The Nation Newspaper

Tag: history

  • The History Curriculum question

    I am tired of reading about the exclusion of History from the Nigerian national curriculum.  The subject is there.  It was never removed.   However everywhere I go that the subject of Nigerian history is discussed, scholars and educationists mourn its removal and the adverse implications for patriotism, and national development.

    Though I do not work for the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), the agency saddled with the responsibility of developing, producing, distributing and enlightening the public about the curriculum, I have decided to use this platform to announce to Nigerians that History is in our curriculum.

    However, while people should be glad to heave a sigh of relief that it has not being expunged from the curriculum, there are serious challenges facing the teaching of the subject in Nigerian schools.  So, the concern about the fate of the subject is in order.

    History is one the 12 subjects categorized under the Humanities department that secondary school pupils study from SS1-SS3.  The subject is taught under 17 broad themes covered by the curriculum, including historiography and historical skeels, Pre-Colonial Nigeria 1, Nigeria in the 19th century, British Rule and Nigerian Reaction (1900-1914), Nigeria since independence, Military intervention in governance, post civil war Nigeria, Africa and the wider world, History and global issues among others.

    But one of the concerns of critics, which is worthy of attention is that History is not taught right from primary school; and, even when it is taught at senior secondary level, it is an elective subject.  Pupils in the Humanities Department can either study History or Government.   From statistics of registration for the subject in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), it is clear that Government is the preferred subject of the two.  Compared to 57,543 candidates who wrote History in May/June 2012 WASSCE, 975,166 sat for Government.  While the best national average performance in History between 2007 and 2012 was 38.24 per cent; that of Government was 68.10 per cent within the same period.

    It is therefore no surprise that not many Nigerian children have a good grasp of our history by the time they complete secondary school.  The situation is more pathetic when we find elite schools implementing foreign curricula teaching the history of foreign countries to our children on Nigerian soil, while the country’s history is relegated.  And at the tertiary level, History is only taught to students studying the course.

    Critics seek a situation where History is made compulsory and taught at all levels, like obtains in the United States where students take History up to their second year in college.

    For this to happen, the government must address the problem of teacher supply in the subject.  Many school administrators complain about the difficulties of finding History teachers to hire.  When they cannot find History teachers, some schools force teachers who specialize in Government to teach History, which a practice expert says is not helpful.  The government could also attach special scholarships to History to popularize the course in the university.

    Perhaps finding interesting ways to teach the subject could also help attract pupils’ attention.  In a story we published in The Nation last year (http://staging.thenationonlineng.net/help-history-faces-extinction-schools/), some pupils complained that their teachers did not teach history in an interesting way.

    Like many critics have argued, we need to know our history to understand our present and prepare for the future so we do not repeat the mistakes of the past.  Our history is important.  And we should give it a pride of place in our education system.

  • Ekiti: A taste of history

    Ekiti: A taste of history

    Of course, the path of honour doesn’t lie down in flat miles. It’s in the imagination with which you perceive this world and the gestures with which you raise your banner that the honour finds its domicile”.

     

    Preamble

    Saturday, November 21, 2015 was a day of honour in Ekiti State. For two days before that Saturday, Ado Ekiti, the capital of the state, had come alive with a memorable history. The people of the state trooped out in their thousands to take a glimpse of a rare guest on a rare occasion. The guest was no other personality than His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for (NSCIA). He was there as the first Sultan ever to visit Ekiti State.

    The occasion was for the installation of an indigene of the state and a gentleman of honour as the President of the League of Imams and Alfas of Yoruba Land.  He is Sheikh Jamiu Kewulere Bello who incidentally is also the Grand Imam of Ekiti State. It was a special day of joy on the part of Ekiti people as it was on the part of the Sultan.

    Two days earlier (Thursday, November 19, 2015, His Eminence had travelled down to Ado-Ekiti from Ibadan where he had been installed as the new Chancellor of the University of Ibadan on Tuesday, November 17, 2015. The day of Imam’s installation in Ado Ekiti was his sixth day in Southwest Nigeria. Shortly after his arrival in Ado Ekiti, penultimate Thursday, His Eminence paid a courtesy visit to His Royal Majesty, Oba (Dr.) Rufus Adeyemo Adejugbe Aladesanmi 111, CON, JP, the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti (at his palace) who hosted him and his entourage including yours sincerely with the grandeur of royalty.

     

    Observance of Jum’at Prayer

    On Friday, November 20, 2015, His Eminence commissioned the newly renovated city’s Central Mosque after paying a courtesy visit to the State Governor in his office. The Jum’at prayer observed in that Mosque was led by the Rector of the Centre for Arabic and Islamic Culture, (Markaz) Agege, Sheikh Habibullah Adam Abdllah Al-Ilory. In his sermon, Sheikh Al-Ilory laid emphasis on the duties of an Imam and the importance of Mosques in Islam. He counseled the new President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas on the challenges ahead of him and how he could surmount those challenges. While admonishing the Muslim Ummah against hearsay and tutored them on the need for cooperation with their leaders for the purpose of   unity.

     

    Dignitaries

    Among the dignitaries that observed the Jum’at prayers were His Eminence, the Sultan, His Royal Majesty, the Ewi of Ado Ekiti (though a Christian) who regarded joining His Eminence in the Mosque as part of hospitality. Others were His Royal Majesty, Oba Akadiri Momoh the Olukare of Ikare; His Excellency, Chief (Dr.) Sakariyau Olayiwola (S. O.) Babalola, OON, DSC, President of the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN) who made the highest single monetary donation to the installation day; the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, OFR, FNAL,  the Head of Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Ibadan, Dr. Kamil Koyejo Oloso and all the chiefs and senior Imams of the six states of the Southwest as well as those of Edo and Delta states.

    Some of those dignitaries included Chief S. O. Babalola; the Magajin Rafi and Galadima of Sokoto; Professor T. G. Gbadamosi; Dr. Abdullah Jibril Oyekan; members of MUSWEN’s Secretariat Task Force as well as a retinue of other Muslim dignitaries from various states had been parts of the entourage of His Eminence since his arrival in the Southwest the previous Monday. The Vice Chairman of the Task Force, Alhaji Murziq Bidemi Siyanbade’s role in this was particularly distinct as he virtually relocated to Oyo State Government House, Ibadan, where His Eminence was officially hosted and was shuttling between that place and the University of Ibadan to ensure that the protocol was properly maintained.

     

    Grand Finale

    At the grand finale held at the Ado-Ekiti pavilion, a galaxy of traditional rulers, Imams and Alfas as well as representatives of various Islamic Organisations were present in their joyful mood, an indication that the long awaited unity of the Southwest Ummah had come at last.  Governor Ayodele Fayose was represented by his wife, Feyisara; Delegates of Hausa communities from various states and representatives of some emirs who came from the North were also there to grace the occasion.

    The Chairman of the occasion was Alhaji Khamis Tunde Badmus of Osun State who was ably represented by Senator Adebayo Salami and made a very handsome monetary donation.

    The President-General designate was presented to His Eminence, the Sultan and the public for turbanning by the Secretary-General of the League, Sheikh Ahmad Aladesawe who also gave the welcome address. And the installation lecture was delivered by Sheikh Habibullah Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory, the Rector of MARKAZ, Agege, who is well renowned for apt oration and electrifying delivery power. In the lecture, he spelt out duties and responsibilities of an Imam globally and locally. He emphasised the fact that the President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas would now have more time for his office than for his office. The President of MUSWEN, Chief (Dr.) Babalola also gave a goodwill message.

     

    Profile

    The 63-year-old  President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas of the South West, Edo and Delta, Sheikh Muhammad Jamiu Kewulere Bello, was born on January 2, 1952. After his primary education at Ansar-ud-Deen, Ajilosun, Ekiti, he attended the famous Arabic/Islamic Institute (Zumratu Diyau Salihin) and later became a student at Aabic Training Centre, established by Sheikh Mahally Badrudeen, Ami of Iwo in Osun State. He was also a student of Sheikh Agbarigidoma of Ilorin in Kwara State and a number of other renowned scholars were his teachers.

    Sheikh Jamiu Kewulere Bello briefly dabbled into transportation business before he was persuaded to become the Chief Imam of Ado Ekiti in 1985. He was turbaned by the then Chief Imam Yusuf Olatunji Ogunlayi of Ikole Ekiti. When Ekiti State was created from the old Ondo State in 1996, the Muslim leadership in Ekiti State unanimously appointed him as the Grand Imam of Ekiti State.

     

    Appointment

    On June 4, 2015, Sheikh Jamiu Kewulere Bello was unanimously appointed as President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas of the South West, Edo and Delta at a meeting of the League thereby becoming the 5th Imam to occupy that post. After his installation by His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, the new President-General thanked everybody who played a role in his emergence and in making the occasion a success. He then promised to strengthen the Unity of the South West Muslim Ummah on the one hand and that of the latter and the Northern Muslim Ummah on the other.

     

    Acceptance Speech

    In his word Sheikh J. K. Bello said: “At this juncture, I wish to say with humblest humility and spirit of devotion to Allah (SWT) that I accept this responsibility that you have all placed on my shoulders via my appointment as President-General, League of Imams and Alfas, South Western, Edo and Delta states. As you are all aware, the responsibility of the office is enormous. However, with the special grace and assistance of Allah (SWT) coupled with the cooperation of all and sundry, I hope to contribute my quota to move forward the entire Muslim Ummah in all states of my jurisdiction in particular and the nation in general……”

    The new President-General also said: “Essentially, I would be ready to work with all Islamic organisations, groups, sects and associations to further the frontiers of Islamic religion towards achieving greater peace, progress, unity and development in our midst and in the nation at large. Good initiatives towards achieving peaceful co-existence and societal peace among various other faiths shall be supported…….”

     

    Chronology

    Among his predecessors in that office were the late Chief Imam Muili Basunu of Ibadan, Oyo State; the late Chief Imam Armiyau Parakoyi of Ijebu Ode, Ogunm State; Chief Imam Yayi Akorede of Akure, Ondo State and Chief Imam Mustapha Olayiwola Ajisafe of Osogbo, Osun State.

     

    History

    The League of Imam and Alfas was established in 1967 at the instance of Sheikh Adam Abdullah Al-Ilory of the great Institute of Arabic and Islamic Culture (MARKAZ) Agege who served as its first Secretary-General. Other Secretaries-General who served after him include Sheikh Sadrudin Biobaku of Gbagura, Abeokuta, Ogun State and the current Chief Imam Ahmad Aladesawe of Owo, Ondo State.

     

    Comment

    The establishment of the League of Imams and Alfas of Southwest, Edo and Delta was a turning point in the unity of the Southwest Muslim Ummah especially in speaking with one voice on matters of common interest and in fighting for the rights of the Muslims in the region. With the establishment of the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria, that unity became formidably strengthened as both bodies began to work together like a pair of scissors. Today, Yoruba Muslims and their Edo and Delta brothers and sisters are one and the same. Their spiritual union has created a strong synergy between the Northern and Southern Muslim Ummah in Nigeria.

     

    Central Planning Committee

    Members of the planning committee for the installation were selected from the states that constitute the League. They included the following: Imam Ahmad Aladesawe (Secretary-General), Owo, Ondo State; Alhaji Morufu Olawale Isola and Imam Rabiu Salahudeen, Osun State; Dr. M. T. A. Alayinde, Imam Wasiu Nuru, (markaz) and Alhaji Saadullah Bello, Lagos State. Others were Imam S. S. Bamgbola, Ogun State, Grand Mufti Batuta, Ondo State; Alhaji Fatai Muili Alaga, Oyo State; Alhaji Abdul Fattah Enabulele, Edo State and Chief Imam of Delta State.

     

    Local Organising Committee

    Some of the Local Organising Committee members included the following: Alhaji Barrister Yakubu O. Sanni (Chairman); His Excellency, Dr. Sikiru Tae Lawal, former Deputy Governor and Chairman, Finance Committee; Aare Sulaiman Afolabi Ogunlayi, Chairman Programme and Publicity Committee;Alhaji Jimoh Dayo Ajayi, Chairman, Security Committee; Alhaja Maryam Ogunlade, Chairman, Welfare and Entertainment Committee; Dr. Ibraheem Azees, Chairman, Medical Committee; Alhaji Ganiyu Ibrahim, Secretary, LOC and Alhaji Jamiu Babalola, Assistant Secretary, LOC and a host of others. Some members of the LOC were also members of the Central Planning Committee.

     

    The Role of MUSWEN

    Since its inception in 2008, the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN), being one of the two main pair organs of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) in partnership with Jam’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) of the North has been playing a very vital role in solidifying the unity of the Muslim Ummah in the South West Nigeria. For instance, the former Secretary-General of the League of Imams and Alfas, the late Sheikh Sadrudeen Biobaku was a member of the Board of Trustees of MUSWEN until his demise. Also, the late President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas, Imam Mustapha Olayiwola Ajisafe was Vice-President of MUSWEN. And in furtherance of of that unity, the newly installed President-General of the League Sheikh J. K. Bello as well as the current Secretary-General of the League, Sheikh Ahmad Aladesawe have been officially invited to be members of the Central Working Committee of MUSWEN.

    Besides, a special team from MUSWEN, led by its President, Chief (Dr.) S. O. Babalola paid a courtesy visit to Ekiti Muslim Community in the residence of the President-General designate of the League last August in the spirit of unity and cooperation. These and many other gestures are pointers to the fact that MUSWEN’s hand of fellowship is always out for the League to grab with love. Also, last month, another MUSWEN team led by its Executive Secretary, Prof. D. O. S. Noibi paid a courtesy visit to Ondo Muslim community and even observed the monthly meeting of that Community. If all these efforts by MUSWEN are adequately reciprocated and complimented by other stake holders in the Southwest, any tendency for fanaticism and consequent terrorism may be easy to nip in the bud.

     

    Observation

    This is an era of religious uncertainty. What we call religion these days is nothing more than a fraudulent cloak for fraudulent activists. The more we claim to be religious the deeper we sink into the quagmire of iniquities. Some people who claim to be men of God are nothing more than men of evil. There is hardly any crime in the world today that is not aided or even generated by people who masquerade day and night in the cloak of religion. The modern day generation has turned religion into a capitalist mercantile. It is the duty of and responsibility of both MUSWEN and the League of Imams and Alfas to stem any spate of such ugly trend and return sanity to Islam in the region. Meanwhile, ‘The Message’ hereby joins MUSWEN in congratulating both the League of Imams and Alfas and its newly installed President-General. CONGRATULATION!

  • Ambode, history beckons

    Ambode, history beckons

    Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, now harried to perform or bounce, may well ponder the gubernatorial history of Lagos.

    Two cases, one ending in peril; the other in glory, but both boasting no sparkling starts, should capture the governor’s attention, as he navigates this teething stage of his governorship.

    The one, Governor Michael Otedola, of blessed memory.  The other, Governor Bola Tinubu.

    Sir Michael Otedola, ever before his gubernatorial years, was an Epe folk hero of profound community value.  He was the quintessential entrepreneur, who swarmed his immediate community with scholarships and allied philanthropy.

    Even when the Lagos progressives, in 1991, feuded to the death, and could not agree on a common candidate, an aggrieved faction trusted Sir Michael enough to invest in him their grand plan: punish the uppity Dapo Sarumi faction of the then Social Democratic Party (SDP); but also make a progressive proxy of Otedola’s conservative National Republican Convention (NRC) government.

    For Otedola, it was a prescient name come true: “Ote” (intrigue) among the bickering progressives, had “dola”: become sheer fortune, for this lucky conservative!  But all too soon, it became a damp squib.  Though his electioneering war cry was That Lagos May Excel, Lagos instead grinded to a near-standstill under the luckless Sir Michael.

    True, the June 12 protests badly distracted the Otedola government, Lagos being the epicentre of the mass 1993 presidential election annulment dissent.  Still, when Gen. Sani Abacha, in a November 1993 coup, ended the still-birth Third Republic, Sir Michael’s had become among the worst gubernatorial tenures in Lagos history.

    Governor Tinubu’s debut was no radically different.  Asiwaju Tinubu came six years after Sir Michael.  The misfiring military had, in utter disgrace, exhausted their self-imposed historic role.  But everyone still lay in the ruins they left behind.

    So, Governor Tinubu took over a Lagos in sheer paralysis.  True, Col. Buba Marwa, the last military governor of Lagos, had made his own mark, a giant of a sort, among the military Lilliputians.  His Operation Sweep anti-crime squad had elicited copy from neighbouring Oyo, which named its own squad Operation Gbale (“sweep” is “gbale” in Yoruba).

    Indeed, it was in this politics of perception that the Tinubu government made its first public gaffe, renaming Marwa’s Operation Sweep as Rapid Response Force — before someone, somewhere remembered you couldn’t possibly have a force within a force!  So, the name was changed to Rapid Response Squad.

    But the crime crisis was just one among the many crippling challenges.  All over Lagos were mountains of refuse.  Even the waste-management public-private-participation (PPP) model, which eventually solved the problem, became the butt of cynical media jokes, as newspapers mocked the harassed government with choice pictures of bagged refuse, by road medians, awaiting clearance. “Tinubu’s bouquets”, they dubbed these ugly and smelly polythene bags!

    Meanwhile, Lagos roads were in a complete shambles.  Though Governor Marwa somewhat weaned himself from the “no bitumen” of the Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola era, the approach was still artificial patching, when an overhaul and complete reconstruction would do.

    Then, the Lagos Bar Beach overflow!  That became so consistent and persistent that the most brilliant idea of the Federal Government, under President Olusegun Obasanjo and Works Minister Tony Anenih, was sand-filling.  So, contractors ended up sandbagging their own country, but with the problem unsolved.  The Lagos environmental problem was complete and daunting.

    In the midst of all of these, the ever-impatient people and media went to town, dismissing the new Tinubu government as long in slogans but tragically short in substance.  That prevailed for no less than two years, during which the Tinubu government perfected its tactics and strategies.

    By the time the government took off in its third year, however, the next six years, in the two terms of eight years, would climax in glory.  Though Tinubu started rather slow, he ended rather well, even if the state was still a vast work-in-progress junkyard, since the bus rapid transit (BRT) corridors were under construction.

    This long historic tieback is imperative to emphasise that the present agony of Governor Ambode — an impatient and bad-tempered citizenry, goading him to perform or get the  hell out of the way — is not novel.

    Otedola went through it and wilted; though his four-year term was truncated after only 21 months — less than half way.  But Tinubu went through it and triumphed.  But again, he enjoyed two democratic terms of eight years.

    The question: which path would Ambode tow?  That is where history beckons.

    In “Ambode and King Solomon’s complex” (June 9), Ripples somewhat set a putative agenda for the new Lagos governor.  But he warned that the governor’s tenure would enjoy neither the restless drama of Tinubu’s entry and exit; nor the sheer excitement of Fashola’s entry and exit.  Lagos, that piece noted, was now much more settled; and less prone to drama and titillation.

    In order words, Ambode must creatively manage the humbug of his entry to somewhat make it sparkle; and give the ever excitable Lagos, backed by an often mischievous media, something to chew.

    So far, little of that has happened, though there is little proof the governor has been idling away.  Still, clearly the Ambode governorship would appear nowhere near where Ambode wants it to be.

    What to do?  Don’t panic or get distracted.  Don’t even get prickly.  Queries and comments, rational or irrational, come with the territory.  Governance, after all, is service, not over-lordship.

    Then, no unnecessary comparison and contrast with the Fashola tenure.  That would be sterile, and frankly, unproductive.  Ambode doesn’t need to wear Fashola’s shoes anymore than Fashola needed to wear Tinubu’s.

    Yet, when the history of post-Tinubu Lagos is written, Tinubu would pass as perhaps the most visionary, since he started the Lagos modernising project — after the no less heroic contributions of a previous two, of different eras: Alhaji Lateef Jakande (first elected governor) and Brig. Mobolaji Johnson (first-ever governor).

    Fashola, on the other hand, would pass as perhaps the most clinical and efficient in policy execution; earning national and global plaudits along the way.

    In this long continuum of exemplary Lagos governorships, Ambode has ample space to create his own niche, and make his own mark.  That is why he should, in the short run, focus on the very basics: roads, crime and traffic.  On roads, the governor is doing some work.  Witness: Ikotun-Egbe-Okota axis.

    But on crime and traffic, the report is not too cheery: umpteenth reckless Danfo and even BRT drivers; and lawless Okada riders invading major highways where they are barred by law, are turning Lagos into some Hobbesian jungle.  The governor needs to be uncompromisingly tough on these road outlaws.  Add the trailer/tanker drivers’ menace, and you can feel a splitting gubernatorial migraine!

    It is a teething stage in the Ambode governorship; and the way angry Lagosians react isn’t pretty.  But that is hardly unexpected.

    That is why Governor Ambode must dig deep to make his mark.  Governor Tinubu turned round his own early setbacks.  So can Governor Ambode.

    And Sir Michael?  That is no option.  Governor Ambode can and should scale his teething challenges; and ultimately get it right.

  • Make history compulsory, society urges govt

    Historical Society of Nigeria (HSN) has urged the Federal Government to make compulsory the teaching of history at both primary and secondary levels.

    HSN also urged the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) to ensure that all accreditation panels consist of registered and active members of the society for the accreditation of history programmes in all universities.

    In a communiqué signed by the Chairman, Secretary and a member of the communiqué drafting committee, Dr I. Ukase, Mallam Ahmed Tahiru and Hycinth N. Apya the society recommended that:

    “All obstacles hindering the implementation of the revised curriculum by the National Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) should be addressed without any further delay.

    “The society should produce a standardized template for historical methodology which should become a working guide for all history departments in the country; that all departments of history should as a matter of importance get affiliated to the Society by officially registering with the society. In this connection, the society further resolved to write to all vice chancellors to effect this resolution.”

    The society also urged the Federal Government to “redeem its pledge of a parcel of land for the construction of the Society’s secretariat at the FCT, among others.”

     

  • Artists in alliance for Today in history

    Seven years ago, the Iponri Artists stunned the Lagos art scene with quality works of art when they made their debut exhibition New Dawn, at the National Museum, Onikan Lagos.  In 2009, they had a follow-up, Isokan (Togetherness) at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, which confirmed the arrival of this new generation of gifted young artists. In tandem with the independence anniversary of Nigeria, the group is in alliance with other young talented artists to host an independence show at Abuja, titled Today in History, showing from October 22 to 28, at The Thought Pyramid Art Centre, Abuja.

    The artists are Tayo Olayode, Bede Umeh, Kehinde Oso and  Sanusi Abdullahi who are in alliance with non-members such as Bimbo Adenugba, Gerald Chukwuma, Uchay Joel Chima and Bolaji Ogunwo.

    For the group, showing with non-members is not new because in 2011, the group, had, in Abuja exhibited with other artists, and a year after continued with an international collaboration when the artists showed in Accra, Ghana, again with non-members.

    According to Olayode during a preview session in Lagos, the partnership will continue in the next few years, and may take the artists to U.S or Europe next year for exhibitions. He disclosed that the choice of Thought Pyramid Centre as a space has to do “with our diverse and big canvas.”

    Apart from the pedigree of Iponri Artists’ name, none of the exhibiting artists is a stranger to the Nigerian art scene as each has made a mark on the Nigerian art space. From Olayode, to Chukwuma, a mixed media relief sculptor artist, Umeh, a painter with depth of skills on the canvas; Abdulahi, a metal sculptor, Adenugba, a painter with strong passion for realism and Chima, a mixed media artist, the group outing at Thought Pyramid, Abuja may be a turning point.

    Some of the works include A Time To Ponder, Umeh’s painting that takes the texture of an embossed portrait. Other works of the artist for the show include Adaobi, a multiplication effect; and Delegation, a stylised figural of people in gathering.

    Since their return from residency at Vermont in the U.S., Olayode and Chima have been sharing their wealth of experiences.  For Olayode his signature is distinct in his painting of figures, where he uses crowd effect. Night Market and Royal Procession are two of his works at the group exhibition and it confirms that the artist is stepping up his game.

    One year after, Chima had his first post-residency show titled Connection, a two-artist’s exhibition. But, his outing with Iponri Artists is a fresh window to celebrate his new technique. Chima, again brings his narrative about burns and darkness as explained in portraiture of a couple rendered in black rubber pieces.

    Chima is known for his eclectic use of alluring materials and unique artistic process, often questioning environmental and social issues around the world. Chima’s works have continued to evolve, remaining relevant to developments in contemporary art. Weaving a tapestry of memory, imagination, societal happenings and emotion, he combines various fond objects, including strings, sand, wax, charcoal, old sacks, with paint and other mediums in an aesthetic that informs his oeuvre. He creates thought-provoking presentations, which address the realities around us whilst employing a mixture of conventional and unconventional approaches in his unceasing explorations.

    Ogunwo explained his work: “My art is informed by the people and events that permeate my immediate milieu. In the course of my artistic career   spanning over a decade, I have resolved not to be led by just the trending thematic and stylistic culture in the art practice  but to see and represent ideas the way I feel and not just the way they are, hence my art is cathartic; a purgation of my emotions on frenzied canvases. I ventilate loudly through my pallette addresing socio-political issues ranging from corruption and moral deficit knowing full well that Nigeria will soon assume her position as the giant of Africa indeed.”

    The only sculptor in the group, Abdullahi flaunts the beauty of natural metal with works such as Our Domain, a depiction of insects on cobweb;  drummer of native Yoruba dance steps, in Bata; and another insect life, Tussle, where butterflies perch on a hibiscus flower. Perhaps adding painterly touch to Tussle with red hibiscus and yellow butterfly, Abdullahi offers quite a choice in collection tastes.

    As for the non-members such as Adenugba he brings his new canvas of realism into the gathering with works such as Ecstassy, Green For Sale anf Fragment. In the last few years, he has populated his realism canvas with signs and motifs, some of which are pronounced, for example in Ecstacy, a piece about ladies in sensuous dancing.

  • Terrorism ll soon be history in Nigeria, says Buratai

    Terrorism ll soon be history in Nigeria, says Buratai

    •Netherlands offers to help Army

    Boko Haram: Buhari, Service Chiefs meet 

    President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday met with service chiefs on how to overcome weather and logistic challenges hampering the defeat of Boko Haram insurgents.

    The government has declared its intentions to crush the sect by December.

    The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Gabriel Abayomi Olonisakin and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Aliyu Ismaila, spoke with State House correspondents at the end of the closed-door meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The CDS said they had to brief the President on the security situation on ground after a 60-day review.

    He said: “It is a normal consultation to intimate him of the issues on ground. We briefed him on the security situation on ground after a 60-day review and we had to brief him on the challenges we have and ensure that the mandate we have is properly delivered.

    “Of course, the challenges we are looking at are the issues of probably the weather as it were and some other logistics that we feel we should have so that the mandate can be quickly delivered.”

    On the president’s response, he said: “He is very excited, very happy. As for our request, he gave the mandate.”

    Asked on any consideration of extension of the deadline beyond December, Olonisakin said: “We have not said that. The mandate is that we should clear Boko Haram from the occupied territories and ensure that we reclaim all the lost grounds. That is exactly what we are doing.”

    On whether the December mandate is feasible, he said: “It is a military operation and military operations have time-lines and these time-lines we are working on assiduously.”

    He said the United States (U.S.) and United Kingdom (UK) were involved in capacity building for troops as part of their support to the Federal Government.

    “When we get there, we will let you know. They have been involved in some capacity building and of course, when we get the tangible ones, we will let you know about it,” Olonisakin said.

    The permanent secretary said the service chiefs will be meeting again with the President in the next few days.

    He said: “We are here to brief the president on the situation of what armed forces have been doing in the Northeast and the Southsouth. That is exactly what we discussed with Mr. President.

    “The directive is that we should continue what we have been doing and in the next few days, there will be another meeting.

    “But by and large, the president is excited and confident that the leadership of the Nigerian Armed Forces that he puts in place will do us proud.”

    THE Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai, has assured that the nation’s troops are determined to end Boko Haram insurgency and make terrorism history.

    A statement by Army spokesman Col. Sani K. Usman said Buratai spoke when the Netherlands Defence Attaché to Nigeria, Col. Eric Adriaan de Landmeter, and delegations from Total Plc and Arik Air separately visited his office.

    He said the Nigerian troops were making a steady progress in the fight against terror, oil theft and other criminalities.

    The Chief of Army Staff, who hailed de Landmeter for his visit, assured of his men’s determination to end Boko Haram activities soon.

    He added that the operations of the Multinational Joint Task Force was progressing well and that troops from contributing countries were expected to operate within their territories.

    He noted that both Nigeria and the Netherlands have been participating in peace operations for a long time.

    He lauded Netherland’s demonstration of concern over Nigeria’s security challenges.

    De Landmeter thanked Buratai for the audience despite the short notice and hailed the Nigerian Army for its effort in ending insurgency.

    The defence attache stated that his country was interested in what was happening in Nigeria, stressing that Netherlands has the capacity to offer expertise to the Federal Government to tackle its security challenges.

    In another development, Buratai has promised that the Nigerian Army would continue to ensure that troops deployed to protect oil companies’ installations conduct themselves professionally at all times.

    He spoke when the Managing Director of Total, Nigeria Plc, Mr. Nicolas Terraz, visited his office at the Army headquarters.

    The COAS added that challenges facing the country, including oil theft, piracy and pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta as well as Boko Haram terrorism in the Northeast would soon end.

    Terraz noted that oil theft and pipeline vandalism have constituted major challenges for his company’s operations.

    Buratai also received the Managing Director of Arik, Mr. Chris Ndulue, promising that the Nigerian Army would partner with the company.

    He urged corporate bodies and the citizens to support the Army in the on-going fight against insurgency in the Northeast.

  • History as hubris

    History as hubris

    For the past few weeks, and in particular in the past fortnight, mainland Europe has been convulsed by a migratory tremor on the scale of some epic Biblical exodus. Hordes of refugees, having lost all hopes of earthly redemption, are fleeing their original homesteads with whatever they can salvage of their worldly possessions and are slogging their way towards what they consider as restitution and restoration of hope and possibilities.

    In its sheer confusion and disorientation, its utter hopelessness and loss of compass and earthly moorings, this historic human armada resembles the aftermath of a catastrophic nuclear bombing. Desperate humanity are absconding from the economic ruins of the old Balkan axis, the political and economic implosion of Iraq and Syria and from the total ruination of Libya or old Carthage, if you like. As usual, the trail leads back to the cradle of humankind.

    In the event, artificial barriers called national boundaries have been virtually obliterated. Many nation-states have come under a grave peril. Some of the custodians of their earthly paradises are having none of this civil invasion. A few days ago, Hungary closed its borders to the new Tartars and its security forces began unleashing restraining violence and other domestic disincentives on the hordes.

    The land of the magnificent Magyars, otherwise a sedate and very cultured people and heirs to a great civilization, seems to have had enough. Some other nations more welcoming are just in the process of perfecting some prohibitive legal hurdles to deal with the exigencies as they make a spurious distinction between refugees and economic migrants. The redoubtable Brits are waiting and watching this mainland maelstrom with icy resolve. They shall not pass. Europe is in dire turmoil.

    The horror! The horror of it all! If there is any redemptive trope in this trail of carnage and tale of human horror, in the pictures of hundreds drowning, many perishing on the road through sheer exhaustion and of a father clinging to the washed up corpse of an adorable son, it has to be located in the fact that this is not happening to Africans, the traditional laggards of modern civilization and orphaned destitute of history but to the triumphant victors of the race to modernity and their triumphalist choir people.

    This is a trail that leads back to the cradle of humankind, our mutual humanity and common ancestry on the old plains of East Africa, a fact which Euro-American mythmakers and numerous historians are wont to deny or ignore. It speaks to the hubris that first made our proto-human ancestors dare to stand upright and walk and then to begin a long trudge towards new foundations and new beginnings across the plains of Euro-Asia and eventually to the new world.

    But more importantly, it speaks to the hubris which usually makes a few people in human society with the adamantine will to power and the visionary impulse to seize the bull of history by the horns and by so doing to determine the trajectory of history and the destiny of human society. Alexander, the great Greek, the Roman emperors, the ancient Norse warrior-class, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan and his Tartan hordes, Chaka the Zulu, forgotten and unrememberable old  world avatars, and Napoleon Bonaparte all come to mind.

    If they ever succeeded at all, it was because they were standing on the ruins of older civilizations and the collective heritage of all humankind. The granite resolve, the will to conquer and dominate their environment, the sheer chutzpah, have been burnt into their genes in millennia of human striving and the accumulated DNA of human struggle for recognition and self-actualization. As Louis Althusser, the great French Marxist philosopher, has put it with daring and defiant extremity and Structuralist pathos: “History is a process without a subject”.

    The hubris of Western civilization and western modernity is to ever imagine that nothing came before it and that nothing will come after it. Around the tenth century, the leading country in the world was ancient China before it went into a long decline occasioned by a power struggle about modernity between the Mandarinate and the Imperial feudal dynasty. Artifacts retrieved from modern Kenya suggest that Chinese ships had already reached the old port of Mombasa around the seventh century.

    Much earlier around the first millennium, evidence suggests that some Indonesian clans had already reached the island of Madagascar. They were then alleged to have returned to East Africa to recruit wives and other domestic accessories. They would eventually be joined by migrants and adventurers from the African mainland to inaugurate a new beginning for what would become a new people.

    Mainland Africa and Africans are no strangers to epic migrations. The history of the continent is one long drama of forcible migration and forcible incorporation. Apart from the biblical migration and forcible expulsion of the ancient tribe of Judah from Egypt, there are numerous examples of long treks or voortrek as the old Dutch settlers would call it as they moved inland.

    In the same region in the early nineteenth century, a military genius from the Uguni sub-clan of the Zulu welded the Zulu people and the entire region together in a series of great military triumphs leading to great dispersals or mfekane, epic depopulation and repopulation. In an act of intellectual hubris, some western historians describe Chaka as a Black Napoleon but on the scale of military innovation and raw courage Chaka was Napoleon’s equal if not superior.

    Around the tenth century in what was to become modern day Yorubaland, a highborn nobleman called Oduduwa descended from the surrounding highland to the plains of Ile-Ife to commence a protracted and very bloody civil war to oust the old order in a bold visionary bid for the centralization of authority and power. His heirs gradually extended their suzerainty to the whole of Yoruba race.

    Oduduwa had no western textbook or European authority to rely upon. In any case at that point in time, Europe had descended into the barbarity of the Dark Age. The Oduduwa revolt was part of a universal human impulse to impose order on disorder and chaos. It was a revolution to consecrate proper feudal relations. To the modern sensibility, a feudal revolution may sound like a quaint anomaly, a roaring oxymoron, but that was precisely the stage the dialectic of history had reached at that point in time.

    In the light of the migratory earthquake currently convulsing Europe, it may be tempting to mistake the symptom for the disease. It is tempting to see the ruins of Iraq, the carnage in Syria and the upsurge of counter-revolutionary momentum that has obliterated the gains of the Arab Spring in Egypt, Tunisia and the virtual implosion of Libya as emanating from the contradiction of modern Islam and the unending power struggle between the Sunni and the Shitte sects.

    It is indeed an old succession struggle which goes back all the way to the demise of the great prophet himself and whether he should be succeeded by his blood relations or the conclave of faithful followers. It has indeed occasioned many religious civil wars and Iraq, Syria, Yemen and the Homeric battlefields of the Middle East are just a modern enactment of a historic feud.

    While this is part of the narrative, it does not exhaust the whole narrative. The real narrative is powered by western intellectual and ideological arrogance as well as political hubris. As they say in Nigeria, it is the case of Islamic trouble troublesomely sleeping and western yanga waking it. When you sow the wind, you must reap the whirlwind.

    At the end of the Cold War, Francis Fukuyama, a notable American intellectual and policy wonk of Japanese extraction, published what was to become a famous book. It was titled, The End of History and the Last Man. Despite later modulations and modifications, Fukuyama’s thesis was simple and seemingly impregnable: after the routing of the Soviet bear, western notion of liberal democracy, market economy and the post-Westphalian nation-state has become globally rampart and its paradigm irresistible and indestructible.

    To be sure, Fukuyama was not speaking out of turn. He was merely providing an intellectual scaffolding for the collective political habitus of the western political elite and the feeling of euphoria and triumphalism that accompanied the defenestration of the communist threat. But as Paul de Man, the great Yale literary theorist has taught us, the moment of great insight is also often accompanied by great blindness.

    It would seem in retrospect that Fukuyama’s error of judgment—and the western political elites’ blindness—was to confuse the working out of a particular phase of history and the commencement of a new beginning with the end of history and the irreversibility of western global dominance.

    In retrospect, the political hubris emanating from this mindset and the rise of a unilateral global order dominated by America has cost the world much strife and bloody upheavals. It led to the attempt to impose liberal democracy and market economy on the Russian rump of the old Soviet Empire.

    It has led to tears and bloody affront at Tiananmen Square, the destruction of  Sunni/Baathist Iraq, the fearsome stalemate in Afghanistan, the evaporation of Libya, the rise of rogue democracies in Africa, the near universalization of al-Queda as a potent counter-hegemonic Islamic movement and the dramatic emergence of ISIS.

    How has the “end of history” ideology fared?  Internally, it has led to the bleeding of the American economy and a military overstretch for a nation that was not conceived as a warrior-state. The Russian resistance has occasioned the rise of a pan-Slavic nationalism ricocheting in Ukraine even as Putin permanently cocks a snook at the west particularly in Syria. It has led to an economically rampart China viewing the west with wary distrust even as it turns the fiscal screw with typical Chinese forbearance.

    It has overturned the delicate geo-sect balance in the Islamic world in favour of a rampart theocratic Iran. It has bred some murderously virulent strains of Islam like ISIS which has taken the traditional Islamic disdain for the nation-state paradigm and liberal democracy to a new level of proactive potency. It is these flashpoints of economic insecurity, political instability in the Balkans occasioned by ideological disorientation and religious upheavals in the Middle East that are feeding the great European exodus.

    But all this may be small beer compared to what is to come. When an ideologically focused, geo-politically dominant and nuclear-empowered Iran recently declared that Israel as a nation may pass into history in a matter of decades and the no-nonsense warrior-state replied in kind, we may start wondering whether Fukuyama is not right after all and whether the end of history is not upon us in ironic aplomb. Claude Levi-Strauss, the great French Structuralist anthropologist, once famously declared that the world began without humankind and may end without it.

    For those who hold on to the immanent rationality of human history like yours sincerely, the world is not about to disappear and it is not yet the end of history. Other nations and people are simply developing their own political hubris as a countervailing perspective to the dominant political hubris of the west. This is what the Chinese people are doing. This is what Russia is up to. It is both an ironic tribute to as well as an ironic reproach of western dominance.

    This is what Singapore and the Asian tigers have been at with sheer contempt for Western political and economic orthodoxy. It is a strain of this that has been playing out in the Islamic world and it has so far outlasted modern communism which is essentially a countervailing western ideology.

    Hubris, or pride in extremity and overweening self-belief in a person, a people, a nation or an entire race, however morally reproachable its outcome often is, is a logical concomitance of history and human development. But however long it takes, the drama of human evolution shows that all that is solid will eventually melt into thin air.

  • Blame neglect of history for nation’s stunted growth’

    The Historical Society of Nigeria (HSN) has attributed Nigeria’s developmental challenges to the relegation of the country’s history to the background.

    To reverse the trend, the society has resolved to engage all tiers of government to restore history to the curriculum of both primary and secondary schools.

    HSN’s President Prof Christopher Ogbogbo told reporters in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, saying that without the knowledge of history, “you will be struggling to reinvent the wheel.

    “That is why we are taking our society’s 60th anniversary to Abuja next month.”

    Prof Ogbogbo, who is also the head of department, University of Ibadan (UI), said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s 100 days in office have been impactful.

    “If you distort history the product you will get will be negative, which can’t help your circumstances,” he said. “So if the diagnosis is wrong, the solution will be wrong.

    “Look at Nigeria where they are not teaching history. I go to America every year to teach African history for three months. You cannot graduate from any American university without reading the country’s history. In fact, the condition for you to become an American citizen is that you must demonstrate the knowledge of American history.”

    On President Buhari, the professor of history said:  “So far, the stature President Muhammadu Buhari as a person is very impactful on Nigerians. But given the degree of challenges that the country has, it would go beyond an individual. In history, we say that it is better that a revolution starts from above than from below.

    “If it comes from below it will blow everybody away; when it comes to a fundamental change in attitude it must be people-driven.

    “The National Orientation Agency (NAO) has to be recalibrated to reach out to the people. That change must be about us. You can’t stay in Abuja and fight corruption when it has become endemic. All you need to do is to twitch the various groups and that is where history comes in.”

    Conceding that the country has daunting challenges, he added that Nigeria had tremendously moved forward.

    He said: “It is true Nigeria has quite a number of challenges, but Nigerians are the most acerbic critics of the country. We are extremely critical of our country. When we go to other countries, even the ones we are better than, we don’t criticise them as much as we criticise ourselves. Self criticism is good so long as it will propel you to become better, but as a nation we have moved forward tremendously.

    “No matter how sentimental Nigerians are, our population is growing everyday; the standard of living of our people has advanced. In other words we must begin to recognise that as we move forward there is a cost for progress; we have to pay a price. What Nigerians are disenchanted with is that given the kind of enormous resources that Nigeria has it ought to have moved faster than this. Have we made some progress? Yes of course.

    “As youths we saw more of military men as our leaders, but today we see civilians as our leaders. They may not be doing it quite right but a new culture, ethos is beginning to emerge. If you were a youth about 25years ago, there are opinions you read in the papers these days if you expressed them in the military era you would be in gallows.

    “What we are saying is that we must begin to engage those challenges. I have travelled round the world Nigeria has about the best manpower you can find anywhere in the world. Part of it is that we have not learnt to utilize our own stuff. We must begin to regain some confidence for ourselves. God will not send angels from heaven to come and run Nigeria for us. God has given us the intellectual manpower to run Nigeria. That is what our historical experience is indicating to us.

     

  • Sunshine want to make history, says Eduwo

    Sunshine want to make history, says Eduwo

    Sunshine Stars forward Kingsley Eduwo has told AfricanFootball.com they are fired up to win the Nigeria league for the first time in the history of the Akure club.

    ‘The Akure Gunners’ have come very close on several occasions to be champions, but they are yet to crack it.

    The former Shooting Stars striker, who was among the goals on Sunday when Sunshine Stars beat Bayelsa United 2-0 to stay on top of the league, said they will not relent in their efforts to be champions at the end of the season.

    “Our target is to win the league and by the grace of God, we will,” Eduwo told AfricanFootball.com.

    “We have come this far due to good trainings, tactics and talented players. We are all motivated to make history by winning the league which will be the first time in the club history. We won’t relent.”

    The Flying Eagles invitee has scored twice this season for the league leaders, who have recorded 33 points from 17 matches, a point ahead of closest rivals Wikki Tourists.

  • Buhari’s possible place in history

    President Buhari, while speaking with Nigerians resident in South Africa recently, said, “I wish I became Head of State when I was…a young man. Now at 72, there is a limit to what I can do”.

    Quite a number of Nigerians have responded negatively to this statement, some of them claiming that it shows that Buhari is not fit, on account of his age, to be our president. I see it differently. A man who can make an admission like that is forthright and deserves to be trusted – and also deserves whatever help each of us Nigerians can give him. I have felt, since then, much more than I felt before, that I can trust Buhari as president of my country.

    Being a slightly older man than he, I know what he is talking about. When you are in your seventies, if you are the kind of person that dreams great dreams, you see a million worthy things that should be done and that you should do in the interest of your people or country; but you know that though your spirit itches to go, your body is not really up to much of the task.

    In that sort of situation, if you are in a position of power, and if you are the foolish kind, you try to hide the truth by posing as strong and conquering and invincible – and you end up wrecking yourself and wrecking a lot of things. If you are the wise kind, you own up your limitations to your friends – and you earn empathy, understanding, loyalty and help, and you end up achieving more than you would otherwise have achieved. Napoleon Bonaparte used to say, “I try always to rise above myself”. For a ruler or leader, part of the secret of rising above oneself is to let one’s team mates and helpers love and feel honoured to use themselves – their minds, expertise, wisdom, muscles and all – to serve one’s noble purposes for one’s country.

    As a Nigerian who has seen, and been somewhat part of, the Nigerian political experience since the late 1950s, I therefore humbly offer the following as help to President Buhari. Principally, I counsel him to keep things simple. If the load is kept simple, even an older man than Buhari can carry it successfully. If he lets it get complicated and tortuous, it will bog down, and it will hurt him and hurt Nigeria.

    One serious reality of the Nigerian situation today is that Nigerian politicians have built up an enormous amount of expertise in crookedness. As people say in Kenya, “Where there is a Nigerian there is a way”.  Kenyans don’t say that admiringly; they say it spitefully and derogatorily. Witness a couple of recent prominent instances of this expert crookedness: Members of the Nigerian National Assembly vote for their wages and allowances absolutely unreasonable amounts of money; and then they make those facts a total secret from the people of Nigeria –the owners of the National Assembly.

    Here is another: A senator who wants to be elected president of Senate, knowing that many in his party have someone else in mind, seizes advantage of the group absence of many senators of his own party from the Senate Chamber and, behind their back, sneaks in his election as Senate President, using the help of members of another party. And yet another: The Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives say that they had appointed the other officials of the two houses before the directive came from their party about the persons to appoint. In the presidential system worldwide, don’t Senate Presidents and House Speakers take the directives from their parties first?

    Can you imagine anything more crooked than these things? Could things like these possibly happen in the Nigerian government when Buhari and I were boys? Friends of the new Senate President say he was “smart”! Were our politicians that “smart” in those days? In what other country are the politicians this “smart”?

    That is the environment in which President Buhari has to work today. Obviously, he does not have the smartness of this crowd. Therefore, he should not try to compete with them in their muddy waters. He should not even go near their muddy waters.  He must let it be seen by all who work with him that his actions are open and straight-forward, and that he values his integrity. Politicians and others will approach him with all sorts of crooked packages – packages containing plans for stealing and sharing public money, or clever plans to defraud, or criminal plots for electoral fraud, or plots for ethnic group advantage over other ethnic groups – or even over the rest of Nigeria. Buhari should let the whole of Nigeria know transparently that such packages have no chance at all with him. In short, he can, and he should, establish for our country the ethical backbone for a new Presidency. He promised change. We voted for change.

    Keeping it simple also demands that the structure of the Nigerian federation should be aligned harmoniously with Nigeria’s ethnic national composition. It is simpler to walk with the truth than to keep trying to force the way forward with falsehood. If Buhari chooses to keep forcing the way forward with falsehood, he will only be complicating his load – and the load will bog down and he will hurt himself and hurt Nigeria.

    The truth is that Nigeria is a country made up of many different ethnic nationalities, each living in its own homeland, having its own culture and history, its own desires, and its own self-image and pride. Pooling all power, resources and resource control together in Nigeria’s central government, as has been done since the 1960s, is living a destructive falsehood, and it will never work. That is why Nigeria teeters on the brink of failure. The love of Nigerians for their different nationalities is much stronger than Nigeria’s most influential politicians like to think. The countless millions of us who cherish the integrity of our nationalities will never give up the fight – and that means that we will never cease harassing whoever is president of Nigeria to lead us to restructure our federation. Restructuring our federation s is the most important change.

    Finally, to keep his load simple, President Buhari must loyally keep his team intact and working. The ones who have worked with him in the past three years to put an alliance together, fought night and day by his side on the campaign trail, and mobilized the needed resources for the struggle, certainly deserve his loyalty. Trying to evade that loyalty, or letting others damage the team, will only whip up a truculent and unending war around him, with the possibility that massive numbers of citizens of whole regions could become involved – and that would make his load become impossibly complex. Naturally, his allies have their political enemies, while many who used to fight against him and his allies will now become his friends too. Of course, the president of Nigeria must be open to all Nigerians; but the world will adjudge Buhari as lacking character if he now denies his allies and compromises his team. It will also show that the promises of change made by him and his allies were fake all along. Buhari can carve for himself an honourable place in the history of Nigeria and of Africa.