The Nation Newspaper

Tag: age

  • Five ways to age better everyday

    Five ways to age better everyday

    Living a long healthy life is a goal many of us strive to achieve but it’s not always that simple. Aging gracefully requires a discipline routine to help prevent the body and mind from breaking down over time.

    Aging well involves a combination of physical, mental, and emotional practices. 

    Here are five things you should consider doing every day to promote healthy aging:

    1. Stay physically active: Engage in some form of exercise daily, whether it’s walking, stretching, strength training, or yoga. Physical activity helps maintain muscle mass, flexibility, balance, and cardiovascular health, all of which are crucial for aging well.

    2. Eat a balanced diet: Consume a variety of nutrient-rich foods, focusing on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats. Staying hydrated and limiting processed foods, sugars, and unhealthy fats can also support longevity and overall health.

    3. Practice mental stimulation: Keep your brain engaged through activities like reading, puzzles, learning new skills, or engaging in meaningful conversations. Mental stimulation helps maintain cognitive function and reduces the risk of cognitive decline.

    4. Get quality sleep: Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Quality sleep is essential for the body’s repair processes, memory consolidation, and emotional well-being. Create a relaxing bedtime routine and sleep in a comfortable, dark, and quiet environment.

    5. Foster social connections: Maintain and build relationships with family, friends, and your community. Regular social interaction has been linked to better mental and emotional health, which can contribute to a longer, happier life. Engaging in hobbies, volunteering, or joining clubs can help strengthen social ties. 

    Incorporating these habits into your daily routine can significantly contribute to aging better and enhancing your overall quality of life.

  • Age of discontent

    Age of discontent

    American writer Edith Wharton jolted her generation with her eighth novel, The Age of Innocence. The novel may bear resonance today as defiled souls wear cassocks of innocence. The American novelist tracks a society in transition, where old and new collide. The writer laments the delusion of a man who despises the old era that will not leave and the new one that winks and beckons. The past does not work but the future does not come. Since the society despaired between plunder and promise, Wharton should have called her story, The Age of Discontent.

    Today we are seeing some of them. Those who do not want the Lagos-Calabar Highway because they want to flip it to Calabar-Lagos Highway. Those who want the naira back on its back like a dying cockroach. Who want subsidy back. Who want the Central Bank outside the market. Hoarders who keep food from kitchens. Shylocks who have turned the exchange rate into a bogeyman. Paymasters of terror who make the society too giddy to govern.

    This is nothing new in moments of change. Okonkwo committed suicide in Umuofia. Gorbachev railed into a storm with Glasnost and Perestroika in the Soviet Union. Catholics fell out of grace after the Glorious Revolution in England. Napoleon exploited the scene as the Ancient  Regime fled the French Revolution. Warrant chiefs became the white man’s favorite in Igboland as colonialism subdued a republican ethos.

    Some of such characters are colourful in their conservative brio. Okonkwo hanged because the new order kept hanging on. James II fell from power to his sister Mary and William of Orange because he loved his own version of Christianity. Soyinka’s Elesin Oba morphed into epicurean indulgence. These have character. They are authentic. Perhaps that’s why Okonkwo is more popular than Ezeulu, a realistic character, in Arrow of God, a better accomplished book than Things Fall Apart.

    Characters like Okonkwo and Elesin Oba know what they want. In Milton’s Paradise Lost, Satan declares, “All good to me is lost.” Or the hawk in Ted Hughes’ poem, Hawk Roosting who snorts, “I kill where I please because it is all mine/ there is no sophistry in my body.”

     The other set are those who are hypocrites about change. They pretend they want a better society, and they recoil when they see a light in the tunnel. They are not Ted Hughes’ hawk. They are chameleons. They blend with the shrubbery of the times.

    There are two such people. The first are the guys who are bellyaching over the Lagos-Calabar Highway. They are flailing because it is a good thing. They are afraid they misjudged the president. Or they are scared what they feared is about to come to pass. They are afraid of the whispering prophecy in their hearts during the campaigns., that Tinubu is a better breed than their candidate. Like Job, their fear has come upon them. But they would not admit in public. It is called the fear of gratitude. As Greek historian Tacitus writes, “gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure.”

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    They may have to live with the project as a fait accompli. Get ready for a long ride.

    But the man who epitomizes the spirit is former Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El Rufai, who wanted attention to himself. He paid a visit to the Borno State Governor, and he uttered a phrase of adulation. He said Zulum is the best governor in Nigeria. For all the gifts of the Borno chief executive, and he deserves all the praises he gets, the former Kaduna helmsman was not interested in praising him. He was weaponizing eulogy as revenge. He wanted his foes and critics in the other camp of his own camp to hear his words and grieve for undermining them. But more potently, he did not know that he was throwing dirt at himself. Some would say, from the recent revelations about financial dealings on his watch, that he did not want attention on his dark profile. He presented a sunny exterior for another chief executive so we can forget about his own sins.

    He also said that fuel subsidy is back, and for ostensible authenticity, he gave a figure: eight trillion naira.  He is borrowing from the Nazi propagandist Goebbels. He was asked a question, though, by petroleum minister of state, Heineken Lokpobri. Where is your proof? The little man from Kaduna has not said little in reply. He has said nothing.

    The man is now assailed with “proof crises,” but he is not proof from any of them. In the first proof crisis, he has been asked to explain how he spent the state funds. He left a debt of $587 million and N85 billion for his friend and successor Governor Uba Sani. He said it was to renew urban Kaduna. He drew all the money in 2021. Yet when Governor Sani climbed the saddle, contractors came with a certificate to claim N115 billion for work not done. A month before leaving office, El Rufai took a loan of N20 billion and tied it to the Internally Generated Revenue. He took a $26 million loan to change agriculture, but no one is seeing evidence. He secured a moratorium on all these loans so he did not have to pay until he left office. There is more.

    I wrote a magazine piece on it, and sent questions for him to answer. The man kept mum. Now, he has the gumption to cry over fuel subsidy, a cry of wolf. The State House of Assembly has instituted a probe into his times, and he has not said a word about how and why he tinkered with the tax payer’s money?

    When proof is brought before him, he says nothing. When he says something that needs proof, he also says nothing. For a man of prattle, he has exercised an embarrassed restraint. He is acting like a crocodile with a locked jaw. He prowls but cannot growl, so he cannot bite.

    All he wanted to do with the fuel subsidy issue is stir discontent in the land. He wanted to wake up the Tinubu enemies who have gradually receded into a grumble or a silence of agony. At best, they stutter like Atiku, who should be facing FCT Minister Nyeson Wike, who has clobbered him twice now. First, in the presidential poll; Second, in securing the acting chairman Umar Damagun.

    When President Tinubu declared that fuel subsidy was gone, what did he do with the money? He spent it on the states. For the first time, the monthly allocations have leapt to trillions of naira. It has continued. If he stopped, we might have said the money was returned to pay subsidy. The month of march, for instance, had N1.1 trillion distributed among states and federal government.

    Men like El Rufai should learn to live in a republic of facts, not speculation. More seriously, not a democracy of mischief. President Tinubu has been saying it for those who want to listen that corruption is fighting back. He was referring partly to the subsidy vermin who fed fat in the past. It makes the lazy rich drone. Abebe Selassie, director of IMF African Department echoed this point. Hear him: ““And the reason why we counsel against such generalized subsidies is very simple. It tends to be highly regressive, meaning the benefits of such fuel subsidies tend to accrue to the rich and not to the poor people.”

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has said that there is no such thing as return of subsidy. Those who want to believe it are wondering why we do not have the queues and why we have fuel. These are the people that the man from Kaduna want to give voice. If El Rufai is decomposing into a rage and discontent, he has no right to stir the polity with a lie. He may be eyeing 2027, but he has questions to answer about 2015 to 2023. He should leave NNPC alone.

  • What has age got to do with it?

    I have said it before and I will say it again, love is where you find it. You see, when it comes to matters of the heart, you cannot choose who you fall in love with. I have seen and read it all. I have seen and read about men falling in love with girls two times younger than they are. I have seen and read about women falling for men much older or even very much younger than they are. You think it is news? I don’t think so.

    Love is a natural phenomenon that will happen to an individual, when it will happen. As humans, we have very little contributions as to whom we fall in love with. Age-gap relationships need to be flexible, and who ever said or why do so many people believe that true love can only exist between people of the same age. On the average, women are attracted to the personality and the level of intelligence of a man while on the other hand the men are attracted to the looks.

    If one is in love with an individual, it is on a very rare occasion that the age of the partner will became an object of discourse. Age should not be a factor when in a relationship, what should matter is the joy you derive from being in each other’s company; how much fun you have together, everything you have in common, and how you feel when you are in each other’s arms. Having read and written on relationships, I have had one reason or the others to speak with different individuals on what they would look out for in a relationship.

    I have heard ladies say they would fall for a tall, dark and handsome guy only to end up with the opposite. I have also listened to men who would say ‘I’d die for a slim, tall babe and end up with the opposite. What do you think happened? I can boldly tell you that ‘love’ happened! When it does, it simply sweeps one off their feet and you can even begin to explain it. Little wonder why it is said that ‘love is blind’.

    The truth is, when it comes to love; anything can happen. You might think it’s not possible to fall in love with a man or woman younger or older than you but as it is with most things you might think it is impossible to fly an airplane or even walk on the moon; but these things are very possible. Recently, I was watching a ‘red carpet’ moment on one of my favourite TV stations, Channel ‘E’ while the stars took their turns in being captured by the camera; even as they flaunted their dresses and suits alike. Something else caught my attention.

    What caught my attention on that particular award event was a once-upon a favourite actress of mine Demi Moore. Demi Moore, was the lead actress in films like ‘Ghost’ we are no Angels and so many best-selling movies. She is a celebrity and star in every sense of the word. But, it is not her acting panache and finesse that caught my fancy on that day. It was her date. Her date was a fine young man almost half her age.

    So, I got thinking, has our great Demi Moore, found love in the arms of a younger man? I bet you she is not alone in this, the Madonas, Mariah Careys, have also found love in the arms of men young enough to be their younger ones. And they seem very happy.

    Of course, the men are not left out in this. In fact in the case of the men a greater percentage of them meet and fall in love with much, much younger ladies. Take for instance. Dr. Duro Soleye who met and fell in love with an ex-beauty queen Nike Oshinowo and today they are happily married. I have also observed that our society has still not come to the point where love affairs between couples with huge age differences are appreciated.

    It is wrong. It is unfair. People do not choose love, people find love. Why is it that when an older man for instance starts falling in love to a much younger woman, tongues start wagging? As far as society is concerned no young woman falls in love with a man old enough to be her daddy without the bait of money.

    Things are fast changing; the world is becoming more globalised as the years progress. Today, a lot of women take care of themselves so that even at 40, they always look younger. And the young men who now hold mostly executive jobs are so mature they could add five or ten years to their ages without a raised-eye brow. When these two sets of people come together, the age difference is hardly noticeable.

    When the experiences of an older lover clash with the younger lover’s energy and vitality, the result can be quite astonishing.

    When two people with huge age-gap fall in love, the older lover is more caring and more loving. You wouldn’t ask for more. Love is a unique and beautiful thing. According to Dolly Parton, the songstress, ‘love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing’. Please, I beg you; if you find it, with that special person, do not allow age difference, language barrier, financial matters, or  physical looks deter you.

  • The politics of age

    Easily given to ceremony than substance, it is no surprise that we seem carried away yet again by the enactment last week of the “Not-Too-Young-To-Run” Act. By “we”, I refer to citizens of my generation and the millennials, many of whom probably view the development as no more than a tacit official acknowledgement of “our own turn to eat”.

    True, there can be no downplaying the import of lowering the age ceiling for the the highest office in the land at a time the geriatric seem reluctant to relinguish the leadership stool. Now, a 35-year-old is anointed to contest the presidency against President Muhammadu Buhari next year, as against the old minimum of 40. Just as a 25-year-old is fit to become member of state assembly or the National Assembly.

    Of course, this change, championed by the “Not-Too-Young-To-Run” movement, was undoutedly inspired by electoral hurricanes outside our shores in recent years that swept young Turks into power.

    At 39, Emmanuel Macron emerged the youngest President in the history of France last year. The same age as Leo Varadkar, the Irish Prime Minister.

    In Austria, 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz is Chancellor.

    In Canada, 43-year-old Justin Trudeau emerged Prime Minister. Thirty-seven-year-old Jacinda Ardern is New Zealand Prime Minister. Volodymyr Groysman was only two years older when he emerged Ukraine’s youngest ever prime minister. 38-year-old Emil Dimitriev took over in Macedonia. His age-mates – Carlos Alvarado Quesanda and Jüri Ratas – are leaders of Costa Rica and Estonia respectively.

    Back home, with a demographic of under-35 accounting for more than 65 percent of national population of over 180m, at no time in history have the Nigerian youths been this reminded of the power of electoral veto within their reach.

    But let it be noted that opportunity is not exactly the same thing as purpose. The easy conjecture is to assume today that the prospects of merely having public offices overtaken by the youths is all that is required to cure the obvious leadership deficit afflicting the country. Nothing could be more futile.

    Weighing into the raging debate, Sam Omatseye, fellow columnist and inimitable connoisseur of poetry and history, cautioned against toasting a mere “paper victory” in his last outing.

    I would rather add that the new Act would not be in vain only if the youths themselves see this as an impetus to frame the next agenda: mobilizing and driving a new campaign to redefine the purpose of politics as service and not a transaction. This, to me, is at the core of leadership crisis bedeviling the nation.

    Truth be told, what has always ailed our politics is not age but the mindset we bring to electoral contest. The issue is not the age of our politicians but the age of our politics. Azikiwe, Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello chanced upon the national stage in their 30s. The second generation of leaders consisting the military faction seized and exercised power also in their 20s and 30s.

    In terms of the integrity test, those found to have looted the public till over the years did so in their prime years. We can then see that youthfulness is hardly an inhibitor of the itchy finger.

    So, if we all agreed that the nation has under-achieved relative to her potential in almost six decades of independence, it is only logical that the failure be attributed substantially to the leadership recruitment and training template adopted.

    Now sorely needed is a new politics driven by values. I share the view that perhaps the easiest take-off point should be the resolve of good people to take more than a casual interest in politics in their local communities, thereby helping to crowd out the political hoodlums. If sustained, we will sooner than later help force a new ethic that ensures politics is no longer the vocation of men without verifiable second address or the rehab centre of women of easy virtue.

    Indeed, more than any time in history, the time has come for us to see a nexus between votes bartered for few banknotes before thumb-printing on the election day and the subsequent incidence of public treasury being stolen by those who bribed their way to power.

    But the thieving politician is just as culpable as members of his constituency who put them under pressure by making unreasonable financial demands. Few years ago, a popular senator from one of the South-west states narrated his “ordeal” to this writer.

    To make a visit to his constituency every week from his Abuja base, he required at least whopping N5m to cater for all manner of requests ranging from someone doing “remembrance party” for their ancestor who died last century, to someone taking a wife. So much that he often returned to his Abuja station the next Monday broke.

    His “coping strategy”?: “Whenever I’m unable to raise such amount of money,” he said, “I simply avoid going home and so it is cheaper for me then to fly to London to spend the weekend.”

    Of course, there is no prize for guessing where the senator had to source the slush money from to indulge his constituents weekly.

    Again, how many of us can genuinely volunteer for any form of civic act like joining in mobilizing more political participation in our respect local communities without expecting instant gratification from the resident “political leader”?

    I think the first step to sanitizing political contest is to disincentivize public office. So long as the unemployed graduate realizes that a federal legislator, for instance, carts home N13.5m monthly as “running costs” apart from the documented N750,000 salary, the more intense his envy and the greater his desperation to have the lawmaker displaced in the next election round and claim their plum seat.

    Of course, displacing the current order cannot be achieved overnight. It requires some activism of sorts which the youth themselves can help champion, bearing in mind that it is only when we have men and women of conscience in the position of decision that whatever is available is judiciously applied for the need of the majority, not the greed of a privileged few.

     

  • Buhari: Age may not matter in 2019 polls, says Onaiyekan

    Catholic Archbishop of Abuja Diocese John Cardinal Onaiyekan said yesterday that age may not matter as President Muhammadu Buhari seeks a return to office next year.

    He said what should be of importance to those seeking to rule should be their concern for others and service to the people in the name of God.

    Although he said there was need to give room to younger people to rule, he expressed regret that from experience, the young people put in office had not performed.

    The Cardinal, who spoke at the post-humous launching of the autobiography of a former Foreign Affairs Minister Chief Mathew Mbu, said those seeking re-election must give cogent reasons.

    The book, “Dignity in Service,” was written by Mbu before his death about six years ago.

    The cleric said: “At the end of the day, maybe it is not a matter of the age but a matter of your own mind, your intention, your love for doing the right thing, especially concern for others, politics and service to the people in the name of God.

    “If we start to take these things seriously, then probably, it would not matter whether we declare to seek reelection at 79 or whether we don’t.

    “The important thing is:  what do we want power for? Why do you want to seek re-election? We are waiting to see because we are told that we are going to see new things in the next year, I am looking forward.

    “New things can come from old people, you know and people can change.  People can have a change of heart. We are looking forward to that.”

    Notwithstanding, Onaiyekan sought opportunity for younger people to be in power in the country.

    He added: “M.T. Mbu is a good Catholic and you know we Catholics love ourselves very much.  In 1953 when he was a young minister, I was in standard three in primary school and we all knew M.T. Mbu as a minister.  There were not too many ministers then unlike today where you have to cover the whole 36 states. In those days, we didn’t have such problem.

    “The point I want to make is this, today, when you hear that a young boy was a minister, my mind always goes to those days too and I ask, how many people were old then? The people we now see as ancestors were all young people. I will like to find out the age of Tafawa Balewa and even Awolowo at that time.

    “They were all relatively young and when Awolowo and Azikiwe broke grounds then, they were young. I think this is the story we need to tell to our younger people but the question is, where is the space for our younger people when old people like me are still hanging around?

    “We have to find a way of giving room to younger people to show what they can do also. Mbu has shown that young people can perform but we have also had experiences of young people who have not performed.”

    A former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Ignatius Olisemeka, described Mbu as a pacesetter and a hero.

    He said:  “I met him in London but I wouldn’t want to dwell on his personality but I will like to call attention to the issues Mbu represented as a man.

    “I had the privilege of flipping through the book and I will like to draw your attention to page 73. M.T. Mbu was such a meticulous man that when he purchased Nigeria House in London as our pioneer High Commissioner, he paid £35, 000 and he noted that in the book.

    He also noted that few years after, the property which still stands for which he paid £35, 000  was refurbished with £12.5 million. That tells of what he noticed. In the later years, he wanted to buy a residence for our High Commissioner in London and we had a bargain for the residence for £4 million. That was the going price. A few years after he left, the same residence was bought for £12 million.”

    Nigeria’s former Ambassador to the United States (U.S.) Ambassador George Obiozor expressed regret  that Nigeria was not good at honouring its heroes.

    He said: “Our country is a country of anti-heroes. We have to look for heroes and honour them. May we pray that a hero will come and salvage our country.”

    The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who was the chairman of the launch,  said: “I have learnt about his brilliance, honesty and hard work.”

    He added: “I thought I broke the record of being the youngest governor in Nigeria only to read that Mbu  became a Minister at 23. So,  I ask the question, what stops us from getting there now? Is it that his father was a rich man or what? The answer is hard work. If we work hard, we will get to where he got to and if we don’t,  we won’t attain  his height. The next thing I can attribute to him is his believe in one Nigeria.

    “Some of us are beginning to ask for the disintegration of Nigeria, I feel that whatever the issues are, they are things that can be discussed and they are things that changes can help propagate the difference that we have.

    Those at the book launch included the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Usani Usani;  a  former Minister of Defence, Gen. Aliyu Gusau; ex-governors Liyel Imoke (Cross River) and Lucky Igbinedion (Edo); the Chairman of NDDC, Sen. Victor Ndoma-Egba;  the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Sen. Ita Enang, Amb. Ahmed Umar, who represented the Emir of Kano; Sen. Rose Okoh (who represented the President of the Senate) and Sen. Musa Adede, among others.

  • What’s age, experience got to do with it

    What’s age, experience got to do with it

    Twice in this column, I have had cause to write about an outstanding female journalist of note, Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye, the immediate past Sunday Editor of The Punch. It is not common that journalists write about themselves. We write about others who excel in various fields of endeavours, but, understandably, we can be too modest about celebrating our accomplishments.

    Deliberately and perhaps because of my commitment to media career development, I don’t hesitate to write about journalists whose story can inspire readers. Once in a while, I have no problem with news writers becoming newsmakers as it is with my fascination about the young lady who I knew as a student less than fifteen years ago, but has broken almost all major records in the media industry in Nigeria and even at the global level.

    Ogunseye, the first female editor in The Punch who was recently employed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as the Head of Languages stations in West Africa, is a role model I will always recommend , not only in the media, but for every professional who wants to maximise the potential in their profession.

    Ogunseye’s meteoric rise despite the various challenges associated with the profession is a clear proof that success is not about how far but how well. For a lady in a gentlemen’s profession, who did not read any Mass Communication-related course, started out reporting crime and not any major beat, her story is very inspiring with lots of lessons to learn about the reward for hard work, tenacity of purpose and commitment to professionalism.

    The headline of one of the two columns I had written about Ogunseye was ‘Success is Predictable’. When you find a person who has a clear sense of purpose like I sensed in her the day she submitted her application to participate in the first Nigeria Young Journalists Award in 2014 despite being a student freelance reporter for The Sun newspaper and a passion for quality reporting, chances of towering above her peers and seniors are very high as it has turned out to be for Ogunseye.

    Is she just lucky like some claim? There is definitely much more than luck to the phenomenal accomplishments of Ogunseye whose work and performance have been subjected not only to local, but international, assessments. Luck without brilliance and hard work cannot take anyone too far. If it does, it usually becomes apparent with the person’s inability to live up to expectations.

    A young graduate told me how he recently found himself at a training programme with some experienced journalists who had many discouraging stories to tell him about their media career, my advice for him was that Ogunseye and a number of other young outstanding journalists I know have proved that a profession is as good as what you make out of it.

    If Ogunseye and others have believed the ‘veteran tales’ they must have heard in their early days in the profession, they would have been discouraged from succeeding where many before them have failed.

    Journalism, like many other professions perceived as not fulfilling and rewarding, needs more Ogunseyes to prove that age and years of experience have nothing to do with being a success in whatever endeavour.

    Congratulations Toyosi, keep soaring.

     

  • Sultan seeks extension of military’s retirement age

    The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, and Gen. Martin Agwai (rtd) have called for an extension in the retirement age for military officers.

    The Sultan, who is a retired Brig.Gen., said this became imperative due to the huge fund the Federal Government spends in training officers.

    The monarch spoke in Abuja at the weekend, at a dinner organised by members of the 18 Regular Course, Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA).

    He emphasised that grey hair may not necessarily mean old age, but greater experience thus, officers could still contribute to the military and provide better solutions.

    Sultan Abubakar said relevant authorities should discuss the possibility of upward review in the retirement age of military officers.

    “One point I want us to talk about is the retirement age of officers in the Armed Forces. You will get to 55 or 60, when you are just starting your life, but you are gone. We have gone round; we have seen generals at 65 with grey hair. Anyway, grey hair is not a sign of old age because Gen. Agwai has had his grey hair since 40.

    “Some of us that have grey hair are not too old but it is important we look at this and maybe, mobilise other people to start talking to allow our generals reach at least 60 or 65 before they leave service.

    “You spent so much money to train them, and at 55 to 60, they are gone when they don’t have replacement. Let us expand because Nigeria is so big.”

    The monarch solicited greater encouragement for the military due to their significance and service to the country, stressing that they should be praised rather than condemned.

    In his remarks, Gen. Agwai (rtd) identified the importance of the military acting as role models and mentors to the younger generation. He stressed the need for honesty for the country to witness genuine development.

    Gen. Agwai, who spoke on “Leadership as I See It”, urged the present and former military officers to give more to the society.

    “The country has invested so much in those of us privileged to attend the NDA, there is a lot more that we should give,” he noted.

    According to him, the country is blessed with so much potential – human and natural, sufficient enough to reposition the country but not properly explored.

    The retired general encouraged leaders to utilise the potential to end poverty, create jobs and develop the economy.

    “There is a difference between a leader and a boss. Most of us boss around, we are not leaders, and that is why people fear us rather than respect us. Leaders demonstrate a non-prejudicial way of doing things,” he added.

    Former Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika lauded the service chiefs for improving the country’s security apparatus.

    He praised President Muhammadu Buhari for facilitating the purchase of new military aircraft, stressing that it has helped to contain insurgency in the Northeast.

    Gen. Ihejirika advised Nigerians to consider its ethnic differences as a form of strength to promote national unity.

  • 2019: Age of billionaires in politics

    SIR: Money is a big player in the age of big business.  It undoubtedly “answers all things” therein as declared – the very reason for business; the essence of it and assuredly, the major ingredient without which there is no transaction.

    Believe it or not, the business of 2019 will surely be a game gulping billions of naira to political parties as well as the individuals vying for presidential positions, using our dominant and major political platforms of either the PDP or APC.

    Merely expressing ones interest at the party level for any elective office in Nigeria and anywhere in Africa, millions of naira will take flight and vanish into the tin air.  That is the system anyway.

    And then again,  purchasing the political party’s expression of interest-form and lobbying of  the party echelon and it’s possible delegates during primaries for acceptance alone – here, another raw cash,  running into millions of naira develops wings vanishes once again.

    Political parties know this to be true.  Even the individuals involved know it too as a verity. So it is an open truth as well as an open secret billions of naira would be leaving fat pockets of these players and their platforms in an attempt to realize their dreams and goals.

    It is for this understanding, the political parties are already oiling their machineries and fastening their belts towards ensuring a successful prosecution of this deal in their favour as no business man invests to lose but make profits. That is the understanding anyway.  A total expenditure they would still overtly or covertly recoup at the tail end of the game. That is after elections would have been won and probably lost by the parties.

    Welcome to the age of big business once again.  And most certainly, welcome to the age of billionaire-politicians and their baggage.

    In 2008, one Barack Obama,  then senator,  took his world by the  storm and won his elections as the 44th President of the United States in grand style ridding on the back of his power of oratory.  Exactly eight years later, Donald Trump, rode on the crèche of his billions made over the years through his wealthy father to clinch American Presidency.

    So, the question then in the minds of people is: while the Americans clearly voted in the direction of billions a few months ago, what would Nigerians go for in the next few months when the country will file out to elect a new leader?

    As an evolving democracy, Nigeria follows in the footsteps of America in virtually everything governance. They do so because of our notion that America runs an open democracy. So if the above grounds are already established to be true, one will no longer contest the follow up notion that 2019 will be a game for billionaires and not the chicken hearted financially.

     

    • Gwiyi Solomon,

     Enugu.

  • Age of innocence

    Age of innocence

    It seems odd to speak of the beginning of an old or modern country in the same sentence with the concept of innocence. A child knows little because he is too little to know. But countries and societies like Nigeria were clear-eyed at birth.

    United States first beat its chest with rhetoric before rumbling into war. Greece muscled itself into being. The Sokoto Caliphate invoked Allah in a jihad of blood and sword. Bismark coalesced troops to build an army with a state. Yet, there is a sense in which a new state is innocent. Not in the sense of a new-born child who screams every other eye awake at 3:17 am, but in the sense of a new-born people, cobbled together to pursue a future that enchants and mystifies simultaneously.

    In justifying why he wrote Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe urged us to return to when the rain started to beat us. Perhaps a good way to look at the convulsion around the country over restructuring. In the melee of voices, few have examined why the centre has become so juicy.

    At independence, the centre was little. The regions boomed. Chief Obafemi Awolowo turned the western region into a model of governance. The east emulated. The north rollicked in its agrarian riches. The regions relished their relative autonomy. Things fell apart later. As columnist Kunle Abimbola noted, the national question took centre stage when IBB suffocated June 12.

    But it was because the Southwest saw it as the inflexion mark signifying that the Yorubas were seen as second fiddle. We have to go a little back in time to understand this. The Richards and Macpherson Constitutions helped with setting the stage for a federal state, so the regions cared for themselves. The centre held because it attracted only a few. More importantly, the centre was perceived as belonging to all.

    Hence after he was done with his work in the Western Region, Awo headed for the centre to run for prime minister. Also by mid-1960’s, the Igbos dominated the civil service. While the Middle Belt had a huge number in the army, the officer corps boasted an array of Igbo soldiers. No surprise that when the coup erupted in January 1966, Igbos headlined the actors.

    Irony that the Southwest is not impressed with the centre these days. So, it hails a return to regionalism. The Igbos who once puffed in the centre have rejuvenated Biafra drum beats. Why?

    It can be traced to a resource that belonged neither to the east or west: oil. When oil was discovered, the centre was not supposed to get more than 30 per cent of its proceeds. Fifty per cent belonged to the land owners, according to the law based on the Raisman report on derivation revenue.

    What followed was a caliphate coup of oil. With the military takeover, the proceeds came down to 1.5 percent to the oil-bearing areas until Abacha made it 13 per cent. We must blame the regions, East and West, for kowtowing to the greed of oil and abandoning their economic war chests: cocoa in the West, and palm produce in the East and Midwest, and rubber in the Mid-west. So greasy was the North with oil that it slipped out of the groundnut pyramid. If all decided in their indulgence to follow oil, the Northwest decided it was going to dole it out. It had the power of the army to fulfil this destiny. Lewis Obi called it the Caliphate army in the June 12 era.

    In all of this, the minorities counted for almost nothing. It was a great tragedy that canvassers for justice – East and West – also saw the minorities in the Niger Delta as feeding bottles.

    We must understand that the most egregious sin happened when former President OlusegunObasanjo, in his roguish elegance, schemed a minority to the top. Goodluck Jonathan squashed the opportunity. The same minorities and the Southeast missed the opportunity to set the template for a fairer country. Rather, their elites waxed into carpet baggers and continued where the majorities left off. When Jonathan fell, the South-south and Southeast now began to complain about neglect. We must situate in this hypocrisy the rise of an opportunist bumpkin like Nnamdi Kanu.

    So, the centre is oil, and the Northwest elite became the North’s worst. They took the centre by force. The frustration of the East, West and minorities in the centre revved up the decibel of clamour.

    We can see that the Northwest elite is the only region that resists restructuring. The voices of IBB and Lamido Sanusi, who support a structural rethink, are outliers. If we want restructuring, we must compel the Northwest to submit. In his new book: Nigeria: The Restructuring Controversy, former IGP Mike Okiro gathers the main voices on the subject. The Northwest distinguishes itself with an eloquent silence. Unless we hold the Northwest to account, the centre will not hold for all.

    If oil spelt poor governance, ditto the national question. Pre-oil was our age of innocence on both. We are now looking back with anger. Philosopher Albert Camus characterised it thus: “every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.”

    But it is a nostalgia with prejudice. Biafra does not trust Oduduwa does not trust Saifawa, etc. Paul Unongo laments that Awo gave no ear to his plea to create the Middle Belt region during the constitutional conference for independence because he had secured the West. Awo is not around to respond. We are still a babel and until a united front compels the Northwest elite, the clamour may become impotent.

    If we cannot get back our innocence, at least we can work on our prejudices. As the French philosopher Denis Diderot noted, “one makes up for the loss of one’s innocence with the loss of one’s prejudices.” We can’t all lose our prejudices, but we should chasten them to help us work together for a fairer union.

  • Ngwuta lied about age, lost passport, says witness

    Ngwuta lied about age, lost passport, says witness

    SUPREME Court Justice Sylvester Ngwuta has been accused of lying on his age and on his lost diplomatic passport.

    A prosecution witness, Tanko Nuhu Kutana, stated this yesterday at the trial of Justice Ngwuta before the High Court in Abuja.

    The witness, a Forensic Document Analysis expert with the NIS, said Justice Ngwuta reported that the diplomatic passport issued to him in 2014 was missing when he was actually using it.

    Kutana said he investigated the case involving Justice Ngwuta after officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) searched his (the judge’s) house and recovered multiple travel passports.

    Kutana, who was led in evidence by lead prosecuting lawyer Mrs. Olufemi Fatunde, had earlier testified as prosecution’s third witness.

    He said while Justice Ngwuta claimed 1951 as his birth year in one of the four diplomatic passports recovered from his house, he claimed 1952 in the others.

    The witness said there was doubt as to Justice Ngwuta’s claim that he lost the diplomatic passport issued to him in 2014, because there was evidence that the judge continued to use the passport after he reported it missing and a replacement issued to him.

    Kutana said: “My first observation was that the year of birth in the 64-page passport, issued in 2014 (exhibit 13C) had 1951 as the year of birth while the other three have 1952 as the year of birth.

    “After the 2016 passport was issued for the replacement of the one of 2014, which he claimed to have been lost.

    “There was evidence that he continued to use the 2014 passport, which he claimed was lost, thereby casting doubt about his claim that the 2014 passport was lost.

    “His antecedents of using the passports interchangeably raised doubt about the claim that he lost the passport.

    “When one also looked at him filling 1951 as against 1952 that he had used as his birth date, all these raise doubt about everything, including his claim to the loss of the passport,” the witness said.

    Kutana’s recall yesterday was informed by the amendment of the charge against Ngwuta by the prosecution, which on May 16 indicated interest in recalling the witness.

    Mrs. Fatunde on May 16 informed the court that the prosecution had further amended the charge on which the judge was being tried, making it the third time since the case started last December.

    By the amendment, the prosecution merely re-inserted the count in which the judge was accused of possessing more than one diplomatic passport and giving false information to the NIS concerning his diplomatic passport with the purpose of procuring another one.

    The count was part of the 16 counts contained in the original charge, but was removed in March when Fatunde took over the prosecution of the case.

    Kutana, who was being cross-examined by lead defence lawyer Kanu Agabi (SAN), said his investigation revealed that Justice Ngwuta used the diplomatic passports at the same time, but not use the two standard international passports simultaneously.

    Agabi later told the witness not to bother about what his client did with the diplomatic passports, because issues about diplomatic passports were not contained in the charge before the court.

    Upon his recall yesterday, Kukana gave details of his investigation of the case and his findings.

    He said: “I examined four diplomatic passports. I can identify them by year of issue, name and picture of the defendant contained on the data pages of the passports. The first was issued to him in 2007, second in 2012. Then, in 2014, at the introduction of the 64-page passport, it was issued to him.

    “The 64-page passport was introduced and as a matter of courtesy, top government officials in the Presidency, Presiding Officers of the Legislature at Federal Level and also Justices of the Supreme Court, for the Judiciary. The fourth one was issued to him after he declared the 64-page passport missing in 2016. The passports were issued in the name of Ngwuta Nwali Sylvester,” Kukana said.

    Kukana said the NIS, upon seeing these documents, issued Ngwuta with a replacement for the 2014 passport he claimed to have been lost.

    When asked why he said the passport issued to Ngwuta in 2014 was not actually lost, but just declared lost by the defendants, the witness said: “From the antecedents of using the 2012 and 2014 passports; and also, the conduct of using a passport on which an affidavit has been sworn to and relying on that sworn affidavit to issue a replacement; and thereafter using the same passport he reported lost to travel; it has opened our eyes to be very circumspect in dealing with report of passports no matter the status of the person. This raised security issue because, where one that is reported lost is retained, he can use it to flee the country if he is wanted for any offence,” Kukana said.

    At that point, Mrs. Fatunde announced that she was done with the witness. But, Agabi applied for a fresh date for cross-examination, following which Justice Tsoho adjourned to October 6 this year.