The Nation Newspaper

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  • Federal Govt’s social safety net programme

    President Muhammadu Buhari took over the mantle of leadership of Nigeria on May 29, 2015, with a clear agenda to curb corruption, fight insecurity, reposition the economy and tackle the pervasive poverty in the land.

    These critical issues were central and dominant in his campaign promises as well as his compact with all Nigerians when he took the oath of office a little over a year ago.

    In keeping with his determination to immediately tackle the menace of insurgency and restore law and order in the North-eastern, he ordered the immediate relocation of the command and control centre of the Nigerian military to Maiduguri. Today, Boko Haram insurgency has continued to suffer crushing defeats in the hands of our gallant military. This is evident in the recovery of all territories hitherto captured by the insurgent group, including the Sambisa Forest, the epicentre of the battle. Also of triumphant significance is the liberation of thousands of victims that were held hostage by the insurgents, including Amina Ali, one of the over 200 Chibok School Girls abducted in 2014.  The freedom of Amina is a symbolic indication that all the abducted schools girls and others in the captivity of Boko Harm are on their journey to freedom.  From all sides, the Boko Haram walls are falling.

    On the fight against corruption, it is now clear to all that the fear of Buhari is the beginning of wisdom. The anti-corruption search-light is uncovering all rots and previous cans of worms, with the high and the mighty scurrying for cover. With presidential courage, commitment and consistency, some rotten eggs are being hurled into the dragnet, while many more are surrendering the national loot with sobering trepidation. Thanks to the President, the anti-corruption czar.

    At the economic front, the battle is no less fierce. From the background of decades of economic misdirection, made worse by a social system that institutionalized corruption and riddled our common wealth in the vault of oil, the Buhari administration has ignited a conflagration in all directions. The plummeting prices of petroleum products at the international market, with the crippling effects on our foreign exchange earnings, have made economic diversification a national imperative. Here again, the President is brazing the trail in agriculture, agro-allied industries,  solid minerals, mining and mineral prospecting, culture and tourism and several other sectors. The productive base of the economy has been unlocked to ventilate the economy and provide entry visa for Nigerian made products into the international market.

    While working hard to reposition Nigeria for accelerated growth and development, this administration is not unaware of the challenges of poverty and unemployment in the land and the need to evolve measures tocushion the effects of the social squalor of the vast majority of our people. Accordingly, the Federal Government has rolled out a comprehensive Social Safety Net Programme, to address unemployment and better the condition of living of the extremely poor and vulnerable Nigerians.

    It is pertinent to point out that the sum of N500 billion has already been approved in the 2016 Appropriation Act to finance this social intervention programme. Specific schemes under this programme include the creation of 500,000 teaching assistance for qualified teachers for a period of 12 to 24 months in the first instance; the training of 100,000 artisans and the provision of soft loans for them to commence business activities; and conditional cash transfer which is intended to pay the sum of N5,000.00 to one million Nigerians across the country. Others are micro-credit scheme for more than 1.5 million Nigerians and N50,000 education support grant for 100,000 students in tertiary institutions who are undergoing courses in Science Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Education.

    Another key component of this programme is the National Home Grown School Feeding Scheme targeted at 24 million pupils in 18 pilot states in 2016. The food for the programme, which will run till 2020 would be sourced from local farmers and prepared by qualified caterers within the host communities. This is to benefit the pupils, the farmers and the local communities alike. It is projected that this scheme would create 1.4 million jobs for community caterers, support caterers and small house-hold farmers across Nigeria.

    The overall objectives of this programme are to reduce poverty and unemployment, empower the people economically, encourage school enrolment, build capacity, equip the less educated people with the skills to be self-employed and promote scholarship in the areas of science Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Education.

    Indeed, there is no doubt that these policy measures would go a long way in making life more tolerable to ordinary Nigerians who constitute a larger percentage of the population. For the first time, the less privileged Nigerians at the grassroots shall begin to feel the impact of governance directly.

    As the Federal Government commences full implementation of this programme, all hands must be on deck to ensure that it meets the desired objective of empowering the indigent members of our society. The programme must be massively publicized to raise public awareness on its various components so that the targeted Nigerians can benefit from it.

    The process of enrolment into these schemes should be open, transparent and not subjected to the manipulation of some unscrupulous members of our society. Accordingly, government should note that those who have criticized this project as a white elephant programme and have sentenced it to death even before arrival would do everything possible to scuttle it.  All measures must be deployed to counter their devices.

    The political class must ensure that this programme is not hijacked for political patronage or to fill personal pockets. It is a programme meant for the poor and those who would sit on the welfare of the poor shall certainly have their judgment.

    The masses must police the implementation of this programme to ensure that due process is followed. This is why the idea of Grievance Redress System is a welcome innovation that would facilitate speedy report and redress on issues that may violate due process in the implementation of the scheme. This is where the grassroots reach and capacity of the National Orientation Agency is very critical. The agency should be empowered and strengthened to mount intensive public education campaign on the programme, as well as drive its implementation at the grassroots, to ensure that it is carried out to specification.

    The freedom of Information Act empowers all Nigerians to ask questions or demand explanation on issues that appear hazy to them. Nigerians must rely on the provisions of this Act to keep under close watch, the activities of all those that are saddled with the implementation of this programme. It is by so doing that the laudable vision and intentions of government in embarking on this programme are not subverted by a few self-serving Nigerians.

     

    • Dr. Adewole is Director, Public Education and Mass Mobilization at the National Orientation Agency, Abuja.

  • Between Ngige and the banks

    “Even if you are going to lay off, there is a way to declare redundancy, there is a process. Section 20 of the labour act says it. You must call the unions and discuss with them. You don’t just treat them as slaves in their own country and you want us to keep quiet.”- Dr Chris Ngige. 

    To the banks have been laying off staff in droves. Inevitable and predictable, one would say. Any attempt to clean up the financial system drunk on illicit funds, even at the macro level, and keep Nigeria to the narrow path will definitely rebound on a banking system whose substructure lies in quicksand. That is inevitable. Yet, we are only scratching the surface. Underneath, the rot lies much deeper.  Predictably too, the cowboys, who lay claim to ownership  of the banks have taken to the path of least resistance – send home staff whose wages, when added up, barely make any impact on the cooked bottom-line of these institutions.

    In many of the banks, Directors’ remuneration alone, not to mention other benefits and loans to entities in which they have interest, is more than the combined salaries and wages of all the staff. You would think that banks that are sincerely keen on cutting cost will look at curbing the waste at the top, and not in pushing out the already marginalized people at the bottom. But that will be where the banks care for anyone and anything but their own insatiable greed.

    Understandably, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, last week intervened in a bid to keep the process of retrenchment, in line with the laws of the land. He was reported to have threatened a revocation of licences of the banks for violating directives he had issued. He is right, but also wrong. He is right to be concerned but is wrong to issue a threat that holds no water. If he had been properly informed, he would have realized that the rules he is throwing at the banks hardly apply to most of them. He would have realized the futility of his threat as most of the banks in question do not have in-house unions and are not bound by those rules.  Indeed, that is the problem. That is what should be of concern to the minister. For without tracking back to the point where the rain started beating us, we would only labour in vain, in the present.

    Banking has almost, always, been borderline criminality. To put it mildly, what transpires in many of the banks, pretending to be legitimate enterprise, is bare-faced criminality.  Indeed, it did not start today but it was never as blatant as it has been in the last two decades or thereabout. In the last week, in chronicling the sterling football career of the enigmatic Stephen Keshi, copious reference has been made to his football career with ACB and NNB. For those who might not know, ACB and NNB were banks – African Continental Bank and New Nigerian Bank. Those banks might have engaged in the elementary form of robbing in the name of banking, but those banks operated in an era where banks were more grounded and there was a stronger umbilical cord between them and the society in which they were operating. Corporate Social Responsibility might not have been well defined then, but the banks had a bit of understanding and concern which led them into sponsorship of football clubs.

    No doubt that ACB and NNB were public sector investment vehicles, but even banks owned by the private sector – First Bank, Union Bank and others also had football clubs playing in the national football league. That was a different era, as even NEPA, the power utility company, Water Corporation, Nigerian Telecommunications Company (NITEL) and other public institutions had their own football clubs, as well, while the banks and other institutions actively funded and supported other sports. That was when the banks still cared or pretended to care.

    Fast forward to the late 1980s and early 90s with the liberalisation regime of General Babangida and the open-house banking system that came courtesy of the new-generation banks, things changed. With all the good brought into the system by virtue of competition and massive adoption of technology, there were downsides to new-generation banking. Apart from the institutionalisation of greed as official creed in banking, it ushered in the era of complete disregard for labour laws. All the banks set up from the late 80s ensured that employees were not allowed to form trade unions. Efforts made by staff members to come together to form labour unions, as provided for in the laws of the land, were fiercely resisted, with the movers blackmailed or forced out of the system. I was once accused of plotting a coup for calling a meeting of a certain category of staff to discuss the state and future of a bank. So fiercely was any effort to come together as a pressure group resisted in our banks.

    That is how we got to where we are today. That is how we ended up with banks who became laws unto themselves, in labour matters. That is how we ended up with banks, lacking in creativity and willingness to connect with the needs of the banking public, took to institutionalised prostitution as a tool of marketing. That is how we ended up with banks, in disregard of security concerns and the welfare of staff, institutionalised casualisation and outsourced staffing to third-party agencies, to enable them fire at will, and without commitment to terminal benefits. That is how we ended up with banks running with employees with no allegiance to the institutions, as they can be forced to resign at any time or forced out without benefits.

    Yet, while the banks became more ingenious with means of short-changing employees and customers, ‘owner- managers’ perfected the means of rigging the system. In connivance with outsiders, a carefully-designed culture of insider abuse was designed to milk the system dry in the name of deals carefully packaged to go bad. In the early days, customers and gullible, petty investors were sold a lie, through an equally rigged capital market, to absorb the loss. Later, toxic ‘assets’ were passed on to publicly-owned AMCON to wrestle with while cowboys smiled away on their yachts.

    So, in telling the banks to follow due process, the Labour Minister might be right. Only that he is very late to the party, the train left the station way back. Too late in the day to be issuing directives to banks that had carefully guaranteed an emasculation of the workforce. What operates in terms of labour practice in many of the banks is barely different from what it was like in the sugarcane plantations of old. It is only another face of the legalised robbery pretending to be banking in Nigeria, where profits, so-claimed, are privatised and losses, so-declared, are socialised – passed on to the rest of us, so the big boys can continue to luxuriate, while fashioning new means at legitimising rogue banking. The staff are simply pawns, housed in a concentration camp, let out into the rain at will, anytime those at the top are caught with more fingers than legally allowed in the cookie jar. A million directives will not make a difference to a system rotten from the substructure. The banks simply don’t care about staff, customers, investors or the public. They only care about the books and how to cook them. Perhaps, soon, someone will make them care about what should really matter.

     

    • Olorunfemi works for a communications consultancy outfit.
  • Ambode: A humanist and pragmatist at 53

    Ambode: A humanist and pragmatist at 53

    During the thick of the governorship campaign in 2015, the then candidate of All Progressive Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, came out with an instructive advert: Let my experience work for you. In the said advert, which was placed in major national dailies, Ambode explicitly came out with his intimidating credentials and the experience he gathered during his years in the Civil Service, when he left Alausa and went back to school in the United States and came back home to become a public finance expert.

    It was therefore not a surprise that few days to his first anniversary as the Governor of Lagos State, some notable members of the National Assembly from the state, placed a centre-spread advert in the dailies to remind the electorate that they made the right choice by voting for Ambode. In the advert that was rightly captioned: ‘We say thank you Lagosians, his experience is working for you’, the lawmakers enumerated the giant strides the state has recorded in the past year, and that despite the economic uncertainty in the country, the state under the leadership of Ambode, is on a sound footing for growth and development.

    In truth, for some of us working with him at close range, it’s not too difficult to see the humanity, simplicity, compassion, pragmatism, discipline and courage in him. When we were disturbed few months after he came to power with negative media reports and slow pace of governance, the governor would always remind us that we are on a marathon race and not a sprint; he would tell us that it has always been his nature to be underrated. “Just wait and see”, he would say with a smile. And while it has been difficult to keep pace with him, we find solace in what the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu said of the governor during the launch of the BRT buses last year: “Ambode does not believe there is no solution to a problem; he believes there is always a solution to every problem”.

    Hence, the unprecedented achievements of the past 12 months should be seen within this context. Here is a man who rose to become the Auditor General and then the first civil servant to hold the positions of both the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and the state Accountant General. Needless to say that he had variously been credited with successfully managing the account of the state when the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasango withheld the state Local Government funds.

    For sure, it is this spirit of doggedness and consistency that the governor brought to bear in the way and manner he has piloted the affairs of the state in the last one year. At every critical juncture of the journey, you always have this belief that you are working with a man who knows where he is heading; a man who listens and is very meticulous in everything he does; a man who is concern about every details of what you do and say on his behalf; a man who believes the Lagos city-state should rank among the best in the world; a man who understands the transient of power and above all, a man whose love for the STATE of EXCELLENCE is unrivalled and whose passion for his job is unmistakable. Indeed, you will always win a seat on the table with Governor Ambode if you have superior argument on any issue.

    But despite all he has done so far, the governor has served notice of something even more remarkable and iconic. His administration is about to convert Oshodi into what he calls “world-class transportation and commercial hub.” The more challenging term he used is “regeneration of Oshodi.” The area would witness the consolidation of all the 13 parks into three multi-storey bus parks and terminals to stand on four floors. There would be shopping mall, recreation points, bus lanes, lay-bys, green parks to soften the environment, proper waste management, fencing and – wait for this – a dedicated fully kitted security team for Oshodi.

    Apart from this, the administration has restructured the civil service for maximum voltage performance, while creating new offices to cater for the emerging needs of the people. He has cut the cost of governance by streamlining some ministries, departments and agencies. Ambode injected compassion into governance, paying N11bn to aged pensioners who had been owed for decades. He has personally attended to the distressed, the indigent and the severely handicapped. Recently he celebrated Democracy Day with the less privileged and persons with disabilities.

    This compassionate governance philosophy has seen Ambode launch an unprecedented move to allay the security concerns of the citizens when within six months, he gave more than N6.6bn to equip the Police and other security agencies with armored tanks, brand new power bikes and scores of squad cars for Special Operation Services (SOS) for community policing. He has also launched an aerial policing of Lagos by donating three helicopters to the Nigeria Police Command in the state.
    He further launched a world class rescue operation unit, the first of its kind in Nigeria.

    Closely knit to these is a radical road infrastructure development leading to the construction and renovation of more than 500 roads in the state and 114 link roads in all the local councils and the Light-up Lagos Project meant to banish darkness from every corner of the state.

    In a pragmatic approach to massively reduce unemployment and empower fresh graduates, artisans and the youths, the governor launched the N25bn Employment Trust Fund (ETF) to ensure capital for start-up of small scale businesses with very minimal interest rate and also signed MoU with Kebbi State to ensure self sufficiency in food production thereby drastically reducing importation of rice and other food items. This will equally boost Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

    And just before the first anniversary, Ambode again did what many considered an uphill task with the signing of an N844bn Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to construct the Fourth Mainland Bridge. The bridge that is expected to be completed between three and four years, would go a long way in changing the transportation system in the state. Instructively too, these achievements are anchored on the core pillar of his manifesto, which is Security, Infrastructure and Youth Empowerment.

    As you clock 53 today, the people are felicitating with you and wishing you well as you churn out more of your great signature projects.

    Happy birthday sir!

    Aruna is the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Ambode.

  • Nigeria and South Africa: Forging bonds of mutual prosperity in mining

    The recent state visit to Nigeria by President Jacob Zuma marked the beginning of a new chapter in relations between Nigeria and South Africa. Both countries have shared a sometimes turbulent history; we have also at different times revelled in the joy of aligned moral purpose – at some point towards the dismantling of apartheid, at some other point in the struggle to enthrone democracy.

    During the visit, both President Zuma and his host President Muhammadu Buhari made it a point of duty to strengthen the historical bonds of friendship between the peoples of Africa’s two largest economies. The rapprochement between both countries is one of the results of President Buhari’s economic diplomacy, which has focused on rebuilding Nigeria’s image and relationships in the comity of nations. This development can only result in positive outcomes for both economies, and also ensure alignment on the strategic future that we believe offers Africa its full potential.

    The visit also offered the opportunity for Nigeria and South Africa to renew the pledge of partnership on a number of key issues including mining. An existing 2013 MoU outlining areas of partnership in the fields of Geology, Mining, Mineral Processing and Metallurgy which had not been implemented was resuscitated. President Buhari thus mandated the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development to work with our South African counterparts to pursue the full implementation of the Agreement.

    Having identified South Africa as one of our strategic partners towards growing our mining sector, and on the back of improved diplomatic relations, I recently led a small delegation on a two-day working visit to South Africa, during which I met with my counterpart, the Minister of Mineral Resources, Hon. Mosebenzi Joseph Zwane, as well as the leadership of mining-related government entities, mining industry leaders and experts.

    Our delegation gained a lot of insights from the knowledge sharing sessions with the leadership of the Department of Mineral Resources, Council of Geosciences, MINTEK and other government entities, and the progressive discussions on opportunities of collaboration with some of South Africa’s finance institutions – especially the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).

    Accordingly, the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development has outlined details of the implementation plan for the 2013 MoU on Mining which provides details of the priority areas Nigeria wishes to benefit from the South African mining industry’s competitive advantage. These include: Advanced Geological Surveys – detailed geo-sciences data generation; data interpretation analysis and application; assistance in the accreditation of the Geosciences Analytical Metallurgical Laboratories in Kaduna; exploration data reporting standards, e.t.c.; Mining Governance – the review of existing legal and legislative framework; improved mines inspectorate operations and technologies; upgrading and management of cadastral processes and operations e.t.c.; Mineral Processing and Development – processing of industrial Minerals; Beneficiation processes and technologies; value addition, quality assurance and standards in mineral development, e.t.c.

    Other areas include Metallurgy – improvement of metallurgical inspectorate operations and technologies; indigenous professional skill acquisition and technology transfer; metallurgical processes; steel making technologies e.t.c; Artisanal & Small Scale Mining Operation – production/supply of small and medium sized plants and machinery for small and mid-tier mining and processing e.g. the Igoli gold processing mill; development of industrial clusters in downstream mineral fabrication and manufacturing; Environmental Safety and Sustainability – enforcement of environmental safety and compliance regulations; review of  sustainability frameworks and regulations; remediation processes e.t.c.

    Nigeria is also looking to benefit from the wealth of Human Capital Resource in South Africa’s mining industry in areas such as – capacity building in global best practices along the value chain of the mining industry – occupational, health, safety and environment (OHSE), mines inspectorate and revenue collection, mineral production assessment, ASM management, steel and metallurgical inspectorate technology and regulation, etc.; as well as benefiting from technical assistance in the development of coal-to-power projects in Nigeria as part of our objectives to achieve a vibrant energy mix and realize our target of 10,000 mw of energy by 2019. The ministry also seeks to learn from the optimal organization of private sector players in the South African mining space.

    Conversely as South Africa’s putative oil industry gets off the ground, Nigeria should share the lessons that our experience affords us. Nigeria’s oil history, while it has a number of prominent missteps, still contains critical lessons which should be shared, together with our expertise in the Oil and Gas industry built over the years.

    For the new resource economy to benefit both local and global stakeholders, we are taking an activist posture towards issues of developing local content and ensuring a transfer of skills and technology that will be to our nation’s advantage in the medium and long term. While we are committed to maintaining a liberal business environment, we are also mindful that the new resource economy results in a win-win situation for all stakeholders.

    This is why we intend to see to it that host communities are directly and positively impacted by the activities that will be undertaken in their domains. The historic restiveness in the Niger Delta and labour related uprisings in the South African mining industry can be put permanently in the past with this new approach to governance of the extractives industries.

    Today, the continent’s fortunes appear partially stalled. Pundits wonder if our work of reform is entirely hostage to shrinking commodities demand from China and India. The decline the Naira and the Rand have suffered in the past year is partially linked to the commodities narrative. Nonetheless, the truth is that Africa’s narrative of prosperity has deeper roots, and is firmly in our control.

    Nigeria has our eyes set on a rebound in the global commodities market, hopefully sooner than later, and we are doing everything possible in the interim to ensure we position our industry for market dominance when that time comes.

    We will work towards stoking aggregate demand and restructuring entire swathes of our societies to prepare them for the next generation of jobs, and delivering a joined up locomotive of growth. Hopefully, other African countries will take a cue from the renewed commitment of our countries to partner towards building the capabilities to create jobs and broaden the economic opportunities available to young Nigerians and South Africans. The aggressive integration of our economies will also create new corridors of growth for our neighbours and partners in both the ECOWAS and SADC regions.

    We will find smart mechanisms for leveraging each other’s key strengths and easing the modalities for engagement between businesses in both countries e.g. visa liberalization for skilled mining and petroleum workers to help speed transitions as well as maintain growth momentum. We will also push our citizens to interact more intensively, whether it is in vacationing in each other’s countries or forming new personal networks. A shared experience and prosperity is the key to a new wave of African economic growth, and our Presidents are determined to deliver on that pledge.

    As we welcome South Africa’s delegates to Abuja on a follow-up technical visit this week, and as momentum gathers towards the Nigeria – South Africa Bi-National Commission holding in August this year, we will continue to explore means of creatively building bridges between our countries towards modelling the possibilities that African integration offers for shared growth and prosperity.

    • Dr. Fayemi is Minister of Solid Minerals Development.

  • Random Reflections

    There are times when a writer wants to enter abridged comments on a number of issues, rather than an extensive comment on a single issue. This is such a time for me, and here goes:

     

    June 12 and the lost innocence

    Yesterday marked the 23rd anniversary of the June 12, 1993 presidential election – a landmark poll in Nigeria’s political history and a symbolic high point of our nationhood experience. The election was landmark because it was the first to demonstrate a potential in this country to stage an election that is globally applauded. That potential has been reenacted and enhanced with the 2011 and 2015 general elections – particularly the 2015 presidential poll that was the first in this country’s history where a contesting incumbent was unseated through the ballot box by an opposition challenger; and that, without a challenge from the defeated incumbent contender.

    June 12 was symbolic because Nigerians, for the first time, broke from historically besetting ethnic and religious straitjackets in casting their votes. Of the 30 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the country at the time, Chief Moshood Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) won in 19 and the FCT with over eight million votes, while Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC) harvested 10 states with some six million votes. Despite that the late Abiola, a professing Moslem, fielded another Moslem, Babagana Kingibe, as running mate, his victory was so resounding that he won nearly 60 per cent of the total votes cast, and only in two states (Kebbi and Sokoto) did he fail to secure at least one-third of the ballots. He actually defeated the NRC flag bearer in his home state of Kano. Again, this feat, to a limited extent, was reenacted in the 2015 presidential election where incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari won across ethno-religious lines.

    Why do I bother to belabour June 12 if, as we hold, Nigeria has encored its high points and moved ahead with recent elections? The reason is this: that election revealed the possibility of forging a rare consensus in this country on national values. Such consensus, as we have noted, would be blind to primordial fault lines that historically pitched citizens against one another. Nigerians in 1993 wanted an end to long years of military rule. They perceived that then ruling regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida was in no hurry to cede power, despite promises to the contrary; and so they rallied after the cause of democracy, for which the Abiola-Kingibe ticket only offered a preferred choice within provided alternatives. Voters across ethnic and religious divides cared less if Abiola came from the outer space, or if his running mate were his younger blood brother. They made the choice that indexed a common resolve to force the hand of the military regime.

    Nothing has changed in the geographical frame of Nigeria since 1993, unless perhaps the loss of the Bakassi Peninsula in 2008, and the only structural difference is the creation of six additional states in 1996. But the nationalist innocence is lost and separatist sentiments have since boiled over. There is the (thankfully, now largely contained) Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East, the resurgence of militancy in the South-south, and heightening pro-Biafra activism in the South-east. The separatist sentiments severely hazard our national security as well as economic well being, and no one would deny in good conscience that these sentiments are fierce enough to advise another look at the Nigerian nationhood. This perhaps explains renewed wise counsel by eminent Nigerians, including former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, that the country be restructured into a true federation.

    Restructuring seems to me a most sensible option to address the separatist agitations presently plaguing our nationhood. But there is a challenge: how would this be done short of convening another National Conference if President Buhari, as he had made clear, would not touch the report of the 2014 National Conference? A fresh National Conference seems a tall order in Nigeria’s present economic circumstance.

    Some have argued that Nigeria’s problem is not about structure, but long years of bad leadership that fostered the current economic woes and stoked separatist sentiments. They may have a point, if June 12 evidenced a latent gene in Nigerians for commonality of purpose when inspired by good leadership as was envisaged in Abiola. But then, I would bet that the innocence of June 12 is irremediably lost at this juncture of our nationhood.

    Now, if we can’t assay the restructuring of our nationhood in the short term, as it seems highly unlikely that we can, the onus of history heavily rests with the Buhari administration to provide the kind of inspirational leadership as could fan even the cold ash of nationalist commitment that was the making of June 12.

    Hillary History Clinton

    Upon the conclusion of United States’ Democratic primaries last week, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emerged as the party’s presumptive nominee to run against Republican Donald Trump in the presidential poll scheduled for November. Her resounding victory over Senator Bernie Sanders in ‘Super Tuesday’ primaries in California, New Jersey, South Dakota and New Mexico made Hillary the first woman to secure the nomination of a major political party in America’s 240-year history.

    She came a long, dogged way to the nomination – having given President Barack Obama a tough run for the Democrat ticket in 2008 and falling barely short, but with a notice served that the glass ceiling on women in United States politics had been shattered. An exultant Hillary alluded to this last week when she told a crowd of jubilant supporters: “Tonight caps an amazing journey – a long, long journey. It may be hard to see tonight but we are all standing under a glass ceiling right now. But don’t worry. We’re not smashing this one. Thanks to you, we’ve reached a milestone. The first time in our nation’s history that a woman will be a major party’s nominee…Tonight, we can say with pride that, in America, there is no barrier too great and no ceiling too high to break.”

    More than a dozen women previously launched a bid for the White House, starting with Victoria Woodhull in 1872, nearly half a century before women even had the right to vote. Hillary is closer to the mark than anyone to date – being the first woman to lead a major political party’s bid for the presidency. Her chances are bright to ultimately win the presidency.

    With the cost intensity of Nigerian politics and propensity of partisans for violence, you could well say there is a brass ceiling on women’s aspiration for political offices in our country. But women of mettle can yet cut through if they would be dogged and relentless like Hillary, and if they would define the rules of decency for electioneering as would isolate male desperadoes.

    Not as His Lordship pleases!

    Code of Conduct Tribunal Chairman Justice Danladi Umar isn’t one to fight shy of controversy. Amidst the dust being raised by ongoing trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki before him, the judge was last week reported as canvassing the return of Decree 2 to punish journalists.

    Speaking at the end of Tuesday’s proceedings in reaction to media reports that the trial had been adjourned indefinitely, Justice Umar reportedly said “journalists should be punished” for publishing falsehood. “It is a criminal offence. If not that we are under a democratic setting, I would have advocated for the retention of Decree No. 2,” he stated.

    Decree 2 under the former military regime of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari gave the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, power to detain anyone considered a security risk for up to six months without trial. It was a precursor of the Protection Against False Accusations Decree 4.

    It is helpful that His Lordship recognised that we are now under a democracy. Isn’t then the craving for the return of Decree 2 a symptom of military hangover?

  • It thought I had twins—Mother of baby born with heart outside

    It thought I had twins—Mother of baby born with heart outside

    FALMATA, the 24- year- old mother of the baby born with her heart organ outside the chest at the Geidam Local Government of Yobe State, thought she had given birth to a set of twins when she saw her baby’s heart pulping outside the chest. Falmata, who is now at the University Teaching Hospital Maiduguri, having left Geidam on referral, informed our correspondent at the hospital that she only realized that it was not a second baby when they got to the general hospital at Geidam in Yobe State from their village, Gonigori. According to her, while she was carrying the baby for nine months, she never felt differently from her three previous pregnancies. She also said she never heard of ante natal services given to women during pregnancy, as her previous babies were delivered at home with the help of traditional birth attendants. Falmata’s husband, Mustapha, said women in their community reject ante natal because they are always scared of what the men will do to them, adding that the only medical facility close to her village is about 10km, saying there are neither personnel nor drugs and that people have to travel hundreds of killomtres to get to Geidam General Hospital. Mustapha, a farmer, said, he and his wife produce an average of 10 to 15 bags of grains per annum which they use for sale and domestic consumption, an income that wouldn’t obviously sponsor an operation of N3 million. Support for the Baby Investigation by our reporter showed that supports for the surgery of the baby so far do not seem to be posing a major challenge, as many people have called the hospital authorities to assist the couple. The Chairman of UMTH Medical Advisory Council, Dr. Mohammed Bashir Tahir, told our correspondent that many good people have indicated interests in footing the bills of the surgery. He added that the baby will be transferred to Enugu where the surgery will be done. Dr. Bashir Tahir also disclosed that so far, the medical bill of the baby is drawn from the Victim Support Fund of the Federal Government in the hospital. The consultant neonatologist at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), Dr. Pius Simon, who is managing the baby, told our correspondent that the baby requires and urgent surgery. This child needs surgery as quickly as possible. This child should have undergone surgery within the first 4 to 6 hours of delivery, even in the best centers. So, we hope that the rescue can come to the child as soon as possible,” Dr. Pius said. While expressing his fear, Dr. Pius pointed out that infection is the only fear on his mind, but added that UMTH has the capacity to make the child stable and that they had done that so far. “Our major problem here is infection. In the developed world, they have a robust technology that can detect the minutest infection in less than an hour or two. Here it takes us several days before we get even the ability to identify an infection and considering that, we got this child when she was already three days old and the child was even delivered at home. So you can see that she was already exposed to infection with where she was delivered. That environment, as you can see is not conducive for a normal child, not to talk of this one that has her interior organ of the body exposed. With this kind of condition, the setting for infection has already been set up right from delivery to transportation. Ideally, if she were born in the hospital, it would have been a different case because the hospital will take all necessary precautions to avoid infections, but we got her after three days so we just have to blast her with antibiotics so as to clear any infection, give the child food and energy and cover the place so that it doesn’t get dry because if it drys, it can begin to degenerate,” he said. Speaking on the amount that would be spent on the operation, Dr. Pius said, “I cannot tell exactly, but what the cardiothoracic surgeon from Enugu told me is they will need to re-evaluate the child. But the actual cost will be determined by the kind of waivers that the visiting surgeon will give. But tentatively, the surgery will be in the range of N2 to N3 million. What gives me joy is that if this child gets the desired support, she can survive the surgery.”

  • Many battles of Osun varsity

    FOR the Management and Staff of Osun State University (UNIOSUN), these are not the best of times. Almost a year after the Professor Adebiyi Daramola’s led Visitation Panel submitted its report on the institution, things have, indeed, fallen apart. Aside from the contention that various versions of the panel report are in existence, its implementation has led to a situation whereby the university is now saddled with a plethora of court cases by those affected by its implementation. While the fireworks at the court rages on, another scandal that borders on extortion of money from contractors, reared its ugly head in November 2015. The management of the institution was directed by the Prof. Obafemi Ajibola led Governing Council to set up a fact-finding panel to unravel the brains behind the malfeasance. Findings revealed that after the panel headed by Prof. Olayiwola Owoade Oladele, Provost, Post Graduate College, with Prof. Dennis Ameh Akoh of the College of Humanities as member and a nominee of the Registrar as secretary submitted its report, the matter was referred to the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee headed by Professor Patience Akinwusi, Dean, Clinical Sciences of College of Health Sciences. Other members are Professor Esther Asekun-Olarinmoye, Prof. Clement Adebooye, Mr. Marcus Awobifa and representatives of staff UNIOSUNS; Dr. M.O. Abanikanda (ASUU), Mr. Isaiah Fayemi (NASU), Mr. Lekan Adiat (SSANU), Mr. O.O. Ijitoma (NAAT) and Mrs. Adenike Oyewale (Legal Unit), while Mr. R.A. Adebayo of the Registry Department served as the secretary. The submission of the report of the Prof. Olayinka Patience Akinwusi’s led panel titled “Report of the Staff Disciplinary Committee on Rampant Extortion, Kickback and Indiscipline Among Staff” further aggravated tension and created rancour and bitterness within the university. Consequently, situation of things degenerated to the point that secret audio recording became standard practice. Also, the weird culture of secret recording of officials and staff instituted by top management of the university has turned trust and confidence into scarce commodities within the system, as this practice that thrives on derivable pecuniary benefits and upward mobility has destroyed mutual trust totally. Aside the allegation of extortion from contractors against one of the senior staff of the institution, which runs afoul of the code of conduct of the University, Part IV no 35 which states inter alia: “A university staff shall never solicit nor accept, or attempt to obtain from any person for himself or for any other person, any gift or consideration as an inducement or reward for doing any act in relation to university affairs or business of showing or forbearing to show favour or disfavour in matters relating to the university. Breach of 103 code shall warrant appropriate sanction ranging from warning to termination of appointment depending on the gravity of the offence” ;there was also the allegation that one of the directors claimed three different local councils in his curriculum vitae in past employment and that of Uniosun. According to investigations, the minority report authored by Professor O.C. Adebooye (Member SSDC) and Mr. Olalekan Adiat (Chairman SSANU) recommended among others, that the director should be issued a warning in line with the UNIOSUN Code of Conduct, Section 39 page 11, and that another senior staff of the institution should be verbally cautioned to desist from collecting gifts/gratifications from contractors. It also recommended that another senior staff should also be verbally cautioned to desist from sending notes to schedule officers especially on matters relating to contracts as it amounts to exerting undue pressure and influence on the affected officer. It is instructive to note that the milking of Osun State University financially by officials of Osun State Government started on 23rd February, 2015 . Osun State University is gradually losing its steam with first class scholars now leaving in droves in protest against an aggressive policy of indigenization that is currently turning things upside down in the University. For instance, Prof. Temi Ologunorisa, a Professor of Geography and expert in climate change and the first Professor to be appointed by the university has since left the university. Prof. Olukoya Ogen, the immediate past Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Ikire Campus, has also found a greener pasture elsewhere. A Cadbury Fellow and the Nigerian Team Leader of the European Research Council sponsored “Knowing Each Other Project” is currently serving his first term as the Provost of Adeyemi College of Educaion, Ondo. It is now time for founding fathers and critical stakeholders in the education sector to come to the rescue of the university. This is a clarion call to such distinguished university scholars and administrators such as Prof. Oye Ibidapo Obe, Prof. John Ayoade, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Prof. Moses Fawole, Prof. Olu Aina, Prof. Peter Okebukola, Prof. Wale Omole, Prof. Sola Akinrinade, Prof. Mrs. Tomilayo Adekanye, Prof. Biola Odejide, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, Prof. Richard Olaniyan, Chief John Odeyemi, Asiwaju Tunde Badmus, Olu Falabi, Prof. Duro Oni, University of Lagos; Prof. Babajide Alo and so on to save UNIOSUN form this drift and returned it to the path of pursuit of academic excellence. •Adeyinka, Concerned UNIOSUN stakeholder, writes from Lagos.

  • Practical steps to ensuring stable power supply

    One of the greatest gifts any government can give to Nigerians is stability of power supply in the country. In spite of the genuine attempts by successive governments and considerable amount of money expended on the power sector to resolve the electricity challenges in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), there is much to be done to meet the yearnings of Nigerians.

    Stability of power supply in Nigeria is beyond partisan political interest. For this single reason, the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has elevated the fulfilment of this expectation of Nigerians to a top priority agenda. In addition to several commendable steps, the minister in charge of Power, Works and Housing, BabatundeRajiFashola SAN recently delivered a public lecture titled, “ Nigeria’s Electricity Challenge : A Road Map for Change.” This Road Map is a three–phase plan, comprising the provision of incremental power, from which we will move to attaining steady power, and to the final phase of uninterrupted power in the country. This is a lofty ambition and the audacity of this administration to envision comprehensively is admirable.

    Regrettably, the resurgence of attacks on critical oil and gas pipelines in the Niger Delta by the Niger Delta Avengers poses serious constraint to these efforts aimed at achieving stable power supply.  For instance, the new militant group has within three weeks crippled oil and gas supplies from major facilities belonging to the Shell, Chevron, Agip and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).  This worrisome attack has within three months depleted the nation’s electricity generation capacity from the highest ever level of 5,074 MW, in February 2 this year to just over 2000 MW presently. More worrisome is the fact that the militants are continuing with their attack on oil and gas pipelines signalling fresh hurdles for the petroleum and power sectors.

    Vandalism of gas pipelines has become an albatross on the nation’s journey to deliver stable power supply in the country. It requires attitudinal orientation to address the problems. This recommendation is based on the fact that it is only when the mind-set of the vandals is changed to know that political agitation can be pursued by other means rather by  destruction of  national assets and power infrastructures.

    The implication of continued destruction of gas and power infrastructures is far reaching.  It is an invitation to absolute darkness in the country. It is a danger to government’s Road Map to resolving the myriad problems in NESI. More importantly, it is a veritable source of economic depletion and underdevelopment. Every time an oil pipeline is damaged, oil production decreases, so does the sale of crude oil, and this means income accruing to the federation account is depleted and the three tiers of governments suffer as a result.

    Obviously, this will negatively impact on major power projects across the country, and significantly on the on-going Federal Government’s amnesty programme which former Niger Delta militants are benefitting from. Recent statistics from the coordinating agency reveal that apart from 30, 000 youths being paid monthly stipend, 2,152 Niger Delta youths have been given full scholarship to study in 32 higher institutions abroad across five continents. The statement further states that 2,723 youths from the region have been given full scholarship to study in 32 Nigerian Universities, while 76 of them graduated from Novena University this year. Also on record are a total of 728 beneficiaries who are in the final year and expected to graduate this session. With all these taken into account, common sense dictates that it is in the collective interest of the Niger Deltans that these renewed attacks on oil and gas installations stop. In an appeal for their immediate cessation, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing recently stated that it would be a decision that fosters national development and a shared prosperity.  His words: “I must emphasize everybody who cares about our prosperity must get involved in this conversation and act positively to help to bring an end to the unpatriotic actions of those who attack our oil platforms and gas lines”.

    In the face of the present danger and in its resolve to ensure stability in power supply, government has begun the process of diversifying the country’s energy mix and to a large extent reduce the dependence on gas and the risk that over- dependence on this power source poses to the government’s plan for incremental, steady and ultimately uninterrupted power.  One of these approaches is the Ministry of Power’s effort to stimulate the use of solar power. In this regard, the ministry recently approved about 15 different solar projects to generate a combined capacity of 1,286 MW of power.  It is also accelerating plans to complete Zungeruhydro power plant, the Kashimbilla hydro plant, the Gurara hydro plant and to conclude the procurement plan for the construction of the Mambilla hydro plant.

    Government also recently took steps to strengthen the Distribution Companies in the power sector. This is to enable them improve service delivery and obtain financing to upgrade their equipment, provide meters, and resolve customer complaints. Part of this process is the disbursement of additional N55 billion from the N213 billion initiated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stabilize and enhance market potentials of NESI.   It is pertinent to state that the fund is not a gift or cash donation but a loan support of a 10- year tenor to cushion the financial and liquidity issues which are hindering   progress towards the goal of incremental power.

    There is also a partnership between the United States government, under the aegis of USAID and Power Africa Initiative on one hand; and Nigeria’s power distribution companies (DisCos)  on the other . It is a partnership through which $9 million will be provided each year to improve the DisCos’ performance via embedded advisory support. This is another big step towards achieving the Road Map’s first phase of incremental power.

    Although there are noticeable obstacles in the nation’s journey toward achieving stability in power supply, government appears to be in the right direction in its efforts to offer the seemingly elusive ideal of stable power supply to the people. The expectations of Nigerians will remain unabated until this lofty dream is realized. What is instructive this time is the strategy of purpose with which the government is going about its business.

     

    • Aneke is, General Manager Public Affairs, Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA).

  • Turkey: Time the world intervened

    In composing his famous tripartite epic poem, The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri included in the first part called Inferno, what has since become one of the most meaningful quotes of all time, emphasising that “the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.” The quote was made more popular by late American President J.F. Kennedy, who aptly used it very often in 50s and 60s.

    Perhaps more than anything else, the two major things that happened in quick succession last week, namely the misclassification of the Gulen-inspired Hizmet (Service) Movement by Turkish President Erdogan as a terrorist group, as well as the sentencing of former beauty queen, Miss Turkey for the ridiculous offence of “insulting” Erdogan, should serve as a final warning to the civilised world that this man it keeps tolerating, mainly because he is a NATO member and his country holds a major key to resolving the European refugee crisis, has since become a loose cannon, a major threat to world peace, freedom, liberty and everything all sane societies hold in awe.

    For those who may not know, the Hizmet Movement, a group dedicated to rendering selfless service, providing critical aids and emergency interventions, as well as killing of ignorance, and President Erdogan were best of friends. In fact, members of the group helped bring him to power. However, Hizmetrealised that the man they innocently thought was going to serve Turkey selflessly and honestly, was fast becoming something else. Seeing Ankara becoming more and more enmeshed in corruption, and knowing the bitter ills of that cankerworm and how it inhibits societal growth, the  independent media in Turkey launched an intensive investigative reporting that uncovered large-scale fraud and corruption involving some members of Erdogan’s government and immediate family, with the first such reports published on December 17, 2013.

    Since then, Turkey has hardly known peace. Instead of addressing the message by stopping the widespread corruption, Erdogan blamed the media investigation on Hizmet Movement and started labelling them with all sorts of names. He swooped on all businesses and investments that have even one Hizmet member as owner or co-owner, closing down newspapers (including the famous Zaman newspaper that was publishing more than a million copies, daily), broadcast houses, banks, etc, using the flimsiest pretext. He also embarked on dangerous propaganda aimed at rubbishing the Hizmet Movement, and when he realised he was not making much headway in Turkey, Erdogan strangely decided to export his hate campaign abroad. Going from one country to another, he kept asking presidents and parliaments to close down schools, hospitals and other foreign investments he suspects to be Hizmet affiliated.

    If Hizmet were a terrorist organisation as being wickedly bandied about by the Turkish President, the nationals of these countries having Hizmet-inspired schools should know because the children attending the institutions are their own. A terrorist organisation should never be at the forefront of clear efforts at killing ignorance, or set up schools and run them in full concert with approved curriculum of their host country, and in a most transparent manner. Also, you cannot call an institution a terrorist school when after several years since its establishment, not even one of their products or graduates has engaged in crime or terrorism. All over the world, students that passed through Hizmet-inspired schools are at the frontline of contributing to the growth and well-being of their societies.

    It also amounts to an insult on the intelligence services and citizens of these host countries for Erdogan to think that on their own, they don’t have the wherewithal to differentiate light from darkness. And because no one can fool people all the time, Erdogan keeps deservedly getting the cold shoulder from these countries, with the citizens and their leaders angry that he is importing his dirty, shamelessly-desperate politics to their sane climes.

    However, now that instead of toeing the path of decency and reason, Erdogan is even digging deeper in his trenches, the civilised world must rise beyond rhetoric to tame the Turkish President. To be fair to the rest of the world, a lot of efforts are being put in place to call the repressive Erdogan to order. There are several examples:

    On May 29, last year, the European Association of Judges (EAJ) released a damning report that condemned Erdogan for foisting a regime of tyranny in Turkey, dismissing 49 judges basically because they passed judgements in favour of adherents of free speech he desperately wanted to jail. And this was a month after the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on judicial and constitutional reform issues, harshly criticised Turkey on June 20, 2015. The Venice Commission said it had found “serious interference with the independence of judiciary in Turkey.”

    On June 2, 2015, in faraway Washington DC, the World Editors Forum and the World Association of Newspapers issued a strong-worded statement in form of petition condemning Erdogan for making life most miserable for independent journalists in his country. As a Nigerian delegate to that conference, I was privileged to be a signatory to that petition, which was co-signed by 700 other top media personalities from 80 different countries of the world and sent to President Erdogan.

    Similarly, the Nigerian Guild of Editors, the apex body of the journalism profession in Nigeria, has on two major occasions last year issued a communique strongly condemning President Erdogan and asking him to ensure freedom of the press in Turkey as well as freeing of all journalists jailed by his government.

    Western governments and international press advocacy groups have accused Turkey of suppressing dissent and muzzling critics, forcing the sale of newspapers to government-friendly businessmen and exploiting laws to lock up journalists.  The Reporters Without Borders, the world’s largest press advocacy group, ranks Turkey 159th out of 170 countries surveyed, while Freedom House classified Turkey “not free” in its latest press freedom index.  The Committee to Protect Journalists, another major group advocating press freedom said “Turkish authorities are using never-before-seen methods to stipple dissent in the country.  Scores of journalists are either behind bars or facing criminal charges over their reporting in Turkey.”

    And as pointed earlier, Today’s Zaman, the largest selling newspaper in Turkey, whose daily circulation is one million copies, is being severely harassed, with some of its top editors arrested because it is owned by people sympathetic to the Hizmet (Gulen) Movement.  So also are the Cihan News Agency, the Samanyolu Broadcasters, as well as the Journalists and Writers Foundation, which have been in the forefront of campaign against according prominence to dastardly acts of terrorists, including publishing stories about their heroics on the front pages of newspapers.  The Foundation believes, and rightly so, that such publications always give terrorists a psychological edge. The sweeping media crackdown is aimed at ensuring organisations like the Cihan, a reputable news agency through which the rest of the world get authentic news about Turkey, close shop or forced to be administered by pro-Erdogan trustees.

    Hassan Cemal, a  respected 72 year old veteran journalist with 47 years’ experience in a symposium on press freedom last year, said:  “I have witnessed military coups.  I have seen my newspaper being shut down several times.  I have lost friends to political murders.  Many of my colleagues spent time in prison, many were subjected to torture.”  But the heartache he felt three months ago was like “none I had felt before.”

    Sadly, these represent only a tip of the iceberg. And the world can only afford to fold its arms or maintain neutrality at its peril. This, and definitely not later, is the time to rise beyond rhetoric to ensure the world does not end up with an avoidable Hitler

     

    • Gaya is the Vice President (North) of the Nigerian Guild of Editors.

  • Garlands for Abiola Irele @ 80

    Stepping into the mid-Winter Season of the octogenarians is certainly a tough hill to climb in this troublous times in our country, when life expectancy is put, inaccurately, at between 45 and 50. Professor Francis Abiola Irele, one of the proponents and patriarchs of critical scholarship in Africa, is not one to ‘sneak’, unsung, into such ripe times in our rough climes—not only among the literati, but in the national, international and global communities. So, when on Monday, May 30, Professor AbdulRasheedNa’Allah, the dynamic, energetic frighteningly versatile Vice-Chancellorone of the emerging most internationalized state universities of our country, hosted the Valedictory Lecture by the Valedictorian, Abiola Irele, it was an unwitting double bill-to also celebrate his entry into the age of the octogenarians.

    It is apposite to recall that, in a way characteristic of him, Professor Abiola Irele left the comfort and prestige of Harvard, to take up appointment as pioneer Provost of the Humanities College in the year 2010, at the new Kwara State University, where he had recorded monumental influence in its building as an emerging centre of intellectual excellence and scholarly ferment within a   bewilderingly short duration of half a decade. Professor Irele has been like a metaphorical puller of the moth to a lamp. No intellectual called to work in that institutionsince Irele had put his stamp by his assured presence and participation had had any excuse not to come—and they came in drones, literally, to help fulfill Na’Allah’s dream of building ‘a world class university.’ By the time of his leaving,he has firmly establishedhis imprint indelibly, with a School of Theory and Criticism named after him and a huge section of the library devoted to his work and collections donated, most generously, by him, to the young university.

    Yet, it is, to say the least, a matter for great pity, that this important occasion of Irele’s80thbirthday, almost went without a loud notice in our country, where Professor Abiola has paid more than his dues in the crafting and nurturing of the essential Nigerian literary tradition—its canon, philosophy, theory, aesthetics and ideology. He had to, at the beginning of his Lecture, on “What is Negritude?” quietly announced that he turned 80 Saturday, May 22, to shock and utter embarrassment to the cream of scholars and intellectuals in attendance, that the man aptly described across the world, variously, as ‘the most authoritative voice in African Literature” (Femi Osofisan), the “doyen of African literary scholarship and scholars globally”, a “fundamental figure in Francophone African and Caribbean Studies” and among his peers and close associates, led by Africa’s first Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, as Olohuniyo—variously captured as one with the velvet voice of salt, with regard to his legendary verbal eloquence, the redolence and fragrance of his speech pitch, what the French would describe as ‘aromatique or/and deodoran’. These translations of Olohuniyo captures more and in advance of the drinkability of his voice in delivery; to the thoughts and articulation of the essential African philosophy, ideology and theory, with its ramifying impact on the entire African, Caribbean, Diaspora and world consciousness.

    A member of the first generation of African critical tradition, establishing the evaluative criteria for the evolving African literature and philosophy of both Anglophone and Francophone expressions from the sixties, Irele’sbio-data is commonplace on the internet and on the pages of the media. Born May 22, 1936, he studied French in the University College, Ibadan, graduating in 1960. He took his PhD in French at the University of Paris, Sobourne in 1960 writing his dissertation on the work of the Martiniqan coiner of the concept of Negritude, Aime Cesaire. Negritude is a literary and ideological phenomenon which Irele has given, unarguably, the most comprehensive attention in his numerous works. Professor Irele, a global teacher, scholar and inimitable intellectual, has taught in the universities of Ife, Ghana, Ohio State University, and the University of Harvard, berthing almost finally on the virgin land of Malete, Kwara State as Provost and Director of the Press of theKwara State University where he has churned out a number of seminal publications including the highly rated Savannah.Besides his full-length studies, is a reputed editor of journals, reviews and critical anthologies,on African, African-American, Caribbean literature among which are Transition Magazine, Africa in the World,& and the World in Africa, African Literature: An Overview and Bibliography, The Cambridge Companion to the African Novel, Economic History of Africa (with BiodunJeyifo), Benin Review,Research in African Literatures, and so on…

    In establishing and affirming the truism of Irele’s stature in African literature as a critical and distinctive celebrated and cerebral African and Africanist scholar and as doyen and undisputable authority, it is important to contextualize his essential contribution to literary theory, ideology and philosophy in which Negritude is only a landmark contribution, the study and dissemination of which he stands out like a colossus. Of his numerous and diversified publications, the following selected works have become the signposts of his scholarly gifts to the Humanities: The African Experience in Literature and Ideology: Studies in African Literature (1981, 1990), The African Imagination: Literature in Africa and the Diaspora (2001), Dimensions of African Discourse (1992), Order, Pedagogy and the ‘Postcolonial’ (1995), Negritude, Literature and Ideology in the African Philosophy Reader, The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature? (With Simon Gikandi, 2004), What is Africa to Me? Africa in the Diaspora Imagination, Negritude et Condition Africaine (2009), Negritude—Postcolonial and Post-Imperial Literature, European Language Writing: Sub-Saharan Africa (1986), The Negritude Moment: Expectations in Francophone and Caribbean Literature and Thought (2010, and numerous others!

    What is of critical import is not the numerical strength of his publications but the quality and value of his seminal writings in lending penetrative insight to essential soul and mind of Africa (what he has graphically captured and conceptualized as the African experience and imagination,  the humiliation and subjection of the African personality through centuries of the inhuman slave traffic, colonialism, imperialism and neo-imperialism and the valiant struggle of Africans, since as far back as the Haitian revolt of 1918-19.Irele informs us that the revolt provides an early signal of Negritude in the black man’s consciousness, before its coinage by AimeCesaire and its popularization by Sedar Senghor. Critical education and elucidation of the Negritude phenomenon emerging from his over five decades of encyclopedic discourse and critical narrative must include, Negritude as a ‘movement of emotion  and ideas’; Negritude defined further as a ‘psychological response/reaction to the social and cultural conditions of the colonial situation, and the rigorous quest for a new and original orientation and self-reinvention as established by creative writers, scholars and intellectuals such as Senghor, Cesaire, the Diops, Oyono, Laye, Beti, and so on.Irele further draws an ideological parallel between Negritude and Pan-Africanism,  beyond  sheer propaganda and as the ‘progression from subordination, to independence and identity retrieval through ‘revolt and affirmation.’

    It is important to highlight what seems to me to be the highpoint of Irele’s ideological and philosophical submission on Negritude, as earlier established and here referenced by Prof. Dominic Thomas, one that began to manifest in his earlier study of Cesaire’s works on Negritude. We find this, most unmistakably in Irele’s comprehensive study, TheNegritudeMoment: Expectations in Francophone and Caribbean Literature and Thoughtsfrom which matters of historical salience on the subject emerged, namely a re-visitation of the history and origin of Negritude, a concept, ideology and movement thathas become one of the most influential cultural and political theories beyond the twentieth century.

    If Irele has not been adequately rewarded in terms of recognition and endowment (as he has not been), his many awards and laurels such as the Fellowship of the Nigerian Academy of Letters and the Nigerian National Order of Merit are critical  palliatives for a man whose works and name occupy a covetable and enviable place in the un-etched Hall or House of Fame of Nigeria, Africa and the Globe. Happy Birthday to a worthy, frontline African and Africanist Humanist, legendary thinker and indomitable world scholar and intellectual—Francis AbiolaIrele at 80 well-lived years on earth.