The Nation Newspaper

Tag: gateway

  • Ogun  commissioner rallies Gateway for NPFL 

    Ogun  commissioner rallies Gateway for NPFL 

    Ogun State Commissioner for Sports Development, Hon. Wasiu Isiaka, has hailed  Gateway United for their six-match unbeaten run, urging them to remain focused on securing the elusive top-flight ticket. 

    Currently in 4th  place, just  three  points behind table-toppers Osun United, Gateway United has seven  matches left under Samson Omiponle’s leadership in the current campaign, with hopes of making it to the playoffs looking promising.

    Speaking about the team’s recent form, Hon . Isiaka emphasized the positive outcomes of the state government’s efforts to revitalize the club. He commended both players and coaching staff for their outstanding performance, urging them to continue building on their achievements with the imminent promotion to the NPFL in sight.

    “The State Football Club, Gateway United FC has unfortunately remained in the second division of the Nigerian league for over a decade now, since 2010. The club sometimes struggle to survive relegation to the third division, but will GUFC change the story of over a decade this time? I am sure this will be the case, as we are working hard to put things in order,” he said. 

    Read Also: NPFL sanctions Gombe United over unruly behaviour

    Addressing the prolonged stay of Gateway United in the second division, Commissioner Isiaka expressed determination to change this narrative, backed by Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun’s support. 

    “We have a directive from our sports-loving Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun to do all that is possible to reposition this club. And I can assure you that with the cooperation of all football enthusiasts and stakeholders, this is just the beginning of a Greater GUFC. In the coming months, we would come out better,” he stated.

    Speaking in the same vein,  General Manager  of the club, Niyi Soleye,  appreciated the state government’s unwavering support and Commissioner Wasiu Isiaka’s morale-boosting presence at the Onikan Stadium.

    He called for collective efforts from all stakeholders to ensure Gateway United’s promotion to the NPFL, pledging the team’s commitment to overcoming challenges and avoiding complacency on their journey to success.

  • Beekeeping: Gateway to wealth creation and good health

    Nigerian honey and its by products are currently in hot demands in Europe signifying that bee farmers in the country need to step up their production to meet up with international and local markets. SINA FADARE, who has been the following the trends reports.

    BEES are wonderful insects created for the use of man. However, its potentials have not been well articulated for many decades by human until in the recent times when scientific research has shown the importance of the ‘golden insect’.

    According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, bee offers a lot of potentials with minimal investment. Perhaps against this backdrop, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture has mapped out a strategy to encourage bee keepers to diversify into its commercial production in order to create employment opportunities for youths.

    Mr. Bidemi Oyeleye is the Chief Executive, Centre for Bee Research and Development and the President of the Federation of Beekeepers Association of Nigeria (FEBKAN) with about 35 years romance with beekeeping,  he told The Nation that the potentials inherent in beekeeping is so enormous that if government could invest in the sector, it is more lucrative than petroleum.

    His success story in beekeeping with over 4000 hives scattered in various forests in Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State where honey and other by products are produced gave him the conclusion that bee farming could liberate youths from firm grip of poverty

    The inherent potential in beekeeping and the continuous importation of honey for domestic consumption which has been a source of worry   to beekeepers in the country necessitated the recent coming together of all the movers and shakers of beekeeping industry in Nigeria at a conference at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ibadan, Oyo State.

    The Conference that was organised by the Centre For  Bee Research And Development, (CEBRAD) with the theme ‘Let the honey flow’  gathered all the stakeholders ( Bee farmers, honey packers, researchers, MDAs with beekeeping mandate, policy makers, investors and bee scholars)  within and outside the country to brainstorm on how  the ‘golden juice’ can flow in the country.

    The guest speaker, Mr. Daniel Schulze, Vice President of Hanse Hamburg Naturroh-stoffe; a leading bee products importer in Germany, lamented that many big honey buyers are very reluctant to buy honey from China in the recent times because of fake products which is now a global problem.

    According to him, this has increased the demand for quality honey from Nigeria, which is largely regarded as a trusted source. He added that taking standard and quality into serious consideration, “this is a big opportunity for beekeepers in Nigeria to establish themselves as one of the country’s capable to meet the demand of the world for high quality bee products.”

    Ambassador B. A Nurudeen, Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the ECOWAS Commission noted that, “In recent times apiculture industry has become a profitable agricultural enterprise in all parts of the world including Nigeria. It is an important foreign exchange earner for those that export honey and bees-wax. Regrettably, beekeeping as a commercial venture is still largely unexplored in Nigeria, and the country meets domestic demand for honey mostly by importation from producer countries.”

    Nurudeen explained that, “To effectively maximize the benefits of apiculture and develop beekeeping value chains that will accelerate Medium and Small-Scale Enterprise (MSSE) in Nigeria, stakeholders need to put more emphasis on beekeeping policy at national, regional and continental levels.”

    Art of bee keeping

    According to bee farmers, one third of the world’s food crop is dependent on food `pollination’; therefore bees are important for the survival of many more plants.  Prof. Willie Siyanbola, a researcher at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, argued that beekeeping requires experience, anticipation and an understanding of various external factors outside one’s control with knowledge of bee science, botany and modern agriculture.

    He explained that adult honeybees eat pollen and nectar adding that they also pick up some of the pollen and transport it to the next plant where they feed.

    To Ismail Abdul Azeez, a bee consultant, beekeeping is an investment for mining wealth. He explained that a prospective entrepreneur needs a small space. “After finding this, the next step is to create hives, as many as 30 hives which can be kept in an area as small as 25 x 50ft. One can start with N150,000 after land acquisition.”

    He explained that “Success in beekeeping requires an intimate knowledge of the biology of honey bee as management practices are based on colony habits and bee behaviour. These skills, he said, could be acquired after two days training. New beekeepers need to make observations of bee activities and examine their colony’s hive frequently.”

    Speaking about his romance with bee, Mr. Ademola Adigun, a bee farmer and a Natural Science Student said bee is a wonderful insect that takes a very unique position in entomology. “They (bees) have their guiding angel. They have their uniqueness in food and medical world. They are intelligent insect, the Queen, the foragers and the soldiers. We have about 28 enzymes. That is why honey is used for a lot of illnesses.”

    Corroborating the potential inherent in beekeeping, Mr. Lawal Abdulraman Adebowale, a bee farmer and a postgraduate student at the University of Abuja noted that his familiarisation with beekeeping since 13 years ago has been fruitful and financially rewarding.

    Adebowale who is the Coordinator of Nigerian Youths in Beekeeping has his farm in Saki area of Oke-Ogun in Oyo State. He explained that been a student does not hinder his business as a bee farmer because he was able to meet his entire financial obligations from his bee farm.

    Why the honey is yet to flow

    Like all agricultural products in the country that is bedeviled with one crisis or the other, apiculture sector is not exceptional. According to Siyanbola, the country is producing an average of 200,000 tonnes of honey annually, while the consumption rate stood at 380,000 tonnes. Therefore the rest 180,000 are imported into the country in order to meet up with the local consumption capacity.

    Given credence to this, the Team Leader, USAID Bee keeping Pollination Project, Mr. David Musa noted that the domestic consumption rate of honey in the country is currently 380,000, with a global price of about $4.5 billion.

    According to him, Nigeria can generate over $10 billion from local and international trade in honey and other hive products, stressing   the need for the country to get honey export certification from the European Union

    Musa pointed out that the country has a lot to offer in terms of producing good and quality honey and other by products to the international market adding that if all potentials in the industry are harnessed “it is a gold mine.”

    However speaking to The Nation on why honey cannot flow as expected in the country, a researcher and expert in honeybee behaviour and health, Dr. Kayode Akinwande said honey can only flow if all the stakeholders put up a policy on bee keeping and follow it to the logical conclusion.

    He explained that “The government must have understanding of what bee keeping is, otherwise all the money they invested in beekeeping will be like putting it in a bottomless pit. We must understand what is in the terrain of beekeeping otherwise we will not get anywhere. One of the fundamental facts which government must know is the fact that the farmers are not the one that are bringing the bees but it will come over to the hives.”

    According to him “If therefore you give a bee farmer a certain amount of money to go and set up a bee farm and you give same amount to a cassava farmer, the cassava farmer can predict what he may likely have at the end of the year, but the bee keepers cannot predict the harvest. The government must be able to dole out money with little interest, having it in mind that the money may run into bad debts. It will take some years before beekeepers can predict its activities.”

    The University don pointed out that “Beekeeping is a profitable venture, but not like buying and selling business that you invest today and by tomorrow rake in the profit. It has a gestation period; it is not like cassava or yam farming. Therefore if government is interested to encourage beekeeping farmers, it has to factor in that it has a gestation period which is a bit longer before the business can be stabilized.

    “Take  for instance if you put your hives in the forest, the bees might decide not to go there no matter how you attract them, therefore such a farmer may not get the required honey at the end of the day.  It is a business that is very gradual, but when you stabilize in it, the sky is your limit.” he explained

    Wealth creation

    Aside the fact that honey is the least of the products that can generate revenue for the farmers, Pastor Israel, a bee farmer based in Umahia, Abia State, said “Initially people think that it is only honey that bee provided until recent time through research that it was discovered that there are a lot of derivative items that can be sourced from beekeeping. Some of the products extracted from bees are good for human being and animal kingdom. Aside from honey there is bee wax, bee pollen, it is anti-biotic and anti-fungi.  It is good for respiratory cases and scientifically proven to be good for stomach crises.”

    Siyanbola explained that bee business is more than just harvesting honey. “Bee keepers can rent out their bees for pollination services, transporting bee hives across the country to pollinate different crops. For instance the almond farms of California which rely on honey bee pollination will pay around $200 per hive for the service.”

    According to him, the demand for honey is high because of the daily consumption of the product and its preservative nature.

    He noted that “if N10,000 is spent on a colony, a colony can produce about 10 liters  per harvest, adding that if a bee farmer has about 10 colonies, at the end of the day  he will rake in about N50,000 as gross profit and N40,000 as return on investment

    He,  however, lamented that most of the honey produced in the country are not branded, which gave some of the neighbouring African countries to re- blend and export Nigerian honey at premium prices.

    Corroborating Siyanbola’s view, Ojeleye who has about 4,000 hives in his farm explained that he his surviving solely on bee keeping which he said is very lucrative.

    The President of FBAN explained that beekeepers in the country are yet to meet up with the local demands talk less of exploring the international market which he said is anxiously waiting and expecting quality bee products from bee farmers in the country.

    He therefore challenged bee keepers to meticulously operate and package their product in the most hygienic way that can attract high demand both within and outside the country.

    Ojeleye maintained that a lot of by products can be derived from beekeeping which can also create wealth for bee farmers adding that everything produced by bees can be turned into cash. While most farmers harvest honey twice a year, he harvests four times a year, attributing this higher harvests ratio to proper maintenance

    “One can make money from extracting wax which bees create to cover the honey and brood cells. For example, bees wax is used in candle making, shoe polish, vehicle and floor polishes, varnish, gum, carbon paper, electrical appliances, fabric industry, cosmetics, wax crayons, metal casting and food processing and packaging.

    Health benefits

    Exploring the heath benefits of bee products in the recent times has been an area which researchers are beaming their search light on due to the wonders which honey and its ally products are recording. According to FAO, there is a considerable history of bees and bee products having medicinal properties. For instance, honey, pollen, propolis, wax, royal jelly and venom are seen by many to have curative properties even though others suggest the contrary as a result of a lack of critical scientific scrutiny on bee products.

    However, majority of the bee farmers that spoke to The Nation are very authoritative about the medicinal potency of bees and its products.

    Onyema who had been in the business of bee keeping in the last two decades explained that from experience he had cured a lot of diseases with bee products. “We also have bee pollen, it is used as a food for the young bee, and it is a perfect food because it contains all what the body requires. It is also used for fertility in both man and woman. If it is taking for some days, it can also cure prostate cancer in men.”

    The bee bread which the bee itself takes is a good medicinal product. “It is useful because of the enzymes present through the worker bee. Royal jelly is one of the precious gems given to the Queen bee. The Queen bee can live up to six years, but the worker bee, for only a month. By taking royal jelly one will be looking younger than ones actual age. It helps in taking care of women infertility. If a woman can be taking it few days to her ovulation period, it will actually boost it.”

    According to him, “The bee venom is the stings; it serves as its defensive mechanism, it comes out of the bee lancets, it carries a liquid that it injects into the body, it is poured into the body through venom sack. That is why when it stings you, you can quickly remove it to reduce the venom pumped into the body. This bee venom is telepathic.  I used it to treat a diabetic and arthritics patients.”

    Speaking in the same vein, Adegun who had a long romance with bee explained that the healing prowess of the wonderful insect cannot be quantified.  “There are different types of honey. The bitter honey is highly medicinal and there is no disease it cannot treat, blood pressure, diabetes even cancer and skin rashes.

    “With honey it can assist against ageing, it can also   be used for preservatives. That is why the old Egyptians usually used honey to embalm their dead bodies.   It is rich in propolis that is good for preservation. It also contains a royal jelly which can be combined with other things and used for fertility drug and impotence.”

    He explained that “Through articulated and methodological approach to honey product, a lot of sickness can be cured. Honey can cure some diseases that cannot be emphatically or scientifically proved.”

    Given credence to the medicinal efficacy of bee products Prof. Siyanbola said that beeswax is used in food processing industries as an additive and a common ingredient in chewing gum adding that skin care and cosmetic industry are using it in making lips and gloss balm.

    The researcher said bee glue is used as antibiotic and anti -fungal agent in the pharmaceutical industries while in natural medicine it is used to treat inflammations, viral disease, ulcers skin burns and scalds.

    Challenges

    For honey to flow, beekeepers   according to Ojeleye should be able to maintain a high standard and produce in a hygienic environment that will attract good final product.

    Dr Akinwande pointed out that government is only looking at beekeeping in terms of honey production, but not realizing that the disappearance of bees will lead to low production in other crops, adding that bees are the most pollinator of other crops.

    In his own view Siyanbola pointed out that for honey to flow there must be synergy between the beekeepers, government, industry academia and the environment to achieve the best desired end.

    According to him such, constraints like biological and man -made, like increase of flowerless landscapes, use of pesticides, inadequate bees nests, bees aggressiveness, theft by man, bush burning, bee swarming and absconding disease and predators could be collectively tackled by all stakeholders.

    To Ambassador   Nurudeen, poor colony establishment and management, poor harvesting method, hives vandalism, bush burning and  the infestation of hive beetles and wax moth could be tackled through a synergy among MDAs, bee hunters, academia and all the stakeholders.

    Ojeleye capped it all with a call to the government to establish a National Bee Research Institute, a strong and functional cooperative society to enhance community based beekeeping and a need for a good advocacy among agricultural stakeholders on the importance of bees.

  • New gateway to the Villa

    After many years of installation, Sagem Morpho-Access security gateways are finally becoming operational in the Presidential Villa.

    The glass auto-gateways project, first installed at different locations in the Villa during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, was not completed. The gateways were programmed to open at the approach of anyone, but that is changing now as only duly authorised staff and visitors will be allowed to gain access to the President’s and Vice President’s offices’ wings and other key offices and facilities in the State House.

    With final touches and coding going on, the identification system is expected to be fully operational this week.

    The global identification system has fingerprint access control, time and attendance terminal.

    The glass gateway is expected to open only when a duly authorised staff’s fingerprint is scanned and identified by the machine. The gateway will not open if the machine could not identify the person’s biometrics on its database.

    Their rapidity and networking capabilities have been deployed to address security applications from one-door control to protection of buildings, vast infrastructures and government agencies across the globe.

    The system, which has been installed with accurate fingerprint sensor, is expected to be very fast and hitch-free.

    It is expected to be as fast as between 0.7 and 0.9 seconds in the identification mode, carrying out detection, coding and matching at the same time.

    When a duly accredited staff places his or her index finger on the fingerprint panel, the machine’s monitor instantly displays ‘Remove finger analyzing…’, it then shows ‘Welcome’ and the ‘staff’s name’ followed by ‘Identified’ before the glass gateway is momentarily flung open for the staff to pass through.

    When the index finger is not properly placed on the panel, the monitor displays ‘Move up’ asking the staff to properly place the index finger.

    With its multifactor authentication capacity, it can also encode badges and identity tags apart from capturing fingerprints.

    This means that beside the fingerprints scanning, access can also be granted by simply swiping an authorised staff’s identity tag closed to the machine.

    The new system have optronic sensor installed that detects false fingerprints and immediately bar unauthorized staff or visitors from gaining access to the Villa.

    With the capacity to have up to 50,000 users, at any given time, its integration into existing systems is supposed to be easy with in-built Power-Over-Ethernet (POE) and optional wireless LAN communication.

    As the machines are already installed at the pilot gate and many points before the President’s and Vice President’s office doors, a new order is certainly emerging at the seat of power.

    While the machines will now carry out independent and proper screening of staff and visitors to the Villa, the security personnel on duty will now have less to do and just concentrate more on monitoring usage of the machines by staff and visitors and act appropriately whenever any unauthorized person tries to beat the system.

    Apart from identifying anyone carrying a fake identity card, the machines will also restrict movement of some staff not authorized to go beyond a certain point.

    Movements of visitors without proper clearance from the authority will also be checked.

    There is however a way out for security personnel on duty to allow visitors with proper authorization to have access whenever the machine fails to grant such persons access.

    The security personnel at the point of entry can also press a button for the glass gateway to open for state governors and high profile visitors that don’t normally get visitor’s tag at the pilot gate.

    But the machine is going to pose a new challenge to governors’ aides that normally accompany their bosses inside the Villa without visitors’ tags.

    The new identification system will also bring to an end the era where the authority had to deploy security personnel or top management staff to wait at the gate in order to physically seize, for any reason, identity cards of staff it does not want to gain access to the seat of power.

    Just a push of a button, under the new system, deleting the staff’s biometrics from the database in the control room, will bar any staff or visitor from gaining entrance to the Villa. Above all, the authorities will always be full of prayers for thunder storm and other troublemakers not to disrupt the smooth operation of the machines.

     

    Sill on the Niger Delta

     

    A new type of challenge is fast rearing its head up against achieving peace and order in the Niger Delta. Various militant groups in the region have continued to bomb and destroy oil pipelines and infrastructures in the past months.

    The greatest challenge now is how to articulate the grievances of the region and for their leaders, elders and the militants to speak with one voice.

    This is very essential, especially as President Muhammadu Buhari has decided to tackle the crisis in the area.

    To this end, Buhari at the beginning of this month received Niger Delta Stakeholders, under the aegis of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PNDF) led by Amanyanabo of Twon Brass Bayelsa State, King Alfred Diete Spiff and elder statesman, Edwin Clarke.

    During that meeting, Buhari had received a 16-point demand from the region. But some militants immediately dissociate themselves from the meeting and continued with bombing of oil and power installations.

    Another group, Niger Delta People’s Congress (NDPC) last Tuesday presented fresh demands to the Presidency.

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had received the new group as President Buhari was away in Morocco attending the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), also known as COP-22.

    The new group said they were representing the whole of the Niger Delta region and the interest of all the militants.

    Their visit to the Villa, they said, was to prioritize the concerns of the people of the region and place them in clearer perspectives than what the first group submitted to the President.

    Another group, Niger Delta Youth Association (NDYA) last Wednesday also faulted the 16-point demand earlier presented to President Buhari by the first delegation.

    Aware of the present predicament, President Buhari in a meeting with U.S Secretary of State, John Kerry, in Morocco last Wednesday admitted that it was difficult bringing the main protagonists of the militancy under one umbrella.

    There is no guarantee that as the President settles down to consider the demands already submitted to him, that another different group(s) will not rush to the Villa with fresh demands.

    Except the region speaks with one voice, there is no doubt that finding a lasting solution to the problems in the area will be difficult to attain.

  • Amosun’s ‘Gateway of shame’

    •Yet another reminder to a bungling governor

    Lies are the oxygen of Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s ‘Change.’ This time last year, the governor’s media aide called to plead on his behalf. He said the governor has promised to hearken to his people’s cry and make the state more habitable for them, in the spirit of good governance. But Amosun seems incapable of ‘Change’ and good governance. Hence his jarring mediocrity and excruciating performance. Amosun has mended some roads, built new ones and constructed bridges. Among other schemes, he has initiated a ludicrous 15-unit model school project. But tempting as it is to paint a glowing portrait of his administration, the purpose of this piece is to draw his attention to the maggots of neglect, arrant duplicity and underdevelopment still infesting his government and the state, like a mind tumour.

    Tumour has been known to cause its victims to hallucinate or descend into psychosomatic degeneration until death, particularly if located in the brain. But Governor Amosun of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has never been diagnosed with any such affliction, physically or metaphorically but like an ill-fated administrator, leading a government afflicted by nerve and ideological tumour, Governor Amosun is incapable of fulfilling the promise of his party’s philosophy of ‘Change.’

    This moment, Amosun’s version of ‘Change’ resonates as a corny phrase he had to chant to achieve an epic sweep at the polls. No doubt, it worked for him. After all, he remains His Excellency, Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State for a second term. It’s however, interesting to see him  bluster through his second spell in office, chanting ‘Change’ yet denouncing it in conflicting tenor and undertones.

    Amosun camp parades him as the people’s governor, a humane leader, yet he is stonily deaf and conveniently blind to the townships’ grief and the peasants’ sighs. There is a death trap at Owode junction, just before you get to Ifo; recently it claimed lives and property in ghastly vehicle accidents. And poor, helpless residents of Ijoko, Agoro, Ijako, Iyana-Ilogbo, Ilepa, continually die, slowly and accidentally, from the perils of plying their muddy and badly cratered roads.

    There is devastation in Alade, Elekunmefa, Imise, Onihale, Singer, to mention a few and to residents and traders of Lusada, Atan-Ota and Igbesa in the Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of the state, the roads leading to their communities are nightmarish and inimical to growth.

    At the point where the Lagos ghetto of Ayobo meshes with Ogun state, a hideous kind of filth palpitates. There is ugliness in Lafenwa, Aiyetoro, Olugbode and various communities along Itele road. More roads present an eyesore at Oju-Ore, Ilo-Awela and Oke-Aro. At Toll-gate junction, Joju, Temidire and environ, mucky pools still stagnate in devastating craters along the bypasses because these hotspots and scenes of multiple deadly accidents are allegedly inconsequential to Governor Amosun. Really?

    Lest we forget the people of Ewekoro who are dying slowly from the dangerous fumes persistently discharged into their communities by neighbouring multinational cement company, LafargeWAPCO Plc. Persistent reportage of LafargeWAPCO’s dangerous commercial activities in the area have been randomly scorned and condemned by the incumbent government of the state in the past, until a five-part series by The Nation spurred the government to stage a theatrical intervention that has so far, produced a remedy that barely addresses the health and developmental challenges incited by LafargeWAPCO in the area.

    A certain Barr. Taiwo Adeoluwa, who identifies himself as Secretary to the Ogun State Government, in an article published on September 5, 2015 by online medium, Opinion Nigeria among others, enthused that: “Of course, it is impossible to list the achievements of our government within this limited space. I must add that, Amosun, like our revered sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, is a man that is conscious of his place in history. People like that are men of vision who will devote their all to the welfare of their people.”

    Governor Amosun is incapable of living up to the full measure of Adeoluwa’s hyperbolic cant. It’s about time the governor and his peers, stopped misappropriating substance by channeling it from the exploits of late Obafemi Awolowo. Is it so hard for Governor Amosun to become an icon by his own terms? It needn’t be too difficult for him to aspire to greatness by his handiwork, good deeds to be precise. Until then, no quality of spin or PR blitz would dull the jarring notes of sorrow and the portraits of death presented by Ogun State’s neglected townships, on his watch.

    It is even more heartbreaking to see schools in the state deteriorate rapidly. Governor Amosun will do right by devoting greater attention to public schools on the decline. Consider for instance, the sad case of Salawu Abiola Comprehensive High School (S.A.C.H.S), built in 63 hectares of land in Osiele, Abeokuta; it is ironical that Governor Amosun continually commemorates the life and death of the school’s founder, late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (M.K.O) Abiola on June 12 of every year, even as the school founded by the late politician and philanthropist, withers away in abject neglect.

    It need be said that while Abiola was alive, he traveled with friends and family on his birthday, August 24th of every year, to celebrate with students of the school. That day also happened to be ‘Abiola Day,’ a day set aside for rewarding outstanding students of the school with prizes.

    As you read, S.A.C.H.S is virtually dead. The hostels are derelict and the classrooms and school laboratories are severely impaired. Yet Amosun plays to the gallery, celebrating Abiola’s life and politics every June 12.

    There are other public secondary schools like S.A.C.H.S deserving Governor Amosun’s urgent intervention. While alumni of Abeokuta Grammar School, Baptist Boys Secondary School and African Church Grammar School (of which Gov. Amosun is an alumnus) to mention a few, have been staging progressive interventions to rescue their alma mater from neglect,  S.A.C.H.S alumni have fared terribly in this respect. The latter’s intervention would have been a saving grace for the school since the Abiola family apparently considers it the government’s burden, and Governor Amosun conveniently neglects it and other diminishing schools, to actualize his mega-schools fantasy.

    “Hundreds of school buildings have been renovated, but the governor will not waste the scarce resources of the state to maintain buildings that ought to be demolished…We will not deceive our people with cosmetic changes,” stated Adeoluwa in his fawning piece on Amosun’s model school project. No doubt, Adeoluwa and his principal, Governor Amosun, need to visit S.A.C.H.S, Egba High School, Egba Odeda High School, Methodist Grammar School, Arigbajo, and other schools within Abeokuta, Ijebu and the outskirts of Ogun State to determine if they are actually worth saving or not. So doing, both Amosun and his underling may see the error, wastefulness and pitiful grandstanding in expending millions of tax payers’ money on building new ‘model schools’ while several schools in the state suffer excruciating decline.

    No one wishes that Governor Amosun deceives the citizenry with what he and Adeoluwa considers “cosmetic changes” but since he is been paid handsomely with tax payers’ money for running the state, he is duty bound to provide cost-effective education with justifiable infrastructure, good roads and safety of lives and property in the state. It is a way to fulfill the promise of “Change” we can believe in and prosper by, that he made to the electorate at election time.

  • Amosun’s ‘Gateway of hell’

    •(A reminder to a bungling governor)

    Ogun State looms like a gothic platitude of pain and death from its transit townships but the “Gateway State” is Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s bower of bliss. There, in his stately Eden, he lives immune and insensate to the ravages of ill-will and pent-up fury tearing the natives apart from inside out. Governor Amosun must be having a blast inside the Government House at Oke Mosan. He does not have to rise and retire to his bed everyday wondering if he would die along the deadly stretch of Lagos-Abeokuta highway, particularly at the spots where innocent children, mothers, fathers – dependants and breadwinners – die like stray fowls, accidentally or by installments, in his administrative landmine.

    Governor Amosun’s loved ones are extremely lucky; unlike the mother who left home with her three children only for them to be brought back as mangled corpses from an accident, caused by bad road, to the deceased’s husband. Amosun is certainly favoured by the ‘gods,’ unlike the bereaved families who sent their wards to school only to receive news that they had been crushed to death by a steel container in a gory accident along the Sagamu-Benin expressway. Is Governor Amosun neglecting that death trap because it is a ‘federal road?’ If that is the case, is Governor Amosun solely remunerated from revenue he makes from Ogun State or from the ‘federal purse?’

    Governor Amosun is one lucky dude as he does not have to live up to the promise he made to the poor, hopeless pupils of the Community Primary School, off Agoro road, Owode-Titun, Ota, Ogun State. It’s almost two years since they lost their classrooms to a violent rain squall, yet most of the 740 pupils have been learning with tears, under a crooked shed held together by wooden poles and corrugated iron sheets. The school’s Parents Teachers Association (PTA) constructed the shed last year when it was clear that the state government will not come to the children’s rescue. Although Governor Amosun promised to rebuild the school when his campaign train visited the area to seek re-election, he has since forgotten his promise and the area.

    Thus through scorching sun blaze and violent rain squalls, the pupils huddle together helplessly, in futile lunge for comfort and cover from the ravages of nature and Governor Amosun’s ill will, tearing at their fragile frames. For the only public primary school in the community, the descent into decay started in May last year, when a rainstorm blew off the roof of the block of six classrooms and the staff room. The storm also tore off the entire side of the building. Yet Governor Amosun conveniently forgets the sad fate of the poor pupils of Community Primary School in Owode-Titun, Ota.

    Some cratered meters from the school, the stars are still a backdrop for the inhuman condition at Owode junction, just before you get to Ifo. Is Governor Amosun waiting for that expedient moment of disaster or road mishap of immense magnitude to occur before he swoops in with a bereaved mien and overzealous aides, to misappropriate anguish where he feels none?

    The natives of Ijoko, Agoro, Ijako, Iyana-Ilogbo, Ilepa, Ijoko, Alade, Oju Ore, Ilo-Awela, Elekunmefa, Imise, Onihale, Singer, Lusada, Ewekoro, Atan-Ota and Igbesa to mention a few, are still dying slowly and accidentally, from the perils of plying their muddy and badly cratered roads and there is still ugliness in Lafenwa, Aiyetoro, Olugbode and various communities along Itele road.

    From a distance, the piercing and indiscriminate glare of sunlight and moonshine desecrate these townships like tombs slipshodly carved along the graying highway that leads to Abeokuta, Ogun State’s capital city. Closer, the people and houses in the communities take shape like a stream of accidental shadows, their hard noises striking one’s face and making the senses numb with jarring clarity. It is their noiseless undertones that however, evoke intense feelings of awe and curiosity. Sad desperate glances of the natives inspire a thirst for buried narratives that they miserably learn to endure as unreal jests made by death.

    Guess his Excellency in Ogun State, has learnt to glance without flinching at the straggle of human suffering emblematic of the pale ghost of his “Gateway State.” Wonder if he is unaware of the deaths and squalor across the townships; wonder if he knows that there are schools with better structures, histories, progressive and ideological foundations that deserve as much attention and support as he is currently giving his model schools’ phantasm; wonder if he simply chooses to ignore the descent of the tourist tracts where decay and death spit venom at the hapless citizenry, like Siamese cobras every day.

    Governor Amosun is probably unmoved to affect heart-felt responses to the malaise. Perhaps he is making spirited gestures even as you read to extend citizenry-centred governance cum democratic dividends to the disillusioned natives of the state. Perhaps he just doesn’t know how to go about it.

    Ignorance is not an excuse for denying the citizenry good governance and their fundamental human rights. It is no longer tenable to hoodwink the citizenry by chants of ‘Change’ and platitudinous avowal to abolish squalor and foster general prosperity; time has revealed what section of the citizenry such ideological ‘life boat’ solutions are meant to deceive. It shall no longer be “politically expedient” to neglect a class of the governed just because, by will or circumstance, they inhabit parts of state the ruling class would rather not lose sleep over; except at the time of election or re-election.

    Governor Amosun is spending his second term in office which makes it even more dangerous for the APC to maintain dominance in Ogun State if he fails. When the party eventually presents its candidates for public offices in 2019, what glowing achievements will it point to as Amosun’s legacy and reasons why it should be given the people’s mandate again? The oft over-hyped and derided bridges and roads in Abeokuta? Or the equally contentious model school projects? These familiar arguments have gotten too old now and they are infinitely strange to the poor citizenry braving the perils of the state’s townships every day.

    Life in Ogun State’s townships is in grave decline. Together, these neglected tracts constitute an ambiguous ‘sick rose’ accentuating Ogun State’s descent into a food for worms even as you read. Though a sick rose, Ogun State is manouvered to mimic a growth cycle in the hands of Amosun and amid the rabid PR blitz launched and managed by Camp Amosun.

    That is why the state government will do nothing even if foreign investors  cum fortune hunters like cement giant, LafargeWAPCO Plc, subjects its host communities to terminal death, by its dangerous production activities, in desperate pursuit of profit. (It is instructive to note that LafargeWAPCO perpetrates in Ogun State, atrocities it wouldn’t dare commit in France and other European nations but that is a discussion for another day.)

    Ogun State’s manifestation as a sick rose satirizes Governor Amosun’s preferred portraits of it as a bower of bliss. It reveals an inner hostility; the governor’s flirtatious art of concealment necessitates that truth’s approach must take the form of a rape. If not, the people of Ogun State will continue to die by the onslaught of the conqueror maggots of hypocrisy, neglect, arrant betrayal and underdevelopment afflicting the state.

    Does Governor Amosun, like too many of his peers, consider truth as he hates to see it, as a perverse fetish? Does he believe that any critique or contradiction of his gospel of ‘Change’ is a swerve from goodwill and fruitfulness? If so, his much celebrated ‘Change’ project is diametrically opposed to the APC’s gospel of ‘Change.’

     

  • Okoroji House Gateway to the past

    Okoroji House Gateway to the past

    Okoroji House in Ujari, Arochukwu, is one of the richest monument sites in the country, yet not much is written about it. With such rich artefacts from the Trans-Atlantic  slave trade era, the house is invaluable for tourists and researchers. OKORIE UGURU recently visited the place and writes. 

    It was like a throwback to Okonkwo’s era in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. The old man pushed the chalk-like ball towards me to touch and rub as a sign of welcome.

    Then, the kola was brought.  After the initial passing around, he applied pressure and the kolanut disintegrated into pieces. He carefully looked at the pieces of kola and nodded his head. “The pieces are ok,” he said.

    He took one, threw it into his mouth and passed the rest to the other family membes around. He then  took the bottle of local gin in front of him, brought out a small glass cup, took a tot and started praying that the visit to the place would be for good and not for bad.

    After that, he took the glass cup outside and poured it at the threshold of the ancient house. He came, helped himself to another tot which he gulped. He grimaced as he drank.

    He cleared his throat and passed the drink to other family members who had come to join him.  The others took turn to measure the local gin in the class cup and gulped. It was after this that the discussion on the Okoroji Monument site began.

    The Okoroji House in Ujara, Arochukwu is one of the preserved monument sites in Abia State. The place becomes of even greater importance when, under the watch of the National Commission of Museum and Monuments, an important site like the Obu Ndi Ananga Monument Site in the same state could be allowed to collapse.

    The Okoroji House Monument Site is located at the heart of Arochukwu where most of the activities at the height of the town’s prowess in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries took place.

    A few metres from the site is the place where the house of the Scottish missionary, Mary Slessor, used to have her house. It is equally not far from the river though which she entered Arochukwu at the beginning of the 20th century when the British punitive expedition had been completed and it was  the time the Christian missionaries moved in.

    The fruit of the Christian missionaries’ activities is the Presbyterian Church, Obinkita. The site was said to be an evil forest where corpses of twins and others whose deaths were considered a taboo were dumped.

    To many, the import of this monument site is not the story of the exploit of Okoroji, a very successful and powerful merchant in those days, but it is the ancient artifacts at the site that give vivid information about life about 300 years ago, most especially in the early days of contacts and trade between local merchants and the white men.

    The legendary Okoroji of Arochukwu  was said to be stubborn as a youth. At a stage, he decided to run away from his father’s house to his maternal family. After much pleading, he later returned to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful merchants in Arochukwu.

    He sent out his agents and apprentices on trading missions to different parts of Igboland and even further. He engaged in slave trading with merchants from Europe. He became so wealthy and famous that people were bringing their children to him. Some used their children as collateral to borrow money.

    The children would remain and work for him as apprentices or slaves. Such individuals, after carrying out his own findings, he would decide whether to use them as his domestic slaves or sell them.

    The Okoroji House is one monument site that has rich artifacts. At the outer section of the house, there  are sowem artefacts: old pots, bundles of wooden sticks, chains, handcuffs and so on.

    The seats were built from clay. They were built in such a way that they face each other. On the left of the door, leading to the inner chambers, is also a clay seat with a metal chain that hangs from the roof to the floor.

    According to the curator, that was where Okoroji used to sit to hold court. He sent out different signals by the way he would draw the chain. His acolytes knew what to do once he did that.

    On the right hand side of the door is another chain with cuffs obviously used to hold prisoners. Farther on the left, by the wall, is what looks like a shrine.

    On the top is a human skull. It looks old. There is a crack on one side of the skull. This shows how the person died. Up on the ceiling, there is a carved wooden images of leopard. There are also old calabashes and skulls of wild animals held together in bunch and hung on the wall. There are about three wooden drums, a broom and many other artefacts.

    On the left of the house, there is a bunch of sticks of same length tied together. According to the curator, this was used by Okoroji to keep tap of his debtors and who and when they were supposed to pay. There is a huge metal pot said to have been used for cooking for the slaves.

    There is a huge wooden door painted black and white. According to the curator, the wooden door was taken as war loot from the king of Orumba in the current Anambra State.

    The curator said: “Okoroji had two other bothers, Otti Orji and another person. Okoroji was the last born child of his mother. Otti was a trader and migrated to Orumba to trade. He settled at the place. The people waged a war against him and sent a message to his younger brother, Okoroji.

    “Okoroji sent his men to Orumba to fight for his brother. As a sign that they actually conquered the people, Okoroji’s soldiers came back with the door of the king’s palace. Our people settled there and became indigenes of the place. But up till now, they still have their roots here.

    “A former chairman of the national electoral body has his ancestral root here. Our people also spread to other places like Okija, Owerrinta and so many other places. They are all originally from here, Ujari.”

    He went on to explain other artefacts: “Those animals’ horns and jugs were used  for drinking palm wine.  These are plates used for eating. If you go inside, you will see so many things. If you go inside the chamber, you will see so many other things.

    “The skulls of animals you see there were those of games killed by Okoroji’s slaves and brought to him. Usually, when they killed big games, as a sign of respect and homage, they would bring the head to their master, Okoroji.”

    The artifacts at the outer chamber was a child’s play compared to the ones inside, but one would have looked beyond the shrine that is very close to the door.

    On the shrine are very old swords with an elaborately designed handle, a gun and so many other items. Behind the shrine are ancient bush lamps and many other artefacts. These were likely some of the items Okoroji gathered in the course of his trading with the merchant ships.

    The artefacts and ancient items are too numerous. The inner chamber is like a store where ancient artefacts, both local and European, are kept.

    The Okoroji House has both touristic  and scholarly value. Unfortunately, the terrible road to Arochukwu has totally made it difficult for many to visit the place.

    Arochukwu is  blessed to have a cluster of rich tourism sites: the Okoroji House,  the Ibini Ukpabi Shrine,  old Presbyterian churches that are more than 100 years old and  Mary Slessor route are some of the sites.

    With an  effective tourism policy by Abia State, Arochukwu will become a viable tourist destination and the state and its people would be the beneficiaries.

  • An eyesore on Calabar’s gateway

    An eyesore on Calabar’s gateway

    Its size embodies the promise it held when it was conceived. But, this estate on the gateway to Calabar, the Cross River State capital, for over two decades, has not lived its original dream, writes
    nicholas laku

    It lies on the left as you enter Calabar, the Cross River State capital, through its only entry point by road – the Odukpani-Calabar Road. It was conceived to be an estate to cater for the housing needs of residents/civil servants. It has served various purposes over the years but none for which it was intended.

    The rows of decrepit single storey buildings in the massive estate are now overtaken by weeds. Staring at the walls of the buildings, one can tell that at some time, they used to be white. Most areas are covered in algae. In many places, the roofs are either missing or have caved in. The doors and windows are missing in almost all the buildings. Where roads used to be are now thick bushes. What remains are ruins. “Ghost town” describes it better.

    The abandoned housing estate at Ikot Ekpo community in Calabar Municipality is one that has always aroused the curiosity of many who pass through that road, whether they are  first-time visitors to Calabar or residents who have lived in the city for years.

    The land was acquired during the Shehu Shagari  administration for low cost housing for civil servants. When the administration came to an end, following a military intervention, the project was abandoned.

    In 1992, it was gathered, the project was taken over by the then governor, Mr Clement Ebri, who purchased the estate from the Federal Government and continued where it stopped.

    The estate was handed over to the Cross River State Property and Investment Limited (CROSPIL) to manage after being bought from the Federal Housing Authority. CROSPIL, it was learnt, got the Certificate of Occupancy of the estate.

    The estate was completed and was to be commissioned in December 1993 for the state civil servants, but the late Gen. Sani Abacha coup in November 1993 disrupted the arrangement.

    For the second time due to military intervention in government, the estate was abandoned.

    A source in CROSPIL said: “Everything was ready. The houses were completed and ready to be handed over. Everything was in place. There was electricity, pipe-borne water, good road networks and so much more. It was a wonderful package. But the coup torpedoed all that as civilians were chased away.

    “Since then people started vandalising the place. People were going there to steal the materials used in building the houses to build their own houses or sell them. Over time the place decayed to the state that you find it today. It is really sad I must say.”

    In 1998, CROSPIL sold it to the Federal Ministry of Commerce to cater for the housing needs of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority workers.

    The Donald Duke administration was said to have re-acquired it from the Federal Government. After that, issues about the ownership of the estate have been shrouded in mystery.

    Cross River State Commissioner of the Lands Ralph Uche said the estate is not owned by the government.

    According to him, the estate was sold to a private developer, who has left the place to rot to the state it is.

    One of the major complaints about the estate was that it was poorly planned.

    “The way they built the houses, you see that each of the houses are too close to the other. You will be in your bedroom and someone will be in his house looking directly at you. Parking space was also a problem. In fact, whoever designed the houses got it wrong. That might be one of the problems bedevilling the place. I don’t know. But, we are not responsible for that place,” a Ministry of Lands official said.

    At a time, it accommodated displaced persons who were involved in a communal conflict between Akwa Ibom and Cross River states. The displaced persons, it was gathered, became a nuisance to people in the community and had to be ejected.

    At the moment, the dilapidated houses are occupied by various rodents and reptiles who roam free. The part of the estate closest to the road has been cleared and occupied by unidentified people.

    Our reporter, who went to speak with some of the occupants, was harassed. “What do you want? Who are you? What is your business here? My friend, will you leave this place?” a group of men threatened.

    However, an occupant, who begged not to be named, volunteered some information. He said most of the occupants were people who had nowhere to live and were there to ensure a roof over their heads.

    “Like myself, I am a hustler. I came from the village but as I talk with you, house rent I cannot pay. So, this place that is just here like this nobody is living here, I just came and cleared one room and I am staying here now. That is the thing.”

    Even though the state government says the estate is not its, residents feel the run-down state of the place is not good for its image, as it welcomes all who enter the renowned tourist city by road.

    Mr Ubong Asuquo said: “Even if the state government says it is not in their hands, we feel they should move to do something about the place, which is more of an eyesore and not worthy to be on the only gateway to the city reputed as the nation’s paradise.”

  • Gateway United book quarter final ticket

    • Beat Bayelsa Utd 3-1 on penalties • To play Prime FC next week

    Gateway United have set a date with fellow National League campaigners, Prime FC after the Ogun State reps defeated Bayelsa United 3-1 on penalties in a Round of 16 game of the Federation Cup played in Abuja.

    The Restoration Boys scored first through Sheriff Bashir and were coasting home to victory before allowing Gateway United back into the game.

    Gateway United capitalised on an infringement close to Bayelsa United’s vital area and Francis Olanrewaju did not hesitate in netting home the leveller from the ensuing free kick in added on time of the second half.

    Regulation time thus ended 1-1 but during the penalties, Bayelsa United could only convert one spot kick through Femi Oladapo, while Gateway United scored all of theirs to zoom into the quarter final.

    Speaking with SportingLife shortly after the tie, Gateway United’s head coach, Henry Nwosu dedicated the win to God and reiterated the desire of the Abeokuta side to go as far as possible in the Federation Cup this year.

    “We are thrilled with this win and are more than grateful to God. He gave us the win when many wrote us off. We were already on our way to Lokoja and we will continue our journey from there in the morning,” Nwosu told SportingLife.

    Prime FC had earlier beaten First Bank on penalties in Benin City on Thursday, and whoever triumphs between both National League clubs is assured of a ticket to the semi final.

    Other teams through to the last eight are Enyimba, Sharks, Crown, Dolphins, Lobi Stars and Giwa FC.

  • Bayelsa United, Gateway now to clash in Abuja today

    Professional Football  League top guns Bayelsa United of Yenagoa and Gateway FC of Abeokuta will now trade tackles today at the FIFA Goal Project, Abuja in a 2014 Federation Cup Round of 16 match.

    Earlier scheduled for Thursday, the game was moved by 24 hours after Gateway FC appealed to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for time to recover from a Nigeria National League clash with Go-Round FC of Port Harcourt in Abeokuta on Tuesday.

    “We have decided to move the match to Friday (today) at the same venue since Bayelsa United FC tendered no objection to the appeal,” Ruth David, Head of Federation Cup Unit, said on Thursday.

    All the other seven matches in the Round of 16 were played on Thursday..

  • Gateway zoom into round of 16

    Gateway United football club of Ogun State have advanced to the round of 16 of the 2014 National Federation Cup after defeating FC Abuja 4-3 on penalties in a pulsating encounter decided at the Kayode Olayemi stadium in Ado Ekiti, capital of Ekiti state.

    The game ended 1-1 at the end of regulation and had to go straight into penalties after which the Abeokuta side coached by legendary Green Eagles’ star,Henry Nwosu emerged winners.

    However, it was Gateway that opened scoring in the 38th minute of play through Tosin Folarin while FC Abuja equalised in the second half to drag the game into the lottery of penalty shootouts.

    In the ensuing spot kicks, Gateway United’s goalkeeper, Godwin Amen saved two of FC Abuja’s kicks while the Abeokuta side converted four kicks to book their place in the round of 16 of the prestigious competition.