The Nation Newspaper

Tag: decades

  • Two and a half decades of service

    The journey started 25 years ago with a group of women who have excelled in business and in public service. They came together to out smiles on the faces of the less privileged in the society. The Committee of Friends for Humanity, (COFFHA) has promised to empower widows, among others, Omolara Akintoye writes.

    ITS vision is to bring hope and social justice where the less privileged can live in dignity and security. Create a platform where the privileged can lend a helping hand to the under-privileged, thereby committing themselves to enhance better social life and livelihood.

    Speaking at the Committee of Friends for Humanity’s (COFFHA)

    25 years of touching lives positively, the President of COFFHA, Mrs. Carolyn Akum Ufere, said in the past 25 years the group has stayed true and committed to fulfilling its objective.

    According to her, the group came into existence 25 years ago with three women: herself and two others “It was a dream conceived and started through the passion of three women who came together as friends carrying the same mandate for charity after which they invited other ladies of like minds.”

    The association she pointed out is made up of accomplished women of integrity in business and public service; with a mission to support, encourage and uplift the less privileged, widows and children in the society. COFFHA she said has been sourcing for funds to care for the less privileged by tasking themselves, request for funds from friends as well as their husbands.

    “It’s been a long journey and I’m happy today that we are still together doing the work of charity,” Ufere highlighted some of the projects executed so far by COFFHA to include: Rehabilitation of Esther and her baby who was abandoned by her parents due to teenage pregnancy; building and equipping of COFFHA emergency centre at Isolo General Hospital and a host of other projects across the country.

    COFFHA has empowered over 100 women annually through the Widow

    Empowerment project by providing funds to enable them start small businesses. It has also refurbished and furnished a 16-bed female ward at Apapa Health Centre, Lagos; donated kidney dialysis machine to Gbagada General Hospital.

  • Toyin Collins savours motherhood…after two decades of fruitless search for baby

    FAMOUS beauty aesthetician, Toyin Collins, has been savouring life as a mother since she was delivered of a bouncing baby girl in December last year. The birth of the bouncing baby girl was said to have thrown the brains behind Fresh Look, a multi-purpose beauty parlour on Joel Ogunaike Street, Ikeja GRA, Lagos, and her husband, Debo Collins, a suave businessman and politician, into fits of uncontainable happiness.

    Feelers indicate that Toyin Collins and her baby have become inseparable as she savours the fresh fruit of the womb after more than two decades of fruitless search. The amiable new mother has been married to her beau Debo for less than three years and is already reaping the rewards. Her joy was accentuated by the fact that in her former marriage, she was childless while her husband managed to father four children with three different women.

  • I returned to study Law two decades after rejecting it at ABU- Ex-NNPC chief Ajetunmobi

    I returned to study Law two decades after rejecting it at ABU- Ex-NNPC chief Ajetunmobi

    Fresh in retirement as the Human Resources Manager, Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company, after working with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for 33 years, Barrister Paul Ajetunmobi, who is now a practising lawyer, recalls his experience in the organisation regarded as the backbone of the nation’s economy. He also tells VINCENT AKANMODE about his venture into full legal practice several decades after he vehemently rejected the admission offered him at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria to study Law.

    What informed your decision to go into the legal profession?

    Let me begin by saying that I had the opportunity to read Law the first time I entered the university, but I did not, basically because of the kind of upbringing I had. In those days, the popular thinking was that lawyers were liars; that they were never straightforward. It was believed that lawyers tried to pervert justice in one way or the other, and because of my upbringing as a serious Christian, I felt it was not a profession I should belong to.

    But eventually, it dawned on me after I had obtained my first and second degrees, that so many people were being oppressed and cheated. They were being denied their rights and entitlements and I was always wishing there was something I could do to help the less-privileged enforce their rights. Those were actually the factors that influenced my decision to return to school to study Law.

    That means you have not always being a lawyer…

    Yes, I was not practising law because I was already in another employment before I decided to return to school to study it and statutorily, you cannot practise law if you are still in another employment. You may only be able to do solicitor’s work. But having retired from public service, I felt the time had come for me to practise law fully. That was why I set up the practice and ensured that I nurtured and grew it into a full-fledged legal outfit.

    You spoke about being in public service. Which organisation did you work with?

    I was in NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation). I started my career in NNPC in May 1981. I was in full employment, got into a management position and retired in November last year as the human resources manager of the Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company.

    How would you describe your stay at NNPC?

    I would describe it as very worthwhile. I went round, and I would count myself very lucky and privileged to have, out of 170 million Nigerians, joined the NNPC as a young graduate in 1981. I had a chequered experience going through thick and thin. It also gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of people I would not have thought of meeting in my life. The organisation has actually sown greatly into my life. They have developed me. They gave me the opportunity to go for my master’s degree. They also allowed me to go for my Law programme and even gave me study leave to attend the Law School. So, whoever I am today, I owe a lot of it to the NNPC and Nigeria as a whole.

    There is this widely held opinion that the NNPC is a very corrupt organisation in the habit of squandering the nation’s oil revenue. Is it an organisation where you would hardly find upright people?

    The problem is that the average Nigerian does not know the NNPC well. They have a perverse opinion of the NNPC. Contrary to what many people tend to believe, the NNPC is an outfit where you would find some of the most patriotic Nigerians. Of course, like every institution, there are certainly some bad eggs, but they are few and far between. There are many righteous and straightforward people in NNPC. I came across so many of them almost on a daily basis by the virtue of my position in the Human Resources Department, which in those days used to be called the Personnel Services Department.

    I started as a personnel officer in NNPC. I started as a recruitment officer in the organisation, and throughout the time I was there, even as a young officer, I started meeting people who were very upright. And there are so many people whose uprightness I can vouch for in NNPC even now. But like I said, there are also bad eggs like you would find in any other organisation, particularly one as large as the NNPC. In any human society or sphere of life, you would always find bad eggs, but that does not mean that every other person in the organisation is bad.

    Were you able to identify some challenges that NNPC had while you were there?

    Of course, there were lots of challenges. By the act that set up the NNPC, the Petroleum Act of 1977, there are some legal issues that are yet to be fully resolved, which is giving it some of its present challenges. The NNPC is seen as a public service establishment, and by public service rules, there are certain things restraining its activities. For instance, it cannot just go to the bank and borrow money to do things like other companies, whereas in the oil industry, money plays very critical roles.

    There are also other impediments experienced by the NNPC which are not found in other privately-driven establishments. For example, I spent the last ten and a half years of my service at the NNPC in the refineries. The head of refinery has an authority limit. The limit at the time was about N5 million, which is less than $30,000 by today’s exchange rate, while there are equipment within the refinery worth about $500,000 or even one million dollars. But by the authority limit of the Managing Director, he cannot afford more than $30,000. So he has to approach the corporate headquarters. But you would find that even at the corporate headquarters, the authority limit of the Group Managing Director is just about N50 million, which is not more than $250,000.

    A refinery is a multi-billion dollar project. For instance, if a compressor has a problem and you want to fix it, you will need about $150,000. But because of the challenge of the authority limit of the MD of the refinery, he has to apply to the corporate headquarters of the NNPC. And when he gets to the corporate headquarters, even the GMD cannot approve it, so he has to take it to the Presidency for approval. In the end, something you need to fix within a week or two would be there for two or three years. And you know the refinery is an industry that has to work 24/7. Once a refinery starts working, it works non-stop day and night, unless there is a problem. So, you can imagine metals hitting one another sometimes up to a temperature of about 300 degrees or 500 degrees centigrade, and when they break down, you have to wait for approval to repair or replace them. That is why we have the challenge of not having regular turnaround maintenance in NNPC. Refineries work non-stop for one or two years. So, by the statutes, turnaround maintenance is supposed to be done every two years. But you have a situation where there will not be turnaround maintenance for five, seven or ten years. The machines are bound to break down.

    Apart from that, those who have no knowledge of the industry are given contracts by the powers-that-be to supply the equipment. The contracts for materials like the caustic soda or the acid they use in refining crude oil are given to people who have no knowledge of the industry because of the ‘Nigerian factor’. The corruption in the system is really impacting negatively on the refineries, but the staff and management of the NNPC are being blamed for it.

    Is it really about perception? There was a report recently, for instance, that the NNPC generated about N8 trillion in three years and spent close to half of it…

    That is another instance of misconception. The average Nigerian has a wrong conception of how the organisation is run. By the act that set up the NNPC, it has a mandate that whenever they carry out certain expenditures, they should defray their debts from whatever revenue they realise. The money that is spent in producing the crude, for example, the act that set up the NNPC gives the mandate to defray their debts from whatever they generate as revenue. But the average Nigerian does not understand this. The other time, they said that N20 billion was missing. I am not saying the money is missing or it is not missing. But the NNPC has the mandate that when it is spending, it has to defray some of the costs from the money being realised. But people who do not know would just conclude that NNPC is spending the nation’s money or it is corrupt. That, however, is not to say that there are no areas people who have corrupt intentions can exploit to do the damage. But I still believe there are very pious and God-fearing people in the organisation.

    Can you recall your school days? How did it all begin?

    Apart from the basic primary education that I had in my village, when I left primary school in 1968, I had the opportunity of doing the common entrance in those days and was admitted into Government Secondary School, Dekina, in the present Kogi State. Some of my friends went to Government Secondary School, Okene, now Abdul Aziz Attah Memorial College. A few others went to the Federal Government College, Sokoto. There were only three federal government colleges in the country then. So, I was in Dekina. But because of poverty, my father could not afford the school fees, which was about 15 pounds per term. Indirectly, I was forced to get a transfer to St. Augustine’s Secondary School, Kabba in Kogi State. Because my father did not want to hurt my feelings at that time, he gave the excuse that I was still a small boy, because I was just 14 years old. He also said because of the civil war then, it was dangerous for me to be crossing the River Niger, because at that time, we had to cross the River Niger from Lokoja to Shintaku by ferry. The roads were also very bad. But as a young boy, I did not like the idea of seeking transfer to St. Augustine’s because I felt that Dekina was an experience and an opportunity for me to gain some exposure. But the real issue was finance.

    So, I went to St. Augustine’s, and as God would have it, I had a very good foundation in the secondary school. Luckily, when I finished from the school in 1974, I moved straight to the university. At that time, there was nothing like JAMB (Joint Admission and Matriculation Board), but I did the concessional exam that earned me admission into the School of Basic Studies of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. JAMB started after I had left the university in 1978. But there were concessional exams through which you could gain admission straight to the university. In fact, I did the concessional exams of the University of Ibadan (Jos Campus) in those days. ABU had just started its School of Basic Studies, so we were more or less the first set. So I did my basic studies or what some people call preliminary studies in Kano. Former INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega, Peter Agbese and others were my classmates. That was in 1974. As God would have it, by 1978, I was already a graduate. I had it straight.

    How was your poor dad able to finance your university education?

    In my first two years in the university, I had no scholarship because Kwara, which was my state then, was a little bit poor. So I was on student loan for the first two years, which I paid back many years after I had left the university. But in all honesty, at the time we took the loan, I didn’t feel like paying back because some of us felt that we were being short-changed. How could students from other states enjoy scholarships and even enjoyed huge bursaries with which they bought motorcycles, sound system and what have you, while we had to take loans to finance our own education? But as God would have it and because of my religious upbringing, many years after I had left the university, the loans board of the federation traced me to the NNPC through the Kwara State Government. But by 1976, I had the Kwara State scholarship, which I enjoyed in my last two years in the university.

    How much was the loan?

    It was N1, 300. But at that time, it was a lot of money.

    Which course did you eventually study?

    I read Sociology. I had a B.Sc in Sociology from ABU in 1978. I had an interview at the NNPC when I was doing my national youth service in 1979, but I didn’t start working with the NNPC until 1981, because I applied as a personnel and admin officer, and in those days, it was not easy to be recruited as a personnel and admin officer because there were so many graduates of the liberal artsHistory, Geography, Religious Studies, Political Science and even Philosophyall competing for the position of personnel or admin officer.

    Why Sociology?

    It is a long and funny story. I think it was more of accident than design. When I set out to go to the university, the course that really appealed to me most was Business Administration. It was not that I really knew what it was all about because we had nobody to counsel us on which courses we should do in those days. But the Bus Admin, which they used to call Business Administration, was sounding like music to my ear, so I fell in love with it. In ABU then, the preliminary students were given preference in the choice or allocation of courses ahead of other admission seekers that came from outside. Unfortunately I did not offer Economics at school certificate level, even though I had credit in Mathematics. That ruled me out of Business Administration but the authorities of the school said I should read Law and I said that would be over my dead body. When I saw Sociology among the other options that were given to me, I liked the name and opted for it.

    What did you have against studying Law?

    I grew up in a very religious home where there was this belief that lawyers were liars and would always pervert justice. It was also believed that once you read Law, you would automatically become a member of a secret cult. In fact, there was a day I jokingly told my father that I wanted to read Law. My father prostrated for me and said for God’ sake, I should jettison the idea. He asked how I would read Law and still hope to make heaven. Those were the things that did not encourage me to read Law at that time. Ironically, the Law I rejected at undergraduate level, I returned to Lagos State University to study it almost 20 years after I had the opportunity to do so at ABU.

    How much of Jega did you know as classmates?

    I think knew him very well when we were young. I knew him to be a very hard working and straightforward individual. Even as mates in the preliminary class at ABU in 1974, I learnt that his father was a top bureaucrat in the civil service of the North Western State, which covered the present Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger and Zamfara states. He was an easy going and hard working person. He eventually read Political Science while I read Sociology, but we were in the same faculty and were taking courses together. I knew him to be very upright, simple, unassuming and cool-headed. Although he had an urbane and elitist upbringing, but he related very well with those of us who came from humble backgrounds. I have also had occasions to meet him after we graduated in 1978. I met him at various fora when he was the president of ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities) and we related very well.

    Did he exhibit any trace of the principled stance for which he is reputed now?

    He has always demonstrated that. He was a human rights activist even at that time. He was the type who never wanted the less-privileged to be oppressed. He believed in justice, fairness and equity. And he was not the type who carried his good attributes on his head. He is a man I respect a lot.

    What informed your decision to later return to school to study Law?

    It was much later, I think between the late 80 and the early 90s, that the interest in Law started coming up. I had lawyer friends and I saw how lawyers were being respected in the society. I also saw how they marshalled their points when their opinions were sought on issues. I saw that they did not want the less-privileged to be cheated because they believe so much in fairness and equity. They believe that the downtrodden should not be further pressed down because law itself is essentially designed to defend the rights of the less-privileged. I saw all this and I started feeling that I missed a great opportunity at ABU. Some of my mates had even become state attorneys-general by the time I went back for it. It was like the rejected stone becoming the head of the corner. It is better late than never.

    Which aspect of Law is your specialty?

    My specialty, in all honesty, is corporate law. It is the business part of law. Of course, if there is any case that has to do with litigation, my colleagues in the chamber can always handle it.

  • ‘Nigeria got $30m grant from Korea in two decades’

    The Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Nigeria, Mr. Noh Kyu-duk, has said his country provided around $30 million in grant and technical cooperation programmes to Nigeria in the last two decades.

    The envoy, who disclosed this in his remark on the occasion of the handing over ceremony of the Nigeria-Korea Friendship Institute of Vocational and Advanced Technology, in Lokoja, Kogi State, said the extended grant focused on education, governance, agricultural production and other areas.

    Harping on the importance of technical and vocational education in nation building, he said when the youths are equipped with updated skills and technologies, jobs would be secured, income generated and poverty reduced to a great extent.

    Commending the Nigerian government on its pledge to build one vocational training centre in each state, he said Kogi State is at the forefront in that direction and remains Korea’s strongest development partner in that regard.

    He enjoined the Nigerian government to pursue an aggressive Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) policy framework, saying without a strong policy drive to beef up the TVET in the 1960’s and 70’s Korea’s economic growth would have been seriously hampered.

    He admonished the Kogi State Government on the proper management of the facility for the desired to manifest. His words: “Without making the best use of these facilities and proper operation and management of this centre, our real mission of producing excellent human resources for the socio-economic development of Kogi and Nigeria may prove difficult”.

    He stressed on the need to strengthen the existing good relationship between the two countries, saying he envisaged the centre developing into a regional centre where it will be providing quality vocational training not only for Nigerians, but also neighbouring countries.

    Kogi State Governor Idris Wada described the Nigeria-Korea Friendship Institute of Vocational and Advanced Technology as a model for technical and technological training that is equipped to produce the best technical manpower to support industrial revolution in Kogi State, Nigeria and indeed the whole of Africa.

    “This institute is a world class institute and every effort will be made to ensure that graduates from the institute are of world standard and will be able to compete favourably with their peers in any part of the world”, Capt. Wada said.

  • Erelu Abiola Dosunmu stepping aside

    DECADES after dominating the social landscape like a colossus, woman of style, Erelu Abiola Dosunmu, may have resolved to step aside much to the displeasure of her admirers who just can’t forget in a hurry the magnetic effect she resonates at A-list parties. And contrary to side talks that Erelu is taking the back stage from the social space due to her not so good financial position, those who should know say the reason for her long absence at parties is deliberate and has nothing to do with her state of finance.

  • Stella Monye celebrates three decades

    Stella Monye celebrates three decades

    SEVERALLY referred to as the Samba Queen, Stella Monye will be rolling out the drums come Sunday, April 28th at 4pm to celebrate 30 years of her musical career and her get-together tagged Stage Players Party.

    The event which is expected to bring together icons of entertainment and arts and top government officials will feature live performances of colleagues and associates of Stella. Comedy, drama, fashion, dance, art exhibitions and a command performance of the novel Stella Monye are features at the show tagged Stella Unscripted.

    The artiste started her career in the 80s when she recorded and released the album titled Mr. Wright which has the hit single, Oko Mi Yee. She went ahead to represent Nigeria at the Horizontel World Festival of Arts in Berlin, Germany as Oya to Sango Olukoso, touring the whole of European countries including Switzerland and Netherlands. Among her albums include Arigosamba, Change of Heart, One nation as well as I believe

    The event is sponsored by Airtel and Nigeria Distilleries.

  • Africa: Five decades of snail-like walk

    Africa: Five decades of snail-like walk

    In the march of democracy and nation-building, African countries are birds of a feather. Ethnic tensions, religious acrimonies, leadership crises and poverty, which gripped them since independence 52 years ago, have continued to abort their dream of national cohesion and prosperity. Military rule, under which many of them fret for decades, has left permanent scars of self-destruction, delusion and wasted hope and expectation. Credible democratic institutions and signs of good governance are still scarce and relative political stability has not catapulted the poor nation-states into the envisage horizon of progress.

    What do African states that gained independence from European interlopers have in common? If they are not sliding into the failed state status, judging by Western indices, it is doubtful if they are not assailed by circumstances of history that has reduced them into fragile nations. It is a precarious situation, for state fragility is a stepping stone to state failure. Unhealthy competition for state power and resources, large-scale corruption which has made government the greatest corrupter of society, infrastructural decay, weak democratic institutions, ethnicity, and disarticulated constitutions have set landmines for them in their difficult journey to a perilous future.

    The colonial hangover and legacy have also shaped the response of the countries to emerging social, economic and political challenges. Not only have the freed countries leaned on their colonial masters for economic reasons, they have also been manipulated by the former colonial overlords in international politics. The manifestations are the advanced countries inclinations to sign defense pacts with former colonies, threats of withdrawal of aids, and promotion of divide and rule by taking sides in domestic politics of former colonies.

    At home, the ethnic struggle and class competition for state power manifested in military coups. The military had positioned itself as the alternative force to reckon with, following earlier successful putsch in Egypt and Sudan. In fact, in Nigeria, political leaders in the north encouraged young people to embrace soldiering as a career, with the hope that the region would still have a strong bargaining power, if kith and kin were dominant in the Armed Forces. The development of the military was perceived through ethnic lenses, for what emerged, especially after the first coup of 1966, was not a national army but a divided military busy defending ethnic positions.

    Between January and December 1960, independence days broke in 17 sub-Sahara African nations, including 14 former French colonies. It was an eventful year characterised by the lowering of the Union Jack in British West Africa. The rise to independence was the culmination of a chain of events from the World War 11 years. It was a long process. After the war, African nationalists who were eager to take over from the colonial masters evolved pro-independence movements which mounted pressures on the colonial powers to honour their promises to implement a phased independence process.

    African countries that achieved independence in that year were Algeria, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Senegal, Sierra-Leone, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Togo, Dahomey (Republic of Benin), Nigeria, Cameroun, Gabon, Congo Brazzaville, Central African Republic, Congo Leopoldville, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Zambia, Malawi, Madagascar, Gambia, Equatorial Guinea, Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho.

    However, before 1960, Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia and South Africa, which was under apartheid rule, were free. They were not role models to those trying frantically to put off the colonial yoke. Egypt, for example lacked the experience of a durable democratic rule. Ethiopia had no experience of the colonial rage, but its stable leadership for decades exhibited subtle dictatorial tendencies. Liberia had the advantage of the same stability, until Tolbert was murdered by Samuel Doe. Ironically, the same former colonies had to play great roles in the war against minority rule in South Africa, many years after they achieved independence.

    The tragedy of the dark continent is that, more than half century of independence has been devoted to prolonged crises of leadership and nation-building. “Africa remains the world’s poorest continent, and it suffers from high rate of illiteracy and disease, including AIDS, which has ravaged many nations in southern Africa”, noted British political analyst, Michael Mines in his work’ ‘1960: Africa’s year of freedom’. It is an understatement. African population is increasing and there are resources to meet its needs, but mismanagement is the bane in many poor countries. State capitals are show piece of emerging civilisation, but rural areas are like slums; without electricity, good roads, water, medical facilities and basic conveniences. African university graduates flood the cities in search of ever elusive jobs, no thanks to the collapse of industrialisation drive. Now, many of them are also not insulated from insecurity.

    What is more worrisome is that Nigeria, which was rated highly as a future medium-ranking world power, dampened the hope. Its characterisation as the giant of Africa mocks the reality on ground. Assessed against indices of development, the most populous black nation on earth has emasculated itself. Its pride is its human and natural endowment and not their translation into improved wellbeing.

    But there are cheery news. The prospects and potentialities have not vanished. Putting this into perspective, Dorina Bakoe, an official of the United States-based Institute of Peace, submitted that African countries have moved beyond the legacy of colonialism, adding that, while there are some formidable challenges, there are also positive trends.

    Civil societies have not relented in the pursuit of good governance in Africa. Building strong institutions have been acknowledged as part of the framework for development, although the will and capacity must still be mustered. One of the countries on this path of revatalisation is Ghana, which is gradually restoring public confidence in governance. Electricity is now stable in Ghana, and this is critical to the growth of both formal and informal sectors. According to its new leader, President John Mahama, there is a campaign against theft and graft and accountability is being promoted.

    In Mozambique, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is growing. After many years of dictatorship, Mali was proving to be a resilient democracy until the recent time when its army disrupted civil rule once again. War-torn Rwanda, despite its misfortune of ethnic rivalries, has not ceased to be a foreign investment haven, South Africa has moved on as a model of stable democracy and free market economy.

    Africa’s over-reliance on foreign aid, instead of attracting foreign investment is an obstacle. Foreign aid may not translate into direct growth in the economy; neither does it give jobs to the jobless. Echoing this burdensome reality, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame said Africa needed to encourage private investment, stressing that, in the end, that is what is going to decide the future of the continent. What he did not add was the conditions that made investment to thrive. Wars, internal crises, lack of social infrastructure, huge debt, high cost of business operations, high bank interests, and insecurity often scare away investors who turn to saner economic climates for investment.

    Historically, there was no assumption of tempestuous rush to independence by the far flung former colonies, although armed campaigns were obvious in few countries, especially Algeria and parts of Congo. It was relatively easier for French West Africa to fast-track the independence process. In 1944, French President General de Gaulle declared in Brazzaville that it was time for France to take “the road to a new era”. Thus, in 1946, the French colonial empire was replaced by the French Union, which later became the French Community in 1958. Around the same time, Morocco, Tunisia, Sudan, Ghana and Guinea won their independence.

    On January 1, 1960, Cameroun, a former German colony divided between France and Britain in 1918, acquired its independence, aided by armed movements. When the United Nations announced the end of French control, French Cameroun proclaimed its independence in 1959. The following year, the southern part of the country under the British control merged with the north. On May 5, 1960, Ahmadou Ahidjo became the country’s first elected President. The circumstance of independence had altered the native map of Africa, with consequences for strained relations between Cameroun and Nigeria as reflected in the fight over the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula by the two countries.

    On April 27, former German colony which was subsequently under French and British authorities since World War 1 became free. The part of the country administered by the French had a status of “associated territory” in the French Union established in 1946. The country became an autonomous republic within the French Union by the referendum of 1956. In February 1958, victory for the Togolese Unity Committee, a nationalist movement, in legislative elections heralded independence. However, tragedy befell the young, small country barely three years after independence when its first President, Sylvanus Olympio, a vibrant politician, was killed in January 1963 by soldiers. Thus, civilian rule was short-lived, right from the onset.

    In the Democratic Republic of Congo, June 20 was the date with history. Patrick Lumumba was in charge in Leopoldville, where riots had broken out in 1959, making Belgian authorities to call nationalists to Brussels to map out a withdrawal plan. Later, the country was re-named Zaire under the strong man, Mobutu Sese Seko.

    Somalia had independence on July 1. Somaliland became the Somali Republic. It raced into a turbulent future, transformed into a country of guns, blood, tears and pains. Its refugees are burden to its neighbours . Development came to a standstill in the face of massive blood letting, making investors to shun the hitherto promising country. It is curious that feuding leaders have survived and intensified the conflicts by diverting state resources to war mongering, instead of yielding to an agenda of peace in national interest.

    On August 1, Dahomey, renamed Benin Republic, gained independence. The forerunner was the referendum of September 28, 1958. President Hubert Mapa was its first leader. But the country has had a tumultuous political history since independence. It has practiced both presidential and parliamentary system, recycled old leaders and organised a successful national conference. But it is one of the poorest in Africa. When Nigeria closed its borders along Seme-Badagry Road, the economy of the country nearly collapsed in two weeks.

    Niger became independence two days after Benin became independent. In 1974, Humani, its first President, was overthrown in a military coup.

    Upper Volta, renamed Burkina Faso, won independence on August 5. In 1984, a patriotic soldier, Thomas Sankara, was in the saddle. He was assassinated in 1987.

    Ivory Coast has a different story. In June of 1960, its pro-French leader, President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, proclaimed independence. But he maintained close ties between Abidjan and Paris. It was one of the most prosperous West African nations.

    Chad became independence on August 11 and its Prime Minister, Franpolis Tombalaye, became President. However, the country became deteriorated rapidly into civil war between the Muslim North and the Christian-majority south.

    On October 1, Nigeria, a federation of three regions, achieved independence. Its population was put at 34 million. At infancy, it was considered as the giant of Africa. But deep ethnic and religious divisions have prevented the development of a national outlook required for nation-building. For over 30 years, it was politically unstable. It survived a devastating civil war foisted on it by competing military interest, aided by forces of tribalism. Now, civil rule is in place, but the dividends of democracy are still beyond reach.