The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Again

  • Problem Has Changed Name, again?

    Until very recently, few Nigerians could claim to know the body that goes by the name ANED let alone what it represents. Not anymore. Today, the body struts the space leaving the electricity little doubt about the ascent of new powerful cartel, which although cannot get their members to deliver on their mandate, insists on operating in lieu of rules. For Nigerians who had thought that they were done with the public utility monopoly that morphed from ECN to NEPA and to PCHN, they are finally, finding out that the problem has changed name literally and figuratively!

    Welcome to the world of Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) – the new cartel presumably so powerful that, after wrestling the electricity consumer to the ground and sending the electricity sector regulator on a Rip Van Winkle sleep now thinks it’s time to mount the lecture circuit to teach the minister in charge of power – Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN one or two things about power – minus the art of delivery!

    Ours truly is an interesting country.

    Twelve years into the coming of the Power Sector Reform Act and another five years after the takeover of the unbundled entities of the defunct PCHN, we pretend to be making progress even when it is so obvious that movement is in reverse gear.  Never mind the old assumptions about private capital providing catalyst for national development; the promises of new ways of getting things done, the elementary principle of value delivery that is at the heart of modern capitalism or if you like – businesses; all of these are being torn into shreds – right under our very eyes – by a body that perennially goes in search of a problem to a solution!

    Not too long ago, yours truly recalls accusing the minister of being soft on his “Abiku” Discos – a charge the minister would vehemently disagree with.

    Not to worry; he insisted then that the job of policing – if you like regulating – the industry, lay elsewhere. The minister was of course right – at least legally; my view then and which has since been borne out, was that the position, considering our peculiar circumstances, amounted to mere sophistry.

    Not that I do not understand the dilemma of the minister. It is the dilemma of the mother of an Abiku child. With the child is said to be sworn to die, the mother nonetheless insists on splashing all the due care hoping sometimes against hope that the child might somehow find the will to live. Never mind the claim about mother’s milk of mercy being inexhaustible, there comes a time when in a fit of desperation, the supremely troubled mother tells the child to choose to either go or stay!

    With the Abiku neither ready to let us alone nor allow us the peace of mind, a push-back would seem at some point inevitable. We are apparently at that moment now.

    That perhaps is the sense in which yours truly understands the minister’s briefing of Monday, July 9 aptly titled “Power Sector State of Play, Next Steps and Policy Directives”. In a tone that could be considered most unusual in the circumstance, the minister, in bare knuckle manner left no one in doubt that the season of indulgence was over.

    First, the minister thinks NERC, is not doing enough given the extensive regulatory powers conferred by the law “including the power in Sections 73 and 74, to amend or cancel a license if the licensee is unable to discharge the duties and obligations imposed by the license.”  That reminder is, quite frankly, long overdue.

    More tellingly, he thinks NERC should proceed to enforce the contract of DisCos to supply meters and act to ensure the urgent speedy supply and installation of meters with a view to eliminating estimated billing and promote efficient industry and market structures. On this, I have nothing to add.

    To the Discos, he says it is time to either shape up or ship out. Again, few would contest this.  The sins of the Discos are not only many, that Nigerians have been forced to endure their crippling debility from their inability to deliver service says more about our legendary resilience than anything else.

    They include failure to provide prepaid meters; failure to ramp up capacity to enable them take up the available 2,000MW difference between the generated power and their distribution capacity; their penchant to play dog in the manager –threatening private entrepreneurs from entering the market to supply consumers whom they are unable to supply and their overall antagonism to other initiatives – private and public – to bridge the electricity supply gap.

    For these failures, particularly the failure to match the distribution infrastructures with the pace of power generated, the generating companies (GenCos) are not only left to choke, the banking sector, the enabling arm currently asphyxiates for the same reason of the failure of the Discos to discharge their due obligations to the other players in the electricity value chain.

    Yet, in the midst of these, the Discos would dare to press for territorial exclusivity or even monopoly. Never mind Section 71(6) of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA) dealing with Terms and Conditions of licenses. Now, the minister reminds that nothing in the law provided for the so-called “exclusivity” nor could “monopoly” for any class of players have been envisaged. That looks like telling it as it is!

    “If we take into consideration that, after five years of privatisation, there are still people and businesses who do not have power or enough power, common sense and public interest demands that we must not resist ordinary people, small businesses like shops and markets from seeking alternative sources of energy.”

    “The truth is that they already have these sources of alternative energy, in small petrol and diesel generators that cost them about N100 per kilowatt hour. If the DISCOs are not resisting the generator sellers who are contributing to pollution, what is the logic of resisting small entrepreneurs bringing mini gas plants to supply a market need?”.

    “Government” he said with some tone of finality, “must act, and will do so. The DisCos bought these assets with their eyes opened, and they must compete to deliver or exit”. These no doubt, are tough words.

    Which of course takes us to the final question – what does ANED want? Although the minister calls the body “interloper”, I believe ANED deserves a hearing. Yes, the body has spoken – mainly about technical issues hampering service delivery, the challenges that they daily face – the same standard rote routinely dished out as rationalisation. For a body that wants to be taken seriously, there is as yet, no serious signs of concrete investment in structures and processes on the basis on which the future of their sector could be anchored.

    Want to know what ANED truly wants? You guessed right; they want money – loads of it from the piggy bank.  How can anyone forget the N213 billion bailout packaged by the apex bank for the sector in 2014?  Or the N39 billion said to be in support of their metering plan only last year? They want more. Period.

    Sure, the Problem Has (merely) Changed Hands!

  • Again, high cement prices

    •Appealing to oligopolists to bring down prices won’t work. What will is restructuring both the market and cement use

    CEMENT appears every stage trouble for the Nigerian economy. At the peak of the oil boom in the 1970s, when cement importation also peaked, it was the cement armada that choked the ports.  Now, that Nigeria is reaching cement self-sufficiency, it is cement prices that never come down.

    Something is definitely wrong with the way the cement market, particularly the supply end, is structured. Though no legal oligopoly — since no law formally precludes free entry and exit of players — an operational oligopoly has held the market in thrall. These oligopolists dictate price, and appear to ride rough shod over consumers.

    Still, a market restructuring and further liberalisation won’t come easy. For starters, cement manufacturing is high-capital intensive. Again, because of its bulk, it is traditionally a regional industry. That tends to spawn local cement monopolies, in each region of business. The near-rail collapse has not helped this structural reality, even though one or two players, by buy-outs, mergers and take-overs, somewhat now straddle more than one business region.

    That reality dawned, with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s appeal to cement manufacturers to slice prices, with a promise of heightened infrastructural spending. The National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan projects some US$ 3 trillion investment in roads, bridges and allied construction, to double infrastructure upscale, from the present 35 per cent of GDP, to no less than 70 per cent of GDP by 2050. Cement would be key in these projected investments.

    Though the Vice President was speaking at the commissioning of the new US$ 350 million BUA Cement Plant at Kalambina, Sokoto State, his appeal was not out of place, given that key cement players have been enjoying concessions, fit for a strategic industry, vital to the Nigerian economy.

    As Prof. Osinbajo rightly noted, though the players complain of the huge challenge of inadequate electricity, among other infrastructural decay, cement is still a profitable business. It is high time, therefore, the manufacturers balanced the price question, between the profit imperative and social responsibility.

    But even if cement manufacturers were not moved by this charitable pitch — they are businesses after all, not charities — the prospects of more cement roads, among the increased use of cement for public works should, other things being equal, appeal to their business sense. With a huge economy of scale, they can profitably play by volume business, instead of the present margin.

    Still, while this appeal is in order — at least in the short run — the ultimate solution to high cement prices is creative government policy intervention, by which more players are drawn into the cement supply side. That way, the present oligopoly would give way to a more vibrant market, where the consumer has near-unfettered choice.

    But such creative interventionist policies need not be limited to the supply side alone. The government should also weigh in, in concert with local building scientists, to promote alternatives to cement in the building of houses. With other materials like red brick and even hard wood effectively competing with cement, cement prices would be more market-driven.

    That can only be a win-win for all — cement manufacturers and consumers.

  • Again, budget brouhaha pops up

    From N17bn loaded into the national budget during the Goodluck Jonathan era, the National Assembly has now ‘advanced’ such loadings to N578bn in the 2018 national budget – more than enough to generate nightmares for citizens who naively thought that the change mantra will rub off positively onlegislooters.

    Former Finance Minister and Coordinator of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, tried to make light of the serious matter of corrosive and corruptive budget padding in the national legislature when she came to the lawmakers’ defence following allegations that her book spanked them for ‘importing’ extra-budgetary items worth over N17bn into the 2015 documents before it was signed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan. In fact, Okonjo-Iweala’s book, Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines accuses the federal legislators of being a bunch of selfish individuals whose main concern is how to grab as much as they can from the national till. Describing their modus operandi, at least under Jonathan, the renowned World Bank chief says they appropriate needless powers to themselves on the shape, form, size and details of the budget such that they have become a major clog to the Executive’s bid to implement a workable budget.

    Specifically, she points out that: “The legislature was concerned largely about three things—the size of its own budget; the nature and the size of the capital budget, particularly investment projects; and the number and geographical location of the projects. Senators and Representatives felt that their role as appropriators of the budget was not just to vet and approve budget parameters and oversee budget implementation, but also to shape the size and content of the budgets, including details of specific projects.”

    The same National Assembly, through its various committees, she notes, “sought to add more to individual projects or create completely new, un-appropriated major projects, thereby distorting the budget”, while they rebuffed all entreaties by the executive to trim down on their huge budgetary allocations in line with economic realities of that period, which happened to be an election year. Instead, through a flurry of disguised, sometimes brazen, arm-twisting and blackmail, the executive had to overlook a N17bn input into that year’s budget so that the ruckus that precedes every budget signing ceremony can be avoided. Although Iweala would, in a rejoinder to what she described as ‘lies’, refute the N17bn as bribe but merely an increment that the government “accepted in order to move on”, it does not preclude the fact that what happened was budget padding in its raw form. It is an illegality that has been sustained over the years—a recurring malaise that has plagued Nigeria’s appropriation policy since May 29, 1999 when this democratic experiment started.

    And with what happened on Wednesday during the 2018 Budget signing ceremony at the Presidential Villa, it is obvious that Okonjo-Iweala’s admonition and subtle plea to the legislators to display the highest degree of patriotism and commitment in discharging their responsibilities especially on appropriation has fallen on deaf ears. She may have to wait a bit longer before her dream of seeing a change in our warped culture of pumping up budgets for personal gains as it was manifestly clear that the few good eggs among the lot have not been able to stop the rot. Where one had thought that the book would appeal to the sensibilities of the lawmakers to “clear up and clarify the budget process for the future to improve”, it turned out that President Muhammadu Buhari had to reluctantly append his signature to that bulk of convoluted documents with one arm tied to the blackmail stake and with a loaded gun pointed at his head in an election year. And so, as it was with Jonathan, so it is with Buhari.

    It is my belief that the lawmakers were up to some mischief in latching on to the constitutional provision that empowers them to appropriate funds to the executive’s budgetary items. Clearly, they misread that to mean that they can carry out a complete turnaround of the budget and simply force the executive to implement on the pretext that they represent a particular section of the electorate. It is high time we told them that, in a constitutional democracy such as ours, the legislature is not an alternate government. They should stop the posturing. That is where our problem of perennial budget brouhaha lies. Personally, I consider it jejune, irreverent and tendentious argument for the National Assembly to insist that the significant change noticed in the form, size and figures of the document signed by Buhari was informed by their desire to “balance in the six geo-political zones” and inculcate projects that are relevant to the needs of the people. They just don’t get it. That is not how these things should work. It is a crude way of arm-twisting and blackmailing the executive which has a short span within which the budget can be implemented to a reasonable level before the elections.

    By the way, it is to our collective shame that, yearly, we normally come to this sorry pass where the executive would reluctantly sign a budget with one hand and submit a supplementary budget with the other hand to the National Assembly shortly after going through the ritual of smiling for the cameras. The 2018 budget is not in any way different from the same rites of passage in the past even if Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah was quoted as saying that Buhari has no option than “implement it to the letter.”  How, if I may ask, is that going to be possible with the kind of criminal alterations the President listed as being perpetrated by the lawmakers in his pre-budget signing speech?

    You ask: in what way has the 8th National Assembly distinguished itself from the one described by Okonjo-Iweala? The answer is none. It is as simple as that. If the ex-minister was making so much fuss over a-N17bn illegal injection, what would she say about this horde of ‘people-friendly’ lawmakers who just topped their annual appropriation with extra N14.5bn? What would be her reaction when she gets to know that, in one fell swoop, the Federal Government estimates for 4700 projects were cut by over N347bn while, in its place, the National Assembly injected fresh 6403 projects worth N578bn? This is the budgetary documents that they are insisting that the executive must implement ‘to the letter.”

    Let’s interrogate the legislative interventions to see if we can justify the argument that it was meant to address the aspirations and yearnings of the masses who are always the victims of the laughable governance structures here. While drastically reducing estimated figures in vital projects like the Mambilla Power Plant, Second Niger Bridge, East/West Road, Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, the United Nations Building in Abuja, Rail projects and the Construction of the Enugu Airport, the National Assembly would rather deploy the smuggled N578bn in funding ‘laudable projects’ like the supply of industrial sewing machines including the supply of tricycles/motorcycles for youths and women. Amazingly, these wise men in the hallowed chambers believe that buying grinding machines and supplying Volkswagen Golf cars for youth empowerment are more germane to national growth than the projects listed by the executive. Others, according to reports, include building of culverts and drainages in some communities, provision of entrepreneurship training for some youths, upgrading of pathways and driveways, construction of VIP toilets in designated primary schools and purchase of motorcycles for extension work. Maybe we should just scrap all the federal agencies and cede their responsibilities to these distinguished and honourable lawmakers!

    In her rejoinder, Okonjo-Iweala said ‘lies obscure the country’s problems and do not allow us to improve.” I concur. But lies, in this context, refer to the hilarity and cynical ingenuity which the National Assembly employed to pad up the budget to the dizzying figure of N578bn. It makes one to puke! From past experience, such funds often find their ways into the pockets of the lawmakers in connivance some persons in Ministries, Departments and Agencies. The former Chairman of the Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, said this much in his well-documented outcry on how the National Assembly leadership corrodes the budget with projects that are mainly for self-aggrandizement. Quite unfortunately, the list for the 6403 projects that was exposed by Buhari looks like a rehash of Jibrin’s expose which fetched him a long suspension to leak his wound. For now, it is like the raid on the national till via this arm-twisting module has come to stay. Or has it not?

  • Again, gunmen kidnap 23 travellers on  Birnin-Gwari-Kaduna road

    Bandits, operating in Birnin-Gwari axis of Kaduna State yesterday kidnapped 23 travellers including a nursing mother.

    Five vehicles were raided by the marauders, according to a commercial driver, Mohamed Kebi, who escaped from the scene of the kidnapping.

    Kebi said: “At least five vehicles were intercepted by  the  kidnappers along Birnin-Gwari-Kaduna road around 11.00am this morning  (yesterday).

    ”At least 23 people were kidnapped, including a nursing mother and one other kid. “The incident occurred at Kwanar-tsauni between Udawa and Labi.”

    He said that though security along the Funtua road has improved lately, “we want the government to also provide maximum security to other routes that are haven of kidnappers.”

  • Again, Baba Iyabo thunders

    Again, Baba Iyabo thunders

    Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of the Federal Republic, has thundered yet again!  But it is nothing but jaded deja vu.

    Those swooning over Obasanjo’s latest Coalition for Nigeria (CN), would do well to remember his Association for Democracy and Good Governance in Nigeria (ADGN).

    He ghosted that body amidst the uproar that greeted Ibrahim Babangida’s annulment of MKO Abiola’s 12 June 1993 presidential mandate.

    Among the many starry-eyed that descended on his Ota farm, searching for leadership, was a certain ramrod Muhammadu Buhari, outraged by IBB’s ultra-recklessness.

    But as the naive were focused at doing justice by MKO, Obasanjo was priming himself for crass opportunism.

    That journey, in patriotic perfidy, landed Obasanjo in gaol.  It also cost Shehu Musa Yar’Adua his life.  Still, Obasanjo would end up the prime beneficiary of the Abacha debacle.

    It is ode to Obasanjo’s essential gracelessness that though MKO’s martyrdom ensured his second coming, he not only struggled to completely bury MKO throughout his presidential years (1999-2007), he also ogled an illegal third term which ended in a fiasco.

    So, those swearing by Baba Iyabo’s latest CN gambit, especially after strafing both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the power-obsessed People’s Democratic Party (PDP), are entitled to their naivety.

    By the way, does Obasanjo’s old “Abiola is no messiah” mantra gel with his present “APC and PDP have failed, so try my CN” new war cry?

    The foxy Owu chief, pushing a so-called “third force”, brimming with patriotic zeal to save Nigeria, might just be pointing to nobody but himself!  Call it neo-third term through the bad door!

    Now, to Obasanjo’s January 24 press release on the present state of things.

    Do the counting, at least in the democratic era: Second Republic President Shehu Shagari (1979-1983), President Umaru Yar’Adua (2007-2010) and President Goodluck Jonathan (2010-2015) — all were victims of Obasanjo’s tumbling adjectives, in explosive letters, similar to the present press release on President Buhari.

    Yet, all three were Obasanjo’s power protégés.

    The Obasanjo military junta aided and abetted Richard Akinjide’s twelve-two-thirds joker that sprung Candidate Shagari from a looming presidential run-off, as the 1979 Constitution ordered.

    As outgoing president, Obasanjo declared Yar’Adua’s election a “do-or-die” affair; and inflicted such on the polity, producing the most brazen rape on democracy Nigeria ever saw, making even Yar’Adua so ashamed of his own “election”.

    Of course, Yar’Adua’s fatal illness (hardly a secret) made the sorry Jonathan a fait accompli, that would nevertheless collapse the Obasanjo presidential house of straw, of which the PDP, which he robbed of its soul, was only a grand victim; and Jonathan, poor soul, the grand fall guy.

    Tracked back to 1979, therefore, the Nigerian debacle has had but one constant: Obasanjo.  He handed over to Shagari; but that government’s collapse, after one democratic term, hallmarked Nigeria’s most virulent military rule.

    That started with Muhammadu Buhari’s stone-age despotism; featured IBB’s brutal and wayward power-wield, chalking the first annulment of presidential mandate in Nigerian history; and hit the very nadir in the stark, thieving and murderous Abacha, who had to expire for his country, which he brutally raped, to progress.

    The Obasanjo-led 4th Republic (from 1999) has followed the same regressive pattern — with Obasanjo’s successors sinking steadily in the mire, until the threatened collapse (not only of Obasanjo’s house of straw, but of the whole ruling class) of 2015, which rallied that class to rally around a clean name, to save them all.

    It is again tribute to Obasanjo’s holy illogic that his sacred Pope must consistently produce profane priests — to borrow an image of the Catholic Church.

    That, at least to the acute, captures Obasanjo’s latest media grandstanding on the present state of affairs.

    Yet, give the devil his due.  Of all charges Obasanjo laid against Buhari, the only valid one would appear the president’s ultra-narrow appointments, on the security front, along northern lines.

    Normally, since the appointees are no foreigners but Nigerians the president deems fit to do the job, Ripples won’t raise much eye brows.  This is especially so when these are evened out with a southern phalanx, on the economic management front.

    Still, there are cries that these appointees, by their alleged ethnic agenda, undermine the president and cast him as an ultra-narrow ethnic champion.  The president must address and correct these grave allegations.

    But aside from this sole point, the other allegations, coming from the former president, are tantamount to pure gas: they are logical legacies from Obasanjo’s ruinous foundation, as first president of the 4th Republic.

    PDP: That PDP is rotten, coming from Obasanjo, is simply rich.  Did anyone, living or dead, contribute more to crippling that party than the former president?

    Corruption:  Given the progeny of his Presidential Library as unfazed shrine of brazen extortion (with a sitting president and oil minister suborning the cream of Nigeria to “donate”, it’s amazing Obasanjo would have the nerves to pontificate on corruption.

    Petroleum queues: a natural result of Obasanjo’s “brilliant” policy of liberalizing petroleum downstream by product importation, instead of local refining.  The Buhari government has a sounder policy on that front than Obasanjo’s.

    Killings and tension: Much as a section of the media has fraudulently coloured herdsmen killing as novel and exclusive to the Buhari presidency, that is arrant nonsense, for herdsmen-farmers tension is nothing new.

    It happened under Obasanjo.  So did it, under Yar’Adua and Jonathan.  Instead of emotive finger-pointing and ethnic scape-goating, therefore, it is time to find lasting solutions, instead of playing to the gallery.

    Economy: Obasanjo roars on the poor management of the economy.  But pray, what were his own records, apart from wholesale pandering to Breton-woods, that gorged Nigeria of its “real economy”?

    From the Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala days of structural underdevelopment of the local economy, a government is mining the golden opportunities in agriculture, much more than any in Nigeria’s 4th Republic. Despite its huffing and puffing, that was beyond Obasanjo’s eight-year presidency.

    One term: Is it not laughable that the one that hankered after an illegal third term, now decries another’s right to a legal second?

    Obasanjo is at his usual pastime, when things are tough, and his conceit spurs him to posture to plebeian roar.

    But ask yourself, since 1979, which Obasanjo-led movement has left Nigeria better than it met it?

    Baba Iyabo is an integral part of the Nigerian mess.  If you think he can be part of the solution, you’re entitled to your democratic delusion.

  • Chairmanship: Again, PDP walks a tight rope

    Chairmanship: Again, PDP walks a tight rope

    As the race for the chairmanship position of the Peoples Democratic Party gathers momentum, Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, takes a look at the frontline aspirants and the issues that will play up in the December National Convention

    AFTER years of legal tussles and internal wrangling over its leadership at the national level, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said it is ready for an elective convention that will culminate in the emergence of a new leadership for the troubled party. To show its determination to end the lingering crises within the party, the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee announced that it will hold the convention in December 2017.

    And as the country’s leading opposition party appears set to pick a new chairman, chieftains and groups within the party have renewed the battle for the soul of the PDP ahead of the planned convention. Currently, not less than eight leading chieftains of the party are gunning for the chairmanship position. Expectedly, each one of these aspirants is being supported by chieftains and groups within the party.

    The current situation within the party, according to insiders, is such that the leaders and members are sharply divided into camps and groups, depending on who they are supporting for the national chairmanship position. “Even the caretaker committee is divided by their individual support for one candidate or the other. The governors are not united in the choice of who should lead the party, not to talk of the chieftains. It is a very rowdy scenario,” our source said.

    Although the leadership crisis that rocked the PDP for years is believed to have been halted by the Supreme Court’s judgement that sacked Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as the National Chairman and upheld the Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee, pundits fear that if not carefully handled and executed, the current jostle for the position of national chairmanship seat is capable of returning the party to warring ways.

    “Our party is walking a tight rope. The ongoing contest for chairmanship is fierce; too fierce for a party that is just coming out of a leadership crisis that lingered for so long. Perhaps the shortness of time and obvious unpreparedness of the party for a convention so soon after what we went through is responsible for this. It is clear that there is no consensus in the way we are going about this whole contest.

    “No organ of the party is united over the choice of who should lead us. While it is good to go for elections, it is important to have checks and balancing arrangement to curtail the fallout of the election. That is what is missing now. I am afraid that unless we find a way of managing the current situation better, the PDP may return to its old situation of crisis and troubles after the convention,” our source added.

    In spite of the concern being expressed by stakeholders within and outside the party, The Nation gathered that many aspirants are currently determined to contest for the chairmanship at the convention and ultimately emerge as the new helmsman of the PDP. So fierce is the contest for the chairmanship of the party that several meetings and parleys, called by concerned stakeholders, to streamline the race and make it less confrontational, failed to yield results.

    “It is not true that nothing is being done to reduce the current tension generated by the contest for the national chairmanship position of our party. The truth is that much has been done, especially in the South-West, but little has been achieved. More than ever in the history of our party, our people are extremely divided into camps over who should lead the party. Many meetings have been held, but the desperation of, not just the aspirants, but their supporters, has made things difficult,” a Senator from the South-West said.

    The aspirants and their support bases

    Among those already warming up to slug it out for the chairmanship position are former Deputy National Chairman of the party in the South-West, Chief Bode George; a media professional and a frontline chieftain of the party in Edo State, Chief Raymond Dokpesi; and a former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel.

    Others are a former governor of Oyo State, who recently returned to the party, Rasheed Ladoja, former National Vice Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, a former Minister of Education, Professor Tunde Adeniran and a former Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Professor Taoheed Adedoja.

    However, many observers have narrowed the race down to a three horse race among Daniel, Dokpesi and George, barring any last minute surprise move by any of the other aspirants and or their support bases. Similarly, the three aspirants mentioned above have been more vociferous in their campaigns for the position and they are daily winning support and endorsements of important stakeholders within the party.

    But a new school of thought recently emerged following the reported entrance of former Governor Ladoja into the race. A party source claimed that the Accord Party returnee is being dragged into the race by a very powerful clique within the party as a consensus candidate, especially from the South-West as a way of preventing what appears like a looming post-convention crisis in the zone.

    “Nobody should write Ladoja off. His coming into the race is not by his personal desire. He is the magic wand being introduced into the contest in the South-West. Following the refusal of those in the race to dialogue and come forward with one of them as the candidate of the zone, a powerful clique within the party decided to bring Ladoja into the race as the consensus candidate of the zone. You will understand more when events start unfolding in that direction,” a prominent female party chieftain from Ogun State said.

    Speaking with newsmen in Lagos during the week, Ladoja, who formally announced his return to the PDP from Accord Party, said it is true that he is considering contesting for the top job of his new party. He said being a founding member of the party and a former governor elected on the platform of the party; he is eminently qualified to lead the PDP especially at a time like this.

    “Before the end of the month, I will declare my ambition. At this moment, I am still consulting. I have left Accord Party and I am now a full member of PDP. I have obtained my membership card. Once upon a time, this great party reigned in five states of the South-West but because of our mistakes, we lost four, remaining only Ekiti. We have decided to come together now and regain all those lost states, starting with Osun in 2018 up to the general election in 2019”, Ladoja said.

    For Dokpesi and his campaign team, now is the time to intensify the drive towards the chairmanship. They lobby towards winning the support of key PDP stakeholders across the country. Penultimate Friday, the team visited Chief Edwin Clark, the Ijaw leader, former Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu, and former FCT Minister, Ibrahim Bunu, at their residences in Abuja.

    Dokpesi said his desire to become PDP National Chairman remained strong and unshaken. He added that he had what it took to transform PDP if he eventually became its National Chairman, saying unity and sanity must return to PDP immediately if the party is serious about winning the next general election. He said that PDP was in need of a visionary leader, who was committed to its ideals and values.

    The Nation learnt that Dokpesi’s ambition is largely being supported by the political camp of former President Goodluck Jonathan. According to reliable sources, most of the ministers and other appointees who served under the former President are supporting Dokpesi. “They see him as one of them. They are hoping that with his candidacy, they have a chance of returning to reckoning within the party soon,” a source said.

    This is just as Daniel said his ultimate goal for seeking the chairmanship of the PDP is to work towards its victory in 2019 General Election, saying one of his focus if voted as National Chairman of the party will be to bring back into the fold many party men and women who have left for one reason or the other. The former governor assured that under his chairmanship, PDP would not only find a new identity, “but would reclaim its lost glory and salvage the ship of the Nigerian state.”

    “My ultimate goal is to work towards the victory of our party in the 2019 General Election and in all other elections in between. To achieve this, I am prepared to work with all leaders of our party, various interest groups and individuals. “Our party has lost many of its human political capitals; it has lost many if its founding fathers, by consistently being overwhelmed by the struggle for leadership positions, not only in most states of the federation, but even at the national level of the party,” he said.

    Daniel enjoys the support of the young Turks within the party, especially from the South-West. He is the candidate of a group of PDP chieftains who desire to see an ideological shift in the leadership of the party. “We see the need for a bit of radical approach as well as large scale reorganisation of the party. We want someone with a winning formula. We see Daniel as that person,” a former female gubernatorial aspirant from Lagos state told The Nation.

    George said he remained the best candidate to be the next chairman of the party. He made the statement in Lagos while formally declaring his intention to contest the chairmanship seat of the party. According to him, what the PDP needed at this critical moment was a committed, energetic, experienced party man as chairman, to redeem and reposition it.

    “Our party needs a rescue. Our party needs redemption. Our party deserves a balanced, experienced, tested, trusted and a faithful hand. Our party needs a team player and a unifying leadership. Our party needs stability. Here and now, I am humbly making a stand and a declaration as a candidate for the position of the office of National Chairman of our great party with a vision to serve as a bridge builder, as a peace maker and healer of broken pieces, “he said.

    A group of party elders in the South-West, led by Chief Ebenezer Babatope, are at the forefront of the clamour for George as the next chairman of the PDP. To them, the party needs a seasoned and experienced hand at this time as its National Chairman. And in spite of several calls on the former PDP Deputy National Chairman to step down for younger aspirants, Babatope and others insist George is the man for the job.

    Other aspirants too are not without support bases. Secondus is believed to be enjoying the tacit support of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State. He is also seen as the candidate of many chieftains of the PDP from the South-South, hoping that the zone will benefit from the inability of the South-West to present a consensus candidate for the convention.

    Thorny issue of zoning

    As the countdown to the December elective convention of the PDP begins, many chieftains of the party in the South-West geopolitical zone are still displeased with the decision of aspirants from other zones to contest the chairmanship of the party contrary to an alleged zoning arrangement that ceded the position to the southwest geo political zone.

    While the PDP says the position is open to aspirants from the entire south, party chieftains insist it is against an earlier agreement that gave the position exclusively to the South-West. They strongly warn that failure of the South-West to produce the next National Chairman of the PDP will adversely affect the fortune of the party at the 2019 General Election.

    “We are still agitating that the South-West alone should be allowed to field candidates at the convention for the position of National Chairman. The party must understand the need to balance all equations as we aspire to forge a united front ahead of the 2019 General Election. We must not allow the personal ambition of a few people to create fresh problems for us. The South-West must be allowed to produce the next National Chairman of the PDP,’ a party leader said.

    However, Dokpesi, who said his ambition does not negate any zoning arrangement, argued that “the national caretaker committee zoned the position of the National Chairman to the South and zoned the presidency to the North. And there is no micro zoning; the convention would have said it is zoning to the South-West, but the convention in its wisdom did not do so.”

    But former Police Affairs Minister, Adamu Maina Waziri, warned that the South-West should be supported to produce the party’s chairman. According to him, “for the PDP to reclaim power in 2019, the National Chairman of the party should come from the zone.” He called on the aspirants from the zone to close ranks and present a common front at the convention in the interest of the party. “The South-West should do well to reduce the number of aspirants to one,” he added.

  • Again, Ajekun Iya!

    How, how do you translate “ajekun iya” from Yoruba to English?  Multiple and comprehensive thrashing?  Sheer mauling? Or, just a massacre?

    Well, this enquiry is necessary, for a self-fulfilling prophesy appears to be hanging on the neck of the cocky prophet, in a bathetic real-life case of the hunter fast becoming the hunted.

    In a fit of senatorial hubris; no, senatorial delinquency of the most juvenile hue, or maybe a medley of the two, Dino Melaye, himself the unabashed senatorial din, promised whoever came against him a comprehensive drubbing — ajekun iya!

    Now, that was no empty boast, for he was flush with victory over enemies, real or imagined.  He had emerged from a certificate scandal, laying claim to degrees he didn’t have and claiming kin with some famous foreign universities he never attended.  In some jurisdictions, that should have ended any illustrious political career.

    Not here!  When Dino emerged at Senate plenary in a full academic ceremonial dress, it was a sweeping victory over his traducers, who insisted Dino was nothing but a phoney din.

    Then, he went forth, launching a book on corruption, to wide critical acclaim, not for its scholastic rigour, but for the cascade of cash it spewed.

    Even when the little inconvenience of electoral recall reared its head, from those hoi polloi claiming to be his electors, good, old Dino wouldn’t be bothered.  Who, after all, were these scum, to threaten him with recall?

    Before you could shout “Dino”, Bukola Saraki’s Senate was even propagating the theory, exceedingly sweet in the circumstance, that they were supreme to the voters that elected them, since they would first have to vet the recall process!

    And should the Senate have a hand?  Dino would have nothing to fear, such that the recall crowd would have no choice but to recall their recall.  Ajekun iya!

    Besides, the courts were there.  They would find for Dino’s just cause, against an ungrateful and recalcitrant electorate, wouldn’t they?

    So, if you saw Dino the Boisterous caper away with reckless abandon, at a London carnival, not regarding his senatorial dignity — not unlike Biblical King David dancing without royal self-possession before the Ark of Covenant — you must see, in the Dino body language, that the recall nonsense was done and dusted.  Ajekun iya!

    Well, not so fast!    The chicken of sobriety has come home to roost.  The high court just ruled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must continue with the recall process.

    That is subject to appeal, of course, all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary.  But as long as the process lasts, neither Dino nor his electors that want so badly to get rid of him would not rest.  It is the cock perched on the taut rope.  Neither the cock nor the rope would know peace.

    The voters, perhaps would play the patient game.  The future, after all, is a patient bird, particularly if it can smell carrion.

    But it is Dino that would have to battle and struggle against the fulfilment of a self-proclaimed prophesy — ajekun iya!

  • Nigeria ‘ll be great again, says Amosun, other

    Nigeria ‘ll be great again, says Amosun, other

    Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has expressed confidence that Nigeria would be great again in spite of the myriad of challenges confronting her.

    In his message to the Muslim faithful as they marked the Eid-el-Fitr yesterday, Amosun urged Nigerians to continue to work for peace and unity in order to ensure genuine and steady development in the country.

    The governor spoke shortly after he joined other Muslim faithful to observe the Eid-el-Kabir prayer at Oke-Yidi, Lantoro, Abeokuta, to mark this year’s Sallah celebration.

    He said the nation’s economy would “bounce and pick up again” with the return of President Muhammadu Buhari from medical vacation in London.

    According to him, Buhari has stepped up his onslaught against corruption and insecurity as well as showing commitment towards the country’s economic development.

    He urged Nigerians to continually give their support to the President in his determination to put Nigeria on the path of greatness.

    “Clearly, things are getting better. And with the return of Mr President, things will get even better. Of course, we have noticed that all the three key areas of Mr President’s administration are being reinvigorated.

    “From security, you will see what Mr President is doing, and everybody is working round the clock to make sure that the entire nation is secured.

    “Look at corruption, for instance, of course you know Mr President’s stance. He is still fighting corruption and he will continue to fight it.

    “He had said that we have to kill corruption before corruption kills us. Even as we speak, corruption is already killing us. Thank God for his administration that is now fighting corruption.

    “One thing that I know that is very dear to Mr President’s heart is to make our economy rebound, that our economy picks up and that we create wealth for our people.

    “And we cannot do that without diversification. In these key areas, we are walking our talk. I know with the support of the good people of Nigeria, Nigeria will be great again.

    “Anybody that knows God must know that peace is very synonymous with God. Such person will not preach violence, hatred and insurgency.

    “So, I want to admonish us in Ogun State and indeed Nigeria, that once we love one another, once we are united, once we are peaceful, Nigeria will be great again.”

    Earlier in his sermon, the Chief Imam of Egbaland, Alhaji Liadi Orunsolu, urged the people to be faithful to God and man.

    Orunsolu, who prayed for the wellbeing of President Buhari and his administration, also asked Nigerians, particularly Muslims, to have patience and be willing to sacrifice for the progress of the country.

    “Although, things are hard, I believe that if we can have patience and are willing to sacrifice, things will be normal again,” he said.

  • Again, warning that today’s wheat damages health

    The view presented below ought to have been presented as the second part of the wheat belly warning presented last Thursday in this column. That first presentation and warning was a post by a now unknown author on one of the WHATSAPP chat groups to which I belong. The heart of the matter, as we say, in that publication was that the wheat we eat today, either in its original wheat form or in transformed forms as in biscuits e.t.c, has been genetically modified to make it grow for harvest in a shorter time, more robust, plentiful and more resistant to infections and growth limitations. The net effect is that, to the naked eyes, this wheat still looks like wheat. But, structurally and genetically, it has been altered. And the alteration makes it produce radiations which are not the original radiations derived from the original wheat of Mother Nature. What our bodies extract from the food we eat are not those physical substances per se, but the rays which they capture and encapsulate for us. At the end of the day, everything is reducible to radiations or energy, as evidenced in the splitting of the atom to release its radiations or energy. Thus, we are educated that when our bodies digest food, it does so to release for us the energy in the components of these foods. And as the structural arrangement guides the functions of the food in the body, just as the structures of a building guide the functions it can be used for, so do the structures of natural wheat and altered wheat guide us to appreciate the different functions each will perform in the body.

    The following presentation is a post by Dr. Eke Cyprian in KUSA GREEN PASTURE HERBS group chat which advises us to be careful about the type of wheat and wheat products we consume…over to Dr. EKE CYPRIAN.

    “WHEAT is now the preferred swallow meal for many Nigerian families particularly in the urban centres. Sadly too, some rural dwellers have hooked onto the fad that wheat is a “healthy” food.

    “Early this year, a middle-aged man from Ekiti State came to my office for solution to his health challenges – diabetes and high blood pressure. Upon enquiry on his diet, he said wheat was his major meal daily. According to him, virtually all the civil servants working at the state and local governments in Ekiti State also eat wheat as their regular meal. In fact, he said those that are not eating wheat particularly in the state capital could not afford it, but not due to knowledge of its harm to health.

    “What an irony? Otherwise, how do we explain the preference of wheat to pounded yam, which the Ekiti people have been eating for good health and vitality centuries back?

    “The prevalent consumption of wheat across the country has clearly shown that in the absence of knowledge, people can accept poison as therapy. After all, wheat is the first choice food for diabetics on the strength of doctors’ advice. Nationwide, wheat has overshadowed yam flour and other starchy foods that are peculiar to our culinary culture in Nigeria. Unfortunately, this is one dietary change that may prove suicidal for many people given the inseparable linkage of diet to health or ill health.

    “Though wheat, like other grains, is rich in fibre and some other nutrients, it is one food anybody that desires wellness and long life should keep at arm’s length.

     

    ‘Why?’

    here are THREE inherent DANGERS in the chemistry of WHEAT that make it a CLASSIC DESTROYER OF HEALTH. I call them the DOWNSIDES of WHEAT.

    “The FIRST: WHEAT contains GLUTEN – a protein that causes inflammation, a systemic process that has harmful effects across all the organ systems in the body, including the brain, heart, joints, eyes and digestive tract. As a matter of fact, inflammation does not only precede all degenerative diseases like diabetes, cancer, stroke, glaucoma, arthritis and Parkinson’s disease, but also fuels their insidious progression. A review paper in the New England Journal of Medicine listed 55 DISEASES that can be caused by eating GLUTEN-CONTAINING foods. The diseases include osteoporosis, anemia, cancer, canker sores, fatigue, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. The paper also linked gluten to many psychiatric and neurological diseases, including depression, schizophrenia, dementia, nerve damage, epilepsy and autism. The paper concluded that there are 120 or more diseases associated with eating foods that contain gluten. Dr. Joseph A. Murray, M.D., states that he is surprised how often gluten affects the brain.

    “The SECOND: WHEAT study by Dr . J. Robert Cade, M.D. of the University of Florida showed that people with autism and schizophrenia have high level of PEPTIDES in their urine. These PEPTIDES, according to Dr. Cade, come from CASEIN (protein in milk and other dairy products) and GLIADIN and GLUTEN in WHEAT, BARLEY, OATS and RYE.

    “Another study of 30,000 patients analysed from 1969 – 2008 reported in the journal of the American Medical Association, found that people diagnosed with GLUTEN-SENSITIVITY had a higher risk of death from cancer and heart disease than the normal population.

    “Worse still, the bulk of wheat being consumed in the country is the AMERICAN HYBRID STRAIN, which has much HIGHER GLUTEN content than the European wheat.

    “The THIRD: Inherent DANGER in the Chemistry of WHEAT is its High GLYCEMIC Index (GI). Glycemic Index is a scale that ranks carbohydrate rich foods by how much they raise blood sugar level compared to low glycemic foods. Wheat has GI of 71 compared to yam and sweet potato with GI of 49 and 54 respectively. Invariably, eating food with high GI like wheat regularly promotes WEIGHT GAIN and makes DIABETES INTRACTABLE. According to Dr. Mark Hyman, M.D., “WHEAT is a MAJOR contributor to OBESITY, DIABETES, CANCER, DEMENTIA, DEPRESSION and many Modern ills.”

    “IF ONE MAY ASK, WHAT IS THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE RECOMMENDATION of WHEAT as a MEAL to FIGHT ——————— HIGH BLOOD SUGAR?

    WHEAT IS A MAJOR DESTROYER OF HEALTH.

    “PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL YOUR CONTACTS YOU MAY SAVE MORE LIVES THAN YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE.”

    More reasons why you should eat Asparagus

    My cell phone has been ringing since last Thursday, almost without break, and the message box has been running over and over, except for when the battery is down. The cause of this was the publication about how dangerous wheat foods have become to health and about how Asparagus (not Astragalus) offers the hope of a cure for many diseases, including those of the kidneys and even cancer.

    These publications broke the series of another publication titled: CHRONIC INSOMNIA AND TRAINLOAD OF TROUBLES, which had appeared in two parts. Those parts explored the conventional thought about sleep and sleep disorders, such as the Tryptophan, Serotonin and Melatonin interfaces, and some little known potential causes of sleep disorder which, in many cases, are the actual culprits. These included electro-pollution and lack of earthing for excessive positively charged electrons and an influx of negative charged electrons from the earth through the body’s contact with it. Anyone who pays attention to Nature should rediscover this knowledge in the acts of animals. The chicken often scrapes a small nest in the top soil of the earth and nettles in, absorbing the earth’s negative charge electrons to balance positive charge from the atmosphere. Dogs and cats, never fail, also, to make their bodies make contact with the earth. Mankind hardly does so today and an imbalance of these charges in his body is thought to unbalance it and, at night, make easy, sound sleep difficult.

    As for Asparagus, it has been linked with many health benefits which include “…fertility, relief from pre-menstrual syndrome, cancer, diabetes, hangout, cataract, rheumatism, tuberculosis, depression, neuro-degenerative diseases and convulsions.” It is praised also for the relief of high blood cholesterol and urinary tract infections (UTI), improvement of digestion, support for pregnancy and formation of plentiful, rich breast milk, healthy blood pressure.

    For those enquirers who wish to learn more about Asparagus, it is a vegetable which comes from the Lily family in about 300 species and about three colours…white, green and purple. The white Asparagus is grown not under sunlight and, thus, lacks the green pigment from chlorophyll.

    The purple variety is made purple by phytochemicals and anthocyanins, which have been noted in studies to give many plants their unique healing properties. Bilberry, for example, is purple and is one of the best herbs for protecting and healing the retina of the eye. Asparagus is rich in all the vitamins…A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, Folate, C, E and K. Its minerals include Iron, Calcium, Magnesium, Manganese, Zinc, Potassium, Selenium.

    With high amounts of the B vitamins, especially B1, B6, B12 and Follate, Asparagus offers a solution to Homocysteine which is grease like and blocks blood vessels to create problems for the heart and the blood circulatory system, including heart attacks and strokes. Many people think of only cholesterol when they suffer from blood vessel diseases, blockages in the blood vessel system, hypertension and even strokes. Even when their blood cholesterol work is normal and their problem persist, the tendency is to assume there is a clean slate of health, although the cause of the problem is unknown. That cause is likely to be homocysteine build-up in the blood vessels and tissues. Homocysteine is an end product of the body’s use of an amino acid called Methionine. It is like wood ash produced from the burning of wood, except that when the body burns methionine the resulting ash is the greasy homocysteine. This greasy substance does not allow blood to flow easily and well, raises blood pressure and damages the blood vessels and the heart. The folate of Asparagus, together with its Vitamin B6 and Vitamin B12, causes homocysteine to dissolve and cause no problem. The folate of asparagus also helps to prevent low birth weight. Asparagus root is interesting. In Ayuverdic medicine, it is called SHATAVARL, which means “one with 100 husbands.” That is a signal of the fertility-inducing potential of this vegetable. The root is said to have aphrodisiac properties and regulate male and female hormonal balances. Additionally, it is said to be a cure for male and female sexual disorders. It does not just help women against bloating in pre-menstrual syndrome situations or help men improve on sperm count, sperm motility and morphology, it helps lactating women produce more breast milk, it helps menopausal women overcome such conditions of their “Change of Life” as interchanging excessive heat and cold known as hot flashes. For people who experience burning sensations in intestine or navel pain after a meal (dyspepsia), Astragalus root is well recommended. It takes this pain away through its digestive aid from INULIN, a chemical substance which does not get digested until it arrives in the colon. Here, it is fed upon by the friendly bacteria called LACTOBACILI. Inulin, a complex carbohydrate also known as pre-biotic, is, thus, said to aid nutrient absorbtion and reduce risks of stomach and intestinal cancer and food allergies which torment many people.

    Sufferer from eye cataracts may look up to Asparagus for help. Its large amounts of Vitamin A protect the lens and the retina against oxidative stress damage inflicted by the blue spectrum of light. It is also endowed with some Glutathione, the body’s master antioxidant, which helps to clear these damaging free radicals from the body. RUTIN is another valuable component of Asparagus. It was presented decades ago for good vision. It supported the integrity of blood vessels, thereby preventing blood leakages from small blood vessels into the retina, a condition which may impair good vision. It prevents blood clots, hardening of arteries, thereby reducing hypertension. Blockages of tiny blood vessels of the eye may reduce blood flow to the eye, and this may impair good vision. Today, Rutin, a bioflavonoid, is suggested for rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory conditions generally.

    For throat infections, bronchitis, tuberculosis or the need to improve lung function, Asparagus presents a helping hand. Even neuro-degenerative conditions are included in the healing basket of Asparagus which is offered,  as well, for anxiety, depression and epilepsy, convulsions and seizures. The root is especially recommended here.

    Like all good things that are over done, Asparagus may present side effects if it is over-used. It may produce gas from the fermentation of some of its complex carbohydrates. It may cause allergies in people who react to Lily family vegetables, such as onion. And because it has large amounts of Purines, it may not be good for people who suffer from kidney stones. For Purines convert to Uric acid which, in the absence of adequate amount of Uricase, an enzyme, to convert uric acid to urea for excretion by the kidney through the urine, a uric acid build-up may occur and stones may form.

    Never’theless, Asparagus is good in the diet. It is a diuretic and its folate and B12 Vitamin are good for mood enhancement and depression. Its tryptophan supports restful sleep and, because of the fibre and vitamin B6, it may support good weight management. So, enjoy Asparagus in your diet.

  • It’s story time again

    It’s story time again

    Title: A Treasury of African Folktales
    Author: Ikeogu Oke, Helon Habila and Wale Okediran
    Publishers: Manila Publishers, Abuja
    Reviewer: Edozie Udeze

    There are serious efforts by some Nigerian writers to bring back the story-telling tradition in the Nigerian society.  Emphasis is now being placed on the loss of values and how the younger ones can be made to appreciate the essence of some of those norms that kept humanity on the path of love before now.  Story-telling was one of those means through which parents indoctrinated values in their children.  That concept of tradition has today been consigned to the dustbin of history.

    But the trio of Ikeogu Oke, Helon Habila and Wale Okediran, who are some of Nigeria’s renowned writers have taken up the mantle to resuscitate the tradition of using stories to instill morality in the younger ones.  The title of the book is simple and suggestive.  It is A Treasury of African Folktales which contains three remarkable stories.  The stories hint on morality.  They are told using the animal kingdom to draw analogies for the necessary lessons.

    You can’t make the story of animals important or fascinating without the lion (King of animals) and the tortoise (mischievous and cunning).  Those two, along with others like monkey, squirrel, spider and others dominate the stories and the lessons they have for both humanity and the animal kingdom itself.

    Using tortoise as a paradigm, it is easier to focus on the shortcomings of humanity.  It is more instructive to point out the greed of an animal like lion which is also what Nigeria faces today.  It is the story of the strong continually lording it over the poor and the weak.  The lion sought for help from the monkey.  He got it but decided to trap the monkey as a prey.  The timely intervention of an old woman saved the situation.  But the lion was not even remorseful.  Oke uses the story to deepen attention to those who remain ungrateful in the face of kindness. The lion typifies a society where winner takes it all is predominant; where power rather than sense counts.

    With the appropriate choruses and chants, Oke reconnects with the past.  In those days older people gathered the younger ones to let them listen to these tales to guide them in life.  Do these things still matter today?  This seems to be what is uppermost in the sense behind the stories.

    In The spider and the Drummers, Habila craftily told the story of a lazy animal – the spider – that he lived a life of lies.  Not just lazy, the spider was fond of borrowing to deceive his wife.  He was so involved in it even when he loved to enjoy life.  He ate too much; he indulged in music to sooth himself and escape the work that would elevate his family.

    But one day luck ran out on him.  The animals from whom he borrowed bags of foods united to take their pounds of flesh from him.  His wife ran and deserted him.  He was left alone to wallow in his own folly.  Habila, uses careful expressions to bring out deeper lessons in the story.  One day, no matter how smart you are, your lies will find you out.  This is a lesson for all – that laziness does not pay.  You have to work hard to achieve it in life.  Depend solely on the talents you have to rise to the pinnacle of your career.

    In A Wrongful Gratitude, Okediran makes it clearer that for you to defend your friend, no matter the situation, you must find out who is wrong or not.  Tortoise did not find out what was amiss between the Shrew and the squirrel before he went in defence of the squirrel.  This earned him a bleeding nose.  This was what made him to have a flat nose up till today.  Even while he did not or could not control his gluttony or propensity to cheat and parasite on others, Tortoise was good at employing obnoxious habits to hoodwink his pals.  He did this time and ended up the loser.

    Even the squirrel spurned his so-called defence of him.  The squirrel asked the Tortoise – “You took sides against him (Shrew) without knowing or trying to find out the cause of our quarrel.  That was unfair.  A good friend will not encourage you to support them unfairly.”  And this statement surprised tortoise so that from there you have to know the root of the quarrel before you can wade in.”

    With appropriate illustrations and edited by Oke, the book celebrates excellence.  It brings out the beauty of good stories told for the necessary effects.  The songs are to confirm with the essence of the stories.  With The Ford Foundation as its sponsors, it is expected that the volume two of the work will be out soonest.  This is a story-book for all who love stories.