The Nation Newspaper

Tag: challenge

  • ‘The challenge of being in a relationship with a celebrity’

    ‘The challenge of being in a relationship with a celebrity’

    SHE was barely known on the scene until she started a relationship with Peter Okoye, one-half of the dynamic group known as P Square. Pretty looking Lola Omotayo who has two kids for Peter posits that she really can’t define herself but she gave an insight as to who she really is.

    “What you see is what you get. I can’t really define who I am per se, but I’m humble, caring, loving and a professional in the oil and gas profession. I take my work and family very seriously because they are very important to me, my immediate family in particular.”

    For one who has mixed parentage, Lola revealed that her upbringing was really interesting as she had to contend with growing up in a household where the cultures of both parents were deemed as very important.

    “The journey has been a very interesting one. My Dad is a Nigerian and my mother is Russian. I was brought up in a household where both cultures are very important to my family. As a child, I went to boarding school where I learnt how to speak Yoruba. It wasn’t one of those glamorous schools, it was in Ondo State. Basically, my father wanted me to have a reality check of where I come from and what I need to aspire to be as an adult. From my mother’s angle, she imbedded her own culture on us as well. She insisted that we speak Russian at home, and we speak Yoruba at home as well, so I got the best of both languages.

    “In 1990, I went to the University of Ife for a short while to study Psychology, but Nigeria was in a terrible state then; universities were on strike and all that. So my father said ‘why can’t you come to America,’ because he was working there then. So I applied to study theatre and film in San Francisco University, America. I wanted to focus more on directing because I didn’t want to become an actress, but eventually life just took me through a journey and I started working for an I.T company there. That was how I started building my career. ” Lola said.

    Some years later, she decided to quit her post at the I.T firm as she thought seriously about establishing herself back home in Nigeria- a move she eventually made when found her way back to the buzzing city of Lagos.

    “I decided that I’m going to move to Nigeria after I spent some years working with the I.T firm, but before then, I did some interviews to ensure that I secure a job before coming here. I got a job with ECONET as their Events Manager. I worked there for over a year before Daily Times called me. The paper was trying to rebrand then and they have secured the service of Adrian Wood who was with MTN. I decided to join them because Adrian Wood was like my mentor.

    “I joined Daily Times and gave it my all, but some top people there didn’t really inspire me at the time, so I had to find my way. I worked for an advertising company called FKG2 and spent about five years there. We did a lot of things and it was interesting, that was where I met Peter actually. One of our clients, British American Tobacco (BAT) and P Square were doing something on Benson & Hedges then. We were on a road show together. I was still in the company when I gave birth to my son, but because the job was so demanding, I opted to work in my father’s company, Nosco Oil & Gas, so that I can have time to take care of my baby. I joined as an executive director in order to bring fresh ideas to the company. It was a new terrain for me, but I learnt quickly.” Lola averred.

    One also wonders Lola’s driving force considering the fact that the mother of two does not seem to depend on Peter’s wealth despite the fact that he has been quite successful over the years.

    “I believe that as a lady, you have to support your partner. You can’t put everything on your partner; it is important to add value as well. Even though I’m not bringing as much as he brings to the table, at least, I’m adding value and making things a lot easier. Honestly, that’s the way I was brought up; I can’t rely on someone for everything. I have to be independent. I should be able to buy something for my kids without asking their father for money. I feel good as a person knowing that I can do things for myself, not that I want to feel above him in anyway, but I just feel it is important for me to add some value to his life as much as he adds to mine.” She said.

    Lola also has a word of advice for Nigerian ladies who put all their financial burdens on their partner.

    “I think that is the core of our problems in this society because we put so much pressure on the man to take care of us. We put so much pressure on them, and that tempts some men to start doing some shady businesses. Women put too much pressure on men in this part of the world. Also, a lot of women are greedy and lazy, so they just want to get married and stop working. It doesn’t mean women should go all out and work for the men, but somehow, you just have to make things easy for him. I see a lot of young ladies out there; it is not as if there are no jobs for them to do, the problem is that they don’t want to do certain type of jobs, they want everything to come easy. I started the very hard way, I didn’t start the easy way like people assume.

    “I had to work myself up there because I had a vision. A lot of young ladies in Nigeria see people driving fancy cars; carrying fancy bags and assume that a man is supposed to do all of that for them, so they sell themselves in order to get it. But you don’t have to do that. You can always find ways to make money legally.” Lola pointed out.

    Had she not been born into a well-to-do home, one wonders how Lola would have coped, considering the seething economic situation in the country? But Lola says it all has to do with upbringing and family values.

    “I come from a humble background; I didn’t come from a very rich background. My parents worked really hard and I saw the care that they took to ensure that they instill the best on their kids, so I drew my strength from there. You have to fight for whatever you want; if it is education that will take you there, then, you have to go to school and ensure that you get the needed degree. And if you are creative, you can do other things, may be design clothes and all that. It doesn’t have to be a big job. Dangote didn’t start with millions of dollars, so you have to be focused and work on it gradually to get to where you are going. In fact, coming from a privileged background is difficult because it won’t make you see how life really is.

    “My father really threw me to the dogs; he wanted me to see how life is. He could have enrolled me into some fancy schools when I was growing up, but he wanted me to see how life is. He made me rub shoulders with people who had nothing. I have friends who came from rich background and today, they have nothing. I also have friends who came from poor homes and today they are doing well. It is about family values and hard work.” She posited.

    Lola who recently gave birth to a baby girl named Aliona in America also opened up on her relationship with Peter and what actually attracted her to the energetic and talented performer.

    “I love Peter because he was never intimidated. When I met him, he was just trying to build himself and I was very proud of him. I have a lot of respect for him, his talent and I saw that he had a vision. Peter doesn’t get intimidated by anything; in fact, he supports and encourages me all the time. I think he’s happy that he doesn’t have to do everything; he can rely on me that I will take care of our kids.

    “Peter has drive. He has vision and pursues it. He doesn’t let anybody distract him from that vision and that I saw in him, which a lot of people didn’t see. Some people were like, ‘what are you doing with a musician? Are you crazy?’ but I saw something very different and unique about Peter. I saw the goals he set for himself and how he accomplished those goals step by step, and I was very impressed with that. I also saw that he wasn’t a selfish person. He was a generous person from the outset, even though he didn’t have much then, he was always generous. I like a man who is generous, not for the financial reason, but also to see how he can add value to other people’s lives- that is very important to me. He is also a good listener; he listens to people and also listens to me. Those are the things that attracted me to Peter. He’s an amazing guy.” Lola chuckles.

    Last year, Peter gave Lola the surprise of her life when what was supposed to be a quiet lunch date to celebrate her birthday turned out to be a surprise party at West Fosters, located at 70, Ikoyi, Lagos.

    She was surprised to see her father and other guests at the party which also had in attendance the Managing Director of DANA Air, Jacky Hathiramani with his wife and a few other guests.

    Such is the nature of Peter as an excited Lola reveals how romantic he can be compared to the average Nigerian guy.

    “Peter is very romantic as well. He does things that an average Nigerian guy will not do. There was a Valentine Day that he came to my house with a guitar and played some love ballads for me. That was really cool and I loved it. Those are the little things that he does that really touched me.” She informed.

    With all the attention and spotlight Peter receives with his twin brother every now and then, Lola reveals that it is quiet hard to be in a relationship with a celebrity especially with fact that he is always on the road all the time.

     

  • PZ Cussons launches Chemistry Challenge

    Outstanding performance in Chemistry would earn some secondary school pupils scholarship grants if they participate in the PZ Cussons Chemistry Challenge which will hold from July to September in Lagos.

    PZ Cussons Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc, launched the competition for SS1 and SS2 pupils in Lagos last Friday.

    Chairman of the Foundation, Prof Emmanuel Edozien, announced that pupils can enter for the competition online from June 3 to 21.

    Explaining the stages of the competition Mrs Yomi Ifaturoti, Director, Corporate Affairs and Administration, PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc, said after entries are received, the first stage of written quiz would be conducted in the six education districts in July.

    The best 100 pupils from each district would progress to stage two where another round of written assessment would be made to determine the best four students that would advance to the third and final stage. Each of the four finalists would make a presentation to the panel of judges to determine their positions.

    The top four winners would be rewarded with scholarship grants, laptops and medals; while their teachers and schools would get cash and book prizes.

    The first placed winner would get N700,000 worth of scholarship, the teacher, N100,000 and the school N100,000 worth of chemistry books. The second would get N500,000 – with N60,000 for the teacher and chemistry books worth N50,000 for the school.

    The second runner up will win N400,000, the teacher, N40,000 and the school, N50,000 worth of books. The third runner-up would win N300,000 worth of scholarship, a laptop and a consolation medal while the teacher would get N20,000 and the school N50,000 worth of chemistry books.

     

     

     

  • Sand Eagles ready for African challenge

    Sand Eagles ready for African challenge

    NIGERIA BEACH soccer national team, the Supersand Eagles have arrived Morocco, ahead of the African qualifiers for the Beach Soccer World Cup to held in Tahiti in September.

    The 12-man squad arrived Morocco at about noon on Sunday and immediately checked into their hotel as they seek to start preparations to earn one of the two ticket available for Africa for the Beach Soccer World Cup.

    Abu Azeez, who was the top scorer at last year’s Copa Lagos Beach tourney, told supersport.com from the team’s hotel in Morocco that they team are raring to go.

    “We arrived safely and we’re really set for the stiff challenges ahead,” he said.

    “The team knows what is at stake and we are going to make sure we do our best to make the nation proud, by not only qualifying but also doing well at the world championship in Tahiti,” Azeez added.

    Nigeria are a powerhouse in beach soccer on the continent, and have represented Africa at the world stage on numerous occasions.

    The team are packed with beach soccer stars that include team captain and Dolphins FC midfielder, Isiaka Olawale, Ogbonnaya Okemmiri and top scorer Victor Tale.

    Senegal are the reigning African beach soccer champions, after seeing off Nigeria in the final of the 2011 edition held in Morocco.

  • Challenge of unemployed youths

    Challenge of unemployed youths

    And suddenly the real architects of the current situation where majority of about four million annual graduates from our universities roam the streets without jobs, where PDP stalwarts, and their sympathizers who have access to free money import products of labour from other nations while over 60% of our 40 million youths remain jobless, and those whose policies have contributed to the misery of our youths (the National Bureau of Statistics placed the country’s misery index at 34 per cent), are warning us of the coming apocalypse if the problem of youth unemployment is not urgently addressed.

    Leading those who have been shedding crocodile tears about the misery of our unemployed youths is the father of PDP himself, ex-President Obasanjo who when challenged over his administration’s lack of a coherent policy on employment told bemused Nigerians that the recharge card and plantain chip hawkers on the streets of our major cities represented dividends of PDP policy on employment.

    And now the CBN governor, irrepressible Sanusi Lamido Sanusi whose policy led to the loss of about 50% of the banking sector workforce and who recently called for downsizing of the civil service by 50%, quoting data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) put unemployment rate in 2011 is 29.3 per cent, Yobe and Kano at 60.6 and 67 per cent respectively. This according to him means ‘unemployment has not only doubled in the last five years’, but saw the development whereby ‘unemployment is widening at a time of economic growth’, as an aberration’

    Sanusi who has been the star of Jonathan PDP administration in the last four years accused government of failing to ‘create an enabling environment that can encourage industrialisation of a country that produces oil yet imports refined fuel, a country that is in the tomato belt yet import tomatoes’.

    He perhaps forgot to add that we are a nation with acres upon acres of rubber plantation and sixth oil producer in the world and yet import used and substandard tyres; that we abandoned our massive oil palm plantations to import palm oil from Malaysia that came to borrow palm nuts from us; that in spite of our over 1,200 kilometres of coast line, we have for the past 50 years imported fish and that with over 80 million hectares of arable land, two third of which is located within a geographical zone where Sanusi told us his grandfather once supervised ground nut pyramids, we import ground nut oil.

    Government officials are also not left out. They have been talking from both sides of the mouth. While the Statistician-General of the Federation, Dr. Temi Kale put the figure of jobless and unemployed Nigerians at 20.3 million and praised President Jonathan for this feat, the Director General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), the body statutorily charged with the responsibility to design and implement programs aimed at combating unemployment in the country, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed on his part put the number of unemployed youths at 50%.

    But although President Jonathan administration has continued to dig the hole making our escape more difficult with acts of executive profligacy, the president’s inability to fight corruption, and our legislators shameless involvement in constituency contracts, etc, but he cannot be held responsible for the situation in which we today find ourselves.

    That unenviable position is reserved for the past successive military regimes that mortgaged the present and the future of our youths. While Gowon and Murtala/Obasanjo regimes destroyed the academia and the bureaucracy, the two most important institutions in society, Babangida completed the cycle through structural economic derailment otherwise known as Structural Adjustment Program (SAP).

    Buhari lost his job because he was not prepared to do what Babangida, Kalu Idika Kalu, and Olu Falae eventually did. They accepted IMF loan, opened our market to importation which only increased employment for the youths of the exporting nations. Eskor Toyo and Sam Aluko warned that we would become a net importer of cheap goods, that local manufactured goods would become more expensive, that foreign capital would become more mobile while our labour also a factor of production would be immobile. Beko Ransome-Kuti, Gani Fawehinmi, Alao Aka-Bashorun and others took to the streets and were clamped into prison serving jail terms from Ikoyi to Gashua. Newspaper houses were closed down. Journalists were picked up in broad day light. Many simply escaped to Afghanistan.

    Babangida and his group devalued our naira which was almost at par with the pound sterling. And as our nation became a nation of immigrants, Margaret Thatcher in order to prevent economic immigrants from Nigeria slammed a visa requirement on Nigeria, a commonwealth country that was hitherto exempted from visa requirement.

    Of course, the PDP, peopled by military new breed that breed only corruption, messed up the privatization and commercialization exercise imposed by IMF as part of their conditionalities. Nasir El Rufai, the former BPE Director General confirmed blue chip companies on which the nation had invested over a hundred billion dollars were sold at give a way prices to PDP members and their cronies. World Bank projected the exercise would lead to the creation of seven million jobs. But our nation lost the enterprises, lost the job opportunities and lost our investments as a result of PDP greed.

    Today our ceramic industries, textile industries, automobile support industries, and pharmaceutical industries are all dead –their factories turned to ware houses for Italian tiles, imported guinea brocade or Taiwanese rice or fake substandard India and Chinese drugs.

    Poverty started by Babangida’s SAP is today manifesting in the activities of hungry and angry uneducated youths led by unemployed educated youths from the north, kidnapping for ransom and human trafficking and prostitution by jobless youths in the South-east and South-south.

    And now that those who mortgaged the present and future, of our youths have become apprehensive; now that our angry youths especially those below 30 years who have never known anything outside military dictatorship and corruption by military-created new breeds that populate our national and state assemblies know where they are coming from, they can take their future in their hands.

    After all, Chinua Achebe told us, if a people cannot remember where rain started beating them, they may not know where to dry their clothes. Now, our twitter savvy facebook friendly, miracle-seeking drenched youths, who earnestly supported President Jonathan on the basis of their interaction on the social media in the 2011 election, now know why they have remained drenched. They also can now see that the military is not an option.

    For their economic liberation, they must get their politics right. And to do this, they need a sense of history instead of saying the past has gone with the old people. This was the trick Babangida used to destroy our political culture and saddle us with new breed without values or role models.

    Their job is therefore simple. Mobilise and elect leaders that will be on the side of the people. Leaders who will not like the military and PDP buccaneers, behave like looters of conquered territories; leaders that can stop importation of textile, shoes, ceramics, tyres, fish, and rice. Leaders that can judiciously divert huge resources wasted on phantom fuel subsidy to massive subsidy of agriculture sector and the cotton belt of the north to keep restive youths busy. And above all leaders who have faith in Nigeria and ready to have a national conference to discuss our differences, unlike military and their PDP surrogate who are insisting Nigeria unity is not negotiable because they are beneficiaries of the current anarchy.

  • Nigeria: The developmental challenge

    The speech delivered by the Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, at the monthly seminar of Weatherhead Center For International Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts, on Wednesday, February 20.

    • Continued from yesterday

    The Leadership question

     

    For me, by far the most challenging dimension of our development problem is that of leadership. Our inability to overcome other identified obstacles to development in the country, including the historical tragedies of colonialism and the Slave Trade, are a function of leadership failure. As formidable a challenge to development as the colonial heritage is, its persistence and resilience can only be put down to a conscious choice on the part of the country’s leaders not to change it. At any rate, there has been the intervention of time and we can no longer blame colonialism for our woes after 53 years of independence. Yes, colonialism determined the trajectory of our development in 1960, but we could have changed that since then.

    Again, the pervasive underdevelopment of nigeria can be used to illustrate the crisis of leadership in the country. The Nigerian ruling elite, due to its own perverse socialisation and reinforced by the dysfunction of the colonial state, has tended to be smugly accustomed to maintaining a lifestyle that is disconnected from economic productivity. Aided by its long hold on political power at the centre, this has in turn furthered the view of the state and public office as means of wealth acquisition. Thus, the situation is typical of Claude Ake’s insightful observation about the country that ‘wealth is tendentially dissociated from effort, from productive capitalist enterprise. [With the effect that it] has deprived Nigerian capitalism of its competitive and developmental impetus’.

    Any development effort that tends to take away their privileges is sure to have a ‘shock and awe’ impact on a culture of indolent wealth acquisition.

    The point being made here is that leadership crisis is the basis of the violent eruptions in the North and similar occurrences in other parts of the country. This is not peculiar to the North. Other parts of the country are embroiled in varying degrees of violence and will soon catch up with the North, except effective leadership emerges at the national and local levels.

    Hence, what Nigeria requires above all else is leadership. This is visionary leadership that is conscious of its mission; leaders whose convergence of interest and internal solidarity and cohesion would crosscut societal cleavages. Leaders who would be able to establish effective hegemony over the society and break the nation out of the vicious circle of misery and underdevelopment to the virtuous circle of development and progress.

    The need for leadership in our country is so stark that there is little disagreement about it. Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, the Governor of Niger State, affirms this unassailable fact in his speech to the Chatham House last year. He contended:

    ‘Indeed, surmounting the challenges of today’s world requires leadership with a moral compass — character, vision, integrity and courage to take difficult decisions to enhance socio-economic development, irrespective of whose interest is at stake’.

    The difficult decisions required to enhance socio-economic development in Nigeria must necessarily include addressing the structural imbalances in our polity, particularly with regards to our federalism. This will liberate the states from centrally imposed encumbrances and enable the people to enjoy the full benefits of good leadership.

    A major challenge of leadership in Nigeria is the institutionalisation of a fair and legitimate process of political contestation through which genuine leadership emerges. Notwithstanding that there has been four cycles of elections of a four-year term since Nigeria’s return to civil democratic rule, it is still very difficult to have free and fair elections in which choices are freely made and the people’s votes count. This is the biggest problem of post military Nigeria from which every other problem derives. Leaders that do not derive their legitimacy from the electorate will not be subject to their control and will not likely take policy options that are acceptable to them.

    Secondly, in the process of manipulating elections to impose a particular, usually an unpopular leader, certain institutions would have been compromised or emasculated with consequences that would reverberate long after the dust of election has settled. For instance, a judge that was compromised at the election petition tribunal can also be compromised in civil and criminal suits after the election. Law enforcement agencies that were used to rig elections would be handy to silence protests emanating from politically robbed citizens. The possibilities are endless.

    I am one of the few fortunate ones that were able to assume their mandate after winning election, but this was after almost four years of exertions and legal fireworks. I was persecuted and unjustly incarcerated. Our state was under virtual siege while our supporters were killed, hounded into exile and jailed on spurious charges. We were not deterred. We confronted the terror of the Nigerian state and against all odds, we triumphed. I believe the international system can help better by taking more than passing interest in Nigerian elections. If international observers, foreign governments and organisations can help to enthrone a regime of free and fair elections, they will have fewer interventions to make in Nigeria’s affairs. Politics is the father and mother of development; we have the lesson of history that no nation can climb the ladder of development without getting its politics right.

    I cannot end this piece without mentioning the impact of globalisation and global capitalism on the development effort in Nigeria. One visible impact of Western popular culture as expressed in entertainment and lifestyles is the swamping of indigenous cultures and erosion of values. In the West, the values that drive innovation, enterprise and production are separate from the popular culture. However, when this popular culture hits a developing country, it took over the youths and disconnects them from their own culture and its values that promote innovation, enterprise and production. Large swaths of young people have been disconnected from the values in their own cultures that predispose them to development and have been left disoriented. We discovered this after my inauguration and one of our first acts in office was to start a campaign of mental reawakening by reminding them of whom they were and of their past greatness. Our people were virtuous and these virtues manifest in codes of chivalry, hard-work and ability to triumph over vicissitudes and challenges. We have to provide this mental infrastructure as a foundation before we can begin to build the superstructure of development on it.

    However, global capitalism, with free movement of goods and services, is killing the local industrial capacity, taking jobs from people and creating an army of malcontents. Agriculture (for food and industrial raw materials) has been under siege. It has become far more profitable to trade in goods manufactured in Asia and other parts of the world than to engage in industrial production. Other consequences of unbridled capital like debt peonage and capital squeeze by the West have indeed arrested development and helped to foster large scale poverty. We have the lesson of history on this that we cannot really be rich when we are surrounded by poverty.

    I must enter a caveat here that outsiders are not responsible for our condition, even if they have played some roles in it. We must take responsibility for our underdeveloped state and work out our own salvation. Nigerians have to create the right leadership for themselves who will mobilise them for development.

     

    Leadership in Osun

     

    Permit me here to share with you how we have surmounted some of the leadership challenges we faced when our administration was inaugurated on November 27, 2010.

    We discovered that the greatest challenge facing our people is jobs and within 100 days, we created 20,000 public sector jobs in what looks Keynesian. This should not sound strange. I am abreast of the literature that put job creation largely in the public sector purview. However, for developing countries at this critical stage, critical state intervention of this nature is necessary. But I digress. I must let you know that this intervention reinflated the economy of the state with immediate impact in every sector. The policy was so successful that the World Bank commended us, asked to understudy it and immediately recommended it as a model of youth engagement and mass employment for other states.

    As part of our education reform, starting from next month, we are introducing Opon-Imo, an IPad-like computer tablet, which is a smart electronic teaching aid, to our secondary school students. This tablet is pre-loaded with 17 subjects that students offer during West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) in the form of lesson notes and textbooks. It also contains six extra-curricular subjects in sex education, civic education, Yoruba history, Yoruba traditional religion, computer education and entrepreneurship education.

    Also to be included in it is 10 years past questions and answers to be provided by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).

    The tablet has bridged the gap of carrying books in sacks, their wear and tear and subsequent replacement and also provides ready learning tools. Opon Imo neither has internet connectivity nor does it interface with other devices in order not to distract the students. Knowing that power is still a problem, especially in rural areas where there is no electricity, a solar charger will be supplied with it.

    Through this initiative, the state government seeks to expose pupils of its senior secondary schools to information technology at an early age.

    Our investment in computer for secondary school pupils was born out of our conviction that the future belongs to the digital age and it will be disastrous if our youth are not prepared for this. The computer has become the centre of the universe whether it is mainframe, desktop, laptop, handheld (as telephone) or palmtop.

    In addition, we have commenced the construction of 100 elementary schools, 50 middle schools and 21 high schools. We are the only state providing free meals for elementary 1-3 pupils and free uniforms to all pupils in public schools.

    Our agriculture development programme is ambitious. We established Osun Rural Enterprise and Agriculture Programme (OREAP), a multi-ministerial programme that straddles the Ministries of Agriculture, Local Government, Youth Development, Works and Finance. This programme has provided at the last count about 15,000 direct jobs in crop farming, fishing, apiary, poultry, beef chain and related industries. Our target is to capture five per cent of the huge daily food market in Lagos and the South West.

    In our drive to change the lot of our people we are propelled by the singular idea that effective leadership is the surest and quickest path to development. Overcoming our development challenge is not as impossible as it has seemed over the years; what has been missing is leadership, and this is what we are determined to provide for our people. We are convinced that by giving good leadership to the people, we will inspire them to rise to the challenge of developing themselves and their society. We subscribe to the wisdom of late President Ronald Reagan that ‘[t]he greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things’.

    I thank you for giving me your valuable time.

     

  • The Berende challenge

    The Berende challenge

    It is not often that personnel of Secret Service agencies around the world come out in the open to reveal their identities or what they are working on , let alone call a media conference to do so. But since the Boko Haram terrorism onslaught on Nigeria, the State Security Service has been more than willing to report breakthroughs and progress.

    But while we have been inundated with efforts being made by SSS to crack Boko Haram, albeit with limited success, the revelation last week by the service that it had been able to burst an Iranian sponsored terrorist cell in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital could end up being a major breakthrough for the organisation.

    Parading 50-year-old Abdullahi Berende as leader of an Iranian sponsored terrorist group in Nigeria before the public in Abuja Wednesday last week, SSS spokesman Marilyn Ogar named two others, Saheed Adewunmi and Sulaiman Saka as members of the terrorist cell being handled by Iranians to spy on Israel and American interests in the country. A fourth person, Bunyamin Yusuf is said to be at large.

    In addition to spying on American and Israeli interests in the country for possible terrorist attack, the suspects were said to have also drawn up a list of prominent Nigerians that could be attacked and whose attack could set up a chain of reactions capable of destabilizing the country.

    Of course Iran has denied ever running a terrorist cell in Nigeria or planning to do so and blamed enemies of the growing cordial relationship between the two countries for cooking up the story to not just cause disaffection between both nations but also permanent damage and enmity. And when Iran talks of enemies, the State of Israel and the United States of America come to mind.

    When it comes to state security matters it is very difficult to know the actual truth as all the parties tend to exaggerate or “sex-up” the facts to present a convincing evidence to justify their respective and often different positions. Remember former US Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell presented to the whole world, at the UN, what America said was solid evidence of Iraq’s weapon of mass destruction to justify US and allied forces attack and decimation of Iraqi armed forces and to a large extent the country’s infrastructure all in a bid to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein. Britain, in her own intelligence report even said attack on western targets in Europe by Iraq was just few weeks away and called for pre-emotive attack to destroy Saddam Hussein and his army. Of course they attacked and destroyed Iraq but no weapon of mass destruction was ever found because none existed in the first place. Virtually all the intelligences services in the west had similar report of Iraq’s weapon of mass destruction. So, were they deliberately misleading the world to justify their planned destruction of Iraq or they got their intelligence wrong?

    Nobody could say which now, but because Iraq was such a bad guy nobody bothered to give the country the benefit of the doubt or even seriously blame the west after the fall of Saddam and destruction of Iraq and no weapon was found. The general conclusion was even if Iraq had no weapon of mass destruction, the world would be a better place without the Iraqi dictator.

    The same could be said of Iran now as the country battles biting western economic sanctions over its nuclear programme. While the world is accusing Teheran of enriching uranium to produce nuclear war heads/bombs the Iranians are insisting that their nuclear programme is for peaceful purpose.

    While it is very difficult to believe Iran on anything, we only have the words of Berende and the SSS on the alleged Iranian sponsored terrorist cell in Lagos. So, who do we believe?

    Iran in the past had sponsored attacks against Israel’s interests, notably in South America and anywhere it considered the weakest link in the Jewish state’s seemingly impregnable security network. So, if truly the country had plans to attack Israel’s cultural centre in Lagos, it won’t be much of a surprise as it had done so elsewhere. And remember the previous Shia Muslim unrests in Nigeria had the hand of Teheran as the Islamic Republic appeared bent on having more than a mere economic footprint in Nigeria but also political/ideological and religious presence.

    But if Iran is saying no, then could our SSS be lying or merely carrying out the wish of Israel and America, fighting western war against Iran by proxy? It is very difficult to fault our security service in this regard not only because one is not in a position to do so, but also because it would be unpatriotic to do so when there is no evidence to the contrary. It is also unthinkable that the SSS would be protecting any other interest apart from Nigeria’s. So from the evidence at hand Iran is guilty, but then what are the options open to Nigeria to seek redress. One is to strongly protest this clandestine operation by Iran within Nigeria’s territory to the authorities in Teheran and if we are truly convinced about it, we could summarily expel all or any Iranian diplomat here engaged or involved in one way or the other in this plan to carry out terrorist attacks in Lagos or anywhere else in Nigeria. We could also in addition to expelling the diplomat(s) recall our own envoy to Iran if we feel strongly about the alleged Iranian action. But are we on a strong footing on this matter? Because issues like this should not be taken lightly. So if our position is so strong, then let’s go ahead and do whatever we could to show our annoyance to Iran, after all we are a sovereign state.

    But beyond this, the choice of Lagos should trouble every right thinking Nigerian, just as the alleged involvement of a Yoruba man from Ilorin, Kwara state in particular to cause destruction and mayhem in a largely Yoruba city/state of Lagos should worry every Nigerian. Aside Lagos being largely populated by Yoruba, it is also home to all the other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria and remains the economic capital of the country. Apart from oil and gas that come from the Niger Delta region, Lagos accounts for virtually every other business and commercial, activities that drive Nigeria’s economy, so, any terrorist attack in the emerging mega city could be inimical to Nigeria’s shaky image of a stable country. An attack on Lagos could be seen by the rest of the world as a sign of insecurity in the country and this could scare foreign investors.

    In addition any such attack could cause ethnic unrest that could ultimately lead to fratricidal conflicts across the federation, hence the need to take the Berende’ s Iranian terrorists plot very seriously. It is not enough to just parade the suspects, SSS should also endeavour to pursue not just the investigation to its logical conclusion but also charge the suspects to court and put a lie to the Iranian denial. It is about time our security services including the police and even Immigration intensify their surveillance of religious places and organisations to detect any foreign ideological infiltration that could harm our well being as a nation and a people. The Immigration Service in particular should monitor (but not unnecessarily interfere) the movement of Nigerians to such volatile countries that have the tendencies to indoctrinate young and often idle minds towards harmful causes to their nations and their people. Most important however is a commitment by the Nigerian government at all tiers to providing employment for our youths. Most of these unemployed youths are easy targets for evil minded people recruiting terrorists all over the place. The fact that Berende and co and heir minders have Lagos in mind shows that the city and indeed the entire southern Nigeria is not immune to terrorist attack. We should all be vigilant.

     

  • The APC challenge

    The APC challenge

    It mocks us as well as it embraces us. It is the ultimate judge, and its verdict can either bruise or boost us. But it is inevitable. It is history, a perennial guest at the contemporary dinner table. Whether or not we agree to fete it, its appetite gravitates avidly to our feast.

    Nothing evokes the undying quest of history more than the move by different political parties to coalesce into the All Progressive Congress (APC). It is the feast of the day, a blend of personas, tendencies, ambitions, geographies, ideological flavours. For some, it is poison. For others, it is mother’s culinary genius.

    As the news breaks, we see a tension in some parts of the political society, especially in the peacock ranks of the PDP. For them, including the serpentine President Goodluck Jonathan, it is poison in the woods. But this is nothing new. We have seen alliances of this sort through our history, and that is why, this time around, the burden is great. It is time to deliver the killer mouse to the slithering host hibernating in Aso Rock.

    Moves such as this make Nigeria’s political history to simultaneously fascinate and imperil. We cannot but admit that the task before us as a nation mounts monstrously with poverty and disease and ignorance hitting the stratosphere. The Jonathan administration has become a consistency of naiveté, a tragedy of errors and missteps. It is dooming us to destruction as a people partly from ignorance, partly from a provincial world view, and partly from surrender to low expectations.

    This is not the Jonathan Nigerians hoped for when they voted for transformation. The mass voted for geographic and ethnic change. It has proved fatal. Next time, I hope Nigerians will learn that elections embolden us to high quality of life, good education, health care, security of lives and property, pervasive infrastructure, all redounding to what utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham calls the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

    The story took a more potent turn when the governors, 11 in all, came together in a media coup to announce their coalition in support of APC. The debonair Kashim Shettima, Governor of Borno State, read out the communiqué. With audacity and finesse, he stressed the urgency that Nigeria is on the verge of salvation. My investigation showed the speech turned the Presidency into a mouse and Jonathan and company lost composure at the news.

    We have travelled this path before. The conservative governments at the centre jittered in the First and Second Republics, and they wheeled the democracies into rut, then chaos, then bloody disasters. That is why I say that the task before the governors and party wheel horses behind the mergers must pray for history not to prey on the nobility of the idea.

    In the First Republic, the Northern People’s Congress held sway and formed the government at the centre. It embarrassed everyone who wished the young nation well with brinkmanship, labour turbulence, deepening inequality all wrapped up in a petrifying lack of vision. To oust the Balewa government, a coalition came into being known as the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA). It comprised Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group, Nnamdi Azikiwe’s National Council of Nigerian Citizens, Aminu Kano’s Northern Elements Progressive Union, Joseph Tarka’s United Middle Belt Congress, among others. The NPC formed the Nigeria National Alliance (NNA), which lapped up malcontents across the regions, including the Samuel L. Akintola’s Nigerian National Democratic Party of the Western Region.

    The election was turbulent, and the NPC had held its own fraudulently against the alliance until the elections in the Western Region that held the prospect of giving UPGA victory and therefore control of the senate. The NPC bigwigs tooled the quisling of the west, Chief Akintola who was premier, to rig the elections. That exploded into a series of violence and lit the tinder of the west in what was called we tie. The result was the rat-a-tat of soldiers that sounded the death knell of that democracy.

    In the Second Republic, the Shehu Shagari administration presented us with another drama of buffoonery. It was the first time that Nigeria would witness graduate unemployment. So dire was the polity that another alliance was born, the Progressive Parties Alliance (PPA). Shagari’s National Party of Nigeria launched a divide-and-rule strategy in the loose-knit PPA. Zik’s Nigeria People’s Party and Kano’s People’s Redemption Party reeled under divisions, with factions emerging and some merging with the NPN. Awo’s Unity Party of Nigeria was impregnable as the north star of the west.

    The ensuing elections were rigged, and it was so brazen that the NPN swept elections even in the strongholds of the East and West, like Anambra, Bendel and Ondo, although Ondo was taken back by the UPN. The NPN fraud swathed the nation in foreboding. The Shagari government had employed police with such brutal flagrance that Sunday Adewusi, the police chief, ordered “shoot at sight” at civilians. Wole Soyinka fought back by saying, “you are not God.” Professor Yemi Ogunbiyi had called him deputy president in his column in The Guardian. Awolowo, in a deadpan tone reflecting the ennui in the land, warned that Nigeria would never see democracy again in his lifetime. He also harked back to the days of Kwame Nkrumah when the Ghanaian leader introduced the preventive detention act that crushed dissent.

    The chill was a prelude to the second coming of the army. Ironically, the soldier was Muhammadu Buhari, whose mien of winsome severity ushered in another era of the gun. Buhari, now a born-again democrat, is a principal player in the APC move.

    Today, unlike in the first and second chapters of our democratic experiments, the North controlled the vortex of power in the centre. The alliance often arose from the hegemonic hubris of the Hausa-Fulani. The Jonathan victory of 2011 was a protest against it. Now, the alliance pits itself against a southern minority who, by deceptive humility, swept the votes in the Southeast, his Niger Delta region, the Middle belt and the Southwest.

    Now, the APC plans to encircle the serpent within his Niger Delta and Southeast, which will make victory an uphill proposition for the PDP in 2015.

    But it is a challenge that the APC must embrace with courage and patriotic zeal. In the First and Second Republics, it failed due to internal wrangling as well as the deployment of the apparatuses of state, including the armed forces and the electoral umpire. The alliance of progressives can win, but it will come down to solving these riddles. The choice of its flag bearer may even be more important than the ideological clarity of the union. Ideological purity is a luxury in times of fragile flux and change.

    For a good example, we must look back to the days of Babangida when M.K.O Abiola won the fairest election in history. It is the best scenario for the APC challenge. The Social Democratic Party purred as a coalition of the progressives against the National Republican Convention. It was the army that sullied that high noon.

    History beckons. Although some scholars believe that we will always replay our past, we can seize the noon. In his doctrine of eternal return, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wondered whether there was a mathematical certainty that we will repeat the past, a sort of abiku? Some mathematicians who veered into philosophy agree. But exponents of the concept of rational choice have questioned this premise. So should we. If everything that happened in the past happens again, then we will become victims of what Nietzsche calls amor fati, that is love of fate. It is surrender to our misfortunes.

    We have the example of the SDP, and that is the challenge. A candidate can come from the North or South, but he should have the gravitas to roll out a drumbeat against the ineptitude at the centre. It is also a challenge to Nigerians to decide for progress rather than suffocating sentiment. It is also a challenge for humility: the players should be a head ahead of their parochial interests.

    “To stumble twice over a stone,” writes Cicero, “is a proverbial disgrace.” Who deserves disgrace but the PDP gang in Abuja!

  • Falana to Jonathan: accept Ezekwesili’s ‘timely challenge’

    Lagos lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has advised the Federal Government to accept the invitation of former Education Minister Mrs Oby Ezekwesili to a public debate.

    Mrs Ezekwesili had accused the Goodluck Jonathan administration of mismanaging the $67 billion left in the Federation Account by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, in which she served.

    She challenged the Federal Government to a debate when it denied her claim.

    Falana said the debate would afford Nigerians the opportunity to know how the nation’s funds were disbursed and if wrongly expended, who benefited.

    The rights activist claimed that a similar debate by ex-President Obasanjo and Jonathan over the Boko Haram insurgency has confirmed that the genocidal attack on the innocent people of Odi in Bayelsa State in November 1999 was a crime against humanity.

    Falana said such a debate would provide knowledge on the roles played by the dramatis personae and their imperialist collaborators.

    The senior advocate said the administration, being an offshoot of the Obasanjo, should be held liable for the nation’s woes.

    Falana said: “It is a shame that the Federal Government has rejected a golden opportunity to call off the bluff of the arrogant officials of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, who are trying to hoodwink Nigerians to accept that the Nigerian neo-colonial economy was better managed when they were in power.

    “Instead of running from pillar to post over the allegation made by the former minister, the Jonathan administration should have explained how the account was drawn down to service an unproductive bureaucracy and fund the thriving corruption industry since 2007.

    “Having done that, it should have proceeded to ask the Olusegun Obasanjo administration to account for the N26 trillion earned from oil and non-oil sectors from 1999 to 2007.

    “Specifically, Gen Obasanjo and his ministers should be asked to explain how they generated darkness with $16 billion, wasted over N1 trillion on fixing roads, refurbished hospitals that have collapsed, granted duty waivers worth N500 billion to a few importers, sold public enterprises worth trillions of Naira at give away prices to imaginary core investors, plundered and mismanaged the banks, which have recently been bailed out with about N3 trillion.

    “Was it not in 2002 that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) opened a secret account with J.P. Morgan Bank when Gen Olusegun Obasanjo was the Petroleum Minister and Chairman of the NNPC board? Is it not on record that the administration illegally withdrew N1.5 trillion from the NNPC account and distributed same to unnamed individuals and organisations?

    “Has the Supreme Court not recently set aside one of the companies sold by the administration without following due process? Has the Senate not asked the Jonathan administration to annul the highly corrupt privatisation exercise carried out by the regime?

    “Was it not Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as Finance Minister, who asked Nigerians to celebrate the country’s exit from the external debt trap?

    “Did she not assure Nigerians that the payment of $12 billion to settle fraudulent external debts would free funds for poverty alleviation projects?

    “As the Finance Minister and Coordinator of the economy, has she not turned round to ask Nigerians to bear with the Jonathan administration for taking jumbo loans with dangerous conditionalities?

    “On six different occasions, the Obasanjo administration increased the prices of petroleum products to generate funds for education, health and job creation. Mrs Ezekwesili may wish to find out what happened to the hundreds of billions of Naira saved from such incessant fuel increases!

    “For goodness sake, let the Federal Government take up Mrs Ezekwesili’s timely and patriotic challenge. But the debate should not be limited to the withdrawal of $67 billion from the Federation Account.

    “It should be a debate on the reckless diversion of huge public funds and the gross mismanagement of the Nigerian economy since 1999.”

  • Mobile apps challenge for girls

    As part of the International Telecommunications Union’s Girls in ICT project & Tech Needs Girls campaign, Women in Technology in Nigeria, has unveiled the Technovation Challenge to Nigeria to encourage young girls develop interest in the development of applications.

    A statement by WITIN noted that the Mobile App Challenge has been opened for secondary school girls (aged 13-18) who would work in teams of five to develop mobile apps, conduct market research, write business plans, and create a “pitch” for funding.

    According to the statement, each team is expected to work with both a classroom teacher at their school and a female mentor/role model from the technology industry, adding that WITIN will lead mentors in Nigeria who would guide teachers to train teams from now till April about how to build the apps. The training, it noted, will culminate in a global competition where teams compete for funding to launch their company and take their app to market.

    The goal of the programme is to promote women in technology by inspiring girls to see themselves not just as users of technology, but as inventors, designers, builders, and entrepreneurs in the technology industry.

     

  • Varisities get fresh challenge

    Varisities get fresh challenge

    With the Federal Government’s directive that convocation should no longer be held if the graduating students’ certificates are not ready, the universities are in a race to fulfil the condition. KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE and ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA report.

     

    For universities, the era of holding convocations without giving the graduating students their certificates is over. Henceforth, they won’t be allowed to hold the ceremony without proof that the students certificates are ready, Education Minister, Prof Ruqayyat Ahmed Rufa’i said penultimate week that universities will no longer be allowed to organise convocations except they prepare certificates for their students.

    She gave the directive during the 2nd Convocation of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) in Lagos on January 18.

    She said: “Universities will no longer convocate students without giving them certificates.”

    At a pre-convocation press briefing on Monday University of Lagos (UNILAG) Vice-Chancellor Prof Rahaman Bello and the Federal Ministry of Education (Abuja) have informed all federal-owned universities that readiness to issue certificates is an important part of the requirements for approval to hold the convocation.

    “The readiness of certificates is one of the conditions from the government to approve your convocation. It is a regulation now that you will not be given a go-ahead for convocation if the certificates are not ready,” he said at the briefing ahead of the institutions golden jubilee convocation holding next week.

    In line with this directive, Bello added that the certificates of the 6, 932 students graduating next week are ready for collection. However, he said only those who are cleared by their faculties would be given theirs during the convocation holding between February 5 and 8.

    “The certificates are ready but wont be given to the graduands until after their clearance because some graduands may have problems they have not sorted,” he said.

    Last week, the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) graduated 19, 880, who were also presented with their certificates. It was the institution’s 42nd convocation.

    The University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration), Prof Malachy Okweze said the issuance of certificates on convocation day began since the administration of Prof Batho Okolo as Vice-Chancellor in 2009.

    “UNN has always issued certificates at convocation since the advent of Prof Bartho Okolo as Vice-Chancellor. UNN also now insists that examination results are compiled within two weeks but no later than four weeks,” he said.

    Another source added: “Even during last week’s convocation, the graduands were told their certificates were ready for collection afterwards. They started collecting the certificate since Monday.”

    The new policy will be a relief to graduating students, who have nursed fears about suffering the fate of many who graduated before them and could not get their certificates for years afterwards. Stories abound about such people. When Prof Bello affirmed that the certificates would be issued next week, students present at the briefing cheered at the news.

    Many of the 7,220 NOUN graduands were also delighted to receive their certificates at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, venue of the convocation where the minister made the announcement. One of them, Naomi Fregene, a graduate of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution said getting her certificate immediately was particularly pleasing because of the length of time it took to complete the programme.

    “Collecting my certificate today is the icing on the cake for me. I am delighted to be graduating after so many years, I feel on top of the world,” she said.

    However, the new policy is not strange in some universities. The Osun State University (UNIOSUN) issued certificates to the two sets of students that have graduated on the convocation day. Mr Marcus Awobifa of the Public Relations Unit told The Nation that the 365 students who graduated in 2011 and the 657 in 2012 got their certificates same day.

    Graduates of many private universities also collect their certificates almost immediately. Ms Kemi Runsewe, a Mass Communication graduate of the Redeemer’s University (RUN), said the certificates were ready though not given on the convocation day.

    “Our certificates were ready but we were not given immediately. They were meant to be in the scrolls presented to us but they feared that if they gave it to us many students would not return the graduation gowns so they asked us to come for it afterwards. We collected it the Monday after our convocation,” said Kemi who graduated last year.

    Another graduate of Bowen University, Iwo, Ms Opeyemi Oni, said though certificates were not issued immediately when she graduated three years ago, they were ready in months.

    “We got our statement of results immediately. But we were told to come back for the certificates. It is ready but I am yet to go back for mine,” she said.

    When the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo held a combined convocation for the 2008/2009;2009/2010; and 2010/2011 sets June last year, its new 1,500-seater auditorium could not accommodate the 58,935 graduands. Despite the heavy downpour that day, many of them were joyous because their certificates were ready for collection at the Registry unit after the event.

    To many of them, it was like a dream. Before the graduation last year, the university had huge backlog of uncollected certificates yet to be signed for so many years. Former Vice-Chancellor, Prof Lateef Akanni Hussain who was forced out in 2010, had complained that there were too many of them unsigned from years before he took over. His successor, Prof J ohn Oladapo Obafunwa, appointed in 2011, considered signing the certificates of the over 50, 00 students who graduates as one of the greatest challenges before him. So it was a dream come true when he gladly announced at the convocation ground that the graduates could pick up their certificates that day.

    A source who spoke to The Nation in confidence on Tuesday informed that the 2011/2012 convocation of the university coming up 21 and 22 next month will have less than 10, 000 graduands who will also get their certificates.

    “This coming convocation will not be like the previous ones where over 50 000 graduated. We will be having less than 10,000 graduands this time around. Remember, our VC signed a lot of certificates in the last convocations. This coming one is to clear the backlog of certificates and start on a clean slate,” the source said.

    The combined convocation of the Olabisi Onabanjo University Ago-Iwoye in Ogun State, August last year was similar to that of LASU. Some 40, 130 students graduated during the convocation which was the first to be organised since 2006 due to various crises. The graduands were informed that the certificates were ready that year.

    It was no surprise that many of the students who were already frustrated by the system showed little or no enthusiasm in turning up for the convocations. Nevertheless, graduands who were accompanied by their parents were over joyous that finally, the battle was over as they could also pick up their certificates same day as announced by the OOU Vice-Chancellor Prof Saburi Adejimi Adesanya.

    He also said that come January this year when OOU will clock 30, it would organise convocation to clear all outstanding results of students.

    He said: “The university, by this combined convocations, has succeeded in clearing all the backlogs of students results and certificates outstanding since 2006. Since our university would be 30 years old by January 2013, we also plan to hold another convocation ceremony in January 2013 and thus will finally clear all backlogs of students results­ and certificates till 2012. By this process, we would have removed the major impediments and problems that have spoiled the image of our university over the years. Our graduates once again, would have access to their certificates for employment prospecting immediately after graduation.”

    A student of Microbiology Amarachi Chjioke who belong to the 2008/200/ set had told this reporter why he chose not to show up for the convocation.