The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday Interview

  • ‘Any man who can’t say ‘I’M SORRY’ to a woman is not ready for marriage’

    Worried by the challenges faced by women, particularly single ladies, a retired medical records officer and ordained pastor, Mrs Comfort Luwei, took up the challenge of providing succour and advice to ladies through her Women Intercessory Interdenominational Ministry. Her efforts in the past 19 years are believed to have saved many Nigerian marriages from collapsing and have won her awards within and outside the shores of Nigeria. She spoke with GBENGA ADERANTI about the challenges involved in raising women, why divorce rate has continued to rise and how to raise a good family, among other issues.

    What informed your interest in mentoring women?

    I love the company of women and I have a flair for talking to them one on one. Suddenly I discovered that women have lots of problems that need to be solved through prayer. And when I got the direction from Timothy II 2:21, I now started seeing it is a vision given to me by God. Since then, women have been benefitting from it.

    But wherever you have women, you have crisis and challenges. How have you been able to deal with this?

    It is true that wherever you have challenges, you are likely to have crisis and challenges. But I’ve been able to cope with every one of them through their understanding, carrying everyone along by their own understanding.

    You’ve been in this ministry for 19 years. What has been your staying power?

    Help from the Holy Spirit, His Grace.

    If you look at Nigeria today, you’ll see lots of single ladies who are not married. What could have been the reasons?

    In those days, ladies respected their parents and followed their direction. But now, you will see that ladies don’t respect their parents. And if you see any lady with a man, the man would say he has known the lady. That is why you have many ladies who are not married.

    How many books have you written as an author?

    I’ve written three so far while two are yet to be out. One of the books is on long lasting love in marriage. This one teaches women how to love to the end. Marriage is not for good for stay, for worse for go; it is meant to be for life. We teach them how to respect their homes, how to respect their husbands and how to intercede for them. Faithful women ministry is an intercessory ministry because we intercede for the family. That is what God called me to do. Despite the fact that it is an intercessory ministry, I still teach them some things about home and how to live a faithful life.

    Despite the fact that women are now exposed to different materials and love and relationships, divorce rate has continued to rise. What could be responsible for this?

    Actually, most people don’t prepare for marriage. That is why we teach our singles here. Before you get into something, you must seek the face of God and you must have received from God that this man is my God-ordained husband. You must have the understanding of what you are going into. And before you have the understanding of what you are going into, you must have courted for some time to know the dos and don’ts.

    But they still separate despite the fact that they go for counseling…

    Faithful Women is not a church. In some churches, they don’t go deep into how to live a married life. But here, we teach them what to expect and what to do when such thing happens. In some teachings that I do here, even if you catch your husband on top of a woman, you close your eyes. Church can’t teach that. You close your eyes to your husband so that your marriage can live. And when he comes back, treat him like your husband, because there must be a reason why he did that. No church can teach that.

    But no woman would take that…

    It is not easy, but those under my teaching, despite the fact that they murmur, still take it. It works for them. Immediately the man realises that it did not bother the woman, he will start begging and praying to God to forgive him. He will become a changed man and they end up living peacefully.

    Did you go to a school to acquire this knowledge?

    I attended a bible school called Word of Faith Bible Institute (a training arm of the Living Faith Church Worldwide) and I believe God expanded me the more. But I believed that with each challenge from the people I counsel, God gives me inspiration. And when I come out to teach, especially about women and marriage, God gives me more insight. It was from one of the teachings I got insight to write one of the books.

    What were you doing before now?

    I used to be a medical record officer at a national hospital in Kano. I had to voluntarily retire when I had to join my husband when he was transferred to Lagos. When I came to Lagos, I became a successful woman. I had a chain of shops. I had a boutique, a supermarket and a salon. My boutique was always full of women every day, coming to hear one thing or the other. I picked up teaching them bible studies and how to live a sweet married life.

    Then, it wasn’t a ministry, but I was teaching them until I had a call. Even when I had the call, I didn’t want to heed it. I was hesitant because I was comfortable. I did not lack anything. I was already a landlady. I just discovered one day, I opened my shop and allowed anybody that wanted to pick a thing to pick it. I gave the salon to somebody else. It is no more my own.

    Do you sometimes feel like going back?

    Going back to business? I’ve never felt so. I feel more occupied in this work than business and more comfortable with it than business.

    Tell me the most difficult case you have handled in terms of relationship and conflict resolution.

    The man forcibly married the lady. The lady never loved the man. The man got the woman pregnant. Eventually, they had three children. Each time the man wanted to have a sexual intercourse with her, she felt he was raping her. I tried to talk to her. The man eventually paid the bride price, but it didn’t work. They separated. That is the most difficult. I’m called to amend, not to scatter.

    From your experience as a counsellor, what are the signs a man or a woman should look for before they say I do?

    Any woman who is your woman, anytime you’re with her, you have peace. If you discuss with her, you have peace.

    But in marriages, there are crises…

    If she is your wife, you will get along. The problem is that men don’t say I’m sorry. But you will discover that some men can say I’m sorry. Patience should be the key. Whenever you’re wrong, say I’m sorry. If you’re not ready to say I’m sorry, you’re not ready for marriage.

    We’re in a society where men are seen as superior…

    Do you know that it is changing now? Men are the head because they do everything for the family. But now women do everything for the family.

    In a situation where the woman is the bread winner, how do you handle that?

    If the woman is the bread winner, she should still humble herself and respect the husband. That does not mean that tomorrow he will not pick up. Probably that was not where she met him. If she married this man knowing that she would be the head, she wouldn’t have married him in the first place. Something must have happened to turn the table. At the same time, she must endure and respect him as the head of the family.

    You’ve won so many awards. Which of them touched you the most?

    The last one really touched me. Having awards, I don’t really attach importance to it. But the last one really touched me. People came all the way from Canada, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana for just this award. I asked myself, is this how important this award is? If people could enter a plane to gather for this award, it must be important.

  • Good people will always find it difficult to survive in NIGERIAN POLITICS – APC National Woman Leader Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu

    APC National Woman Leader, Dr. Ramatu Tijani Aliyu, is an embodiment of beauty and brain. A stylish personality, Dr Tijani Aliyu believes a woman has a special place and role to play in the society. She also believes that no matter how beautiful and highly placed a woman may be, her duties at home are very important. In this interview with PAUL UKPABIO, she shares with us values and attributes that took her to the top, the things that have kept her at the top and how women can improve their lots in politics and at the home front.

    How did your early life influence the person that you are today? I think my early life has influenced me in more ways than one. I grew up in a home where discipline and handwork were the order of the day. My father (May his blessed soul rest in peace) was an astute educationist who did not compromise on the values of hard work, honesty, decency and patriotism. While My mom was a business woman who embodied enterprise and independence; instead of always waiting for her husband to provide. All of these values by the grace of the Almighty have shaped the woman I have become today. Your educational background? I attended Dawaki Primary School in Niger State following which I gained admission into the Federal Government College Minna. Subsequently I secured admission into the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, where I graduated with a degree in Urban and Regional Planning.

    I have since acquired a master’s degree in Public Administration and I am currently doing my Ph.D in Security and Strategic Studies from the same institution. What do you think influenced the choice of your being the APC woman Leader? Well, it’s not a choice per se but the will of the APC delegates from across the country.

    They saw a woman who represented a clean break from the era of women leaders who were merely appendages and could not take a stand for the interest of the women. Our party leaders also saw in me a product worth buying and gave me their unconditional support and I thank everybody for the faith reposed in me. For the benefit of those who do not know, can you tell us some of the roles that you play in the party? As the National Woman Leader of the APC, I primarily represent the interest of all women, particularly APC women. As a leading female voice I am continually liaising with my male colleagues to ensure that gender mainstreaming takes a foothold within our party; from the policies and actions of the party to constitutional amendments whenever the party embarks on any. By virtue of my office, I am a member of the party’s caucus as well as the National Executive Council (NEC). As the focal person of the APC women wing, I am also responsible for the coordination and mobilization of women towards victory at the polls. Just last week, you had a NEC meeting at the State House. Were you pleased with the outcome? It doesn’t matter whether I am or not.

    What matters is the overall interest of the party. Being a member of the APC NEC, I should ordinarily be for the elongation of our tenure in order to avoid the problems associated with the conduct of such conventions. However, the President and other leaders of the party have sought legal counsel and deemed it wise to reconsider the elongation in order to forestall avoidable violations of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I will always stand for the interest of party. Your party is in government. So now that you are in the corridors of power, and seeing it all, in what ways would you say that women can be relevant in today’s political situation? If by being in the corridors of power you mean the unprecedented power some women used to wield in the previous administrations, then you are mistaken. That can never happen under President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Nonetheless, women have played and will continue to play a vital role in our politics. A good proportion of the electorate with whom sovereignty lies are women. I think the next step is to have more women as card-carrying members of the major political parties in the country. This will then make it easier to have more women contest and win elections both as party officials (not just as women leaders) and as public officers. There is a clamour for more female appointments in government, are you okay with the male/female ratio in present day public offices? Progress has been made in terms of women appointments but a lot more improvement can still be made in that regard. We are not saying overnight we want a 50/50 arrangement. But significant progress in terms of identifying and recognizing women who have distinguished themselves and contributed positively to the formation of the government at all levels can still be made.

    You only need to look at other African countries who have taken the issue of gender inclusion very seriously to appreciate how much progress we’ll make as a nation if we do not deprive women of their dues What influenced you to join politics? I know it may sound like a cliche but it’s simply the passion to serve my country and make a difference whenever and wherever I can. How did your husband or family feel when they heard about your election? Well they felt proud and happy, but certainly not surprised (Laughs). Can you describe yourself? I’d like to think I am a very down to earth, courageous, hardworking, selfless, patriotic and God-fearing woman. I’m also a tastefully fashionable person and in the political circle, I’m unflinchingly loyal.

    In line with the aspirations of your party, do you foresee a better tomorrow for women? Without a shadow of a doubt I do. But like I highlighted earlier, we must get more women actively participating in the internal workings of the APC. Let’s put our strongest 11 forward and make it difficult for anybody to sideline us on the basis of incompetence or a lack of know how.

    The truth is, nothing will be given to us on a platter; let’s therefore demonstrate that we have earned the right to be taken seriously all the time (and not just for campaigns) As a busy, hardworking woman, do you still find time to go to the kitchen to cook? Every now and then, yes. My family understands the nature of my job and thankfully, I have people around me who have picked up valuable tips from me on how to prepare various delicacies. Nonetheless, I like to go back and take charge from time to time in order to show them I am still the boss (Laughs). What is your view about fashion and how do you describe fashion? For me, fashion is simplicity and elegance. It is not how expensive but how receptive your persona is to a particular style or apparel. I like to play around with simple fabrics to create something elegant. Often times I recycle my old fabrics and yet come up with something that is unique and modest. What is important is that you must be comfortable and satisfied with your sense of fashion.

    What determines the clothes you wear in a day? Usually the occasion or function I am attending will largely influence my choice of dressing on a given day. I’ll generally ask myself the following questions: Who am I meeting or who are the audience? Where (their religion or culture), when (dry or harmattan season) and what (my purpose of visit). In all instances, certain themes run through, that is, simplicity, elegance and modesty. What fashion accessories like necklaces and so on, will you not do without? There’s actually no fashion item I can’t do without. But I usually have my earrings on, no matter how simple they are. How do you describe success? Essentially, when I think success I think fulfillment. Not just materially but emotionally and spiritually. Once these other components are missing then it becomes momentary success which for me is not worth the trouble. What do you value most? I keep my values. I’ve grown up all my life holding unto them and I will not trade them for anything in the world. My values keep me in touch with my conscience and my faith.

    Nothing is more important. When you met your husband, was it love at first sight? If what we felt at the time was also love then yes. But I think what fortified it was the effort, patience and trust we had in each other. Because for sure, it kept growing day after day until it became an open secret that we were destined to spend the rest of our lives together. How are you coping with office pressure and challenges? For me, pressure and challenges come with the territory and I am not too bothered by it. My real challenge, and one which I relish, is the need to build coalition and consensus amongst our women. This is borne out of my fervent belief that together we are stronger and can achieve more. We must put aside petty issues and face the real obstacles to our progress. As a woman, do you think politics is a dirty game? Yes. But I also believe that the fact that politics is dirty does not mean good people cannot come in and try to make a difference by doing things differently.

    Of course good people will always find it more difficult to survive in the murky waters of Nigerian politics, but if that is the price we have to pay to make things better, then so be it. Having worked with women from different parts of the country, what will you say that Nigerian women really want, first from the government and then from their husbands? From the government, I would say a level playing field. Too often we seem to be competing with men in the same field but on different parameters. We often have to do twice as much to be recognized and this needs to change. If a woman can do a job, give it to her regardless that she’s a woman. On the other hand, all we require from our spouse is support and understanding. Simple If you were not what you are today, what else would you have loved to be? I would definitely have been an entrepreneur. From fashion to estate development, my passion and interest still remains very strong.

    Are you fulfilled? Not fully. There is so much more I can do for my community and my country. The problems facing our women are also a sour point for me. Along with people of like minds, I am convinced we can improve the fortunes of our people. When should we expect the first female president in Nigeria? Let’s be honest, that’s not likely to happen in 2019. But we must first build a critical mass of competent and influential women and then push on from there. We have met a lady who had over 200 shoes in her kitty; how many shoes do you recommend that a lady should have? I am not sure there can be a definite answer to your question. It generally depends on her job description and preferences. While a fashion model may have up to 100, a teacher may not need more than 20. So it really depends.

    Tell us about a normal day with you. What do you do, and then on weekends too? First I wake up early for my prayers; I ensure the kids are in good shape to go to school. After breakfast with the family, I face my official duties for the day. This usually includes meetings, attending to files, memos, dignitaries and ancillary functions. It doesn’t change much during the weekends, except that I have a little more time for my family. How do you catch your fun, hobbies, and sports? Funny enough, my hobby is fashion/interior designing. I like to give new life to seemingly mundane things. Do you find time for the family, considering the demands and nature of politics? Of course I do. Like I said earlier, every morning I find time to attend to their needs, especially during the weekends. It is something every working woman must consciously find time for. What do you consider the secret of marriage success? Trust and understanding! Love is also important but once there is no trust and understanding, it will not stand the test of time.

  • My father ‘harrassed’ me to get married when he tasted my egusi soup -US-based Nigerian medical doctor Okechukwu

    Dr Chike Nathan Okechukwu is a nephrologist based in the United States of America. Born a year before the Nigerian civil war in Onitsha, Anambra State, Chike, as friends call him, grew up in the middle of the war. The effect of the war was devastating as he lost two god-fathers and other close relations. His family moved to Lagos after the war, from where he later returned to eastern Nigeria for a degree in Medicine. But he kept his flair for writing. After many years in England and America, Chike is back with a masterpiece on the story of the Nigerian civil war. In this interview with PAUL UKPABIO, Chike, who is married to an Indian doctor and lives in America, shares his story and life style with us. He also tells us the reason for his book, ‘Children of the Fallen Sun.’

    It’s a homecoming for you after publishing your book, how do you feel?

    I always have a warm feeling each time I’m in Nigeria. This time around, I came with my two daughters. When I stepped out of the plane, I had this rush of warm feeling mentally and physically that tells me that I have arrived back in my country. However much the challenges maybe, I always feel that this is the country I was born and where I grew up.

    How long have you been away?

    I try to come back here every now and then but I left these shores April 1990. I landed at Heathrow Airport and stayed in England till 1994 and then did my surgical training in England and left for America where I did internal medical emergency, nephrology and kidney transfer.

    Where did you grow up while in Nigeria?

    I was born in Onitsha, but after the war, my family moved to Lagos where I spent my formative years till 1981 when I was accepted into medical school at the University of Nigeria. I was in Nsukka for the first year, then moved to Enugu for the next five years at the teaching hospital. I did my internship, while my NYSC year was in Ekpoma. From there, I worked at the apex medical centre in Igbokwu, Anambra State and then left for England.

    Why did your family move to Lagos?

    After the war, the Igbo were looking for opportunities. To some extent, the east was devastated. Many dreamt of the city which was Lagos, and was largely untouched by the war. My father got a job with Philips Nigeria Limited, where he eventually left as a financial director. My mother got a job as a nurse. That was the oppo rtunity that brought us to Lagos like many other families in post-war period.

    That must mean that your parents were educated before the outbreak of the war.

    Yes, my father was an accountant, while my mom was a nurse.

    What was your experience of the civil war?

    I was a year old baby when the war began. I had no experience at all. I can’t say that I had any knowledge of it at all, especially since my father wasn’t around during the war. My mother did a lot of work during that period as a nurse.

    How about your father, did he take part in the war?

    My father served in the relief section. His brother, who was my god father, was a captain in the Biafran army. He died in the war. When an Anglican child is born, he has two god fathers and one god mother. My two god fathers died during the war. One of my two god fathers was my father’s brother. So I was indeed affected by the war. I lost very close people some of whom I didn’t know well.

    In Lagos, how did you adjust?

    My life then was largely governed by my parents. But in post-war Lagos, I found out that people from the east, west and north, were all affected by the war. We all had to learn to live together again. My mother being a nurse began to work and there were a number of refugees who lived not too far away in a small shanty town. She provided them with free medical care since they had nowhere to go.

    What actually led you into studying medicine?

    I always knew from the time I was five years old that I would be a medical doctor.

    Why?

    I used to watch my mother take care of victims of the civil war. I saw life not to be what you do for yourself alone but also what you do for others. There has to be something that you leave behind when you are leaving life. Like I teach my children that they have a duty to themselves, a duty to others and a duty to God. So I have two 13-year-old, and a 10-year-old, when they come back from school I ask them, what have you done to yourself today? What have you done to your fellowmen and what have you done to God?

    So you finished school in Nigeria, but why did you have to go abroad?

    As an ambitious young man, I believe that we have one life to live. I want to wake up at the age of 70 and 80 and know that I have done the best I could do with my life. When I graduated, I asked myself, how would I like to feel on my dying bed? And I told myself that I would like to know that I had practised my profession which is medicine to the highest level. I didn’t want to have regrets later in life that I could have gone further. So I travelled out to get the best of what the world had to offer in my professional field. The idea felt satisfying to me. And again, why did I leave England for America when I did? That was because of the same urge. I felt after four years in England, that there was still more to learn. I just wanted to have all the right training so that when I come back to my country, I can influence the care of people the way I want it and the way it ought to be.

    Do you think that you have achieved that?

    I believe I have been able to achieve that.

    How was life in England for you?

    It was eye-opening. Going to England did the transformational thing for my entire life. First, I learnt that there was a world outside where people were operating at a much higher level. A place where there was a celebration of excellence. A place where there was a quest to do things the best way and in better ways. So beyond medicine, seeing the way society is organized, learning to see how people think, meeting people from across the world excited me. My room-mates were from across the world. I had a room-mate who was a white South African. And that was at the time of apartheid. We talked politics. I had friends from India, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt and of course from England itself. That was the beginning of my education.

    I had all along been in school but those four years in England shaped me and I think I won’t be who I am right now without those years. And if I were to have my way, I would recommend that every child in Nigeria should spend at least three or four years outside Nigeria in a different country or so-called western country and come back. It is a very eye-opening experience.

    At what point did marriage come in?

    That was much later when my father harassed me. He came to visit me in America. I made him a nice egusi soup. After eating it, I could tell that he enjoyed it so much but was dismayed by it. So he said: ‘It’s time you did something about marriage because any more cooking the way you did would probably mean you not getting married ever (laughs).’ I had quite a number of friends until I met a co-resident doctor who was a year below me. For whatever reason, we got stuck in a friendship. She is Indian. Of course we had an understanding that we came from two different worlds. We struggled with it a little bit, but with time I was able to meet her parents and she met mine, and on 17th of August 2002, we got married at an amazing ceremony. There were actually three ceremonies. The first was the Christian ceremony; then a Hindu ceremony, before we came to Nigeria to have a traditional ceremony. I believe that our lives have been more enriched by this relationship.

    And where do you live now?

    We live in a town called Swarthmore in Pennsilvania on the east coast in North America.

    How do you cope with inter-racial marriage?

    It is not as hard as you might think. But then marriage is the hardest thing anybody can ever get into. And people who are married whether to Hindus, Africans or Americans, will tell you that it is not the easiest thing to do. Looking at it could be all well and sweet but they are two complex human beings who have been raised from two different backgrounds and environment. It is not easy. It is something that you work at every day. So, we work at it every single day and I think that we have one of the best marriages anyone could hope to have.

    Has your wife been to Africa?

    Yes, she’s been here a number of times; we had Christmas four or five years ago with the children here. It’s been hard for all of us to all travel at the same time. Like on this visit, I am here with the twins, while she is there with our younger child.

    Does she speak Igbo?

    (Laughs) She understands Igbo. You and I can’t have a conversation in Igbo without her understanding what we are talking about. She doesn’t speak it, but she understands what we are talking about when she is there.

    Do you speak or understand her language?

    No, I do not, but I can pick a few words. But even then, she was born and raised in America. She doesn’t speak much of her language, though she understands it.

    So which language do your children speak?

    They speak English language, but they know some Igbo words.

    Do you go to her place?

    Her parents live in America. They come over and we go over to their place. We have a close relationship with her sister and spouse. And we have travelled to India to visit her other family members.

    What was the reaction of your parents the first time you told them you were set to marry an Indian?

    I didn’t have to tell them. Like everything that I do in life, I try to plan way ahead. I try to be deliberate with everything I do. I used to play a lot of chess in school which helps me to plan. I didn’t wake up one morning and called them. What I did was, then, my mother used to come to America to visit me. Sometimes she stayed for nine months. At those times, I brought my Indian girl around; she hanged around with us, we went out and that happened also when my father came around. So, years later when I announced it to them, it didn’t come out as a shock. Yes, I know it wasn’t the easiest information to pass to them, but it was much easier than picking the phone one morning and dropping the information on their laps. And by the way, I am my parents’ first born. So to them it is a big deal. But she has been well integrated into my family.

    Does she eat eba with onugbo soup?

    (Laughs) She does not eat eba with onugbo soup, but she eats yam and a few others. She tried eating eba but it didn’t work out. However, she can cook yam porridge, egusi soup, pepper soup, she can even prepare our abasha meal.

    Did you teach her all that?

    No, I didn’t. It was my mother that taught her those. And some of them she did all by herself. And I wonder how she makes them so good.

    How about you, do you take Indian cuisines?

    Oh yes, I do. You would love Indian cuisines, chicken curry with rice very similar to what we eat, though ours is rice and stew.

    At what point did it occur to you that you can write a book and why a book on the Nigerian civil war?

    I believe that Nigeria as a community of brothers and sisters still suffers from the aftermath of the war. I believe that the country has not been healed by what started as a crisis in 1966 and progressed into a full blown war in 1970. Some may disagree, but then we have seen it rear its head up in different ways over the years; through ethnic clashes or killings or people not being able to run for elections in other parts of the country, even though they are Nigerians or people not getting jobs because they do not belong to a particular tribe or come from a particular place. I fear that until we address that primary problem where everyone feels like one Nigeria, no matter where you come from, then we might not truly heal. We all think we know what caused the war, but we only discuss it in the little corners of our homes. More than that, we should discuss it with each other, share and discuss so we can get to the root cause and find a lasting healing solution. I wrote the book as a fiction. My main character is a metaphor for enduring damage and consequence of war. So regardless of who you are, Ibo, Yoruba, Delta or Hausa, you have been damaged by the war.

    What does the book title suggest?

    The book title, ‘Children of the Fallen Sun, suggests that regardless of whoever was the victor or the vanquished, they all suffered from the effect of the war. When you read the book, you will see that my character continued to have problems as a result of mental issues developed from the war. Even at the end where he looked like he might have found salvation, he is left with a concern that he is not sure. I brought up the medical issues in the book as well, issues which we do not discuss in Africa, the damaging effects of war and trauma. We know people in Iraq have this problem; people in post-war Afghanistan have this problem and we in Nigeria also have this problem but refuse to discuss it. So

    I used the characters in the book to discuss these issues metaphorically on how it affects our society.

    Why did you write the book?

    Yes, the title is also a play on words. I fought with the title a lot because I know it can connote different things in different people’s minds. I didn’t want to choose for the reader either. Some people would read it and say that Biafra Republic has fallen; others could read it and say the war has fallen. So to me it is conflict. If you look at the map of the Biafra flag used in the civil war, what comes to your mind? Is the sun rising or is it falling? Metaphorically, there was a conflict borne out of a deep seated feeling in the heart of a people. However, the purpose of the book is not for me to take sides with anybody. I know there might be people who may be angry that I didn’t come out siding one over the other, but that isn’t the purpose of the book. The purpose is that wounds should be allowed to heal. If you also look at the logo on the cover of the book, you see full-fledged soldiers with a child soldier in the middle. But I don’t tell you whether the soldiers are from North, East or West. That isn’t the purpose of the book. The purpose is that there was a conflict, whoever is right or wrong isn’t the issue but that this child was thrown into a theatre of war, he became the embodiment of we Nigerians who were thrown into the theatre of war. Nobody wanted the war. But it happened. The question is, how it has affected all of us. How did it affect that child that represents all of us?

  • How I overcame double trauma of my husband’s DEATH & SON’S PLANE CRASH –Ex-Ondo gov’s widow Funke Agagu at 70

    It is four years now since former Ondo State First Lady, Mrs Olufunke Agagu, lost her husband, Dr. Olusegun Kokumo Agagu. Olufunke, who clocks 70 tomorrow, relives life with her late husband. She also explains why her interest in politics has waned and how she has managed to cope with the absence of the former Ondo State governor. She spoke with GBENGA ADERANTI.

    How does it feel to be 70? IT feels great. It is a privilege to attain the age of 70, and I am grateful to God for it. I know so many people who would have wished to be this lucky but are no more. So, I think it is a great privilege and big favour from God that I am still alive. Surprisingly, you look much younger than 70. What is the secret? There is no secret. It is the grace if God. I hear people say, ‘Oh, you don’t look 70!’ and I tell them I don’t know. I don’t understand. Baba God has been really kind to me, and I want to give thanks to him for my youthful look and for allowing me to attain this biblical age. I also pray that He would be kind to me to even look much younger. Ironically, I’m a very bad eater. I do all the wrong things (chuckles).

    When I was growing up, I ate a lot of chocolate. In fact, it was so bad at a point that my grandmother would tell me that all the sweet things that I was eating would affect me, and I would say, ‘God forbid. It will not affect me.’ I ate a lot of sweet. I ate a lot of chocolate. I worry a lot, but somehow, I always manage to maintain my peace. I think that is a special gift from God. I’m easily contented. If I have money, everybody will know. If I don’t have, I don’t grudge. I’m happy all the time. You can never tell when I’m passing through any stress.

    You can hardly tell because I try to be happy, and I know it is the special grace of God that has kept me like this. What would you have wished for at 70? My husband. I had wished he was alive because he had always said that he would love to do 70. And after 70, if the Lord wanted to take him, fine. But he really wanted to celebrate 70. So how much do you miss him? Ah! I can’t begin to recount. In every way, he was everything to me. He was my brother, my mentor, my hero, my husband, my lover and my father. I lost my father I won’t say too early, because my father was only 61 years old when he died. Since then, he (Agagu) had stepped into his shoes and consistently carried out that fatherly role in my life. So, he was my father and I missed him a lot. You and your husband were very good at dancing, and… Don’t mind me, I love to dance.

    I love music. I love dancing, and he was like that too. Even before we started dating, each time we met at party, you know in that kind of setting, you will want to dance with somebody who knows the art and skill; somebody who can complement you on the dance floor. So, that was the pull. We danced a lot together. Everybody knew that we both love dancing, and till the very last minute, we were forever dancing. Once he hit the floor, you would beg him to leave. How did you meet? We met at school. We were classmates at the University of Ibadan. He was in the Faculty of Sciences and I was in Arts. But like I said, you know in those days, it was very easy to meet. We attended parties a lot and we also met a lot of people. So we met at a party and somehow, we got friendly, and that was how it all started. What was the attraction? He was friendly, gentle, easy-going, very kind and intelligent. How have you managed to cope with his departure? The only challenge I had was during my husband’s passing away. When it happened, there were encomiums from people from all walks of life. Both the high and mighty and the lowly.

    People were trooping in, saying beautiful things about him, and that kind of comforted us. It was like everybody was over-reaching themselves to come and pay condolence visit to us. And when his body was to be brought in, the plane crashed. When that happened, I saw the hand of God. The Lord saved my son. You know when it happened, they didn’t tell me what had happened. They just said there was a hitch and they needed to change the plane, and that it would take a while. But with the way everybody was speaking, I knew there was a problem. And as soon as I understood, I went on my knees. Just like Jeremiah said, I complained to God. I told him that His word says: affliction shall not rise a second time. I told God that whatever the situation of things, I have absolute trust in His intervention that He would not make me suffer unduly and would intervene in the situation. But unknown to me, I was just making noise because the Lord had already done it.

    The incident had already happened almost two hours before I knelt down to pray. When they came to inform me that my son survived, I knelt down again to thank God. I said if I don’t show appreciation to God, then I am not a child of God. For God to have done that, I would be an ingrate if I kept crying without showing appreciation for what the Lord had done for me. That comforted me and I didn’t hold back. I held on to Him; to all His promises. He said: “I will never leave him or forsake him”. That is the promise of God to everybody, especially the widows and the fatherless, and I challenge Him all the time. Fortunately, my baby was pregnant with the second child when her father died, and she had planned to travel to the US and stay with her friends. I have some siblings in the US, so we decided we would go together. So she changed her plan. Instead of going to stay with friends, we decided to stay with my siblings. While we were there, we recorded some gospel music and every morning, we would stay in our different rooms and listen to the recordings. This helped us a lot. We listened to the words of the song and they ministered to us.

    Sometimes, I would get emotional. I’m an Anglican by birth and I have remained in Anglican. When I listen to some of the hymns, they minister to me from deep inside. So, those things helped me. And, of course, may be because I was away from home. Because when I was in Nigeria, a whole lot of people would come around, many phone calls, people would come weeks after and some would start crying and that would bring back a flash of memory. But in the US, there were not too many visitors, and there was little you can say on the phone. So I think this helped the healing process to be a little fast, plus the grace of God. The grace of God was abundant for me and the children. He has been really awesome. Can you recall your last moments together? We had just come back from the US. It was a Thursday night. We were away on holiday and for a wedding. We went with some of our children and their spouses. So we came and the next morning, when he woke up and I asked him if he wanted a breakfast, he said it would be better for us to have brunch because we had a meeting for 1 pm. He said it was okay and he would prefer eba. I just gave instruction to the cook. Then my daughter brought a little baby. They didn’t travel with the baby.

    She dropped the baby on her way to the office and I said let me take care before grandpa wakes up. I took her to Ebano in Lekki. I can’t remember what we went to buy and we came back. I think we ran into traffic on the bridge. By the time we came in, he had just finished his brunch. He said he couldn’t wait, that the said the meeting was for 1 pm and he wanted to get there before then. We ate the remaining food and we saw him to the door, and I said have a good meeting. He never came back. That was it. Do you still see the traffic of people there was in your house before your husband’s death? I cannot complain. Not many people can come, but people are always calling. I cannot complain. Sometimes, somebody out of the blue would just call, and I’m grateful. That means even though I don’t see them as often as I should, maybe they have not asked of me for a while, they have not forgotten me. I’m not the only person living in Nigeria out of 200 million people. Somebody who I met some time ago suddenly remembers that there is Mrs. Agagu somewhere and picks up his phone to call me, I’m very grateful.

    A Yoruba proverb says that 20 children cannot play together for 20 years. The vicissitudes of life will take me this way and the other that way. If by going round, you remember someone from your youth and you decide to call that person, I’m grateful. And anytime we have a memorial lecture and I come back, I kneel down and thank God, because I don’t know why. Even this my birthday, so many people have been calling, trying to see if they can join us. There is a limit to the number of people I can invite.

    So I’m grateful for what the Lord is doing in my life. I cannot complain at all. What is that thing you are not likely to forget about your late husband? I learnt so many lessons from him. He had such an amazing spirit to forgive. He forgave easily. He never had any grudge or malice against anybody. Without trying to be blasphemous, I always say he is Jesus Christ reincarnated. I would tell him, ‘I don’t want to have your kind of patience. I don’t want to have your kind of selflessness.’ He was selfless. He would give everything and deny me. He would rather deny me than not giving whoever needed whatever. He was an amazing person. He had his faults, but he was a good man. People just use the word good, but when I said he was a good man, I don’t know how to describe him. He was a good man. He was loving. He tried to show love to everyone. He tried to help as many people as possible while denying himself.

    When he was leaving Abuja as a minister, I didn’t want to leave Abuja. Abuja was good, beautiful. He was in charge of Power and Steel. I said, ‘Let us stay. Why do you want to go?’ I am from Ondo State too, but I wanted to stay back. He said, ‘I’ve got to go back and help my people.’ And he said when we go there, we are not going to make money, we’re going there to help our people, and you can quote me. Ask any of his commissioners. He told me, ‘They (commissioners) are not your friends. You don’t go to them to ask for favour. If you go to them and they are rude to you, that is your business. We are not going there to make money; we’re going there to work.’

    So I remember a selfless man. I remember a forgiving spirit. I remember a very patient man. I remember a loving man. He shielded me away from the wickedness of men. He was a very loving man. He shielded all of us. He would not tell me the pains he was passing through as a politician. He would not come home and discuss that with me.

    What was it like being a first lady?

    I was there to support him; to help the women. And I tried to re-orientate the women. I wanted them to know that they could do better than going to rallies to clap and dance. They could stand for themselves too. We had a monthly meeting called Gbebiro. What I was doing was to let them know the programmes of government, what government was doing as they concern them as women and their children, and how they could benefit from the programmes of government. We would give them talks.

    I also tried to take them around to see the works that were being done with various local governments and what was available in the local government, and how those from those local governments could make a living from what was available in their various local governments.

    Tell me those things you have missed since you exited as first lady?

    The fact that the women have gone back to their old ways. I don’t know what they do now. I did my bit. I wish somebody build on whatever was there before.

    You spoke about not wanting to leave Abuja. When it was time for you and your husband to leave government house in Akure, how did you feel?

    When my husband said he was not staying back, what would I be doing in Abuja? We were very close. Once he made up his mind that he wanted to leave and serve his people, what else would I do?

    I’m talking about when you and your husband were leaving the state house in Akure?

    I felt we were cheated and I felt the world was an unfair place. If that was the judgment, what could one do? We moved on.

    Considering your experience, would you allow your children to participate fully in politics?

    I think we’ve had our fair share.

    Not you; I’m talking about your children

    Are they not part of me? I think we’ve had our bit. Let somebody else try.

    What you are telling me in essence is that you don’t want your children to participate fully in politics?

    We will be political by the special grace of God, because this is our country. We don’t have any other place. We will support everyone who is doing well. But you will agree with me that we’ve done our bit. My husband was the deputy governor of that state. He tried. He was responsible for making Ondo State an oil-producing state because of his geological background. He continued because that was what opened his eyes to what was happening in politics and he now tried to be more active.

    He had always been active. He was always writing position papers from the time of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He wrote position papers for Chief Adekunle Ajasin and co. It was because he was writing positive papers for Chief Bamidele Olumilua that he was now invited to come and run as his deputy. He had always been writing. Then Chief Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him as Minister of Aviation, then Minister of Power and Steel. He tried his best. Then he went ahead to vie for the governorship seat and he went to Ondo State and he left it much better than he met it. That was his popular dictum. Whatever he met, he would leave it better than he met it, and he always did. What I’m saying is that my children, we had always been political. They will support a good candidate in any way they can. Personally, I think we have done our bit. I do not think I want them to be full time politicians.

    Any regrets at 70?

    The only regret I have is that my husband is no more alive. And I wish I can do much more than I can do at present for people with disabilities. It pains me to know that I can’t do as much as I was doing a few years back. One would have loved to do much more than I was doing then, but these are the realities of the time we’re living in. I’m grateful to God for what he has enabled me to do and what I’m still able to do.

    But like I said, I would have loved to do much more than I’m doing at present. There are too many people suffering, and it is a pity that one cannot do more than one is able to do. It pains me to see so many people in need that I cannot help.

  • Help, our members are dying

    • Unpaid Nigeria Mining Corporation pensioners cry out

    The closure of Nigeria Mining Corporation (NMC) in 2005 is trailed by controversy.

    The Nigeria Mining Corporation (NMC), a project developed in order to diversify the nation’s economy from its over-dependence on crude oil, was unceremoniously shut down in 2005 by the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals, throwing the workers into the saturated labour market.

    Another aspect of the closure of NMC was how the former workers of the corporation were forcibly retired without their entitlements. The former staff have for the past 13 years been fighting in vain to get their entitlements from the same government that ordered the closure of the corporation. Series of petitions written by the affected workers to the appropriate ministry and government agencies were never considered serious enough for consideration.

    But the NMC pensioners are no longer willing to keep quiet as a good number of them have died waiting in vain for their gratuities. Those of them who are still alive are refusing to be discouraged but rather take their case to the public domain after exhausting the options of dialogue available to them. Our correspondent, who got wind of their plight recently, sought to locate the affected retirees who relayed pathetic stories similar to those of Nigerians recently rescued from slave camps in Libya.

    One of them, who used to be the corporation’s secretary, Alih Adamu, and his counterpart, Idris Abubakar Kaita, recalled that NMC was closed down in October, 2005.  The existing staff of the corporation then were instantly disengaged, but they were not paid their full severance benefits.

    Kaita said: The disengaged staff were short-paid to the tune of N329,462,628.53 due to gross violation of the Federal Government’s monetization policy which took effect from 1st October, 2003.

    “We made series of complaints to the Acting Managing Director of the Corporation, the Honourable Minister of the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation but there was no response to our petition by any of these officers.

    “At a point, however, the Acting Managing Director of the Corporation directed Alhaji M. Y. Zubairu to advise the entire disengaged staff to check their bank accounts for the payment of their monetized arrears as from 12th November, 2010. This announcement or advice was published in national daily (not The Nation) on Monday, November 15, 2010. It ended up a juicy announcement without sincerity.

    “It was a remarkable demonstration of insincerity and deceit aimed at diverting attention to a false reality, as there was no payment to this date. Well over 40 disengaged members of staff have so far passed on while awaiting the payment of their legitimate entitlements. Those of us who are alive are remembering them with tears, grief and regrets.”

    The Federal Government is aware of the plight of these pensioners, but rather than pay the people their entitlements, it decided to eject them from the residential quarters they occupied before the closure of the corporation.

    Adamu said: “After the closure of the corporation, its assets and facilities were taken over by BPE (Bureau of Public Enterprises) on full scale privatization. The corporation’s staff’s houses that were occupied by the disengaged staff were equally taken over and offered to them by BPE on owner- occupier basis. Each occupier paid N10,000 to indicate interest in acquiring their respective houses, but we never knew that the process of selling these apartments to us was not tidy.

    “We were fooled by government to key into the planned sales of the assets; we later discovered that BPE started acting strange. The Acting Managing Director of the Corporation was directed by BPE to deduct rents from monthly pensions of the disengaged staff directly without seeking their consent.

    “It was after several complaints that BPE ordered that the deductions be stopped. All these communications were done through official memos, and we have copies of them as evidence.

    “Later on, we were suddenly subjected to a competitive bidding exercise in May, 2007, together with the general public. We the disengaged staff occupying the houses participated in the bidding exercise and won our respective bids; we were asked by BPE to pay bid bonds equivalent to 10% of the bid values for the houses we occupied.

    “The bid bonds were paid to BPE through bank drafts. The bank drafts were not returned or rejected by BPE since May, 2007 indicating that the sale of the houses to the occupiers had been concluded. But while we were waiting for formal letters of offer from BPE, we were surprised to see different prices in their letters of offer dated September, 10, 2014, for the same houses bided for.

    “We promptly dispatched another letter of complaint to the BPE on September 15, 2014, which was received by the BPE on 16, September, 2014. But in their usual manner, they refused to reply our letter. The letters of offer from BPE only referred to the various bid bonds’ payments of 10% as initial deposits.

    “The outcome of the bidding exercise was, therefore, cancelled by BPE without constructive notice to us the bidders. That was the point when it became obvious that the whole thing about the bidding was a scam. Apart from the fact that the prices of staff houses offered were exorbitant, because costs of utilities that formed the liabilities of the Corporation were added to the prices for the occupiers to bear, household items were valued and costs added to the prices.

    “These costs of utilities and household items were assessed by the Acting Managing Director of the Corporation and added to the prices by BPE.

    “Besides, there were two sets of valuation report used by BPE to fix prices for the houses. The initial or first valuation report was prepared during the Jos crisis, and that one was lower in price. The second or reviewed valuation report was prepared when peace had returned to Jos and the prices were exorbitant.

    “The two valuation reports were used by BPE to fix different prices for the same type of houses. Prices fixed during the Jos crisis were applied to some houses, while prices fixed during the Jos peace were applied to others. For example, House No. BF 12, belonging to Idris A. Akaita, is N2,893,625.00, while House No. 21 belonging to Sam S. Habu is N 1,616,625.00.

    “This has been BPE’s double standard and bias in using two valuation reports. The other aspects of what we referred to as ‘executive scam’ was the condition of sale.

    The occupiers of the staff houses expressed their interests or intentions to buy or acquire their respective houses based on the conditions of sale published by BPE in another national daily (not The Nation) of April 1, 2007.

    “According to the condition of sale No.4, the Corporation’s Houses “will be sold as is, where is”. Despite this condition of sale, BPE has been carving out boys’ quarters and parcels of land from the houses and selling. This action has rendered the houses no longer intact or “as is, where is”.

    “For example, the boys’ quarter of HD9, N.M.C. Hiltop Estate, Jos, was carved out by BPE. Under normal circumstances, the price of HD9 can no longer be the same.”

    One of victims, Idris Kaita, said: “In the entire process, where we noticed pure wickedness against us the former staff, it is never in doubt that BPE took over the assets and facilities of the Corporation and sold them in billions of naira. BPE, however, refused to pay or settle the severance benefits of N329,462,628.53 to the disengaged staff who over the years acquired, maintained and protected such assets and facilities.”

    The position of BPE in the sale of the staff houses is that it acted on behalf of the Federal Government as a LESSOR; a position affirmed by BPE in the letters of offer dated September 10, 2014. But the pensioners argue that since BPE is demanding payment on behalf of the Federal Government knowing full well that the staff concerned have not been paid, the staff also have the right to demand the payment of their severance benefits in order to meet their financial obligations to the same Federal Government.

    “Let BPE calculate the total sum of money owed by the staff concerned and pass it over to the Federal Government as payment for the houses. In the alternative, the Federal Government should allow BPE to settle the balance of gratuity (N329,462,628.53) on behalf of the Federal Government,” one of them argued.

    The former NMC staff also said a letter addressed to them by BPE in July last year (2017) informed them that it had cancelled the offer of the staff houses to those who did not complete the payments, arguing that BPE had no justification to issue such letters.

    “Have they forgotten that the Federal Government is owing us over N300 million, apart from the fact that they have been deducting this money from our pension monthly? We don’t deserve this treatment as citizens of Nigeria. We have complained, we have written several letters, but no one cares to listen to us. The only communications from BPE to the disengaged staff on the sale of the houses were letters of offer, letters of offer cancellation and letters of offer extension,” one of them said.

    However, a senior staff of the BPE, who pleaded anonymity, told The Nation: “Yes it is true that BPE sold the houses to the staff occupying them in Jos. The sales process through biding was completed four years ago. The staff occupying the properties who won the bid to buy the houses were expected to pay for the houses 60 days after the issuance of certificate. But some of the staff did not meet up the 60 days period, so we had to extend the period to enable them meet up. For your information, we have extended the period seven times but about 14 of them failed to meet up. They have occupied the houses for four years now and still failed to pay for the bid.

    “It is also true that the former staff of NMC, who bought these houses, claimed they are being owed part of their gratuities by the Federal Ministry of Finance, but BPE is not an agency of the Federal Ministry of Finance. So, if the ministry is owing them, that is their own business and that has nothing to do with BPE. In any case, out of the 186 former NMC staff that bought the properties, 172 of them have completed the payment for the houses, but the remaining 14 of them who have failed to pay are the ones making claims that Federal Government is owing them.”

  • Abacha men held my daughter, nephew, mother-in-law hostage after failed attempt to seize my wife –Ex-NADECO chief Akingba @80

    Would you say your early life has any influence on who you are today?

    I was born into a subsistence farming family. I worked with my parents till the age of 15 when I was considered too young to undergo the stress of subsistent farming. Perhaps I was destined to be different. My father was polygamous. I was the 17th child of my father and number sixth of my mother. Some of my brothers and sisters were already in their 30s when I was born. My parents thought I could be spared the rigour of farming and so agreed that I be sent to a formal school.

    At that time, the white man was here destroying our culture with his civilization. The colonialists believed that their culture was superior in terms of religion, governance, education, family life, media and economy. My parents were soaked into this narrative, so they told me to go and learn the white man’s ways. That was how I joined the formal educational system.

    My solid pre-school experiences served me well when I got to the white man’s school. In school, I surpassed my contemporaries who were even older and stronger than me. Then you could see a 20-year-old in primary school. In the beginning, our educational system was very good. It produced some of the best scholars in the world till today, and can be partly responsible for the continued positive attitude most Nigerians in developed countries of the world still have for themselves and offspring.

    Therefore, these early life experiences combined with my inherent nature to spur me forward to greater and positive achievements in life.

    Where did you start life?

    That was Ode-Irele in the current Ondo State, then part of the Western Region, in 1938. I went to school in Siluko town in the present Edo State, imbibed Edo culture and spoke Benin language in addition to my Yoruba heritage. I can still speak and write in Benin language just as Yoruba.

    Which state are you from?

    As I already indicated, I am from Ondo State which shares borders with Edo State. Some of our people still have farms in Edo State. My father’s plantations are still there till today, but they were sold by some of my siblings before they died. Only one of my elder half-sisters and I are currently alive and kicking.

    You did travel abroad after a while. Was it that easy for young people to travel abroad then?

    At that time, there were no visa problems for us as Commonwealth citizens. Once you had the money, you could travel to virtually anywhere in the world. But even at that, not many people were travelling out of Nigeria like they are doing now.

    Was it that people were not interested in traveling?

    Before and immediately after Nigeria’s political independence, traveling was not easy because of financial constraints and also due to the awe with which we held the white people at that time. Although people nursed the ambition to go there, it was an ambition based on the search for the Golden Fleece, which was education. Just like my friends and I, we went there and within two years I was through with my ordinary and advanced level pre-university education.

    Were you pressured to travel abroad by your parents or it was your initiative?

    My parents wanted the best for me, and they considered that I could actually get that through embracing the white man’s culture and formal education, but they didn’t have the necessary funds. It was one of my elder brothers who assisted me with the air fare. I arrived England with three pounds sterling. We were using pound sterling then. When I got to the UK, my friends from Nigeria assisted me to settle down in the hostel with them, and within a week when I joined some fellow Yoruba compatriots, I started working and going to classes in the evening. I cleared my exams, entered University of London and I was awarded a scholarship by London Council. I did my first degree and master’s degree in England. Later, I went for my PhD in the USA.

    What did you study?

    I am a sociologist by training and learning, which gave me a broad-based academic exposure in the social sciences, including Economics, History, Philosophy and Comparative Education. My master’s degree was in Education and Sociology, and the PhD was in Economics, Philosophy and Education.

    Did you return to Nigeria immediately you finished school?

    I wanted to return, but I got married to a Sierra Leonean, who was the only daughter of her parents. They advised me to go with them to Sierra Leone to know their background and country, and I followed them. I worked at their College of Education. After about four years, some Nigerian professors who were our external examiners saw me and took me to the University of Ife. When I got to Ife in 1972, the university was bustling with intellectualism. But before long, the federal government took it over and everything became toxic. When I noticed that the university was nose-diving, I had to take the agonising decision to voluntarily leave. I actually wanted to be a professional teacher all my life until retirement. But when I noticed that the system was no longer what it was during the first few years I joined, I left to start general business consulting.

    You turned 80 recently. How did you celebrate it?

    Everybody kept saying being 80 is a landmark. It was actually my wife and children who insisted on a dinner party. They did everything without me being part of the arrangement. So we eventually had a cozy dinner party, but not an elaborate type that could sap decency. Then and now, I am very comfortable with myself.

    How do you feel at 80?

    I can say that my upbringing has made me a disciplined person. I believe in the significance of cause and effect. I am not easily distracted. I could be jovial, an extrovert at one point, and at another time, I could be an introvert. It depends on what the circumstances present.

    How active are you at 80?

    I take my health very seriously. I select what I eat and what I drink. Whatever I eat or take, I put the volume and quantity into consideration. I also consider where to take it and when to take it.

    What do you do to keep fit?

    In recent times, I do not do sufficient physical exercise like I used to do. In my former house, I had a swimming pool where I used to swim regularly. Now I intend to join some clubs soon and continue to keep fit. I walk some reasonable distances with my wife because I subscribe to the view that a healthy mind can only live in a healthy body.

    If you live a positive life, you are likely to overcome some of the many and major ailments in our society. Unnecessary ailments usually derive their origins from our undisciplined lifestyles. So, it is always necessary to navigate through so many fake products in the market to find the authentic ones. We knew long ago that about 80 per cent of the drugs we find in the market are essentially fake. So you can see that it is more difficult to live in Africa than other continents of the world.

    Do you smoke or indulge in drinking?

    I did smoke till I was about 35. Let me tell you, I did everything any man would do, but I stopped them at will. I could drink anything or smoke anything except marijuana and cocaine. That was because I had some friends and acquaintances who misbehaved and got themselves into serious but unnecessary troubles. But I live a full life and enjoy myself in a disciplined manner.

    Let us go back to the period you were abroad, how was life then?

    I was in England for my first and second degrees, but I later did my doctoral degree in America. During that structuring phase of my life, I had as much fun as I can remember. But my upward movement was never a tea party. Nevertheless, the pains I endured produced some enduring gains.

    At what point did marriage come in?

    I was rounding off with my first degree when I met my life’s partner in school. She was also studying sociology. It was love at first sight, though I was two years ahead of her at school. But as soon as she finished at school, we got married. I worked for a year in London before we left for her country, Sierra Leone. From there we came to Nigeria and later to America before coming back to Nigeria.

    You are married to a foreigner. Did you have issues with your parents over that decision?

    Actually, my contemporaries who were in England at the time had to mostly marry people from other places. That was because those of us that were there then were few. There weren’t many Nigerian girls. Those who were there were from wealthy families, relatively speaking, and they were in institutions outside London. It was not easy to come across them. Quite a lot of us had to ‘import’ their partners from Nigeria to the United Kingdom. Most of us were in London, which continues to host most of Nigerian immigrants till today. Our ages were going up too. A lot of us got married to West Indians. Some got married to Europeans and some to Ghanaians. I got married to a delightful and delectable Sierra Leonean.

    How has your marriage been?

    It has been very good. We worked at it despite my turbulent life of social activism. Our four children were well brought up and they are doing very well. I have a granddaughter who is a lawyer and 24 years old, and my eldest grandson is 26 years old.

    Don’t you feel lonely now that the children are all out of the home?

    Yes, but we’ve just spent two years in this particular house. We used to live in a 13-room house with a swimming pool in Opebi here in Lagos. We planned very well. I didn’t work for government, so I was not expecting any pension. It has worked out the way we planned it. This is supposed to be our retirement home. It is not as big as what we used to have. It has just five bedrooms, which means that when all the children and grandchildren come home like some of them did during my recent birthday celebration, they have to lodge in hotels. But this place is good for us. We are contented. We never dreamt of things we couldn’t achieve. We were not greedy or over-ambitious. We were clear minded as to what we wanted to do and what we could do.

    You are an Ikale man from Ondo State who has imbibed Edo, English and American cultures and Sierra Leonean culture to some extent. How would you describe yourself in this circumstance?

    For me, it has been experiences of life and living. I gain a lot from travels, interacting with people and nature such as hills, mountains, rivers and even the fauna. In all of these, it is me and the world I could never make alone. Even in war situations, we learn. If you are smart, you can take a good thing out of war. You have to define yourself in relation to your world. That is why I chose to be an educator and an educationist. I want to help people to come to terms with the joy of success and the sorrow of failure. You always have to choose between various opportunities. Refusing to choose is also accepting to choose. We are all condemned to choose. So we have to choose well because our choices are guided by good and evil. We must choose to do good for there lies honour.

    I can see the joy of being an educationist in you. Do you miss lecturing at the university?

    Yes, very much. I taught in America for a while. I taught in England, Sierra Leone and here in Nigeria. Barring the obstacles of language, I can teach anywhere in the world. I have a broad-based education. I have chosen to be in Nigeria to contribute with others to make better citizens. At a point, I decided to go fully into social activism with all the hazard of deprivations, conflict with friends and foes. We are still in the trenches. While in NADECO, we chased the military out. But another set of them is wearing agbada and babanriga now and oppressing the unfortunate citizens of the country. However, we will chase them out no matter what it may take again. Truth and justice can never be totally defeated.

    Is your wife still working?

    My wife did education too, but went into banking where she rose to become a Managing Director before she retired. It was on the eve of her retirement that Gen. Abacha wanted to take her hostage to replace me during the NADECO period. But men and women of goodwill in her (Sierra-Leonean) embassy here rose up against it. They took her through the NADECO route to join me in England. But Abacha’s men went for my daughter in her matrimonial home. She is married to an Air Force officer. They took her away. Her daughter was four years old and her son was six years old at the time. They took her to a shanty area in Apapa known as the Directorate of Military Intelligence, with my mother in-law who was staying with us. They were detained for almost six months. They also took my nephew who was the youngest son of my sister. He was detained for more than three years in Apapa. He was not allowed to see sunshine for all that period. When he came out of detention, his body was white. He was taken hostage because of me.

    Have you forgiven General Abacha for these?

    I don’t quarrel with dead people. It is the legacy of our past leaders that we are living with now. I pity him though. I do not hate anyone. It is the devilish works of their hands that I hate. Unfortunately, even Abacha was a victim too. He was a victim like the others. They didn’t know and understand the circumstances surrounding their actions. It is like when the coup happened in Nigeria; the first coup of 1966. Kwame Nkrumah, the then President of Ghana, said that Balewa and his cohorts in Nigeria died of circumstances that they did not know and understand.

    I don’t rejoice in the misfortune of my fellow human beings. When I consider the circumstances that could have been prevented, I really pity them. Ignorance is a bad disease. There can never be any gain without pain. Whatever you think you have gained without pain could even kill you faster.

  • Most challenging moment of my life —102-yr-old mother of ex-Daily Times Executive Director

    Madam Priscilla Ogoneme Okafo, mother of a former Executive Director of Daily Times Nigeria Limited, Achike Okafo, celebrated her 102nd birthday at her Onitsha, Anambra State residence on March 1. The event attracted the chiefs in Onitsha kingdom, including her eldest son, Prof. Ngozi Okafo, the Ogene Onira of the ancient kingdom. In this Interview with NWANOSIKE ONU, the centenarian, popularly called Mama Nnukwu, relives her life’s experiences, including the death of her husband and its consequences.

    What would you consider as the secret of your long life?

    I suppose it would be presumptuous to identify any one thing beyond the grace of God. He is the giver of life and actually the keeper of life. But one thing is inevitable: we must know Him experientially as the only true God. We must obey and honour Him. Besides, one must do everything one does in good measure and never take the Almighty for granted. Do all things decently and in order. I can’t say it is rice, beans or fish that has kept me. At all times, I know it is God in His infinite mercy that has upheld me with His right hand of righteousness, and I seek always to be at home with Him.

    Have you really missed your husband since he died?

    Yes, of course! Which happily married woman would lose her husband and not bemoan the loss? Indeed, when one marries, the expectation and hope is to live together till good old age, to the glory of God. But when the unexpected happens as it did in my case, you sincerely grieve and mourn the loss of your dear spouse.

    This is more so when such an event throws up a lot of challenges. Can you imagine the disruption? Emotionally, you are shattered. Nothing is the same again. Such a separation is what nobody in his or her right senses ever wishes for. In fact, the closing benediction by the priest at marriage is long life and marital bliss. So, my dear, it is something unimaginable, especially when the marriage has been blessed with children at their various stages of development.

    It is not just the issue of finance but of family balance and stability. There is something the spouse brings into the upbringing of kids without which something is missing. Swimming with one hand can be unduly challenging, let alone swimming against the tide in this day and age, when the expectations for living up to social and economic challenges of modern day are enormous. Nonetheless, cast in such a mode by circumstance or ill-fortune, one does not have to throw up one’s hands in despair, hoping that the entire world will halt and rally in your support. Not at all. Life goes on.

    The challenge is to do a cautious assessment of the practical options before you bend down to gather the broken pieces when the chips are down. Being now the husband and wife, and at the same time the father and mother of your family, you just have to sit at the helm manfully and row the boat as best as you can, with eyes to heaven. The faithful Father will surely see you through. Tough it will be, but you will surmount the challenges if you do not gamble away your chances.

    How did you meet your husband, and why did you agree to marry him?

    I should perhaps begin by telling you that I grew up in a traditional society where you didn’t have the option of much social exposure as a young lady, such as operating outside the home, travelling far away on holiday, or being left to exercise the latitude of freedom young people enjoy these days. You lived within the circumscribed limits of home and family circle. Being a teacher then at Onitsha, my home town, the man who later became my husband was fairly well known when he came seeking my hand in marriage. You didn’t also have much of an option if your parents decided one way or the other. I would have wished however to gain greater education than I was opportune to when I was married.

    What are those things you like about life and which ones do you detest?

    As for my likes and dislikes in life, they varied with my stages in life. Quite early in life, I appreciated western education and wanted to make a capital of it. With a father in the colonial government at the time, serving as a court clerk, I appreciated what advantage education conferred on those who had it. It made a whole lot of difference. So, I would have preferred training as a full-fledged professional before going into marriage. But that was not to be, because the whole range lay with the parents, whatever their consideration.

    How many children did you have and what do you regret about life?

    I was blessed with four male children and a female who didn’t survive. Regrets? Not quite, because I believe as Shakespeare puts it, ‘There’s a divinity that shapes our ends; rough-hew them how we will.’ Yes, I missed having the type of education I wanted, but I fulfilled that in my kids.

    Are there other dreams you have not fulfilled?

    In a way, my husband’s career in the Nigerian Railways hampered the sustained church-planting activity I engaged in with other interested missionary colleagues. This was because as a station master in those days, he was posted at short notice from station to station. This happened each time before the churches were firmly established. From Barkin Abdullahi where inconclusive efforts were made to St. Mathew’s, Kongum River to St. Philips Church Mada in the then Northern Nigeria, and so on.

    Tell us about your growing up and the impact your parents had on you?

    Regarding my earliest beginnings, I say it all took place in my home town, Onitsha. At first, my mother had travelled from one posting to the other, where my father served in the colonial administration before his retirement in the 1930s. My early beginning was at Immanuel Church Nursery School, Enu-Onitsha. I later continued at the CMS Old Compound, lnfant School, Odo-Akpu.

    Although Onitsha was the seat of church missionary activity, being the host of the earliest missionaries to Igboland in 1857, it was nonetheless a traditional society, which witnessed the clash of traditional ways of doing things and the advent of western civilization. This had its impact on the life of the people at the time. With the doctrinal teaching and Christian religious practices, it was clear that anyone who truly professed the faith should not get mixed up with the village lifestyle and needed to be separated from their settled ways of doing things. Although we lived in the midst of those who cherished ancestral worship and the festivals which marked their activities, we were settled in our minds that the demands of Christianity were distinct and separated, and there was no half-way house between them for those who truly believed.

    Fortunately, I enjoyed a free hand in the practice of my faith. My father gave me the necessary encouragement and my mother did not allow my performance of the domestic chores to clash with the expectations of my church duties such as attending the church choir practices and weekly fellowships. It really strengthened my arm as a Christian. I do not believe that anyone who sincerely wants to serve God would want to resort to making idle excuses. I indeed do not regret the opportunity God has given me in life and I have striven to give my best in serving the Lord.

    Do you regret not having a female child?

    I had one (daughter) like I said earlier, but death did not allow her, leaving me with four boys. But I have other daughters who are also my own from my co-wife. So, view it from any angle, you can see I am not lacking in any way and have no reason to regret anything in life because I am blessed in and out.

  • UNILAG’s radio, TV: The road we travelled, by Ralph Akinfeleye

    Prof. Ralph Akinfeleye, the Chairman, Centre of Excellence in Multi-Media/Radio and Television,  University of Lagos (UNILAG), is a household name in the media industry. The former Head of Department of Mass Communication led the institution to acquire, first the  radio licence and then the television licence. In this interview with TAJUDEEN ADEBANJO, Prof. Akinfeleye revealed how the university fought to get the radio licence for over 20 years, the ‘politics’ that almost scuttled its bid to acquire the TV licence and how UNILAG became the first tertiary institution in Nigeria to obtain both licences. Excerpts: 

    How did the journey begin?

    I attended the University Of Missouri School Of Journalism, which is the first school of journalism in the world that awards Bachelor Degree in journalism. After my studies, I returned to Nigeria. Then I was appointed at the University of Lagos as the Director, Station Manager for UNILAG’s Linking FM.

    When I was employed, Prof. Okpobo was our Head of Department (HoD) and I told them that I didn’t see anything in broadcasting. The print was doing fine. We had a print shop, and I told him there was need for us to let our students understand the other side of journalism – that is, radio and television. So, I told him at that time that it was important that we do it very fast.

    Tell us how UNILAG got its radio licence?

    Immediately, we started the processing for the radio. After my intervention with Professor Okpobo, we were able to move up from ‘Nothingcasting’ to ‘Narrowcasting.’ Narrowcasting was within our office, and we were just playing with ourselves and that was not all right with me as a graduate of Missouri. That was when we now decided to go into broadcasting, and then we applied.

    The journey started with ‘Nothingcasting’ to ‘Narrowcasting’, and now to ‘Broadcasting’. You can see how we have moved. So, we are proud to have the licence. The then Minister of Information, Prince Tony Momoh,  and the then Director of Federal Radio Cooperation of Nigeria (FRCN), Dr. Christopher Kolade, supported us. He was coming here to teach part-time. Every succeeding government – military or civilian – said no, that they would not give any licence to any university to operate a radio station, and we also were unable to move because there was no national policy on broadcasting, especially in 1992 under the Ministry of Information. However, with the support of Prince Tony Momoh, all the heads both in the industry and the university were summoned to formulate a National Policy on Information and Communication.

    We were able to do that successfully and passed it to the government, and the government in their own wisdom in 1992 signed the deregulation policy. Deregulation policy was to stop the monopoly of the airways by the government; hitherto before 1992, the radio and television were run 100 percent by government, either the federal or the state level.

    In 1992, former Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida, signed the deregulation policy. That was what gave birth to AIT and also Radio UNILAG. How did we pursue it? Every government would say no, your university students would use it for aluta, they will not be able to manage it well.

    So, we kept on applying. In fact, some of my colleagues said to me, ‘Ralph’ you are wasting your time, this government, they will not give it to you. During Obasanjo’s first coming, we applied, they didn’t give it to us during the military then, but when he came back as a civilian president, we applied again. It took us over 20 years.

    In fact, our application preceded the establishment of the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC). Eventually in 2002, we were lucky to have the Director-General of the NBC, Danladi Bako, who was a graduate of this place (UNILAG); I taught him 1981 – 1982.

    I said, ‘Danladi help us’. So, one afternoon in 2002, Danladi just called me. He said, ‘Prof, Breaking news!’  I said, ‘What’s the breaking news?’ He said the President, Olusegun Obasanjo had just signed our licence. I asked how he did it. He said he (Obasanjo) called him for something else and that for Obasanjo, you have to read him like a book to know when he’s happy and when he’s not happy.

    So, that time, he told me that Obasanjo was in the best mood. After discussing with him, he came back and said to him, ‘Your Excellency, sir, this issue of UNILAG Radio has been here for a long time. You know, I’m not from the South and I think that we should do it sir.’

    Obasanjo told Danladi that if government gives approval to UNILAG Radio, they would use it to abuse him. But Danladi said, ‘No sir, they will not use it to abuse you sir. NBC has the machine. If they are doing anything against the government that is not professional, we don’t need to go to Akoka. We will just press one button and they will just go off the air.’

    Obasanjo said, ‘You have that. Bring it let me sign it.’ So, that was how Obasanjo signed our licence for Radio UNILAG.

    I quickly went to the Vice Chancellor. I told him, ‘Sir, breaking news! Our application has been signed by President Obasanjo’. The VC was very happy. He  asked what we needed to do. I said, ‘Looking at President Obasanjo, he fluctuates like the naira. He may change his mind tomorrow’. I said what we needed to do was to call a world press conference to address the press. So, he drafted the world press conference and luckily for us that time, Atoyebi, who was a former student of UNILAG, was the director-general of the FRCN. They had a mast that they were not using. So, I called him and said, ‘Please, can you give us this mast as part of your donations to our radio station? We have just gotten approval.’

    He said, ‘Yes sir. No problem.’ So, I wrote, and after thanking the Federal Government and President Obasanjo, I said in pursuance of the approval, the government had directed the FRCN to donate an equipment for us to start. So, we addressed the world press conference and then later on, we backed it up with a letter of appreciation to the President. The approval came 2002, but we needed also to get frequency. We didn’t get frequency until 2004, because they were telling us there was no spectrum in Lagos. We had to go through the National Communications Commission (NCC), and eventually we were given frequency. They gave us a frequency that was jamming another station. We lived with this for almost six months, but later on, they helped us to streamline it.

    During that period we were jamming other stations, we were so close to 103.5, 103.3 and 103.1; eventually they were able to separate us from that jam jam and we started our broadcasting in 2004. The radio was commissioned by Vice President Atiku Abubakar. He came to this campus to launch it. We then became the first campus station in Nigerian universities.

    What is of interest to us is that we have to thank the NBC. They could have said, ‘No, don’t give it to any university, they will abuse it’; but the NBC said they would be used to impact fully and for their practical. As a baby of the NBC, they helped us get started and we have been very successful to the extent that today at the last meeting we held, I formed the Association of Campus Radios in Nigeria (ACRN).

    UNILAG as a catalyst for campus radios in Nigeria?

    We met recently in Ibadan, and instead of UNILAG Radio alone, we had 50 radio stations in Nigerian universities, polytechnics and monotechnics and similar institutions, and they don’t have to wait for 25 years, as the road had been cleared for them. So, the NBC is the regulatory body, but they sometimes over- regulate. After approval was given, they told us to pay a licence fee of N10 million.

    We had to write Danladi that we are an educational station, and don’t have such money; kindly give us a waiver. Danladi also responded, and they gave us a waiver for N1 million for the renewal of our licence every five years, instead of N10 million.

    It is that N1 million that was approved for UNILAG that other universities are benefitting from. They didn’t know the history of how we were able to get that one. So, because we have been so successful, NBC has been happy about it.

    What motivated you to aspire for the television licence?

    When we got the radio licence, I said we needed to apply for the television licence. It was not easy, but I told the Vice Chancellor and he said that would be a good idea. But, in applying for television, it is capital intensive. I saw an advertisement in the paper by the World Bank. They were asking for the establishment of a centre of excellence where you can learn journalism in this country. I applied. They asked me to bring eight materials from the university: the charter – the Act establishing the University of Lagos; the audited report of the past three years and 10-year strategic plan. I was not sure whether the university would give me, so I ran to the VC, Professor Odugbemi. He was here in 2012 or there about. Before I left his office, he called the school’s bursar to tell him I was coming for something; so they released the documents.

    They gave me, and we supported it with our application together with my colleagues; Dr. Tayo Popoola was part of them with Dr. Okoye. We formulated the proposal and sent it to the World Bank. Eventually, by October 2013, they invited us to Abuja to make a presentation. They said we should work with some universities and polytechnics. We invited the University of Nigeria (UNN), Lagos State University (LASU), Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH), and American University in Nigeria to work with us.

    Suddenly, they disappeared and we appeared in Abuja to meet them as our competitors. In fact, they called them before us, as UNILAG was the last to be called. UNILAG made its presentation before the World Bank. We were working with the Ministries of Information, Education, National Planning, Finance and National Universities Commission, and the World Bank. We made our presentation and they asked questions.

    After a long time, they just called us and said, ‘We are sorry, UNILAG did not make it!’

    And after that…

    (Cuts in) I have been working with the United Nations agencies. I spent my sabbatical at the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) as country communication specialist, and I have worked with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); so, I know the system. I know the linkage.

    We sent a letter to the headquarters of World Bank and the UN telling them that we applied for this project, and they told us we would get response in two weeks’ time and that now somebody called us from Abuja that we didn’t make it.

    What I want sent to me was the universities and polytechnics that got it and the ranking so that I would be able to report to my Vice Chancellor who had given me the material. You know, the white people are very nice. They just sent to me three assessors – the first assessor gave us 85, the second one gave us 84, our lowest mark was 82. They asked, ‘Who says UNILAG did not make it. We are surprised.’

    I quickly ran to the VC, telling him about the local politics and international politics. Eventually, we knew that we got it. Somebody now called me from Abuja and said I should come to Abuja, and when coming I should come alone. I told my colleagues, see this information, shall we go?

    I said I was not going to go alone. ‘I am going to go with the two of you. I’m not going to go at a time when they are going to be expecting us. We will go at a time they will not be expecting us’, I told them.

    We will just go to Abuja and phoned them that we are the UNILAG crew that we were going to be coming down in two days’ time, so, after few hours, we would knock and just go in. They said wow! That was a good strategy and they all agreed to that.

    On that Friday that we were going, the Federal Government dissolved the cabinet. There were now a new minister of information, new minister of budget and planning, new minister of works, new minister of education. They all came in so, we didn’t have to go to Abuja anymore. So, at the end of the day, the new minister had a meeting with the minister of education, who thought, why would it be UNILAG? The project will cost $5 million, a total of N5 billion, so, they said we should partner the University of Jos and NFI.

    I said were where they? Couldn’t they see when the advertisement was published in the papers? Why couldn’t they apply? I said I’m sorry I cannot work with them. Let them wait until there’s another chance. I told the VC that we were going to agree on the condition that we were not co-equal. The VC asked, ‘What do you mean by co-equal?’ I said if they give us four vehicles, I will give one to UNIJOS, and if there is a motorcycle, I will give it to NFI because NFI is not a university and not even up to our faculty, and the remaining four will be for UNILAG. If they give us 20 computers, I will give 17 to UNILAG, two to UNIJOS and one for NFI.

    After a period of time, I was told our licence had been approved. I quickly went to the VC to give him the news update. It was almost at the eve of his departure, as he was in a meeting with some professors. As I was about to leave him, he said no, and he told the professors that Mass Communication Department had done something new and they wanted to relay the news.

    He told them that our licence for UNILAG TV had been approved and that we were now on DStv. They started congratulating me, and I made calls to them to send us the letter of approval.

    How independent is radio UNILAG/TV from the university’s administration?

    That is a good question. Before Professor Rahman Bello came, there was a man…, I won’t mention the name, that wanted to carve an empire for himself. He saw the beauty of Mass Communication Department, and believing that the UNESCO had given us a standard, instead of coming here, he took them to the Senate block. But when Professor Bello came, I told them that we couldn’t be operating from the Senate Building because of the issue on ground. Radio UNILAG is not the work or the property of the VC or the administration, and they don’t intervene in the day-to-day running of our station.

    We have told them that radio/television is no  photocopy and they understand it. If they have information they wish to publish, we charge them, they pay us for it; if they have programmes,  we charge them. We are able to stabilise and make sure it is not part of the work of a VC. At our laboratory, we accommodate people from other related disciplines such as English, Creative Arts, Theatre Arts and Engineering. In case of any problem, engineering students would come and help us. We also have interns coming there for their industrial attachment from various universities.

    We have applied to NBC to let us take limited adverts, and they are asking what limited adverts are? They said why couldn’t we go to donors to get equipment and other items? I said well, donors have stopped donating; they then asked why couldn’t I ask students to put it as part of the school fees? I said if you add one kobo to school fees in this country, students would go on Aluta and I don’t have time for that. The reason they are scared is because there is a radio called Radio UNILAG in the University of Ghana, in Accra. They run their own station by subscription from tuition. What I am doing now is sports announcement, as far as we don’t call it advert. But normally, we don’t take commercials from political parties or religious groups and tobacco.

    If businesses come with adverts, would you accept?

    Yes; we cannot take all those big adverts, but we can take adverts or announcements, or if someone is trying to advertise condom, because we have a community, our target audience are students and youths. They need to understand that prevention is better than cure; so all those things related to our people, like Coca-Cola. We have to drink Coca-Cola so that they can sponsor a programme, and we have a programme we call ‘Matters Arising.’ We have that problem now; we would not have had that problem if we were to run commercials. So, they cannot report us to anybody because our licence is the same thing as their own. So, we can run commercials on the TV, but radio, we cannot. That means what radio cannot take now, the TV can take, and my plan is to eventually get another radio station, one would be commercial and the other non-commercial.

    How would you generate contents for the TV station?

    Very good question; I told you we have recruited about 15 TV people, some are from the industry, and they are here full-time, minus our students and volunteers. We have a content manager. For your information, as at last time, we have more than 200 edited contents. If we start broadcasting today, I have enough that would carry us 24/7. But, we are still producing. In fact, we run a documentary on so many things. As we are talking now, my crew is in a meeting with the VC, as he is paying a courtesy call on them and the department, which is part of our content. As you are aware, our content distribution will be 80 percent Nigeria, 15 percent Africa and 5 percent others. So, we are going to jealously follow that one.

    What would you be doing?

    Our programme? When you see our programme, it is unique because we want participants to participate in the first campus radio channel, in sports, on drama and so many things. We have a programme called the Private Hour, where we invite a professor who had a breakthrough in his or her discipline to come and tell us how the discovery was made. We have another programme called Research Evolution; it is directed by the director of academics and research, it deals with the management of research.

  • Why we’re investing in employees – Southern Sun

    The Human Resource Manager of Southern Sun Hotel, Ikoyi, Mr. Cornelius Onwah,  has said that the hotel is transitioning from cost focused human resource services to experience focused human resource, effective for enhancing productivity, drive, adoption and delivery of differential customer experience.

    Onwah spoke on the importance of translating business quality management thinking into actionable steps by investing in the development of the hotel employees across all levels of the value chain. His words: ‘Staff training is one aspect of human resource development that the group takes very seriously and this has been demonstrated over the years through the learning interventions engaged upon by management. The Tsogo Sun  group  has a full-fledged training academy located in Johannesburg in South Africa and the responsibility of the Academy, apart from setting the standard for the learning culture of the entire group, ensures that skills are enhanced and up to date to meet the ever changing needs of the modern business traveler across the globe. In recognition of same, that is, the importance of learning to enhance the level of service given to our guests, management trained the entire contingent of the frontline staff comprising the front office and F&B department to a one week “First Impressions customer service training”. This training was so well received by the generality of the staff that, other departments are in the process of receiving same. Not done, all the supervisors in the hotel were again exposed to a 3 day intensive training session on “Effective Leadership”.

    On the issue of health and safety training for the staff in the light of the hotel being a hospitality outfit, Onwah said: “Our industry is indeed prone to daily health and safety hazards and we know that we cannot truly redefine customer experience on our premises if we do not first equip our employees with the adequate know how. Health and Safety is taken very seriously at Southern Sun Ikoyi and our staff from all departments is regularly trained all through the year on Basic First Aid, CPR and AED training to help the generality of staff in the event of emergencies.

    “First Aiders at our hotel are retrained and recertified every two years to enable utmost functionality in their capabilities. Our Food and Beverage department particularly received further training for an additional 2weeks on this. We also know that imparting knowledge is a skill and so Trainers at the hotel are also frequently trained in dedicated trainer courses for efficiency”.

  • You’ve to be streetwise to do business in Nigeria-Kewalram-Chanrai Group GDM Eburajolo

    Mr. Victor Eburajolo, Group Deputy Managing Director, Kewalram-Chanrai Group, is one of the few Nigerians occupying high-ranking position in the over 110 years old conglomerate with interests in automobile, pharmaceuticals, agric and agro-allied sectors, to mention just a few. In this interview with IBRAHIM APEKHADE YUSUF, he speaks on the prospects and challenges of managing businesses. Excerpts:

    The country just exited recession, a period which saw a lot of companies downsizing amongst other belt-tightening measures. What was your experience at Kewalram-Chanrai Group?

    Talking about the recession, first let me tell you that this group has been in Nigeria for over 100 years, and for this number of years, we have seen the ‘in’ and ‘out’ of the economy and so somehow we were mentally prepared for this. And in this group too, even before what is happening becomes public knowledge, we project into the future.

    For instance, look at what’s happening with the oil prices. Everybody is saying, ‘oh, we have come out completely from scarcity’. But we are just looking at the immediate. If you look at the fact that Americans are not going to buy much of your oil, I see a situation towards the third quarter of this year that we’ll begin to feel that pinch. Of course, if we cannot sell, and then our economy again would feel it because the recession we went into, let’s face it, was because of the price of oil; the damage in the Niger Delta area; price of oil was crashing and we were not even pumping enough to be able to run the economy. That was the major problem. So we’re also looking down the line. And what we do here is, we scan the business environment and we project for each and every business. If it’s going up, we’ll invest in that area. But then we’re very cautious and l think that’s the way to do business. You must continuously scan your environment and know what measures to take and what to do at every point in time.

    In the past, there had been cases where investors took flight as a result of economic downturn.

    We’re not fly-by-night investors. We intend to remain here. In fact, we’re older than Nigeria itself. You know like I said, this group is here to stay. Those who take flights are those who want to take opportunities that they see and make money and if anything goes wrong, they vote with their feet. No, we’re not like that. We study the environment and we’re constantly studying the environment in each of our businesses and we take appropriate measures. Take for instance, when foreign exchange was becoming difficult, we had a way of cushioning it by getting our investors from abroad to help. So these are the things that we do. And of course, you can only do this, if you have investors who’re prepared to help from abroad. We do that a lot. Also, we don’t just go on spending. When we spend, we’re very careful. And I think that’s just being prudent. I’m aware that some companies when the going is good, they spend lavishly, they bloat their labour and all that. Here, we believe in employing the right number of people at any given time and paying them well. If you employ 20 people and you pay them peanuts, and you employ 10 and you pay them well, you get more productivity from the 10 than the 20 that you employed. And then also, we’re constantly growing. If we look at the economy and see where business is likely to go, we go in there. I tell you something that most people are not looking at: For those of us who’re involved in consumer goods, in marketing and so on, do you know who our main competitors are now? They’re those who service online shoppers. We envisage in another four years that some of these big stores might just see people who just come for sightseeing. These days, our biggest competitors are Jumia and the others. So we’ve to find a way to be able to compete. If we want to stick to our old ways of giving goods to our distributors and stuff like that, you’ll run out of business.

    These days, you can sit at the comfort of your home and book for lunch and it’ll be delivered to your doorstep. If those who’re running restaurants don’t key into this immediately and make arrangements with dispatch riders to help deliver food to customers and just wait for people to come, it’ll adversely affect their businesses. So we’re looking at that area and we’re trying to see to get ahead of the competition. These are the things that we do.

    In fact, here we joke and say; we’ve kicked out the box. We don’t have any stereotype in the way we do business. We’re constantly scanning the environment and keeping abreast. If not, the business will leave you behind. You know what they say, if you think you’re successful and you stay where you’re, other business will overrun you and before you know it, you’re a dinosaur. If these big stores don’t take into consideration online shopping and delivery, they’ll be run out of business. I was growing up when Kingsway Stores went out of business in this country.

    Overview of products line and businesses

    In the group today, we’ve close to nine different companies. Take for instance, Kewalram Nigeria Limited, we’re into vehicle assembling. Asahi also assembles and Concept also assembles. We’re also into pharmaceuticals; we’ve ties with big companies in India. Because we know the Nigerian economy, medicine is something that we all need. But then you should price it in such a way that many common men on the street can easily get it. The expensive ones we do but we concentrate more on reaching the grassroots. We also have the Springfield Agro. As it’s today, everybody’s going into agric. That’s the trend today. We’re big in that area. We commissioned our feed mill in Zaria late last year. We’ve been in agric for a very long time. Even in the early 60s and 70s, we were into cotton cultivation. We had more than 20, 000 cotton farmers. We make Sonola Oil. And then we’re also into all chemicals and fertilisers, pesticides, etc. Most people don’t know that we even assemble tractors in this country.

    Do you source your equipment from the original equipment manufacturers?

    Yes, we’ve a tie-up agreement with Fortune, in China. And most people don’t know that Fortune is an arrangement between Daimler-Benz, which of course, makes it a solid brand. And what I like about the whole arrangement, especially with the Daimler-Benz part of the deal, is that they take care of total quality control.

    Many multinationals are guilty of under reporting their financials, overbloating their expatriate quote and disobeying the federal government plan for local content. Are you one of the culprits?

    Let me even take it from the business point of view. You want to do business, your national currency is very weak, and you want to keep importing? My take is that if you import what you can get from the country, you’re simply shooting yourself on the foot because it just doesn’t make any sense. So we don’t do that. What we can get locally, we get; we even try to improve on them. And if you’re into feed mill, agriculture and stuff, you find out that most of the things you want to do, you’ve to source them locally. It doesn’t make sense, except for those who just want to make money and exit the scene and those ones don’t last. So that’s not for us. And here, let me say that today in this country, people just sit down and write petitions against conglomerates and so on. There was a petition against us at the Federal Criminal Investigation Department, FCID, Alagbon, Lagos. They gave us a long list of allegations such as non remittance of taxes, National Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) dues, and all of that. I got there with my team and demanded for the list and I said, give me two days to sort this out and they did. After three days, we went there with a big file and it took them almost three days for them to sort things out. And that was it. That’s the way that we do business. Because if you get caught once, nobody will trust you again so we’re very careful. I recalled that when we were going into pharmaceuticals- Chanrai Healthcare, the Vice Chairman said, ‘Please remember, Chanrai is a family name, no dirty business. Don’t drag this name into disrepute.’ We value and cherish our integrity: That is what we work on in this group. We’re very keen about it and for me, personally, this is not the time I’ll soil my name because I’m working for a company.

    One recurring issues with the Asians who do business in this part of the world is that they’ve since acquired notoriety for being task masters, bad employers, they cut corners…

    I’ll give you an example. Last year, when the conditions were bad for all workers in this country, we were giving the workers 25kg bag of rice and Sonola Oil every month; they didn’t ask for it. While the directors, including expatriates, took a cut in their salaries, we did not touch the salaries of Nigerians.

    What’s  the staff strength of the entire group and the ratio of expatriates and locals?

    The entire group now is about 700. It’s unlike textiles then when Afprint alone was 3,000. The expatriate quota is about 10-one. But look at it; it’s expensive to have expatriates. As a business, why will you run the expenses when you can get capable Nigerians? Because expatriates do not only have their pay here, their remittances, accommodation are paid here in Nigeria. And if you talk of accommodation, you have  to look for place that is secured and you’ll be looking at Ikoyi, Lekki and so on. If you take all these expenses on board, before you know it, you erode your profit.

    As a manager of men and resources, you must have your own management style?

    You see, around here, we’ve this concept of family. When you join this group, you’re joining a family. So, we work as a family and as a team. And note this: If nobody takes the credit for what the team achieves, the team does very well. That’s what we do here and we listen to opinion of every member of the team.  For instance, in this office, somebody can work in here and tell it.

    This morning a manager walked in here and said: ‘sir l want you to help me counsel  Mr. so and so. He’s not pulling up his weight and if he doesn’t do that, he’ll remain on this menial job he’s doing. He has to sit up.’  That’s a manager who came to report his subordinate to me to talk to him. In other places, if you’re not performing and you’ve been told once or twice, they kick you out. So we try to counsel and rehabilitate people here. Let me give you an example: If in your family things are bad, will you throw one of your children out? No. You keep the child, counsel the child and so on. But if the child decides on his own to leave, and you try to stop the child and he doesn’t budge, you simply let him go.

    In terms of reproaching staff, do you apply the carrot and stick approach?

    We have a disciplinary procedure. There are offences that are listed, punishments are there. You know today in this country, the National Industrial Court, if you don’t follow the disciplinary procedures, you easily get into trouble in the court and they’ll hold you responsible. Our HR practice here is very strong. If a worker commits an offence, he knows exactly what will happen if the company decides to punish him.He knows the kind of punishment he’ll get because everybody has a handbook.

    How do you motivate your staff?

    The first thing is to motivate staff, they must believe in the system. They must have confidence in it. If you’ve a system that they don’t have confidence in, that is, you just pick and choose who you want to promote and all that, that’ll not do well. But in a level playing field, everybody knows what to expect.  We have an appraisal system. You’re given your key performance areas at every quarter, we do a review and we expect that when we do the review, anything that you need to do your job, that we’ve not made available, you let us know. So it’s a constant thing. By the end of the year, you know what you’ve done. So if you’ve just managed to scale through, you get a normal increment which is stated in the condition of service. If you’ve performed exceptionally well, you get an additional increment, it could be double or triple. And if you have done very well and you should be promoted, but there’s no vacancy, you get the increase meant for someone who is being promoted. So you get the salary. It’s just that you retain the same job title.

    What I said is the rule. But if you’ve done well consistently, while you get what is due to you, we go out of the way to do something exceptional. I give you an example. There’s an accountant here who’s very good and dedicated. But he’s not gotten to the level where he can get an official car. At the end of last year, the Managing Director of the Division came and said, this fellow is very good, he said, I like to give him a car. In other places, you’ll wait till it’s your time. But I simply said, I had no objection and I noticed that three of them like that were given cars. So, like I said, our model is a concept of family. If you have a child that is doing well in school, you like to encourage the child. Isn’t it? That’s what we do here.