The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday magazine

  • No test, no roadworthiness certificate: Lagos motorists lament poor state of roads

    No test, no roadworthiness certificate: Lagos motorists lament poor state of roads

    Laudable as the new Lagos State’s ‘no test, no roadworthiness certificate’ policy for motorists set to take off from January 1, 2022 seems, it has received mixed reactions, with a good number of road users in the state complaining about the poor state of the roads, which they claim is responsible for the dilapidating state of their vehicles. Gboyega Alaka reports.

    COME January 1, 2022, the Lagos State Government has vowed to commence its ‘no test, no roadworthiness certificate’ policy. While many motorists have applauded the decision as great and in line with what obtains in advanced countries, many have equally carpeted the decision, citing several impediments, chief amongst which are the litany of bad roads that litter the state, the overwhelming number of vehicles versus the facilities on ground, which they say would lead to waste of man-hours, and many more.

    Visit by this reporter to one of the state’s touted Vehicle Inspection Centres at Cele Express, Itire, to have his vehicle checked, presented him with rare opportunities to feel the pulse of some motorists, albeit unknown to some of them.

    In truth, the service was fast and almost to precision, as virtually every fault, including a failed screen washer and expiration date or tires were detected. He also had to visit a third time before his vehicle was eventually issued a ‘passed’ certificate; having been told on his first return that a few things still needed to be fixed.

    An elderly man, who gave his name as Fatai, at the Cele Vehicle Inspection Centre, who seemed perplexed at the way he had been forced to visit repeatedly for the checks at the centre, said, “This is my second time here; last week, they said they were not satisfied with the work done on my car. I think compelling us to put our vehicles through test is laudable and good for the people themselves; however, the problem I have is with the roads. If you are forcing motorists to pay for roadworthiness and go for compulsory tests, which they must pass, then you must ensure that the roads are vehicle worthy, otherwise there is an imbalance, and it simply means that the government is bullying the people. I used to drive a woman who was an American returnee; she told me of how, one day, her car bumped into a bad hole on the road in America and she developed a serious back pain. The next day, she said she called her lawyer and she sued the government authority in charge of the road. Promptly, they paid for her medical bills, and even fixed the road within twenty four hours.

    “It is in such a system that the method they are bringing makes sense,” he said.

    He condemned outright, the touting by one of the officials on a screen in the waiting room that Lagos has moved from being a mega-city to a smart-city.

    “Have we even met the minimum standards expected of megacities around the world? Do we have power, do we have water, enough housing or even roads. Is our system computerised? Are pot-hole-ridden death trap roads the hallmark of mega-cities around the world? Are they claiming smart-city, because they now have a couple of computerised vehicle inspection centres? Have they started catching traffic light beaters without chasing or placing that spiky iron in between their tyres? These are the things they should first put in place. Do they even have enough vehicle inspection centres? If they don’t have enough, then they are only going to create a situation where thousands of vehicles will be on waiting list and the owners unable to go about their businesses,” Fatai argued.

    Read Also: Rise up, don’t remain the same, Pam urges Christians

    John Nnorom, not real name, speaking of his experience, said the Lagos State government is just being high-handed and have given VIO officials too much power to oppress.

    “Ordinarily, the people should have a right of say, but what we have is a situation where the officers just summarily issue motorists fines for the flimsiest of offences. The other day, I heard their boss, Engineer Akin-George Fashola on TV saying the minimum fine for road offenders is N20,000. Why is that so in a country where the minimum wage is N30,000 and a graduate worker with the same state government employ earns just about N60,000 or N70,000? I think a situation where a government just wants to make money off the people is not fair. If you must insist on a roadworthy vehicle, then the people have the right to demand for perfect, vehicle worthy roads as well. That way, our cars will last longer and we won’t have to be spending fortunes fixing cars every year.”

    In what could be termed an open discussion, many of the respondents in the waiting room of this VIS centre unanimously agreed that they would have no problem with the new system, if the roads were good.

    Nnorom, a businessman spoke of how on his last visit to Abuja, he made acquaintance with a taxi driver who told him how he bought a tokunbo (fairly-used) car, used it for eight years and still sold it at about N1million. Nnorom, who said he was initially surprised, said he later reasoned that such was possible because roads in the Federal capital territory are in near perfect condition.

    “In Lagos, you would probably have to give such a car away. I sold my former fairly-used Toyota Corolla, which I bought at N1.8million, at a give-away price of N500,000 after using it for just five years. This was because all the joints and suspensions were in really bad shape.

    “Usually the major problems we have in Lagos are the joints that get destroyed by bad roads. If it is engine, any responsible car owner knows he has to service his car engine. But are you going to service the roads? As far as I am concerned, by leaving our roads in such bad shapes, they are just creating markets for Chinese and Korean spare parts manufactures. If the roads were good, we could save a good chunk of the foreign exchange being used to import these parts,” Nnorom concluded.

    However, Shamsi, who says he sometimes drives a commercial bus, said attention should also be focused on local government roads, which he said are the most neglected.

    “Oga, have you tried to drive on local government roads in Mushin? Have you driven on Ladipo Street from Mushin? When you see passengers complaining that we cannot maintain our vehicles, the truth is they don’t understand what we’re going through. So, if we are talking of bad roads, the state government should either liaise with the local governments, or extend the repairs to the bad local government roads across the state. After all, what we hear is that the state government usually commandeers the local governments’ allocations.”

  • PERSON OF THE YEAR 2021: NOBODY

    PERSON OF THE YEAR 2021: NOBODY

    Normally, crisis throws up heroes. As the year unfolded, we looked for all the ingredients of a man or woman, or a coalescence of distinction. We peered for one to stand up and stand out, to bob a head over the ruins, to stride ahead of the pack, and to ride the storm. This newspaper searched, and there were many episodes. Storms without heroes. We sought the man of action, the selfless avatar, the David against a Goliath of evil, the imagination overturning a riddle. It was a fruitless search.

    Big events tended to be about fear and trembling. The nation, as we exit the year, is still in the grips of fear and trembling.

    Was it the firestorm of bandits? We saw the roads becoming more of rides to Golgotha than jolly rides. It was a year of many roads being commissioned across the country, from the Southwest, to the Southeast to the Northwest. Yet the year ends with so many aches in Sokoto, tears in the Plateau and blood spills in the Southeast. Ritual bloodshed in the Southwest.

    Where men of no virtue made a virtue of rampage and rapine, deaths and broken peace skulking a people on the farm and bucolic quiet.

    But it was across the country, and so bad was it that we wanted to define banditry into tranquility, barbarism into solemnity. If we gave it a name, we could make it a grave. But because the deaths still crawled, we had no sepulchre for the crime.

    The bandits came to mosques, came to churches, came to schools. They boasted and they damned, and they took the weak to the bushes. Teachers and pupils groping in arboreal glades like Hades. Their parents pined at home. Governments issued statements. The goons enlisted a cleric as public relations maven. They scandalised governors, immiserated markets, demobilised the military.

    In this, we saw no governor who cowed them. They sterilised the peace first. Then the governors sterilised the networks. But then, they sterilised their states instead, while the network of asinine men of the dark connected for monstrous consequences. So, the governors failed. The soldiers stumbled.

    The many planes, the Tucano, the many soldiers, the bales of cash to buy arms and uniforms gave birth to a breed of soldiers somewhat rejigged. The renaissance of the Nigerian foot solider did not obliterate the soldiers as zealots.

    But we went into dreary territories. Where did the bandits begin? Where did the militant end? There was a fear that one was retiring into the other. Where the militant fagged out, he became a bandit. Goodbye cant, farewell bigotry. Welcome abductions. They started by preferring God to mammon. When God failed them, they moved over to an infidel’s favourite joy: filthy lucre. In their own lights, they were raggedy soldiers of fortune.

    They had names, but no ideas. They had guns, but no enemies. They had aims but not conscience. They had a target, and nothing could stop them from getting it. Not the word of the Almighty or the order of the commander-in-chief. Just as King David said, that victory does not depend on the size of an army, so the Nigerian Army continued to seem puny in the hands of a ragtag glory of bandits.

    So, we cannot do the bandit the pleasure of giving them the endorsement of a supremo – in a year when to be one was to be monster. But we could not escape the reality, too, that while the herdsmen got a deserved tag as the profession of deathly renegades, they became also a bogeyman of another sort of monster for trade: the ritual killer.

    Tales described them in skeins of brutal magnificence. The captured. They gave five-star treatments to those who could pay ransoms, and set the poor apart for butchery: the body parts were sold for money. It was a diabolical affirmation of Marxian class discrimination, a capitalism of blood and body parts. In his novel, The Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth, now getting increasing attention around the world, Wole Soyinka lent his satiric eye for scatological details. Body parts from Boko Haram to make kilishi and in the Southwest for money, and cults were built around them.

    In the Southeast, no hero rose to delegitimise a group that earned a charisma without a constitution. People obeyed without a law, without a formalised institution. The formalised one failed to persuade. The people’s fear triumphed over law. Even when an election took place, it was at their mercy. Chukwuma Soludo won but not because of grudging berth of law and order. It was the benighted grace of the tyrant.

    We wanted to see, too, if the economy would bounce its way to happiness for the greatest number of people. But this year was no utilitarian haven or heaven. Many young could not get jobs. Many could not stay in their country. A cabinet minister wondered aloud if the economic woes and largescale graft would not corral the feathered class in an Abuja where the poor could ambush them in a national scale of revolutionary banditry. That is no testimony to a failure to put food on many tables. The banks and oil firms and tech giants preened in superfine profits. The poor watched in impotence. The politician flourished in Agbada and babaringa, et al, and half-baked rhetoric.

    So, the pandemic that soared all over the world continued to ravage in quiet at home. No story about progress in sorting out a solution. No Nigerian vaccine, even as the western top shots continued to call the shots, and the main tragedy was that our people were not getting the shots.

    A report was released after a group of lawyers and activists looked at a moment in history. They revealed a generational lack of rigour and they affirmed a culture of superstitions. They failed in math because they could not arrive at a number, in English because they did not know a word, and in government because they failed the process, as though they were students in a high school exam.

    There were cultural moments as well. Some of them often cheering, as in when Davido “conned” fans to get him money and he turned it into charity. Not so for another fellow who turned his mother’s burial into a bazaar of sorts and money became an extravaganza of vanity instead of a sombre homage to maternity.

    But we had books, too. The years tailed off with a book of the year, a memoir about a generation of politics written by a man unlikely to write and unlikely to deliver the bombshells. And former APC chairman and governor of Osun State, Bisi Akande, did it without apology, unveiling the hypocrisy, chicanery and sleaze of an age. His book, My Participations, is not only the book of the year, it will soldier on for many years as a testament on how to throw bombs with a political memoir.

    German playwright Bertolt Brecht mused in his play Galileo, that “unhappy is a land that breeds no heroes.”

    This is such a land. This is such a year. In search of stars, we saw a firmament of starlets. It is a year of also-rans. In the Milky Way, no shot of a lodestar.

    So, in this year, no man or woman scaled above. Instead of being a year of heroes and heroines, we have seen no one rising to catch the trophy.

    In 2021, when a group could not define a word, keep a building from falling, or highways from a bandit or a currency from a nosedive, or even plead guilty to a book of revelations, our person of the year is NOBODY

  • Adefarasin to Nigerians: challenge elected leaders to do more

    Adefarasin to Nigerians: challenge elected leaders to do more

    Founder of House On The Rock Pastor Paul Adefarasin has charged Nigerians to challenge their elected leaders more, particularly in the areas of education and infrastructural development.

    Adefarasin gave the charge at the distribution of food items to over 3,000 indigent families ahead of the Christmas celebration through the church’s Project Spread Initiative last weekend.

    The annual outreach was aimed at reaching out to the less privileged and touch thousands.

    Speaking during the presentation, Adefarasin said Nigeria was supposed to be one of the richest counties but Nigerians have continued to live in abject poverty due to bad leadership over the years.

    “Government must build schools, and also increase budgetary allocation to education to empower more Nigerians by letting them acquire skills instead of doling out cash to citizens. We will continue to talk to the government to do more than they are doing at the moment because it is not enough.

    “Nigeria must begin to diversify, and this is why it is necessary to re-engineer the political structure of the country for more purposeful people to come into politics. Arm chair criticism will not take us anywhere. Let people go out and get their voter card,” he stressed.

    He also advised people to shun selling their votes for money but should vote wisely and elect leaders who would turn the fortune of the country for generation yet unborn

    Adefarasin enjoined religious leaders to help in empowering people through acquisition of skills instead of just dolling out food to people, stressing that corporate bodies must come together to assist in providing avenues for human capital development.

    “Private sector must come together to create innovative ways in solving the issue of mass education for our people. Ethnic sentiment is too high and if not tackled may lead to revolution. Back in the last forty years, we used to have the best education system but now it has fallen drastically,” he stated.

    Speaking on the motive behind the spread initiative, Pastor Adefarasin said it was initiated to show and share with Nigerians the true meaning of Christmas.

    “Preaching the gospel and celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ into the world as it is the ultimate gift humanity received through putting a big smile on the faces of the community.

    “Christmas is a special time for us as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ. It is also a time of sharing gifts because the coming of Jesus Christ into the world is the ultimate gift which humanity received. It is only appropriate for us to extend gifts and indeed our love to those around us, especially those who cannot afford to celebrate as elaborately as we can. This is why we are undertaking this initiative at a time like this,” he explained.

  • 5,000 walk for Deeper Life Global Crusade in Oshodi

    5,000 walk for Deeper Life Global Crusade in Oshodi

    Over 5, 000 youths from Deeper Christian Life Ministry, (DCLM), Oshodi, Mushin and Isolo Districts, yesterday, gathered at Terminal One, Oshodi, Lagos in a carnival like manner to sensitize the public on 2021 Lagos Global Miracle Explosion Crusade of the church.

    The Lagos Global Crusade of the DCLM holds between the 21st to 26th of December at the Deeper Life International Conference Centre, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

    The General Superintendent of the church, Pastor William Kumuyi and Gospel Music Minister, Paul Baloche are to minister at the event.

    Dressed in white tee-shirts, thousands of the youths walked kilometres with a band playing with a well decorated trailer stationed at each point of convergence to create awareness about the programme.

    In his words, the Coordinator of the Rally, Pastor Babajide Issachar said that the rally was borne out of the youth’s interest in mobilising as many people for the Lagos Global Crusade which promises deliverance, salvation and healing for the sick and broken hearted.

  • Indonesia, US, UK, others pray for world at The Experience 2021

    Indonesia, US, UK, others pray for world at The Experience 2021

    Prominent pastors across the globe rendered prayers to God for the whole world, thanking him for sparing the earth from great plague resulting from the COVID-19 disease and from other vices threatening the peace and existence of all.

    They offered prayers of increase, restoration and blessings on the world as they joined millions of people all over the world at The Experience ’16 (Global Edition) held on December 3, 2021.

    Offering prayer of thanksgiving, the Co-Chair, Bethany Church of God, Jakarta, Indonesia, Dr Younghoon Lee, reading from Isaiah 33:3, urged all believers to proclaim God’s praise and expect his spirit to flood through all the earth.

    He said, “The people that I formed for myself, they may proclaim my praise. Worshipping God is the reason we exist. It is the reason we are saved. This is why we have to worship God with all our hearts. It is my sincere hope that all who truly worship God in this programme will have an experience in God’s presence indeed. All nations will be shaken by the power of the holy spirit through the worship at the Experience ’16.”

    Also praying, the Senior Pastor, New Life Covenant Church, Harare, Zimbabwe, Bishop Tudor Bismarck, said, “I am telling you that people’s lives will be changed, destinies have been designed. Every nation will feel the very tangible, physical presence of God.”

    In his part, the Senior Pastor, Jakarta Praise Community Church, Indonesia, Pastor Jeffrey Rachmat, urged all the participants to take the opportunity to offer direct offerings to God, stating that ‘the world would not be the same again after the experience.”

    The Senior Pastor, The Tab Church, London and Borough, Dean, Board of the College of Council, London, UK, Pastor Mike White,  said we can make a sound to choose worship over worship. Our God is still on the throne and still on the throne.

    In another prayer session, President of Voice Of Adonai Ministries International and senior pastor of Adonai Christian Centre, Dr. Kole Akinboboye said that a revival would soon break out in Nigeria that would affect the rest of the world.

    According to him, it would make Nigeria come alive.

    ”When the civil war ended, a revival broke out in this country and many are products of that revival. Now, another cycle of fifty years is about to come and the revival is about to break out. The revival will lead to a transformation of the nation and the continent of Africa. I believe that is going to happen. The hour has come for the dead to hear the voice of the lord and come alive. Nigeria is coming alive,” he said.

    The Senior Pastor and Founder, The Potter’s House, Dallas, USA, Bishop TD Jakes, urged all participants to open up and expect a miracle as they worship God ‘in spirit and in truth’.

    For British Singer, songwriter and Broadcaster, Minister Muyiwa Olarewaju (Obe), On behalf of the 700 Club and CBN and also Premier Radio here in the UK, he commended the sacrifice of the conveners, Pastors Paul and Ifeanyi Adefarasin, noting that their sacrifices have changed the world.

     

  • Youths thrill at ‘Fragrance of Praise’

    Youths thrill at ‘Fragrance of Praise’

    It was a great moment of great excitement with melodious songs and soul-lifting lyrics at a musical concert titled: ‘Fragrance of Praise,’ organised to acquaint the youths on the way they can enjoy godly music and live a joyful and fulfilled life.

    The event took place recently at Deeper life Bible Church Group Headquarters, Lawanson, Surulere, Lagos.

    Speaking at the event, the Convener of the programme, Ekenedilichukwu Agomuo, said the programme was borne out of passion for the youth who are leaders of tomorrow.

    “We know what is going on now in this dispensation, in the area of what the youth term as music, how the devil is messing up their lives with some of them on drugs, believing that to be relevant with today’s music, you need to be high.

    “What that translates to is that if this is allowed to continue, there would be no future for either the youths or the country because if their future is destroyed, the future of the country is equally destroyed,” she said.

    Ekenedilichukwu further noted that if the youth should be invited to come and hear the Word of God or to attend a seminar, they might not come, hence the powerful influence of music was employed to open their eyes to godly music that would make them to be something in life and also assist them to actualise their dreams in line with the will of God.

    She added that part of the aim was to equip them with the knowledge that they can compose the type of music that would make them to be useful to themselves, to their friends and to their parents, as well as to the society and that it would go a long way to stop wasting their time on the type of music that would not add value to their lives.

    Ekenedilichukwu assured that the programme had come to and will continue to enlighten the youths, enable them to give their lives to Jesus, be saved, give them their future and make heaven which is the ultimate.

    One of the organisers, Oluwaseun Sonaike, said they have employed the power of godly music to attract the youth with a view to getting their mind and pass on the message of righteousness.

    “We started with praises in a calm and solemn way that should reflect the kind of life they are supposed to live.

  • CEF gives sanitary pads, hygiene products to 500 Lagos girls

    CEF gives sanitary pads, hygiene products to 500 Lagos girls

    Over 500 girls and young women in a remote area in Agboyi 2 of Ketu, suburb of Lagos have benefited from the distribution of sanitary pads, anti-bacterial soaps and pure cotton pants at an event organised by Children Empowerment Fund (CEF), in conjuction with Missions Enablers.

    The exercise held last week, was premised on inculcating in young girls the proper hygienic method of observing their menstrual circles which featured lectures on how to wash properly, change and dispose sanitary pads, wear clean undergarments, eat balanced diets and when to see a doctor.

    Speaking at the occasion, the Programme Manager, CEF, Temitope Akinrotimi, said the programme was to address hygienic menstrual cycle among young girls.“We usually reach out to young girls in under-served communities where they do not have access to sanitary materials like sanitary pads and the likes. “In like manner, we visited this community and took a survey and realised that quite a number of young girls here either do not use sanitary pads at all or may use them randomly because they cannot afford the price and therefore opt for tissues or rags. This is the reason we are carrying out this project today.

    “In addition to sanitary pads, we also distributed antibacterial soap because we speculate the people do not bathe as they should, due to the type of water available here, which is dirty and could be toxic and we have chosen this type of soap that can rid whatever germ that is capable of affecting their health.

    “We also distributed underwear to support their menstrual hygiene, knowing that many girls do not change their pants regularly and it is not an understatement that some girls can use a pant for five years, hence we are using this medium to change the narrative by giving them new pants and the type we have giving them is pure cotton pants that are healthy and good for their menstrual cycle.

    We held a lecture prior to distribution to explain to them the benefit of cotton pants during their menstruation,” the Programme Manager said.

    She further said that this is the first time we are carrying out this type of programme here in Lagos as our focus has been Northern Nigeria. We have now realized that the people here in the South too need help.

    Akinrotimi, said “we also support schools in Sierra Leone, Burundi and other African countries in their under-served communities. I am proud to add that we are sister organization of Mission Enablers, which is a mission agency that caters for missionaries on mission fields and also support missionaries in various fields across Africa”.

    In his response to the gesture done, the Baale Oruba, Agboyi II, Mr. Taiwo Lamina commended the effort of CEF and sought for further aid to the community in the areas of clean water supply, secondary school and construction of pedestrian bridge to link the rural community with the nearby nuzzling towns of Alapere and Ketu.

    The community is one of the three completely cut off from the busy nearby towns by a dirty flowing river and they are in dire need of government intervention. Agboyi I, Agboyi II and Agboyi III as the communities are independently called with their traditional rulers are located in Agboyi-Ketu Local Council Development Area of Lagos State and share boundaries with Kosofe Local Government Area, and can only be reached by canoe. They are communities yearning for modern development.

  • ‘Nigeria’s insecurity surmountable’

    ‘Nigeria’s insecurity surmountable’

    The Bishop of Diocese of Lagos West of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Rt. Revd James Odedeji, has said the insecurity challenges in the country is surmountable.

    He urged Nigerians not to lose hope in the efficacy of prayers. Rt. Revd Odedeji spoke during the 8th edition of the Annual Triumphant Convocation of the Diocese at Ikeja GRA, Lagos.

    According to him, Nigerians people should be steadfast.

    “They should demonstrate their faith. They should know that there is God, despite all distractions, God is still God and He’s the owner of His church and he cannot be bankrupt of ability to deliver His people… So, I believe so much that if people pray and forsake their sins, God will hear them from heaven, He will heal the land and He will bring out goodness from whatever has been generated,” he said.

    He said the vision of the convocation was to bring all God’s people together to be blessed and to have strong fellowship.

    He encouraged participants to be expectant at the event which will last for three days.

    ”You must also not doubt God and don’t look  on to any man for your blessings,” he said.

    The Dean of the Archbishop Vining Memorial Cathedral, Ven Ebenezer Adewole, who spoke on the theme: More than conquerors gave seven signs to show a believer is more than a conqueror.

    To be more than a conqueror, he said “the believer must have an understanding that he has a divine backup. He also knows he is a tormentor of the kingdom of darkness.”

    The cleric added that the believer can only be more than a conqueror if he has conquered himself.

    “The place of faith, according to him, can’t be overemphasized for the believer who is more than a conqueror, adding that “A man of faith has no regard for obstacles.”

  • Showing love to the less-priviledged gives them hope

    Showing love to the less-priviledged gives them hope

    Pastor Ogbole Enaholo Ogehdegbe is Coordinator of Love Outreach International. In this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, he talks about what inspired him to start the organisation, early life, the things that give him fulfillment and why he empowered 50 people as he turned 50 recently. Excerpts:

    Tell us about life in the ministry? 

    As a pastor, I have been a minister in the church.  Currently, I have  a  ministry called Love Outreach International.  I don’t believe in doing things the conventional way. In the next ten years, I see that people will be inspired by what we are doing, especially using money to empower others. I want more people to do this whether formally or informally. That for me is number one and we will blaze a trail in so many areas, ultimately in raising people out of poverty.

    I also want to look at the people we gave funds to today and see them giving to others in future. In fact, one of them just gave me liquid soap saying I supported him previously.  That is what I want to see in the next ten years. There was a woman who gave me N5000 a long time ago and I can testify today that my life has changed. I want that same testimony from them. That for me is fulfilling. All of us will leave this earth; don’t believe this is our final bus stop. Think about it, what will be your legacy? That is the kind of legacy I want to leave. I want to leave a world better than I saw it. Even when I leave, they will say this is what my Ministry did for them.

      Let’s talk about life at 50?

    I am grateful to God for the 50 years that I am alive. God has helped me. I’m able to take care of my needs, my family needs, and I’m still standing in faith. If there is anything I would like, it is for people to be inspired to help others.

    That is what makes us human. When God created us, he left a part of divinity in us. The Bible said God breathed into every living soul.

    There is a divinity in every man; every human being under the sun has God in him, a part of God is in everyone. If God can put a brain in every human, whether righteous or unrighteous, who am I to begin to discriminate? We should love ourselves, and we should care. We all need love and care. Without love, none of us would be standing here. If we can take care of those who are weak and challenged, the world would be a better life.

    At what point did you decide to be empowering people?

    My father was a civil servant, an average person and I never lacked.

    But after school, I was looking for a job as a graduate, an engineer.

    Then I was riding a pick-up, a friend who also did not have a job had a pick-up lying around and we loaded pick-ups then. I also stayed in a room and my friends used to tease me and call me one bedroom.

    Sometimes, I would say God, when you would visit me. The Bible says, ‘I wish that you would prosper even as your soul prospers. If I give you prosperity beyond the prosperity of your soul, it would destroy you.’ So, one of the things I asked for were people who had challenges with their businesses. People who just want to scale up, people struggling around town and I partnered with some foundations.

    I’m so proud of United Breeds Foundation, I am touched with what they do and the genuineness of what they do. I am so excited today that we are able to do the little we can. I got contributions from so many friends to be able to make this happen and I give God the glory.

     A lot of young people appear to be stranded out there. What advice do you have for those who didn’t get this?

    Don’t give up; work is the basis of faith. The Bible said faith is the evidence of the things that are hoped for, things not seen. Never give up hope. Recognise that the future is bright. It is sad these days, you see many people in a hurry. That is driven by hunger. But recognise that many went through a phase. When I tell people that I went through a phase, sometimes they don’t understand. I live in a good house, drive a big car and they think it fell from heaven. I went through tough times. Never lose sight of God. Matthew 6 Vs 33 says:

    ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and every other things would be added.’ God knows that we have these needs, if we care about God. If we care about the things God cares about, then God will take care of you. It matters to God that these people are encouraged.

    Some of them are at their wits end. They don’t know where to get the next meal and then you show them love. You know what, they matter to God. If when it matters to God, it matters to you, I can assure you that when it matters to you, it would matter to God and God will show up.

    At what point did the narratives change for you?

    I was one of those people who used to laugh at Christians that they were not wise. But, when I got born again, I could hear God and it was very encouraging. People who supported me, made it better and that is why I keep going to what people did for me when I had a challenge. It is a pity many are not here today. I struggled at that point in my life. There were days, I went for house fellowship and they would just bring food for me to eat. Sometimes, I would do what you call I waka well. The change came by God’s mercy.

     

    The day I saw the advert for the job that I am still currently employed right now, I shed tears. I had not applied but I had a strong feeling that this is it. God was holding my hand all through this challenging period, encouraging me and it was not always easy. That was how the breakthrough came. I thank God, God has been merciful and the testimony of how I got the job is something else, where God turned things around.

  • BOOK OF THE YEAR: A FRONT ROW PARTICIPANT’S ACCOUNT

    BOOK OF THE YEAR: A FRONT ROW PARTICIPANT’S ACCOUNT

    It is a series of words as pinprick. It began as a book presentation, and the bigwigs of the Nigerian political firmament gathered, especially of the APC hue. The president, Muhammadu Buhari, in his full light-blue babaringa and loosed-limbed with humour, was accompanied by a raft of governors. That day drew praise for the book, from all sides. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu called him a hero. The president draped him as a rare specimen of integrity. Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, regarded him as a political icon. The book reviewer and this newspaper’s Editor-at-Large, Segun Ayobolu, pronounced what was to come. He called it a bomb.

    So it has been, a work of barely over 500 pages has been a detonation from denotations. Titled My Participations, former governor of Osun State and former chairman of unprecedented four political parties, Chief Bisi Akande, weaves a skein of his life, but in a larger context it is the political yarn of his generation.

    But he trades tackles with his bare but direct style. There have been quite a few persons uncomfortable with his narratives. Some have so far been quiet, especially former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The retired general and a perennial figure in Nigeria’s contemporary history, comes out of Akande’s telling as a crafty subvert. He is always on the malevolent side of the narrative and Nigeria’s history.

    Another person he overwhelmed with his ire was his deputy as governor of Osun State. He tracked how he fell for the deceptions of a wily man. He became a major stud and matador of retrogression. He eventually became the one who lost his job rather than Akande who was first marked for eviction from the State House. The Ife titan has remained mum.

    But others have squalled in protest. One of them is a chieftain of Yoruba politics, Ayo Adebanjo, who emerges as an undercutting work horse for the obstructions of the Yoruba march forward. He is a follower of Awo who even in Awo’s lifetime was painted in unflattering light with his friend and fellow traveller Olaniwun Ajayi during the fraught era of military overthrow when Akande, Bola Ige and others spent years in Buhari’s gaol. What he has been loud about though is Akande’s reporting that he obtained a certificate of occupancy for a plot at Lekki Phase one from former Lagos State Governor Tinubu who also helped build the house in which he currently lives.

    Also, in an outburst is the former army officer and Akande’s successor as governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who railed about his reporting of graft and lack of faith concerning the construction and siting of a government house.

    Both Oyinlola and Adebanjo belong to countervailing signposts in Southwest politics. Many do not expect them to look at the world from the same lens.

    It has drawn flak from the Presidency about how the vice president was nominated. The vice president who has said his bit long ago has been quiet but others have taken the bait. A newspaper supposedly quoting sources close to the president claimed there was no agreement between the then candidate Buhari and Tinubu to pair the former governor as his running mate. They claimed it was a partnership, and they implied that both agreed on vague terms of engagement.

    The book is not just about these men. Chief Akande reflected a political atmosphere that was marked by shysters as heroes. He took Awolowo for his hero and ensign, and the track light for the west.

    No book has generated thus far this sort of flap since one of his targets, Obasanjo, penned a war memoir that he alone seems to be participant and witness to.

    Akande’s My Participations will shake and echo in the political world for a long time. It is courage in penmanship. For telling a story that has spun a spool stories, My Participations is our book of the year.