The Nation Newspaper

Tag: lost

  • ‘Nigeria lost over $649m to cyber crooks last year’

    Nigeria lost over $649million last year to cyber criminals, the 2017 Nigeria Cyber Security Report released yesterday has shown.

    The report compiled by Serianu Limited and Demadiur Systems Limited, said the the financial loss was higher than that of last year which stood at $550million, adding that the banking and telecommunications sectors were worst hit.

    Presenting the summary of the repor, the CEO, Demadiur Systems Limited, Ikechukwu Nnamani, lamented that the financial loss was far higher than the $649million captured in the report because so many of the individual and corporate victims never came out to own up.

    He said the country is the lowest in cyber security per person, adding that there’s serious dearth of cyber security personnel in the country.

    According to him,  the report also showed that there is  90per cent cyber bullying in the country.

    He said insider threats remained the highest in the cyber security ecosystem, adding that the Central Bank of Nigeria  (CBN) had to intervene in  eTranzact because its platform was used to siphon N11billion through a financial institution.

    He urged all stakeholders in the information communication technology  (ICT) ecosystem to brace for more attacks on the mobile phone. This he said would come as a result of the collaborative moves by the CBN and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to deepen mobile money scheme in the country.

    He said while cyber theives are getting smarter, victims are getting greedily by the day.

  • No love lost

    •Kaduna mayhem would have been avoided if religious leaders have been preaching religious tolerance

    Kaduna State has been in the news for the wrong reasons, and we urge the state government to sit up. In recent past, there had been increases in clashes between herdsmen and farmers leading to killings, inter-ethnic clashes leading to dislocation of communities and more killings, intra-party crisis snowballing into arbitrary conducts of government officials, and now a love story leading to the death of 12 persons and massive destruction of properties.

    Last week, Kasunwan Magani town in Kajuru Local Government Area of the state descended into anarchy because of intolerance amongst Christians and Muslims. According to report, Christian youths had resisted an attempt to convert a Christian girl to Muslim religion, for her to marry a Muslim; on the premise that Muslims don’t allow Muslim girls to convert to Christianity to enable them marry Christian husbands. That resistance sparked the crisis which lasted two days.

    We condemn such anachronistic orthodoxy and urge the practitioners to consign such behaviour to antiquity. If we may ask, on what grounds would two young persons’ faith become an object of interest to other youths, such that persons are killed and properties wantonly destroyed? The choice of religion is a constitutional right, and inherent in that is the choice to change religion for any reason whatsoever.

    We are also not aware of any law restricting a Muslim man or woman marrying a Christian woman or man, respectively, neither is there any law restraining a Christian man or woman marrying a Muslim woman or man, respectively. Those who restrain their children from marrying a person of other faith on the basis of religion must be living in the dark ages, and they should be ashamed of such behaviour.

    Whether it is a Christian girl who wishes to convert to Muslim to marry a Muslim man or a Muslim girl who wishes to convert to Christianity to marry a Christian man, the law should protect that free choice and should be ready to punish those opposed to a right guaranteed by the country’s constitution. To do otherwise is to undermine our claim to being a constitutional democracy.

    Without equivocation, section 38(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, provides explicitly; “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance (emphasis ours).”

    So, when Kaduna youths alleged that Muslims do not allow their girls to marry Christians, leading members of the Muslim faith must speak out in favour of tolerance. While there is no study to confirm the veracity of such claim, it should henceforth be of interest to religious and community leaders to watch out for such constitutional infraction. Still, such a claim is not enough for the youths to take the laws into their hands.

    Talking of lawlessness, it is strange that the law enforcement agencies reacted so slowly to the crisis. The excuse of distance by the police commissioner, Austin Iwar, is untenable. Even more worrisome is that they allowed the crisis to fester for two days. If they had dealt with the culprits with despatch, the number of casualties and destruction of properties would have been minimised.

    Also worrisome is the claim by the police that the destruction appears premeditated. In his words: “We have recovered a number of dangerous items, including petrol bombs. We believe this is a planned thing and we will get to the root of the matter.”

    We urge relevant authorities to ensure justice is done in Kasunwan Magani.

  • Chidoka: I lost to superior financial power

    The candidate of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Mr Osita Chidoka, has conceded defeat in Saturday’s Anambra State governorship election.

    In a statement, Chidoka said he accepted the results but hoped the people had not mortgaged the future of the state by selling their votes to the highest bidder.

    He said: “On September 30, we officially kick-started our campaigns for the election. That event at Uli, the remarkable site of the historic Biafra Airport, remains significant to our people in our collective search for a new beginning.

    “Our campaign attracted the finest and brightest of Anambra. The bold and the courageous were with us as we exerted our best in running the most robust issue-based and technology-driven campaign in the history of our dear state.

    “We attempted to change the course of events and chart a new beginning for our state. We believed and we dared; we engaged with all patriotic vigour as we held strongly that the long-awaited time for our people to experience a new opportunity had come and we laboured for it.

    “In all, our focus was the people: the forgotten, the poor and the disadvantaged. They were the prime impetus for our involvement. We beheld their agony and we strived to redirect and vent that energy through a genuine political process. We heard the complaints of our people and we worked to redirect them from the streets to the ballot box.

    “Upon that pedestal, we rejected ‘godfatherism’ and money politics. Instead, we made personal sacrifices and worked with small donations and goodwill of a few good men and women. Our campaign started and remained issues-based. We attacked no persons; we looked up in faith because we believed.

    “But from the ballots, we heard the voice of our people. We heard it loud and clear. On November 18 our people announced strongly their rejection of politicians. They traded their votes because they doubted we would truly represent their interest. While our message resonated with the people they doubted that the political class cared about them. They voted for the highest bidder.”

  • Martin Scorsese leads effort to save lost African cinema

    Martin Scorsese leads effort to save lost African cinema

    Through the night, for many nights, Martin Scorsese sat ensconced in an edit suite. It was 1981 and the director was in post-production for “The King of Comedy,” his dark satire of the stand-up circuit.

    As he worked, a TV in the background pulsed with the sounds of Nass El Ghiwane, a Moroccan band and the subject of “Trances,” a concert movie by Ahmed El Maanouni. Over and over, night after night, the same channel repeated its broadcast, the film’s hypnotic rhythms seeping into the New Yorker’s soul.

    “It’s been an obsession of mine,” Scorsese has said. In the years since, he hunted down the band’s music, heaped praise on El Maanouni and in 2007 orchestrated a full restoration of the film.

    Scorsese is part of a generation that includes George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola: titans of Hollywood who gorged on a diet of foreign cinema. Its influence is telling. Just as the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa filtered down into “Star Wars,” Ingmar Bergman’s picaresque narratives find a companion in “Apocalypse Now.” For Scorsese, African cinema comprised part of his vernacular.

    “Trances” was an inspiration behind 1988’s “The Last Temptation of Christ,” and elsewhere the director has described the “incredible impact” of “La Noire De…” (“Black Girl,” 1966) by Ousmane Sembene. First watched in 1969, the Senegalese movie “was unlike anything that I’d ever seen,” he recalled. “It was like a door had opened in the West and it was the first time we could feel a truly African voice in the cinema.”

    Scorsese took note, but not many heard this African voice, or its contemporaries — particularly in Africa itself. Part of the problem is distribution, another is politics, say advocates. The result is a generation of cinematic giants left in slumber, and vital pieces of cultural heritage missing.

    Now, an international effort including Scorsese is aiming to revive these figures — and revise what we thought we knew about African cinema.

    Lost, missing or hidden away

    Scorsese established The Film Foundation in 1990, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and protecting historic cinema. A decade ago it launched the World Cinema Project, focusing on films outside the Western canon. It was around then that Scorsese took a trip to West Africa.

    “In 2007, I visited my friend (the director) Souleymane Cisse in Mali,” he told CNN. “Our discussions during that trip highlighted for me the urgent need to preserve African films, many of which are not known or even available, leaving a chasm in our understanding of world cinema.”

    The project has sought to fill this chasm, but so far African films remain outliers. Of over 750 restorations overseen by the foundation, only seven were from the continent at the beginning of 2017. That dynamic is changing, however.

    In June, the foundation, UNESCO and the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers, known as FEPACI, in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna, signed an agreement formalizing the African Film Heritage Project, or AFHP. The initiative “will locate and preserve 50 African films, and make them available to audiences in Africa and around the world,” Scorsese explains.

    It’s a daunting task, agree all involved. Some of the films identified for restoration are, for all intents and purposes, lost. “If you Google search some of these titles nothing comes up,” says Margaret Bodde, executive director of the Film Foundation. “There’s no kind of writing about these films.”

    Very rarely were film negatives developed in Africa in the 1960s and ’70s, with most taken to laboratories in Europe or the United States. “Sometimes documentation is lost or never existed,” says Cecilia Cenciarelli, a curator at Cineteca di Bologna. It can take years of phone calls and emails to find a negative or 35 millimeter print. Often assets are incomplete and scattered, she adds, recalling a Soviet-era title where one reel was found in Cuba and the others in the former East Germany.

    Each restoration costs anywhere from $100,000-250,000 according to Bodde, which is expensive for a nonprofit. Negotiating access is an additional issue, says Aboubakar Sanogo, lecturer and North American regional secretary of FEPACI.

    “I won’t name the filmmaker, but one entity in Britain has been storing the films of an African filmmaker since the 1960s,” Sanogo says as an example. “He’s a filmmaker we’re interested in working on. That entity just said ‘…well you have to pay about £100,000 ($132,000).’”

    “This is completely unethical as far as I’m concerned, but these are some of the difficulties that we are going to be facing in the next decade.”

    ‘So important yet so unknown’

    The first fruits of the project came to light in May when “Soleil O” (“Oh, Sun,” 1970) screened at the Cannes Film Festival under the Cannes Classics sidebar.

    The debut feature by Mauritanian director Med Hondo “depicts issues that are still relevant today,” says Scorsese, describing to CNN “a powerful film about a young man who emigrates from West Africa to France in search of a better life. Instead he finds racism, hostility and hypocrisy.”

    “It’s a deeply personal film, based so entirely on Med Hondo’s own experience,” says Bodde. He’s typical of the directors the project is targeting. Lauded in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the spiritual home of African cinema, Hondo, now 81 years old, is “so important yet so unknown,” says Cenciarelli. (His most-seen work has been as a voice actor in dubbed versions of “Shrek” and the “Star Wars” prequels.)

    “(Restoring “Soleil O”) seems a good way to start this project, by honoring a filmmaker who’s still alive, (who) contributed in a less classic way — a more avant-garde way — to building big chapters of (a) cultural revolution for Africa,” she says.

    Five more films have been earmarked for restoration, but the foundation is only now revealing the first two titles: “Le Vent des Aures” (“The Wind of the Aures,” 1967) by Algerian Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina, and “La Femme au Couteau” (“Woman with the Knife,” 1969) by Ivorian Timite Bassori. Both will be the first titles from their countries restored through the foundation.

    “Restoration and preservation is really only half the battle,” said Scorsese in February. “African films need to be seen by the audiences they were intended for: the African people.” The aim is for the five films to screen at FESPACO in 2019, when Africa’s biggest film festival in Ouagadougou celebrates its 50th anniversary.

    But the festival circuit can only reach so far. “We want as many people to be exposed,” says Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO. “It’s very important … to work with African media, television providers, owners of cinemas, theaters, to show these films.”

    “We won’t be dogmatic,” Sanogo adds. Despite plans to create 35 millimeter prints, he describes the format as “dead,” outlining DVD, Blu-ray and streaming options for future releases.

    UNESCO will include AFHP titles as part of its Memory of the World Program and the General History of Africa, the latter “a giant project that UNESCO started in 1964 in order to deconstruct the false premises and prejudices attributed towards African history,” Bokova says.

    Some of these have arguably been formed or perpetuated in movie theaters.

    “From the beginning, African filmmakers were using cinema as a means to raise awareness about its past, about the aspirations of their people, about their histories, but also educating them to meet the challenges of newly found independence,” says the UNESCO director-general. But many films were left to gather dust far from home. Meanwhile, Sanogo speaks of a period of cultural neo-colonialism when “Hollywood used to dump their films on African countries,” undercutting homegrown productions with lower distribution costs.

    The absence of these self-determining African voices has left a void, and an opportunity for non-African filmmakers to impose a fanciful view of the continent: “a reductive mode of representation that we see in most European and American films, frankly,” says Sanogo. (China has recently shown willingness to imagine Africa as a war-torn playground, too.)

    Sanogo believes that if more people — and filmmakers — had access to African cinema, such stereotypes would be less pervasive on and off screen. “We always knew that Hollywood was the best ambassador for the US,” he adds. “We believe the same can be done with African cinema.”

    Part of the hope is that African filmmakers today will connect with their lost or forgotten cinematic roots. The slow burn of a Sembene film may be a world away from the cut and thrust of a Nollywood action flick, but there’s still a dialogue to be had between past and present.

    “Even if you view the films of Med Hondo and you’re going to take a completely different approach, that’s part of the vernacular,” argues Bodde. “Knowing history is part of the continuum of art.”

    By reclaiming its cinema, its stories and its history, Africa’s filmmakers of tomorrow will be creating from a firmer platform.

    “I’m aware, more than ever, that we know very little about African cinema,” Scorsese said at the launch of the project. We’re about to find out a lot more.

    Culled from CNN

  • ‘How I lost two graduate siblings’

    ‘How I lost two graduate siblings’

    Miss Winifred Otokhina studied law at the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, after obtaining a Diploma in Library and Information Science. An associate of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Nigeria, Otokhina is the Legal Coordinator of TonyMay Foundation, an NGO committed to care, advocacy and research for people living with sickle cell disorder. The 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow tells JOSEPH JIBUEZE how she was influenced by her father to study law, her dreams, and what she would change about the legal profession if she had the power.

    Miss Winifred Otokhina was called to Bar in 2014.
    It was her most memorable experience. She felt fulfilled because she finally had the opportunity to practice a profession that she was very passionate about.

    “It was a dream come true for me,” she said.

    She grew up watching her father practicing law and was influenced to follow the same path.

    “I was greatly influenced by my father to study law because I watched him vigorously and courageously, advocating for the rights of people.

    “I admired his eloquence and his sound knowledge of the law. I also loved to see him on his professional attire.

    “When I told him that I wanted to study law, he encouraged me to work hard and that I can reach whatever heights I desire as nothing is impossible. This has today become my guiding principle,” she said.

    Does she remember her first day in court?

    “The first time I appeared in court, I appeared with my dad so that gave me a bit of confidence,” she recalls.

    “I had mixed feelings; I was excited because I was appearing before the Judge for the first time.

    “One the other hand, I was a bit nervous because there is a huge difference between watching other advocates and doing it yourself for the first time.

    “At the end of the court session, I found that it was not as difficult as it seemed, provided you prepared for it.”

    Otokhina said she chose law because she had always been passionate about being a voice for the voiceless.

    Asked what she would have been if not a lawyer, she giggled: “Maybe I would have been a medical doctor because when I was young, whenever anyone asked me what I would like to be in future, I always told them that because I wanted to be in the profession of saving lives.

    “I would also have loved to be a public policy analyst because I am great at research, especially on public policy issues,” she said.

    What was her most challenging case? “Personally every case is challenging because it involves careful analysis of the facts, getting sufficient evidence and the relevant laws to back it up.”

    Otokhina, like others, want the lot of young improved.

    “Young lawyers come out of the law school excited and highly motivated only to find out that there are very few law firms willing to employ them.

    “Even the young lawyers, who get employed are poorly remunerated. This makes them frustrated and they gradually lose their self worth and passion to practice law.

    “Another challenge young lawyers face is lack of guidance or mentorship. This term is frequently used in the profession, but not practised.

    “Imagine yourself approaching a senior lawyer for mentoring and the person asks you ‘Do you want mentoring or something else’?

    “A very respected senior colleague asked me that question and from then on, I decided to be careful of the people I ask for mentoring,” she said.

    According to her, young lawyers should improve themselves and changing their mindset.

    “Young lawyers can overcome these challenges by developing an entrepreneurial mindset. Every young lawyer should have a personal mission statement and set smart goals for themselves,” she said.

    What does she mean by smart goals? “By smart, I mean specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-based goals.

    “We should also develop a business plan that would include a strong value proposition,” she said.

    If she had the power, Otokhina would ensure that there was a speedy delivery of justice.

    She would also ensure the establishment of a small claims court as it is in developed countries.

    Left for her, the Nigerian Law School should be scrapped.

    “I would ensure that corruption and judicial rascality is eradicated by having an online monitoring system where litigants and lawyers can rate a judge based on their neutrality, independence and prompt justice delivery.

    “I would also ensure that commendation be given to judges and lawyers, who display commitment and integrity.

    “I would recommend that the Law School be abolished and universities are empowered to prepare law graduates to write the qualifying bar examinations to be conducted by the Council of Legal Education as it is the practice in most jurisdictions.

    “Finally, I would ensure that every new wig is attached to a law firm and is paid not less than N100,000 as monthly salary,” she said.

    On what motivated her to set up the TonyMay Foundation, Otokhina said it was the untimely demise of her siblings.

    Anthony Otokhina, a 29-year-old graduate of Biochemistry and Mary Otokhina, a 24-year-old law graduate, both died from sickle cell complications.

    Their death, she said, gave birth to a burning desire to create awareness about sickle cell disorder so other families would not have to suffer the same outcome.

    “We started creating and promoting awareness in secondary/tertiary institutions and public places, advocating for stigmatised people living with sickle cell and providing free medications and organising monthly sickle cell clinics in partnership with St Joseph Catholic Mission Clinic, Kirikiri, Lagos.

    “We are also advocating for sickle cell policies that would provide effective management for people living with sickle cell and reduce the scourge of sickle cell in our nation.

    “This led to the establishment of TonyMay Foundation in memory of my late siblings in November, 2010.

    “We plan to spread our awareness, care, research and advocacy works to other states in the nearest future because our vision is to have a sickle cell free nation,” she said.

    Otokhina’s work is already earning her some recognition. She was among 100 Nigerians at this year’s Mandela Washington Fellowship.

    She speaks on her experience, describing it as one of the best memories she would ever have.

    “I am still reaping the benefits of the fellowship. I experienced so much in six weeks, so it will be impossible to recount everything,” she said.

    Apart from being taught by eminent professors and highly successful entrepreneurs, she had the opportunity of being mentored by them, which she found very enriching.

    “The best part of my Fellowship experience was living in the same hostel with 25 amazing and outstanding people from 20 different African countries.

    “I got to learn more about them, the impact they are making in their individual countries. This really inspired me and shaped my horizon,” she said.

    How has she been empowered by the programme? She said: “I believe the Mandela Washington has empowered me with the right knowledge, skills and network to be able to transform my law firm, my sickle cell NGO, TonyMay Foundation and indeed, Nigeria to a better Society.

    “I am confident that through collaborations with 100 Nigerian Mandela Washington Fellows and other African Fellows, Africa will be a continent to behold in the nearest future.”

    Who does Otokhina look up to in the profession?  “I look up to men and women, who uphold and maintain the dignity of the legal profession courageously. As Lawyers, we are social engineers whose role is to be problem solvers in whatever area we find ourselves.

    “I admire the likes of the Late Gani Fawehinmi, My dad, Chief E.A Otokhina, Pa Tunji Gomez, Mrs Hairat Balogun, Chief Mrs Priscilla Kuye, Prof. Fabian Ajogwu (SAN) and Adepeju Jaiyeoba, a 2014 Mandela Washington Fellow, who developed the “Motherhood Kit”. She has been recognised for her outstanding work in medical innovation.”

    And where does Otokhina see herself in 10 years? “I see myself as a Judge in the International Court of Justice, Hague or the Senior Partner of the world’s most reputable law firm in Nigeria.”

  • ‘How to restore Ondo’s lost glory’

    ‘How to restore Ondo’s lost glory’

    How economically viable is Ondo State? Why is it not living up to expectation as an oil-producing state? Does the state has a future? These were some of the questions a politician, Light Tunji Ariyomo, tried to proffer solutions to at the ‘Trace Annual Lecture’ held in Akure, the state capital, recently.

    The theme of the lecture was: Ondo in 2017 and beyond: Building a strong economy driven by 21st century technology and innovations. The guest lecturer said for Ondo to become a strong technology-driven economy, the developmental gaps that tend to stifle its growth must be closed.

    Ariyomo, an engineer and All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain said the incoming government should maintain a clean break from the past and make a difference in the Sunshine State.

    The politician alluded to a cloud behind the sunshine. Ondo gets N976.5 million Internally Generated Revenue monthly. The monthly personnel cost is about N2.26 billion. The allocation from the Federation Account monthly is N3.61 billion. Last year’s budget was N131 billion. Recurrent expenditure was projected at N76.7 billion, which was N6.39 monthly. In the face of various liabilities, including unpaid salaries, Ondo drew N14.69 billion bailout. At the end of 2014, the state’s domestic debt stood at about N19.26 and foreign debt was $52.68 million.

    But, the politician noted that Ondo’s potentials cannot be ignored. Its bitumen deposits are in commercially viable quantities and they are critical to the infrastructural development of the country. The state is also blessed with vast arable land, which can make cocoa farming thrive. “This means Ondo should have no business being in the company of states needing to borrow to pay debts associated with personnel costs,” Ariyomo added.

    In his view, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti states are historically known for commercial cocoa production, being the power house of the Southwest economy in the sixties. Therefore, the watchword is diversification. As Ariyomo put it, “Ondo will need to come up with new fiscal strategies, including how best to diversify its crude oil powered revenue.”

    The state is not insulated from the national economic stress and strains. The decline in oil earnings has affected its share of allocation from the centre. With a debt profile of N36.88 billion by 2015, government also owed five months salaries to workers. Also, Ariyomo pointed out that “Obligations to contractors were threatened, many projects were stalled; some were abandoned.”

    The implication, said Ariyomo, was that Ondo hovered on the verge of not being viable. “Ondo State faces serious challenges, including the collapse of industries, unpaid salaries and pensions, and a high level of unemployment among the youths and the general population. The ability of the state to continually meet its obligations I crucial o its survival and the limit of its aspirations,” he added.

    For the state to remain competitive, the former governorship aspirant suggested five solutions. The state, he said, should gradually grow its stock of infrastructure to meet its current needs and make allowance for the future generation. The infrastructure refers to the critical social and public utilities that serve the needs of the common man, including transportation, education, health, security. “This is important to make life comfortable to the people,” he stressed.

    The state should also confront what Ariyomo described as the “paradox of energy poverty” and creatively fixed what has become a perpetual national embarrassment. “There are parts of Ondo State that have never witnessed five seconds of electricity in the last seven years. The politician did not elaborate on the mechanism for achieving durable power by the state. Power is within the purview of the Federal Government.

    However, his suggestion on agricultural development is lucid, but not new. “For food security and gainful employment, Ondo should embark on a deliberate and ambitious agricultural revolution programmes with the active support of the private sector, thereby taking the advantage of the natural agricultural value chain,” Ariyomo said.

    The former aspirant said Ondo should revisit and fast track the attainment of the original vision for the littoral part of the state as represented by the abandoned Olokola FTZ project and its deep seaport initiative, the Liquefied plant and refinery. “This will require adjustments to the original plan in view of extant realities and investment climate,” he added.

    Also, Ariyomo said the state should deliberately grow indigenous capability in technology and technology-enabled businesses through well-crafted initiatives that can spur the private sector as an effective enabler of growth.

    When is the right time for the stat to aspire big and unleash its creative capacities to attain these lofty dreams? Can this be done in this period of recession? Should the state wait for another period of oil boom? Ariyomo urged the people of Ondo State to learn from history. He said while it may be good or easy to achieve greatness in the period of surplus, history is replete with examples of nations and states that rose from the ruins of desolation and implosive challenges.

    “Japan rose from the ruins of World War 11 to become an industrial giant. Ruins and desolation became catalysts and enablers of growth. Our current challenges are disguised opportunities that can catalyse unprecedented growth. Our development will evolve steadily in the direction of our imagination,” said.

    What is the role leadership in all these? Ariyomo said the next governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) should be courageous to take the bull by the horn. He added:  “It is a function of the patriotic disposition of the leader, the strength o his imagination and the extent to which he or she would love to engage in unusual to attain unusual results.”

    Under Akeredolu, Ariyomo said the next budget must reflect the developmental needs of the people. He maintained that Ondo, and other states, can only survive, if they grow “indigenous capacities,” especially in the areas of meeting local and national needs and being globally competitive. “The current initiative whereby certain states and the Federal Government invite China for help in crucial areas is good as a temporary measure. We, like Malaysia, must however, maintain a robust contingency plan for learning and acquisition of the required capabilities of international standard to prevent the country from becoming or remaining a giant renter-property of China, whereupon China rakes in dividends of wise investments on a yearly basis and our people pay rents in perpetually on their soil,” he added.

    But, he urged him to implement the constructive proposals of the committee when the report is submitted. “I must commend the governor-elect for his vision in setting up a blue-print committee ahead of his inauguration. This is an indication the governor-elect is proactive and has no-go areas and he is ready to hit the ground running as the people’s governor from day one. It is my string belief that the committee will come up with the right solution,” Ariyomo added.

  • OPPORTUNITY LOST

    IN the aftermath of the announcement of Lagos filmmakers as the focus of this year’s segment of the City-to-City programme at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), I’d listed some films with the potential of being selected for this once-in-a-life-time opportunity for Nollywood films. Unfortunately, most of them didn’t make the final list.

    Forobvious reasons, some of the films couldn’t be selected due to the rule of the game which was clear to all. One of them is Kunle Afolayan’s most celebrated new film, The CEO.

    Jealousy is the lot of every big film festival. Therefore, for any film to be accepted, they are not expected to have been premiered on any international platform. Thus, when The CEO held a glamorous in-flight premiere on Air France enroute Paris, it breeched that rule.  However, on the strength of the filmmaker’s work and personality, not only was The CEO difficult to ignore by TIFF, as the festival has prepared an aside screening for the film on September 12, Afolayan himself as been hugely advertised to enjoy a special focus alongside sultry actress, Genevieve Nnaji on September 11, in a session tagged “In Conversation With…” , an onstage conversation which will explore Nnaji and Afolayan’s inspiring stories, illuminating the complex dynamics behind Nollywood’s rise to prominence at home and all over the world.

    Asides the clear reason why Afolayan’s The CEO not eligible for the selection of 8,a couple of other films such as Fifty by Biyi Bandele, Gidi Blues by Femi Odugbemi, Road to Yesterday by Ishaya Bako, as well as the likes of Hoodrush, Journey to Self, Dazzling Mirage, Flower Girl, The Meeting, Surulere, When Love Happens and Heroes and Zeros could have been shunned by TIFF for several other reasons ranging from year of production and the kind of dynamism, daringness and experimentations that are expected of the new Nollywood. Hence, there is need for filmmakers to understand and play according to the interest of each festival in order to gain access to a global platform such as TIFF.

    However, if there is a set of films that might qualify but have greatly missed this opportunity, they are the huge budget films from the Bank of Industry’s NollyFund, of which The CEO is one. Others such as Amina by OkeyOgunjiofor, Three Wise Men by Opa Williams, Anyama by EmemIsong and When

    Love Happens Again by SeyiBabatopeare films with high potentials. Unfortunately, these films are in post-production and couldn’t meet the City-to-City focus deadline.

    Unlike Cannes, TIFF’s aspiration for new discoveries in the world of filmmaking has led to the City-to-City initiative. Thus, ambitious film destinations in the world that could have been lost in the crowd are given a chance by a team of curators who have identified Lagos, the entertainment hub of Nigeria, as the next-in-line.

    The eight selected films are touted to have come from Nollywood’s most popular filmmakers, together with new voices who are introducing an alternative, indie spirit to Nigerian cinema. They include 76 by Izu Ojukwu; 93 Days by Steve Gukas; Green White Green by Abba Makama; Just Not Married by Uduak-Obong Patrick; Okafor’s Law by OmoniOboli; Oko Ashewo (Taxi Driver) by Daniel Emeke Oriahi and The Wedding by Party by Kemi Adetiba.

    Interestingly, the programme has also identified two fast-rising actors from Nigeria who are breaking the barriers of international collaborations. They are Lagos-born actor, singer and winner of the 2006 Amstel Malta Box Office reality TV show, OC Ukeje and Lagos-based actor, model and fashion executive, Somkele Iyamah-Idhalama.

    While it is painful that some have missed this chance, there is no doubt that the new exposure will soften the grounds for other films from Nigeria that may aspire for the contemporary world cinema segment of TIFF in the future.

    Indeed, those who have been curious about the Nollywood phenomenon will get to know how the 1,000 low-budget features ‘Nollywood’ products generate about $1 billion in box office returns each year, and how a new generation of filmmakers is emerging to both advance and challenge Nollywood with bigger budgets, greater artistic ambition.

    Opportunity lost notwithstanding, the show must go on for Nollywood.

  • Opportunity Lost

    IN the aftermath of the announcement of Lagos filmmakers as the focus of this year’s segment of the City-to-City programme at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), I’d listed some films with the potential of being selected for this once-in-a-life-time opportunity for Nollywood films. Unfortunately, most of them didn’t make the final list.

    Forobvious reasons, some of the films couldn’t be selected due to the rule of the game which was clear to all. One of them is Kunle Afolayan’s most celebrated new film, The CEO.

    Jealousy is the lot of every big film festival. Therefore, for any film to be accepted, they are not expected to have been premiered on any international platform. Thus, when The CEO held a glamorous in-flight premiere on Air France enroute Paris, it breeched that rule.  However, on the strength of the filmmaker’s work and personality, not only was The CEO difficult to ignore by TIFF, as the festival has prepared an aside screening for the film on September 12, Afolayan himself as been hugely advertised to enjoy a special focus alongside sultry actress, Genevieve Nnaji on September 11, in a session tagged “In Conversation With…” , an onstage conversation which will explore Nnaji and Afolayan’s inspiring stories, illuminating the complex dynamics behind Nollywood’s rise to prominence at home and all over the world.

    Asides the clear reason why Afolayan’s The CEO not eligible for the selection of 8,a couple of other films such as Fifty by Biyi Bandele, Gidi Blues by Femi Odugbemi, Road to Yesterday by Ishaya Bako, as well as the likes of Hoodrush, Journey to Self, Dazzling Mirage, Flower Girl, The Meeting, Surulere, When Love Happens and Heroes and Zeros could have been shunned by TIFF for several other reasons ranging from year of production and the kind of dynamism, daringness and experimentations that are expected of the new Nollywood. Hence, there is need for filmmakers to understand and play according to the interest of each festival in order to gain access to a global platform such as TIFF.

    However, if there is a set of films that might qualify but have greatly missed this opportunity, they are the huge budget films from the Bank of Industry’s NollyFund, of which The CEO is one. Others such as Amina by OkeyOgunjiofor, Three Wise Men by Opa Williams, Anyama by EmemIsong and When Love Happens Again by SeyiBabatopeare films with high potentials. Unfortunately, these films are in post-production and couldn’t meet the City-to-City focus deadline.

    Unlike Cannes, TIFF’s aspiration for new discoveries in the world of filmmaking has led to the City-to-City initiative. Thus, ambitious film destinations in the world that could have been lost in the crowd are given a chance by a team of curators who have identified Lagos, the entertainment hub of Nigeria, as the next-in-line.

    The eight selected films are touted to have come from Nollywood’s most popular filmmakers, together with new voices who are introducing an alternative, indie spirit to Nigerian cinema. They include 76 by Izu Ojukwu; 93 Days by Steve Gukas; Green White Green by Abba Makama; Just Not Married by Uduak-Obong Patrick; Okafor’s Law by OmoniOboli; Oko Ashewo (Taxi Driver) by Daniel Emeke Oriahi and The Wedding by Party by Kemi Adetiba.

    Interestingly, the programme has also identified two fast-rising actors from Nigeria who are breaking the barriers of international collaborations. They are Lagos-born actor, singer and winner of the 2006 Amstel Malta Box Office reality TV show, OC Ukeje and Lagos-based actor, model and fashion executive, Somkele Iyamah-Idhalama.

    While it is painful that some have missed this chance, there is no doubt that the new exposure will soften the grounds for other films from Nigeria that may aspire for the contemporary world cinema segment of TIFF in the future.

    Indeed, those who have been curious about the Nollywood phenomenon will get to know how the 1,000 low-budget features ‘Nollywood’ products generate about $1 billion in box office returns each year, and how a new generation of filmmakers is emerging to both advance and challenge Nollywood with bigger budgets, greater artistic ambition.

    Opportunity lost notwithstanding, the show must go on for Nollywood.

  • How we lost our way

    How we lost our way

    Fifty years ago, Nigeria was on edge. Like the sky before a cloudburst, civil war hovered. But now it reads like a thriller.

    Then, however, danger skulked. Soldiers hid under an inky night, bullets flew out of stealthy corners, officers intrigued as their men had their hands on the trigger, and politicians feared and retreated.

    In Ibadan, where Awo tenanted his genius for democracy and as a model for governance, things were falling apart. There were two soldiers, one a host, the other his boss. They had a night together before they said their final goodnight. They were not, in the language of Poet Dylan Thomas, going “gentle into that goodnight.”

    Aguiyi-Ironsi was the boss and head of state. He always dangled a live crocodile, mythicised as a counterfoil against the evil eye and enemy’s reptilian plot. Some said the little croc guaranteed his disappearance when intrigue darkened around him. His host, Adekunle Fajuyi, the governor of the Western Region, was playing host, ensuring that Ironsi had a good time with his cavalcade.

    But a man known as Theophilus Danjuma had other plans. He crashed the party, and eventually, Nigeria’s. Not that things were squeaky clean in the country. Pogrom had sullied the northern landscape with the Igbo and southern minorities dying like flies from machetes, pickaxes, bonfires and guns of zealots. That night set us one major foot onto the bloody puddle of a 30-month civil war that claimed millions of lives.

    That night, both host and boss were arrested by visitor Danjuma and his men. They had come to kill Ironsi and spare Fajuyi. But Fajuyi, a man of honour that he was, would not go gentle. He, too, had to die. If he were alive, the narrative would implicate him in Ironsi’s death as traitor and conspirator. Ironsi was executed and Fajuyi also killed. They could not, in Thomas’ words again, “rage, rage against the dying of the night.”

    In spite of that foul night, Ironsi, also known as Ironside, has no memorial to his name. He has not been called hero even in most historical literature. You are not a hero because other soldiers killed you. You are a hero because of the values that oozed out of your pores as you expired. Some have therefore called him a villain.

    I am not about to follow that path. Ironsi came on the scene because of the failure of the Nzeogwu-led coup of January, 1966. It was tagged an Igbo attempt to foist ethnic hegemony on the rest of the country. From being a popular effort, it turned out a tinderbox. Why did they kill non–Igbos like Balewa, Sardauna, Akintola, Omimi ejo and leave two Igbo premiers in the Midwest and Eastern regions untouched. Why did they leave out Ironsi unscathed? He was asked to try the coup plotters. He did not. If he did not, why did he promulgate Decree 34 that called for Unitarianism in a country of strict regional fidelity?

    Some have said he was naïve, and he meant well. His kinsmen dominated the civil service. Of the major universities in the country, Ibadan, Lagos and Nsukka had Igbo vice chancellors. Balewa trusted key ministries with the Igbo. They had the railways, the employment power. If that was the case, why would Nzeogwu obstruct a free-flowing system for his kinsmen?

    Some of the answers we may never have, especially since they had claimed they wanted to bring Awo out of jail to steer the nation’s affairs as the head of state. Moments like this make the call for the study of history to be restored in our educational system rather than the tentative way we have it today.

    The brilliant writer and journalist, Chuks Iloegbunam, is an authority on Ironsi. His book, Ironside, tackles some of these issues. On my regular television show on TVC on Saturday morning called The Platform, he addressed why Ironsi did not try the coup plotters. He noted that the Supreme Military Council had it in its minutes. That document has not been made public, although Hassan Katsina, Northern Region governor and an instigator of northern hate, had reportedly said so. If such a document is made public, it will do well to exculpate Ironsi from some of the charges. We will yet want to know why he temporised and made no effort, in spite of the clamour of those days, to say it himself and in clear terms.

    One irony of the day, though. Ironsi was slaughtered by Danjuma and his men for Decree 34. Yet, in the long shadow of military that lasted many years, Nigeria ran a military rule in the spirit of Decree 34 with Danjuma as a mainstay. So, were Danjuma and his fellow mutineers not hypocrites and vermin of the hegemony they accused Ironsi of? I say, yes indeed. They did not kill Ironsi because they wanted a federal system. They had an opportunity to install it. But they mounted a grey wall of hegemony. While it was wrong for Ironsi to upset the federal applecart began with the Richards Constitution, Danjuma and his cohorts only marched us to the bloodiest era of history with their night of infamy. If Ironsi was no hero, Danjuma was worse. Ambiguity clouds Ironsi’s story. T.Y. Danjuma’s stale was clear-eyed regionalist. He did not spin a patriotic yarn.

    Yet, I should say that explains the swagger of the Kaduna Mafia for most of our history. Before its decline, they were deft handlers of power. Reviled and despised by the South, they showed a subtle hand. In their appointments, policies and symbolisms, we saw northern control with ‘respect’ for the rest of the country. Not like today, where Buhari has shown little subtlety. If the Igbo triggered the pogrom because of the mistake of a few of them, they compromised the flowering of the Igbo in the country in a time of peace. That was a lesson, I think, the Kaduna Mafia learned when they held unquestioned sway until IBB bungled June 12.

    The greatest villains, though, were the January coup plotters who would not allow democracy stumble and learn. If they did not breach the system, we probably would have found a way out of the impasse. No doubt, it all began with the imbroglio of the Western Region. The NPC/NCNC alliance at the centre had choked the AG and a sense of unease had enveloped the country.

    Before the coup, the political society was looking for ways out. If the most wronged region, the West, was not thinking of secession, perhaps the East was having a good time. Yet, Nzeogwu and co. popped our innocence and, in Achebe’s words in A Man of The People, “lit the tinder of unrest in the land.”

    We cannot forget Fajuyi. Some have tried to dilute his heroics by saying he never wanted to die. I stick to his yarn of sacrifice. Professor Bolaji Akinyemi’s essay in this newspaper testifies to the man’s effacing sense of honour.

    Given unanswered questions, Ironsi may not have a national monument, nor should as yet until the clouds clear. Fajuyi’s case was that of personal honour, not national unless he represented the Yoruba at that moment. Like Awo in personal honour and infectious vision and policies as premier, Fajuyi might have externalised the Yoruba as an exemplar of cooperative elan. We may never know. Such individual acts are engrafted on souls of others. Yet, the circumstances problematise his heroism.

    At the bottom, we see how our soldiers ruined us, and how we lost our way and never returned.

  • The good cop who lost it

    The good cop who lost it

    Many Rivers State policemen are unlikely to forget February 11,2014 . That was the day they gathered at the expansive Command Headquarters in Port Harcourt to “pull out”   a chief some of them hailed as a damn good officer and a kind man.

    In the city, there was joy that the curtain had been drawn on an era of anxiety and confusion, when the line between policing and politicking became indecipherable.

    It was a mixed farewell indeed for Mbu Joseph Mbu, the former Commissioner of Police whose tenure had the distinction of being the most controversial ever in the history of the state.

    A master of drama, he can never be caught being sober. He does not pretend to be imbued with the reflective ability of a philosopher. Nor is he capable of expounding a progressive vision of a leader who knows the delicate nature of his job – in the eyes of many who were confronted with the ambivalence of an officer loved by his men and despised by many of those he was paid to protect.

    Presumptive and cocky, he huffs and puffs like an elephant in the jungle. He is boisterous and easily excited. Not for him the finesse and refinement of an officer who is proud of his epaulettes. He is proud and excessively discourteous, always willing to pick up a quarrel, ignite a fight and slug it out like a motor park tout. Cantankerous.

    But all that have changed – courtesy of last week’s tremor that hit the police, a momentous event that passed quietly like an orphan’s birthday, except for the whimpering of some officers who alleged that they were unfairly treated. A generation of Assistant Inspectors-General of Police – 21 in all – got the push to pave the way for Acting Inspector-General  Ibrahim Idris’ ascension to the seat.

    Among them is Mbu – I am sure you remember him – who long  after dropping the rank of Commissioner of Police for Assistant Inspector-General was still widely described with his old beat as former Rivers State Commissioner of Police.

    Deliberate inexactitude? Mischief? It is neither here nor there. But Mbu’s tour of duty in Rivers State will take a long while to forget, especially by those who were at the receiving end of his belligerence.

    He got caught up in – some insisted that he actually joined willingly to feather his own nest – the bitter struggle for power between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the ruling party at the centre. Mbu would not tolerate any opposition to the PDP –led Federal Government, which was desperate to “capture” the state. When the Save Rivers Movement, a group backing then Governor Rotimi Amaechi organised a rally, Mbu sent his men to smash the gathering. When the protesters stood their ground, his men fired rubber bullets at them. Many were injured. Among them was Senator Magnus Abe, who was flown to Britain for treatment.

    When eight lawmakers in a 32-man House of Assembly launched a seditious attempt to impeach Amaechi, their hands were strengthened by the police. A fight broke out. Heads were smashed. By the time it was all over, those who failed in their nefarious bid to torpedo the governor became the complainant as the police grabbed those who foiled the bid.

    In no time, the political crisis in Rivers State dissolved into a battle over Mbu’s future. Amaechi and his sympathisers insisted that he must go. The then aspirant and now Governor Nyesom Wike led the touch-not-Mbu crowd. Rallies jammed rallies. Cudgel-for-cudgel, both sides battled to outdo each other.  The Senate deliberated on the matter and set up a committee that visited Rivers State. Mbu told them that he was just doing his job professionally.

    Then fate supervened. The tension could not be contained any longer. Mbu was moved to Abuja. He, however, remained cloaked in controversy. The leopard won’t just change its spots. He banned public rallies and dared the Bring BackOurGirls protesters campaigning for the rescue of the Chibok girls to march on the Presidential Villa. “My death threat worked,” he said gleefully after a blistering criticism of his threat.

    Nor were reporters spared of his maniacal tendencies. He invited an AIT reporter, Amaechi Anakwe (no relation of the Minister of Transportation), for describing him as “controversial”. The poor fellow was detained and charged to court even as many felt he was charitable to have described Mbu as “controversial”. He was that and more – going by his conduct – they insisted.

    As the last general elections drew close, the police – apparently in connivance with the Dr Goodluck Jonathan Villa – moved some officers round. Mbu was posted to Zone II, comprising Lagos and Ogun states. Reason: the PDP was eager to add Lagos to its shelf of trophies in an ambitious move to strengthen its vacuous claim to being Africa’s biggest party, as if size – not sense is all that matters.

    On arrival at his new posting, Mbu served notice that an interesting season was on the way. He said if a policeman was killed in the line of duty, he would ensure that 20 persons got killed in vengeance.

    Apparently in love with obfuscation, Mbu mixed up his concept of discipline with his belief in the Mosaic law of an eye for an eye. He told Ogun State Command officers: “If you love this job, the number one commandment is discipline. That’s why I said ‘don’t touch my policeman’. If you shoot my policeman, I will shoot 20 of you. I will shoot a hundred of you.”

    He preached hatred and spiced it up with violence. His messages were blood curdling . “Anybody who fires you, fire back in self-defence,” Mbu told his men, adding: “But don’t fire first.”

    Mbu later claimed to have been misquoted. He said he was simply advising his men not to be cowardly but to be guided by the Force Order 28 on the use of firearms. So much for honesty and integrity.

    To many, Mbu was vaulted onto that hubristic pedestal by sheer ambition. He would have loved to become the Inspector-General of Police. In that grim encounter with the Ogun State Command officers, he spoke of “being in a critical period, a period that this (sic) all our ranks are now shaky; either you’re promoted or you retain it or you’re demoted or you’re dismissed.” “So, it’s left for you to choose which one is better for you. For me, I want to maintain my rank and I want my rank to be increased (sic). I want to go up and be at the top.”

    Poor man. Now he must have realised the futility of a blind ambition, pursued blindly and lost blindly; never to be attained. What manner of IGP would Mbu have been?

    Mbu’s transfer to Abuja did not soften his stand on Amaechi. He told the man who took over from him at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of how he, a lion, tamed the leopard of Port Harcourt. In his usually obfuscatory manner, he said: “I advise you to carry the senior officers along in your administration.” But that was not his thought as he went on to say: “It is only a lion that can tame a leopard. I tamed the leopard in Port Harcourt. Each time he remembers my face, he would remember I tamed him.”

    To Amaechi, the innuendo was as clear as daylight. Not one to run away from a fight, Amaechi replied Mbu, calling him “a puppet who completely lacks the steel and strength of a character of a lion, and is rather a shameless, corrupt puppet and toothless attack dog of a woman”. No prize for guessing who the woman puppeteer was, dear reader.

    The likes of Mbu have given room to the police being the subject of deriding jokes, such as this that once appeared on this page:   “In an effort to determine the top crime fighting agency in Nigeria, the President narrowed the field to three finalists: DSS, Army and Police. The three contenders were given the task of catching a rabbit that was released into the forest. The SSS went in, placing informants all over the place. They questioned all plants and mineral witnesses. After three months of extensive investigation, the DSS concluded that rabbits do not exist. The army went into the forest. After two weeks without a capture, they burnt the forest, killing everything in it, including the rabbit. They made no apologies. The rabbit deserved it.

    “The police went into the forest. They came out two hours later with a badly beaten hyena. The hyena was yelling: `Okay, okay; I agree! I’m a rabbit! I’m a rabbit!`”

    Mbu should put all behind him and settle down to write his memoirs. Among others, he should try as he has always done to debunk the allegation that he deployed what his admirers described as his remarkable skills of a “grade one officer” in the selfish service of greedy politicians and their pompous wives. How about this for a title: “The good policeman who lost his way.”