The Nation Newspaper

Tag: interesting

  • Interesting, scandalous times from corners of Africa

    We are indeed in interesting times, not only in our country but on the continent of Africa.

    From our land is the story of the money gulping snake that had over 30 million naira stuffed up its long trunk in a federal agency.

    I first thought it was one huge joke when the news broke until it assumed a life  of its own when a serving Senator, concerned about the hugely incredible thievery, decided to hire snake charmers to help unravel the mystery.

    I do hope that before long, we will get to the bottom of the matter. In the meantime, Nigeria is undoubtedly set to enter the Guinness Book of Records as the most amazing nation on earth where the sublime, the ridiculous and the most scandalous do happen without much whimper.

    The Yorubas have this saying, made popular by the late MKO Abiola in his time, that the bead ornament that  was adjudged as oversize for  the buttock of the frog was the very ‘garment’ the snake wanted to adorn its narrow trunk. “Ileke s’odi akere, ejo jade, o ni ki won fi si toun; ibo ni idi na wa”. The ingenuity of the typical Nigerian fraudster in and out of government is limitless, if the depth of it is not bottomless; and this is one classic example where it is proven beyond any iota of doubt that there are some citizens who just want to keep the country in perpetual reverse gear, for just their own selfish interest.

    Sometime, someday, the Great One from whom nothing is hidden, will deal with such people, beyond the present incurable ailments with which many of them are afflicted and the secret agony they bear, which they can’t share with anyone.

    From Nigeria is to South Africa where her President, Jacob Zuma has tumbled into ignominy with his not-unexpected resignation of the South Africa president from office. If Zuma tells that he resigned on his own account, he has only himself to delude. After the illustrious and the widely-acclaimed symbol of world peace, Nelson Mandela and Thambo Mbeki as the two forerunners in the presidency of apartheid-free South Africa, Zuma’s tenure was riddled with so much scandals and shoddy performance that many in the world had long wished to see his back from that country’s highest office.

    The world, without a doubt, is happy to see him go, except Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State who’s so enamoured of Zuma’s governance style that he thought he needs to wake up every morning to see and worship at the feet of Zuma’s statue, at a time many Ibo families were mourning their offsprings who were callously mowed down in parts of South Africa under Zuma’s watch.

  • ‘Life is interesting because I married my friend’

    ‘Life is interesting because I married my friend’

    Like a butterfly with beautiful colours, Mrs Toki Mabogunje shines in many fields. Besides being Vice-President of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, she is a lawyer, broadcaster, consultant and poet. Her play work was staged last year at (FESTINA) the Festival of Nigerian Plays. Mrs Mabogunje’s support for the arts earned her the NANTAP 2014 Personality of the Year for World Theatre Day and Cultural Ambassador; she will be passing on the medal to her successor this month. Although she has received several awards for her passion and dedication to excellence in business and the arts, she is most proud of her role as a wife and mother, who co-authored a book with her 19-year-old son.  In this interview with Evelyn Osagie, Mrs Mabogunje shares her experience in marriage, business, literature and theatre.

     Biodata

    Toki Mabogunje is a business development consultant. Over the last 26 years, Mrs Mabogunje has been involved in commercial and business enterprises from both public and private sector perspectives. Her move to the private sector, provided her with the opportunity to attain a well-rounded perspective of business enterprise in the Nigerian environment. She worked as Group Head, Legal and Corporate Affairs for a start up broadcast enterprise, which grew into a global business concern known as Minaj Media Group.

    She has a degree in Law from the University of Ife, Nigeria, a Masters in International Business Law from the University of Exeter, England, Executive Management Training in Strategic Organisation and Management from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Training in SME policy development from the International Labour Organisation’s Training Centre in Turin, Italy and Training in Value Chain Development at MDF in the Netherlands.

    As Assistant Legal Adviser to the Ministry of Defence and later Senior State Counsel in the Mercantile and Industrial Law Department of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mrs Mabogunje was involved in public sector policy formulation, regulation and monitoring of commerce and industry nationwide. She provided legal advice to the Federal Government in its cross border business negotiations with other governments and commercial enterprises worldwide.

    Mrs Mabogunje is the founder of Toki Mabogunje and Co. (TMC), an 11-year-old firm of business development consultants. She is the Vice-President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She gives back to the community by volunteering her time to the cause of various NGOs.

    She was conferred with an award for her 10 years of service to Fate Foundation in 2010 and an award of excellence by the Ghana Business Women Association, among others.

    Mrs Mabogunje has interests in non-fiction literary pursuits, writes poetry, and has co-written The Duet, a poetry book with her son, which has been staged at MUSON Centre and FESTINA.

     

    Who is Mrs Toki Mabogunje?

    Toki Mabogunje is a woman who trained to be a lawyer. I was called to the Nigerian Bar 33 years ago. I am the oldest of four children; I have two brothers and a sister. My father who passed on some years ago was a medical doctor; he was the Chief Pathologist for Lagos State. My mom was 80 last year. She was a teacher and school administrator, who worked in the public service (state, federal) and in some international schools. I am married to Mr Oluseun Mabogunje, an engineer, and we have two sons – Deji and Damola.

    My early years were at American International School where I had my elementary education. When I got into junior high, my parents thought I was becoming too “unNigerian”, so to speak; so, I was moved to Holy Child College to “Nigerianise” me. I left there to the University of Ife, where I studied Law. I started worked in the Federal Ministry of Justice for nine-and-a-half years; left and went into broadcasting for about eight years before I left to start a consulting firm, TMC (Toki Mabogunje & Co.).

    Growing up

    There were many things. I grew up in a house where both parents were working professionals who didn’t differentiate between boys and girls. I belonged to football clubs, and was always the goalkeeper because they said I didn’t know how to play. I grew up, learning how to stand up for my right. My father could not stand discrimination. And when it is time to cook, we were all in the kitchen so all my brothers are domesticated. My father was very domesticated – he cooked. My mother tells me that when she married him, he taught her all the Yoruba dishes she learnt to cook because she’s from Cross River State.

    In our house, to some extent, democracy was practised. In those days, our TVs were black and white; and we had very few choices; so he would have us vote which station to watch and if we were going out, where to eat lunch. And, sometimes, when he tries to insist on a place, we would say “No, we want to vote”. (Laughs.) For my parents, it was always the quality of the education; I wouldn’t be where I am today if they didn’t invest in my education. I have come to the conclusion that the American education played a very major part in who I am today – I am very “unNigerian” in my thinking and behaviour. In the American education, volunteerism was key – so doing things for the good of everybody became a second nature.

    Literary voyage

    I started writing very early. My father always encouraged us to explore our talent.  So, I, as a mother, grew up encouraging my children’s talent. Deji, my first son, is an excellent artist and the second, Damola, who is a science student, is a poet. He has just published his second book, titled: Season for All Things by Kachifo. It hit Nigeria in December and would soon be on the bookshelves.

    I lost my first collection, which was about 10 years old, when my parents moved house at age 17 – that has remained a sad episode in my life. So, when I got married, I swore to myself that if I could be lucky enough to have a child who can write like me, I would not lose that child’s poems. But then, he would do it on scrap papers all: I started collecting from age six. Incidentally, that was the same age I started writing.

    One day, while I was cleaning my filing cabinet, I noticed my very fat file of poems and that of my sons and thought of publishing. I, then, called Prof Femi Osofisan, who encouraged me on, that it would be a unique publication. That was how I pulled it all together. It was published in 2009, by then Damola was 19 years old. It is titled: The duet, it is my fifth, but the first that is mine. It features poems, spanning 10 to 19 years of my son’s life and mine is five years: so in one collection, you get the opportunity of seeing things from the eyes of a child and a matured woman. And some of the subjects in the book are similar, like love, war and politics. Before then, I have been contributing to other collections – three in the United States and one in honour of Wole Soyinka at 70 which incidentally got me involved with the Nigerian literary sector.

    My stint with the theatre

    Now, that was an adventure. After the book was published 2009 and I thought I was done until 2011 while I was preparing for my birthday. I was able to mark my 50th in a very significant way. The then Secretary of the  National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP), Lagos  Chapter, Mr Williams Ekpo, masterminded the elaborate stage performance of The Duet featuring dance, drama, poetry recitation and songs. He put together a 46-man cast made up of a composer, who converted some of the poems to contemporary songs; professional singers; the dance troupe and the actors. They were able to translate our 36 poems of the collection into something I couldn’t imagine; and took my love poems, written at different times and reason, strung them together and turned them into a story. That got me transfixed.  The play, which was endorsed by the Sickle Cell Foundation, PEN and CORA, had on Saturday two performances and a command performance on Sunday. We ended up raising N2.6million after deducting costs.

    Last year, the work was put on stage during the Festival of Nigerian Plays (FESTINA) when I was appointed the 2014 Personality of the Year for World Theatre Day and their Cultural Ambassador for the year. Whenever they appoint such personalities, they always put their work on stage. I will be giving up the title to the next person this month; and they might stage it again to close my term. The first play was focused on Bakassi; last year’s was on Boko Haram. So, I spent the whole of 2014 as Cultural Ambassador.

    Coping as business executive,lawyer wife and mother

    I have already collected my certificate of freedom. My two boys have finished school. I don’t really have problem coping anymore. I used to have the issue of work-life balance. And it was tough. You know if you are on employment and a mother and wife, you’d have to work hard to ensure the balance. But I have gone past that stage – I am on the expressway now. But I must say it is not easy for any woman to be a working mother. When I started having children, I had to choose what was more important to me – the convenience of going to school in the neighbourhood or the quality education they’d get. That was why I began my career in the Civil Service because they close early and I would be able to have time for my children. I remember while the kids were growing up, I decided they needed to have as certain skills, like learning music. That meant I didn’t have any Saturday – there was always one lesson or practice that they are involved in. Do you know what! They are adult now and I am so proud of them. And I now have the privilege of seeing what our sacrifices have resulted in. It is a thing of pride, and indeed God’s grace, that I now have the luxury of seeing that all our sacrifices as parents have produced wonderful products we are proud of what kind of men they’ve become. And I can trace everything to the things I did when they were younger.

    My 30-year marriage experience

    It has been pretty interesting. My life’s journey has been very interesting, even more so, because I am married to someone who is a good friend; and because we support each other. Creative people are non-conformist, so you have to have a certain kind of patience when you are married to someone that is creatively inclined. But when you have a partner who supports and help you realise your goals and dreams, then life becomes interesting and really great. I think he would say to you I brought the salt and pepper into his life. Married to a creative person like me means that you’d never know when I’d throw in something in that would make our lives more interesting.

    But there is always a give-and-take involved; and it never stops. You’d continue to give and take through life. I stayed in the Civil Service for nine-and-the-half years also because my husband was building his business. So somebody had to be working short hours, do the school runs and take less than what he/she is worth in salary in order that other person can grow their business. Also at some point in MINAJ, I wanted to know more about the business of broadcasting. Going for a course in the field meant I had to live my husband in Nigeria and go to the US for three years. Now, without a supportive husband, how does that happen? In our case, we knew what we were looking for, for our sons. Already our oldest son was getting ready for the university – it was a perfect timing.

    The economic viability of the arts

    It is viable, but the arts sector is not viable in itself; its viability of the arts is in a different kind of framework. All around the world, the arts have always been supported by those who have money. In the developed world their creative industry is where it is because the business world has always put money into the arts. Having staged my own play, I now realised you can’t make money from this thing, you have to have sponsorship or have the money to sponsor it. There is need for Nigerians to understand that you need to invest in this sector. It looks as if more money is made upon the demise of the creative person: their work becomes invaluable when they die. Vincent van Gogh died a penniless man but money is being made after his death.

     

     

  • We are in interesting times

    It is no longer news that the Boko Haram insurgency has taken over the Northern part of the country. The insurgents have stepped up their bloody war by hoisting their flag in some cities in Borno State. This has its message: government is becoming irrelevant.

    While bloodletting is going in the North, the South is not settled by hike in school fee. Some campuses have been shut, following students’ protest.

    The country is being pushed in different direction by its internal problem such as bombing, kidnapping and armed robbery but the Federal Government seems not to care about finding a lasting solution to these challenges.

    Boko Haram appears to have become uncontrollable. From all indications, it appears the criminals are gaining the upper hand in a bid to achieve their inordinate ambition.

    The situation in the North would have been difficult to solve because of its many parts, but how about bringing down school fees?

    The Federal Government may have ordered the school managements to hike the fee through the back door, given its directive during the last Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike, that universities should be self-sustaining.

    This, however, has been rejected by students of affected institutions, who feel they are already been over-charged to get education that is supposed to be their right.

    From federal to state schools, it has been the same story. Schools are shut over students’ confrontation. While many rejected the fee increment, others said they were not getting value for the money being paid.

    Universities’ Pro-chancellors have given theor imprimatur to fee hike as their chairman , Prof Kimse Okoko, while presenting Committee of Pro-chancellors’ position in a communiqué at the end of its meeting recently in Abuja, said additional funding through tuition was required to salvage the education system from rot and reduce over dependence on federal grants.

    The Pro-chancellors argued that rather than dwell on the notion that high fees may take university education beyond the reach of the poor, the real focus should shift to how to make loan available for indigent students, which include the revival of student loans schemes, bursaries and scholarship, among others.

    The Pro-chancellors seem to have expand the logic of their opinion too far, but the question is: will the loan or scholarship initiative work in a country battling with corruption in all facets of its life? Would the benefit be given to students who merit it?

    If hike in tuition would solve challenges in education sector, why did local ASUU chapters not support the hike?

    Whether increase in tuition alone will supplement and balance Federal Government’s grants to schools, it is left to be seen, but this is also an avenue for schools to be held accountable on how funds are being used and look at other areas through which they can generate funds.

    From University of Ibadan (UI), where the school has the sole right to sell drinkable water throughout the campus, to Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), where various means of funds are generated through schemes like OAU bottle water, filling station etc. and the University of Lagos (UNILAG), University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) to other Universities in the country, the amount being generated internally varies.

    The internally generated revenues of the schools have  been greatly enhanced with the permission of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to schools, to conduct their Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for thousands of applicants seeking admissions and with each school not charging less than N5,000 per student. This is a huge revenue.

    All these give rise to question as to how higher institutions spend their internally generated revenue. And for a school like OAU,  this is one of the main reasons why the students union leadership is at loggerheads with the management over the recent hike in fees that resulted in closure of the campus for over a month.

    The Students’ Union leadership maintains that the school is on a sound financial standing, given what it got from the pre-degree programmes and its recent grant of N8 billion World Bank. This is aside the expected ASUU grant that will come in tranches. So why should an institution such as OAU contemplate to hike school fee? Indeed, we are in interesting time.

     

    Sehindemi, 400-Level English Literature, OAU

  • These are interesting times

    These are interesting times

    SIR: We live in interesting times. The political class is having a hell of a jolly time. The judiciary is courting public scrutiny because judges are now living in interesting times. Public servants are also having a swell of a time. The senators are leading the dance in this interesting milieu. The representatives are not immune to the bug of interesting times. In a nation that brags about as the giant of mother Africa, it should be expected that Nigeria must be a land of interesting people.

    Take our love for life and fun. We are loud. Our men are loud. Our women are loud. Our youths are loud. The rich are loud. The well connected are loud. Our politicians are loud in their habits. They are loud in their manner. They are loud in their tastes. They are loud in their sartorial elegance – whether in suit or agbada. President Jonathan controls 11 aeroplanes. They call it presidential fleet. He goes about with a fleet of darkened SUVs and battalion of minders. His public-funded kitchen budget still stands at N1billion. That kitchen must be loud with expensive utensils that befit the ruler of the giant of Africa.

    Nigeria is now a country without Pentecostal modesty. Our pastors are modern day arrogant Pharaohs. In carriage, in cassock, in speech they all look like medieval emperors. Churches are no longer a place of celestial calm and repose but consulting malls for business deals. The glory of Christ has been replaced by the glory of materialism. They now indulge openly in the things that will make Satan proud.

    The story of one big time crook called John Yakubu Yusufu and his other loud crooks did not surprise me at all. He is the feral meanness of the triumph of corruption in Nigeria. He is a true apostle of loud greed and a good discerner of our interesting times. History of big, loud stealing is not new. What we have are new actors from unlikely places. Abacha stole loudly. James Ibori stole loudly. Actors in the Halliburton scandal stole loudly. Worse, these looters are still living loud and large.

    Why would anyone agonise over a man who defrauded pensioners of a mere N27billion? To be shocked or surprised is to diminish the stature of Nigeria as giant of corruption in Africa. Anyone who is angry over the maltreatment of police pensioners is yet to understand the depth of our soulless embrace of love of money. Look at the president. Despite his utopian pledges to transform Nigeria and exorcise the ghost of corruption, the guy is nothing but a latter day Nero who fiddles away while Nigeria burns.

    John Yakubu Yusufu is hugely heartless. However, we have to thank Justice Mohamed Talba for bringing forward the inevitability of Nigeria’s Spring or grassroots revolution. His judgement on the N2732billion pension scam is nothing but a calamitous retreat from judicial fairness. His inaction to take proper action on the scam is affirming the accusation that in Nigeria justice is now privatised to the highest bidder.

    Abroad, the actions of both John Yakubu Yusuf and Justice Talba will again begin to prompt the racist conviction that Africans are naturally prone to evil, lying, stealing, wickedness, corruption, venality and mismanagement. Revelation of scam like this is guaranteed to contribute to the centuries-old racist slur that Africans – blacks – are inherently amoral, lazy and corrupt.

    •Taju Tijani,

    Lagos.