The Nation Newspaper

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  • The race to save the World (And rule it!)

    On the 12th of December, 2015, in a vast hall in Paris, a historic agreement was reached on the future of the world. The hall was Le Bourget Exhibition Centre, which easily accommodated delegates from almost two hundred nations of the world, providing them, not just sitting space, butspace for relaxation in between sessions of serious bric-a-brac.

    For the two weeks that the ‘Conference Of Parties’ (COP) number 21 lasted, Paris wore the air of a city under siege. But this time the besieging force was a friendly army made up of a motley assortment of people from all over the world –students, labour unionists, regular Joes from the Parisian neighbourhoods, as well as the usual sprinkling of ideologues of various hues – anarchists, Trotskyites, apocalyptic doomsday-ists–  religious and agnostic.

    Thestreet-level engagements of previous Climate Change conferences were an exciting and unscripted cultural accompaniment that added an air of danger and excitement to what might otherwise have been a series of dull technical discussions. Colourful slogans. Crowd barriers pushed down from time to time. Missiles flying through the air in the odd encounter with the Police.Unwashed youth camping out on public lawns.

    Paris was still on tenterhooks because of recent terrorist attacks in which scores of citizens had been ruthlessly murdered by religious fanatics. There was some possibility that some of the terrorists might still be around, waiting to use the cover of any gathering to unleash a fresh round of mayhom.  By mutual consent between protesters and police, a unique and symbolic form of protest was decided upon. People would leave their shoes on the streets. So there they were – hundreds of shoes arranged end to end on the Parisian street. A truly bizarre sight to behold. From designer brogues to plastic throw-aways, all lined up, facing the one direction.

    It came down to one message, and one message only. It was necessary to save Earth from Human Beings.

    The activities of mankind, through the emission of ‘greenhouse’ gases that were depleting the ozone layer of the earth’s atmosphere, constituted an ever-greater threat of global warming.The earth’s atmosphere was growing warmer through the burning of fossil fuels. Science had concluded that the rate of temperature increase on the planet had to be kept below two degrees centigrade, whatever it took. In fact, an extreme view within the conference, representing he interests of the island nations who would be the first to be swept away by rising oceans – one of the consequences of global warming, insisted that the correct goal to shoot for was a more challenging maximum increase of one point five degrees Celsius.

    To keep the increase in the earth’s temperature below two degrees celciuswas an ambition in the end shared by the men and women in suits, who inhabited the Parisian hall, and who in the first few days included Barack Obama and Angela Merckel and MuhammaduBuhari.

    It was an ambition based on hope and optimism for the possibilities of mankind, rather than hard-nosed reality. Even the Science required to achieve the desired ends was yet to be developed!

    One hundred and eighty six nations – the parties to the agreement, would publish their action plans for the reduction of greenhouse emissions. These actions plans were to be reviewed every five years, starting from 2020, in order continually to pitch for a higher, more demanding target. Countries would aim to achieve ‘carbon neutrality’ in the second half of the century. The use of the most polluting forms of fossil fuels – meaning not only coal but petrol – would have to be stopped entirely.

    That was not all.

    There was a peculiar Economy to the argument on global warming. It was acknowledged that the technologically developed countries achieved prosperity by creating huge machines and causing a disproportionate amount of the damage that had already been done to the earth’s atmosphere. The not-so-wealthy nations – including the countries of the Indian and African continents such as Nigeria, would also want to become wealthy like the ‘first world’ countries through a rapid industrialization. Asking them to limit pollution was tantamount to holding back their industrialization, or at least making it expensive and non-competitive by holding them to high anti-pollution standards. They would need to be ‘compensated’ somehow for this. It was a matter of simple justice.

    The Paris meeting had an answer to this thorny and highly emotive issue. The rich nations would raise $100 billion every year and give the money out in loans and donations to poor countries to enable them reduce their greenhouse emissions, or mitigate the impact of climate change such as drought and rising ocean levels. Some ‘developing’ countries, such as India, might themselves, over time, become donors to the very poorest countries, assisting them with money and Science to limit their additions to the global pollution, and to overcome the worst ravages of the scourge of global warming.

    It was not to be assumed that there was unanimous agreement that global warming wasa great threat, or that there was even such a thing as ‘global warming’. A substantial movement among right-wing Republicans in the United States of America remained skeptical about the concept of global warming, and the role of human activity in causing it. The movement was in automatic alliance with strong voices in Industry, who saw the stringent emission-reduction changes recommended in their productive processes as bad for business. They scoffed at the fact that the Science to implement the decision of the conference to effectively substitute non-fossil energy sources for fossil fuels across the board was yet to be developed, and, for all anyone knew, might never be developed!

    Just to show that America was special, and could go its own way, they promised that they would get Congress to prevent the signing of the final agreement by President Barack Obama. Failing that, they would ensure that the next government, which they hoped to control, would renege on the implementation, even if an agreement was signed.

    People from other lands had learned to observe the antics and pronouncements of the right wing in the USA with a mixture of amusement and bemusement. Their stranglehold on Public Policy, for example, did not allow their doctors – among the best in the world, to ask a patient in their consulting office if they possessed a gun. The patient might be suicidal or homicidal, in the view of the doctor, but that counted for nothing. But when the poor bloke then went out on the street and began to kill innocent people, the prevailing logic encouraged citizens, presumably including the hapless doctor who saw it coming and could have headed it off with some common sense questioning and reporting, which could have shown up in a background check – another thing that was not allowed by Law, to Stand Tall, meaning they should bring out a gun from their pocket, and shoot the ‘killer’ dead. The whole scenario was ridiculous to everyone except a certain kind of American, to who it was the Holy Grail. Stupidity had been deified, and given the double-barreled name of political conviction and constitutional right.

    America, like every nation, was entitled to its foibles, as long as they were not foisted on anyone else.

    And now to the crux of COP21 – this project that was aimed at no less a mission than the salvation of the world as we knew it. There was embedded in it an unwavering certainty that at the crucial time when the very survival of the species required it, mankind would be able to come up with innovation that would change his ways wholesale and save his planet. A shift away from fossil power, which generated his electricity, ran his cars, cooled his home, ran his aeroplanes, and was at the heart of virtually everything he did everyday. A change to non-fossil power – predominantly solar, but also including wind power, wave power, and other ‘clean’ sources of energy. If mankind carried it off, it would indeed carry a strong value proposition for the salvation of  planet Earth. Afterall the sun’s energy wasfree, and in abundance. Over a number of years, technology hadbeen developed to harness that power, and to deploy it. In many parts of the world, the use of solar panels in homes and offices was routine.However, nowhere had solar or wind power become a full substitute for conventional power.

    There was a crucial missing link, and this was becoming the focus for the next major race to lead the world.  It would actually have more substantial economic and political significance for the person or the nation that invented it than landing a man on the moon.

    To put it in Clinton-esque language, ‘It Is The Storage, Stupid!”

    Why was the prototype electric car no rival yet for the conventional car? Because it was hobbled by a need to recharge its batteries every so often – and certainly more often than the conventional car on a full tank of fuel. Storage.

    Why was the domestic inverter not an alternative to public electricity? Current technology allowed the storage of some power acquired from public electricity or solar panels or generator, using huge and heavy batteries. Some people had ten to twenty of these batteries in their domestic inverter system, and yet their homes could only be powered by the inverter for a few hours. Even then, they had to ‘load shed’ heavy items like air-conditioners and refrigerators.

    The first solar-powered plane limped its way fitfully across the world’s skies recently. Its reach was severely hobbled by the need to recharge from the sun every few hours. The reason? Limited storage.

    The next phase of the Power War would be won by the person who discovered a neat, safe, compact and light-weight way to store huge amounts of energy, generated from any source – whether solar or other, and who was able to convert this stored energy to a form that could be used for a long spell to power homes, cars, devices, and do all the things currently done with electricity.

    The storage war indeed is the new scientific frontier. It is a war that has been going on for some time quietly in government and privately funded laboratories in different parts of the world. It has been unleashed afresh and brought into focus by the Climate Change conference in Paris. Whoever wins the ‘Storage War’ will not only help to create a clean world for all mankind, he would also change the economics and power dynamics in the world. National economies built on fossil fuel that have not hastened to diversify will wane. The new economy, based on Knowledge and a new form of Power, stored, transported and managed in a different way, will rule the World.

    The Storage War is a chance for Nigeria, which has been a laggard in the innovation race, to jump to the front of the next Big Idea. It is a chance for the Ogbunigwe scientists of Biafra, and all the bright young and not-so-youngegg-heads in the Universities and Polytechnics all across the land to pool their energies or engage in friendly or not-so-friendly competition for a chance to put Nigeria on the world map. This is not about writing academic papers in journals nobody reads – it is about solving a problem that nobody on the planet had yet solved, which is crucial for the next stage of the human race, and which is sure to solved by someone, somewhere – in the next few years, if only to fulfill the stipulations of COP21 and the men and women who left their shoes lined up on the streets of Paris.

    It is not a far-fetched argument. A government where the Energy brief is held by BabatundeRajiFashola would surely ‘get it’, and realize that this could, and should, be defined as a strategic imperative for the nation.  If resources were deployed to help the nation’s best and brightest compete meaningfully, with a fighting chance to be the ones to solve the riddle, Nigeria would actually be in the equivalent of the new Arms Race. This time it would be a race the winning of which could make Nigeria’s economy explode with positive power, as the Knowledge created could become a national treasure, vastly greater than oil. A win would put the nation in the front rank in the committee of nations for the next stage of the Human Story.

    At this stage, anything, including that giddy scenario, is possible.

  • ‘The situation has not removed the smile from your face’

    ‘The situation has not removed the smile from your face’

    Words on marble by the lay president, Methodist Church of Nigeria, Ilesha Arch-diocese, James Olusegun Morakinyo, during a recent visitation to Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

    “…….Mr Governor, felicitation so. I note that you have actually increased the IGR. On taxation, you’re doing it systematically. People are now getting used to the payment of taxes. Parents now take their tax receipt to schools. Whether they like it or not, children would be worrying them that ‘pay your tax o. We want to present it at school’.

    “And if you remember in the past, our fathers used to run away. They would go to their farms very early in the morning (in order) to evade taxmen. But now it is not so because children would ask for the tax receipt. And you have been so magnanimous. If a father has seven children, he would only pay once. He would photocopy the only receipt into seven.

    “When you came and said you were going to employ 20,000 youths, we thought it was not possible. But when you came, the OYES people (Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme), we just saw them marching on the road; those who would cut (road verges), those who would teach, those who would do other things, and even the road traffic people. We saw them.

    “And even to us, the workers in the state. We knew a year is made up of twelve months. Then you started talking of thirteenth month. We said, ‘well maybe you wanted to change the calendar’. But then, we were surprised when the thirteenth month was introduced. You started with (the payment of) one quarter (of the salary), later you went to half, and so on, and so forth.

    “Your excellency, we know we are faced with hard times. But tough times don’t last. But tough people last. You have been so pragmatic. And you have been so unruffled. When there were problems you were calm. That was when I noticed that this man is a great man. He has been consistent. You smiled. The situation has not removed smiles from your face. Some people would be dejected (such) that one would see that this person has been demoralised. But you are focused. You still go ahead. And you have said it recently that you are going back to the roads, that whether we like it or not you want to continue with the roads.

    “You have been inspiring us. And we feel (that) as a church, because our members benefit from all these things you have done: your six point agenda, and others that came later. We feel that our archbishop and our bishops, press beaters should pray for you; pray for the state. We have been doing it in our corners, but we want to take it to your doorstep.

    “You’re a leader that is ready to learn from anybody. You have been raising our hope that these hard times are only passing by. They will soon fizzle away. That gives us hope. What do we go to church to get? It is hope. We want to add to that hope. And by the grace of God, we shall get it.”

  • Tribute to Olinmah, first Clerk, House of Reps

    The immortal William Shakespeare tells us that while fate and fortune characterise half of our lives, the other half will surely depend on it. Our ancestral wisdom complements the above maxim, that the half is the sure source of our greatness in Him (God), who our source of life is depended on – taking cognizance of our faith in Him, even in the advent of trials and tribulations.

    This, also explains, that the power of life and death belongs to the All-Knowing-God, who sent us to this world; little wonder may you have known that life, power and death would cease within a short time. One by one we go, one by one we come, but in the expense of this, you have to continue making yourself good, so that immortality can be attained even after death.

    Yes’! Death and life is in the hands of God, he knows the hour, time, day, how and when. It is an individual call and experience. No wonder, our ancestral wisdom tells us again, that death is an individual experience every living creature will experience, no matter how highly placed the individual may have mustered or attained over the last couple of years.

    That is the courage that kept Chief Chief Benjamin I. Olinmah, the first Clerk of the House of Representatives in Nigeria, whose death occurred on December 8, 2015 at the age of 85 years. A man whose humanitarian service to his dear nation earned him fortunes and international recognition. No wonder, Hon. Oghene Egoh, representing Amuwo Odofin  federal constituency described him as “a virtuous man who has made indelible mark on the sands of time cum adorable character. He has left a great vacuum –difficult to occupy by any one’’

    Chief Benjamin Olinmah  incessantly promoted the good as best as he could, and  also practically demonstrated the three good of life; good of wealth, good of offspring and good of immortality. Of course, no one is endowed with immortality but one can gain immortality on the account of the extra-ordinary contribution he or she makes to the promotion of humanity- having in mind that our hope is based in Christ. These are the attributes of Chief Benjamin Olinmah whose death has created a great vacuum to his family and the nation at large. He lived a life, worthy of emulation. In fact, he was referred to as  “The Governor” of Ikoyi Club where he had become a life member. He was one of the popular swimmers at Ikoyi club for over 40 years. This kept him going and moving like a train.

    Many may not have heard of this man, whose service to his nation remained unbeatable. He lived a dedicated and well-focused lifestyle. His commitment of service to his nation-Nigeria did not only earn him fortunes but honours and commendations.  For instance, Chief Benjamin Olinmah was awarded a certificate of recognition by the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, for distinguished contributions to the promotion of international understanding in June 1983.

    In 1985, he received a letter of commendation from the Head of the Federal Military Government and Commander –in- chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces for his contribution to the 38th World Health Assembly held in Geneva, Switzerland from 6th to 23 May 1985. Chief Olinmah was a star in the family as the only son of his parents.

    Chief Benjamin Olinmah was born into the family of Olinmah of Umuonyia and Nwaso at Isieke Village, Delta State on March 8th, 1930. He spent his early formative years in Asaba, Delta State where he attended St. Patrick School, Coal camp, Enugu; Saint Joseph Catholic School, Asaba and St. Patrick College, Asaba, from 1946 t-1950. He obtained his Cambridge School Certificate in 1950 and then continued his pre-education in England. He proceeded to the University of Exeter, Devon, England from 1961 to 1965 where he bagged D.P.A and B.A, in government. He also attended the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, in 1979 where he obtained a certificate in advance management.

    He joined the federal civil service as a clerical officer on 10thJune, 1951. Subsequently; he was promoted to the position of administrative clerk, after securing his honours degree from Exeter. His esteemed career in the civil service included; Federal Civil Service Commission,1966- 1967, Federal Ministry of Labour, 1968-1969, Federal Ministry of Establishment, 1969-1971, Council Secretariat, Cabinet office, 1972-1974, Secretary, Federal Government Staff Housing Board, 1974-1975, Secretary, Staff Quarters Allocation Committee, Cabinet Office, 1976-1978, Federal Ministry Of Industries,1978-1979, first Clerk of the House Of Representatives, National Assembly, Lagos, 1979-1983, principal secretary, state and external relations division, Federal Ministry Of Health 1984-1986, Secretary For International And Constitutional Affairs, Cabinet Office, 1986-1987.He was a member of a number of boards both national and international. Chief Olinmah lived a contented life with his family, married to a teacher, Mrs. Catherine Okwekwu Olinmah and blessed with five children. His religious life was exceptional and encouraging to young men and women, in fact, they will miss his immense contribution a lot.

    Chief Benjamin Olinmah died a happy death at 85 years. Let the family therefore weep no more but rejoice for the reward of their father is already in heaven as they prepare for the funeral. May his gentle soul rest in peace.

    • Mark is a family friend to the late clerk

  • X-raying Ayade’s 14-Point agenda for 2016

    One of the distinguishing traits of quality leadership is the uncanny ability to set attainable goals- short, medium and long term. While some goals may be achievable within a short term, there are those that require medium term attainability as well as others whose attainment are long term.

    In his New Year message to the people, Cross River State governor, Senator Ben Ayade, outlined his strategic model that offered him the opportunity to go for what could be regarded as low hanging fruits. That is delivering on those aspect of developmental programmes or projects that do not require long term actualization.

    In an inspiring and galvanising message that heralded hope and confidence, Governor Ayade articulated a 14-point agenda that would be the prime focus of his administration in the current year.

    Christened “My 14-Point Agenda for 2016”, Ayade stated his resolve to give the necessary push that will ensure the concession of the Calabar-Itu Federal Highway, just as he is equally ready to provide the requisite economic and political backing to prospect for oil and gas deposits in the state.

    The governor who charged the people of the state to view 2016 as “another unique opportunity to open up a new chapter filled with captivating elixir of hope” noted that “in the days ahead, we will catalyze the tempo of multi-sectoral turnaround of our dear state in spite of dwindling allocation from the federal coffers.”

    Very much in a hurry to accomplish so much within so short a time, Ayade also hinted that the monorail and the garment factory would be completed and commissioned this year. When commissioned, and any moment soon, the Monorail, which would be the first in operation in Nigeria, is expected to trigger a quantum effect in the economy of the state as it will further add to the tourism offerings of the state. In the same vein, the commissioning of the garment factory will significantly address the monstrous army of unemployment.

    Other critical areas which governor Ayade said full attention would be focused on include the completion of the detailed design and preconstruction work of Calas Vegas, a new cosmopolitan city to be berthed out of Calabar as well as two others in the two other senatorial districts of the state. It is also expected that before the end of the year, completion of the de-bushing of the superhighway corridor and the completion of the detailed design and securing of approval from the Federal Executive Council for the construction of the Deep seaport would have been achieved.

    Other projects to be executed in 2016 are the creation of new urban forests for climate change, establishing of the state Microfinance Bank to provide soft loans for the youths, ensuring a substantial stabilization of power and water supply in Calabar, and commencement of dredging of the seaport.

    Reconstruction of the Health and Education system of the state, activation of the Green Police and the commencement of construction of 5000 housing units for the no-income and the low income earners in Cross River would also be the very important areas that the Ayade-led administration will be giving full attention this year.

    The creation of new urban forests for climate change, besides its financial value chain in terms of revenue generation, will bring about employment creation for the newly established Green Police.

    Urban forests will help in beautifying the city of Calabar and other major towns like Ogoja, Obudu, Ikom and Ugep in a pristine way.

    The activation of the Green Police will help to curtail the activities of illegal loggers, thereby ensuring that the state gets a great chunk of the funds set aside by the World Bank and the United Nations for Africa and the third world countries to battle climate change.

    There is no doubt that we have many young, vibrant and articulate Cross Riverians with the immense capacity and training to become cutting-edge entrepreneurs, but are incapacitated by paucity of fund and  lack of access to facilities and guarantors. The establishment of Cross River State Microfinance Bank to provide soft loans Cross Riverians would certainly be the panacea to turn things around in this regards.

    From Governor Ayade’s  New  Year message, it clear that he fully appreciates the import of a healthy citizenry as wealth-drivers of the economy, which is why he is demonstrating a strong commitment to the task of reconstruction of the health and education system of the state. The benefits of doing so are enormous, just as the consequences of are better imagined than real. Ayade understands this very well and wants to be in the right side of history.

    A governor whose soul is sold completely on improving the wellbeing of his people he cannot afford to delay the commencement of the construction of the 5000 units of houses for those without income and the low income of the state. Earlier, he had sworn never to see any Cross Riverian live in thatched houses, a scenario he considers subhuman and dehumanizing.

    There will be immeasurable benefits that will accrue to Cross River people from the concession for the Calabar-Itu Federal Highway is obtained by Governor Ayade- reduction in the number of man-hour, on the road, boosting of inter-state commerce.

    Despite the plunge in the global oil price, and the focus on alternative source of energy, Governor Ayade sees a future for the state in oil and gas, hence his desire to prospect for the black gold in 2016.

    Setting these lofty goals for 2016, Governor Ayade said he is not “unaware of the huge responsibility, skepticism and downright criticism”, when he decided to embark on the signature projects. There is no doubt that Governor Ayade is passionate and committed to pursuing with extreme vigour the 14-point agenda. Over time, he has proven that whatever he sets his mind on, he follows with his heart and head.

    It is on this note that the year 2106 promises to be an exhilarating one for Cross Riverians and   one in which dreams will be born, hopes fulfilled and confidence restored in the people that indeed, flowers can bloom among the thorns of life.

    Accordingly, he urged his people: “As we raise a toast to the new year with a sparkling in our eyes and the ‘jigida’ dance of hope and triumph, may the dreams we wish all come through and the days abound with richness and contentment”.

  • Enugu’s investment drive

    If there is a time any government at any level in Nigeria should wear a thinking cap, it is now. This is due to the current economic situation following the crash in the price of crude oil, which Nigeria has over depended on for years.

    People have often said that this is not best time to be a governor in Nigeria especially in the eastern states reputed to be civil service states. The present government in Enugu State was not oblivious of these stark realities. It was for this reason that Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi on assumption office set out a clear agenda and vision on how to govern the state with its little resources for the benefits of the people. Knowing that his government cannot do it alone, Ugwuanyi and his team recently honoured an investment summit invitation to Dublin, Ireland.

    The summit was organized by Metro Eireann which is run by Metro Publishing Consultancy Limited, the primary source of news and information on Ireland’s growing immigrant and ethnic communities.

    The governor’s first port of call was a visit to the Dublin Bus, Ireland’s gigantic and very successful transport company with a view to learning first hand, how the company is run so that the state government could replicate its success story in the Enugu State Transport Company.

    The visit also offered the governor and his team the opportunity to visit the headquarters of Guinness in Dublin. The visit needs to be put in context: Heineken, a Guinesss subsidiary has about the largest of its plants in Enugu. Yet, the large expanse of land acquired by the company in the state has been left unutilized for several years.

    For the two days that the investors gathered at Dublin City’s Westin Hotels venue of the event to brainstorm on investment opportunities, the Enugu State delegation laid bare the vast investment opportunities abounding in the state. As would be expected, the vist opened up a lot of vistas for Enugu government to enter into concrete and temporary agreements on mutual cooperation in the areas of agriculture, education, commerce and industry.

    Notable among the agreements was the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the authorities of the Dublin City University Ireland to promote mutual relations for the purposes of developing education in the state in a manner that would also offer value to the university. In the document text, ‘the Dublin City Unversity (DCU) and the Enugu agencies will enter into reciprocal relationship where the university would have to examine opportunities to broker relationships with funding agencies and other higher education institutes in conjunction with the Enugu government and other parties both nationally and internationally’.

    In the same vein, the former president of Ireland, Berie Ahern has pledged to assist the Enugu State government shore up its economy through the expansion of its revenue base, shop for investors and donor agencies just as scores of prospective investors have also held talks with state government officials.

    Furtherance to the successes recorded in the series of negotiations during the visit,  the President of the Dublin City University, Brian MacCraith and other officials of the university are billed to attend the Enugu State Economic Summit scheduled to take place in March this year in Enugu, the state capital.

    At the summit, the governor Ugwanyi was honoured for his outstanding leadership as governor of the state in the past months and as one time chairman of Nigeria’s House of Representatives committee on Marine Transport for eight years. He was honoured alongside the Irish professor and women rights activist, Fionnuala Waldron, former Charge d’Affaires of Nigerian Embassy in Ireland and a former Nigerian Ambassador, Mrs Benedict Onochie Amobi.

    Speaking at the award night, Governor Ugwuanyi told the gathering made of diplomats and serving and former Irish government officials as well as members of the Nigerian community that his 11-man delegation was in that foreign country specifically on investment drive in view of the scary situation in the global oil market which is currently making Nigeria’s economy sit on the edge. On the award, he told the gathering that he was dedicating it to the good people of Enugu State whom he described as true heroes of democracy in view of their support to his administration in a current stoic philosophy of belt-tightening to shore up the economy of the state.

    Nigerian Embassy’s Charge d’Affaires in Ireland, Olusola Iginla who witnessed the investment summit and the award night, commended the exemplary drive of the governor and other government officials during the three-day working visit, saying it is the needed disposition for all political office holders in Nigeria in view of the current economic gridlock staring the nation in the face.

    While Terence Modebe, a Nigerian-Irish is already working on a range of investments on agriculture in Adani, Enugu State as well as on other economic ventures in the state, the Enugu delegation held very crucial talks with other prospective investors who look good to storm Enugu shortly.

    On the government delegation to Ireland are three commissioners, that of Education, Prof. Uche Eze, commerce and industry, Sam Ogbu Nwobodo and Agriculture, Engr. Mike Ene who took samples of pineapples from Enugu’s Sna carlos farms to Dublin for the summit. Also on the trip was the governor’s special adviser on Diaspora Matters, Mrs. Olangwa Ezekwu and deputy speaker of the state House of Assembly, Donatus Uzogbado, majority leader of the House, Ikechukwu Ezeugwu, chairman of the economic advisory committee, Monsgnr Obiora Ike, among others.

    Overall, the governor and his team were not only business-like, they were focused and determined with eagerness to get result. With their disposition, it will not take long for the result of the visit to start manifesting in various sectors of the state’s economy.

    As would be expected, some mischievous online bloggers have already gone hay-wire with manipulated photographs alleging that Governor Ugwuanyi and his team visited Dublin for a jamboree. Considering the nature of Nigerian politics, such mudslinging and armchair criticism are to be expected. The governor and his team should not be deterred or disturbed; likewise the foreign investors billed to attend the Enugu Economic Summit in March.

     

    • Engr. Okezie wrote from Dublin, Ireland   

     

  • A national emergency – 2

    Looking at the new dispensation and the PDP’s potential role as a credible alternative, the horizon is still hazy. Possibility of new outspoken national leaders, young national Turks from the north, rising up to prominence, seems remote for now.

    Looking at the much heralded but highly politically inexperienced ex-policeman, Nuhu Ribadu and his fickle political tendencies, what really are his antecedents, his contributions to this nation? What can he point to as relics of his achievement in national life?

    Largely incorruptible, yes, but what are his achievements, to becoming a political warhead in a new cause? As the anti-corruption Czar, he certainly filled many political office holders with fear but the conviction rate of the big cows were minimal. He fell to being a lackey of the government that hired him and stayed out of hurting some sacred cows and letting many unconvicted felons go scot free. Despite his much publicized national admiration, certain things from his past will always hurt him politically and he seems not the type to indulge in political drudgery and political mudslinging. But there is still however a thinking that the man that can unseat the present president must be a suave educated young northerner. Someone like Ribadu. Someone well groomed, focused, highly articulate, a national figure, forward-looking and a workaholic like Babatunde Fashola.

    But a presidential candidate will come in much later. The PDP needs a national leader now, perhaps a figure from the South. A visionary, who can present articulately, an alternative national platform, a rallying cry of civil opposition to the present occupants of Aso Rock. The present natural leader of the PDP, the deputy senate president has ruled himself out of this position. The two other visible easterners of the party, the acting chairman and the publicity secretary, who had arrogated to themselves the leadership of the party, don’t necessarily look charismatic and the type that go the whole hog. They seem hardly the ones to rally a complex nation like Nigeria. Never mind that Ahmed Gulak has succeeded in raising the blood pressure of the acting chairman to truncate his quest to perpetually live on illegally as an unelected, unappointed leader of a national party.

    I’m tempted in my quest for a credible opposition alternative to turn my searchlight on a southern state which has a huge PDP following and have produced exemplary governors in this political dispensation. He has many harsh critics but many will also agree that Governor Donald Duke was visionary and a forward-looking leader. His concepts of government and ideas can see him take up office in 10 Downing Street. Duke is a potential national leader. His years as governor laid a foundation for his next political level. The years that followed his administration are largely unsung across the nation. It is debatable the footprints his successor made. Perhaps pedestrian, perhaps blazing a new trail. But the new man in there now, the professor, is just like the political son of Duke; Ideas, vision, action. He is suave, presidential and seems a good dreamer. Apart from Fashola, never seen any Nigerian governor who hit the ground running after his inauguration. Prepared to lead.

    But both Duke and Professor Ayade are high admirers of the ruling general. They appear too close to posit any raw opposition and alternative to him. I guess they don’t even want to be seen largely opposing and contradicting him. Wise policy if you are not that ambitious. But these men are inherently endued to rally the opposition troops with a civilized viable alternative that will draw the crowds.

    The nearby state of Akwa Ibom has a huge political figure though heavily censured by a section of his kinsmen and elders. They wanted and love all the iconic development that Godswill Akpabio gave them but they wanted him to be a kitten, a man they can order to kneel before elders and assault like the once naïve Chris Ngige. In other words, he would only open the state’s treasury, award viable contracts as these certain men bid him to. Governor Akpabio is presidential, he can be an African equivalent of General Marshall who got Europe out of the ashes. He brooks no nonsense, he can smash glasses. He can get massive things that benefict the lot of the people done and empower them just like the hugely loved Ibori. He is daring, highly intelligent and a true African politician and leader. See Wikileaks. He understands local politics. He knows the terrain of political patronage, has tremendous goodwill and is not known to be stingy, close-fisted.

    Godswill Akpabio, a power broker and a good one at that, is accused of installing his protégé by those who all along were his protégé and those who wanted to install their protégé and failed. The Jagaban has successfully installed two of his protégé as successors now, the Atlantic Ocean did not submerge Lagos. But the rising star Godswill Akpabio is presently playing nice with the ruling party. He seems comfortable with the present castrating bi-partisanship of the Senate leadership. Perhaps, at least for now.

    Someone once said that a high number of past and serving northern and western state governors, are presidential materials in the making but never is any of their counterparts from the east. Just look at them. The one exception probably was one who gave his godfather a bloody nose and enough hell. He got things largely going on. He was full of zest, he could talk, was an intellectual and had the mind to move mountains. But alas it seemed the perks of office ensnared him and he turned out to be working largely for himself.

    I am wont to lose faith if the ruling party will ever have a credible opposition. But in my distress, I thought of another alternative political centre (AAPC). If ever Nigerians are going to see any genuine alternative rise, an opposition to protect us from unfettered tyranny and a militarily-styled democracy, it might, very might just take an implosion in the ruling party. The hens might just come home to roost. Just like this ruling party balkanized the PDP and formed an alternate political centre, (APC), Nigeria might get another alternative in the form of disgruntled members of the ruling party, pushed out and alienated by the present kitchen cabinet and by its increasingly bizarre manners and decisions. These will necessarily align with outside forces especially segments of the civil society and the PDP for a storming of the political Bastille. If it does happen, the present occupants of Aso Rock will start reading their dictionary to find out the true meaning of accountability. It might just be an AAPC to save this democracy.

     

    • Barrister Chima is a public affairs commentator.

  • Wike’s political howler

    As if from the blues, Governor Nyesom Wike suddenly woke up one day to do what he is normally expected to do: accuse his sworn enemy, Minister of Transport and Aviation, Honourable Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, of hosting Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, to a birthday dinner. A former Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, had explained why Rotimi Amaechi’s administration hosted the Nobel Laureate for a birthday dinner (“Why Amaechi hosted Soyinka”, Nation, January 11, p7). According to her, the decision to honour Prof. Soyinka “had a link with his role in the naming of Port Harcourt as the UNESCO world book capital city 2014”. Obviously, this is a legacy Amaechi left for Wike to cherish and adore as the current Governor of Rivers State whose capital city, Port Harcourt, of all capital cities in Nigeria, was so enviously honoured by a prestigious international organization like the UNESCO. The honour did not come by Wike’s influence or Amaechi’s, but by Soyinka’s personal achievements and robust international connection.

    Now, as expected, Semenitari’s successor, a Dr. Austin Tam-George, speaking for Wike, not only alleged that ¦ 82m was “wasted” on hosting the Nobel Laureate, but threatened that Wike’s extremely shaky administration would involve the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in probing the expenditure on the programme. However, Mrs. Semenitari had replied. According to her, “¦ 82 million was not spent on the dinner alone as Tam-George, PDP and their cohorts would want the world to believe”. She then challenged Tam-George to release the entire documents as contained in her (Sementari’s) memo, reference MOI/com /c./82/vol iii/227 “to cover dance, drama by University of Port Harcourt Arts Village, Great Singha and his highlife band; set design, stage lighting, costume design and stage property, dinner, transportation and accommodation of guests from outside the country and those outside Rivers State, among others”.

    She said that instead of putting into proper context what necessitated the honour for the Nobel Laureate, the detractors exhibited “a sinister motive” of referring to Prof. Soyinka as “a friend of Amaechi”, thus reducing the state honour to a personal non-issue. She noted that having turned down several other honours for his enormous contributions to the growth of the literary industry in Rivers State, “it was a decision of the State Executive Council to celebrate a man who had been a strong voice in the birth of Garden City Literary Festival (later Port Harcourt Literary Festival) which catapulted the state to a global player in the arts”.

    On his part, Professor Wole Soyinka had graciously “honoured” Wike with a reply which would not have been necessary if Wike had not attempted to bring his friend, Rotimi Amaechi, into the picture as his main target. Hence, instead of a probe for his friend, Rotimi Amaechi alone who organized the dinner in his honour, what we read as Soyinka’s reply was “¦ 82 dinner probe: Soyinka dares EFCC, knocks Wike”, (The Punch, January 8, p7). Soyinka sees Wike’s “present level of abominable distractions as causing despair”, anticipating his warning to the nation that when you fight corruption “corruption strikes back”. He continues, “The unprecedented call by this governor is prescient of a warning I recounted in my recent pamphlet ‘The republic of liars’, and was taken from my address to an anti-corruption global conference that took place in Tunisia two years ago”. Describing Wike as wikeleaks, Soyinka agreed with his (Wike’s) call for a probe into the money for the dinner in his honour: “I do however fully support the wikeleaks call for multi-directional probes”, he said, but more importantly, “I recommend further that he involves the services of the INTERPOL to guarantee its extension to all international organizations and governments to whom I owe accountable events of recognition – including birthday luncheons, dinners, cultural receptions and events of real, fictitious, or simply opportunistic flavouring – to which I have submitted myself”.

    Now, with all the honours accorded Soyinka by international communities, he might just as well have asked “what then is the big deal about Wike’s howler concerning Amaechi’s addition to the many similar honours given to him at the international level?” Hence, in my judgment, this matter, certainly, is simply making a mountain out of a mole-hill. As for Amaechi, now Minister of Transport and Aviation and Soyinka’s friend who was really Wike’s target, he simply asked Wike “to go to court instead of peddling lies against him and Soyinka”. He said it was “unfortunate” for Wike to peddle lies against him and Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate, in order to “criminalize legitimate government transaction”. Amaehi continued, “Since Wike is blind to his responsibilities as the governor of Rivers State and has insisted on attacking the person and reputation of Amaechi as his one and only project, then let him go to court to prove his allegations and stop the nefarious insinuations”. Period!

    But the Rivers State APC has apologized to Soyinka on the N82m alleged expenditure (Daily Trust, January 12, p.20).  Describing as unfortunate the embarrassment caused him by the recent allegation by the state government that former Governor Chibuike Amaechi spent a sum of N82m to organize a birthday “dinner” in his honour, the Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC), in a statement signed by its Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanga, said: “On behalf of the good people of Rivers State, we hereby tender our unreserved apology to Prof. Soyinka and we assure him that Wike’s vile attempt to link him to an imaginary corruption will fail.  This accusation is nothing but the ranting of a drowning man looking for whom to pull along into the sinking pool but Wike has over-reached himself this time because Prof. Soyinka is globally renowned as a man of impeccable integrity who has never been associated with corruption in his 80 years on earth”

    That Wike could descend so low as to indirectly attack Soyinka on the well deserved honour accorded him by a governor who is well educated on a matter of that nature, like giving honour to whom honour is due, clearly shows the semi-illiterate and primitive mentality of Governor Wike. Let him, at least, be reminded that the saying might be true after all that a prophet is not honoured in his own home. For Wike, he should be told, out of his ignorance, that Prof. Soyinka had been accorded more celebrity dinners of similar qualities abroad than the one he is making so much noise about.  My judgment is that the man, Nyesom Wike, is destined to misadventures and misfirings most of the time.

    It should be noted that once again, in his tragic political adventures, Wike’s hoopla has turned to Wike’s political howler. On his blind and misguided attack on the duo of Amaechi and Soyinka, Wike, the irritant Governor of Rivers State, has goofed again, as in his character, and probably beyond redemption. Perhaps he, like many undisclosed others, needs deliverance.

    • Makinde, FNAL is DG/CEO, Awolowo Centre for Philosophy, Ideology and Good Governance, Osogbo.
  • CJN and conflicting judgments

    CJN and conflicting judgments

    What is going to be the position of the Supreme Court on the controversial rulings of the different divisions of the Appeal Court on the various governorship election petitions the latter determined in the last one month, now that the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) has spoken on the very vexatious issue?

    What position will the seven justices of the apex court take after the head of the judiciary arm of government publicly put a question mark on the rulings of the Appeal Court? Will the highest court in the land restore the image of the judiciary that has been badly damaged by the rulings that have defied legal explanation and common sense, with the potential to put the country’s fledgling democracy in great jeopardy?

    Mr. Mahmud Mohammad, the CJN, recently expressed worry and, one can add, disappointment, at the conflicting and directly opposing rulings that have come out of some divisions of the appellate court handling election petition matters.

    For instance, while the Lagos division of the court held, in the case of Jimi Agbaje versus Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in Lagos State, that the card reader is not known to the 1999 Constitution as amended and the electoral act and refused to grant Agbaje’s prayer for cancellation of the election, the Abuja division, which heard the cases involving Governor Udom Emmanuel and Umana Okon Umana in Akwwa Ibom and the one involving Governor Nyesom Wike and Dakuku Peterside in Rivers, thought otherwise.

    The court in the nation’s capital ruled that the card reader should be the determinant in the eligibility or otherwise of a registered voter to vote, and accordingly made its lack of use in all the polling units in the two states, even where there was widespread malfunctioning of the device, one of the basis for its decision to annul the governorship election in the two states.

    In Akwa Ibom, the appellate court went a step further to rely on the testimony of one witness each in three local government areas to cancel elections not just in those areas, but in the entire state. Yet, the electoral act says that a petitioner must prove a case of malpractice unit by unit in the areas on which his petition is based – a provision that does not recognize hearsay.

    The Supreme Court has also ruled in previous cases that the burden of proof of irregularity or non-compliance with electoral guidelines lies with the petitioner. Did the petitioner in the Akwa Ibom governorship election, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Umana Okon Umana, prove widespread malpractices and non-compliance in the 31 local government areas of the state?

    The question has been asked as to why there seems to be no template for ruling on cases as important as governorship elections. Perhaps it was the need to avoid the confusion like the one the discordant tunes from the different divisions of the Appeal Court on the 2015 governorship election has caused that made the late then Supreme Court Justice, Niki Tobi, to advise in 2008 that a ruling by one division of the appellate court should be transmitted to other divisions as soon as it is made, so it would guide them in their rulings, especially in similar cases. Regrettably, this advice has remained unheeded till date, thus opening loopholes that have created the inconsistencies that Justice Mohammad complained about at the 2015 annual conference of the Appeal Court, which took place in Abuja.

    Now, is it possible the Appeal Court that handled the Akwa Ibom and Rivers states governorship election petitions was not aware of the ruling of the Lagos division of the same court, even though it was made long before – about one month – the election petition tribunals on those states completed their assignments? Worthy of mention is the fact that the Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the Appeal Court in Lagos, and declared Ambode as duly elected.

    The importance of the verdict of the apex court lies in the fact that anyone not satisfied with it can, as they say, only appeal to God, an exercise that has never been known to have any effect on court rulings anywhere on the planet.

    • Asuquo is a legal practitioner based in Lagos.

     

     

  • A national emergency – 1

    This is a reaction to Idowu Akinlotan’s Dispirited PDP And Opposition Crisis, (The Nation, Sunday January 10). His brilliantly driven piece, was actually a national alarm which should be of grave concern to participants and stakeholders of our national survival. He made it crystal clear that our adopted political system necessarily must have an effective opposition if we are to keep our liberty. Mr. Akinlotan showed us the political security cameras: there is no existent credible opposition as at now in Nigeria.

    Whether inadvertently, consciously or by design, Buhari’s anti-corruption civil war, have effectively rendered comatose, most of the leading hierarchy of Africa’s largest political party, the PDP. They have largely been ethically stained to offer any real ethical opposition now. Why several are sleeping at their lawyers’ offices preparing their defence briefs against huge allegation of larceny and gross betrayal of public trust, others are at large, fleeing from their very shadows. The name EFCC, a kitten, while they held sway at the Villa, now sends shivers down their spine. Some have simply gone AWOL. Infact, they have presented the ruling party, the carte blanche to make the nation a one-party state, clothed with an unfettered authority. It is unprecedented in the nation’s chequered history. Never mind what the old, lacklustre chairman of the ruling party mumbles.

    Never since Obafemi Awolowo, inaugurated effective opposition into our body politic, have the present times seem so cold at the political war front. Imagine a Colonel Ojukwu as a non-violent but combative opposition leader in a semi-democratic parliament regime of the country military leaders after the coup of July 1966 as a way out of the logjam. He would have put Colonel Gowon and his backers on their toes with well-marshalled and highly articulate alternatives. He would have spoken vociferously for minorities. He would oppose impunity of the leaders of government. He would expose their policies as medieval and them as out of touch. Those are the hallmarks and advantages of having an opposition to the ruling government. The country would have been better served than the goriness of that buccaneer civil war.

    Talking of democratic opposition, a nation’s parliament is the first barricade in the defence of the people’s liberty. Because the executive arm is highly prone to abuse of power and forgetting those who put them in power. The huge power available and then unlimited money at its disposal and discretion, always seem to turn ordinary men in the executive mansion, into clay gods and they start to make all things in their own image or in Satan’s.

    It is why onlookers and students of politics were dispirited when Bukola Saraki, took political arms and knocked out the leadership of his own party, became Senate president and then largely forgot the enormous powers he had just got invested with. Yes, he juggled things up and might derail the smooth running of his party’s plans but having got into that seat, he surprisingly got lax and started begging for audience and acceptance by the President, the head of the executive arm. That was the first sign of crack in our opposition trenches.

    A Senate president in our democratic system, is a man capable of huge patronage. He necessarily has a huge budget, is highly influential and can make come to pass Bills affecting all sectors of the nation. He holds sway over the powerful parliamentary committees and they largely will do his bidding. Such a man can be the first line of attack when it comes to unseating a power-crazed sitting president. So how could such a man be pleading to be recognized by the president? He is not accountable to the president. Saraki has a huge backing in his senate especially of those highly resentful of the ruling party. The president is accountable to him and if he likes his executive mansion bed, the president must watch the evening news daily to know the trend and thinking of the senate president. For he might soon be stampeded and go fleeing through his windows.

    Look at how Saraki, cavalier-like unscreened the president’s ministerial nominees. He virtually invited them to his house to eat dinner and thanked them. That was the picture of the screening the senate under his leadership conducted. When he was supposed to make them sweat profusely from their armpits and soak their costly apparels by intense scrutiny. Now, look at the contempt with which Saraki’s senate has been treated in this missing budget confusion. There is no senate anywhere even of pimps that won’t fight back to defend their independence.

    If Saraki has acquiesced and buckled, what of Africa’s largest political party, now in official opposition? Who in there will rally the troops? Ike Ekweremadu, is the most senior national political figure of the PDP today. He ought to be held as the natural national leader of the party now. But by some twist of logic and self-interest, he had agreed to and contrasted himself and got in bed with his party’s foes and opposition in a toothless mixed-leadership of the senate. He went for short term pleasure and forgot to sow for the harvest.

    Am reminded of a similar scenario when the wily general, Olu Obasanjo, laid a trap for then AD and APP by offering them useless juicy appointments in his administration. Machiavellian and full of intrigues, he wanted to render them impotent. They fell for it. They ended up being dead politically. Seems the PDP like most Nigerians don’t read history books. Because by agreeing to crash into the seat of the deputy senate presidency and justify it with some bi-partisan nonsense, they have shot themselves in the foot. So the natural leader of the supposed-to-be new PDP is a man who has caged himself and given the keys to his jailors and foes. He presently enjoys the ride in big official cars and having a retinue of kowtowing aides. Later, he might push his way to becoming mere governor of one indigent civil service state.

    The PDP after its humiliation in the last general elections, largely found its voice in the form of two largely-like heads of a secondary school’s Debating Society. These two, unexplainably, were from a particular tribe of the south, superintending over the affairs of a national party. One of them, garrulous, mistook the true meaning of opposition and largely anointed himself the de facto acting chairman of the party cum new in-house philosopher. He took it upon himself to repeatedly issue idle and uncoordinated press statements. Press statements which his party’s sleeping hierarchy perhaps had no input. Just any position that feels right to his private fancy.

    Now that he has developed a taste for hunger in the gulag of the reticent general, all files might largely move to the office of one most boisterous and daring governor of the west. As lone opposition governor in the West dominated by the ruling party, he has developed thick skin to match any, blow for blow, with impressive rhetorics and Festus Okotie-Eboh-like panoply, only this time of the plebeian sort. He unblinkingly starred down the opposition in his state and they are virtually liquidated except in issuing press statements. They can only watch now while he dances with the Legislative Mace. He is virtually a one-man army. Same way Asiwaju, the Jagaban matched General Obasanjo in those days when he held forte at Ikeja against the PDP juggernaut.

    But these are different times now. Mere issuing of press statements and street dancing won’t unseat this ruling party. There must be an alternative philosophy, an in-house philosopher, a driver of the party’s engine room and a nationally acceptable alternative policy thrust. There must be a structure. There must be thinkers. There must be a nationally acceptable leader, a rallying cry. These are presently absent in the defanged PDP. Many will curse Goodluck Jonathan for steering the party’s ship into such a desolate coast. But this is hardly the time for the luxury of a blame game.

    Now that the ranks of the PDP is being decimated daily by astute decampees seeking solace from Magu’s ruthless anti-corruption task force and joining the ruling party. Others are seeking to have their bread continually buttered in the new dispensation. It leaves a huge vacuum for a national leader to arise from the body count of the wounded and the dead PDP combatants in this bloody battlefield of their defeat and humiliation. Hardly any sign of national life anywhere. Never mind it still has a huge support base not only in Southern Nigeria who will still vote for it any day, but the PDP seems to presently have no soul. President Jonathan never a politician, has effectively been retired by General Buhari. It even took a supplementary election for his PDP to win his home state. Can you imagine? The militants he invested heavily on, seemed to have re-invested only for their stomachs and indiscriminate thrusting of their groin.

    • Barrister Chima is a public affairs analyst

  • Our strengths and greatness

    “Life is very interesting… in the end, some of your greatest pains, become your greatest strengths.” – Drew Barrymore
    “Cognitive psychologists have shown that ‘outlook’ governs ‘outcome’, and what we focus on is often what we get. When we focus on bad things, bad things tend to happen. When we focus on good things, good things tend to happen.” That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” – Brian Souza

    It is another new year! And each year when we celebrate a new year many of us keep asking questions like – Will this be the turning point year towards greatness for Nigeria? When will Nigeria become the great nation it can become? Why does it seem like greatness is eluding us? What is holding us back as a people? How can we get to our promised land of greatness?  What can we do differently this year to help Nigeria get to her promised land of greatness?

    We can only become great by focusing on the good and building upon our strengths whilst protecting and managing around our weaknesses. For the last 20 to 30 years or more, we have focused too narrowly on our weaknesses and that in itself is sapping our creative energy. However, if we start focusing on our strengths and opportunities as a nation, we will be positively energized, giving us the necessary power we need to galvanize us and achieve greatness. Meir Kahane once said “It is incumbent upon us to understand our greatness and believe in it so that we do not cheapen and profane ourselves.”

    The British understood their greatness and believed in it, that’s why they were able to conquer the world using their strengths of organization, order and administration. The French understood their greatness and believed in it, that’s why they were able to use their strengths in fashion to make Paris the fashion capital of the world and a top world tourist attraction. The Germans too understood their greatness and they believed in it, that’s why they have used their strength of industry to develop different kinds of high quality machinery and equipment – from machine tools, printing machines, motor vehicles and to airplanes. The Americans also understood their greatness and they believed in it and they have used their strength of intellectual creativity to rule the world by continuously striving to become first in almost everything they can. And examples of such intellectual creativity are Disney, G o o g l e, M i c r o s o f t,T w i t t e                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          r and Facebook just to mention a few.

    For us to become great we must understand our greatness as Nigerians and believe in it! And to build a great nation we must build on the strong foundation and pillars of our strengths and use the lessons learnt from our past failures as stepping stones to greatness.  We need to see the possibility of our greatness so that we can begin to dream it and bring it into our reality! To give us a better understanding of ourselves and to help quicken our journey to the promised land of greatness, I have taken the liberty to list some of the strengths we have as Nigerians and as a nation.

    We have an awesome gift and incredible knack for finding the humour in any and almost every negative situation. We are a resourceful set of people who easily find loopholes in any system which we sometimes unfortunately use for bad. As Nigerians we are generally optimistic about life. We were at one time known as the most optimistic country in the world. We are high-spirited and go-getters.

    We are a dynamic set of people. We are energetic, vibrant, lively and self-motivated. We are good natured and very tolerant. We are highly intelligent. Quite a number of Nigerians have at least one family member that is a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer or an architect. Nigerians are sagacious, smart and sharp. And sometimes we are too smart for our own good! We are trailblazers (e.g. Nollywood and our entertainment industry). As Nigerians are easy going and fun loving people. We are ingenious – check out the various ways we use okadas (motorbikes) to transport anything and about everything.

    As Nigerians, we are resolute. We have the winning attitude.  We are animated. We are boisterous. We are not likely to suffer fools gladly.  We have an eye for quality goods sometimes too much of an eye for them. We are dogged, strong-minded and indomitable. We have great inner strength. We are extremely hopeful about life in spite of all the unfavourable and negative circumstances we face daily. We Nigerians have the incredible ability to turn the worst moments into joy, because we laugh out our many tears and our pain. We are FUN to be with.

    We Nigerians are competitive. We love the beautiful game of football. And this helps us to come together in unity and agreement whenever the Super Eagles (and any of our other national teams) play locally and internationally. We Nigerians have an instinctive understanding of the power of the spirit world; we believe in the spiritual nature of reality.

    Nigeria is famous. Like Emeka Eze said “Nigeria as presently constituted as a country is ‘FAMOUS for her NOTORIETY’ and “NOTORIOUS for her FAME.’” Nigeria is famous for her football stars, Nollywood stars, comedians, musicians and her entertainment industry.

    We are difficult to intimidate. We are outspoken. We are respectful. We are assertive when we want to be. We are industrious. As Nigerians we have the bounce-back ability.

    We Nigerians have the natural gift of the spirit of influence. We are extremely great party hosts. We are incredible. We are always thinking several steps ahead of the game especially in politics.

    We have a way of consistently surprising ourselves and others in spite of ourselves. You never really know what to expect next from Nigerians.

    We Nigerians think a lot of ourselves. And that is why we frequently hear the expression “do you know who I am”. We all seem to know who we are! We are quick-witted and tenacious.  We Nigerians connect easily with people. We are connectors. As Nigerians we are fashionable and fashion conscious. And Nigerian women are the embodiment of fashion, art and artwork – from their African hairstyles, to their creatively beaded jewelry, to their tie and dye clothes, to their artistically designed embroidered gowns, to their beaded bespoke ankara outfits and also their ankara bags and shoes. We Nigerians are a people full of possibilities waiting to happen someday, somewhere, sometime and hopefully soon!

    In conclusion Arnold Schwarzenegger aptly said”Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”

    It is not what has happen to us as a people that matters, what matters most is what we have done about it! Let’s use our strengths as our foundation for building the great new Nigeria.

    • Ms Simoyan writes from Lagos.