The Nation Newspaper

Tag: beckons

  • In Badagry new investment haven beckons

    For discerning real estate developers and investment focused persons, the sleepy town of Badagry, one of the five divisions of Lagos State, is an investment goldmine waiting to be tapped. This is not merely because of its rich history, but the unparalled infrastructural development ongoing along the corridor, which has made it an investor’s delight, especially for operators in the real estate sector.

    This was the submission of Pertinence Properties Limited Executive Director,  Mr. Wisdom Ezekiel, at the weekend. Ezekiel, who spoke to The Nation Property, during the firm’s Zero to Hero seminar series, disclosed that given the avalanche of developments going on in the Badagry corridor, a good investor will know that it is the “future of Lagos”.

    According to Ezekiel, such investment opportunities explained why the firm has put in place the Zero to Hero programme, which is to sensitise people on climbing the success ladder, starting from the scratch and to position them to identify opportunities in life.

    “If you are following what Lagos State government is doing, you will see that investments are going towards hitherto undeveloped places. Badagry is a tourist attraction, so developing this axis is to attract tourists, and you know tourism attracts huge businesses,” he said, adding that so many people have not been able to discern this as an opportunity for investment. Things like this, Ezekiel revealed, are reasons for the Zero to Hero programme.

    His real estate development and investment firm, Pertinence Limited, he revealed, has keyed into the state’s vision for Badagry. The firm, he disclosed, has acquired and is developing a 300-arce estate, which it calls: “The New Badagry Homes”. The estate, already fenced, is being fitted with basic infrastructure such as road, drainage and walk ways. Other features planned for the estate include shopping mall, power supply, roads, schools, green areas, water, etc.

    Another Executive Director of the firm, Sunday Olorunsheyi, said the firm’s investment in the axis is not a coincidence, but a deliberate investment strategy that will yield good returns for investors that are brave to be a part of its investment plans.

    Under its investment plans, he explained that the new Badagry Homes presents opportunity for an individual to invest his cash and after two years, get back his principal investment, plus a 25 per cent interest and retain a plot of land.

    According to Olorunshey, there are four categories of investment opportunities: the platinum, requiring N10 million; gold category, N5 million; silver category, N2.5 million to N4.9 million and bronze category, N100, 000 to N2.4 million. These categories, he further explained, will yield more than double the value in the two years.

    The duo explained that these investments benefits are being driven by the government’s initiative such as the construction of new roads, light rail project, deep blue sea, free trade zone, and so on. “This projects will attract a whole lot of return, which we have seen and that is why we are quickly keying into it so that we can position ourself quickly to take advantage of what is happening before anybody comes. In the next three years if the current tempo of infrastructural development is sustained, Badagry will be a very lovely environment to own properties,” Olorunsheyi said.

    He further said the Zero to Hero initiative is a deliberate effort by the company to raise people to success.

  • Anambra: Change beckons!

    Anambra: Change beckons!

    Every elementary philosophy student is aware of the thoughts and viewpoints of Parmenides and Heraclitus. While Parmenides believed that nothing changes, Heraclitus contended that change is ubiquitous.  In elementary Biology, growth is listed among the qualities of a human being. Growth is, therefore, Heraclitan, because to grow is to undergo changes, mostly positive.

    There’s something inherently organic in the lives of geo-political entities such as states. Just as a human being grows and dies, so does a state. Anambra was born the day the state was created; and we need to entrust it into the hands of experienced and  committed administrators to nurture it well and guarantee its growth and development, or risk its dying prematurely.

    Monday October 16, 2017, will remain symbolic in the life of Anambra State. It is the day we set out on the journey towards the re-birth of Anambra State;  from what has happened to her in nearly four years, the state requires a re-birth with a view to being set on firm and right paths to growth and development.

    Hence this flag-off day is one of undeniably nostalgia and hope for our party, the PDP and our people. It is also a day of change.  For far too long, we have done things the old ways; we have not always succeeded and we have paid the price for it in different ways. Our party has been out of political power in Anambra State for nearly twelve years.  This is, therefore a moment of reckoning.  We are at the cusp where we must seize the moment and win our State back and place her on the national grid. Doing so will give us the voice, the reason and the impetus to serve our people well. Today, we seek to return Anambra to the stage of prosperity; and in keeping with our party manifesto, return power to the people.

    Anambra State is severely broken and in utter disrepair. We must fix it!

    Anambra people are suffering. Despite the grand-standing and propaganda, our people have been denied the true dividends of democracy. The government of Governor Willie Obiano has failed us in more ways than one; but Anambra and its people deserve better. We must, therefore, change the leadership and political narrative in our collective interest.

    Governance is all about the delivery of basic services, but Anambra as it is today, is doing the exact opposite; accentuated by poor leadership, fiscal recklessness and lack of transparency. The focus of all true lovers of the state should be to sweep the present recklessness aside and enthrone leaders and managers who understand the dynamics of leadership and management.

    As a state we have not recently done well economically; not because the natural resources do not exist, nor because the talents are not there, but because narrow political considerations have progressively and consistently frustrated rational economic thinking and promulgation of right policies in governance.  Such a defeatist mind-set is dangerous and must be changed.

  • When history beckons

    Title: The Ijaw in Warri – A study in Ethnography
    Author: J.O.S Ayomike
    No. of pages: 146
    Reviewer: Edozie Udeze

    Who owns the land?  Does any piece of land ever exist in a vacuum?  Or put more succinctly, is there ever any settlement anywhere in the world where you do not have the original owners of the place?  These are the recurrent issues raised in this book – The Ijaw in Warri.

    Written by J. O. S. Ayomike, a seasoned author and an authority in the Niger-Delta history, the book is simply and precisely a work based on the fact that the piece of land known as Warri today has been an ancestral home of the Itsekiris.

    This is a study in ethnography, showing with facts, evidences and figures that Warri had been and will continue to be the original home to the Itsekiris.  This is why Ayomike noted that this issue is the homeland of the Itsekiri.  “Each nationality, that is, an ethnic group, in a given polity has a homeland; others live in it with them and it is known by all and sundry as the group’s homeland…  Therefore, this book, like its forerunner, seeks to describe the Itsekiri people in relation to their neighbour – and this time, the Ijaw – and show their symbiotic relationship.”

    Quoting relevant sources and documents and based on oral accounts where it is imperative Ayomike clearly stated at what point the Ijaw converged in Warri to become bona fide members of the society.  It is not to be argued further who owns the land.  It should not be a matter of dispute, because even based on the pattern of settlement, even previous census carried out in Nigeria, the Itsekiri have been known and proved to be the rightful owners of Warriland.

    In chapter one entitled: The Ijaw and Itsekiri Homeland, the author quoted what he referred to as the authoritative sources to back his story and clear the air on this matter.  “The position of the Ijaw within the homeland of the Itsekiri has been aptly described by Dr. P. C. Lloyd in his work on the Itsekiri people in these words.  “The Administrative Unit known as the Warri Division of Delta Province, whose area is 1,520 square miles is approximately co-terminus with the territory of the Itsekiri though it includes groups of Ijaw settlements in the extreme north and south…”

    Sources such as this are replete with historical facts and presented by world-acclaimed historians like J. C. Anene, J. F. A. Ade-Ajayi, John Hatch and more, who relied on water-tight evidences to situate facts.  Even though the Ijaws have been more in population and scattered in more areas in the Niger Delta, other historical happenings in the area tended to necessitate their closer movement towards the Itsekiri portions of the land.

    On page 23, it is clearly stated thus: “The principal peoples of the Delta are the Itsekiri and the coastal dwelling Sobo in the west, the Ijo in the centre, the coastal Ibibio and the Efik of old Calabar who live in the eastern Delta.  The Ijo, Ibibio and Efik have many similar institutions.  But the Itsekiri who founded the Kingdom of Warri in the Western Delta do not really resemble the central and Eastern Delta peoples.  In fact, the Itsekiri of Warri have much more in common with the Edo of Benin and their Yoruba neighbours.”

    Also quoting Professor Obaro Ikimi, renowned world historian and activist, it says: “The Itsekiri inhabit the North-western extremity of the Niger Delta…  Their neighbours are the Bini to the north, the Ijo to the south, the Urbobo to the east and the Yoruba of Ondo Province to the northwest…  Itsekiriland is watered by three large rivers, the Benin, the Escravos and the Forcados.”

    In his own account too, K. B. C. Onwubiko, one of Nigeria’s foremost historians stated:  “Thus arose such city-states as Warri and Sapele inhabited by the Itsekiri and Urhobo…  Bonny for example had its trading empire along the Imo River hinterland, Kalabari along the Sombreiro River interior; and the Itsekiri Kingdom with its capital as Warri controlled the Benin River hinterland.”

    Evidently, Ayomike resorted to these historical elements so as to give the public an authentic proof to show who the original owners have been.  This book arose essentially due to the nagging dispute over who owns the land.  For many years, wars had raged on among the many tribes in Warri over this matter.  And so when Ayomike chose to dwell on the issue, his intentions were made clearer and more distinctive.

    This is why each chapter delved into those knotty issues that have disturbed the flow of harmony in the region.  This is why this book is one to be taken with seriousness.  The facts are there to show history as it really is.”

  • Project Insight: Art show for the blind beckons

    An NGO for the visually impaired, Society for the Welfare of the Blind In Nigeria (SWBN) will come May 21 hold its first ever Project Insight.

    Project Insight is an initiative designed to showcase the inherent abilities of the virtually impaired persons in an artistic adventure – to ‘paint from the minds their interpretation of life as they see it.’

    This maiden edition is aimed at bringing in individuals, corporate entities and other reputable persons in society to render support for the various needs of these less privileged.

    Funds are intended to be raised via art paintings done by the visually impaired persons, while proceeds will enable the activation of educational support items for the visually impaired in our society, the refurbishment of their schools and ultimately provision of support materials for the aimed parties.

    To be more specific, Project Insight hopes to set up Braille Press, mathematics and Science equipment for three schools and distribution of guide canes for the visually impaired and refurbishment of learning environment.

    To this effect, the organisers (Society for the Welfare of the Blind in Nigeria), seeks financial support and partnership in five different categories namely: Bronze (N5m), Silver (N10m), Platinum (N15m) and Gold (N20m). There is also the Exclusive Category (N40m), which gives a sponsor the exclusive sponsorship right.

    According to founder and president, Tade Ladipo, who lost his sight over 25 years ago, “the Society for the Welfare of the Blind in Nigeria is a non-governmental, non-profit making, non-religious organisation set up in the 1990s with the aim of meeting the overall human development needs of the blind in Nigeria. These needs fall within the sphere of political, socio-economic and moral resources provisions.”

    Said Ladipo: “Some of the achievements of the society in the past include production of textbooks in braille, construction of zebra crossings/sign posts, scholarships and grants for the visually impaired, blind library etc.”

  • When history beckons

    Title: The Ijaw in Warri – A study in Ethnography
    Author: J.O.S Ayomike
    No. of pages: 146
    Reviewer: Edozie Udeze

    Who owns the land?  Does any piece of land ever exist in a vacuum?  Or put more succinctly, is there ever any settlement anywhere in the world where you do not have the original owners of the place?  These are the recurrent issues raised in this book – The Ijaw in Warri.

    Written by J. O. S. Ayomike, a seasoned author and an authority in the Niger-Delta history, the book is simply and precisely a work based on the fact that the piece of land known as Warri today has been an ancestral home of the Itsekiris.

    This is a study in ethnography, showing with facts, evidences and figures that Warri had been and will continue to be the original home to the Itsekiris.  This is why Ayomike noted that this issue is the homeland of the Itsekiri.  “Each nationality, that is, an ethnic group, in a given polity has a homeland; others live in it with them and it is known by all and sundry as the group’s homeland…  Therefore, this book, like its forerunner, seeks to describe the Itsekiri people in relation to their neighbour – and this time, the Ijaw – and show their symbiotic relationship.”

    Quoting relevant sources and documents and based on oral accounts where it is imperative Ayomike clearly stated at what point the Ijaw converged in Warri to become bona fide members of the society.  It is not to be argued further who owns the land.  It should not be a matter of dispute, because even based on the pattern of settlement, even previous census carried out in Nigeria, the Itsekiri have been known and proved to be the rightful owners of Warriland.

    In chapter one entitled: The Ijaw and Itsekiri Homeland, the author quoted what he referred to as the authoritative sources to back his story and clear the air on this matter.  “The position of the Ijaw within the homeland of the Itsekiri has been aptly described by Dr. P. C. Lloyd in his work on the Itsekiri people in these words.  “The Administrative Unit known as the Warri Division of Delta Province, whose area is 1,520 square miles is approximately co-terminus with the territory of the Itsekiri though it includes groups of Ijaw settlements in the extreme north and south…”

    Sources such as this are replete with historical facts and presented by world-acclaimed historians like J. C. Anene, J. F. A. Ade-Ajayi, John Hatch and more, who relied on water-tight evidences to situate facts.  Even though the Ijaws have been more in population and scattered in more areas in the Niger Delta, other historical happenings in the area tended to necessitate their closer movement towards the Itsekiri portions of the land.

    On page 23, it is clearly stated thus: “The principal peoples of the Delta are the Itsekiri and the coastal dwelling Sobo in the west, the Ijo in the centre, the coastal Ibibio and the Efik of old Calabar who live in the eastern Delta.  The Ijo, Ibibio and Efik have many similar institutions.  But the Itsekiri who founded the Kingdom of Warri in the Western Delta do not really resemble the central and Eastern Delta peoples.  In fact, the Itsekiri of Warri have much more in common with the Edo of Benin and their Yoruba neighbours.”

    Also quoting Professor Obaro Ikimi, renowned world historian and activist, it says: “The Itsekiri inhabit the North-western extremity of the Niger Delta…  Their neighbours are the Bini to the north, the Ijo to the south, the Urbobo to the east and the Yoruba of Ondo Province to the northwest…  Itsekiriland is watered by three large rivers, the Benin, the Escravos and the Forcados.”

    In his own account too, K. B. C. Onwubiko, one of Nigeria’s foremost historians stated:  “Thus arose such city-states as Warri and Sapele inhabited by the Itsekiri and Urhobo…  Bonny for example had its trading empire along the Imo River hinterland, Kalabari along the Sombreiro River interior; and the Itsekiri Kingdom with its capital as Warri controlled the Benin River hinterland.”

    Evidently, Ayomike resorted to these historical elements so as to give the public an authentic proof to show who the original owners have been.  This book arose essentially due to the nagging dispute over who owns the land.  For many years, wars had raged on among the many tribes in Warri over this matter.  And so when Ayomike chose to dwell on the issue, his intentions were made clearer and more distinctive.

    This is why each chapter delved into those knotty issues that have disturbed the flow of harmony in the region.  This is why this book is one to be taken with seriousness.  The facts are there to show history as it really is.”

  • When history beckons

    Title: The Ijaw in Warri – A study in Ethnography
    Author: J.O.S Ayomike
    No. of pages: 146
    Reviewer: Edozie Udeze

    Who owns the land?  Does any piece of land ever exist in a vacuum?  Or put more succinctly, is there ever any settlement anywhere in the world where you do not have the original owners of the place?  These are the recurrent issues raised in this book – The Ijaw in Warri.

    Written by J. O. S. Ayomike, a seasoned author and an authority in the Niger-Delta history, the book is simply and precisely a work based on the fact that the piece of land known as Warri today has been an ancestral home of the Itsekiris.

    This is a study in ethnography, showing with facts, evidences and figures that Warri had been and will continue to be the original home to the Itsekiris.  This is why Ayomike noted that this issue is the homeland of the Itsekiri.  “Each nationality, that is, an ethnic group, in a given polity has a homeland; others live in it with them and it is known by all and sundry as the group’s homeland…  Therefore, this book, like its forerunner, seeks to describe the Itsekiri people in relation to their neighbour – and this time, the Ijaw – and show their symbiotic relationship.”

    Quoting relevant sources and documents and based on oral accounts where it is imperative Ayomike clearly stated at what point the Ijaw converged in Warri to become bona fide members of the society.  It is not to be argued further who owns the land.  It should not be a matter of dispute, because even based on the pattern of settlement, even previous census carried out in Nigeria, the Itsekiri have been known and proved to be the rightful owners of Warriland.

    In chapter one entitled: The Ijaw and Itsekiri Homeland, the author quoted what he referred to as the authoritative sources to back his story and clear the air on this matter.  “The position of the Ijaw within the homeland of the Itsekiri has been aptly described by Dr. P. C. Lloyd in his work on the Itsekiri people in these words.  “The Administrative Unit known as the Warri Division of Delta Province, whose area is 1,520 square miles is approximately co-terminus with the territory of the Itsekiri though it includes groups of Ijaw settlements in the extreme north and south…”

    Sources such as this are replete with historical facts and presented by world-acclaimed historians like J. C. Anene, J. F. A. Ade-Ajayi, John Hatch and more, who relied on water-tight evidences to situate facts.  Even though the Ijaws have been more in population and scattered in more areas in the Niger Delta, other historical happenings in the area tended to necessitate their closer movement towards the Itsekiri portions of the land.

    On page 23, it is clearly stated thus: “The principal peoples of the Delta are the Itsekiri and the coastal dwelling Sobo in the west, the Ijo in the centre, the coastal Ibibio and the Efik of old Calabar who live in the eastern Delta.  The Ijo, Ibibio and Efik have many similar institutions.  But the Itsekiri who founded the Kingdom of Warri in the Western Delta do not really resemble the central and Eastern Delta peoples.  In fact, the Itsekiri of Warri have much more in common with the Edo of Benin and their Yoruba neighbours.”

    Also quoting Professor Obaro Ikimi, renowned world historian and activist, it says: “The Itsekiri inhabit the North-western extremity of the Niger Delta…  Their neighbours are the Bini to the north, the Ijo to the south, the Urbobo to the east and the Yoruba of Ondo Province to the northwest…  Itsekiriland is watered by three large rivers, the Benin, the Escravos and the Forcados.”

    In his own account too, K. B. C. Onwubiko, one of Nigeria’s foremost historians stated:  “Thus arose such city-states as Warri and Sapele inhabited by the Itsekiri and Urhobo…  Bonny for example had its trading empire along the Imo River hinterland, Kalabari along the Sombreiro River interior; and the Itsekiri Kingdom with its capital as Warri controlled the Benin River hinterland.”

    Evidently, Ayomike resorted to these historical elements so as to give the public an authentic proof to show who the original owners have been.  This book arose essentially due to the nagging dispute over who owns the land.  For many years, wars had raged on among the many tribes in Warri over this matter.  And so when Ayomike chose to dwell on the issue, his intentions were made clearer and more distinctive.

    This is why each chapter delved into those knotty issues that have disturbed the flow of harmony in the region.  This is why this book is one to be taken with seriousness.  The facts are there to show history as it really is.”

  • Hope beckons

    •Recent developments an indication of better transportation system in Lagos

    One of Mr Akinwunmi Ambode’s first initiatives on assumption of office as Lagos State governor was to try to instil sanity and civility into the enforcement of traffic discipline on the state’s highways. Towards this end, he admonished officers of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) to refrain from harassing traffic offenders or impounding their vehicles but rather issue them tickets and utilise sophisticated technological devices to bring offenders to book.

    Commercial vehicle drivers, bus conductors and motor bike (Okada) riders, in particular, latched onto this as license to violate the state’s traffic laws with impunity and unleash a reign of anarchy and paralysing chaos on road users with deleterious economic and security consequences.

    Mr Ambode’s firm riot act to these unruly traffic offenders to strictly obey the state’s road traffic law is thus timely and commendable. His response corrects the mistaken impression that he is indulgent towards any form of traffic law infraction.

    Speaking after a meeting of the state’s security council, the governor stressed that the lawless activities of commercial drivers, commercial motor cyclists and street traders, which have facilitated the escalation of traffic crimes and robbery, will be sternly dealt with in accordance with the law. Consequently, he said, mobile traffic courts are being introduced to promptly prosecute and punish such traffic offenders, including commercial vehicles that operate outside the traffic lanes, persons that infringe on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lanes and commercial buses which do not drop or pick passengers only at officially designated bus stops.

    Ambode also gave tank farm owners in the Apapa axis a 90-day ultimatum to build loading bays for their tank farms to decongest the roads in the area or face the wrath of the law. Arrangements, he said, have been made with relevant security agencies to sanction defaulting port users, importers, tank farm owners, terminal operators and shipping companies. The situation certainly calls for the most stringent measures to restore sanity to what has become an environmental, traffic, health, security and economic nightmare.

    On a more positive note, the news that the Federal Government has finally approved the construction of the planned $2.4 billion Lagos Red Line Rail Project after eight years of protracted negotiation offers a source of hope that a more enduring solution to the state’s complex transportation challenges will soon be actualised. The Red Line will run from Agbado – Marina on a route that falls on the Right of Way of the Federal Government-owned Nigeria Railway Corporation. The inability of Nigerian politicians across party lines to place the national interest above partisan considerations is responsible for the undue delay of this project with such significant potentials to boost national economic productivity.

    It is noteworthy that it was the military regime of General MuhammaduBuhari that terminated the Rapid Transit Metroline Project conceived for Lagos by the Alhaji Lateef Jakande administration in the Second Republic, with the state losing over $78 million in the process. And history has given Buhari a rare opportunity to remedy this error by ensuring the approval of the Red Line Rail Project during his tenure as a democratically elected president.

    With Governor Ambode’s promise that the on-going Blue Line Rail Project, which will link Okokomaiko through Iddo to Marina, will be completed by December 2016, hope undoubtedly beckons for the revolutionary modernisation of transportation infrastructure in Nigeria’s commercial nerve-centre, with positive implications not only for Lagos but  the entire country. We urge the sustenance and intensification of this kind of positive inter-governmental cooperation in diverse spheres at all levels in the interest of accelerated development all over the country.

  • Home beckons for IDPs

    Home beckons for IDPs

    For the over 10,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Abuja to benefit from rehabilitation plans, they may need to return to their states of origin, GRACE OBIKE reports.

    Things are no longer as horrible as they once were. The Boko Haram fighters cannot afford to sack communities, kill and abduct residents with any ease these days. They are far from crushed, but their worst attacks seem to be picking out soft targets and detonating explosive devices in crowded places.

    This could be a reason for internally displaced persons or IDPs to start thinking about going back home.

    There are other reasons. Government seems to be taking more care of them now than was the case before the Muhammadu Buhari administration. To benefit from these rahabilitation arrangements, which are taking place in the Northeast, rather than Abuja, the IDPs need to return home.

    The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has estimated that IDPs in the FCT are over 10,000 and are located in 31 different private camps.

    As Boko Haram is gradually being defeated and pushed to the fringes, some of these IDPs have begun indicating interest to return home, says the Director General of FEMA Abbas Idriss, He explained that one of the settlements within the FCT recently protested at the Human Right Commission, which led to a committee being set up to ensure that they are provided for.

    “We have to face the challenges of the IDPs in the FCT who came in search of a safe heaven and we have been able to trace 31 locations and with over 10,000 IDPs we have been able to render assistance to them, we profiled them, we called relevant agencies like the primary health care, health and human services, USAID so that they can immunise the children and find out other health challenges of the IDPs.

    “When we discovered that they were not getting what was due to them because we do not have any camps in the FCT, we had to look for ways of relocating them back to their states where there are established camps. Recently there was a protest by one of the settlements to the Human Rights Commission, we had a meeting with them and a committee was set up to ensure that we give them the best we can. We feel that they are free to stay in the FCT if they want to but we can only carter to them as well as our limited resources can take but we feel that the better option we need to advise them on it and the best option will be to take them back close to their homes.” Idriss said in a press conference.

    He added that unfortunately, now that the government’s focus is on their rehabilitation, those IDPs in Abuja may not benefit from it since they are so far away, adding that they notified the relevant agencies in Maiduguri about the Abuja IDPs and were told that it will be best for them to return for profiling and capturing to benefit.

    He said. “Now that the focus of the government is to rehabilitate them very well, a stakeholders interaction is presently going on in Maiduguri and those staying here are going to miss out if they are not in the area because we called their state emergency management agencies for a meeting, we informed them that their people are here and they said that they are not aware that their people are here, they said that if their people are here, they can go back, there is place for them to stay, so that they can be profiled and captured, we have gone and inspected the camps in Maiduguri and the facilities available and we are highly impressed by it and so the first 500 IDP’S in the FCT that have indicated interest to relocate will be taken back.

    “When we visited the camp in Maiduguri, we went from end to end of each camp and we were impressed by the level of security at the camps, there are joint military patrols, stationed at the camps, the camps are more secure than where they are right now in the FCT.

    “We are working with all the agencies set up by the Human Rights Commission, all preparations have been made and very soon, we will begin the necessary logistics to start moving them, the first people that we are going to be moving are the first 500 that indicated interest to relocate, we try as much as possible to give them a lot of psycho-social succour, we have a team of experts who go to council them, as religious bodies do their part.”

    Idris who denied any knowledge of his staff stealing relief materials added that the FCT is working on setting up disaster management centres around, in readiness for any form of disaster that may befall residents in the future, in order to have safe and clean environment to keep residents, temporarily while the disaster is being managed by the governments.

    He said, “I have heard of several occasions that the IDPs complain of people running away with their relief materials and I have said that as far as I’m concerned I have not gotten any report of our staff stealing relief materials, our people have been trained on emphaty.

    ”FCT planned to establish permanent camps in preparation for emergencies in the FCT, before any form of disaster occurs, it is part of our plan to establish it but this camp is not an IDP camp but for disaster management, we cannot establish IDP camps here because it is against the law, camps need to be established close to where disasters happen which is the reason why we do not have camps for the IDPs that came to the FCT.

    “The responds team on our emergency toll free numbers is working with other relevant agencies to ensure that emergencies are effectively met around the FCT by quickly connecting to closest and relevant agencies when people call in for emergencies.”

     

  • Hope, as change beckons

    SIR: To begin with, not even my NOKIA charger seems to be working under this administration. Nigerian polity has always been a subject of ridicule within and beyond. Nigeria is a country where the plight of the masses are downplayed for partisan and sectional interests: It is a country where the divide between the rich and poor is immeasurable: Our dear Nigeria is one where President Goodluck Jonathan views internal problems as trash while external problem becomes his focal agenda. Indeed, nothing seems to count for now but our mandate surely would, come March 28.

    Nigerians have a way of addressing issues that leaves me wondering and pondering if I’m a citizen of this country. There is a beginning and end to everything and as such, the end of this trait has surfaced and should be laid to rest with urgency. We all have a duty to our fatherland and it is not by being regional, partisan or hiding under the pretext of religious and cultural unity that should abet us. Such would not but our collective unity of purpose. It is about time we understood that the office of the president is imperative and greater than its occupant.

    The average Nigerian man cannot go about his business without giving thoughts to security threats. The educational system is in shambles while the power sector is wide off the mark. Our roads are but accident traps and the hospitals appear to be sicker than sick patients. The list just goes on and on. Nigeria is on a fast lane to total collapse under this administration. Virtually every sector with little exception fidgets, due to mismanagement, like a helpless titanic ship.

    Nothing seems to work. Our beloved president continue to sing the melodious story of his poor upbringing to a point one would actually begin to wonder if he ever wore shoes during his university days.

    As if matters were not worst, the president has the effrontery of stepping into Maiduguri in pursuit of his bid for re-election despite having massively failed parents whose children remain in the company of the dreaded Boko Haram sect.

    One striking quality about Jonathan is the perfection of lip service. He talks as if the task before him is close to completion when the blueprint has not actually been drawn. This is not the kind of leader we desire. If 2011 was a year to vote for someone young with a seemingly bright future to steer the country towards development, indeed we had made a collective mistake. This is the chance to correct it by voting this president out of power.

    I therefore call on all Nigerians to display sagacity in their choice for the next president. We should remember the fact that even though our existence as citizens does not count to the incumbent administration, we have been endowed with the opportunity to send them parking. Our mandate surely counts albeit in a free and fair election. We are tired of endless kaput promises. We are tired of an administration that gives thumbs up to criminals and offer them official protection. Come March 28, we shall march to install the right man at the helm of affairs, as it would mark the beginning of a new dawn. We are massively motivated by the need to build a society enriched with bright hope for the future generation and devoid of endorsed social vices by the people currently at the helm of affairs. Change we must seek for.

     

    • Yahaya Ibrahim

    Minna

  • Youths, the future beckons

    I have come to realise that there is always the last chance to learn the truth. The truth would definitely set one free. The truth about our country’s political activity must be told. I don’t know the actual truth but somebody knows the truth. Whether it is All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Musiliu Obanikoro or Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, I don’t know either but I know that someone knows what majority of Nigerians do not know.

    The nub of this piece is not the rightness or wrongness of claims and counter claims of our leaders but how it affects our destiny as a people. I am bothered by the fact, that when our peers in other developing countries will be handed a progressive nation with well-defined national goals, we would be handed a failed state with aimless goals.

    Handing over of leadership is not a choice; it is an established natural law that nothing can change. Those nations with enlightened leaders are conscious of the inevitability of death; that is why they mentor the youth to take over. Our leaders seem ignorant of this fact of life, that is why they chose to be part of the problems of Nigeria rather than being part of the solutions.

    Why should we be engrossed in myopic politicking when our health system is amongst the worst in Africa, our education is deteriorating every day, corruption is escalating on exponential scale and employment is killing our national potentials, insecurity and terrorism creeping into our national life?

    The Boko Haram issue is a complete mockery of our national dignity and it is actually a manifestation of degenerations in every stratum of our national architecture. I believe strongly that some people are working day and night to disintegrate this nation. Unfortunately for us, they are more purposeful and better co-ordinated than our leaders across board. They are more dedicated to their mission than our leaders and even more disciplined.

    Asiwaju Tinubu made a mistake in 2011 by opening the Southwest to the PDP rather than Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), with which the progressive could work with in finding alternative governance for the country. He allowed himself to be misled by the old Afenifere/NADECO caucus whose agenda since after June 12 remains diabolic. The same folks are his greatest enemies today when he chose to merge with Muhammadu Buhari’s CPC. Maybe Buhari’s tear in 2011 is what is haunting us today.

    Achievements of Tinubu in our national life are too significant to be made feeble by anybody, not to talk of Obanikoro. Asiwaju did not only provide the Southwest with a performance-based leadership template, he also courageously engaged the ruling PDP in battle of idea, making the ruling party to promote some modicum of idea.

    If it took the PDP to mobilise substantial components of the national security apparatus to ‘intimidate’ Ekiti people to win the election, it only implies that Asiwaju and his party have not failed. It connotes too that the ruling party truly needs to engender purpose-based leadership and respond to yearning of the citizens.

    But then, Obanikoro and his principal should know that it weakens the moral character of the military to be employed in domestic issues. What should matter to an average soldier must not be local politics, but securing the nation from external aggression. Once we involve soldiers in local matters, we would have destroyed the last apparatus of our national unity.

    Ambassador Obanikoro would earn the respect of the youth if he could channel the energy of our soldiers to checkmate security challenges facing us rather being used to chase politicians. He is a politician, so we cannot say he shouldn’t play politics. But there should be limits to political desperation.

    If the junior minister could express an opinion that Boko Haram mess was created by Tinubu’s friends who promised to make Nigeria ungovernable for this government, then it speaks more of political desperation.

    Perhaps, Obanikoro knows something we don’t. In a saner country, he would have been questioned. It means he is abetting crime against innocent Nigerians.

    I will conclude by appealing to all political gladiators to employ decorum in their utterances and know that politics can only take place when there is peace. We should borrow from aphorism of Magareth Fuller, which says: “Men, for the sake of getting a living, forget to live”. If you have to destroy the nation to govern it, it only indicates one thing: foolishness.

    To the youth, I want us to see beyond loyalty to personalities in politics, so we can begin to evolve progressive principles. If we demand good governance, they will be compelled to give it. Our population is made up of over 62 per cent  youths, which means Boko Haram kills six youths out of every 10 victims. When 10 people died in road crash, six youths may be involved. When 10 people vote, six youths would be among. Let us appreciate our strength and give our fatherland a secure future. I leave you with a mind full of hope. If it is to be, it is up to you.

     

    Habeeb is a student of Nigerian Law School, Abuja