The Nation Newspaper

Tag: long

  • June 12: A long, tortuous walk to justice

    All roads tomorrow leads to the State House in Abuja for the conferment of posthumous national awards of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) on Chief Moshood Abiola and Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) on Chief Gani Fawehinmi. Abiola’s running mate in the scuttled election Babagana Kingibe, will also be honoured with the GCON award. Musa Odoshimokhe profiles some of the pro-democracy activists.

    AFTER twenty-five years of agitation, pro-democracy forces can now heave a sigh of relief. Their clamour for recognition for the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola, will tomorrow be officially granted.

    Key leaders in the struggle for the revalidation of the results the first-ever general elections adjudged as the fairest and fairest, have been invited by the Federal Government for posthumous proclamation of the highest national  award of the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) on the symbol of the struggle.

    The results of the election were “arrested” in a terse statement by the then presidential spokesman Nduka Irabor during the administration of self-styled military President Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, who superintended the election.

    All previous administrations turned down the activists’ yearly request that the presumed winner of the election be immortalised.

    But in a statement on June 6, President Muhammadu Buhari proclaimed June 12 Democracy Day and the conferment of national honours on the late Abiola, his running mate Ambassador Babagana Kingibe and foremost pro-democracy activist, the late Gani Fawehinmi.

    As at last night, four Southwest states of Lagos, Ogun, Ondo and Osun, have declared tomorrow a work-free day to mark the 25th anniversary of the annulment of a presidential poll adjudged by local and international observers as Nigeria’s best.

    Some of activists, who took to the streets in cities centres to protest the annulment of the results and demanded for revalidation, are profiled below.

     

    Femi Falana

     

    The activist-lawyer was in the vanguard of revalidation of June 12 presidential election results’ campaigners. Like other prominent figures, Falana took the battle to the streets where participated actively in demonstrations.

    Falana, now a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), in the company of others, suffered arrests and detention in the hands of government forces that took his positions on issues as affront to constituted authority.

    On many fora, Falana pointed out the evil associated with the annulment and barring the unforeseen, the Lagos-based lawyer will be in Abuja tomorrow for the ceremonial proclamation.

     

    Olabiyi Durojaiye

     

    The Ogun East Senator between 1999 and 2003 fought on the side of the masses for the actualization of the annulled election. Durojaiye was an active member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), a pressure group that was turn in the flesh of the military administration of the late Gen. Sani Abacha.

    He was among those detained by Gen. Abachan as “Prisoners of War”.

    Following his release from after the death of Abacha, Durojaiye contested and won the Ogun East Senatorial seat under the Alliance for Democracy (AD). He is a staunch member of Afrenifere. His memoir on the annulled June 12, 1993, is in the works.

     

    Segun Osoba

     

    The former Ogun State governor under the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) played major role in the struggle. He supported the cause through media outreach and financial supports for pro-democracy groups including oil workers unions – National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). He was a thorn in the flesh of antagonists of June 12. As a NADECO member, he faced persecution from the military and had to go underground from time to time to sustain the cause of June 12. He ranks among the heroes of democracy.

     

    Chima Ubani

     

    Ubani was one of the activists who lost his life in the struggle for a better Nigeria. He played critical role to ensure victory and he became a prisoner of conscience under the military.

    His thirst for a fair and better society led to his untimely death in an accident en route Maiduguri, Bornu State for a pro-democracy rally.  He was honoured locally and internationally for his selfless efforts.

     

    Beko Ransom Kuti

     

    He was the chairman for the Campaign for Democracy (CD), a forum he deployed to the emancipation of the downtrodden.

    The medical doctor-turned rights’ crusader was imprisoned by the military for speaking out against injustice.

     

    Baba Omojola

     

    Baba Omojola was a chieftain of the NADECO, a platform that rallied other coalition groups against dictatorship. The fiery rights’ activist was incarcerated for being in the forefront of against injustice.

    He did not abandon the cause even in the face of intimidation by the military. He would be remembered for his contributions to make the country a better place to live in for all.

     

    Tunji Abayomi

     

    Dr. Abayomi, a legal practitioner and activist known for his principle on fairness and justice, played an active role in the crusade for a better nation. To him, those who annulled the June 12 election murdered sleep.

    He was arrested and detained for several years by the military. Dr. Abayomi was in the forefront of the crusade to free Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, when he was arrested over the phantom coup plot against Gen. Abacha.

     

    Mike Ozekhome

     

    Mike Ozekhomhe is a lawyer and human rights’ activist. The Edo-born activist led youths and concerned stakeholders in the battle to liberate the country from the jackboots of the military. He equally deployed his legal support to ensure justice.

     

    Ayo Obe

     

    As President of Civil Liberties Organisations (CLO), Dr. Ayo Obe   was in the forefront of the agitation for justice. Through the CLO, she rallied many organisations to get justice for Abiola. She could not be cowed by the military as she threw all resources at her disposal into the crusade for a better Nigeria.

     

    Shehu Sani

     

    Senator Shehu Sani was fearless in the battle against military dictatorship.  The Kaduna Central District Senator was arrested and clamped into detention by government forces during the administration of Gen. Abacha.

    Yesterday, Sani shared on his twitter handle, photographs of his time in prison in 1995.

    He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for treason against the military.

    He shared on Twitter: “In my Prison Cell, Aba, Abia State, in 1995 serving 15-year sentence for (1) Treason against the Military Junta (2) Managing an unlawful society, The Campaign for Democracy CD. Prison number 95/1186. The other on the right, in my Cell in Kiri Kiri Maximum Security Prison Lagos.”

     

     

    The Annulment Statement by Nduka Irabor

    In view of the spirit of litigation pending in various courts, the federal government is compelled to take appropriate steps in order to rescue the judiciary from intra-voyaging. Those steps are taken so as to protect our legal system and the judiciary from being ridiculed and politicized, both nationally and internationally.

    In an attempt to end this ridiculous charade which may culminate in judicial anarchy, the Federal Military Government has decide to stop forthwith, all court proceedings pending or to be instituted and appeals thereon in respect of any matter touching, relating or concerning the presidential election held on June 12, 1993.

    The Transition to Civil Rule Political Programme (Amendment Number 3), Decree Number 52 of 1992 and the Presidential Election (Basic Constitutional and Transitional Provisions)Decree Number 13 of 1993 are hereby repealed. All acts or omissions done or purported to have been done, or to be done by any person, authority etc, under the above named decree are hereby declared invalid. The National Electoral Commission is hereby suspended. All acts or omissions done or purported to have been done by itself, its officers or agents under the repealed Decree number 13, 1993 are hereby nullified.”

     

     

  • A deadline long overdue

    A deadline long overdue

    Truck drivers get 48 hours to vacate Lagos bridges”, ran The Nation lead headline of March 8.  That is an ultimatum long, long overdue — and in those unending snakes of containerized trailers, tankers and allied articulated trucks, you see in stark ugliness the toxic nature of Nigerian citizenship.

    Yeah, there is always the call that the “government” is irresponsible, useless and insensitive.  That might well be.  But that government has a merry partner in citizens, who though daily bawl and bark at “how useless” the government is, nevertheless, by their own daily conducts, demonstrate they can outbid the hated government in these hated traits.  Sad.

    Look over all Lagos, now experiencing a refuse crisis.  Yes, perhaps the Lagos government erred on its own part by not mastering its new waste disposal system before transiting from the old one.

    Still, is this an excuse for rational citizens — adults supposed to be responsible — to dump refuse bang on road medians? Does that also justify the alleged sabotage by lobbies bent on frustrating the new system, simply because they feel thrown out of their comfort zones?

    Indeed, under those refuse lay buried the humanity and rationality of many denizens of this teeming metropolis.  It is such mighty shame.

    Yes, over the years, subsequent federal governments, especially from the military era, had milked Apapa Ports for choice revenue.  But they have dismally failed to put in adequate investments, especially in rail, to transport those revenue-spinning imports, with relatively low sweat — rail.

    That grand failure had led to a progressive cannibalization of Apapa Roads, such that both the Tin Can Island axis, as well as roads leading in and out of the premier Apapa Ports complex have comprehensively failed.  The roads bear just too much weight, and the wear-and-tear is just logical.

    That crisis has come to a head these past three months or so.  Even then, it is matched by the ugliness of the Nigerian citizenry, particularly when the issue is the urban public space.  It is an utter jungle out there, just like a set of British public school boys, who got marooned on an island, and turned near-instant savages, in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.

    Indeed, it’s an ugly urban jungle of metal and concrete, with a serpentine curve of endless trucks and trailers, parked over every available space, including aging bridges, snaking from Tincan to Mile 2, and from Apapa Ports, over the delicate Ijora Causeway, to Western Avenue, spanning the National Stadium, Surulere , to Ojuelegba and even threatening the Ikorodu Road-Western Avenue link flyover.  What madness!

    That is why the March 7 ultimatum, taking effect from today (February 9), couldn’t have come at a better time.  Even better: not only were  critical stakeholders consulted before handing down the ultimatum, two parking bays, one at Orile Iganmu that can take 3,500 tankers and another, that can take 2,700 containerized trucks, though the news story did not mention the location.

    After the deadline, the authorities should move in to clear any recalcitrant trailers parked at wrong places, especially those that have seized the bridges and holding bays, despite the very possibility of collapse and even, as the military authorities alerted, possible terrorist attacks.

    While the government must take its full share of the blame, citizens too must take responsibility — and get punished — for irrational actions.  That a country faces a crisis is no licence for its people to merrily descend into savages.

    That is the current situation is Lagos.  Sad.

     

     

  • So long, old wizard of Harare

    It was not a befitting exit for President Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean nationalist and a revolutionary intellectual who was at the vanguard of the liberation struggle against the white minority rule.  He was one of the founding members of the ZANU-PF that led the liberation struggle to resist the oppressive regime in former Rhodesia. He was a true pan-Africanist who rode to prominence on the crest hill of a revolutionary credential to restore dignity to his people.    He is a gifted orator and a charismatic leader who combined intellectual engagement with revolutionary tactics on the field.

    ZANU PF is a well organized party with structures and defined hierarchy to which every member paid allegiance.  What was lacking was defined succession and tenure of party officials who decided to appropriate power through gerontocratic patronage.  The party became hijacked by old hawks of the revolution that employed deft manoeuvres to manipulate rivals in the party in order to sustain themselves perpetually in power.  Mugabe is synonymous with stubbornness but he was sustained in power by the party machinery which he oiled with perks and generosity with state resources to the detriment of the entire nation.   Mugabe was a puppet of the ZANU PF and the puppeteers have been the vice president himself, nicknamed The Crocodile whom he sacked in a political mis-calculation, the military industrial complex and other chieftains of the party that included the veterans’ leaders.

    At age 93 years, Mugabe certainly was not in charge of anything in Zimbabwe, perpetually dozing off at every official functions like one struck by incubus. His wife Grace, who is over 40 years his junior, was straight from the pit of Hell and an albatross that became Mugabe’s nemesis.  She appears possessed by a demonic lust for power which set her on collision cause with the party leadership that she wanted to subvert and inherit the presidency from her husband.  She should have been better a fashion designer or a hair dresser than to aspire to occupy the presidency of Zimbabwe, a country with literacy rate above any other African country.   The pseudo coup showed clearly where power belonged in the ZANU-PF.

    Mugabe was a mere figure head being manipulated by different interests in the party because of old age and senility.  The military general that led the putsch was all smile and friendly and indeed civilized to the bargain.  He even allowed him to attend a ceremony while still under house arrest. Mugabe may indeed be a stubborn fellow, but he is so old that he forgot where power resides thinking that like the wily old fox that he used to be, he could negotiate himself out of the present dead end.  His, is the end of an era and happily so, an ugly era of despotism and dictatorship of strong men.

    Did Mugabe record any achievement in Zimbabwe and Africa?  Yes indeed, he did.  He was a founding member of a party, ZANU PF that led the revolution that liberated his country from the minority white rule.  He was a cerebral leader and acquitted himself with intellectual eloquence and delivery when he was a fire brand leader in his prime.  He occupies a place in the history of African leadership that was dynamic and expressive to the annoyance of the neo-colonialists.  Mugabe was as guilty as the ZANU-PF in whatever he did or failed to do because the party has a great influence on the political leadership of the country.  He would not have succeeded if the party did not offer him the support and encourage him to continue along the path that he took the nation.

    He became too old to appreciate that he was derailing and nobody was telling him the truth so long as the party members and supporters get patronage.  He became detached to the sensibility and suffering of his people when the local currency virtually lost value and citizens started voting with their legs to other African countries as economic migrants and refugees.

    Mugabe suffered from chronic African leadership malaise of sit-tight in government. They are all over the continent; General Ibrahim Babangida was forced to step aside. All the registered political parties once adopted General Sani Abacha when he wanted to succeed himself. Chief Obasanjo schemed for tenure elongation. Colonel Gadhafi paid with his life. Hosni Mubarak was humiliated out of office. Yoweri Museveni has changed the constitution of Uganda to remain a life president.  Paul Biya has turned to maximum leader in Cameroon. Yahaya Jameh wanted to rule in the Gambia for 1,000 years but now lives in exile, the same with Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso; the list goes on and on.

    Regrettably, in his lust for power, Mugabe has lost his position in the pantheon of revered African leaders who contributed to the liberation of Africa and brought dignity to their people.  The party that produced him failed to offer him a landing right with secured platform in the political shores of his country.  Mugabe’s gain is a credit to ZANU PF and his lost is a failure to the party.  Sadly, the same old guards are taking over from Mugabe with no generational shift.  This is another challenge that the people would have to confront in their democratic journey and already, there are splinters and cleavages even in the ZANU PF.  With his exit from power in this anti- climax, we can still say that there was once a leader in Mugabe even though history will judge him harshly for frittering away the capital of his contribution.

    So long Comrade Mugabe, the wily old fox of Harare!

     

    • Kebonkwu is an Abuja-based attorney.
  • The long, tortuous road to the impeachment of Donald Trump: a history lesson and a morality fable

    The long, tortuous road to the impeachment of Donald Trump: a history lesson and a morality fable

    L’Etat, c’est moi! [I am the state!] – Louis XIV of France

    The parasitic bug devouring the vegetable is lodged inside the vegetable – A Yoruba adage

    It is more than six months now since I first “predicted” in this column that ultimately, Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, would be impeached for “high crimes and misdemeanors”. Six months isn’t an unduly long time to wait for this prediction to come to pass. After all, it took close to eighteen months for Richard Nixon to be forced to resign from office rather than be impeached after the scandal of Watergate erupted. All the same, there is no equivalence between the two events. Indeed, there is a vast difference in the circumstances and behavior of the two men. For all those eighteen months before his resignation, Nixon sweated and squirmed, protesting his innocence to the whole world. He grew closer to members of his family and he searched for powerful allies within his political party. Above all else, he was absolutely insistent on his innocence. On one occasion, he infamously declared, indeed pleaded, “I am not a crook!” [By the way, I am able to recall these details vividly because at the time, I was completing my post-graduate studies in the U.S.]

    What about Donald Trump? Trump is not only not declaring that he is not a crook, he is in fact all the time demonstrating in plain sight for the whole world to see that he is a crook, the father of all political crooks to boot! Indeed, even as the evidence of his past corrupt, illegal and treasonous liaisons with Putin’s Russia mounts to the skies, evidence of new and current liaisons surface. Especially, the charge of obstruction of justice against the president is validated nearly every week by new revelations of ongoing activities in Trump’s White House. Worthy of note is the fact that unlike Nixon, Trump is taking actions and saying things that are making it more and more difficult for his party, the Republican Party, to stand with him to the end in his struggle against impeachment. To cap it all, the White House under Trump will almost certainly go down in history as being the most incapable of preventing leaks of the misdemeanors of the incumbent president from reaching the press and the American people. If all of this is true, why then is it taking so long to either impeach Trump or force him to resign before the expiration of his term? As a matter of fact, let us rephrase the question: Why will the road to the impeachment of Trump almost certainly be long and tortuous? The answer to this question, I suggest, provides all of us on planet earth a useful history lesson and a striking morality fable.

    Let us take the history lesson first. At the head of this piece, I have deployed that infamous quote from the one of last kings of France, Louis XIV: L’etat, c’est moi! (“I am the state!”) Trump has shown many signs and said many things to indicate that he sees his presidency in the light of feudal, monarchical prestige and authority. He has told the British that when he makes his first official visit to London, he must ride through the streets in the Queen’s royal carriage, otherwise the visit will not take place. In one bizarre drama that Trump televised and had broadcast to the whole nation, he had every single member of his cabinet one by one praise him to the skies and swear their loyalty to him. The scene seemed to have come straight out of a satire by a dissident playwright on the excesses of the megalomania of feudal rulers and modern dictators who equated personal loyalty to themselves with loyalty to the state. But this was a real-life drama that Trump has supplemented with many other actions and pronouncements to show clearly that personal loyalty to himself counts far more than the legal and institutional obligations and limitations of public office. This is why, in less than one year in office, Trump has fired more cabinet members and White House staff than any other American president in history. This is why he publicly and savagely humiliated the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself from directing the investigation of Trump’s Russian connection when, in Trump’s opinion, Sessions should have taken control of the investigations in order to protect the embattled president’s interests.

    L’etat, c’est moi. Louis XIV made that declaration not knowing that history would record it as the last gasp of a dying, soon to become moribund social order. The answer of modern liberal democracy to that declaration has been unequivocal: no, Louis XIV, no all rulers and would-be rulers of the world, you are not the state; you and your cabinet members, you and your staff, you serve the state which is the institutional objectification of the people, all the people. It is nothing short of a great historical irony that it is in the United States, the country whose founding was greatly aided by the revolution in France that ultimately swept away absolutist, monarchical rule, that the ghost of Louis XIV would resurface in the presidency of Donald Trump, if only as a caricature, a grotesque haunting. In this connection, it would seem natural or logical that Putin and Putin’s Russia would be the inspiration, the ally of Trump. Why?

    Well, Putin’s Russia is nothing if not a grotesque caricature of the Russia of Lenin and the Soviet People’s Republics. Absolutist power erected on the foundations of an oligarchical, right-wing “Greater Russia” nationalism that is endlessly contemptuous of all forms of democracy – liberal, popular-democratic, social-democratic, socialist. That is Putin’s Russia and all Russians who reject this transmogrification of their country face draconian repression and even murder. Trump admires Putin a lot and makes no secret of his admiration. We might add here that Trump has also expressed admiration for other dictators, other “strongmen” like Erdogan of Turkey, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, and even his supposed arch-enemy, Kim Jong Un of North Korea. Let us note here that Trump’s admiration of these dictators, these “strongmen” is not an idle one. In other words, he would, if he had his way, “rule” the United States in the ways that these “strongmen” rule their countries. If this is the case, even if he does not ultimately succeed he would very badly deform and degrade American liberal democracy if he is allowed to run the full course of his four years in office. Why then is his impeachment taking such a long, tortured path? This question is at the heart of the history lesson in this piece.

    Not to oversimplify matters here, let us note that about roughly 35% of the American people are unwaveringly with Donald Trump and for the most part, they are demographically and politically concentrated in the base of the Republican Party. They are spread throughout the country and even though the great majority among them are white people, their phobias, resentments, fears and hatreds resonate with Americans of other ethnicities. For this reason, the Republican Party is caught in a bind: it must move very, very cautiously, if at all, against Trump. If the party gives the slightest hint to the 35% demented Trumpian base that it is in collusion with Democrats and others who wish to impeach Trump or force his resignation before the end of his term, that base will turn away from the party and the Republican Party may ultimately self-destruct as a viable force in the two-party dyad running American liberal democracy. To put the matter in concrete terms, the thinking of The Republicans on this issue goes something like this: why finish off Trump now and go down with him when, in the end, he is sure to self-destruct? Yes, the Trumpian specter is very frightening, for America itself and for the whole world, but why risk loss of the party’s historic status as the alternative ruling party to the Democrats for possibly the next two, three or four decades? History after all is full of megalomaniacs like Trump that strutted about on the stage for years and even decades but eventually went into historical oblivion – Nero, Caligula, Francisco Franco, Mobutu Sese Seko, Sani Abacha.

    L’etat, c’est moi: it will always recur in history. When it does, flow with it as you would ride on a tiger’s back knowing that if you fall off, you’re finished. This is the coward’s and cynic’s view of history, but since morality is an infusion of ethical and humanistic concerns into the objective and impersonal processes of history, we need a morality fable here. Well, here goes…

    In this piece, I have been talking a lot about “Putin’s Russia”, together with the kinship between Putin and Trump. Most American commentators, pundits and activists on this issue think of this as an infection, a plague coming from Russia to haunt and ultimately destroy American and Western liberal democracy. This as a sort of revenge, a payback for the defeat of Russia in the Cold War. But what if the infection is from within? What if racism, misogyny, xenophobia, philistinism and fascism, all the ingredients of Trumpism, come from within the interstices of American society, American capitalism itself? I invoke here the second epigraph to this piece: kokoro to n je’fo, inu efo lo n gbe. [The parasitic bug devouring the vegetable patch lives within the vegetable itself]. That is our morality fable.

    The JAMB 120 cutoff mark: a short memo to Adamu Adamu, the Minister of Education

     The dust is yet to settle on the storm created by the lowering of the cutoff mark from 150 to 120 for admission to our public universities. Not surprisingly, the opponents of the decision have been far more eloquent and persuasive than the supporters. This is because everyone knows that already, the standards of both teaching and learning in the tertiary level of our national educational system have deteriorated continuously and precipitously over the years and decades. This is quite apart from the also well-known fact that examination malpractices are so rampant in our country that the integrity of results cannot be guaranteed. In this context, critics of the 120 diktat have asked for the rationale of the decision other than a politically motivated and deliberate lowering of standards to accommodate pressure from the educationally disadvantaged parts of the country, mostly in the North.
    I take note of these critical comments, Mr. Adamu Adamu. But here is my real question. Already, virtually all candidates admitted to our tertiary educational institutions need massive remediation before going on to the normal course of instruction in our universities and polytechnics – which remediation they of course do not get. Now, those of us who have for long been partisans and/or advocates for the improvement of teaching and learning conditions in our universities base ourselves on the fact that at one time in this country, significant and substantial remediation was available in many of our public universities for students admitted conditionally on the basis of inadequate or substandard qualification. The time has come to reinstate, adequately fund and consolidate remedial instruction for ALL students admitted to our institutions, most all the new set of “120” cutoff emergency students or “emergencos” as we might call them.
    No be so, Honourable Minister?

    Biodun Jeyifo
    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • How to live long, by expert

    Nigerians have been advised to be conscious of what they eat in order to live long.

    According to a health and dietary coach, Rev Tony Akinyemi, good foods can help people to grow old gracefully.

    Akinyemi, who spoke at the 50th birthday lecture of a Chevron worker,  Kayode Adeboye, with the theme: Growing old without ageing, said good foods could help  slow down the ageing process when consumed appropriately.

    Ageing, he said, was not the result of one factor, but the cumulative result of many factors, especially micro-nutrient deficiency.

    Akinyemi listed arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, menopause and loss of libido/erectile dysfunction (ED) as the common symptoms of ageing as well as lack of agility and eye diseases.

    He advised mothers to breast feed their babies exclusively, saying lack or partial breast feeding can impact negatively on the lives of babies at old age. Babies should be breastfed from the first day of life to six months. When babies are between six to18 months, adult foods should be included. People in the age group of 18 months and 25 years should eat several cooked meals daily, not necessarily three times daily. It can be up to four times or more so that the system can develop rapidly,” said Rev Akinyemi.

    He said, “Two cooked meals a day are appropriate for people between ages 25 and 40. In the same vein, one and a half cooked meals a day with salad and fruits are good for those between 40 and 50. Those above 50 should take one cooked meal a day, should take vegetable, juices and fruit to support their meals.”

    Akinyemi said: “Fruit should preferably be eaten in the morning for cleansing of the system. It is more than eating a balanced diet; you might be eating the right food at the wrong time.”

    He spoke of the life expectancy of Nigerians being low compared to other countries in sub- Saharan Africa. “It is below world’s average,” he noted, saying: “Two years ago, Ghana had the highest life expectancy age in sub- Saharan Africa, which is above 65 years. But 6.1 per cent of Nigerians make it to the age of 55.”

    The health coach said longevity risk factors are numerous but can be managed.

    He listed heredity, race, gender, ultra- violet (UV) ray exposure, environmental and weather conditions as non- modifiable factors, which can blight old age. “So, people should make sure they are not exposed to UV rays and they should keep their immediate environment clean,” he said.

    Some of the modifiable risk factors, he said, poor diet, stress, disease, sexual promiscuity, smoking, drug and alcohol abuse, and sleep deprivation.

    Stress, Akinyemi said, plays a big role in reducing life span, saying it cannot be eradicated but managed.

    He said: “The probability of dying from terrorist attack is infinitesimal while that of food poisoning is one out of seven persons. Cancer is one out of three persons and smoking is one out of two smokers”

    The modifiable factors, he said, can cause up to 70 per cent of cancer cases.

    His words: “If we begin to address the modifiable factors, we would reduce disease that we are prone to. Health does not flow from syringe.”

    Akinyemi urged people to avoid habits that are destructive or high risk behavior, such as the excessive intake of sugar and salt as well as late night meals.

    He prescribed a daily rest of six to eight hours, weekly rest of a day and annual rest of minimum of two weeks as part of sleep therapy, adding “Make room for adequate rest.”

    The dietary coach advised that people should not wait until there is crisis before assessing their health status.

    Akinyemi said supplements are supportive to the body system but they should be used wisely.

    He mentioned beta glucan, probiotics, vitamin D, Fibre (Psyllium Husk), folic acid and calcium as some of the vital supplements people can take.

    “Supplements convert homocysteine to glutathione which is useful to the body. High blood level of homocysteine weakens the immune system and causes ageing,” he said.

    He identified homocysteine as an amino acid that the body makes from another amino acid called methionine.

    He enjoined asthmatics not to take peanuts, soya, wheat, cow milk and corn because they can be deleterious to their health.

    The celebrator said he organised the health talk so as to assist more people attain longevity of life.

  • The king is dead; long live the king!

    I remember President J.F. Kennedy’s  famous and everlasting inaugural speech  on that wintry morning of January 1961 when as the youngest President of the USA said among other things how the work of government is never done not in one term or even according to him in our life times. It was a prophetic statement because he was soon cut down by an assassin’s bullet even before he finished the first term. Of course he said other things like ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country. He idealistically said that America’s foes and friends alike should know that the baton  of the defence of freedom has been passed  on to a new generation of Americans nurtured in war and ready to pay any price in the defence of  liberty and freedom where ever they are threatened. Americans lapped it up especially coming from the mouth of the dangerously handsome young president. No American president can say that today and be applauded unless of course those Americans on the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party and their running dogs in the so-called Tea Party.

    When a king or Queen dies in England, the continuity in government is captured by the saying the king is dead long live the king. Amongst the Yoruba the same sentiment is contained in the statement Baba ku Baba ku meaning father has died but he lives on in the next oldest member of the family. All these preambular statements are to emphasize that the work of government is continuous and is never completely done by any regime. This is however not an excuse for inertia or clueless performance.

    The government of Jonathan now belongs to history and when the dust has settled and the healing hands of time have passed over the events of recent times, the judgement on his regime may or not be severe. The usefulness of such historical judgement will serve as a warning or compass to the successor regimes. What we can call instant history is that the Jonathan administration has fallen below expectation. This apparent failure can be seen in the collapse of the economy less than a year after the current reduction in crude oil price. What this means is that we were eating our fruits and seeds at the same time like a foolish farmer. Many critics including this writer had warned ad nauseam that the drunken financial fashion the country was being run was not sustainable. The stupendous salaries and allowances paid to members of the executives and legislators at local, state and federal levels were heavy enough to sink the ship of state. Now chicken has come home to roost. There is no fuel to run our homes and the national economy. Power generation is now just over 1000 megawatts and with no diesel the country would soon grind to a halt. Recently I went to Abuja and in the absence of aviation fuel, I had to return to Lagos by road something I had not done in 20 years. Most states of the federation stopped paying salaries since January with the consequence of parents being unable to pay their children’s school fees. Since quite a large percentage of parents now send their children to fee-paying private primary, secondary and tertiary institutions many young people are at home idling their lives away. The result of growing unemployment and underemployment is armed robberies complicating the already existing insecurity problems associated with Boko Haram and cattle rustling in the northern part of the country. Even the apparent reduction of militancy in the Niger Delta creeks is still early to be celebrated and the spreading spate of kidnappings for ransom constitutes reason for worry. The infrastructural deficit on our roads, rail, sea ports and the danger of inadequate aviation infrastructure are enough to overwhelm any government.

    Does it then mean that the outgoing administration was an unmitigated failure? The answer is not clear cut. What is clear is that the administration is not ending well in view of the fact that the country has ground to a halt. There is no electric power from the companies allegedly fronting for political big-wigs and there is no diesel to power individual generators and even those who have not been paid for six months by their governments have no money to buy petrol and diesel if they are available and they are not. I feel sorry for the outgoing president that he is ending his regime in a whimper and in an anti-climax. The only positive thing this government will be remembered for is the Almajiri schools inadequate as they may be in number. Certainly not the mushroom universities established for political considerations and the welter of private universities for profit licensed by the Jonathan administration.

    But what is to be done? The Buhari administration cannot be expected to perform a miracle when it is burdened by local and foreign debt of over $60 billion. It can at the same time not fold its hands and do nothing. It must not take on too many things at the same time but should tackle the problems one at a time unless where the problem has interlocking relationship for example the problem of power has bearing on appropriate pricing of petroleum products. Security and infrastructure are related and so is security and employment. Money, lots of it will be needed to tackle the myriad of problems facing the country. We must move away from a situation where only salaried workers alone pay taxes while the rich and the famous hardly pay taxes. If people do not pay taxes, then they won’t have a sense of ownership of the government. No matter how small, people would have to pay something to fund their government. Value Added Tax (VAT) must also be increased substantially because these are in most cases luxury taxes on the class most able to bear them. I have said this before: states should be advised to levy property and land use taxes to run their governments rather than relying on federal allocations which are really unearned petrol commissions.

    It is very gratifying to note that the incoming government says it will focus on agriculture and solid minerals exploitation. I will want to enter a caveat here. We heard this before. If we are going into agriculture, it must be massive agricultural business through loans to young graduates who want to go into the business as well as loans to existing farmers who have proved their ability and seriousness. Government must prohibit imports of agricultural products where we have comparative advantage. We should not be importing vegetable oils and rice. We should stop importing wines, champagne and hard liquors in order to conserve our foreign reserves and restore sanity to our country especially our youths who are on slippery slope to drunken degeneracy. We must ensure that our concentrating on solid mineral exploitation is not another Abacha freebies given  to powerful and well connected people in the name of solid mineral exploitation In this regard let big foreign companies be invited and provided tax holidays to encourage them to get involved in our new plans.

    Let the new administration recover as much money as possible from what have been stolen and use the proceeds to embark on massive public works by direct labour of our youth. This will generate enthusiastic support for the government and reduce youth anger and unemployment. The first 100 days will be crucial and government must ensure that it is not business as usual. We can no longer afford this and we have lost so much ground already and the people can no longer wait for action to tackle the problems of this country. We are down and it can not be worse than this and we can only go up. The best way to start while the iron is hot is to eliminate the so-called oil subsidies that have ended subsidizing the lavish and opulent life styles of politicians, plutocrats and oil oligarchs in our country. Everybody is fed up with the humiliating scarcity of fuel in an oil producing country and if the only way to solve this problem once and for all is to throw importation and sale of refined petroleum  open to all who have the capacity while fixing our refineries, then that is the reasonable thing for government to do  and  the question of subsidies will  be gone forever.

    Finally, what is left for most of us  to do is to wish our former President Jonathan, good luck in the years ahead and President Muhammadu Buhari Godspeed in the journey of piloting the ship of state.

  • ‘She was my long lost crush’

    ‘She was my long lost crush’

    A pharmacist, Mr Paul Ndukwe, from Awka in Anambra State has given out his daughter, Vivinne Nkechi, in marriage to  Oluyomi Daniel, son of Chief Josiah Odofin, who hails from Ilesa, Osun State. NNEKA NWANERI was there.

    •Fate brought us together

    Oluyemi was beside himself with joy when he related to this reporter how he met his heartthrob, Nkechi, whom he had a crush on  the first time they met 15 years ago. They met in same neighbourhood and struck each other as acquaintances. But Oluyemi wanted something more than being an acquaintance.

    Fortunately, in 2004, they both worshipped at the same fellowship centre, Believers’ World Fellowship, of the same campus of Onabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, where they both studied. Oluyemi was studying Geography and Town Planning and Nkechi was studying Law.

    “She sat in front of my friend and I and when she looked back, our eyes met and she was convinced she has met me somewhere. Before the final grace, we talked and she tried explaining who she was to me to no avail. I just could not remember.

    “The next day, while having my bath, I remembered her. She was my long lost crush. I ran out of the bath in excitement to tell my friend I had found my wife. On same day, as we drove into the campus, there she was at the gate. We stopped the car and that was it. Since then till now, we spend every weekend together and I’m glad we began as friends because since 2004 till date, we are still together because it is a mutual thing.

    “I believe it was fate that brought us together because she was meant to have studied in the University of Lagos, but was declined an admission into Law. That was when she opted for her second choice so that she could meet me. Can’t you see it was divine intervention?”

    The Classique Events Centre on Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun, played hosts to the family of the lovebirds from Anambra and Osun State at the traditional wedding ceremony, Igba Nkwu of Nkechi and Oluyemi.

    It was a day both families had longed  for to and they  left no stone unturned in ensuring that it was not only memorable, but exciting.

    Passersby wondered if there was a dance troupe rehearsal going on as various traditional dancers tried to show their skills.

    Those, who made it into the tastefully decorated hall, venue of the event, after being thoroughly checked by security officials, wowed at the massive parking space at the venue. They were greeted by an Igbo traditional troupe dancers, who entertained with flutes. On each table was a candle stand with lighted candle stick. There were big television screens placed strategically on the walls around the hall to give guests a better view of what was happening.

    The tables were exotically decorated in gold and shiny overlays.  An Indian lantern was equally placed in the centre of each table.

    The Ndukwes were already seated, awaiting the arrival of their in-laws and guests.

    Along came a group of people, announcing the arrival of the long expected guests from Osun State. They  refused to take their seat untill they achieved their mission. They told the gathering why they came to pluck a beautiful flower they described as shiny and respectful.

    Oluyemi, who was decked in an Igbo attire, looked more like a traditional Igbo chief. He held a title-less hand fan, which he waved around with a sense of pride.

    He made straight for the high table, himself and his friends, prostrated before his family members and in-laws, showing how Yoruba men greet their elders.

    The bride’s mother, Grace, had  kolanut trays to present to her guests. As they moved forward into the hall, praise songs in honour of women rented the air. The cultural dancers added colour to the event with their dance steps.

    Nkechi also danced with maidens and friends, bearing a tray filled with garden eggs. She was sprinkled with red rose petals every step she took.  She then took the tray to where her in-laws sat and served them. Her dress and her charming smile caught everyone’s attention.

    When it was confirmed that her in-laws have met all the requirements expected of them, Nkechi went in and changed into a beautiful skirt and blouse made from a shiny sequence. She collected a glass of palmwine from her father and began to search for her beau in the crowd. She found him, knelt and presented him with the drink, which he hurriedly gulped down his throat.

    She then led him to her father and they both knelt before him. The old man then prayed that the young couple would have a prosperous marital life.

  • ‘We ‘ll engage more in long term investment’

    With the 2014 Pension Reform Act, Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) can now engage in long term investment in equity and infrastructure that have more economic impact as opposed to the short term investment, Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp) Chairman, Misbau Yola, has said.

    Yola, who is also the Managing Director of Legacy Pension Limited, said the PFAs will however, need to bring a workable means of channeling pension fund into these areas.

    He noted that employees, employers and other stakeholders within and outside the industry now understand that their pension is safe under the supervision of the National Pension Commission and the administration of the PFA along with the Pension Fund Custodian (PFC) who are the custodian of the pension fund.

    He stated that this is also because there has been no case of fraud since the inception of the new pension scheme, the Contributory Pension Scheme in 2004. Nigerians are now more comfortable with the scheme and we expect that more people will join the scheme, he added.

  • NFF big shots wear long faces

    NFF big shots wear long faces

    Top officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), who have officially resumed duties at the Glass House, have been wearing long faces, SportingLife has gathered.

    They have been keeping to themselves since their return from the Nations Cup in South Africa.

    The sudden change in attitude has become a subject of discourse among staff of the federation. Prior to their departure, they were very cheerful.

    A competent source however revealed that the unusual behaviour may not be unconnected with the reception organised for the Super Eagles by President Goodluck Jonathan and some state governors.

    SportingLife’s source added that the officials have not been happy with the persistence criticism of the leaders by different sections of the country, which was further worsened by the purported resignation of head coach Stephen Keshi.

    “It is very unusual of them to be in that mood. I can tell you that since some of them returned from South Africa their behaviour has changed. In fact you can hardly get them to laugh with the workers. We don’t know what really happened in South Africa and after, but l must tell you they have really changed,” said a staff.