The Nation Newspaper

Tag: future

  • Where is the future for our youths?

    SIR: If the youths are the future, then there is no hope for Nigeria.  The impressionable mind of the youths has been hijacked by the atrocious actions of adults.  Raw energy and beauty of youth that are the envy of the old are being wasted on recklessness.  It brings tears to conscientious eyes watching the blooming youngsters on a riotous rage.

    No forum is considered sacred.  The sheer number of the youths and the strength of their youthfulness are subduing.  The anger caused by their disregard for civility flames the mind.  Wisdom calls for subtlety in keeping peace when they are in action.  They pounce like a hurricane and overwhelm everyone with force.  Like robbers, they make unwarranted demands.  Their ability to cause mischief when they do not have their way is left to one’s wildest imagination.

    It is bewildering to witness the youths impose their self-entitlement on the public, more so, the manner in which the victims acquiesce.  This submission could be out of fear of being harmed or shame of being exposed.  The society is so fraught with unruliness that the youths do not have positive models of behavior to emulate.  There is no moral authority to guide them.  They are forced to regurgitate the poison internalized from a polluted society.

    It is like singing the same old song all over again.  The youths are the offspring of a culture of endemic poverty.  They do not have a strong family background.  They are badly educated, and as a consequence, they cannot be gainfully employed.  They live in a nation without a social network to propel them out of their debilitating circumstance.  They resort to primitive instinct to battle their way through the rough passage.

    Their world is like a vicious circle.  The police do not interfere in the affairs of the youths.  They will rather implore the victim of their action to settle.  The poor urchins must find a means to survive.  Politicians shy away from their confrontations since they represent the anger for their destitution.  The restlessness of the youths manifests in the recklessness of the society.  They are antagonized by the society for their rebelliousness.

    The youths do not represent the totality of the young people.  Though the rocketing of their menace reverberates shockingly, the glowing promise of endeavoring stars is not overshadowed.  Youths deserve a unified voice for political representation.  Like everything in Nigeria, youth movement has been corrupted to a legion of thugs.

    One hopes this episode of bad behavior by the youths will soon pass away.  The government is not skillful at arresting problematic situations and God must be challenged since most of the youths are prayer warriors.  The redemption is that Nigerians are not strangers to existential conundrums.  The youths should know that violence is not the answer.  They should drop the brawns and pick up the books.

    •Pius Okaneme

    Umuoji, Anambra State.

  • Efugh undecided on future

    Efugh undecided on future

    Heartland centre-back, Chinedu Efugh has said he is undecided on his future concerning the 2013/14 Glo Premier League season.

    The Heartland captain fought hard to ensure the Naze Millionaires maintain their status in the top flight as they finished their campaign in the out gone season in 11th position on 52 points.

    Efugh said he wants to know the programme on offer at the Owerri-based side before he decides on the next move.

    “I want to know what Heartland have for us before I make the next move. I believe it is proper for one to know what his team has on offer, at least, that will help one to arrive at a decision. That’s why I’ve decided to lie low, fold my arms and watch developments unfold but I know for sure that in no distant time some decisions will be taken,” said the former Enugu Rangers man to supersport.com.

    Efugh said several clubs have made approaches to him but he has asked for more time to take a stand on the offers.

    “I’ve been approached for a switch by several clubs, discussions are still ongoing somewhere outside Heartland but I’ve politely told the teams to allow me time to finalise things with my club before I give them my final word.

    “I’ll like to smoothen things out with Heartland so that if for any reason I decide to move on it will be very peaceful,” Efugh said.

  • Education ‘must be total for brighter future’

    Education ‘must be total for brighter future’

    Ben Akintelure is the Principal of Phidel College, a Seconday school situated at Isheri-Olofin, Idimu on the outskirts of Lagos. In this interview with ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA, Akintelure speaks on how secondary school pupils should be prepared to have a well-groomed future. Excerpts:

    Only a few schools use more than one curriculum to teach. Why is this so?

    Exposing the pupils to various curricula is good because it provides them with different opportunities. In British curriculum, students are trained to finish in five years. There are some topics that are not found in British syllabus but are treated in the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) and vice-versa. There are some topics you don’t need to go into details for the British curriculum, but in WAEC or the National Examination Council (NECO), you are expected to teach. Another fundamental difference is that the British curriculum requires logic and thinking but in most cases, WAEC or NECO are too direct. Pupils that can memorise notes very well can easily pass WEAC or NECO. But in the British curriculum, you will fail if you are not intelligent.

    In Phidel, which is given priority?

    What we do here is prepare pupils using the Nigerian, British and American curricular, and we have certified teachers who can handle these. This, we hope, will make our pupils stand out.

    In truth, you cannot say one curriculum is better than the other. Preference for one curriculum depends on what you want to achieve. If you want your children to go to school in Nigeria after their secondary school education, you have the option. And if you want them to study abroad, with the training we give them here, they can also achieve that. We provide them different opportunities. In fact, basic languages of the world, including French and Chinese languages, are made compulsory for pupils at some point in their education here. The types of the exams we undertake here include WAEC, NECO, International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).

    People are clamouring for vocational subjects to be made compulsory in the secondary school syllabus. What is your opinion?

    The idea is that when you teach pupils vocational subjects, you are actually nurturing them to be future leaders that can be self-reliant and can contribute to the society. The point is that pupils should be taught vocational subjects so thats if they cannot get white collar job, at the end of their education, they can take up a vocation in which they were tranend and developed them.

    Here, we teach our pupils vocational subjects. We have a standard Home Economics room where the pupils can put to practice what they have learnt. There is clothing and textile room with various sewing machines. We do tie and dye here. Our music studio is fantastic. There is no musical instrument that cannot be handled by our music teachers. We are also training the students in phonics, diction, etiquette and courtesy.

    What measures have you in checking anti-social behaviours particularly among the boarding pupils?

    The moment you are registered, you are trained to imbibe values that are expected of a responsible citizen in the society. With the orientation you are given, you cannot do otherwise.

    For the boarding pupils, we have standard hostels. In some schools for instance, there are big hostewith 15 to 20 beds space for pupils; but here, we have our rooms accommodating maximum of four pupils so the issue of bullying would be eradicated. In a situation where you put many pupils in a big room, the senior usually bully the junior ones. Some are even molested, that is how bad it can get.

    Would you say there are enough facilities in the school to ensure your set objectives are met?

    Yes! We have amazing structure, environment, a well-equipped school auditorium, and also constant power supply. Our standby power generating sets take over immediately there is power outage. We have a sports complex consisting of volleyball court, tennis court, standard swimming pool and football pitch with synthetic surface. We have a computer laboratory that is well-equipped and connected to the internet. Our classrooms are fully air-conditioned. We have the sickbay where nurses attend to pupils. There are schools buses that take day pupils to and from school though this is optional. And of course we have qualified teachers and experienced teachers.

    One other important thing is our dinning. From experience, when pupils are not well-fed, they lack concentration, and the brain will not develop. Here, the dinning is taken care of in such a way that we make sure the pupils are well-fed.

    At Phidel College, we have structures, facilities, equipment and seasoned teachers to achieve the set goals. We want to ensure every pupil that has his secondary school education here becomes the pride of this country.

  • Guaranteeing future of the girl-child

    Guaranteeing future of the girl-child

    Govts urged to transform education

    The problem of the female folk, experts say, starts from their infancy. From childhood, the issue of their subjugation begins to manifest. From infancy, they face the problem of preference of the boy child over them. Again, on human development, the girl-child is also at the receiving end. Parents prefer sending their male children to school. The girls stay at home to carry out domestic chores.

    They also suffer the highest number of school-drop-out in Nigeria. Experts maintain that Nigeria accounts for the highest number of out-of-school girls in Africa.

    This has become a source of worry to individuals, civil society groups and governments at all levels. The international community is no less concerned about the nauseating phenomenon.

    In the circumstances, therefore, the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) has focused attention on the development of the girl child, with special consideration for their education.

    So, to mark the second International Day of the Girl Child, the UNICEF has urged governments at all levels to show more commitment to getting more girls enrolled into schools and improve the quality of learning for all children.

    Despite the decreasing number of girls that are out of school, too many around the world are still denied quality education and a chance to reach their full potential. UNICEF expressed its worry that there is terrifying evidence to the effect that even a single year of secondary school for a girl correlates with as much as a 25 per cent increase in her future earnings. But today, millions of girls are still out of school, including 31 million primary school-aged girls.

    The executive director of UNICEF, Anthony Lake said that “education can transform the lives of girls and strengthen their communities. Innovation can help us reach every girl by transforming education.”

    He further said that with its partners, UNICEF is exploring how technology can increase access to education for out-of-school girls and improve the quality of learning for every child.

    In South Africa, the TechnoGirls partnership among UNICEF, the government, and over 100 private sector companies is connecting 10,000 adolescent girls with mentors from the tech sector to boost their skills and job readiness.

    “Innovation is also helping governments and their partners to reach the-hardest-to-reach children who are at the greatest risk of being out of school. In Uganda, EduTrack is using SMS text messaging to connect students and schools with UNICEF, enabling them to report on learning, teacher quality, and violence in schools.

    “Innovation is not only about technology. It can mean embracing new ways to overcome other barriers that keep girls out of school, like improving sanitary facilities and keeping girls safe as they walk to and from school.

    Continuing, Mr. Lake said: “Innovation is giving us powerful new tools to reach and teach more girls than ever before.

    “To help more girls go to school, stay in school, and complete their learning, we need to keep learning ourselves, using these new tools, generating new ideas, and scaling up the most promising innovations.”

  • Getting set for future

    Getting set for future

    SIX million youths are thrown into the job market yearly, with the only 10 per cent getting employed. With such a frightening figure of unemployment, the onus, many beleive, is on students to stem the tide. Rather than waiting on the government for job, it is believed that they should employ skill acquisition to tackle the problem.

    This was the aim of the examination conducted for students offering Rehabilitation Education after a workshop organised by the School of Special Education, Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo State.

    The Head of the department, Dr A. I. Ajobiewe, said the course would run through the session, during which students would be made to acquire skills of their choice. She said students could specialise in over 33 vocations, depending on their interest. She listed block making, bag weaving, bead making, horticulture, leather works, tiling, barbing, hair dressing, catering and batik making, among others, as skills students could acquire.

    The examination, which started at 8am, was held in the department’s workshop. The students were divided into groups and required to carry out what they learned during the workshop.

    CAMPUSLIFE gathered that the experts who conducted the training were not lecturers; they were hired by the school to instruct the trainees on various skills.

    Dr Ajobiewe said the institution wanted to open the eyes of its students to entrepreneurship, which was why the course was added to the school’s curricula. She urged the students to acquire lucrative skills during the training, advising them to think beyond academic and seek practical knowledge on how to be productively engaged after graduation.

    After the training which lasted for a session, the students prepared for the test. They besieged the department to unleash the expertise received from the workshop. Some of them who trained in catering appeared in white apron, other groups also came in various shades of aprons.

    Mr Ajayi Olufemi, a lecturer in the department, harped on the importance of skill acquisition. He said entrepreneurship was the way the nation could tackle unemployment. He urged the students to utilise the skills they acquired during the training, saying it would be an added advantage for them when they leave the school.

    At 4pm, the exercise ended. Participants submitted their works for assessment. Some of them completed the task before the time while others could not.

    Mr Emmanuel Ajayi, a lecturer in the department, chided some students who could not complete the task, saying they did not attend the workshop regularly.

    Some of the group leaders spoke to CAMPUSLIFE after the exercise. Joy Umaru, who led the interior decoration group, said the exam tested their practical knowledge of the vocation. She advised her colleagues to explore ways to practise what they were taught at the workshop.

    Adenike Adekunle, bag weaving group’s head, said: “The course has made me to better understand vocational training. I will source for capital to start the business because I just cannot wait anymore.”

    Another group leader, Agnes Ibeh, soap making, said: “I want to start something with the skill I have acquired and make profit from it.”

     

  • Toying with our future

    Once again the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has shut down academic activities in most of Nigeria’s public universities save in just a few where the local ASUU branches have broken ranks with the national body to assert their ‘autonomy’.

    And expectedly, both the union and the federal government have gone on the charm offensive to get the public behind their different positions which paint the other as the devil in the battle to save our ‘crumbling’ university education.

    While ASUU would want the rest of us to believe that it is fighting to restore the glory back to our universities, the government is convinced that the lecturers are only interested in their own wellbeing but using alleged infrastructural decay in the universities as a screen to push for better pay.

    It is over a month now since the students were asked to go home indefinitely and both ASUU and the federal government are nowhere near an agreement even as they were locked in another round of negotiation yesterday. But things could change for the better as news emerged yesterday that the government had approved about N400 billion for infrastructure upgrade in the universities.

    But if no agreement was reached on the N92 billion or so that the lecturers are asking for to augment their pay along with the approval for the infrastructure upgrade, the truth behind ASUU’s indefinite strike could soon be revealed. Should the government release the funds for the infrastructural development and stuck to its guns that it cannot afford the N92 billion ASUU wants for its members, Nigerians could be forced to ask whether the lecturers are truly interested in the health of the universities and the students or simply their pocket?

    But should government do this, it would only further damage its reputation as an unreliable partner in any agreement and further foul the already strained relationship the students and their parents are having with ASUU over the spate of strikes that have brought academics activities in our universities to their knees more often than not in the last decades or so.

    The federal government had reneged several times on agreements reached with ASUU in recent times, the same way it has done with similar agreements with several other unions. Even in the economic sector, the government appears incapable or unwilling to act its own part of an agreement or perform as expected. Joint venture partners in the oil sector have cried out several times that the government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had been lagging behind in fulfilling its own side of the funding of the sector. Ditto with the health sector and virtually every other sectors where government counterpart funding was required. The Nigerian government it appears is good at entering into an agreement but unwilling or reluctant to fulfil it to the letter.

    The unfulfilled agreement that led to the latest strike action by ASUU was signed with the government in 2009. The federal government went into it with its eyes wide open. If it wasn’t willing to fulfil it or knew it wouldn’t be able to fulfil it, why did the government sign? Agreed that ASUU has a way of bullying its way through every agreement with government, but the government shouldn’t allow itself to be bullied. When ASUU wants something from government all it does is send the students home to put pressure on their parents who would in turn put pressure on government to accede to the lecturers demands. Nowhere in the world has the government or other employers met all the demands of workers. The best that had ever happened was reaching an agreement that satisfied both parties; an implementable agreement. Is the 2009 ASUU/FG agreement implementable? To the government, No, while ASUU says YES if the will is there.

    The union and its sympathisers are quick to point at the astronomical pay of our politicians especially members of the National Assembly to buttress the point that government could pay if it is willing. They could have a point here. But government that says it cannot accommodate N92 billion or thereabout that the lecturers are asking for as this would shoot the recurrent expenditure to an unbearable level also has a point here. So what do we do?

    Can or should we pay the lecturers all they ask for at the expense of other workers or we should pay all workers all they ask for at the expense of the health of the economy? Should we say because our politicians are paying themselves ‘too much’ all government/public sector workers should also earn ‘too much’?

    This is not a defence of irresponsibility on the part of government but a call for give and take on both sides for the sake of the students and our future. The health sector just like every other sector is not perfect, but if doctors shut down the hospitals (or mere consulting clinics as some would like to call them) as often as lecturers shut down the universities, half of Nigerians would be dead by now. There has to be a better way of resolving the problem of funding of our universities and other tertiary institutions other than strikes and ASUU’s arm twisting tactics.

    Think of the students and our future. On the average, students spend between five and seven years in our public universities for a four-year Bachelors programme, no thanks to ASUU strikes. Majority of these students either because of JAMB or WAEC disappointments or a combination of both don’t enter university until they are about age 20. They graduate at about age 26/27, if they are lucky. They spend one year on NYSC. So, by the time they are ready for the employment market, they are already in their late 20s, already overage, as most employers go for graduate under 25 years of age. So, these graduates in order to fit in to the requirements of the employers including government would now begin to ‘doctor’ their ages. So the system is forcing them to be dishonest. Imagine the multiplier effect of that on the society, no thanks to ASUU’s incessant strikes and our irresponsible governments that never kept to agreement.

    So as we continue another round of ASUU strike let whoever is responsible both on the part of the lecturers, university administrators and government remember that our future as a people and a nation is at stake. These children that are being half baked would be our leaders tomorrow and whatever we teach them now is what they would use to lead us when their time comes. We might be too weak to intervene then if they do the wrong thing. We’ll suffer then for the stupid things we are doing today. Let’s come together now and address the problem of the education sector for the sake of our tomorrow.

     

  • ‘Oil decline spells bleak future for Nigeria’

    A combination of continuous decline in global crude oil prices and domestic crude oil production could bring Nigerians back into austerity as the resultant gloomy macroeconomic condition reverberates across all sectors of the economy.

    This is the assessment of a group of independent analysts led by Mr Bismarck Rewane.

    In its latest bi-monthly economic and business update, Rewane’s Financial Derivatives, Company (FDC) Limited, noted that a further decline in global oil prices for as much as 17.5 basis points could further depress Nigeria’s declining economic performance.

    Recent report by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that Nigeria’s economic output in the first quarter slipped by 0.43 per cent to 6.56 per cent in the first quarter of this year as against 6.99 per cent recorded in the previous quarter-fourth quarter of 2012. The decline was largely due to poor output in the oil sector, which led to a 1.05 per cent decline in the sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Products (GDP) to 14.75 per cent.

    Global oil prices had declined considerably in recent period. Nigeria’s bonny light crude trades at $107.5pb, 7.2 per cent lower than $115.3 per barrel (pb) in first quarter of the year just as Nigeria’s oil output fell to 1.94 million barrel per day (mbpd) in April. The decline in global oil prices was largely due to demand concerns and the continuous uncertainty in Europe while domestic oil output has been negatively affected by several disruptions such as pipeline vandalism, bunkering and force majeure.

    FDC noted that the declining price and output imply a shortfall in federal government revenue as a result of Nigeria’s ultra dependence on oil, estimating that Nigeria might have since lost some 6.8 per cent of its oil revenue of $1.85 trillion in first quarter of the year.

    According to analysts, a further decline in global oil prices to $90pb will be devastating for the Nigerian economy, as the reverberations of the shocks will hamper any form of growth across all sectors of the economy.

    They outlined that the negative developments in the oil sector due to declining oil production could result in depletion of external reserves, exchange rate instability and increased debt and higher fiscal deficit.

    All these would be compounded by possible increase in the government spending in view of the military action in some Northern states, which poses potential risks to inflation and exchange rate.

    “Given that oil prices, notably bonny light crude, decline to $90pb, Nigeria could see a further decline in its growth rate by 1.5per cent. Also, oil revenue would immediately decline by 30 per cent or $2.4 billion per month in nominal terms. This will cause a rapid increase in government borrowing, adding to the current total government debt of N8.7 trillion and increase the nation’s fiscal deficit beyond the current target of 2.85 per cent of GDP,” analysts noted.

    They pointed out that as the value of the naira falls towards N165/$ at the parallel market and the likelihood for capital flight increases, external reserves would be depleted by about $10 billion to $15 billion from the current level of $48.5 billion. The resultant $33.5 billion to $38.5 billion will only cover an average of eight months of exports, which may lead to increase in Nigeria’s borrowing.

    “The implications of a further decline in oil prices paint a bleak picture for the Nigerian economy,” FDC stated.

    Analysts, however, the stated that there was possibility of an upturn in global economy, which may also positively impact on Nigeria’s economic outlook and stave the economy from austere future.

     

  • Okorocha to Imo kids: your future is in your hands

    Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha yesterday urged the children to take advantage of the free education and other child-friendly programmes of the government to build a better future for themselves.

    The governor urged them to be forward-looking, confident and resistant to the mentality of having any poor background.

    He noted that such negative mentality would not do their future any good but by taking their destinies into their hands.

    Okorocha spoke on this year’s celebration’s theme: Our Children, Our Future, Our Collective Responsibility, held at the Heroes’ Square, Owerri, the state capital.

    He advised the children to be problem solvers and take their education seriously because greatness is about getting problems solved.

    He said: “The development we seek lies in our sacrifices for our children to gain quality education with the children of the poorest of the poor having equal opportunity with their privileged counterparts.

  • What future for Nigeria’s youths?

    What future for Nigeria’s youths?

    SIR: “The youths are the future of this nation.” This has been a popular saying that has been used on so many occasions to re-create the impression that the youths hold the key to not just the future but a bright one.

    No doubt, this popular saying has been abused by all including the youths who realistically know that the future is out of their hands and that darkness has already set on their chances to change their destiny and that of their nation.

    With the plethora of challenges, problems and issues facing the teeming youths, it is conspicuous that they are no longer the future of the nation. They have been relegated to the seat of redundant spectators in the administration of the country hence the maladministration that characterises the day.

    The situation Nigerian youths find themselves in is saddening and disturbing. Their current status has confirmed that the future of the nation is bleak. The big question begging for answer is where does the future lie? Or with whom does the much talked about future lie?

    The worst scenario is that most Nigerian graduates remain unemployed. This is because they are the reflection of the decayed Nigerian educational sector. Universities on yearly basis churn out graduates yet, employing them remain a mirage. These graduates now compete for the little poorly remunerated jobs available.

    Consequently, fraud, armed robbery, prostitution and other criminal activities have become the order of the day. So sad, government has always sang the song “be self employed” even when they create no environment to realise this. The same government further turns these youths into thugs to achieve their objectives.

    My questions to our leaders at all levels are: were they brought up this way? Have they forgotten that posterity will judge them? Are their children also facing the same problems with majority of other youths whose futures are dwindling seconds after seconds? Why have they turned issues affecting or regarding the youths into rhetorical jamboree? I wonder if they know that those who live in glass houses do not throw stones. They have forgotten that the neglect of the youths has resulted into the abundance of problems that afflicts this nation.

    The time is ripe for leaders at all levels to admit their incompetence in handling youths’ issues and most importantly failure to provide the poor youths the future they deserved. They should know that the country was not handed over to them by their founding fathers the way they have made it to be.

    With the current scenario in the lives of Nigerian youths, they are so frustrated to the extent that they are no longer dreaming of the future not to talk of a bright one.

     

    • Owolagba Blessing

    IBB University, Lapai, Niger State

     

  • ‘Why I want to return to Nigeria after 47 years in U.K’

    ‘Why I want to return to Nigeria after 47 years in U.K’

    Dotun Adebayo is an accomplished Nigerian media professional who has lived in the United Kingdom for almost fifty years. Honoured by the Queen of England with the prestigious Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) award in 2009, Adebayo has published three bestseller novels, has been presenting the award-winning global news magazine programme All Night for BBC Radio 5 Live in the last 12 years and runs his own TV Channel, Colourtelly. In this interview with Editor Online, Lekan Otufodunrin, Adebayo shares his dream to return home to Nigeria

     

    AFTER living in the United Kingdom for about fifty years, at what point did you start thinking of returning home?

    It is incredible to think that I have been living in Britain for 47 years now. It seems like just yesterday that I left the comfort zone of my grandparent’s house on Oke-Ado Market Road in Ibadan to face the harsh winters and the frosty welcome of Britain and the British.

    I have been thinking of returning home for most of that time. Since the first day I arrived. My father beat the desire out of me at the age of six. And before I know it I was 50 years old and time was slipping.

    But when you have family (two daughters in my case) it becomes trickier and trickier to return home. Your desire is further complicated by the passing on of your relatives in Nigeria which makes a homecoming more and more distant, or at least the compulsion to return home becomes less and less imminent.

    In short, I have been thinking of coming home for nearly fifty years.

    What exactly would you say is your motivation for wanting to return to Nigeria?

    My main motivation for returning home is to be part of the explosion of the media and in particular radio and television that is happening in Nigeria. And I want to be part of that. If it continues at this pace, Nigeria could quite easily be the world centre for television, just as we are the most prolific of all film industries, thanks to the enthusiasm and enterprise of our great Nollywood industry.

    What is the right offer that will make you pack your bags and head for Nigeria?

    The right offer has to match what the BBC is paying me, which is a LOT of money. I would consider several parties coming for me at a lower rate as long as it matches my BBC contract. I know what I’m worth and I am not worth a penny less than the BBC pays me. In fact, I’m worth more.

    What have been the reactions to your decision by family, friends and colleagues at work?

    My wife understands. My daughters understand. My brothers understand. No doubt my colleagues will give me their reaction when they read this article.

    How much of the Nigerian media landscape do you know and what is your assessment of the organisations?

    My father started out as features editor of the Daily Times in the 1950s. Then he went on to NBC as a broadcaster in the early 1960s. When I returned to Nigeria in 1977 as a teenager, I wrote several plays for Bendel Playhouse which was the Bendelites big drama production on Bendel State TV in those days.

    I have freelanced for several Nigerian publications in the past and I keep abreast with particularly the newspapers online and the likes of Arise and BEN Television from the UK side on cable TV. I don’t get to hear as much Nigerian radio as I would like to. As far as the newspapers are concerned, Nigeria has one of the most vibrant press cultures in the world. Our columnists are second to none. I can’t wait to cross swords with them all.

    As far as television presenters are concerned, I’ll give them 7/10 – see me after class. They could try harder.

    Do you have any particular big new channel in mind?

    Yes. I have had a couple of offers. One serious one with a channel that is due to launch in the summer. But, like I say, I’m open to offers.

    What are the advantages of the media explosion Nigeria is experiencing and how best can we maximise it?

    The media explosion can only be sustained if the people are lifted up and are able to shore it up with their buying power. The Nigerian explosion has to bypass the politicians and fight for and reflect the aims and aspirations of the Nigerian middle class so that everybody can have a goal to head for.

    I don’t want to see negativity. We can’t afford that. That media explosion can not only make Nigeria great, it can make Nigerians great.

    How did you accomplish so much in the print, book and broadcast industry in U.K?

    I work very hard. I work harder than anyone else. If I see someone working harder than me, I lose sleep to catch up and overtake them.

    Is it not arguable that you are the most successful Nigerian broadcaster in U.K?

    It is without question. Who else would contend with me?

    How have you coped with racism and prejudice being of Nigerian decent?

    We are born strong. Racism is a weakness. We stand strong and fight it on a daily basis. Institutionalised racism is the trickier beast. For that we have to build our own infrastructure so that we don’t need to rely on anyone else.

    Hence my self-sufficiency in publishing – my own publishing house, in media – my own internet television company and so on.

    What is your background in terms of your family, education and other things Nigerians need to know about you?

    I come from a family of accountants, the exception being my father. My grandparents were very good friends of Fela Kuti’s parents. Fela and my dad and my uncle were great friends. I went to school with the children of Tafawa Balewa (the original Corona School on Victoria Island). I am 100% Nigerian and will always be.

    What do you mean that Nigeria is the future and Britain is the past?

    Britain’s time has come and gone. Nigeria’s time is just head of us if we seize the time and make use of it. Yes, I can see a time in the next fifty years when we are sending aid to Britain.

    Supposing you don’t get the kind of offer you want, will you still be interested in returning home?

    I’m coming home, no matter what. Without that big transfer deal it might take time, but I long for my real pounded yam. I’m tired of the powdered stuff.

    Many Nigerians will do anything to live in U.K. What is your advice for such people?

    Do anything? That’s up to you. I have lived there so I won’t stop you. But don’t kill yourself to get there.

    Are you bothered about the negative reports about life in Nigeria?

    All I’m worried about is armed robbers. Boko Haram doesn’t worry me. Just armed robbers. The only thing that stops expatriates like myself from returning home is the lack of security which the state is supposed to be providing – not just for itself but for the rest of us.