The Nation Newspaper

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  • Power of National Assembly to scrap a state

    In its Tuesday, May 3, edition, on pages 43 and 48, The Guardian carried the contents of an interview it granted to Kemi Balogun, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), in which interview he wrongly asseverated that the National Assembly could easily set at naught, to use his language, scrap, any of the federating units (states, like Ekiti, for instance) as currently constituted if it is able to mobilize two-thirds of its members to do so. According to him, “they (the States) have no option because they are the creation of the centre….” Continuing, he said, “The centre that created them can swallow up the states here. An Act of the National Assembly can scrap them…If 2/3 of national assembly elects to scrap a state, it is scrapped.”

    Two-thirds of the National Assembly? That is, about 312 national parliamentarians can scrap a state, a federating unit?

    I beg to disagree, with respect.

    Apparent in the foregoing statements of the learned Senior Advocate is a certain sad misconstruction of the constitutional provisions on the limits of the powers of the National Assembly. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the fons et origo of the Nigerian legal system, provides in its section 2 subsection (1) that “Nigeria is one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign state to be known as the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” Subsection (2) thereof forcefully reinforces that stipulation by announcing that “Nigeria shall be a Federation consisting of States and a Federal Capital Territory.” For good measure, section 3 (1) thereof bolsters up subsection (2) when it expressly delineates the number of states in the federation. So, for the National Assembly to ever think of doing something about scrapping a state (a federating component), it has to amend section 3 (1) and the first column of Part 1 of the First Schedule to the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in line with the restrictive provisions of section 9 (1) (2) thereof.

    Where that gamble ever succeeds, it must be noted that in a federation, each of the constituent units has homologous powers, never mind that the Nigerian federating units were the creation of decrees. The learned Senior Advocate ought to know that if the military decreed any matter into being, such a matter acquired the irrefrangible and inviolate sanctity of continuance until set aside by another decree. Not so easy in a democratic dispensation! A federating unit created by a decree immediately acquired a coordinate status with the central authority.

    Political pundits, worldwide, agree that a federation is characterized by a union of partially self-governing states (as in Nigeria) or cantons (as in Switzerland) or regions (as in Australia) or Bundeslander (as in Germany and Austria) under a central government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the components, as well as the division of power between them and the central (federal) government, is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of either party, the states or the federal political body.

    According Sir Kenneth C. Wheare, former Rector of Exeter College, Gladstone, and Professor of Government and Public Administration, University of Oxford, and author of “Federal Government”, “The federal principle requires that the general and regional governments of a country shall be independent each of the other within its sphere, (and) shall not be subordinate one to the another but co-ordinate with each other….” The Constitution of Nigeria says that Nigeria, by reason of its being a disparate congeries of ethnic nationalities, is a federation. So, whether the practice of federalism in Nigeria by over-ambitious Nigerian rulers dovetails into that entrenched constitutional provision or not is immaterial. The centre cannot legislatively wish away one of the component parts of the federation. The National Assembly cannot even remove a state governor or his deputy let alone scrap the state over which they preside. The proviso to section 11 (4) of the Constitution warns the National Assembly:

    “Provided that nothing in this section shall be construed as conferring on the National Assembly power to remove the Governor or the Deputy of the State from office.”

    The powers of the National Assembly over the states are limited to those spelt out in section 11 (3) (4) of the constitution and to those adumbrated on the Exclusive Legislative List, which are outside the jurisdiction of State Houses of Assembly. Even where the National Assembly, under section 11 (3) of the constitution, can legislate on behalf of any State House of Assembly during a period of war involving Nigeria, the extension of such legislative powers terminates with the end of the war. Prof. K.C. Wheare, in his “Federal Government”, warns that “this extension of authority cannot be justified in time of peace, of course, and it is natural that after a war the limits of the general government’s authority will recede.”

    Section 9 of the 1999 Constitution provides that, “The National Assembly may, SUBJECT to the provisions of this section (i.e. subsections (3) and (4) thereof), alter ANY OF THE PROVISIONS OF THIS CONSTITUTION” (emphasis added). The scrapping of a state (a federating unit) is NOT one of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, which the National Assembly has powers to alter, neither is such a power located in either the 68-item Exclusive Legislative List nor in the 30-item Concurrent Legislative List.

    I dare say, with the profoundest respect, that it becomes clear that the Senior Advocate of Nigeria laboured under some insuperable confusion and a penumbra of irrationality when he blurted out that: “Majority of them (i.e. of the states) were created by decrees. We do not have decrees again. What we have now is the National Assembly,” suggesting that the National Assembly has more powers than the military authorities ever paraded! He knows or should know that the military and its decrees, unrestricted by any rule, written or otherwise, could and did promulgate, by military fiats, laws which the National Assembly, hedged about by restrictive constitutional provisions, cannot venture to enact?

    Today, the powers given to the National Assembly by the Exclusive and even Concurrent Legislative Lists of the 1999 Constitution are so unwieldy, so enormous, they make the national legislature hard put to it to find its way in the labyrinth of law making. Mr. Kemi Balogun, SAN, should not add more to the functions of the National Assembly. Instead, he should lend his influential voice, as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, to the strident calls for devolution of powers from the centre to the federating units, and for fiscal federalism. For the scrapping of a federating unit or the merger of two or more such units, a plebiscite or referendum within that unit or those units, is a desideratum devoutly to be wished, a sine qua non, a condition precedent that cannot be pretermitted.

  • Buhari @ one: Reflections

    It is pointless harping on whether President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress now understand the difference between being in the opposition and gunning for the highest office, and controlling the levers of power. If anything, they have probably come to the humbling understanding that governing a complex country like Nigeria and midwifing change are after all, not a piece of cake. As they have sung to the nation repeatedly since they assumed office about a year ago, President Buhari and his minders have discovered that they have a huge boulder to roll up the summit of the mountain if the transition that brought them into office is to have a corresponding impactful transformation. But the way they have gone about this taxing task of governance in the last one year inspires more worry than confidence in their self-confessed competence.

    Except to those who are still giddy with the euphoria of Buhari’s emergence as president, diligent and retrospective observers of this present administration know that Nigeria in the last one year has not witnessed soothing transformation in critical areas of its national life. Thus, it is insulting and distracting to respond, like the government and its fawning supporters have heedlessly done, that the affairs of the country cannot be transformed overnight when they are asked to show a smidgen of proof that they are firmly walking the country on the path to transformation. Yes, the vacant and vapid People’s Democratic Party made a hash of governance and left a massif of problems. But that does not justify a stance that brooks no criticism on the part of the current administration which, in spite of its seemingly tidied campaign promises, carries on like a ship without an anchor!

    The truth is that Nigeria under the watch of President Buhari has not progressed in the ways and manners which affirm that its manager has sought that position for three different times. If the president has learnt anything about how to effectively manage people and resources in line with modern practices in his over 30 years of being out of power, the country has not seen any evidence of that in the last one year! And there stands the proof of the claim that many Nigerian politicians are only good at gaining political power but are unable to suss out how to deploy it for the socio-economic well-being of the greatest number of the people. President Buhari might not have created the oceanic problems he met on assuming office, but the bald fact is that many of his (in)actions in the last one year reveal a mind who insufficiently grasps that governance is a task of continual problem-solving.

    Degrading and defeating the nihilistic Boko Haram sect, and duelling the hideous monster of corruption – as important and crucial as they are –, are not all there are to governance. This administration gives too clear an impression that it is alien to the inexorable culture of multi-tasking as essential necessityof governance in an age of manifold goings-on. If the Buhari administration is incapable of multi-tasking as a means of achieving enduring transformation in all sectors of the country, it also appears it does not understand that circumscribing the democratic space as it does with its overdramatized discomforts with the judiciary and the rule of law will further hamstring it from gaining the higher ground of enduring legacy in nation-building.

    First among the things the president must do in order to be able to transform the country is to defenestrate barren inflexibility from his scheme of actions. While a leader worthy of the appellation is not a person thrown about by just any wind of idea, s/he must learn to mind critical interventions. A leader must be quick to entertain numerous thoughts on an issue(s) and then retire quietly to ruminate on them, separating the wheat from the chaff. But a leader cannot decide on an issue without first drawing enlightenment and education from different thinkers, especially when that country in question is a plural one.

    President Buhari’s decision not to devalue the naira appears to lack inspiration from the pool of multiple thoughts, in the same way that his response to the worsening economic condition of the country is anaemic and hurtful. Does it not bother the president that his response to the crunch in the economy is exacerbating a situation he is expected to improve? As he journeys on, he will need to open up to new workable ideas and not be insuppressibly fixated on applying expired solutions to new economic malfunctions.

    Second, President Buhari needs to engage Nigerians more at home than abroad. His policy statements must be issued on homeland for those he leads. He risks alienating himself from the people if he continues to talk about matters that concern them on foreign soils. Nigerians in the Diaspora are far less in number than those at home. Speaking tough against vandals in faraway China and publishing the blueprints of your administration in foreign tabloids are a marker of certain leadership deficiency. His bloopers on international scenes will be fewer if he learns to do at and for home what belongs to home.

    Third, as a corollary to the second, the President must learn to respond more quickly to national issues. He cannot remain on his Olympian cathedra and send words through his publicists. He is elected to solve problems. He must do so and be seen to be doing so every time crises knock on our doors. For example, his dispositions to the Shiite/army clash of last year in which hundreds of civilians were horrendously massacred, the avoidable deaths arising from the renewed agitation for Biafra by IPOB/MASSOB, and the increased homicidal activities of herdsmen in the last few weeks, among other issues, fell exceedingly short of what is expected.

    Fourth, to transform the country and leave a long-lasting legacy of excellence, President Buhari needs to check his penchant for acting as if he is deeply incommoded and displeasingly uncomfortable with the rule of law. If he observes any obstacle from the law to his quest to transform the country, he must respond to it imaginatively rather than deploy some presidential fiat, a la Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Let him sends bills to the National Assembly if he must, but he must not listen to the soldier in him or in those of his admirers. Truth is, not one of his dreams for the country can be more important than the law of the land.

    The fifth and last point, President Buhari and his minders should bellyache less (if they cannot avoid it completely) about how the locusts and caterpillars of the PDP purloined and destroyed the rich fields of the Nigerian state. There is nothing newsy about this; the malnourished lives and collapsed earning powers of Nigerians already bear witness to that. What he and his team are doing to change that tragic reality is the chief concern of the people, who by the way are not being impatient when they ask this administration to give them proof of how it is steadily working to transform their condition. Caterwauling does not do nation-building – thinking and working do.

    As President Buhari’s administration matures, Nigerians are waiting to see real governance informed by structured thinking. Their lives, and not the coached mouths of official pipers, must bear evidence of the transformation of the transition that ushered in this administration of change!

     

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

  • Boko Haram and America’s new song

    A Reuters Exclusive should get us all worried. The headline reads: “U.S. seeks to approve attack aircraft for Nigeria in Boko Haram fight”. When someone insists you should hire tarpaulin tents from them for a night time event in the dry season, then one must find out their relationship with rainmakers. The development around the United States of America’s reported (possible) acquiescence to sell weapons to Nigeria has all the markings of a red flag operation that should send all those responsible for our security into panic mode.

    First, the story cited sources that spoke on condition of anonymity for aspects pertaining to the possible aircraft sales while the analysts that provided clarity were clearly named. In the event that decision makers in Nigeria have cause to reject the crazy demands that will come attached to the several millions dollars bill for the 12 units of A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft we could be buying, the story has already created grounds for deniability. All the US administration has to do is to carry on as if nothing of such was ever discussed since no senior officials were named speaking on the plan.

    As a guarantee that Nigeria would be boxed into a corner should we be unwilling to smooch the devil in the deal, “The possible sale – which the officials said was favored within the U.S. administration but is subject to review by Congress”, is another groundwork that ensures the deal can be easily torpedoed should the Buhari administration fail to deliver on some conditions that could amount to Nigeria having resident colonial masters.

    The brightest red flag is perhaps to be seen in the comments of J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council think tank, which the Reuters report acknowledged as cautioning that the Super Tucano aircraft’s “ability to counter Boko Haram could be limited”.

    “When you’re fighting a group that’s no longer holding towns and villages, that’s no longer massing forces in a conventional way, the aircraft – attack aircraft – have a much more limited role in that kind of fight”, Pham was reported as saying.

    So why is the US suddenly willing to assist Nigeria when their support to Nigeria is coming too late? If it is that they find a darling in President Buhari, why did it take the whole of one year before the support is coming? We all know that in the one year, despite the President’s pleas during several visits to USA, UK, France and Germany, no support came.

    The recall threshold of Nigerians is not that short that they would have forgotten the humiliation heaped on the country as it struggled to procure weapons to stop the killing machine that Boko Haram became. The Nigeria Air Force suffered several frustrations and outright blockade to procure needed platforms to fight the insurgent Boko Haram in the country. Things went tough enough that a local automobile company has to start fabricating spare parts for Nigeria’s fighter jets in what has emerged as a blessing in disguise.

    All manners of excuses were cooked up to ensure the Nigerian military could not get direly needed hardware. This was at the same time that “moderate” terrorists were able to get their hands on state-of-the-art weaponry, some of which ended up with Boko Haram to further compound the difficulty the military had in fighting them.

    Then just when Nigeria is winning the war without tangible support from the USA, now that the Nigerian military is in the heart of Sambisa on its own, the leading nation in the free world has found a voice and willingness to support the Nigerian government. This is too little too late. Those who hold unto this announcement of US support will soon discover it is a mirage, a mere rhetoric with no concrete and actionable support. It is like scrambling to sign onto a winning team just when the garlands are about to be handed out.

    To get a sense of what Nigeria is being offered, the Afghan Air Force ordered for 20 Super Tucano aircraft in 2012 and only began taking delivery in January. That is a waiting time of four years. So, assuming the US Congress gives approval for sales to Nigeria under six months and we factor in three years for delivery, we will be looking at getting the aircraft into service in 2020. At the current rate of the success of Nigeria’s military, even with the cancerous nature of terrorism, the concern by year 2020 should be very different in terms of improvement. We would have thus helped oil the US economy and sustaining jobs in that country by paying for what we no longer need, the same ones they once refused to sell to us.

    What is driving this zeal to sell us wartime aircraft at a time we are hopeful of entering peacetime? As an expert pointed out, if we get the aircraft this minute, it would not contribute anything meaningful to the current stage of military operations and it definitely will be even more pointless by 2020 when agricultural aircraft would be the need in the north-east of the country.

    Post-degradation of Boko Haram, surveillance would become priority and the country may just as well order Rotorway Helicopters at $100,000 apiece instead of selling ourselves down the river.

    The Reuters report alluded to the convincing anti-corruption fight of the current administration as part of the factors that brought about the change of mind that is making the US consider selling the aircraft to Nigeria. That is an angle that simply doesn’t wash. One must urge at this point that President Buhari, while he may not be able to go public, must be on the same page as his security chiefs on this matter and hold nothing back from them. If the noxious U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) is part of the sweetener for this deal, Nigeria wants no part of it. The military chiefs have discharged their duties credibly to the admiration of Nigerians who have acknowledged that the President got it right with their appointment. He should listen to them.

    If the US is truly committed to rendering assistance in finishing off Boko Haram, considering the progress our military has made on their own, there are several other areas it can step in. The first is to champion a global drive at recovering the weapons in the hands of “moderate” rebels since they have an uncanny way of ending up in the hands of Boko Haram insurgents. Then it can help clean up the mess in Libya, where a report by Andrew Malone for the Daily Mail noted that “There are an estimated 15 million Kalashnikovs in a country of just six million people”. With the nature of the region, this has continued to impact incidence of terrorism in Nigeria.

    Let no one be deceived. The offer to sell Super Tucano aircraft has everything wrong about it. The US should hold unto its support in this instance as we not only survived but also made headways without it in the recent past. One is tempted to ask, are we expecting a new Boko Haram?

     

    • Odoma is National Coordinator, Africa Arise for Change Network based in Abuja.

  • Inconclusive politics

    The issue had rankled in the polity, but Common Sense advocate, Senator Ben Murray Bruce, nevertheless brought it on. He took the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the grinder for pending elections to fill six vacant seats in the Red Chamber. The senator, penultimate week, raised a point of order in the legislative chamber drawing his colleagues’ attention to the fact that Imo North, Anambra Central, Kogi East and the three senatorial constituencies in Rivers State were without representation in the Senate. He didn’t fail to observe that this was in violation of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution. Senator Bruce insinuated incompetence, or dysfunction, or both on the part of the electoral commission, and urged that the commission’s chairman be tasked to live up to his responsibility. Not without a hint of mockery, he noted that it took the whole of a week for INEC to conclude the recent election into area councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). “It is a violation of the constitution because the people of these states have a right to have representation here…It is the responsibility of INEC to conclude these elections so that the people of these states can have representation here in the Senate,” he asserted.

    Senator Bruce may have concerned himself with vacant seats in the Senate, but there are as well a number of other constituencies in the country today where there are no elected representatives because elections were suspended or declared inconclusive by INEC. And the issue of elections not producing a winner at the first ballot has become a lightening rod lately used on the electoral commission, and a trend by which its overall efficiency is being assessed.

    Political as well as non-political interests have blamed INEC for the spate of inconclusive elections, which is seen as a function of its incompetence. Newspaper editorials cited “indecisiveness of the commission” as the real reason for the crisis that trailed the Kogi State governorship election in November, last year; and were unimpressed by “the litany of excuses by the commission following its inability to deliver clean polls” in the Bayelsa State governorship in December, last year, the River State constituency elections in March, this year, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) area council election in April. Politicians did not let the opportunity to make partisan capital out of the issue slip, as a zonal caucus of one of the two major parties in a communiqué last Thursday said it was putting on record “our dissatisfaction with the performance of the electoral body…as all elections so far superintended…have ended up inconclusive.”

    But it should be obvious that INEC does not choose to make elections inconclusive – there is no conceivable reason why it should. The activities of politicians and their surrogates compel such an outcome. When the electoral commission deploys personnel and materials for any election, it provides the maximum outlay required to see that election through at the first ballot, and there is no logical explanation why it should short-shrift on concluding the poll and declaring a winner. Elections fail to produce a winner without going into the supplementary phase simply because of malpractices, violence and other security breaches that warrant INEC to cancel or suspend voting in certain areas within the electoral constituency. And the rule that the commission has always applied is that where the difference in valid votes accruing to a leading contestant and the runner-up in an election is less than the number of registered voters in areas where elections had been cancelled or suspended, no winner would be returned until the affected voters have their say in a supplementary election.

    The current chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has been out lately to show that this rule is not only democratic in essence, but also prescribed by Nigeria’s electoral law. Speaking with journalists in Lagos late last week, he said: “In the discussions that I have listened to and in what I have read so far, I have not heard anyone accuse the commission of declaring elections inconclusive outside the provisions of the law – especially Sections 26 and 53 of the Electoral Act. Section 26 says that in the event of a threat to the elections – a threat of violence or natural disaster – INEC would have the power under the law to suspend the election and appoint another date when the situation is right to conduct the election. And Section 53 of the Electoral Act is even more specific: it says that where there is over-voting in any constituency, the results will be cancelled. And where votes involved in the cancelled poll may affect the overall result in the constituency, INEC should declare the election inconclusive and set another date to conduct the election. Our guidelines are drawn on the basis of the provisions of the Electoral Act.”

    I have always considered the recent spate of inconclusive elections a positive index of the quality of election management in our country, even if an unflattering commentary on the overall political culture in the land. And the reason is: with the sad reality of undue desperation by political actors in electoral contests, which encourages violence and malpractices like over-voting, inconclusive elections signpost an institutionalization of regulatory controls by INEC, and indicate that there is no easy pass for election manipulators both without and within the commission. We can’t have forgotten that there was a time in this country when the general perception of the electoral commission was that it returned election winners without regard to ballots duly cast by voters; and that it did not matter how many votes were tallied and how many more were outstanding, winners were announced anyway! Besides, elections were won by landslide margins such that outstanding votes, if there were any, were of no consequence.

    The INEC Chairman acknowledged this much last week when he told journalists: “Elections in Nigeria are getting better. They are not what they should be yet, but they are getting better, particularly with the introduction of technology in 2015. Votes are also counting today more than ever before. And political parties are getting stronger: we now have two strong political parties who field strong candidates. Winning by landslide is no longer the case, like when we had one dominant political party and weak opposition parties. Now we have two strong parties that are fielding strong candidates. The elections are getting better, the votes are counting, and the margins of victory are getting smaller.”

    Even then, elections would not be serially stalemated as we have witnessed lately but for incivility of political actors and their supporters. I was once in INEC and I know that nearly all instances of inconclusive elections under former Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, were in direct consequence of malpractices like thuggery, ballot snatching and over-voting. That was the case with Imo State governorship in 2011, Anambra State governorship in 2013, as well as governorship elections in Imo (again!), Abia and Taraba states in 2015. It was the same with Ilaje/Ese-Odo federal constituency election in Ondo State, April 2014; and I doubt that the Oguta constituency in Imo State yet has a representative in the state legislature owing to constituents’ propensity for violence and failure to give security guarantees. The current INEC Chairman, Professor Yakubu, confirmed last week that the electoral commission had observed that despite the present hype, recent elections produced winners at the first ballot in places where there was no disruption to the process, whereas they were inconclusive in all the places where violence was recorded.

    The real challenge of minimising the spate of inconclusive elections, in my view, is for political actors to realise that there is no longer an easy path to electoral victory other that convincing voters to voluntarily cast their ballots for policies and programmes on offer.

  • As PMB goes to London

    President Muhammadu Buhari arrives in London tomorrow to join 50 other world leaders at a landmark international anti-corruption summit called by Prime Minister David Cameron. The “Anti-Corruption Summit London 2016” will bring together world leaders, business and civil society to agree a package of practical steps to: expose corruption so there is nowhere to hide; punish the perpetrators and support those affected by corruption; drive out the culture of corruption wherever it exists, and put in place infrastructure and tools that can be used by international organizations, countries and national institutions to fight corruption.

    In a remarkable recognition of his ongoing war against corruption, President Buhari will speak twice at this event, first as a keynote speaker at a pre-conference meeting called by the new Commonwealth Secretary-General, Baroness Patricia Scotland and the second for eight minutes allocated to each President or head of government at the main summit, giving the clearest indication that the President’s focus has become a template for the rest of the world.

    In London, President Buhari intends to share experiences with other leaders. He is of the strong conviction that increasing globalization has has made it difficult, if not impossible for stand-alone nations to combat corruption; that without global synergies against corruption, nations will fail in their efforts towards economic growth, maintaining  security, reducing  poverty and protecting the environment for their children. He will, in the light of this seek support for anti-corruption capacity for our national institutions and the citizenship.

    As his own contribution, the President has substantially aligned himself with major initiatives enunciated by the convener, Prime Minister David Cameron that seek to increase transparency and governance in several key areas.

    He has formulated a Nigerian position on how to end impunity for corruption and ensuring that those involved in grand corruption are brought to justice through the active enforcement of laws and restrictions. Equally in agreement with Cameron, he is making suggestions on ways of empowering those affected by corruption by ensuring that its proceeds are returned to those to those from whom they have been stolen.

    President Buhari will also join the world leaders in designing a global architecture and tools that can be used to by international organizations,countries and national  institutions to fight corruption.

    In an outline by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami SAN, specific areas of interest to Nigeria which the President will put on the tables include the development of beneficial ownership information related to corporate ownership, procurement, and public contract. By this, Nigeria will seek the lifting of the veil on corporate ownerships in order to disclose the true owners of a corporate vehicle in contact bids and procurement processes. Beyond this, the corporate ownership profile may be shared with other countries or interested stakeholders.

    Already, there is a broad view among the participants that public contracting is a source of public corruption and must be tackled as such. Our officials recommend that contracts within a certain threshold should be published and those behind the companies bidding for the contract should be listed for public scrutiny both at national and state levels.

    To achieve this, Nigeria plans the enactment of a regulation that will authorize the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC to obtain information on beneficial ownership of foreign companies that can be held in a different database to be managed by the CAC.

    Nigeria will be demanding the strengthening of the supervisory responsibilities of financial and non-financial services regulators and provision of specific training on compliance requirements for these sectors and will seek the establishment of an inter-agency collaboration as a key element in improving the implementation of Financial Action Task Force, FATF standards (such as the money laundering laws, anti-corruption laws, and Financial Intelligence Centre Bill).

    As part of measures to enhance fiscal transparency which is required in enhancing economic growth, improved GDP and poverty reduction, officers working in budget offices as well as those responsible for approving public spending may henceforth  be properly scrutinized, monitored and required to declare assets on a regular basis.

    The Nigerian government has in fact set for itself the objective of signing the Open Government Partnership and Open Contracting Partnership.

    A major issue of interest is greater transparency in the extractive industry (oil, gas and solid mineral sectors). The U.K. Government and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD have identified 20 percent of international corruption and bribery as coming for this sector. Nigeria will argue for greater fiscal transparency and and the enforcement of anti-corruption laws to deal with the problem.

    The President is expected to give assurances that a lot of work will be done  on a set of laws that will improve enforcement of anti-corruption laws. Nigeria has already begun reviewing its anti-corruption laws enacted since 2000 to bring it in compliance with international developments. In addition, the country which has ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption UNCAC is currently reviewing the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention for possible ratification. The OECD convention is considered among the stringiest of measures against corruption in corporate governance.

    President Buhari has also forwarded the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill, 2016 to the National Assembly for enactment into law. When passed, it will enhance mutual assistance and  international cooperation between Nigeria and other countries. The President will also announce that a new Nigeria Financial Intelligence Centre Bill has been drafted for this purpose and would soon be forwarded to the National Assembly.

    The Nigerian government will also indicate support for the UK proposal on the development of the International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre. This is to be based in London and will serve as a global forum.

    As part of contributions to the evolution of the global anti-corruption infrastructure, Nigeria will seek support for the hosting of an “International Summit on Assets Recovery “ in 2017 in Abuja and for the establishment and hosting of a “Forum on Assets Recovery in Africa” to be based in Abuja.

    This trip is important for both Nigeria and the international community which reposes a lot of hope on Muhammadu Buhari who is faced with the daunting task of reversing the the socio-economic and political mess in which the previous administration left the country. In addition to the anti-corruption summit, the visit will also focus on trade and investment between Nigeria and the U.K. President Buhari will welcome British investment in Nigeria.

    It is hoped that the bilateral discussions between the Prime Minister and our President will focus on issues of common interest and do everything to possible to take the relationship between the two countries to newer heights.

     

    • Shehu, is Senior Special Assistant to the President

    (Media and Publicity).

  • Rumpus in Edo

    Rumpus in Edo

    Political leaders in the state should adhere to universal and inviolable
    features that mark democracy out as the best form of government

    Political development in the country has been very slow because of the reluctance of leaders to follow the due process. At critical junctures, those at the helm of affairs are too desperate and as such would not allow the Rule of Law prevail. At such times, institutions are subverted, rules disregarded and lives unduly wasted.

    This has been the situation in Edo State where another governorship election is due. The stakes are high owing to the political history of the state as well as the state of the nation today. It is a straight contest between two political parties – the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). While the PDP ran affairs of the state between 1999 and 2008, the APC displaced it as the ruling party that year and has since called the tune. The PDP remains strong in the state and has control of the government structures in all other states in the South South zone, but the APC’s strong showing at the 2015 general elections, especially its emergence as governing party at the centre makes it quite formidable.

    We acknowledge, therefore, that the Edo State governorship election is billed to be keenly contested. But, it is a shame that, even before the real inter-party contest, intra-party squabbles appear to be tearing the APC apart. Anyone who contends that Governor Adams Oshiomhole should be disinterested in the choice of his successor is being unrealistic. He thus has the right to support whoever he chooses. The deputy governor, Dr. Pius Odubu, too, who has indicated interest in moving up the ladder as the number one citizen, is pursuing a legitimate cause. The governor has the right to lend his weight to the aspiration of whoever he chooses. He equally understands what the state needs at a time like this and would be right to use these parameters to decide who obtains his support.

    While all these are legitimate, what is unacceptable is that arsenal is amassed for the intra-party contest as if it is a full-blown war. The ugly incidents that have marked and marred the campaign so far tend to suggest that the APC in the state merely pays lip service to democracy. A situation that has seen the guns booming and people wounded because an aspirant is not expected to take his campaign to someone else’s perceived territory is unacceptable. It the strong man of the area is so popular, he should leave the prospecting aspirant to poach for votes in vain.

    The eyes of all Nigerians are on Edo State. It is a state that prides itself as strong in education and culture. Governor Oshiomhole is believed to have worked hard in almost eight years to develop the state physically. He deserves to step down in glory, with the people counting the blessings they got under his administration. It is to his credit that the godfathers in the state were dethroned. At a time that the PDP was fully entrenched at the state and federal levels, the governor came to the party fully prepared and won the electoral contest fair and square. This is the tradition that must be sustained in the state.

    We recall that Dr. Odubu was a member of the House of Representatives. As such, he should be familiar with the tenets of democracy and has been exposed to politics at the federal and state levels. We call on him to live up to high expectations. The soap box and the ballot box are hallmarks of representative democracy; not thuggery, guns and machetes. The wrong use of money, state resources and brawn has been the bane of our politics so far. Leaders who owe their emergence in power to force rather than popular support invariably turn their back at the people.

    All the major stakeholders should accept that the people, in this case, the delegates, are the kings. They should be allowed to make their free choice in an atmosphere devoid of violence, wrongful deployment of state resources and authority and undue heat. Edo people deserve more than they are getting at this point.

    Unfortunately, while the party is boiling, the House of Assembly is also being showcased as an arena for boxers and wrestlers, rather than decent lawmakers. Again, owing to the ambition to control. We hope the lawmakers would see reason and retrace their steps.

    The gladiators in the crisis in Edo State must realise that, ultimately, power is transient. History teaches that whatever a man does, he will one day leave the scene or would be left behind. Edo State should point in the direction of political progress, not retrogression.

     

  • El-Rufai and the burden of religion

    El-Rufai and the burden of religion

    In October last year, the controversial Malam Nasir Ahmed El-rufai, as the country’s most syndicated columnist Malam Mohammed Haruna called him, sent a bill to the State House of Assembly seeking the amendment of a somewhat sleeping 1984 law which, under the then military governor of the State Air-Commodore Usman Mu’azu, and in view of violent religious clashes in the state, sought to regulate preaching

    The law which banned the playing of religious cassettes in public places, preaching without license, use of loudspeakers outside mosques or churches and their surrounding areas, abuses of religious books, carrying of weapons in places of worship or preaching, and use of the terms “infidel.” “non-Islamic” or “Pagans,” authorized the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) as the only bodies to approve preachers in the state.

    Now that opposition of the bill seems to have reduced and all parties seem to be listening, as a student of religion, one can now go on to express his views on the discourse if only to make the point that the bill is only a symptom; hence the need to look beyond to see that the attempt in recent time to legislate religious practices, nay the El-rufai’s case, is only emblematic of the frustration of society over the  bastardization, monetization and magification of religion by charlatans. We must accept that there are a lot of anomalies in religious practices that are inimical to peace and development today. I am ashamed each time I tune to the television by the number of babalawos, magicians and business tycoons who carry out their magic and trade in the name of Christ and Christianity. I am sure if Christ should come back, he might deny founding the brand of Christianity in vogue today. And this is part of the frustrations of some academics including highly placed members of the theocratic class to whom religion is a primary constituency.

    In a not-so-recent piece, the brilliant and equally controversial Bishop Matthew Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, said: “… in these trying times, the name of God and religion have been dragged by fly-by- night pastors who have equally spawned an industry of prayer warriors who are daily stalking the corridors of power. Men with equally suspicious intentions, with stolen mandates of legitimacy, seeking escape from justice daily employ these charlatans.” Hence, the need “to liberate theology rather than talk about liberation theology from the hands of these charlatans who practice criminality masquerading as religion”.

    Damola Awoyokun, a former managing editor of Farafina Online could not hide his frustration on the role of religion in contemporary time. For him. “There is no instrument more cogent, more effective in enslaving Nigerians than religion and God-talk”. While arguing that it is the arena of victims, he concluded that “the more we are entangled in God-talk, the more we proscribe real thought and intelligent action; the more we strengthen the religious industry and their naira-based theology.”

    Professor Wole Soyinka in a lecture titled “Nationspace and Nationhood” to mark the 100 birthday anniversary of the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo, argued that religion is an enemy of nationhood and for Nigeria to forge ahead, it must be able to place it on suspension.

    Of course, this has been the frustration of the first generation of African writers culminating in the writing of “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe showcasing the fears of the master story-teller with not religion per say, but its interpretation, practice, and potentiality to erode societal values.

    My position on this matter is that we need to thank the governor for raising an issue that has been a thorn in our flesh, namely, the role of religion in Northern Nigerian, which also refreshes our minds on other issues such as the secularity or otherwise of the state, the manipulation of religion or its use as a basis for power in the region, the Almajiri palaver, the place of minorities and whether religion is a private business.

    Historically, in the North, while there is a fine lining distinction between Caesar and God, nay, politics and religion in Christianity, the Muslims over these years see it as an obligation to practice their religion politically and politics, religiously. In a region where “different ethnic groups happen to belong to different faiths like the dominant Muslim Hausa-Fulani and the Christian ethnic minorities, the struggles for domination among these groups as well as perceived liberation have dramatically assumed religious expression.” This probably accounts for the membership of some Christian clerics in the Middle Zone League Assembly and the emergence of what is today called the Christian Associations of Nigeria which first begun as an association of Northern Christians aimed at checking the excesses of Muslim domination in the region.

    It is this alleged injustice and domination of the Christian minority by the Muslim Hausa-Fulani that led to the emergence of religious figures like Bishop Matthew Kukah who inspite of the provisions of Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law that its clergy should steer clear of politics, the cleric, in the words of Ahmed Yahaya Joe, “does not find any contradiction in converting his pulpit into a political soap box.”

    On December 20, His Lorship delivered a sermon at the funeral of the late Kaduna State governor, Sir Patrick Yakowa on which he poked the hornets in their nest when he struck the whip at those who love to manipulate religion to the detriment of the Christian minority. He said “… the Northern ruling class, by policy, seemed to have an invisible sign that read ‘No Christians Need Apply’ to enter what would later be called Kashim Ibrahim House or represent the State at the highest levels.”

    Talking down to the new governor Yero on the occasion the Bishop said. “The World looks up to you never to be seduced by the whispers of the wicked whose devilish hold on power has held out society down… Do not be tempted to think that the Muslims have taken over what the wicked have presented as a prize for only Muslims”. This of course, caused a stage whisper that was to an extend, off the top of those who were making it.

    In a commentary on the homily, Emmanuel Lar a respected writer from the Middle Belt said: “The homily by the Bishop… has generated a plethora of reactions as is expected, not so much because it is a controversial sermon, but firstly because  it brings to the fore an injustice and discrimination that has for so long been levied on a section of the North-an issue that we have always been afraid to discuss inspite of the very glaring need to do so.”

    Also in their reactions, while Mohammed Haruna said the Bishop’s homily, for most of his Muslim friends, came as a shocking revelation that his instinctive, but understandable antipathy towards Muslims and Islam as a Christian and a clergy, has not abated inspite of his inter-ethnic understanding, Adamu Adamu is of the opinion that both are to blame: “Muslims for insensitivity and a wanton disregard for what their history has done and meant to their non-Muslim neighbours, and Christians for posturing and for thinking that they ought to get, and some how even feel justified in getting, even with the present generation, by taking their revenge for past misdeeds on it.”

    To my mind, the problem is that this feudalism and pesky mode of religious practices has made its way into contemporary time. Otherwise why do some people believe that it is the responsibility of government to pay their preachers salaries, build places of worship, sponsor pilgrimages, donate food at fasting times in a plural and multi-religious society like ours?

    Sadly, Nigeria is not a debating society otherwise the controversial governor has done us good by throwing up an issue that should have created the opportunity for us to begin to talk on the role of religion. Unfortunately, we missed that great opportunity!

    At the end, I think, members of the theocratic class will need to look inward on how to free religion from charlatans who have magified, monetized, bastardized and made it look like the Nigerian Stock Exchange Commission.

    Finally, though El-rufai has good intentions for bringing up this bill especially in the specific case of Kaduna State, the biggest problem is in its content and procedure especially having in mind that it was enacted under military dictatorship which the government ought to have known, more so that in a democracy, power lies with the people- implying that the bill ought to have come from the people and not the government itself, thereby making it a perfunctory one and a pie in the sky.

    • Damina, a student of Religion and Society, is from Holy Family Catholic Church Gidan Bako-Kaduna State

  • Buhari’s many worries

    President Muhammadu Buhari may be facing the manifestation of the old dictum “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown’’ owing to the current challenges confronting the nation. There is no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria, is facing a hard time.  The President no doubt has a herculean task in his hands.

    Nigeria’s Presidency is a juicy post that anyone would wish to have, but taking over the mantle of leadership at a time there is global economic recession occasioned by fall in oil prices is a major challenge. As it stands today, the government which operates a monolithic economy has found it extremely difficult to meet its financial obligations. As a result, many states have found it difficult to pay salaries, pension and meet up with other obligations.

    A major off-shoot of the economic hardship that seems to have gripped the nation is the hard times that is now the order of the day. Due to the snowball effect of the dwindling oil price which skyrocketed into the acute shortage of petroleum products, Nigerians are currently facing a hard time, to say the least. This is compounded by the soaring cost of commodities, especially food prices, thus making it increasingly difficult for most people to feed themselves and their families.

    Thus, due to continuous hardship being faced by majority of the nation’s citizenry, Nigerians seem to have changed the slogan of change that was on the lips of virtually every one during the period of ushering the present administration into power. Reminiscence of the biblical slogan “Hosanna today, crucify him tomorrow’’, Nigerians now are telling  anyone that care to listen that the hardship currently being experienced is a product of what the APC led administration promised to offer and they are indeed getting a good dose of it.  And in an attempt to safe its face, the federal government had been busy trying to correct the negative impression by attributing the current hardship to sabotage and lack of clear direction by past government.

    One serious headache the president has to grapple with is that of conducting credible elections. There is no gainsaying the fact that the election that brought him to power was credible. The moral burden thus lies on his shoulder to sustain the tradition without compromising standard in anyway. But, since his ascension to office and the subsequent appointment of the current Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), the nation has had a somewhat embarrassing show in electoral contest. The election in Kogi State was “inconclusive” following the sudden death of the flag bearer Abubakar Audu and the processes that follow leave much to be desired. Similar situation was witnessed in Bayelsa . The worst of it was the recent bye- election to the Rivers State House of Assembly which witnessed a harvest of deaths, including that a Corps member.

    Although, the insurgency war is gradually being won, yet the issue of the Chibok girl remains a pain in the neck for the Presidency. Two years after, the Chibok girl issue still remain a mystery.

    On the economy, restructuring the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is another major task the Buhari administration is faced with and determined to achieve a considerable progress. For instance, the NNPC through the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Ibe Kachikwu was recently split into seven units in what was described as unbundling. No other issues has exposed the government of the day to public sentiments than the recent energy crisis occasioned by the shortage in the supply of petrol which paralysed the economy for most parts of the first quarter of the year.

    The issue of internally displaced persons is there as the government is struggling to remove the remnants of the terrorist Boko Haram insurgents from the North East. Finally, as the administration clocks one year indications show that things will take positive turns in no time as soon as some of the policies of government begins to manifest.

    • Ogunjobi wrote from waheedogunjobi@gmail.com

  • Danger of hatred of ‘the other story’: Story of Yewande Oyediran

    There is always the flipside of every narrative. It is called ‘the other story’. The other story is very unpopular, very turgid, very unassuming and lacks the currency and obstinate recurrence of ‘the story’, its twin sibling. The other story is ancient and as old as man. All over the world and since ancient times, the other story has always suffered acute discrimination and condemnation. The moment the world hears ‘the story’, it pushes the other story to the background, holding on to the story as a writ, the gospel truth. In many instances, however, the world has suffered greatly by its alienation of ‘the other story’ as it turns around to be the dominant narrative of the world, the compass that navigates global phenomena and even practices. One very peculiar thing about the other story is that, the moment it survives the onslaught of discrimination, ostracism and deliberate conspiratorial bottling, it lives for ages, quickly dethrones the story and transforms into becoming the real and enduring narrative. The other story has survived till this moment of modernity.

    Take for instance the story of Galileo, Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher, and mathematician who was reputed to have played a major role in the scientific revolution of the Renaissance. During his period, Rome was the centre of the world and Catholicism ruled the globe. The dominant story of educated people of the world or ‘the story’ at this time was tilted towards the Aristotelian geocentric view of the earth being at the center of the universe with all heavenly bodies revolving around the Earth. Beefed up by biblical exegeses which state that “the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved” and Psalm 104:5 which says, “the Lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved” as well as Ecclesiastes 1:5 which states that “And the sun rises and sets and returns to its place,” the world held on rigidly to its view. By 1615, Galileo championed heliocentrism and piqued by his affront, his writing was submitted to the Roman Inquisition by Father Niccolo Lorini and the charge was that Galileo and his followers were seeking to reinterpret the Bible. This was a crime that presented as a violation of the Council of Trent. Galileo was tried by the Inquisition and found “vehemently suspect of heresy.” He was forced to recant his view and throughout the rest of his life, he was under house arrest. Galileo’s other story was later to shape the world and geography till today. He was preceded by Renaissance mathematician and astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus.

    Or the birth of twins among the Efik and Arochukwu of current South and South-east Nigeria. The dominant story was that that this strange pair of babies was an evil curse and taboo to be sired. In the belief of the natives which lasted for generations, the father of one of the twins must have been an evil spirit and the mother, guilty of a humongous sin. In a dilemma as to the determination of who out of the twins was fathered by the evil spirit, Efik and Arochukwu people gave the twins scalding treatment of abandoning them in the evil forest to die. Then came Aberdeen, Scotland-born Mary Mitchell Slessor on missionary journey to Nigeria. Mary, daughter of a shoe maker who lived in the slums of Dundee, arrived Calabar in September of 1876. Riled by this dominant story of the evilness of twins, Slessor adopted every child she found in the forest abandoned. She was harangued and called eccentric. She even sent out her missioners to scan the forests for these babies whom she protected and cared for at the Mission House which soon stared brimming with babies. She lived in Okoyong, among the Efik, for 15 years. She learned to speak Efik and when she died, Efik gave her an equivalent of a state funeral, transporting her body down the Cross River to Duke Town and a Union Jack shrouding her coffin. She was also honoured by Clydesdale bank at the World Heritage Series, as well as the Famous Scots Series, even featuring her on the back of the bank’s £10 note. Her other story is the dominant narrative today.

    Or even the story of the hundreds of years of the thriving slave trade. The history of slavery spans virtually every culture, nationality and religion. It was the dominant story from ancient times, even though relics of it have survived till present time. Indeed, the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1760 BC) made reference to slave trading as an established institution. It was the dominant story in virtually every civilization. The Byzantine-Ottoman wars, as well as the Ottoman wars in Europe, came to bear as a result of the capturing of a large number of Christian slaves. Though it is yet to apologize to the rest of humanity, Britain was a major player in the Atlantic slave trade, especially after 1600. In almost all the thirteen colonies of America and Canada, the dominant story was that slavery was a legal institution. When the other story aside the thriving story of slave trade began, it was spearheaded by Denmark which became the first European country to ban the trade and the rest of the world took a cue. Today, the western world, kingpins of the earlier story of slavery, claims to be riled by the fact that it once partook of slavery.

    Not to talk of the story of Egyptian civilization and its encounter with religion. Tagged as cradle of civilization, Egypt, divided into Upper and Lower, came into contact with religion as a result of practical reality. River Nile had become a huge cross to carry for Egyptians of the time. Seasonally, it overflew its banks and killed hundreds of Egyptians, swept away their homes, livestock and crops. Their survival was largely threatened. The dominant speculative belief was that the gods and goddesses were angry with the people. Egyptians thus veered into totenism as a panacea to their problems and worship of gods which however failed to ameliorate their problems. Gradually, they encountered Babylonian astrologers who told them that whenever the Sirius star shone, the next moment, there would be heavy rain and that no god was responsible for their fatalities. They were then able to construct a big basin which they perforated and were able to divide the day into 24 hours, the day and night, using the sun and moon to measure time. They created embankments against flood and thus moved from the speculative story of the anger of the gods into science, alchemy and mummification of bodies, all leading to the great civilization that Egypt later became.

    Down here in Nigeria, there are a thousand and one dominant stories that had to gradually vacate the scene for ‘the other story’. The most readily available is the political story of a man who later became the political and cultural avatar of the Yoruba people. After leaving the Western Region as Premier, with the strings of developmental firsts he brought the way of the west and his mental investments in the future of mankind, like the writing of the Pathway which he wrote after examining virtually all constitutions of the world, Obafemi Awolowo thereafter leapt into political witch-hunting and heavy adversarial machinations. He was jailed in 1962 and hundreds of his loyalists left him.

     Indeed, his adversaries made jest of him and claimed that he had effectively entered his political darkness. The then dominant story of power was SLA Akintola, the Premier, which was told by his coterie of loyalists who had become the reigning avatars of the time. Shortly after, ‘the other story’ overtook the story. Awolowo’s innocence of all the charges from his enemies became the other story; he became Nigeria’s Military Government’s Federal Executive Council Vice President and by the time he died in 1987 and till today, he had become a recent ancestor of the Yoruba people, worshipped in veneration and reference. Many of those whose forefathers tried to smother ‘the other story’ of his messianism are today converts of his ‘the other story.’

    What the above stories point at is that the world had always regretted its rigid abidance by the centrality and unimpeached nature of the dominant story. The lesson it teaches is that there is always the other story to the story and it would be akin to self immolation not to listen to it. Thank goodness that modernity has sharpened the critical nature of the human brain, it would be difficult to sell to the world an ‘another story’ that is devoid of logic and common sense. Thus, using logic, both inductive and deductive, man is able to critically examine both ‘the story’ and its twin, ‘the other story’ and to come to conclusion of the truth for all seasons that it must underscore.

    Which brings this writer to the story of the tragic spousal violence that trended a couple of months ago in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. The hero and heroine of that story are a couple called Lowo and Yewande Oyediran. The Lowo, the story has it, got killed by his wife while brawling over a child sired by the former out of wedlock. It has been amplified by the media, contours created, variants moulded out of the story and sold to a thirsty audience. Just like the feminine advocacy that world history was written from the perspective of man, with several matriarchal ingenuities and developments shrouded from global view. Now, women want to get world history to be her-story, from woman perspective and not strictly his story.

    If we would not be committing the same fallacy that our forefathers committed by holding on tenaciously to ‘the story’, shutting their minds from ‘the other story’, we should begin to ask questions and critically appraise and interrogate this tragic spousal brawl story that we have heard. For instance, two people witnessed the death of Lowo that fateful morning  Yewande and Lowo himself. One is deceased and the other, alive. Granted that Yewande may want to tilt the story to favour her, would it be wrong to listen to her story? Isn’t there the possibility that the world has been fed half-truths by its belief that Yewande, said to be a brilliant, incorruptible Director of Public Prosecution in the Oyo State Ministry of Justice, was the aggressor and the murderer? Has the world listened to her version of the story of a 2-year matrimony that was riveted by in-laws’ acute hatred, alcoholism, on and off love and hatred by a man she swore to live with till death did them part? Did she really kill her husband?

    While not asking for an abandonment of the story the world has, can it please listen to the other story and make its judgment? The danger of holding on rigidly to our verdict of Yewwande Oyediran being guilty-as-charged, is evident. The 35-year old lady could as well be our daughter, our sister, our cousin, our wife. By refraining from hearing ‘the other story’ on the dawn of February 2, 2016, we would be no better than Father Niccolo Lorini of the Inquisition who stampeded the author of ‘the other story’ of world geography and astronomy, Galileo, to his death.

     *Aina is a Lagos-based attorney and human rights activist.

  • Celebrating amazing woman @ 50

    Her willpower and focus to bring out the best in any context she finds herself has tenaciously distinguished her from the rest. She pays attention to details with a primal vision of setting new standards and raising the bar in her humanitarian quests to uplift the mankind.

    She devotes a considerable part of her time, energy and resources on regular basis to advance the cause of the less privileged and champion initiatives that support the needy in our society. Her dream is aimed at empowering and uplifting the disadvantaged people regardless of their age, education status, religious and political affiliations.

    Welcome to the world of Olufunso Amosun, the wife of the Governor of Ogun State.

    Born some 50 years ago on May 2, Mrs. Amosun has joined the elegant circle of Golden Jubilee club. No doubt, 50 is a milestone and clocking the golden age calls for a celebration of some sort.

    Working with Mrs. Amosun since January 2012 as one of her close aides has given me the vista of opportunities to know her better and appreciate her genuine passion to assist, support and empower the less privileged and the needy in our society.

    Beyond her care for the good people of Ogun State, Mrs. Amosun has become a mother figure to many in the government circle in the state, touching their lives with so much compassion outside their official duties.

    Personally, I was somehow agitated and disturbed over a domestic matter and I couldn’t sleep sometime in February 2013. In my state of restlessness, I picked up my Blackberry phone around 2am and began to fiddle with it: played music, changed my BB Display Picture amongst others. Suddenly Mrs. Amosun sent a message to my phone, asking me why I am not sleeping at this time of the day. I was shocked to my bone marrow. I responded by saying I was trying to get some things sorted out. Dissatisfied, she probed further: are you sure? And I said yes. I didn’t really want to bother her about my personal challenge.

    Another touchy encounter I had with Mrs. Amosun was on May 30, 2013. I got a call from Lagos that my wife was in labour and had just been rushed to the hospital. I asked the caller about the condition of my wife but he was not audible enough. I called my wife severally, no response. I called my mother-in-law, no answer. I became worried. I glued to my phone moving from one section to another to check who else I could call. I stumbled on the number of our family doctor; called him but he didn’t pick too. My worries increased. So I resigned to fate, hoping for the best.

    I went to my Blackberry Display Picture (DP) and I wrote: “It’s Well – I Believe, It Will End in Praise.” Immediately, the governor’s wife asked me: “What’s the problem?” Of course, I had no option than to open up that my wife was in labour. She offered some prayers and encouraged me to be calm. About one hour after, I received a call that my wife had just delivered a bouncing baby girl and that my wife and the baby were in good condition. With so much elation, I sent message to the governor’s wife that my family had just been blessed with a baby girl. She congratulated me and sent message to my wife.

    My takeaway: as a caring mother, Mrs. Amosun often feels strongly concerned about the welfare of people around her and she has successfully extended the same kind gesture to the good people of Ogun State.

    Her dexterity and compassion to help others is second to none. I was at lost momentarily the very first day she said she would be climbing the Mountain Kilimanjaro in Tanzania for the sole aim of raising funds for the victims of the insurgency in the North-east who are scattered across various Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps in Nigeria. While I was still struggling to come to terms over her decision, it dawned on me that indeed Mrs. Amosun has a strong-willed empathy spirit to always support the less privileged.

    No wonder she has been using every single opportunity to call on the individuals, the corporate bodies and any other interested parties to join her in lending a helping hand to the less privileged. This, she often expresses with a Yoruba song: Eni k’eni ti iwo ba ni ipa, l’ati se iranlowo fun ooo, Oun na l’eni keji re, Toju re. This can be literarily translated thus: Endeavour to help the needy you can afford to assist, for such person is your brother or your sister.

    Her ‘communal spirit’ of lending a helping hand to the less privileged made Mrs. Amosun to initiate different programmes to massively complement the efforts of her husband, Senator Ibikunle Amosun in the governor’s overall Mission to Rebuild Ogun State.

    Through her foundation, UPLIFT Development Foundation, the governor’s wife has been focusing on poverty alleviation, using UPLIFT as an acronym for ‘Understanding People’s Limiting and Inhibiting Factors Today.’ The foundation provides intervention programmes to empower the vulnerable and the needy, with basic facilities to achieve the ultimate goal of making them self-sufficient.

    The UPLIFT vision centres on poverty alleviation through the provision of economic empowerment, skill acquisition programmes and access marketable items and loans. Her target groups include the physically challenged, those living with HIV/AIDS, vulnerable aged, unemployed graduates, vulnerable orphans and disadvantaged women and children in general.

    Some of her programmes include: UPLIFTing the Aged; Free Eye Camp; UPLIFTing Women; UPLIFTing Widows; UPLIFTing Unemployed Graduates; Uplift Cancer Awareness Campaign; UPLIFTing the Physically Challenged; UPLIFTing SS3 Students; UPLIFTing Youths through Beatification; UPLIFTing Traders; UPLIFTing the Environment International Conference and Workshop; UPLIFT Aged Welfare Card; UPLIFT Food Outreach; Launch of Green Education for the Youths, Waste to Wealth Initiative; UPLIFT Under-15 Grassroot Football Camp; MITROS Micro Credit Scheme; and De-worming Exercise for School Children.

    Others are: UPLIFTing Women Living with HIV/AIDS; UPLIFT Artificial Limb Camp; UPLIFT Safe Motherhood Initiative; UPLIFTing Rainstorm Victims; UPLIFTing Rural Dwellers; UPLIFTing Orphans and Vulnerable Children; Community Empowerment Programme; 1st National Green Essay Competition; 1st Ogun State National Women Conference in 2014; UPLIFTing Schools; Free Breast Lump Excision Surgery; Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro for IDPs; amongst others.

    Mrs. Amosun has built a strong tie with the vulnerable citizens across the length and breadth of Ogun State through her various initiatives. She has undeniably touched many lives through her UPLIFT Development Foundation.

    The stark reality today is that Mrs. Amosun is 50 and to this I say, Congratulations and Happy Birthday. But the ladyish and glowing look of Mrs. Amosun can make someone to demand for a recount to actually determine if she is 50!

    Happy 50th birthday to a mother, a mentor and a confidant!

     

    • Sowunmi is a Media Aide to the Wife of the Governor of Ogun State.