The Nation Newspaper

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  • Nigeria’s water and sanitation challenges

    In an era that is witnessing the resurgence of Ebola and other contagious haemorrhagic viral diseases, having access to running water may well be considered a national security issue. Adequate water supply is a problem that faces most of us every day, almost regardless of income bracket. If you live in a rural area, you probably have to go and fetch water from a well, stream or river. If you’re wealthy enough to build your own house, you probably have to sink a borehole. If that house is in a sand-filled area, highbrow or not, you either have to drill past the 200 metre mark to get useable water or contend with the contaminated water available at shallower depths. The person who can solve the challenge of getting clean pipe-borne water into every household in Nigeria will be a national hero.

    The UNICEF sponsored Water and Sanitation Summary Sheet for Nigeria authored by the Water and Sanitation Monitoring Platform says, “Water and sanitation coverage rates in Nigeria are amongst the lowest in the world.” The summary goes on to say that “Nigeria is in the bottom 25 countries worldwide in terms of sanitation coverage.”

    Why don’t we have better access to running water? Why are we still struggling with a plumbing system the Romans figured out more than 2,000 years ago? How many of our children grow up saying, “I want to be a hydrologist”? Is water science even taught in our schools?

    I was reading a paper entitled, “The Enterprise of Fire Safety Services in Lagos, Nigeria”, by John M. Corbin, Professor Of Economics and Public Policy from the Andres Bello University in Santiago, Chile, when I came across his rather surprising, scathing, unnerving, grossly unflattering and somewhat one-sided description of Lagos. His withering invective takes up the entire introduction to his thesis and what stands out is his vitriol at his perceived notion of our standards of hygiene and sanitation. Cobin insinuates that most people practice open defecation and declares, “people have little concept of sanitation… bathrooms are a hygiene hazard and are very filthy almost without exception outside of five-star hotels and a few of the decent miniature malls.” One could say he is guilty of exaggeration and generalisation. It seems to escape his purview that many people who practice open defecation do so because they have no alternative, and many more people would love to wash their hands before eating or after using the toilet, but they simply don’t have the water with which to do so (let alone soap). Of course, there are individuals who wouldn’t properly use an available toilet or wash their hands even if they were paid, but such individuals, I dare say, exist all over the world and even in his own country.

    Currently, it is estimated that fewer than 34 per cent of Nigerians have access to adequate sanitation and less than 61 per cent have access to running water. We, as a nation, had a Millennium Development Goal target that by September, at least 63 per cent of us would have improved sanitation facilities and at least 75 per cent of our population would have access to improved drinking water. Improved drinking water is defined by UNICEF/WHO as including “household connections, public stand pipes, boreholes, protected wells and springs.” Improved sanitation is taken to mean “public sewer or septic system, pour-flush latrines, ventilated improved pit latrines and pit latrines with slabs.”

    Unfortunately, not only did we not achieve these goals, it appears we’ve regressed in the improved drinking water category, partly due to population increase nationwide. (Major cities like Lagos and Abuja face further pressure due to the increased rate of urban migration which is putting a strain on efforts to provide and sustain robust water supply for residents of those cities). We appear to be making marginal headway in providing improved sanitation coverage across the country but currently it would seem that our best is not good enough. According to Water and Sanitation Monitoring Platform (WSMP), “much more effort and resources are clearly required to accelerate sanitation coverage rates both in rural and urban areas.” The report goes on to say, “there are clear indications that coverage is deteriorating even as significant investments are made in the sector, especially for water supply.” In other words, we are not building water infrastructure fast enough and we can do a better job in maintaining what we already have.

    In 2006, the National Bureau of Statistics conducted a survey on Core Welfare Indicators across all the 774 local governments in Nigeria including the FCT. The aggregated findings show that water distribution coverage varies by zone with the South-west having the widest comparative distribution of piped water and the North-east having the most limited coverage. With respect to the availability of adequate sanitation facilities as a percentage of population figures, the NBS survey shows the South-east leading the way and the North-east having to catch up with the rest of the zones. In state by state comparisons, Lagos, Oyo, Kwara and Osun had the widest distribution of improved water access and Enugu, Anambra, Gombe and Taraba had the greatest need to improve their ability to provide access to water for their residents. In terms of sanitation, Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Anambra and Imo had the most effective networks of sanitation facilities in comparison to the other states of the federation. Bauchi, Kogi, Ebonyi and Bayelsa had the most work to do to be at par or better than the all the other states. By now, the rankings may have changed.

    Going forward, more attention needs to be given to the rural areas so that those who dwell there have at least the same level of access to safe water and hygienic sanitation facilities as those who live in the cities. The WSMP advises that there is a “need to enhance co-ordination and institutional collaboration in the water and sanitation sector to sustain gains of the past and maximise benefits.” The Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Agriculture and the MDG office have all made efforts to alleviate water problems, but more needs to be done. The UNDP says, “There is a major challenge in translating substantial public investments in water into effective access. This requires more involvement by communities to identify local needs, and better planning to deliver holistic and sustainable solutions.”

    A representative of a particular NGO was being shown round a certain local community school. When the tour got to an area near the perimeter of the fence, the representative was asked to be careful where she walked because of “shot put” bags thrown in that vicinity. What, pray tell, is “shot put”? Plastic bags employed as vessels for the receiving and disposing of human waste, which are then thrown in the general vicinity of the nearest refuse heap. The pupils resort to this method because the condition of the lavatories is so degraded that it is hazardous to life and limb. Those toilets started falling into disrepair when there was a problem with the water supply. Rebuilding the broken toilets or installing new ones would yield only short term benefits (and the new facilities risk the same fate as their predecessors) unless the underlying water supply problem is solved. The conundrum goes even deeper than that. Even if the apparatus for running water with which to flush toilets is provided to the school, water can only be pumped when there is electricity (assuming the school is wired to the power grid). So, do you provide a generator to the school? How will they pay for the fuel to run the generator? Or do you install solar panels? At what cost? A “patch-patch” approach to the problem is better than no approach at all, but it would be cost ineffective and of limited usefulness. Supporting the work of the Water Sector Reform Program (the brain child of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources) may be a better place to start.

    The old MDG 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7 targets couldn’t be achieved partially because of the water problem. There is an inverse correlation between the availability of water and levels of extreme poverty; child mortality; maternal un-wellness; rampant diseases and environmental degradation. Seven of the new 17 Sustainable Development Goals (namely, 1, 3, 6, 10, 13, 14, and 15) may not be achieved without better access to consistently safe water (with its knock-on effect of bringing about better sanitation and better hygiene practices).

    There are certain things that all human beings are going to do from the day they are born till the day they go to meet their Maker, such as breathe, eat, drink, expel waste, etc. Thus, we cannot run away from the need to have ubiquitous, functioning sanitation facilities equipped with running water. We don’t want a situation where 10-20 years from now, we’re drowning in our own filth or the fish from the waters in our area can no longer be consumed because of contamination.

    Those preaching the message of sustainable sanitation practices need to spend less time denying that there is a problem, less time vilifying those who have no choice but to use the bathroom in the open, and more time building sustainable sanitation facilities with running water. If you want to “promote behavioural change to discourage open defecation”, you need to join hands to fix the public water system locally, state-wide and nationally, so that when government, NGOs, institutions or private individuals build community toilets, those toilets can actually work.

     

    • Ms. Aboderin is a Member of the Institute of Directors

  • Nasty Wailing Wailers

    This cannot be the happiest of times for the National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Oliver Metuh. Just a few months ago the PDP was the ruling party that bestrode Nigeria’s political and other landscapes like a colossus. It was the party to beat and to be. It was styled the “largest political party in Africa” and its members had ruled Africa’s most populous country for close to two decades.

    Then it all came crashing down last March 28, the day Nigerians told the PDP in one collective voice that the party was over. In the presidential polls that held that day, Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP got kicked out of office by an electorate apparently fed up with years of the party’s misrule and ineptitude, especially during the previous five that Jonathan held sway.

     It’s been a torrent of bad news for the PDP since then. Information has emerged that public officials who served under Jonathan willfully helped themselves to the public exchequer, to the tune of billions of dollars. Former Minister of Petroleum under Jonathan, Diezani Allison-Maduekwe, was recently quizzed in England on charges bordering on corruption and abuse of the office. Many erstwhile PDP public office holders are now being hauled before courts and tribunals that dot the land accused of acts of corruption and financial malfeasance that truly boggle the mind.

    It is therefore not surprising that against this very frustrating and gloomy backdrop, certain functionaries of the prostrate PDP have chosen to lash out at imaginary foes.  This is particularly the case with the PDP’s salesman of choice, Olisa Metuh. His recurring proclamations on the PDP’s “glorious” days and the party’s promised renaissance fail to get traction with any Nigerian with a semblance of rationality and circumspection. This perhaps explains Metuh’s recent decision to lash out in frustration at the person he obviously believes is somehow responsible for his “sales pitch” not getting across to Nigerians: Femi Adesina, spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Even though appointed to his post just this past June, Adesina has had several runs-in with Metuh. But none of the back-and forth during those encounters justify the savage act of character assassination Metuh directed Adesina’s way this past week.  For instance, after President Buhari appointed Amina Zakari acting chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) soon after his assumption of office, Adesina had accused Metuh of spreading “fallacies”; that came after the PDP’s spokesman charged Buhari with “nepotism” in appointing Zakari to that office.

    Adesina’s description of his boss’ critics as “wailing wailers”, itself a term of art apparently borrowed from the legendary Bob Marley, must also have rankled Metuh and his PDP cohorts to no end.

    The full level of Metuh’s pent-up anger was finally on full display last week, in a statement he issued through one of his aides. Beyond that subtle condescension and disdain for Adesina’s person and office, Metuh proceeded to lob asinine verbal missiles at the presidential spokesman, an act certainly unbecoming of the office of the spokesperson for Nigeria’s major opposition party.

    Metuh’s statement employed the word “embarrassment” in reference to Adesina and the way the latter has performed his job. Clearly, this was a fallacy and an act of misinformation. Prior to his appointment as presidential spokesman Adesina was the very competent head (not just a newsroom reporter, as Metuh’s statement implied!) of an equally very successful newspaper chain.  He neither “embarrassed” his employer in that and previous stints nor can he plausibly be an “embarrassment” to his present boss, the president of the federal republic. To the contrary, Adesina has performed the tasks of his office with much grace and competence, to the apparent discomfort and frustration of detractors like Metuh.

    What Metuh should, instead, acknowledge as an embarrassment is the fact he recently had to fend off persisting allegations he “embarrassingly embezzled” funds meant to mobilize members of the party for the recently-concluded presidential polls. The PDP’s national publicity secretary allegedly collected the princely sum of N30 million in his own version of the PDP’s multiple “chop and clean mouth” episodes.

    The PDP’s scribe must also have felt hurt – and frustrated – after Adesina recently described certain of his comments as coming across as a “broken record”. This was in reaction to Metuh claim that PDP members were being hauled in over corruption allegations, with members of the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) being left unscathed by government.  Perhaps this explains Metuh’s further claim in his statement that Adesina “lacks depth” in his current assignment and was not “conversant and knowledgeable in politics and intricate issues of governance”.

    Sixteen years was enough for most Nigerians to decide the PDP, as a party and as a collection of individuals, lacked depth, direction and competence in all aspects and issues of governance, “intricate” or otherwise. How much depth or capacity could a PDP-led government have or muster, when its head (Jonathan) hardly realized his petroleum minister could not account for the princely sum of $20 billion in oil receipts?  Despite this glaring fact of incompetence, non-capacity and ineptitude at the highest levels of government while the PDP held sway, Metuh has continued to assail Nigerians’ ears, like a broken record, with many tall tales of the PDP’s “achievements” while it held the reins of government.  One should then wonder why Metuh’s role and knowledge of politics then as the PDP’s national scribe was not enough to save the day for the PDP at the polls on March 28.  Maybe what Metuh really meant to say was that the “intricate issues” associated with governance in Nigeria simply proved too much for himself, Jonathan and the PDP to handle!

    Metuh equally noted Adesina’s alleged “desperate attempt to impress his paymaster and retain his job.”  That’s a pretty snide remark to make about a man who has been well-documented saying he neither expected nor lobbied for the job in the first place! On the other hand no one has shown more desperation to keep his job, after losing all credibility to hold same, than Metuh. Anyone not overtly “desperate” to keep his job would have quit after members of his own party accused him of embezzling funds meant to mobilize the party’s rank and file for an election.

    Thanks to Adesina, Nigerians and others around the world with a fondness for reggae music now know what happens when “wailing wailers” come out with guns blazing.

    Luckily, the furiously misdirected bullets missed this time. But the presidential spokesman and his colleagues in the present government should remain on their guard. For as long as the likes of Metuh and the PDP feel only they know anything about the intricacies of government in these parts, the rest of us should remain wary of the intricate webs of intrigues they will continue to weave, as they plot to regain the power they deserved to lose in the first place.

    • Soboyede is a public affairs commentator.
  • Lagos failing? of course not!

    Lagos failing? of course not!

    It cannot be said of a man who has vowed that his watch would witness the rule and execution of brilliant ideas; that the state he is governing is no longer vibrant, that that state is failing. That would be far from the truth and reality.

    To claim Lagos is failing under Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is to deny not only the empiricism of the success recorded so far but also to repudiate the firmness of the template upon which he is giving shape to the future.

    Failure can’t also be ascribed to a man who made Lagos sail unscathed through a period of financial turbulence when he was the Accountant-General at a time the behemoth called the Federal Government had withheld the economic lifeline of the state.

    But on account of the recent rash of robberies in Lagos, the sporadic gang wars in Mushin and Oshodi as well as the return of traffic snarls on the major roads of the megacity, critics are warning that Lagos might be sliding under Ambode. This is an unacceptable verdict. Indeed it is an unrealistic assessment even as it is a harsh conclusion unreflective of what is on the ground. What we behold really is a man armed with a gear preparing to land the state into the future. Ambode, by the reckoning of astute observers, is laying the foundation for an edifice that promises to house a beneficial future.

    In a very short period (five months out of a potential 96-month tenure allowed by the constitution), he has posted a sterling performing that has seen the power of ideas at work.

    The point is that Ambode is now wielding more enormous powers and operating with wider latitude supported by the vote of the majority in Lagos. These are weapons that are enabling him to work and achieve better than he did as the Accountant-General. In addition to other resources, they are capital requirements needed to add quality to governance, needed to add quality to the lives of the citizens you are governing and above all to “make life simpler and happier for our people” as Ambode himself put it on May 29, 2015 when he was sworn in as the Governor of Lagos.

    He has gone ahead to kick start the great project of radicalizing governance in quite noticeable ways. One of such is that he has brought back from the precipice of death hundreds of senior citizens and their kinsmen and women numbering more hundreds. The governor gave out N11b to pay their pensions and gratuities. This is unprecedented! He is reviving the pay-as-you-go system which was discontinued in 2007. His goal is to return to that plan by August 2016.

    The accountant that Ambode is, he is quietly reordering government priorities by cutting down the cost of running the machinery of administration inorder to free funds for social and economic renewal. This fiscal policy will enable him save N3b monthly in that area alone aside the huge income from the internally generated revenue and what the central government in Abuja would be putting on the table.

    It is injudicious to say a man who has fixed in five months the notorious Ayobo-Ipaja Road has failed. It had been an eyesore for the past eight years, embarrassing successive governments and the citizens year in year out.

    Ambode has also given a hint of how he hopes to run an administration oiled by compassion for the people. I think what he meant by the concept of “compassionate government” he spoke of on May 29 is what he has demonstrated many times over. He will relate with the people directly, not bureaucratically as it were. Their joy will be his joy. Their pain will be his pain.

    In other words, his won’t be an abstract administration. He won’t be a distant and inaccessible governor. Which is why as he headed for the office once, a lady in the throes of anguish during a road accident found Ambode as one of those pulling her out; a poor woman with multiple births whose husband had run away from home was pleasantly surprised to observe the refreshing hand of Ambode bringing back the fleeing spouse; motorists used to seeing their governor only on a high horse rubbed their eyes feverishly to confirm they were not under illusion when they sighted a sweating Ambode in the mad gridlock along Oshodi-Apapa expressway as he sought a solution to the nightmare experienced on that route. Certainly this is not a failed governor who does not understand the pains of the citizens.

    And early in October 2015, the governor announced a gigantic program to light up some 67 communities in Lagos state. Under the plan, nocommunity will be without electricity by the end of December 2015. No other administration in the country has embarked on a scheme this ambitious. It captures the whole state at a go. I must also comment at the dramatic speed that attended this development. Ambode disclosed the plan on Tuesday October 6, 2015 at the maiden Town Hall Meeting at Ayobo-Ipaja. By Thursday October 8, 2015 only two days after, he had concluded the plans to start the project! Talk of passion! Talk of commitment!

    Now consider the benefits of electrifying the landscape of a mega polis occupied by more than 20 million citizens: criminals will no longer operate under the cover of darkness, thus enhancing security and safety of lives and business; artisans and small scale business operators can function with no worries over losses arising from lack of power; much money used to buy fuel for their businesses will be saved for reinvestment in other ventures; these will boost citizens earning capacity; thousands of jobs will be created through contracts for this ground-breaking electrification project.

    All these activities on the part of Ambode represent an agenda to secure Lagos state in the present and launch it into the future.

    Now there is some loose talk about Ambode not having a firm grip on the management of the traffic situation in the state on account of laws apparently attaching a human face to harsh traffic laws. For instance, critics have fussed about his statement that he wants to use technology in arresting those who contravene the law, instead of resorting to harassment or forcibly taking over people’s vehicles. Ambode has also asked Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) to treat motorists and street traders in a civil manner.

    Of course, this aspect of the philosophy of compassionate government can be tempered with an application of the stick to discipline those who abuse the governor’s leniency and offer of a carrot. Which is why as I write this, the government has begun an intensive campaign against traffic misconduct. The Governor’s Monitoring Team (GMT) has swung into action whipping those in the habit of driving against traffic, plying the BRT lane, and those disobeying traffic lights. The governor has also instituted 24/7 communication channels by which the operatives of GMT can be reached for prompt response to security and traffic breaches.

    Can you identify the man wheeling this vision with failure? No way!

    • Anibaba, an economist, wrote in from Gbagada, Lagos State
  • Alamieyeseigha and the nothingness of life

    Alamieyeseigha and the nothingness of life

    When the news of the passing away of the erstwhile Governor of Bayelsa State, DSP Alamieyeseigha filtered in, it came abruptly as a shocking news, interrupting the peaceful flow of an apparently tranquil Saturday evening. For minutes, it remained a difficulty to get the information settled in given the fact that it wasn’t too long ago that I saw him on TV, gyrating with other Bayelsa PDP faithful, at the selection ceremony of the party’s current gubernatorial flag-bearer, Mr. Seriake Dickson. When the news finally found a place in my subconscious, several questions immediately began to fight for space in my mind. Amidst the encircling thoughts, one was principal, one that continued to hit at the emptiness of man’s mortal rat race to acquire all that he does not need, only to exit the stage like a snake that has just glided across a mountain with nothing to celebrate. Amongst these questions, the principal query was, “What is it with life that ordinary men, mere creations who came from dust will continue to misbehave, thinking they can buy the entire world, only if they steal more?”

    It cannot be gainsaid that Nigeria is where she is today, because of the night business ventures, and enterprise of the likes of Alamieyeseigha and his other comrades in the political class, who from independence have deployed every opportunity given them, to murder the sleep of an infant nation, causing her to be severely dehumanised, turning her into a rickety nation for their own pleasure, and criminally impoverishing their fellow citizens, where in turn they have caused millions of Niger-Deltans to become slaves in their country and thousands of harmless northerners to be rendered IDPs in territories that they should ordinarily call their home. These wicked men who continue to manipulate the levers of power have, and still continue to shatter the record books by embezzling billions of naira that should go into providing social amenities, stockpiling it both home and abroad through their legion of greedy businessmen allies and coterie of political contractors, building mansions on the graves of those they had murdered in their primitive accumulation of wealth, only to start running from pillar to post trying to escape the law, not knowing that even if they escape from every other thing, their wealth does not have the muscle to buy them any escape from death.

    These are men who at every nook and cranny are celebrated as the stars of the society, buying up awards from far and near, while at the same time becoming the toast of leading newspapers, who endlessly shower them with the now notorious “Man of the Year” award, even when as Lilliputians, they remain nothing but nobodies before God. To please this class of men, some have even taken the infirmity to the next level by deeming it fit to add the prefix “Golden”, to the so-called “Man of the Year”, to produce what they call, “Golden Man of the Year”, all in a generation where it has now become fashionable to find the Gold medal dangling on the neck of even pigs. These fellow inmates in the prison-yard of greed have seen no shame and destruction in why they must lend themselves as RPGs in the hand of the devil, while also continually competing amongst themselves to get first team shirt in the Football team called, “Rise & Fall FC”. These are men whose humanity died a long time ago, and whose mortality no longer has what it takes to leave any meaningful mark in the sands of time. They are the dictionary meaning of corruption and have become synonyms for the word greed and insanity. After all, anywhere one finds greed, one can be sure that insanity will only be a stone’s throw away, except that as it is the rule of life, death must inevitably emerge as the Referee to settle the quarrel between the greed of men and their insanity.

    The death of Alamieyeseigha and the peculiar mess of the Nigerian political class must move us to press those hard questions that many consistently choose not to ask, and draw those painful connections that others would rather refrain from. Assuming for a minute, that we try to delete the sad memories of Military rule from our reverie, has our experience since the so-called return to civil rule not been a case of simply transporting ourselves from the frying pan into the fire? Since 1999, nearly if not all of those who have held political office across all political parties, alongside their other accomplices in the Military, the Police, and in all other Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government at the Federal, State and Local government level, have all conspired to plunder Nigeria to ruins, causing the people avoidable pain and misery.

    Thus, from Osun to Akwa Ibom, from Borno to Rivers, from Plateau to Delta, from Niger to Oyo, and from Kwara to Enugu, it has been looting unlimited and stealing incorporated. As the stealing boom grew, the country also continued in her free fall to ground zero, losing greatly in any sort of imaginative force, having been rendered the ATM of her drunk and erratic leaders who remained lost in their quest for material comfort and multiply personal amusements. The last 16 years has  been a vicious circle, where as these members of the political class, who are only just privileged to be in leadership are rewarded with one office after the other, moving from one party to the next, their greed is the more quickened while in return the remnant of their humanity is further mortified.  It became so bad, that by the beginning of 2015, the nation was already tottering dangerously on the precipice, with the Nigerian political class having become a terrible figure of reptilian fascination and of very slippery elusiveness when it comes to making personal sacrifices for the common good or advancing any sensible nationalistic idea. For these wicked ones, they would rather that the people eat from the dustbin, than they losing a penny from their multitude of fat allowances. Yet they still kept stealing tons and tons of money.

    Perhaps now we can press those hard questions and these are questions which must include the following – Why will just one person, in a strange and bizarre move, steal so much money, money running into billions of British pounds, something that ordinarily would have been enough to fund all public universities in the country to world-class standard for the next 10 years, only because she is crazy about shoes and bags? Why will that same person spend a staggering N10billion just to charter private jets in a year, when the same N10billion would have been enough to complete the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway? What did she need in life that she did not get, given her bogus salary as a Minister and other fat allowances that accrued to her office? What if Alamieyeseigha had taken a different path, the path of honour and dignity and spent the billions he looted, to develop Bayelsa and worked tirelessly towards changing the lives of his people for the better, even when he may not have had more than one house, wouldn’t he have been better celebrated both in life and in death? What if Alamieyeseigha’s loot, that was again looted by those charged with its safe-keep, had been spent on all Nigerian Teaching Hospitals, wouldn’t we have saved the hundreds of lives that keep dying every-day in our hospitals, from the simplest of ailments, and perhaps save him from the jaws of death?

    Viewed from a very critical angle, it would be seen that the Nigerian political class has proved over and over again, that they are more comfortable repeating the country’s ugly past, than rewriting it. That is why anytime any good man shows up to take radical steps aimed at repairing the country, the result of years of being a poor nation will quickly show forth, with many who are afraid of losing their ill-gotten wealth quickly masterminding different conspiracy theories from the angles of ethnicity, religion, and pure mischief, to frustrate the drive towards a better country. With the departure of Alamieyeseigha, we require a new jurisprudence that would be geared towards arresting the affliction of the political class, the kind of affliction which continually cause them to steal so much and die with it.

    • Adegbite is a lecturer in the Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
  • Amosun v. Isiaka: There are no grey areas

    Amosun v. Isiaka: There are no grey areas

    It is not in any way surprising that the Election Petitions Tribunal upheld the victory of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress and Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, in the April 11, 2015 governorship poll in the state. Those who are familiar with the politics of Ogun knew there was no way the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Gboyega Nasir Isiaka, could have defeated Amosun on the electoral field. And if you did not win on the electoral pitch, how then could you have won in the court of law?

    I recall the boxing analogy I gave in my publication in the papers in January this year titled, Ogun 2015: PDP Arrived Too Late. Isiaka had by then served Amosun a quit notice on the pages of newspapers, which provoked a roaring laughter from the camp of APC!

    “In the boxing era of Muhammed Ali and Mike Tyson, the challenger needs to fight twice as much as the champion in order to take away the belt… Here in Ogun, rather than the challenger doing twice as much as the champion to win, it is Amosun (the champion and incumbent governor) that is going across the state from village to village, hamlet to hamlet, town to town to canvass for votes while Isiaka is busy making grandiloquent statements.

    And when Isiaka decided to approach the Election Tribunal despite the fact that he knew he lost that poll fair and square, I immediately saw politics at play. In the interview I granted in May to some newspapers, I submitted as follows:

    “But our courts are not unaware of the antics of some political litigants in Nigeria. Rather than bring concrete evidence to the courts, they recourse to duplicitous stories on the pages of newspapers in the hope that the courts will rule in their favour based on such avalanche of lies in the media. It doesn’t happen that way. If you describe as fraudulent an election that has been hailed all over the country as free and fair and in line with pre-election surveys, opinion polls and prognoses by credible individuals, bodies and institutions, then it is a pity because you now face the self-inflicted burden of having to manufacture evidence to prove that.

    Judges give verdicts based on facts, not sentiments; they deal with facts, not fantasies. Isiaka himself knows that he lost the election and knows the reasons why he lost. He knows about the performance of the Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, which endeared him to voters. He is very much aware of how Amosun, despite being the incumbent, never took our people for granted but went from village to village, hamlet to hamlet. He also canvassed for votes in towns and cities; toured the entire 236 Wards in the state; went on an extensive local council tour and devoted hundreds of hours to meeting all shades, groups and socio-cultural associations across the state before the election.

    “Please, ask Mr Gboyega Isiaka how many Wards he visited during his campaign? He knows that his own electioneering never attained any steam until few days to the election, when it was already too late. And for his godfathers to resolve their tug of war over who should control the PDP candidate and party machinery only three days to the election did enormous damage to Isiaka’s campaign.

    Mr. Isiaka has only taken the tribunal option to score a cheap political point ahead of 2019 election. He wants to court public sympathy; he wants to be seen as the champion of the masses in order to get a soft-landing come 2019. There’s also the paranoia of having to lose election thrice in a row to the same candidate. So when some politicians go to tribunal, they have other reasons. Unfortunately they waste the time of people who have high regard for their time.”

    • Soyombo writes from Abeokuta

  • Beyond bailout, economic recession and the way out

    The non-oil Nigerian economy has become a slumbering colossus which would now awaken.”

    The above quotation made by Paul Collier, a professor of development economics at Oxford University, ought to stir our political leaders into actions to dig deeper into other areas of economy, apart from oil, so as to fully exploit God-given potential resources, tap them with all urgency, in order to avert the economic downturn that is already knocking at our door steps. The Republic of China is the most populous nation in the world. China’s Independence was 11 years ahead of Nigeria. Despite the population and needs, the country is more like a nation that granted us independence from the success it has recorded all round, which made her the third best economy in the world.

    A critical analysis of Nigeria’s infantility could be laid at the doorstep of absence of good leadership. After 55 years of our political independence, we remain a toddler, trailing behind countries such as Singapore, South Korea, Iran, South Africa, India and Ghana who were at the same level of development with us then. The failure of leadership robbed us of the benefits that came calling in the last 30 years, when oil-producing nations were harvesting oil wealth. It is true that we have elite billionaires among us, but the truth of the matter is that a great number of them robbed the nation of the financial benefits that ought to have been utilised for the good of all. A nation that once boasted that money was not its problem, is today castrated by external and internal debts. Just as the states could not afford paying their workers, federal workers are suffering from the same malady. Our currency is almost becoming an ordinary paper when compared with American dollars or British pound sterling.

    While the oil boom was here in the 1980s under the regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, the excess crude oil gain was wasted. The sum of $12.8 billion was said to be missing. The Pius Okigbo Report indicted Babangida, but till date nothing monetary was recovered. The ousted regime of Jonathan did worse over the missing oil money; instead for the then president to investigate the allegation, he went after the whistle blower, the then CBN Governor, now Emir of Kano, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Today, the American government, who Jonathan vowed would have exposed the thief, if the sum of $20 billion was missing, has since given names and documents to President Muhammadu Buhari over the oil thieves in Nigeria. It is an irony that in 1961, when world oil price was $1.57, we were living comfortably as a people, than in 2010, when world oil price was 109.45. It is a painful experience which must be told that the more money we make, the worse the condition of the citizens.  In 1980, 25% of Nigerians lived below poverty level. In 2007, 78% of Nigerians lived beyond poverty level and in 2010, 69% of Nigerians lived below poverty level. In 2011, 89% of Nigerian lived below poverty level. 70% of our youths are affected by this poverty.

    CONSEQUENCE OF OUR POVERTY

    The failure of our leaders aided the high numbers of jobless able-bodied men and women that can still contribute their own quota to the economy. The national income of Nigeria is said to be around N4 trillion. However, the Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, declared that if every adult that is above 18 years of age is gainfully engaged to earn N20,000 per month, at the end of the year, they will be able to contribute N16 trillion to the nation’s treasury. But the issue of unemployment has not been taken seriously. This unemployment that former President Olusegun Obasanjo sees as a time bomb that may trigger revolution, similar to the Arab springs that could consume the political elites.

    It was Nehru Ghandhi that stated: “Poverty is the mother of crime”. Our nation is fighting crime of various kinds. Instead for the government to address the root cause of crime, such as abject poverty, unemployment, shortage of power, closure of industries, urban migration, and over population, as well as increase of illiteracy caused by non-availability of education.  In the North West and North East of Nigeria, a high percentage of the school aged have no access to western education. That gave room for pools where the Islamic fundamentalists got their recruitment. Almost a daily occurrence, bomb goes up, killing innocent citizens, even in their homes and at work places. The economic and social implications of this insurgency will take another ten years to reorder. The numbers of the displaced persons are growing daily, with the economic recession, that part of the country may for a long time to come not witness development.

    BEYOND BAILOUT

    The Buhari administration has given over N700 billion out to salvage the states that could not pay their workers’ salaries, despite the financial intervention, the workers are still groaning over non-payment of salaries. Even the governors have returned to the president that the bailout is not enough. The question is what is the way out? Apart from oil revenue, is there other thing that can lift the nation and the people out of the economic recession? Although the CBN Governor has told the nation that we may be heading for economics recession, while the truth is that we are in the economy recession already.

    A lot of noise has been made about diversification of economy, but no serious step has been taken. Some see agriculture as alternative to oil. But how far have we as a nation gone over the diversification exercise?

    Comparatively speaking, nations like Japan, which has 1% oil that contributes to their economy, its major revenues are derived from minerals such as iron, silica sand, pyrophyllite clay and limestones. Japan produces 60% of its foods. However, its technology has developed to a higher degree that they are among the best in automobile, medical equipment, electronics and in chemical production. It is these products that have been the source of their revenue. The leadership they have gave them the impetus that made them move ahead of their former adversaries after the 1948 bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

     Some other nations that diversified their economy include; China, India, Mexico,  and Indonesia.

    CHINA has nothing less than 171 mineral resources namely; coal, iron, copper, aluminium, stibium, molybdenum, manganese, tin, lead, zinc, and mercury, to mention a few. China is among the top three economies in the world today because they utilised maximally their mineral resources. Their industrial products are competing with major industrial countries globally. China Independence is 11 years older than ours. If China is not a bankrupt nation despite her population of about 1.3 billion, we have no excuse to fail either.

    NIGERIA MINERAL RESOURCES

    Nigeria is blessed with many resources, these include; tin, oil, copper, zinc, coal gold marble, celica, clay limestone. Etc. The locations of some of these mineral resources are as follows; Abia State- has oil and salt, Akwa Ibom – has petroleum, salt, iron, coal, gold, clay, limestone, laterate.

    Anambra – has iron ore, limestone, coal, marble, and celica.

    Bauchi – has columbites, gold, cassilitrite, coal, limestone and marble.

    Embonyi – has cement, lead, zinc and salt. Ogun has limestone, chalk, phosphate, clay, koolne stones.

    Osun has marble, tin, gold and columbite, Oyo has tin, gold, columbite and marble.

    Plateau is said to be the cradle of tin, and the mining has long be on, almost all the other states have various mineral resources. Ironically, just as Russian poet Nekrasov described Russia as “wretched and abundance”, Nigeria is wretched in abundance. At the beginning of oil drilling in Ghana, Ghanaians stated that the discovery of oil will not be a curse like that of Nigeria.

    TOURISM

    The tourist centres that offer recreational, leisure and resort facilities are all over Nigeria. In Yankari Games Reserve and Tourism, Rojenmy Tourist and Games village in Oba, Anambra, Olumo Rock, Abeokuta, Ikogosi warm spring, Whispering Palms, Obudu Mountain resort Tinapa, the Olumirin Water fall, the Osun Osogbo annual festival and a host of others. All the aforementioned could be the best option, if we will diversify timeously. Although a lot has been said of agricultural investment, we need to cultivate rice if we are serious in banning its importation in two years time.

    ENTREPRENEURS

    Now that our economy can no longer provide jobs for the large number of army of youths, the alternative is to create avenue for enterprise, where the government both at the states and at the centre train and provide funds for youths to start businesses on their own. Within a short time, the economy will not only be awakened, but unemployment will be wiped out of existence.

    The artisans should be assisted through the micro finance operatives in collaboration with the governments.

    Tax payment must be done or carried out. Nations all over the world have made tax payment a compulsory duty. Every adult must pay tax. In other developed economies, tax evaders are treated as criminals. Tax laws must be reviewed. Experts have told us that world oil price cannot rise above $50 per barrel but the likelihood that it might fall as low as $20. We must look beyond the bailout fund into how we can get out of the woods timeously.

  • Comments

    Comments

    For Olatunji Dare

    Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by moral education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones. With rigid determination, Buhari’s administration will win the war against corruption because most Nigerians voted for change. If an oath is necessary to satisfy Nigerians, I swear it. From Adegoke O O, Bako, Ibadan.

    My brother, what is playing out is that corruption is fighting back by rallying behind Saraki. These people cut across party lines. Politically Saraki is damaged. Tell the President that we say no to political settlement. From Charles Raje 

    My dear brother Tunji, greetings. May your divine wisdom and gifted knowledge continue to haunt those thieves/rogues/looters of our common patrimony who have individualy/collectively caused the socio-economic and political backwardness that characterise our geographical landscape. The onerous task of pricking the conscience of those perveted souls through your regular column At Home Abroad is a thankless job but posterity will etch your name in the records of our national heroes. God bless you and your family at all times. From Dauda Bello, Okene

    I have been addicted to your write-ups since your days in The Gaurdian Please fire on! As for Senator Bukola Saraki, he has no moral right to preside over the Senate with the weighty criminal cases hanging on his neck! What a beautiful coincidence that while pilgrims were stoning the devil in far away Mecca, same was being replicated in Ilorin! Families of Kwara civil servants and pensioners whom he impoverished are not praying for him. Let him consider his ways. From Awo Abegunde Ogundare, Ilorin.    

    The negative reactions to your article on the Senate President is a reflection of the corrupt Nigerian society that sees nothing wrong with evil as far as it benefits some people. You should not be discouraged, very soon good will overtake evil in Nigeria. Anonymous

    Oga Dare, tell me who really is a saint? Today media men are taking the lead in corruption by their brazen and biased reportage. Among the ministerial nominees who is an angel? Anonymous

     

    For Segun Gbadegesin

    Re: “President’s lieutenants.” You have said it all. Precisely, it is six months, since this administration had been sworn in and people expected unhindered governmental activities with all the ministers in place to give the government an impetus to deliver. However, last week, some nominees were screened and others were put in abeyance. All we are now expecting, is when those already screened and approved will be given their portfolios and work will begin in earnest. Hopefully, we all expect that they will all demonstrate their competence, pedigree, integrity and good characters so that within the next four years, the change we voted for will manifest in the lives of every citizen of this nation. It is not a good thing to be pessimistic because, there are those who want this administration to fail. I am one of those who believe that this administration is going to deliver, succeed and take us to the promised land so, please, join me in wishing all the President’s lieutenants successful tenure. Optimistically, they are going to count on our support too, but, they must all shun corruption this time around. From Prince Adewumi Oyeromade Agunloye

    Re:Mr President’s lieutenants. Ministerial nomination and clearance have come and gone. I agree  that the drilling was sectional but could have enriched the audience!  From Lanre Oseni. 

    Your piece Mr President’s lieutenants is quite amusing.The presidency made the screening exercise more difficult for the screening committee due to the unnecessary secrecy surrounding the nominees’ portfolios. Future nominees’ name and portfolios should be forwarded to the senators accordingly as this will allow for a thorough exercise. From Ojo A Ayodele, Emure Ekiti 

    Re:Mr.President’s lieutenants. A lieutenant here means a person who helps somebody who is above them in rank. No doubt the President with his integrity and the vision to change our faulty orientation for good must have done his homework before coming up with the list of his lieutenants for NASS’ screening. The burden of CHANGING us rests on his shoulder. Don’t forget that most of our elected politicians were distressed businessmen/professionals. Hence, they lack the expertise for appropriate screening; but ready to victimise their political enemies, forgeting that the era of “COME AND CHOP” has gone .It’s now “COME AND SERVE AND BAKE THE CAKE”. The ministers this era would not in collaborationt with the Presidency coerce the Perrmanent Secretary to loot for their political party through frivolous contracts. PMB must have done the needful. The President should run right now. From Elder L. O David; Efon Alaaye, Ekiti State.

     

    For. Gbenga Omotoso

    Re:When an elephant dies. No elephant is sacred before Almighty God. You recalled that “He (Alamieyeseigha) then flew to Nigeria”. Recall also that Ibori’s case started from Bwari, to Gwagwalada and the case file eventually “fled”to Asaba, his state capital where he was “acquitted of all the 171 cases. And Ibori “flew” out of Nigeria. The man fled: The woman flew; The man ran away from JUSTICE; and “The man died” (courtesy W. Soyinka). GOD has established it thus: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from faith in their greedness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”-1 Tim.6:10). Those in power today should trully LEARN, “For God will bring every work into judgement, including every secret thing, whether good or evil” -Eccl.12:14. No ethnicity, witch-hunting or emotion before God. Just fear God and keep His commandments. From Elder L. O David; Efon Alaaye, Ekiti State.

    Your today’s piece entitled ‘When An Elephant Dies’ makes an interesting reading. A master-piece indeed! But I wish to disagree with you on one of your conclusions that the extremely poor don’t complain of “witch-hunt”. They do. If you want to know, visit RCCG Redemption Camp Ground on Km 46, Lagos-Ibadan Express-Way on first Friday of every month and ask Daddy G. O. whether the extremely poor also complain of witch-hunt or not. Or better still, you may take a trip further to MFM or Shilloh Camp Grounds and ask Bishop David Oyedepo and Rev. Olukoya similar question, they will tell you that the extremely poor not only complain of witch-hunt, but they even cry of it and seek deliverance from them (the witches)!  From Barr. Gbenga Ojo, Abuja.

    I just finished reading your piece in The Nation, it is really a lovely one, maybe if you do more of this in future, maybe men will then learn. From Olawuyi, Abeokuta

    The answer to your last question is NO. Fools don’t realise that the relationship between material possession and true happiness is an inverse one.  From Suleiman, Kano.

    Big question- Do men learn? Big answer- The children of ADAM and EVE can NEVER! Anonymous

    God bless your soul for your writing today on matters arising. Did you see how your name-sake Ike Ekweremadu was shouted down two days ago during the ministerial screening in the Senate when he asked Senator Udoma Udo Udoma if he would help in the implementation of the last National Conference? Those who do not like to see our face on any critical issue in the zoo republic should leave us to go our way. Anonymous

    On Alamieyeseigha’s demise: I was devastated when I learnt of the sudden demise of Alamieyeseigha Dieprieye, considering the fact that this man had gone for medical check in Dubai only for the UK government  to have started attempting to repatriate him back to UK to come and answer questions on what he did or did not do before his magical escape  from London in 2005. There’s no doubt that the UK goverment precipitated  his death. Remember, it was this same region one man by the name of Onanefe James Ibori, who had earlier been discharged of corruption charges in his native land was unceremoniously ferried to the UK where he eventually bagged some years in jail. I beg it is better to die a hero than be alive as a villiain. The UK goverment should be charged for murder. From Dr Tunde Obaoye.    The big question should be: Do women learn? Anonymous

    It is good to serve people well to avoid embrassement from graft agencies and security agencies for wrongdoing when you are in office. From Gordon Chika Nnorom 

    You did a good x-ray on Alamieyeseigha and Diezani Alison-Madueke. All the looted funds must be retrieved. I think this should serve as a lesson to all public holders that the day of reckoning is at hand. From Excel, Ibadan.  

    Re-when an elephant dies.   Diezani, Alamieyeseigha and others that will soon be exposed is a lesson for those who care to know that abnormal acquisition of financial materials through theft ends either in unexpected disgrace, vanity or/and hell! From Lanre Oseni.

    The answer is no; men never learn. Well, some men. Nice article Mr Omotoso. God bless. From Dr Uku.

    A lot of people lost their lives  due to the money that was meant  for building of hospitals but was stolen by corrupt  people. When those  corrupt  people die, they are celebrated by Nigerians. What a funny country. From Hon S.A. Hande,  Makurdi.

    Re-When an elephant dies. It is not the grass that suffers but a lot of knives appear. The duo Alison-Madueke and Alamieyeseigha are dogs of the same street that bark alike. It is God’s doing that she was caught outside the country. Alamieyeseigha played his many tricks but ended in the grave. Jonathan relied on the duo and treated them as saints. His level of education has no bearing in his adminstration. These are shameless Nigerians. Our judiciary must brace up in the dispensation of justice. Our God is a God of vengeance. Let their admirers go to London and free her. It is in Nigeria that rogues/armed robbers are celebrated at the expense of individuals with integrity/reputation. Shame to Jonathan and his cabinet of thieves. More of her ilk will soon come to the surface. Every penny/property amassed must be retrieved.  From Pastor Odunmbaku. 

    Nigerians will never learn because we are dead in spirit and those that are in spirit are dead foreever and there are no more room for change. Anonymous

    To be frank with you, I don’t believe Alamieyeseigha is dead…….with time he might ressurrect again but not like our  Christ sha…. From Adebayo.

    Your Editorial Notebook in The Nation October 15 was a nice piece and I pray that those leaders (president, governors. LGA chairmen, ministers, commissioners, etc) have learnt some lessons from the travails of Diezani, Alams, Ibori, Lamido etc. That one day they will be called to account for their deeds in this world and in the next world. God bless Nigeria. From Kabir Ayuba 

    Your piece on Alison-Madueke and late DSP refers. First, Alison-Madueke the oil goddess should have chosen to remain in Nigeria where she can be governor or run for Senate in spite of the alleged corruption imbroglo. What we are witnessing in her case and lbori is a serious indictment on our judges – subjecting our judicial systems to ridicule. From Olabode Majekodunmi, Abeokuta.

    The piece “When an elephant dies” can be presented for international competition. In fact you are heading for a nobel prize. Keep documenting these pieces for posterity. God bless you. From Arc. Ukura Patrick.

    I’m  puzzled  by the bewilderment  of your publications  concerning  the denunciation  of our  former  President  Goodluck Jonathan by mostly  his close assosiates. Did the former President not  make  prophetic  pronouncements shortly before he left office that  before the cock crowed  three times, not a few  of his  associates  shall  denounce him like Judas  Iscariot  did to  Jesus? What else? Your artcle   “Where Are they  Now  ? “  of  August 6 and  ” Hello, Okupe’s phones still ringing”  by  Hardball   also of  August 6 say it all. Need  we wonder then?  ’Epa Clark  Has moved on.”  Hardball October 15.  That is    life  for you.     From Chief  Olusegun Famoriyo. Sagamu, Ogun State. 

  • Obasanjo, Colombia and Boko Haram

    Obasanjo, Colombia and Boko Haram

    Who knew it could come to this?

    Boko Haram burst onto our national consciousness in 2009, in a sudden explosion of murder and mayhem across many states. Six years later Nigeria’s home-grown terrorist group has become such a trans-border threat that it menaces many other sovereign states. Nothing more illustrates this sad reality than the news a few days ago that hundreds of US troops have been deployed in Cameroon to assist that country confront the problems the group now poses to its security.  No country welcomes foreign troops onto its soil except it deems their presence absolutely necessary.

    The sense of urgency precipitated by Boko Haram’s murderous activities, not only in Nigeria but in neighbouring countries, certainly explains the visit former President Olusegun Obasanjo recently paid to the incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari, at the head of a team of Colombian security experts. The visit was said to be under the auspices of the Copenhagen Foundation, a think-tank Obasanjo leads.

    The name “Pablo Escobar” and a decades-long struggle with drug trafficking cartels usually comes into the minds of most people when they hear about the Central American country. But its 44 million people have also been burdened by an insurgency that has lingered for more than five decades.  The organization long identified with that security crisis is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known by its Spanish-language acronym, FARC.  The group and its progeny of other less well-known militias operating in that country are steeped in a motley of origins. The most significant of these is that Colombia and other countries like it in the region were battlegrounds of the Cold War between the United States and the defunct Soviet Union, which raged for decades after the end of the Second World War in 1945.

    Unfortunately, like North Korea, Colombia’s FARC survived the collapse of the Soviet behemoth and the East-bloc of communist countries. Though stripped of the patronage it previously enjoyed from the Soviets, FARC did not flounder. It continued to carry out killings across Colombia, along with other acts of violence including kidnappings for ransom.  Like most revolutionary groups in Latin America, FARC has justified its existence on the premise that it fights for the country’s poor.  The group argues that only its struggle and the expected triumph of the revolution could free the poor masses of the country from the alleged clutches of Colombia’s greedy “bourgeoisie” class.   There are, of course, the grim statistics: Colombia’s insurgency has taken a great toll in human lives and infrastructure destroyed. About 220,000 lives have been lost between 1958 and 2013, with most of the dead – about 177,307 – being civilians.

    What is quite surprising against this historical and empirical backdrop is that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in his wisdom, somehow believes the Colombian conflict mirrors the murderous Boko Haram campaign in Nigeria, such that it should serve as a template for tackling the insurgency that has buffeted Africa’s most populous country.

    A few pertinent facts at this point: first, former President Obasanjo is a patriotic Nigerian, and that is no tongue-in-cheek statement. Given his noted and fervent commitment to the principle of indivisibility of the Nigerian state, it must indeed be painful for Obasanjo to watch how the Boko Haram miscreants have laid waste to vast swathes of Nigeria these past few years, and murdered its citizens. The former president has also not simply watched events from afar. A few years ago, he put himself directly in the line of fire when he contacted a few persons known to be close to the group in an attempt to broker a truce and, ultimately, peace.  One of those Obasanjo visited during the mediation attempt that took him to the northeast, Babakura Fuggu, was assassinated a few days after their meeting, by militants believed to be members of Boko Haram.

    Without any doubt, the former president’s resolve and genuine commitment to rid Nigeria of the Boko Haram problem is obvious and should brook no doubts or second-guessing.

    Nevertheless the Colombian example in combating insurgency that Obasanjo recently urged upon Nigeria’s incumbent president is not one that should readily be embraced. As Obasanjo himself put it the Colombian insurgency led by FARC has lasted for more than five decades.  How does that duration have a correlation with the expectation in Nigeria’s situation, where Boko Haram came into most Nigerians’ consciousness only in 2009 and government is intent on keeping faith with its December deadline for defeating the group? What lessons does an insurgency that has raged for 50 years have for a government now pulling all the stops to ensure its local brand of the insurgency curse is annihilated in far less than that time?

    There is also the issue of approaches and tactics in combating Boko Haram.  Obasanjo is known to have said the group has certain legitimate grievances; he reiterated this position as this past  March, at a global education conference held in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).   “Legitimate grievances” on one side, of course, implies the imperative of accommodation, of the other side coming to terms with such “grievances”. And accommodations also often connote taking the route of a negotiated settlement.  Obasanjo does not stand alone in this regard, of course. Even the Buhari government has been known to say it is open to a negotiated settlement of the conflict, with the caveats that it will only negotiate with legitimate representatives of Boko Haram, if such can be identified, and that it would not negotiate from a position of weakness.

    Which is good.

    On the other hand, however, Obasanjo is also known to have endorsed “crushing” Boko Haram, even adding during the meeting of the Colombian delegation with President Buhari that government did not have to take out all the insurgents before declaring victory over the group.

    Beyond the former president’s bevy of paradoxes on how best to deal with Boko Haram, he perhaps realizes more than anybody else that a negotiated settlement is often the best way to eventually resolve any dispute, especially one waged by force of arms.  He is certainly aware that just last month the government of Colombia and FARC both signed onto a landmark agreement in peace talks brokered by the Cuban government, which is expected to finally bring the conflict to an end.

    What best explains the apparent “flip-flop” in Obasanjo’s perception of how the menace should be brought to an end in Nigeria (“crush” vs. “negotiate”) or whether it even mirrors the Colombian insurgency, is his apparent but inexplicable lack of appreciation for what underpins or drives Boko Haram.   The problem in Colombia has roots deep in a conflict that pit two economic models of society against each other for decades, first as an ideological struggle  between a capitalist West and a communist East, and later as a war waged by one side that claimed  it was fighting the “haves” on behalf of society’s “have-nots”.

    Boko Haram’s premise is much less clear-cut, even murky. While some believe the group promotes implementation of the purest form of Islam in society and eschews all forms of Western ideas in favour of Islamic values, others, including President Buhari himself, swear the group’s values are diametrically opposed to that of the Islamic religion. And the President should know since he is a devout Muslim himself.  The closest to a consensus regarding a social and political raison d’etre for the group, if any can be said to exist, is that it is a reaction to the severe problems of development or lack thereof that is endemic in Nigeria’s north-east where Boko Haram is based.

    But that rationale is also seriously undermined by the knowledge that the group’s leadership has sworn fealty to the Islamic State (ISIL) group, an organization that does not exactly have as a priority meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in its areas of operation and occupation.

     

    Since Obasanjo seems to believe Boko Haram should be militarily defeated, he should instead urge on the President the example of Mali.  Like Boko Haram, insurgents there took over major territory in that West African country, killing and maiming residents and destroying historical artifacts, especially in the historic city of Timbuktu. Then the French military struck in a swift and lightning operation.  Just a few weeks later the rebels evaporated.  Mission accomplished.

    It has not been that easy for Nigeria to defeat Boko Haram, of course.  And many Nigerians certainly wish the group’s murderous reign in the north-east did not last for as long as it has. But they will be more than grateful if Boko Haram is at least severely degraded by December, as the president has promised or, better still, totally annihilated.

    This will certainly be a better alternative to the decades of misery Colombians have endured with their own insurgency.

    • Soboyede is a public affairs commentator.

     

     

  • True Dakkada ambassador

    True Dakkada ambassador

    True to the essence of the Dakkada ideology, Ufot Ekong’s life-inspiring experience shows the values and gains of rising up to greatness.  Fast becoming an enduring philosophy in Akwa Ibom, Dakkada was designed to whip up a sense of self-worth in Akwa Ibomites and drum up an abiding faith in the fact that God has implanted in every human being qualities, capabilities and potentialities that need only to be discovered and harnessed for their own good.

    It is about making deliberate and conscious efforts towards dismantling the stereotypes that have weighed them down, both as individuals and as a people. It’s about change of mindset and change of attitude.

    Well, if the people of Akwa Ibom are looking for a role model, one that fits the bill of a true Dakkada ambassador, they need not look far, for, a son-of-the-soil outside our shores has proven that if you dare to dream, have a mindset for greatness and follow your dream, the sky may not even be the limit to what you can achieve.

    Ufot Ekong, an Ibibio boy from one of Nigeria’s hitherto backward states, has shown that the difference between failure and success; between despondency and inspiration, is attitude, which is a product of mindset.

    In case you don’t know him, Ufot is the Nigerian of Akwa Ibom State extraction who caught world attention when, in his first semester in school, he solved a mathematical puzzle that had remained unresolved for 30 years. In the years to come, Nigerian students will learn that a compatriot, it was, who solved a mathematical problem that could not be solved internationally – on the white man’s soil, for that matter.

    For the young man, the journey to world fame has not been an easy one (But who has ever achieved true greatness through the easy route?). Indeed, his story epitomizes the Dakkada philosophy in all its ramifications.

    Ufot set off from Nigeria in 2009, at the age of 19, in search of the proverbial Golden Fleece in Japan, full of determination to achieve a goal, but not quite sure how he was going to achieve that goal in a strange land. He landed in Japan to be confronted by two immediate challenges – language and the high cost of living – which posed a major battle that he needed to win if he was to make any headway. But, the devout Christian that he is, he was encouraged by the Biblical assurance that “the battle is the Lord’s”.

    He took the first step to break the language barrier by enrolling in a language school for an intensive Japanese language course that is designed to teach foreign students enough in writing and grammar for tertiary education. After the first semester, Ekong could speak a little of Japanese and write up to 200 characters. The next problem was finance.

    Ufot lost his father in 2005. The burden of catering for a family of seven, which was too much for his mother, meant that he and his three siblings who were studying in New York, London and Scotland, had to work through school. He faced an obstacle with the location of the language school he attended which was not in Tokyo where he could find a part time English-speaking job, but in the suburbs. He attended 56 interviews, but wasn’t hired for any because he could not communicate effectively in Japanese. He was naturally and expectedly depressed, but not broken.

    His elder brother, who was in his third year in the same school and could speak fluent Japanese, was his guide and a major source of inspiration. Ufot would visit him regularly to eat Nigerian food and get a few tips on some nagging language problems. He intensified his language lessons, which included buying extra textbooks and getting his teacher to teach him during summer holidays. Eventually, he got his breakthrough with a part time job with Yamato Transport, the biggest shipping company in Japan. The income that came from the job was not enough to pay for his education, forcing him to secure another job with McDonalds. This meant that he kept two jobs while schooling, in an incredible schedule that allowed him between one and two hours of sleep every day.

    Ufot would attend school from 9am to 4pm; catch a bus in time to arrive McDonald’s at 5pm where he would work till 11pm; get home to do some school work; sleep for one or two hours and wake in time for work at the shipping company from 2am to 6am. He would get home in time for a shower and a nap, with multiple alarm clocks shrieking after barely one hour to inform him of the commencement of another cycle. It was the same cycle for more than one year, with no day off, including Christmas Day.

    The promise of an undergraduate scholarship if he finished top in the language school spurred Ufot to put in extra effort, in order to relieve himself of some of the stress he put himself through. He worked extra hard, ignoring stereotypes, racism and discrimination that he faced as a foreign (black) student. True to his dream, he finished tops in the language school and secured a one year scholarship from Rotary International with a monthly stipend for his undergraduate programme, which enabled him to reduce his working hours.

    In his second year in the university, Ufot started an event called International Friday Night, which he hosted for two years. This meant that he combined work, events and schooling.

    Ufot, the boy with the heart of a lion, graduated with a first class honours degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and emerged overall best graduating student from Tokai University, a prestigious private university with focus on science and technology, in Tokyo, Japan. He has been at the top of a research team that produced two patents and worked with others to develop an electric car that runs as fast as 128 kilometers per hour. He also won a Japanese language award for foreigners, with fluency in English, French, Japanese and Yoruba languages (curiously, not his Ibibio language). Altogether, he has won six academic awards of excellence in his educational pursuits.

    Now he is a co-founder of the online African accessories retail shop named Strictly African Japan, which commenced business on January 1. At the moment, he is currently pursuing a masters programme, with a Ph.D which he hopes to complete by 2019.

    Despite his amazing success, even though half-way through his educational endeavour, Ufot has no intention of getting lost in the Diaspora. He has served notice that he will return home to Nigeria, to his native land of Akwa Ibom, to put his knowledge to use, for the benefit of his people. His feat is a major boost for the Dakkada philosophy, and an encouragement to many more Ufot Ekongs who may be hidden in the state to indeed get Akwa Ibom on the rise.

     

    •  Abiodun is a   Civil Engineer based in Lagos

     

     

     

  • Ensuring sanity in the ICT sector

    Information and communications technology is central to all forms of social and economic development in contemporary times. They have significant influence on social, educational and commercial activities round the clock and across the world. The ICT age is about using knowledge to make a difference. The knowledge economy relies on the sustainable exploitation of ICT in all its facets.

    Developing countries are beginning to exploit ICT in order to enable them participate meaningfully in the global economy which is rapidly migrating to the digital platform. The use of information in the workplace, in the provision of public services, and in the conduct of

    commercial activities and basic communications are fast becoming virtual, non-personal, remote and ubiquitous. This is the age of information.

    By addressing needs that include poverty eradication, improved healthcare, wealth creation, job creation and education, ICT has become an essential requirement for competition, survival, and progress. In today’s world, weak or inadequate ICT availability means

    less efficiency in capacity utilisation, which translates to underachievement and underdevelopment.

    In other words, societies without ICT resources and infrastructure are disadvantaged in the 21st century world. Nigeria has developed national ICT policies aimed at building a knowledge based economy in order to ensure that citizens derive maximum value from the sector.

    Courtesy of this effort, Nigerians have joined the global ICT mainstream with more than 100 percent mobile phone penetration and about 93 million connections to the internet.

    It seems not to matter that Nigeria still imports almost 100 percent of all its IT requirements. The best effort at local production of some ICT facilities comes from the assemblage of imported components.

    However, cheaper imports from Asian countries such as India, South Korea and China are giving local producers assemblers a stiff challenge. This is discounting the large army of middle class and high-end users who go for first rate, even if expensive products from

    Canada, Europe and America.

    Notwithstanding the “rebasing” of the economy conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics and declared by the Ministry of Finance in 2014, Nigeria is the second largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa. It is one of largest producers of crude oil and has enormous natural gas reserves, arable agricultural lands, solid minerals and a developing private sector. It is also quickly catching up with other countries in ICT development. It terms of sheer volume, Nigeria’s ICT market surpasses competition in the continent and only takes second or third place when it comes to technical efficiency.

    Developments in the sector since 2001 have led to tremendous growth in social, economic and commercial activities, including employment generation. Since the GSM launch, mobile telephony has rapidly become the most popular means of communication in Nigeria. The telecom sector has also become the largest generator of Foreign Direct Investment

    (FDI) with significant contributions to GDP. Estimated investments in the sector since 2001 are at over $32 billion and still counting.

    The drastic changes in the telecom situation in Nigeria have had a serious impact on private and public sectors and even in governance, administration and policy implementation. In social and commercial activities, there has been a slow, subtle, but almost imperceptible migration from the reliance on cyber cafes to self-sufficiency, as many people acquired the capacity and resources to independently surf the cyberspace.

    E-commerce and e-payment initiatives have given rise to various payment solutions including automated teller machines, POS terminals, mobile and internet banking services, online bill payment solutions, etc. The ability to facilitate large volume transactions without the use of hard currency cuts down on the chances for crime, and helps the government’s effort at tackling financial crimes and corruption.

    In recent times, Nigeria has been consolidating on its achievements in the sector through the enactment of legislation to provide legal protection and security for the sector. The passage of the Cybercrime Prevention Act is a case in point. With increased awareness and application of ICT in public and social life, different forms of phone and computer-related crime have surfaced. It is therefore important to enhance the information security environment to instil confidence in digital or online transactions and activities. The cybercrime law is the first step to providing such security and deterrence.

    It is a positive step that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) does not take its responsibilities lightly. Under the headship of Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, there is concerted effort to collaborate with the security agencies by having a reliable database of ICT users through ensuring they are all biometrically registered. In the past few weeks, network operators have come under pressure and a regime of fines for keeping unregistered subscribers on their platforms.

    With such a bark and bite, it is to be expected that soon, phone scammers and other criminal elements littering the cyber environment will scamper into hiding, or better still, give up completely on their nefarious activities.

    • Ikwuagwu is a cyber security analyst based in Lagos