Category: Insight

As more prominent Nigerians join the controversy over Professor Chinua Achebe’s new book, There was a country, Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, identifies some of the issues raised so far

Professor Chinua Achebe’s latest work, There was a country: A personal history of Biafra, caught international and national attention even before it’s arrival on the bookshelf. Since then, the controversies it has generated have continued to spread like the Harmattan fire in Nigeria, gulping so ravenously the ugly but long hidden dry leaves of ethnic bias.

While most of the international reviewers immediately acknowledged the personal memoir as the writer’s definitive work, poised to open up new vistas of understanding of the writer’s deepest sensibilities, in Nigeria, it sparked off a wave of verbal crossfire, name calling and what some have aptly described as blame game over the country’s dirty past. It is significant that the thematic debate has, so to say, unashamedly overshadowed academic interest in the literary quality of the work from one of Africa’s best writers.

A commentator, in one of the earliest reviews of the book, however wrote: “The defining experience of Chinua Achebe’s life was the Nigerian civil war, also known as the Biafran War, of 1967–1970. The conflict was infamous for its savage impact on the Biafran people, Chinua Achebe’s people, many of whom were starved to death after the Nigerian government blockaded their borders…Achebe masterfully relates his experience, both as he lived it and how he has come to understand it.

“He begins his story with Nigeria’s birth pangs and the story of his own upbringing as a man and as a writer so that we might come to understand the country’s promise, which turned to horror when the hot winds of hatred began to stir. To read There Was a Country is to be powerfully reminded that artists have a particular obligation, especially during a time of war. All writers, Achebe argues, should be committed writers—they should speak for their history, their beliefs, and their people.”

The critic added, “Marrying history and memoir, poetry and prose, There Was a Country is a distillation of vivid firsthand observation and forty years of research and reflection. Wise, humane, and authoritative, it will stand as definitive and reinforce Achebe’s place as one of the most vital literary and moral voices of our age.”

Truth and moral question:

While many in Nigeria have not denied that what Achebe did in the 333 paged work was to tell the story as he saw it, there has been heated argument as to whether he told the whole truth, and if he did, whether it was necessary to document these devastating facts at this point of Nigeria’s history?

This argument arose primarily because Achebe reportedly accused the then Head of State of Nigeria, General Yakubu Gowon and Chief Obafemi Awolowo of initiating a policy of starvation as a weapon of war against Biafra, which led to genocide, as millions of Biafran children and aged civilians died needless slow and painful deaths.

Reacting to this, some critics have argued that the writer wrote half truths and that by raising this vexatious issue over 40 years after the war, he is not helping Nigerian unity.

In other words, there is the primary question as to whether, after There was a country, Achebe remains a true moral voice of his age and society?

The most important response is that of the principal player in the war, General Gowon. While not denying that there was blockade, the former Head of State said the Nigerian government under his leadership actually created a corridor which, according to him was unfortunately rejected by the Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. He said the casualties were so high because Ojukwu and the Biafrans rejected the idea of land food corridor that is why the suffering of the people was so pronounced and unnecessarily prolonged.

But even before Gowon’s statement, a major issue was whether Achebe needed to unearth this sore point and if by doing so, he has diminished as a writer and the moral voice of the Nigerian society and that of his age?

Professor ABC Nwosu, who fought the war on the Biafran side and later served as a minister in Nigeria long after the civil war, is of the view that Achebe told the truth and should be commended. In one of the articles he wrote as his initial contribution to the controversy, he said: “My generation is grateful to Prof. Achebe for writing his book on Biafra because to us, it offers an opportunity for national conversation and catharsis, a kind of cleansing and purging of the Nigerian soul of the evil of pogrom, genocide and mass-starvation to death of millions of innocent Biafran children in a “war of unity”.

Blame game:

Another issue that have fueled the controversy is the fact that Achebe specifically blamed Gowon and Awolowo for the starving policy. The argument is that it was not fair, given that he waited until Awolowo’s demise to publish the work, a development that would not avail the former leader the opportunity of defending himself as Gowon has done.

Achebe’s defenders have however argued that he also blamed the British Government under Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who he called a “villain.”

Former Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, like Gowon has argued repeatedly that if there is anybody to be blamed for the starvation and death of Biafran children out of starvation, it was the Biafran leader, Ojukwu. According to him, the Nigerian government granted the request to open a food corridor. As he puts it in an interview with The Nation, “This is unprecedented in any war of any type and so they made an offer to Ojukwu and the Biafran government that they will open land corridors not air ones because it was the only way they could verify that arms were not going in and ensure that the humanitarian agencies flying the food because the food was not from Nigerian government, that the international community’s bringing the food will now accompany the food from Nigeria into Biafran territory and stay with the food until it is handed over to the ordinary people.

That served the Nigerian government two things: they would inspect and ensure that arms don’t go in and that those supplying the food will be able to police it to ensure that it gets to the right people and not for the Biafran Army. This things seems to me as a very reasonable and rational proposition and this is what everybody felt was the solution to the problem. But, surprisingly, Ojukwu turned it down or the Biafran government turned it down and said they were not prepared for land corridor and that they preferred the air corridor.”

Nwosu, who spoke to The Nation has this to say about this issue: OJukwu and Biafra believed that allowing the corridor proposed by Gowon will give Nigeria Military advantage that they didn’t have. He proposed his own corridor and Gowon thought that would give Ojukwu an advantage that they didn’t have. Now again, the question; Nigeria said that since these people don’t want it, let them not have it; after all, it was their children that was starving not ours but they didn’t reckon that there was something that is called human pride and human freedom and it was not Ojukwu.”

The crossfire continues in the accompaning interviews with Nwosu and Fani-Kayode.

Former Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, spares no punches in this interview with Abuja Bureau Chief, Yomi Odunuga and Correspondents Dele Anofi And Faith Yahaya. He argues that the latest effort by world renowned writer, Prof. Chinua Achebe, totell the story of Nigeria’s Civil War is nothing short of turning history on its head. Excerpts:

The most controversial point in Chinua Achebe’s new book, ‘There was a Country’, is the accusation of genocide levelled against Chief Obafemi Awolowo and General Yakubu Gowon. Would you say it is a fair charge?

No, I would not. It is completely unfair, unreasonable, it is irrational and it is irresponsible and I say that with all due respect to Prof. Chinua Achebe who is highly respected. But I think the statement is completely uncalled for and inaccurate.

Why would you say it is inaccurate considering the fact that Achebe actively participated in that war?

The issue is this: there was a war and there was a blockade in that war which the Nigerian government placed against the Eastern Region i.e. the Biafra. They did so because that is standard practice in any war. If you look at the American Civil War, the First World War, the Second World War, every country imposes a military blockade on the other side to ensure that supplies don’t get there. It is standard and that is what the Nigerian government did. Rather, what the Nigerian government was a little bit more humane than most countries. So what happened is this, at the beginning of the war, they allowed an air corridor; they allowed food and medical supplies to be flown into Biafra in order to ameliorate the suffering of the ordinary people. So, the Red Cross, Medicins sans Frontieres, and humanitarian agencies and food aid were being flown in from various parts of the world in the middle of the night into Biafra. The blockade was not imposed completely; this is a humanitarian gesture on the part of the Nigerian government and they allowed it to happen for quite some time.

What happened later was this; the reason why they stopped the blockade, the government discovered and as a matter of fact, it was Chief Awolowo that discovered on a trip, that the food supply being flown in was not getting to the Biafran people. They were being diverted upon landing in Biafra and being given to the Biafran soldiers and the children and the families of the elite. They were eating very well and the ordinary people were not eating at all; that was the first problem.

The second problem and perhaps the major is: it was discovered that they were using the night flights to not just fly in food but to also fly in arms because once you open the sky, you cannot stop a plane in the middle of the air to say ‘stop I want to search’, and by the time it lands, it is landing in Biafran territory and you are not going to go there to search.

What was happening was that, arms were being flown in from the Ivory Coast, Tanzania and South Africa. Mercenaries were coming in under the cover of no blockade at night and they were using the humanitarian gesture to bring in arms.

When the Nigerian government discovered this, they said ‘we are going to stop this because we cannot allow our enemy to be using our humanitarian gesture to continue to arm themselves.’ So they decided that they must implement the policy of full blockade and it happens everywhere in the world. In other words, we will police the sky, if any plane is coming in to Biafra from anywhere, that plane will automatically be shot down and that is how they did it. Naturally, this caused untold suffering for the civilian population in the East because it meant food was not coming in any longer and it had terrible impact on them. And that is when you now start seeing pictures of kwashiokor -infected children, starved children on TV which suited Ojukwu because what it did was that it created more support for him in the international community as propaganda. He was beaming these pictures to everyone. The international community now prevailed on the Nigerian government that something needed to be done about this. The Nigerian government had British support, Soviet support, American support and they knew that the support will not last for too much longer if those pictures continue to beam into the bedroom and sitting rooms of the Europeans and the Americans. So they said something needed to be done and the Nigerian government said “we don’t have any problem because our war is not against the ordinary people of Biafra; it is against Ojukwu and his army”. They said no problem at all and what did they do? This is unprecedented in any war of any type: they made an offer to Ojukwu and the Biafran government that they will open land corridors, not air ones, because it was the only way they could verify that arms were not going in and ensure that the humanitarian agencies flying the food (because the food was not from Nigerian government), that the international community bringing the food will now accompany the food from Nigeria into Biafran territory and stay with the food until it is handed over to the ordinary people.

That served the Nigerian government two things: they would inspect and ensure that arms don’t go in and that those supplying the food will be able to police it to ensure that it gets to the right people and not for the Biafran Army. These things seems to me as a very reasonable and rational proposition, and this is what everybody felt was the solution to the problem. But, surprisingly, Ojukwu turned it down, or the Biafran government turned it down, and said they were not prepared for land corridor, and that they preferred the air corridor. Of course, when their response was made clear, the Nigerian government was not prepared to do that and that was why food was not getting to the Biafrans. After that the suffering and the starvation continued. If you are going to ask me who was responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Biafran women and children and the civilians during the course of the civil war, I would put the blame on the door step of nobody but Col. Ojukwu who made that choice and decided that he would prefer that his people suffer and starve to death so that he can beam the pictures to international communities and gain more support from them.

Now, you don’t have to take my word for it. I would cite three people who have written about it. The first person I would cite is Ralph Uwechie who was the Special Envoy for Biafra to France during the Civil War. Presently he is the head of Ohaneze and he wrote a book in 1971 in which he said it clearly that Ojukwu was more interested in propaganda and beaming pictures of starving children to the international community than ameliorating and stopping the suffering of the people. He put the whole blame on Ojukwu’s doorstep and on the doorstep of the Biafran elite whom he described as cowards that could not tell Ojukwu the truth. Another person that spoke out was a gentleman by the name of Richard Goldstein. He was the media consultant to the Biafran government. He was doing all their international media work for them and this man wrote a formal letter

to Ojukwu and the Biafran government in which he resigned on the basis that the Nigerian government made an offer to allow land corridor and Ojukwu rejected it and the people were starving. For him, it was like the leaders of the Biafrans did not understand that it is more important to ensure that your people survive the war than to be beaming pictures. So he said he was not prepared to accept it anymore.

This is widely circulated in the media, it is recently leaked. This was an authentic document, i.e. the letter of resignation and he used words like inhuman. The Biafrans were being inhuman; they were being unfair and that he could not believe what was happening because they had misled him into helping them and that he could no longer accept that. He blamed Ojukwu as well.

The most important person spoke just a few days ago, and that was General Gowon himself. He responded to Prof. Achebe that it wa because Ojukwu and the Biafrans rejected the idea of land food corridor that is why the suffering of the people was so pronounced and unnecessarily prolonged. So, this is the history of it and I think every single Igbo person needs to seat down and reflect on that. If you want to find out why so many of your children and people died in the Civil War, they died unnecessarily, they died a slow and painful death. First and foremost is the man who refused land corridor to come in and that man is Ojukwu.

Whatever the case, would you say that the denial of food in a war situation is justifiable?

Let me put it to you like this: there is no case in which war is fought that there is no food blockade, absolutely none. It is even the Nigerian government that was lenient and I say no war including the American war, war between two nations and civil war. The minute war is declared, standard practice, we will block the port of the enemy and you will also try to stop food supplies from going through the air.

During the Second World War, they were even bombing civilian ships that were crossing the channel from America to the United States. The

Nazis were doing that and the Allies were doing same to the Nazi as well. So it is standard practice. Now, it seems to me that if you are in the state of war, you cannot deny any combat arrowed at you if you do not have the power to do it and that is what happened. It is a question of war. Even the Nigerian government relaxed it and opened the air space for them to come in but it was abused and another offer of food corridor through land be done and it was rejected, so they went back to ensure that there was a full blockade of Biafra and it need not to have been so had it been that the Biafrans were initially honest and fair to their own people and flew in only food and not stolen all the food. So, I think that nobody wanted to starve children or deprive people of food; nobody wants civilians to suffer in a war, no doubt about that. However, it is legitimate to impose a blockade; it is lawful under the rules and laws of war. There is whole body of law that supports the imposition of blockade and the consequences of that blockade are left to the people that are disturbing their country. The consequences of the Nigerian blockade could have been ameliorated by the effort and the good behavior of the right counsel of Ojukwu but he decided not to behave in the right way and valued the pictures and footage of starving children in television far more than he did feeding them through the land food corridor.

General Gowon also said the civil war would not have happened if seccession had not taken place. To which side would you ascribe the greater blame for this national tragedy?

That is a very difficult question, but I have always been somebody who has sympathy for the Biafran course. If you look up the history of it, you will find out that any people that feel sufficiently maligned and they feel that their people are being slaughtered and so on and so forth have the right of self-determination. It is enshrined in international law. The event that led to the civil war, depending on how far you go, you will be able to know who caused the whole thing.

Let me not go far back; let us just talk about what happened just before the civil war and what led directly to it. Over a hundred thousand Igbo people were slaughtered. It was a revenge action for the killing of Northern leaders and Yoruba leaders from the January 15,1966 coup. They did a lot of killings. If you want to know who drew the first blood, who shed the first blood when it comes to Nigerian military intervention, it is certainly the Igbo. The January 15th 1966 coup was an Igbo coup and a lot of non-Igbo were killed. It is only Igbo that were not killed and that upset the North and the West and the reaction to that, as far as I am concerned, was disproportionate.

Six months after that, there was another coup, three hundred Igbo officers were killed in one night. Following that, over hundred thousand Igbo were slaughtered in the North as a direct reprisal for the January 15th action and, in that situation, you need to ask yourself, if you were the leader of the East yourself and you are in full command of the Eastern Region, what would you have done? Would you have stayed and allowed your people to be killed because the fear was that they had killed all their people in the North and even as they were leaving the North because Ojukwu said come home, at every train station, they were stopped and the ones that did not stop were stoned and it was a nightmare for women, children. They were going to hospitals and cutting pregnant women and pulling out the child and saying they wanted to know if it is a boy or a girl and dashed its head on the floor. These are historical facts. They suffered immeasurably and they were killed in droves, slaughtered like chicken and they had to go back to their homeland. And like Ojukwu once said, once they crossed that line into the Eastern Region, they were under the protection of the Biafran government and army and they felt safe. As far as I am concerned, if I was an Igbo person there is no doubt in my mind that it was absolutely right and proper for them to say we are not going to have any more of this. Either we negotiate and restructure this country or we go our separate ways. So, to that extent, I feel it is a legitimate aspiration to say that ‘we are going to quit because they want to kill all of us.’ The feeling amongst the Igbo then was that, after killing Igbo in the North, the Northern army will now come to the East and exterminate all of them. That was the genuine fear the Igbo had and they are entitled to self-defence and it is enshrined in international law. I feel that it was a perfectly legitimate aspiration to say ‘no, I don’t want to have my people killed and if you don’t stop killing my people, I will not be part of you.’ Then came the Aburi Declaration, and negotiations took place. Aburi was signed and there were some issues, but I feel Ojukwu made a mistake because he got 90 per cent of what he wanted in the Aburi Accord. It is unfortunate that it was the 10 per cent that he did not get that made him say no, otherwise we would have had a confederation if he had just accepted.

Chief Awolowo advised him to accept since he had gotten more or less what he wanted but he refused, and I feel that is where he made a mistake. Since he got 90 per cent of his demands in Aburi, he should not have insisted on the 10 per cent and it is the 10 per cent that made him refuse. And what happened, immediately it was clear that he was not going to accept the 90 per cent Aburi deal, he now went on the offensive against the Mid-West and he completely overran all the minorities in the Eastern Region – that is the Ibibios, the Efiks, went into the Mid-West, Urhobo, Isoko, the Benin; the Biafran Army just swept everywhere and knocked on the door of Ore. It was not just a question of secession, it was a question of occupation: take the oil areas, capture the southern minority people, take the Mid-West and if possible take Yorubaland and then secede. So, it was not just a case of the Igbo going because if it was, perhaps they had a right to say, ‘ok we are going.’ But if they were reasonable they would have accepted a confederation. To my mind, it was not just a question of confederation.

What Ojukwu really wanted was to ensure that the whole of the South was under the control of the Igbo. Also, the French had told him about the vast oil reserves in the Niger Delta area and that is what all this is all about. It was not just the case of take my people and go, it was the question of, yes, this is our opportunity, we will take the oil, we will occupy the whole place, we will capture the people and ensure that we have full control of southern Nigeria. Even if the Yorubas will not come with us and we will ensure we dominate them forever. This is the issue. For us on the Nigerian side, it was not a war of emancipation. Particularly, General Benjamin Adekunle of the Third Marine rose up and said no, we are going to oppose this and we are going to fight back and they pushed him out of the Mid-Western Region. Now, to your question; it is a difficult but good question because at the end of the day, they did not have what they wanted because they were not reasonable and they rejected the confederation and because they wanted to conquer, occupy the people of the South.

Would you say Ojukwu consulted widely with others before plunging the region into that war?

I don’t think the issue of consultation really arose at the initial stage because they had lost a lot. If I were Ojukwu in this issue, I would have done precisely what he did because his people were being slaughtered like fowls. But the problem is that he went too far. Once he was given the necessary guarantee and Aburi was offered to him, he should have stopped there. The fact that he did not stop there added to it.

Were there any alternatives to war considering the situation then?

He should have accepted. When they met in Aburi, they agreed on a confederation. When they came back to Nigeria, the northern hawks in Gowon’s government… the Murtala Muhammeds told Gowon that he had gone too far, take a little bit out. He took about 10 per cent out. I cannot remember what the details were but 90 per cent was left. Ojukwu wanted a hundred percent and that is where the famous statement “On Aburi we stand” emanated from. I don’t think he should have stood on Aburi a hundred percent. He should have taken the 90 per cent. He would have had a confederation and they would have been fully protected with their own army, police and protect the people and remain within the confederation. He said no and went ahead and attacked. He went on the offensive against the Mid-West and he tried to conquer the people of the South, Mid-West and the southern minorities and take what were to be the oil deposits and take them all to Biafra. That is where he overstretched himself and I think he went too far. And in terms of consultation, frankly speaking, nobody mattered at that time.

In fairness to Ojukwu, he is seen as the saviour of the Igbo. I do not believe that any self-respecting man would be against him. Everybody was with him except for Zik who was sitting on the fence, and at the end of the day, if the Igbo had succeeded Zik would have been the father of the nation. Let me not attack Zik, but he would have sang a different tune if the Biafrans had succeeded. As far as I am concerned, no self-respecting Igbo man will see hundreds far as I am concerned, no self-respecting Igbo man will see hundreds of thousands of his people being killed in the north and would say he should sit and pretend that nothing was happening.

Have you read Achebe’s book?

Of course, I had a special copy of the book before it was released to the public and I read it from cover to cover. I knew what was in it and you don’t even need to know what is in a book if he had gone to leak extracts of it in Daily Telegraph in the United Kingdom. It was there for everybody to read. I don’t even need to read the whole book to tell you that he was lying when he said Awolowo and Gowon were those who committed genocide against children during the civil war. All I need to do is read that extract and make my comment which is what a lot of people did but I read the whole book and as far as I am concerned, the book belongs in the dustbin because what it does is that it is being written by a man who is still living in Biafra. He has a Biafra mindset and it is the greatest exercise of revision in history i.e. in our history so far. What he has done is that he tried to distort history, distort the facts, malign people that should be described as liberal during the conflict. Awolowo and Gowon were the very people that stood up and said that there must be ‘no victor, no vanquished’ in this war, we must be liberal, we must be generous and we must treat the Igbo as Igbo even after the war. They were on the Igbo side and this man wrote a book to malign them and to describe them as genocidal maniacs killing children. Talking of integration, they all came to the South-West and were given their property. There were no abandoned properties, jobs were safe and kept for them; they were treated well. Yes, there was the issue of currency change because they were using Nigerian money to buy arms, so Awolowo changed the currency. The issue of the 20 pounds was not an Awolowo initiative, it was an initiative by Central Bank Committee. They made that recommendation because of the claims they came up with. An Igbo man will come and say he had so and so amount in his bank account, meanwhile there was no way of verifying anything. It was not an Awolowo initiative. The fact that they were allowed to come back, they were not harassed and 10 years after the civil war, we had an Igbo Vice President, it has never happened in any country. Go and check world history. It has never happened anywhere before for people that have rebelled against a state to become number two in that state only 10 years after. Gowon and Awolowo were very generous to them. If Murtala Muhammed had been the Head of State at that time, there might not be a Biafra at the end of the day because it would have been a total war for people like that. So I feel that people like Achebe have been very unkind to the memory of Awolowo and very unkind to the Yoruba people who have always opened their arms to the people of the South-East, embraced them and also allowed them to have their homes in Lagos and other places. I said unkind to the Yoruba race because he attacked the Yorubas as well by saying, “Awolowo and his people”… that is what he wrote in his book.

He also highlighted the reasons why the Yorubas particularly hate the Igbos. Can you say anything about this?

All the reasons that he listed are what the British will call balderdash. That is completely unfounded. If you look at the history of our country, you will see that Yorubas are more accommodating of the Igbos, and of other tribes and other nationalities. The NCNC was established by a Yoruba man, Sir Herbert Macaulay and he handed over the party flag on his death bed to Zik who was the National Secretary of the party, not caring if he was an Igbo man or not. Action Group did not exist at that time. Zik would also have become the Premier of the Western Region. Have you ever heard of a Yoruba man almost becoming the premier of the East? Zik would have become the premier, his party was more powerful. Charles Onyeama made a famous statement in 1945 that Igbo domination was just a matter of time in Nigeria and in Africa. It was because of that statement that Egbe Omo Oduduwa and Action Group came up in 1948 and after that, Zik himself said the God of the Igbo had given the Igbo the power of liberating the whole of Africa. The consequence of these two comments, Onyema’s and Zik’s comments, introduced tribalism into the political arena. It had never happened before. That was when everybody felt that something was wrong and it was after Zik’s statement of 1949 that they went to election in the South -West and Zik almost won. He lost by a narrow majority because Action Group went into alliance with the Ibadan People’s Party and that is how Zik was kept out of becoming Premier of the West. So, how on earth can anybody accuse the Yoruba? Even after that, NCNC still remained neck-and-neck in power with Action Group even in the South West. It was in 1953 when the NNDP was formed that most Yoruba’s went to NNDP. NCNC which was an Igbo party, if you like, was extremely powerful in the South-West for many years. And we had people like Adelabu in Ibadan, Ilesha, Oyo; they were all NCNC and we accommodated them.

Would you say Nigeria has reintegrated the Igbos after 40 years?

The issue is that we have had Igbo Vice President. How many Presidents have we had since then? Since then, after Shagari, we have had Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Goodluck who is partially Igbo because he is called Ebele (laughs). Anybody that tells me that Igbo have not been fully integrated, I am sorry, I don’t mean to be rude to anybody, but that person is living in dream land. Why do I say so? If you looked at the level of Igbo participation since 1999, especially the women… it was Obasanjo that really opened the door for them. Look at what happened in 1999: we had Igbo Minister of Finance, Igbo Minister of Foreign Affairs, we had Igbo as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. We have had Obi Ezekwesili, Okonjo Iwieala, Charles Soludo, Dora Akunyili. You know you just had this sudden surge in the Presidency at that time. Andy Uba was one of those running the government. It got to a point that many Yoruba were accusing President Obasanjo of having an Igbo father which we all know is not true. Even the first General Officer Commanding Obasanjo appointed when he came in was General Obiakor. He was the first Igbo GOC in the army ever since the civil war. Obiakor was such a good officer that he opened the doors for the man that is there now and other Igbo officers to become highly integrated within the army and the military high command. Now, you have an Igbo Chief of Army Staff and it is a good thing. Who owns more property than any other ethnic group in the South-West apart from probably the Yoruba’s themselves, is it not the Igbo’s? Look at Alaba market and see how many Igbo own property there. Nobody has ever discriminated among them. They have land, and they have money and every other thing in the South-West more than anywhere else in the country. Do they reciprocate it? Do we have Yorubas having all these things in the East? I think that the idea that Yoruba people are not accommodating is completely false. We have shown that we are accommodating but the problem is that people may take our generosity and liberalism for some kind of weakness and they feel they can come to our area and take us for granted. They feel they can come to our territory to insult us and say things about us and act as if we are some kinds of fools. We are not fools at all. We know how to defend our corner if we have to. Yoruba are just too enlightened. So when the Igbo’s now come and start writing books like Chinua Achebe and start saying Yoruba’s are genocidal maniacs and they start talking about someone who is not alive to defend himself, claiming that he committed atrocities during the war and for him to say ‘Awolowo and his people’, it is a very big insult on us and we must set the record straight. Otherwise, millions of Igbo youth today and in the future may think what this great man wrote in his book was actually the truth. We must never allow history to be revised; it will mar the relationship between us and the Igbo. It will set us back so many years and it’s something that is not good which is why I said we will not accept it.

During the week, Lagos state government began the implementation of the new Traffic law which restrict the movement of commercial motorcyclists. Joe Agbro Jr., Esther Mohammed, Samuel Olayaki, Daniel Popoola, and Ofejiro Egbedi examine the issues in the controversy surrounding the regulation of commercial motorcycle operators.

Agege, Mile 12, Ikeja, Victoria Island, Apapa, Iyana-Iba, Surulere and many other major points in Lagos are wearing a new look. The disappearance on major roads of commercial motorcycle operators popularly known as Okada is glaring. Within a twinkle, Lagos, last week, lost a feature which for nearly a decade its residents have been in a love/hate relationship with.

Since last week, the Lagos State government started the enforcement of the restriction of Okadas from 475 roads in the state. This move generated a lot of hoopla and stress for residents, many of whom have come to depend on the Okada either as a source of livelihood or as a means of movement.

In rebellion, since the clampdown, in various parts of the state, some Okada riders have attacked and vandalised Bus Rapid Transport other called BRT buses. Passengers were forced to disembark while stones and sticks were hauled to smash the windshields. As at Wednesday, 42 BRT buses had been vandalised. On some routes, authorities have had to pull off the buses altogether. This worrisome reaction, according to a source at Lagbus has cost the government about N10m.

At major bus-stops, now, the crowds are larger and the percentage of vehicles on the road seems to have increased because more people now bring out their cars. Buses and tricycles popularly known as keke have suddenly taken over the routes. The early morning rush now comes with hiked fares. The available buses that are constrained to deal with the public have raised their fares. The bus fare for the yellow and black stripes mini-buses plying from Agege to Oshodi shot up from N100 to N150 immediately the restriction took effect. This is bound to be expected. After all, when demand exceeds supply, there is greater tendency for price to increase.

Exploiting the situation

Chibuzo Okafor who lives around Ijeshatedo believes the state government is oppressing the Okada riders and it would have been better if the government introduce tricycle (keke) before restricting motorbikes. Okafor said, “the Okada riders are angry, even people are suffering from it now, everything has turned into confusion.”

Dangerous road attitudes, armed robberies, stealing, and flouting of traffic laws, according to authorities, informed the restrictions. According to statistics released by the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), 107 persons died while 512 persons sustained serious injuries in 442 Okada related accidents in the state. Also, the Lagos State Police Commissioner, Umaru Manko, said most of the robberies recorded in the state were carried out by motorcyclists. According to his records, 513 of the fatal accidents recorded in the state were caused by Okada operators. Reacting to comments that law was insensitive, Manko said, “the state (Lagos) has about 9, 010 roads and only 400 of these roads are being restricted for now, so how can someone say it is wickedness?”

But, according to some Okada riders, some policemen have resorted to harassing them even when they ply routes not listed by the law. “Even on the inside roads, dem dey catch us,” said John Abaji who said he used to ply the busy Agege Motor Road, one of the 475 roads on which okada has been restricted. The clamp-down has resulted in hike in fares, huge traffic, and a fear of increase in crime.

But, while it is too early to know whether the policy is working, some persons fear the restriction might trigger more crime. “They said the Okada men were responsible for the stealing and armed robbery going on in the state,” said Mrs. Ajoke Adebiyi, a trader who lives in Mafoluku. “But, it is now that many of those boys will start stealing when they no longer see the kind of money they see before.”

At pockets of places around Lagos, there is acrimony, especially from the Okada riders. An episode on the GRA side of the Ladipo Bus-stop on the Agege Motor Road revealed the type of angst these Okada riders bear. Berating a commercial tricycle rider for parking in their ‘garage’, the Okada riders shooed. Lamenting, one of the Okada riders said, “The keke riders are the ones in charge now. They are the ones making money along this route now. We are not allowed to drive beyond these GRA to Maryland. If we do, we will get our bikes seized,” he said angrily.

Many of the Okada riders ply those routes because of the profits they make. Yakubu Hassan, who for over four years has been plying the Agege Motor Road between Iyana Ipaja and Oshodi, is bitter. He said, “I have a wife and two kids; they all rely on me for their daily needs and welfare… How do we survive? These major roads are where we get the money from. These past few days for me is like the world is coming to an end.”

The chairman of Orisunmibare/Shasha Alimosho Motorbikes Association, Olawunmi Akeem said, “Since the government has stopped us from plying through the highway, we are working within Shasha and Orisunmibare, we are not disobeying the government directive at all, we did not because of that increase the price of the fare we are still carrying it at the normal price.”

Coping without okada

But, it is not only the Okada riders that are feeling the pinch of the new law. Many Lagosians have grown used to riding Okadas, hence, making the adjustment is bringing stress. One of them is Fisayo Faleti. “The ban of Okada is very bad,” Faleti said. “Usually, from my house at Agbado, I take Okada. But it has been tough since the ban. On Tuesday, from Agbado to Abule-Egba, I spent over one and a half hours.”

Also, Fadoju Adebayo, who works at the Ikeja High Court ,said, “I normally take bike from Toyin Street to court. But for the past few days now, I have been trekking every morning. And most times, when you get a bike to take you there, the fare is now times two of what we usually pay.”

Another commuter, Sarah Lawal, who lives in Mafoluku, also complained. “I take a bike from my street to the airport junction on my way to work every morning for N70, but now the price is out of hand,” she said. “We now pay N100/120. Even at this new price, most of them now make shakara, they now have their limits where they can ride to. This is a big punishment on us.”

And according to Godfrey Mokwe, “Before the ban on them, from Iyana-Ipaja to Oshodi used to be N100 but now it is N200. Can you just imagine that?”

The new Lagos State Traffic Law which came into being on August 22 started being enforced last week. While the state government cited safety and bringing sanity to Lagos traffic as reasons, few persons, largely the Okada riders (commercial motorcyclists), think the law is draconian.

According to a news report, an Ikeja High Court on Wednesday granted accelerated hearing to a case between some commercial motorcycle operators and the Lagos State government over the ban of Okada on 475 roads. The case, filed by some commercial motorcycle operators under the aegis of the All Nigerian Autobike Commercial Owners and Workers Association, will be up for substantive hearing on November 16. Representing the motorcycle riders, Bamidele Aturu, argued that the law was an infringement of people’s rights.

Aturu said, “My worry is that they should not turn these Okada riders to armed robbers by depriving them of their means of sustenance. The police should desist from arresting Okada riders.”

The claimants had argued in the substantive suit that some of the restricted roads were federal roads listed under the Federal Highways Act, Cap F13, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

They had prayed the court to declare Section 3(1) of the law, which prohibits the riding, driving or propelling of a cart, wheel barrow, motorcycle or tricycle on the major highways in Lagos, as unconstitutional.

The claimants said restricting their operations on the said roads would violate their rights to freedom of movement, guaranteed by Section 41(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended.

However, Wahab Shittu, a lawyer based in Lagos said the best way to look at the issue is to look at analytically. He said: “Traffic on trunk roads is reserved for National Assembly exclusively. By implication, it is only the National Assembly that can legislate on these roads.”

Shittu said, the broader side is that “you will see that State House of Assembly covers the entire state. And then, the governor is expected to govern the entire state. So, my view is that since the state governor has the responsibility to guarantee the security and welfare of the citizens in line with constitutional provision, by implication, he also has the right to put in place a legislative framework that will ensure sanity on the roads which will ensure the welfare of the people. So, if the Okada riders constitute such a nuisance on our roads, whether federal or state, I think using that philosophy, one can say, the state House of Assembly has the right to put in place laws to regulate such activities. The so-called federal roads are not used by federal agencies alone. Even state roads are not used by state officials alone. So, legislating for road users on those roads, whether, federal or state is within the purview of the legislative authority of the Lagos State House of Assembly.”

Groaning under unemployment?

The advent of commercial motorcycles in Lagos could be traced to the dire unemployment situation and also the quick money to be made from riding commercial motorcycles were what forced many into the trade in the first place. According to Femi Adeyemi, an Okada rider, “I used this Okada to feed my family and also to send my children to school. Now they have seized my bike from me. How will I feed my family and cater for my children without any work at hand now?”

His bike is among the seized ones which the Lagos State government Task Force has set aside for crushing. Only last week, it was reported that over 3, 000 motorcycles were crushed.

Tope Adeola, who is of the opinion that government should not oppress Lagosians with this law, since there is no other means for the okada riders said, “I have to spend a thousand naira yesterday from my place to my office, if I spend a thousand everyday how much would be left for me at the end of the month?” he asked.

Isioma Monye, who believes the ban on Okada will cripple business said, “although we are all aware of the dangers but at the same time the government and the people should try to come to a level ground where they will be able to deliberate on the issue because we need the motorcycle for easy movement, especially when you are going to work or you have an appointment to meet up with.” He opined that, “all the preventive measure they (Lagos State government) have been introducing, like the putting on of helmet by both passengers and riders should be properly instituted, so the banning of the motorcycle along the expressway is not good at this time in Lagos.”

Examining the fallout of the enforcement of the law, Shittu, who condemned the violence unleashed on the BRT buses however, said, “The law bans Okada people from plying those roads without making alternative arrangement for their source of livelihood. It may have been infringing on the right to live and it could also have some social implications that could trigger off protests because democracy as opposed to dictatorial regime, sovereignty lies in the people. And so, whatever policy you want to put in place, you must receive the overwhelming endorsement of the people.”

Fijabi Omokehinde said the banning of Okada on those 475 roads will cause lots of problems. He said, “Some graduate use okada as a means of livelihood in Lagos and even feed their family, there will be a lot of armed robbers because it will cause them to be jobless and an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. And looking at this, the police will have a lot of work to do in the metropolis.”

He also said a better way for the government to go about it is to start from the top. “Before banning Okada the importation should be banned.”

According to Omoyele Giwa, “If you ban Okada now, the crime rate in Lagos State will increase. I am not safe, you are not safe, which implies that my life is at risk because people are even frustrated with the economy… I am not in support of it at all.”

But, not everyone is against the state government’s decision. To, Mr. Frank, the government’s action on the okada is good but seizing the bikes he said, “Is what I don’t like. Though the restriction of the Okada really affected me in terms of hike in fares of commercial buses, yet this does not bother me since the restriction is for our benefit.”

According to Mr. John Adegoke,

“I believe that BRF has taken the most important step to alienate this ugly occurrence and we need to give our total support. It might be bitter and uncomfortable for us presently but I want to state here categorically, that the embedded benefit is worth embracing and fight for.”

Soji White, also a rider said, “to be candid, some of us can’t go to the government to give us job, so we are just helping ourselves in our own little way and if you look at this motorbike business it is feeding more than ten people because am a polygamist. If they stop our operation in Lagos, how do they want us to feed our family?”

Though, the restriction of movement of Okadas has been successfully enforced in parts of other states, the case of Lagos is being resisted – not only by the Okada riders but also the citizenry. The issue of constitutionality is being pursued in the courts, while the citizens have begun making alternative arrangements. And on the social media Facebook, a taunt is on against Lagos State governor. The post simply says: ‘Fashola is working and Lagosians are walking.’

But whatever way it goes, opinions are as divided as they come. On the social media, especially on Facebook and Twitter, residents have continued to vent their views and opinions. Some agree that it is a well thought out decision that would sanitise the way people commute in Lagos. In fact, many of the respondents who have testified to the lawlessness of the okada riders and their herd mentality whenever anyone of them is involved in accident with a driver on the road felt the ban or restriction is a good riddance to bad rubbish.

From bank accounts to emails, the online security of many Nigerians is being breached. In this report, Joe Agbro Jr., Rita Ohai, and Bukola Afolabi shed light on the hacking threat 

The coming of the Internet has changed our lives. It has changed the way we think, the way we relate and what we do. So long to all the other ages, this is the information age. And no one wants to be left behind. From the kids to the adults, it’s a scramble to stamp an online presence. Politicians, religious leaders, and other public officials have all embraced its use. However, one by one, many Internet users are becoming wary, following vicious attacks from hackers who have begun to drive fear into most users.

A report from Symantec’s latest Internet Security Threat indicates that Nigeria has moved six positions up the ladder, to occupy the 59th position globally, amongst countries with greatest Internet security threat.

Only recently, Pastor W. F. Kumuyi, the General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church, announced in an advertorial that his account on the popular social media website, Facebook, has been ‘compromised.’ According to the advertorial signed by U. J. J. Asemota, the church secretary; “Through messages purportedly sent by the General Superintendent, the criminal elements solicited for funds from unwary citizens to be sent to a designated account for reasons that simply wrankle the mind.”

Though, the advertorial recognised hacking into peoples’ Facebook account isn’t a new scheme, it presumed “no one, not even by a stretch of imagination, could have thought that respected servants of God such as Pastor Kumuyi would be made victim to this disturbing act.”

Sadly, the church failed to realise how level a playing field the Internet is – for anybody and everybody. The Facebook account of Pastor Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) was also attacked. And upon becoming President, Goodluck Jonathan had embraced the social media website as a tool to reach out to more Nigerians. This ploy actually proved a robust tool for reaching out and being reached. But, the fairy tale ended shortly and the president’s Facebook account is no longer as engaging. Popular musicians, D’Banj and Tuface Idibia, have also had their Facebook and twitter accounts compromised.

Cyber spying

According to a 2011 Facebook post titled, ‘Learn how to hack any Facebook account using a web based exploit, written by Hacking, “through the use of Twitter combined with Facebook’s ‘Mutual Friend’ feature, we can use a friend’s account to verify your own, in other words, if the person you want to get the login information from is on your friends list on Facebook…you can use your Twitter account to verify your friend on Facebook taking advantage of the vulnerability of the twitter status sync exploit, and get their login email and password sent to you. But the victim must be on your friends list on Facebook.’

While the goal of every website, especially social media websites, is to guard their website, hackers tirelessly come up with indigenous ways to breach this security. And to many geeks, hacking is becoming a huge pastime done maliciously or at times as a prank. In fact, many tutorials online teach how to hack into other peoples emails or social media account.

In September, Facebook announced it had one billion active users. But, the constant poaching of data is the latest in security headaches for many internet users. But while many computer users cringe at the antics of hackers, Gabriel Setoboh, an Information Technology expert, explains that there are misconceptions surrounding the job. “Hacking is a profession, he said. “People actually go to school to learn hacking because it is valuable intelligence tool. Even though there are guys out there who are using it to find new ways to harass people, defraud corporations and steal information, it is actually a skill government agencies pay millions for.”

Although there’s no denying that there are hackers out there with bad intentions, they make up only a small percentage of the hacker community, says Setoboh. “Many of the people who try to break into your email address or website are actually a small set of mediocre folks. The real pro’s deal with major data and there are more hackers out there than you can imagine. Every ICT firm has a team helping to monitor activities, all reliable banks have them and many other serious minded corporations because it helps them keep tabs on their competitors and their staff.”

In spite of widespread worry of the low level of security users of social media have, Leke Sijuade says the choice lies with the owners of the web pages, “The Internet is the most unsafe place to be but most people refuse to believe this. That is why most of the security problems encountered on the Internet are due to human mistakes.

“People share too much information online. You see people posting all manner of nonsense on the Internet in the name of being social when they know that this is a public venue. For example, why should any right thinking person put their original house address or their date of birth online? That’s ridiculous! If people cannot exercise some level of maturity on the internet then they will just continue to give rotten eggs a platform to mess with them,” he said.

Technology journalist, Mat Honan, who writes for Wired,a magazine devoted to technology, would find out in August when he had all the data on his iPhone, iPad, and MacBook deleted by a hacker. His twitter account was also compromised. Writing later about his experience in an article titled, ‘How Apple and Amazon security flaws led to my epic hacking, Honan said; “In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed. First my Google account was taken over, and then deleted. Next my Twitter account was compromised, and used as a platform to broadcast racist and homophobic messages. And worst of all, my AppleID account was broken into, and my hackers used it to remotely erase all of the data on my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook.”

A wired and compromised world

Considering the populist tendencies of the Internet, this trend is scary, as the cache of data online becomes so vulnerable. As technology gets sophisticated, so does the breaches.

And this security issue is of special concern in the banking industry, as banking is highly based on trust from its customers. Hence, the risk of hackers, denial of service attacks, technological failures, breach of privacy of customer information, and opportunities for fraud created by the anonymity of the parties to electronic transactions all have to be managed.

Cybercriminals are increasingly looking at business rather than consumer accounts to hack as banks scramble to shore up their defences.

Investigations by one of the new generation banks revealed that consumer banking units in the country have been hit hard by hackers, but some banks have implemented stronger security controls.

Also, business banking systems used to transfer much larger sums of money are targeted more frequently, because the retail side of the bank (the consumer) has spent more years building defences and learning about it, while the wholesale side (the business banking) has done nothing, as a result this segment of the industry has come under attack.

In Nigeria, business accounts can be a more lucrative haul, as many accounts have been compromised through Automated Clearing House (ACH) fraud, where the ACH is used by banks to handle direct deposits, cheques, bill payments and cash transfers between businesses and individuals.

Further investigations revealed that the United Kingdom has a wider network for retaining money mules, or people who agree either knowingly or not to accept funds into their account for immediate transfer somewhere else, while in the United States where consumer online bank accounts often only require a login and password, hackers have obtained more account details than they can find money mules.

Chris Uwaje, chief executive officer, Connect Technologies, who spoke on the issue, said, there has to be some security and procurement standards in place to checkmate the activities of cybercriminals.

“A lot of people buy IT infrastructure that are porous and as a result, some of their information can be released to hackers,” he added.

He said that the level of security where hackers operate matters a lot, noting that most of the attacks by hackers are based on window servers because it is a straight jacket, but find it difficult to use the open source application. However, he was of the opinion that all government servers should adopt an open source application, because of security issues. Noting that there is a lot of insider information to cybercriminals both here and abroad, Uwaje said that each company must have IT security and standard.

He also emphasised that there is a need to have directory of who and who is practising IT in the country.

Although with improvement and convenience in banking through the use of ATM cards, users could be heading for misfortune as reports of fraud and hacking into customer accounts increase.

Tim Akano, the Vice Chairman of WINI Group, a partnership platform of 25 global companies in e-payment, risk management, IT and database security, among others, said banks must put in place appropriate technology to check activities of hackers. “One of the things, which the CBN has done, that is very good, is the decision that before the end of the year, all banks should have at least two-factor authentication,” he said.

“Your password is not enough to protect you from being hacked; your PIN number as at today can also not protect you from being hacked. Technology has advanced to such a level that someone who is interested in using your details for dubious purposes can bring everything you have done on your computer back. That is why it is imperative for banks to move from one-factor authentication, which is the usage of your PIN number/password to two and even three-factor authentication so that if one factor is compromised then the second or third factor authentication will be in place to protect the bank’s customers.”

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has already compelled banks and financial institutions to attain Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) certification by January next year.

The PCI-DSS was created by the major payment card brands such as Visa, MasterCard, and American Express to ensure that all companies involved in processing credit card transactions have a secure platform.

According to Head, Shared Services Office at CBN, Mr. Chidi Umeano, “CBN will sanction banks, should they fail to meet up with the compliance by 2013, and apart from imposing sanctions, I think it is in their interests to become compliant in order to protect customers’ money and to strengthen their confidence as banks.”

But, as banking operations go digital, the fear is whether they might just wake up one morning to find their precious digital life and fortune compromised.

Nigeria was the first to have a well-funded, developed railway system in Africa. But 52 years after independence, trains have virtually disappeared from the nation’s tracks, leading to monumental human and economic loss, reports Sunday Oguntola

In 1965, Ibrahim Biu, a Kolanut merchant, moved his goods to Lagos from Kano in just 14 hours. 47 years after, it takes the 72-year-old businessman almost a week to take delivery of the same goods in Mushin, Lagos from Kano. “I never imagined things would get this worse for this country,” the retiring merchant lamented last week. Back then, he simply joined trains in Iddo Lagos. He could avoid travelling twice in a week and made substantial profits. But not anymore. “I don’t travel to Kano again. I only tell them to help me bring the Kola with trailers.”

His profit margin has shrunk significantly, almost killing the business. “Since I am not there to monitor, they just send whatever Kola is available to me. I cannot choose the good ones. I spend more on transport and I am quitting the business by the end of this year because I am not making profit again,” Biu confided.

From grace to grass

He said the death of the rail system is wholly responsible for the near collapse of his business. “When there were trains, I could travel anyhow. It was just for 10-14 hours. The journeys were smooth and enjoyable. No accidents, no armed robbery, no disturbance. But these days, I cannot travel again on road. I wait for one week for the goods to get to me here,” he added.

Biu’s case illustrates the grace-to-grass story of the nation’s railway. 52 years after independence, rail transport has nosedived, even gone into complete oblivion across the nation. Tracks are in disuse, coaches abandoned and passengers stranded. 75% of the nearly 200 trains owned by the National Railway Corporation (NRC) are not functional. The 3,505 kilometers (2,178 mi) of single track lines, all have 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge operated by the NRC are barely existent, completely overgrown with weeds.

A retired railway worker, Mr. Eugene Ugwu, said those who saw the glorious days of the corporation cannot but weep. “At a point, we were the most vibrant, active rail system in the whole of Africa. The hope was that NRC was going to become the largest employers of labour like in India. It is amazing we made a 360 degree roundabout and found ourselves in no where today,’’ he lamented. He added that Nigerians freely moved across the country in trains, boosting the nation’s economy. “Goods were cheaply exchanged from the North to the South and vice-versa. Kids attended schools in far-away states with trains. Businesses thrived and the roads lasted longer because they were fewer vehicles using them”.

But like most things in the country, rail transport has become a shadow of its old self. Less than twenty trains traverse the whole of the nation each day, most of them in Lagos. Since the Akere Bridge collapsed, trains have become stranded in the North. The tracks have become more or less relics.

The collateral damage has been very colossal. Pressed to the wall, Nigerians now rely only on road travels, since air tickets continue to skyrocket. With more vehicles on the hard-pressed roads, accidents have become monumentally high with hundreds of lives and millions of goods lost in the process. The roads too, obviously overused, easily cave in, costing billions to rehabilitate and maintain.

Nigeria, which was the first African nation to have a well-thought through and funded railway system, is now lagging behind. As far back as 1895, the Lagos railway became operational from Iddo to Ibadan. Almost 120 years after, 52 as an independent nation, Nigeria is spending over N31bn to reactivate the same track. The tracks between Zaria and Jos covering a distance of 194 kilometers (121 mi) has since been closed and removed. It’s been backward steps all the way for the nation’s rail sector.

The Draft National Transport Policy published in August 2010 by the Federal Government succinctly captures the state of the sector. It said: “it has deteriorated in all areas, and caught up in a vicious circle of declining traffic, endemic deficits, decreasing capacity to serve its customers resulting in further loss of revenue.

“In short, the railways have ceased to be economically viable, if the present imbalance of the transport sector is to be corrected and the goals arising from increasing industrialisation be actualised, the Nigerian railway must be resuscitated”.

There has also been massive revenue loss and loss of corporate patronage. The Chairman Board of Directors, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Dr Bello Mohammed, admitted this much. According to him: “We have customers like the Flour Mills who have moved their stocks from Lagos to the north; we have some cement companies which are relocating from north to south; we have the cattle traders; Kolanut traders and the farm produce merchants.

“We also have the various food industries, the Nigerian breweries, the Nigerian Bottling Company; they all used to be our customers; the importers from Lagos, Port Harcourt and Warri ports all used to make use of the railway.”

These firms and merchants moved away to bear heavier costs transporting their goods across the nation. These costs are later passed on to consumers in the form of higher selling prices. This translates to lower purchasing power and deepens economic gap in the nation. “Life would have been a lot easier and better for us if trains are working. Goods would move more cheaply with passengers, boosting our economic fortunes and improving trade balance across the nation,” Peter Ogudoro, a chartered Administrator, stated.

As it is, the nation’s rail tracks remain largely colonial legacies. The routes remain the same old tracks mapped out by the colonial authorities to ensure quicker movement of goods from the hinterlands to port cities for onward movement to Europe. The government has not deemed it fit or necessary to build new tracks to take care of the bulging, emerging passengers’ paths. This, Ugwu said, is a great disservice that exposes the irresponsibility in government’s corridors.

“It is a shame that we have millions of new passengers that are not taken care of. The tracks were not conceived for them but movement of goods. That we have not added new ones in 52 years after independence shows our government officials don’t know anything at all,” he stated.

Investments without fruits?

Though the Jonathan’s administration has done much to revitalise the sector, the efforts remain largely unproductive. The government approved N20.3 billion this year for the NRC. Of this, N16.3 billion is set aside for capital expenditure. Another N12.13 billion has been devoted to the newly revitalised Lagos-Jebba rail line. In December 2009, a contract worth N12.2 billion was awarded to Costain Plc for the 640km Jebba-Kano rail. In July, another $1.488bn was approved by FEC for Lagos-Ibadan railway modernisation project.

Experts say this massive capital injection is crucial to the resuscitation of the rail system. But Nigerians are wondering how long it will take these efforts to bear fruit. “I want the trains back as soon as possible-in fact like yesterday,’’ Josiah Pam, an indigene of Jos, stated. As a student back then in Kaduna, he took trains to school along with others. “I enjoyed myself thoroughly almost at no cost. It was fun then and I still weep when I remember they are no longer there”.

President Jonathan, early this year, reopened the Lagos-Abeokuta rail service. He went through the two-hour ride in a brand new coach labelled Dame Patience Jonathan from Ebute Metta. The 98-kilometre rail track took him to Abeokuta. When will Nigerians embark on the same ride? When will Biu’s record 14-hour trip to Kano from Lagos happen again? He sees he looks forward to it happening again. But will it ever happen?