The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Bodija

  • ‘Nightclub noisy Bodija triangle’; Ganiyat

    ‘Nightclub noisy Bodija triangle’; Ganiyat

    Noise pollution seems to be a government-approved Nigerian 2024 plague caused by clusters of competing eateries and nightclubs in residential areas insisting on keeping children, adults, the sick and dying in surrounding homes, clinics and hospitals awake, annoyed and angrily vibrating, sleepless, and tired and under-performing the following day.

    The cause, of course, is the uncontrollable and brain-damaging high decibels emitting from huge mega-sized speakers. A new eatery place was opened at the end of Osuntokun Avenue/ Secretariat Road, Bodija, Ibadan and the stupidly irresponsibly noisy loudspeakers would wake the dead and deafen babies in their cribs. The government silence to the pleas over more 15+years by hundreds of affected families has forced them to abandon and sell their childhood family property in the now ‘Notorious Nightclub Noisy Bodija Triangle’ of the once proud Awolowo Road and Osuntokun Avenue and the adjacent Secretariat UI road.

    Across Nigeria, we have noise pollution perpetrators tormenting us unhindered by the owners of such clubs and event organisers. These noise-polluters tune maximum noise level, often wearing earphones rendering them oblivious to the ‘Grievous Ear and Brain Harm’ to humanity, from babies to bedridden grandparents. The arrogant noise polluters refuse to lower the volume at functions and do not heed for more than a few days neighbourhood complaints. The noise makers mindlessly deprive guests of conversation and deprive entire neighbourhoods of a night, a week, a year, and now 20 years of sleep. 

    Visit any social function. You must shout into the ear, use sign language or write a note to the person sitting right next to you and still be misunderstood! Crazy. In my bedroom and the bedrooms of hundreds of children at home and boarding schools around the area, we cannot sleep because the music from the surrounding nightclubs invades our ‘silence space’ to 3-4am daily though some thankfully close on Monday.  But one silent day out of seven, leaves six days of hellish noise and is not a pass mark.

    We hear of efforts by supervisory authorities at reducing noise pollution. Unfortunately, such efforts here in Nigeria are more playing to the media and cosmetic and almost never sustained beyond one day.  As usual Rwanda a tiny country leads and has shut many noise pollution venues. Noise pollution is serious and destroys the much-needed rejuvenation of a good night’s sleep which is an essential ingredient of maintaining good national mental health. We citizens and club owners have a responsibility to give all children a good night’s sleep. Night Club managers should act responsibly to the neighbourhood youth and adults or close down. No nightclub worker or owner’s children sleeps next to their noisy nightclub every day.             

    EFCC thankfully announced it was not donating but was directed by the president to make available N50b of the recovered funds to the newly created Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND for tertiary institution students’ loans. Congratulations, though Nigerian students deserve full grants, scholarships and bursaries, not loans. Nigerians expect monthly transparency Good Governance updates to know exactly in cash and kind all our hard-working agencies like EFCC, ICPC, AMCON, Customs, the Police the Armed Forces recover on a regular monthly updated basis. Hopefully, the cash is immediately transferred to the CBN even if court cases take years. EFCC announced it would monitor the NELFUND. Good. Please do so across all MDAs to pre-empt and prevent a future of fraud. Prevention vs Cure.

    Read Also: Mutfwang suspends two Commissioners, two Special Advisers

    A High Court has rightly described as an economic crime against Nigeria, the deliberate destruction of 3,000 beer bottles by state government officials and called on EFCC to take prosecutorial actions.   

    Caution: Recovered stolen funds from Nigeria’s Pension Schemes and by Accountants General and Auditors General and SITF should automatically and urgently be returned directly to source of theft to do undone work.  

    So, 23 Russian Engineers arrived at the Ajaokuta Steel Plant. It will be tough resuscitating something conceived in 1979 that never breathed and died prematurely at near delivery 93% completion in 1994, 30 +years ago. Hopefully they bring 2024 technology short cuts and innovation and will not just stoke up a 45+ year outdated plant with outdated factory site drawings. Historically, who destroyed the dream? How much was the purported bribe? Was it non-Ukrainian Russians or Ukrainian Russians who built the plant? Also is this just new Russian soft power diplomacy and recent Russian flag-flying by another name?

    Tragedy: Ganiyat, Ayati 60, Utukpo 20. Can authorities urgently secure the rescue unharmed of Dr Ganiyat Popoola, Senior Registrar, Ophthalmology, National Eye Centre Kaduna and her nephew Abdul-Mugniy Folaranmi kidnapped seven months ago on Dec 27, 2023? Dr Popoola’s husband was released in March 2024. Please add 20 medical students kidnapped on August 8 on their way to an educational conference. Can they bring justice to the murderers of 60+ Fellow Nigerians murdered on August 8 in Ayati, Ukum LGA Benue State? Yet we travel as if all is well, though many declare war with us! We need to take lessons from the Nigerian kidnapping realty until government regains control Nigeria-wide. Kidnapping is terrifying, insanely financially costly to obtain freedom and a permanent mentally scarring traumatic experience if the victims survive. We pray the NSA and state security officials are not too distracted by Russian flags to also go maximally after all kidnappers nationwide. Life is hard enough for Nigerians without frequent local or foreign kidnappers and repeated village massacres.   

  • NGO gives over 200 downtrodden food stuff at Bodija market

    NGO gives over 200 downtrodden food stuff at Bodija market

    No fewer than 200 less privileged and downtrodden people at Bodija market, Ibadan on Thursday received free food items tagged ‘Jolly Rogers Citizens Palliatives’ by Jolly Rogers Deck, National Association of Seadogs.

    Items distributed include rice, salt, spaghetti, yam flour and tomato paste among others.

    The food stuff distribution, according to Olufemi Adesope, the Caption of Jolly Rogers Deck, was targeted at the poorest of the poor, particularly ‘Alaru’ so as to cushion effect of current hardship been experience by the people.

    He said each beneficiaries went home with food items worth N8,000, saying his NGO decided to do that because of the current economic hardship in the country.

    “We targeted 200 people from the onset but what we are having now here is far more than that which shows that people are really hungry,” he said. 

    Okekearu Fabian, Secondma Jolly Rogers Deck said: “Having been a watcher of developments across the nation, we realised that certain categories of people needs support particularly on food crises.

    Read Also: Unilever Nigeria donates relief materials to victims of Bodija incident

    “This is the first phase which is a temporary intervention, we identified the Alabos and Alabarus to put something on their table.

    “The second phase will be empowering them and teaching them how to fish and not just giving them fish alone.”

    Some of the beneficiaries appreciated the gesture of the NGO, urging government and well meaning Nigerians to follow suit

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  • Bodija explosion and security gaps in Oyo State

    Bodija explosion and security gaps in Oyo State

    • By Oludayo Tade

    On the ‘roof-top-bar’ of the senior staff club, University of Ibadan, I sat with my professor friend switching between discussions on the social economic conditions and the precarity of our lives as public university lecturers in Nigeria and watching the African Nations’ cup. It was not long when we heard a massive bang; the only thing compared to it was a bomb. Paul, one of the waiters in the club ran up as the surface upon which he stood vibrated heavily. We experienced the same. I told my friend that the sound was too massive to imagine something else but the puzzle was, what was that and where did this sound come from?

    We sat there for some minutes until a friend called from General Gas, about 25minutes from our location to ask if we heard any sound and told my friend that the vibration of that bang shook his house. Could terrorists have entered the Pacesetter State and detonated their evil weapon at a location nearby? I deleted that evil thought and was still calm. And finally, a call came from my friends’ foster parents whose house is within the epicentre of the explosion. They needed help. The couple had been affected and they needed my friend to evacuate them. The house was messed up I heard. Disturbed, and engulfed with fear, my professor friend had to visit the toilet first. This was not a time to laugh. I knew what was going on. We were also vulnerable. The old couple who had climbed 70 years and approaching 80 years live alone with a domestic help. Their biological children are abroad. The tension was high. It was they who assisted us with the information that the deafening bang happened in Bodija, their area and the destruction to lives and properties were better seen than imagined.

    And so, January 16, showed us how vulnerable we are in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. Just when Nigerians were thinking end will come to sad news such as the massacre in Plateau State on the eve of 2023 Christmas, the kidnappings in Abuja and killings of kidnapped children, the mismanagement of funds meant for poor Nigerians among others; a yet-to-be ascertained quantity of improvised explosive device (IED)/ dynamite hidden by illegal miners living around Adeyi Avenue in Bodija area of Ibadan exploded. The immediate effects were death of two people and 77 injured persons taken to the hospital.

    Buildings were flattened and cars within the radius of the explosion were not spared. Exotic cars became carcass within minutes. People rushed to safe persons under the wreckage. They also sent messages calling for more hands to help out.

    The middle/upper class neighbourhood of Bodija in Adeyi Avenue, the home to some of the best brains in Oyo State had been visited by the consequences of our collective inactions at individual and state levels. The governor, Seyi Makinde said that the preliminary security findings indicated that the explosion came from illegal miners who stored improvised explosive devices in the house they live in the area and that led to the blast. The questions are since when have the illegal miners been domiciled in this neighbourhood with knowledge of their activities?

    Considering the fact that a police station is not far from this area, have there been no report to police authorities or even to the government about these people before this sad event? Bodija is not a poor people’s neighbourhood. It is home to the very enlightened. Does it mean that no one sent message to the authorities about the activities of these people? When the governor visited the scene of the explosion, he said he had asked people to say something when they see something. The residents said they saw something, said something but the authorities did nothing.

    Read Also: Tinubu approves three resolutions to reduce pharmaceutical costs, bridge brain drain in health sector

    When people complain and nothing is done and they see that the people they complained about are powerful with connections, citizens will adopt if you cannot beat them by reporting to authorities and getting them arrested, you simply allow them to be so that you can live longer in Nigeria. Or at best, they relocate to another area. Other people will not just relocate or complain but will join the criminal gang in their evil plan to destroy and profit from it. Who is profiting from our pains? Crime is not only local but its success mainly occurs because of the collaboration of insiders who can be those in government, the citizens and their moles in our security system.

    We need to see this explosion as an early warning sign to the loopholes in security governance, intelligence, and disaster management in Oyo State. How many more of strangers doing illegal mining in collaboration with Nigerians are still within our neighbourhoods? If this could happen just behind the seat of government of Oyo State and no actionable intelligence got to the state, then there is fire on the mountain. Citizens have the responsibility to talk about the evil in their neighbourhood. We cannot stand aloof because the consequences of our silences may become our victimisation. Who knows who is next, where is next and how it will happen?

    Illegal mining is an entrenched organized crime which makes people to implicate the state. How many more pains shall we endure until we all lose our humanity and become beasts? Living in middle class neighbourhood is a strategy they use to cover up for their activities. They fund insecurity in the rural areas so that people will chase people away from their ancestral lands so that they can continue with their illegal mining.

    I watched the video of victims of the explosion being moved to the hospital with police vehicles with no medical personnel administering first aid on them. Thanks to the remaining medical personnel who are yet to Japa and offered to return to hospital to commence treatment on the injured. Government will pay for their treatment. The state government has also moved the displaced people to hotels for temporary shelter. That is good but beyond that we need to work on our emergency response system. Many things that ought not to be found in residential areas have found their ways into them and the state allows this unchecked. Filling stations, gas plant, club houses, shopping malls among others are ventures that make residential areas attractive hideout to criminals. Everything that compromises the security of residential areas should be removed in Oyo State.

    •Tade, a criminologist writes via dotad2003@yahoo.com

  • Malta Guinness returns with season two of Maltavator Challenge

    Nigeria’s number one premium Malt drink, Malta Guinness has returned with Season Two of its exciting Pan African TV show, the Maltavator Challenge!

     The Maltavator Challenge is a Pan African TV show which has contestants from Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroun, Cote D’Ivoire and Ethiopia, compete in mentally and physically challenging obstacle courses for a chance to win $20,000 and other fantastic prizes.

    Auditions for the 2018 edition of Maltavator Challenge officially kicked off in Ibadan recently, at the Trans-Amusement Park, Old Airport Road, Bodija. Excited consumers trooped out in their numbers to compete for a chance to represent Nigeria in the Pan-African TV show.

    Consumers who entered for the auditions were fueled with the energy and goodness of Malta Guinness which is packed with vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5 and B6, as they took part in vigorous physical and mental tasking obstacle games.

     Speaking at the event, Ifeoma Agu, Brand Manager, Malta Guinness, said: “The Maltavator Challenge is a Malta Guinness platform that showcases how consumers can turn the Malta goodness into greatness.

    “This is in tandem with the brand purpose of Malta Guinness which exists to fuel the can-do spirit of Nigerians, as seen here today with the impressive turnout of Nigerian youths in Ibadan, to contest for a chance to represent Nigeria in the Pan African TV show. Malta Guinness will continue to fuel the greatness of Nigerians with its goodness, energy and vitality,” she said.

    Yusuf Bolanle, Oludaisi Solomon, Adejare Aderemi, and Akinropo Muideen emerged winners/Maltavators at the Ibadan audition. They will be competing in a grand finale with winners that will emerge from other regions where the Maltavator Challenge will be hosted. Winners from the grand finale will represent Nigeria in the Pan African TV show. 

    Guests including family and friends who were present at the Ibadan Maltavator Challenge enjoyed live performances from music artistes, while being treated to the richness of ice cold Malta Guinness.

     The Maltavator Challenge train will be stopping over at major cities in Nigeria including Bening, Enugu, Abuja and Lagos, to get consumers “maltavated”. The show is currently airing on major TV stations across Nigeria and other participating African countries.

    To stay in touch with all the Maltavator Challenge activities, follow the Maltavator Challenge hashtags: #BMaltavated, #MaltavatorChallenge2 and Malta Guinness social media pages on Instagram @maltaguinnessng and twitter @MaltaGuinnessNG, Facebook: www.facebook.com/maltaguinness

     

  • Don’t politicise butchers’ relocation – Ajimobi

    Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi has cautioned the opposition politicians to desist from playing politics with issues that impart directly on the welfare of the people of the state.

    The governor stated this in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Communication and Strategy, Mr. Bolaji Tunji in Ibadan, on Thursday against the backdrop of insinuations that the relocation of butchers from the state capital to the central abattoir was motivated by selfish interest.

    The governor said that some unnamed politicians had been spreading misleading information on the step taken by government to sanitize the operations of the butchers and ensure that high standard of hygiene was maintained in the abattoir.

    Part of the allegations against the governor was that the new abattoir was contracted to his cronies and that was why he insisted that all the butchers in the city should move to the facility.

    “However, we wish to place on record that the original concept of the abattoir was muted by the former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala administration which also engaged the technical partner under a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement.

    ‘’Also, when the present administration came on board, the governor ordered the review of the PPP agreement which led to a reduction in the stake held by the technical partner from 70 per cent to 50 per cent, while various stakeholders, who had hitherto been excluded, were accommodated.

    Read Also: We will arrest those who burned Bodija station, Ajimobi vows

    ‘’Under the new arrangement, the state government reduced its stake from 30 per cent to 10 per cent, conceding 36 per cent to the 11 local governments in Ibadan land and 4 per cent to the state butchers’ union.

    ‘’It is, therefore, unfair and mischievous for any responsible political leader to attempt to mislead members of the public through outright falsehood and deliberate distortion of facts by suggesting that the governor has personal interest in the project and its operations.

    ‘’As a government that is completely committed to the welfare of the people, Governor Ajimobi chose to put the interest of the people over personal and political considerations by insisting on relocating the butchers from the unhygienic environments in the city where they currently operate and which pose threat of epidemic to the citizenry.

    ‘’We seize this opportunity to encourage media organizations to carry out their own independent investigations on the current state of the abattoirs in Ibadan and also the new facility that government has provided,’’ the governor said.

    He added that wide ranging consultations had, in the last one year, been held with the leadership of the butchers’ union, including taking them on a tour of the Lagos State Central Abattoir at Oko-Oba, Agege, all in a bid to assure them of the benefits of the new arrangement and the sincerity of the state government.

  • Oyo shuts Bodija market

    The Oyo State Government has shut down Bodija market for security reasons.

    This is an aftermath of the sporadic shooting which occurred earlier on Thursday in the market and its environs.

    The Aare Laatosa Loca Council Development Area (LCDA) Chairman, Mr. Adekunle Oladeji, said the closure is to prevent the loss of lives and property of the citizenry, stressing that It is also to guard against the escalation of the violence in the market to other parts of the state.

    Oladeji said that security agencies have been intimated about the situation in the market to maintain law and order.

    He urged the people to be law abiding, warning that anyone found wanting will be made to face the full wrath of the law.

  • Govt to partner developers

    The Oyo State government has started building low-cost housing schemes across the state.

    Commissioner for Lands, Housing and Survey Isaac Omodewu said this at the dedication, handing over and foundation laying of CEDARHAUS Court Estate, Bodija, Oluyole, Ibadan.

    Omodewu said the partnership ensures that government provides a discount on the land for the project, while the developer provides the funding.

    The commissioner said the government, in collaboration with some developers, has begun building low cost housing schemes at Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, Ibadan/Oyo Road, Agodi, Jerico, Onireke.