The Nation Newspaper

Tag: fate

  • Moro’s Fate and Matters Arising

    First, a quick caveat: We won’t be presumptuous to discourse here on the substance of charges being preferred in court against former Interior Minister Abba Moro, along with some others, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). It is obviously the court’s prerogative to interrogate those. We will be restricted, therefore, to re-examining the circumstance of the 2014 Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment tragedy, and the embedded morals for our nationhood experience.

    Just when it seemed that justice was foreclosed for some 700,000 hapless applicants that were pooled into frenetic crowds at NIS job recruitment centres across the country on 15th March 2014, the EFCC last week said it was set to make Moro and four others answer for charges of fraud and money laundering relating to the botched exercise. This calling to account was long in coming, but nonetheless welcome that it is here. Moro was the minister that had supervision of the Immigration Service at the time of the recruitment under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, and he certainly needs to answer for his role alongside alleged accomplices – including the private consultancy firm that conducted the exercise, Drexel Tech Nigeria Ltd.

    The handling of the 2014 Immigration Service recruitment ranked easily as the height of government insincerity and dysfunction, as well as the ultimate signpost of the crisis of youth unemployment in this country. Hundreds of thousands of job seekers (some accounts put the figure at 710,110) had applied for barely 4,000 openings that were said to be available in NIS at the time, and were indiscriminately drawn to recruitment centres where there was scant evidence of any prior preparation to receive and administer such mammoth crowds. Even though they were just yet seeking employment to earn some income, each applicant was required to pay N1,000 fee through an online platform administered by Drexel. By the close of the disorderly exercise held simultaneously nationwide, 19 applicants were reported trampled to death or choked lifeless in crowd stampedes at the different centres. It was one incident that left the nation grief-stricken and scandalised with shame all at once.

    At the time the tragedy occurred, partisan angling for the 2015 general election was already intense, and it is unclear whether the government in power genuinely wanted to absorb new recruits to the Service then or was just up to some chicanery for electoral advantage; or worse, whether the Presidency had lost accountability for individual initiatives of its functionaries. I would not know what else explains the fact that less than a month to the recruitment, then Comptroller-General of the Immigration Service, David Parradang, made clear to the Senate Committee on Interior that there was no budgetary provision for the recruitment, and neither any to underwrite the emoluments of some 4,000 new intakes being proposed for the Service that year. Appearing before the Senate committee on 19th February to defend NIS budget proposals for 2014, Parradang said: “We had started the process of reconciliation when the Board (of the Immigration Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence, Prisons and the Fire Service) announced that we got approval to recruit 4,000 and above. But there is no budgetary provision for funding of that process. If we recruit the people, there will be no salaries for them; so we have approached the Budget Office. They said it was late and that they could not make available that amount of money, and we calculated that N4billion would be needed to pay those officers that are expected to be recruited for the year 2014.”

    EFCC’s charge sheet against Moro and the others in the impending litigation confirms that budgetary provision was really never made for the exercise, hence it is difficult to rationalise that there was sincere intention by government to take new recruits in for the NIS. Now, I dare say it was beastly in the extreme and a grievous crime against humanity if the government then in power plotted that Immigration recruitment as a stunt just to score political points, especially with the misadventure having claimed so many hapless lives. Moro’s testimony in court in the coming days will be useful in showing if there are issues in this matter to refer to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for consideration.

    But even if the government had genuine intention to recruit, there was sufficient evidence of acute internal dysfunction, as Moro apparently sidelined the board and management of NIS and enlisted a private consultancy firm to conduct the exercise. Following the disastrous outing, the Immigration board was vocal in repudiating the exercise. At a hearing by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts in the week that followed the tragedy, for instance, members said only Moro and his team could explain how they came about the ill-fated exercise. Sylvanus Tapgun, who led the delegation to the House committee session in Abuja, said: “Theý Interior Minister and the consultant he engaged for the exercise are the ones that can tell Nigerians exactly what happened. Even the Comptroller-General of Immigration was not involved, he was not part of the recruitment at all and there was no board resolution to recruit anybody. When we, members of the board, learnt about the recruitment, we wrote the minister that we are not in support of engaging the services of a third party to conduct recruitment for the Immigration Service; but he ignored our letter and went ahead to engage the consultant. The consultant fixed everything, including the N1,000 fee that they claimed was administrative charge.”

    Moro acknowledged the alienation of NIS leadership when, on the heels of the botched exercise, he accused Parradang of irresponsibility. He told the Senate Committee on Interior: “If I prevented Mr. Parradang from carrying out the recruitment as Minister of Interior, did I go with his sense of responsibility of knowing how not to conduct employment without budgetary provision and in utter disregard for extant rules? Yes, I wrote to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to seek clarification to guide the board when I discovered that the presidential committee assisting the board had assumed a life of its own and was conducting the recruitment rather than assisting the board. What value was Parradang adding to the work of the presidential committee when, on 15th March 2014, he abandoned his duty to provide leadership for the conduct of the recruitment to attend birthday parties in Jos?”

    People familiar with the dynamics of recruitment into government agencies say the process, in many cases, was ridden with political patronage and quota concessions to ‘stakeholders’. That may partly account for Moro’s appropriation of the Immigration recruitment project and eventual alienation of the board and management of the Service. By the same token, ‘non-connected’ applicants usually were in the wild, no matter their qualification for the job. That could partly explain the disorderly conduct of the ill-fated 2014 exercise. The point to be strongly made here is that we can no longer have government and its processes, including recruitment, run on such model in this country. Moro and his alleged accomplices will have their day in court to answer for the financials of the botched Immigration recruitment. I suspect, though, that there will yet be ethical questions that will haunt all the role players for some time to come.

  • Gbolahan Salami’s fate

    Where is Gbolahan Salami? Did I hear  you say which Salami? Ok. Let me ask again; where is Salami, aka Balotteli? Oh my God? Sometimes, such nicknames come back to haunt us. I hope this is not what has happened to Gbolahan Salami, Nigeria’s CHAN Eagles captain and last season’s Globacom Premier League top scorer.

    So what about Salami? Well, wherever he is today, he must be ruing his situation, having chosen the pursuit of the Golden Fleece to an unnamed club outside Nigeria rather lead the country’s home-based Eagles to the ongoing CHAN Championships in Rwanda. This isn’t the first time Salami has chosen self above country. Shortly before the team was to play against Tanzania in Dar es Salam, Salami left the camp because his travelling documents were stuck in one of the European embassies. The Eagles missed Salami’s bravado and sharpness in front of the goalkeeper. Nigeria played out a barren draw against the Tanzanians.

    I won’t blame Salami for choosing the European transfer option, especially with the backlog of unpaid salaries and allowances in most Nigerian clubs. But he has been through this before. He knows that deals don’t come easily during the January window, largely because European clubs are looking for quick fixes – players with pedigree to block leakages in their teams, not upstarts, such as Salami – with due respect to his talent.

    Salami ought to have known that as the team’s captain, he would get better and bigger European contracts from direct negotiations with him than through agents or managers. Rwanda has been invaded by club scouts searching for “cheap” talents just as we have heard that they are falling over themselves for Nigeria’s wonder kid, Chisom Chikatara.

    Indeed, it would have benefited Salami more if he joined his mates in Kigali. Salami would have given the coaches the option of playing two goal-scoring strikers instead of changing winning formations simply because one striker is nursing an injury. Salami’s bustling style which is reminiscent of Daniel Amokachi of yore, could have helped the CHAN Eagles. He would have scored goals with aplomb. He would have been the poster star of the tournament. And the scouts would love to come in droves for his signature. Salami wouldn’t have needed any agent to do his bidding. As the poster boy of the competition, negotiations would be done directly, with his agent listening.

    One must remind Salami that European clubs want regular internationals. He is an international but would need to show his suitors clips of past games, instead of giving them the opportunity to watch him live as they are doing with Chikatara. But would the Eagles chief coach Sunday Oliseh give Salami another chance to fight for a shirt in the team after two incidents of dumping his squad?

    Salami will get a shirt, if selected for the camp but most coaches stick with winning squads. Oliseh won’t want to bank on Salami a third time, having been disappointed twice. He would definitely rely on Chikatara, who must learn from Salami’s mistakes.

    Salami’s fate reminds this writer of the need to get NFF chiefs to call registered agents for a meeting where they would be reminded not to cajole our players who have national assignments to prosecute, except the deal have been concluded before the lads are invited to the camp.

    Agents are destroying our emerging stars with their promises of juicy contracts when they know that transfers during the January window are targeted at tested players who will make immediate impact not fledgling star, such as Salami.

    The NFF must warn these agents and scouts not to confuse the players now that the 2016 Olympic Games beckons. My fear is that with the Olympics slated for August, we are likely to have the scenario where our talented players sneak out of the country in search of better deals in Europe. These home grown players jump at anything. Such offers give them the best chance to earn a living from playing football, unlike what they are faced with in the local leagues. These gullible boys easily multiply the meagre cash in foreign currencies by the going rates in Nigeria and head for such destinations at the behest of shylock agents. I digress!

    Salami’s loss, like they say, is Chikatara’s gain; yet the former in the CHAN Eagles would have been a strong arsenal in the team’s armoury. Sadly, we are out of the CHAN Championships in Rwanda with Chikatara, Usman Mohammed, Chima Akas, Ikechukwu Ezenwa, Austin Oboroakpo and Ifeanyi Mathew as new names for the Super Eagles. These players form part of the positives from the country’s disappointing outing.

    The CHAN Eagles didn’t do well at all. They were poor in set pieces; they didn’t know what do beyond sending long balls to Chikatara, who evidently became a marked man after his hat-trick against Niger and intelligent strike against Tunisia. The team was largely unimaginative in its play; the players couldn’t send passes to themselves to force their opponents to make mistakes, especially in the game against Guinea. CHAN Eagles played as if they were told that a draw result was all that they needed to qualify. So, when the Guineans struck, it was clear that we had no plan to score goals.

     

    Oliseh’s laughable excuses

    One can excuse Sunday Oliseh of some of the blame because he was out of the country attending to his health. I hope he took down notes, which should include devising other ways of scoring goals – set pieces and teaching the boys how to shoot accurately in front of the goal area. But Oliseh must responsibility for the team’s ouster. It is laughable that he is talking about moral issues when he should bury his head in shame that we couldn’t qualify from a group that had Guinea, Niger and Tunisia.

    Since Oliseh got this job, I have refrained from scolding him, largely because I have been accused of not liking Nigerian coaches. But the truth is that Nigerian coaches have not grown from being players in their utterances and actons. Otherwise, what does Oliseh mean with this ignoble excuse: “It’s a big disappointment, but I’m proud of my boys, even though we did not go through. They gave a good image of themselves. Somewhere inside it was difficult for the players. They have given their best; they needed that lift and they couldn’t find it then.

    “We came out to win, but we did not play. My players are human and there is limit to what they can hold. For some morale reasons, they couldn’t fight it today. My players have children and families. Adult tournaments are not youth tournaments,” said Oliseh.

    Is Oliseh saying that the Sport Minister’s stay with the team didn’t address the issues he was talking about? Did they not tell Nigerians that they were given all they needed to excel before and during the competition? Did NFF not provide Oliseh with the logistic support for him to succeed? Is it not true that everything he asked for he got? NFF secured a camping site in Pretoria at the high performance centre. The federation organised two international friendly games against Cote d’ Ivoire and Angola? So what does he mean by moral issues? Did the minister not explain to them the reasons for the delay in settling their matter? Oliseh didn’t know the boys because he wasn’t with the team in Port Harcourt.

    Oliseh must shut his mouth because he got all that he needed. What manner of moral issues is he talking about given the fact that Samson Siasia delivered the trophy with the U-23 side, Dream team VI, with his mother held captive by kidnappers? Siasia is my man of the year for how he managed to put aside the trauma of his mother’s kidnap for a national assignment? Oliseh, please learn to own up to your faults.

    Those who didn’t make their mark in Rwanda should be dropped. The NFF needs to have a permanent coach for the CHAN Eagles who should periodically be made to present his team against the Super Eagles, whenever they are in camp, ahead of any international assignment.

    I align with the thoughts of NFF President Amaju Pinnick, who reiterated that the African Nations Championship is “both developmental and preparatory for bigger challenges”, and said without mincing words that the Federation would now shift focus to the qualification race for the bigger Africa Cup of Nations. There could also not be a better response from the Glasshouse chiefs than to apologise for the woeful outing in Rwanda.

    Former Green Eagles Captain Christian ‘Chairman’ Chukwu, ruing Nigeria’s ouster from CHAN offered insights into what to do with the team.

    Chukwu said:  “Well, that’s football for you. There is nothing any of us can do to change the result. It’s just unfortunate. However, I will like this CHAN squad to be kept together to form the bulk of Super Eagles so that in the next competition we will be certain we have a team already on ground.”

    We, however, need to have a basis for picking national team players, such that people don’t say that we left our best players at home when our teams are eliminated. This task of picking the best players rests with the chieftains of the Nigeria Premier League (NPL), whose duty is to ensure that proper evaluation of players exists in the system.

    The Nigeria Premier League is the only competition where those in charge don’t see anything wrong in not having the best players’ XI of each week which will also result in monthly awards for the best players, as we see in most European leagues.

    What it simply means is that in a month, we would have had 30 names that will be constant in the weekly selection of 11 players. It means also that we will have monthly between these 30 and 44 names of outstanding players in the domestic league.

    With this evaluation chart, no coach would dare list any outsider, knowing that his employers have a list of outstanding players in the league. The task of picking these players should be handled by the NFF Technical Committee, headed by Shuaibu Amodu, in conjunction with those that the NPL would pick to handle such a sensitive assignment.

     

  • Fans ponder Pat Attah’s fate

    Fans ponder Pat Attah’s fate

    One of Nollywood’s lover boys of the 90s and early 2000s, Pat Attah, co-actors with Ramsey Nouah in Mega Fortunes, is presently the centre of concern for some Nigerian movie lovers.  Recently, he became a topic of discussion on social networks when some of his fans wondered what would have become of him if he had stayed on with his counterparts who are presently doing well in the industry, bagging ambassadorships.

    According to reports, the actor who recently got married and is based abroad, is said to have become born-again and is now in the business of winning souls for Christ; using social networks to deliver his sermon/message to those who log on.

    Pat, as recalled, aside acting, was also a fashion model and musician. Though absent from the movie scene, he is said to be making waves in Europe with his career as a musician. Reports have it that he, with his band, performed at several major musical concerts around Europe, between 2008 and 2010.

    Pat came into limelight in the early 90s playing the lead character in a popular Nigerian soap opera. He was the star of the critically acclaimed Nollywood movie, Glamour Girls, released in 1994.

    In 2011, like his colleagues, even after quitting acting, he was a victim of identity theft. Pat reported that someone was taking advantage of people by soliciting favors in his name from unsuspecting fans, thereby protecting his fans by tracking down one of the impersonator.

    Presently nothing has been heard of the actor on what he is doing and his present reside.

  • The fate of the average learner

    Thestory of Oguola Secondary School in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area, outskirts of Benin City, which features as our Education cover today is indeed pathetic.  Yet I know that there are many more schools scattered across the country in similar or even worse shape.

    I visited one in the Southwest last year. The school is quite popular because its pupils have won many laurels.  Though its facilities are not as bad as Oguola, the pupil-population is so high that many stay outside for classes.  There are up to 200 many classes.  But they do not all stay in class.  Even at that, a teacher cannot walk between the rows to reach those at the back.  When we asked the pupils the whereabouts of others not in class, they replied “Market” – that is what they call their tuck shop located behind some classroom blocks.  We can deduce that it means many of the pupils do not attend classes.  Because of the high population, they are not noticed by the authorities.  Though in school, they are as good as ‘lost’.

    Grooming pupils in poor learning environments like in Oguola and the other school (I have decided not to name) affects performance of the average pupil.  If there is no extra commitment from the teachers, and it is difficult to be committed in such situations, only the fittest survive.  Many others would be left behind.  Why the school I visited in the Southwest has been able to win laurels in competitions for many years is because the teachers have a system of identifying and grooming the best pupils for competitions. But the result of the average pupils does not reflect the general perception people have that the school is good academically.  A preliminary study carried out on performance of the pupils in a particular subject showed that very few achieved average scores.

    That is why I have said countless times in this column that the welfare of the average learner should matter.  The average pupil must excel.  The average pupil must be skilled, motivated, and empowered.  If they are not, when they get into the labour market, we should not expect magic; we should not be surprised by mediocre performance of our economy.

    The Federal Government should do an audit of schools in bad conditions like Oguola and work with state governments to address the infrastructural and manpower deficit in these schools.  Like has been suggested by some stakeholders, the secondary school sector should get its own version of the Universal Basic Education Commission.  It should be structured like the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, which has worked wonders in the tertiary sector.  Best practices can be learnt from another successful initiative of the past administration of Lagos State, the Eko Project, a World Bank long-term loan that helped provide funds directly to schools to repair facilities, purchase equipment, and train workers.  A public school teacher I spoke with hoped that the initiative would continue with the new administration because she was a witness to the transformation it brought to public schools in Lagos State.

    If public funds that find their way into private pockets are mopped up, appropriated to education projects and stringently monitored – like is done by TETFund and Eko Project, our government will be able to put public schools in good shape and provide better quality education for Nigerian children regardless of their socio-economic background, tribe, and religion.  What we must aim for is to improve the average pupil, and on the whole, we would fare better.

  • Reagan, Otti to know fate May 27

    A Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, the Abia State capital said it would on May 27 deliver judgment in a suit filed before it by Reagan Ufomba against Dr. Alex Otti, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the just concluded governorship polls and re-run.

    Ufomba had approached the court seeking to know why the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) excluded him from contesting and instead, recognised Otti whom he claimed emerged through an illegally constituted body that organised the party’s primaries last year.

    Counsels to the plaintiff and the defendant, Clement Onwuenweunor and Awa Kanu, in a 3-hour hearing process, presented their arguments for and against the suit.

    Onwuenweunor told the court that Chief Victor Umeh, who served out his tenure on December 4 2014, had no right to constitute any committee to hold primaries for the party. He urged the court to declare Alex Otti’s emergence as the party’s flag bearer null and void.

    He added that since Umeh was a senatorial candidate in the March 28 National Assembly elections, he had forfeited the right to nominate anyone as the party’s flag bearer.

    Awa Kanu in his defence argued that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit.

    The presiding judge adjourned the case to May 27 for judgment.

  • Fate dealt me a cruel blow

    Fate dealt me a cruel blow

    He was a responsible husband and father to his children. He was humble to a fault. I am finished now. My life is empty without him. They have robbed me of my joy. Where do I start from now? I don’t know why fate dealt me a cruel blow.”

    These were the words of Mrs Angelina Otomewo whose husband, Charles died in hospital two days after he was reportedly shot by some uniformed men near Ikorodu, Lagos.

    The late Otomewo, 50, is survived by a widow and three children.

    Last Wednesday when he and other motorists ran into the uniformed men at Majidun near Ikorodu, the late Otomewo, who was a businessman, was returning from his Fadeyi, Lagos office.

    Speaking with The Nation at their Ishawo, Ikorodu residence, yesterday, Mrs Otomewo recounted the circumstances surrounding her husband’s death: “Around 9pm, I received a phone call from my husband saying “I dey Agric they don shoot me ooo”.  I was shocked but I managed to drive to Agric bus stop. When I couldn’t find him at the place, I checked the nearest hospital where I saw him receiving treatment. The following day, we got a referral letter to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-araba where we were told he will undergo surgery. About 2am on Friday, we were asked to get some pints of blood.

    “I thought my best friend was going to survive. It got to a point he put off his clothes on his hospital bed because he was writhing in pains. But, on Friday evening, four hours after the surgery, he died.”

    She said her husband plied Ikorodu road for over 12 years without an incident before last Wednesday’s tragic event.

    “At times, I am yet to believe my joy of 17 years is really gone. We celebrated his birthday last month. He was full of joy. He kept thanking me for being a good wife. He plied that route for over 12 years. This was our first experience. I am not suspecting anyone but God knows and destiny will always prevail.”

    One of the late Otomewo’s tenants, who simply identified himself as Tosin, described him as a nice person.

    He said: “I have always heard some landlords are trouble to their tenants but Mr Charles was different. He made us feel at home. Since the incident, those who rented shops in the front of the house have not opened because they are still in shock. He treated every issue with utmost importance. After his family, his tenants came next. I will miss my ‘nice’ landlord.”

    The army yesterday sought direction to the scene from survivor, Alhaji Aminu Salis, who is recuperating at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).

    He was called by one of the soldiers who visited him on Monday at the instance of General Officer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division, Lagos, Major-General Tanmi Dibi.

  • ‘Electorate ‘ll determine my fate’

    ‘Electorate ‘ll determine my fate’

    Prof. David Bamgbose is a governorship aspirant in the Accord Party (AP) in Ogun State. He speaks in this interview with SEYI ODEWALE on partisan issues.

    Who is Prof David Bamgbose?

    I’m Prof. David Olusegun Bamgbose, a professor of Educational Administration and Management and the Provost of Yewa Central College of Education. Incidentally, I’m the Chairman of the Association of Private Colleges of Education in Nigeria. I’m also a pastor. I’m an agriculturist and a farmer. You will agree with me that what will revolutionise this country is agriculture. We must go back to the basics.

    We support our educational activities with agriculture. Also, I’m involved in giving back to the society. We have a foundation, Peaceway Care Foundation, where we reach out to the less privileged in the society. We give scholarships to indigent, but brilliant students and orphans.

    But for those we cannot give scholarships to, we make sure that our college charges the lowest tuition in the entire southwest. We have an outreach, Prison outreach, which we are doing in Abeokuta. I am from Ifo Local Government, Constituency II, Ward 7, in Ogun State.

    You seem to have your hands full with all you have mentioned. Why venturing into Politics?

    All the platforms that I have mentioned can only reach out to a negligible size of the population. We believe that, if you leave politics to a certain people, they will see it as their birth right to govern. In fact, there is a culture now where some people see themselves as the political class. They see themselves as the only ones who must aspire to political office. They move from one party to another, recycling themselves. This, to me, is not proper. Our country is fast deteriorating. Do you know that we are near a major war in the north as I speak with you now?

    The level of unemployment in the country is gradually making this country to implode. Why then should we leave governance to these set of people who have caused us so much hardships and pains? There must be a new drive, new idea and new dynamism.

    Yes, they have tried their ideas for 15 years, let us allow people with new ideas, people with proven antecedents; people, who have worked in various levels before come and replicate the good things they have been doing in their private enterprises, which have made them successful. Let them come and replicate those things on a larger scale.

    Let me give you an example, today, almost all the nations of West Africa depend on agriculture. Countries like Ivory Coast depend on agriculture 100 per cent. So is Ghana, which has 90 per cent dependency on agriculture. In Nigeria, we have one of the best climates in the world for agric. In my state, Ogun, ask anybody how much of the state internally generated revenue (IGR), which is about N4billion, comes from agric?

    We just have to do things in a different way and to do that, you need new blood, new personalities. You cannot continue to do things the same way you have been doing them and expect a different result. Even in football, you get good results when you inject new and fresh legs into the field of play. We should allow this to happen on the political turf.

    I want to tell you that 80 per cent to 90 per cent of those in the political terrain are still the same set of people. They have taken it to the level of making it a family business. The father will be a governor and the son wanting to succeed his father.

    But, that is not strange. We have seen it happen in advanced democracies like the United States (US)…

    No problem, but, if such people have been able to give us tangible, progressive and dynamic results, somebody like me would not have bothered coming into politics. I would have concentrated on my business. I will not sit in my office using 50 per cent of my time attending to people applying for jobs because I will know that someone in government is attending to that.

    These people in government are however, not giving us the result that we desire. They are not the results that develop our potentials because we have not tapped one per cent of this country’s potentials. Therefore, we need new people with new idea, not age. People with proven results and antecedents, I repeat, we need people who have done that at their private level. I give you an example, we have a college of education that is 12 years old and we have produced over 7,000 graduates, 30 to 40 per cent of them are self employed. It is a teacher-education with entrepreneurial skills and they are proving it in their various fields.

    We can replicate that at a larger level across the state. So, we need good people, for instance, in agriculture, Malaysia came to Nigeria in 1956 to pick the palm tree seedlings, today, that country generates four times what we realise from oil. People think we have money, no. Is it not the royalty that we collect from those oil companies?

    The entire country’s budget is not up to that of New York City in the United States. I am not talking of the state of New York, but the city. The entire budget of all federal universities in Nigeria is not up to that of the Harvard University. And the little that we have, we waste. That little is not our potential; we must create wealth in Nigeria. We must open up the political space and the only way to do that is to bring in people, who have done it at the private level. Not people seeking rent from the government. I mean people who can develop our real sector and move this country forward.

    But those you see as major players on the political scene come from that kind of background. Why have they not replicated their successes on the political terrain?

    I’m zeroing in on primary industry. You cannot develop the tertiary system of education without a sound primary system foundation. In fact, that is the problem with our educational system. Let’s go back to the real sector. The Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina is a man with good intentions, very brilliant, but he is not getting results he’s supposed to get. Has he done it before? Can he point out what he had done in agriculture? If you want to give me clothes, I must see what you are wearing.

    We need people with proven experience in that particular area. Let me also tell you that the mere fact that you a businessman does not qualify you for a political office or appointment. How did you develop? What are your antecedents? Your evolution-who are you? All those things and your character come into play. Do you have character of integrity? Can one or two persons talk about your character where you live? All these are critical to the sustenance of development and achievement from the primary level to tertiary level.

     Some politicians  see you as a political neophyte, who does not have political antecedents. How are you going to cope with this?

    Fortunately for me it is not those politicians that will determine my fortune. It is the electorate. And by the grace of God, we have done a lot to reach out to the people. The political class you are talking about is less than 10 per cent.

    But, it determines the tone of elections…

    No, I don’t thinks so. If you look at the trend today, the people are speaking. They have taken their destinies in their hands. Look at the 2011 elections because of the perception that Governor Fashola performed in Lagos, his party swept all states of the southwest. If the ACN then presented a rat for election, it would have won.

    There were people nobody knew then and they won elections because of their party. But it is not the same scenario now. Look at what happened in Ekiti and Osun states recently. Look at Osun, all Ijeshas voted Aregbesola, about 90 per cent of the votes from Ijesha were for Aregbesola. So it was for Omisore, about 90 per cent of his votes came from Ile-Ife and its environs. Are you telling me that the politicians determined that? Are there no PDP followers in Ilesha? People voted for personalities. So, I am telling you that the politicians will not determine our fate. We are going to bring our agenda to the people through various media and leave the choice to them to make.

    You are contesting for what office and on which platform?

    By the grace of God, I’m vying for the post of governor of Ogun State on the platform of Accord Party in 2015

    Don’t you see this as a tall dream?

    Interestingly, since the declaration of my intention to run there has been a tremendous movement across the state.

    How do you mean?

    People have been trooping out, reaching out to us. The first thing we noticed was that the membership of our party rose by 3,000 per cent in the state within two months. This happened the moment I declared my intention.

    One would have expected you to join the ruling party in the state.

    What do you mean? The APC came in and won from nowhere. Nobody knew ACN before and the people gave them their votes to remove the incumbent. The same incident can be replicated.

    Perhaps it was what happened within the PDP that brought about that?

    I want to tell you that the reason was the perceived performance of Gov. Fashola in Lagos.

  • Anxiety over fate of Boko Haram ‘butcher’

    Anxiety over fate of Boko Haram ‘butcher’

    Whereabouts of key suspect unknown

    Military source: we don’t have him

    There was anxiety yesterday over the whereabouts of the suspected Boko Haram “chief butcher” Mohammed Zakari in police custody.

    The suspect was arrested on July 15 after a counter-insurgency operation in Balmo forest in Bauchi State, which was rated as the major armoury of the sect.

    The suspect had been undergoing interrogation in a police facility.

    A source claimed that the suspect was in Bauchi; another said he had been transferred to a secret location in Jos.

    It was gathered that the tension over the  suspect’s whereabouts was heightened by the fact that he had not been grilled by the military and other security agencies.

    A top security source, who spoke in confidence with our correspondent, confirmed that there was disquiet over the fate of the suspect because the police did not state the extent of their investigation into his activities.

    “No one can also explain who is keeping the suspect in the last two weeks. There are different claims on whether he is in Bauchi, Jos or Abuja,” the source said, adding: “It could also not be confirmed whether he is still alive or dead during encounters. The situation is creating fears in the states under emergency rule.

    “Those from these states have been raising concerns on Zakari’s actual status.”

    It was also learnt that there were issues about the lack of coordination between the police and  the military and security agencies.

    A military source, who spoke last night, said: “Well, the police arrested the suspect they should be in the best position to account for his whereabouts.

    “So far, we have not been involved in the quizzing of the suspect.”

    Attempts to get official confirmation from the police last night did not yield results.

    A text message to the Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Frank Mba, was not replied as at 8pm.

  • Keshi knows Bafana fate today

    Keshi knows Bafana fate today

    • Has NFF’s  assurance of a new contract 

    At a time when some of the coaches that participated in the just-ended World Cup in Brazil are not sure of their future, Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi has turned beautiful bride with opportunities on a platter from two juicy sources.

    The former Togo and Mali coach, who clinched the Nations Cup in South Africa before leading his squad to a round of 16 in Brazil, is sure of a new contract from an embattled Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), but also stands a chance of being offered the Bafana Bafana job today with liberty to compare and contrast the South African and Nigerian offer offers.

    Rumours about the South African Football Association (SAFA) wanting the former Nigeria international to lead their national team arrested the headlines and airwaves throughout the World Cup in Brazil, although Keshi preferring to concentrate on taking the Eagles beyond the round of 16, a dream that went up in smoke following a 2-0 defeat to France.

    Nevertheless, SAFA recently confirmed that a final decision on the search for a coach for Bafana Bafana will be made known today immediately after the association’s general meeting.

    Interestingly, on the home front, just hours after showing former boss Aminu Maigari the exit door, the NFF under its acting president, Mike Umeh, on Thursday flagged off the process of renewing Keshi’s contract, expressing confidence in the Big Boss’ ability to lead the Super Eagles to more laurels.

  • Emenalo, Mourinho to decide Omeruo’s fate soon

    • Other young players too

    SportingLife can exclusively report that Chelsea’s Technical Director, Mike Emenalo and head coach, Jose Mourinho will meet in the coming days to decide the fate of Super Eagles defender, Kenneth Omeruo.

    A source close to the Nigerian, Chika Akujobi, told SportingLife that top officials of Chelsea resumed for the new English Premier League (EPL) season a few days ago and that Emenalo and Mourinho would soon meet to review the progress of their youngsters including Omeruo.

    They are expected to decide whether Omeruo or any of the other Chelsea youngsters will be sent out on loan again to gain more experience, or be retained in the senior team.

    Akujobi said stories about clubs being linked with the former Standard Liege of Belgium and ADO Den Haag of Holland defender were mere paper talk, and that Omeruo’s Stamford Bridge future could only be sorted out after a meeting between Mourinho and Emenalo.

    “Nothing is concrete for now because I was told Mourinho and Emenalo will have to meet first before any loan move can be sanctioned concerning any of the young players in Chelsea.

    “Kenneth is calm about it and waiting to return from his break before July 28.

    “Anything that is read in newspapers about clubs that he has been linked with are, for now, rumours,” Akujobi told SportingLife.