The Nation Newspaper

Category: Society

  • Will you marry me?

    WINNING is the best thing about the Olympics as the difference in weight and value between the first, second and third prizes of gold, silver and bronze evince. But not everyone triumphs, and when they don’t, they are at least expected to demonstrate the spirit of sportsmanship.

    The latter is more observed in principle than practice, however. Contrast, for example, the reaction of Chinese swimmer, Fu Yuanhui, upon learning that she won bronze after the women’s 100 metre backstroke final at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and Dutch sprinter, Dafne Schippers, after her second place finish in the 200 metres.

    Given the good news by a reporter, Yuanhui cupped her face with her hands, widened her eyes in amazement to say: “I came third?!” and went off muttering “In that case, it’s not bad at all!”

    It was not bad either for Schippers, who finished fifth in the 100m earlier, but she shrugged and scowled at the interviewer’s probe of what the feat meant to her. “Nothing. I came here for gold.”

    Between the two reactions, and no less remarkable, was a rower’s near-speechless response to his post-competition pose. Questioned by a reporter on the source of his laid-back attitude after hectic competition rewarded by a podium finish, he managed to say: “I left all my powers in the water.”

     

    Romance at the Games

    Everyone else, from losing athlete to analyst and the aficionado, managed to come away with something from the gold rush in the course of the 17-day competition across 28 sports. While the athletes raced into history, and spectators erupted in lusty cheer, pundits updated the record books and viewers raced against time to catch highlights on TV.

    And what a spectacle the Games offered from its August 5 launch. Added to the multinational colour was the multicultural connection, specifically marriage proposals. The first came early in the Games when Brazilian women’s rugby sevens player, Isadora Cerullo, was asked for her hand in marriage by her girlfriend, Marjorie Enya, in front of a boisterous stadium after the Brazil squad had been knocked out of the competition.

    It was followed by Chinese diver, Qin Kai, who proposed to his teammate and girlfriend, He Zi, during the medal presentation ceremony of her silver medal dive in the women’s springboard. She had tears in her eyes after, though many noted that it took a while for a smile to replace the look of shock on her face.

    Moments after winning a silver medal in triple jump, American Will Claye leapt into the stands, dropped to a knee and proposed to his longtime girlfriend, hurdler Queen Harrison. British race walker, Tom Bosworth, chose the night after his 20km race to propose to his boyfriend against the more serene background of Rio’s Copacabana beach and later tweeted a photo of the occasion.

    Another proposal ensued when Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin finished her high-scoring freestyle dressage test. As she earned her second Equestrian gold, cameras zoomed in on her long-time partner in the stands holding up a sign saying: “Will you marry me now?”

    Every proposal was greeted with a ‘yes’, prompting a global outpouring of emotion as many celebrated the colourful and grand romantic gesture. Critics, however, insisted that the act put vast amounts of pressure on the would-be spouse and detracted from his or her sporting achievements. Others viewed it as a publicity stunt or sexist act that undermined the sunject’s sporting prowess.

    But experts thought post-win engagements or wedding dates believable as high-performance athletes often put their personal lives on hold, given the intensity of training focus required to succeed in the Olympics (a nod to suggestions that the golden moment outweighs the athletes’ accomplishments).

    For related reasons, gymnast Simone Biles grabbed the headlines. The five-medal winner (including four golds) flirted on the social media all through the Games with self-confessed admirer, Brazilian Olympic gymnast, Arthur Mariano, and American movie star, Zac Efron.

    Probably the athlete to feature most in photographs with fellow competitors, the Rio 2016 breakout star caused more than a stir through selfies with her ‘Brazilian boyfriend’ and disclosure of Efron’s life-size poster before asking the actor to visit the athletes in Rio. He obliged.

    Efron said he was in the audience cheering on Biles and teammate Aly Raisman as they won gold and silver in the floor exercise final. Afterwards, Biles said on Twitter: “Just call me Mrs. Efron already.”

     

    Controversy and the Games

    Despite fears of a troubled Games, on account of political upheaval in Brazil and public disenchantment with costs and security before the Games, the athletes came prepared. After meticulous preparations, nothing would douse the flame of ambition.

    The crowds yelled, and the records fell. The United States of America dominated from start to finish, ending the competition with 46 gold medals, 37 silver and 38 bronze for a total of 121. The latest model of consistency after its London 2012 feat of 29 gold medals, Great Britain edged rising superpower, China (which finished with 26 golds of a 70-medal total) for the second position.

    Host Brazil lugged a creditable 19 medals with seven of them gold while Kenya, with six golds and 13 in total, led the African charge. South Africa’s two golds out of 10 medals and Ethiopia’s one of eight followed by Ivory Coast’s one gold and one bronze left Nigeria, with the men’s soccer (football) bronze, wallowing with the minnows at 78th on the medal table.

    As usual with Games, and in tandem with the human element in split-second assessment, controversy lingered. Refereeing decisions in the technical scoring of events, notably boxing, drew blatant condemnation.

    Feeling robbed of qualification in the men’s bantamweight quarter-finals, Irish boxer, Michael Conlan, ‘awarded’ the judges of his 56 kg fight the two-finger salute with a foul-mouthed rant for good measure. Conlan, who won bronze at London 2012 and hoped for a better finish in Rio, was beaten by Russian Vladamir Nikitin despite dominating. He called amateur boxing’s governing body AIBA ‘corrupt’.

    It was the second disputed win for Nikitin at the Games after he squeezed through the round of 16 bout over Thai fighter Chatchai Butdee.

     

    Underperformance cause and effect

    In the end, the long-limbed duo of Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps, who both announced their retirement from the Games, stood out. The Jamaican reached a triple treble with a repeat of Beijing 2008 and London 2012 golds in the 100, 200 and 400 metre relay races while the American stretched his unprecedented haul from the pool when he led the U.S. to victory in the 400-meter medley relay at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.

    Phelps finished a career that covered five Olympics with 28 medals, 23 of them gold. Next best is a handful of athletes on nine gold medals including Bolt.

    While the world ponders the fate of the Games after the exit of the super athletes, none should bet on their feats remaining unsurpassed. With constant improvements in training, diet and genetic engineering, the Olympian of the future looks set to run faster, throw further, jump higher and lift stronger.

    The bet, instead, is on Nigeria. Rated the largest economy in Africa until recently, the country attracted mostly negative press en route to a hard-earned men’s football bronze in Rio. From rumoured official encouragement of self-help in sponsorship to pre-tournament logistics, Nigeria’s contingent stewed in endless fiasco.

    Considering antecedents, the continental powerhouse and potential giant in nearly everything else was overrated. How on earth could the country compete keenly in Rio when the transportation of 22 footballers from a training camp in ‘nearby’ Atlanta, USA stretched the national psyche and purse?

    The arrival of Team Nigeria kits for the Games less than 48 hours to the closing ceremony illustrated the haplessness that fetched the sympathy of Japanese philanthropist and football enthusiast, Katsuya Takasu. The uproar generated by camping logistics and the Japanese plastic surgeon’s $390, 000 succour to the Dream Team VI and its handlers at the end underscored a poverty of thought.

    Through official ineptitude, mainly, the sight of foreign competitors unpacking odd-shaped sport equipment at Rio de Janeiro’s international airport or assembling them at competition venues probably confounded the average Nigerian as much as the terminology in technical events.

    What, for instance, is the difference between Foil, Épée and Sabre in Fencing, and what exactly is a Vibration dampener used for in Archery? Few, for that matter, would know what Arabesque stands for in Gymnastics or what a Kip represents in Trampolining.

    While Asian entrants matched their North American and European counterparts on the Olympic stage, gear for gear, move for move and whoop for whoop, the African, nay, Nigerian competitor stuck to popular, time-tested events where technique or equipment seemed to matter less.

     

    Solution for 2020 and beyond

    Elite participation in football and athletics require more than typical Nigerian spirit (or brawn). The appointment of neophytes into administration by quota system or the release of funds two weeks before a four-year competition depicts a shocking lack of ambition.

    As their victors showed to triple treble, double double and other multiple medal effect, better technique marks the difference. Rio, and possibly Tokyo in four years, would always present a bonanza for officials and a jamboree for Team Nigeria regardless of official posture.

    It is an outcome substantiated by Tosin Oke’s experience. The triple jumper spoke of his frustration at obtaining a refund for transportation from his base. He succeeded in ‘chasing’ Team Nigeria officials for a refund in Rio more than his original dream of Olympic gold.

    Compared to the industrialised nations that led the Rio 2016 Olympics medals count, Nigeria punched below its weight. It may help to adopt an objective approach similar to Great Britain’s. In the wake of a disastrous showing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics where Team GB won a single gold medal and finished 36th overall, the country instituted a ruthlessly efficient, however controversial, sports funding program.

    British officials base their funding decisions on a sport’s likelihood of winning medals on the biggest stage. If a sports program fails to produce the expected number of medals at the Olympics, funding is cut while programs that exceed quotas are rewarded with additional money.

    Without commensurate revamp of methods and funding, a rehash of American-born Nigerian sprinter, Regina George’s self-help towards Rio 2016 sponsorship on personal fundraising website, gofundme.com appears plausible in four years.

    To the Olympic motto of ‘faster, higher, and stronger’, as proposed by Pierre de Coubertin upon the creation of the International Olympic Committee in 1894, the Nigerian sports fan may meanwhile add ‘hopefully’.

  • My third class degree from UNILAG turned out a blessing —Wakanow Executive Director

    My third class degree from UNILAG turned out a blessing —Wakanow Executive Director

    Mrs Toyin Odutayo is an Executive Director of IT with Wakanow, a front-line travel agency. With more than 17 years of experience in IT and management consulting gathered in the United Kingdom and Nigeria, she speaks with HANNAH OJO about her staying power in a male dominated field.

     

    JOURNEY to the UK in search of knowledge

    One of the reasons behind me doing a master’s degree was because I didn’t do too well in my undergraduate studies. I made a third class. I had always been one of these people that sort of looked at myself and felt the need to differentiate myself. I had always been ambitious, so I said let me go and do this master’s while I am more matured and focused, knowing what I wanted in life.

    I got into London Southbank University and I did a master’s in Information Systems Engineering. That was one of the most focused years of my life, because I knew what I wanted. I knew the impediments, given that I had a third class from my Nigerian degree. So I told myself I have to do really well to make sure that moved forward. So I had an MSc with distinction and literally that was what opened all the doors for my career advancement in the UK.

    What I did differently

    I will be brutally honest here. I also had a part time job while I was doing my master’s. What I did different was that I just read. Having said that, when I was in UNILAG, I noticed the time I was focused, I did very well. I was young then. You get into the university at 16 or 17, you want to play. So what was different was that I was completely focused. I knew what I wanted. I knew that to get a really good job, something should set me apart from the other applicants. I made my distinction and it really opened up lots of doors such that when I put in an application for a job, when I look at the ratio of rejection from when I had a third class to the number of  rejections that I had with having a distinction, it was crazy. Literally, if my CV goes anywhere, a door would open. I also feel that God was really on my side.

    Programming Experience in the UK

    I had a good project manager who looked at me after I had been in the UK for about three months and said I could be a team leader. I was in my early 20s and I didn’t have as much experience as the people on my team. What he explained to me was that there are people who are destined to lead and there are others who are destined to just be developers. I worked as a team leader for a company now called EDS for about two and a half years and I left to work in the retail sector. From team leader, I became a project manager by the age of 25. Having realised that somebody could have that confidence in me and realised my capabilities, I made a conscious decision to keep reading up and trying to make myself different. The Internet wasn’t rife then, so I just found myself investing in self-help books, and then I moved into the financial service sector and became a systems integrator. Again, I did that for about three years in the UK. I stayed in the UK until 2001. I was in the UK for about 12 or 13 years.

    Returning to Nigeria, a sanity break

    After working in the financial services sector, I began to get itchy feet. So I decided to leave the techie world behind to go for an MBA. That has to be the hardest year of my life. What made it challenging was that I am techie born and bred. With techies, it is bits and bytes whereas in the business world, one plus one equals two, but it could be two in a bit or slightly less than two.

    Going into business school was also my turning point. So when I left Nigeria in 1989, I left with the mind of going for five years, but five years became 12 years. The reasons why that was is because it was just very easy to go into the UK and fit since I had lots of Nigerian friends.  Although that ‘fit’ will always be fit in quote, because you look at your skin, you are a black person. No matter how English you try to sound, you are still a Nigerian.

    That realization hit me when I did business school, because there were many of us who came from Ghana, Namibia and other African countries. The kind of things they were talking about going to do back home prompted me, and I was like oh my God, I need to go back home and do something too. That was the turning point really.

    I wanted to make a difference and I know that would not be made working in the UK. I was brought home by the late Osaze Osifo, former MD of FBN Capital. I knew that after spending so many years in the UK, I would need the sanity break, and that sanity break was coming home to Nigeria.

    My experience coming back home

    I turned my back on the UK and came to live in Nigeria, and I have no regrets. I moved into Oando as the head of IT. It was extremely challenging. I would go in and talk the talk, but I am actually a leader by example. I strongly believe that your followers will have confidence in you if they see that you have proven experience and you are not afraid to get your hands dirty if you have to. I am an ED now but I still get my hands dirty. Not everyone has to be a leader that leads by example, but I think for me, that is what works and that is what has always worked.

    On the cultural shock when I came back, I am a Nigerian at heart. I may speak English in quote because the first 12 years of my life I spent in the UK, then I came back to spend another 10 years of my life and I went back to the UK. Coming home, I was not expecting 22/7 power. I was not expecting the roads to be fantastic. In fact, I think one of the turning points was when I came for my mum’s 60th birthday and that was when I was like you know what, Nigeria is not so bad, because we were trying telecoms wise.

    The biggest challenge for me with Nigeria was more communication rather than the power sector. In my own case, I was pleasantly surprised because when I came home, I was able to get a flat that didn’t have a 24 hours light but I was able to have light most evenings. This is the thing that I tell people that want to relocate. When you left Nigeria, how was Nigeria? Yes, you may have risen to a level where you can stay in an estate that has 24 hours power, but that is not reality. That is not how Nigeria is. So if you can just get your head around that.

    Career transitions and challenges in the IT field

    From Oando, I was approached to go to Virgin Nigeria, and that was like to be one of the pioneer people. I always like startups. Yes, I want to do things for myself, but I also want to make a difference in Nigeria. It is good to be part of a movement, pretty much like what we are doing in Wakanow. In the whole of my career, I have been a techie person; the only things that are challenging are the materials things. We need power to run. And again, because I’ve got varied experiences, I tend not to have people challenges. I think it’s because I am a reader. If I have a challenge, the first thing I will do is pray and then there is a book where somebody has gone through that challenge. So by the time I read how somebody overcame that challenge, it is usually very easy to resolve.

    When you build up to a level that people have confidence in you and they know that when you go to complain or talk about a challenge, everyone knows that the challenge is genuine. When I was younger in my career, if I had a challenge, would rather go and meet my mentor. Before I take up the challenge of heading an organization, I have mentors who I could talk to and ask questions. It is all about what I call effective networking. I may never have met someone before, but I will look for someone who knows that person and say look, this is the role that I am going to take, I need help. I just need someone to sound me out.

    Wife, mother, woman

    I honestly don’t believe these days that Nigerians believe it is a big deal for a woman to be something. I have gone to so many women conferences and I see so many amazing women around. I think it is now becoming the run of the mill for women to succeed in their careers and businesses. You just need to look at Ibukun Awosika for instance. She is a major role model.  Some of these things were instilled in me when I was growing up. You can still manage your home, be a good wife and a good mother. Not everybody has the same resources, but there is juggling and in fact, if there is one thing I always say, it is all about investing in yourself. It may mean that I sometimes get four hours sleep instead of six or eight, but it is knowing why you are making these sacrifices. In terms of my work ethics as a person, it has always been to deliver. So it also depends on the kind of environment you find yourself in.

    When people realise that your work ethics is to deliver to the best quality, people will make concessions to the fact that you have to rush out sometimes for your child’s event. It is all about doing what you want for yourself and making those moves to get it. It is the socialising aspect that I really cut down on because I have to manage my life and my career is also important to me.

    Faith and mentoring

    I was brought up to know that God is always first. Through a lot of reading and my formatting career in the UK, one thing I never used to do was mix career and religion. I am a Christian, my parents were Muslims, but I was brought up in a situation where because there was no mosque surrounding where I grew up in the UK, my parents were of the opinion that we had to grow up as God fearing children, so we used to go to Sunday school. If there is one thing that I believe I have learned from this, it is that openness and knowing that there is God.

    I mentor young people on a constant basis. The generation gap is huge and expectations are very different. If you really want to do well at something, it is important that you are doing what you like.

    Marriage…God intervened at my hour of need

    I actually met my husband at work, which is very strange because I remember a friend of mine once asked, ‘You spend so much time at work. How are you going to get married?’ Honestly, this is where I said faith comes into play. I strongly believe it really was God. God intervened at my hour of need and gave me an absolutely amazing husband. I got married quite late probably because I was focused on my career. My husband understands the fact that I have a demanding job. He also has a very demanding job himself and somehow we have just been able to make it work. It is really God being the pillar of that relationship and it’s just been so good.

    It’s hard for me to talk about my marriage without smiling because I have a lot to smile about and I am really grateful to God. I just got a hundred per cent completely supportive husband. I also do my bit as well. It is really important that I also support him in the way that I can. So I have got an understanding husband, a nice family. I’ve got an eight years old and it’s been fun. I am just lucky that I am able to juggle work and career and family.

  • We lost many officers in Liberia because they were tricked by women into enemies’ trenches – Ex-ECOMOG soldier

    THE Liberian civil war ended about two decades ago but there are many facts about the war that are yet unknown to many, particularly as they relate to the engagement of Nigerian officers in peace keeping mission in the former war-torn nation. One of the officers that served in the first batch of the Economic Community Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) peace keeping mission was Prince Boko Babatunde, now the oba elect of Ikoga Zebbe, one of the most populous kingdoms in Badagry area of Lagos State.

    The amiable prince enlisted in the Nigerian army shortly after his secondary school education because of his childhood ambition of serving the country. But, as a young officer, he and his colleagues were oblivious of what the war front looked like until they got to Liberia.

    Hardly did they arrive in Liberia than the rebels struck and killed one of his colleagues during a parade. The incident made him and others who thought the mission was a child’s play to quickly have a rethink and approached the battle with all seriousness.

    Although he admitted that the battle was tough, the oba elect still relishes his love for the Nigerian Army. He said: “I have always had interest in the Nigerian Army, and that made me to opt for it shortly after my secondary school education. Back then in the secondary school, during our literary and debating group meetings about what we wanted to be in the future, I always told them that I wanted to become a soldier. That had been my ambition from childhood.

    “I was always looking forward to where I could have the opportunity of serving the nation, and the military always topped the list of all the places in my heart. Fortunately for me, God blessed my wish and I was enlisted in the Nigerian Army without knowing anybody or bribing my way through.

    “I wasn’t scared when I was asked to go to Liberia on peace keeping. I wasn’t at all. All I did was to go back home to tell my father who merely prayed that I would go and return safely. I never went with any other thing than my small Bible issued to us by the military.

    “As young officers, most of us thought the exercise was a child’s play when we go to Liberia. It dawned on us that it was a serious matter when we started seeing our colleagues felled in attacks launched by the enemies. But that didn’t deter us. Rather, it gingered us to face the battle squarely.

    “When we just arrived in Liberia, one of my friends became the first casualties of the rebels. We were on parade ground when they launched an attack and my friend was hit by their bullet. He fell and died instantly. We just heard a sound and the next thing we saw was his dead body. At that very moment, we buckled up and faced the challenge.

    “We were regularly given pep talks that as soldiers, that was what we signed for and we should not relent.”

    As a dogged fighter, he dismissed the relevance and efficacy of charms on the battle field, saying that those who depended on it during the Liberian war never returned home alive.

    He said: “The rebels could fire anyhow and run away because they were not trained. But we could not do that. We always fired when instructed to do so. Bullets were flying all around each time we were in battle with the rebels, but using the training we had received, one could dodge them.

    “I never used charms because, like I said earlier, I only went to the war front with the pocket Bible the authorities gave us and the prayer of my father. Charms cannot stop you from dying at the battle front because you are not using only guns. At the battle front, you had grenades, rocket launchers, armoured tanks, artillery guns and others. So, if you fortify yourself with charms to prevent bullets from penetrating your body, what about the other weapons?

    “We had many people who trusted in their charms and died. One of them was a friend from Ife. He was very rugged and banked on his charms. He entered rebels’ territories anyhow and ended up wasting his own life.

    “Fighting at the war front is based on instructions. If you don’t follow the instructions from your superiors, you are bound to fail. If they ask you to fire, you fire. If they ask you to advance, you do so. And if they ask you to pin down, you pin down.

    “If you follow those instructions to the letter, you will not have any problem.”

    While the soft spoken prince would ordinarily not have anything to do with bloodshed, he said that he never romanced his guns during the peace keeping mission.

    “I was given two rifles and I fired the rebels with them. Of course, I killed the rebels and that was normal because as an officer, you were taught not to romance the rifle but to defend yourself and kill the enemies.

    “In a war situation, we have a place called no man’s land. When you are fighting, you don’t cross that place. But when you ceasefire, you can cross it. We could go to rebels’ camp and they could come to ours. In fact, we used to attend parties and have fun together. But when the time for fighting resumed, everybody would withdraw. It was a guerilla war, and because many women had lost everything, they started following our men, especially those that could provide food for them, because that was a major problem for the people during war.

    “Some of our men slept with them but I didn’t have the mind to do so because that was part of the instructions, and I told you that if you obeyed the instructions to the letter, you would not have any problem. At times, some of the women were rebels. They would trick you to enter their trenches and after capturing you, they would use knife to cut your neck. That was how they killed some of our officers.”

    He also took exception to looting at war front, saying: “If you are also going to the war front with the mind of looting, you wouldn’t come back. You can ask any general about this. You don’t go to the war front with the aim of making money or enriching yourself. You are to go and fight and win. The issue of money is not there, except for the regular allowances.

    “I felt happy when our batch was asked to come back home for another batch to take over from us. It was a relief from sleepless nights, not having our bath and other discomforts. Some of our colleagues had their feet rotting because of constant wearing of the boot. So, we were happy to come back home to see our families.”

    Aside from his love for the military, Prince Sewanu is also a lover of sound education. Unlike his peers who jettisoned their education after enlisting in the army, he combined his love for the profession with his education. From being a secondary school certificate holder when he joined the army, he holds a master’s degree in Business Administration today.

    He said: “After completing my primary and secondary school education, I moved to join the Nigerian Army on July 10, 1986. I was in the army training school, in Zaria, Kaduna for six months. After passing out from there, I moved to 123 Battalion, Ikeja Cantonment as a Brigade of Guard. There I was with my commander then, John Madaki, who we used to call Jagua.

    “From there, I moved to apply to further my education and got admitted into Plateau State School of Accountancy and obtained an ordinary diploma. After the programme, I returned to the office to start the job. From there, I was added to the first batch of offices that were deployed to Liberia. I served there for six months.

    “Immediately we came back to the country, I became very hungry for further studies and proceeded to Nigerian Military School of Finance and Administration, Apapa to study Accountancy. After completing the National Diploma programme, I went for industrial attachment in an audit firm based in Maryland, Lagos.

    “After that, I went for my Higher National Diploma (HND) in Accounting at the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro.  After my HND, I went for my PGD in Business Administration and Masters in Business Administration at the University of Calabar.

    “After the programme, I was redeployed to Kaduna from where I was moved to Ibadan, 2 Div, 81 Battalion. It was while serving in Ibadan that the urge to return home and serve my people came up. I had to come to join the local government service as a senior staff. It was while there that I got the call from my people to lead them.”

    If there is any experience as an officer in the military that he would not love to remember or talk about, it was the late Major Gideon Okar’s coup, which shook the nation to its foundation.

    Recalling the incident, he said: “I witnessed the Gideon Okar coup. I was with a friend at the Ikeja Cantonment when we started hearing gunshots. I told my friend that, that could be a coup but he said it was robbers. Within a space of time, what I said was right. It was a coup. We quickly gathered and thought of what we could do. We dressed up and headed for the armoury. But on getting there, we discovered that they had taken over the place. We quickly withdrew and took cover till the following day when the coup was foiled. I don’t really want to talk more on the coup.”

    After accomplishing his dream of serving his fatherland, the dark complexioned prince gloriously took a bow. “I left the army because, to me, it is not a job but a call to serve the nation. When you have done the little you think you can do for the nation, you come out to do other things.

    When I decided to leave, I thought I had done my best and wanted to use my certificate to work elsewhere.”

    If he thought that leaving the military to enjoy his privacy was the next thing for him, the prince greatly mistaken. Not quite long after he left the army, his community, realising his immense leadership skills, drafted him to become their monarch. While it came to him as sudden, leading the people is not however strange to him.

    He noted: “Right from my primary school days, I have always seen myself as a leader. When I was in secondary school, I was given two portfolios when they were choosing prefects. This continued all through my academic life. So, it wasn’t a surprise when my people called me to come and be the monarch. It is a challenge, and I am ready for it. I have the burning desire of improving my community and the people, using the knowledge I have acquired travelling all over the country and beyond.

    “As a widely travelled person, there are so many developments and ideas that I have come across and want to replicate in the community. I love my community and the people and would always work for their interest. Discipline on all fronts is one thing that I will want to thrive in the area. When there is discipline, every other thing will fall in line.

    “I was sad when I heard about the abduction of the monarch of Iba. It was not a good thing at all. But I will say that there is little or nothing that the monarchs can do on their own to protect themselves while there is a lot that the government can do.

    “I am a family man to the core and I am always guided by the principle of contentment. Even though I’m a young man, I don’t go clubbing or engage in activities that could take the time I need to spend attending to my work. I do attend social functions and take time to enjoy myself at such functions, but I often relax in the company of my family.”

    For the youthful prince, having people like the Lagos State governor, Mr Akinwumi Ambode, and the Ooni of Ife excelling in their positions is the tonic that fires him up to serve the people.

    “I love and respect the Ooni of Ife, Oba Ogunwusi. He is redefining the traditional stool in the western part of the country and I would want to toe his path. I equally adore our hardworking and humble governor, Mr Akinwumi Ambode, for his achievements within the short time he came into office. Their commitment to changing the society gladdens my heart. Governor Ambode has shown that he is an exemplary leader and we will continue to support him with our prayers.”

  • REVEALED! Why owambe parties are thriving in spite of hard times

    IT was the first year remembrance of the family’s patriarch. The preparation for the main event began about three months ago with meetings on the sharing of responsibilities such as who would be in-charge of the aso ebi (ceremonial uniform), food and drinks, among family members.

    No expense was spared in organising the party. The venue, one of the many choice event centres located close to the Lagos lagoon, was filled with gaily-dressed people who turned out in various shades and colours of aso ebi.

    Of course, the menu was top class. All you needed to do to get served with steaming amala or any delicacy for that matter was to snap your finger. The drinks, ranging from the moderately soft to the highly expensive, were stored in a giant mobile refrigerated vehicle parked by the side.

    On the band stand was a popular fuji musician who sang the praises of the deceased man as the children, friends and other family members wound their waists to the thrilling sound that beamed from giant loud speakers. It was an open display of wealth and class.

    It is probably for such wild celebrations that Nigerians were rated as the happiest people in the world in 2011. That year, in a 53-country Gallup poll, Nigerians were rated at 70 points for optimism.

    Fast forward to 2016, Nigeria dropped to 103 on the happiest nation chart of the world, and 6th in Africa in the World Happiness Report. The World Happiness Report 2016 update, which ranks 157 countries by their happiness levels, was released in Rome in March.

    The reason for the drop may not be difficult to guess in the face of the current economic realities. Nigerians, irrespective of class or creed, are hard hit by the downturn in the economy.

    The surprise, however, is the fact that in spite of the harsh economic condition, Nigerians have continued to organise social events that tend to paint the picture that may not be as bad as they look.

    Investigations conducted by our correspondents revealed that rather than organising austere social events popularly called owambe, the menu list has widened to accommodate new delicacies, particularly in Lagos and other parts of the South West.

    Among a people who place high premium on how the children of a deceased old man or woman bury him, nothing short of an elaborate party is expected.

    “If you fail to organize a befitting farewell for your deceased father or mother, you are regarded as a failure,” says 70-year-old Emmanuel Ayodele.

    The septuagenarian, who said he had already told his children how he would love to be buried, said: “We are Africans and we don’t spare any expense in the way we honour the dead. Even if you have to borrow, you just have to make sure that you honour your dead parents.

    “It is for that reason that you hear people pray for children of the dead who organise befitting burials for their parents that their own children will reciprocate the gesture.”

    But it is not only for burials and remembrance parties that the people roll out the drums. It is same for weddings, naming ceremonies and even graduations, among others. And for these events, new innovations are brought in daily to add colour to them.

    Before now, the common foods served at social gatherings were limited to rice (white, jollof or fried), amala, eba and pounded yam. But all that has changed with the inclusion of new delicacies like beans and dodo (plantain), porridge, ofada rice wrapped in leaves, small chops, gbegiri soup and other variety of food on the menu list.

    Perhaps more interesting is the way amala is now served at parties. Instead of the old way of serving the delicacy wrapped in nylon and placed in containers, it is now served hot directly from a pot that is placed on fire as done by roadside food vendors popularly called Mama Put. It is even fortified with gbegiri or ewedu soup.

    The introduction of new delicacies, according to Mrs. Bolatito Balogun, is meant to give the guests wider choice of food.

    She said: “The main reason is to give the people more and better choices to pick from. However, aside from providing the guests with more choices, it has also added spice to the way parties are organised. Imagine being served hot amala at a party? You’ll agree with me that alone may attract anyone to want to try it.”

    Investigations by The Nation showed that the culture of African families joining hands to organise social events may be one reason why the effect of the harsh economy situation is not having significant impact on the frequency and intensity of parties.

    Our findings show that while the organiser of a social event would be the one to shoulder the major financial responsibilities, other members of the family are usually around to offer different forms of assistance.

    For instance, while the children of a deceased man or woman are responsible for organising befitting ceremonies for them, other family members, like cousins, uncles, aunties, nephews, nieces, friends and even neighbours are also actively involved. This pulling together of resources lightens the financial burden on the organiser and ensures that the party flourishes.

    According to a sociologist, Azeez Ibrahim, this form of assistance from other members of the family contributes significantly to the success of any social event.

    He said: “You know that the African culture is very unique for keeping the family as one. It does not matter whether you are uncles or aunties, our culture recognizes us as one entity. Therefore, whenever there is any social function that brings everybody together, it is the responsibility of the entire family to rise to the occasion.

    “That is the reason why you see different kinds of foods served at parties. Aside from the main foods served by the organisers of a party, other members of the family as well as friends and neighbours would also come with their own foods which they would serve to their own guests. That way, you take a lot of burden off the shoulders of the organizer of the party. It is one of the beauties of our culture,” Ibrahim said.

    According to Mrs. Adedayo Adeyemi, the boss of Seven Folds Events, a Lagos-based events planning outfit, while it has become an open secret that the nation’s economy is going through bad patches, its effects have not significantly manifested in respect of social parties.

    Adeyemi, a former banker turned events planner, said her experience between January up until now has not shown that Nigerians have toned down on social events.

    “As an event planner, I cannot really say that the harsh economic condition has affected the way Nigerians organise parties. As a matter of fact, no month has passed without me getting between three or four briefs.”

    She, however, explained that efforts have been made to cut down on waste, which she said people didn’t pay much attention to in the past.

    “One thing that you can say has changed significantly is that wastage has been reduced, if not completely eliminated. For instance, what we have now is that people base their preparations on the number of expected guests. In the past, what we had was that organisers simply cooked in large quantities without necessarily considering whether the food was too much.

    “But now, right from the time of preparing for the party, they would plan based on the number of guests. Afterwards, based on that information, the caterer would be advised to cater for that number of people. So, give and take, the caterer may add a couple of plates to those numbers. It is the same for drinks and other things that make social events successful.”

    Adeyemi, however, admitted that while there may not have any significant change in the way individuals organise social events, same cannot be said of corporate organisations who she said now organise only very important and unavoidable social events.

    She said: “You know that I also organise events for corporate entities. But the number of events we organise now have reduced. You see, those companies would organie only if it is very necessary. So, in that aspect, you can say that the economy has affected our job.”

    Speaking in similar fashion, another planner who caters to high society events, Mrs Bolanle Farotade of B-signature Events, said bookings had not reduced in spite of the economic crunch.

    “The truth is that despite the economic downturn, people are still having events. For the event industry, whatever form the economy takes, people still have to get married, celebrate birthdays, burials, corporate functions, and so on.

    “What I will say is that a lot of people are more cautious about how much they are spending. So, unlike before that you could go on lavish and all, I am not saying that we still don’t have some very big lavish events. We still do, but it is on the average.

    “Lots of people are trying to cut down on their spending. So, that is the one way I can say that it has affected the events industry.”

    According to her, the particular measures that have been adopted in cutting down cost have been to spend less on imports and look inwards for local manufacturers.

    “Since we also do decorations, there are lots of things that ordinarily I would have ordered from China or Dubai, but I am trying to find more ways of booking those things to help beat down the cost because of the high rate of foreign exchange.

    “Rather than buy from China, I would find someone that can make something for me locally. It is forcing us to look inward for the resources we have available to us and what we can do with that.”

    Farotade explained that despite the harsh economy, the people have resolved to move on and put the troubles behind.

    “You can’t say because of what is going on, you won’t move on. The way Nigerians are, no matter how bad the situation is, we always learn to adapt. So it is just that we may not be spending as much as we used to.

    “Although you still have big clients who would do big weddings and all that, you have those who will tell you they are trying to cut down cost,” she said.

    But Titus Igwe of Speedmeals Mobile Kitchen, an industrial catering outfit, insisted that the economy has had a devastating effect on the food industry. This, he said, can be attributed to the fact that 90 per cent of ingredients are sourced from outside the country.

    He said: “Many of our colleagues in the industry are not getting jobs like they used to. Many clients are turning wedding ceremonies into private ceremonies in order to reduce cost. The cost of food has gone up significantly. One kilogramme of chicken, which we used to buy for N6,000, is now N10, 000.

    “Now, a bag of rice is twice the price. Patronage has become so low compared to what we used to have. By this time last year, we would have seen companies talking about end-of-year parties. August–October is the peak period for weddings, but at the moment, not much is going on,” he said.

    He added that some corporate organisations, who before now provided food for workers, have stopped doing so.

    “Even workers who order food from Monday to Friday have reduced their orders to twice or three times a week. I went to an office recently and I noticed that when it was time for lunch, people were bringing out their food packs from their desks. Most workers now bring food from home to cut down on the cost of buying meals on a daily basis.

    “For an outfit like ours, we are now looking at menu change. Instead of serving rice daily as a staple meal, we are looking at what is very cheap in the market that we can substitute for rice.”

    The young entrepreneur, who lamented the fact that the country is at the mercy of imports, urged the government to encourage local production.

    “One reason why it is difficult to produce here is getting certification from the regulatory authorities. I know a friend of mine who is trying to produce our local seasoning and he has been struggling since to get NAFDAC certification. If it is that difficult for people to manufacture things in our own country, how can we be able to compete with manufacturers from outside the country?

    “The majority of the egg we consume here is imported through Cotonou. If you have that coming into the country, how can our own local poultry survive? I think it is God that brought us to this time for us to be wise by looking inwards. This is a wonderful opportunity that the government has to make a lasting impression.”

    The story is the same for Adetola Akinbiyi, manager of Nikoms event centre in the central part of Yaba, Lagos.

    According to him, the state of the economy has affected businesses negatively and there has been a drop in event dates.

    “Usually, we are booked from Thursdays to Saturdays. But now there are even few events holding on weekends. Clients are no longer booking like they used to. This makes the business less profitable, as we are losing to the cost of maintenance and logistics even when the cost of renting the hall has not changed.

    “We are running on diesel and the cost has increased from N150 to N190.”

    Akinbiyi further said that a hall, which is rented for N600, 000, usually gives about five per cent discount for week day events, such as luncheon, AGM and workshops among others. However, owing to the lull in the economy, they have been forced to reduce the rate by a larger percentage, so much so that the hall is now given out at N500, 000 on week days.

    “We are forced to do that because we don’t want clients to take the money away. People are now starting to fix burial reception for Wednesday rather than Thursday. The cost of maintenance has gone up and we cannot increase the rent rates. This is not minding the fact that we still have to pay our staff,” he lamented.

  • STRANGE! My mum and dad died same day, same time, same age, two years apart —UN Peace Ambassador, Princess Moradeun Ogunlana

    STRANGE! My mum and dad died same day, same time, same age, two years apart —UN Peace Ambassador, Princess Moradeun Ogunlana

    LAGOS born Ambassador for Peace of the Universal Peace Federation at the United Nations, Princess Moradeun Ogunlana, is a woman with many titles and good international recognition. Fondly called The Bridge by friends and associates, Princess Ogunlana grew up in the back streets of Lagos Island. Today, she is easily a world citizen.

    “I grew up here in Nigeria,” she said proudly in a conversation with our correspondent. “I was born and bred on Lagos Island. I lived the better part of my early life in Lagos. My father is the son of the late Obanikoro of Lagos, Oba David Ajasa Ogunlana. My uncle is the late Oba of Lagos, Pa Oyekan. That is my lineage.

    “I tell people who care to know that I am what can be regarded as a four-sided princess, because my father’s mother is the granddaughter of a former Akarigbo of Remo. So, I am bonded to Ogun State as well. And my mother is a princess from the Republic of Benin. Her mother is a daughter to one of the prominent kings. Her grandfather is from Ilorin. His mother was a Fulani woman and his father was an aborigine of Ilorin. That is why I am classified as a four-sided princess.”

    Growing up

    Like her ever-travelling ancestors, Moradeun’s father found livelihood in being a personnel of the Nigeria Air force. So, home was everywhere daddy worked or was transferred to! They lived briefly in Enugu, especially with their mother. At another time, they lived in Zaria.

    “My mum had a house in Zaria and Kaduna. Also at some point while I was growing up, she had a cold room in Funtua. Mother was a linguist who spoke about seven languages, including French, Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa. She was very fluent in Hausa, and that enabled her to do so much business in the northern part of Nigeria.”

     

    Family life

    Back in her parents’ house on Lagos Island, if you choose to call young Moradeun a tomboy, you would not have been too far from the truth, having grown up with three brothers even though the rest of her six siblings were girls.

    She said: “I have a brother that is older than me and I have one that is right immediately after me. The other ones are younger. So the three of us older ones saw ourselves as the ‘three musketeers.’ As the middle one, I was the troubleshooter and mediator between them. They are very gentle and not so troublesome like me. They later studied medicine and both of them are in the medical field. They are very quiet. I am the one always making trouble in the middle.

    “My younger brother has a clinic and they are both doing fine in their field. So, I am the one that will go out and say ‘we need some hospitals built over there.’ If my brothers hear, they say ‘okay, what can we do?’ And I would say, yeah, you can do this, you can do that. I can get somebody there that will help us with this. That is one of the good things I do, and I think that is one of the good things that has brought me this far, connecting people and connecting abilities.”

    But who did she really end up taking after? Her mother or her father?

    “Both in a way,” she said. “My father was ‘The Gentle Prince.’ That is what I call him. He was a man of courtesy who had deep respect for women. We were talking to a very prominent citizen during a recent meeting, and whenever I was getting inside the car, her son would open the door for me and I had to tell him, ‘You know, the last man that did that for me and the only man that ever did that for me was my father while I was in Nigeria in the late 70s and even abroad.’

    “At a time, my father was in Canada and when he came to pick us at my grandmother’s place, he opened the door for me to enter the car. That image never left my mind, and it is going to stay with me for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, my father passed away recently. We lost him.

    “The last four years of his life, he lived with my brother and I. The three of us were all in Texas then. So, we all took good care of him. He was very proud of the fact that he was ill and we were able to stand by him to take good care of him.”

    Her parents’ love story

    “My dad was 70 when he died. But I will tell you the story that is even more puzzling. It is the fact that exactly two years later, something happened. My father passed away in 2014. He died on May 19 at exactly 2:31 pm. This year May 19, at exactly 2:31 pm, my mother told my sisters that were there with her that she was so tired and that she wanted to go and lie down. She lay down and that was it. She passed away exactly the same time, same day two years apart.

    “That was how close they were. They knew each other when they were little, when they were young and they were really much in love with each other. So, when I got the call that she was gone, I was taken aback because I was even getting ready to make a post on the social media that two years ago, we lost a gem in the person of my father. I wanted to do something like that in his honour. I was getting ready to write the post when I got the call that my mother was gone. And all I kept saying was ‘the same day, the same time! I kept on saying that in great bewilderment. She was exactly 70 as well.

    “He was Prince Richard Adeniji Ogunlana and my mum was Alhaja Jemlat Adeola Ogunlana. My mother was a Muslim while dad was a Christian. They met in a very rare circumstance. My mother was born in Benin Republic and she came to Nigeria speaking only French and Yoruba, and when she came over here, she needed somebody to tutor her in English. That was how my father came into the picture. They fell in love and the rest is history. So, you can see they really lived and loved each other.

    Lessons I learnt from my parents’ lifestyle

    A child’s parents, they say, are the child’s first role models. So it has been with Princess Ogunlana. “My mother used to say be truthful to yourself, no matter what you do. And my father always said there are always good people. He said no matter how bad the situation could be, there is always a good thing coming out of it. Those two things I never forget.

    “My biggest motivation while growing up was my maternal grandmother. She is a self-made woman. When my father and mother both left for Canada, we were living with my paternal grandmother. So she turned out to be the one who left that impression of caring and making sure that not only do you get food on your table to eat but people around you get to eat also. Make sure there is something always there for people around you.

    “She left that impression in my mind, and that is one of the reasons why we cannot just rest until people around the world get the desired peace they need. It has also left with me the ability to celebrate people all over the world. And we are doing a lot of the celebration with our group, especially when we are talking about women all over the world.

    Sojourn abroad

    “I left Nigeria for the United States of America after my high school and I actually went to live in the State of Arkansas in the United States of America,” she recalled. Little did she know that fortune was about to smile on her. Soon after, she started playing in the big league of international society of commerce and diplomacy, and ever since, she has not looked back.

    Ambassador Princess Moradeun Ogunlana, as she is fondly addressed, is the President/CEO of Innovative Global Consulting Group of Companies. “It is an infrastructure, energy, business and economic development corporation connecting businesses in Africa to the world,” she explained.

    “I was recently inducted at the Universal Peace Federation at the United Nations as an Ambassador for Culture uniting USA and China by promoting culture, development and health wellness among women of the world and equally promoting peace. We have been doing a lot of things around the world in the last three years. I have also been a two-term commissioner with the Little Rock Cities Commission, Arkansas, USA, and one of the first black women to make history in business and diplomacy in the city of Arkansas.”

    Certainly not an easy feat for a black woman to accomplish, especially as also said rkansas was at a time a tough racial spot.

    She said: “When I first arrived in Arkansas in the 80s, it was a very racially segregated city. Now I look back to those days and recall some of the things I did then with nostalgia. Indeed, I did a lot of things. I was one of the first in terms of African-Americans to build relationships. I mean a person of colour for instance, to have a clothing store there. I had a clothing store because I was so busy taking African culture to the world. That was what I sold to America.

    “I was one of the first to have a black business in an environment dominated by white people. So, I was the face of African business and, of course, I had a network of great friends over there with which I did great exploits around the world. I mean beautiful people.

    “Arkansas is a place I call the quiet giant. I call it that because after we were able to break what I call the racial ceiling, we discovered that some of these acts were not even done deliberately. It was just because people didn’t know where their boundaries ended and where they needed it to begin. So, what I did was simple. I was the one that helped to cross some of those boundaries. And after I had crossed those boundaries, it was okay for everybody else to do the same.

    Both sides later found out and said, ‘Oh, so, we could do this? These people are not as bad as we thought.’ When you really find time to know a white person, you find that they actually love just like we do. So, we had to cross that bridge. I actually stepped into some zones because most of the time then, we stayed in our comfort zone and we didn’t want to step out of it. So, that was what I did, and I think it was my father’s nature in me that sprung out.”

    How she gained prominence in USA

    “I graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1991 with a B.A. degree in Journalism. I later studied International Consulting and Public Health Policy from Southern California University. My activities at the Chambers of Commerce and how I was able to connect people and bring businesses together thereby creating inter-racial relationship earned me the sobriquet The Bridge.

    “I was part of the new generation of black people who brought lots of innovations to Arkansas. I was later appointed as a member of the Chamber of Commerce. The very year President Bill Clinton was appointed, we were actually the one who hosted Clinton at that time. We had relationship with countries like China, South Korea and other like mind nations. We exchanged ideas for global socio-economic and socio-cultural benefit. I served my two-term tenure a total of ten years as a Commissioner with Little Rock Sister Cities Commission. I was then appointed by the Mayor of Little Rock as a Chamber of Commerce Ambassador.

     

    A citizen of different worlds

    Having lived much of her early life in Nigeria and also grown and melted comfortably into the American society, we asked her what the peculiar differences are between the American society and Nigeria. Princess Ogunlana had this to say: “There are lots of differences and there are lots of similarities too. That is because one thing is certain: people are people, no matter where they live on planet earth. You have good people and you have bad people. When you are unique, you will make people buy into your ideas. So, you can connect ideas with maximum benefit, and that is where I made a difference.

    Ever energetic, Princess Ogunlana set up The Global Summit Group Incorporated, which works in conjunction with international bodies across the world. The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of African Women’s Health Project International, a role she also plays, is the Chairman of the Global Summit Group Inc., among many other global concerns she is active on.

    Speaking on that platform, she said: “Globally, a lot of our people in the Diaspora and those living on the continent of Africa have come to realise that it is up to us to develop our continent. This is not about somebody coming from outside to come and help us change our fortune because all the human resources we need are all here for our development, especially in Nigeria.

    “Our country Nigeria is the central part of Africa and this is not a coincidence. If you even look at the map of Africa, you will see Nigeria lying directly at the epicenter. God has deposited so much on this land, so it is up to us to change our own destiny for good.

    “It is up to Africa to stand for her own greatness. Whether we are Nigerians living here or in the Diaspora, definitely, we want to be part of a change in our country.”

    So, when Princess Moradeun Ogunlana visited Nigeria recently, she came with a mission. Armed with a connection to another princess from the ancient Bini Kingdom, Mrs. Caroline Adeneye, a lawyer and wife of the Ogun State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Dayo Adeneye, she came to deliver a message to the First Lady of Ogun State, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun, in her capacity as the Convener of the Global Summit on Women Empowerment.

    “This year, the Global Summit on Women Empowerment in October will showcase the good works of some first ladies around the world. These will be ‘Her Excellencies’ that are doing great things with their platforms as wives of state’ executives or heads of corporations and NGOs; first ladies who are actually doing things from their hearts to develop humanity in their own spheres of influence.

    “When we took an x-ray of such people in Nigeria to see who could fit into our hall of fame to be the honorary recipient of the Global Lady Icon Award, we discovered Mrs. Olufunso Amosun, the First Lady of Ogun State, who runs an NGO called the Uplift Development Foundation, which has shown genuine course to the development of ordinary people in Ogun State.

    “For instance, her NGO, Uplift Development Foundation, is one of the biggest poverty alleviation movements in Ogun State that is changing lives in a rare manner. We went online and we saw pictures of great achievements she made with UPLIFT Development Foundation.

    “Uplift Development Foundation has over 18 subs-derivatives that cater for various sets of people in the various strata of the society. The one that gives a particular amount to aged women monthly is there. The one that gives skills acquisition strictly to the girl-child in the state is equally there. The one that de-worms school children in Ogun State, the one that discovers talents and sharpen them up for success; very amazing things we discovered about Mrs. Amosun and we said, of course, she is the one we think can conveniently stand with other female global achievers who have achieved something in their various endeavours.

    “Can I share some testimonies we got while researching her with you? Do you know Akpan Udoh, the best Nigerian under 17 goalkeeper who brought Nigeria an Olympic medal recently, was discovered by Mrs. Amosun through her Uplift Football Team in 2013? Now, that singular act of patriotism revealed two things about Mrs. Amosun. One, her Uplift Football Team Project, which is one of the over 18 Derivatives of her Uplift Development Foundation, goes around the three senatorial districts in the state to search for skilled footballers and sport loving kids and sponsor their talents with her resources. That is another area Africa is lagging behind. Not every child wants to go to school, but there are lots of kids with hobbies that could be monetized in the long run. Mrs. Amosun is seeing this big picture and she is extending her gesture towards that.

    “Secondly, Akpan Udoh is not from Ogun State. It is possible he is one of the many ordinary Nigerians from far flung distances who live in Ogun State. Yet Mrs. Amosun saw nothing bad in uplifting him and many others. She uplifted Akpan to the glory of her selfless service in Ogun State. But today, Akpan has given back to Nigeria. That is a milestone achievement we cannot take for granted.

    “However, the one that really touched our heart the more was during her 50th birthday recently. Instead of going into a ‘receiving spree’, Mrs. Amosun decided to go into a ‘giving spree’. And that was extraordinary. She launched a Green Revolution project for rural women on her 50th birthday and invited the wife of the President and Vice President of Nigeria to the event.

    “I learnt that the wife of the President asked other first ladies to emulate her ideas as it was something Nigeria needed at this moment. That is a presidential endorsement. Not only Nigeria is in need of a Green Revolution in Arkansas. We cherish such lofty ideas because Arkansas is a farming state.

    “On her 50th birthday, she also went under the bridge in Abeokuta to pick women selling adire traditional clothing with no option of ever renting a shop in their lives. She rented shops for so many of them just to take them off the hazards of selling their wares on public roads and equally empowering them. I personally have not seen that kind of passion for charity before. I am deeply touched and these, among several other things we discovered about her led us to our decision to honour her at the Global Council of Women for Development’s First Ladies forum and Economic Development Summit in Washington DC in October. She is one of the ambassadors of Global Change among ordinary people. She will also be a speaker at the First Ladies’ Forum and Economic Development Summit in Washington DC.

  • With my wife, it was friendship at first sight —Ambassador Baju

    YOU have been quiet for some time. Any special reason for that?

    Times are changing. Even in the political domain, there has been a lot of changes. So it requires one to really adapt to the situation on ground. And, of course, things are usually quiet between one election and the other. One, when a new government comes in, they need time to settle down to forge a direction politically, economically and so on, and everybody recognises the fact that a new government needs time to settle down. So things are generally quiet during such periods. But once we pass the half way mark, things start getting warm and a lot of activities come up towards the next election.

    You talked about a new government coming in. Do you think the Buhari government is settling down well?

    Well, I think the government is taking a lot of time to settle down. Some may understand this because it is a change from one party to the other, but most Nigerians may be impatient and rightly so because what they expected to see was a lot of changes economically, which has not happened. So, I think the government has its own strategy and it is taking its time.

    Some may not agree with them. I think now the government should be fully settled after one year. The government should be fully settled so that in the next two years, we will see the full thrust of activities by which they will then be judged, when they will now be ready to present either the same candidates for the same election or bring in some new candidates.

    Talking about settling down, your former constituency, the National Assembly, also seem to be finding it difficult to settle down…

    Yes, that is true. Well, it has been a lot of problems, particularly from this current National Assembly. A lot of things now seem to be coming out, which shows that the National Assembly has not fully positioned itself to carry out its functions. My advice is that the leadership of the National Assembly has to really settle down to the business of giving legislative expression to the feelings and aspirations of the people. There is a lot of in-fighting, rivalry and all that. Of course, the ruling party has a lot to do to get them in the right direction.

    Talking about in-fighting, the Speaker and some principal officers of the House of Representatives are at daggers drawn with one of its members, Hon. Jibrin, over allegations of budget padding which runs into billions of naira. As a former member of the National Assembly, how do you see all this?

    You will appreciate that some of us were in the National Assembly for a very brief period. I was elected in 1992 and the transition had not been concluded. It would have been successfully completed with the election of M.K.O. Abiola as president, but it was annulled by the military and then everything came crashing down. That is a pity because I think we had in that National Assembly highly respected people who were totally committed to making Nigeria a great place. But all the manipulations at the time and the grand design of the military to perpetuate itself in power had serious consequences for the nation. It drew the nation back so badly. But then, with the coming of democracy in 1999, the sacrifice of people like Chief MKO Abiola and those of us who had the opportunity to be there paid off eventually with democracy coming back in 1999.

    While the President thought he had his hands full with executive work and concentrated on bringing changes, the National Assembly was left to its own devices and the result is what we are seeing. The National Assembly has been left so much to its own devices and unfortunately, they did not take advantage of this. To a large extent, governors have been very dominant in their states. So, you do not have too much of arm twisting by the legislature. Governors were able to put them in check and I think that is to the credit of the governors. At the national level, we have had at best some ad-hoc arrangements which did not work for the interest of the nation.

    I will give you one example: the so called constituency projects. I think it is very unfortunate. Because if you look deep, it means the legislators are executing, and that is not supposed to be. The executive has its duty clearly defined and the legislature has its duty clearly defined. But when it gets to this stage of legislators now executing, legislators having allocations, I think both the executive and the legislature are to blame. That is a kind of very shoddy arrangement at best, which was bound to lead to this kind of disastrous consequences we are now witnessing.

     

    In other words, you are seeing the crisis more from the fact that the legislators left their statutory responsibilities and tried to make incursion into what ordinarily should be the responsibility of the executive?

    Definitely, that was what happened. And having successfully created the so called constituency allowances, projects which the executive did not certify, they felt also that they are free to manipulate the budget.

    Are you saying legislators have no business executing constituency projects?

    Definitely yes. You see, the basic duty of the legislators is not even to propose budget. But when you start putting something like constituency projects, then you are also proposing budget. Mr. President was supposed to come and say, ‘I want to build this dam; it is going to cost me N700 million.’ The legislature is supposed to, one, check. Do we really need this dam? Is it in the right place? Is it at the right time? And then check whether the N700 million in the budget is in order. In other words, acting on behalf of the people to say, ‘This should not cost 700 million, it should cost N600 million. But a situation where the President says he wants to spend N700 million and the legislature says N700 million is too small, spend N800 million, it is crazy. That is totally out of it.

    Yea, it is possible that the executive has not done proper homework. In which case, N700 million may not finish the project. In such a situation, the legislators should reject the project and point out the deficiencies, not to now turn around and increase it to N800 million or one billion naira. That has been happening under this republic. I don’t think that it had been like that before. There are a lot of things that have gone wrong.

    Don’t you think the president was arm-twisted by the legislative arm into accepting the additions to the budget? I remember that after the initial alteration by the National Assembly, the President refused to sign the budget.

    A President who is competent should be able to stand his ground. That is why he has the mandate of the people to be President. If you want to stand firm and do the right thing, it is extremely important that he should. In fact, no president could have a valid excuse to say he was arm-twisted; that will never be a valid excuse. So, that is where we started getting it wrong. So, it now got to the point of the so called insertions and so on. Those things are wrong. I think this is an opportunity for us to go back to the drawing board and get it right.

    I think I have a lot of admiration for Hon. Jibrin for being able to come out. And also some of his colleagues. These things have been there for years. Now to see one of them come out and stand firm, I think he should be commended. And I think the government should seriously investigate and once and for all clear all these mess.

    You were the Nigerian Ambassador to Cuba. The Cuba you left behind then is not the Cuba we have currently. Its row with America has been settled, with the American President visiting the country. How do you think that this development will impact on the country and its relationship with countries like Nigeria?

    Well, in the last 60 years, Cuba has been changing. Don’t forget that Cuba was under the former ruler, Gen. Batusta. Things were very bad for the people and then the emergence of Fidel Castro. You know sometimes things have to get worse to get better. When Fidel Castro was there, a lot of Cubans migrated to America, and many of those people who migrated were the highly skilled and the rich people. There was great disparity between the rich, very rich, and the poor, very poor. At that time, life expectancy was very poor, particularly among the very poor. So, over the years, the government started this mass programme of paying a lot of attention to training in the area of medicine, health care and so on, which has paid off because after about 40 years, they became so self-sufficient that they began to export medical doctors and medical personnel all over.

    Of course, that came at some cost. One of the costs was incurring the wrath of the United States of America and coming under the embargo of the United States, a neigbour that was just 120 miles away, and a very powerful neighbour. The people have been able to withstand that at a great cost.

    But things started unfolding with President Obama coming into office some seven years ago. Apparently he has that as part of his plans to ease tension between the two countries. So, the development that we have witnessed in the past one year has been a tremendous boost to socio-economic development of Cuba, because as you know, Cuba depends a lot on tourism and Americans were barred from travelling to Cuba. It does not mean that no American went to Cuba. Some of them did go, but they had to go through a third country.

    Two years ago, Cuba still managed to have about two million tourists, but with the easing of tension, it has jumped to three million. I think that is a positive development; an initiative of President Obama. I think the two countries should be able to build on this and establish diplomatic relationship up to ambassadorial level.

    You have served your term in the foreign mission and you are a bit quiet on the political terrain. What are you currently into?

    I have always been in business since 1983. I have a profession, which is safety management. I am a safety management consultant. So, even in between the time when I served, I always had to come back to business. Since I returned from my diplomatic assignment in Cuba in 2011, I have been back in business.

    Of course, I have also been active in some sort in politics, giving support to my party. So, if I am called in any capacity to serve, I will. Otherwise, I will be back to business.

    How would you describe your early life?

    I am from Ile Ife. I was born in Ile Ife and I spent my first five years there. But my father was an inspector of education. He was an employee of the Western Region. So, every two or three years, he was moved from one town to the other. So, I found myself in Ilaro, now in Ogun State, where I had my primary one, and then to Lagos where I had primaries two and three.

    Again, I had to move to Sagamu in Ogun State and finished in Ado Ekiti. For secondary school, I was at Ekiti Parapo College and I had my HSC at CMS Grammar School, Lagos. I had a stint at Ahmadu Bello University. I studied Education. In 1978, I did my youth service in Lagos and started working for a number of years before I started my own company.

    Do you see yourself as one from a privileged home?

    I would say middle class home.

    How did your father’s position influence your growing up?

    It did. I was able to mingle with people from different parts of Nigeria from very early age. From age five to about 12, I moved to so many towns, even tried to learn the dialect. For a while, I thought I could speak Ijebu. And in Ekiti, I was able to grab some words. So, the exposure was very good for me. But I was always coming back to Ife for holiday, particularly in December. I was still able to maintain some level of contact with my age mates.

    Your father was an educationist. What are some of the things you picked from him?

    I discovered that in those days, inspectors of education were well respected. Any time he had to visit a school, the level of preparation that went into receiving him was so much that the pupils and the teachers would make sure everything was in order. And because the inspector would come at any time, they were always on their toes. The quality of education at that time was very good.

    Did that put extra burden on you?

    Well, I wasn’t thinking that far really. But I enjoyed schooling and everything. But one thing that was clear to me was that I would not end up in the civil service.

    Why?

    I wanted the freedom…

    And you don’t think your dad had that freedom?

    Well, I think he was confined in a way. If you are a civil servant, you were not supposed to make money, and you were not supposed to have any other job, and we were a fairly large family. So, I just reckoned he still had it tough paying school fees for all of us. I remember that my father paid my school fees in installments. My school fee was 60 pounds at that time, and he issued a cheque of five pounds a month to cover the year, because I had three people ahead of me and others behind me.

    I knew that despite his position, he still had to be meticulous for him to be able to cope. So, I did not see myself as a civil servant. I saw myself either in the private sector or going into business. That was very clear in my mind even though we did not discuss it.

    How was the home front with a large family?

    It was good. Everywhere we went to, we were well received and we quickly settled down. We enjoyed school and we made good friends along the way, then moved on, and equally made new friends again. So, it was nice and home was good.

    Let’s talk about your social life…

    I am an outgoing person even though I may be more reflective. But I enjoy meeting people. I enjoyed sports in school. I consider myself a sports enthusiast. I enjoy watching television, I enjoy watching sports channels, I enjoy watching documentaries. These days, I also play golf. I enjoy the exercise and the challenge the golf course proofs.

    I am a member of the Lions Club. I joined the Lions Club about 30 years ago. I was quite active there, I became the president of my club, Ikeja Lions Club and I held so many other positions at the district level and became the district governor. I have attended many conventions within Nigeria and internationally.

    How did you meet your wife?

    Well, we happened to work in the same area…

    Was it love at first time?

    No, it was not love at first sight. But it was friendship at first sight. She was working with First Bank in Marina and I was working at Femi Johnson also in Marina. So, we met, chatted and had a couple of lunch. Then we became interested in each other. It was like that for about five years before we eventually got married.

  • What is in your hand?

    Human beings appear to be in a permanent state of dissatisfaction with their lives. We don’t like who we are or what we look like. We don’t believe what we have is good enough. We don’t think what we can do is adequate. To make matters worse, we tend to prefer what belongs to someone else. Unfortunately, this has affected our attitude to most things in life, even opportunities. We tend to look far into the distance in search of great opportunities while we despise the ones closest to us.

    Dr. Russell Conwell, in his all-time classic titled “Acres of Diamonds” told the story of a wealthy Persian named Ali Hafed. Ali had great gardens, farms, grain fields and orchards. He was contented with his possessions, well, until an ancient Buddhist priest paid him a visit. The priest told him that a diamond the size of his thumb could buy him a country while he could have great influence and place his children on thrones with a diamond mine. Almost instantly, Ali felt poor because he became aware of what he didn’t have but could have. His sense of loss was so great that he couldn’t sleep. Eventually, Ali took off in search of diamonds in rivers running through white sand between high mountains but not before selling his entire possession and leaving his family with a neighbour. He journeyed through Palestine and Europe. By the time he arrived at Barcelona, his money was all spent; out of wretchedness, poverty and depression, he flung himself under a great tidal wave and ended his journey there.

    Meanwhile, the man who purchased Ali Hafed’s farm took his camel out into the garden for watering one day and noticed a curious black stone reflecting light. He took it home and displayed it as a decoration until the same old priest who told Ali about diamonds came to visit. The priest recognised the stone as a piece of diamond to the surprise of Ali’s successor. They both rushed to the garden and discovered several other stones like it. According to Dr. Conwell, it is historically true that the garden became the most magnificent diamond mine known to mankind.

    Aren’t a lot of us like Ali these days? We go in search of what we already have just to appreciate it after we have lost it. Dr. David Oyedepo puts it aptly when he said “If you think enough, what you have is enough”. Unfortunately, we hardly take time to think before we embark on our quests for fortune. Here are a few lessons we can learn from Ali Hafed:

    • Wealth is perception and perception is wealth: a wealthy man may become poor overnight without losing a dime if he decides what he has is nothing compared to what he wants. On the other hand, a poor man may become wealthy overnight without earning a dime if he realises that he has gifts no money can buy. A positive state of mind is the foundation for success.
    • Use what you have to get what you want: no matter how meager what you have is, it is the key to what you can have. If a farmer decides that his seeds are too meagre to plant, he will forfeit his harvest. Instead of using his wealth to fund an expedition while still running his business, Ali decided to sell all and he lost all.
    • Exhaust all possibilities before moving on: we are usually too quick to conclude that our present conditions lack the potentials to produce our desired results. Before you give up on that job, relationship or business, make sure there are no benefits you have missed out on all this while.
    • Become unfamiliar to appreciate what you have: sometimes, we become too familiar with what we have and we miss out on its benefits. Have you ever become tired of your smart phone and you wanted to replace it yet someone else seemed so excited about the phone? Within a few minutes, the person might have explored functions you never knew existed on the phone. The fact that you consider your phone indispensable doesn’t mean you maximise its functions.
    • What you have may be the original: when you think your hands are empty, you are perhaps not looking close enough. Don’t be too quick to drop what is in your hand, it may be the original.

    There are several lessons we can learn from the story of Ali Hafed. Why not share your own lessons by mailing your comments.

    Dr. Amodu teaches at the Department of Mass Communication, Covenant University, Ogun State.

  • My encounter with woman who wanted an affair at all cost – Lagos high chief and top socialite turned preacher

    His life is a replica of the biblical Jonah. He got a divine call to serve God but ran to far away United States of America because he was not only a high flying socialite but a high chief in Lagos. But he faced the storm of life in the US and knew no peace until he returned to Nigeria to start a church.

    The eventual submission of Rev. Oluwafemi Emmanuel Iroh to God’s will has seen him prospering as a clergyman, but not until he has endured temptations that would stretch the patience and endurance of many beyond tolerable limits. These include having to leave apart with his wife for 12 years with temptations from women who were desperate for affair.

    Cash-strapped and penurious, all the effort he made to dispose his huge collection of properties just to raise enough money to rejoin his wife in the US failed. He struggled with life until his large collection of exotic cars drained into a rickety Peugeot 504 before fortune began to smile on him once again.

     

    The beginning

    Pastor Femi Iroh, as he is now widely known, is an indigene of Sagamu, Ogun State, where he was born before his parents moved to Lagos around 1962.

    “But things went sour when after I finished primary school, I couldn’t proceed to secondary school. I had a Lagos State scholarship but there was no one to push me through. I ended up staying at home, helping my father to take palm wine from Isheri to Surulere to sell. I did that for about three years,” he said.

    But that low beginning did not stop Iroh. He collected notebooks and reading books from friends to study at home most evenings.

    He said: “I was a school prefect when I left MTC School Mushin in those days. I started to self-educate myself at home. After sitting at home for four years, the Principal Cup (football competition) came up. I was skillful in football, so I went for test at Western College of Commerce, Yaba and luckily I was selected as a footballer.

    “I was given admission to start from class four. I never read classes 1 to 3. Luckily for me, I was brilliant. When I was in class four, my friends in class five used to come to me to put them through in academics.”

    Once in school, Iroh faced his academics and emerged out of secondary school with a Grade 3, which was just as good for one who wasn’t in school until he joined in Year 4.

     

    The road to becoming a banker

    A restless student, Iroh had unknowingly got an education in typing and shorthand and was capable of typing 50 words per minute. He could also write 120 words in shorthand within a minute even before he went to school.

    He did not know the value of what he had until he finished secondary school and went for an interview for a clerical job. There, the personnel manager who interviewed him saw his interest in a typewriter and asked if he could type.

    “I told him I could type 50 words per minute and that I could write 120 words of shorthand per minute. He was dazed. Another interview was immediately done, which I passed.

    “So, instead of a clerical job, I became a confidential secretary. And that was how God began to bless me further. From there, I did my AIB. I went to National Bank where I left years later as an Assistant Bank Manager. That was in 1987.

    “From there, I went to America, came back and started my business.”

     

    Life as a philanthropist and socialite

    “Oh yes, I was a giver,” said Femi Iroh. “I did help a lot of people. I used to go out with a convoy of between five and ten cars to social events. I was that loud. Though people knew my wife and I for the parties we attended, but they also knew us more for giving to people.”

    According to Iroh, it was his philanthropic disposition that won him a chieftaincy title from the Lagos royal palace. “That was just who I was, and that actually brought people to me.

    “An influential Lagosian called Alhaji Alli Balogun sent his son who is now Otunba Dapo Balogun to me. When he called for assistance, it was a little sum. But in those days in 1993, it was a big amount too.

    “I said, ‘Daddy, is that why you are calling me? Please send someone to come right away.’

    “He sent his son. When he received it, he called back and said, ‘So you are still doing these good deeds. I will reward you for this thing that you have done.’

    “He asked me, ‘How would you love being conferred with a chieftaincy title in Lagos?’ I was dazed.

    “He told me to send my curriculum vitae. I sent it to him. It passed through a process, with Chief Michael Otedola, the then governor, finally approving.

    “Few weeks later, the man called me to his house in Lagos. I went with my wife and there I was handed two envelopes, one for me and one for my wife.

    “This was a man I came in and prostrated to greet. But immediately I opened the envelope, saw the letter which read that I had been confirmed with the title of the Borokini of Lagos, and my wife, Yeye Borokini of Lagos, I made out to prostrate but I was held back. I was told I could never prostrate again because it had become a taboo.

    “After that, I was told all the taboos of the title. I shivered. That was how I got the chieftaincy title.

    “While it lasted, it was good. My wife and I were everywhere in the society.

     

    Life on the social plane

    “Like I told you, my wife and I used to move in a convoy. I was popular with the top musicians too. But when I finally heeded God’s call, the top musicians knew it was over and they left me alone. They knew that the past life I lived, was gone, especially Wasiu (K-One De Ultimate). The money I used to spend there was over.

    “When I used to attend parties, I would spend and spend and end up borrowing to spend more. Can you beat that? It was madness! I had someone who used to hold the bag or carton. I would spray money and keep spraying. There was always a money changer on hand. I would finish the money I came with and borrow from the money changer to continue spraying. The money had to finish before I would leave the party.

    “Now I just bless God, because I have never had cause to look back and I have no regrets. I am happy about this life that I am living and I know that there is no better life.”

     

    The call to ministry

    The life of glamour had to come to an abrupt end for Iroh after he got a divine call.

    He said: “At a point, the Lord told me to relinquish my (chieftaincy) title. He told me that I should come over to carry His cross and take His own title. It was a difficult thing to do. So I resisted. I moved to America with my family. Life in America was good until things started changing.”

    Iroh recalled that he had landed properties in Nigeria but buyers were not forthcoming. Business became bad. He therefore had to return to Nigeria.

    Upon his return to Nigeria, the call came to him again.

    He said: “In 1998 when I came back from America, the Lord told me to relinquish the title and go for His work. So I said where would I go? I struggle on and finally decided in 2000 to think about God’s calling.

    “In year 2000, I went to a bible college. But in 2003, I still tried to return to America but I couldn’t. I wanted to go and meet my family. I got to the airport, the road was closed even though I had a visa for five years, which eventually expired. I got another visa for five years, which also expired. Since then, I have not been able to leave the country.”

    While at the bible school, his friend, an influential Northerner who was close to the Emir of Kano with possible Arewa support, sought his participation in the governorship race in Edo State. That prompted Iroh to suddenly turn his mind to politics.

    He was told to provide just 20 per cent of the campaign funds while his influential friends would provide the 80 per cent. He was pleased.

    “I was to collect a letter from Oba Oyekan, which would be handed over to the Emir to facilitate my being accepted,” he said.

    But his pastor had a message for him. “I told my pastor about it. He told me that it was good to contest but that I would get my fingers soiled. He told me to ask for my purpose. I went and prayed and God told me ‘Christ unity,’ that I should build the body of Christ. I didn’t know what it meant then, but I later knew.”

    Iroh’s influential northerner suddenly took ill and was flown to London. He could not return before the elections were over. It was a sad moment in his life.

    Faced with dwindling fortunes and inability to return to America to be with his family, Iroh succumbed finally to God’s call and started the Christ Unity Ministry in 2004.

    The royal visitation

    As a traditional chief and a once influential individual, the palace was concerned. So an emissary was sent to meet him.

    He recalled: “The palace was concerned. In fact the present ruler, Oba Akiolu, is a friend. He was the one that advised me to return from America to Nigeria. When he became the Oba, I recall that I visited him at an earlier period. I went there to pray and thank God for his life. Since then, I have not seen him.

    “However, in 2007, he sent the Bajulaiye of Lagos to me with a few other traditional title holders, who brought the message that even if I have relinquished the title, at least I should still be coming around and still be making appearances in society circles.

    “But as it turned out, when they arrived, they met me in church. I led them to Christ and prayed for them. That was the last time they visited me and I have not gone to the palace too.”

    Asked if he was not worried that his financial condition could depreciate further with a decision to go into ministry work at that point, robust looking Iroh looked up and said: “At that point, I had no doubt or fear at all because God had shown me that everything belongs to Him. He took me on the hard way. He said riches and gold belongs to Him. He told me before I started that He would never forsake His own child and neither will I see a servant of God’s children beg for bread.

    “I had no regret. But I went through that wilderness, begging to feed, though I didn’t mind because I saw joy ahead of me. I was in plenty but I was hungry. But again, I was not poor. I saw my investments, but they refused to turn to cash! I had property in multiples of millions of naira, which did not turn to cash.

    “For instance, I had a property on this same road which now will soon be sold as much as N170 million. I wanted to sell it at N5m then but we couldn’t find a buyer. Someone who came to buy ran away because he couldn’t understand why we wanted to collect so little for such a vast investment; one acre of land with four flats on it. He refused to believe such desperation for money.

    “But even in such a situation, I never looked back. I didn’t abandon my calling.”

    The vow

    “There was one thing that I did before now. That was when I came back and my wife was still abroad. I vowed to God that if I went into a woman aside from my wife, God should kill me. And I continued that ‘Father, as long as I do not do that, don’t let my wife do it there too.”

    That vow became my strong weapon and that was what kept me all those years. Of course, the temptations were there, but I ignored all of them.

    Asked if he kept the vow, Iroh replied, ‘Yes, I had nothing to do with a woman for those 12 years that I did not see my wife. I was here in a wilderness experience. The strange aspect is that all through those years, despite not seeing each other, we didn’t quarrel. The calling was total.”

    The trials

    Iroh recalled that even while he was in the world, he was still always fasting and praying. He said that even for his juju while he was in the world, one of the don’ts was to stay away from women!

    He added: “The fasting and prayer helped me to stay away from women. That also helped me not to have a child outside my matrimonial home.

    “As for the women, they were there, plenty of them, but I knew as a rule, I was not to do anything with them. Big girls flocked around, women came from everywhere, but I did not do it. So when I agreed to start working for God, I held unto the vow.”

    But did the women leave him alone? He said as some did, new ones would come up. “By the time they found that I was for God, it became a new story. They started to stop coming. They saw the true calling.

    “But even when I started the church, they still kept coming. I had experiences. But let me share one with you: I had a friend who was a top official in the police force. He introduced me to a girl. We went to her house, ate and afterwards I was to go. But when we got outside, she grabbed me. She said she would not let me go; that I had to have her since I didn’t have anyone. She asked why a handsome man like me should remain alone for so long. I was shocked. I had to start begging her that we were in the public, but she said she did not mind, that I had to accept her.

    “I told her I could not do it. She said pastors do it, that all it takes is to pray for forgiveness after doing it. When I realised how serious she was, I pleaded with her and told her that we would talk about it. She held unto me and said, ‘kiss me.’ I told her that I was married. She replied that she knew but that my wife was not in Nigeria. I told her to come to my office so we could plan it properly. When I talked to her like that, she released me.

    “She said her father was an accountant in one of the foreign airlines in the country. She assured me of good business. But when she came, I called it off in a manner that she couldn’t come back. She left because once they see the spirit of God in you, they will not come near you. They will run away. But one also has to know the word and also flee from every appearances of evil.

    “I had challenges with money. When my wife eventually returned from America to join me here, I was down to only a Peugeot 504 car. That was in December 2006. That same week she returned, the car broke down in the middle of the road. That is one of the reasons that I love that woman till today.

    “A woman who had been in America for 16 years returned and the car broke down in the middle of the busy road. She came down and was pushing the car. I couldn’t believe it! She was pushing the Peugeot and I asked God, what kind of thing is this? What kind of embarrassment is this? Me, who used to be the Borokini of Lagos now pushing a Peugeot 504 with my wife? I wept.

    “But later I realised that without a story, there can never be a glory. Without a cross, there cannot be a crown. I’m most grateful today. I look back and thank God. I am filled with joy.”

    The revival

    Years later, Rev. Iroh, as he became, built God an edifice where he ministers and evangelises. Twelve years later, we asked him how the journey has been.

    “It has been awesome. God has been showing Himself mightily here. I remember in 2006, the Lord used me to deliver a lady who had paralysis. She is from a popular family in Lagos. She had been paralysed for over a year. I went to minister to her at a specialist medical hospital off Adeola Odeku. The family used to know me as Borokini of Lagos.

    “When I got there, the mother was shocked to see me with a giant sized bible. She couldn’t help herself. She had to ask outright, ‘Is this our chief carrying a big bible?’ The size of the bible was like four in one.

    “She asked another person there in the hospital, ‘I hope this man has not gone kolo o?’ When I got near her, she told me her daughter was paralysed. I told her not to worry. I went in to pray; her husband was there with his friends, and the Lord did wonder.

    “Someone who had been paralysed for one year, the Lord delivered her. After about 30 minutes battle with the devil, she recovered. A mad woman was delivered too. People who sought for the fruit of the womb were delivered of babies. So God has been doing wonders. I never doubted God’s power.”

    The new look

    Life for Iroh and his beautiful wife, Olufunmilayo, revolves around the ministry. Still looking much like a banker that he was in those days, the preacher, though 60, still looked yuppie and dandy.

    So what is the secret?

    “It seems like I keep rejuvenating (laughs). The truth is that I do nothing to keep healthy. The secret to my good features and physique is fasting and prayers. There is no week I do not fast three or four times. Last year I fasted from June and ended in December. And in between, I go seven days without food or water.

    “To look this way at 60 means glory to God. Our first child is now 34 years old. Some people say I’m 40, especially when I cut my hair low. I have never dyed my hair in my entire life. It is God at work.

     

    The fashion, the style

    Curious as to how his sense of fashion would have been in his heyday in high society and the probable disparity it would be now, we asked him and he laughed, “Of course, it’s different now. As a matter of fact, the moment you give your life to Christ, you are consumed totally. Your mode of dressing will change. Nobody will tell you. You will have that inner conviction that this is the way you will dress. No more flamboyancy.

    “The scripture says that we should be moderate. The traditional beads that go with chieftaincy titles and so on, all that had to go! Those were the first things to go (laughs again). I had to relinquish them. I didn’t need them anymore.

    As one who has been through life’s different situations, Rev. Iroh had a parting shot. Shaking his head in deep thought, he said: “You asked what life is. My kid brother asked me same after I fasted for days and transited to heaven.

    “I had this answer for him: life is vanity. All is vanity. Yes, we need money, car, and light and so on, but they are temporary issues. We should focus on eternity. If one lives so much, you can’t live outside 150 years. In short, you will regret life then. What preparations are we making here towards eternity? That should be our major focus.”

  • Tompolo and his men can’t withstand us -Itsekiri People’s Congress founder Ekwejunor-Etchie

    Prince IsholaEkwejunor-Etchie is the founder of Itsekiri People’s Congress a.k.a.Agbukumasa. The group came into existence as a result of some problems that confronted the Itsekiriethnic nationality between 1997 and 2003.  Ekwejunor-Etchie bares his mind on the alleged neglect of Itsekiriland by the governments at federal and state levels, but he says his group will never be part of the destructive campaigns of the Niger Delta Avengers. He spoke with HANNAH OJO

    What was the motivation for the establishment ofItsekiri People’s Congress?

    The Itsekiri People’s Congress came into existence as a result of the problems that confronted the Itsekiri nation between 1997 and 2003. The problem then was the issue of the headquarters of Warri South Local Government, which degenerated into a suicidal war between us and our Ijaw brothers. It got to a crescendo in 2003 where virtually all Itsekiri villages were burnt.

    It suffices to say at this point that the Nigerian state forsook the Itsekiri nation. They could not provide security for us at that time and even up till now.  The Ijaw, then led by Tompolo, killed and maimed Itsekiri sons and daughters, so we resorted to self-help. That self-help gave birth to Itsekiri People’s Congress a.k.a. Agbukumasa.  The average Itsekiri man knows the meaning of Agbukumasa. It means we don’t run away from death.

    What has been your approach in agitating for the rights of the Itsekiri nation? Do you resort to militancy or dialogue?

    It was as a result of failure on the part of the Nigerian state that we went into getting arms to defend ourselves. But after the resolution of the crisis in 2004, we dropped our arms because the Itsekiri man is not known for violence. If you go into history, you will discover that the typical Itsekiri man has no penchant for violence. We believe in dialogue.

    When the issue of amnesty came up, we returned all our arms to the federal government. But suffice to say that the federal government did not give the Itsekiri any amnesty slot.

    The reason was that the amnesty was politicised. The government of the day at that time was skewed to the Ijaw nation so the Itsekiri nation was marginalised.  It took a lot of pressure before they were able to give the Itsekiri nation some slots of the amnesty, which does not conform to the reason for the amnesty.  Up till today, the Itsekiri man languishes in abject poverty in the midst of plenty.

    The general impression is that poverty is something that is peculiar that applies to the whole of Niger Delta. Why make a case solely for the Itsekiri?

    It looks as if it is just only the Ijaw that are in the Niger Delta. No! The Itsekiri are also prominent in the region. I want to make it clear to you that Itsekiri land produces more than 30 per cent of the oil revenue of this country.  And the Itsekiri nation also has gas reserve.  The contribution of the Itsekiri nation to the economy of this country, compared to what theItsekiriget in return, is nothing to write home about. The fact is that we don’t have a pedigree for violence. That is the reason why we are coming out now. We are coming out to make the government know that our silence does not mean that we don’t know our rights.

    The Itsekiri nation has no electricity, no schools, no potable water and no health facilities.  I make bold to ask anybody to go and visit Itsekiri land. I visited recently and I have a video clip to show to the whole world. We cannot continue like this. The government does not think about us, not to talk of the oil industry.

    What was the relationship between the region and government during the dispensation of former President Goodluck Jonathan?

    The typical Itsekiri man has a lot of pride in him because of his upbringing. When Jonathan was there as president, he was skewed more to the Ijaw people and he abandoned the Itsekiri people. You can see how long it took Jonathan to come and commission the EPZ project in Ugborodo and you can see the political undertone that took place in that time. But where is the EPZ today? It is a white elephant project that has not seen the light of day.

    Since 1965 when Gulf Oil came intoItsekiri land to explore oil, they have been contributing steadily to the economyof this country. But the Nigerian government, I make bold to say, has not taken care of us.  The places where the oil comes from are not even protected.

    What has been the contribution of prominent Itsekiri sons and daughters to the agitation of the Itsekiri nation?

    The only nationally acclaimed Itsekiri man which this country recognised was the late Chief Festus Sam Okoti-Eboh. Obasanjo gave the minister of state for defence portfolio to DrOritsejafor for just two days. For a land that produces 30 percent of the economic stay of this country, as I speak with you, there is no minister, no special adviser or assistant to the president from the Itsekiri nation. There are no ambassadorial appointments given to an Itsekiri man. Are you trying to tell me that we are not educated but our land is good enough to extract economic stay? It is not done anywhere in the world.

    What is your relationship with some other militant groups in the Niger Delta, particularly the Niger Delta Avengers?

    I told you originally that the Itsekiri man has no penchant forviolence. So we don’t apply ourselves to violent approach to agitation.  We do our things genuinely, with intelligence. We don’t destroy our ecosystem or our property in the name of agitation. Agitation is done all over the world, but not through violence.

    Not that the Itsekiri man cannot give violence. The ijaw man is a good witness to the kind of violence the Itsekiri can give. Me speaking to you, Tompolo knows me. I fought him to a standstill and drove him out of the Niger Delta. I am the founder of Agbukumasa and it came into existence as a result of the self-help we resorted to. I don’t have a pedigree for anything violence, I came from a very strong family. My father was a minister under Chief ObafemiAwolowo.

    My father, Chief G.E Ekpejunor-Etchie was a royal.He was the chief-priest of the Warri kingdom.  I have taken after him. I cannot sit down and allow my people to be marginalised to this great extent.  If you go to the armed forces, hardly will you see an Itsekiri man. When an Itsekiri man wants to go to the armed forces, they skew him out of the system. Is it wrong to be a minority? We are being oppressed by other minorities like the Ijaw, the Urhobo and so on. The big brother up there who is supposed to give us cover is not doing anything.  That is why we are calling on the federal government of Nigeria not to undermine our being quiet.

    The immediate past governor of Delta State, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, is an Itsekiri man and some people believe that some of his projects were done to favour of Itsekiri people. What is your reaction to this?

    Uduaghan claims he is an Itsekiri man. But if he is really Itsekiri thick in the blood, he will be more of Itsekiri than any other person. He was governor for eight years. I challenge you to go ask him what he did for Itsekiri land in the last eight years. Uduaghan was operating with a cabal.

    Who are the cabal?

    The Itsekiri people will identify them when the time is right.

    Are the cabal’s members alsoItsekiri?

    It is the Itsekri people who at the appropriate timewill determine whether they are Itsekiri or not.  I won’t mention names but the cabal in question, only very few of them are Itsekiri by gene.  The others are Okpe, Igbo and Ijaw.

    And you believe these cabal stopped the former governor from executing a concrete development work in Itsekiri land?

    They didn’t stop him from doing it. I think a righteous leader must create wealth for his people.  So you must have a vision. If he had a vision for the Itsekiri nation, the Itsekiri would not have remained in squalor after eight years of an acclaimed Itsekiri man as governor.  These cabals are the ones given contracts to build the health centres. They will build it half way and leave it, and the government will not check them. If a project is not completed and I certify it okay, I’m I not an accomplice?

    You see abandoned projects in Itsekiri lands and the government did not ensure to see that these projects are completed.

    There are no impacts of the development funds given to the Niger Delta region. Are you saying government alone should be held responsible or some people in the communities who divert project funds through corrupt practices also?

    From 1999 when the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was established for the development of the Niger Delta region, have you ever seen an audited account or an audited report of NDDC? Is it not a government commission? From 1999 till date, NDDC has never been audited. We don’t know the contracts that are given to anybody. We don’t know the contractors that are doing the job. We don’t know jobs that have been completed. Are you going to hold the community leader for that or you are holding the government whose role is to supervise and ensure completion of projects?

    But if the agents of the NDDC connive with the people to do something with the community leaders or heads, who suffers it?  It is the people that suffer.  But because the people do not have the voice to speak, they keep quiet and languish in penury. So it is the government that is failing in their role of monitoring, supervision and ensuring completion and commissioning of projects in the region.

    So you are saying the community people are not liable for corrupt practices?

    I wouldn’t say that they are not liable. But who is going to prove their innocence or their guilt? It is the government.  Chevron Nigeria Limited, in connivance with the cabal,set up what they call Itsekiri Regional Development Council (IRDC). Chevron should please tell us Itsekiri people how much they have given to that council and the jobs they have issued. One of the major characteristics of leadership is accountability. Government is supposed to be accountable to the people.  Is that not why the Buhari government is fighting corruption? I am now saying that corruption has eaten deep into the oil companies at the detriment of the people. The government should help us.

    What is the position of your group on the demands and operations of the militant groups in the Niger Delta?

    I speak for my nationality, the Itskekiri nation. I cannot speak for the Ijaw nationality and I do not expect the Ijaw nationality to speak for my own nationality.  They should speak for themselves. They should not speak for us Itsekiri people because we are not from the same race.  The fact that nature tries to put us together does not mean that we all have the same characteristics.

    Itsekiri people came into contact with civilization in 1484 with the Portuguese merchants.  We are not a people that do our thing without decorum. I am making the call on the government to come our rescue.

    What are the demands of the Itsekiri People’s Congress, which you want government to address?

    We want government to look at the activities of the oil companies in Itsekiri land, especially the aspect of failing to provide infrastructure in the host communities. The issue of the oil companies in our locality is a topic that we should take separately because it is a pain in our heart. You cannot milk oil in our place and go and build your administrative headquarters in Lagos. That is Chevron for you. You cannot be taking oil from my land and I have only two per cent of the employees in your place. Let chevron tell us the list of all the people in their employment and how many Itsekiri are there? That is another height of oppression.

    Is your coming  out at this time based on the need to rival the attention the Niger Delta Avengers group is getting from the federal government?

    There is no need to rival them. We are not the owner of time. Circumstances determine time. If I must let you know something, the Niger Delta Avengers are on their own.But we must clear ourselves before the government because I read in the papers the Niger Delta Avengers are saying the Itsekiri are part of them. We were never part of them. No Itsekiri man is part of the Avengers, because no Itsekiri man is a destroyer.  But we are pained also. We are suffering too. We should now talk to government. Let government talk to us and let us see how we can synergize and work together to bring out peace in the Niger Delta and bring on meaningful development to the region.

  • I was motivated by need to promote unity between Nigerians and their hosts abroad —Dublin-based Nigerian banker behind Miss Africa Ireland pageant

    WHILE the Nigerian government labours to enhance the image of the country at home and abroad, one Nigerian is making success of representing the country in far-away Dublin, Ireland.

    Realising that culture remains one of the greatest assets of the black race and the vision for a multicultural society, investment banker, Tina Akinola-Junaid, started a project aimed at promoting cordial relationship between Africans and their hosts abroad.

    Tina doubles as the chairperson of Miss Africa Ireland, a pageant that has grown into a household name in the European country and one aimed at uniting Nigerians in the Diaspora. “My passion for African culture and my vision for a multicultural Ireland informed the Miss Africa Ireland beauty and fashion show in the year 2000,” she said in response to an online question.

    Sixteen years down the line, Tina’s ambition of creating a platform for Nigerians, nay Africans resident in Ireland, to help showcase their rich culture while maintaining a peaceful relationship with their hosts has largely been achieved.

    “The aim is to interweave the two cultures and promote integration by portraying Africa in a positive and beautiful way. And to a very large extent, this has been achieved. Nigerians and Africans generally live in peace with the Irish without any fear or suspicion. I think that is a good way of selling our country to the rest of the world.”

    The only girl in a family of eight, Tina grew up understanding the feelings of the opposite sex and how to deal with them. In spite of her glamorous life as a banker and showbiz personality, Tina disclosed that she has no problem dealing with male admirers. “I am an only girl in a family of eight, so I relate to the opposite sex with ease. Therefore, I really have no problem dealing with my many male admirers. You’ll agree with me that growing up among men should be enough to teach any female how to deal with men.”

    Though Tina works as a successful banker in a foreign land, the foundation was laid in Nigeria where she grew up and started her education. “I grew up in Nigeria. I went to the Federal Government College Ilorin, Kwara State. I later proceeded to Kwara Polytechnic for my A Levels and then to the University of Benin where I bagged my degree in Economics and Statistics. I did my youth service programme with the World Bank-assisted Agricultural Development Projects in Lagos State. The experience I garnered during the period has been very valuable for me.”

    Tina moved to Ireland in 1997 permanently in search of the proverbial green pasture. Almost two decades after the move, she says that she can look back with a smile. However, whatever success she may have achieved was not without some challenges.

    According to her, the basic challenges that confront young people seeking better life in foreign countries include cultural differences, beliefs and adaption, among several others.

    “There are different kinds of challenges that young Africans encounter in foreign lands. But the most challenging ones include missing your loved ones back home. This one is usually very tough and not easy to deal with. Of course, there is also the problem of racism and difference in culture. Our beliefs and integration are also another form of challenge. But perhaps the toughest are adaptation and acceptance. If you are not able to adapt, then there is nothing that anybody can do to help. Aside from that, your host must also accept you.”

    Between 2004 when she started work in Dublin, Ireland, Tina has worked with the State Street International bank; Bank of Ireland Securities Services and Northern Trust. She recently moved to a new bank, which she is holding close to her chest.

    On what it takes to practice as a successful banker in a foreign land, Tina listed hard work and commitment. “Making success of a professional career, especially for a foreigner, takes a lot of hard work and commitments. But the main thing is that you need to study here at any level. And doing that will make it easier to get into the system. This is one thing that most of our people need to know about the system here,” she said.

    For long now, the media has been awash with the sad tales of young Nigerians easily lured into a life of servitude and prostitution in Europe. Speaking on the plight of young Nigerian girls in Europe, Tina warned the girls. “If something is too good to be true, it’s probably isn’t,” she said. “My advice to the young girls is that they should be focused and that they should pursue a career path that is attainable to them given the resources available to them.”

    For her efforts towards the promotion of Nigerian culture, Tina was rewarded with a chieftaincy title in Araland. Her love for culture and fashion, she said, was to make a statement.

    “I love good taste in fashion, innovation and making statements with everything I wear. I cut my head gear in a certain way, because that’s my logo. I am the Yeye Ogee of Araland in Ife Kingdom. And I believe you know that the title is only bestowed on those who are thought to merit it.”

    In furtherance of that effort, she started the Ankara Carnival in Ireland in 2007. “This is an annual event where all attendees are urged to wear Ankara to promote our culture and the African fabric. All are encouraged to be creative with the fabric and the best creative design wins a cash prize,” she explained.

    Asked if she would accept a bank job in Nigeria, having lived the better part of her life in Ireland, Tina said yes, but added that she would only accept the job if the conditions are right. For her, the conditions include a job in the Central Bank of Nigeria or the Stock Exchange.

    “Well, I would accept a banking job in Nigeria if the terms are right. But I will be more interested in the central bank or stock exchange, where I would be able to bring my experience on board.”

    Despite her long stay in Ireland, Tina said she has never suffered any form of culture shock. She, however, explained that she was spared of any ugly experience because she had visited the country several times before she finally decided to settle down there.

    “I didn’t really have any form of culture shock. Long before I decided to settle down here, I had been travelling on holidays. I was familiar with most things. So, I was already at home with the country and its people.”

    Would she be willing to come back home? Tina was affirmative in her response. “Definitely, I am looking at coming back home in the nearest future.”

    Describing herself, she said: “I am a freelance journalist, TV presenter/producer of the Tritees Show and a compere extraordinaire.”