The Nation Newspaper

Tag: government

  • The Missing Government Papers (4)

    At this, she sat pensive for a few minutes. ‘I’m particularly intrigued by the use of some words in that report.’ Then, after a while, she got up as if she had come to a conclusion about something. ‘Thank you for that perspective. I knew I could count on you.’

    ‘Aunt Deline, about that NEPA bill…’, I began hesitatingly. ‘I don’t want them to cut our light…’

    ‘Don’t worry your pretty little head about it. I have a special guardian angel that will not let me come to grief on little matters like this.’

    ‘What about a small generating set?’, I persisted, stretching my luck. ‘We are the only ones in the neighbourhood not contributing to the environmental noise and air pollution. Besides, I need something to read with. You know my exams are approaching…’

    Aunt Deline sighed before saying softly. ‘Much as I would love you to read for and pass your exams, I can’t stand the noise coming from those things, not that I can even afford one. I think in the main time, you should read all you can during the day, and let us see what happens. Even if we can’t buy a generating set, I promise to do something.’

    ‘Aunt Deline, how about another job?’

    ‘Yes. I am thinking about that. Actually, that is why I went to get the paper. I just read that the state university is starting soon.’

    ‘Yes, Aunty, that is really good news. I hope they will be able to give you a contract job or something. Can’t you go and see someone about it?’

    ‘That is what I’m thinking. After all, I want just a few hours to keep myself occupied. I still need time to pursue my own retirement interests.’

    ‘The good thing is that the bills will be paid.’

    ‘Ah, the bills! We’ll see about them’, replied my aunt enigmatically.

    In the evening, inspector Gogo came to pay us a visit. He said he would like a cup of water, which I offered him. His wife, he grumbled, was still preparing dinner, as if she did not know that he would need some food when he returned from work. ‘She had twenty-four hours to cook it, yet she is still late.’

    ‘Why is it’, he asked Aunt Deline when the two of them had made themselves comfortable on the chair, ‘that women are never ready for anything?’ The man was obviously suffering from the pangs of hunger. Unfortunately, I had just arrived and had not had time to cook anything.

    ‘Anything?’

    ‘You want her to cook your food, you have to wait! You want to take them out? You have to wait for them to be ready! You want to go on a trip with a woman? You must wait for her to be ready! You want to hear her talk? You have to wait for her to collect her thoughts! Why, why, why?’

    ‘How many women have you known?’

    ‘This is my third wife, and the story is the same’.

    ‘Your third wife?! What were you looking for, an angel?’

    ‘My father had six wives. But I’m not going to be like him at all.’

    ‘We can see that,’ said Aunt Deline enigmatically. Then she fell into ruminations. ‘Women are special creatures. Six wives!’

    I ventured to intrude into their conversation. ‘I think it’s because women have a lot of different things to think about, so they have to coordinate everything. It takes time to do that.’

    They both turned and stared at me. I had goofed. Then the man spoke.

    ‘How is it that for one so young you are so wise?’

    I breathed.

    ‘Wait till you hear her go on the government.’

    ‘I have heard her go on the gateman. This girl of yours needs watching. By the time she really grows up, she is going to be worse than you.’

    I detected a very faint pride in the look my aunt gave me as she talked. ‘I think she can take care of herself, which is more than we can say for many in your forces.’

    Inspector Gogo was not a very interesting man to look at. In fact, if you did not look hard enough, you might miss him on the road on account of his visage. It was so ordinary. His full name was Inspector Gogo Nicodemus Litani, but he was better known as Inspector Gogo. I think they called him that on account of his stature: he was a real Nicodemus.

    His head was flat, with black eyes that appeared to be hooded by his thick brows. His nose was a broad flat bridge on a rather square looking face. Look for look, mind for mind, I swear the inspector and Aunt Deline were well matched, but that was all the similarity they shared. In behaviour, they were rather much like fire and fire.

    He was fond of Aunt Deline and respected her, although they quarrelled quite a lot, and that was putting it mildly. Many times, I swear they came very close to exchanging punches while arguing but stopped just in time. My fear was that one day… He had declared that he admired her intelligence, but not her temerity. He often told her that he could not have married her; he would either have beaten the senses into her or divorced her. She told him she would have broken his head.

    His wife always treated Aunt Deline like her mother, so there was no question of her being jealous. Indeed, she had sometimes had to run to Aunt Deline whenever her husband tried to take advantage of her, and my aunt had come into their disputes with the merciless arm of the law, to beat him into line. His wife told me confidentially that all she has to do now is mention my aunt’s name when arguing with her husband and he quickly gives in to her views. I say, ‘Viva la tough female!’

    Quite often, he allowed Aunt Deline to peruse whatever newspaper he was able to pilfer and bring home from the office. At the price newspapers were sold, he always said, the government obviously didn’t expect anyone to buy them. I think he was trying to justify his action.

    Whenever his wife jokingly told him that she was the only one who could have married him because no one else would look at him, he liked to joke back that he did not come into the world to be looked at but to look. If anyone wanted someone to look at, they should go and look at Miss World. He was here to look.

    No one could fault him on his ability to look for things that were not there. In the force where he worked as a detective, my aunt told me he was reputed for obtaining more details than everybody. Where others saw only the barest facts of a case, it was him who always ferreted out the more important details. But she said she could always beat him at this.

    Even then, his spare frame was of great assistance as he could fold himself easily into any contour to fit into any space to search for clues. So he could be seen sometimes disappearing altogether under a bed, table, kitchen cupboards; anything that gave space and he could enter, he did.

    His skin was of a swarthy hue that bespoke an origin belonging to anywhere in the country. Whenever his colleagues asked him where he came from, he always liked to say he was from Nigeria.

    In truth, he was not far from the truth. He had confided in us that his parentage was mixed. His father was from the east, while his mother was from the west, but his maternal grandfather had come from the north. His wife’s father had been an itinerant trader who had traversed the entire length of the country on business. With him, he always enjoyed many hours of cultural exchange which they both called talks. Obviously, that one did not treat him like an in-law.

  • ‘Edo deserves government of continuty’

    ‘Edo deserves government of continuty’

    In this piece, Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s media aide John Mayaki explains why the people of Edo State should vote for the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Godwin Obaseki, at the governorship poll.

    Twenty-One days ago, at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium Ogbe, Benin City, it was Mr. Godwin Obaseki and his running mate, Comrade Philip Shaibu’s gubernatorial campaign flag-off. But, it was Adams Oshiomhole’s day it signaled his transition.

    The flag-off was historic. It was colourful. The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibajo, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, Simon Lalong of Plateau State, Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State, Abdulahi Ganduje of Kano State, Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi State as well as deputy governors of Niger, Nasarawa, Jigawa, Borno, Kwara, Kogi and Oyo states witnessed the event.

    The day also afforded the duo of Obaseki and Shaibu to get endorsement from those who matter – custodians of our revered tradition – and trust. the potency of blessings received from the Crown Prince of Benin Kingdom, His Royal Highness (Amb) Eheneden Erediauwa sent quivers into the camp of the Peoples’ Democratic Party – a party smarting from the political shell shock.

    Obaseki, a behind-the-scene Oshiomhole’s economic strategist, delivered a 72-minute manifesto that set his political career fully blown in motion. His running mate, Shaibu had begun his political career as a parliamentarian who qualifies as “one of Oshiomhole’s Rasputins” – they stood side-by-side during the policy statement.

    The event – launched with the rocket-fuel intensity that Obaseki’s speech provided, set a new generation of young and old, men and women, boys and girls, APC and PDP alike jockeying for attention into their future careers in the soon-to-be-formed government.

    The manifesto, no doubt, sent quivers to the kitchen cabinet of the opposition candidate – it resonated in the social media! When you deal a debilitating blow on your political adversaries, their uncoordinated responses and body resistance can tell the side of the bed they woke from the morning after.

    “Oh, he failed to read his speech extempore”, but they agree it was packed full of goodies for future stars. “Oh, it wasn’t printed in a booklet form” reminiscence of the rag-tag called “Simple Looting Agenda”, but they were quick to agree that it will usher in a floodgate of economic abundance and surplus jobs.

    He gave a peep into a 200,000-job Armada if elected and this is now the topic at home-abroad – but the influx of Edo indigenes that would return home without the space to contain them is at the heart of the matter.

    However, the outing was not about politics, but the appreciation of what is on ground for which the man-of-the-moment, Godwin Obaseki, wants to build upon – though, few doubted the do-ability – we sure must co-habit with doubting-Thomases.

    Quickly, for the implementation framework of the 200,000 Job-Armada, the lawmaker who is Obaseki’s running-mate, Philip Shaibu, has to, immediately, put on his thinking-cap and go to the drawing board on how to send an Executive Bill to the Assembly to amongst others, manage the spiral effects – the expected crisis of hike in price of land, sky-rocketed cost of rents, among other social safety nets – in expectation that a huge number of our jobless-Diasporans – if any, and or, “am-tired-working-for-oyibo” indigenes abroad who may have been contemplating reactivating their return-tickets, return home.

    Am sure you are already aware – Obaseki led a team of highly dedicated professionals and technocrats in the progressive government of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as Chairman, Edo State Economic Team for about eight years running.

    “As a result of the reforms in governance and improvement in infrastructure undertaken by the current administration”, Obaseki said, “Edo State is now poised to be a hub for investment in Nigeria and this is obvious from the close to $2 billion investments which have come in from the Azura Power Plant in Ihovbor/Orhior/ Idunmowina Communities in Uhunwode LGA; Over $1 Billion is being invested in a 6 Million MT cement factory in Estako East LGA by the Dangote Group; Fresh investments by Rubber Estate of Nigeria Ltd (RENL) and Presco Plc in massive Rubber plantations and processing factories in Orhionmwon LGA”.

    Take for instance, in a sectorial sequence, agriculture. Registered farmers in Edo state and in the 18 local government areas are more than 35,000 – small holding farmers – this statistics is according to records from the Ministry of Agriculture.

    Records also show that each of these 35,000 farmers occupy at least 2 to 5 hectares of land which summarily means 115,000 hectares with a labour requirement of 3 workers per hectares of production – take for instance, rice and 5 workers per hectares of production – again cassava.

    Arithmetically, this translates to a manpower of 315,000 and up to 500,000 workers – this calculation in the agricultural entrepreneurial scheme is for 2 crops alone – and powered by Obaseki, the Chairman of Edo State Economic and Strategy Team of the Adams Oshiomhole-led government.

    This is where the effects multiplier comes in. To bring the picture of the concept clearer home, it refers to the increase in final income arising from any new injection of spending.

    In simple terms, if the beneficiaries of the different opportunities being created in the state, for example, opt to complete the building of their new houses with their salaries, the project injects extra demand and output into the economy of the state.

    Imagine that not a few businesses, including architects, suppliers of blocks, sand, water, iron rods, wood etc. will benefit directly or indirectly from the beneficiaries’ expenditure. The building of a new house, in other words, generates a new flow of income which includes wages and profits. The workers in turn engage drycleaners or washer men, lesson teachers, mechanics, artisans among others. They pay rents, if they are not building their homes. As for companies that have opened up in the state, their various host communities will benefit not just in terms of tremendous exposure but also in terms of increase housing needs and other infrastructure.

    As would be expected, the net effects of the development will extend beyond the frontiers of the state to neighbouring states. After all, economists will argue that when income is spent, the spending becomes someone else’s income which in turn stimulates another wave of demand and supply spawning investment by individuals, construction firms and business entities, not least saving by households – and ultimately the national GDP. The resultant boost in the GDP is called the multiplier effect.

    It seems fairly easy to appreciate the direct impact of the physical engagement of the workers in terms of their salaries and wages. This is a far cry from the multiple impacts spawned by the hospitable environment deliberately promoted by the Oshiomhole administration. It is in the understanding of the linkages that justice is done to the Oshiomhole legacy.

    Today, the economic potentials of Edo State have grown to humongous proportions – thanks to the creative policies of the Oshiomhole administration. Aside attracting investors to the state, there is no doubt that the foundation for the future has been firmly laid. In years to come, indigenes of Edo State will certainly remember the Oshiomhole years not just in glowing terms, but specifically as the golden years of its industrial transformation.

    This is where Obaseki comes in – the job-Armada – to within four years, create over 200,000 new jobs across the state through agriculture, entrepreneurship schemes, attracting investments for the development of industries and technical and vocational skills development.

  • Government inefficiency and pains of Nigerians

    Professor Ayo Olukotun in his last week column in the Punch newspapers titled ‘Consumer woes in austere times” narrated his experience while trying to renew his monthly subscription to Direct Satellite Television owned by Multichoice. At the end, he could not but ‘marvelled at how helpless consumers had become at the hands of these service providers’. Once again, I think this is one more evidence of failure of governance.

    The capitalist economic system, the reigning ‘god’ worshipped by most societies holds no apologies to life being the survival of the fittest. Consequently, it allows the affluent to further impoverish the poor. This was why men traded their freedom and liberty for government’s protection of life and properties. The primary role of government therefore is to put measures in place to checks man’s greed especially in our own environment where some of our sick political leaders who according to Chinua Achebe, ‘have been in the rain for so long and swore none of their generation would go back to the rain’, steal from the poor to build mansions in which they and their children will never live over many capital cities of the world.

    Our own tragedy is that not only has our government in the last 15 years totally abandoned the poor to the vagaries of economic forces and merchants of greed, government itself has been an accessory in the impoverishment of the most vulnerable. This found expressions in such self-serving government policy thrusts as PPPRA designed as an answer to a contrived fuel scarcity to pave way for the theft of N1.7trillion under fraudulent fuel subsidy deal,  World Bank inspired liberalization and privatisation which did not only turn our country into importer of labour of other societies but ended with the country recouping only about $1b from $100b investments made between 1960 and 1999 and the monetization policy which led to the sharing of our inherited national patrimony in form of choice properties by those in government and their friends.

    But in March 2015, Nigerians in spite of impediments put on their way by those who had levied war against them voted for change. Sadly more than one year of government of change, many are increasingly becoming disillusioned as change appears a forlorn hope. Government effort is not made any easier by the current economic reality which is partly the fallout of massive looting of the nation’s resources, sponsored sabotage of the economy by those called upon to account for their past. As if these were not enough problems, we also have an APC government where the executive seems to operate independently of the party that brought it to power, (I sometimes wonder if Tony Momoh and Segun Osoba are still in APC); a pathetic Senate passing resolution upon resolution to evade prosecution for alleged criminal offences including forgery by its leadership and a Lower House enmeshed in scandals over padding of the budget by as much as N40billion.

    Four months ago, this column called attention to the creeping dictatorship in Abuja where everything seemed to begin and end on President Buhari’s table in an age when government has become a science susceptible to scientific laws. Attention was called to the over 500 ‘small governments’ the President and his party needed  to effect change but controlled by those opposed to change because of huge benefits they reap from the prevailing economic anarchy.

    Last week Segun Adeniyi, a former colleague at The Guardian, now of ThisDay newspapers, called our attention to President Buhari and his APC’s inability to reconstitute the statutory boards of regulatory institutions that are critical to the economy, dissolved over a year ago. He cited the following as examples the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the Bank of Industry (BOI); the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC); the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC); the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC); the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Commission (NDIC); the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) and the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) among many others.

    Now using NCC as a base, let me add to Professor Olukotun’s anxiety about absence of consumer’s protection, my own personal experiences which I am sure is not markedly different from those of other Nigerian victims of rip-off by unrestrained service providers.  A few years back, I roamed my telephone line from one of the telecommunication giants outside the country. Four days after my departure from Nigeria, I was told I had exhausted my N50, 000 deposit. This was not so much from usage but because of endless repetition of any message sent to me from Nigeria. During the last two weeks of my trip, I dreaded even switching the phone on because the stream of endless repeated messages had become a nuisance. On my arrival, I was slammed with a non-negotiable N200, 000 bills. I finally migrated from post-paid to prepaid. But that did not end my nightmare. Bombarded daily by unsolicited messages, I decided to visit the service centre of this communication giant more than once where all I got was apologies. With a subscription base of about 214 million as at March this year, with one unsolicited message at a cost of N1.00, Nigerian subscribers are ripped off to the tune of over N200m.

    A rival telecommunication giant to which I also subscribe was not different. All I got from several visits to complain about frequent disappearance of post-paid credit even when the phone was not in use was ‘android phones have in- built devices that consume credits whether the phone is utilized for internet services or not’. I think this type of rip-off is only possible in Nigeria.

    A few years back, a particular service provider taking a cue from a government that in an effort to raise campaign funds for the then impending election taxed motorists N24, 000 to have their old vehicle plate numbers replaced levied its customers N19, 000 to replace their existing functioning equipment for a new equipment because it was upgrading its processes. While the battle for devaluation of naira was raging a few weeks back, I branched in their office to renew my subscription only to be told in a manner of ‘take it or leave it’ that my package had gone up from N8, 000 to N10, 000.

    I did not get much joy either from a rival internet services provider to which I migrated. For instance when I went to renew my subscription after a month, I was told that N5,000 of the N7, 000 I paid was yet to be utilized but must be forfeited because I exceeded my renewal date by one day.

    What became apparent from the above interactions was that my actual monthly consumption of data was probably about N2, 000 but like many helpless Nigerians, I have been consistently swindled by as much as N6, 000 monthly for the greater part of five years.

    By retaining men of yesterday in their positions in PPPRA which has given no explanation as to why the price of 12kg cylinder of domestic gas or four litres of lubricants Nigerians depended on to service their cheap Chinese generators, products without much foreign content have gone up by as much as 100 percent, is partly the reason why many believe President Buhari and his APC are furiously squandering away the goodwill of Nigerians. Nigerians cannot understand why a government of change has continued to multiply their pains due to indolence and inefficiency. Theresa May if they needed to be reminded constituted her full cabinet within 24 hours of becoming Prime Minister of Britain.

     

  • The Missing Government Papers (2)

    ‘But, do I want to teach again?’ She was now talking to herself. I carried on with my tasks while giving her only one ear. ‘At this point, it isn’t a matter of wanting to but having to. God knows, soul and body are soon parted when nothing keeps them together. I must see someone who knows someone who knows someone about getting a teaching position in this new university. The problem is that there is often a long gap between intention and execution when the government embarks on a project…’

    ‘Mummy said I should come and check on you before I resume for next session in school,’ was my explanation as I sat down in the sitting room.

    I knew that my mum, Aunt Deline’s sister, always felt responsible for her, even though that one was at least five years younger than her. Perhaps because Aunt Deline never married and never had a child, her sister felt obliged to share her daughter with her, and would often send me across the states to stay with her. It was the African blood in them, I guess. Luckily for us both, we got on quite well and Aunt Deline had contributed many times to my school fees and general maintenance. And, being the very smart, appreciative and cheerful girl that I was, Aunt Deline had developed a special love for me and I for my ‘acada’ aunt. And so, I found myself spending as much of my holidays as possible with Aunt Deline.

    ‘Enny, I need your perspective on this’, replied Aunt Deline as if she had not heard me. Whenever I heard that sentence, I always felt somewhat elated. It meant a great deal to me.

    For one thing, it meant Aunt Deline was working on something interesting. Her prodigious brain was never idle; it was constantly moving from one scheme to another. Many of them consumed money and brought in nothing. That explained why she didn’t appear to have any substantial savings in spite of so many years of working. But she never seemed to bother, because she always said she was a child of providence. ‘My sister and I were nearly not born’, she always explained. ‘My mother had given up having more children after five boys. But we came along, very happy accidents she called us. So, I believe in the principle of taking no thought for tomorrow. It usually takes care of itself.’

    ‘Let me guess. You need my perspective on another venture or case’, I said smiling.

    ‘Who told you I’m working on a case? Must your perspective always be needed on a case? Can’t I need it on a …dress or …shoes or something?’

    ‘Aunt Deline’, I screamed, leaning forward a little on my chair, ‘Your dresses are at least ten years old, your shoes are even older, and you never buy any such things yourself.’

    ‘Yes, yes,’ said she quickly, if not a little touchily, ‘I’m grateful that your mum sends me some things now and then.’

    I sighed. I had anticipated that result. ‘Aunt Deline, you know that is not what I meant. I only wanted to remind you that needs have to be met and bills have to be paid. Look at the NEPA bill I saw on the table…’

    She snapped. ‘Since when did you begin to think like a typical Nigerian, that one must work because of money? You did not use to think this way. What happened to you? Never, ever work only for money, you hear me?’

    I smiled. ‘But Aunty, why else would one work if not for money?’

    ‘For the pleasure of the work, my dear, for the pleasure of the work,’ replied Aunt Deline.

    Then she straightened the regimental faded, three-quarter length black skirt and long-sleeved shirt that was her uniform. I looked at her with both fondness and admiration. If there was anyone in both of my parents’ families that I admired and loved, it was Aunt Deline. She was so intelligent yet guileless. Nothing missed her; no innuendo passed her by, yet even if not for necessity, she would not hurt a mosquito. She would gently explain to the air the reason why before she sprayed any insecticide  it was either the mosquitoes died or she did; and the choice was obvious.

    The fact that she never married nor had any child did not make her less busy than a mother with ten children. She always found something to do.

    But I did wonder where the money would come from to offset the N50, 000 bill the electricity company had dropped. That is quite apart from the one that came from the Water Works, sorry Utility Board, which I was sure Aunt Deline was keeping in one drawer or the other.

    ‘Are you going to get paid this time if you help the police solve this case?’, I asked. Aunt Deline looked at me through a small slit of her eyes and said nothing. That was another favourite scheme of hers  helping to solve crimes that puzzled the police.

    ‘Aunty,’ I persisted, ‘are you going to be paid this time if you solve this case?’

    ‘I have been able to help the police with my opinion on only one occasion on a matter of a criminal’s style of writing, and I am sure they could have solved the crime anyway without my help.’ That was not true; she had helped many times before which went unrecorded.

    ‘That was why they did not appreciate it?’

    ‘Well,’ replied Aunt Deline, ‘I don’t know if they did or not. What is important is that my knowledge of linguistics came in useful at that point in time. That is all that matters.’

    She did not tell me what really transpired but I heard it from Inspector Gogo. When the Assistant Inspector-General in charge of the Force Headquarters, AIG Tamire, had learnt about her involvement, he had been furious. He had been particularly caustic and loud in his instruction to his subordinates never to allow ‘that woman’ at the HQ again except to turn herself in for a crime, whether she had committed it or not. As far as he was concerned, he often said, a woman should not come to the world with any intelligence. Give a woman a little intelligence, he fumed, and what do they do with it? Get in the way of real men’s work. Aunt Deline was said to have fumed and thrown back at him before marching out of his office: ‘One of these days, sir, you will wake up and find that your wife is a woman!’

    ‘I only wish your interest in helping people could be translated to money,’ I said dejectedly.

    Aunt Deline gave me a small smile. ‘Darling, if there is anything I have taught you in all the years you have been with me, it is that even in Nigeria, it is possible to live without money, because, as you may soon find out, money does not necessarily solve every problem. Besides,’ she finished, ‘miracles happen every day if you will only open your eyes to see them’.

    I could not see any miracle coming our way but I refrained from saying so. Instead, I sat silent and contemplated Aunt Deline’s visage as she sat frowning at the newspaper she was reading. The face before me looked every second of the sixty-five years of the owner. It was a bit long and wide, with a slightly wide and protruding forehead, which tended to make the rest of the face a little bent inward at the eyes. The eyes were deep and set a bit far apart; the nose was a little too small for the total square area the face covered and her cheeks were long rather than full or high.

    Her greying hair, though not very long but permed straight (the only modern ‘frivolity’ she allowed herself) was neatly rolled into a bun behind while a few, whitish tufts persisted in standing straight up on her crown.

  • The missing government papers (1)

    How my aunt, Dr. Madeline Berah, the renowned scientist or Aunt Deline as I called her, expected to be rich while working to be poor, I’ll never know. For one thing, she was a teacher, which meant she did not earn much. For another, she often had flights of fancy that made her use the little she earned in several, unprofitable schemes.

    Once, she had an idea to make note pads with funny little writings on them. Only, it was not to make money but to amuse her friends. Another time, she threw herself into making little furniture pieces with painted patterns on them. Again, it wasn’t to make money but to give out as gifts.

    She had endless schemes like those that not only did not make her rich but actually made her poorer. Every attempt to make her see the uselessness of these ventures fell flat. No one can take the place of providence in her life, she always said; God takes care of his wee little sparrows.

    Travelling through life unconventionally like this, she managed somehow to make it into her sixties. But there she was, one day hard at her teaching post, the next called into the  office of the registrar of the city’s only university, University of Beamtown, shown her file, and asked to hand in her letter of retirement. I don’t think it ever occurred to her she could ever live long enough to be out of work!

    The bigger problem was, she said, she could not for her life recount where the years of her youth went. She insisted it was certainly not while she was having fun; she had been too busy teaching. So, the retirement had caught her by surprise. She had not finished fine-tuning her retirement plans, even though she had been on it for ten years. She needed just a few more years to bring it to maturity, like another ten. Exactly what she planned to do though, I have not been privileged to know.

    You must get this right. I loved my dear aunt, but our relationship was based on mutual respect. I respected her grey hairs, sagacity and sometimes … I don’t want to use the word ‘quaint’ … let’s say ‘different’ ways. In return, she was kind to me: she did not hold my youth against me. She even deferred to my views many times! Actually, that’s how I came to know that I could be taken to be intelligent. Her deference boosted my confidence in class no end, and that made me carry myself with something akin to pride. True, it gave occasion to some envious schoolmates to talk behind my back, but honestly, other than that, I don’t think you can hold me guilty of any other crime.

    I had a carte blanche to visit her before and after my holidays, and since I was schooling in the same university she used to teach in, also during the school days. So, I was, for all practical purposes, her wanted guest throughout the year. That meant of course that I fed on her. In return, I became her confidant, daughter, secretary, recorder, cleaner, cook, and generally in charge of a lot of things, such as the one she bounced ideas off, on and into. That is how I come to be able to tell you her story or stories, dear reader. She did nothing without passing it by me.

    Don’t get me wrong, Aunt Deline was a fiercely independent woman, stubborn even. She was so independent she refused to marry, promising to break the head of one suitor should he have the temerity to repeat his suit, as I heard, and to drown another if he so much as breathed to a soul that she ever allowed him to kiss her. I took her deferring to my opinions as a measure of her regard for me, her only sister’s daughter.

    When I arrived fresh from a dull holiday at my parents’ rather more placid existence in Pere town somewhere in the middle part of the country, I found Aunt Deline on the landing, in front of the flat, talking with the inspector’s wife. The flat directly above my aunt’s was rented by Inspector Gogo, a very friendly policeman with a ‘criminal record’. His crime? He had a sense of humour. Luckily, he had an equally friendly family to share it with. Seriously, he was also a good source of the city’s crime records.

    Obviously, the policeman was not in, but his wife was in as I could hear her conversing with my aunt on the landing as I struggled up the staircase with my luggage.

    ‘How are you, Mrs. Gogo? Is your husband in?’

    ‘No, he has gone out.’

    ‘On duty?’

    ‘No, to work. Are you fine, Mama? Yesterday, we did not see you at all.’

    ‘Ah, no problem, Mrs. Gogo. I went somewhere and came back late.’

    ‘All right. I will tell him you called.’

    ‘Thank you. Do you know if he brought yesterday’s newspaper home?’

    ‘Yes’, and the woman promptly went back inside to retrieve it. It was The Manifest.

    When my aunt descended the staircase and saw me, she did not help me with any of my baggage. That wasn’t her way.

    ‘If you persist in going around like a pilgrim, then you should be prepared to carry your sins on your back,’ was her only encouragement to me. I assured her I could cope as I had remission of sins to look forward to. She grunted and went back into our flat. At least she held the door open for me.

    One of the perks of living in our block was living alongside Inspector Gogo. He and his family made life tolerable for us by their friendliness and his frequent bouts of head butting with Aunt Deline and kindness to me. I enjoyed both sides of him and that made me sympathise with those who had really ugly neighbours. It could make one want to commit suicide.

    More importantly, he was an unending source of stories on crime and criminals. His stories were so astounding that I could not believe that this city of Keriba could hide such murk beneath it while appearing so calm on the surface. Worse, they brought out all kinds of emotions in me. At first, the stories incited so much fear in me I became too afraid to even move around at all. Then they made me so indignant I felt like thrusting out into the underworld, where it is said that low life criminals move and live and have their being, and incinerating them all. Then, I gradually found myself looking forward to his visits to our flat, because each visit meant new stories. Just when the change took place I cannot tell, but one day, I actually became interested in the stories. And the more salacious they were, the more interesting.

    We heard stories about the murder of a young girl committed in broad day light while her mother was away in the market; about some government papers stolen from some official’s house in the night; of some people unhappy with the government and blowing up pipelines just to show it; of oil workers who were white men kidnapped by hooligans; of rich and poor people’s family members kidnapped for ransom; of political figures assassinated in several ways  bombs delivered to their houses, armed thugs degutting them, or plain old fashioned straight shooting …

    As time went on, I found that the inspector was not merely recounting the stories for our listening benefits. Often, Aunt Deline’s questions or contributions provided him with angles that he probably had not thought of before. She was his sounding board, just as I was hers.

    As I unpacked and settled in, Aunt Deline settled down to read the newspaper, mumbling something about needing to see the situations vacant columns.

    ‘Look’, she showed me a story headline. ‘The state is planning to start its own university in the next six months. That’s better than nothing. Not a full time employment but it should keep body and soul together.’

  • Biting reality of Buhari government

    SIR: I am a believer in thrusting one’s endeavour in a dynamic state of conceptualized possibilities.  I have been dutifully observing the trajectory of the President Buhari administration.  My submission, so far, is that his economic policies have the potential to resuscitate the living condition of the poor masses of the country on a purest level.  As each day unfolds, I am beginning to second guess my intuitiveness as to whether the big spirit of the president to do the right thing matches the ability of his political underpinning to process the analytical details necessary to materialize his undertaking.

    I live in a progressive town of Umuoji in Anambra State.  My experience recently has duly manifested the realities of the policies of the president.  It has become obvious to me that it is one thing to believe in a stringent economic concept and another thing to witness the hardship entailed in executing it.  The ban on importation of certain food items, especially, rice and the skyrocket of the exchange rate of dollar have created a harsh living situation.  People find themselves in the crazy circus of chasing daily food items at the ordeal of insufficient money in their hand.

    I assist my sister who supplements her business on clothing material with the sale of ice block.  She has lately advised me that she does not sell ice block for N50.00 per bag any longer but N70.00.  Her reason being that the price of the bag she uses for making ice block has doubled.  I immediately took pity on her average customer who does petty trading selling pure water and beverages in our local market.

    The increase in the price of ice block to these mostly market women who are already made wretched by the poor management of the nation’s resources tortured my conscience.  It was difficult for me to mention the additional money to them.  The first old lady that I approached with the change screamed and told me flat out that she will not pay more than she usually does.  Unfortunately for her, my sister insisted that she has no choice but to pay, otherwise, she will be doing the business at a loss.

    Further, she skilfully stated to me that she could not afford to be sentimental because she needed the income to augment her living condition.  She will be the first to tell you that she detests eating Nigerian produced rice with the grains of sand that it contains.  But the sad news is that she cannot even afford the exorbitant price of it at today’s market.  It is now a matter of survival for her to squarely face her customers and unburden the predicament of the new economic reality.

    One can always hope that the intention of a civilized government is right.  But Nigerians know otherwise. They will rather call on their Maker to rescue them in the face of frustration than to trust on their leader.  The hoopla on passing the 2016 budget has come and gone.  One is still waiting for the economic reverberation from its implementation.  Suffice it to say that the agony of that old lady when she was told the new price of a bag of ice block fully expressed the misery of the present Nigerian condition.  And we are still waiting.  Change is never easy but let it be true.

     

    • Pius Okaneme,

    Umuoji, Anambra State.

  • Shettima: ‘why I never owed #2.6b monthly salaries’

    Shettima: ‘why I never owed #2.6b monthly salaries’

    Notwithstanding the Boko Haram insurgency and it’s financial effects on the Government, ‎workers in Borno State have never been owed their salaries in the last 60 months, covering June, 2011 to May, 2016, the State Governor, Kashim Shettima has said.

    Shettima who spoke when he hosted members of the Borno Elders Forum and the Business Community in the State for Ramadan Iftar at the Government House on Monday night noted that even though it was sometimes difficult he made it a duty to regularly provide two billion, six hundred million nira (N2.6b) every month to pay salaries while at the same time making expenditures on feeding  internally displaced persons and carrying out reconstructions in the last five years. 

    “Ordinarily, I don’t consider payment of salaries as achievement because salaries are debts, people worked and should be paid. However, in today’s Nigeria, payment of salaries has become rare and this makes it an achievement especially for a State like Borno that which has been battling with serious security challenges and spending billions over that. Well, we have sustained payment of salaries for an economic reason. It is elementary knowledge that salaries of workers mostly stimulate local economies especially in a situation where export is cut and there is gross decline in the number of persons coming into the State not to talk of doing business. We made it a duty to inject funds into the system through prompt payment of salaries by 25th of every month even while we were dealing with serious crisis of rebuilding communities from 2011 to date. We had to pay salaries because workers were at a point the only buyers of commodities, traders relied on salaries for the economy to be active. We had to consistently inject N2.6 billion for salaries of workers every month and that money circulated around markets. The money was what was going in circles from markets to the transport system, to the banking sector and to payment of other services. It was the salaries that held Borno’s local economy because nothing was happening before 2015, our exporters couldn’t go anywhere, whatever our traders brought in could only be bought when money circulated and salaries ensured that circulation” the Governor said.

    He explained that there instances the State tops as much as N700 million on federal revenue of N1.9b to pay salaries. He promised that the Government will sustain the salaries especially with the ongoing biometric exercise that is designed to eliminate ghost workers and cut down Government salary bill of N2.6b to something lower.

  • Need to inform about government policies

    I overheard a lady saying to her colleague that she prefers Jonathan’s corruption to Buhari’s change. Needless to say I was sad and felt very bad that this lady does not understand what the present government is doing and nobody is informing her about why things are this bad!

    One might say the lady in question is not well informed. But when one hears comments from apparently knowledgeable people saying the same thing one gets worried. It is axiomatic that change must involve moving from the known to the unknown and in most cases this may mean going through some tough time with the hope that things overtime will be better. Shouldn’t everybody know that Nigeria operates a mono economy of oil and gas and that the price of crude petroleum has declined by 60 percent? Consequently the foreign exchange accruing to Nigeria has fallen by 60 percent. This little money coming in is largely used to import refined petrol and a few other things. The result of this is the scarcity of foreign exchange and falling value of the Naira.  This is simple logic and it does not require a degree in economics to understand this law of demand and supply. If we had saved money at time of plenty when oil was selling between $100 and $140 a barrel, we would not be in this bind. If we had maintained our refineries, we would not be importing to our shame refined petrol to power our vehicles and industries. This was not because we did not vote humongous amount for so called turnaround of our refineries. We did but the money was serially stolen. I remember writing about this when the roguish Abacha awarded TOTAL petroleum company a contract of $100 million for turnaround maintenance of Kaduna refinery. I wrote to ask how much a new one would have cost. My reward was detention in Child Street Military Camp for months for having the effrontery to challenge those who were robbing the country blind. If we had used the petrol money to diversify our economy and go into mechanized farming, open up the country by building railways, ports and roads, there would have been growth and development and we would not have the scourge of Boko Haram and Niger Delta insurgency because the youth would all have been gainfully employed and would have had no time for the devilish things they are doing to our country. If we had not had venal politicians looting the treasury to the point of emptiness we would not be where we are today.

    The worst type of stealing took place under the totally disoriented and incompetent Jonathan who apparently was not in charge of things under his watch or he personally joined in and encouraged the feeding frenzy of money eaters. I find it really offensive that Jonathan will be going around the world saying how he fought corruption by giving phones to farmers and how this simple innovation of his put an end to corruption in fertilizer distribution. My God! Does this man know what he is saying? Does he remember allegedly giving his cousin $40 million for doing nothing? Does he remember alienating hectares of prime land to himself near Abuja Airport ostensibly for farming which allowed his minister of the FCT Bala Muhammad to do the same for himself with flagrant impunity thus taking property which is our commonwealth and converting it to personal property?  I hope Buhari will visit the Abuja land racket where civil servants and politicians built estates and where land bought at N50 thousand was sold at a hefty price of N560 million as revealed during the Badeh trial. When Buhari probes the NNPC and Central Bank of Nigeria, people will break down and cry like babies about how their lives and country have been irredeemably ruined. Some of us who have worked all our lives and saved money have now seen the value of our savings wiped out by the declining value of the Naira.

    Poor Buhari; these are the economic problems caused by previous governments which he now has to tackle. Sometimes I wish Jonathan had won the election. I believe he would just have woken up one day to find that he had no country but his Ijaw heartland to run because he would have carelessly given all the money in the Central Bank to political jobbers, friends, family members, hustlers and so-called Niger Delta militants and others scattered all over Nigeria telling him how wonderful a job he was doing. I personally think he was saved from this eventuality by the Nigerian people who mercifully relieved him of a burden he did not have the capacity to carry. So instead of going about and celebrating himself, he should be apologizing to Nigerians for betraying their trust.

    What then is to be done? I pray for good health for Buhari. Even though government is not a one man business, but I do not know anyone who has the determination and capacity of Buhari to save us from ourselves. It is important to institutionalize the anti-corruption campaign by building legal structures to tackle it. Special courts made up of a mixture of lawyers, academics, clerics and workers should be set up to take on cases of flagrant stealing and corruption. Cases must not last more than three months so that we can do away with the prevailing legal rigmarole benefitting and enriching lawyers

    Whatever has been recovered must be made open and deployed to fix roads, railways, airports seaports, schools, universities, hospitals and such public things that people can identify with and big signboards should be placed in front of them declaring them to be what has been done with stolen public money.

    Anybody involved in acts injurious to the people must be named and shamed and banned from holding public office for life.

    Governments at all levels must embark on campaigns of informing the people and the reason why things are as they are and for how long the people should bear with government. There is a need to tell the people to be patient and patriotic and instead of complaining they cannot find tomatoes and peppers they should be told to plant them behind their houses especially those of us outside Lagos where there is enough land. The president, the vice president and the federal cabinet and governors and state commissioners must hold regular press conferences to intimate the people about the direction of government.

    I support restructuring of the polity but the time of crisis is not the right time to embark on such fundamental reforms as being advocated by some well-meaning persons and by some political opportunists who while in power did not see fit to champion the cause  of true federalism, resource control and other emotive slogans. What this country needs right now is peace in our time. There is too much insecurity in the land. My heart hankers after the past when I used to drive alone from Lagos to Jos to Maiduguri to Yola and down to Jalingo, to Gboko to Ogoja, Calabar, Aba, Onitsha, Asaba, Benin, Lagos. Or Lagos to Ilorin, Jebba, Mokwa, Kontagora, Tegina, Kaduna, Zaria, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto or Zaria, Panbegua Jos, Bauchi, Potiskum, Maiduguri. These are routes I have personally driven on. Who can do that today without fear of kidnappers, assassins, herdsmen carrying Kalashnikov rifles and even the dread of pot holes and huge craters on the roads? The point one is making is that we need to be able to move around our country again without molest and unnecessary fear. The first task of government is personal security of its citizens. Any country that is not in motion is a dead country. We must move around and open our eyes to great possibilities of our country. By so doing, we may be able to discover that in spite of our obvious differences, there is more that binds us together than divides us.  We may be able to overcome our sometimes irrational prejudices.

    Just as the government has much to do, we the citizens also have much to do. We should cut down our senseless taste for foreign goods, food, wines, champagne, and clothes and eat and drink and wear only what we can produce. We should be proud of who we are and stop being miserable mimics of foreign cultures. There is no reason on earth for us to eat foreign food and if we must eat them then let us add value to our corn and turn them into cornflakes. We should grow our own rice and even wheat. There is enough fish and poultry in this country to stop importation of them just to name a few. We look better in our Kaftans, agbadas  babanrigas and other wares than in the totally unsuitable three piece suits in the humid tropics where we sweat and smell as a result of wrong dressing. This times call for campaign of patriotism and we need to begin now with the federal ministry of information leading the way and all of us following this struggle of a life time.

  • Keshi’s burial plans begin with government consultations

    Keshi’s burial plans begin with government consultations

    After a torrid week in the history of Nigerian football during which two greats, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi and Shuaibu Amodu passed on, burial plans for Keshi is expected to commence this week with meetings to be held with various strata of government. Amodu was buried  Sunday, according to muslim rites.

    Indications have already emerged that Keshi will be buried in his ancestral home of Illah, in Delta State, with the Federal Government, Edo, Delta and Cross River state governments already indicating interest to be part of the burial ceremony. More states are expected to indicate interests.

    Family sources said Abuja, the Federal Capital, will be the first port of call, with players of the national team expected to be led by Super Eagles Skipper John Mikel Obi also be reached to play a part in the burial ceremony of one of the greatest things to happen to Nigerian football as player and later coach in Stephen Keshi. His children are also expected to start arriving from the United States later this week as arrangements peak for his burial.

  • TUC to government: Revert to old pump price immediately

    TUC to government: Revert to old pump price immediately

    The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) yesterday asked the federal government to revert to the old pump price of petrol with immediate effect, giving the government up till May 18, 2016 to invite the leadership of organised labour for discussion on the way forward.

    In a communique at the end of an emergency National Executive Council meeting of the Congress in Lagos, the TUC said it will interface with the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Civil Society allies to work out action plans that would be put in place to protest the insensitive fuel price hike.

    The Communique, signed by the President of Congress, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama and Ag Secretary-General Comrade Simeso Amachree, reads: “The National Executive Council (NEC) of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) at an emergency meeting, held on Friday 13th May 2016, in Lagos, deliberated extensively on the recent increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol by the Federal Government and passed the following resolutions.

    “The NEC-in-Session rejected in its entirety the astronomical increase in the price of petrol from N86.50 per litre to N145 per litre and demanded that the Government should revert to the old price regime with immediate effect.

    “The NEC in session gave the Federal Government up till Wednesday, 18th May, 2016, to invite the leadership of labour for discussion aimed at determining the appropriate way forward.

    “The NEC-in-Session also directed the leadership of the TUC to interface with the NLC and the Civil Society Allies to work out action plans that would be put in place to protest the insensitive fuel price hike should the Government fail to meet the Wednesday, 18th May, 2016 deadline”.

    At the time of this report, the Nigeria Labour Congress was yet to take a definite stand on the fuel price increase.

    An earlier Press conference scheduled by the congress for 4.00pm to disclose the out of their emergency NEC meeting was rescheduled for 12.00 noon on Saturday.

    A text message from the NLC headquarters, signed by the General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, read: “this is to inform you that the press briefing today has been shifted to tomorrow, Saturday, 14th May, 2016. Time is 12 noon.”