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Tag: despair

  • From despair to renewal

    From despair to renewal

    When Boko Haram’s insurgents ravaged the Northeast, particularly Adamawa State, they left communities in Michika Local Government Area in chaos. This special report by FRANK IKPEFAN reveals how life is now returning to Michika’s once-obliterated neighbourhoods. Through the dedicated efforts of various development partners, residents are returning from their ‘exile’ and witnessing a resurgence of vitality and hope in their communities.

    In 2015, as Boko Haram’s terror reached a horrifying peak, 50-year-old Blessing Abubakar from Michika, Adamawa State, faced unimaginable despair. The brutal murder of three of her younger brother’s children by insurgents forced her to make a heart-wrenching decision: flee or face certain death. Abandoning her home, she sought refuge in the cold, unforgiving mountains. For six agonising months, Blessing endured relentless fear and bone-chilling nights while Boko Haram tightened its grip on her community. Her once- stable life was obliterated—she lost her home, her cherished belongings, and her livelihood, clinging to survival in the harshest conditions.

    “It was tough for me during the period,” she told our correspondent who visited Michika, one of the local government areas in Adamawa State. With tears-laden eyes, evoking painful memories of a horrible terrorists’ attack she would have wished never happened, she added: “The insurgents killed three of my brother’s children. We ran away to the mountains and stayed there for six months before we returned.” As a core villager, she spoke to our correspondent through an interpreter.

    Mrs. Abubakar’s plight was tragically common. Countless residents of Michika Local Government were forced to abandon their homes and businesses, seeking refuge in the mountains or neighbouring towns. The insurgents’ ruthless attacks targeted power installations, schools, banks, hospitals and other critical infrastructure, transforming the once vibrant town into a desolate wasteland. Many fled as far as Yola, the capital of Adamawa State, to escape the threat of death at the hands of Boko Haram.

    “Most of us ran to Yola, Kaduna and Abuja and other parts of the country. Many of our people were killed. My family and I ran to Yola. We only returned when normalcy was restored to Michika,” another resident of the community, Halima Ando said. Halima said since she returned, she had been learning tailoring as a means of survival.

    Building trust and cohesion after the insurgency

    Life has slowly begun to return to Michika and its surrounding communities since the military successfully repelled the insurgents. Several international non-governmental organisations, including Oxfam, the Christian Rural and Urban Development Association in Nigeria (CRUDAN), the Centre for Public Education and Mobilisation for Development in Nigeria (CEPAD), and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), are implementing an eight-month project. This initiative aims to enhance social cohesion through participatory and inclusive community development planning.

    The project began in June 2023 and was officially launched on August 24 of the previous year. Project Coordinator Enoch Bamaiyi stated that since its inception, the initiative has employed local and comprehensive integration approaches to foster community development. These approaches include community town hall meetings, dialogue sessions, workshops, training, and other relevant activities. The aim is to engage all community members, including internally-displaced persons (IDPs), host community members, returnees, persons with disabilities (PWDs), women, men, and youth. By leveraging both governmental and non-governmental structures in Michika Local Government Area, the project seeks to place citizens at the forefront of sustainable development efforts.

    He said: “During the project timeframe, we have undertaken several crucial activities. These include a project inception and technical kick-off workshop attended by the entire project team, and a baseline assessment and wards analysis to establish a foundation for measuring progress throughout the project.

    “Over 112 stakeholders have been sensitised through engagement and dialogue workshops. More than 1,600 community members have participated in mobilisation and sensitisation activities. We engaged 1,287 community stakeholders through community development planning (CDP) sessions in clusters of wards. Additionally, we formed and trained 400 members of Ward Development Support Committees (WDSCs) across 16 wards, reviewed and validated the Michika council development plan in collaboration with 100 key stakeholders, and trained 35 council officials on translating CDPs into actionable budgets.

    Read Also: Cleric asks Nigerians not to despair

    “With these achievements, the project is now focused on finalising a comprehensive analysis of key sectors, developing a monitoring and evaluation framework, and creating a detailed five-year cost plan for the LGA. We are also planning to deliver on key project activities.”

    According to the Village Head of Michika 2, Gomna Zakawa, the community has been actively involved in rebuilding their villages and restoring activities disrupted by Boko Haram.

    He said: “From September 2014, we deserted Michika and returned in May 2015. Since then, we have been rebuilding the town. To this day, we don’t have electricity. We have been managing our lives with solar panels and generators for those who can afford them.

    “The NGOs have done a lot for us after the insurgency, and our people are very happy about it. Most of the schools were burnt down during the insurgency. In fact, almost all the schools in Michika were affected. However, the NGOs started renovating the schools and even built new classrooms after the insurgency. When we returned, there was a lot of distrust. Neighbours wouldn’t eat each other’s food or travel on the same roads. Now, through our social cohesion program, we are working together to rebuild the community.”

    The process to restore the LGA to full activity will take four years, from 2024 to 2028, according to Anthony Gildi, Chairman of the Ward Development Support Committee. To fast-track the rebuilding process, the committee has focused on training youths in skills acquisition. “Through the committee, we have been rebuilding the town with support from NGOs,” Gildi said. “We have been training our youths in skills acquisition to empower them and enlist their help in the rebuilding of Michika. The rebuilding program of Michika will take four years, and we are reaching out to stakeholders, politicians, and others to support us in facilitating the project for our youths.”

    Project promoted social cohesion – Oxfam

    John Makina, the Country Director of Oxfam in Nigeria, highlighted the positive impact of the organisation’s intervention in Michika Local Government Area, conducted in collaboration with three other development partners and funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Makina emphasised that the project, implemented over an 11-month period, significantly promoted social cohesion and enhanced participation in governance within the local community. “The intervention has positively impacted the lives of the people in Michika Local Government Area and Adamawa State as a whole,” Makina said.

    “Through our efforts, we have fostered greater social cohesion and encouraged active participation in governance, contributing to the overall development and stability of the region.”

    He said: “The intervention programme aimed to enhance and encourage citizens’ participation in governance while strengthening social cohesion through inclusive, participatory community development planning.” Makina continued, “Since the project’s inception in June 2023, we have engaged critical stakeholders to establish a community-driven, integrated, and comprehensive approach to development planning.”

    He further explained that by leveraging state and local government citizens’ engagement and participatory planning (CEPP), the program sought to improve the socio-economic participation of internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees, host communities, and other vulnerable groups in the Northeast, with a particular focus on Michika Local Government Area.

    He added: “The project was implemented by Oxfam in partnership with the Christian Rural and Urban Development Association in Nigeria (CRUDAN) and the Centre for Public Education and Mobilisation for Development in Nigeria (CEPAD).”

    The Permanent Secretary of the Adamawa State Planning Commission, Mr. Amos Enock, expressed gratitude to the development partners for selecting the state for the intervention. Enock assured that the state government plans to replicate the project in other LGAs to ensure sustainability and to involve everyone in the policy implementation for community development. The District Head of Bazza, Alhaji Saidu Lawal Bashar, noted that the arrival of these organisations has significantly contributed to restoring social cohesion and trust within their communities. He remarked that prior to the project, his subjects were plagued by hatred, mistrust, and suspicion.

    He commended the development partners and the German Government for their efforts and urged the Federal Government to provide counterpart funding for viable intervention by partners in the country.

  • Amidst hope and despair, Dapchi awaits the return of Leah

    Almost one year after it crashed into national and global consciousness following the school girls’ abduction saga, the mood in Dapchi, a sleepy town in Yobe State, northeastern Nigeria, swings between despair and hope, as the community awaits the return of Leah Sharibu. Joel Duku reports.

    DAPCHI in Yobe State has clearly recovered from its darkest day – February 19, 2018, when Boko Haram insurgents invaded the town and carted away over one hundred school girls at the Government Science Technical College.

    Most of them were returned after one month in captivity; five reportedly died. Leah, the only Christian girl in the group was held back by the insurgents for refusing to renounce her Christian faith and embrace Islam.

    Leah’s continued stay in the hands of Boko Haram remains the worry for many residents of Dapchi, if not the entire community. Many have engaged in fervent prayers asking God to touch the hearts of her captors to release the innocent girl.

    Other residents are unimpressed that the promises of the Federal Government have not translated into concrete action leading to the release of Leah. Their fear is that time may be running out for the freedom of the girl.

    The Secretary, Association of Dapchi Abducted School Girls’ Parents (ADASGP), Bukar Kachalla, said some of them cannot behave like normal human beings with Leah Sharibu still in the hands of Boko Haram.

    “You know, when we formed this association, our clear mandate was that we will not rest until all the girls regained freedom from the hands of the Boko Haram insurgents. Thank God that some of our daughters were returned and we jubilated over that.

    “But today, we are still faced with the problem of Leah Sharibu still held by Boko Haram.  We cannot behave like normal human beings because Leah is still in the custody of Boko Haram. This is our greatest problem today,” Kachalla stated.

    Kachalla’s worst fear for Leah is the kind of trauma, she may be undergoing and the influence the insurgents could be having on her. He is equally disturbed by the traumatic and psychological torture that Leah’s parents have been subjected to since her abduction.

    He said: “What worries me is that whosoever spends those number of days with the militants is dangerous because somehow you will be influenced. Our leaders and those negotiating Leah’s release should know this. Every minute, second and day spent in the negotiation is a delay and it’s not good for that little girl.

    “We are always going to her parents and they are not okay. The mother is not eating. She is always crying. She does not even eat food again. What is happening? We are in a dark room. We don’t know what government is doing. They should come out and tell us what is happing because they keep coming and going, making promises. We need to know what is happening. We don’t want Leah to spend a year in the hands of those insurgents. We want her released now without delay.”

    Adamu Abubakar is a trader in Dapchi who witnessed the emotions that heralded the return of the Dapchi girls by Boko Haram on March 31, 2018. He is always imagining what the Leah’s family are going through having fixed their minds on what he described as an “uncertain hope”.

    “With the government’s empty promises about Leah’s release from unstable people like Boko Haram, I see Leah’s parents holding unto an unsure hope. But for us as a community, it is very sad that the little girl is still in the hands of Boko Haram. I saw how parents were crying in tears even when their children were brought back. You can imagine a parent that his or her child is still held by Boko Haram for this long. As a community, we need to give this family the support they require but government has a big role to play to secure the freedom of Leah,” Abubakar said. Alhaji Bashi Manzo, chairman of ADASGP wants the Federal Government to intensify efforts to free Leah irrespective of the girl’s social status or family background.

    “I think the Federal Government is not doing enough to rescue this girl. If she was the daughter of a governor or any minister, the government would have done anything to bring her back,” he argued.

    “Some ministers came here and assured that the girl will be brought back. From their statement it was as if Leah will be back in less than one week but up till now we have not heard any positive news.

    “Rather, just a few days after their visit, Hauwa Liman was killed.  It is sad that this girl is still in the hands of dangerous people. It looks like the government is just fooling us. If the thing is beyond them, they should come out and tell the world the truth and stop hiding under this pretext.

    “Let the Federal government tell us the truth. If they should tell us that they cannot do it, then we the parents can gather and see whether we can go to Sambisa Forest and have talks with Boko Haram concerning Leah,” Manzo said

    Manzo also took a swipe at the Federal and Yobe State Governments for neglecting the parents of the girls that died during abduction, regretting that, “both the Federal Government and the government of Yobe State don’t care about the parents of the girls that died in the custody of Boko Haram when they were abducted.

    “Nobody has sent a condolence message or paid any sympathy visit to any parents. They have just been left at their mercies. Some of the parents cannot no longer maintain their families because of the trauma they underwent. We are grateful to UNICEF who came and visited the parents that lost their children, but no thanks to government of Yobe and the Federal Government”.

    The bid to understand Leah’s spiritual life that produced such strong will to resist the proposal of the insurgents, thus earning herself an elongated captivity, led this reporter to her church, Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) located almost opposite, GGSTC, the school where Leah was kidnapped along with other girls about ten months ago.

    Her pastor, Rev. Daniel Auta, informed this reporter that Leah is sorely missed in her ECWA Church where she had been a very active member – particularly at the Sunday School and in the choir. Auta, who said that hope for Leah’s release was hinged on prayers by the Christian and Muslim communities and good people in the town, added that the church, made up of about 80 worshippers, was missing Leah’s commitment to their youth programmes as well.

    “She is a great source of encouragement and inspiration to the choir and the youth in the church. Her absence has even weakened the entire choir as well as affected the morale of the church in Dapchi. But we remain strong, praying for her safe return from the hands of the insurgents,” he said.

    “We have been fasting and praying since the day she was abducted, and we will not stop until she returns.

    He added: “Leah was a very good girl. She was very dedicated to the church. She doesn’t come late to the church. She was a girl that gives out everything that she has to this church at her own level. Very quiet and calm girl with the fear of God and respect for elders. She was like a shining example for the other little ones and her peers in the church. We appreciate her activities here in the church and the Sunday School”.

    Auta also confirmed Leah’s spiritual development, stressing that there was no way she would have renounced her faith even in the face of adversity.

    He stated: “Leah’s spiritually growth was very rapid and steady. She was firm and committed in her activities in the church and everything she does around here. She was such a serious girl that listens to things around her to make meaning out of them. That even attests to the fact that she is still being held by Boko Haram. She was very strong in her faith”.

    Her Sunday School teacher, Godwin Moses Godsday, also testified about Leah Sharibu’s deep spiritual life, respect for elders and commitment to whatever she does.

    “Leah was very good at Sunday School. She does all her homework. She will recite all the memory verses that are given to her perfectly. I never found any fault with her not doing her work at the Sunday School,” he revealed.

    “I taught her for more than two years with her brother Donald at the Sunday school and the rest of the students. She has been wonderful. Leah is a quiet type but a deep thinker, full of respect.  She doesn’t talk too much. She cannot look an elder in the face when talking. She is quite respectful. She does not play during Sunday School or on the street.”

    Though the ordeal of Leah does appear like the storyline in Samuel Beckett’s play, ‘Waiting for Godot’, the family still feel like the two characters, ‘Didi’ and ‘Gogo’ who never saw Godot, yet remained optimistic that he will surely arrive.

    Leah’s Pastor, Rev. Auta sums up their attitude this way: “As the Scriptures say, “He that is in Leah is greater than he that is in the world.”.

  • Young, cerebral amid despair

    I had cause to smile and frown in June. I smiled at good pieces of writing and frowned at extremely substandard attempts at essay writing. Pity, disgust and fear were other feelings I had while reading through the essays. But what gladdened my heart the most was that I also felt hope and energy. I felt the ‘lost generation’ in this ‘lost country’ can still work out some miracle to take our country back from the failed generation and make us truly proud.

    It all started when I became an accidental judge of an essay contest organised by Young and Cerebral, a platform run by some young and upwardly mobile Nigerians. A judge dropped out unexpectedly and I became the substitute. I had to read and judge 96 entries in one of the two categories. In the category I judged, entrants wrote on “Popular Nigerian I Consider Self-Actualised”. The other category was about how a raw idea can change the society.

    The first piece I read was written by Abasima Solomon Essien. 22-year-old. Essien, who is a student of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), started his piece on Linda Ikeji this way: “Everyone knows her: everyone should, as a matter of fact.” Being a sucker for punchy introductory sentences or paragraphs, Essien hooked me and even before reading further and discovering other nice pieces like the ones by Ayodeji Awe and Morenike Adams, I felt I had found my winner. But the decision was not solely mine. I am just glad that Essien and Adams made the final list. Awe carried the day in this category after the public was allowed to choose the winner on twitter. He was away in Manchester when the prize was presented on Saturday.His brother received the honour on his behalf.

    Though I was not a judge on the second category, I read the piece by the winner, Anietie Asuquo Akpan (you can call him triple A) and he bought me over. He wrote: “Idea is like an embryo in a mother’s womb, so young and tender it lies so still. Like a new born baby it makes a loud cry when it is born, thereby creating an impact that draws many towards its direction. Ignoring an idea is like aborting a baby; it flows away from our minds, just like an unwanted baby is washed away from a mother’s womb. As we do so, we destroy the destiny of such babies and the impact they would have made in the society…” His idea centres on introducing a one-year compulsory vocational training for all secondary school students.

    It was nice meeting these young Nigerians on Saturday at the UNILAG FM, where they were presented their prizes, which include laptops, printers and phones. Comfort Uwakhonye was a brilliant host as usual. Toyin Tapa Osodi, her colleague, was missing in action because she was on duty at Talk FM, where she was hosting another of Young and Cerebral’s radio shows.

    The winners, the finalists, Toyin, Comfort, Seun Odukoya, author of ‘Saving Dapo’, and I later converged on Young and Cerebral’s conference room in Yaba for a workshop on writing.

    What struck me in the conference room first was the abundance of talents. It also occurred to me that some people’s writing careers might have been started unknowingly. I could perceive confidence brewing. Being winners and finalists in the contest was a validation whose evidence I suspect we will see in form of books in years to come.  These guys had thoughts that were profound for their ages.

    Akpan’s idea that pupils should have vocational training before going to higher institutions strikes me as an answer to the unemployment ravaging our country. If you are trained in fashion designing, carpentry or cake making, there is so much money to make instead of waiting for unwilling employers. Just employ yourself and tuck your higher certificates somewhere in the drawer. These days, I even see a lot of people go into fashion designing and other vocations after earning university degrees. One of those in this category is Bukola Olajide of DebbyRose Fashion Academy. She earned a degree in Mass Communication from the Redeemers’ University and was one of the best in her set. Now, she is doing well in fashion and also imparting knowledge on others via online fashion training. Rather than wait on government or the private sector for shrinking job space, may be it is time for self-actualision. Adams and Essien wrote on Linda Ikeji and Ali Baba. The duo did not wait on government or private sector to employ them.

    Ali Baba, for instance, fought his way out of the poverty in the Niger Delta to the exclusivity of NICON Town. He is a writer. He has done some fantastic photography. His poetry is in a class not a few believe only special poets belong. He also acts, motivates and hosts talk show.  The entrepreneur in him is of no mean stature. He is so good at what he does that he lost his first and surname decades ago. Like Zaq in Helon Habila’s ‘Oil on Water’, he seems always interested in the greater meaning.

    This son of a soldier born in Warri but from Agbarha-Otor has risen from the flabby back of the Niger Delta to become an institution. Ask other comedians and they will tell you he is the king.

    He sees desperation in saying “I need just any job”. As far as he is concerned, only people who do not have value to add thread this path. Harvesters should not play the role of planters, he preaches.

    My final takeaway for me from the competition borders on the positive things social media can be used for. All the contestants got to know of the contest on social media and the winners were chosen via the same platform. Hate speech, ethnic profiling and the other senseless stuffs most of us do on the social media can do nothing other than further drive our country down the precipice. If we burn down this country, there is a limit to those America, United Kingdom and others can accommodate. If we fall our heaven, we all go down.

     

  • Biography to raise Baba Sala from despair

    Biography to raise Baba Sala from despair

    FOR decades, Moses Olaiya, popularly known as Baba Sala, stood for comedy. But today, down with a stroke, the man has become the opposite of his real self.

    At a briefing held on his biography due for presentation on December 4, Baba Sala, who is 80, spoke with difficulty. However, his family, including one of his wives, Funmi, said the octogenarian was not suffering from old age but lack of funds for medical treatment. Rumoured dead twice (two years ago and last August), Baba Sala who was dressed in a white buba and sokoto with a red cap to match could barely walk and had to be supported at the event. He looked frail and had difficulty breathing when he spoke.

    “I’m sick and need help,” said Baba Sala.

    “I am alive. But I’m sick. I am too weak to talk and I can’t walk. I don’t want to be confined by paralysis. I don’t want to die like this. Nigerians should please help me.”

    A pioneer of Nigerian comedy, Baba Sala entertained millions across the South-West from the 60s to the 90s. He also made his mark in music and the King of World Beats, King Sunny Ade, had his skills honed under the tutelage of the Ilesha, Osun State-born performer. That Baba Sala is first among equals is indisputable and the new book, entitled ‘Triumph of Destiny,’ and written by Collins Oyedokun, Akinola Babatunde and Kunle Ajani, reveals unknown facts about the artiste.

    With a foreword written by Professor Gbemisola Remi Adeoti, of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, the book which is published by Sunshine Consults documents Baba Sala’s life and achievements for posterity.

    “The book chronicles the pride of place that Baba Sala has in the Nigerian theatre industry as a comedian and consummate entertainer,” said Collins who said they were also moved by the actor’s health challenge in writing the book.

    “It captures the antecedents and essence of the creative energies of a comical trailblazer.”

    The book ‘The Triumph of Destiny,’ will be presented in Lagos and proceeds from the sale of the book will be used in taking care of the ace comedian.

    According to the authors and the promoters of the book, ‘Triumph of Destiny,’ the launch is one of the efforts being made by family and friends of the Ijesha born comedian to rehabilitate him.

    “The book chronicles the pride of place that Baba Sala acquired for himself in the Nigerian theatre industry as the first comedian and consummate entertainer. It captures the antecedents and essence of the creative energies of a comical trailblazer,” Collins said.

    The Chief Executive Officer of Precision Edge Limited, facilitator of the news briefing, Mrs. Bidemi Ojoawo Oladoye, also requested young musicians to come to Baba Sala’s aid.

    “A legend doesn’t deserve to die like this. People like Davido, Wizkid, 2Face Idibia, Kunle Afolayan among others can help and should help Baba Sala,” she said.

    Baba Sala’s investments, according to his first son, Reverend Dele Adejumo, had all been wrecked by circumstances and debt incurred as a result of scrupulous business man, who pirated his ‘Orun Mooru’ many years ago. Among his investments listed by Adejumo are the Awada Spot in Ibadan; Alawada Standard Hotel, Ilesha; Alawada Records, Ibadan; and Ibukun Alawada Photo magazine.

    “He has investments but they have all been wrecked by mismanagement,” Adejumo said.

    “He also had a three-storey building in Mushin, Lagos which he had to sell to offset debt incurred when his work, ‘Orun Mooru’, was pirated. We still have some of his recorded works not in public yet but machines that will be used to transform them to an acceptable format are not easily available. We do not have the kind of money they are charging us.

    “We have been told that baba needs a lot of money for medical treatment abroad. He is suffering from a stroke and other ailments. There are many people of his age who are not like this. We are trying our best as family members. We take him to the teaching hospital weekly but he needs proper medical attention.”

    Baba Sala reigned alongside legends like Hubert Ogunde, Kola Ogunmola, Oyin Adejobi, Duro Ladipo, Adeyemi Afolayan (Ade Love) and Ishola Ogunshola (Isho Pepe). He started the Moses Olaiya International Alawada Theatre Limited and tutored music maestro King Sunny Adé who was once his lead guitar player.

  • Martins to Nigerians: Don’t give in to despair

    Lagos Catholic Archbishop Adewale Martins has advised Nigerians not to despair, despite the harsh economic realities.

    He told them to persevere and keep their hope in God for a better future.

    Martins spoke with newsmen after the prism mass in Festac Lagos last week.

    He condemned the resort to suicides by Nigerians, saying it was a bad way to respond to the economic downturns.

    According to him: “We can’t see a government that is so sure with a policy that can bring us out of economic recession.

    “It looks like trial and error. So we are hoping that the new policy that the government is working on will take the country out of recession as expected.

    “And before the economic policy takes root, there should be palliative measures to ensure that people don’t die.”

    Martins expressed displeasure with the recent discoveries of cash in private residences and ware houses.

    Such stashed funds, he said, were ill-gotten and products of corruption.

    He advised priests to be faithful irrespective of their strong points and short falls, pointing out that parishioners should also support them to succeed.

    The Archbishop expressed satisfaction with the growth of the archdiocese under his watch, attributing it to God’s grace.

    He pledged more commitment to evangelisation to increase the estimated three million-strong Catholic in Lagos.

  • Why we must not despair, by Ashafa

    Why we must not despair, by Ashafa

    The Senator representing Lagos East, Gbenga Ashafa, has advised Nigerians not to despair in the new year.

    He noted that “it is in challenging times in the course of human history that people have been forced out of their comfort zones, to create new economies, new opportunities and enhance the course  of modern civilisation”.

    Ashafa, in a statement, said: “In 2017, we cannot despair. Rather, we must keep faith with the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration of change. While we must continue to constructively challenge the government to do better, the citizenry must also play their part by remaining law-abiding, creative, positive and industrious.

    The statement also reads: “Lagosians and Nigerians, we all know undoubtedly that 2016 hasn’t been without its challenges. However, all thanks to God for the things we were able to achieve during the year.

    “In the area of land transportation, we have been able to record some successes in the year 2016. First was the passage of the Nigerian railway bill, which is expected to open up our railway sector for private sector participation in a bid to create an enabling environment to revamp the railway sector.  This is vital in no small measure to our economy.

  • A festival in despair

    Preamble

    This article was meant for publication in this column last Friday. It was meant to prepare the minds of Nigerian Muslims for last Monday’s Eid-il-Adha. But due to problem of contact especially since yours sincerely was not in Nigeria, it could not be published as scheduled. However, because of its relevance, I decided to publish today for the benefit of readers. Here it goes:

    Monday, September 12, Muslims all over the world celebrated ‘IdulAdha subsequent to Arafah day which will come up on Sunday, September 11. But unlike their brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, overwhelming majority of Nigerian Muslims will celebrate that festival without any festivity. At the instance of injustice based on avarice and unbridled aggrandisement on the past the past rulers, the ingredients of festivityhad been banished in this country. Thus, many worshippers will spend the festival season in hunger and nostalgia for the good old days.

    This iron period in which the present government is forced to repeatedly promise emancipation of the masses from the scourge of hunger is an indicator of a tough time ahead that must train the citizenry to become tough in their determination to survive in order to be able to keep going while the going gets tougher.

    Egypt for Instance

    Egypt has never been a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). She was not an oil producing country until recently. The main stay of her economy was agriculture which was well facilitated by her River Nile endowment.

    This North African Arab country was in economic mess in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her war with Israel had reduced her to a virtual beggar nation. Not only did her macro economy plummet, her micro economy also dwindled to the lowest ebb. No job for the rising army of highly skillful people and no income for the majority of the citizenry. Thus, the country looked like a famine-stricken one as most vehicles on Cairo and Alexandra roads were terribly rickety.

    It took an ingenuous management by President Gamal Abdul Nasir and that of his successor, President Anwar Sadat, to device a means of bailing out the country from what could have amounted to self-genocide. With the meagre amount of money accruing to that country from agriculture and manpower export at that time, the government was able to set up a food distribution centre in each ward where every family in the ward was registered.

    All varieties of foods, including meat, milk and eggs, were supplied to each family every week. And no family got less than what could suffice for one full week. The cost of those highly subsidised food were deducted from the salaries of those working while others were supplied free foods for survival. And to ensure that only the citizens benefited from the wonderful largess, the use of national identity card to qualify for supply was made compulsory.

    Security and patriotism

    This welfare business strategy did not only create a high sense of security in the citizenry, it also spurred them to become die-hard patriots. With that strategy, Egypt was able to weather the economic storm of that time even as the war with Israel continued.

    What could have been a major problem for the ordinary Egyptians at that time was the education of their children. But President’s Nasir’s government had taken proper care of that since inception. A fundamental policy of the Egyptian government introduced by President Nasir was free education at all levels. That policy which Chief Obafemi Awolowo copied for primary education in western Nigeria had put Egypt far ahead of all African and Arab countries. The policy became profitable for Egyptian government when the going became tough.

    The country began to supply all other Arab countries their needed man power such as teachers, doctors, accountants, pharmacists, engineers, nurses, and administrators, agriculturists, journalists, name it. Those experts were officially deployed to those other Arab countries on three years renewable contracts. And each deployed expert was made to remit about 35 per cent of his/her income to the government of Egypt monthly. Such remittances were not difficult to make since those expert were well paid. The remittances were made directly by the employers who deducted the agreed amount from the salaries of their employees based on official agreements. Thus, in those days, manpower generated from planned education was more profitable than today’s oil wells as diaspora became Egypt’s major source of income. Yet, countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Libya and others that benefited from the programme found the arrangements convenient because they did not need to employ interpreters separately as would have been the case if they had employed Americans or Europeans for the same purpose. As their language and culture were almost the same.

    Social welfare

    With the provision of social welfare for the people, Egyptian government of the 1970s, led by President Anwar Sadat, was able to solve the problem of the three necessities of life: food, shelter and clothing. Not only that, the government was also very much aware that an idle hand was the devil’s workshop. It therefore provided soft loans for many university graduates to embark on small scale businesses that could boost the nation’s economy at the micro level.

    With this, it became possible for most of those fresh graduates to be self-employed while aiming high to mount the economic ladder of life to the very top. Today, some of those businesses have grown into gigantic industries exporting their products to many countries, including Nigeria.

    If Egypt is not one of Africa’s poor countries today, it is because her government managed that nation’s economy to the benefit of her ordinary citizens, despite several decades of war with Israel. Compared to the industrialised nations, Egypt may not be called a rich country now, but her preparation for the future seems to be assuring her of a frontline economic position soon. Her unsurpassable investment in manpower through education is a confirmation of that.

    Industrialisation

    What obtains in Egypt equally obtains in most other Arab countries, especially those of the gulf region. For instance, Saudi Arabia has always known that oil would not flow forever in her wells. Thus as far back as the late 4970s, that country had diversified her economy by establishing two industrial cities of Yambu’ and Jubail, a project which the United states described as the most ambitious ever in the industrial history of mankind.

    Much more have since been put in place for the benefit of the future generations. And, travellers who have visited countries like Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Libya, Yunisia, Morroco, and Algeria will confirm that the future of global wealth will definitely be in the Middle East courtesy of the above mentioned countries. But the greatest assets of those countries are manpower which their free education programme is providing from primary schools through the Universities with impeccable foresight.

    The example of Japan

    Despite her limited natural resources, Japan has shown that no material wealth can equal education. And, the Arabs had learnt that lesson after centuries of derivation from what used to be the greatest Islamic heritage bequeathed to mankind.

    With the recent bulk-passing between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on remittance of the crude oil money and the ceaseless rampancy of oil theft at the highest government level can Nigeria ever learn any lesson from the above narration? Economic growth is neither by dreaming nor by empty promises as did by the immediate past bovernment.

    Nostalgia

    Generally, there is nostalgia in Nigeria today, not only for the days of oil boom when life was relatively comfortable for all and sundry but also for the era of abundant farm crops when the thought of feeding was taken for granted by most citizens. Nigerian Muslims and non-Muslims alike are today yearning for the return of those days when wives could confidently ask their husbands for festival gifts and children could demand for new dresses, shoes and wrist watches from their parents. Those were the days when festival seasons were really festive and the graph of marriage carried some indices of value. Those were the days of friendliness among neighbours, good wishes among colleagues, mutual confidence among spouses as well as general peace and tranquility in the society.

    Now, those days seem to have gone forever. Today, we have found ourselves in a situation against which we had long been warned in a couplet rendered by an Arab poet quoting two disciples of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) i. e. Ubayyi bn Ka’b and Abdullah bn Mas’ud. The couplet goes thus:

    “This is the period against which we had been warned in the admonitions of Ubayyi bn Ka’b and Abdullah bn Mas’ud; A period in which truth would be rejected in its totality while falsehood, corruption and betrayal of trust would be held aloft; should this period further linger with its woes and tribulations, the world, might soon assume a situation where no one will rejoice over the birth of a new baby or grieve over the demise of a dear relative”.

    Observation

    What can we say of a man who fixes his eyes on the sun but does not see it? Instead, he sees a chorus of flaming seraphim announcing a paroxysm of despair. That is the parable of the country called Nigeria. Like the Israelis of Moses’ time, Nigerians have become gypsies wandering aimlessly and wallowing in abject poverty in the midst of abundance. What else do we expect from Allah beyond the invaluable bounties with which He has blessed us?

    Nigeria is not lacking in forest and arable savannah. She is rich in seasons, vegetations, rivers and mountains all of which are great resources for people who are seeking reasonable comfort and are not self-deceptive. What she had consistently lacked was a responsible and patriotic government that could sincerely highlight its priorities according to the yearnings of the ordinary people. That food is becoming a threat to Nigerians today is an irony emanating from selfishness, naivety and massive corruption of our past governments enspecially from 1999 when the current democracy commenced to 2015 when a change of gear became compelling.

    Cost of governance

    In Nigeria today, the cost of running the government alone is enough to render the country bankrupt. The retinue of ministers and a galaxy of Presidential Advisers are major causes of poverty in the country. Even America with her huge economic resources, large population and financial muscle does not have more than ten ministers? Why must we retain an obnoxious immunity clause in our constitution which facilitates monumental corruption for the serving Governors who are hypocritically chased around but never caught for trial on the allegation of embezzlement after they might have left office?

    Besides, what informs the idea of the so-called constituency allowances for legislators, which run into billions of naira without anything to show for it at a time when innocent women and children are crying for food? No one would have thought in 1999 that artificial hunger could be added to the abysmal level of poverty in Nigeria despite the increasing rise in price of oil in the international market. The ubiquity of beggars and lunatics in our cities and towns is a confirmation of this assertion.

    Until now, governance in Nigeria had ‘become an artful trick adopted by a cabal to bamboozle the populace into blind submission. The propaganda in the 1980s was almost hypnotizing: ‘food and shelter for all in year 2000!’ That slogan was changed in the 1990s to: ‘Vision 2010!’ And when year 2010 was approaching, the slogan again changed to: ‘Vision 2020!’

    Self-deception

    Even as recently as 2014, without roads, without electricity, without functional rail transportation system for the masses, without jobs for majority of the able-bodied citizens and even without food on our tables, we were still being cajoled into believing in the illusion that Nigeria, a country without coins, would become one of the 20 biggest economies in the world in year 2020. Isn’t that a deliberate and callous deception? No country in history has ever been known to have achieved economic vibrancy by magic wand. Nigeria cannot be an exception.

    An FAO report in 2008 revealed that about 300 Nigerians were dying of hunger daily in their own country. Only God knows what that figure might have become now. Given its seeming seriousness and sincerity of purpose, the current total cooperation of the people to enable it rebuild this country once and for all. A fire brigade approach to food crisis in a country like Nigeria is a shameful reaction to an avoidable melancholy.

    Irony of life

    It is ironic that people who live by the river bank can’t get water to drink when those living in the desert can find a reliable oasis to combat any drought. Given all the resources with which we are endowed, Nigerians should have no business with material poverty let alone food crisis.

    Capitalism, which was once an economic ideology propelling mercantilism, has moved a step ahead, especially in Nigeria where official theft has become a profession. Capitalism is now a religion through which its adherents worship money. To such adherents, accountability is a mere riddle which only the poor may wish to unravel.

    It is only in the interest of those in government, especially those in the executive and legislative arms who are most active in sharing public funds, to let the national wealth spread across board legitimately if only to avoid the current Nigerian elite situation where every house has become a prison in which the occupants are voluntarily jailed. To ignore the rule of law and shun justice in a land blessed with milk and honey is to cultivate trouble with insecurity in all its ramifications.

    Conclusion

    Nigeria needs to learn a lesson from the Egyptian example and find a solution to her overwhelming problem as did the Egyptians at their time of difficulty. Problems are meant to be solved. And there is no problem without solution. But people who always want to eat their cakes and still have them can never overcome their problem. Defending corruption in the guise of ethnicity or religion cannot see Nigeria through the Cape of Good Hope. Let the thieves of this country return the loot and face the consequences of their evil acts. The alternative if for Nigeria to remain as it is forever.

  • Democracy Day: It’s not time to despair, says Tinubu

    Democracy Day: It’s not time to despair, says Tinubu

    National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu said yesterday that Nigerians should not despair but should look ahead with hope.

    In a statement to mark Democracy Day, Tinubu  said: “Now is not time to lament, murmur or give into despair. It is time to summon once again the political and social courage that we well know and that well knows us.

    “We need to push forward and to urge government forward to do that which it must to achieve this great generational feat.

    “We stand between success and failure; but we cannot maintain this middling position forever. We must turn one way or the other. To me there is but one option. The other is unspeakable. We must be bold enough not to accept an inferior destiny. We must win.

    “To do so, we must use all the democratic tools at our disposal. I am proud and commend Nigerian people for having carried the nation this far. Don’t faint now. We are almost out of the thicket and so close to home.”

    The statement titled: ‘We must not take our democracy for granted, we must defend it’ added: “A great historic push and effort are mandated. Change takes boldness, perseverance and moral fortitude; profound change requires even more so.

    “The task is hard but I neither fret nor worry. In my heart, I am comforted by the knowledge that we are so much better and stronger than the obstacle before us. We shall and must overcome it because it is in our nature and it is for our best destiny to do so.”

  • Don’t despair on Buhari

    Two major camps have appeared since President Muhammadu Buhari showed up in the national space after his third attempt. One group is just as itchy and uncomfortable with his presidency as the other. Both have kicked and griped, quarreled and agonised over almost every step he has taken or not taken, and over just about every word that has fallen out of his mouth.

    For the one group, which is decidedly older than the other in the criticism business, there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about their bellyaching. They are composed mainly of old PDP types or of beneficiaries of the party and its sympathisers. There is nothing anyone can, or should, do to cure their gloom and grievances. Not even the president can help in this regard. Even if he manages to reinvent the wheel it is unlikely to cut any ice with them. Should he silence the insurgents for good or create enough jobs to absorb the teeming idle youths or bring the naira at par with the British pounds, it will do no good.

    The other group sounds more coherent, nationalistic and progressive, even in criticism and gloom. In this camp you find people who believed in the Buhari project in the run-up to the presidential poll but are now scared stiff that their prospective hero was turning out a limp nonstarter.

    To be fair, the president, willy-nilly, unsettled this second set of critics. Deciding to give the presidency a fourth shot, winning his party’s presidential primary last December and going ahead to sweep the poll in late March, the critics reasoned it should not have taken Buhari a clear seven months to have a cabinet. Concerns are also being raised over his now frequent foreign trips, something for which a certain Owu chief was interminably criticised. Even Buhari’s immediate predecessor took a fair amount of unsparing assessment for his shuttles. More worrying to the patriotic critics is the fact that President Buhari has not quite given any hint of his revolutionising vision or transformational blueprint for the nation beyond his vigorous anti-graft and terrorism battle.

    The patriots in the second camp of critics seem to be losing heart because they may have thought a Buhari presidency would stimulate a national rebirth complete with not just a buoyant economy but also a country known for something everyone else can envy. They probably looked forward to Buhari giving the country a new image, and if he failed to lift it up and away from the uninspiring Third World, should, at the least, be seen to have sown such transformational seeds as will sprout in no distant time. Some have asked the question in different words why Nigeria under Buhari cannot begin to transit, as Singapore did under its hero Mr Lee Kuan Yew, from an unflattering partner with Malaysia to a buoyant independent nation which attracted the West and everyone else apart from giving its people something to hold on to.

    The concerns are genuine, yet probably a bit too much to ask. Buhari is not Mr Lee or anyone else, although the Singaporean leader also vigorously fought corruption as he is doing. In his other life some 31 years ago, Buhari gave enough hints as to what stuff he was made of, and it had little to do with a commanding new economic or such transformational national philosophical order. If I read him right, the president wants a country whose people are probably just as trim as he is, not physically, without the baggage of indiscipline and corruption, a country where you can do honest business and thrive thereby.

    Buhari’s war against graft and terror look more convincing than whatever took place in the past. Political opponents and their hangers-on could gripe interminably about what the president is not doing right but he seems to be on course in taking the fight to corruption, a monster which has reduced a prospective giant to an ineffectual Lilliput. Despite their abundant human and natural resources, what comes first to the foreigner’s mind upon meeting a Nigerian is that fellow from that thieving, crooked country. This hurts but it explains why Nigerians are screened and searched at other airports more than any other human who walks the earth.

    For some time now, former high office holders have been trying to explain their sides of a mind-boggling corruption story running into billions of naira. By the time the courts are through with them, some could be set free, having done nothing wrong. Still, the fact that these huge sums of money are being mentioned points to the fact that they are actually missing and may never be recovered. That speaks of nothing if not corruption. It speaks of a people who never quite fashioned out a way to keep the hands of the corrupt from the public cash. Better endowed analysts and commentators have documented the depressing perspectives of this corruption saga in a beleaguered country.

    But it won’t hurt to consider one more question. What if Buhari had lost the election and Jonathan had won? It is unlikely that those who now have appointments with the courts would be fretting.

    If Buhari fails to make a Singapore out of Nigeria it may well not be his worst fault. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo before him bungled the opportunity to make the country great, though that did not stop politicians and other office seekers from flocking to him from time to time. Unfortunate health challenges and eventual death robbed President Umaru Yar’Adua of the opportunity to present his own scorecard for analysis, though he brilliantly kept the Niger Delta insurgents quiet during his short spell. For whatever his presidency was worth Dr Jonathan left office as one under whose nose corruption was elevated and canonised as some form of service to the fatherland.

    Presidents should be kept on their toes, lest they forget why they are presidents. But to be consumed by despair does not help. Neither do ill-intended attacks.

    If the president fails in his first four years to make an appreciable dent on corruption, God forbid, it is certain to declare that the country may well be beyond redemption. And that will indeed be sufficient reason not only to despair but to sweep him out of power at the next ballot. Until then, cheer up. Let us take one day at a time.

  • Ooni: Despair as litigations becloud selection

    Ooni: Despair as litigations becloud selection

    With the web of litigations beclouding the process, many indigenes and observers are beginning to despair over the selection of a new man for the stool of the Ooni of Ife. BISI OLADELE examines the suits filed by individuals and ruling houses to make kingmakers and government to toe their paths

     

    When will a new Ooni of Ife emerge? This has become a recurrent question going by the number of court cases clouding the process of selecting the right candidate for the vacant stool.

    Since the Osun State Government wrote a letter to the kingmakers early September, instructing them to ask Giesi Ruling House to present candidates for the stool, two other ruling houses-Lafogido and Osinkola-as well as some individuals in the two ruling houses have filed a number of suits challenging the propriety of government’s decision to restrict right to present candidates to only Giesi.

    No fewer than four suits have so far been filed in court against the process. The four ruling houses in the town are Lafogido, Ogboru, Osinkola and Giesi.

    While Lafogido contends that Osinkola has been successfully divided into three – Osinkola, Ogboru and Giesi-to its own detriment, it should not be excluded from presenting candidates; Osinkola contends that all the four houses have the right to nominate candidates for the stool out of which only one prince will be chosen.

    Lafogido insists that the 1980 Ife Chieftaincy Declaration used by the government to pick Giesi as the next ruling house was allegedly “lopsided, unjust, unfair and repugnant to natural justice, equity and good governance.”

    It further posits that the complaint of lopsidedness had been presented before a judicial commission of inquiry in 1994, recalling that though the commission rejected its proposal to also split Lafogido to three, it (the commission) recommended that government should urgently convey a meeting of the four ruling houses to enable them to agree on whether or not to amend the declaration.

    It added that although the commission submitted its report to the government, it did not act on it until the stool became vacant again following the death of Oba Okunade Sijuwade on July 28, this year.

    Among others, Lafogido contends, in its statement of claim in the suit number HOS/16/2015, that “the 1980 Ooni of Ife Chieftaincy Declaration is fundamentally flawed in that it contradicts the culture, tradition and practice of Ife in the filling of Ooni of Ife vacant stool, in that it attempts to split Osinkola Ruling House into three namely Osinkola, Ogboru and Giesi ruling houses while the plaintiffs ruling house remained only one.”

    Consequently, Lafogido prayed the court for “a declaration that the 1980 Ooni of Ife Chieftaincy Declaration is lopsided, unjust, repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience;”

    It further prayed the court for an order setting aside the declaration, an injunction restraining Osun State and kingmakers from selecting the new Ooni using the 1980 declaration and an order directing the government and kingmakers “to revert to the old and ancient tradition of selecting the Ooni through the Ifa Oracle.”

    The court has since granted an order of injunction restraining the defendants from going on with its plan to select candidates from the Giesi Ruling House pending the determination of the suit.

    In another suit marked HOS/19/2015 by Lafogido Princes, the plaintiffs seek, in addition to the above prayers, inclusion of Lafogido and other ruling houses in the selection process and “a declaration that a press release by the kingmakers wherein they asked all other ruling houses to wait for their turn is not in tandem with the spirit and tenor of the 1980 Ooni of Ife Chieftaincy Declaration.”

    Relying on section three of the said declaration, Lafogido added that by the press release, the kingmakers “have become biased and acted against the spirit, tenor and proper interpretation of the 1980 Ooni of Ife Chieftaincy Declaration in shutting out other ruling houses from the race.”

    According to the 1980 gazette, the four ruling houses are arranged in the following order: Osinkola (then ruling), Ogboru, Giesi and Lafogido. Clearly, the arrangement took cognisance of the then incumbent Ooni, Oba Aderemi, who hailed from Osinkola Ruling House.

    The gazette, however, stated that in the event of the death of an incumbent, the next houses on the line should produce the next Ooni but that the second next can produce the king if the candidate of the immediate next ruling house is not acceptable.

    As for Osinkola Ruling House, its contention is that rotational ascension to the throne is alien to the history and culture of the people. It claims that there is only one ruling house for the throne. The ruling house, according to Osinkola, is the Ooni Ruling House, which it insists, belongs to one family known as the Ooni of Ife family. This family, Osinkola claims, has four branches known as the four ruling houses in Ile-Ife today. They are Osinkola, Lafogido, Giesi and Ogboru.

    For this reason, Osinkola posits that princes in the four branches are entitled to vie for the vacant stool instead of restricting it to only one branch as done by the government in its September letter to Ife kingmakers.

    The ruling house is seeking, among others, a declaration that the four ruling houses are branches of the sole ruling house of the Ooni of Ife; and a declaration that governor Rauf Aregbesola’s instruction to Giesi Ruling House to nominate candidates for the throne for kingmakers’ consideration is “discriminatory, inequitable, sacrilegious, untraditional, not in tune with the people’s custom, illegal, unconstitutional, ultra cures, null and void and of no effect.” It is also seeking the declaration of the 1980 Chieftaincy Declaration in the above terms. The suit is marked HOS/18/2015.

    There is another suit filed in the Ile-Ife judicial division by some members of the Lafogido Ruling House.

    The Chief Judge of Osun State, Justice Adepele Ojo, is hearing the two cases filed in Oshogbo. The judge expressed desire to consolidate all the cases since they are on the same selection of a new Ooni but it is not yet clear if all the parties and their lawyers want to accept the proposal.

    Given this web of litigations by the ruling houses, Ife kingmakers have their hands tied in continuing with the process of selecting a new Ooni.

    At the resumed hearing of two of the suits in High Court One, Oshogbo on Tuesday last week, some of the kingmakers in attendance expressed anger. While ruminating over the ongoing suits, some of them wondered why some princes and the ruling houses chose to stall the process through the channel of the court.

    But as the legal fireworks take shape, Southwest Report gathered that elders in the town were already mulling intervention to prevent an interregnum because of the importance of the stool to the Yoruba all over the world. If the elders successfully intervene, the ruling houses may end up shifting ground for a ruling house to nominate candidates for the stool. Otherwise, litigations may create a long period of interregnum.

    For now, indigenes of the town who are only expecting a succession may already be in despair as the news of much litigation surrounding the selection process fill the air daily.