The Nation Newspaper

Tag: history

  • ‘Why employers should verify workers’ history’

    An identification and employment data reporting firm, VerifyMe Nigeria (VMN), has urged employers to ensure that only workers with verified identities and work history are recruited in their organisations and homes.

    VMN founder and CEO, Tunji Oluwole said this would mitigate growing incidents of repetitive workplace crime and recognise outstanding behaviour.

    Oluwole said the service arose from the need to ensure workplace transparency and to promote work quality.

    He said: “The VerifyMe Nigeria platform will curb workplace crime, provide additional security in our homes, and enable business to employ the right resource.

    “Prior to our emergence, the standard practice was for employers and recruitment agencies to screen workers based on information supplied by the workers themselves.

    “This creates a credibility gap as people will naturally proffer information that benefits their interests. As a result, insightful data is lost along the way which the employer, and sometimes, even the worker, eventually pays for in unpleasant circumstances.”

    VMN Chief Operation Officer,  Esigie Aguele, explained that the firm deploys cutting edge technology to provide reporting insights to enable employers of labour make informed hiring decisions.

    He said: “Our innovative solution captures, compiles and maintains a unique and secure identity verification of each worker on the database so employers are reasonably sure of the identity of who they employ into their organisations and homes.”

  • History as large vessel berths in Calabar Port

    History as large vessel berths in Calabar Port

    Many decades after the Eastern  Ports came into being, a flat bottom ship, has berthed at the Calabar Port.

    The  vessel, MV’ Desert Ranger, weighing about  62,000 metric tonnes, made history as the largest ship to call at the port despite its draft limitations.

    The heavy vessel, which sailed from Greece, was laden with 60,000 tonnes of wheat. The vessel is 200 metres long.

    The vessel called at the port after the arrival of equally large MV ‘ Desert Rhapsody.’ The two ships are owned and operated by Greece-based Atlantic Bulk Carriers Managers ( ABCM) Ltd.

    On the significance of the vessel, the Port Manager, Mrs. Olufumilayo Olotu, said it was historic that the vessel  berthed at the port.

    “We are delighted that history was made with the arrival of MV Desert Ranger in Nigerian waters. Its berthing at the Calabar Port has demonstrated the determination of the current management of the Nigerian Ports Authority ( NPA), under the able leadership of our Managing Director, Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, to make the Eastern ports attractive for business. “

     Mrs.  Olotu, who received the vessel on behalf of the management, expressed appreciation to its partners, Atlantic Bulk Carriers  for taking the initiative.

    Mrs. Olotu described the berthing of the vessel as a “dream come true,” adding that it was a sign of good things to come and a relief for the NPA.

    “Very soon, another carrier vessel will be coming in and we are expecting that Calabar Port will become very active again,’’ she said.

    While soliciting the support of stakeholders to ensure the business climate at the port is conducive for investors, she assured them of the provision of more tug boats to complement the existing one.

    She also restated the NPA’s resolve to dredge the Calabar channel. Advertisement for bidding for the dredging, Mrs. Olotu said, has been placed by the authority.

    “In the light of this new development, the slogan for Calabar port is: “Whatever you need, just desire it, we will deliver it.” Mega ships with flat bottom, which do not require deeper draft, she added, can safely call at the port in its current state.

    Investigations, however, revealed that the vessel was able to call at the port because of the approval given by Ms. Usman, and the training of ship captains from Calabar in Greece, to acquaint them with the maneuvring of the large vessel across the port’s channel.

    Mrs. Olotu also visited the shipping company in Greece to allay their fears over security threat along the channel.

    The Director-General, Cross River Waterways Authority, Mr. Asi Esi, expressed delight with the development, adding that the state government would work with the NPA for maximum benefit of the people.

    Esin said tax rebate for willing investors in the port would be looked into by the state government to encourage more investors in the state.

    “Governor Ben Ayade is desirous of having investors in our state, so I can assure you that the governor will do everything possible to ensure that investors will not run away due to multiple taxation,’’ he said.

    He said for a long time, the state had been hoping and waiting for this kind of opportunity, assuring that the state would give the NPA the desired support to succeed where others had failed.

    Many importers, clearing agents and other stakeholders celebrated the arrival of MV Desert Ranger and praised the NPA for “its efforts before the vessel arrived the port.”

    One of the importers, Mr. Andrew Emmanuel, gave kudos to the port manager and the NPA for achieving the landmark.

    He said:“ Before the arrival of this ship, shipping companies have raised a lot of concern about the topography and draft limitations of Calabar port channel and that was why they were shipping their Calabar-bound cargo to Lagos and trucking same to the end-users in Calabar.

    “In a bid to recover this traffic, Calabar port management held meetings with importers and ABCM Limited, their agents, Maylon Ports Limited and the terminal operator. It was during these talks that an ingenious plan was discovered and the decision to use flat-bottom Bulk Carriers, with lower draft requirement to bring the cargo to Calabar port.”

    Emmanuel expressed the hope that other government agencies at the port would emulate the NPA by imbibing international best practices and enthroning customer- friendly policies in carrying out their responsibilities, to encourage more big vessels to call at the port.

    Findings revealed that another vessel, MV Arriet has been dispatched with cargo to Calabar.

    On his experience, the captain of the ship, Captain Dinkar, noted that he received a warm welcome from the Port Manager, as well as other government regulatory agencies like NPA , among others. He expressed delight at the impressive equipment at the terminal.

  • Okeho in history (3)

    Okeho in history (3)

    Today, I offer the third in my series on Okeho history as the community celebrates the centenary of its return to its origin in 1917 with the launching of my book, Okeho in History, on Saturday, October 28, 2017 in Okeho.

    Taking a cue from the Centenary Committee, the concluding chapter of Okeho in History is titled “Taking Okeho to Greater Heights”. It reviews the political, economic, educational, religious and social institutions of Okeho and offers suggestions on how to move Okeho to greater heights.

    Regrettably, Okeho has not been well-served by partisan politics. With intense competition, party activists throw everything into the ring and opposing sides often fail to take time to understand the points of view of their opponents. Gradually, positions were entrenched and loyalty to personalities became acceptable substitutes for loyalty to causes and ideologies in healthy competition for the development of the community.

    Unfortunately, the community has been the victim of politics of personalities. As the bickering goes on between political opponents, other communities take advantage of the crisis to attract development projects, including higher educational institutions. Thus, despite the loyal support of Okeho party leaders to succeeding governments of different political parties since 1954, none of those governments or the parties they represent has given Okeho its due in terms of development projects.

    Okeho is among a handful of major towns in Oke-Ogun without a pipe-borne water supply. And while other towns can boast of one or more institutions of higher education, as of 2017, Okeho has none to point to other than a campus of the Oyo State College of Health Science and Technology which was approved in 2016.

    Now, there must be a laser beam focus on a development agenda with traditional political institutions, politicians, and community development organizations working together in a non-partisan fashion on behalf of the community. Above all, politics and governance must focus on its original ideal, which is the good of the community.

    In Okeho, we have been fortunate that our religious differences have not conflicted with the original purpose of religion as a controller of our inner impulses. Both major religions have focused on helping us being good human beings and good communal citizens. Therefore, it has been possible for Muslims, Christians and traditional believers to work together in the various social organizations. What politics has unfortunately tried to put asunder, religion has been able to put together. Indeed, the various religious organizations have done more for Okeho educational development than the various political parties.

    The purpose of traditional education is to prepare the young for their responsibilities as useful members of the community. For a significant part of our communities across Yorubaland, this is still an operative educational objective. It includes bringing the educated up to their responsibilities to themselves, to their families, and to the larger community of which they are an integral part. This traditional view of education is still relevant in an age of individualism that threatens the survival and prosperity of the community.

    For Okeho, it worked very effectively and, despite the emergence of individualistic ethos, those Western educated individuals who had the advantage of growing up in the era when tradition still held sway, have been able to internalize its norms and to see their education as an opportunity for community service. It is evident in the way that they have made themselves available for the development activities of the community.

    The challenge for our modern educational institutions and their personnel is to advance the traditional purpose of education as an integral aspect of their mission. The youths of today are going to be adults or leaders of tomorrow. The question that we must ask of our education system is “how is it preparing the youth for the responsibility that they must shoulder?”

    First, effective teaching and learning is a must. Our pioneer teachers set the standard which must be advanced. The early years of schooling prepare children for later years and determine their success or failure. Therefore, to take Okeho to the next level, teachers at every level must be diligent and competent.

    Second, compassionate mentoring of youths is crucial to making them succeed in life. In the early years of modern education, teachers were like second parents. They modelled good behavior and students knew that they can rely on their teachers for their direction in life. This model needs to be reactivated in our community schools. Excessive interest in material acquisition should not stand in the way of role-modeling.

    Third, parents trusted and worked with teachers in the early years of modern education and the cooperation paid high dividends. The ethos of omoluabi is the essence of Yoruba morality and it is a product of parent-teacher and school-family collaboration. That model must be our guide as we crave greater heights for Okeho.

    From subsistence farming to trading and transportation, from weaving to tailoring, from logging to carpentry, from pottery to bricklaying, Okeho indigenes have engaged in assorted economic activities in the last hundred plus years. And they still keep keepin’ on. Now, the economy is widely diversified and will continue to be so in the foreseeable future.

    Fortunately, the groundwork for the take-off of this economy has been laid in the embrace of cooperatives in the last five decades. This new emphasis is based on the understanding that one hand is inadequate to carry the heavy load of our economic future. We must now combine our strength in business and processing ventures.

    With the government’s renewed focus on agriculture, and with the advantage of location that Okeho has in this area, it is essential for Okeho indigenes to set up joint ventures to further their economic interests. With a large area of gorgeous scenery and attractive landscape, Okeho also offers a great opportunity for tourism. In this area, however, individual ventures are rarely profitable. Therefore, we must learn to combine forces to take advantage of the potentials of the industry.

    My discussion of each of the foregoing—governance, religion, education, and the economy—is with an understanding of their significance as a powerful means to the goal of community health and advancement. While each of them is necessary for this purpose, we must not think that it is by itself sufficient.

    Therefore, for the advancement of the community and the health of its members, we must ensure that our focus is on the effective combination of all. We have seen, for instance, that when individuals have good education, they tend to use it for the advancement of the community. With those who are fortunate lending a hand to the less endowed, the social life of the community is enriched.

    The road to a successful focus on community interests is paved with the arduous efforts of community leaders and social organizations. This was the rationale for age-group associations in the beginning. That rationale still exists today, perhaps more than it used to be. Traditional institutions must lead the effort to put the interest of Okeho above personal interests. They will succeed in this endeavor when members of the community see that they dispense justice with fairness and they attend to the complaints of members with compassion and empathy.

    I do not intend to belittle the advances that the community has collectively made in the matter of inter-personal solidarity and empathy. Every adult of today grew up in a loving community where even distant relations and strangers make personal contributions to their education and general well-being.

    Okeho must continue in the tradition of generosity and welcoming spirit to all, natives and foreigners alike. We need others as they need us to make the world a habitable and better place for all people. But charity begins at home as the old saying instructs us.

    We must make Okeho what we want it to be by investing our intellectual, moral, spiritual, and material resources in its development and progress. Then, as the many became one more than a century ago, we can all effectively and successfully move our beloved Okeho to greater heights politically, educationally, economically, socially, and spiritually.

     

  • Okeho in History 2

    Okeho in History 2

    This is the second of a three-part series on Okeho in History scheduled for public presentation on Saturday, October 28, 2017 at the grand finale of the celebrations marking the centenary of Okeho’s return to its original site in October 1917. Today’s excerpt is from the chapter on education in Okeho.

    Indigenous education system in Yorubaland in general, and Okeho in particular, revolves around the whole person. The goal of education is to transform the child into the man or woman of character who can fit well into the service of the community. To this end, the focus of every family is to educate their children to be useful members of the community.

    Before the introduction to a life-time occupation, the child goes through formal education in ethical living with gentle reminders at every point of the history of the family lineage, the bravery of his/her ancestors, and the contributions that he/she is expected to make in return. This is the ethics of omoluabi, the person of character….

    Ethics matters and indigenous education is good at instilling ethical norms in the members of the community. Hard work, honesty, perseverance, moderation, are among the basic ethical norms that Okeho parents and family members teach their children with the expectation that when they grow into adults they will not depart from the path of honor which these norms inculcate….

    The formal education of Okeho children also benefited from foreign efforts that accompanied religious proselytization. On this, both Christianity and Islam played important roles (with the setting up of the first schools with curriculums appropriate to their missions)….

    Okeho youths also took advantage of opportunities that opened outside the town, especially with the establishment of secondary schools in Oyo, and much later, Iseyin. The foremost pioneer in the pursuit of higher education outside of Okeho was Mr. Ogunsola Ogundokun. In 1951, as a pupil at N. A. School Olele, Okeho, he sat for and passed the entrance examination to Government College, Ibadan.

    That was the flagship of secondary education in Western Region at that time. He performed brilliantly in the school and from there, he proceeded to the United Kingdom for his university education, thus becoming the first university graduate from Okeho and a role model for many Okeho youths. Mr. Ogundokun returned from the United Kingdom and began a successful career at Lever Brothers in Lagos until his retirement.  Others followed in his footstep to pursue higher education….

    In the matter of breaking through the glass ceilings of achievement, my generation has an exemplar in the person of Mr. Moyo Ajekigbe, first indigene of Okeho, indeed of Oke-Ogun, to be appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive of a first-generation commercial bank, First Bank of Nigeria, Plc. Moyo was a star in school, excelling in secondary school, higher school, and university. With a work-ethic and home-bred manners that the community instilled in him, he served the First Bank from the first day he entered the front door, giving the job his all, and going beyond the call of duty in customer service.

    Such devotion does not go unnoticed even by the most conservative and rule-based establishment. The glory of the sun is uncoverable by mortal fingers. And so, the reward was not long in coming when Moyo was appointed the Managing Director and Chief Executive of First Bank of Nigeria Plc. The appointment itself was an achievement. However, what he made of it from his first day to his retirement was even more remarkable. Through him, many families were blessed. Doors were opened for young ones with excellent resumes. And the community benefitted immensely from his foresight and his generosity….

    With teacher training colleges in Iseyin, Oyo, Ede, Iwo, etc., and the high cost of secondary school education, teacher training has been one of the readily available options for generations of Okeho educational products, and many took advantage of this, especially after having completed the secondary modern school…..

    As its youths found their ways into these other locations for educational opportunities, Okeho community also decided to open more opportunities for them. Thus, the Okeho-Iganna District Council launched the Okeho-Iganna Grammar School in February 1965, with its first students boarded at the old Oyo Divisional Teacher Training College, Iseyin.

    For many years after opening the doors of secondary education to Okeho youths, the community has tried without success to attract higher educational institutions. Even when prominent indigenes participated actively as leaders in the higher echelon of politics over the years, Okeho has been left without public higher education institutions. Shaki has a campus of The Polytechnic which has been upgraded to a full-fledge autonomous institution named Oke-Ogun Polytechnic. Ibarapa Polytechnic is located at Eruwa while Lanlate has a campus of the College of Education.

    In view of the aspiration of youths for higher education, and the struggle of the community to make it easier for them, this has been one of the frustrations of the various Okeho community organizations. A recent achievement was the approval of a campus of Oyo State College of Heath Science and Technology in Okeho. This followed the elevation of the 65 year-old School of Hygiene, Eleyele by H. E. Senator Abiola Ajimobi, the Executive Governor of Oyo State.

    In January, 2012, shortly after his inauguration, Governor Ajimobi instructed the Office of Commissioner for Health, Dr. Muyiwa Gbadegesin to work on upgrading the School of Hygiene. This required a process of engagement of stakeholders including students, instructors, regulatory bodies, members of the state executive and members of the State House of Assembly.

    Subsequently, the Ministry of Health drafted and presented bills to the House of Assembly to upgrade the School of Hygiene, Eleyele to Oyo State College of Health Science and Technology. These bills were finally passed by the House and immediately signed into law by the Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi. The College subsequently began a process of establishing campuses to increase its capacity to train and graduate critical staff requirements for public health services in the state. With the kind approval of Governor Ajimobi, Okeho has the fortune of being the home of the first campus of the college.

    Indigenous education trains individuals for communal responsibility. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of formal education imparted through foreign paradigm which tends to emphasize and celebrate individualism. Okeho has, however, been fortunate in the sense that the seed of the indigenous approach to education with its emphasis on communal responsibility appears to have germinated successfully in the lives of many educated Okeho indigenes prior to their engagement with foreign education. This has helped in molding their minds toward community activism, which has in turn helped the community in its efforts toward advancement.

    Starting in the late fifties, educated folks inaugurated various self-help communal schemes to help struggling youths. The Okeho Literary and Debating Society was one of these initiatives. Due to the dearth of secondary schools in the area, and the limited opportunities for orientation to other professions, the first pioneers of Okeho foreign educational institutions, with few exceptions, took to the teaching profession, received training and were certified as teachers.

    Together with the few that gained admission to secondary schools such as Olivet Baptist High School, this group of pioneers put their education to the service of the community by helping the youths during holidays. This was how the idea of a Literary and Debating Society first came up and it helped many of these youths develop skills in public-speaking, use of language, and confidence-building.

     

    Education also opened the eyes of the educated to the world beyond Okeho and to the gap between the facilities available in that world but lacking in Okeho. With this knowledge came the realization of the need for organized action to pressure the authorities to pay attention to Okeho. Organizations such as Okeho Development Association (ODA), and more recently, Okeho Strategic Development Foundation (OSTRADEF) came up as responses to this knowledge…The point here is that education that stimulates in individuals the consciousness of community needs and urges action on the part of the individual has always been the tradition of Okeho.

     

  • Mbeki: Obasanjo Library to help Africa recover its history

    Mbeki: Obasanjo Library to help Africa recover its history

    Former South Africa President Thabo Mbeki yesterday hailed the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, for its potential to help Africans recover their dignity and history.

    Mbeki said the OOPL is home to important records about Obasanjo, Nigeria and Africa, adding that Nigerians should assist the former Nigerian president to maintain and preserve the facility.

    According to him, he was visiting the library to see things for himself because Obasanjo had previously spoken about it.

    Mbeki, who toured the facility, noted that the OOPL initiative is worth replicating by other African leaders.

    He added: “Hopefully, some other African leaders can come and have a look because I think the example that you have set here is an example that will be worth repeating in other African countries. This is because of the collective history told in the way that you have told it here.

    “I think it will make a very important contribution, even in the recovering of our own dignity, our own identification of ourselves. Who are we? Where do we come from? Where do we think we are going?

    “I really want to say congratulations to the (former) President (Obasanjo) and hopefully, the people of Nigeria will help you in terms of maintaining this because it is really an important part of our heritage.”

    Mbeki said he was impressed that the library has many units touching on youth development, wildlife and parks, ideas and intellectual development among others.

    He said: “I didn’t know we have such a major and complex project. I had the picture in my head of a building, which is the library and that was all. But the complex is a very, very important contribution in terms of communicating what our leadership in the continent (Africa) can do.

    “The library itself, of course, tells a very important story about Obasanjo: from his early life experiences to post-government and all that.

    “It is a very important story. In fact, it is not just a story about Obasanjo. But a good part of the story is about Nigeria and Africa.

    “It is very important that record is available, not only to the people of Nigerian but also to everybody, particularly the people of the continent.

    “I was particularly pleased with the focus that is being paid to youths. Indeed, I think our youths need to be exposed to our past because it teaches them something about the responsibilities that they have to themselves, to their country and to the continent.

    “The idea of the complex is important because it is named after a very important leader of the continent. There is also a number of initiatives, the matter about reprocessing of plastic bottles and so on.

    “It is a very important part of the process of contributing to improving our environment, considering that all of these plastics litter the place. But they are collected and reprocessed to become useful again.

    “I’m also pleased about the fact that you have here an animal farm (the wild life park), which also makes an important statement to ourselves as Africans – about the necessary need for us to protect the African heritage.

    “That heritage is also in the animals. It is very much a part of the African environment. I think the message is part of what we need to attain to become important as well as the other things that are in the complex about youths, about intellectual ideas, the association with the United Nations Education Fund (UNESCO).”

  • Okeho in history (1)

    Okeho in history (1)

    Today, I begin a three-part series on Okeho in history with excerpts from my new book of the same title. The book is scheduled for public presentation on October 28, 2017 by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu supported by eminent friends and enablers of community and national development.

    “Okeho in History was commissioned to celebrate the centenary of the relocation of Okeho back to its original site in 1917 and it comes at a very important stage of the development of our loving homeland. Now, the community is experiencing a much-needed unity of purpose even in the era of party politics, a development that must cheer compatriots who have, for many years, canvassed and labored for such a purposeful agenda…..

    “In the beginning, Okeho did not exist as one entity. Instead there were eleven villages separated by hills and valleys, each living in solitude and in fear of aggression from greedy land grabbers and heartless enslavers…..

    “However, around 1800, more than one hundred years after Ojo Oronna, legendary founder of Okeho, first settled in Omogudu, the new Onjo, Arilesòire, made the historic move of inviting the ten villages around Ijo to amalgamate as one village.

    “Onjo Arilesire was motivated by an enlightened self-interest. It was a time of uncertainties for big towns such as Oòyoò Alaafin. The Fulani had constituted themselves as a present danger to the lives and properties of Yoruba people in their towns and villages….They had the advantage of cavalry raids across the grassy vegetation of Oòyoò North. The Dahomey forces were also a threat from the West. It was therefore in the interest of small villages to combine their strength to wade off the attacks. This was the reason for Arilesòire’s invitation to the neighboring villages, which included Isia, Olele, Isemi, Imoba, Gboònjeò, Oke-Ogun, Ogan, Bode, Pamo, Alubo, and Ijo.

    “Arilesire had a good strategic reason for his invitation to Ijo’s neighbors. Apart from the combination of forces, the geographical location of Ijo offered a great security advantage and this played a role in his thinking. The heads of the various hamlets and villages must have been persuaded that it was in their security interests as well. For they agreed to move and become wards and quarters in their new location.

    “Okeho was inaugurated as a new village and Arilesire was the first head of the new village with the title Onjo of Okeho. In their native wisdom, without any exposure to Western ideas of governance, the leaders of the eleven villages started a confederal arrangement which has since morphed into a solid community of patriots. In Okeho, the many voluntarily became one….

    “It is important to note the significance of the effort at merger and of what inspired it. From the early 1500s until the time of the Yoruba civil wars of the 19th century, Oyo was a great exporter of slaves. From the year that Ojo Oronna moved to Omogudu, to around 1750, about 60,000 Africans were captured in slave raids and exported to the New World. Chiefs and aristocrats across the land were enablers of this sordid practice as they supplied captured war prisoners to the slave raiders in exchange for firearms and other goods. It was reported that during this period, King Tegbesu of Dahomey had an income of £250,000 a year from the export of slaves to Britain and other parts of the world. That would make him a multibillionaire of his time.

    “Consider the fact that Dahomey was next door to Okeho and you will begin to imagine the horror that our ancestors experienced. There was no moment of peace and they had to constantly watch their back. The physical and emotional trauma was unimaginable.

    “Meanwhile, on the other side of the fear of the loss of sons and daughters to the foreign enslavers and their local collaborators was the achievement of progress and development in Britain and the New World. Africans were forced to work under inhuman conditions to develop Britain which launched its Industrial Revolution in 1750….

    “The merger of the villages was thus a matter of self-interest for the villagers. However, with that experiment in voluntary merger and preservation of the heritage of each of the constituents, Okeho also taught us a great lesson in the management of diversity. This should not be misconstrued. They did not pull it off easily. They went through trials and tribulations. They were sometimes unsure whether they would survive. But they persisted.

    “What should be noted is that the Okeho experiment was doing very well before the colonial invasion. There was no history of internal violence prior to the introduction of a new governance structure that eclipsed the original arrangement and rendered the heads of the confederating units powerless. It was the reaction of the people to this foreign-inspired arrangement that led to violence against Obas and representatives of the colonial government.

    “The new arrangement soon forced itself on the community with a mixed result. On the one hand, modern politics of party affiliation replaced primordial affiliation of the original confederating villages as major political parties drew support across neighborhoods and quarters, though certain neighborhoods favored certain political parties. There was thus the prospect of inter-neighborhood cooperation that was lacking at the onset of colonial administration.

    “On the other hand, however, the new party system brought with it a ferocious competition that proved more inimical to the unity of purpose that the community needed for its advancement. It also had a more far-reaching consequence for the traditional institutions of the town. For, within neighborhoods, bitter political enmity due to different party loyalties meant that, even at that level, there was not going to be a united front, talk less of the level of the whole community. This was what affected the effectiveness of Egbe Omo Ibile Okeho in the 1st and 2nd Republics.

    “Thankfully, those were times of ignorance. Now, the light of knowledge has revealed itself. Now, the community will not go back to the dark days of division during which no one can really claim to have gained a lot for self or for community. Now, we must move on forward with a common purpose. For it is never too late until it is too late. The sun still shines and its powerful rays are still capable of providing the energy needed to dry up our wet clothes.

    “And the community has a lot of wet clothes hung outside to dry, one of which is the all-important jacket of education. Education has never been more important and we have never been so lacking in the matter of good educational facilities. While Okeho has a mix of public and private institutions at the primary and secondary level, it does not have much to offer in the matter of higher education. And the quality of the education that our children now receive is a mixed bag.

    There is need to revamp the legacy of quality education that the first generation of teachers labored to pass on. Many of those teachers had no more than First School Leaving Certificate. But they were exemplary in their devotion to excellence. Contemporary teachers must borrow a leaf from the example set by those pioneers.

    “Indeed, in every aspect of the community hopes and aspirations that I have identified in this volume, there is yet much to accomplish. The leadership of the initiatives and the efforts needed to accomplish the tasks must, again, naturally rest on those privileged to have the needed insight. After all, to whom much is given, much is expected.”

    As Okeho anxiously and gratefully looks forward to welcoming Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, H.E. Senator Abiola Ajimobi, H.I.M. Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III and eminent friends on October 28, I respectfully appeal to the generous spirit of everyone to support the community. The goal of the Planning Committee, which has invested time, energy and resources in this cause is to raise funds for the Oyo State College of Health Science and Technology, Okeho Campus, completion of the Onjo’s Palace, and community health projects.

    This successful experiment in voluntary amalgamation needs our encouragement.

     

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  • Akwa Ibom restates commitment to preserve history, culture

    THE Akwa Ibom government has reiterated its commitment to preserving the history and culture of the people of the state. Governor Udom Emmanuel, disclosed this on Monday at the Pictorial Exhibition to mark Akwa Ibom 30th anniversary celebration at the Ibibio Union Museum Park.

    The governor assured that the administration was open to strategic inputs and effective partnership that would enable the government to add value to the critical sector of the economy, even as it embarked on re-prioritizing the culture and tourism sub-sector.

    He noted that the exhibition sought to capture bold pictorial display and the story line of the states evolution as essence of a corporate entity. Represented by his deputy, Mr Moses Ekpo, the governor pointed out that in the last two years, concerted effort had been made to re-boot the activities of the museum to enable it play a major role in the centers of excellence in the culture and tourism sector. Emmanuel recalled that in June this year, the museum played host to the USOROUSO Arts Exhibition as expected to blossom into a big multi – dimensional project that would be involved in packaging mementoes and tourism items that would conceptually present the unique Akwa Ibom brand to the global community.

  • Olubadan, history and ‘raw data of treachery’

    I am trying so hard to understand what part of the reformation of the Ibadan Obaship and chieftaincy institution some people are trying so hard to misunderstand. But let us even start the story from its very beginning. On Sunday, August 27, the governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi, acting in accordance with the powers conferred on him by Section 28(i) Cap. 28 Vol. 1 of the Chiefs Law of Oyo State of Nigeria 2000, promoted 33 chiefs to Obas in Ibadanland. Twenty-one of the beneficiaries were physically present to receive their staffs of office at a public, not secret, event that was held at the iconic Mapo Hall, Ibadan. The government White Paper on the promotion of the senior chiefs was properly conveyed in Government Gazette No 14, Notice 27 Vol.42 of 23rd August, 2017 and Gazette No 15 Notice 28 Vol. 42 of August 24, 2017 respectively. Since that event of a fortnight ago, neither the government of Oyo State nor the traditional institution in Ibadanland has known peace. Many have even made out the historically significant event to be a huge joke.

    And what is the bone of contention? Most commentators on the issue have continued to argue as though Governor Ajimobi committed a sacrilege by doing what was and still is right.  They have argued as though it is unthinkable to weigh on the positive side of history and the people because a position/office appears to be larger than life and, therefore, untouchable. Worse, they have argued that the whole exercise was targeted at a single individual who is only still ‘aspiring’ someday, if it pleases God Almighty, to become the Olubadan, as if 41 people had not ascended that exalted throne. How big and potent is one man’s ambition that it should require the instrumentality of state apparatus to stop it?

    Perhaps the charge of a vendetta against Senator Rasheed Ladoja by Governor Ajimobi would have been easier to sustain if the idea of the review of the 1959 Olubadan Chieftaincy Declaration made pursuant to the 1957 Chiefs Laws and other related Chieftaincies in Ibadanland had originated with the incumbent. Successive administrations from the old Western State to the present Oyo State had instituted various Commissions of Enquiry to, as Governor Ajimobi has argued, “redress the lop-sidedness in the number of beaded crown Obas in Ibadanland vis-à-vis other zones in the state.” The whole of Ibadanland has only one beaded crown Oba as against several in other zones.

    Does this justify what appears to have been an unwieldy number of beneficiaries that were crowned on the same day? Government did not on its own choose to elevate 11 high chiefs in the Olubadan-in-Council and 22 ancient Baales to the position of Obas. The decision was grounded in historical antecedents and requests for additional beaded crowns, as articulated in 91 out of 118 memoranda that were submitted to the Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by Governor Ajimobi on May 19, with a mandate to review the existing 1957/59 Chieftaincy Declaration of Olubadan of Ibadanland. The principles of equity and natural justice make it imperative that whoever the crown fits and is found to be fit and proper should wear one.

    Did Governor Ajimobi do wrong, as critics of the exercise would want the world to believe? No. Let’s not forget that Ajimobi is himself a part of royalty and has as much claim to the stool of the Olubadan as those shouting ‘murder’ for short-term, self-serving purposes. It is interesting that from 1993 to the present, Ibadan indigenes – from Kolapo Ishola to Lam Adesina to Rasheed Ladoja to Abiola Ajimobi – were governors of Oyo State. All were involved in issues that bordered on a review of Chieftaincy Declarations across the state during their tenures. Ajimobi is only different to the extent that he willingly offered to tackle the subject head-on regardless of its intended or unintended consequences. He offered to align himself with non-partisan calls for a modernisation of the traditional chieftaincy institution in Ibadanland, as championed over the years by the Ibadan Elders Council; Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII) and eminent sons and daughters of Ibadanland, such as Chief T. A. Akinyele; the late Chief Omowale Kuye, the former Otun Olubadan and all but one member of the Olubadan-in-Council. If the anti-Ajimobi commentators know better, perhaps, they should come clean with their facts rather than attempt to demonise Ajimobi for his uncommon courage to do right, even when Ladoja, as governor of Oyo State and ‘Olubadan-in-waiting’ lacked the moral courage to implement the recommendations of the Adio Commission of Enquiry that he set up on the same subject matter.

    Is Ajimobi a revisionist? Not by any stretch of the imagination. But this question is, perhaps, best answered with supporting evidence from Dr. Festus Adedayo, who, for many years, was a Special Adviser to Governor Ajimobi. Although he has now chosen to help stand history on its head in respect of the Olubadan chieftaincy controversy, Adedayo’s words, which are reconstructed from his past interview with Vanguard newspaper, provide critical points of enlightenment on Ajimobi and his vision.

    According to Adedayo: “The best way to assess the (Ajimobi) government is to cast one’s mind back to what was before May 2011. Oyo State was one big violent theatre where chaos and disorder reigned. The pedigree of the governor as a hater of violence and one who would deal with any fomenter of brigandage has helped to stem the tide of violence. Are we saying Ibadan people are so in love with retrogression that if they see a governor that is developing their land and serving their interest, they will elect not to continue this spiral of development? The truth of the matter is that the elite are like fundamentalists who impose their enemies on God; that their enemies must be the enemies of God. The ordinary people of the state love development but the elite always like to renew their insatiable patronage and patrimony.”

    What has changed between 2014 when Adedayo made these assertions and now? Perhaps, nothing except a corrosion of values by self-interest. Like Adedayo, this writer is amazed at the “raw data of treachery” and human capacity for mischief; for the quantum of treachery on a daily basis is alarming.” We need to thank Adedayo for showing that Ajimobi is no flippant executive but one who takes service to his people as a serious job for serious-minded individuals. Nothing more to add.

     

    • Ajibola, a public affairs analyst, writes from Ibadan.

  • History beckons National Assembly

    The National Assembly has been on recess SINCE July 27. The recess will last till September 19. Going on recess from time to time is the prerogative of the National Assembly. No organization or institution can work without its members taking a rest periodically. Otherwise, the consequences will be calamitous. However, neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives should have gone on recess when it did this time. Even now that the National Assembly is on vacation, it should terminate it right now. Unknown to most Nigerians, the country is in an emergency situation and only the federal legislature can save it.

    Before the National Assembly went on vacation, the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, wrote a letter to the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, requesting for approval to adjust the 2017 federal government budget here and there. The letter was read in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, but nothing was done. Members were in a hurry to proceed on recess; most actually travelled out of the country almost immediately with their families and friends.

    This should not have been the case. The legislators ought to have treated the letter from the Acting President exhaustively before going on vacation. There are fundamental challenges with the implementation of the 2017 budget the way it is. Implementing it in its present form will create very serious problems that will end up worsening the ongoing national economic crisis, thus making it difficult for Nigeria to exit from the present recession any time soon. In other words, the budget needs to be adjusted in a couple of places in the overriding national interest. Adjustments in budgets when they have been signed into law are technically referred to as virement.

    I would like to refer to the budget of the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing as an example of a place where virement is urgently needed. This is a ministry whose activity affects every Nigerian directly every minute of the day; and I have had the privilege of working there in the directorate cadre. In the last one year, there has been tremendous activity on the reconstruction of such critical highways as the Kano-Maiduguri Highway, Onitsha-Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway and, of course, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. However, the reconstruction has, in the last few months, slowed down owing to the rainy season and, more importantly, declining funds made available to the contractors executing these vital national projects.

    The funds have declined very significantly because the 2017 budget stayed for a whole five months in the National Assembly which not only scrutinized the proposals critically but went ahead to make fundamental adjustments to the original proposal from the executive arm of government. For example, the amounts proposed for critical national roads, including the ones mentioned above, were slashed considerably. Even the additional 10% of the entire sum proposed for the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing was slashed badly. It is standard accounting and budgeting practice all over the world that at least 10% of the sum of any budget—whether in the public or private sector—be set aside as miscellaneous, otherwise called emergency or contingency. There are emergencies which must be tackled immediately they occur, whether there is a specific provision for them in the budget or not. For instance, two critical bridges in Mokwa, Niger State collapsed last June as a result of sustained torrential rainfall. One of them, the Mokwa-Jebba Bridge, links the northern and southern parts of Nigeria. Resources had to be mobilized from all kinds of sources to start reconstruction at once.

    But given the way the National Assembly has cut the contingency provision in the 2017 budget of the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, it will be very tough to handle emergencies of the Mokwa magnitude if they should occur again this year in any part of Nigeria. Providing reasonably for critical national infrastructure and emergencies is in the greater interest of all of us than diverting resources from, say, the Kano-Maiduguri Expressway or the Calabar-Odukpani Road or the Onitsha-Enugu Highway or the Enugu Port Harcourt Highway or the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to constituency projects of legislators like provision of borehole and distribution transformers or street lights in communities. I make this statement with due respect to the National Assembly members who got to their legislative positions by winning elections, and they frequently go to their people to show how they have fulfilled their electoral promises.

    The country is now in August, that is, in the eighth month of the financial year. Yet, the implementation of the 2017 budget has not started in earnest. One of the reasons is the inherent fundamental flaws in the budget which need rectification through virement. Since virement can take place only when the National Assembly has approved the request from the executive arm of government, the National Assembly ought to have treated the letter from acting President Osinbajo requesting for virement prior to proceeding on recess. Since it did not do the right thing early enough, it can still cure the defects from its action by calling off its current vacation which is scheduled to end on September 19. This is a long way.

    Admittedly, most Nigerians believe that our legislators enjoy too many holidays. For example, they work only from Tuesday to Thursday. And they often proceed on long holidays on special occasions. They went on a three-week vacation last June to celebrate the Id-el- fitri feast. Worse, there are many legislators who are delinquent in business attendance. Even among those who attend rather often, there are a lot who scarcely make contributions either on the floor of the legislature or in committee meetings. Their constituencies have long given up on them.

    To conclude, Senate President Saraki and Speaker Dogara as well as other principal officers of the National Assembly are hereby called upon to demonstrate an acute sense of responsibility by immediately ending or suspending the two-month recess which National Assembly members granted themselves in order to enjoy summer holidays.  The country is passing through a particularly difficult period in history, and our legislators must show that they really understand the onerous task before them. Immediate consideration of the letter from the Acting President requesting for adjustments to the 2017 budget law is of paramount importance. No effort should be spared to ensure that this year’s budget does not fail. History beckons National Assembly.

     

    • Nazang is a retired deputy director in the Federal Ministry of Works & Housing.

  • Sense of no history

    •Office of Nigeria’s first Prime Minister long razed, lay waste

    It could be said that this wasted edifice acutely symbolises the nature of Nigeria’s national ethos, values, politics and governance. It also speaks volumes about our sense of history, monuments and collective national legacies. There are also questions of national pride and patriotism at play here.

    And the questions that would naturally resonate from the ruins of once number one seat of power in the land but now abandoned, if not forgotten is: does Nigeria as a nation have some cherished sets of national props, identities, legacies and monuments? Or put plainly, is the country possessed of an organic body, soul, springs and founts from which her citizenry derive some nourishing patriotic essence?

    These questions become germane following from a story that the office of the first post- independent leader of Nigeria lay disgracefully in ruins somewhere in the heart of Lagos. Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Prime Minister of Nigeria from October 1, 1960 to January 15, 1966 worked from the Cabinet Office located at Nos. 1 – 6, Strachan Street, Onikan, Lagos.

    Around its precincts were: the Parliament Building and the sprawling Tafawa Balewa Square (formerly Race Course), the old Ministry of Works and Housing complex, the National Museum, the Onikan Love Garden, the official residences facing the Marina, the National Arcade, the 25-storey Defence Building, the equally high-rise Western House and the Federal Prisons nearby. Also in the same vicinity are King’s College, the courts, the Post and Telecommunications (P&T) and the Police Headquarters at the Moloney, Obalende end of the layout.

    These formed the hub of old British colonial administration and bureaucracy inherited by Nigeria’s officials from October, 1960.Today, it is bad enough that this entire physical infrastructure and history of Nigeria’s civil evolution has been obliterated or left to decay, the very seat of the colonial and immediate post-colonial governments lay in utter ruins.

    According to a report in Sunday Telegraph (August 6, 2017), “…the three-storey building which once served as cabinet office is now overtaken by giant weeds and dangerous reptiles.

    “A colony of trees is now seen growing wild through the blown off roof of the dilapidated building…”

    The report noted further that one dawn in 2008, residents woke up to find a billowing fire gutting the old cabinet office where Prime Minister Balewa once held court. Since then, the building had been abandoned and left to the wiles of stragglers, miscreants and reptiles. A thick bush and a semi-burnt crumbling roof complete the horrific picture of ruination.

    This may well represent the true picture of the state of Federal Government buildings, facilities and infrastructure across the country. Apart from structures like the TBS which had been concessioned to private managers, most of the other national monuments like the Defence Building, the Works and Housing yard, among others, have been left unused and decrepit.

    The National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, the expansive Federal Secretariat in Ikoyi and numerous other Federal Government offices across the country have been lying waste for years. With the relocation of the seat of power from Lagos to Abuja in 1992, many government property at this former seat of power were virtually jettisoned.

    It is particularly tragic that the first seat of power in the land was in the first place abandoned, vandalised and left to such vagaries as fire. Today, what ought to be a national monument, a major tourists highpoint of Lagos and a symbol of pride for the country is a sorry sight and a place of shame.

    That Nigeria seemed to have lost her sense of self-worth and history may have been responsible for the banishment of the study of history from her secondary school curriculum for years. We admonish that no country that brutishly severs the umbilical cord of her past can properly connect with the future.

    The Federal Government must move to reclaim Nigeria’s national monuments and legacies.