The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday Interview

  • ‘MY FATHER’S SECRET FEAR FOR MY VENTURE INTO BROADCAST JOURNALISM’

    ‘MY FATHER’S SECRET FEAR FOR MY VENTURE INTO BROADCAST JOURNALISM’

    Osasu, one of the daughters of the former Governor of Edo State, Lucky Igbinedion, is the brain behind the Osasu Show which interrogates issues of governance at both the state and the national levels. In this interview with Deputy Editor, Nation’s Capital, YOMI ODUNUGA, she delves into her forays into the broadcast media, the challenges and how her parents had initially objected to her career choice. Excerpts:

    With your background and parental influence, you could have easily secured a well-paying job without much hassle. Why did you go into the media and independent production?

    Basically, I started the Osasu Show at the heat of the 2015 election. This was at the end of 2014 actually but the first episode did not air till March of 2015 which was when they were rounding up the elections anyway. What I wanted to do was bridge the communication gap between the leaders and their constituents in the sense that I take words directly from the mouths of Nigerians, to the ears of their leaders and vice versa.

    So, at that time, I had people running for political office and who decided to come on the show and tell Nigerians what they will like to do when they get to that position of power. The real essence of the Osasu Show is to bridge the gap, the communication and social and economic deficit between the elite and the masses.

    Some people believe that you injected some dint of political propaganda into the programme, especially with some of the guests on the show. How would you react to that allegation?

    Anyone who watches the show ought to know that we are quite objective. Sometimes, when I interview an All Progressives Congress minister, he will say I was asking him the hard questions and it is the same thing with guests from the Peoples Democratic Party. For me, that is the measure of objectivity when both sides tell us we are APC or PDP. We know we are doing a good job and we are objective enough regardless of who we interview. I am objective enough to ensure that I ask questions that the people would like to ask if given the opportunity. It is very objective and direct. We don’t take side. We ensure that we get to the root of whatever issue it is we are discussing. For the records, I don’t belong to any political party, so I don’t see any reason to take side with one person, candidate or political party or the other.

    Knowing how difficult it could to invite such important personalities to such shows in Nigeria, do you leverage on your family’s influence in sourcing guests?

    We will be three years in March and we have done a fantastic work so far. Funny enough, only one person has reached out to a familyA member of mine so far to be on the show. I have reached out to everybody else or meet colleagues and ask for contacts. Most of them who know the show and those who don’t ask for information about the show and the rest is history. If you are doing a good work, you don’t have to leverage on anybody or anything. Your work should be the tool of judgment that people use to decide whether or not to support you.

    I’m sure you know that my grandfather is the first individual to setup a private university in the country and a private airline. So he is basically an industrialist who started from nothing to something. That name is not only national but internationally-recognised. So it is not something that I can shy away from. Obviously the first question people ask me is which of the Igbinedions I belong to. Some people are attracted to the sheer fact that they can see themselves in an Igbinedion, saying if she can make it, I can make it as well. They can say okay I like your grandfather, I like what he has done for himself and yes I’m interested in helping you or watch your programme to see how you are able to push or elevate women and the country. Obviously it has its negative side as well.

    Some people say no, I don’t like your family or no your dad was in office and failed or succeeded in these and these aspects. And that is unfortunate but that is life for you. Not everyone can like you. Fortunately, we are starting to live in a time where the sins of the father and mother do not necessarily translate to the child and I think more Nigerians are becoming more open minded and more people are becoming more understanding. As long as you are an individual with passion, intelligence, intellect and something to offer, they will give you a chance to proceed or show your capacity to them.

    What line of business were you into before the Osasu Show?

    I moved to the country in 2014. So I got my undergraduate degree and Masters and went to the school for film productions before I moved back to the country. My Nigerian work and living experience all started in 2014 and as soon as I came back, I went into the media. Although I was doing TV and film advertising before I ventured into my television show, when I saw the deplorable state that the country was in, especially given the Internally Displaced Persons situation, I decided that I was going to use the Osasu Show as a vehicle to change that situation for them.

    What is the thrust of your NGO?

    That is my heart. I run the Osasu Show Foundation, which is an extension of the Osasu Show because, when we kicked off in 2015, I found myself always doing charity work on the show. So most people will ask ‘is this a television show where you are interviewing politicians or doing philanthropy?’ So I decided that we would have to distinguish both. We will have our interviews on the Osasu Show while the foundation will be specifically geared towards helping women and children because I believe they are the most vulnerable in the society. So, for the children, we give them scholarships to go to school wherever they want in the entire country.

    We particularly focus on the North because the level of girl child illiteracy in the North is deplorable like nowhere else in the entire country. We made it a conscious effort to start from the North and we have sent over 20 girls to schools through primary and secondary levels. As for the women, we give them startup capital to begin small scale businesses. We teach them skills acquisition; we have empowered over 200 women to date. We just want to create a just society where children can grow up and have hope in their country; they can have aspirations to be anything they want to be. It is hard to see that nowadays when you interact with five-year-old children who will tell you how they had to flee their hometown in the North-East because Boko Haram came, locked their parents in their house and burnt it down. They had to run inside the bush, drink their own urine and eat leaves for weeks on end. When you see children like that just abandoned in IDP camps and not given education, you ask yourself, what is the hope for this child? And the larger picture is that what is the hope for Nigeria? Because if children are left hopeless, then what is the hope for the country?

    So, I believe through education, scholarship and empowering the women, we can make a difference. When you empower a woman, you empower the entire community because she sees how to trickle down the finances not only to her immediate family but to other people she will buy stuffs from. I decided to focus on women and children and we hope to expand outside the country when we feel like we have reached a certain level of positive impact across the six geopolitical zones.

    Did you have any opposition from your family?

    Not really. I didn’t ask permission from anybody before starting the show. I am the type of person that when I set up my mind to do something, I just do it and I didn’t ask for support from my family and they did not have the opportunity to tell me no or yes. When I started, I told them that I was looking to start a show and I highlighted the objectives. I wasn’t asking do you think I should start or not. I already weighed the risks and benefits and I decided that the benefits outweighed the risks, so I told them I was starting. Although my mum later confessed to me that my dad was worried that most women on television are not married and was reluctant in allowing me to go ahead.

    But, right now, my parents are extremely proud of what I am doing. My grandfather calls me at least once a week to reiterate how proud he is of me and the work that I am doing not just for myself but the society at large and also him, knowing that of all his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, someone is out there exhibiting the passion he has for the people, furthering the name and the foundation that he has built. He is very proud and that makes me happy as well.

    What is your philosophy of life?

    It is to do more when I feel like I’m doing enough. I tell myself, do even more. That is my slogan and philosophy. Then I impact lives by simply being compassionate in the sense that I don’t sympathise with people but rather empathise with them. I remember when I was young, about seven, and being driven in an air-conditioned car in Lagos, I saw this young girl hawking food items. She was dirty and looked really haggard; she leaned on my window, gesturing and advertising her wares and, just for a moment, I thought I could be the one selling the wares and she going to school. With a role reversal, that could have been me you know. That is how I see life. I think we must all empathise. My philosophy is to do more and when people tell me I am doing fantastic, I tell myself, do more.

    What will you say is your greatest challenge since you started the Osasu Show?

    I do have challenges but I am not really disturbed by people that try to challenge my efforts because I ask questions that Nigerians want to hear. There was this minister I interviewed and, ever since my interview with him, he has stopped picking my calls. He told one former governor that he doesn’t talk to me anymore because I drilled him on my show as if I was working for the opposition. The former governor told me that Nigerian leaders don’t like being questioned and I said if they don’t like being questioned, that means they are trying to run me out of my job because my job is to question them. As journalists, we are gate keepers of our democracy and if we are not able to hold leaders to account, if we are not able to question them, then why are we journalists? He said well you are probably right, if it was in the international community you will probably be given an accolade but this is Nigeria. There have been a couple of interviews where I have been a little combative but, at the end of the day, the people love it because it is getting to the root of issues and not pandering to the dictates of politicians who were elected to serve us.

    Another minister had threatened to walk off and I kept quiet. After that, I continued with the questions. In any case, why would you grant an interview if you don’t want to answer questions? If you want objective line of questioning knowing that the same line of questions I ask you is what I will ask your opponent, come to the Osasu Show. But if you are looking for sycophants, look for someone else.

  • Our experience caring for orphans, widows from boko haram, herdsmen killings-74-yr-old first female medical doctor from North Mary Ogede

    Our experience caring for orphans, widows from boko haram, herdsmen killings-74-yr-old first female medical doctor from North Mary Ogede

    Apparently, ageing well may include being able to look back and laugh out loud about little things in the past, including being the first in one’s family lineage to ever see Lagos, Nigeria’s federal capital in the ’60s. Dr Mrs. Mary Ogebe, wife of former Supreme Court judge, Justice James Ogebe, became the first female medical doctor in Northern Nigeria before she realized it. Few decades earlier, she was just an unusual girl, who lost her dad at an early age and had a poor mother whose literacy was limited to reading the Hausa language version of the Holy Bible. Perched on hard wooden benches of articulated Bedford lorries almost filled with onions, groundnut and other food commodities being transported to cities, she would travel unaccompanied from her rural part of Benue State to distant lands in pursuit of education.  Now in her 70s, and with three children who are all doing well in their respective professional callings abroad, she leads a very modest and quiet life, devoting much time to religious worship and charity work. She spoke during the week with Assistant Editor, JIDE BABALOLA at her Abuja home:

    Please briefly tell us about your life, your family background, how you went to school and how life has been up to the point where you are now.

    My parents were humble villagers, farmers and with very little education.  I was born in 1944 and by the time I was 10 in 1954, my dad passed away and my widowed mother was saddled with the responsibility of educating me and my two younger brothers. It was hard for her but because she had promised to do what she could and with God helping me, I was doing well in school; she continued with my education. Right through primary school, I later had to even go away from home to another place to complete my primary school in those days before secondary school and I remember in those days, there were no buses or taxis. I travelled to Dass and beyond Bauchi; I was travelling through Tudun-Fulani, Jos, by lorries and trailers and those lorries would go once a week to the market down there to go and carry things like onions and groundnut, so I would sit on those benches. By that time, I was about 11 to 12 years old when I went to secondary school there; riding on lorries, sleeping in Bauchi because it was a two-day journey, but it was great because in those days, every adult was helpful to a young child unlike today when one would be afraid of being stolen or kidnapped and being raped. Those things I must say if they existed, they were very rare.

    So after primary school, I passed exam to a place they called Gindiri Secondary School now in Plateau State and after that, I passed also to Queens College, Yaba, for Higher School Certificate and that was another huge one. I had never been to Lagos and I never thought I would go to Lagos but here was I, having to go to Lagos. My mom, a widow, only knew a few places where she went for church meetings.

    You were the first person in your family lineage to go all the way southwards to Lagos?

    Yes, yes! I was the first person in my family lineage to go to Lagos. In fact, there was a cousin who had gone to Lagos College of Education but I was the first one from my own immediate family and that was a huge thing. Again, there people always ready to help and assist. You would go and your mother, all she could do was write letters and receive your letters till you come back during holidays.

    So, I did two years there and God helped me, I passed my papers and was admitted to the College of Medicine in University of Lagos to study Medicine. That took five years and it was when I was in College of Medicine that a senior, a man from Kano, told me that there were no female doctors in the whole North, but he knew of someone in his own state, Kano, who was studying medicine in Europe but that she was behind me and he was sure that I will be the first to qualify.

    In which year did you qualify as a medical doctor?

    I qualified in 1971 and that other lady qualified in 1972 from Europe. So that was when the idea came to my head that I was going to be the first in anything (Laughs). It wasn’t something I was pursuing, but he told me that and it proved to be true.

    So, where did you start work and was your career path?

    When I finished from Lagos, I came into Benue-Plateau State where the capital was Jos and there was a General Hospital in Jos. That was where I started my internship. I did the internship there and eventually I got a scholarship to do postgraduate studies, part of which I did in England and part at the University College Hospital, UCH Ibadan. By then, I was a family person.  I was married with two kids, so I had to balance my family with my study at the same time.

    In terms of sacrificing career for family and the way young ladies take it these days, what advice can you offer?

    Many times, there is conflict between family and professional career, especially professions where training is continuous; you have to maintain yourself at the level and the pace at which technology is advancing but then the family cannot wait for you.  Thankfully, God gives us the ability to conceive and have children. So to balance up the family both in terms of children  coming in and your husband’s progress in his own field, he too had to progress. So, it can be difficult but one thing for sure that really helped me is the focus that both my husband and I had. We knew that our family responsibility was great, we knew that we were answerable to God and the society in the way we treated our growing family; so we looked for principles to follow. One principle we wanted follow was that we would give our children the best that we can give, both in terms of training academically and in social terms so that they would fit into the society, maximize the use of their own God-given gifts and intellect. Also, parents have to make sure that their spiritual lives do not get confused or relegated to the background.

    So we wanted to nurture that strong Christian belief and carry it along with our professions.  So, as the wife and the woman in the family, I realized that a man’s priority must take precedence over my own even if there is any debate about it, I had to be the one to give in. Thankfully, I didn’t have to give in before specialization as I was able to specialize in the field of Anesthesia and Anesthesiology and I practised and also went into administration in the medical field in the health services in Benue State and in the Ministry of Health. I was able to reach the pinnacle of those places before I had to take early retirement in order that the family can stay together in the coming years.

    Did you opt for early retirement because your husband who later became a Justice of the Supreme Court was being transferred across various states?

    Yes! I retired because my husband was being moved from the state service to federal service and he was going to be transferred. In the state service, there is virtually one station and you can move from one station to another within the same state but at the federal level, it turned out that he went all over the place. He was in Edo, Rivers, Lagos, Kaduna and eventually we ended up in Enugu and then, Abuja. That was quite over so many years and I have no regret at all for what we did because we were able to take the children along and educate them together.

    How many children do you have?

    We have three living children, two of them read Law and one studied Medicine. So, all the three are professionals in their own fields.

    What would you say about the general health situation in Nigeria today, especially in comparison with the 1970s, and where we are now, especially vis-a-vis the situation in other parts of the world?

    The health situation in Nigeria has improved a great deal. Let me take it from the 70s when I became aware that I could practise medicine. Then, there were lots of limitations. We have grown and come a long way in that area. There are so many doctors, even though we haven’t got enough to cover the population according to WHO requirement. We are not yet there but at least, there are many more families now that can boast of having a nurse or a doctor or a paramedic of some sort like community health practitioners, pharmacists and so on who can give advice. We have come a long way but we could have gone far better than that. We could have by now had our own specialist outfits that we won’t need to send people abroad for medical treatment so often. We should even have been getting citizens of neighboring countries to be flooding our nation not just shopping but even coming here on medical care tourism. We should have been sponsoring medical tourism in this country but we are not, instead, we are still going out. I think there is a gap which we need to cry about and as a medical person, I am not happy at all. I wish that we were not as bereft as we are now.

    So many Nigerian doctors keep going to USA and other developing countries and in spite of the dearth of medical personnel, those that are around d are embarking on industrial strikes on a fairly regular basis…

    The system generally in the country does not favour many professions, including Medicine.  The system is such that you find that architects are starving, engineers are starving, veterinary doctors are starving, medical doctors, dental surgeons and others too.  The system does not help matters. Let us say you have a private (medical) outfit, be it Pediatrics or Obstetrics and Gynaecology or General Medicine, you want to upgrade it, you import equipment and you employ your staff and so on. By the time you think you are now set to start breaking even, suddenly something happens and maybe, the value of the Naira crashes,  people demand for better pay, you need to raise the price of your registration, surgery fees and so on in order to break even – it can be horrible! Imagine that the Naira has suddenly doubled in terms of what is required to buy the dollar and the things you buy are from outside the country and mostly bought in dollars, then you have to talk of staff emoluments, fuel price too goes up.

    So, there is no stability for you to do things and so one can’t really blame those who can go outside, improve themselves and be marketable over there because here, it is like fighting a losing battle. But we thank God that not everybody goes out; there are people who are around and they are doing their best and that is life. Somehow, nature has a way of balancing up and I am afraid to say that some of my children’s course mates, between 70 to 90 percent of them, have left the country and they are doing well elsewhere.  Some of them are even in private practice in their own units in a foreign land.

    So, we keep hoping that things would improve and somehow, we would become stable in this country because we are endowed with a very stable climate,  very predictable seasons of the year and then to top it all,  we have solid minerals, oil and other resources which some neighbouring countries do not have and we have able-bodied people. The only in-born disease that we have seems to be sickle cell anemia but some countries have other several other diseases that have crippled their people so much and they have to be sorry for themselves that they don’t have a healthy population. But we have a very healthy population and we are able to eat from the soil; once the season comes, we have fresh food and we can store some, so we have nothing to complain about as such and we can’t really blame God for anything. We can only blame ourselves for not being efficient enough.

    You and your husband are very passionate Christians, dedicated to the work of God but one wonders why you are not so keen about having an NGO umbrella under which to undertake your charitable activities.

    We are both Christians and we are committed in following what the Bible says we should be doing. Although we don’t have an NGO of our own but we team up with a number of NGOs and help out with orphans particularly. The groups that we help out include orphans from areas that have been decimated by Boko Haram and herdsmen activities on the Plateau and in the North East. There are people who have brought in widows and orphans from those areas, we are caring for them. Even from Southern Kaduna where some villages were sacked about three to four years ago, many orphans were got from there. Their parents were killed and their grandparents are too old to support them and they were gathered into orphanages; so we team up with those NGOs and help them with welfare needs and other things. We believe that God has not really sent us to set up an NGO of our own; if he did, we probably would have gone into a specific one but no.

    You feel concerned about the issue of the girl-child education; have you considered writing a book that can inspire or encourage coming generations of women?

    I managed to do my primary education and go through to higher education but it really pains me that some girls’ education was cut down. At this time of my life, some girls are still finding it difficult; instead of them to be pampered and encouraged to prove themselves, girls are being abducted and turned into sex slaves and taken away from their families and forbidden from having western education. It really pains me that, that should happen and because of that, my biography, or rather, notes that I was jotting, I decided to give them to a historian who has written it out and we are hoping that by Easter period this year, I will present it to the public so that others would read and be encouraged to educate their girls and to help those who are orphans because at a stage, I was an orphan too. My dad died when I was 10 years old and my mom had to bear the burden of it all for some years. Now, there are many women in our country whose husbands are gone either through natural means or terrorist means in places where so many women are now widows. Nowadays, they even take some women away as slaves but anyway, their children should be educated and be helped in life so that they can be useful to themselves. So, I am looking forward to putting this book out so that it can fall into the hands of those who would be encouraged or inspired by it.

    Is it not government that should take up such welfarist responsibility?

    No, it is a duty for everybody. The book would inspire those who can share with orphans and women in disadvantaged situations; you don’t even have to be a rich person. Individuals should be able to help their neighbours. Some people don’t even pay attention to what is happening to people around them at all, even when such people eat from their dustbins, but we should all be able to help others out. So, if I had a wish, my wish is that people should learn to help widows and orphans in their localities because we never can tell who would become what in future.

  • Obasanjo’s K-leg saga: Our horrifying experience in exile-Amaechi’s wife

    Obasanjo’s K-leg saga: Our horrifying experience in exile-Amaechi’s wife

    An alumnus of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST) now Rivers State University (RSU), Port Harcourt, Dame Judith Amaechi, who hails from Enugwu-Ukwu in Njikola Local Government Area of Anambra State, is the wife of Transportation Minister, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, a former Governor of Rivers State, who is an indigene of Ubima in Ikwerre LGA of the state. The ex-First Lady of Rivers State, in this interview with our Bureau Chief in Port Harcourt, BISI OLANIYI and FAITH YAHAYA, speaks about her relationship with a former Rivers Governor, Dr. Peter Odili, what motivated her to establish a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), the Empowerment Support Initiative (ESI), and the face-off between her husband,  and the incumbent Governor of Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike, among other issues. Excerpts:

    How was it, while you were growing up, considering the fact that you lost your mother at a very tender age?

    I have never been asked this question in my life. I was privileged and it is a great opportunity to have grown up in a house of one of the most wonderful women I have ever met on earth, with her husband. She was everything to me. As a mother, she did the best and gave me the best of education. For me, it was just okay, while growing up.

    Will it be correct to say that you had silver spoon in your mouth, while growing up?

    Not quite. I grew up in a house where education was the main bane of sustenance for them. They believed so much in education. They also taught us discipline and morals. I will not say I was looking for food to eat, but I know that I had challenges, when sometimes there would be nothing, as much as children who were more privileged, but I just grew up in a normal house. My parents were both teachers and maybe civil servants.

    You got married in 1993 to Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, who was then the Special Assistant on Students’ Affairs to the then Governor of Rivers State, Chief Rufus Ada-George. How did he meet you? How did he propose to you and what was your reaction?

    Oh, my goodness! Whaoooooo! We met for the first time in a wedding at Elekahia (Port Harcourt). Then I was still a JAMBITE, having been admitted to the then Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), now Rivers State University (RSU), Port Harcourt, where I was studying Urban and Regional Planning, and I later graduated by God’s grace and mercy, with Bachelor of Technology.

    While still a JAMBITE at RSUST and quite young, during the wedding, he greeted and talked to me. He later asked for my name and address in the course of the discussion. I was very suspicious. So, I gave him a wrong name and address.

    How did you eventually reconnect?

    I did not meet him again until one day he caught me up in Port Harcourt, after about three years. He said he was going to drop me off, but I did not want to take him to my destination. I did not realise that he was then living very close to me at Elekahia Housing Estate. He then took me to my house and he waited for me to enter the house, but he used the opportunity to inform me that he was the person I earlier gave a wrong name and address. He then said I could not trick him anymore, since he had known my house and that was the beginning of the journey of a lifetime.

    During courtship and when we eventually got married, he was very nice. He was more like an elder brother and a father to me. He was always treating me so kindly. He taught me a lot of things. He was a very patient person and he was willing to allow me grow.

    After knowing my house, he was visiting occasionally and would also call me up. Then, perhaps, I was not too much of a knowledgeable person, in terms of the worldview and relationship. While going to fellowship, he would drop me off. He was then working.

    Since he was then working and you were schooling, was he always spoiling you with gifts and cash?

    I did not realise that I had needs and it was not really that kind of relationship. He was not that kind of person. He was more like personal interaction between us. It was like two persons who just wanted to talk to each other. It was not like that kind of relationship of spoiling a lady with gifts or cash. I actually did not have that kind of interest at all. He was just keeping up with me. He was actually a very good and understanding person and I would also not joke with my studies and fellowship.

    Besides his intellect, kindness, care and being handsome, what actually attracted him to you?

    I just liked him and I still like him. Then, I did not think about relationship with him, but with time, we became much closer. It is just like when you see someone for the first time, something just clicks and you can get along with the person.

    What of the insinuation that he met you while you were with a former Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili, and his wife, Justice Mary Odili, now of the Supreme Court?

    I did not know anything about his (Amaechi’s) political inclination. That is the truth. Dr. Peter Odili is an indigene of Ndoni in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, where my mother hailed from. It is just mere coincidence. I met him (Amaechi) as any young girl would meet a young man and somehow, he had interest in me. He is a very kind person, with a giving nature and he always wants to help people. He does not bother about material things.

    I remember telling him (Amaechi) in the early days that the Lord Jesus Christ was looking for people like him, especially with his good nature, charitable heart and always wanting to help people, because I saw God’s gifts in him and that how great it would have been, if he could be much closer to God and to be attending fellowship. He is always parting with his money and material things, and he would not mind giving out everything he had, because I was watching him closely.

    I always like to evangelise and attend fellowship. As days rolled by, I saw someone who was really selfless. To be honest, having my kind of background, because it was my auntie that brought me up, with a knack for education and also very kind, catering for other people’s children. So, he suited me, to be honest and I felt that I was in a very good hand.

    At times, he would sit me down then, telling me that I was juvenile in my thinking and my ways, insisting that life was not like that. He taught me a lot of things that shaped my life, but very personal, which I will not reveal.

    I met Dr. Peter Odili then without knowing who he was. Prior to meeting Dr. Odili, I was already in the relationship (with Amaechi). It is not true that Dr. Odili or his wife introduced me (to Amaechi). Never. He met me like every other man would meet a lady. In fact, he was not even introducing me to anybody and he decided not to take me to any of his bosses or friends, until much later.

    How is your relationship now with the Odilis, considering what later happened, when your husband was the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly and eventually the governorship aspirant and later candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2007, before the party’s ticket was given to his kinsman, Sir Celestine Omehia, from the same Ubima in Ikwerre LGA, because of K-leg, while Dr. Odili was Rivers governor and presidential aspirant on PDP’s platform, with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, then of PDP, as President?

    To be very honest, we have never held anything against the Odilis. My husband and I have always seen them as our parents. I really do not know their own opinion. One of my children, who is taking the course-line of Dr. Odili (medicine), would always say that he was inspired by the Odilis, but I know that sometimes, people can read meanings to things. My husband is always having respect for the Odilis.

    For the first time, I will voice out something that most people do not know about my husband. He respects authority and his bosses. When you have ever been useful to him in his life, he will never try to harm you, talk nonsense about you, bring you down or tries to disrespect you. He is like that. Sometimes, I would feel upset with him and I would tell him that someone was hitting him hard and dealing with him, but he would just remain calm, but he would respond that as long as the person was part of his success, it would not be nice of him to wake up in the morning and abuse the person. He would prefer to let the person be, adding that if God wanted it to happen like that, so be it, but let it not be that he would be the one that would be found wanting.

    I remember when I got married to him, he was always very busy, always going out and he was fond of saying, ‘my boss and my Oga’. One day, he told me that one thing he wanted me to do was to take Dr. Odili as my father and that for whatever it might be or whatever inconveniences it might cause me, he would never do anything to go against him or things that would hurt him.

    Sometimes, I would hear rumours but I would rather toe the positive side of life, I would rather spend my energy listening to good news and that is what my Bible advises me to do. Rather than sitting down, talking down on people or listening to bad things that some people would want to say. How do you progress in life when all you do is to listen to gossips and act on them? My husband does not take things to heart.

    My husband and I will never go against the Odilis. I do not think anybody has ever heard me or my husband criticise or say anything negative about the Odilis. I believe it is a political problem. My husband sees politics like sport but unfortunately, some people take it beyond sport. The only time I can take it beyond sport is when someone is threatening my life. At that point, I would simply ask my God to handle the person.

    In the second term of your husband being the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, in the days of K-leg in early 2007, he relocated to Ghana and you moved with your children to the United States of America, but your husband’s kinsman, Sir Celestine Omehia, was inaugurated as governor on May 29, 2007, instead of your husband, who decided to go to court, with the matter ending at the Supreme Court, which gave a landmark judgment on October 25, 2007, sacking Omehia and your husband was inaugurated as governor the next day, making you to become the First Lady of Rivers State. How was the experience?

    That is one moment I really do not always like to remember, but in all, God is faithful. To be very honest, it was a fine moment because it just came suddenly and I could not believe that we were in that position. Me and my children were in one room and we were separated from him (Amaechi) for so long and we were moving from one house to another. He was in Ghana, while the children and I stayed in three overseas countries.

    We had horrifying experiences. The first nasty experience we had was losing all our passports and my bag at Atlanta. I felt somebody deliberated picked up the bag, because they later saw the person on Closed Circuit Television (CCTV). At the Atlanta airport, I told God to have mercy on us. At every moment, I could see the glory and the hand of God. When our passports got lost, it was normal for them to ask us to go back and re-organise, but they allowed us. We reported to the immigration and they allowed us to continue our journey because we had not reached our destination in the United States of America.

    We were not heading for USA because we just wanted to go there, we decided to leave Port Harcourt because the political scene became so mean and our lives were hunted for. We were not safe. My husband never believed in children being out of Nigeria. He always believed that we should be in Nigeria since Nigeria is our country and we should stay and struggle it out. Moreover, it prepares someone for tough times as well but for some reasons, we had to just leave Nigeria because we needed to be alive.

    Therefore, we started going through the ordeal of not having anything (money and other needed items) with us. We just left Nigeria and my children had to abandon school in Nigeria. Before then, my children had started having series of attacks in the school. When we left and we had that unpleasant experience at Atlanta airport, it was really depressing. I want to really thank God because it was a terrible moment that I do not always like to remember. We are still alive by the special grace and mercy of God.

    In the USA, we stayed in a friend’s house and the four of us stayed in one room. I had to stay with them because they were children then. We stayed downstairs, where the room was, close to the living room. From there, we had to move to London and we later moved to another country, but our passports were lost. We were just trying to stay safe.

    I do not want to go into details of what we passed through and everything that happened. Most times, we would see the people who were chasing us. They would either send their family members or agents to be on our trail. Immediately we sighted them, we would run because we did not have any form of security other than God.

    We did not do anything to the persons who wanted to kill us but they felt that my husband was a threat to their ambition. So, we had to stay away from Nigeria. In the USA, initially, we were staying in a hotel, but it got to a point that we could no longer afford it because everything was not planned. My businesses in Nigeria were there, but what we were thinking about first then was safety. Something interesting was that my kids were so good. They did not make me feel down and out.

    In the one room in USA, me and my last son would sleep in the room. We got a mattress for my two other sons to sleep with on the floor of the living room or they might use the foams of the chairs, with one toilet. We all managed it and we continued to pray. My last son prayed a prayer that I believed that God really answered but I will not disclose his special prayer. My other sons also prayed.

    People would say what they wanted to say. Whenever I wanted to speak with my husband in Ghana from USA, I would move into the room, but the children would wonder what I was hiding when everything could be found in Google. That was my first time of knowing that the things were in Google.

    There was a day that my last son knelt down and prayed on what we were passing through, especially the challenges his daddy was facing, but I will not disclose his special prayer to the members of the public, but the then small boy prayed to God and God answered his prayer.

    Something miraculous also happened. Throughout the period we were in the USA, we were living like king’s children, because people that I did not know from Adam would send us big money and sometimes passports. My husband too would send to us the money he could afford, telling me that our children and I must be going through hell because it was a very challenging period, considering how he was surviving in Ghana, the court cases in Nigeria and the lawyers’ fees to pay. I saw the very strong hand of God.

    When some people behave the way they are behaving these days, I would just laugh because when I remembered the Egypt, I would simply give thanks to God. While in the USA, my children and I became the envy of people around us, because they saw God in action especially for divine provision and protection.

    In difficult times, God would always show His children mercy and favour.

    Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was Nigeria’s President in the days of K-leg, but while your husband was Governor of Rivers State and Chief Obasanjo was out of office, he visited Rivers State and he was lavishly hosted by your husband and he inaugurated and inspected many capital-intensive projects of the administration. What was your reaction then, to the eventual reconciliation?

    I did not see anything wrong with the later reconciliation. People were then struggling for power and they might have gone to the extreme. We never went to the extreme. I knew that God would certainly vindicate us and give us victory. I will rather make heaven than sit back here and dwell on the wickedness that happened. I will never be part of wickedness.

    If anybody came back and said he was misunderstood and he did not know the truth then, why not embrace reconciliation?

    When I saw former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Government House, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, when my husband was governor, honestly, I was very happy and I thanked God that finally, the truth was in the open.

    No greater joy than having the joy of reconciliation, especially when it is genuine, not the one that is fake. I learnt something from my husband that it was always better for someone to be the victim, than to be the one that would be unleashing the evil, in order to be able to sleep well and have a clear conscience, no matter the situation. Above everything you are doing on earth today, there is an answer you have to give someday in our lives and I will not want to be remembered for evil. I want to be remembered for good.

    Sometimes, interests matter. People too also gossip to leaders. My husband would always fight for people with all his heart, strength and everything he has, without thinking about the benefits, but some people are not like that. To them, it is all about themselves and themselves alone.

    Some people might have gossiped to the then President Obasanjo about my husband, hoping to jam their heads, for Dr. Peter Odili and my husband not to get what they were then looking for (presidency and governorship respectively).  The gossipers would meet big and small Ogas (bosses), telling them different stories, just to cause confusion or disaffection.

    What is your foundation about?

    I have something that I call a passion and the name is Empowerment Support Initiative (ESI). It was founded on the 16th of October, 2008 and it was launched by the then First Lady, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua.

    What is the foundation about and did you go into it because it is a trend with women whose husbands hold political positions?

    The organization was born out of a passion. The passion is dated as far back as even before I became the wife of the Speaker. I l have always wanted to help people as a person maybe by virtue of the position I have found myself. Even from my house, we have always had people coming to us with one need, burden or desire and for some reasons,  except you have a stony heart, you would just find yourself giving and finding solutions but beyond that, I lost my mum quite early and I have sympathy for people who are orphans. I have that soft spot for them having being through some of those traumas as well and luckily for me, I had a great opportunity. A wonderful woman and her husband brought me up and gave me the best and for me, I take it as an opportunity and that opportunity is what I want to give to everybody that I come across, especially when they are less privileged. I could have been different if I didn’t have the opportunity but I did and see me now. So, the passion didn’t start because I became a governor’s wife or speaker’s wife. It was born out of the circumstances I found myself in and then having married my husband, I just found it very interesting to carry on because he is someone that is selfless and generous.  It was a dream fulfilled because I met a partner who was really there to reach out to the needy. He had so much compassion in him too. I love reaching out and I believe that if every child or every human is given an opportunity, they will make the best out of life and the world will be a better place to live in.

    How do you reach out?

    I don’t believe that calling people together and giving them food to eat, giving them rice or wrapper is an empowerment. Teaching them constructively how to use their talents or how to use their hands to do something that would sustain their living is a form of empowerment to me and then probably giving them a backup to that which they have learnt . I believe empowering them through skills would take them off the street and off your burden as well. For me, that is what I do whenever I find myself in a circle of the less-privileged.  I never would have been the governor’s wife but God decided to promote my husband and I found myself again in another privileged position and it was a tough one and I think I had to make some covenant to be able to get to where I am. Part of the idea for ESI came when I travelled abroad and I saw where women were producing garments in quantities and I sat down in the company for like three hours. Nobody knew why I was there but I was amazed at how about 300 people were sitting down and producing. I became very inquisitive and I asked lots of questions and something in me said this can be done in my country and in my state in particular. When I came on board as the governor’s wife, I brought people together to actualize the idea. I looked at our state then and militancy was the order of the day and luckily for me, my husband is one man who is very much inclined to education. So I said to myself, if they are already convincing young children in primary school to go into carrying arms and being vulnerable to doing the bidding of the so called well-to-do, then I said the best thing I can do to address it is to go to the nursery school because the formative age of a child is between age 0-9 and when you guide a child at that age, the child becomes near perfection.

    You hardly hear of children within that age drop out of school, so you would have opened that child’s horizon to becoming a better person in future.  I then asked what to do and to be honest, it was just God’s brilliant idea because I didn’t know how it came about. I always say that when you have a dream, you need God to bring it to fruition and God used a man from Bayelsa, who is now late. The nursery school idea came and I felt if we follow the idea, we would give the children a sense of direction and avoid majority of the vices that we are finding ourselves suffering from today. I have also noticed that in Nigeria and in my state, all we do is amendment.  Why wait for a human being to get to age 18 before we start thinking of how to make that person’s life more useful?  Why not key in on that child’s age when he is very young and needs some sort of direction and I used to use a phrase; ‘catching them young’. When you catch them young, you can make or mar them.

    As I started having outreaches, I asked the elites where their kids were and those who had kids below age 9 said they were in nursery or primary school and  I asked why they didn’t keep their children at home? I asked because it was the problem in the rural areas; children were not in school for some reasons; either they were not exposed or they lacked the wherewithal to get basic education.  Now, how do you get a mother in the village who does not have any money to convince her that her children should go to school and remember, she does not know what education is all about? How do you make her child go to school and expose the child to seeing the values of being in school and how do you convince a child who is not exposed that carrying arms and engaging in other crimes  are not right? So, from that tender age, you instill morals in them by way of education and give them a brighter hope for tomorrow because when a woman is vulnerable, anyone who is rich and into all the vices like militancy can easily give the woman N10,000 and being someone who has never seen N100, she will easily do whatever the rich man tells her to do.

    It is for me very important that every child be given an opportunity to go to school and then leave the rest to God.

    How many nursery schools have you established?

    We have over 37 nursery schools in Rivers State and we hope to expand to other parts of the country.

    How much does it cost to train a child in the nursery school?

    One child used to cost me N36,000 per term and N108,000 per year when the foreign exchange was okay.

    Why are the schools located in Niger Delta?

    I started the school project from Niger Delta because I was concerned about our people because all we hear is militancy and it is not true. Majority of us are not into that at all and we also wanted the agitation to stop.  We wanted to create an enabling environment and opportunities that would make us get out of that negative image.

    Why did you decide to go into skill acquisition centre?

    I decided to empower people with skills because people come to my house to ask for help but the truth is this, how many people can I help? There is also this feeling in Nigeria that just because it is government, it should run down. But it is wrong. I think at the individual level ,  we must take the responsibility of trying to shape our people’s lives and giving them the right norms and values so that at the end of the day, they will see government as not just “use and dump” or it is “our fathers right”. I ensured that the centre was handled by a professional because not everybody wants to go to school. We have about 92 skills and nine faculties and we work with people who would give the best. I believe if you have the best hands as trainers, the trainees would come out to be the best too.

    How many people would you say you have reached out to since the foundation was launched?

    For the nursery schools, we are clocking over 4000 children because every year we graduate pupils and it has not been easy between 2015 and 2017 but we are still moving on. For the skills, we try not to do more than 300 every session because it is very expensive to train them but I cannot get the proper data right now.

  • ENTREPRENEURS SHOULD BE INNOVATIVE, BUILD SUSTAINABLE BUSINESSES-Prof. Jibril

    ENTREPRENEURS SHOULD BE INNOVATIVE, BUILD SUSTAINABLE BUSINESSES-Prof. Jibril

    Entrepreneurship is seen as the backbone of great economies. In this interview with COLLINS NWEZE, Professor of Entrepreneurial Marketing at the Department of Business Administration, Adamawa State University, Abdulsalam Jibril speaks on the link between entrepreneurship and economic development. He highlights the challenges facing entrepreneurs in the country and how providing enabling environment for their operations can be a game changer.

    Entrepreneurial Marketing seems to be a new field in marketing. What is it really about?

    Entrepreneurial Marketing (EM) is the unique set of marketing practices and methods used by entrepreneurs, start-ups, and small businesses to market and build sustainable businesses.  You can understand that entrepreneurial marketing is less about a single marketing strategy and more about a marketing spirit that differentiates itself from traditional marketing practices. It’s about rethinking your firm’s marketing mix.

    At the level of EM, we expect marketers or entrepreneurs to be innovative, model and have passion for economic activity as possible. EM eschews many of the fundamental principles of marketing because they are typically designed for large, well established firms.

    Entrepreneurial marketing utilizes a toolkit of new and unorthodox marketing practices to help emerging firms gain a foothold in crowded markets.

    Yes, entrepreneurial marketing in academia may be seen as an essential part of the evolving entrepreneurship field, as well as a new “school of marketing thought” in the marketing discipline. EM in the context of job generation, in new enterprises and small businesses has risen to macroeconomic importance around the world.

    Entrepreneurship is seen as the backbone of most great economies. Are you satisfied with the level of entrepreneurship/ SMEs development in the country and what can be done to better their lots?

    You know, am the present Director of Entrepreneurship Development Centre (EDC) in my university, ADSU, Mubi and I am not really satisfied. I know governments are trying their best but a lot are still needed to be put in place. We have Entrepreneurship Development Centre, (EDC) in Adamawa State University, Mubi. We have capacity to practice and train so many trades (skills) for our students and teaming youths within our community but we have inadequate funds to pay our skill facilitators, buy needed raw materials and some training kits (tools).You see, we are limited because there are no enough funds but we have human resources to train skills in our university. We need increase attention by the governments and private sectors in entrepreneurship to help build a better economy.

    Yes, so many things can be done by the stakeholders. Entrepreneurial orientation needs to be encouraged. Researches have shown that firms with high entrepreneurial orientation tend to seek opportunities, strengths and competitive advantages in the environment in which they function.

    Entrepreneurial marketing in SME is more necessary and they need to be focused, because most firms’ way of doing marketing planning is informal. As a result, there is a need for planned marketing, which will help to provide long term prospective planning for the firm. We need to formalize the marketing network, maximize education resources and develop marketing management competencies.

    What other things can be done to support SMEs?

    Skills in marketing and management competencies should be encouraged as possible. The core competencies of the SME marketing is related to decision making which consist of knowledge, experience, judgment and communication; where these are inadequate, better things cannot happen.

    Entrepreneurs have always complained about poor access to finance. Do you think that funding is the biggest challenges facing SMEs in the country?

    Yes, funding is a challenge. Poor access to finance usually affects entrepreneurial activity. We have seen an entrepreneurs with passion to practice and operate but inadequate finance affected their operations. In my opinion, some of the biggest challenges facing SMEs in Nigeria are inadequacy of encouraging attitudes and conducive environment for entrepreneurs to operate their businesses. Poor management; Unskillful marketing behaviour of the entrepreneurs is an issue. Allowing natural growth not top-down solutions is also important. We need to build from existing industries that have formed naturally within the region or state rather than seeking to generate new industries from green field sites.

    You have also done a lot on service industry. What is your take on customer services as seen in the banking and telecoms sectors of the economy.  Are these two segments meeting your definition of quality customer services and if not, what do you think they should do differently?

    Proper Customer Service involves two things: how efficient a company’s support team is and what sort of questions it can handle from the customers. Scripted answers can work up to a certain point, but there are some queries that your team would have to answer on their own. The banking and telecoms sectors are actually doing some things that are unethical. You must have experienced an unwanted SMS from telecoms service providers that persists on certain amount of money (in credit value) will be deducted for services you may not have requested for.

    Some banks’ Automated Teller Machine (ATM) will not dispense more than ten thousand naira value at a time. This is to enable the banks earn more commission for services which the machine can render at once. A customer taking fifty thousand naira from the bank will have to operate their ATM for five times. This also means, five times commission earnings for the bank. There are other common dis-services, such as service failures. Where this happens often customers will not be satisfied. If this happens, quality services are not served and expected.

    They need to improve on their customer service by doing what are ethical. They need to train their staff to be competent in delivery of services. Today, it is expected that companies and businesses provide the best customer service that they can. According to a research, 97 per cent of global consumers say that customer service is important in their brand choice and loyalty. In the age of the internet, customers know more and they demand more. Companies are pressured to give the experience that the customers want. And together with this pressure are some challenges and difficulties. So, they need to work with their customers to succeed together.

    Going through your records, I discovered that you have written several books on entrepreneurship, marketing and customer services. Could you share/analyse some of the most interesting books within these segments with our readers?

    Yes my Marketing Management text book, beyond questions and answers is a very good and students’ companion reading material. It was written in 2016 for my Master students when I was in Nasarawa State University, Keffi; but beyond that place, many university students and professionals are using it and its very relevant and useful. I hope to review and expand it as soon as possible. Many young people seem to be now interested in entrepreneurship given the declining level of employment opportunities in the country.

  • ‘HOW BEING THE FIRST CHILD MOTIVATED MY BUSINESS’

    ‘HOW BEING THE FIRST CHILD MOTIVATED MY BUSINESS’

    Adetutu Osundina is CEO of Adols Hair, a hair consultant company situated in Badagry area of Lagos State. The mother of two speaks with ADENIYI ADEWOYIN on the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur. 

    TELL us about your background?   

    I am the first child from the family of six, a Christian home. Growing up was a good one for me, even though I was trained to be a successful business lady in a hard way. By hard way, I mean a situation whereby you would work as the first born while your siblings were still in bed , go to market with your mum to buy and sell while your siblings were getting ready for school. But I realized it was training for me, because all are now useful for my business.

    What inspired you to be an entrepreneur and how did it all start?

    The motive started while I was helping my mum to buy and sell. I realized I could actually turn 20naira to 40naira through buying and selling. So, when I was in the higher institution (The Pyrotechnic Ibadan), I realized there were some things ladies needed, like clothes, shoes and hair. My aunt had a salon in Lagos, so anytime I came to Lagos, I would collect hairs from her and take to school to sell, and that was how I started. I was also going to corporate organizations as well to showcase my products.  After graduating from school, I still carried on with the business up till when I was in the banking sector. But when I got married in 2010, I resigned and started my hair business fully. And to the Glory of God, it’s 7 years and still counting.

     What is your brand all about?

    My product is all about how to look good, I focus mainly on the hair which is where the beauty starts from. I stock varieties of hair brand, hair treatment, and hair accessories.

    How would you describe entrepreneurship in Nigeria?

    Entrepreneurship in Nigerian to me is all about running a  business in a unique way,  creating solutions to human needs and  also to make profit. We have so many small scale businesses in Nigeria which are being run by individuals that are very creative, I am one of them and happy for this generation and generations to come.

    What are your responsibilities as the business owner for your brand?

    My responsibility as a business owner is to make my brand known all over the world. To protect that name “Adols Hair”, the personality, the integrity and to make sure the quality is standard.

    How do you deal with competing brands?

    For me, when a business owner loses focus, you will start seeing different things that can pull you down. I challenge myself everyday to do new things, to be more creative, to do things in different style, so the brand can stand without getting worried about any competition out there. In other words, I don’t get distracted.

    Does your brand involve in humanitarian works?

    Yes it does, but the company choses to do this on a low profile without any form of recognition.

    How would you describe your brand success?

    The brand success has been amazing and tremendous growth has been achieved within the past 7 years.

    Where do you see your brand in 5 years from now?

    Achieving all that I have dreamt of; being a leading hair consultant, a super wife and mother.

     What is your advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?

    My advice to young people out there is to stay focused, don’t get distracted with material things, pray and work hard, and lastly always celebrate your achievements.

  • Saga of visually impaired farmers, entrepreneurs

    Saga of visually impaired farmers, entrepreneurs

     At the backdrop of the incumbent administration’s campaign to boost agricultural production in the country, disabled farmers took a leap of faith, seeking to enjoy touted benefits of agricultural entrepreneurship. From conmen, non-existent loans to lack of government support, disabled farmers lament their ordeal with government agencies and business associates.  INNOCENT DURU reports…

    Hassan Kehinde Adebisi is a blind farmer who had a robust vision for his poultry farm. But until recently, he nursed little hope of breaking even; times are hard and his farm in Igando, Lagos, was hampered by inadequate funding. However, soon after the federal government initiated its back to farm campaign, Adebisi started to dream hopeful vistas for his poultry business.

    Sadly, his dreams are frustrated by lack of access to fund and basic infrastructure.

    “The Federal Government promised to help those of us who are disabled and are into farming. As members of National Association for the Blind, they collated our names according to the area of agriculture we are into. They even came from Central Bank of Nigeria to inspect my farm. My children told me that they wrote presidency on the plate number of the SUV they rode down here.

    “After the inspection, they said I am qualified for the loan they wanted to give us. They said we should go and open a bank account with Innovation Matters Micro Finance Bank at Surulere. We were asked to bring our statement of account. We took it there and they found that we were qualified for the loan but the CBN has not given us a dime since then,” lamented Adebisi.

    Adebisi a.k.a Germany, said: “One day, they called me from Innovation Matters (government agency) to come for the loan. Getting there, they said they wanted to give me a loan that would not exceed N500, 000 and that I will pay back in three months. They said that they will spread the loan over three installments and that I will be paying 16 per cent interest rate every month. I refused to accept the terms. I asked if that was what CBN wanted to offer, and immediately, I put a call through to the CBN person, Bunmi Adebiyi, that visited my farm. Immediately the call went through, the lady at Innovation Matters, called Silifa, said I shouldn’t call her. I persisted and asked Bunmi, the CBN lady, about the promised loan and she said they were working on it. This was early last year.

    “The Innovation Matter lady, Silifa, then told me that the loan that they wanted to give me was not from the CBN, that it was from some people that asked them to be giving loans to people. I got no loan at the end of the day. But the Lagos State government gave me six bags of feeds free of charge. They did well.”

    Like Adebisi, Ebenezer Osidele, is visually impaired. He is also into fish farming in Badagry area of Lagos State. Osidele rued his experience with the government scheme describing it as frustrating.

    “They made many promises to us in the build up to the 2015 election and we, the South West zone of the Joint National Association for People Living with Disabilities were mobilized to go to Liberty Stadium in Ibadan, Oyo State, to campaign for Buhari when he was aspiring to be the president. Promises were made to us with assurances that our affairs would be looked into.

    “At a time, we were taken to one hotel at Gbagada here in Lagos with the current vice president Yemi Osinbajo, in attendance, then as an aspirant. He promised employment, welfare and so many other things to us. They even made promises of giving financial support to disabled people willing to be entrepreneurs.  They said there would be certain amount of money that would be set aside at the CBN to assist us,” he said.

    The former automobile engineer continued: “We were asked to file applications and we did. Some micro finance companies were selected to pilot the whole thing. We didn’t pay any money but the loan hasn’t come till now, since two years ago. We met all their requirements because we have cooperative society.

    “The information we have now from the CBN is that they can’t give us the loan because they weren’t sure we can pay back because of our condition. Initially, they said the interest rate would be nine per cent and that we would have to repay the loan within one year. If we should accept the terms, our competition would be with the sighted.  Our position was that if we should be given a loan, they should give us a fairer concession looking at our condition.

    “Up till today, they told us that the money is still with the CBN and that nobody has accessed it. It is frustrating because the government took the initiative for us to train at the Farm Craft Centre for the Blind and every product of the training is supposed to be engaged meaningfully. There is only a thin line between disability and ability. It can happen to anybody.”

    Christopher Harry, also a blind farmer, stated that there is no motivation for applying for loan because: “Nobody will accept to lend money to blind person like me. My farm is doing well but I don’t have the wherewithal to hire labourers. I have over 500 stands of plantain suckers. Once in a while, I beg parents around me to release their children to help me. If I have labourers working with me, I will excel beyond what a sighted person can achieve.”

     

    How we became blind

    said: “I wasn’t born a blind person. I attended good schools, like Nigeria Model Nursery School, Ifako International Nursery School in Iju. I also attended Amadiya College Agege. Thereafter I proceeded to Germany where I lived for some years bringing cars into Nigeria and selling them. I had my stand at Airport Road at Ezego Shopping Plaza.

    “By 2003, I had issues with my eyes and could not see clearly. I planned to go back to Germany for treatment but some people advised that I should handle it traditionally. I sold most of my property including landed properties searching for spiritual solution to my eye problem. It was all to no avail. As at 2005, I decided to quit the search for solution to my challenge.”

    Adebisi who described himself as a multi faceted businessman further hinted: “My friends in Europe still send me cars and goods that I sell and make profit from and send their money back to them.  I also sell water. I have big generators that I use to pump water such that if there is no water anywhere, people can always get to buy from me. I also have game centre where people come to pay and play. I charge phones for people for a fee using the solar energy of 1, 200 watts that I installed in my house.

    “From there, I veered into poultry farming.  I started with turkey and cockerel but the very day that I bought them, all of them died. That alone was enough to discourage me. What happened was that I went to Agege where I bought the birds. I kept them in my car and my driver drove me to Ojuelegba where we were to have a meeting of Nigeria Association for the Blind (NAB). When I went in for the meeting, my driver stupidly locked the car and rolled up the glass with the birds inside in the scorching sun.  By the time we were set to go, we found out that the birds were dead. It cost me a lot of money and I had to throw them away.

    “The following week, I bought another set of turkey, cockerel and broiler and started off again. I started in a very small way and today, I can’t estimate how much I have put into the business. I have over 200 layers now but I had more birds and turkeys before the yuletide season. I sold most of them,” he said.

    Narrating his ordeal, Osidele, said: “After my secondary school education, I went to a vocational centre to study automobile engineering at Volkwagen of Nigeria Technical Centre at Ojo. Thereafter, I worked there and many other automobile establishments in Lagos like Kewalrams Motors at Isolo for sometime.

    “I later joined Germain Automobile Centre in Lekki, Bemil Nigeria Limited, a security outfit as the automobile mechanic. I later joined Eric Moore Astra Waters as supervisor for workshop. From there, I moved to Chevron as a reliever.  I subsequently contracted eye challenges that led to blindness in 2006. It was devastating but for courage, had to go for rehabilitation at vocational centre at Oshodi in 2011.”

    At his graduation from the centre, Osidele could not secure a job anywhere thus he “had to fall back on the hand craft and the production of home products like insecticides and so on. But they came with a lot of challenges and competition from industrial products which were cheaper.”

    He said: “In 2013, I decided to go to the Farmcraft Centre for the Blind and study a little bit of agriculture. I also attended a seminar on fish farming when I heard that advert. Prior to the time a became blind, I had landed property in Badagry. So I decided to start a fish farming business on it. I was able to raise money to start the fish farming from money I saved while working with Chevron and from support by my family members.

    Managing his fish farm comes easy, he explained: “In disability orientation, you study your environment. In all that, one cannot do without the occasional assistance of a sighted person because there is a need to know the physical conditions of the fishes to know how they are faring. Sometimes, they may be attacked and this reflects by their physical look. If you don’t go there occasionally with a sighted person, you will not be able to know what is wrong with the fishes.

    “I have one regular person working with me because of financial constraints but when it is time for sorting, we used to hire more hands because we need to pump out the water from the ponds, bring out the fishes to select them in their sizes and separate them into grades according to their development. This is why you need to have more hands.”

    Recalling the genesis of his sight problem, Harry, who hails from Akwa Ibom State, disclosed that he developed it on December 31, 1999. “I have always been a farmer,” he said.

     

    At the mercy of conmen

    With their pitiable condition, people should ordinarily be compassionate towards them but this is often not the case.

    Adebisi revealed how people exploit him. “Sometimes, people take advantage of my blindness by coming to steal eggs from my farm, while pretending to have come to fetch water. This is why I want to buy CCTV camera so that it will always capture the thieves. I am security conscious. If you enter my room, alarm will sound to the point that everybody on the street will know. I fixed the alarm after someone that was with me in the sitting room crept into my bedroom and took my ATM card from my wallet. He had earlier seen me giving my son the ATM from the wallet to collect money for me.  That was why I fixed the alarm. I have quite a number of people who have tried to defraud me,” he said.

    “There was one that collected money to work for me and gave me fake address. When I didn’t see him, my wife took me to the address he gave us. We found the house was a mansion and the landlord said no such artisan could live in his house and was shocked that somebody could do that to me. I later had him arrested using my high sense of intelligence gathering.”

    Osidele also shared his experience with troublesome customers. “I am always at the mercy of the buyers.  When the harvest comes you have to sell to them at their own price and it is always detrimental to me as a farmer. If your production costs is N500, they will come and price N420.

    “Now that we have been introduced to smoking of the fishes, it reduces the pressure to sell. If one has the instrument to smoke the fish very well, you can now at your own pace sell to the outlets that need them.

    “Some market women at some point would come and buy fishes on credit promising to bring the money at an agreed time but you would find out that they would end up not coming. I subsequently learnt to avoid selling to people on credit. I no longer do my business on trust again. If it is only one you can afford, pay for it and go,” he said.

    On his part, Harry said: “Some of the children who assist me often go back to steal what I have planted on the farm. That has stopped because the community has intervened. They are very strict and even hand over people stealing from my farm to the police,” he said.

     

    Advice to lazy people

    The farmers are disturbed that many able bodied youth now take pleasure in begging for alms.

    I don’t see why some able bodied people should be lazy and begging for alms. They do loiter around my car begging for alms each time I am being driven out because don’t know I am blind. They will come telling you cock and bull story just to be given money.

    “On each occasion when I ask my children what is wrong with those people, they will say they have no deformity. I am always shocked by this because they can make themselves useful by going to cut grass, wash clothes and do other things for people,” said Adebisi.

    Osidele also said: “If disabled people can become successful, I am always sad to hear that some able bodied are burden to the society. I am happy that I am in spite of my condition, I have been productive.  I am very grateful to Lagos State government for supporting the physically challenged. I got a grant of N100, 000 and bags of feed for my fish from them. God bless them.”

     

    Microfinance bank, CBN react

    Contacted, Silifa, the Innovation Matters worker, admitted that the famers opened accounts with them for the CBN loan but that no fund has come from the apex bank for disbursement to the applicants.

    Speaking on the alleged 16 percent interest rate the bank put as a condition for giving out loans, she said: “We wanted to give them 4.5 per cent interest rate monthly on the loan over a period of four months. This particular loan is not the CBN’s own.  They have not received the CBN loan that they applied for because we didn’t get any fund from the CBN. The CBN at a point contacted them to submit their details to get the loan but we didn’t get any funds from the CBN.”

    When the Nation put a call to Bunmi Adebiyi, the CBN field officer that assessed the applicants’ farms, she said: “You have to seek the information officially from the CBN. I am not doing the visitation alone. I work for the CBN. I visited their farms as part of my job. Talking to me for as long as you want will not yield any fruit. If you want any reaction, channel it to the Public Communication Department.”

    The Head of the Public Communication Department, Isaac Okoroafor, was yet to respond to calls, text messages and emails sent to him during the week by our correspondent.

    A similar development occurred last year when we did a report on Libya returnees who went into farming under different cooperative societies and applied for loan under the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme.

    The returnees who had invested over N3 million opening different bank accounts were not given the loan forcing some of them to quit farming and head back to the calamitous route they narrowly escaped from.

    Okoroafor in a text message, asked our correspondent to check with the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) as the funds were with them but BOA denied the apex bank’s claiming that they were yet to get any funds from the CBN.

  • Our position on planned National Minimum Wage review – NECA boss Olusegun Oshinowo

    Our position on planned National Minimum Wage review – NECA boss Olusegun Oshinowo

    The Director General of Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo, also serves as a Director of Nigerian-German Chemicals PLC including boards such as the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Nigeria Labour Advisory Council, National Pension Commission (PenCom), National Orientation Agency, and the National Health Insurance Scheme. In additional he is a member of the governing board of International Labour Organization, International Organization of Employers and Pan-African Employers Federation. In this interview with IBRAHIM APEKHADE YUSUF he gives useful insights on what the government needs to turn around the nation’s economic misfortunes. Excerpts: 

    The economic uncertainties occasioned by lingering recession, led to a gale of job loss in the past few years, especially in the Organised Private Sector (OPS). What is the short, medium to long term solution to job loss in the OPS?

    The unemployment situation is worrisome. We have a youthful population, which ordinarily should be a demographic blessing but unfortunately has become an economic challenge in terms of providing gainful employment.

    Our focus should be on job creation and not job loss because most of the factors important for job creation will stem job loss. The supply of labour into the economy has far outstripped demand. The problems are double faced: quantity and quality. Given the scope of the problem, we require a multi- pronged approach/solution that will include promotion of sustainable enterprises through an enabling business environment, sustainable and pervasive good governance at all levels of government, effective and job-focused macro-economic policy framework, political restructuring that will lead to creation of multiple productive and economic centres, educational reform to enthrone functionality as against literacy, indigenous employment-supportive immigration policy, comparative advantage-based backward and forward integration. This is the long term solution to our unemployment malaise.

    What is NECA’s position as far as job retention is concerned?

    Job retention is a function of the health of the economy. It cannot be decreed by government’s policy pronouncement or legislation. Employers do not derive joy from getting rid of their prized assets-their human resource. It is the primary responsibility of the government to promote job retention through creation of an enabling environment that is supportive of business growth.

    Last year the federal government did set up a number of committees and other such initiatives like the Economic and Growth Recovery Plan, Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) to mention just a few. Taking a retrospective look, do you think any of these impacted the economy in any way?

    These are all laudable initiatives. They, however, must be outcome-focused and share with the public on an ongoing basis the difference they have made to the polity.

    The power situation has turned worse despite several promises. What do you think is the long term solution to the issue of poor power supply, especially as it affects the OPS?

    The twin evils are generation and transmission capability. We need to promote policy and structure that will not make us be wholly dependent on one source or location for power generation. We need to decentralise transmission as much as practicable. We must allow for a market-oriented cost recovery system.

    According to a report, the NSITF is alleged to have misappropriated over N17b Employers’ Contribution for employees contributions in its custody. What does NECA hope to do to save the fund from further pillage?

    This is subjudice and I will not want to comment on it.

    What is the position of NECA as far as employees’ compensation is concerned? Do you think the Employee Compensation Act is effective enough? What sections of the Act do you think can be reviewed?

    We are a law abiding entity and have come to accept the existence of the scheme. Our current approach is to ensure that the employers and employees alike derive optimum benefits from the scheme. We are currently involved in a project with NSITF called Safe Work Intervention Programme, the purpose of which is to make the work places safer for the employees. As important as adequate compensation is to employees that have sustained injuries in the work place, we should rather aim at creating a safer work environment.

    The federal government has hinted of plans to pay the much hyped minimum wage this year. What is NECA’s position?

    NECA had taken part in all past discussions on the National Minimum Wage and it is on record that our members respected the outcome of the processes. Our position and disposition will not be any different this time around. We must however remember that the purpose of the National Minimum Wage is not to create a general salary increase in the economy but to set a threshold wage for the vulnerable and the weak elements in the labour market.

    What do you think government can do or put in place for greener economy to take place in Nigeria?

    We are not yet there at all. If you are talking about green initiatives, you are talking about green jobs. The stage we are now really, going by the statistics the NBS released recently, almost about 12.2million Nigerians are unemployed. I can tell you that is quite conservative, very, very conservative. In fact, I won’t believe it because if 75 per cent of our populations are youths and you apply the unemployment rate in Nigeria to that youthful hands in our demographic profile, the figure you will get, will be far more than 12.2million. Now, if you want to promote a green job initiative, the issue is that, when you look at the environment in Nigeria, what type of job is the Nigerian economy capable of producing now. We have got to be really honest with ourselves; there is nothing near in the economy of green jobs. Our priority actually is to make our economy grow to a level where it can generate jobs for millions of our youths. Our youths are not looking for big jobs. They are looking for the jobs or perhaps any job for that matter, to be engaged in. I am saying in the context of Nigeria given the scale of unemployment we are in, what we are interested in really are good jobs for our youths. The next level of that engagement can now be whether those jobs are green or not. But let us engage them productively first.

    What is your take on problem of multiple taxations?

    At the federal level it is called Value Added Tax, at the state level it is dubbed consumption tax, insisting that both were one and the same tax. NECA has instituted a legal action challenging recent imposition of consumption tax by Kano State government, arguing that such imposition amounted to a duplication of VAT, which the nation’s laws frowned on. All these are meant to strangulate businesses through multiple taxes and duplication of taxes and levies in the country.

    For instance, the recent enactment of Kano State Revenue Administration (Amendment) Law 2017, which imposed a consumption tax payable by consumers of goods and services bought or rendered in any hotel, restaurant, eatery, bakery, takeaway, suya spot, shopping mall, store, event centre and other similar businesses in the state.

    The imposition of Consumption Tax by Kano State amounted to a duplication of Value Added Tax, VAT, which our laws frown against, as stated by the Supreme Court in the case of Attorney General of Ogun State vs. Aberuagba and Others.

    We do not agree with the imposition of such tax due to the existence of Value Added Tax, VAT, in the country. This is because VAT is a consumption tax collectible by the Federal Government and shared among the states in respect of sale of goods and provision of services within the federation.

  • I abandoned Geology because consultancy is in my nature—Management consultant Seyi Agboola

    I abandoned Geology because consultancy is in my nature—Management consultant Seyi Agboola

    Seyi Agboola, a graduate of geology, is currently into the business of management consulting, marketing and mentoring. He shares his passion with GBENGA ADERANTI, and talks about his switch from pure science to management and consulting even without formal education in management. He also reveals how he is being rewarded for solving problems. Excerpts:

    Youth unemployment is currently on the rise in the country. How best do you think the trend can be halted?

    I don’t think the problem is with the government but with the youth. One, most of the youths are not prepared for the job they want to get. I understand that because I’ve been there before. A larger percentage, because I have had the chance to interview candidates who were looking for jobs and I have helped people to pre[pare their CVs, I can categorically say that so many of them are not prepared for the job they want to get. A simple example is you asking a graduate to send his or her CV. The way they write their CVs, you will see that they are not updated. They don’t know the new inventions that are going on in the world. Some of them don’t even know current affairs. Some don’t even know about the company they are applying into.

    Secondly, in this country, we have a large population. If someone needs a job, he must know that he has to fight for it because so many people are applying. A typical example was when a friend of mine posted a job advert online and within 10 minutes, she had seen 40 to 50 applicants. She wasn’t expecting that much within that short period. That is the level we are now. Everybody is applying, but you must make sure that you’re the best. You must be prepared to be the best. You must be vast and knowledgeable in whatever you are doing.

    Mind you, there is no way we will talk about unemployment and we won’t talk about educational system; everything links to each other. Most of us went to school just to pass and leave the school. However, the knowledge is not there. We were just there to get the certificate. We were not prepared for the job market and what it entails. That is why you see so many unprepared youths. There is no way you will talk about this that you won’t talk about the level of corruption in the country, which is another thing. It is everywhere anyway. You need to know somebody to get something.

    You were once unemployed but today you are a consultant. How long did it take you to get a job and what did you do to get one?

    Unemployed? I can’t say I was unemployed. I made sure I was working even though I was not being paid. That is another mentality that has to do with our youths. I didn’t get a job that I was being paid for. I remember that I taught in a secondary school for one and a half years for free, although when I was leaving, the students presented me with N24,000, which was a lot of money then. Teaching was what I wanted to do then. I wanted to impart knowledge. The way we should look at issue is: what problem do I want to solve? Not I want to get a job. If you are able to solve a problem, you will get something back for the problem solved.

    At that time, how did I choose to teach at that particular school? I got to know the Vice Principal of the school somewhere, and she told me that the Chemistry and Biology teacher had left the school and they were trying to get a new teacher because the students were preparing for WASSCE. I volunteered. After the normal working hours, I would still stay back and teach them extra lessons. People taught I was stupid, but I enjoyed the fact that I was imparting knowledge to youths. When I was leaving, the school gave me a recommendation letter.

    After my mandatory one year service, I had got some offers, but I didn’t take them because they were not in line with what I wanted to do or what would bring me fulfillment. I was able to work somewhere where I was being paid N40,000. I later got promoted and N10, 000 was added to my salary. I was there for one and a half years not because the money was good, but because I was learning and I was also solving problems.

    I later left the job where I was being paid N60,000. It was not as if the job was maintaining me, but I stayed because I wanted to solve a problem. I was chatting with a friend recently and he told me that he worked in a place for two years without collecting a dime, but I tell you, the guy is worth millions of naira now. What he learnt from where he once worked is what is fetching him money now. He stayed to learn and solve problems.

    You mentioned mentoring youths. What exactly do you do?

    This is actually how it started: when you move from different jobs, people see you as having arrived or you are comfortable. The truth is that you are still up there competing with yourself; you have a goal that you want to achieve. I mentor youths, and this is how it happens: most times, if I see a graduate and they approach me that they need a job, I start by asking them to text me their CV. Some of them don’t know how to write a CV. When I see their CVs, that is where it starts. I will tell them what to correct, but I won’t do it for them. If there is anything to be fixed, I tell them to get it fixed.

    Basically, I get them involved in the art of doing good CVs. I can’t be giving them fishes without teaching them how to fish. I teach them how to write a good CV, and often, I provide materials for them. I also encourage them to read and research and tell me what they have learnt from the materials I sent to them. At times, I tell them how to write cover letters, and sometimes I do mock interviews for them. I remember I did a mock interview for my wife. Then, we weren’t married. She went for the interview and eventually got the job. That has been my way of working with youths

    Also organisations such as churches organise seminars and invite me to come and talk to the youths.

  • MY LIFE AS IBIBIO-BORN SCIENTIST WHO SPEAKS — Human genetics expert Dr. Uduak Daniel

    MY LIFE AS IBIBIO-BORN SCIENTIST WHO SPEAKS — Human genetics expert Dr. Uduak Daniel

    Popular Contemporary Christian singer, Dr. Uduak Daniel, who is also an Deputy Director and the South South Zonal Coordinator at the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), is reputed for her work in prevention programming, gender, organisational development and research. But her popularity stems more from her exploits as a gospel artiste whose past concerts in Abuja and outside the shores of Nigeria remain etched in the memories of her fans, speaks with PAUL UKPABIO about her Pan-African look, her scientific works and music.

     

    How would you say your early life has influenced the person that you are today?

    I grew up in a home where love was easily expressed and the girl-child was esteemed. Even though my parents were disciplinarians, they taught us to be ourselves. We are five
    children—four ladies and a man—but we all have our peculiarities. My parents understood and appreciated that. I have adopted that in raising my children.

    No two people are the same. We were pretty comfortable and well taken care of. So, when it comes to being principled, It was not only taught but exemplified. There was time for everything. My parents had no favourites; at least not to our knowledge. My dad treated us like royalty and that boosted my self-esteem. I had a few fears, but I also knew I was safe. How that has helped me today? I am simply happy with who I am. It has informed my philosophy, which is to live fulfilled and die emptied. I do not have to be another person to make an impact. My parents are late, but the ideals and values that they instilled in us live on. This is real impact.

    What is your educational background?

    I attended St. Catherine’s model school for my primary education. Next was Our Lady of
    Apostles Secondary School, Yaba, where I obtained my West African School Certificate
    (WASC). I studied Biology at University of Calabar’s Department of Biological Sciences. I obtained a BSc (Hon.) degree in 1992, PGDM in 1997 and MPh 2006. In 2011, I enrolled in the Division of Genetics of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. I obtained a Ph.D in Human Genetics and Genomics in 2015.

    We understand that you are in the public service. Where do you work?

    I work at the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), where I am a Deputy Director and South South Zonal Coordinator.

    Can you explain more what human genetics and genomics is about?

    Ah! I am going to talk now with the simplicity of a development practitioner. Let me try and
    explain by painting a picture: a human being is an organism, and an organism is made up of trillions of cells. Liken a cell to an avocado pear; in its center is the seed, right? That is how the cell is. That core is called the nucleus. Inside the nucleus, there are double-stranded structures
    called the DNA. So back to our avocado pear, what you see inside the seed are X-like DNA, but each stroke of the X is double, so there are actually four strands. Okay?

    These DNAs are composed of genes. See where the term genetics come from? The genes contain specific sets of instructions and information in a coded form. These are called genetic codes and they determine our traits – health, development, growth etc. The distinctions in our genetic codes and subsequently traits is what makes every human being unique.

    The DNAs don’t stay straight in the nucleus; they coil up to form chromosomes. Every human cell inherits two sets of chromosomes from each parent. So I am a woman and I have two X chromosomes from my mum and two X chromosomes from my dad. You have two X
    chromosomes from your mum and two Y chromosomes from your dad. The Y chromosome is what makes you a man.

    So human genetics is the study of how inheritance occurs in the human being. Is that okay?

    Now to human genomics. The word “genome” is a compound word; it comes from gene and chromosome. Simply put, genome is the entire DNA in the human being or cell. Remember the chromosome is coiled up DNA that is composed of genes? So human genomics is the study of how the genome (all the DNAs) is structured and how they function. I hope you weren’t confused?

    As a scientist and gospel artist, how were you able to combine the love of the sciences with the love of the arts?

    Each has its place and so it’s easy to love both distinctly. I was brought up, like I said earlier, to objectively assess what I do or where I am at any point in time. So, combining arts and science has not been difficult at all. I am a scientist and an artiste, period!

    What informed your decision to go into music?

    (Laughs) I loved music while growing up. I mimicked every musician I fancied. And then I realized I could compose songs. I’d express my emotions with lyrics I composed using my English composition skills which I learnt in secondary school. By the time I was in the university, I had kind of mastered the art of composition and performance. And then God started drawing my attention to certain things which I could express through songs. God influenced my choice of
    going into music. It was another way of saying what I wanted to say.

    At what point did you go into music?

    When I felt it was time to do so professionally. And that was in 2001.

    How did your parents react to it?

    Ah! They were my number one fans! My parents attended all my concerts, ministrations in churches or events. They believed in me and encouraged me when I was weak. They were part
    of my audience. They loved to be in all my performances.

    Was it all about talent or you also got some training in music?

    Talent definitely has to be polished for the skill to come forth, so I am constantly training. I have done some voice training and jazz singing training. I still get trained in composition. Training is continuous.

    Tell us about some of your songs and the motivations for them.

    Oh, that is some task. I will summarise like this: the motivation for my first album, Hold On, was
    the confidence that I had something unique and timeless to offer to the world. My second work,
    The Father’s Heart, was the first ever live recording in Calabar. I was motivated by Integrity Music’s live recordings. It was a show of professionalism which I felt could be replicated. I needed people to relive the prophetic moments we had during that concert. The third work,
    Uduak Daniel Promo, was motivated by the need to keep in touch with my fans. I knew I would be on a long hiatus and had to tell them out of sight wasn’t out of mind. It was motivated by the transformation I had had off the scenes: the transformation of coming to terms with the fact that I was wired for the marketplace ministry in all ramifications.

    What else would I be using the degrees and experiences in the development world for if it wasn’t to understand my audience? Like Apostle Paul said, I am all things to all men. What it means is that I understand where those I am called to are. I understand the settings, the
    mindset, the language and perspectives.

    I can present a song in a way that will appeal to the intellectual. I do the genre that appeals to them; that is Jazz. I understand how the noble mind thinks. And I understand that even though they are scarce, God knows and loves them too. So here I am today. All these years, my prayers have always been for me to be where God wants me to be. I don’t think this prayer will change.

    Gospel music is a terrain where only a few artistes last. What is your staying power?

    Constant and consistent confirmations that I am doing what I ought to be doing. That I am
    reaching an audience many Gospel artists don’t reach. That I am an oracle of God, called to be a light. There is no higher calling.

    You are also a song writer. How do you combine that with singing?

    Again, it’s easy. I write when I need to write and sing when it’s time to sing. And when I find myself in a situation where I have to compose and at the same time sing on stage, because this is how most prophetic songs come, I know as a prophet that it is the right message for the time. I’m used to that. It is called Tehillah. The taste of the pudding is in the eating.

    Which has been your best concert?

    Hmm, I think my best concert so far has been the Colours Concert. That was in December 2016. It was my first after a six-year hiatus. It was in an exotic restaurant in Abuja, gated, well attended and very professional. I have had seven concerts between 2002 and 2017. At places
    like the poolside, showrooms, at the beach and in church. The last was the Kase Concert at the Marina Resort, Calabar.

    What other hobbies do you have apart from singing?

    Oh, I love to travel!

    If you have to choose between singing and your civil service career, which will you choose?
    That will be singing. All that I am right now is to equip me to deliver appropriately. This is the skill we are talking about. I know how to stand before the intellectual, high and low because I am an intellectual by God’s grace. I am just wired to sing. But I have been blessed to use both secular work and talent to contribute to the development of mankind.

    How about marriage?

    I’m married with two children.

    Music must have taken you to places. Tell us about some of your travels and what projects you are working on.

    Where do I start from? First, I have travelled to all the continents; at least one country in all the continents because I do a lot of work in the marketplace. I naturally perform at corporate events – AGMs, retreats, brand awareness and sensitizations. Amazing how corporate entities just
    want to know what the mind of God is for their businesses. One needs to be ‘silked’ to come before kings.

    What are you working on now?

    Right now, I am working on the post-production of the last two concerts; a collabo with some African artistes and concerts for the marketplace in Uyo, Lagos and, if possible, Port Harcourt. I look forward to ministering on churches’ platforms too. We have a lot of people in the marketplace who just want to enjoy mature and anointed gospel music in the church. I’m looking forward to teaching our churches how to do music that will get them in and not out of church.

    Christians deserve to be happy. No reason why someone will leave the world and come into church to cope with standards far below what they were used to!

    How would you describe yourself?

    I am very prayerful, understanding, loving, beautiful, hardworking, focused, fun-loving and
    passionate.

    What kind of clothes and accessories do you like wearing?

    I like the Pan African look, so I dress African most of the time. I like to be identified as a Nigerian so I wear Nigerian a lot. I design and I love to wear my designs. My style can be described as simple and sophisticated.

    I wear fitting accessories, but I really love wristwatches, rings and shoes. I can’t do without perfumes and watches. Sometimes belts too.

    Do you see more females coming into the music scene here in Nigeria now and in future?
    Sure. The field is ripe.

    Do you still find time to go into the kitchen to cook?

    Yes I do. I love decorating too.

    Can you also dance?

    Oh, I can dance very well.

    What do you value the most?

    Relationships.

    If you were not what you are now, what else would you have loved to be?

    I’m all I dreamt I would be; that is, a wife, mother, minister, musician, author, public speaker and
    researcher. I already have so much on my hands.

    What is your beauty secret?

    I eat healthy foods, exercise, pray and stay away from stress.

  • I’M NOW MY CHILDREN’S BABY—104-year-old Taple Lankan

    I’M NOW MY CHILDREN’S BABY—104-year-old Taple Lankan

    Plateau State is reputed as the cradle of old men and women as the state appears to have an army of people who are well advanced in years. Rightly or wrongly, some people are quick to attribute the trend to the unique temperate weather condition in the area. A visit to villages on the Plateau could reveal the existence of aged men and women, some of whom were born as far back as the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates that became Nigeria in 1914. Our correspondent, YUSUFU AMINU IDEGU, ran into one of them during the week. He is Da Andarawus Taple Lankan, who was said to be born in 1914, and has lived for 104 years.
    The Nation had earlier discovered a 107 years old man named Da Garba Dikam in Mangu Local Government Area of the state in Mach 2015. Obviously born before the amalgamation of Nigeria, he attracted global attention when he took his 95-year-old wife, Mama Nafung, to the altar in March 2015. They were married for 70 years before they were joined in holy matrimony in that historic church wedding, and both of them are still alive!

    GOOD evening Papa. How are you doing?

    Thank you, my son. I am doing fine. And how are you?

    I am fine sir.

    Who are you? It is like I don’t know you.

    I came to visit you and to also know you because I heard your story.

    Which story?

    That you are still alive at this age…

    Thank you, my son. I’m still alive with the help of my children. In fact, I have become their own children. They are caring for me like a child. They are feeding and clothing me. They are the reason I’m still alive. I’m so grateful to them for not abandoning me to my fate.

    How many children have you?

    My children? You mean the ones that are alive?

    Yes.

    My children are 13 altogether. Eleven of them are alive. They are the ones taking care of me. Two of them died. I have four males and seven females.

    What about your wife?

    My wife? The first woman I married left me and I had to marry another one. But the second one died more than five years ago at the age of 90.

    Since you don’t have a wife any more, can I get you one?

    No, I don’t want any wife again. I’m comfortable with my children around me. My children are my wives now.

    How old are you now?

    It is my children that can tell you my age. They have the records. You know I did not go to school, so I don’t know how to calculate the date. But I was born a long time ago when white people were in charge of government in Nigeria.

    I guess you prayed for long life when you were younger. Would you say that God has answered your prayers?

    Yes, God has answered my prayers. That is why I give thanks to God every day. God did not only give me long life, he gave me good health. I’m healthy till today, and I can see my children, my grandchildren and my great grandchildren.

    What is the secret of your long life? Is it just praying to God to give you long life?

    It is not all about prayers, it is about how you live your life. I grew up in the hands of the missionaries. The missionaries were the managers of our affairs in Nigeria as at the time we were growing up. They were the ones that thought me hand work. I learnt Manson from them. While teaching you the job, they would also teach you many things about life generally.

    Apart from that, they thought us the Bible. They thought us a lot of things that I can’t remember. But I tried to follow their teachings very well. May be it is the wish of God that I should live long. So I thank God for that. But I don’t think there is any secret about long life, it is all for God to do it.

    Now that you have lived this long, what difference do you see between life in those days and life nowadays?

    Life was better in the past because there was peace and love. There was so much love among families and in the communities. There was no fear in the past. People used to be so receptive and accommodating to fellow humans. In the past, we loved visitors more than we loved our own children. There was more respect for life. It is surprising to me to see in recent times that a human being will carry a gun or a knife and kill another human being. You could not do that in the past. If you do it, you will be driven out of that community. It was a taboo to kill a fellow human being. But nowadays it is a very common thing to kill, I keep hearing about killing, killing all the time, and I keep wondering whether the world is coming to an end. At times I wonder why I am still alive hearing these bad things; they were not happening before. It makes me hate the world of these days.

    In those days, we felt safe anywhere, day or night. But now there is so much fear in the minds of people. The fear alone can cut somebody’s life short. We used to sleep in the night without locking our doors. Now, fear will not allow you to do that. I’m still surprised that people can kidnap people. I don’t know how they do it. It was not possible in our time. It was even unthinkable. In the past, people were afraid to commit crime because the entire family would be put to shame. But nowadays, I’m hearing that criminals are everywhere and the society is comfortable living with criminals.

    I remember that in those days, if anyone was caught stealing, he would run and go on exile where no one would know him because of the shame from what he had done. So, nobody wanted to be associated with a criminal.

    What was your occupation?

    I learn a handiwork; Manson was the trade I learnt from the white missionaries who came to our area. The missionaries were in Gindiri. When they noticed that I could not go to school, they encouraged me to learn a handiwork. It was with the handiwork that I was employed by the Plateau State Government.

    You were a civil servant in the state?

    Yes.

    Which year were you employed?

    I can’t remember. It is a long time.

    Were you given an appointment letter?

    I don’t know. I only know that I began to work for the state government and they paid monthly salaries.

    How much were you paid as salary?

    They used to pay us in coins. There was no paper money then. If I remember, I used to collect 5 shillings. I can’t really remember.

    Which year did you retire?

    I can’t remember the year. But it was one governor called Atukum that came and terminated our appointments. They told us that we had been retired.

    Are you a pensioner?

    No. I have never received pension since I retired. They said we had no pension. Even our gratuity, somebody cheated us and cut most of our money. They did not give us all our money.

    Did you teach any of your children your handiwork?

    No. All of them were in school. They all refused to learn my trade. Children of nowadays can’t do the kind of handiwork we did; they don’t have the power or they are so lazy. That is why they prefer to go to school.

    You are a Christian?

    Yes.

    Do you still go to church?

    I’m a member of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN). I go to church occasionally. But mostly, I go on the day of Holy Communion. I still take Holy Communion any day they are doing it.

    What is the health challenge you are experiencing at this age?

    Not much. I’m still healthy. It’s just that I’m not as strong as I was before. I experienced stroke about two years ago, but I was treated and since then I never experienced it again.

    What kind of food do you like eating now?

    I can eat any kind of food they give me except meat. My teeth are weak, so I can’t chew meat anymore. Otherwise, I can eat any kind of food.

    How long do you still want to live on earth?

    It is not my wish to live this long; it is the will of God. If God decides to take me home today, I’m ready. I’ve stayed long enough. God has answered my prayers. So if He decides to take me today, I’m satisfied with the life God gave me.

    What will you want God to do for you now?

    I want God to give all my children longer life than mine.