The Nation Newspaper

Tag: dawn

  • DAWN of grassroots football

    DAWN of grassroots football

    It’s no weekend or Sunday, but Hardball, a football zealot, is especially excited — excited at another innovation in grassroots football.

    The excitement is not only about the  DAWN — Development Agenda for

    Western Nigeria — Commission, which has mid-wifed the proposed Western Nigeria Football League (WNFL).  It is also because that great idea is getting quality attention from the apex of Nigeria’s football house.

    As in other sectors, it is applying the credo of regionalization (read decentralization) to football, both as sports and as business. You can never lose on that score, for it follows the federalization of football and its management.

    Amaju Pinnick, Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president, on March 2, said it all, at the inauguration of the Western Nigeria Football Forum Office, domiciled at the iconic Cocoa House, Ibadan, the same regional historical monument that also houses the DAWN Commission.

    Ibadan was capital of the pace-setting Western Region, in the Awolowo glory years: first university, first television in all of Africa, first modern stadium then named Liberty

    Stadium and of course, tallest building in all of Nigeria, the Cocoa House, in which the epochal event was taking place.

    Amaju also relayed how the West produced iconic footballers in the likes of Segun Odegbami, Muda Lawal, Felix Owolabi and Sam Ojebode, still leaving out other greats like Teslim “Thunder” Balogun and of course, ace winger and hero of the 1976 Nations Cup in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, Kunle Awesu, of blessed memory.

    But what Amaju didn’t trace was the decay of the once luxuriant sports garden where all those came from, now parched; and almost desert-like.

    Proof? 3SC, Shooting Stars Sports Club (formerly Investment and Industrial Credit Corporation, IICC of Western Nigeria, also earlier known as Western Nigeria Development Corporation, WNDC) has fallen into hard times.

    The first Nigerian club side to land any continental laurel, winning the African Cup Winners Cup in 1976, it has faded from among the top performers of yore.  It now always languishes among the laggards of the Nigerian Professional League (NFL), if not completely taking the drop to the lower division, as it did after the 2016/2017 league season.  That simply means the ready streams of the Ojebodes, Lawals, Odegbamis and Owolabis are drying off.

    If the new WNFL addressees that alone, then it would have done a vital task for this generation, bring back some Renaissance on the football pitch.

    But it should be more than that really: that league, if it plumbs the grassroots, has the prospects of fully turning football in that part of Nigeria into an integrated business, spanning the local manufacture of soccer boots and other foot wears, jerseys, club merchandizing and allied businesses, from which young football talents, coaches, sports doctors, lawyers, other ancillary professionals and even local musicians are gainfully employed.

    That is the way to go, for every part of the country.  Can you now see why Hardball is excited?

  • And our dawn erupts in moonshine

    Nigeria is still not the greatest country in Africa. ‘It’ is not the greatest country in the world. ‘It’ is a creature borne of incest, still. But it is hardly the ‘contraption’ frequently alluded to by generations of revolutionary poseurs and armchair Trotskys. It is shallow and very unrealistic of the latter, to wish our problems away by simply calling for secession; an end to the ‘forced marriage’ of our cultures and ethnicities by British colonialists.

    Nigeria fails as a nation because we fail as a people and progenitors of African civilisation. Rather than muster a superior culture of nationhood and society, we curate the worst that our forebears dared espouse, coating it as the ‘Nigerian factor,’ and embellishing it as our flamboyant code of conduct.

    Thus we covet an incestuous relationship with self – the dark, chthonian parts of our innate nature. We mould our clan where racial foolery fraternizes with vile. Senior citizenry molest our young in a never-ending cycle of sleaze and moral pedophilia. But the young are hardly the prey we think they are. Every second, they morph from starry-eyed victims to eager participants in our dehumanising ritual of violence, mental and biological aberration.

    Ours is a classic tale of Darwinian waste and mayhem, the squalor and rot of Nigerianness – a distortion of African civilisation. But we block the true import and consequences of this hideous cycle on our psyches and our future as a nation, that we might retain our integrity as brutes and eternal wildlings.

    Western science and cultural aesthetics predictably, become apparatus in our frantic attempt to revise the Nigerian horror into imaginatively palatable form. Notwithstanding our frantic lunge for substance and acclaim on frontiers where the world’s more advanced civilisations project their race and illusions of oneness, Nigeria remains hideous in name and status.

    While we make exaggerated gestures in fields of space science, information technology, industry, sports, and so on, Nigerian children die at birth and thousands of mothers die in painful labour. The youth are unemployed. Public officers loot public coffers with impunity and disregard for Rule of Law. Law enforcement officers turn violent affliction on the citizenry and society they are meant to protect; and the executive, legislative and judicial arms of government mesh in a fetid whirl of strife and plunder. Anarchy rules our hinterlands and metropolitan Nigeria.

    Within such stew and stink, Nigeria ranked 152nd of 188 countries in the 2016 African Human Development Index (HDI) according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Thus we are back at the crossroads of vile and extinction. There has been no improvement in our plight.

    While this piece too, resounds as hackneyed howl and lamentation, a regurgitation of towering monstrosities we have become, it need be said that our ultimate nemesis is the Nigerian youth. The youth epitomise the nub of discord and deathly rally ripping the tide and march to progress of our fatherland. But why do promising youth evolve like brutes and loathsome trolls? How did our once incandescent spokes of dawn erupt in moonshine?

    Many have attributed the afflictions of the Nigerian youth to bad leadership, nonstop dominance of the predatory ruling class and tiring recalcitrance of the younger generation to engage in communal and national politics in a beneficial manner. Many more would readily diagnose the maladies of the nation’s youth to structural banes and the perverse culture of citizenship by which they are weaned and ushered into adulthood.

    In the wake of plausible and often farfetched analyses, too many ‘patriots’ conveniently excuse themselves from the nexus of blame and severally propound the sad realization that Nigerians are innately incapable of self-determination and self-governance. Many have recommended the American example, the British palliative, the Chinese abracadabra and Malaysian ingenuity to mention a few, as the ultimate measures to resolve the nation’s ills. How?

    These arguments have overtime, attained a language of their own and thus evolved as a dialect of dissent and exaggerated self-abnegation. The nation’s academic elite, political and economic ruling classes frequently marshal clashing precepts as solutions and justifiable putdown of the ruling class and the lower working class as their politics dictate.

    A more damning view identifies the breadlines’ persistent ‘claims to victimhood and sense of entitlement’ as whiny and symptomatic of a dense and irresponsible citizenry. Between the conflict of hyperboles and sentimental vituperation, Nigeria suffers the affliction of intellectual miscreants and promising youth-turned-foetal-adults.

    As youths, the coordinated tragedies afflicting our consciousness daily, append the only real structure to our lives as impoverished Nigerians. The burdensome reality of fast slipping youth, the recurrent rites of bigotry and ethical quandary of coping with the strict moral code of adulthood and ideal society, obscures our understanding of life’s ultimate purpose and meaning. It spurs millions of misguided Nigerian youth to engage in a mad, desperate pursuit of fast and fleeting riches even as ripples of their actions keep hundreds of millions more in the doldrums and binds of despair.

    Consequently, the revolutionary dissent that sprouts from oppression is pitiless and unbending. It radically splits our world into ‘insensitive ruling class’ and ‘clueless lower class,’ ‘elite’ and ‘downtrodden,’ ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots.’ It fosters even more fragmented discord that continually pits Nigerian Christians against Muslims, Hausa against Igbo, Igbo against Yoruba, Yoruba against Ijaw. It fosters spurious segmentation of our society into moral and amoral,  good against evil, and apostates versus believers. Within this poisonous clime, the Nigerian child is born. If he survives birth hour, he is violently thrust into adolescence and misshapen adulthood.

    From Boko Haram and Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) terrorism, internet fraud, cyber-terrorism, financial/bankers’ terrorism and political terrorism emblematic of the ruling class, recent developments in the country present a sad prologue to a heinous and wider conflict between the nation’s rich ruling class and the impoverished majority of the breadlines and disappearing middle-class.

    A bloody and protracted war thus ensues: this war, caused by diminishing resources, chronic unemployment, substandard health facilities, rising food prices, big business and government conspiracies against the Nigerian state, manifest at alarming proportions daily and by the second.

    Thus our society is flung rudderless on a seething sea of sleaze. Now that our world as we have made it, begins to collapse, we withdraw from the possibility of rebirth, and choose to exploit ‘infinite possibilities’ in our fragility and doomsday predictions.

    The youth predictably become prominent actors in the theatre of ruin and discord. They become the muscle to actualise the ruling class’ blueprint of collapse. But if we consider our plight deeply enough, we would find that no child of the ruling class is co-opted in the drama of violence and bloodshed. They are tucked safely, abroad.

    Picture the NDA, Boko Haram, MASSOB, IPOB, OPC, and so on with sons, daughters and wives of Nigerian ruling class. Let our governors, legislators, and presidency, people these groups with their sons, daughters and wives.

    It’s about time we shunned the politics of spurious militancy, bloodshed and devastation to embrace growth and immense possibilities of progressive endeavour, like a political platform founded by the youth, for all and posterity.

  • Odu’a, DAWN, NIPC partner on Southwest investments

    Odu’a Investments Limited and the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission are working with the Nigerian Investments Promotion Council (NIPC) to boost investments in the  Southwest.

    The bodies met at the Cocoa House, Ibadan headquarters of Odu’a yesterday to explore strategies to achieve their aims.

    Welcoming the NIPC team, the Group Managing Director of Odu’a, Adewale Raji, said he was pleased about the collaboration, saying the region is replete with investment opportunities that need to be promoted.

    Raji said the company has rolled out an ambitious plan to invest massively in agriculture and agro-allied industry that will see to the establishment of large farms,  to produce raw materials and finished products through factories that can be set up in the communities where the farms are located.

    The idea is christened the Integrated Agric Project.

    According to him, such farms and factories will create huge number of employment to the youths.

  • New dawn at AAUA

    New dawn at AAUA

    Students of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA) in Ondo State have elected their leaders via electronic voting. The exercise was described as rancour-free.  report.

    Coming out of internal wrangling, which led to the impeachment of some union leaders, students of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA) in Ondo State, last Thursday, went to the poll to elect their leaders.

    The election came months after it was abruptly postponed by the school management to prevent mayhem on the campus, following the impeachment of the union’s erstwhile president and treasurer.

    The election was historic, as it was the first time students would elect their leaders through a rancour-free electronic voting method. The voters were required to register online weeks before the election, after which secret codes were generated and sent to the students through their mobile phones on election day.

    A big screen was erected at the Obasanjo Multipurpose Hall to display the results as the election was drawing to a conclusion.

    CAMPUSLIFE gathered that this was done to ensure transparency in the process and douse tension among camps of the candidates.

    A few minutes after the election began, students rose in protest against the disappearance of some candidates’ pictures on the voting platform, which negated the electoral guideline. In response, the Students’ Union Electoral Committee (SUEC) officials refreshed the electronic platform to correct the error. Voting started after the pictures of all candidates were uploaded on the platform.

    Three hours later, the election ended. Olawale Ijanusi, a 400-Level Philosophy student was elected the president with 1,516 votes, defeating his closest rival, Isaac Ayeni of Public Administration, who garnered 667 votes.

    Olawale’s victory was followed by wild jubilation by students. He was driven round the campus in an open-roof saloon vehicle, acknowledging cheers from his supporters across departments.

    He said: “I want all students to know that I will never betray the trust reposed in me. I will abide by the promise I made . As I said during campaign, iyanu a sele (wonders will happen). I reiterate the promise that wonders will happen. God bless AAUA.”

    Some students, who spoke with CAMPUSLIFE, hailed the e-voting method, saying it gave them the opportunity to choose their leaders without interference from the management.

    Ugboaja Osita, a 200-Level Plant Science and Biotechnology student, said: “The election was free, fair and transparent. This is the first rancour-free process we have had in the last four years.”

    Another student, Mercy Adekola, a 300-Level student, said the process was a departure from previous elections, hailing the management for supporting the innovation.

    He said: “The election was transparently conducted. This was why the outcome did not generate controversies, unlike the previous elections we have had. School management deserves commendation for coming up with this brilliant initiative.”

    The e-voting process needs to be strengthened and deployed for the conduct of national election, says Chinedu Onele, a 400-Level Law student. He said the manner the election was conducted made students who initially criticised e-voting to accept the outcome.

    He said: “This is the second time electronic voting would be employed to conduct the union election; the success recorded in this process far outweighed the previous version. Despite that there was a glitch experienced in voting time, because of aspirants’ pictures, the e-voting went on without generating credibility problem for the whole process.

    “It should be noted that about 130 had already voted before the e-voting platform was refreshed to allow for the upload of candidates’ pictures. All in all, it was a free, fair and peaceful election so far. Its outcome was generally accepted by everyone.”

    Others elected included Vice President;  Ayotola Akinfela; General Secretary; Lawrence Adekunle; Public Relations Officer; Samson Adelowo; Financial Secretary- Toheed Obashile; Oluwadamilola Olamibo (Treasurer); Olaoluwa Ayiloge (Welfare Director);  David Kuduyo (Social Director); Akinlawon Olisa (Sports Director) and Kayode Fajembola (Assistant General Secretary).

  • New dawn at the prisons

    New dawn at the prisons

    The old, dreary order at the prisons is giving way as over 400 vehicles and farm tools have been provided for the penitentiaries, reports GBENGA OMOKHUNU.

    ‘The challenges faced over the years by the service, according to the Minister of Interior, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (Rtd) who commissioned the operational vehicles and farm implements in Abuja range from poor and old dilapidating infrastructure, prisons congestion, urban encroachment, poor budgetary provisions, and misappropriation of funds, among others’

    Life is usually miserable at the prisons. It is a shame that inmates have got used to overcrowded cells. Food is drab, and the general idea of a place of reformation is largely a joke. Even for the workers, there is pretty little to lift the spirits. Tools of work are in deficits; even vans to take inmates to court are in very short supply. This has left prison administrators in a fix and often appealing for help, wherever they can get it, and whoever can provide it.

    This gloomy atmosphere is lifting. Over 400 operational vehicles and farm implements have been provided for the prisons. It is a new dawn for workers as inmates.

    Modern prison service in Nigeria dates back to 1861 when western-type prison system was established in the country. The declaration of Lagos as a colony in the same year the Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) was formed into two tiers, Federal and Local native authority system, until the abolition of the native authority tier of government in 1968. With this abolition of the system, the Prison Services then merged to form the present Nigeria Prisons Service.

    The vision of the Prison Service in Nigeria which seeks lasting change in offender’s attitudes, values and behaviour while ensuring successful reintegration of inmates into the society is not far from the global mandate of penitentiaries, which focuses on the reformation, rehabilitation as well as the reintegration of transformed ex-inmates into the society.

    The NPS contributes substantially to the nation’s internal security for taking custody of prisoners considered dangerous to the society, while giving the rest citizens a sense of safety and security. In Nigeria, the mission and vision of the Nigeria Prisons Service has been faced with daunting challenges, which have impeded the smooth realisation of its objectives. The challenges faced over the years by the service, according to the Minister of Interior, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (Rtd) who commissioned the operational vehicles and farm implements in Abuja range from poor and old dilapidating infrastructure, prisons congestion, urban encroachment, poor budgetary provisions, and misappropriation of funds, among others.

    The merger of the Police with the Ministry of Interior makes it easier to retool the Criminal Justices System (CJS), which stands on a tripod, having two of such stands in the Ministry.

    Realising the urgency to deliver on his mandate, Minister of Interior, according to findings, sought and obtained the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to procure operational vehicles and farming implements for the Nigeria Prison Service in the last quarter of 2016, a move seen by many as a demonstration of the will and commitment of the President Buhari administration to re-write the story of past neglect of the Prison Service.

    Dambazau said, “Although a few skeptics queried the rationale behind such investments in the prisons at a time the nation’s economy is in recession, this approach is quite ingenious and applauded by many as it possesses the ace cards to setting the agenda for the sustainable reformation of prison service in Nigeria.

    “Apart from the fact that it will make available operational vehicles for transporting inmates to the courts as at when due with it attendants, importance of ensuring decongestion of the prisons, it will also assist in reducing pressure on it facilities. Moreover the tractors and other farming implements are needed to reactivate the 16 prisons farms spread across the country, which in the long run will empower the Service to produce substantial quantity of food materials needed to feed inmates. Suffice it to say that these farms could also create jobs opportunities, serve as training centres for agric students, while adding to the nation’s GDP.

    “This dream of President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to embark on a journey of prisons reformation in Nigeria was made realistic, with the commissioning of over four hundred operational vehicles and farm tractors and other implements recently acquired by the Service.”

    Speaking further at the official lunch, Dambazau applauded the huge commitment of Government towards Prisons reformation.

    He assured that the vehicles will help in quick dispensation of cases as inmates will be moved to court promptly while ensuring justice for all.

    The minister said the farming implements will scale up production capacity of prison farm centres.

    He said the projection is to make maximum utilisation of available land and human resources in the production of foods for prisoners’ consumption and sale to the general public, ultimately reducing the financial burden on government.

    Dambazau also noted that the prison service is also keying into governments agenda of diversifying the economy through agriculture.

    In the areas of infrastructural decay, the minister stated that work was ongoing in several prisons across the country to rebuild dilapidated structures built over 100 years ago, while his Ministry has also signed a MOU with some state governments to relocate prisons already encroached by urban cities.

    He reiterated government’s desire to carry out a holistic reformation of the Criminal Justice System capable of delivering world class services in line with international best practices.

    Also speaking at the commissioning ceremony, the Controller General (CG) of the NPS, Mr. Ja’afaru Ahmed saluted President Muhammadu Buhari for the huge investment in the Prison Service.

    He used the occasion to give account of his stewardship in office and assured his supervising Minister of his unalloyed commitment to implement every detail of the Prisons reform agenda.

    Ahmed said the vehicles and equipment will be put to maximum use to return the Service to its primacy, and that skills acquisition programme for inmates is also receiving attention.

    He said, “The step taken thus far by the Minister is quite commendable and unarguably a bold attempt to retool the Criminal Justice System which has over the years suffered poor attention.

    “The Ministry of Interior has also perfected plans to deepen collaboration with the Judiciary on speedy trial of cases. The Police, Prison and Judicial officers will also receive requisite training in this regard.

    “Security being one of the cardinal agenda of the Present administration, reforming the Criminal Justice System is of immense importance to government and requires the support of all well-meaning Nigerians.”

  • Southwest governors, ARG, others pay tributes to DAWN Chief Famakinwa

    Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi and his Ogun State counterpart, Ibikunle Amosun, led dignitaries yesterday in paying tributes to the late Director General of Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, Mr Dipo Famakinwa.
    Famakinwa died on April 21 after a brief illness.
    He was 49.
    At the Day of Tributes organised for the deceased in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, Ajimobi described Famakinwa as a diligent man who understood and delivered on his mandate with a great passion.
    The programme was organised by Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), the DAWN Commission and the Yoruba Academy.
    The governor said the deceased made outstanding impact on the Yoruba nation.
    He said the diligence and passion with which he worked for the development of Yoruba land and Nigeria stood him out as one who took his duty as a divine assignment for his generation.
    Ajimobi said: “Famakinwa lived a short but remarkable life… He understood his assignment as a divine duty unto his generation. He not only took the job seriously but put his whole heart into it.”
    Ajimobi, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr Olalekan Ali, promised that the Oyo State Government and its good people would remain faithful to his “fervent desires for a rapidly transformed Yorubaland.”
    He added: “We shall follow through on our agreed roadmap and by building the DAWN Commission into a truly empowered think-tank and regional development powerhouse. With the support of my brother governors in the Southwest of Nigeria, your visionary spirit shall be kept alive as a guide post on our journey into freedom and prosperity.”
    Amosun, who was also represented by his Commissioner for Integration, Mr Adeife, extolled Famakinwa’s virtues. He said the deceased used everything in him to sell the DAWN idea to everyone that cared to listen, adding that succeeded in introducing programmes that help the development of the Southwest region.
    Amosun also hailed his doggedness and dedication to the assignment of regional integration, which he said he did until death came visiting.
    The Chairman, ARG, Hon. Olawale Oshun, who traced the origin of the commission and how Famakinwa was chosen to lead it as the first DG said: “The main story was that the governors at inception allowed the dreamers and the fashioners of the Integration vision to nominate a suitable person to fill the all important position of the first Director General of the Commission. Afenifere Renewal Group had no difficulty in settling for Dipo Famakinwa, for he and one other member availed us of their immense brain boxes, and minded no deprivation as too enormous to suffer in the processes leading to the crafting and marketing of what later turned out to be christened the Integration Commission.
    “As soon as the Southwest governors (including Olusegun Mimiko, Kayode Fayemi and Babatunde Fashola) bought into the project and ultimately authorized one of them, Dr Kayode Fayemi, to inaugurate on their behalf the DAWN Technical Committee on June 21, 2012, Dipo hit the ground running. The Technical Committee which was to serve as the Board for the Commission comprised of one representative from each of the six states and three nominees from Afenifere Renewal Group, one of whom was Dipo Famakinwa as the Director General. He established within a short while the required bureaucracy and facilitated an enduring relationship with national and international agencies all in the pursuit of the development agenda of Yoruba people within and without Nigeria.
    “I have had no doubt in my mind that Dipo had only one mission, which was to deliver a developed and integrated Western Nigeria, totally focused on deepening the economic indices of growth, while engaging to advantage the diversities that bestride culture and socio-political differences of his Yoruba people. I have seen him at work, and I have had cause to suggest to him to slow down a bit. It is as if he knew his time would be short.
    “We in Afenifere Renewal Group thank God for his life, even if we had wondered loudly now, why God had let it be this short. Only the Almighty God has the answer to that. We pledge however that we will support the various state governments in all they need to do to ensure that the integration commission in Western Nigeria moves from strength to strength. No price will be too high for us to pay to ensure that Dipo’s work and legacy would not be wasted. That much we owe him.
    Sleep well, Dipo and goodnight.”

    In his tribute, the Executive Director of the Yoruba Academy, Dr Ade Adeagbo, said there are four ways to find Famakinwa, who he emphasized was not death but lost.
    According to him, the ways are to continue the agitation for true federalism, sustain the drive for integration, develop the Yorubaness (the identity of Yoruba as a people) to become an international philosophy of human nature and also continue to promote the concept of ‘omoluabi’ which he says must be the “fundamental value that defines essence of humanity.”
    Adeagbo emphasized that in pursuing the four goals, Famakinwa would always be found.
    The representative of the Department for International Development (DFID), Mr Ifeanyi Peters-Ugwokwe, hailed Famakinwa’s passion, dedication and zeal for regional development. Describing him as a strategic thinker, Peters-Ugwokwe said there would not have been a better person to lead the commission.
    The Group Managing Director, Odu’a Investments Ltd, Mr Adewale Raji, commended Famakinwa for personally working hard to make the dream of accommodating Lagos as a co-owner of Odu’a a reality. He described him as a dogged fighter and visionary leader.
    His deputy at DAWN, Mr Seye Oyeleye, said “Famakinwa loved his job passionately, the socio economic development of our Region was his life, and he felt that he owed it a duty to make sure that the team at DAWN delivers on what we termed Brand New West.”
    Reflecting on his leadership acumen, Oyeleye said: “As the team leader at DAWN, he was not your typical boss, far from it. His office doors were permanently open and anyone, including our cleaners, will walk up to him on one issue or another. Dipo was the boss who will have his boli and epa on his table and some of our young staff will go and share it with him. He was the leader who will come to your desk no matter your position and ask for your views on any particular matter. Dipo will call me at extremely odd hours constantly asking for opinion before taking decisions and even when I tell him you are the DG you sort it out, he will say I didn’t make a mistake when I asked you to join me at DAWN( I joined a few months before it took off ). That was Dipo, the quintessential team player. He successfully created a family atmosphere at the office and this bond was extremely crucial when in 2015 and part of 2016 we went through financially challenging times, he successfully planted the passion for change in SW Nigeria in all the staff through his transparency, forthrightness and empathy, with Dipo what you see is what you get.”
    The deceased daughter, Miss Abisola Famakinwa, moved guests into tears as she gave the vote of thanks.
    She described her father as a hardworking man who also spared a good time for his family. Seeing her father in photographs with top men and women in the society, Abisola said his life confirmed the biblical statement that diligentbpeople stand before king’s and not before mean men.

    She said she was overwhelmed by the tributes to her father and declared: “I know my dad was great but I did not know he was this great. I am really proud of him. He was very hard working and determined.”
    At the programme were others members of the ARG family including Mr Kunle Famoriyo and Mr Ayo Afolabi. Others are commissioners from Oyo, Ogun and Osun states, Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN), Dr Tunji Olaopa, Otunba Deji Osibogun, Sen. Olufemi Lanlehin and Mr Taiwo Obe.

  • Famakinwa, DAWN and S/West renaissance

    The death of Dipo Famakinwa is a very sad one. I have known the Director General of Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) for a few years now and I have come to respect not only his maturity, quiet personality, relational skills, solid professionalism, but also his sound credentials as a development expert with commendable entrepreneurial intelligence. Famakinwa did not become the DG of DAWN by some kind of lucky coincidence. On the contrary, he came to that multidisciplinary organisation in 2013 with a solid educational background, business acumen and an enviable professional experience at both the public and private sectors, as well as at home and abroad. He was a consummate administrator, able to motivate and inspire.

    We became very good friends because after my retirement in 2015 when it became clear to us that we share some commonalities that border on ideas about federalism, development in general, regionalism, but most especially the significance of the Southwest as a development signpost for Nigeria’s federal framework. Recently, Famakinwa’s DAWN and the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP) have been looking for a unique joint project around which these shared ideas could translate to active proposals that would further the objectives of the two organisations. No one can doubt Famakinwa’s concern for the development of Nigeria through a constant reassessment of the mechanics for structurally recreating Nigeria’s federalism. A critical opponent of platitudinous rhetoric about reform, he was concerned with a deep and operationalized rehabilitation of the Nigerian project that goes beyond mere constitutional exercise. For instance, he was very critical of recent confabulation experiment like the National Conference of 2014 and all its internal inconsistencies, contradictions and lack of solid understanding of what ails Nigeria. For him, the renegotiation of Nigerian federal experiment must commence from an unbiased diagnosis of where we are presently. For instance, we will all be playing the ostrich and hiding our heads from our geopolitical reality if we think that, say, the creation of more states has the capacity to rejuvenate federalism.

    Now, Dipo Famakinwa has been snatched by death at the prime of his life. This ought to be the time when DAWN blueprint for strategic integration of the Southwest into a large context of good governance and infrastructural development should be going into implementation. He ought to have been present to add his administrative and coordinating skills to the complex implementation exercise simply because the blueprint was articulated by his team. It derives from a vision which he himself had carried for five years since he became the director general at DAWN. Death has been said to bring finality to all things, to aspirations and to dreams and to hope. For Malene Dietrich, “When you are dead, you are dead. That’s it.” Final. Finality.The end.

    But not this time. This is because even death does not have any power over any combustible idea. Death itself can be the route to immortality. “Between our birth and death,” says Christopher Fry, “we may touch understanding.” This is not an automatic achievement. Many came into the world and died without achieving significant understanding, especially of the roles they are expected to play and the duties they owe mankind. Dipo Famakinwa was not that kind of man. For 50 years of his life, he was a leader. But leading was not just enough for him; legacy was. With DAWN, he was read to take his credentials and reputation that regionalization for development is the path for Nigeria’s progress. How then can we make his death the platform for the establishment of his legacy, DAWN?

    DAWN has strategic reform significance. This is the understanding that Famakinwa committed his professionalism, intelligence and development expertise to. DAWN possesses the operational capability to conceptualise, negotiate and implement the renaissance of socio-economic well-being for Southwestern citizens of Nigeria. In fact, at a deeper level, through DAWN, we can achieve the ignition of a national revolution in development.The DAWN vision and mission is grand and beautiful. But far more significant are the five development pillars around which the vision and mission are woven—economic development (around agriculture, tourism, solid minerals and applied science and innovation), social and human development (health, wellness, education and workforce development), infrastructural development (transportation, power, energy, science and technology), building inclusive institutions (civil society, civil service), and homeland affairs (security, cultural preservation, promotion of excellence).

    This, for me, constitutes a complete reform agenda for the South-west. It is to the commendation of Famakinwa that there is in place already a strategic roadmapfor bringing to birth the blueprint for the regional development of the South-west. But this does not abate my professional fear. I have, in my short years as a reformer, seen the death of so many beautiful strategic plans and roadmaps. Ideas and ideals die easily on the platform of good intentions. And yet, even the readiness to implement is also fraught with terrible foreboding. However, Famakinwa was never afraid of implementing the roadmap. The challenges he faced went beyond just the roadmap itself. Would his death signal the end of his vision and his staunch belief in their implementability? Very soon, encomiums will start pouring in. Many people will reflect on his life time and achievements. Others will make many promises to his left behind family. Some portion of DAWN building may even be named after him. And a picture will remain at the DAWN headquarters as a memorial. Famakinwa will then be buried, and silence will threaten to obliterate his development efforts. The strategic roadmap will still be dogged by political and administrative impediments.

    The best memory we can inscribe to his legacy of courageous development thinking and administrative perspicacity is to commence the implementation of the roadmap he staked his professional credentials on. Specific issues are at stake in implementing the DAWN strategic roadmap. The most important, I think, is contained in the DAWN’s 10 operating principles. Underlying all these principles is a solid orientation towards policy implications of DAWN’s development pillars. Converting these pillars into significant policies in the South-west is the most important challenge DAWN has to face after the demise of Famakinwa.

    As things stand, Nigeria’s economic profile still ensures that state governments are held captive by a crippling fiscal framework, founded on what I have called the “bail-out” monthly allocation mentality, which limits governance responsibility. How then can implementation of the roadmap take off if the wherewithal to achieve its implementation and critical sustainability is missing? The most immediate challenge therefore is two-pronged. On the one hand, to significantly deal with the cost of governance issue by downsizing/rightsizing government institutional expenses in a way that will free up funds for efficient investment in infrastructural development. And on the other hand, there is the urgent need to invest in the active cultivation of internally generated revenue, beginning, for instance, with adequate tax payment enforcement matched with strong culture of performance and democratic accountability.

    There is no other way, therefore, to keep the legacies of Famakinwa alive than for the six governors of the Southwest states to not only renew their commitment to an operationally sound organisation they jointly set up, demonstrate shared ideological commitment that transcends party differences and dichotomies for the sake of the Southwest people, but to also use the former DG’s death as a clarion call to no longer waste development time through paying mere lip service to South-west agenda. This must be the time to bring the governance blueprint alive, together with the cultivation of critical synergies and partnership that could assist in bringing alive the blueprint for South-west strategic integration and governance thus reliving the great Awo legacy. That is what would make Dipo Famakinwa’s untimely death a timely intervention in the trajectory of what he stood for.

     

    • Olaopa is Executive Vice-Chairman, Ibadan School of Government & Public Policy (ISGPP).
  • Sunset at DAWN!

    Sunset at DAWN!

    Is it feasible for the sun to set at the time it is projected to rise? Not, unless there is a total solar eclipse, a meteorological incident of extraordinary proportion. It is the biological equivalent of total eclipse that just intruded our national space a week ago today.

    The dawn of Dipo Famakinwa has just been darkened. His sun has just set when it was supposed to rise. How does one even begin to deal with the enigma that is death? It strikes arbitrarily and randomly with impunity. The agency of death is without rhyme or reason. When, as in this case, we are helplessly confounded, we give up on rationality. We implicate the creator. But how can the one who created responsibly kill at the dawn of existence?

    Barely 50, a whole lifetime was ahead of Dipo! Death is cruel! It is not supposed to be like this. It is not rational that the one at the back of the line is the first to be taken away. It is unfair that a parent must mourn a child.

    Having made the lives of innocent mourners miserable since its creation, death itself is a suitable candidate for death. Death must die! Unfortunately, death will not be an adequate punishment for the innumerable infractions of this hater of humankind. Death has overstayed its time on Mother Earth.

    In recent times, our land has suffered the loss of eminent people of character. Many, like Dipo, have passed on at very tender ages. But why, in the name of the good creator, should a loving wife, also in her tender years, and little children, tearfully contemplate an uncertain future, without their husband and father, in a clime where promises of support are as fleeting as the passing shadow?

    However, we must now rely on the promises of the one that never fails. We have a merciful creator, who knows the heart of his creatures, and who is acutely aware of Dipo’s unwavering dedication to the elimination of hunger and poverty from his homeland. Surely, He will not leave Dipo’s widow and children to suffer indignity. The one who promised to never leave us alone, will always stand with the family Dipo left behind even as He welcomes him to His bosom to rest in perfect peace.

    As we reflect on the untimely death of Dipo, we must focus our mind on the interrogation of the inadequacies of our society. Every passing day only now draws us closer to the brink of hopelessness. We are not making progress in the areas that matter to the good life of individuals. And it does not appear that we have the sense of shame that strikes at the core of our conscience and makes us correct the shortcomings around us. We are too willing to give up on the need for change even before we get started.

    Look at the medical facilities that we used to boast about in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s: University College Hospital, Ibadan (UCH), Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, Ile Ife (OAUTH). Compare the services then and now. We still have great physicians, pharmacists and medical technologists around. But do they have the resources they need to save lives?

    If they do, we will not need to engage in medical tourism. But we also know that medical tourism is a choice available only to a tiny minority of our teeming population. Do we care about the multiple millions who die annually because they do not get the treatment, sometimes very simple, that they need to stay alive? Indeed, many of the ailments that afflict our people can be prevented with basic health facilities if they were available throughout the country. For that to be the case, we need to reorder our priorities. Dipo did not have to die from the ailment that killed him.

    In the passing of Dipo, there is a double tragedy of his death and the sunset at DAWN. As his sun sets, there is also a threat to the survival of the organisation for which he selflessly abandoned a thriving business to incubate. Who can replace his pioneering efforts so brilliantly demonstrated?

    At the inauguration of Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) in 2013, there was palpable excitement across the length and breadth of the Southwest zone. Something great was happening. The old Wild West was set for renewal and development. Despite their partisan differences, the new political leaders of the region embraced regional integration as the effective means to the development of their various states.

    But there was also the anxiety about the unknown. Do we have the requisite personnel? Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), the group that initiated the idea was acknowledged as a group of visionaries with bubbling ideas. And we also knew that they had some of the smartest and most dedicated patriots who can deliver if they put their minds to it. But many of them had their own businesses and many more were gainfully employed. Who will be ready to step in and pick up the challenge to lead DAWN?

    Dipo stepped up to the plate, rolled up his sleeves, and set the ball rolling to the delight of patriots. And before our very eyes, the mustard was becoming an established oak. As he would say, it is the doing of the Lord, and it is marvellous in our eyes.

    In November 2016, the six governors of the zone, in a show of bipartisanship that has never been seen before, rallied round DAWN and embraced regional integration with the combined strength of their offices. As I observed in my piece, “Hope Rising for the West”, on November 25, the communiqué after the meeting was truly encouraging. The governors maintained that:

    “the optimum interest of the Yoruba people should be the prime focus of the six state governments at all times, and that all politics within the region must henceforth be guided by the philosophy of politics of development.”

     “the prosperity of any constituent part of the Region is ultimately negated if other parts are not similarly prosperous.

    “political differences should no longer be a barrier to the economic development of the Region where the aggregate welfare of Yoruba people is concerned. All the States consequently agreed to work together within the framework of a people-centred development strategy.

    “A regime of continuity, regularity and urgency of interaction was canvassed and agreed upon by the meeting. The present crop of governors therefore agreed to bequeath to their people a good legacy reflective of the visions of our founding fathers and common ancestors.”

    Significantly, the governors assigned the responsibility for implementing their vision to DAWN:

    “DAWN Commission shall consequently develop programmes and activities along the identified areas of cooperation and bring them up for cooperative implementation.”

    And I ended my piece with the statement “The ball is now in the court of DAWN!”

    Now this! The leading light of DAWN Commission has just been extinguished and we move from hope rising to dispiriting reminiscences about the curse of Aole.

    But now is the time to perish the thought of despair. Now, we must reject the myth of a curse of which we are innocent. If Aole truly cursed, its effect should lapse with the conspirators that he targeted.

    As we mourn the untimely passing of Dipo Famakinwa, we must remain focused on the struggle which he embraced and led for the development of our land and the pride of our heritage.

    We must stand for dignity and respect which does not come from material acquisition and possessive individualism. Our culture is being undermined before our very eyes. The custodians of our tradition are being abducted, kidnapped and detained by militants who disrespect us and are contemptuous of our inheritance.

    Dipo rose to the challenge and refused to give up until the cold hands of death snatched him from us.

    In this moment of grief, we must remind ourselves that there is much to do and brace up for the task ahead. He is already resting in peace.

  • DAWN DG Famakinwa dead

    DAWN DG Famakinwa dead

    The Director General of Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) is Dipo Famakinwa is dead

    He died on Friday according to friends and relatives who confirmed his demise.

    Famakinwa’s work at DAWN involves coordinating and programme management agency of the regional integration agenda of the States of Western Nigeria, comprising Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo States.

    “My role is to provide strategic insight and leadership towards delivering on the vision and mission of the Development Agenda,”  he stated in his Linkedin profile.

     

  • Why southwest integration is necessary – Amosun

    Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, on Monday explained why regional integration is necessary in the Southwest.

    Amosun said the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) had offered a unique opportunity for the region to offer direction that could lead to socio – economic development of the area and its people.

    The governor spoke while declaring open the 2017 edition of the Southwest Governance Innovations Conference in Abeokuta.

    The conference with the theme: Innovative Governance and Effective Service Delivery, was organised by DAWN in partnership with Department for International Development (DFID) and PERL.

    Participants were drawn from the private sector, Heads of Service and Commissioners in the six southwest states.

    Those who spoke at the event included the Chief Executive Officer of Proshare Nigeria Limited, Dr. Olufemi Awoyemi, Dr. Dayo Adelogu, Ogun State Commissioner for Urban and Regional Planning, Mrs. Ronke Sokefun, Director of Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), Ijebu – Ode, Rev. Patrick Ngoye, Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Ogun State, Bimbo Ashiru  and Mrs. Olubunmi Fadairo.

    Among the dignitaries at the event were three House of Assembly Speakers namely – Hon. Folasayo Salami (Osun), Adesina Adeyemo (Oyo), Suraj Adekunbi (Ogun), Director-General of DAWN, Mr. Dipo Famakinwa and Chairman of Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), Hon. Wale Oshun

    Amosun, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Yetunde Onanuga, called for the “harnessing and pooling together” of strength and comparative advantages of each part for the overall development of the region.

    “Providence has been so good to us that the entire region belongs to O’odua family. This means that we share a long history of relationship that cuts across sphere of culture which amongst other included language and religion.

    “A geographical contiguity also makes it easier; this allows for easier cooperation. We should, therefore, take advantage of all these opportunities to create a united front to drive the process of the development of the region,” he said.