His 90th birthday on June 13 was not only a celebration of his longevity but also his long-standing success in the business world.  Known as a boardroom titan, investor and industrialist, Otunba Adekunle Ojora enjoys the respect of many across the country.

Remarkably, he had pursued a career in journalism, but eventually yielded to the pull of business. After studying journalism at Regent Street Polytechnic, London, he had a stint at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) where he rose to the position of assistant editor.

He joined the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) as a reporter in 1955, and was transferred to Ibadan as an information officer in the office of the regional premier.

His move to United African Company (UAC), where he became public relations manager in 1961, possibly opened his eyes to possibilities in the business world, and he developed interest in commercial enterprises.  He became an executive director of UAC in 1962.

He gained some experience in grassroots governance, following his nomination as a member of Lagos City Council in 1966. His appointments in two government agencies in 1967 reflected his capacity. In the same year, he became managing director of Wemabod Estates Limited, a regional property and investment company, and also became chairman of Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL).

He later became an investor in various firms, including AGIP petroleum marketing and technology company NCR Nigeria. He was notably chairman of the board of AGIP Nigeria Limited from 1971 until it was acquired by Unipetrol in 2002.   He also founded the private firms Nigerlink Industries, Unital Builders and a holding company, Lagos Investments.

The introduction of the Nigerian Enterprise Promotion Act led to his expansion as an investor. He acquired equity interest in some foreign companies operating in Nigeria, including Bowring Group, Inchape, Schlumberger, Phoenix Assurance, UTC Nigeria, Evans Brothers and Seven-Up.

The range of his investments includes oil and gas, food, insurance, office equipment, pharmaceuticals, real estate, ICT and financial sectors in Nigeria and abroad.

As a giant boardroom player, his activities extended to his advanced years. For instance, at an event to mark the 50th anniversary of Evans Brothers (Nigeria Publishers) Limited in Ibadan, Oyo State, in 2016, Ojora,  chairman, board of directors, who was then 84,  noted that despite Nigeria’s large population, the publishing industry was still struggling to remain profitable in the face of overwhelming challenges, including piracy.

Also, in 2017, when Insurance Brokers of Nigeria (IBN), the country’s leading insurance broking and risk advisory firm, unveiled a new brand identity in its 62nd year, the chairman, Ojora, observed that “one thing that has never changed is our commitment.”

A member of the Ojora and Adele royal families of Lagos, he is a prince who nearly became king. He lost the succession battle for traditional rulership that followed the death of Oba of Lagos Adeyinka Oyekan in 2003.

He is a fellow, Nigerian Institute of Management (FNIM); fellow, British Institute of Directors; fellow, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (FNIPR); and fellow, Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). These decorations illustrate his professional achievements. He received an honorary doctorate from Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, USA, in 1992.

Also, he is a recipient of the Nigerian national honour Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), which signifies recognition of his laudable service to the benefit of the country, and underlines the respect he enjoys as a citizen of the country.

It is interesting that he kept his distance from party politics. “I will never go into politics,” he declared in a 1990 interview. He prefers to concentrate on another kind of politics, boardroom politics, and corporate governance.

As he enters his nonagenarian years, perhaps he needs to better appreciate the importance of giving back, and that it is not too late to give back to society in more enduring ways.

It is something to be wary about because we take it so casually. Food safety, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), snuffs out about 420,000 people every year. This is a huge chunk from the over 600 million who fall sick every year from eating the wrong food.

In Nigeria, about 200,000 die every year, according to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). It is chilling news, if we are to take the figures seriously. It means nearly half of the world’s casualties happen here on our soil. It shows that there is fundamental problem with how we eat, how we procure food, cook them, and preserve them.

Poor food also comes from our hygiene and environmental integrity. At the bottom of it is ignorance. We do not eat what will kill us deliberately, but because we do not know. The first challenge is, therefore, enlightenment.

Many Nigerians need to know that whatever they ingest has consequences for health and death. Such foods that can injure us or impair our health permanently and with morbid consequences contain such dangerous substances as bacteria, viruses and chemical substances. These we can find in Nigeria through our food supply chains and they include infectious and toxic hazards, microbial pathogens, chemical residues, biotoxins and other noxious substances, according to the WHO.

The danger has no respect for age or demographic, and it is worse for low-income communities and children under the age of five.

“We all have a role to play; whether we grow, process, transport, store, sell, buy, prepare or serve food, food safety is in all our hands. And if we work together, we can all help achieve safer food for better health,” said Alex Chimbaru, WHO deputy country representative.

We have seen, in this country, how we have shown vulnerability to a number of plagues like Lassa fever, typhoid fever, malaria, especially the resistant type. They all unveil not only ignorance but institutional and cultural handicaps that date back from our exposure to modernity.

Poverty makes people consume meals without discrimination. So it behoves us to tap into the enlightenment programmes to make us understand that it is not food if it is not clean. Our food supply chains are tedious and hardly monitored. Foodstuffs travel miles, some of them arrive destinations already contaminated. There are no set standards on what to eat or discard.

“A message at the core of this campaign is: If it is not safe, it is not food. This needs to be taken to heart here in Nigeria because it will save lives,” said Mathais Shmale, United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator.

The WHO inaugurated World Food Safety Day not just to ensure that people do not starve to death but also that people do not feed to death.

“Poor food safety practices have detrimental effects on health, on our families, on the capacity of the workforce, on tourism, on our healthcare systems, and our economy,” Shmale said.

It was yet another tale of the kind of abysmal atrocities perpetrated by teenage Nigerians when, penultimate week, the Adamawa State Police Command arrested an 18-year-old man, Volamu Kalbes, for the murder, by drowning, of a 36-year-old nursing mother, Talatu Usman, and her one year old child in Sabon Layi village of Lamurde Local Government Area of the state, following a complaint by the victim’s husband, Alhaji Usman Abdul. Police investigations revealed that the suspect had attacked the deceased by the riverside in an attempt to rape her when she had gone to take her bath alongside her child.

The resistance put up to the rape attempt by Usman apparently infuriated the suspect who, overpowering her, pressed her down into the water until she died. He followed this up with the no less heartless act of also forcing the child, who was crying uncontrollably, under the water till he also died. This incident, which occurred in rural Adamawa, would on the face of it appear to have been motivated by the desperate urge by the teenager to satisfy what can only be described as his insane lust.

But it is not an isolated mindless act. Rather, reports of the most dastardly crimes by teenagers in both rural and urban areas across Nigeria have inundated the media in recent times.

For instance, on March 5, Kano State Police Command was reported to have arrested an 18-year-old boy, Abdullahi Suleiman, along with a 17-year-old accomplice, Muazzam Lawan, for the alleged murder of a housewife, Rukayya Jamily, aged 21 years. A no less gory crime was committed on January 29, 2022, when three teenage boys were caught in the Oke Aregba area of Abeokuta, Ogun State, burning the head of the girlfriend of one of them, Rofiat, in a pot. And on April 14, operatives of the Amotekun security outfit in Ondo State apprehended three juveniles, Timilehin Femi (12), Ojo Sunday (16) and Odeyemi Ayodele (20) who allegedly specialised in armed robbery, at Ijare in Ifedore Local Government Area of the state. Interestingly, the three boys had adopted as nicknames, names of notorious armed robbers of the past, Anini, Oyenusi and Osunbor, who were obviously their heroes.

All these signpost a colossal collapse of societal values. But then, are these teenagers not a product of the society whose prevailing decadent moral values motivate and shape the character of the younger ones? Parental guidance and control have collapsed in most homes as parents have little time for the proper upbringing of their children, as they are also mostly absorbed not just in the legitimate quest to earn a living but also the rat race for quick enrichment, irrespective of the means. Some parents have been known, for instance, to aid their children in engaging in examination malpractices while others traffic their daughters into prostitution for money.

There appears to be little hope for salvation from religious leaders and institutions, the supposed moral and spiritual exemplars of society. Here, dubious and criminal elements are routinely canonised once they are wealthy and the prosperity gospel in Pentecostal circles epitomises the glorification of materialism. Popular culture, particularly music, film, television and even literature celebrate hedonism, an anarchic lifestyle and mindless pursuit of money.

Neither does political leadership offer much redemptive hope, as the massive corruption by political office holders and the excessive monetisation of political processes such as party primaries and general elections show. But this is also a fundamental cause of the high rate of poverty in society, which in turn feeds the pervasive materialism. Yet, the situation is fast assuming the proportion of an epidemic and can only be left unaddressed to our collective peril.

There is the urgent imperative to overhaul our societal values and redirect the energies, abilities, dreams and aspirations, especially of our youth. How to most effectively achieve this ought to be the focus of an intense, exhaustive and sincere national dialogue involving all stakeholders.

In June 2020, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had at the inauguration, via a Zoom virtual meeting, of Nigeria’s first Gold and Precious Metals Refining Conglomerate, an operation of Dukia Gold a Precious Metals Raw Materials Buying Programme, in collaboration with Heritage Bank, disclosed that Nigeria has potential reserves of 200 million ounces of gold, and the commencement of the project would create new opportunities locally and beyond, especially post-COVID-19. The vice president was optimistic that the launch would enable Nigeria to mine reserves properly, trade responsibly, refine locally, and boost the nation’s foreign reserves.

“It is said that Nigeria has potential reserves of 200 million ounces of gold and the launch of this expansive project, Dukia Gold, creates new opportunities for us to mine these reserves properly, trade responsibly and refine locally. What we are looking at here is an extremely valuable new source of trade, jobs and foreign exchange,’’ the vice president said.

So, what has happened to this seemingly promising project? Two years down the line, Nigeria is yet to modernise mining of the commodity as it is still mostly extracted by artisan miners who use the crude form to extract them, unlike some other West African countries like Ghana and Burkina Faso that have fully developed their mining potential.

We ask this question in view of the revelation in the report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) titled ‘Trade in Goods Statistics,’ that Nigeria realised a paltry N10.3bn from extraction of gold deposits and production in the first quarter of 2022. This is a far cry from what the sector promises. The commodity, classified as ‘Gold unwrought or in semi-mfr. forms, or in powder form’ was exported to Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. Certainly, a commodity that is found in at least 14 states of the federation namely: Zamfara, Kaduna, Kebbi, Niger, Kogi, Ogun, Osun, Bauchi, Cross River, Edo, Sokoto, Oyo, Ebonyi, Kwara, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, can do better than this. It is unfortunate that the country still lacks the capacity to refine gold into consumable products like jewellery.

Sadly, this is the fate of several other commodities and items that Nigeria has comparative advantage in. Here, we are talking about crude oil which the country is a major producer of but is also a net importer of finished products like petrol. This is despite the fact that the country has four refineries which have largely remained moribund despite the infusion of several billions of dollars into their Turn Around maintenance (TAM). The same thing applies to the agricultural sector where we export raw agricultural produce at cheap prices only to import finished products from the same produce at exorbitant prices.

Why we continue along this trajectory is baffling because the country’s major foreign exchange earner, crude oil, is susceptible to the vagaries of the international market over which the country has no control. The resultant unpredictability has also led to unpredictable revenue and budgetary expectations. For a country willing to learn, we have had a lot of shocks to make us pay diversification of the economy the desired attention. That we have not is not only saddening, it is equally regrettable.

To reverse the trend, the Federal Government must be ready to tackle headlong, the problems of illegal mining and smuggling that President Muhammadu Buhari said Nigeria lost $3 billion to between 2012 and 2018. Not only is the country losing revenue through illegal activities in the gold subsector of the mining sector, the activities of the illegal miners and smugglers have also compounded insecurity in a state like Zamfara. If it means granting incentives to those who would officially mine the gold, so be it.

The government must activate its Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMDI), an artisanal and small-scale gold mining that would enable the miners send refined gold to the Central Bank of Nigeria, in accordance with the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) standards. It is by doing all of these that the country can realise its full potential in the sector, boost foreign earnings, create jobs as well as enjoy other multiplier effects that the sector holds for those doing the business according to international best practices.

Maiduguri’s electric car manufacture story again recaps the true essence of technology as less of machine, but more of creative solutions to human problems.

This case was the tri-story of Lawan Muhammad, a Maiduguri bus driver; Mustapha Abubakar Gajibo, a local engineer and founder of the local firm, Phoenix Technology, that provided engineering solutions to Muhammad’s headache of soaring fuel costs; and Jilani Aliyu, director-general of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), the government agency that gave Gajibo’s firm institutional support.

Aliyu declared the policy thrust behind his agency’s support for Gajibo’s Phoenix Technology and its electric car manufacturing and re-fit ventures.

“We all know that each time you buy a vehicle from overseas, you are supporting jobs and exporting jobs out of Nigeria,” he told Adesuwa Egbon, on her ‘Africa Matters’ programme, on the TRT World network, anchored from Maiduguri, Borno State. “But if you buy local vehicles, you support jobs in Nigeria.  These vehicles are very clean,” he added, “they have no emissions.”

But this particular pitch was not just for made-in-Nigeria cars.  It was more for green-friendly electric cars, away from ones powered by fossil fuels, which costs are not only on the rise but which carbon emissions also blight the environment.  That has forced a crisis in global warming; and called for a drastic transition from the conventional petrol/diesel-powered engines to electric-powered ones, with zero-carbon emissions.

But the added appeal of the Maiduguri electric cars came with how it instantly boosted the bottom-line of the local shuttle service; aside from making saner the environment.

Adesuwa Egbon hit at the utility motif, as she told the Muhammad shuttle story and headache, in her short 02:21-minute video clip: “Lawan Muhammad has been a bus driver for more than 10 years in Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria.  But as the cost of fuel has gone up, his profits have dropped,” her story opened.  ”He needs to fend for himself and his family so he found a way to fix the problem.”

By Phoenix Technology’s electric car solutions, in Ms Egbon’s words: “He now drives more affordable buses produced by local engineer, Mustapha Gajibo.”

Muhammad himself weighed in, on how the electric cars have lowered cost, driven up patronage and improved business bottom-line: “These electric cars have helped us solve so many problems, especially when it comes to buying fuel,” he said. “Now we drive for 120 kms every day at one full charge; and the charging doesn’t last for more than 35 minutes.”

Now the sprightly bottom-line: “Due to its low cost, we also ask passengers to pay less compared to other buses.  Most passengers prefer to use our cars because it’s cheap.”

Inasmuch as that is a business boon, electric cars also offer an environmental boom as Adesuwa would explain in her presentation: “Electric cars like these offer a cleaner alternative to vehicles run on petrol.  They reduce carbon emissions and provide cheaper transportation, making Gajibo’s project a much-needed innovation.”

Phoenix Technology also has the capacity to convert petrol-powered vehicles into electric cars, aside from making own eco-friendly cars from scratch. Gajibo also explained how his firm had provided a two-way charging solution for the electric vehicles his company manufactures; or its re-fits from petrol to electricity: either the normal grid at home; or from solar panels.

“That,” Adesuwa intoned, was “good for drivers like Muhammad, for their passengers, for the environment and for us all”, sounding every byte, as if the future of a full green economy, was already here in war-scarred Maiduguri, despite Boko Haram’s havoc!

The Maiduguri angle to the Gajibo innovations is indeed a sweet riposte to the evil Islamists that claim western education is a curse; and thereafter launched a terror campaign, consuming hundreds of innocent lives.  Gajibo, with his firm, is proving every breath of that a ringing fallacy, as no education, local or foreign, is a curse.

NADDC too has earned due praise for supporting this electric car project, among others.  But it should also do more to spot and give institutional backing to similar talents and innovative projects, spread all over the country.  That is the only path to deepening the real sector and diversifying the Nigerian economy.

The prediction of the World Bank that more Nigerians and their sub-Saharan neighbours will fall into extreme poverty is a cause for worry. According to the World Bank, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has affected the commodity market, supply chains, inflation, and these factors have slowed down world economic growth. World Bank President David Malpus stated that: “The global economy is facing high inflation and slow growth at the same time. Even if a global recession is averted, the pain of stagflation could persist for several years – unless major supply increases are set in motion.”

At home in Nigeria, these global challenges are exacerbated by insecurity and mismanagement of available resources. No doubt, the impact of terrorist organisations, separatist groups and the criminal herdsmen masquerading as pastoralists have further worsened the national food crises, which is driving more people into extreme poverty. In the north eastern and the middle belt parts of the country, its major food baskets, farming has become endangered because of the war by Boko Haram, and criminal pastoralists, who invade agrarian communities at will.

There is also the challenge posed by corruption in government circles. While no doubt the President Muhammadu Buhari government has made some strides in infrastructure development, a lot more work needs to be done before the impact can be felt. Again, while the government has engaged in several agricultural interventions like the Anchor Borrowers Scheme, which has impacted positively rice production in the country, the nation still depends substantially on food importation.

There is also the debilitating poverty arising from inflation and decreasing production capacity amongst industrialists. With food prices rising astronomically, the disposable income of the populace continues to diminish, and consequently their purchasing power. With more resources chasing fewer goods, the value of the national currency continues to plummet. This inflationary pressure is made worse by the high cost of production, as electricity, fuel, diesel and other influencers go beyond the reach of most producers.

The result is economic stagflation, which means “persistent high inflation combined with high unemployment and stagnant demand.” So, with inflation hitting the roof, while many are unemployed, the result is increase in crime and social delinquency. This grave situation has been compounded by real and perceived marginalisation, as those in positions grapple with managing the scarce national resources. With the resultant economic imbalance, there is disenchantment with the status quo, and increased social upheaval.

So, the prognosis of the World Bank is real, and unless those in authority grasp the grave danger ahead, and device measures to deal with the challenges, Nigeria and indeed her neighbouring countries would suffer the dire consequences. Tragically for Nigeria, economic activities are not expanding to match the growing population, resulting in high youth unemployment. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, youth unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2020 stood at 53.40 per cent.

The challenge for those in authority is not just how to manage the inflationary pressure, but how to create employment, and energise economic growth at the same time. While that won’t be an easy task, it is the only way to contain the likely restiveness that can only further create more national challenges. With politics taking the front seat, and governance receding to the back bench, the nation needs to raise statesmen to avert the economic quagmire, as predicted by the World Bank.

For Nigeria to avert crisis, governments at all levels must resist the temptation to sacrifice economic challenges on the altar of political gerrymandering. The dire warning of the World Bank is grim: “More people in Sub-Saharan Africa are expected to fall into extreme poverty, especially in countries reliant on imports of food, and fuel.”

With less than two weeks to the deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), there is a rush by prospective voters to get their Permanent Voter Card (PVC) ahead of the 2023 general election.

Presidential and National Assembly polls are scheduled by INEC for February 25, 2023, while the governorship and state assembly polls will hold on March 11. Under the CVR programme, the commission shut down its online pre-registration portal on May 30, this year, and has fixed June 30 as the deadline for physical registration of the biometrics of intending voters. But the electoral body itself has acknowledged a huge surge in the number of citizens seeking to register. “(INEC) has received reports from states indicating an unprecedented surge in the number of citizens that wish to register as voters and the challenges they face across the country. In some states, the sudden turnout of prospective registrants is overwhelming,” a recent statement by the commission’s spokesman and National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, said. “In response, the commission has immediately released additional 209 machines deployed mainly to the five Southeastern states, Lagos and Kano, where the pressure is most acute. The commission will monitor the situation over the next few days. Thereafter, it will meet to review the progress of the exercise,” the statement also said, adding: “Every step will be taken and all options will be explored to ensure that eligible Nigerians are given the opportunity to register as voters.”

About the same time Okoye’s statement was issued, INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu personally gave an assurance that the electoral body would do all it can to allow intending and eligible persons to register as voters. In a tweet on the commission’s official handle, he said: “We have heard your requests loud and clear. You will soon hear from us on the extension of CVR registration. Please assure me that you will register, pick your PVCs and vote. I also assure you that your vote will count.” His comment came against the backdrop of calls from several quarters on the electoral body to shift the CVR deadline beyond June 30. Amidst speculations that the commission had conclusively extended the deadline, however, the commission last week clarified that the deadline subsists but rather that intervention measures were taken to ease the pressure.

INEC’s hesitation over extending the voter registration deadline is understandable, considering that there’s a pervasive syndrome whereby Nigerians leave things till the last minute before doing what could have been done long before a stipulated deadline. The electoral body rolled out the CVR programme since June 2021, and the current pressure was avoidable if eligible registrants had engaged the process early. But there have as well been hiccups in the commission’s processes that partly account for the present rush against deadline. Civil society coalition on elections, Situation Room, in its recent call on the commission to extend the deadline highlighted the hiccups to include failure of personnel in many INEC offices to work with data entered by intending registrants on the online pre-registration portal, “leading to people being treated as walk-in registrants and (being) asked to queue to supply the same details already provided online.” Situation Room added that it received “several complaints of inadequate manpower and equipment in INEC offices, thus making it difficult to have a seamless registration process (which) has led to delays and restiveness of citizens waiting to register in long queues.”

Whether the rush for PVC will translate to high voter turnout in 2023 remains to be seen. But the sheer surge is by itself positive as it signposts higher alertness to civic responsibility in the citizenry, and INEC has noted it is an affirmation of growing confidence Nigerians have in the electoral process. Since Section 9(6) of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2022 allows for voter registration and updating of the register to subsist till 90 days before the general election, and since INEC only recently accommodated political parties by shifting the deadline for submission of their candidates’ particulars, there’s no reason it cannot accommodate prospective voters by extending the CVR deadline.