The sixth Bola Tinubu Colloquium, which took place in Lagos at the weekend to mark the 62nd birthday of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, provided an opportunity for ordinary Nigerians to articulate some of the country’s daunting challenges and how to get the country out of its present socio-econoic doldrums. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI reports.
The plight of citizens living in the midst of the insurgency that most Nigerians read about on the pages of the newspaper is pathetic. Take the case of this man, for instance. One fateful evening, members of the Boko Haram insurgency group came to the home of a lecturer at the University of Maiduguri in their numbers to assassinate him. But, fortunately for him, he was not at home. Realising that they were bent on killing him, the lecturer, simply identified as Mallam Aji, fled from his home and took refuge elsewhere in the city, leaving his wife to take care of things. But when the group visited a second time and did not find the man at home, they concluded that the wife was shielding him. They killed her. “Now, I am saddled with the responsibility of caring for our children. I have to play the role of a father and a mother,” he told the audience at the Sixth Bola Tinubu Colloquium in Lagos last Saturday.
People in Aji’s category live in fear on a daily basis.
A different set of problems confront Alhaji Nasiru Bala Daudawa, who holds a first degree in agricultural economics and a masters in international relations and diplomacy. At the colloquium, he catalogued the woes of farmers in Katsina State, particularly and the nation in general. He said the fertilizer distribution programme of the federal government was not working effectively as Nigerians are made to believe and that despite the fact that agriculture employs about 70 per cent of the population, “we still have challenges due to policies that are lopsided,”
His words: “We are faced with fertilizer adulteration and the amount of fertilizer we receive is always inadequate. They only send two bags and we have to buy the rest in the open market, where it is often mixed with sand and a 40 kilogrammes (kg) bag of the product is passed off as a 50 kg bag.” Besides, Daudawa said farmers have challenges accessing loans and that they lack access to the 167 million or so consumers in the country due to storage and transportation problems.
He added that his community in Faskari Local Government Area is equally faced with the challenges of cattle rustling. He said farmers in the entire North-west geo-political zone have to cope daily with armed criminals coming to steal their cattle and that if something is not done about this, Nigeria may have another Boko Haram on its hands.
Ali and Daudawa are two of the ordinary Nigerians who spoke at the 2014 Bola Tinubu Colloquium, bringing home to the audience the realities of the challenges of survival confronting Nigerians from various walks of life. The annual Bola Tinubu Colloquium was an idea conceived by close friends and associates of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former governor of Lagos State. It was conceived as a platform for discourse on the salient issues of national importance. It takes place annually on March 29, to mark the birthday of a man who has been very outspoken about the downward slide of the country in many respects. Unlike the previous years, when prominent personalities were the lead discussants, the 2014 edition, which took place under the theme, “The Summit of the Common Man”, featured ordinary Nigerians.
Others who spoke include Ron Mgbatogu, a 68-year-old retiree and veteran broadcaster from Anambra State. He unloaded his frustration about the plight of pensioners. After working for almost 40 years in the public and private sectors, Mgbatogu is entitled to retirement benefits, but he does not get it when it is due. There are delays in payment due to bureaucratic bottlenecks. Most times, he travels risky and long distances to the pension office, only to realise that there is no money for him.
Said Mgbatogu: “How can government take my taxes for 40 years, yet it feels no obligation for me. If there were no religious organisations, folks like me would remain endangered species. I am a homeless man, totally homeless. I have a roof over my head, but I have no place to call a home.”
The veteran broadcaster’s plight highlights the challenges facing retirees in a country where there is no social security.
Elizabeth Unah, a 48-year-old widow from Ebonyi State, spoke about how widows are left to cater for their children, without support from any quarters, the moment their breadwinner is no more. Mrs. Unah, who lost her husband in a fire in 2009, feeds her six children and foots the bil for their education , because her husband left nothing behind for the family.
Chief Eric Dooh, a 45-year old fisherman and native of Goi community in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State, lost his source of livelihood, following crude oil pollution, which poisoned the water and killed the fishes. Like other members of the Niger Delta community, Dooh and his family have no access to clean water to drink. The irony is that the government has turned a deaf ear to the plight of people living in oil-producing areas of the Niger Delta, which remains the goose that lays the golden egg that sustains the Nigerian economy.
Also included in the group of common Nigerians who mounted the podium to vent their frustration on the system that is depriving them of the opportunities to fully realise their potentials in life are Emmanuel Ekpemeze, a 23-year blind student, and Soprinye Victor, a 25-year old unemployed graduate. Miss Victor, a 2010 graduate Niger Delta University, perhaps embodies the disappointment of 47.8 million actively searching for jobs, but unable to find a place of productive engagement. She had so much expectation of being gainfully employed after her youth service. But so far, the efforts of the Chemical Engineering graduate to secure a job have proved abortive. Her attempt to equally start a business has not been successful.
“I am standing here not because I am a Bayelsan. But I am speaking on behalf of the youths of this country,” she said, adding that the country has all it takes to be rich under various circumstances. Unemployment, particularly among the youth, is perhaps the biggest problem in Nigeria today. It is said that 20.3 million Nigerians between the ages of 15 and 35 are unemployed and that 54 per cent of Nigerians between the ages of 15 and 60 are actively looking for a job, but cannot find one.
Indeed, as emphasised at the colloquium last Saturday, the challenges facing the common man in Nigeria are varied, but they all point to one thing: the failure of government to address issues pertainining to the security and welfare of ordinary Nigerians.
It was also an evening of frank discourse. For instance, the proverbial question that is being asked in Nigeria for a long time, “Who is a common man?” re-echoed at the sixth Bola Tinubu Colloquium last Saturday. The Attorney-General of Lagos, Ade Ipaye, who anchored the programme, said the common man is usually defined as “that undistinguished commoner, lacking rank, distinction or special attribute.” But he added that “when we look at it closely, it is the ordinary Nigerians, uncommon in their respective ways”. Mgbatogu, the veteran broadcaster, was enthused that finally somebody has hit the nail on the head about his situation. “It took the 62nd birthday of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to situate me as a common man. I thank you very much for that sir,” he noted jocularly.
However, it was when Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State mounted the podium that he elevated the discourse about the common man to a higher level. Fashola said the so-called common man is the biggest stakeholder in Nigeria because he pays his taxes diligently. Indeed, he said the common man, as the biggest investor in the country, has the right to determine the way the country should be run through his vote. But the governor lamented that it is ironical that the common man has not yet recognized that he or she is the biggest investor in the country. Fashola noted that the story of the common man that was told at the gathering suggested that the top job in the country would be a difficult one for that person that emerges as President in 2015. He inferred that the ruling party at the centre was playing politics with religion. He challenged Nigerians to ponder over the problems confronting them wisely and decide who he wants to give the top job.
Speaking in the same vein, the celebrant advised Nigerians to use their votes to determine the fate of the country beyond 2015. Earlier, Governor Fashola had informed the audience that Tinubu came from the rank of the common man. His words: “The leader we are celebrating today comes from a humble background. He used to live in a flat somewhere in Aguda, Surulere, Lagos, which got flooded and at a different time he was a disc jokey. That is perhaps why he has always identified with the common man and fights for the common man.” Similarly, the chairman of the Sixth Bola Tinubu Colloquium, the Most Reverend (Dr.) Ephrain Adebola Ademowo, described Tinubu is a consummate politician, a master strategist, defender of the oppressed, detribalized Nigerian, a libertarian par excellence and a rare gift to humanity.
The first Bola Tinubu Colloquium was held on March 29, 2009. The theme, ‘Every Vote Must Count’, was inspired by the country’s preparation for the 2011 general elections, against the backdrop of lessons learnt from the conduct and outcomes of the 2007 elections. The discussants were Professor Yemi Osibajo, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN); Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN; Chief Niyi Akintola, SAN; Chief Charles Edosonwan, SAN; Mr. Kola Awodein, SAN; and Mr. Tunji Bello. The lead discussant, Mr. David Kangah of the Ghana Electoral Commission submitted that Nigeria must strive to inculcate a culture of democratic practice in its people, as well as safeguard the electoral process with adequate legal and institutional framework with proper checks and balances that would prevent manipulation by ruling parties. A major outcome of the first colloquium was the inauguration of the Coalition of Democrats foe Electoral Reform (CODER).
The theme of the second colloquium was ‘This House Must Stand! Pulling Nigeria from the Brink’’ and the lead discussant was renowned economist and innovator, Dr. Hernando de Soto. He spoke on extra legality as it affects world economies and human rights. Other discussants at the occasion include Mrs. Maryam Uwais, MFR; Mr. Femi Falana, SAN; Mr. Babatunde Ahonsi and Ms Ijeoma Nwogwugwu.
The third colloquium addressed the pertinent question, ‘Nigeria: Why isn’t it Working?’ The fourth one, which took place under theme, ‘Looking Back, Thinking Ahead’, was in response to the need to review the successes and failures of the Asiwaju administration and its successor towards articulating the lessons learnt in drafting a direction for the future. The fifth colloquium, on the other hand, sought to create a platform for broad-based political movement for true national transformation. A major part of the strategy for achieving this, was to bring some new and younger voices to the table, to interrogate and propose ways by which the political space can be more inclusive, especially how the increasingly cynical youth can become involved in the national movement to save Nigeria.
