajimogu would metamorphose from his senatorial debut to replace Ekweremadu. That would, in Okorocha’s self-serving calculation, be a reward for being the only APC Senator from the South-east. Great logic! Power is indeed the greatest aphrodisiac (apologies to Henry Kissinger). Late Gen. Sani Abacha’s despotic obsession notwithstanding, he had to even meander through a subterfuge of leprous fingers of the then five political parties, to white-wash his botched ambition to appear ‘people-driven’.

    The whole plot against Ekweremadu will end up as the historically damaging United States Vietnamese experience. His offence borders on membership of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party and occupying the number two position in the Senate, at a time when APC is the ruling party. After all, when PDP was in charge, it took everything. They must therefore go for his jugular. But what Ekweremadu’s accusers fail to understand is that APC’s victory came with a slim margin which could alter precedents and throw up hunting spheres for sophisticated politicking. Nigerians are aware that Rochas was merely re-echoing the stale conspiracy of political storm-troopers against Ekweremadu in the national political chessboard. It is what is known in African folklore as the twittering of a sparrow dancing in the middle of the road, to the drumbeats of a deity in a nearby evil forest. I pity Ndigbo! It is appalling that our present crop of leaders fail to appreciate the strategic gains of the principle of ‘Be your brother’s keeper’, which made Igbo race to be revered and dreaded before the Nigerian civil war. My generation is greatly maligned by the tomfoolery, cluelessness, unregulated individualism and a clear absence of strategic thinking of the people who mount the rostrum for us. This sycophantic macabre dance to out-do one another in trying to impress the men of power at Abuja is one of the inherent contradictions of Ndigbo’s corporate personality in the mainstream of national politics.

    Who will not remember the way northerners in the House of Representatives (irrespective of political parties) rallied around the former Speaker Ghali Umar Na’Abba and saved him from the plundering presidential power that wanted to unseat him at all costs? Is it not shameful that Ndigbo must always strive to pull down one another in any position given to them at the national level? The familiar fingerprints played out when the senate presidency was zoned to the South-east. The same ghost pervaded the office of national chairman of PDP when it was zoned to the South-east. The unceremonious exit of Okwesilieze Nwodo, after Prince Vincent Ogbulafor was ousted, coupled with the unwillingness of the then governors to field a replacement from the zone, made Ndigbo to lose that slot, and unfortunately, that vacuum created is at the root of the intractable leadership crisis bedevilling PDP today. Why must it be Governor Rochas Okorocha that had the unenviable assignment to announce the manhunt for his brother’s seat? For sure, it is a fact in dialectics that the most effective weapon in destroying an endangered group by the ruling class is to engage the service of a willing pawn among them. In any case, political mercantilism is like the adventures of the sorcerer’s apprentice. Would Rochas be taking on this wild goose chase gambling if Ekweremadu did not exploit his ranking status and legislative dexterity to get elected in the only position, which gives a resemblance of belongingness for Ndigbo in the Nigerian tripod arrangement?  It is only a gate-crasher with ‘notice me’ mentality that would jubilate over a town-crier role in a setting of jackboot scorched earth policy against fellow kinsmen. Our people should learn from the warm relationships that existed between David Mark as the Senate President and Gabriel Suswan as Governor of Benue State as well as the cordiality between former Speaker Aminu Tambuwal and then Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji  Wammako.  I hope Governor Rochas knows that Ndigbo need a voice to speak truth to power in the face of greatest form of marginalization in the post-civil war Nigeria. Ndigbo will like Owelle to explain the rationale for the absence of any Igbo man in the leadership of major security formations in Nigeria. What about the 2016 capital expenditure in the federal budget of Lagos State which is geometrically far above what is allocated to the entire five states in the South-east? We need to know what caused the ethnic cleansing in the military in which over 75% of persons affected by the recent sack were officers from the South-east and South-south.  Ndigbo would be interested to know the justification for the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB while Fulani herdsmen that brandished AK-47 assault rifles are walking the streets free? What about the broad day light killings of Igbo youngsters that were exercising their inalienable rights of peaceful protest by the Nigerian soldiers?  Can Rochas remind the powers-that-be that since the 250 members of civilian JTF in Borno State were good for absorption into the military, it would also be good to restore the guarding of onshore pipelines to the Niger Delta ex-militants in preparation for their absorption into the Nigerian Navy, instead of raining bullets in the beleaguered communities. My take is that Rochas is playing a script that he kept to his chest. Any possible presidential material from the South-east is a threat, and therefore should be warded off or be decimated politically. That is why Owelle is very critical of any kite flown in the media by any political party especially PDP, of a possible zoning of vice presidential or presidential slot to the South-east.  Who does not know that common sense demands that in a land where the ruling class (through utterances and dispositions) declared to reduce a certain people to second class citizens, the last man standing should be guarded with livid jealousy, like an only son in a family in need of perpetuity. What Ndigbo need now is a broad-based inter-party collaboration driven by enlightened self-interest in order moderate the smouldering tension and flak of mass anger at home, accentuated by feelings of alienation and deprivations in the national political economy. The former governor of old Imo State, Dee Sam Mbakwe, though elected under the opposition NPP, was legendary and earned the status of a weeping governor because of his dexterous civilized approach and engagement with the NPN-led Federal Government, which paid off in leapfrogging development efforts in the war-torn Igboland. Let Rochas sheathe his sword and allow Ekweremadu be. At least, Ekweremadu’s recent magnanimity and timely distribution of largesse of over N40 million to his constituents at a time when many Nigerians go to bed without food, will keep the heavenly angels of the beneficiaries awake to fight for him.

     

    • Dr. Uche can be reached on freshhope4me@yahoo.com

  • A vision for Badagry

    Fewer things broaden the mind than travelling. Aside the fun of discovering new places, people and things, it usually teaches history, unity, and broaden one’s world view. Through my travels, I have learnt many things about different societies. I love travelling to new places, especially when it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. It doesn’t matter if those places are nearby. And when newspaper headlines in July flashed that Lagos State governor spent four days in Badagry, I was impressed because while many Lagosians may not be aware of it, I think Badagry is one hell of a place.

    In July, Ambode visited Badagry twice. First, he attended a town hall meeting.  And a fortnight later, he brought the state machinery from Ikeja to the oft bucolic setting to discuss on how to move Lagos State. From Thursday to Saturday, he and cabinet members, permanent secretaries and heads of government agencies and parastatals had jaw-jawed on that task. It was the first time State Executive Council meeting would be holding its meeting outside its Alausa, Ikeja secretariat, according to Tunji Bello, the Secretary to the Lagos State Government, who has served many years on the EXCO.

    According to the official excuse, the Badagry meeting was to spread governance and development to other parts of the state. Maybe the choice of location is indication of focusing a ‘re-look’ into tourism. But I think Ambode understands Badagry is too important to just be another place in Lagos.

    But why Badagry? It’s a major border town with Republic of Benin and a gateway to the other Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries. Badagry also boasts of quite a few firsts in Nigeria. It is the site of the first storey building in Nigeria which was built by the Church Missionary Society, CMS, in 1842. The building still exists. On the educational front, Badagry also hosts Nigeria’s first primary school, Nursery of Infant Church in 1843. It later became St Thomas Anglican Nursery and Primary School. And the story of slavery in Nigeria will not be complete without Badagry. Currently, there are relics, museums and legends surrounding that era of early contact with the Portuguese and English. Still on slavery, Badagry hosts a symbolic ‘Point of no return’ where slaves raided to work on plantations in the Americas and Caribbean last saw their homeland.

    Sadly, this vast history is not experienced by many Nigerians compared to foreigners who throng the town annually. I know of lady who was born in Lagos and graduated from University of Lagos after attending primary and secondary school in Lagos. She had heard of Badagry but had never visited. When she eventually visited the sites in Badagry, she was wowed by the treasures and the fat that Badagry was just in her ‘backyard.’ But I’m optimistic that change is underway. With Ambode and his team’s visit to the coastal town, I’ll like to wager that tourism was big on the agenda of discussions during the retreat.

    Of course, it is a no-brainer that tourism is a money spinner. And in Lagos, what better way to spike tourism than to merge it with commerce. PeluAwofeso of Travel Next Door has for years been taking visitors on similar guided tours of Badagry, making money for himself and no doubt, the Nigerian economy. Fact is, such trips add up to the country’s economy in form transport fares, fees to gain access to the museums, payments for the various types of foods and drinks available, payments to boatmen that ferry tourists across the lagoon to the ‘Point of No return’ and back.

    But, to attract global tourists, more improvements should be done to the transportation, hotel and other facilities that would ease life. And the governor seems to be thinking along that line. In fact, the governor who also commissioned the Badagry Asphalt Plant, envisions a mixture of business and tourism. One of his aspirations is to replicate Dubai Marina in Badagry and also Epe.

    “Our eyes are set on Badagry,” Ambode was quoted as saying after the retreat.”Let’s do something for the future. We are going to open up Badagry forever.”

    As someone who thinks Badagry holds a lot of potential, I like it. I also like that, in keeping up with his promise of improving on the standard of Lagos as a mega-city, Ambode is not just talking the talk but also walking the walk. He commissioned street lights in Badagry, courtesy of his Light Up Lagos Project and with light comes a vibrant city that can still be open for business and leisure long after the sun sets. And though the light rail set to progress to Badagry is yet to reach there, during his visit, Ambode promised to award the contract for the construction of the road leading to Whispering Palms resort, which would no doubt boost tourism. These are the little steps that transform a society.

    When Ambode had talked about merging enterprise and entertainment and tourism during his gubernatorial campaign, a few people had thought these promises were going to go the usual way – into the annals of history. But he is proving the sceptics wrong. And while it may be contentious in some areas, I believe he is also surpassing the immediate past administration of BabatundeFashola (SAN) in the area of delivering social goods to the people of Lagos. The roads in the city are getting new surfaces, the streets are getting lit at night, the tempo of security is being met, the farmers are busy producing the food and the state is progressing in its intervention in the transportation sector.

    And while those strides may be termed as ‘hard’, Ambode is also not relenting in ensuring the ‘softer’ sides of – entertainment and tourism – are being taken care of. He had promised it. And the last yuletide provided an avenue for him to go full blast with his One Lagos fiesta which saw Nigerian stars perform free of charge to Lagos citizens and residents in different part of the state. One Lagos,which prides itself on celebrating art and culture in Lagos State, had its grand launch last month. The re-branding effort needs all parts of Lagos to pool its strength together. Badagry will be involved.

    Why? In Badagry, the land of the Eguns, there is on offer: beaches, history, culture and fun. Badagry is another Dubai, waiting. And Ambode is right, again.

     

    • Akinmosa writes from Lagos.