The Nation Newspaper

Category: Interview

  • ‘By 2015 JAMB will only use e-testing’

    ‘By 2015 JAMB will only use e-testing’

    Being first or pioneering new ideas, either alone or as a team player in a group of people sharing a passion, is f a s t becoming second nature for Professor Dibu Ojerinde. Besides being the first to occupy a Chair in Tests and Measurement, he was the pioneer Director, Monitoring and Evaluation, National Primary Education Commission (NPEC), first Registrar/Chief Executive at the National Examinations Council (NECO) and the first Registrar/Chief Executive, Joint Admission Matriculations Board (JAMB) to introduce online application in the conduct of examinations in Nigeria. In this interview with Adetutu Audu, Ojerinde bared his minds on new developments in JAMB. Excerpts

    Why E-testing?

    The internet age has come to stay with us, hence as actors in the new age, you cannot afford to stay on the fence, you must be prepared to join the train or else you’ll be left behind. The programme was designed to migrate candidates from the use of paper and pencil in examinations to full usage of computers. Candidates must know how to use the computer before the full adoption of the system in 2015. One of the benefits of the innovation is that candidates will receive their results 30 minutes after the examination.

    It would also eliminate cases of incomplete results or result blackout and it will ensure prompt delivery of raw scores and will also check examination malpractices. We went out to six different centres to test if it would work. We were at the University of Ilorin, University of Lagos, Abuja and Rivers State University of Technology, Port Harcourt. From our office, we sent questions straight and it took them seven minutes to get them. From JAMB office, Bwari to anywhere in the world, seven minutes you get the questions and they were downloaded. We had about 600 candidates that day. I don’t want to discuss the issue of saboteurs, but whether we like it or not we have local and international saboteurs. But we are making efforts to block them. If you go to Rivers State University of Technology, everything is internet based. They operate paperless world.

    How credible are the people behind the system?

    The last seminar we had, we asked ourselves what are those things that could fail? We say light and we said the alternative is back-up generator and for computers we said UPS. And I am sure all these can’t fail at the same time. Within three and half hours, it is not likely that all these things go wrong.

    One of the advantages of Computer Based Tests (CBT) is to guard against manipulation and the JAMB e-testing is going on as planned. We have about 77 centres where the CBT will hold.

    This year, we are no stranger to the system. Over one million candidates have registered for the 2013 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UMTE) and more than 500,000 are still expected to register. The CBT is not compulsory as candidates have a choice to choose either the paper/ pencil testing or the dual based testing, where candidates would read the questions on the computer and answer on the paper with a pencil.

    By 2015, the CBT will become mandatory for all candidates. Out of the one million that have registered so far, only about 4,000 registered for CBT. The idea of CBT is that after 30minutes of the examination, a graphical result will be sent to the candidates’ mobile phones, while specific scores will be sent within four days. The results will show the subjects passed averagely by the candidates which is 50 percent and 59 above average 60 and above. Below average are 49.

    Those who have been able to fill their forms online are having difficulties; they were not able to thumbprint or upload photographs. Even the café attendants were complaining. How is JAMB going to handle that?

    I can boldly tell you that we have registered over one million candidates. We started late last year. Let me tell you some of the things that can lead to the difficulties. For instance, cybercafés are accredited by us because of our previous experience and cheating tendencies of these cafes. About two years ago, 12 candidates ran into a centre with their slips that they wanted to do the exam in Abuja; they went to the centre allocated to them and found that other people were sitting on their seats. And they ran to where I was, journalists were also there. When they checked the details biometric, we discovered that those who were there before were the original owners of the seats. Those 12 people were cheated by a particular cybercafé. And we asked them where they registered, they mentioned the place and I told them to go back and collect their money. So we decided to be accrediting cafes to forestall such in future. If a candidate gets to a cafe, he should ask if it is accredited. If they do, there is a code, before now we can even register in the comfort of our homes and schools. But you have to have a code now. Those people who have problems, possibly the café are not recognised by JAMB. Without code, they cannot access our site to register.

    Some of the cafes have limited bandwidth and wait till night when the narrow bandwidth will be fast. We have seen people who are male and were registered as female. Ogunrinde was registered as Ojerinde. To be frank, cybercafés are part of our problems and we cannot do the registration alone. Our bandwidths have been designed in such a way that it expands as candidates registered. Some people used their toes instead of fingerprints. We have had cases of people coming to the centre without their documents, we asked them to thumb print, once their pictures come up, and they can write the examination. But without that I am sorry.

    I can’t say it can’t go wrong. But practice makes perfect. We have done these three or four times before the end of the year, and we are going to try it again in February. We are working with a high internet service provider.

    You are the current President of International Association for Education Assessment (IAEA). What function does it perform?

    It is an association made up of examination bodies all over the world, ETS – Educational Testing Service is a member, Cambridge in the UK is also a member, the exam body in Netherlands is also a member, in fact all the reputable exam bodies you can think of all over the world are members of the association. It is a body of professionals in testing, measurement, evaluation and in public examinations. In particular we rub minds together, think together to find a way of doing things better. When you learn from a particular group, you go and implement in your own country. I have been a member of the organisation since 1978 as a student in the United States of America. I joined as a student. I have worked with them and they have identified and come to value my contributions to testing and other areas and this was why they made me President. For example, it is under my leadership that UNESCO took up the sponsorship of some programmes in Africa and I was able to attract their sponsorship to Nigeria.

    You have been in JAMB for some years now. What have been your achievements so far?

    Well, we have done a lot; I have been able to put up a computer building in JAMB, which was not there when I came in. Knowing the importance of Information Technology to an organisation like JAMB, we have also equipped it with modern facilities, scanners, and everything required that today we can say it’s the best in the country. We had only five scanners then, today we have over 30 scanners, that is why you do exams today in JAMB and, like magic, in five or six days the results are out. You know the reverse was the case before now.

    In terms of construction, our Test Development building is now there, it was not there before. We furnished and generally renovated the headquarter building. Worthy of note also is the fact that since the inception of JAMB, it had no office anywhere in Nigeria outside the Headquarters in Bwari, today we have within this period built about six offices wholly owned by JAMB and we are still counting. There are now JAMB offices in Jigawa, Oyo, Kwara, Delta, Ekiti and Niger; this completes Phase 1 of our expansion plan. Now we are embarking on Phase 2, and we intend to do over ten offices also. The issue of training is no longer a joke in JAMB. Within the past two months, 16 staff have gone to Netherlands for Item Response Theory Training and that’s what we want to deliver to Africa.

    We’ve started using the civil defence and other para-military agencies for our exams and, I tell you, that it has helped in no small measure to curtail malpractices. We also now use the Biometric data capturing system; it is not only for candidates but for staff. When you resume work you thumbprint and when going, you do the same. By that, the time you came in and went out is recorded. So, we can identify those who don’t come to office, those who come late, and at the end of the month we print out and keep for use for staff upgrading.

    Some people are still criticising the Unified Exam System you introduced. What will you say about it?

    It is ignorance. Now all the candidates who sit for exams have the same background; all of them went through the same secondary school system and possess SSCE. In fact, English and Mathematics are requirements, so why wouldn’t they write the same exams? Also, can we reduce the cost of testing them? Yes we can, but the income of JAMB has reduced as a result of the unification, yet we say just pay for one exam and have a choice of six institutions; two Universities, two Polytechnics and two Colleges of Education. Don’t forget that before now, students would go and write separately for universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, now we say reduce the cost on your parents, just write one exam and you have six choices to make. The Polytechnics and Colleges of Education love it and I know it is the best for the country.

    Universities are conducting post UTME exams and are arguing that it is UTME that should give way for post –UTME and not the reverse..?

    It’s wrong. If they know the reason JAMB was set up, they wouldn’t say this. JAMB was set up to bridge gaps. It has a unifying role it plays in Nigeria. If you localise it, as they now say, some people will remain educationally backward. I know that those who call for the scrapping of JAMB never mean well for Nigeria. Even in the United Kingdom, you have what is called University and College Admissions Service (UCAS), it’s a clearance body like JAMB. Even with their level of development, they have not scrapped the body. The same goes for Turkey and countless countries with peculiar circumstances like ours. Those who established JAMB knew why they did it and I think it is in meeting that desire they so did. Look at the dichotomy between polytechnic and university graduates today, which is very unnecessary.

    It is easy for you to release results these days, but that also comes with problems like missing results and other issues. What are you doing about this?

    We release results on time because we have engaged technology and that is what is helping us. The days of releasing results after three months are gone. Last year alone, we had about 82,000 candidates who had missing results. Instead of four, they got three, or two or one, depending on the shading patterns. Candidates who don’t follow instructions are likely to fail exams, we are not magicians, what you feed the computer with is what you get out of it. They flout instructions and that is the problem.

    You have reduced examination cheating to a bearable minimum. How did you do it?

    When I came in 2007, we had 15.7% cheats, it has reduced to1.67% in the last exam. The scanner is there at the gate to screen out handsets, the Biometric system also came to our rescue. We even capture the pupil of your eyes and then the thumbprint that brings out your picture and so it’s no longer easy to come and cheat. I must not forget the marvellous work members of the Civil Defence and other security agencies are doing for us, we now also use only fenced centres for exams so that we can restrict movement in and out of exam centres.

    There is this lingering crisis over the change of University of Lagos (UNILAG) to Moshood Abiola University of Lagos (MAULAG). Which does JAMB recognise?

     

    For now we recognise UNILAG.

     

  • ‘Boko Haram is all about Sharia’

    ‘Boko Haram is all about Sharia’

    Fred Agbeyegbe is a renowned lawyer, human rights activist and a foremost member of the defunct National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). He is also a playwright. In this interview with Edozie Udeze, he tackles many national issues bordering on the corporate existence of Nigeria and why religion and oil will continue to dominate national focus in the country.

     

    At 78, and in retrospect, would you say that most of the social ills you attacked in your plays such as The King Must Dance Naked have been solved?

    Of course not. They’ve not been achieved. To achieve those things, we need a change of mind on the part of the leaders of Nigeria. The people who rule us in this country – they are called all sorts of names, the elites and so on and so forth. For me, elitism in Nigeria is fake. The people who go into politics in Nigeria are not the elites. The elites are in fact far removed from government administration. They are the people who have been frustrated out of their minds because all the thinking they have to better the lives of Nigerians are not allowed. This is due to the usurpation of the political space by those who call themselves politicians.

    You mentioned NADECO and then paused. You played a major role in that group; how do you think the coalition fared in achieving democracy for Nigeria?

    Well, maybe I should put the question back to you. I was part of it. Do you think NADECO did the right thing to achieve democracy for us or to remove the military from government? I will say they did. NADECO did well. Ah, maybe NADECO did not do the right thing. The only thing we’ve been accused of most of the time now is that we brought out the modalities to ensure that we have a good country. But when it comes to actually taking over government, we either shied away or ran away.

    Maybe we cannot now complain from what we are seeing because of that, people feel we should have stayed to put the real government in place. Well, it depends on how you look at it. We were not canvassing to become governors and presidents or whatever. We were just simply saying you cannot have the country the way it was, and we are still thinking even now that you cannot have a country as it is now.

    Yes, the military is gone. There is no more (Gen. Sani) Abacha and so on. But I don’t think things are much different from what we had before now. The situation, to me has not changed much and that is why we feel we would have done much more thereafter.

    You are from the Niger Delta. How do you assess the situation there where thugs and kidnappers hold sway in a democratic environment?

    Well, I don’t know if you are correct by suggesting that that is what the youths are doing – the thugs, the kidnappers, the hoodlums of this country, all come from the Niger Delta. Far from it, in fact, the issue of insecurity you are talking about never started from the Niger Delta. No. The truth about the Niger Delta is that we were being oppressed. And even now, we are still being oppressed. Never mind that somebody from the Niger Delta is the head of the Nigerian government.

    The rules Jonathan is operating – the constitution he swore to uphold was not written by Niger Deltans. And nobody consulted any member of this society before the rules were put in place, not to talk of the Niger Delta. So, he is not doing what the Niger Delta people asked him to do. He is doing his own.

    What the Niger Delta people are saying is that you came to our backyard, you dug the place, pollute the air, give us ill-health, and then take the thing and go share it somewhere else… Now you come back to give us crump from the table. And we say that is not acceptable to us. Then they came with what they called amnesty. Maybe they don’t know the meaning of the word amnesty. Amnesty has a specific meaning either in English or in the dictionary or in law or in whatever. What the Niger Delta people were doing does not need amnesty. The fact that they have accepted it like that is just to make peace.

    So, for you the amnesty thing is not right?

    Of course, it was never right. What has it achieved? Have the people of Niger Delta got what they wanted? Have they? I ask you. What they set out to get with the struggle has it ended? Don’t you read what Asari Dokubo says every day? Does he not make sense to you? So, often, you ask yourself, what has the government done? Jonathan is in Aso Rock, so what? Is that what the people were fighting for?

    But the amnesty is said to be one of the reasons we have Boko Haram today?

    (Laughing) Ah, ah, well, they have to say something. They have to! Did Niger Delta people talk about religion? Do you do this because of what? What is the real reason for what Boko Haram is doing compared to the reason Niger Delta began what they did? How are the people being oppressed, that will bring about Boko Haram? What sort of injustice has been meted out in this country to the Northerners that will bring Boko Haram? How do you compare the two situations that will make them to do what they are doing? Nothing.

    So, what sort of political rubbish is that? Didn’t you hear what the Sultan of Sokoto said recently concerning the Boko Haram menace? That all the problems of the North came from the North and created by Northerners! Don’t listen to any excuse because I say don’t come and pollute my backyard. Don’t come and cause me health problems. Don’t come and take our God-given resource under the soil. And then Boko Haram people are annoyed. Why should they?

    In fact, as far as I am concerned all of us are misreading what the Boko Haram people are asking for. They are saying that they are the sovereign people and owners of their land where they stay. And they want to practice Sharia laws and nobody in this world can stop them. It doesn’t matter how many constitutions you make; they want a Sharia state for themselves and probably for the nation.

    And they have been practising Sharia laws a long time ago. The Northern states had Sharia laws, cutting off people’s limbs for offending their laws. Nobody has stopped them from doing it. Keep your Sharia laws to yourself because I am not a Muslim. Don’t come and operate it in my area. In fairness to them, they are not even saying they want to come and operate it in my area. They are saying leave my area alone for me. I want to have it alone and I want to practise Sharia Law.

    Then shouldn’t we say also say leave my Niger Delta to me? Don’t touch my oil or pollute my air or inflict health problem on me? These are the issues and we have to get them right.

    What is your stand on the 1999 Constitution?

    In the first place, we have no constitution. As long as what we have as a constitution was concocted by the military, it will not serve the desired purpose for a democratic society. The constitution we have today is far from being a perfect document to govern the nation well.

    It is a military document. And with that, you cannot genuinely practice democracy. They did it in an attempt to continue to lord it over all Nigerians. Well, we are a long way from perfection. What is the nature of the judiciary? It is not everything that happens in the judiciary that you can call the dispensing of justice.

    So, what is the constitution when people’s rights cannot be adequately protected or guaranteed? No matter the nature of the constitution you give to this country, so long as the Nigerian factor is there, we’ll never make progress. If you like bring a Togolese or Ghanaian to come over here to rule.

    As it is now, the National Assembly itself has no power to make the constitution. They have not been given the power to do so. All aspects of that 1999 Constitution are not only concocted, but a forgery. And any document that tells lies about itself does not stand. It is a forgery. At least from the little law that I know, that is the true situation. So then, the nation itself is run on the basis of forgery.

    Even the power to review the constitution doesn’t belong to the National Assembly. They cannot even be given the power to review it by anybody. That is the much I can say about that.

    Now, the federal government has decided to send troops to Mali to help quell the insurgency there. What is your take on this?

    That is international politics as far as I am concerned. You might argue and say they have not been able to take care of insecurity under their nose, then why are they going to save other people? But there are some valid points in saying that these things have a domino effect. If one place is likely to carry on as they do in Mali now and no one intervenes, more will come up sooner or later. The issue of contiguity are also involved in this matter.

    So, the policy of the federal government is that they want to contain it before it gets to our shores. I cannot fault them that.

    Now, let’s go to your artistic involvements. When you started Ajo Productions in 1983, what did you really have in mind?

    Ajo Productions is my theatre ensemble. It was established in 1983 to put up plays written by me on stage. And that is what we have been doing ever since. We also have what we call Lagos Theatre Associates. It is a collaboration outfit with Ajo Productions to do a lot of things. While Ajo Productions is a theatre group meant to put up plays by professional theatre actors and practitioners, Lagos Theatre Associates is an attempt to ensure that plays are always on stage. And you can immediately know the implications of that. Being always on stage means that there should continually be entertainment for the working people of Nigeria, who, after their tired week can relax. It means that the opportunity will be provided for the theatre or the actors to comment continuously on what is going on in the society.

    It means that there will always be employment for actors and actresses. So, it means that there will be attention all the time to art education. So, when you put all that together, it is a social service that Lagos Theatre Associates are rendering.

    How do you combine theatre and your law practice?

    (Laughs) Well, the theatre thing; I never went to any formal school to train as an artiste or as a playwright. So you have to ask the good Lord where that gift came from. The prowess with which I have been endowed, I am not the one to determine it and so I am carrying on with it. But I have been writing ever since I can remember and I enjoy every bit of it. So far, I have over eight plays to my credit.

    On the law side, it is my profession and I am still there. And I so believe in it that my children – two of them, are also lawyers. I have a grandchild who is equally a lawyer. So, I think that is enough commitment.

    What level in life has theatre taken you to?

    Well, I am sitting on top of the world. My plays are being distributed all over the world. It is on Amazon and so on and so forth. And I am sure you know that at the last Olympics, The King Must Dance Naked was one of the official plays staged in England.

    So far, I can never stop writing plays. At least I have six in the works now. And we just pray for long life so we can continue to write more plays.

    Do you hope to put them into movies someday?

    You see, that is the problem with this country. I shouldn’t be the one to do that. People should be interested in what other people do. But who knows, maybe when I find the money, I can do that.

    There is no theatre in Nigeria because the government who should be providing the infrastructure does not care. The government is not prepared to invest in theatre.

     

  • One mistake my father made which I’ll avoid- Rotimi Williams’ eldest son Ladi

    One mistake my father made which I’ll avoid- Rotimi Williams’ eldest son Ladi

    Chief Ladi Williams needs no introduction. He is not only a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, he is the eldest son of the late legal luminary, Chief FRA Williams, popularly called Timi the Law during his lifetime. In this interview with INNOCENT DURU, he speaks about the challenges facing the judiciary in the country and the mistake he said his father made in his career as a lawyer which he would never repeat, among other issues. Excerpts:

    Kindly tell us more about yourself?

    I am the eldest son of late Chief FRA Williams. I have my law firm here in Victoria Island where I practise with my daughter and son. I have been in practice for 40 years. This is my 41st year and I have been a member of the inner bar, that is the body of senior advocates for approximately 18 years .

    Your father was a lawyer, you are a lawyer and your children are lawyers. What is in this profession that has been attracting your whole family into it?

    My grandfather was also a lawyer. Well, my grandfather was a lawyer because his own father who was a businessman wanted him to be a lawyer because he found that in business, he needed a good lawyer. The businessman’s best friend is his lawyer. These days, I dare say that lawyers are best friends of civil servants and politicians. To that extent, he must have felt that the best thing to do was to ensure that his own son read Law so that he could assist in furthering his business. He was a shipping magnate in those days. So he went to read Law in London that time and I think he was called in 1927. My father naturally took after him. I believe that he could have done Engineering or Mathematics but somehow, he chose to follow his father’s footstep.

    In my own case, I started following my father to court when I was age 12. I recall one occasion in Ibadan soon after he was made a Queen’s counsel, I put on his gown, which was very long as you can imagine and his wig, which was too big for my head and I was admiring myself in the mirror in his dressing room only for my mother and my father to come in suddenly into the dressing room and they saw me. Immediately they saw me, I got scared and I quickly removed the wig and the gown but my father said I should put it back on, that he had blessed that day and that by the special grace of God, that I would wear the wig and the silk gown on my own merit and I have done just that.

    When I was called to the inner bar, it was indeed the first time ever in the legal history of Nigeria that father and son who are SANs would appear in court together. Thereafter, my two children started following me to court as teenagers whenever they came home on vacation. They are qualified now. My eldest child is about 15 or 16 years at the bar and my son is about 12 years at the bar. It has been a family tradition. Already, when I look at my grandson, I used to tell his father, who is a lawyer, that the shape of his head looks like that somebody who is going to study Law (general laughter). On one occasion when I came back from the court, I put my wig on his head and he was looking at the mirror and I said to myself that history is repeating itself.

    Your father was a very successful lawyer no doubt. What are the virtues you took from him and what were the mistakes he made that you would not want to venture into in life?

    I think the major mistake he made was to have gone into politics. I think that you should either be 100 percent a politician or 100 percent a lawyer. I don’t see myself going into politics. That was the major mistake that he made that I don’t intend to make. He was a very intelligent man; an intellectual. Anytime he prepared a document, let it be 30 or 50 years, he would remember. He didn’t forget faces, events or documents that he prepared himself. He remembered everything to the letter and to the very end, he was never senile. A few months before he died, myself and Mr Eddy Chukwurah had to go to England to seek his opinion on a matter that was to come up in the Supreme Court, which I had to take because he was too ill to take it. Then on another occasion, the former Attorney-General of Lagos State, my learned colleague in the inner bar, Prof. Osibajo, also had cause to fly to London to see him on this local government matter between former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, over certain areas which were designated as local government areas and the withholding of funds. Again, this was a few months before he died. It all happened while he was receiving treatment in London and was able to attend to Prof. Osibajo adequately.

    The matter that Mr Chukwurah and myself went for was a case involving Ikeja Hotels and Mask, a shipping company. These were complicated matters and as at that time, he was 84, going to 85 years and he had the mental agility of a 30 year- old in terms of grasping problems and giving us illuminating suggestions and ideas. He looked at the briefs we wrote and gave us his suggestions, which we incorporated. Those were the qualities that he had but those qualities were ill-suited to being a politician. These were the qualities that were needed to be a good lawyer. That was why even when he was in the Western Nigeria as the first ever attorney-general, he never used to contest elections. He entered the Lower House through the House of Chiefs. The chieftaincy title that he had at that time, the Apesin of Itoko in Abeokuta, was what enabled him to enter into the Western Regional House of Assembly. He did not get in by election and that was why when there was campaign in those days, the famous Ibadan leader, the late irrepressible Adegoke Adelabu, used to refer to him as a ‘minister without constituency’. He was in the house but he did not contest elections. To that extent, I would say he ought not to have gone into politics at all.

    If you look at it now, many lawyers are venturing into politics; so why would you say it was a mistake for him to have ventured into it?

    That is not quite correct. Lawyers appear for politicians but it does not mean that they belong to their parties. For example, I have appeared for ACN before when I appeared for Mrs Abike Dabiri-Arewa. I have appeared for PDP before when I appeared for Engineer Segun Oni. I have appeared for ANPP in Sokoto State when I appeared for Alhaji Mohammed Ishau. These are major political parties. Once you mention ACN, PDP, ANPP, CPC is relatively new, so you have more or less covered the ground. That does not make me a member of those three parties. I am in a position to take brief from any one of them without being a part of them. Senior lawyers today are not really politicians. They are states men and they will take cases from anybody. Take my very good brother, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), he appeared for President Goodluck Jonathan in one of the elections. Prior to that, he appeared for the late President Umaru Yar’Adua in an election petition; yet he appeared for my good brother, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, when he was arraigned by the Code of Conduct Bureau. If there is any opposition that PDP has today, it is the ACN. I know that he is not a card-carrying member of the PDP or the ACN, he takes cases as they come irrespective of the parties they belong to and gives his best to all of them. I do the same too.

    You have a very tight schedule as a legal practitioner. How do you relax ?

    I start work by 7.30 am and I close at 7.30pm from Monday to Friday. On weekends, I take it a bit more leisurely by starting at 9am and by noon, I close. Thereafter, I watch the English Premier League matches, if there is any. I watch the African plays and read a few non- legal books. If I am feeling a bit energetic, I call my grandchildren to come and trouble me a bit. When their trouble becomes too much, I would call their parents to come and take them away (general laughter). That is how I spend my weekend. Then, I like taking trips abroad on vacation twice a year. I support Manchester United because I like their pattern of play. The coach, Sir Alex Ferguson, will take a player from another club and mould him in such a way that he would fit into the pattern of play of the club. Take someone like Van Persie, who he picked from Arsenal and brought him to Manchester United and he is now doing far better with Man U than when he was at Arsenal. I don’t know what would happen to Man U when Ferguson leaves.

    Why is it that the law is hard on poor criminals and lenient with rich criminals? Does it have to do with the age of the Penal Code?

    The law has to be reviewed but it does not have to do with common man or no common man. At the time the Penal Code which is the law that is operational in the North was promulgated I doubt if anybody used to talk about billions in our judicial lexicon. When you can hardly count N100, 000, you are now talking of billions. You don’t talk about such kind of money before independence or shortly after independence. It came into being with the discovery of oil which is now turning to be a curse on us. Nobody can ever have the foresight at the time that the law was promulgated, that there would be people that would be in position to manipulate the system and take this amount of money. The man confessed and it is not a matter of ‘you are innocent until proven guilty’. There has to be special legislation and the EFCC statute is a good starting point. This is not really money laundering per se. I don’t think he was charged for money laundering. I think he was charged for conversion of police pension fund to his own use. That was what the EFCC charged him with. The judge I believe can amend the charge in some cases and say that no, conversion carries a relatively more lenient punishment, I will regard the charge as a theft because you have taken money which does not belong to you with the intention of permanently depriving another of it. That will now bring the charges to the arena of theft which is very serious. That one can carry seven years, I believe. The judge can do that but he did not do that. If he did not do so, you can’t blame him because he had the discretion not to do so. That is why I have said ‘go to the Court of Appeal and make your complaint there’. There is no point lambasting the judge in the media.

    Let us look at the issue of plea bargaining, which has become a quick way out for people indicted for corruption. Is it in our laws and are we doing it the right way?

    Plea bargaining is really an invention of the United States and Britain, to some extent. It is meant to shorten trial, save public funds and make the administration of justice less cumbersome when you don’t go the whole hog of the trial. If you take the cases of Mrs Ibru, she simply gave up fighting and threw in the towel. She was given about six months or one year and a lot of properties were taken from her. She was sentenced and regrettably, that made her an ex-convict. If she had fought the case, may she would have had a chance, I don’t know. Compare it with the case of Akingbola who is being tried presently, he may or may not get off. That is why it is said that the law is an ass. If he gets off in the High Court it is left to the EFCC to appeal.

    These are two scenarios and you can see how long it has taken for the trial and it is still very much on. By the time it is fought in the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court, even the present administration would have been history. The cost to the public is phenomenal. We don’t have a formal provision for plea bargaining in our criminal procedure. The National Assembly is yet to make a legislation prescribing plea bargaining in our criminal proceedings. Until that is done, I am a little bit uncomfortable that we are actually doing it before it is formalised. Well it is up to the discretion of the prosecutor and the accused person to negotiate. The judge can only go by what presented before him. He is to determine the issue of liability, issues of crime and punishment. He cannot meddle in the negotiation between the accused and the prosecutor.

    Many Nigerians obviously have lost confidence in the judiciary. Do you subscribe to the fact that the judiciary has not helped in the fight against corruption?

    The bulk of our judicial personnel are doing a very good job in an atmosphere that is not too conducive. So, I will not make a blanket statement condemning all judges. The problem is that the bad ones are giving the good ones a very bad name. The public perception of the judiciary today is very embarrassing to many of us who are legal practitioners. There is no point trying to convince ordinary men and women in the public that the judiciary is not that bad because they have a mind set of justices. These bad eggs have given the majority bad reputation and we now have a new Chief Justice of the Federation who has come into that seat on a very strong perception of a good moral and judicial character. The nation is looking at her. The first three months was honeymoon in the sense that it was nice to see a woman as the head of the judiciary.

    I too have a daughter, so I am on the side of women. She now has to show that what a man can do, a woman can do better. Let her go back to the days of Justice Muhammed Uwais when if you misbehave as a judge you are out. If you go beyond your code of conduct, you are out. Since Justice Uwais left office, I can’t remember really of any judge being disciplined by way of removal from office whether by retirement or by expulsion. I don’t recall any of the succeeding Chief Justices doing that. Certainly the last Chief Justice did nothing about disciplining of judges. He did absolutely nothing. The one before him was Justice Katsina-Alu, I don’t recall any judge being disciplined for anything whatsoever. Before then was Justice Kutigi, a perfect gentleman, again I don’t recall any judge being disciplined. Before him was Justice Belgore. He did not stay for too long so presumably you can say that had he stayed longer, maybe he would have followed the foot step of his predecessor. But Justice Uwais did a lot when he was there for the judiciary.

    Unfortunately, successive chief justices have not taken step whatsoever to clamp down on the few bad eggs that are destroying the judiciary. We are waiting to see what the Chief Justice Aloma Muktar will do. The public is watching, the entire nation is watching. We (the general public) still hold the belief that when she gets the rhythm of movement, we should be able to see a very serious decision being taken about justices who misbehave. For those that are doing their work well, you don’t hear about them, because they are quiet, they follow the law without fear or favour. Even amongst us lawyers that are in practice, we know when a case goes before justice XYZ, we would say ‘that judge, he is as straight as a ruler. You can’t compromise him or her. If you dare to compromise him or her, she might throw the Bible at you or something like that’. Again we also have some that we would say ‘ah that one make we go settle am o (go and settle him)’ because he is very flexible. Lawyers are only afraid to speak out because they believe that if they do speak out, judges would gang up against them and they would be losing all their cases and nobody would want to brief them because they would say that lawyer is not popular with judges because he has been criticising them. This is why majority of senior lawyers don’t want to talk. That is why it now behooves the leaders of the judiciary to do something.

    When you talk about judicial reforms, what changes would you effect if given the opportunity?

    That is a very good question because it is a question that has agitated the minds of those of us who are in practice. The first thing I will do is to address the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. I will limit their jurisdiction to constitutional cases, criminal cases that carry death penalties or criminal cases that carry more than five years imprisonment. A matter such as divorce has no business with the Supreme Court. A matter such as probate has no business with the Supreme Court. It should suffice at the Court of Appeal because how many personnel do we have at the Supreme Court? I think the maximum is 15, 16 or 17 and they are taking appeals from all over the country. Today when you file an appeal in the Supreme Court, before it gets to be heard, I may be wrong but I am generally right, it cannot take less than six or seven years. There is a case which we filed, my father handled it, I handled it, thank God I am still alive but my daughter was the one that eventually went to argue it in the Supreme Court. Three generations. Meanwhile, virtually all the parties are dead.

    The case was started by a business man, Alhaji Tijani Yagasua, he died in the course of the case. Then Chief TS Benson was a party in the case. He is dead, Chief and Mrs Ayida were parties in the case, Mrs Ayida is no more. Chief Williams died seven years ago. The case is about 15 years old and we are still having court judgment at the Supreme Court as at now. The Supreme Court may in its wisdom send it back for retrial. Which means we would start all over again. Let’s say the case is won, what benefit would have accrued to these claimants who are now dead? There is not need for procedural matters to go to the Supreme Court. Interlocutory appeals should stop at the Court of Appeal. Stay of proceedings should be given sparingly not for the asking. This is based on my experience.

    Now to the Court of Appeals, the country for administrative purposes is divided into six zones as you know. Each zone should have its own Court of Appeal so that all the matters in the zone will go to the Court of Appeal in capital of the zone. For example, if Enugu is the capital of the south east, Ibadan capital of the south west, Jos capital of north central (I am just giving you examples), etc, before I go on, it does not mean that no matter would go to the Supreme Court, for example, cases between two states, Federal Government and a state should go the Supreme Court. Another thing I will suggest is that for criminal cases carrying death penalties, we should use the jury system. For other cases, three justices should sit at the court so that the views expressed by members of the public that the judge is scared of the government will not be popular again because you have three of them; when you have three of them may be two of them would not be scared of government and it would carry more weight. At the regional Court of Appeal there should be five justices sitting at a time not three. As to the personnel anybody can sit anywhere in the Court of Appeal because of our constitution that says that there shall be no discrimination against anybody on account of where you come from. You can have a judge from Sokoto, a judge from Calabar, and another from Minna sitting in the regional Court of Appeal in the south eastern state, it doesn’t matter. What you don’t want to do is to man the Court of Appeal with justices from that state or zone alone.

  • If Yar’Adua was ‘Baba go slow’, Jonathan is ‘Baba slumber’

    If Yar’Adua was ‘Baba go slow’, Jonathan is ‘Baba slumber’

    Senator Rufai Hanga was pioneer National Chairman of the Congress for Progress Change (CPC). He represented Kano Central Senatorial Zone from 2003 to 2007. A businessman and administrator with over 25 years in the corporate world, Hanga talks of the commitment and determination of his party to ensure that the proposed merger plan with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), among other parties, becomes a reality ahead of 2015. In this interview with Assistant Editor, LINUS OBOGO, he also faults President Goodluck Jonathan’s performance, describing him as ‘Baba Slumber’.

    The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammed Sa’ad Abubakar III, has blamed the Boko Haram and other security challenges ravaging the North on the region itself. What do you make of this open indictment of the region by the Islamic leader?

    The Sultan was absolutely right about what has become a source of embarrassment to the region. It is the result of long years of bad leadership and injustice in the region and at the centre. The region has not done enough to bring the scourge to an end. It is a result of long years of deprivations and exploitation by the leadership.

    The Boko Haram sect proposed a dialogue with the Federal Government and it has yet remained unrelenting in its attacks on both the security agencies and Christian institutions. Do you think the militant sect is desirous of peace to warrant the Federal Government to take their dialogue overtures seriously?

    I recall that the sect had proposed a dialogue with the Federal Government, but surprisingly, it was rejected. The position of the government then was that the dialogue option by the Boko Haram was in bad faith.

    On the other hand, the sect was equally suspicious of the government. But whether the sect was sincere or not, I cannot say because I do not even know them. I do not have much knowledge about the character and composition of the militant group. The only thing I know of them is what I read in the papers like any other Nigerian. I cannot lay claim to have sufficient knowledge of the Boko Haram and their motives as to arrive at a judgment on their insincerity or otherwise.

    We are being taken along the path similar to what we witnessed during the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s era when he disappeared from governance radar for months without transferring power to his vice-president. Some governors have been out of office for months on the ground of ill health, yet without their deputies functioning in an acting capacity. What does this say about our brand of democracy?

    Today, the governors have become part of Nigeria’s problems. They are selfish and wicked. They are no longer in office for their people but for themselves. That explains why they seem to be afraid of the unknown. They do not trust anybody, not even their deputies who are supposed to be their closest allies. They are self-centered and selfish. They are more concerned about themselves and their families alone. That is why they would rather guard their office so jealously.

    With that being said, I want to say that what is happening to them is not of their own making, but an act of God. They did not swear an oath to fall sick. Illness is something that comes naturally.

    However, the culture of not wanting to delegate or transfer power under a situation of ill health is undemocratic and unfair.

    When this similar scenario played out during the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, some of us made our position known that it was not the best practice in a democracy. So, it will not make a difference if I maintain the same position now because I had said it before and I am saying it now that it is wrong and unfair for not wanting deputy governors to hold the fort when they are sick.

    When you say that the governors are Nigerian’s problem, how exactly do you mean?

    I say it with all sense of responsibility that the governors are our problem because they always want things their own way. It is rather unfortunate and unfair. Whenever there is an issue that should agitate their minds, that is when you will hear of the Governors’ Forum. I have not seen or heard of this anywhere in the world where governors have a forum and constitute themselves into a cabal. They constitute themselves into a forum in order to manipulate the system and serve their selfish interest. There are so many issues like unemployment, insecurity and corruption confronting the country which the governors ought to concentrate their energies on tackling. They are not doing that, but rather, forming a forum to protect their interest. They are busy fighting for the control and pillaging of local government fund. That is why I said the governors are our problem.

    Could this be the reason why they are alleged to be working hard to frustrate the aspect of the autonomy of the local councils in the ongoing Constitution Review exercise?

    This is one of the ills that the governors have become, which is why I said they are part of the problems of the country. They control the local governments and House of Assemblies of their states. The governors know that they are part of the two-third requirement for any constitution review or amendment to be effected, that is why they will have a forum to arm-twist any process that will bring about the autonomy of the local governments. They will want to see that this does not happen.

    The local governments should be autonomous. If the federal government is not controlling the resources of the sates after the sharing exercise, why should the states control that of the councils? Are they doing it simply because they are the senior partners in the state/local government relationship? Why should the state control the joint account of the councils?

    The constitution provides for the autonomy of the federal, state and council tiers of government. They are supposed to be independent of one another. Today, as we speak, there are states that have not held local government election in the country. What happens is that they will constitute a caretaker arrangement for six months as allowed by the constitution and dissolve them and reconstitute them after two months. This is part of the manipulation that goes on at the state level, which is why no election has been conducted in some of the states. It is in bad faith and it is rather unfortunate.

    How can the governors’ overbearing control of the councils be checkmated?

    The only way is to ensure that there is an intense pressure from concerned stakeholders and civil society groups on the governors to give in to the demand for the autonomy of the local councils in the ongoing constitution review by the National Assembly. We must stand up as a people and ensure that there is a provision in the reviewed or amended constitution for the autonomy of the local councils in Nigeria.

    Governors, including those who are serving their second term, must be told in clear terms that they cannot aspire to be the next president or senators when it is not in their interest to allow local government councils to be autonomous of the state governors. We must fight the governors and wrest the independence of the councils from their vice grip.

     

    After your first term in the Senate on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), you could not make it back for obvious reasons. Was it that you were edged out or the excitement was no longer there?

    I did not attempt to go back to the Senate this time around because I am the National Chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). I may still go back to the Senate. After all, I am still in politics. It is not the end of me yet, so, anything can happen. I will never be tired of lending my voice to issues of national concern. Tomorrow is still pregnant and we cannot tell what it will bring.

    Your party, the Congress for Progressive Change, is about going into a merger discussion with some political parties, how optimistic are you?

    I am highly optimistic because all the parties to the merger are ready to surrender their certificates to INEC and fuse into one party. The ANPP is willing to surrender its certificate, same as the ACN, the CPC.

    It is just a matter of time and we will all surrender our certificates and come out on one platform and as a new party. The last time the alliance did not work because we were in the eve of an election, but it is not going to be like that again as we are going to collapse into one big party.

    Nothing is going to stop me from surrendering the certificate of CPC to INEC in a bid to forge a successful merger. As I speak, the certificate is deposited in a bank and I have written a Will stating that if I die, my children should collect it and hand it over to INEC for the purpose of a merger.

    In Nigeria today, we know that the strongest opposition party is the ACN, which is why I told my son that if I die any moment, he should give the certificate to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to surrender to INEC for the purpose of forming a merger. The merger is already a reality and nobody can stop it now, not even the PDP.

    Do you think that with parties merely surrendering their certificates of registration, it guarantees the presidency or ensure a defeat of the PDP in 2015?

    We are going to have a single candidate as soon as we fuse into one party. And what that means is that all the supporters of the three or four political parties will yield their votes and support to a single candidate to emerge from the merger exercise. There will be a strong synergy as all the different candidates that hitherto contested on their individual platform will pool their followers for a single and strong candidate.

    The whole North will never vote for the PDP this time around. When the entire South West, South East, vote for a single candidate, you can only imagine the kind of landslide that will be witnessed. Come 2015, the PDP will become the smallest minority party in Nigeria, you just wait and see. From their claim of being the biggest party in Africa, they will become the smallest party in Nigeria.

    With most of the parties being deregistered, PDP will crash from being the biggest to the smallest party in Nigeria.

    Some section of the North and particularly their leaders, have in recent times, been in virulent opposition to certain issues that affect some other regions in the country, like state creation, derivation formula, the Petroleum Industry Bill, among others. What do you think is often at the heart of such leaders like Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State and his ilk?

    On state creation, the argument of the likes of Governor Kwankwaso has been that you just do not create states for the sake of it or on the basis of regions or zones simply because you want to satisfy some people.

    There must be criteria for creating these states such as population and land mass. Let me give you an instance, while you can traverse the entire South East and South South in just one day, you cannot traverse one state in the North West in one day.

    Secondly, a state like Akwa Ibom has 31 council areas, yet the entire population of the state is not more than two million people. And if you put the population of the entire South South zone together, it is not up to that of Kano State. Again, the entire land mass is not up to Kano State. That is just the simple argument and so, you cannot go about creating states on the basis of regions, ethnicity or zones.

    You will also agree with me that it is grossly unfair to have one senator representing just two local governments, while one senator will represent about 16 local governments in the North. The same also holds for one senator representing one million people while elsewhere, five million people have one senator representing them. That is the argument Kwankwaso seems to be making. Sincerely, I think there is a sense in it.

    You cited land mass as one of the criteria for creating either state or council area. Would you or Kwankwaso be comfortable to have desert with no human beings mapped out as states and council areas, when the so called land mass is just a vast stretch of sand dunes with no human habitation? And have you forgotten that the so called population you touted has for years been manipulated in favour of the North by Northern officials in charge of census?

    Well, I am not arguing in support of his position, but that is what I perceive him to be saying. However, I agree with you on the issues contained in your questions and the fact that nobody is living in the desert and it is a vast stretch of sand dunes. But let me remind you of some of the censuses conducted from 1960 to date. I am from Kano and I will speak from that perspective. 80 per cent of people from Kano have three or four wives and their wives bear a lot of children for them. Each wife is capable of bearing ten or more children. So, if one woman has ten children, multiply ten by four wives. That gives you 40 children.

    Meanwhile, my university mates from the south of Nigeria, who got married to one wife, would end up with either three or four children. Yet he is a husband of one wife. Will his practice of one wife and three or four children help in increasing the population of his zone? The answer is capital NO! We met after about 30 years of graduation as ‘Old boys’ and I asked them how about their families? Some of them told me they were married with three kids and others with two.

    For some of us from the North, we have four wives with each of the wives have eight to ten children. This is very logical to me as a sound argument. However, I do not intend this argument to generate bad blood. I remember telling a senator colleague of mine back then when argument like this came up.

    So, you are correct on the issue of desert with no human being but when you come to Kano, you will understand what I am talking about.

    Well, having said this, I want to make it clear that that is just the governor’s argument and not mine. What I am interested in is the unity of this country and the common good of Nigerians as a whole. I believe in justice, equality and equity for all.

    How would you rate the performance of the PDP government in Kano and at the centre?

    As a matter of fact, there is no PDP government in Kano. He does not believe in PDP. He merely contested on the platform of the PDP, but he is not of the PDP. What we have is ‘Kwankwasiya’ government. Even the PDP members in the state know that as much. ‘Kwankwasiya’ is a philosophy or a movement and he acts as the group head. He runs the state as ‘Kwankwasiya’ and he does not believe in the PDP anymore.

    He is executing a lot of projects for the people and at the same time stepping on toes. He is taking on the ‘big men’ in the state, the aristocrat and the rich. But he is doing a lot for the masses.

    As for President Goodluck Jonathan’s government, while people said Yar’Adua was ‘Baba go slow’, I will describe Jonathan as an abysmal failure. It is true that Yar’Adua was ‘Baba go slow’, Jonathan is ‘Baba slumber’. For me, Jonathan’s scorecard will definitely read as ‘poverty, unemployment, hunger and insecurity’. That is Jonathan’s performance index in his three years as President.

     

  • The real secret of my success – Olanipekun

    The real secret of my success – Olanipekun

    Former President, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Wole Olanipekun, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) is not happy that Nigeria, despite its endowments, is still tottering. He bares his mind in this interview with Assistant Editor DADA ALADELOKUN. He also clears the air on some insinuations around his philanthropic gestures as well as his professional practice. Excerpts:

    Keen watchers of Nigeria ‘s democratic odyssey are quick to give the judiciary knocks over its role so far. What is your view as a stakeholder?

    The judiciary in Nigeria has fared fairly well. However, I must confess that we could have done better, but when you consider all the extenuating factors, one cannot but say that the judiciary has fared considerably well. In governmental nomenclature, we have the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. Without any fear of contradiction, of all the three, the judiciary is the best. Our judiciary is overwhelmed and afflicted by the problems it did not initiate. For now, there will be political lull in the United States of America for two and a half years or more, except when you go to the Capitol where there will be debates on national issues. But here, right from the day Jonathan and the other governors were sworn in on May 29, 2011 , the struggle for 2015 started and at the end of it all, the unfortunate victim is the judiciary.

    But let me say this as a lawyer; the person we have as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) now, I think, we are lucky to have her there. I don’t go to her office because I don’t patronise people. But I know that she is not bendable; she is not a woman that will take dictations from anybody. She is not politically inclined and she is not a respecter of any person, powers or principality. So, having her at the helm of affairs strengthens people’s hope in the judiciary.

    Practitioners in the echelon must not hobnob with the bad eggs in the society because you and I have transferred our independence and sovereignty to them. Ultimate justice is of God but they represent Him on earth. And for anybody who will occupy the seat of a judge, he must not make conscious mistakes.

    By your assessment, is that all about the ills plaguing the arm?

    There must be precedents and that is where I have reservations about the judiciary in the country. There must be certainty in law to some extent. More often than not, now, precedents seem to have no place in judicial decisions and this is worrisome. But I am happy that the Supreme Court is trying to address it.

    Another worrisome trend is the way our judges are being appointed as if they are state commissioners. These are people who will be invested with the power of life and death over fellow human beings. Lobbying should not be a factor. The Supreme Court should open its doors and windows to the very best in the profession in order to give room for a confluence of ideas that with strengthen the sector, all in the overall interest of the people. There are a lot of issues to be addressed. When a client brings his case to a lawyer, it is unethical for the latter to say, ‘you will win this case.’ I will always study your case and if I have a positive feeling, I would say, ‘your case is not frivolous; we will try our best.’

    But the issue of corruption is still there…

    When you talk of corruption, you talk of bad eggs; you talk of people who should not be there. Such a situation ought not to have arisen at all because it is a very delicate position vested with enormous power and authority over you and I. The President of Nigeria will say he is the Commanded-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. But he cannot say that I have contravened the laws of the land and therefore, I must be killed; he cannot say that.

    But the Constitution has invested somebody with that power to say, ‘with the evidence before me, you have been found guilty; therefore, you are sentenced to death.’ I therefore won’t buy the argument in some quarters that because our judges live within the Nigerian environment, automatically, they must be inflicted with the virus of corruption; it is nonsensical. The judiciary must be independent.

    Is it the same picture both at the federal and state levels of the arm?

    Let me say this that the judiciary at the federal level is by far freer than the judiciary at the lower levels, especially the state. A good number of the governors see the High Courts in their states as appendages of their offices; that is not good enough. Sadly, we keep on talking about the Federal Government to our own peril when we are talking of the judiciary. Nobody makes a microscopic foray into what happens at the states.

    Look at what happened in Kwara; the state House of Assembly and the executive removed a Chief Judge and nobody raised an eyebrow. The Chief Judge was already booted out, though she later went to the Supreme Court for justice. Nobody sympathised with her. Everyday is always awash with what happens at the federal level when worst things happen at the state level.

    On corruption, we focus on what happens at the federal level without considering what goes on at the state and local government levels because our federalism is an aberration.

    So, whether it is about corruption, education, judiciary and what have you, we must consider things globally and generally without a biased focus on the federal level. I am from Ekiti; the state used to be the bastion of cocoa production when we were growing up. I had my education through proceeds from cocoa; my father did not borrow a dime from anybody to train me. But where are the cocoa trees not in our country? When we were growing up till mid-60s, there was only one Federal Government school in the Western Region-Government College and Queens College , both in Ibadan .

    We all attended public and mission schools; where are they today? In our life time, where are the virtues that we keyed into while growing up? Where are the teachers? Where are the role models? Where are the politicians? Many youths today may not know how great people like Enahoro and Akintola were. To some, Akintola was only versatile in Yoruba language. Go through the archives and see how Awolowo, as the leader of opposition, would marshal his research-rooted points. Are we improving? No. Shakespeare would say that ‘the fault is not in our stars but in our selves.’

    Let us look at the whole noise about the absentee governors that is causing uproar in the country today…

    It is the height of irresponsibility. In the Book of Isaiah, God asked, ‘Who should I send?’ Prophet Isaiah said, ‘Here I am, send me.’ But in our own country, you see people saying they had a dream or heard a voice to serve as governor, forcing themselves on the people, begging them. Some would say, ‘oh, God has told me to contest,’ as if He is their fiefdom. So, if you volunteer to throw your heart into the ring in a bid to serve your people, it is, unequivocally, irresponsible for you not to be at your seat for four months.

    And sad enough, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is urging us to sympathise with them. Why did they not say that during the case of Yar’Adua? And in any event, the constitution does not want anybody to sympathise with it. The constitution makes it clear that for any political office, especially, there shall not be a vacancy for a split second! Yakowa, the late Kaduna State governor died in that unfortunate crash. Even before his remains were taken to Kaduna , his deputy was sworn in because political offices, like nature, abhor a vacuum.

    Look at the case of Chime in Enugu . The position of Chime is not peculiar to him. He is a colleague of mine but we must say the truth in the interest of our nation. It is only a monarch that says, ‘this position is ours until we die.’ I had been out of the country for some days; so, I would not know if his deputy whom he purportedly handed over to, has presented a budget. The entire state has been held to ransom because of an individual. See what the state has been suffering and we are all looking as if nothing has happened.

    But if it were to happen at the federal level, the whole country would have literally been on fire. It is worrisome that Nigeria does not have a system; we are running people’s affairs like a game of chess. You practise whatever catches your fancy and impose it on the people. We in Africa always say ‘yes, a black man is the President of America; who told you? Yes, Obama may be, but his orientation and character are American; his focus is American; his conscience is American because there is an enduring system there. Anybody can live in America and be President because you cannot change the system. The same Bible with which the first President of America took his oath is still there. The seat of power is still there. Nobody will sell it off and say they are monetising.

    But the Enugu Assembly should have acted appropriately; don’t you think so?

    Oh yes; but they are not doing their job. The National Assembly is far more independent than all the state Houses of Assembly combined. They are lily-livered. Many go into the Assembly without any idea or ideology. All they need is a sponsor whose bidding they will get there to do. Now, people are talking about 2015; it is going to be the same old story. I am not an incurable pessimist; I am a realist.

    You sound not too comfortable with the situation of things in the country…

    Oh, yes! We are running an unhealthy system. And bad enough, the constitution is in a terrible state of health. It is amusingly worsened by the ongoing attempt by the National Assembly to revamp it; but the effort will take us nowhere. We have to sit down to chart a new course for our future. Let us forget about the contentious word, ‘sovereign’ and let us sit down to talk. We must not allow the disintegration of this polity. Look at the argument about state police. Some would say the governors will use it to haunt their enemies or opponents; is the President using it against his perceived enemies now? Who says my home town, Ikere, does not deserve its own police? This is the surest way to ensure security of lives and property in the country. Do we have political parties? All we have are groups without ideologies. I respect personalities but the general run of the dramatis personae in our political arena today is there to capture power without any clear-cut intention to serve the people.

    The Federal Government would say they want to ‘capture’ Lagos. Party ‘A’ would say ‘we want to capture this ‘state’. Rather than argue based on facts and criticise, our politicians would be cursing themselves; and this is among why people like us run away from politics. It is disheartening the word, ‘capture’ has assumed pre-eminence in our political lexicon. These are among the issues that have coalesced into an Albatross on our neck.

    Based on your experience as a lawyer, has it been happening in your professional constituency?

    Woe betides any lawyer that would tell a client, ‘give me some money to give a judge.’ I cannot say I have not heard it; but it is alien to our practice in my chambers. A lawyer must be sure-footed and creative. He must be a doctor, a psychologist; he must be the melting pot of all the professions. Above all, he must be close to God and always ask for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. If God gives you wisdom, your opponents and adversaries will say you are cutting corners of using juju. Here, we employ knowledge and fidelity to law and what is good. And in any event, we don’t win all our cases; we lose some.

    I thank God because this is what I prayed for when I was going into this profession. The only Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) governor in Nigeria , I led the team for his defence in Nasarawa, from the Tribunal up to the Supreme Court. Yet, I was counsel to Jonathan against CPC. Despite that, CPC had confidence in me. I’m happy; I’m enjoying my profession.

    The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and PDP are not the best of friends. On November 21, 2011 , the Federal Government charged Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the ACN national leader before the Code of Conduct Tribunal. Three months before the charge was served on Tinubu – a brilliant, very sagacious man – he had called me and Yemi Osinbajo and put us into confidence. He said, ‘Wole, my friend, you will handle the situation.’ I led his very formidable team to ask the Tribunal to discharge and acquit him. I finished my submission around 12.30 pm that day. By 2.30 pm same day, I was in the courtroom of the Court of Appeal in the same Abuja to join my colleagues on the leadership of the defence team of the Jonathan election petition. It was the same day; defending Tinubu in the morning and Jonathan in the afternoon. That is the joy of the profession. I heard from the rumour mill that some people went to tell Jonathan that Wole is Tinubu’s friend and so on, but Jonathan reportedly told them: ‘Leave Wole; I have implicit confidence in him; the man will never compromise your case.’ If you know your onions, research well, conduct yourself well, refrain from abusing judges but not necessarily patronising him, with solid facts, your case is sure.

    Of recent, I have been lucky to lead very formidable teams of equally good, if not better lawyers than myself. But the defence would say, ‘come and lead the team.’ And they have been cooperating with me. I am a triangular person from my house, to my office and back home. I’m a member of the Island Club and many others, but the time is not there for me to club. The earliest time I leave office daily is 8 pm . I go to bed earliest by 11 pm . With the help of the Holy Spirit, I naturally wake up by 2 am everyday to read for three hours after fervent prayers and meditation. When I was young, I had dreamt of becoming a workaholic and successful practitioner like Chief FRA William. This has remained part of me and a secret of my modest accomplishment.

    Many still wonder how you cope, defending clients of opposing political leanings…

    Although I work for President Jonathan, I don’t go to Aso Rock; I’m not a contractor. Tinubu respects me and I respect him too. That would not have anything to do with my defence of Mimiko (Ondo State governor) in any electoral dispute. Apart from being my friend, he is my soul-mate. When my mother was alive, I would be in Ilorin ; he would leave his town, Ondo, for my house at Ikere and my mother would cook for him. He is one of my few friends who have shared same bed with me. The process of Mimiko becoming governor started when both of us were commissioners in the old Ondo State in 1992/93. I constituted and led the team of his election petition four years ago. We have been that close. He respects me and he will dare not ask me about my association with Tinubu or others. I don’t do the politics of my clients; I handle my job uncompromisingly. For me, my career is a covenant. If I have chosen to handle a

  • ‘I never thought I’ll be seventy’

    ‘I never thought I’ll be seventy’

    To say Chief Ebenezer Babatope, former Director of Organisation of Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), former Minister of Transport under General Sani Abacha, Afenifere chieftain and former University of Lagos administrator has packed a lot into his seven decades on earth is an understatement. Ask the fiery political activist and he will tell you he has paid his dues. Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, spoke with the Osun State-born politician on his life and times as he celebrates a landmark 70th birthday.

    Sir, you turned seventy just yesterday, what does it feel like being seventy years old?

    Well, I feel very happy and grateful to God almighty for preserving my life up till now. I must confess to you, given what I’ve passed through in my early life, I never for once thought I will live to be seventy. I became hypertensive at twenty-three. But here I am today. God has never allowed me to suffer any major health reverse. I thank God greatly and that is one of the reasons I am celebrating my seventieth year.

    Will you now say you are fulfilled?

    I am a fulfilled man. I thank God for my life so far. Let me tell you this. Papa (Obafemi) Awolowo brought me out of obscurity into national prominence. Then we had people better than me around but it will remain my honour to have had the opportunity to serve a great African leader like Awolowo. I was right beside him for five years and three months as the national director of organization. Nothing can be better than that.

    Apart from that, I became a minister. That was an act of God. So, I feel fulfilled. I know that I am not a perfect person but I say God has raised me to a level that I have to be grateful to him always.

    Growing up sir, was this how you envisioned Nigeria to be by the time you turn seventy?

    That is a different matter altogether. We want Nigeria to be better, but we should thank God that Nigeria of today is politically is much better than what we had in the first and second republics.

    Let me tell you the reason. At a time in this country, there was a cabal that believed that Nigeria was simply an extension of their private family compounds. And this feudal cabal never believed that any person from the southern part of the country could rule. They believed that the rulers of Nigeria must always come from the north. But today, times have changed. You find people who are not from the north ruling. That is why we must give kudos to all Nigerian people from the north and the east and the west for ensuring that we have seen people who are not from the north ruling.

    We must salute the maturity of northern elders and praise the courage and determination of the southern people for getting to this stage. I’m not saying we have reached the Eldorado of our dream, but I am saying things are going to get better.

    You were closely associated with Chief Obafemi Awolowo. What major thing did you take away from those years of close association with the late sage?

    I learnt a lot. I am eternally grateful to Papa Awolowo and I thank God always for making me come in contact with him. He taught us almost all the basic principles anybody whom wished to serve the public must have. I have said many times that Papa taught us his disciples that if you are in public office, don’t enjoy what you cannot provide for yourself in your private life. If you know you cannot afford Coca-Cola in your private life, don’t go into government drinking it.

    He also taught us not to take gratification from anyone so that the next morning, you will not be able to look at the person’s face. Thirdly, Papa said don’t collude with civil servants to rob government because if you do, you have bastardised the position you are holding and rubbished your own image.

    So these three principles, if applied by public officials will help curb the tide of corruption in the country. Apart from these, there is also the disciplined life the old man lived. You can be sure that when Papa woke up in the morning, he would have programmed himself for the whole day. In the morning he would take breakfast, not too much but light breakfast. He hardly takes any lunch. And in the evening by five p.m, Papa was on the table for dinner. And the average number of hours Papa spent taking dinner would be three hours. All this kind of routine life Papa led had effect on all of us.

    And that is why I say today, that those of us who are Papa Awolowo associates, while I am not saying we are perfect, I want to believe that there is no person that can come out and say that when we were holding public offices this is the amount of money we got as kickbacks or whatever.

    The late Chief Awolowo was seen by many as strong-willed and firm. Can you recollect any weakness he had?

    There is only one weakness I knew Papa had. Papa was too trusting. If you go to Papa and say we saw Babatope talking against you somewhere, Papa will not believe you. If you go to him to say such thing, Papa will ask you if you are ready to repeat what you are saying in the presence of that very person. If you are not ready to do that, he will simply ask you to keep quiet. That was the only weakness I noticed and I think that is the only weakness Papa had till he went to the world beyond.

    But why was Papa Awolowo unable to win elections in places like the conservative North and core East in spite of his wide acceptance as a leader?

    It was simply because like I told you, a feudal cabal believed nobody can rule Nigeria except someone from their side. This was the major reason. If you talk in terms of the minority in the North, many of them supported Awo. Even in the old Gongola State which is now Adamawa, we produced three senators. The Speaker of the then Gongola House of Assembly was an Awo supporter in the UPN. I’m told he is dead now but we produced the Speaker. Then if you go to Plateau, go to Benue you find Awo people there. Solomon Lar was in the Action Group before he pulled out. So Papa lost elections because of that credible hold on power by the cabal. And of course the power was given to them by the colonialists. Elections were manipulated. I don’t want to talk about that now.

    While he was alive, in spite of these electoral losses, was Papa optimistic that the cabal will one day lose out in the power game?

    Awo was sure in his mind. He was always saying that eventually Nigerians will see through the situation and then things will change. In 1983, Papa went to campaign in Bonny and he made a prediction at that rally. He said all of you in Ijaw area, you don’t vote for me now but one day an Ijaw man will become the President of Nigeria. It is then you will realize all the points I have been making. And it has happened. Jonathan is from Ijaw and he is the President of the country.

    You served under General Sani Abacha. Do you have any regrets working with the late dictator?

    I have no regrets whatsoever working with Abacha or with anybody for that matter. I do not do things that I will regret later. In any case, I have a book about my years under the Abacha regime. It came out in 1995 and it was well publicized all over the country. It was produced by a publisher in London. So I have no regrets.

    When (Gen) Dipo Diya, who was then the number two in the government, extended invitation to my political leaders in the Awolowo political family, it was decided that myself, Papa Jakande, Olu Onagoruwa and Mrs. Mobolaji Osomo should go and serve government. Later, they said we should pull out. My memoirs will soon be out towards the end of this year and you will see reasons why I refused to pull out. If I pulled out then, I’m telling you, you will not be talking to a living Babatope now.

    How do you reply those who still criticize you for serving in that government?

    What do I want to reply them for? I believe that reality will come out and they will know what happened. We didn’t go to the government to steal. The records of our performances are there that on the June 12 issue, we never deviated. Solomon Lar, Jerry Gana, Onagoruwa, Jakande, myself and co. We maintained very good records all through. Eventually these records will be out and those who are criticizing us, some for selfish reasons and some for other reasons, will change their minds.

    Even before the Abacha years, you were deeply involved in the politics that led to the June 12 crisis. From your own reading of events, would you say Abiola was really committed to the fight for his mandate?

    Well, I was not all that close to Abiola and this was for obvious reasons. But we were together in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and I fought ruthlessly to ensure that Abiola kept his mandate. But it was a major heroic display on the part of the Nigerian people that they voted for Abiola and Kingibe, a Muslim-Muslim ticket. Having said that I cannot answer the question for Abiola. One thing that cannot be challenged by anybody is the fact that Abiola died a martyr for democracy.

    Personally now, would you say you are where you hoped to be when you are seventy politically?

    What do I want to be again? I told you of how I was privileged to serve under one of Africa’s greatest leaders. Number two; I’ve been minister, no matter what people say about that era. Again I have passed through some stages in my life that I can say with due respect to Nigerians, I have paid my dues. I don’t have pension up till now because a military minister felt that since I was anti-government, nothing of such should happen.

    I have been to jail three times of my life. I have been arrested by police several times. I have a daughter that is paraplegic because of my political involvement. I thank God for what I have been. I thank him for what I am and I do not aspire for something which is not approved by him. I wanted to be a senator in 1993. General Ibrahim Babangida disqualified me. I kept my peace but a year and three months later, I was appointed to be a minister. I just want to go to my grave contented that I have done my best for my people.

    Are you not in any way missing your former colleagues within the progressive folds now that you are a member of the ruling conservative PDP?

    I am not missing anybody. There is no party in Nigeria today that is ideological. That is the truth. There is none that can call itself a progressive party. When party politics started in 1998, Uncle Bola Ige virtually wrote the manifestoes of Alliance for Democracy (AD), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Peoples Party (APP). Take the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) today, which has the highest number of progressives in its rank, there are also some conservatives with them. You find National Peoples Party (NPN) people there among them. Then take the PDP and you will find some Awolowo militants among us here. Nobody can say I am not an Awolowo militant. Professor Tunde Adeniran, Jubril Martins Kuye, Omilani, Dayo Abatan, etc. These are all Awolowo people and they are in the PDP. All I know is that no party can lay claim to being progressive in Nigeria.

    I’ve never regretted being in PDP. My friends are still my friends. Lam Adesina was my friend till he died. Segun Osoba is still my friend. Bola Tinubu is still my friend and younger brother. When I got married he contributed at that time. These are my personal persons and we still relate as such. Why must they hate me or I hate them because we don’t belong to the same political party? But of course, I have developed a kind of political maturity given me by Awolowo that when I see a good person, I must support that person irrespective of the party he represents. That explains my support for Dr Olusegun Mimiko in Ondo State even though my party had a candidate in the race. Babatunde Fashola in his first term was doing well. And when Tinubu was there, I supported him. I told a gathering of PDP leaders once that if I were to vote in Lagos, I will vote for Bola Tinubu because he was performing. It was at the wedding of Jubril Martins Kuye’s daughter that I said that. So they don’t miss me, I don’t miss them because we are all Nigerians. When my friend Chief Bisi Akande was celebrating his 70th birthday, I wrote a whole column on him. When Lam Adesina died, I also wrote a column on him. So we are friends and I want to believe that politics should not affect our friendship. Let me give you an example, I was seventy yesterday. If you see what Ogeni Rauf Aregbesola did, you will be surprised. We don’t belong to the same party. He wrote me a letter which was read at the ceremony. So that is how politics should be.

    Talking about your activities during the last governorship election in Ondo, one wonders why you are yet to be accused of anti-party activities by your party?

    Let me give you the reason. Apart from the fact that I appreciated Mimiko for his performance, when we were having the last presidential election, I was the chairman of PDP’s inter party relations committee. Mimiko and the governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, came all out to say they were supporting President Goodluck Jonathan. I am very proud of that because I related with them. So I said one good turn deserves another. Why must this person support us and we turn against him? So nobody can really say it was anti party activities. I have interest in Abiola Ajimobi and Ibikunle Amosun because they are performing. It is not about party for me anymore. Politically, I am too matured to be streamlined by party affiliation only. Look at Aregbesola, a man who respects elders. I cannot be blurred by political affiliation to the extent of not recognizing his good deeds.

    The opposition is now talking about a mega party that will dislodge PDP in 2015. What is your take on the planned merger of leading opposition parties?

    If they (the parties) are able to form an alliance or a merger, it is good for the country. It is good for democracy. But they cannot make it. These are already issues. A section of the alliance talks has said they will make sure Buhari contests the next election. By the time they sit to discuss, contradiction will tear them apart.

    Don’t you think the crises within PDP will give the opposition a chance to dislodge it in the next election?

    There is no single party without a conflict. Conflicts are meant to be resolved by those who are political practitioners. Every party has its own crisis. For example, look at Ajimobi in Oyo State. I have been following the papers. Some people have endorsed him for a second term already while some people within his party are saying nobody has endorsed him. So it is natural to have crisis. In the PDP the removal of the secretary is not really a major setback for the party. All the party did is to avoid being dragged into litigation over the activities of its secretary who has been removed by the court of law. It is also to give him all the opportunity to go and contest the decision up to the Supreme Court. And when he finishes he will be reinstated. It is not a conflict at all. And when you talk about the BoT issue, it is also no issue at all.

    Coming to the Southwest, do you think the PDP can really stage the much talked-about comeback in the region?

    The PDP can stage a successful comeback in the Southwest in 2015 if it puts its house in order. We lost the region because we were completely divided. And if we continue in that state of division the ACN will rout us again. To make any impact in the Southwest, the PDP must unite. There is no magic to it other than sincere reconciliation and unity.

  • ‘What you should find in a trendy woman’s wardrobe’

    ‘What you should find in a trendy woman’s wardrobe’

    If you are a regular traveller on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, you would have noticed a distinctive red building at Mowe, Ogun State with Sam and Sarah Garments boldly written on it. Those who are conversant with the ongoing revolution going on in Osun would surely talk about the free uniforms for students in the state. GBENGA ADERANTI met with the woman who is partnering Osun State government in providing the uniforms. She is Mrs. Folake Oyemade, the CEO of Sam and Sarah, owners of Omoluabi Factory. In this interview, the woman explains the uniform revolution, her choice of red colour, fashion sense and so on. Excerpts:

     

    You have red cars; your buildings are painted red. Why red?

    Red is a very strong colour. I’m sure you will agree that it is one of the primary colours. We are a very strong company, and that is why we have chosen such a significant colour.

    So why the names Sam and Sarah?

    Why don’t you take that as my own little secret? I just love these two names, and the names are precious to me. That is what I want to say.

    Your firm is gradually taking over South West. Apart from your presence in Mowe, Sam and Sarah is visible in Osun. What does this say?

    I will say God has been good. Our business is growing, and this is brought about by help from God, hard work and the quality of our services and products.

    What is your relationship with the Osun State government?

    Our relationship can be described as partners in progress. What I’m actually doing is that I have a passion for the image of Nigeria. I have a passion for people. I have a passion for success, and these are the major things that have spurred me into starting the Sam and Sara. If it were just about money, I would make more money trading than being in the manufacturing sector in Nigeria. It is a very hard sector. In fact, it takes the grace of God to break even if you’re in the manufacturing sector in Nigeria.

    Problems ranging from power failure to currency fluctuation to manpower, name it, everything is there. The manufacturing sector in Nigeria is a sector that involves all areas of business. It involves actually manufacturing the product from the beginning; it involves marketing; it involves accounting; it involves just about every area that you need to touch in business. Take for instance, most uniform companies abroad do not involve in manufacturing. They simply trade. They get a manufacturer they give the quality or standard or whatever. They dub it for them. They basically will just market and sell. But, in our own case, we’re involved in everything. We’re the producer ; we are the manufacturer; we are the sales people; we are the everything. So it is very difficult to be in that sector in Nigeria.

    Now coming back to your question as being a partner with the government of the state, as a CEO of this company, I watch with keen interest what every governor seems to stand for and what each governor seems to represent. I’ve been able to know that Governor Aregbesola loves his people. I’m a people person. I believe so much in the welfare of people. The Bible says we will always have the poor among us. It is the duty of those who are more comfortable to take care of the less-privileged, just like it is the duty of government to take care of all citizens, both the rich and the poor.

    And the governor of Osun caught my attention as somebody who cares so much for the welfare of his citizens, and that is why as a company, we identified him as somebody who has a common interest with us. That is why we have been able to work together as partners in progress. And one of the greatest reasons for the floating Sam and Sara Garment Manufacturing Company is to employ a lot of people, to put food on the tables of a lot of Nigerians. That vision is still much around with us and we keep doing that. We keep increasing our manpower from time to time. There are other businesses that have the potential to expand, but if their owners don’t have the kind of passion that I have, they might have diverted the money into other things. We usually make sure that everything we are doing, we’re people-oriented. We want to employ to keep a lot of young people out of mischief, out of robbery, out of 419, out of so many evils we have in our society.

    It is also out of this passion that we have even gone into exports. We’re rebranding Nigeria . In most of these Western countries, when you mention Nigeria, the next thing they think about is fraud. We want fraudulent people to have a change of heart. We have the largest population in the whole of Africa, and this population can be used for the betterment of mankind and to even make our lives better here.

    Why did you adopt the name, Omoluabi, for a subsidiary of Sam and Sara?

    Because it is a joint venture between our company and the government of Osun State . You know Osun people are called Omoluabi. In line with that, we decided to name the factory Omoluabi Garment Factory. I should let you know that the purpose of the free uniforms in Osun is to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. The government doesn’t want a situation whereby a student will appear in tatters in school because his parents are poor, while some other children will appear sharp and clean when going to school.

    Some people would want to argue that providing free uniforms for pupils in the state is unnecessary, considering the lean allocations it gets from the Federal Government?

    That is something I think the governor and his cabinet should be commended for. You see when people go to school not well dressed , it affects their output. It affects their concentration.

    Research has shown that when a child is happy with himself, when he is confident, his concentration is higher as he will love going to school because that will give him another opportunity to wear that garment he loves so much.

    I believe the governor has also done that to even improve them. He wants them to make them feel that they are somebody.

    But beyond that, it might interest you that a lot of people are poor to the extent that they can’t even afford school uniforms. Because when we visited those schools, I was close to tears. Some of the children were wearing their elder brothers’ shirts because the shirts were not looking good. May be the uniform is supposed to be a red and white checker shirt, and he now wears a red checker shirt, a hundred per cent polyester brown sokoto with another one under it.

    You can actually see patches on another torn one and you can see the patches on it. That is the level of situation some people faced with in that state. Can you imagine such a situation. So I believe that in line with trying to make them comfortable, he decided to do that for them.

    In what way is the project going to generate employment and what is the number of people being engaged in your organisation?

    We are positioned to employ up to 3,000 people in Osun and the beauty of it is that the way we have designed our factories is that you don’t have to be a tailor to work with us. Any person, as long as he can read and write, can be picked up from the street and taught to stich things together because we do what we can call mass production. So in our factory, one person does not start a job and finish it. To make a short, for instance, we could have 10 people doing different things, so it is so easy to pick somebody up and say you’re making only collars or any other particular part of a dress.

    It doesn’t take anything from us to train anybody to work there. The beauty of it is that we’re not placing anybody on any salary, as the work you do determine what you earn. If you’re actually hardworking, you can actually earn much money from working for us in the factory. It is not even only to generate employment, it is also to train and empower them. Before the opening of that factory, we’ve brought some of them from Osun to our Mowe factory. We have trained a number of them already. As we speak, we have quite a number of people on ground in Osun and we will train more.

    For how long will this project run?

    For as long as the state wants it to run.

    What will happen to the project after the present dispensation?

    It is only a government that does not want good for its citizens that will say the project should stop. We provide good uniforms at very affordable prices for the government.

    Where do you source you materials?

    We get everything locally. These initial ones (uniforms) have been given out by the government free, but subsequent ones will be given to them at cheap prices.

    Why are you into the garment business?

    I have a passion for it. I’m a people-oriented person. I have a passion for helping people. It is just to put food on the table of a lot of Nigerians.

    Why garment in particular?

    It is likely because I’m a very fashionable person. I like clothing a lot, though I did not study fashion designing. I have always been in the clothing business. When I started business in my early 20s, I was selling clothes. I love it when people turn out nicely. What the government of Osun has done is something that should be emulated at the federal level. There are some colours that should not be worn as uniforms. You see a lot of students wearing shocking colours that should never be used as uniforms because the people that have made decisions are not professionals. They will just come up with ridiculous colours. In this 21st century, countries that are extremely poor, such as Bangladesh and Pakistan, make sure that their students turn out nicely, while going to school.

    Which colours are not good ?

    There are some colours that look too shocking. They are not good for students. Some schools wear lemon green. Lemon green is like a traffic light colour. It is not good. White is also not okay. The colour of uniform should be subtle. It should be calm and peaceful. It should not be shouting. Some use colours that don’t match. They combine colours together and they come out ridiculous. A school skirt should never have slit. It is not done anywhere in the civilized world. You know what I mean by slit. They cut their skirts at the back.

    What some of these girls do is to overcut them, and this thing, among others, can lead to prostitution and all kinds of things among secondary school students. But when a professional is being invited to design, he will be able to advise on the right colour and right styles for the students. You will be surprised that some of the boys in the same class with the girls lose concentration because they will be looking at the skirts. What Osun has done is something every state government in Nigeria should do, even the Federal Government.

    Will you advise other state governments to provide uniforms for students of public schools?

    I will once again mention Bangladesh because it is part of the poorest countries in the world. Nobody goes to the tailor with fabric and says sow a shirt like this. The world has moved beyond that. It is high time the federal government waded into this situation. They should invite professionals who will choose the right colours, the right styles and make sure that these things are easily accessible to students. What they will all need to be doing is that all these uniforms should be available in local markets and people will just go and buy. The policy has reached the level that right now in Osun State , you can’t easily tell the child of a poor man from the child of a rich man because as we speak now the uniforms that the public schools are wearing are better than those of private schools in Osun State. To a lot of these students, the uniforms are the best they have ever owned in their lives.

    The governor has given them a sense of belonging. In fact, when we were going round taking measurements, I was really touched with what I saw. It was like the whole state has heard that the government has brought people that are going from school to school, taking measurements. So the moment our vehicles arrived, you would see commotion. The students would not wait for the principals to order them to come out for measurements. Everybody would rush to queue.

    Talking about uniforms in Nigeria, there are different organisations using uniforms. We have the police and the military in this regard. What would you consider a fitting uniform for professionals like policemen?

    Well, what I think is wrong with the police uniforms is the fact that they don’t have proper outfitters. A situation where fabrics are being given to force men to go and give tailors to sew is very unbecoming. I don’t think it is only the police. Some other forces are doing the same and it should never be the case. It is even a security risk because anybody that can lay hands on a fabric that looks like that can just go and stitch anything. That is why we sometimes have cases of impersonation here and there. Abroad, all those forces have their outfitters who are the people making and supplying uniforms to the government. If these people want to buy extra, they go to these outfitters at special stores. We should really wake up in this nation and get out this nonsense. I wouldn’t say they are creating jobs for these tailors because these tailors will be catered for, if they are working in a factory such as ours. I think it is high time we began to turn our population into advantage in this nation.

    You said you went into the fashion business early. How would you describe a trendy woman?

    A trendy woman is the woman that knows what looks good in her wardrobe and wears it. The woman that can identify what looks good in her wardrobe and decides to stick to that because it is not everything that everybody can wear. If you have a particular shape, there are garments that you should wear. There are garments you don’t go near them because they won’t look good on you. That is a trendy woman.

    Would you describe yourself as a trendy woman?

    I believe I please myself and I try to observe all the rules and regulations of dress sense.

    Where do you get what you wear?

    Everywhere I see what I like I buy.

    You have been in this industry for…

    Decades I will say.

    Are you not worried about the state of the textile industry in the country?

    I’m worried. I must tell you because it doesn’t seem to be moving forward as much as it is supposed to. It is moving forward a little bit at least with the help of the Federal Government through the Bank of Industry. There are other things that need to be done besides funding. In Ghana, for instance, they have a school where they train tailors, pattern masters and others that work in the factory. The training makes it easy for their factories to thrive. It is not very easy for us to get people to get work in our factories. I get annoyed when people say there are no jobs. There are jobs, but our people are no ready to do the kinds of jobs that are available. This is not supposed to be the case because a serious-minded person should only refuse to do something illegal or something morally wrong. But you should do anything that is legal, that is morally right. If you need a job, you should be ready to take up a one.

    I think generally speaking, the country needs reorientation. We need to reorientate our minds. The Federal Government should look for a way to reorientate the average Nigerian. It is not just about money. There is what we call job satisfaction. There is what we call being fulfilled as a person. I’m fulfilled because I’m doing what I want to do, but it looks to me that quite a number of us regard fulfilment as naira and kobo because if you ask me what I’m doing in the manufacturing sector, I will say it is about fulfilment. I love to turn things around when they are not nice. I love to say I’m the one that made it beautiful. This thing is being turned around because I’ve applied myself to make it beautiful, but unfortunately it seems to me in this environment people with this kind of mindset are not many.

    What is your plan in the next 10 years?

    Without saying much, to the glory of God, we’ve almost fulfilled quite a number of our missions, number one being the foremost garment-making company in the country. We have two factories, and we are grateful to God. Second, we are determined to change the face of garment making in Nigeria. We are gradually getting there now with the partnership with Osun. We have been able to change the face of uniforms in Osun State. If you go there now, they are looking so beautiful, so smart. It is a gradual thing. We are still doing the distribution; it is not all schools that have got theirs, but every school will soon get. We are still giving them. That is part of our missions. Another mission is to employ as many Nigerians as possible. We are trying in that area. As we speak now, our staff strength is over 500. When Omoluabi garment factory is fully operational, it is going to be moré than that because we will be in a position to employ about 3000.

  • ‘It will be horrible when our oil wells dry up’

    ‘It will be horrible when our oil wells dry up’

    Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi is a noted arts enthusiast. But he’s also a former Minister for National Planning and Chairman of the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA). In the latter capacity whilst serving under President Olusegun Obasanjo, he often took the position that it was wrong to subsidise consumption of petroleum products. An economist by training and a successful industrialist, he is not happy with the parlous state of the economy and the fact that the present crop of leaders are not doing what is required to address the issues of the day. He shares his thoughts on the polity and sundry issues in this interview with Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf.

     

    At over 52 Nigeria has been described as a giant with clay feet due to her lingering socio-economic challenges. Why do you think the country is yet to attain its full potential as envisaged by the founding fathers?

    My father was among the founding fathers of the country. He was the treasurer of the Action Group. In their day they must have had dreams and visions as to how they wanted the country to grow. I remember I used to sit by the radio and listen to my dad, Awolowo, Fani-Kayode and co. These were men nearly everybody idolised because of their strength of character and courage. Looking back now, one can only feel sorry for what has become of Nigeria, in terms of her great potential, missed opportunities. And as for who to blame for Nigeria’s travails, well, the fault is ours. That’s all I can say.

    What do you make of the country’s development plan as encapsulated in the now famous Vision 20: 2020? Is it really realistic?

    I wrote the vision 2010. But what do you do in a situation where those saddled with leadership role are busy working at cross purposes? There is hardly any significant progress you can achieve in that kind of situation. So, let Nigerians go and sort out themselves: I have done my bit.

    The jury is still out as to the propriety or otherwise of petroleum subsidy, but what in your view is the best way to determine petroleum pricing?

    I was the one who started it all as the chairman of Petroleum Products Pricing & Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as president. At the time, the nation was inordinately consuming petroleum product. My idea then was how we would consume a final product that we were lucky to have through the blessing of God in a way that we were not using much, but reserve for development for the sake of posterity. I said we didn’t have the right to consume everything in our life time because petroleum is finite. You dig a hole, it springs up, but someday it’s going to dry up. I had the opportunity of representing Nigeria at the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as well as having served as Minister of National Planning. It was based on some of these experiences I was advised to entrench a sensible price regime for us not to be wasteful. Coming from an economic background, it has taught me that we should always save for tomorrow. So, you don’t have to consume all you have today. Someday the resources might dry and you won’t have any problem because you have made provision for the rainy day. Unfortunately, Nigeria’s attitude was otherwise. We tried to change the trend through various price regimes until ‘superior’ wisdom prevailed. As if to make matter worse, it was also said that the nation has to take money largely from the petroleum sector to subsidise consumption and that is still going on.

    So in effect, you’re saying subsidising petroleum products is wrong?

    Absolutely! If you want to continue to consume today you won’t leave anything for your children. What you need to do is build infrastructure, be as open as possible. Tell our people the issues at stake. I don’t know who to blame? It’s us collectively. I feel very sorry for us. Someday those oil wells will dry up. I hope and pray I would have been dead by then because it is going to be horrifying. In fact, I’m yet to know any economic proposition that says you can use the streams of income of today to subsidise what you shouldn’t do (current consumption). What economics teaches is, let today pay for itself and do not overburden the coming generation. Unfortunately, we labour hard in Nigeria to create problems for our future generation. We’re just piling up debts on their behalf. The funds that should be conserved to develop electricity, fix roads, railways and other key economic infrastructure are used up in subsidy. That is what I find wrong in the whole thing.

    Other countries are developing their resources but we are just busy consuming. Countries like America have produced enough quantity of oil to last them a lifetime and so are others out there. A time would come when these people will say ‘go, we don’t need your oil.’ So, what do you do then? Will you go and drink the oil?

    There is a lot of rent-seeking and patronage among those sitting in positions of responsibility. It is believed that once you are there, you have to spend the resources to look after your pockets and all that, and not for developing Nigeria. I can’t exist in that kind of environment at all. I’m totally tired.

    How will you describe your experience in government over the years?

    I recall writing several articles on everything from budget, economic management and all. Intellectual activism on my part was probably what brought me attention out there. ‘All these economics you have been preaching, national planning and everything, come let’s see what you can do’.

    I remember at 29, I was appointed a commissioner of Lagos State under Major General Mobolaji Johnson during General Gowon’s regime. The second time was when I was invited by General Abdulsalami Abubakar to serve in his transition government as Minister of National Planning. I was there for close to one year before he relinquished power to a democratically elected government. Both experiences were eventful for me because they brought me closer to the corridors of power, and gave me first knowledge of how things run. But I would rather leave others to assess my performance out there.

    Although your governorship ambition was abruptly truncated by your dad, people still believe that you’re nursing a political ambition? Can you clear the air on that?

    Yes my dad truncated it because he was wiser than me. For a 69 year old man going to 70, what future political ambition can I still be nursing by now? No, there is nothing like that! (Laughs)

    As an ardent patron of the arts do you think Nigerian artists have what it takes to compete favourably with their peers abroad?

    Look, generationally, there is always a change. Those we are lionising today won’t be there tomorrow. I just like enjoying myself and I pray I don’t go bankrupt doing what is essentially my unbridled passion for the arts. Right now, a friend of mine, who is a drama enthusiast, has suggested that I should make one of my plays, “Behold My Redeemer”, one of my plays which I wrote in-between London and Nigeria, into a film.

    How soon should Nigerians look forward to it?

    It’s not easy! We are still trying to put the money together.

    On a lighter note, it was believed that your closeness to Fela in those days made you live a rather carefree lifestyle and all that?

    (Laughs) We had a very middle class background. If your parents could send you top Europe to go and study, it meant they had a few naira. They doted on us. We never had to scratch our fingers to feed. Life was our oyster. Fela’s mother was political, my father was political. My father told me the story of pioneering as a young politician, his role in the reinstatement of Alake, Oba Ademola, back to the throne. He was very young at the time and people cast aspersions on him, saying “Ewo ni ti Gbadamosi (what concerns this overbearing Gbadamosi) Ah, awon olowo ilu niyen (Don’t dare him, he is one of the weathly men around) He did all these things with the governor at the time. Nigeria was small, everybody looked after everybody else. They had interactions. Whenever I went to Fela’s house, his mother would say, “Omo Baba Ikorodu” (son of the man from Ikorodu). She belonged to NCNC, and my father belonged to the Action Group. But not that it mattered. Fela was in Abeokuta Grammar School while I was at Methodist Boys High School, Lagos. Rebelliousness is a factor of growing up; it made it easy for us in our London days. The late Beko was my senior at the University of Manchester. He was reading medicine and I was reading economics. We used to play table tennis during lunch break. During lunch break he would come to the Union Building. I have very great memories of him. When I finally met Fela, it was at the London underground train. He was wearing this all-white suit and he had his trademark sax box. But when I returned to Nigeria in 1969, I had to seek out where the action was. So, naturally, I gravitated towards him (Fela) because I was leftwing (boisterous laughter). I joined him in his radicalism, though I was working with my father at the time, who was rightwing (laughter). The likes of Kanmi Isola Osobu, late Wole Bucknor set up an association where we discussed everything from literature, music to jazz and society and all. We were going to Idi Oro to the night clubs and fooling around. There were days we had night of awareness at the University of Lagos or Yaba College of Technology, where we talked truth to power; we were enjoying ourselves. Anyway, I invited Fela to MUSON and people sneered that what’s this amu’gbo (marijuana smoker) doing in this kind of place? People like me said ‘ah ah, no, Fela is good’. He trained musically; he started with jazz at Kakadu. Before then, it was all about Bill Friday and Bobby Benson and highlife. There are several anecdotes about that.

    Fela’s dying days…

    I took him from one point to the other to escape the prying eyes of journalists like you (laughs). Then at the middle of the night, Yeni called to say that Fela wanted to eat jollof rice. I rushed to the hospital quickly. By then I told my wife ‘look, Fela wants to eat jollof rice’ and she quickly prepared it and we took it. By the time I got to the hospital he was in coma. But when he saw me he made feeble attempts to recognise me by throwing up his clenched fist as a symbol of the struggle. That single act shocked me to my marrows. That was Fela for you, demonstrating his belief in the struggle until the very last breath. And when he died, I had to be part of the funeral all the way. I slightly moved away because I had become bourgeois, but I could never have forgotten the good time we spent together. And that was why I gravitated towards Seun, Femi, Yeni.

    So you’re still in touch with Fela’s family?

    Yes, very much so. They are adults in their own right but must be assisted.

    What was the motivation for building the Yusuf Grillo Pavilion?

    When I did follow-follow Fela, I said to myself, what next can I do and I decided to build a gallery within my premises in Ikorodu. I built the gallery and named it after one of the Zaria ‘Rebels’, Yusuf Grillo. So far, we had hosted Bruce Onobrakpeya, Demas Nwoko, Uche Okeke and David Dale. We are trying to pick a date for the next occasion in April. It has been eventful.

    How can you explain your interest in culture and customs?

    I have tried to read about the history of various ethnic groups in Nigeria to learn what makes them tick; what accounts for their mode of behaviour, arts and so on – even the mode of worship of various people. What you call witchcraft is rubbish as far as I’m concerned. You condemn it; I don’t. I don’t buy the proposition that things are necessarily fetish. My proposition is that any science or art that has motivated man to create something and be in tune with nature is commendable. So, I don’t understand why you criticise witchcraft. Such varied knowledge enriches my life. I love nature and that’s why I collect art works, sculptures etc. In fact, Oba Adeyinka Oyekan gave me a traditional title for what he described as my keen interest in the affairs of our people. I can recite Eyo incantations; that doesn’t make me a heathen. We are not kafirs (infidels) (laughter).

    You have reached the twilight of your career.

    No, eh eh. mio ti fe ku o. (I don’t want to die now). I have retired. As for legacy, let other people be the judge. I don’t usually want to talk about it because one day I also will join my ancestors. The only legacy I want to leave is “I came, I worked very hard, I enjoyed myself, I was a friend of Fela and I took part in cultural activities. I’m the Olori Eyo Agere (leader of the Eyo Agere)! (Laughs)

     

  • Dele Giwa: Kayode Soyinka replies ex-Police boss:‘I didn’t run to the toilet when the bomb exploded’

    Dele Giwa: Kayode Soyinka replies ex-Police boss:‘I didn’t run to the toilet when the bomb exploded’

    On December 15 last year, veteran journalist and publisher of Africa Today magazine, Mr. Kayode Soyinka, clocked 55 years. It was a milestone he almost did not live to witness let alone celebrate. This is considering the fact that he could have died 27 years ago if he had not survived the parcel bomb incident of October 19, 1986, which sadly claimed the life of Dele Giwa, the founding editor-in-chief of Newswatch with whom he was having breakfast when the letter bomb was delivered. With the announcement of Dele Giwa’s mother’s death a few days ago, we caught up with the famous international journalist and publisher, who incidentally had contested on three consecutive occasions to be governor of Ogun State but failed to get the ticket. In this interview with NNEKA NWANERI, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) stalwart speaks on a wide-range of national issues from the parcel bomb incident and the merger talks among opposition parties to the controversial sale of Newswatch last year, among other issues.

     

    What would you say about the mother of your former boss Dele Giwa, who died early this month?

    Yes, the Dele Giwa issue has become part of my life; it’s like a cross I carry because of my involvement with the parcel bomb incident of almost 27 years ago. Remember, I only survived it by the grace of God. You are asking me this question again because of the death of Dele’s mother just announced. I got a telephone call very early that morning when she died. It was Mr. Soji Akinrinade that called me from London to break the news to me – barely an hour after she died. She was a strong willed woman and I had known her over the years. Sometimes, in those days, when we were still at Concord newspapers, long before the advent of Newswatch, and I was visiting Nigeria and staying with Dele at his house in Ikeja (not where the bomb took place), it was either I would meet his mother there at home with him, or she had just left back to the village a day or so before my arrival.

    Dele was very close to his mother. He did not joke with her at all. It was an honour for me to have met her. The last time I saw her was at Dele’s burial in their village near Auchi, in Edo State. I was there live with my wife contrary to the erroneous story of Babangida’s government’s mischief makers who tried to deceive the Nigerian people in order to exonerate the government from the assassination of Dele Giwa, saying that I had fled the country. They deliberately spread all kinds of falsehood, ignoring even newspaper reports and pictures of myself and my wife in attendance at the burial. And mind you, how could I have fled the country? My wife and children were not in Nigeria with me when the bomb exploded, they had to take the next available flight to Nigeria to join me. Yet, Babangida’s men said I fled the country. And my family and I remained in the country throughout the whole period of the controversy and burial arrangement. We returned to London together through the former British Caledonian Airways, through Muritala Mohammed Airport.

    There was no way we could have left quietly. We were accompanied to and seen off at the airport by friends, including the Newswatch editors, and family. The airline people recognised us. Our two children were still small then. The air hostesses took them from us, played with them, and they were asking me if I was feeling better – knowing the trauma one must have been through in the past weeks, and took us straight and right inside the aircraft, even before checking in other passengers. Yet the Babangida men kept saying, even till today, that I fled the country. Can you imagine?

    So how did the parcel bomb explode?

    Save me the agony of going through all this again. I don’t like narrating the story. I have said enough about it over the years. But there is somebody I must use this opportunity to respond to. I have been deliberately keeping quiet all these years that he has been writing about me, accusing me of being a suspect and even insinuated that I was the one who brought the bomb. That was the former Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Christopher Omeben, who investigated the horrific incident, and who I understand is now a pastor. He did not believe that I could survive the bomb. He was unfair to me severally in the book that he wrote on Dele Giwa, and in an interview he granted The Sun Newspaper last year or so. He said in that interview that I ran to the toilet when the parcel bomb was delivered. That is not true. It’s a blatant lie. He got wrong information.

    This man, who was not there when the bomb exploded. Whatever information he collected after the explosion was from some third, fourth or even tenth party, but he would stop at nothing trying to rope me in. But every time he tried to do that, he always failed because no one is listening to him and such accusations can never stick. My survival was simply God’s miracle. And I will forever be grateful to Him while I pray that He continues to bless Dele’s soul. But the Pastor Omeben does not believe that such miracles can happen. He has never heard about a plane crash where hundreds of passengers have perished but small children, babies, survived. Isn’t that a miracle? Our Pastor Omeben has never heard about an earthquake that has brought down many buildings, turning a whole community into rubble and still over a month or so after, when all rescuers have left, abandoning the search for survivors, people are still being dragged out alive from the rubble.

    Yet Pastor Omeben still keeps wondering how I could have survived such a dreadful bombing without a scratch on my body. He forgot the terrible damage done to my eardrums and the continuous noise or echo in my both ears I had to carry everyday for about five years after the incident before they were healed. And even then, till today, I hear better from my right ear, while the left one which was nearer to the blast is weaker. Well, my answer to him is that he should keep asking. Those who sent the bomb to us are still here and walking about the streets freely. But Dele is not here and his mother has now gone to join him without getting justice. I am here only by the grace of the Almighty God. Definitely, God will deliver the ultimate judgment. If not here, at the great beyond when we all meet at His feet.

    Do you sometimes feel threatened?

    Why should I feel threatened when I don’t have an excuse to be here anymore? I should have gone that day 27 years ago. That was death I came face to face with. It was like I had died and I came back. May be you don’t know that I held the letter bomb in my hand before I gave it back to Dele. If I had decided to open it when Dele gave it to me, it would have been a totally different story. It wasn’t my time to go! It’s been traumatic living with that experience for many years. I have lived with the psychological trauma of it so much so that one gets used to it, and as I said earlier, it is now part of my life and I have moved on since. Even up till now, when I make appearances, especially in Nigeria and I am introduced and people hear the name, Kayode Soyinka, you will naturally hear the comments, “the parcel bomb survivor”.

    I went through a lot in those days, most especially the pressure from the Nigerian security service. They placed my name into their computer system at all the points of entry to and departure from Nigeria. That made me look like a wanted person. So I could not come back to Nigeria while Babangida was still in power. You won’t believe it, they chased me all the way to London because they never thought anyone could survive the parcel bomb and be able to tell the story of how it happened. They were so amateurish, they didn’t even know how to disguise. The SSS operatives, through the Nigeria High Commission, would come to our house in London. They would park their cars right in front of our house and be watching my movement. What they did not know was that even the UK authorities knew what happened to me in Nigeria and had already placed their own surveillances over the Nigerian SSS. I was under the protection of Her Majesty’s government throughout the time because they knew what I went through in Nigeria.

    So why should I feel threatened? I am just an ordinary mortal and I’m doing the only job I am known for, and have done all my life, and like doing best; the job that I have passion for, and has given me everything that I have today both nationally and internationally, which is journalism – being a newspaper man. Nothing will threaten me because I have lived a fulfilled life. I have my family; my two children are now both grown up. I have been privileged to send them to some of the best educational institutions in the world. My son for example was educated at Harrow. I am sure you know what that means. They finished their university education with two degrees each four/five years ago and are working in London. So I am done. I am more or less in retirement as a newspaper man. So when I see young journalists and reporters like you, I see a bit of myself in you because that was how I started, did so well in this Nigeria everyone is talking so badly about now.

    I was posted out by Daily Sketch in 1978 as London Correspondent , a key position in the newspaper industry, and I made a career out of being a foreign correspondent and out of journalism as a whole. That is my pride and joy as a Nigerian journalist. I’m only now trying to spend more time back home in Nigeria having spent over 30 years doing my work abroad, and it is not easy. I have spent 37 years in the newsroom doing my work. So if I die tomorrow, you cannot know me for any other thing but journalism, and they should just simply put on my tombstone: Kayode Soyinka – Newspaper reporter. I hope I live a long life like my father and see my grandchildren and great grandchildren.

    But in case I suddenly die, it does not matter anymore. I am not afraid of death having had a close shave with one already; everyone will die one day and go six feet under the ground. No matter what wealth one may have accumulated, things like that don’t bother me anymore. And by the way, we can’t take them to the grave. I have seen a lot and been in important places and related with influential people around the world – and still do. But I like and enjoy living an ordinary life. I hate attention. I am usually public shy despite being a media person.

    Have we learnt anything in Nigeria from the Dele Giwa episode?

    Certainly not from the letter-bombing of Dele Giwa. There are so many criminals in Nigeria today and people have become too fraudulent, the corruption is mind-boggling and life means nothing in Nigeria. It is so sad. Everyone seems so desperate for money and power! It’s a real shame. People who are really nobody feel very important, pompous and arrogant. I stear clear of such people. When the parcel bomb was delivered, I was saying at that time that it was very important for the authorities to get those who did it because if they didn’t, it would encourage similar occurrences in future. Now, see what has happened since Dele Giwa was killed by letter bomb. See the number of unresolved murders and assassinations we have had in Nigeria. In fact, things have gone even worse. Look at Chief Bola Ige. A whole Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of Nigeria was assassinated and up till now, the killers have not been found. Ditto Baba Rewane, Funso Williams, and so on and so forth. So many of those who have been killed without a trace of who did it have encouraged others to do the same because they were not brought to book. Now high level kidnapping is taking place – a totally new dimension – and so are the Boko Haram bombings. It’s gone out of control. So I don’t believe Nigeria has improved since the Dele Giwa assassination.

    Is that what motivated you to go into politics?

    No, not necessarily. Genuinely, I wanted to serve having had personal fulfillment in my career. As a political journalist, I have always interacted with people in politics both locally and internationally. I have reached a stage in my life and career when I thought I should put something back to the community that made me. I didn’t want to do it nationally at first but chose to go back home to the grassroots level. So I went to my state, Ogun State, where I put my name forward and campaigned in three general elections to be elected as governor. I do not know who has done it before me consecutively for three times. And I don’t know why they didn’t give me the ticket.

    What is your view on the merger talks going on by the opposition parties?

    I think it is a good thing. It is long overdue. But we have to be careful how we tread on this. I am obviously concerned about the interest of my own party, ACN, in the merger. We should be the senior partner in the merger because we are the party with control over the largest number of states. And it should be spelt out clearly for us and our people what we are getting: is it wholesale merger, or an alliance or a coalition? These are different things and it must be made clear to us what it is we are doing and getting. It will be good for Nigeria if the three largest opposition parties in the country can come together as one party. That will create a more viable option for the electorate who are fed up with of the bad, visionless and clueless government of the PDP. The good thing about this one is that the merger process started early before the 2015 election. So we will know soon if this one will work or not.

    How have you maintained your independence as a politician and a publisher?

    I have been in the journalism profession for 37 years. You cannot be a newspaperman of my pedigree and not be forthright when it comes to taking editorial decisions, especially on crucial issues. I am from the old school. When I was a reporter, I didn’t have political ambitions. I went into partisan politics after I had put in about 30 years continuously on the job. Today, I can gladly say my profession is newspaper reporting and not politics. Look at my track record, I have been a reporter here in Nigeria, I have been a foreign correspondent reporting from overseas for over 18 years – a record in Nigeria. I have been an editor and I have been a publisher of my own international news magazine, Africa Today, one of the most influential pan-African news magazines in the world, for another 18 years. That is the highest I can go in my profession. So my politics and publishing or journalism is like oil and water, they don’t mix. I am a politician with a reporter’s notebook in hand!

    What is your reaction to the transition of Newswatch?

    I am sad that Newswatch isn’t on the newsstands now and I gathered that it is the first time in 27 years, apart from when we were proscribed by the Babangida administration after the letter bomb incident. I want to commend the former Newswatch Executives, Dan Agbese, Ray Ekpu, Yakubu Mohammed and Soji Akinrinade who survived Dele Giwa. I commend them because the public will not understand the kind of difficulties they went through after surviving the death of their close colleague in such fatal manner. Remember, Dele Giwa’s death was so horrific; it could put iron into the soul. Then, the magazine was proscribed twice. There are not many newspapers or businesses anywhere in the world that could go through all that and survive. So they should be commended and our people should appreciate that.

    Secondly, they are working in the most difficult business environment. It is not a child’s play to run a newspaper in this country. The business environment is very difficult for a newspaper or newsmagazine like Newswatch that depends on advertising to survive. If the business environment is difficult, the advertising market will be the first to be affected instantly. They went through all that and had to look for other ways to sustainthe iconic magazine by getting investors. I had the opportunity in November last year, when the former Newswatch executives launched a book at the NIIA and I was invited. There I made my position very clear. I told them to take a firm position because they should not let Newswatch die. I reminded them that Newswatch is now part of Nigeria’s history because Dele Giwa lost his life for Newswatch. I also made it clear to them that the issue is no longer theirs alone. It is by far bigger than them (the executives) now because Nigerians themselves have now owned Newswatch. It is in the consciousness of the Nigerian people.

    You know this when you go to the social networks, like Facebook, you see how Nigerians are discussing the issue of Newswatch with so much passion. The magazine has become part and parcel of our daily life. It is now a bigger issue than the former executives. None should forget the supreme price Dele Giwa paid. I therefore appealed for some external intervention in the matter. Except we don’t want to have regard for history, we should know that Newswatch is now part of Nigerian history and it should not be allowed to die. I pray that it won’t be too long before it gets back on the newsstands.

    Are you planning to contest the governorship again in 2015?

    People keep telling me not to give up. Some would go on to remind me that Abraham Lincoln contested several times before he was elected president of the United States. I don’t want to be the Abraham Lincoln of Ogun State. But I am a staunch Baptist and deeply religious person. I therefore believe in God’s own plan for me in life. His grace and glory have already been manifested in me. I have seen them in my life. Or can’t you see them, or feel them, with all the stories I have been telling you? And I have contentment. His time is always the best.

     

     

  • Borderless West Africa, USAID Information Center promote seamless trade at Seme

    A new information centre, opened at the Seme border in Nigeria and Krake border in Benin Republic by the Borderless West Africa and USAID, is promoting seamless trade across the two borders, OLUKAYODE THOMAS reports

    KNOWLEDGE is power goes the saying and nothing illustrates this better than the success recorded by the Borderless West Africa and USAID when they opened two information centres across West Africa to assist in seamless movement of goods and people across the region.

    The success, recorded with the first established at Aflao, Ghana in August 2011 and the second at the Burkina Faso-Ghana border with offices in Paga and Dakola respectively, motivated the Borderless West Africa and USAID to open the Seme and Krake Border Information Centre, the third in the region recently. And since then, the centre has been a beehive of activity as traders and tourists are assisted with vital information that is facilitating better trade across the region.

    Impediments to trade across West Africa, mostly caused by official and unofficial bureaucracy, have led to loss of many lives, property and billions of dollars in revenue. A general survey of traders across the region conducted by the USAID shows that West Africans could do more business, if delays and cost of doing business were reduced.

    With population of about 400 million people, West Africa, according to a USAID survey, is a huge market. However, barriers to trade effectively make it challenging for a company to take advantage of a single market. Many companies compete locally, foregoing regional sales because of the barriers.

    Seme and Krake Border Information Centre, an initiative of the USAID West Africa Trade Hub, is partnering the Nigeria Shippers’ Council (NSC) and the Benin National Shippers’ Council.

    The centre is sponsored by the USAID Business Environment for Agile Markets (BEAM) project. The Borderless Alliance is a broad coalition of public sector partners committed to increasing trade in West Africa. The new centre provides practical information to traders where they need it most at the border. The new centre is now open Monday through Friday, 9a.m to 5 p.m.

    Speaking during the inauguration, the United States Ambassador to Nigeria stated that economic growth is a key pillar to the U.S. Government’s African development policy. Rolf Olson, U.S. Embassy Political-Economics Counsellor, who represented the ambassador at the event, said: “The Border Information Centre initiative, launched with the ECOWAS and other partners, represents our commitment to working alongside African countries to promote and advance sustained economic development and growth”.

    Olson noted that the delays and cost of doing business in West Africa are a serious impediment to the region’s economic growth and development, and the costs incurred are preventing businesses from expanding. As a result, businesses are unable to create jobs that reduce poverty.

    Said Olson: “The U.S Government has a strong interest in seeing trade succeed and businesses expand in West Africa. As much as any business is the sum of its employees, it is important that we recognize that each job in a factory or workshop, in a restaurant or hotel, is a death knell to poverty. Further, jobs give people dignity and lay the foundation necessary for stability and progress in every society.”

    He revealed that West Africa has entered a new era and the most commonly cited indicator is the annual increase in GDP. On average, the region has experienced an expansion of GDP by four per cent annually over the last decade. This, he said, has set up a dynamic and virtuous cycle. Now a strong middle class is emerging across West Africa which attracts even more investment and further business expansion.

    “GDP growth is not the only indicator. As economies have strengthened, the number of conflicts witnessed in West Africa has decreased. Conflict is bad for business and should motivate us to pursue other initiatives that facilitate trade,” he said.

    Olson said President Barack Osama’s strong interest in Africa has led to its development as one of the U.S.Government’s top foreign policy priorities.

    “Working alongside African countries to promote and advance sustained economic development and growth is important to the continent’s future success and its global importance. Africa has made measurable inroads to increase prosperity. Yet it remains the poorest and most vulnerable continent on the globe.

    ”In addition to the African Growth and Opportunity Act which eliminates tariffs on import to the U.S. from eligible African countries, President Obama has made the expansion of small and medium enterprises in Africa a key objective of U.S Government policy in Africa. The initiative we have inaugurated represents a commitment to that objective and also reflects the commitment to strong partnership. The Border Information Centre idea actually began here in Nigeria at a meeting between the USAID and ECOWAS in Abuja and was based on a comprehensive study of regional trade policy embodied in the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme. That study identified access to information as a key gap in the implementation of the Scheme,” he said.

    Quoting President Obama to conclude, Olson said: ”I want to close with a quote from President Obama’s speech in June 2011, when he visited Africa. “We believe in Africa’s potential and promise. We remain committed to Africa’s future. We will be strong partners with the African people. Africa is essential to our interconnected world, and our alliance with one another must be rooted in mutual respect and accountability.’’