Category: Editorial

Political office holders have a lesson to learn from his abandoned body abroad, 15 months after his death, due to lack of funds

In the pathetic and ironic tale of the widely reported abandonment of the body of Dr Joseph Wayas, President of the Nigerian Senate in the Second Republic from 1979 to 1983, in a morgue in London since his death 15 months ago on November 30, 2021, apparently for financial reasons, the Nigerian political elite has a mirror that brings into sharp focus its individual and collective dereliction as regards its moral responsibility to society. It is a story that speaks graphically to such issues as the transience of power, the obligation of the individual in private life and public office as well as the persistent perversion of values that is at the heart of the country’s protracted underdevelopment.

Born on May 21, 1941, in Basang, Obudu, Cross River State, Wayas was one of the most colorful and flamboyant public office holders in the Second Republic, an era decried for the reckless opulence and pervasive corruption of the political class, although the moral depravity of that time pales into insignificance compared with what the country was to witness thereafter, up till now. The squandering of the country’s riches largely through the misappropriation of her earnings from oil funded the ostentatious lifestyle of a decadent and visionless elite of which Wayas, even if indirectly, was a complicit part. As the number three citizen and part of the powerful inner circle of the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) at the time, Wayas, as routinely reported in the media then, undoubtedly enjoyed the best of times and basked in the aura of his influence.

It is thus a grand irony that the same Wayas would have his body stranded in London over a year after his demise due to unavailability of funds to fly him back home and give him the decent burial befitting his status. As has become the norm with the wealthy and privileged sections of our populace, Wayas had to seek succour in the advanced medical facilities and expertise of highly developed countries like the UK when he fell Ill. This is against the background of the near total collapse of effective and efficient health care services in Nigeria, with millions of our poverty-stricken people forced to make do with Ill-equipped and poorly staffed public clinics and hospitals as they cannot afford exorbitantly priced private medical care. Thousands of our skilled medical specialists are known to have left the country and continue to do so in droves as they utilise their skills in countries where they are not only appropriately rewarded financially for their services, they have the conducive environment and requisite facilities to guarantee professional fulfillment.

It is thus sad that when Wayas became sick, President Muhammadu Buhari had to make funds available to facilitate his being flown abroad for proper health care.

The first son of the deceased, Joseph Wayas jnr, as reported in the media, has been profusely thankful for President Buhari’s intervention, saying that the government’s financial assistance enabled his father have access to the best medical care in London. Unfortunately, he lamented, the resources made available got exhausted within three months and before Wayas died, it was his sister in London who was responsible for his treatment and has also been responsible for maintaining the corpse since 2021.

To be fair to him, Wayas was not found personally culpable for any acts of corruption during his tenure as Senate President despite the venal moral climate of the time. Many politicians of that dispensation were found guilty of misappropriation and embezzlement of public funds and were given long prison sentences by anti-corruption tribunals set up by the succeeding military regime, even though the military, thereafter, demonstrated that it was no less susceptible to corruption than the civilian politicians it demonised.

Wayas’ plight illustrates how it is most times impossible for high public office holders in the country to maintain their often profligate lifestyles in private life when they no longer have free access to public resources, especially when they have not made the investments necessary to sustain their high tastes.

No less embarrassing and distasteful is the controversy that has surrounded the utilisation of the substantial funds reportedly made available by Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State to a burial committee he set up to facilitate a befitting burial for the eminent son of the state. The committee, which was headed by a two-time Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Kanu Agabi, also had as member Mr. Ntufam Fidelis Ugbo, a former Executive Secretary of the National Planning Commission. Unfortunately, there has been nothing but buck-passing between some members of the committee and the Wayas family on why the deceased’s transportation home as well as his burial remain stalled.

Directing those who sought information from him to Joseph Wayas jnr, Mr. Ugbo said “He cannot say he does not have explanation to give about why the funeral is delayed. He is the first son. He should be in charge”. But the former referred inquirers back to the committee saying “I heard there are issues surrounding the funeral funds. And some members are said to have resigned. I cannot go back to the state government or the Federal Government now due to election issues. The governor has done well already”.

Given the high offices they had held in the past and their status and experience, Mr. Agabi and Mr. Fidelis Ugbo should have handled their assignments on the committee better. It is not helpful that they are both said to have quit membership of the burial committee, possibly out of frustration. After all, scarce public funds had been made available by the governor to facilitate the burial so it is no longer strictly a private affair of the Wayas family. Any misgivings or disagreements on use of funds or other matters should have been brought to the attention of the state government which would have given necessary directives binding on all. These controversies are damaging to the image of the Wayas family, members of the burial committee, Cross River State and indeed Nigeria, since this is the body of a former number three citizen trapped in a foreign land.

Wayas was an amiable and affable gentleman who played politics without bitterness or antagonism. Before going into politics, he had worked as a manager in a number of companies in Nigeria and the UK and later joined the federal public service where he served between 1969 and 1972. Educated at the Dennis Memorial College, Onitsha, he also studied at the Higher Tottenham Technical College, London, the West Bromwich College of Commerce, Science and Technology, Birmingham and Aston University, Birmingham.

He was appointed Commissioner for Transportation in the former South-Eastern state from 1972 to 1974 and was a member of the Constituent Assembly that debated and ratified the 1979 Constitution from 1977-1978. Although a founding member of the defunct All Peoples Party (APP) at the inception of this dispensation in 1998, he joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2001 and was awarded the national honour of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger ( GCON) in 2010 by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Wayas who was a household name and one of the most visible and influential personalities of the Second Republic had sunk into veritable political anonymity long before his death. His life is a lesson in the transience of power, and as the country enters a new phase in its ongoing political evolution in this dispensation, all incoming political office holders must always bear this in mind. Public office offers an opportunity to bequeath a worthy and enduring legacy through selfless, committed and altruistic public service or be, sooner or later, relegated to the negligible footnotes of history as life moves on inexorably.

All said, we urge eminent indigenes of Cross River State to step in to resolve the contentious issues on his abandoned body abroad and ensure that the burial is done as soon as possible.

May Joseph Wayas rest in peace.

•Winner or loser, he was the quintessential athlete and unassuming coach nurturing stars

Not a few still savour the winning start of Ismaila Mabo, the young schoolboy international and his fellow Nigeria Academicals, in 1966.  For the first time, the Nigerian Cadet Internationals went to Accra to beat their Ghana counterparts, 1-0.  In the return leg in Lagos, they would repeat the same feat, beating Ghana, 2-1.  

It was the first time ever any Nigerian national side would beat Ghana — and it was fine augury for the glittering club career that awaited the young lad who, straight from school in 1966, joined the formidable but ill-fated Jos XI (later, Mighty Jets of Jos), the township darling club of his native Jos.

Mabo’s schoolboy jump into a Nigerian side would open the doors for many fledgling ex-school boys that later would “breeze” into the national team, by the sheer audacity of their skills: Haruna “Master Dribbler” Ilerika, Stephen “Big Boss” Keshi and Henry Nwosu, the youngest lad in the Green Eagles that won the African Cup of Nations, for the very first time in 1980, in Lagos.

Sadly, however, Mabo’s winning start with Nigeria would not translate into club glory, with the Mighty Jets, perhaps the most ill-fated club in the Nigerian football firmament.  

Mighty Jets (as Jos XI) first reached the final of Nigeria’s FA Cup (now the Aiteo Federation Cup, then popularly known as Challenge Cup) in 1951.  Jos lost 2-3 to Lagos Railways, then the Lagos powerhouse of Nigerian football.

Then, from 1962 to 1967, Mighty Jets reached six straight FA Cup finals and lost all! — 1962: 0-1 loss to Nigeria Police FC; 1963: 0-1 (Port Harcourt FC); 1964: 1-3 (Lagos Railway FC); 1965: 1-3 (Lagos ECN FC); 1966: walk-over loss to Ibadan Lions (since pre-Civil War tension prevented the Jos club’s many Igbo players from travelling to play the final in Lagos); 1967: 1-3 (Stationery Stores FC of Lagos).

The young Mabo joined Mighty Jets in 1966, and but for the walk-over, would have played in that 1966 final loss.  But he would suffer two further future FA Cup final losses with the team: 1970: 1-3 (Lagos ECN) and 1972: 2-3 loss in the Ibadan replay, after a 2-2 draw in Lagos, a week earlier (Bendel Insurance FC).  

By that time, the Lagos sporting press had dubbed Mighty Jets the “Soroye” (Yoruba regal quip for near-miss: one who ‘sees’ the throne but would never mount it!). That was the perennial fate of the Jets, even with talented defender, Mabo and iconic attackers, Sam Garba Okoye and Layiwola Olagbenro in their ranks!  

Besides, the Jos quest as the first northern side to win the FA cup eluded them.  BCC Lions of Gboko, Benue State (ironically from the old Benue-Plateau corridor), would earn that record in 1989.

Mabo’s FA Cup crashes with Mighty Jets would rank among the epochal failures of Nigerian club football.  But that was as depressing as Mabo’s success with the Super Falcons, Nigeria’s women national team, was spectacular.

In 1998, Coach Mabo propelled the Falcons to their first African Women’s Championship (AWS) title in Lagos, with his girls scoring 28 goals and conceding none, at that inaugural championship on home soil.  He would boss that team till 2001/2002, when the Falcons were well-neigh invincible, thrashing all comers.

What is more?  During his reign as Falcons boss, he produced two African Women Players of the year, in Cynthia Uwak and Perpetua Nkwocha.  During that era too, the Falcons’ safest pair of hands was reported to have hidden an advanced pregnancy just to be between the sticks!

Mabo would also drive Falcons to the quarter-final of the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup — the farthest any Nigerian or African side has so far gone — only stopped by Brazil by a lone golden goal, in extra-time, after a 0-0 draw at full-time.

The Falcons would build on that mighty Mabo foundation to annex nine AWC titles — a record by miles, compared with their other African female rivals.  Besides, that foundation has produced the likes of Barcelona FC of Spain’s Asisat Oshoala, current African women footballer of the Year.

Something remained constant with Ismaila Mabo — at the dale of club cup failure with Mighty Jets and at the peak of sterling coaching success with the Super Falcons: he was the quintessential athlete and coach, totally devoted to his craft on the pitch and to his stupendous nurturing of his girls, turning many of them into African champions and world beaters.

Mabo lived the conclusive phase of his long life in ill health.  He died reportedly after a bout of illness.  

The epigram on his grave may well read: Here lies the athlete, true to his craft and to his sporting country, in seasons of club adversity and national team glory, without a shred of scandal to his name.

He died a hero and fit road model for up-coming footballers, coaches and sundry athletes.  His family should take huge comfort in that stellar image, as they mourn his passage in ripe old age.

•With state polls, the 2023 general election rounds up

Nigeria goes into the concluding phase of the 2023 general election tomorrow, with the state-level polls. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will be conducting elections into governorship seats in 28 states of the federation and house of assembly elections in all the 36 states. Governorship election will not hold in Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Osun and Ondo states because those states are off the general election cycle grid.

The first phase of the general election held on February 25 and involved the national-level polls that were conducted into the presidency and all seats of the National Assembly (NASS) comprising 109 seats in the Senate and 360 seats in the House of Representatives. The presidential poll produced Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner and the president-elect.

This second phase was scheduled to have held on March 11 but INEC shifted it by a week after obtaining the nod of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devise it used for the national polls, for use in the state polls. The tribunal’s approval was obtained on March 8, three days ahead of March 11, with the electoral body saying there were some 176,000 BVAS units to be reconfigured and it needed more time than was available with the earlier timeline.

Tomorrow’s election will feature 837 contestants seeking the 28 governorship offices to be filled, and 10,231 candidates jostling for a total of 993 state assembly seats nationwide. For the governorship race, incumbents seeking re-election to a second term include the governors of Lagos, Nasarawa, Kwara, Adamawa, Borno and Bauchi states. Others are the governors of Zamfara, Ogun, Yobe, Gombe and Oyo states. There are 176,846 polling units across the country, but elections won’t hold in those within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where there are no constituencies to be contested.

The balloting process remains as it was for the national elections. Polling units will open from 8:30a.m. and will so remain till 2:30p.m. for voters to join the queue. Any voter who is on queue by 2:30p.m. will be eligible to vote, no matter the time of the day and how long the queue may be. The voting procedure will be by open-secret ballot. Voters will be required to present their Permanent Voter Card (PVC) to polling unit officials to get accredited with BVAS, after which they will be handed the ballot paper to proceed to the voting cubicle, privately thumbprint their choice of party and thereafter return to drop their folded ballot paper in the transparent ballot box placed in open view of all. It is at the conclusion of voting that the presiding officer will sort the ballot papers, announce the score by respective political party, and complete the prescribed INEC form for collation.

At a parley with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) penultimate weekend, INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu, affirmed that BVAS will be used for the state polls like it was for the national elections. “Since last week, the commission has intensified the review of the technology to ensure that glitches experienced, particularly with the upload of results, are rectified. We are confident that going forward, the system will run optimally,” he said, adding: “The issues of logistics, election technology, behaviour of some election personnel at different levels, attitude of some party agents and supporters added to the extremely challenging environment in which elections are usually held in Nigeria. A lot of lessons have been learnt.” The INEC boss directed that all issues of election logistics be handled by electoral officers at the council area level and must be finalised a day before the polls. According to him, RECs will be held liable for shoddy arrangement regarding the polls. Good soundbites. It is expected that INEC will fully walk the talk.

As the electoral commission tightens loose ends, it is required of political actors and their supporters to as well clean up their acts and ensure civility of conduct in the polling environment. Early last week, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Usman Alkali Baba said the force recorded and responded to 185 major incidents, arrested 203 electoral offenders and recovered 18 firearms from political thugs nationwide during the conduct of the February 25 national elections. Speaking at a meeting to debrief senior police chiefs posted on election security management duties during the national polls, he added: “All the cases are at various stages of investigations at the Nigeria Police Electoral Offences Desks and I assure you that in due course, they will be concluded and processed to the legal department of INEC for prosecution.” The police must ensure this is unfailingly done and culprits brought to book, because impunity thrives where there’s no recompense for misbehaviour.

It will be helpful for overall credibility of the elections if political actors put up their best conduct and rein in supporters from fomenting disruptive behaviour. The success of the elections must be a collective endeavour of all stakeholders, ranging from INEC to politicians, security agents and voters themselves.

• •It’s high time we replaced wells with modern day technology of water access

The idea of a well is anathema in a 21st century society. The paradox is that it is the chief source of water for the vast majority of Nigerians.

But it is not only a source of ill-health, but of deaths. This justifies the movement around the world that now projects the right to potable water as a fundamental human right. In most rural and parts of many urban communities, our wells are not only lethal, they present a state of hopelessness among the population.

According to WaterAid Nigeria, three in 10 persons in Nigeria do not reside close to water or even wells while four out of every five persons have no water for hygiene, including washing their hands. On its website, the WaterAid announced, “Unless there is a monumental shift in ambition and approach, the global promise made in the Sustainable Development Goals for everyone, everywhere to have access to safe and lasting water and sanitation and basic hygiene by 2030 will not be fulfilled for many decades to come.”

In 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO), revealed that deaths from drowning in Nigeria reached 6,584 or 0.44 per cent of total deaths.

One tragedy that examples the severity of the story was about two brothers. The two brothers, Lateef Adediran, 22, and Waliu Adediran, 31, who died in a well, followed by a failed rescuer, Pastor Adebayo Oluwasina, 46, who also died in the same well. This happened in Ede, Osun State.

Both brothers were bricklayers working at Adebayo’s construction site, as reported by The Punch newspaper.

In Kano, it was a tragedy of father and son. Malam Bala and Sunusi Bala, his son, fell into a well and both died of asphyxiation.

Part of the problem is connected with the wells themselves. Many of the wells have no walls around and, even the ones that have walls, are not covered. People simply walk to the wells with their wet grounds from previous users and this makes drawers to slip and fall into the holes.

Again, some others have died from getting into the wells to clean  them up and have been trapped. Others who tried to save them have also suffered suffocation. This is due to ignorance as well. They do not understand that wells have little oxygen supplies and once in the nether parts of the earth, they would gasp for breath.

But the worry for most citizens is how they live daily with not only scarcity of water but also unclean supplies. If they have to move long distances to obtain water and it is clean, that would be seen as only a little, if safe, inconvenience. But the water in the wells and in other places like rivers and ponds tends to be source of slow death and many illnesses.

Some have water, and are often jubilant only when they can get it. For many, it is a scramble. Some have to wake up in the pre-dawn hours to secure it. The wells of ponds may have run dry if they do not have early dry eyes.

Many people say the problem is with the governments and, especially the local governments, that have rather seen water as low in their priorities. Citizens have come to live with the hard reality that water is a scarce commodity.

We are also experiencing the trouble of climate change that is afflicting many countries with droughts. It is big issue that we have to address not only as state governments but as a society.

Water is becoming the next focus of superpower conflict as scientists are looking for ways to manufacture water.

•Nigeria can do with more women in political positions

This year’s international Women’s Day (IWD) came amidst the global outrage over the poor representation of Nigerian women in politics after the announcement of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections. It is a socio-economic tragedy that women that make up almost half of the population is not present in the political field in significant numbers in an era when ideas from both genders rule the world.

In 2021, a Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe had during a speech at Nkata Ndi Inyom (a discussion group and think-tank for Igbo women) event predicted that there might soon be no women in the two chambers of the National Assembly. His prognosis seems to be unravelling. For the 2023 elections, none of the four frontline political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) had either a female presidential or vice presidential candidate. The APC is the only big political party that has a female governorship candidate in Adamawa State.

Of the 423 National Assembly (NASS) seat results that have been released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) so far, only 15 seats have been won by women, down from 22 in the 9th NASS at the House of Representatives. The Senate has just three women elected as against the seven in 2019.  The male politicians have the lion’s share of 96.5% in the legislative chambers.

Global economic and political analysts have through research proved that the countries with the least empowered women are the most underdeveloped and Nigeria is a good example. With a staggering 133 million Nigerians living in multi-dimensional poverty, it is obvious Nigeria is not utilising its vibrant population to full capacity. The political structure seems to be fatally flawed in ways that women, no matter how qualified, do not get their fair share of the opportunity to contribute to the development of the country politically.

Sadly though, the lack of sizeable female presence in the political space is rooted in socio-religious beliefs that start from the cradle, as women are raised and nurtured as followers, not leaders. The average girl child is raised to be subservient and nurtured to believe that leadership is a male affair. The patriarchal practice is propagated and perpetuated by men through culture and religion. In different ways, women are conditioned to believe that culture and religion are divinely ordained to subjugate women.

So, the political party structure pushed the narrative further by making sure that women in political parties do not get to have a strong and influential presence at the party executive levels. Parties are run by men who often have the economic power, and in a system with an unstructured political party administration, economic influence is often exploited to male advantage. No political party in Nigeria has been able to explain the reasons for the establishment of ‘women’s wings’. There are no ‘men’s wings’, so, invariably, it is a subtle way of making women second-class party members whose job is to mobilise votes for men.

Ironically, Nigerian women have always held leadership positions from pre-colonial to post-colonial era and distinguished themselves. Queens Amina of Zaria, Idia of Benin, Moremi of Ife and several others are legends. Late Margaret Ekpo, Gambo Sawaba and Funmilayo Rasome-Kuti are known more for their political contributions than for their works as homemakers.

In post-colonial era, people like Regina Amadi-Njoku who became the first Nigerian woman to get to the level of United Nations Assistant Secretary General from 2000-2008, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Arunma Oteh, Amina Mohammed, late Dora Akunyili, Ibukun Awosika, Doyin Abiola, Amma Ogan, etc., have all become global icons. It is curious though that in all sectors where merit is the criterion for growth, Nigerian women have excelled.

It amounts to self-inflicted injury for Nigerian men in politics to continue to subtly and steadily exclude women through obvious structural and socio-religious hurdles. The country has the poverty capital tag to show for the political recalcitrance. Leadership in global terms has moved beyond the primordial sentiments that exist in Nigerian political space. The men must realise the worth of women, especially in this era of increased political awareness and education of women. The world is today ruled by ideas and technology and none of these is gender sensitive. In fact, many of the good leaders in the world, in comparative terms, are women.

We urge the few women in politics in the country to, on their own, make more assertive moves to change the sad narrative about gender equity.