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Tag: freedom

Freedom from polio

•A great feat but it calls for more advocacy

This year’s World Polio Day on October 24 coincides with the deletion of Nigeria from the list of polio endemic countries by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The good news, reported on September 27, marks the first interruption of transmission of wild poliovirus in the country, bringing it and the African continent closer to a polio-free status. It is a measure of the significance of the development that the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), the public-private partnership leading the effort to eradicate polio, described it as a “historic achievement” in global health.

According to official statistics, Nigeria has not reported a case of wild poliovirus since July 2014, and 12 months have passed without any new case. Considering that in 2012, only three years ago, the WHO said Nigeria accounted for over half of all polio cases worldwide, the remarkable change in the narrative represents a great positive leap indeed.

The journey to this juncture, the WHO noted, involved a plurality of factors that worked for good. The organisation said: ”This success is the result of a concerted effort by all levels of government, civil society, religious leaders and tens of thousands of dedicated health workers. More than 200,000 volunteers across the country repeatedly immunised more than 45 million children under the age of five years, to ensure that no child would suffer from this paralysing disease. Innovative approaches, such as increased community involvement and the establishment of Emergency Operations Centres at the national and state level, have also been pivotal to Nigeria’s success.”

Notably, Nigeria’s success means only Pakistan and Afghanistan remain on the official list of polio endemic countries. Although removal from the list is not a definitive indication of freedom from polio, there is cause for optimism that the two-year wait to qualify for full polio-free certification by the WHO will perfect Nigeria’s polio-free status.

However, it must be appreciated that eradicating polio in the country will require sustained focus and effort. Relevantly, Rotary International District 9110 Governor Bola Onabadejo was quoted as saying at a forum in Lagos: “We have two more years of hard work to ensure that Nigeria is out of polio.” Given the conditions that promote the polio virus, there is a need for intensification of advocacy and awareness programmes in the country, apart from greater funding of immunisation schemes.

According to medical information: “People living in areas with limited access to running water or flush toilets often get the virus from drinking water contaminated by human waste that contains the virus. Pregnant women, people with weakened immune systems, such as HIV+ people, and young children are the most susceptible to the polio virus.” Polio, also known as poliomyelitis, “is a highly contagious viral infection that can lead to paralysis, breathing problems, or even death.”

Against this backdrop, the country’s political and health authorities have their work cut out for them. It is necessary to provide unrestricted running water to the people, and to ensure hygienic human waste disposal, among other important actions.

Rotary International established the World Polio Day over a decade ago in reinforcement of the work of Jonas Salk, the leader of the first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis. It is a testimony to the effectiveness of international polio eradication activities that the establishment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988 resulted in a rising number of polio-free countries. The spread of poliovirus was internationally recognised as a public health emergency in May 2014.

It is a big plus for science, and a credit to international cooperation, that global polio eradication is looking increasingly achievable. Nigeria must win the battle.

October 8, 2015
KIDNAPPED JOURNALIST, DONU KOGBARA, FREED

Vanguard’s columnist, Dornu Kogbara, who was kidnapped on August 30, has regained her freedom.

Kogbara, an Ogoni, was released at 10 pm last Friday but returned to her Nkpogu-Port Harcourt residence around 2 am yesterday.

The new Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Musa Kimo, visited her at 4:30 am at her residence.

The Rivers Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Muhammad Ahmad, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), confirmed Kogbara’s release in a phone interview.

He said the renowned columnist was in a stable condition and unhurt and could not confirm if ransom was paid before she regained her freedom.

Ahmad also refused to give details of her release from the kidnappers’ den.

The released columnist spoke briefly with reporters yesterday morning.

She was very angry with Niger Delta youths, who she alleged kidnapped her despite fighting their cause.

Kogbara stated the kidnappers told her Niger Delta youths had been abandoned and therefore, abducted her to take their share of looted funds.

Unknown to them, however, she said she was just a columnist and not a looter.

The kidnappers, who wore police uniforms, seized Kogbara on August 30 when they stormed her Nkpogu-Port Harcourt residence in a CRV car, amid gunshots.

They quickly disappeared with the columnist whose whereabouts remained unknown for almost two weeks.

The Rivers chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) described the release of the “easy-going and peace-loving” columnist as a welcome development.

In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Chris Finebone, the party said: “APC will like to thank the Almighty God for Kogbara’s safe return to her loved ones.”

September 13, 2015
Court refuses ex-Mint boss’ request for freedom

Detained former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPM), Emmanuel Okoyomon, yesterday lost his bid to regain freedom as a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Apo dismissed his application.

Justice Valentine Ashi, in a ruling, upheld argument by respondents’ lawyer, Muslim Hassan, to the effect that Okoyomon’s application filed after the Court of Appeal ordered his remand in Kuje prison, Abuja pending the determination of his appeal, was misplaced and without merit.

The judge, who held that his court was without jurisdiction to hear Okoyomon’s application, agreed with the position canvassed by the Deputy Comptroller in Charge of Medium Security Prison, Kuje and the Attorney General of the Federation (who are the respondents) that the Federal High Court has exclusive jurisdiction over extradition proceedings.

Justice Ashi further held that since Okoyomon’s detention at the Kuje prison arose from an extradition proceedings, and on the strength of a judgment by a Federal High Court in Abuja, his fate is tied to the extradition proceedings.

The judge was of the view that Okoyomon could either turn to the Federal High Court with his fresh application –a writ of habeas corpus – or return to the Court of Appeal to pursue his pending appeal to a logical conclusion.

He held that he cannot grant Okoyomon’s application since the Court of Appeal was aware of his pending appeal and that the appellate court had already refused his earlier bail application, but ordered his continued detention pending the determination of his appeal.

“I am unable to find any law empowering me to circumvent the decision of the Court of Appeal. In view of all I have said, I find no merit in this application. It is frivolous,” the judge said and dismissed the application.

Justice Evoh Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja had on May 4 this year, granted Okoyomon’s extradition to the United Kingdom where he has been accused of complicity in the bribery allegation, involving officials of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN NSPM and Securency International Pty of Australia between 2006 and 2008.

Okoyomon appealed the High Court decision at the Court of Appeal, Abuja. He applied to the court for bail and stay of execution of the decision by Justice Chukwu. But, in its ruling on June 26, the appellate court rejected his (Okoyomon’s) application for bail on the ground that it was unmeritorious.

The appellate court however granted Okoyomon’s request for stay of execution of the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, directing the Federal Government to proceed with his extradition.

Rather than pursue his pending appeal, Okoyomon went before the FCT High Court with a fresh suit, challenging his continued detention.

September 12, 2015
Freedom for kidnapped Catholic priest

The kidnap of a Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Akingbade, sent shockwaves round Ekiti State as it marked the first time a man of God would be abducted by kidnappers in the Fountain of Knowledge. ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA, recalls the drama surrounding the saga, the relief which followed the cleric’s escape from his captors and the state government’s effort to halt the scourge.

Ekiti State is fast becoming the hotbed of kidnapping in the Southwest, with many residents and passers-by falling victims.

The gunmen, in the course of carrying out their nefarious activities, killed some people and set vehicles ablaze.

The sight of a man who was heading for a wedding ceremony alongside his wife looking on helplessly as his spouse was being spirited away by abductors who obviously left him behind to look for ransom, was a gory and nerve-wracking one.

Many acts of kidnapping took place along Ido-Ekiti axis in Ido/Osi Local Government Area where the locals are currently gripped with fear following the crackdown on the area by the hostage takers. The people were yet to come to terms with the kidnap of 11 people; albeit at various locations, when the news of the kidnap of a Catholic Priest broke out.

The rampaging kidnappers added a new dimension to their operation on June 9, when they stormed the premises of St. Benedict’s Catholic Church in Ido-Ekiti at 8:00 .p.m. and abducted the Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Akingbade.

The news of Fr Akingbade’s abduction was shocking, indignant and incredible to his parishioners, the people of Ido-Ekiti, the clergy and all laity of the Ekiti Catholic Diocese.

The three-man gang reportedly broke into the vicarage and ordered, at gun point, one of the occupants to lead them to the room of the Parish Priest.

On finding their target, they abducted him and whisked the defenceless man to an unknown destination from where they established contacts with the Catholic authorities in the diocese.

The kidnappers made away with the Priest’s laptop, mobile phone and undisclosed amount of money.

The news of the abduction of the cleric soared like a harmatan bush fire the following day, June 10 and threw the community into confusion as youths poured to the streets to protest his seizure.

They blocked the highway that traversed the town with used tyres, logs of wood and other objects, demanding his immediate release.

The irate protesters wondered why the town is being targeted by kidnappers as many have been kidnapped in the community and its environs.

Many motorists plying Ifaki-Ido-Otun Road either parked their vehicles or turned back so as not to be caught up in the protest.

Akingbade, who is also a lawyer, was born on September 9, 1971 and was ordained a Priest on July 18, 1998.

He is also the Assistant Director, Justice, Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) of the Catholic Diocese of Ekiti.

The kidnap of Rev. Fr Akingbade threw the Catholic world into anxiety as the news reached the Vatican, the seat of power of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis, the head of over 1 billion Catholics worldwide was also worried.

In the same manner the first generation church prayed for Apostle Peter who was kept in the gulag of Herod and was awaiting execution by decapitation, the Catholics, the world over were praying for Fr Akingbade’s safe release.

Masses were held, candles were lit and supplications made to the Almighty God for him to come out of the “lions’ den” unscathed.

Only God knew the type of prayers the abducted Priest offered in the kidnappers’ den. Would it be the one Jonah prayed in the belly of the fish or the one prayed by Daniel in the den of lions?

•Bishop Ajakaye

It was a traumatic period for the Catholic Bishop of Ekiti, Most Rev. Felix Femi Ajakaye, under whom the kidnapped Priest was serving before the incident occurred.

Other Priests in the diocese were concerned about the safety of one of their own and this formed the topics of discussion anytime they met or visited the Catholic Secretariat or the Bishop’s Court in Ado-Ekiti.

The parents of the kidnapped Priest, who are from Ipole Iloro in Ekiti Wrst Local Government Area, were also concerned about the safety of their son; but they received assurances from the Bishop that their son would come back unhurt.

As the kidnappers held on to Fr Akingbade, they started making demands for ransom. Southwest Report gathered that they initially asked for a N20 million ransom which was flatly turned down by Bishop Ajakaye, who made it clear to them that no ransom would be paid for the release of Fr Akingbade.

It was a mixture of a rude shock and a startling surprise when the kidnappers changed their mind and upped their ransom demand to N200 million with many Catholic faithful wondering what could have prompted the fiends to jerk up the amount demanded.

But they met their match in Bishop Ajakaye who maintained that no ransom would be paid to secure the release of Fr Akingbade.

The Bishop hinged his tenacity on the fact that any Catholic Priest that makes a vow to serve God in his vineyard has given himself, including his life, up to God and if death comes along in the course of the service, so be it hence no ransom would be paid by the church.

That seemed to be the game changer with the kidnappers reaching the dead end as they could not fathom the tenacity of the Bishop and the support of the clergy and laity that no ransom should be paid to secure the Priest’s release.

It was with a huge relief that the Catholics received the news of Fr Akingbade’s freedom from the grip of his captors on June 16, exactly a week after he was abducted.

On learning about the cheering news, many Priests and church members trooped to the Bishop’s Court to confirm the arrival of Fr Akingbade.

Other sympathisers, including the pupils of St. Joseph’s Catholic Nursery/Primary School, led by their teachers and Rev. Sisters were seen in jubilation.

The atmosphere of gloom and uncertainty which had enveloped the diocese suddenly gave way to joy, fulfilment and celebration.

Journalists too paid visits to the Bishop’s Court on learning of the return of Fr Akingbade.

To further prove that the Priest was back, Ajakaye directed one of his aides to bring out Fr Akingbade from the inner chambers for reporters to see him after which he was ushered back.

Speaking on his experience since the Priest was kidnapped; Ajakaye expressed worry about the worsening security situation in Ekiti State in particular and Nigeria in general.

He insisted that the concerned authorities must address the malaise, noting that “the matter affects us all “.

He expressed shock that some people could place money on the head of an innocent person for pecuniary gain; wondering why the much-cherished values of being one’s brother’s keeper is fast disappearing.

He said: “They (the kidnappers) told me it (kidnapping) was business and I told them that Catholic Church don’t pay ransom. They have been speaking with me and they still spoke with me yesterday (Monday).

“He (Akingbade) spoke with me in captivity twice. It was a trying and hard moments for me. We pray and we want his abduction to put an end to abductions in Ekiti State.”

Bishop Ajakaye expressed sadness that Ekiti State entered the record book for the wrong reasons as it became the first state in the Southwest where a Catholic Priest would be kidnapped.

The Bishop said he hoped that the incident would mark the last time abduction would happen in Ekiti State.

He also advocated a review of the anti-kidnapping law in the country, noting that 10-year prison term is mild in curbing the menace.

While expressing gratitude to the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase; Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Ita Ekpenyong; state Commissioner of Police, Etop James, state Director of the Directorate of State Security (DSS), Duke Fubara and their officers for their effort in the search for the abducted Priest.

Bishop Ajakaye, however, called for better equipment of security agencies to perform their statutory responsibilities of protecting lives and property and an enabling environment to function.

The Bishop said: “This morning, we thank God. We saw him (Akingbade). God did it and I thank everybody for their prayers because we rely on God, we believe in God and God can do anything.

“But we told our people not to abuse the abductors because we wouldn’t want the abductors to be cursed and we want things to change for the better in our state and Nigeria as a whole.

“What happened to Fr. Akingbade happened to every member of the Church, so all over the world, people were praying.

“They were even threatening that they would kill him and I told them that on the day he was ordained he had sacrificed himself.

“But we were still negotiating. They asked me how much we could afford, I said even one kobo, we cannot afford.

•Fr. Akingbade

“We thank God who took control. We told them we would be praying, that we would not even curse them. I told them that they should know that they are children of God, that Fr Akingbade should be released unconditionally, that we are not paying any ransom to them.”

While lamenting the sad experience the church went through during the Priest’s captivity, the Bishop described abduction and other vices plaguing the country, particularly Ekiti State, as “menace that must be fixed.”

He further said: “We cannot give up on Ekiti State; we cannot give up on Nigeria. We need practical change even though people deserve the type of government they get.

“The law must be revisited. This thing must be addressed and all of us must speak against it. What we have not been experiencing before in Ekiti State, is now happening on daily basis.

“In a place where there is no security, no justice, there can be no development. The energy of the kidnappers can be better diverted to other good things and there should be respect for human dignity.

While maintaining that no ransom was paid, Bishop Ajakaye declined to reveal how Fr Akingbade regained his freedom. But an inside source disclosed that he escaped from his captors “miraculously”. The Bishop promised to talk on that later. This would go down in record as the first celebrated kidnap saga in recent times upon which no ransom was paid.

Assessing the security situation in the state, another cleric, Prophet Hezekiah Oladeji has expressed regrets that the upsurge of kidnapping and other criminal activities in Ekiti State has been driving away investors wishing to do business in the state.

He spoke during a press briefing ahead of a week-long revival programme tagged Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola Power Explosion 2015 at Erio Ekiti in Ekiti West Local Government Area.

The Prophet, who is the General Overseer of Christ Apostolic Church, Canaan Land, charged religious and political leaders to also form a strong coalition with security agencies to bring the situation under control.

He said: “We cannot deny that the ugly incidences have been driving investors away from Ekiti State.

“Those who used to ply the Federal roads in Ekiti to Abuja no longer pass through them because of the fear that they could be kidnapped. It has also affected the economic activities of the people.

“But I share the belief that God will intervene in the matter. One of our prayer points during this year’s revival is that God should expose these evil doers”, he stated.

The upsurge in kidnapping has affected the lifestyles of residents of Ekiti State who are now more security conscious than ever before.

Residents now come home earlier than before while visits to pubs, hotels, discotheques and other relaxation spots have reduced drastically.

Owners of exotic vehicles and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) no longer use them at night as drivers of such vehicles have become targets of kidnappers.

Nightlife has been affected while those doing their businesses at night close early. Apparently disturbed by the horrible trend, the state government has threatened to sanction communities and individuals harbouring suspected kidnappers and other criminals.

The government said any building, farm land or property harbouring criminals or discovered to be used for criminal activities will be confiscated or demolished while owners of such property would be treated as collaborators and heavily sanctioned.

The Deputy Governor, Dr. Kolapo Olusola, made this known at a meeting with traditional rulers and leaders of some ethnic groups from outside

Ekiti State dwelling in areas identified as hideout for kidnappers.

The meeting was attended by the representatives of the Commissioner of Police, Director of Department of State Services (DSS) in Ekiti State, Secretary to the State Government, the Chief of Staff to the Governor and other top government functionaries.

Olusola frowned at the spate of kidnapping in Ekiti State which he noted was formally adjudged the most peaceful and with lowest crime rate in Nigeria.

The Deputy Governor said kidnapping and other criminal activities were very alien to Ekiti.

He opined that the kidnappers would not have been successful in their operations if there had not been collaborators in those communities, hence the need to urgently address the issues before it grew out of hands.

Olusola called on the traditional rulers whose domains have been identified as hideouts for kidnappers to hold meetings with their subjects and other ethnic groups living in their communities with a view to reporting any suspicious movements to security agents before the criminals carry out their nefarious acts. The Deputy Governor expressed joy that Rev. Fr Akingbade who was kidnapped Penultimate week at Ido-Ekiti has been released without payment of any ransom.

He urged leaders of the various ethnic groups from outside the state to caution their kinsmen living in those areas and in Ekiti State generally to be careful and be wary of harbouring any criminal. This is because most of the suspects arrested over the kidnap saga so far are non-Ekiti State indigenes.

Olusola said: “Everybody should join hands with the government and security agents to curtail this ugly trend that has thrown the state into panic. Anybody found to be collaborating with the criminals, either by harbouring them on the farmland, at home or anywhere, would be dealt with decisively.”

He urged the people not to panic but be security conscious, assuring that the government and the security agents are on top of the situation and that all the criminals and collaborators would be completely chased out of Ekiti.

The representative of the Commissioner of Police, Mr. AbdulKadir Mohammed and the Director of the DSS Mr. M. C. Odika also commended the co-operation of the government and the people, even as they called for more timely information from the people.

The security chiefs said the people should go about their lawful businesses, assuring that the police will work round the clock to ensure that peace and security are restored in Ekiti.

Elesure of Esure, Oba Adebanji Ajibola and the Olugbole of Igbole, Oba Emmanuel Adetiloye, who in their separate remarks explained their personal efforts and that of their communities to assist the security agents, noted that security officers needed to be more pro-active and respond more quickly to distress calls.

June 24, 2015
Kidnapped Ekiti Catholic priest regains freedom

A Catholic priest in Ekiti State, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Akingbade, has been freed.

The Nation learnt that the cleric regained freedom yesterday, exactly a week after his abduction.

The kidnapped priest was sighted by reporters on a fact-finding mission to the Catholic Secretariat in Ado Ekiti, the state capital.

Rev Akingbade, the parish priest of St. Benedict’s Catholic Church, was kidnapped by a three-man gang from his house at 8pm penultimate Tuesday. His abductors demanded for N20 million.

Rev Akingbade, who is also a lawyer, was born on September 9, 1971. He was ordained on July 18, 1998.

The cleric is the Assistant Director, Justice, Development and Peace Initiative (JDPI) of the Catholic Diocese of Ekiti.

The Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, the Most Rev Felix Ajakaye said no ransom was paid even though the kidnappers upped their demand to N200 million.

Bishop Ajakaye said it was sad that Ekiti was in the news for the wrong reasons as it became the first state in the Southwest, where a Catholic priest would be kidnapped.

He said he hoped that the incident would end abductions in Ekiti State. The bishop also advocated for stronger anti-kidnapping law, noting that the 10-year jail term is mild.

Bishop Ajakaye thanked the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase; Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Ita Ekpenyong; Commissioner of Police Etop James; state Director of the DSS Duke Fubara and their officers for their effort.

He called for better security equipment for security agencies to perform their statutory responsibilities.

The bishop said: “Yesterday morning, we thank God, we saw him (Akingbade), God did it and I thank everybody for their prayers because we rely on God, we believe in God and God can do anything.

“But we told our people not to abuse the abductors because we wouldn’t want the abductors to be cursed and we want things to change for the better in our state, the land of honour, and Nigeria as a whole.

“What happened to Fr. Akingbade can happen to any member of the church, so all over the world people were praying.

“They were even threatening that they would kill him and I told them that on the day he was ordained he had sacrificed himself. But we were still negotiating. They asked me how much we could afford, I said we can not afford a kobo.

“God took control, we told them we would be praying, that we would not even curse them. I told them that they should know that they are children of God, that the cleric should be released unconditionally, that we are not paying them.

“I pray that what has happened to Fr. Akingbade would put an end to all these nonsense in Ekiti, particularly abduction.

“If a Catholic priest can be abducted in his room, then nobody is safe.“

While lamenting the sad experience the church went through during the priest’s incarceration, the bishop described abduction and other vices plaguing the country, particularly Ekiti state, as “menace must be stopped.”

He said further: “We cannot give up on Ekiti State, we cannot give up on Nigeria. We need practical change even though people deserve the type of government they get.

“The law must be revisited, this thing must be addressed and all of us must speak against it. What we have not been experiencing before in Ekiti State, we keep on experiencing it.

“In a place where there is no security, no justice, there can be no development. The energy of the kidnappers can be better diverted to other good things and there should be respect for human dignity.

“This thing must be addressed and all of us must speak against it. It is unfortunate that what we had not experienced before in Ekiti is now happening. But must we keep quiet? No. “

Efforts to speak with the police spokesman Alberto Adeyemi were not successful as calls to his phone were not answered.

June 17, 2015
41 inmates regain freedom in Anambra

•CJ completes prison tour

The Anambra State Chief Judge, Justice Peter Umeadi, at the weekend, freed 41 inmates of Awka prisons, ending his three-day prisons goal delivery.

Before now, he released 13 inmates of Onitsha prisons, released another five on bail and freed one at Ekwulobia prisons in Aguata.

Umeadi’s goal delivery exercise to Anambra prisons began on June 1 in Onitsha and June 3 in Aguata.

“This is but a tip of the iceberg; it is symbolic and to show how vigilant we will be in looking at small issues that pertain to the liberty of individuals. Be assured that this will go a long way in establishing justice.

“We are doing better and now that the new prison at Nnewi has taken off, it has shown its effect. Before now, the Onitsha prison had over 1,000 inmates but it has since dropped to about 757 inmates; this is to show you the new prison’s effect.

“Since we started the reform of the judicial sector, we have stopped trading blames. What we do now is to come together and make sure that things work as it should,” Umeadi said.

June 8, 2015
ASUU seeks freedom for Western Sahara Republic

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has condemned Morocco’s continued colonisation of the Western Sahara Republic.

ASUU urged the United Nations General Assembly to ensure freedom to the Saharawi people.

ASUU, in a statement by the convener, International Conference on the decolonisation of Western Sahara, Dr Dipo Fashina in Ibadan, added that it was no longer conceivable for a fellow African nation to colonise another country for over 36 years.

Western Sahara is situated between Morocco to the North, Mauritania to the South and Algeria to the East . It is the only one in Africa on the United Nations’ list of the remaining 16 dependent territories in the world.

Dr Fashina said: “While the African Nations celebrate African Liberation Day, the existence of a colony in Africa, worse still by a fellow African nation, Morocco and its allies in Europe and America is condemnable. We are going to galvanise support for collective action at the regional and global levels for the speedy liberation of Western Sahara.”

He said colonial subjugation was historical anachronism that must be expunged from the world,adding that the legacies of Pan-africanists and African liberation fighters would strengthen the struggle against modern-day colonialism.

June 3, 2015
A long walk to freedom

As the world settles into the new millennium, a radical shift in the balance of demographic composition appears to be under way. A huge change in global population and the pattern of human settlement is taking place before our very eyes.

As the phenomenon of globalisation abolishes time and space, as its momentum dissolves barriers, as its dynamic collars and corrals nations into involuntary cooperation, those left behind in the remaining hells on earth are also “globalising” with their feet. The result is human migration of awesome proportions which often rivals the best space adventure in terms of imaginative daring and resourcefulness.

The world, particularly its better managed metropolitan centres, is under siege from this human armada. For the first time in its history, the Hispanic population in the United States is poised to outstrip the Black populace as the dominant minority. In Britain, unwanted guests show up at royal banquets. Primeval cousins long abandoned in ancestral homesteads suddenly pop up at dinner in the affluent west.

A huge human tornado with origins in the distressed nations of sub-Saharan Africa is assaulting the European coastline. From Mexico and Cuba, and particularly from the human fiascos of Haiti and the Dominican Republics, it is a daily battle of wits and will with American coastguards; from Central Europe, the Western European gateway is often subjected to amphibious assaults combined with an infantry dash across the Channel tunnel as human initiative and sheer will power make nonsense of impregnable fortresses; from Asia, the boat people still take to the perilous seas.

Accompanying the tragedy of this people are tales of extraordinary courage in the face of unimaginable adversity. These are epics of heroism stretching the limits of human endurance and the threshold of pains. They would make the fabled Moses wince in admiration. Almost without exception, the ordeal invariably ends in forced cannibalism as the logic of survival takes over from the imperative of civilising refinement.

They tackle their grim fare with mournful restraint rather than the joyous relish of the truly famished. When rescued, survivors are usually in a state of delirium babbling insensate nonsense or staring at their rescuers in terminal disorientation. The desert and the high seas are not the most hospitable of places.

Whatever it is that would make human beings subject themselves to this extreme torture and tribulation must be quite unsettling. Human migration, to be sure, is the first condition of humanity, and is the biological equivalent of shifting cultivation. No nation, tribe, race or people can boast with any assurance that their current location is the precise origin of their ancestors.

Reeling before victorious armies, escaping from social hostilities, absconding from pandemic pestilence and other epochal disorders, or literally in search of greener pastures, mankind has always been on the move. Indeed, it is said that during the glacial age, certain precursors of the human race went back to water from whence they came rather than face the intense hostilities on land. Hence, the anomalous features of certain sea mammals, particularly the whale and the dolphin.

But migration can also be an internal continental affair. The Yoruba wax eloquent about their origin in ancient Egypt which they left after a fierce battle of succession. The Fulani almost certainly left the Atlas mountains, incubating and mutating for several centuries in the Futa Jallon Plateau from where they eventually fanned across northern West Africa. The Itsekiri of the Niger Delta are almost certainly of Yoruba extraction. Sometimes, a triumphant army can engender dislocation and dispersal of epic proportions.

This is what is behind what is known as the Mfekane phenomenon in South Africa when the victorious Zulu army scattered all the tribes to the wind. The one hundred year civil war which attended the collapse of the old Oyo Empire in the eighteenth century altered the demographic constitution of the Yoruba nation forever, engendering little local difficulties such as the Modakeke phenomenon, the Owu “ Diaspora” and other contemporary political imbroglios.

Africa, as usual, occupies a unique position in this migratory conundrum. Something new always comes out of Africa. And we are not talking of bizarre exotica. There are three features unique to the benighted continent. First, there is no record of human migration back to Africa. The much storied captivity of the children of Israel in Egypt ended when Moses led his people back to freedom.

The Jews have travelled long and hard ever since then, but certainly not back to Africa. Human beings may have erupted from the plains of East Africa, but it would seem that the natural human instincts lead away from the stifling heritage of the founding continent. When the heroic Colonel Netenyahu led his men on the famous Entebbe raid against the murderous thugs of Idi Amin, he was re-enacting an atavistic ritual.

The second distinguishing characteristic for Africa is the absence of a civilising hub or nucleus to act as a magnet for the disconsolate and discontented of the continent with the exception of negligible and miniscule oases such as Botswana, Namibia and Senegal. North America has its United States and Canada; Europe has its affluent western nations and Asia has its Asian tigers.

With Zimbabwe having joined the common ancestry of failed postcolonial states, with South Africa slowly unravelling as the revolution begins to consume its children and noble ideals, with the Nigerian mammoth taking its time to fulfil its manifest destiny as a multinational haven for the black person, Africans are left with no alternative than to flee Africa.

The third characteristic is a function and a working out of the logic of the first two. It is true that Africa is not unique when it comes to hellish spots on earth where everything is short, nasty and brutish. The hell-hole of Haiti, the voodoo-ravaged disaster zone that is the Dominican Republic, the stone-age barbarity of the Taleban conquerors of Afghanistan, the trigger-crazed weirdoes of Chechnia, the morbid cruelties of the Balkan triangle of Kosovo-Macedonia-Serbia and of course the dark caves of Irian Jaya all compete for supremacy in the absolute misery index.

But it needs restating that it is in Africa, particularly the vast human zoos of the sub-Sahara, that hunger, disease, want , famine of biblical proportions, epidemics of dereliction such as AIDS and the pestilential Ebola virus have combined with evil governance to produce a new paradigm of human affliction and destitution. Those who are looking for a vision of the apocalypse need not look very far. It is here on the continent that gave birth to humanity.

Those who have not been devastated are voting with their sturdy limb. Their patience exhausted by the moral, spiritual, economic and political bankruptcy of the continent, they turn their back on family and friends forever. Let the dead bury the dead, they seem to be saying. But to reach civilisation, they must first confront the immense void of the Sahara, a monstrous wasteland stretching over three thousand miles teeming with ancient and recent bones.

As the scalding sun singe their hair and the roasting sand burn their feet, they turn into hallucinating wrecks often before wild animals put finishing touches to them. This Old Testament suffering has now been memorably captured in a documentary titled, Exodus From Africa. It is a crying shame for humanity in general and Africans in particular.

Those who subject themselves to this terrifying ordeal are by no means feckless or irrational. Indeed it may be one last act of stupendous will as they seek to rejoin remote cousins whose ancestors’ better honed survivalist instincts led them away from a sinking hulk. It is a leap from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom.

To be devoured by wild animals in the Sahara desert may well be a better fate than to be eaten alive by the RUF savages of Sierra Leone. To die with hope in the Sahara inferno is probably a better deal than to expire under the heaving institutional debris of post-colonial Africa. Meanwhile as this goes on, as the flowers of Africa are daily scorched in the Saharan hell, African leaders are busy changing the name of their moribund and comically inept organisation, as if a name-change has ever kept receivers at bay.

The question then is: Who will save Africa? Certainly not the hypocritical West and its institutions and instruments of domination. Too selfishly preoccupied with the gains of globalisation, Western nations have failed to note the debilitating effects of this phenomenon on fragile economies and still more fragile nations, delinked, decoupled and un-networked as a result of a different mode of production and the different logic of their mode of insertion within the structure of the modern nation-state.

Without ever consolidating the gains of the nation-state, African nations are compelled to abolish embryonic national institutions and seek their fortunes in a solidarity of aberrant states. As it was with the internationalisation of slavery when Africa was occupied and its territorial mass forcibly organised along the image of the conqueror without any regard to internal dynamics, so it is with globalisation.

Yet if one cannot argue with an earthquake, one can at least study its momentum and master its inner logic. Rather than being demonised and diabolised, globalisation ought to be rigorously encountered. This is the urgent task for the intellectual and political elite of Africa. Human development is not a charity ball, and western nations do not owe any obligation to any continent, beyond their own enlightened self-interest. To be at the periphery of any mode of production is not the disaster it seems.

Western nations were able to overcome the contradictions of feudalism precisely because they were at its peripheral formation. This feat would have been impossible in the classically feudal economies of ancient Ethiopia, China and the old Tsarist Russian Empire.

While consolidating their national institutions, African nations can creatively deploy the political devolution and economic deregulation of globalisation to overcome the contradictions and monstrosities of the authoritarian colonial state. If astutely handled, an unviable and unworkable monolithic behemoth like the current Nigerian nation can transform into a genuine multi-national state which can then serve as a transforming hub for other failed colonial contraptions.

Either way, it is going to be a long walk to freedom. Where reforms fail and earthly authorities falter, people lose interest in the pursuit and possibility of worldly happiness, and those who remain will be driven to seek otherworldly succour and solace accordingly. This is not because religion is the opium of the people but a result of a basic human need for reassurance that life itself is not an expensive joke.

In periods of political and social disorder and the total collapse of values, humanity seeks refuge in the transcendent morality which ennobles suffering and canonises pain. If this makes them vulnerable to religious charlatans, it also prepares the ground for the emergence of genuine redeemers, prophets and twelfth imams who will be at the head of rampaging social forces with absolutely nothing to lose. By then it will be too late for the undeserving elite of Africa and for many who would have taken one long last look at the crumbling cradle of mankind.

(First published in 2003 )

April 26, 2015
Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom and liberty

This is why I am appealing to the APC to instruct all its agents to ascertain that only INDELIBLE, as opposed to VANISHING INK, is supplied for use

In the case of Afenifere that has so shamelessly and so strangely declared its support for President Jonathan, its support is worth little or nothing to the PDP. Afenifere is no longer the formidable political organisation or movement that it once was. None of its present leaders can win elections in the Southwest. They have become irrelevant in the politics of the Southwest where their political influence has fallen considerably. Equally, the traditional rulers in the Southwest that President Jonathan has been trying desperately to woo have little or no influence on the electorate in the region. Even in Ife, the Ooni, the leader of the pack, has little or no political influence now. So trying to bribe the Obas is a waste of money, time and effort. They cannot deliver the votes Jonathan needs to win the elections, if they are free and fair” -Ambassador Dapo Fafowora, fromer Nigerian Ambassador to the United States and Deputy Nigerian Representative to the United Nations.

God bless the Awujale of Ijebu land. You feel proud as a Yoruba man listening to Kabiyesi respond to President Jonathan during his visit to the paramount ruler, Thursday, 12 March, 2015. Kabiyesi is not one to lie, promising what he knows no Oba in Yoruba land can deliver.

Do you lecture the converted? Received knowledge would say, no. But that exactly was what I saw Governor Olusegun Mimiko do to his colleague PDP governors this past week in Lagos as he lectured them on the advantages of restructuring while everybody else looked like the governor was speaking Greek. The few acclamations that interspersed his long lecture were extremely tepid and unenthusiastic. Even Governor David Jang, Chairman of the Forum, was so listless he had to be helped out with his contribution. I could not stop wondering whether he knew that TVCs were being withdrawn as people obtained their PVCs, yet he was canvassing its use. Nobody joining the programme midway would ever have thought he was watching a meeting of state governors. It is, however, interesting that it has now become the burden of the Southwest PDP, and of course its acolyte, Afenifere, to carry restructuring literally on their heads for a president who, outside of the Southwest, has never made it a campaign issue. Not surprisingly, no governor at the event, besides governor Mimiko, did either.

It is equally interesting to now see PDP top guns, David Jang, their 16-is-greater-than-19 governor’s forum chairman inclusive, with their subalterns, running all over the place, ranting as to why Card Readers should not be used. By doing this, a few things have become clearer to me personally. In the first place, it says very loudly that the Ekiti rigging template, already eloquently attested to by the Captain Koli tapes, and on the basis of which President Jonathan must have once told some ambassadors that the elections would be the easiest ever, has been abandoned. I must say, however, that the six weeks’ postponement could very well be their way of getting their election-fixing rogue scientists to invent other versions. PDP is that desperate. This is why I am appealing to the APC to instruct all its agents to ascertain that only INDELIBLE, as opposed to VANISHING INK, is supplied for use. Secondly, and this explains their strident opposition to the use of card readers, is the fact that by its use, PDP will not be able to profit from a total of about 20 million voters cards which they most probably have cloned from the VIN card numbers fraudulently extracted from the 17.8 million youths TAN claimed endorsed President Jonathan as well as the about two million forms distributed all over the Southwest by a chieftain of the party on the spurious grounds that he was going to give them jobs and loans. If they contest this, they should tell Nigerians why they required VIN card numbers on those documents. Indeed, thinking that INEC was complicit in this fraud and would feed the 20 million into its system ahead of the elections, I once, on these pages, advised APC to go to court over the use of card readers. But now seeing how troubled they all are, wanting Jega out by just about any means, it is obvious the professor remains his decent self. However, we cannot go to sleep as that does not, in any way, remove the danger still lurking within INEC with many PDP card carrying members like a former Ebonyi State PDP chairman still on duty. There is, too, that one who we heard in the Ekitigate tape gave Fayose some sensitive INEC materials which he reportedly printed and used in rigging the election. Even if it is the last thing Professor Jega would do before exiting, he must fish out that rotten pig who so egregiously compromised the agency.

It is to rig the elections that they are doing everything to discredit a card reader which cannot discriminate between parties but would apply equally to all voters. PDP cannot win a single local government election without rigging as Nigerians have seen time and again. From the grave vine, we have now heard they would ensure there is no network, nationwide, on March 28 so they could blame INEC for using card readers. If this fails to stalemate the election, as it sure would, because it is not internet-based, we are told, they could orchestrate June 12 all over again, and when trouble erupts, Afenifere and their other endorsers in the Southwest would not only rise in their support but would start leading delegations to Abuja to express that support. It has, in fact, been suggested they already knew there is no way a people completely sidelined from democratic dividends for a whole six years, as we saw in the case of a highly qualified Yoruba CBN Deputy Governor, a 1976 graduate and long time staff of the apex bank, who, indeed, acted as its governor, had to give way for a 1984 graduate and total stranger to the bank, but who is from the favoured geo-political zone, when it came to appointing a substantive Central Bank governor. Nor did it matter that the Finance Minister and not less than 60 percent of heads of regulatory agencies come from those parts.

For obvious reasons, the Jonathan government had to shift the 28 February election. They just had to go for broke as the auguries were too bad, seeing defeat staring them in the face should the elections hold. But there could never have been a better time for the Sahara Reporters’ airing of Captain Koli tapes. It caught the PDP in their very jugular; whatever the braggadocio of the falcons and their falconer. For the PDP, it was road closed. Otherwise, that Igbo serial election rigger would still have been hawking about his photocromic ballot papers and the PDP would have won the election long before it took place. That route having been closed, it is not unreasonable to suggest that the six additional weeks is to enable the PDP, as indicated earlier, devise new rigging techniques. As at the time the National Security Adviser suggested postponement at the Chatham House on the grounds that sufficient number of PVCs had not been distributed, INEC had distributed about 65 percent which was much higher than the 35 percent it did in Ekiti as at the time of the governorship election and nobody heard all these jeremiads about number of PVCs distributed. Sensing then that it would not gel, they had to quickly manufacture insecurity as if a seven-year-old insurgency had just dropped from Mars. An insurgency they had romanced all these years, deliberately ill-equipping our patriotic, well trained and disciplined soldiers, suddenly shot into limelight becoming the linchpin for election postponement. Forget, in the meantime, that collaboration with our neighbours had long been suggested by the French President and Abuja did absolutely nothing. It now suddenly hit the president that he had to cooperate with them. I am sure that the full story of these days would be told one day in future and Nigerians will get to know how they were fooled. We can only imagine now, how many lives could have been saved and disruptions to the lives of our hundreds of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons avoided.

So here we are, with whatever remains of their magical 6 weeks, and I am pleading with all Nigerians to vote right as four more years of the same, or worse, is certainly not what we deserve as a nation.

March 15, 2015
Day Lagosians marched for freedom

All Progressives Congress (APC) members held a solidarity march in Lagos at the weekend to sensitise Lagosians to the importance of the rescheduled March 28 presidential election. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI and Musa Odoshimokhe, who joined the walk from Maryland, Ikeja, to the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, report.

•Tinubu, Osinbajo, Aregbesola walk for APC’s victory

It was a long walk. It was energy sapping and strenuous, but full of fun and excitement. Its organisers – the Lagos State chapter of the Buhari/Osinbajo Campaign Organisation – simply called it “March for Change”.

According to its Coordinator in the Centre of Excellence, James Abiodun Faleke, a member of the House of Representatives, the 9.2-kilometre march was primarily to send a signal to the Federal Government that Lagos – Nigeria’s political heartbeat and commercial hub – is ready for the March 28 and April 11 general elections and to psychologically reawaken Lagosians that the days of liberty and freedom are around the corner.

Besides, it was to drum up support for the party’s presential standard bearer, Gen Muhammadu Buhari, his running mate, Prof Yemi Osinbajo and other candidates of the party in the rescheduled presidential/National Assembly and governorship/State Assembly elections.

The trek had the trappings of the Great Trek of the 1830s in apartheid South Africa, when the Boers (Dutch/Afrikaans), marched eastward in search of freedom.

The record five-hour walk, which attracted Lagosians from all walks of life, literally brought Lagos Mainland to a standstill on Saturday.

As early as 7am, participants had massed at the Maryland Junction for the March for Change, which kicked off at about 8am.

By 8.00 am, National Leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was on the starting line to kick off the march. With him were party leaders, including Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola, national and state lawmakers and all candidates of the APC in the forthcoming general elections.

The candidates, who were led by APC presidential running mate Prof Yemi Osinbajo, include: governorship standard bearer Mr Akinwumi Ambode and senatorial candidates from the East, Cestral and West districts.

They are: Seantors Gbenga Bareehu Ashafa and Oluremi Tinubu for the East and Central zones and House of Representatives member Olamilekan Solomon for the West Senatorial zone.

The trio of Ashafa, Olamilekan and Senator Tinubu later took turns to speak for the candidates in their districts at the Teslim Balogun Statdium, where a solidarity rally was held to drop the curtain on the historic march.

Tinubu said it was a walk for freedom and a walk for a new Nigeria where the commonwealth of the people would be judiciously used to better the lives of the masses and not the few, who, he noted, have lorded it over others.

Wearing branded T-shirts bearing the inscription, ’Buhari+Osinbajo, Time for Change Now’, fez caps and sneakers, the party leaders repeatedly said Nigerians will no longer tolerate a shift in the time-table.

For the five hours that the March for Change lasted, Yaba/Ojuelegba bound motorists were restricted to the service lane by officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA).

Medical personnel of the Lagos State Emergency Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS) were also deployed in the route.

Resident-settlers from the East and North (Igbo and Hausa) trooped out en masse and put up spectacular displays as they danced to pro-APC slogans and songs to demonstrate support for the presidential bid of Buhari/Osinbajo and other APC candidates.

Youths, students, civil society groups, traders, professional bodies and artisans participated in the walk in anticipation of the impending freedom from oppression and impunity.

The march was electrifying. Music blared from the loud speakers mounted on buses branded in the APC colours.

Participants responded rhythmically to lyrics from the record by the popular Yoruba ‘Ewi’ exponent, Olanrewaju Adepoju, which extols the rare qualities of the APC presidential candidate.

Businesses boomed and praise-singers got patronage.

Banners of various sizes and shapes with inscriptions, such as: “Marching into the future with Buhari/Osinbajo”; “Igbo youths adopt Buhari”; “Common Sense Revolution”; and “Civil Society Groups for Buhari”, were on display.

Marching for Change were: Lagos State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, who stood in for her principal, Governor Babatunde Fashola; Lagos State governor’s wife Dame Abimbola Fashola, Lagos House of Assembly Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji; Lagos State APC deputy governorship candidate, Dr. Oluranti Adebule; House of Representative member, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa and former Lagos Information and Strategy Commissioner Mr. Dele Alake.

Others are: APC National Publicity Secretary Lai Mohammed; Lagos State APC Women Leader Mrs Kemi Nelson; Mrs Folashade Tinubu-Ojo; Alhaji Mutiu Are; Tokunbo Wahab; Lanre Odubote; Lagos APC Publicity Secretary, Mr. Joe Igbokwe; Bola Ilori; Folami Mohammed, Fuad Oki and Ayodele Adewale.

Gospel songstress Kenny St. Brown was on the band stand at the Teslim Balogun Stadium to usher in the army of walkers at about 12.30pm.

Addressing a the crowd of supporters, Tinubu noted that Nigerians have suffered so much that if the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gets a renewal of mandate, Nigeria’s economy will bleed to death.

Tinubu thanked the people for their support for the APC, noting that the long walk will not be in vain.

His words: “I thank all of you for participating in Walk for Your Freedom, the march for change. We would have elected a new president to govern us on February 14, but they changed the date to March 28. But today we are marching for that change.

“We are marching for Buhari/Osinbajo on March 28; we are marching for common sense revolution. And for Lagos State, we are marching for Ambode/Adebule on April 11.”

Aregbesola went biblical, linking the appalling situation in the country to the story of Jonah who was sent by God to deliver a message to the people of Nineveh, but disobeyed and tried to escape from God.

Aregbesola said: “I am sure both Muslims, Christians and traditionalists would have heard about the story of Jonah in the Bible, he was sent by God to deliver his message but he stubbornly refused to obey God.

“Jonah tried to escape but God allowed him to get to the middle of the sea and He caused a storm. When the people in the ship inquired about the reason for the storm and God revealed to them that Jonah was responsible. They had to throw Jonah over board to have peace. That is how Nigerians have rejected President Goodluck Jonathan.

“The man Jonathan was born good by his parents, hence, they christened him Goodluck. But, as he grew, he departed from the way of the Lord. Just like the biblical Jonah disobeyed God, Jonathan was sent by God to rebuild Nigeria but he has destroyed it. He has been rejected and his party has been rejected as well.

“But, unlike the Biblical Jonah, Nigerians won’t throw him overboard but take him out of the Presidential Villa with our ballot and send him back to his Otuoke country home in Bayelsa State.”

Osinbajo urged the people to vote en masse for the party, noting that it was time for God to liberate the people from the hands of the oppressors.

Osinbajo said: “By the grace of God, we will not be held down by the PDP misrule in Lagos State and other parts of the country. God will save our country. I know that APC will deliver on its promises.

“No amount of intimidation will stop the people from making their choice. Let us all collect our Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) to make the change that the country has longed for.”

Ambode said Lagos State will deliver over 85 per cent of its votes to ensure victory for the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket on March 28.

He said: “We said we will do a one million-man march and we did it. We thank all those who have participated in the walk which millions of Nigeria have watched live on the television. We will deliver Lagos State to Gen Buhari and continuity shall hold sway in the Centre of Excellence.”

The Coordinator of the Buhari/Osinbajo Campaign Organisation, Faleke, who is the APC candidate for the Ikeja Federal Constituency, praised the APC leaders for enduring 9.2-kilometer freedom walk, an indication that the party is fit to rule.

He said the party will march to victory and noted that the impressive turn out of the people showed their satisfaction with the development in the state.

“We will continue in our tradition of excellence. And we are saying that Lagos is ready for the elections and further shifts will no longer be entertained.”

Alake, who translated PVC as Please Vote for Change, urged Nigerians to vote right and ensure that their votes count.

Mrs Dabiri-Erewa expressed optimism that the rescheduled elections will hold and that the APC will coast to victory.

The three senatorial candidates said the PDP can never be an alternative to the APC.

Speaking for the civil society groups, Declan Ihekhire, said the body of activists in the state, have decided to pitch tent with the APC team being led Buhari/Osinbajo.

He said the perception of Gen Buhari, with his track records will stamp out corruption in the land.

“This is the only man Nigeria can trust to do the job. We are all aware that corruption is the bane of our society and unless we do something about it this country will continue to sink.

“That is why we are here and that is why we will continue to mobilise for Buhari and by the grace of God, he will be elected president of this country on March 28.

Leader of the National Association of the Nigerian Students (NANS), Southwest, Oluwatosin Ogungbede, said, Nigerian students were at the receiving end of failed government policy.

He said the incessant strikes at tertiary institutions have made many students to become hopeless, noting that they were not too sure when they will graduate.

Ogungbede said with the dwindling resources of parents and the harsh economic realities, the plight of the Nigerian student have been compounded.

He said: “With over 16,000 students from the Southwest, we will use our ballot power to elect Buhari as the next president of the country.

“Nigeria has now become a society where a 45-year-old man can no longer get married because of the economic challenges, where a 60 years old man has become a youth just because he cannot feed himself.

Ilori said the walk for change has gone a long way to show the popularity of the APC amongst Nigerians.

He said: “You will recall that we started this work for change in Osun, Ogun and we are having the Lagos edition today. It has proven that APC is made up of people who are mentally and physically fit.

“You can see that our leader, Asiwaju Tinubu, who the PDP has so much castigated, has trekked close to 10 kilometers today without resting on the road and was dancing all through.

“I want to challenge the leadership of PDP to stage a five-kilometer walk in Lagos to test its popularity rating. They have been running documentary against the person of Asiwaju but we saw how Lagosians stood for him during the walk.”

The clear message that was delivered by the participants is that a further postponement of the elections is not acceptable and that the May 29 handover date must remain sacrosanct. According to observers, the number of people that trooped out to participate in the exercise is an indication that they are fed up with the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has ruled the country at the centre since the return to civil rule 16 years ago.

The banners displayed by those who participated in the event suggest that, in spite of the delay occasioned by the postponement, Nigerians are ready to vote for the candidates of the APC at all levels. Some of the banners read: “March into New Nigeria”; “On March 28 We Stand”; “Sai Buhari”; “Competent Team to Rescue Nigeria”; and “I am Ready for Change”. A long banner displayed at the stadium by the I am Ready Group says: “I am Ready for a Meal a Day”; “I am Ready to Kick-Out Corruption”; “I am Ready for Emp[loyment”; “I am Ready”; “I am Ready”; “I am Ready”.

The idea of the march from Maryland to the Teslim Balogun Stadium was hatched by the Lagos Coordinator of the Buhari/Osinbajo Campaign, Hon. James Abiodun Faleke, 72 hours prior to the event, to coincide with the arrival of Gen. Buhari in the country from the United Kingdom.

It is to practically demonstrate the change mantra of the APC and to sensitise Lagosians to vote for the party at different levels during the rescheduled general elections. It was also meant to demonstrate the readiness of Lagosians and the party for the election.

Faleke said the walk was a psychological reawakening for the electorate. “It is also meant to send a signal to the PDP that Lagosians are ready for the elections on March 28 and April 11, 2015,” he added.

The Coordinator said the party would not tolerate any further shift of the elections. According to him, the reports emanating from the ongoing war against the insurgents in the Northeast indicate that the military is winning the war. “So, there is no reason for not holding the elections on March 28 and April 11,” he noted, adding: “Lagos State is ready; Nigerians are set for the polls; that is why we embarked on the walk show today.

“The walk is also to say that Nigerians reject the return to the dark age of the use of the Temporary Voters Card (TVC), for the coming elections. There is no going back on the use of the Permanent Voters Card (PVC).”

Faleke said Nigerians were aware of the machinations of the Presidency to win the Southwest at all costs. He said the PDP has resorted to wasting tax-payers’ money on the project. He added that such money could have been used for more meaningful projects, instead of wasting it in the face of decaying infrastructure and other social needs of the people.

He said: “I want to say that Nigerians have made up their minds and there is going to be a change at the centre by the grace of God. We are also using this occasion to tell the PDP that Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro is not the best product they can offer. His role at the Ekiti election is still being quried.”

According to speakers, the month of March will go down as an important one in the country’s political calendar because it would mark the freedom of the Nigerians from the yolk of bad governance and impunity. Tinubu said the march from Maryland to Surulere, which is a distance of about 9.2 kilometres, is a march for change, to herald the month of March. He said the PDP postponed the election from February 14 to March 28, as if March 28, which he alluded to as the day of reckoning, would not come.

The APC National Leader said the ruling party postponed the election because it was afraid of being voted out of power. He said: “I thank all of you for heeding the call to walk for your freedom; for agreeing to march for change. This is the month of March. On February 14, we would have elected a new President to govern us! But, they changed it to March, right? Today, we are in the month of March and we are marching for that change that we desire. We are marching for Buhari and Osinbajo; we are marching for common sense revolution!”

Tinubu said Nigerians are fed up with the PDP, which has ruled the country for the last 16 years, but has nothing to show for it. He sang a song in Yoruba, alluding to the fact that Nigerians have persevered with the ruling party for a long time, but have no light to iron their clothes.

He urged Nigerians to vote for APC candidates at all levels, beginning from the presidential election, saying the President has been coming to Lagos in the last couple of weeks to persuade people to vote for him.

Senator Ashafa said it is obvious that the ruling party has been trying to intimidate the electorates not to vote for the candidates of their choice. His words: “I want to seize this opportunity to thank all of you for supporting us. It is obvious they are trying to intimidate you. Will you be intimidated? Are you ready to vote APC?

Ambode said the APC has proved a point by undertaking the event dubbed the one million-man march “We said we will do a one million-man march and we did it. Beyond those of us that marched on the streets, others are glued to their television sets, watching this event. He said: “They thought by shifting the day of the election, they could shift our destiny. But, they cannot shift our destiny; our destiny is intertwined with the future of Nigeria; the future of Nigeria is about prosperity.

“We know that the only party that can give you a prosperous future is the APC. They have been saying that they would retain power at all costs, but power belongs to God. Twenty-one days from today, we are going to elect our new president. We are going to usher in the election with a 21-day fasting and prayers. We will go to all our churches, we will go to all our mosques; nothing can stop our destiny.”

Ambode thanked all those who took part in the march for supporting the party, saying the PDP has nothing to offer. He said: “The change we are all asking for is around the corner. Starting from March 28, we will start counting down to this desired change. This change we are asking for will happen if you vote right.” The APC governorship candidate said to the APC, PVC means “please vote for change” and that Buhari/Osinbajo will score about 85 per cent in Lagos come March 28.

Members of the APC across the 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) participated in the march. Political office holders and candidates in the forthcoming general elections and their supporters also took part in the march. Besides, thousands of residents lined up the street, along Ikorodu Road, to cheer them.

March 9, 2015