The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Activist

  • NADECO mourns activist-cleric Adebiyi

    NADECO mourns activist-cleric Adebiyi

    National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) leaders have mourned the activist cleric, Rev. Adetunji Adebiyi, who died on Monday after a protracted illness. They described him as one of the unsung heroes of the pro-democracy struggles, advocate of restructuring and true federalism and apostle of good governance.

    NADECO and human rights crusaders, including Admiral Ndubusi Kanu, Mr. Ayo Opadokun, Mr. Yinka Odumakin and Mr. Popoola Ajayi, who have paid a condolence visit to the bereaved family, said Adebiyi was committed to the struggle for the emancipation of the people.

    Opadokun said: “He was very active during the NADECO’s struggle for the restoration of Moshood Abiola’s mandate as the winner of the historic 1993 presidential election on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP). He suffered the harassment, repression and intimidation in the hands of the military. The pro-democracy movement will miss is service to the down-trodden people of Nigeria.”

    The late Adebiyi was until his death the Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Southwest Integration. He had served under the administration as the Senior Special Assistant in Political and Legislative Matters. He was also an Executive Assistant to former Osun State Governor Bisi Akande. An Afenifere chieftain, he was the unsalaried Personal Assistant to the Afenifere Leader, the late Senator Abraham Adesanya.

    In the Third Republic, Adebiyi was an ex-officio member of the National Executive Committee of the SDP. He carried out many assignments for the party, including supervising primaries for the Southeast chapter. He was forthright and meticulous. He was very fluent and charming. The late Abiola was fond of him, when they came in contact at a party function at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos. Adebiyi rendered the opening prayer at the occasion. After the prayer, Abiola shooked hands with him. He was one of the delegates who elected the businessman-turned politician as the presidential flag bearer at the Jos convention.

    During the epic battle against the military rule, Adebiyi was one of the foot soldiers of the NADECO and Afenifere. He was one of the links between the Afenifere leader, the late Chief Michael Ajasin, and the Afenifere/NADECO chieftains in Lagos-Adesanya, Kanu, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Dr. Femi Okunrounmu, Senator Kofoworola Akerele-Bucknor, and Chief Ganiyu Dawodu. The pro-democracy activist was bearing a letter from the Lagos group to Ajasin in Owo, Ondo State, when he was arrested by the police. As policemen were searching him, the letter dropped from his pocket and the police picked it, opened it and detected his mission. Adebiyi was arrested at Maryland, Ikeja and taken to the Ikeja police command. The officer-in-charge was excited when he sighted him. He jumped up, saying that his promotion had come. He was confident that the Abacha government would elevate him to the next rank because his command had arrested a NADECO spy.

    However, Abiola’s wife, Kudirat, pressed some buttons to effect his release. She promised the police officer better prospects of promotion, should Abiola become the President. Adebiyi ran other errands critical to the operations of NADECO and Afenifere during the dark days of the military rule. He was doing it without expecting any reward. He was motivated by principle and commitment to a worthy cause.

    Ironically, many confederates, lackeys and collaborators of the military took the central stage, following the restoration of the civil rule in 1999. Adebiyi was not a covetous politician. But, he thoughtb he had paid his dues. He sought for the senatorial ticket of his district in Osun State on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). But, the elders prevailed on him to step down for Sunday Fajimi, who told the elders that Adebiyi should step down because he was junior to him in age. It was distressing to Adebiyi when the newly elected parliamentarians stormed the Jibowu, Lagos office of Afenifere and the elders asked him to vacate his seat for one of them to sit because they were now elected public office holders. But, he bore it with understanding and philosophical calmness. Many of those beneficiaries of elected offices later dumped Afenifere/AD for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to the consternation of elders.

    Adebiyi did not jump ship. he continued to labour in the vineyard of the progressives. After Akande lost power in controversial circumstances in Osun State, former Governor Bola Tinubu appointed him as a Senior Special Assistant. That was how Fashola, who was the Chief of Staff got to know him. Like Fashola, Adebiyi was very loyal, diligent and dependable. Thus, when he became the governor, he re-appointed him as a Senior Special Assistant.

    Besides, Adebiyi was the National Vice Chairman (Southwest) of the AD under the chairmanship of Chief Michael Koleoso. Not tired of pursuing knowledge, he went to the University of Ibadan for further studies. Two years ago, he earned a masters degree.

    It was distressing to Tinubu that the patriot took ill. According to a source, when he visited Bourdillon, Ikoyi residence of the former governor, Tinubu exclaimed: “What happened reverend? Is there any problem? Adebiyi replied that all would be well. It was the last meeting between him and his leader. Adebiyi was later hospitalised. He never recovered. A former commissioner had gone to visit him in the hospital. The activist-cleric was in a pitiful condition. he forwarded a text to Fashola and Tinubu. The former governor made arrangement for his transfer to St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos. Doctors tried to save his life. But, the hand of death was heavy on the priest. Last monday, he bade the world farewell.

    Adebiyi will be remembered for his ideas. He did not abandon priesthood for politics. In both callings, he did not soiled his hand and his reputation was intact. He was an Awoist politician. He advocated for a new and restructured Nigeria, where more powers would be devolved to the component units. The NADECO priest subscribed to regionalism. He was passionate about the place of Yoruba nation in contemporary Nigeria. He spoke against corruption in high places. He decried opulence among the ruling elite.

    Adebity was unrelenting in his call for a special status for Lagos State.

  • Activist joins Lagos governorship race

    Activist joins Lagos governorship race

    A lawyer and civil rights campaigner, Adetokunbo Wahab, has joined the race for next year’s election in Lagos State on the platform of All Progressive Congress (APC).

    Wahab, who hails from Epe, Lagos East Senatorial Zone,  said his decision was in  response to the clarion call by youths, elders and elites adding that he has also consulted the leadership of the party.

    Wahab lamented that  old politicians have continuously failed to bring the desired change, which they have endlessly promised.

    Wahab said the desire to bring “definitive change,” was one of the reasons why he accepted the challenge to offer himself for service.

    The 42 years old aspirant, also bemoaned the space allowed youths in governance. He said his emergence was a bold and decisive response to this deficit.

    According to the civil liberty lawyer youths accounts for nearly half of the five million eligible voters, whose voice and impacts are never commensurately rewarded.

    The politician said he had come to galvanize the electoral strength of the youths for the purpose of placing them in the right leadership space where their democratic power could be adequately recognised and rewarded.

    While acknowledging the presence of many vibrant and elderly fore-runners in the race, Wahab noted that certain exceptional criteria stand him out among the crowd. He said he has  fresh ideas anding that he stands for a paradigm shift in governance.

  • Activist sues FRSC for alleged extortion

    Activist sues FRSC for alleged extortion

    An Akure lawyer and activist, Charles Titiloye, has sued the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC) to the Federal High Court in Akure for alleged extortion of money by its operatives  from motorists.

    He particularly criticised the fines allegedly being collected from traffic offenders without trial before the courts as provided for under Chapter 4 of 1999 Constitution.

    In an application for the enforcement of Fundamental Human Rights of a driver, Joshua Orunto and other drivers and road users in Nigeria, Titiloye averred that the FRSC issues a charge sheet which allows it to collect fines without trying a suspected offender in line with the mandatory provision of the Constitution.

    The lawyer said vehicles of citizens are usually impounded by the Corps and a custody fees of N200 charged on the vehicle per day until payment of unilaterally imposed fine without recourse to any court of law.

    He said mobile courts for trial of offenders no longer exist adding that FRSC also created many non-existing offences to punish motorists.

    He said “offences like deflated extra tyre which is unknown to road safety regulation is now being used to extort money from motorists

    Titiloye therefore urged the Federal High Court to declare the refusal to charge the applicant and other road users to a court of competent jurisdiction on allegation of committing an offence and the unilateral imposition of fines by FRSC without trial as a violation of section 36(1)(4) of the Constitution.

    He urged the court to declare that FRSC are duty bound under section 36 and 44(1)(2b) of the constitution to prosecute an offender before imposing fine and impounding their cars.

    The activist asked the court to declare as null, void and unconstitutional the notice of offence sheet issued by FRSC which contains clauses allowing a suspected offender to waive his constitutional rights to trial before the court by paying fine.

    He contended that section 36 and 44 of the constitution made fair hearing in criminal trial before a court mandatory before conviction and payment of fine.

    Titiloye prayed the court to perpetually restrain FRSC, an executive agency from imposing fine and extorting money from the applicant and other motorists without proper court trial.

    He urged the court to direct the FRSC to refund the fines paid to its designated bank account without trial and conviction of suspected offenders.

    The lawyer requested for N10 million damages on behalf of the applicants.

    Hearing in the case by the Federal High Court Akure has been fixed for November 5.

  • ‘Shun politics of bitterness’

    A Niger Delta activist, Kime Engozu, has warned against “politics of bitterness” ahead of next year’s general elections.

    He urged parties to shun acrimony and blackmail and embrace nationalism.

    Engozu, who spoke in an interview at Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, said politics of acrimony would tear the country apart.

    He said:  “Whereas we appreciate the emergence of virile opposition parties, we plead that they should be nationalistic.

    “They should always endeavour to shun politics of acrimony, blackmail, threats to national security and use of derogatory language.”

  • Activist canvasses death penalty for corrupt public officers

    A human rights activist, Mr Solomon Dulong, on Thursday called for the provision of a law that would prescribe death penalty for corruption.

    Dulong made the call in Kaduna at the 12th Annual Lecture of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (NYCF).

    The activist said in a paper on `National Security for Nigeria’s Development’ that corruption remains one of Nigeria’s greatest problems and requires revolutionary measures to tackle.

    “I recommend that the National Assembly should amend our laws and provide death sentence for corruption so that it can serve as deterrent to others.”

    He noted that Nigeria, and particularly the North, was facing the problems of bad leadership corruption, institutional decay and absence of nationalistic values.

    According to him, the conduct of the nation’s leadership is counterproductive to national growth and will not in any way encourage nationalism and patriotism, which are key to reinforcing national security.

    Dulong further called on the Federal Government to initiate a “sincere war against poverty by creating the enabling environment for every youth to realise their potentials.”

    This, he said, was necessary to ending most of the security challenges in the country.

    He said the government should also engage communities in the war against insurgency, adding that the current military engagement should be appraised.

    The Chairman of the NYCF Board, Malam Ishaku Garba, called on people in the region to “stop the killings and engage in peace efforts” for the socioeconomic growth of the North.

    He also blamed the crises in the region to absence of leadership which had led to the neglect of the youths.

    “The North is developing but not growing”, he said, adding that the people needed to exploit the favourable land, weather, human and natural resource to transform their lives”.

    “Joblessness, poverty, corruption and embezzlement has become more devastating to our polity as northerners,” he added.

    Earlier, the chairman of the event, Sen. John Shagaya urged people in the region to promote peace for sustainable development.

  • Activist demands apology from Chime

    A group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has asked Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime to apologise for alleged violation of the rights of his wife and women.

    Faulting the manner the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has handled the case, it urged the commission to speed up its investigation.

    HURIWA praised rights activist, Femi Falana (SAN), for making public the alleged unjust detention of Mrs. Clara Chime in the Government House.

    The group, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, Nneka Okonkwo (Gender specialist) and Zainab Yusuf (National Media director), enjoined the Enugu State House of Assembly to impeach the governor if he fails to apologise.

    HURIWA accused the government of discriminating against women, saying it said was yet to domesticate many pro-women and pro-children legislation, such as the Child’s Rights Act of 2003.

    “In fact, Enugu is one of the 12 states and the only state in the South yet to domesticate the Child’s Rights Act 2003.”

    NHRC after its council members’ meeting last week, said it would conduct further probe into the case.

  • Activist urges Nigerians to support ASUU’s strike

    Activist urges Nigerians to support ASUU’s strike

    A rights activist, Mr. Morakinyo Ogele, yesterday urged Nigerians to support the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in its struggle to improve the standard of the nation’s universities.

    Ogele said Nigerians should not see the battle of the lecturers with the Federal Government as an avenue to line their pockets but as a means of improving the academic standard of the universities.

    He said the struggle would be of great benefit to the students.

    The activist urged the striking lecturers not to end their action until the government acceded to their demands.

    According to him, the Federal Government is rich enough to improve the standard of the universities.

    The lawyer assured the lecturers that the government cannot sack them without meeting their demands.

    Ogele told our reporter in Akure, the Ondo State capital, that Nigerian universities were higher institutions without the requisite capacity to empower the students for future challenges.

    He said: “The recent ultimatum from the Federal Government is not only empty but also an inflammable statement which has destroyed every consultation between the government and ASUU. It is now clear that the government is deceiving the world about its claim to settle the rift. The government is not ready to meet the agreement it signed with ASUU in 2009.

    “The ASUU’s demand should not be misunderstood. Theyn should be seen as part of efforts to make our universities more functional. All federal universities in Nigeria are glorified secondary schools, which produce poor graduates. Our universities’ laboratories are just mere laboratories where great experiments cannot be carried out successfully. The condition of our students is seriously poor. Science students only see elements on the pages of textbooks.

    “Investigation revealed that no federal university can produce oxygen because they lack the requisite equipment.

    “ASUU should go on with the strike as long as the government fails to fulfil its agreement. They should persist and insist in helping our universities to acquire world standard.

  • Ndubuisi Kanu at 70: An officer and an activist

    Save for a full page advert in a national newspaper signed by the Lagos State governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola on November 3rd, the exact day he turned 70, one did not notice any other sign that Rear Admiral (retired) Godwin Ndubuisi Kanu had reached that landmark age. We have increasingly become a people who do not know how to celebrate, or to put it better, we celebrate too much but with our stomach. Therefore, we celebrate the wrong things and for warped reasons. We celebrate people we ought to be stoning having lost a sense of authenticity. We have grown acutely bubble-headed, undiscerning and un-historied, living only moment by hunger-induced moment. These days, almost always, our media are filled with a celebration of all the wrong people we erroneously call leaders.

    Such was it that only a brief tribute from Governor Fashola ushered one of the finest naval officers and democrat of this age into the septuagenarian league. “Today we celebrate a preeminent elder statesman, a proponent of true federalism and a champion of democracy,” the advert speaks of Kanu. You may say that the man was once an administrator of Lagos State thus such a commemoration was not out of place but he was first a military administrator in Imo and I do not remember any such recognition from that quarter. Not from the Nigerian Navy which he served remarkably in nearly all units and of course not from Ohaneze Ndigbo where he has been a member of its ime-obi for quite sometime.

    It is not that the taciturn general is in dire need of tributes and recognitions for apart from the fact that he may have piled up enough accolades which come from personal achievements to last him a life time, he is not one to worry about or hanker after such vain-gloriousness. To think that all these years he was not bestowed with any national honours, the medals which have become as common as the fake jewelry you find hanging around the neck of every man and woman by the street corners. Twice he was in the apex military ruling body in Nigeria. First he was a member of the Supreme Military Council, (SMC), 1975 – 1978 under General Olusegun Obasanjo and the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC), 1985 – 1989 under General Ibrahim Babangida.

    Other key political exposures were his tour of duties in Imo and Lagos States in the complex post-civil war years of Nigeria’s mid-70s. But in his military career in the Nigerian Navy, Kanu proved to be an intelligent and thoroughbred officer. Enlisting in 1962 after his secondary school education at Metropolitan College, Onitsha, he trained at the National Defence Academy, Kharakvasla and Naval Engineering and Electrical College both in India. He was the best all-round cadet in India in 1965. Also at the Newport War College, Rhodes Island, USA he came out top of his class as the best graduating student as well as the best midshipman (1st class). He traversed nearly all commands of the navy rising to the position of Rear-Admiral in his 28-year career before he retired in 1990.

    But unlike most of his colleagues who march straight into oblivion after a long, regimented military life, Kanu has remained relevant in the polity in a manner not known of military officers. He has led quite fearlessly, the life of an activist and democrat. Participating most robustly in national discourses he even mounted the barricades and led protests with civil right groups in Lagos. The Ovim, Abia State indigene has shown what one may describe as an uncanny zest in the socio-political affair of the nation since the 90s. Many consider it an extreme act of courage if not fatalistic of him to have joined and become a staunch member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) which was almost single-handedly responsible for kicking out Nigeria’s military junta from power. Most of the military brass tacks that Kanu now faced from the other side of the divide were his contemporaries. The consequences could have been dire to him, his family and businesses. Apparently, his love for Nigeria seemed a paramount and over-riding consideration.

    Way back in 1993 he had written a book: The Way Forward: Sovereign National Conference, which could be a veritable blueprint for the advocates of another national conference of today. The retired officer also wrote: The Military, Politics and Human rights and the Economy. As a mark of the people’s champion and mobiliser he is, his office on Victoria Island Lagos has served as the meeting point and secretariat of Ndigbo Lagos for nearly two decades.

    Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu has turned out to be a true statesman, a patriot, a soldier and a social scientist of note. Most remarkably, he is an activist not for the limelight or the popularity most people crave from it for he is a very self-effacing man. A proof of that is that while most of his contemporaries haul bag-loads of titles and honorary degrees, he seems not to care about such inanities, such medallions of vacuous men.

    In this prime age of 70, it is hoped that the navigator will continue to give fillip and provide fuel for the firing of the ship of state. More important, many would wish he could direct some thought and attention to the issues of socio-political and rights activism in the southeast, a phenomenon that is almost as cold as yesterday’s porridge in that side of the country.

    LAST MUG: Ha ha, thinks refineries

    Is it not funny that our oil minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke only speaks with the foreign media these days about matters concerning us denizens of Nigeria? The other day in London, she told Bloomberg Television that Nigeria’s four refineries would be sold by the first quarter of 2014. But she knows it’s all empty talk with no iota of substance. She told us nearly two years ago that four Greenfield refineries will be built but no sod has been turned anywhere till now.

    She will never be able to get anything done even if she stays in that position for 20 years. She is a failure. She is very comfortable with a fraud-ridden system that ships out 60,000 barrels of crude daily to fictitious refining plants; a dark subsidy regime that sucks nearly N2 trillion from the treasury yearly. She has left a legacy of graft that may never be surpassed in the annals of our oil sector. No redeeming value whatsoever is in sight.

     

  • Activist condemns Ondo lawmaker’s suspension

    Activist lawyer Dr. Tunji Abayomi yesterday criticised the Ondo State House of Assembly for suspending the lawmaker representing Ose Constituency, Mrs. Fola Olaseinde.

    She was suspended for allegedly keeping fetish objects in her former apartment.

    Abayomi said native medicine is acceptable in Africa and Yorubaland.

    In a statement, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) chieftain said the Assembly violated the constitution, which protects the rights for privacy, culture and belief.

    He said: “In my view, we have an unserious case which should not have led to her suspension. Her former landlord, Sir Ogunbadejo, did not contest her claim that she left his house at least nine months ago. This obviously accounted for the legal process initiated by the landlord.

    “Does common sense not tell us that native medicine abandoned in someone else’s house for over nine months can barely command any efficacy or carry any value to the owner or to others?

    “In Africa and Yoruba cosmological thinking, native medicine is an acceptable and respectable way of protecting oneself or loved ones against diseases and death. There is scarcely a Yoruba person who does not know or hear about oogun, (traditional medicine).

    “Even in this advanced age of science, movies remind us of their place in our life. They highlight their significance in our ontological thinking. If Mrs. Olaseinde made native medicine either nine months ago or today, she is exercising her right to privacy, culture and belief.

    “She has done nothing wrong and it was inappropriate of the House to humiliate her with an unwarranted suspension. The House abandoned its responsibility to the legislator.

    “Mrs. Olaseinde is one of the three women in the Assembly. Women in politics, in this heavily-male dominated constituency, face diverse challenges, ranging from marginalisation to sexual harassment. They often walk on a lonely path. It is worse in the case of widows like Mrs. Olaseinde.

    “We need to respect and protect women’s right to seek self-security through means that conform to their beliefs. The institution that employs them has a greater duty not to injure them psychologically, emotionally or spiritually through wrong decisions.

    “Mrs. Olaseinde should have been protected by the House. The Assembly’s failure to do so greatly reduces its dignity, honour and prestige.

    “Now is the time for the Assembly to make amends by recalling her and restoring her rights as the representative of Ose Constituency.”

     

  • She was an activist par excellence, says Fayemi

    Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has described the death of Alhaja Abibat Mogaji as a great and monumental loss for the nation’s commerce.

    The governor said in a statement on that Alhaja Mogaji was a pillar of support for many people in her lifetime as she served as an oak of succour to the less-privileged.

    The statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Olayinka Oyebode, described Mogaji as a legend, a colossus and a titan whose contributions would remain indelible in the minds of many.

    He however said he was happy that the late market leader lived to a very ripe old age and positively contributed to the nation’s economy as an investor, entrepreneur, employer of labour and a big-time merchant.

    Describing Alhaja Mogaji as an “activist par excellence”, Fayemi recalled that the deceased used her position to mobilise market women to fight for their economic rights and empowerment.

    The governor pointed out that Alhaja Mogaji was in the forefront of women emancipation and participation in politics most especially in having a say in the election of their political leaders.