The Edo South senatorial election ended, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for last year’s Edo South senatorial election, Hon Samson Osagie, has said that he did not lose because of lack of popularity. He said he lost because his election was conducted the same day as the presidential election.
The former Minority Whip in the House of Representatives was reacting to a statement by Governor Adams Oshiomhole that he lost the election because he was unpopular and that could not win his constituency.
Osagie, who is now backing the deputy governor, Dr. Pius Odubu, in the race for the APC governorship ticket, said he lost to former President Goodluck Jonathan. He said: “Everybody knew that if that election was not combined, there was no way I would have lost.”
He said the implications of his loss to the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Matthew Urhoghide was grave for the Edo APC, pointing out that it has become imperative for him to set the record straight.
He described himself as a popular politician, who twice won elections into the House of Representatives, promising to ensure that the APC wins the September 10 governorship election.
“For some people to say that I lost that election because I was not popular is to be economical with the truth. Everybody knew that if that election was not combined, there was no way I would have lost.
“The point is clear that those who have continued to echo the loss of that election to my candidacy remains the sycophants they are and they are not telling the world the truth.
“For those who want to give the impression that I lost that election because I was not popular, they just want to sweep under the carpet the various issues that accounted for the loss of that election.
How long can the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) sustain its current adventure? From across the country, the consensus is that the nationwide strike it announced with so much fanfare is a damp squib. In a couple states there were signs that something was amiss, but in most places – it was business as usual.
Past strikes that have been hailed as triumphs of worker power never achieved 100% compliance. What created a sense of success was the ability of the unions to paralyse the largest cities in the country. So far, Lagos, Abuja and similar cities have spurned the strike-the clearest indicator of how well the union’s action is faring.
In a bid to spark life into the strike union leaders in some states are taking desperate measures. In Ekiti, NLC Chairman, Ade Adesanmi, and Secretary of the Joint Negotiating Council, Blessing Oladele, reportedly stormed some banks to disrupt business. They warned those who had been defying the ‘stay-at-home order’ to be wary or face the consequences.
It makes you wonder what part of the constitution gives union leaders the power to ‘order’ Nigerians to stay at home.
But all credit to NLC president Ayuba Wabba and his comrades. In the face of an unprecedented rebuff, they soldier on with rhetoric that suggests the strike action is going great guns. It is either they truly have the courage of their convictions or are simply living in denial.
The advertised goal of the strike is to force government to roll back the recent fuel price hike and the deregulation policy that informed the increase. So far, nothing in labour’s three-day show-of strength – or exhibition of a lack of it – looks likely to force the hand of the administration.
NLC has used the most potent item in its arsenal – the much vaunted nuclear option: the nationwide strike. Now that the action has been received so unenthusiastically across the country, its hand has become weaker even if the government deigns to talk with it now.
The only choice open to it is to find a face-saving way to cut short its misadventure. But that might not be as easy as it appears given that egos are involved and that the unions have not lost this sort of confrontation in the last 16 years.
It is hard to imagine how the NLC can come out of this smelling of roses. It is up against a government which has its back against the wall; an administration that says the nation is broke and deregulation is its last card.
The unions don’t make it easy for themselves to win the battle for minds because they don’t offer an alternative beyond chanting ‘No! No! No!
Interestingly, they have said in the past that, in principle, they were not opposed to deregulation. So both sides agree on something. This was what I had to say about the matter in my piece of May 17, 2015:
“Times have changed and the unions also need a reality check. The NLC has argued in the past that while it isn’t opposed to ending fuel subsidy, it wants certain measures put in place before such an action can be contemplated. Among other things it wants the refineries working, an efficient public transportation system as well as other welfare measures in place first.
“While these are not unreasonable demands they are not very practical. Fixing the existing refineries or building new ones could take anything from 24 to 36 months. Those who would like to see new refineries sprout also have to realise that investors are not philanthropists. It is a non-starter to think they would be attracted to a system that expects them to pour billions into a project only for the state to fix the price at which they sell what they produce.
“Again, putting in place the sort of mass transit system that could move millions daily at a cheap rate could take up to five years – if not longer.
“In the interim as we wait to create the perfect conditions for a painless exit from wasteful subsidies, we are forced to continue with payments that the country cannot afford! It is a vicious cycle and not the right way to go.”
The issue remains the same. Another government – long after former President Olusegun Obasanjo started it – decides to raise the pump price of petrol and deregulate the downstream sector of the oil industry.
Every time that happened, labour unions successfully got the leaders of the day to roll back the measures without addressing the fundamental problems. The pain was postponed but so also was the evil day.
In 2012, after days of street protests and the transformation of Fawehinmi Square, Ojota, Lagos into a symbolic center of active resistance, then President Goodluck Jonathan’s government caved into and slashed petrol price after a surprise hike on New Year Day.
Just like others before him, he merely pushed the deregulation ball further down the line – as though a time would come when it would be convenient to deregulate. But that time is often illusory.
Any observant person knows that beyond the sloganeering of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), a lot has changed in the country over the last 12 months.
President Buhari has described it as the worst economic crisis Nigeria has faced since 1960. He rates our present travails as far worse than anything we experienced during his brief military reign – and that is saying a lot.
Today, Nigeria and Nigerians are poorer than they were any time in the last 16, not necessarily because of anything contrived in the last 11 months, but more because of our profligacy and wrong choices over the last two decades.
The vast majority of our people face a crisis of existence. Many are engaged in a hardscrabble daily grind to eke out something for themselves and their families to survive another day.
No doubt, the increase in prices would impact them negatively. But the NLC strike option which would keep them at home penniless for an indeterminate period is the impracticable option.
Union leaders in announcing the strike warned Nigerians to ‘stockpile’ food for a long struggle against a so-called ‘neo-liberal agenda.’ These pretentious, high-sounding words don’t distill what this struggle is about in a way that the Danfo driver who lives on his daily takings can digest.
If he was to make a choice between embarking on some esoteric journey with his would-be saviours, or wheel out his jalopy for another day or earnings, it is a no-brainer what his choice would.
This was where the unions made their first miscalculation – using the same old tactics without realizing that the times in which we live call for a change of tack. Someone made this wise-crack: NLC leaders asking people to stockpile food didn’t realize that workers who hadn’t been paid for months were in no position to stockpile anything.
Consider also that the workers and civil society coalition that successfully brought the government to its knees in 2012 no longer exists. The NLC has since become factionalised – with some of the more powerful unions pledging allegiance to the Joe Ajaero-led group. The unions never had this problem in the last 16 years.
Some notable leaders of the then opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) who gleefully fired up protesters at the Ojota park with incendiary speeches are now in government.
It would have been wise to fix that fractured alliance before taking on a behemoth that is the federal government. Many of those ACN types had become hardened by many years in the opposition wilderness and thought nothing of standing in the sun for hours – hurling verbal grenades at the government of the day.
Fast-forward to 2016. There’s a new opposition in town. This group would have been the natural allies of the NLC as it tried to take down a supposedly unpopular policy. But somehow I just can’t picture PDP fat cats after 16 years of delicate living, trudging in the hot sun with some militant unionists.
A little introspection, instead of charging arrogantly into battle on presumptions of its invincibility could have saved NLC the embarrassment and demystification it now faces.
Prince Hillard Eta is the South-South National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview with reporters in Calabar, Eta expresses strong reservations for the local government system in Nigeria, among other issues. Nicholas Kalu was there. Excerpts
You have expressed strong reservations about the local government system in Nigeria. Why is this so?
It has been a very painful journey with regards to local governance in Nigeria since 1999. I am aware because I have been active since 1998, since the advent of this dispensation and I am aware that from 1999 to 2002, we had a similitude of local governance in Nigeria. Across party lines, this emerging local government system was completely caused between 2002 and 2003 and since then we have had graduated deterioration of the local government administration in Nigeria. In fact, what we have today in certain states, like Cross River, is a joke in the name of local government administration. Take for instance in the month of March, my local government area, Calabar Municipal Council, was out of the almost N200 million allocation, given only N2million for the purposes of superintending over the council. With a voting population of about 144, 000 and a total population of more than 400,000 people, it is a joke. A million naira was given to the executive; a million naira was given to the legislature of the local government. One is therefore forced to ask if it is necessary at all that we have the local government structure. Would it not have been better if the federation was to terminate at the state level, so that we know that the funds that come to Cross River State goes straight to the state and however the state wants to manage its resources, it would be held accountable by the people. Not a situation where about 20 per cent of the entire resources of Nigeria is ploughed into a system that is so vague that you cannot hold anybody accountable.
For instance what happens to the rest of the allocation of Calabar Municipality for the month of March? So, this is unprecedented fraud and scam. I think the nation ought to look at the local government system, whether it is necessary at all. In certain other places, it becomes an outpost for the collection of levies and taxes for government, not for any meaningful development processes to take place at that level of government. I am not sure there are local government areas in Nigeria of today that would asphalt roads, do extension services in their agricultural sector and aid in the public health systems like it used to be. And the local government was created to bring government to the rural dwellers, to the least privileged amongst us. It has not served that purpose. So, the pertinent question to ask is if it is therefore necessary at all. In almost all the states in Nigeria, you find out that it is one party that would appropriate ownership of the structures of the entire local government areas. So, what they do in states like in Cross River, they call it family affair, where they sit down and nobody from outside of the system gets to know what happens within the system. And that is why most Nigerians question the efficacy of the state electoral commissions; whether it is necessary at all. This is because results emanating from local government elections can be forecasted. That is a state is controlled by a particular party, that all the local governments would be controlled by the same party.
To drive home my point, 20 per cent of the federation account that goes to the local government areas in Nigeria is far and above the national budget of so many African countries today. Take a place like Botswana, Seychelles or Rwanda, where it is said that real development is taking place in those places. The resources available to them are not even as much as monies allocated to the local government areas in Nigeria and yet real development is taking place in those places. So, this is our concern with regards to the local government system in Nigeria.
Let Nigerians sit again to decide if local government system is not necessary or if it should be abolished. If it is necessary, then we should format a template to begin to have the local government work for the people of Nigeria. Right now, it is not working for the people. I am not proffering an absolute solution to this problem. I am just saying that it is something we must put on the table whether we like it or not; because we are just frittering away 20 percent of the resources of Nigeria, and it is huge.
Are you hopeful the APC will retain Edo State in the coming governorship elections, as there appears to be some crisis within the party there?
The APC is grounded in Edo. It is poised to win and retain the governorship of Edo. Not because we are a garrison party, not because we intend to capture Edo, but simply because we are campaigning on the accomplishments of our outgoing governor. So there is absolutely no problem. Yet people impugn all manner of conspiracy theories. The APC has not lost hold of Edo. Its hand is firmly on the handle. The result of the election would speak to this. Only the voters of Edo would decide.
How about internal democracy in arriving at a candidate for the party?
We have shown that in Kogi. We had 28 aspirants and because it was fair, not a single person petitioned the party. And that is exactly what we would do in Edo. You know we read sometimes about so much crisis in the APC and I laugh. I think with all due respect to the press, for us not to have crisis in the party, we must all behave like zombies. But I don’t believe that I ought to behave like a zombie. You know when the president came here and broke the ground for the construction of the superhighway, I disagreed with my president. And I said, I do not believe in this project. This project is a scam. I said so from the beginning and today Nigerians are beginning to see that it was a scam. It was just a process of logging our woods and destroying the last rainforest in Africa for private profit, because I cannot imagine where Cross River State would find N700 billion to build a road like that. I have always asked a pertinent question. Please what is wrong with the other road? Why can we not rehabilitate it or build a new road on it? Why must we build another road, which connects about only five local governments? The existing one connects about 13, which means that it is the most important road in Cross River State. So, if you truly want to build a superhighway, this is the superhighway. Not when you have to pass through our forests and log our wood. Some of those trees have been there for more than 400 years. The man is going there to destroy our ecosystem, log our wood and tell us he is building a superhighway. So in the APC, we have a right to hold different opinions. That is why we are progressives. In the conservative fold, the only thing that puts them together is how to share the spoils of office. For us, we must debate and have a conversation. And as many people as you have on the table, you will have many opinions. We must have this conversation for us to have a consensus.
About N697.9 million has been lost by marketers because the Pipelines Products and Marketing Company (PPMC) has not supplied them fuel in the past three months.
The marketers, under the aegis of the Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), said the loss was the difference between the price they bought products and the recommended price.
The marketers, at the peak of the fuel scarcity, said they bought fuel at N120 per litre, against the pump price of N86.50 per litre.
They said they incurred a loss of N33.50 on a litre amounting to N697.9 million.
On behalf of the marketers, the Managing Director, Ogbos Petroleum Limited, Mr Chigozie Nwozuzu, said marketers have paid N2.5 billion into the Single Treasury Account(TSA) for the purchase of 20.8 million litres between February and April 2016, adding that they were yet to be supplied fuel by the PPMC.
The marketers who have not been supplied fuel, he said, are about 300, adding that many of them have sacked their workers to survive.
He said: “Independent marketers, though not all, have not been able to get fuel, after making payments for the product. Marketers have lost N33.50 each on a litre of fuel and N697.9 million on the aggregate. The loss came from the disparity between N120 marketers paid per litre and the pump price of N86.50 per litre. Marketers have paid N2.5 billion into the Treasury Single Account, in line with the Federal Government’s directive that marketers must pay into that account to buy petroleum products.‘’
According to Ogbos, the failure of the PPMC to supply them fuel made his outlets in Mbala Isuochi in Abia State and many others in the state, not to have fuel.
He said about 7,000 tickets were given to marketers as evidence of payment for fuel by the PPMC, adding that they were yet to get fuel.
The Managing Director, FAGON Oil and Gas Limited, Mr Adubuola Victor, said the marketers had suffered social and economic losses to fuel scarcity, stressing that some died while waiting for fuel at Apapa, Lagos.
His outlets in Akure, Ondo State and others in the Southwest region, he said, do not have fuel. He urged the Federal Government to wade into the matter, with a view to helping marketers get the product.
An official of PPMC, who wished not to be mentioned, said the agency was investigating the matter.
‘’We cannot speak on the issue of non-supply of fuel to marketers by the PPMC. We are investigating the matter; and, at the appropriate time, we would make our findings known to the public.’’ he said.
IPMAN National President Mr Chinedu Okoronkwo said the body was working to find solutions to the issue.
He said IPMAN would, by the end of the week, have resolved the problem between its members and the PPMC.
A lawyer, Chief Bukola Adetula, has joined the governorship race in Ondo State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Unfolding his programmes, he said his priority is to turn around the fortunes of the Sunshine state and restore its lost glory.
Adetula stormed the state secretariat of the party with supporters from 18 local governments to express his interest in the governorship. He was received by party leaders, who urged the aspirants to exhibit political tolerance and decorum during the campaigns.
Adetula, whose father was a member of the House of Representatives in the Second Republic, chided the Mimiko administration for incompetence and slow development of the state.
The Owo-born businessman-turned politician described the last seven years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration as wasted years.
He said, if the PDP’s influence is not halted, the economy of the state will collapse.
The politician lamented the state’s deteriorating financial health, stressing that the N38 billion left behind by the Agagu administration has given way to a debt of N120 billion.
Adetula alleged that Governor Olusegun Mimiko has been reeling out cosmetic achievements, based on the execution of imaginary projects.
He said it is worrisome that the government is owing four months’ salary arrears to workers, adding that the lack of salaries have affected their morale.
Urging the people to gird their loins, he said the next election will provide another opportunity for political salvation.
Adetula stressed: “With the situation of things on ground in Ondo State, the next governor must be somebody who can think outside the box and give governance a non-conventional approach. My experience, expertise, exposure and leadership qualities would be needed by the State to take it out of the doldrums. My mission is the radical transformation of the State from a political entity to a business entity. We will run Ondo State as a business organisation with the sole aim of making profit and thereafter distribute the wealth to the people who own the state as a Commonwealth.”
The aspirant described Ondo State as a state blessed with potentials in agriculture, natural and mineral resources. He promised to establish agro-based industries to boost its fortune, if elected as governor.
Adetula also promised to establish fertiliser and ceramic Industries, adding that other moribund industries, including the Oluwa Glass, will be revived.
He added: “If given the opportunity to serve as the governor of this state, we shall bring our moribund industries like Oluwa glass and Ifon Ceramics back to life, though with modern technology. We have gas and water, which are needed for fertiliser. We will build a fertiliser industry. We will build a ceramic industry that can meet the tiles demand. A cement factory in Okeluse is possible, if only to meet our local demand in the state. It is possible for every local government in Ondo State to have a major industry. I will drive Ondo State like a business organisation. We shall make profit and improve lives. Every home and every one will feel the impact of our government. I see hope for Ondo State I see a new dawn. Ondo will rise again”.
As the interrogation and frisking of economic predators get under way, Nigeria is awash in dark comedies. There are unconfirmed and unconfirmable reports of money hidden away in the most unlikely of places and in the most delicate parts of the human anatomy. As Ibrahim Magu and his people close in, cemeteries, forsaken graveyards, solitary grain silos, soak-away and abandoned water reservoirs are reported to be brimming with various currencies.
A notorious female socialite has let it be known that she is carrying an eight month pregnancy which will not terminate until the return of the great prophet. The Yoruba call such monster children, “Omopeninu”, (The one that tarries in the womb). It was also said that an infamous carpetbagger in one of the provincial capitals recently celebrated the “turning of the grave” of his parents by summarily exhuming and expelling the remains and reburying them in gold caskets filled with Nigeria’s looted patrimony.
Thereafter, the sepulchre Bureau de Change was walled round and electrified. Another was known to have hurriedly constructed a modern Plaza with a secret underground floor filled with cash. Another dug up the soak-away and replaced the human waste with more expensive inhuman waste. It doesn’t get more ghoulish and it all reminds one of the last days of the Roman Empire. If retired General Buhari is looking for a way of balancing the budget deficit, it is obvious that he doesn’t need to look farther afield. It can be internally sourced.
The Nigerian grave yard is an El Dorado brimming with filthy lucre. This is the way of Black people. Mother Nature has gifted them with prodigal resources. After clumsily extracting, they return to bury the proceeds alive. The grave yard cries, and so do the living dead. This is the sacred ritual of the eternal hunter-gatherer. With Nigeria in the last stages of a regression to the Stone Age, who will save the Black person from himself?
But how will the founding patron of private state banking in Nigeria view this development? Very dismally indeed. Barkin Zuwo would have dismissed these unworthy descendants as cowardly banza who could not make an economic kill and stand by it, waiting for any impudent state interloper to dare query them. These are not valiant repositories of state funds but ordinary garden variety robbers who could not hold a candle to their illustrious forebears.
So, God bless good old Barkin Zuwo, and may Allah grant his commodious frame a fitting repose. It was said of the late King Farouk of Egypt that he was a man of much weight but little substance. Farouk, it will be recalled, developed an enormous, Pavarotti-like girth and phenomenal bulk from polishing off a whole lamb at a single sitting. When Nasser finally overthrew him, the obese hulk had to be wheel-barrowed into a waiting ship.
Our own Barkin Zuwo cannot be accused of such gastronomic impunity. Although rumours had it that the late beloved governor of Kano was partial to a huge bowl of Tuwo Shikanfi which he munched with an agrarian relish, he could not be accused of gluttony. The second executive governor of old Kano might have been educationally challenged in the western sense, but he was nobody’s fool. He was as sharp and shrewd as a political marksman, and keen –witted to boot.
For the three months he governed good old tempestuous Kano, there was no shortage of drama, and of the electrifying stuff, too. With his furry Fez cap, the former NEPU stalwart of Nupe extraction could have been mistaken for a Black actor impersonating a pre-Gorbachev era Communist Party supremo, or a royal extra hand in the film, Trading Places.
It was however in the department of creative misprision that Barkin Zuwo courted real immortality. It will be recalled that when good old Barkin was asked about which mineral resources his state could boast of, he growled: “ We get am for Phanta, Coca cola, Sphrite and Miranda”.
Please recall that around the same time, another colleague of Barkin from the old wild, wild west, a dedicated strongman who could prise open an iron fortress gate with bare fists, was asked what he thought was behind the whole phenomenon of students unrest. Infamously, the celebrated stalwart from Erunmu agrarian community near Ibadan was said to have retorted: “How can they rest when they are always fighting?”—or words to that effect.
When the soldiers eventually struck putting an end to the shenanigans of the Second Republic, Barkin Zuwo marched to military detention camp with plenty of aplomb and pizzazz to spare. (Please note that snooper did not say pizza). Zuwo was not going to be fazed or cowed by some boy scouts pretending to be generals. He had after all known the dreaded and ferocious Abacha as a mere boy playing football in Kano, a feat that earned the future infantry general the appellation of “Obe the Pele”.
It was in brief detention that Zuwo finally earned his deserved place in the Guinness Book of records, and in the most bizarre of circumstances. It was put out to the world at large that a huge some of money was found under his bed. Zuwo could not understand what the fuss was all about. “It is govmen money in govmen house, shikena”, the old NEPU hell-raiser tersely noted.
The churlish press boys quickly nicknamed him “Banking Zuwo” to reflect his new status as the banker of the bankrupt. But Zuwo was not done yet. When it was let out what a staggering sum of money that was found in his house, Zuwo cried blue murder. “Barawo ne” (Thief!), he screamed at the NSO boys. According to Zuwo, there had been some creative accounting somewhere because the money he hid was far in excess of what had been declared.
Ibrahim Magu and the new firebrand no-nonsense EFCC should note this. Till date nobody has bothered to reconcile the differing accounts or the accountants for that matter. The man of the people chopped until the redeemer of the people came, oil flowed and blood flowed, but If anything, Nigerians had merely exchanged monkeys for baboons——apologies to Sad Sam.
Twenty five years later, in the year of our Lord 2008 the “Banking Zuwo” drama replayed itself, which shows that in Nigeria, the more things change the more they remain the same. Enter Joshua Chibi Dariye, the former governor of Plateau state and a celebrated modern-day Croesus and fugitive from Metropolitan justice.
Ousted twice from office by forces loyal to the implacable General Obasanjo, the dapper Dariye survived by the skin of his teeth, with his elegant French suit dripping with the dewy mush and manure of the remote plateau. The old EFCC under Malam Nuhu Ribadu, like a vicious rottweiler, went beyond the call of duty to nail him. Disobliging the tenets of democracy and the rule of law, it finally assembled six members of the assembly to commit executive regicide.
It is understandable, then, if there was no love lost between the EFCC and the then embattled Dariye. In the heat of battle, and in a gory turn of metaphor, Dariye likened the EFCC to dogs which he said constituted a mouth watering delicacy among his people. It will be recalled that Dariye’s sturdy tribesmen once made a mince meat of the invading caliphate forces in a memorable massacre which turned the entire plateau into a grisly fountain of blood. In the event, wiser counsel prevailed and a bloody show down was averted.
But that was only an inconclusive battle in an unending war. The gladiators eventually returned to the ring. This time it was an embattled Dariye who moved rapidly to the offensive against his tormentors. In an allegation all too reminiscent of the late Barkin Zuwo, Dariye claimed that there was a shortfall of 741 million naira between money actually impounded from him and money actually declared. Phew!!!. Zuwo would have been barking mad.
Now, in international gossip circuits, as snooper noted at that material point in time, the British journalist is often the butt of cruel jokes for congenitally fiddling with expense accounts. The rich Americans are openly and brutally scornful of this hand wringing petty thievery. Snooper was not sure whether this vice has also caught up with the metropolitan cops. The British High Commission actually confirmed that only part of the money has been returned even as the Federal government of that period chose to hide under empty technicalities.
This did not assuage Joshua Dariye, and neither would Barkin Zuwo ,his patron saint, have been too pleased. With or without metropolitan reassurance, Dariye cried blue murder. That seems like ages ago, but we are again at a similar conjuncture in this endlessly gory tale of the gang-raping of a nation by its own privileged children. The tribe of economic rapists has multiplied. With so many notorious Nigerian economic predators taking refuge in Britain, let the Metropolitan Police beware of Africa as the new ethical graveyard of the white man. There is an evil spirit abroad.
The Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, yesterday described Mrs. Awolowo’s death as a great loss to the Yoruba nation.
It said a gem like her would be too difficult to replace.
Its leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, in a statement in Akure yesterday said the nation has lost a great soul, who dedicated her life to the development of the nation, especially the Western Region.
He said the late matriarch of the Awolowo dynasty stood by her husband, adding that she remained the pillar of the family after her husband’s death.
In its tribute, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) said Mrs Awolowo’s death has created a vacuum not only in the Yoruba race but the entire nation.
Its National Publicity Secretary, Muhammad Ibrahim, lauded her for her statesmanship and motherly concern for the unity and peaceful coexistence of all Nigerians.
The ACF noted that since the death of her husband, Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1987, “Mama has been the rallying point of the Yoruba”.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State said a glorious chapter has been closed in a progressive family that impacted positively on the lives of many Nigerians.
The party said Mama Awolowo lived a fruitful life that would remain indelible in the nation’s history.
In a statement in Lagos by its Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, the party said Mama Awolowo complemented her husband’s progressive ideals and left remarkable footprints on the Nigerian polity.
Senate Minority Leader Godswill Akpabio has described the death of the matriarch of the Awolowo’s family, Yeye HID Awolowo as a national loss.
He said Nigeria has lost a great mother and an exemplary woman.
Akpabio, in a statement by his media aide Jackson Udom, noted that though Mama Awolowo served the nation as the wife of a foremost nationalist and politician.
He said she also laid good examples for womanhood, regretting she died only two months shy of her centenary birthday celebration, which would have helped to showcase her ideals and encourage other women across the world.
The former governor of Akwa Ibom praised Mama Awolowo’s lifetime as “memorable, exemplary and excellent”.
He noted since the death of her husband decades ago, she has remained committed to his ideals and has remained a mother to all politicians irrespective of political leanings.
Senate President Bukola Saraki has praised the extraordinary attributes of the late Chief H.I.D Awolowo.
Saraki, in a statement, yesterday said: “Mama Awolowo truly distinguished herself among her contemporaries and not only because she lived longer but because she served God and humanity to the end.
“Even as a nonagenarian, she kept on hosting different fora and contributing to ideas on the unity of the Yoruba people in particular and Nigeria in general.
“She was an epitome of a good wife and mother and I have no doubt that as she reunites with her darling husband, Pa Obafemi Awolowo, she would have good account to give of how far she had held forte in the absence of the late sage.
“We commiserate with the Awolowo family on the death of their matriarch, the government and people of Ogun State and Nigeria in general.
“They should all take solace in the fact that Mama lived a good life.”
Aiyetoro, a riverine community in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State, teeters, on the brink of collapse due to oceanic surges that are constantly washing away their homes and hopes. Assistant Editor, SEUN AKIOYE, who visited the community, brings the second part of the tragic story of an angry people.
FOR at least 15 years, disaster has relentlessly pursued the people of Aiyetoro community in Ilaje Local Government Area, Ondo State. A deeply religious community, the trouble that is ravaging the community has been overwhelming and it has shaken the faith of the people to its very roots.
All over the community, signposts of destruction are in the form of destroyed houses, devastated neighborhoods and ruined lives. Many of the indigenes in fear for their lives have fled the community, while about 30,000 are hanging on clinging to a thin hope of a better future. Strangely, the source of the town’s anguish is natural: The Atlantic Ocean.
“That is where my father’s house is now; it used to be somewhere in this town but it is now far into the sea. The ocean took it away about five years ago,” Folorunso Ewaarawon said, pointing somewhere about 20 kilometres inside the sea.
Ewaarawon, an unemployed man, remembered the unfortunate day he lost his family’s possessions to the ocean, which bordered the community. His father had been ill and lay prostrate in the house, while some other members of the family were away.
“Suddenly the sea came and overran the town, we all rushed out carrying whatever belongings we could carry. It was a terrible day and at the end we lost our house, many other people also lost their homes,” he said. His was double tragic, the father died a few months after the incident, broken-hearted and dejected.
•Bishop Eretan in front of his ruined house
The ocean surges have been no respecter of persons or callings; the wave that washed away the house of Bishop Eremibo Eretan, the spiritual and political head of Aiyetoro, came suddenly and with fury. It was in June 2015 and it began with a slight rain, then a gush of strong wind blew accompanied by an angry tremor of the ground; they were quickly followed by water from the sea, which subsequently sacked the town.
Eretan and his family had only a few minutes to pack the most important of their life possessions. Like a tsunami, the sea overran several buildings, assisted by a ferocious wind which blew off roofs and a tremor, which sank the houses. By the time the wind settled, Eretan’s house and five others had been become a rubble.
Fish wealth, oil death
Located on the Atlantic coast, Aiyetoro was founded by a group of Ilaje “rebel” priests of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in 1947. The founders were inhabitants of scattered Ilaje communities bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the West and Okitipupa to the East. In the days when the Ilaje killed their twins because they believed they were evil and for preaching against the practice, the priests were expelled from the community.
The priests, citing the leading of the Holy Spirit, moved to another location close to the Atlantic, founded Aiyetoro on the principles of justice, equity and communalism and ruled, according to them, by direct dictates from the God. They founded the Holy Apostles Church from where all political decisions were made and were binding.
The community flourished, partly because of the ingenuity and obstinate determination of the founders and also because of the political and social system which ensured equality and a sense of belonging for all the citizens. By 1960, according to public records, proceeds from fishing made Aiyetoro one of the richest rural community in West Africa.
In the 1970s, oil was discovered in commercial quantities in the waters of Aiyetoro and multinational oil companies descended on the town to drill its offshore oil. And that, according to Eretan, the burden bearer of the community, opened the floodgate of doom.
Living in Aiyetoro is a life on the edge. According to Eretan, a tall dark man with bloodshot eyes and loud voice who has assumed the leadership since the king, Guard Olofin Asogbon, died in February 2015, the closest house to the sea at the time was 350 metres, but what has been eroded from the community land is over 400 metres.
“Anytime there is high tide, the ocean will move into the town; it takes over about a quarter of this town and many houses are flooded including the church. In April, the church was flooded; it took days to clean it up and of course two months after that, I lost my house to the ocean,” he said.
Perhaps nothing epitomises the tragedy that has become the lot of Aiyetoro than the once imposing three-storey palace built at the center of the town. But the once magnificent palace has fallen on evil times. According to the people, the palace began to sink when a tremor was reportedly caused by an earthquake, which was triggered by oil exploration.
According to Eretan, “When the oil companies first came here in the 1970s to prospect for oil, they used some instrument to shoot into the bottom of the sea; it was that shooting that caused the sinking of our palace. I remembered that day, there was a great earthquake and then the building sank and it is still sinking today.”
A visit to the palace was convincing: the ground floor was already under the water such that when one looks at the building from afar, it tilts forward like the tower at Pisa. Yet, the family of the late king, having nowhere to go, remained in this dangerous building. A trip inside the palace revealed a most shocking spectacle; the water which sacked the first floor of the building had begun to climb gradually to the second floor. The family had wisely transported all their properties to the last floor but it was clear that the collapse of the palace is imminent.
Every child in Aiyetoro is aware of the imminent danger facing the community and life has not been the same. For the over 30,000 residents who have chosen to remain in the town, sorrow, tears and fear for the future rule their lives.
“We are confused and angry because every day, we see an inch of our land being taken over by the sea. Many years ago, we used to say that the sea cannot come near this place but now, a quarter of this town is in the ocean. Is this how we are going to wait till we all die?” Ewaarawon asked.
There is hardly any joy left in the town, all day and night, the angry sound of the ocean inflicted the people with fresh worries. In the past when the king was alive and the church functional, they would fill up into the church to implore the help of God against the Omolokun (god of the ocean). For the incredulous, this may sound superstitious but for Octogenarian Patricia Dadeowo, this is real.
“There is God in heaven,” she repeated for about the seventh time. “When the ocean first came to the town, we all prayed and fasted; even the children did not eat until noon. We went to the sea and called it by its name Otetebiete and God took control.” For effect, the children born in that year are named Olorunwa ( There is God).
A leadership tussle over who succeeds King Asogbon and a closedown of the church have brought double tragedy to the people. Prayers now hold in the town hall, while many of the young people are quickly losing faith. “There is power of God and we still believe it, but our sins are too many now; that is why miracles are not happening again,” Ewaarawon said.
•The remnant of Happy City School, the science laboratory, playground and other classrooms are now at sea.
In the absence of a miracle, the stark realities stare the people hard in the face. According to Benson Aribo, a graduate of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, and secretary of the Youth Association, a large part of the secondary school (Happy City College) has been washed away by the ocean.
“Our playing field and science laboratory are now somewhere there in the ocean,” he said. The people tried to rebuild the school but their efforts were consistently thwarted by the rampaging sea. The great flood in April 2015, which swept through the community, took with it the new school building.
There is hardly any household which has not been negatively impacted by the surging ocean. Three years ago, the sea came calling for Taiwo Omoyele, bringing down his house and with it his hopes. “This town is a big one and it is not the sea that should send us out of here; no house is safe anymore because this place we are standing used to be the center of town,” he said.
Lawrence Abakpolor is a former marine engineer; he retired to Ayetoro in 1983 to pursue his passion for fishing. But that passion has since turned to pains as his house is next in line to the rampage of the ocean. Every evening, Abakpolor, who has also since retired from fishing “because it is no longer profitable,” would sit in front of his house and viewed the ocean, calculating how many more surges would bring down his home.
“Every two months, the sea pays us a visit in this town and when that visits ends, many houses in this town would have gone with it. Early in June when the sea came, my house was almost submerged and as you can see, there is nothing between my house and the sea now. We have put our faith in God and now we live in fear,” he said.
Ibrahim Bankole, one of the prominent youths of the town, said the ocean surge has affected the economy of the town causing poverty. “We had a generator which powered this town before but it has broken down. We asked each house to contribute N1,200 monthly but that is even too much for the people. There is nothing left now and to eat for many families is a hard thing.”
•Apostle Honmane
The economy of Aiyetoro was built on the fish business. But the prosperity experienced in the days of communalism is now history which the current generation can only read about in books. There is hardly any fish left to fuel economic prosperity for the people. Snr. Apostle Jackson Honmane is the secretary, Nigeria Agricultural Cooperative Organisation, Ondo State, and a master fisherman. “Before now, just go anywhere in the sea and you will catch big fishes, but now we have spillage of oil at least twice a year and with that, the fishes have moved away and what we get now is this.”
Very few fishermen remain these days. One of them is Oluwatunmise Omagbemi, a youth who usually leaves at 5:00 am and return 12 hours after with about three baskets of crayfish and tiny fishes. “I spent three gallons of fuel costing N12,000 and when I sell the crayfish, I will make about N20,000, when I deduct other costs, I have barely enough.”
An evening by the Aiyetoro beach revealed the peril constantly faced by these fishermen who still cling to the age-long trade. Youths like Omagbemi and Ohunayo would climb into their boats before dawn and row against the sea armed with a great fishing net, a small bucket to bail out the sea water from the boat- and a paddle.
The sea, which was not taking kindly to this, lifted up the boat tossing it around in a great wave; it beats unabated with magnificent rage slapping little boats and small trawlers around. One could see the fishermen holding on tightly to the sides of the boat.
One would think such a perilous venture would yield enormous profits. Not in the least, as after about 12 hours of rowing, they come up with a mean harvest consisting of a few tiny fishes, crabs and about two baskets of tiny crayfish.
At the northern edge of the beach, the waves pummelled Tobiloba Japhet, a youth of about 10 years. “I come here to fish every day; whatever I catch, we will eat at home,” he said. His fishing rope is long and the end is tied to a pole from the remnant of a house washed to sea. After about one hour, he was rewarded with a tiny fish at first and then a medium size fish. He smiled with pleasure, attributing his luck to the presence of the reporter. “Please stay a little with me so that your luck can rub off on me,” he said.
The once prosperous fishermen of Aiyetoro blamed their misfortune on the activities of the oil companies operating offshore. In the night, one could see big red flames rising to heaven from several oil rigs far in the ocean.
In the evenings, the former fishermen met to discuss and moan their losses at the “Made Easy Café”. But it seemed the more they met, the further they get to any solution. One of such gatherings was on August 2, 2015; as usual it was all talks and no solution.
“ The oil exploration is causing us serious troubles here; every time there is spillage, we lose our livelihood and the oil companies do not care. There is nowhere to berth now because the sea has taken over our shores. In 1947 (when the town was founded), it was not like this until the oil drillers came. They sank our palace and destroyed our lives. They are also the cause of the ocean surge in this community,” Lawrence Lemamu, the chairman of the Nigeria Union of Fishermen and Sea Food Dealers said.
Bishop Eretan agreed with Lemamu. He said since oil exploration began, their lives have been turned upside down. “The more they explore oil, the more we are in danger, we have not received any benefit from these oil companies,” he said.
In the absence of the fish, the only trade keeping the town alive is the crayfish business. All over the community, there are smoking houses where crayfish are smoked and dried waiting for customers from Onitsha, Port Harcourt and Lagos.
“We are facing this crayfish business because we cannot get normal fish anymore. Even now, the crayfish is very expensive because you have to go very far into the sea unlike before. We are suffering here; help us tell everybody what the sea is doing to us,” says Emily, a crayfish seller.
A white elephant project
Government’s intervention in the looming destruction of Aiyetoro began in 2004 when the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) awarded a contract for the shoreline protection to a company (name withheld) and paid a mobilisation fee of N650 million.
However, though the people welcomed the project with bated relief, the company ended up disappointing the people as it abandoned the project soon after being paid to mobilise to site. The company’s engineers reportedly visited Aiyetoro purportedly for site inspection and left never to reappear again. Even now, the company has become a phoenix. All physical and online search for the company and its owner(s) ended in vain.
In 2006, NDDC re-awarded the contract to another company, Dredging Atlantic Limited (DAL), which is reputed for big-ticket contracts in the Ilaje area. DAL received a mobilisation of N2.5billion for the N6.5billion contract.
DAL moved to site had hardly settled down when excuses became the fare.
“They came up with the excuse that there is no sand in the area, but we told them that based on our own investigations that there is abundance of sand westward from Aiyetoro coast in Igbo Aiku and Araromi. We told the representatives of the company but they went to another place and claimed they did not have sand to do the work,” Dele Kudenhindu, the Principal Secretary of Aiyetoro told The Nation.
But the people had little faith that DAL can undertake the project of that magnitude.
“They used us,” said one of the youth executives who preferred to be anonymous. “This is not how to do shoreline protection, what they are doing showed that they have no idea about this job,” he said.
It may be hard to fault the logic in this statement. Nine years after the project was awarded and the contractor moved to site, there is absolutely nothing to show that N2.5billion had been spent and that DAL had done any work on the coastline.
Eretan and Kudehindu said the company had acted with the utmost disregard for the people of Aiyetoro. “Up till now, we have not set our eyes on the contractor nine years after he started working in our community. We had set up several meetings but he refused to show up. In a project of this magnitude, he ought to have carried along the community leaders. He just abandoned everything here,” Eretan said.
The young people are worst hit. With practically no economic opportunities for them, they had put their hopes on the completion of the project to usher in a period of prosperity and opportunities. “We were all just waiting for this project because the ocean is really threatening us. There is a lot of things we can do but when you are not sure what the future holds, you are limited,” Iretolu Ajinde, the chairman of the Youth Association, said.
This sentiment is shared by Prince Moses Ashogbon, son of the last king of the town. A graduate of Adekunle Ajasin University with a degree in Political Science, Ashogbon cut a pitiable sight when The Nation met him.
Since the death of his father, he had continued to live in the distressed three-storey building which served as royal palace. Everybody in Aiyetoro blames the oil companies namely Mobil, Chevron, Conoil and Agip for the tragedy that has befallen the building.
“We want to bring back those good days; now we have many of our indigenes who are educated and talented but no opportunity. If we try to bring back the industries that we lost, we are always afraid of the sea; that is why it is so painful that the contractor has abandoned the project,” Prince Ashogbon said.
When The Nation visited the community in June 2015, disused equipment were scattered all over the coastline. A pipe which was used to feed sand into some bags lay alongside two tractors sitting by two piles of sand.
For sometime, the construction workers have not been seen on sight, so the cows took over the machines.
This reporter could view about 30 tarpaulins filled with sand placed beside the sea. A tractor, Wilco 3200c and a caterpillar D 6H LGP Series 11, appeared abandoned. All over the site, cows could be seen pasturing and the smell of cow waste and urine was overpowering. Aribo said that was the only evidence of DAL’s shoreline protection in Aiyetoro.
But on a repeated visit to the community by The Nation on August 1, 2015, nothing remained of the sandbags that were visible just two months before as they had all been washed away by the storm. Also the community had lost almost five metres of land to the sea in just two months.
“Every year, we lose over 50 metres of our land to the sea and that is in the minimum. What we are afraid of is that in the next two years, if this situation continues, there may not be Aiyetoro again, we do not pray for such to happen,” Ajinde said.
“We want the government to save our land, we cannot go to the north or the south, the school is in the sea and we discover that the contractors cannot do this job. It was not this bad when they came, it was in their very presence that the situation degenerated to this. We know that their equipment are rotting away, this is beyond us, we are tired.”
Akinluwa Thompson, a marine engineer, believes that the contractors should have gone far into the ocean about four fathoms to dreg before sand filling. Ajinde shared this opinion: “ They should have gone at least 700 metres offshore but what they are doing is onshore. They don’t know what they are doing and they should just come out to say they are not capable,” he said with a feeling of deep frustration and anger creeping into his face.
For many years, DAL had always avoided media enquiry regarding the Aiyetoro project but The Nation was able to track down the company’s Public Relations Officer, Sola Oyeloye, who put all the blame on the NDDC and insisted that the company has not abandoned site.
“We have not been paid for a year because NDDC pays by milestone. We wanted to source sand from the Atlantic Ocean, which is 23 kilometres away, but NDDC did not have the money for that; it took us about two years to even get NDDC to come around because we had to review the contract which took a lot of time,” he said.
Oyeloye also said the company is employing the geosynthetic tube method of protection for Aiyetoro. “This method has never been used before in West Africa; it requires a lot of technique, the water master we are using there, we are the second company to own it. So the work is ongoing as I speak to you. We promised the king that we are going to finish the job and we will.”
However, Oyeloye was shocked to learn in June that the king had died in February, heart-broken over the impending disaster in his community.
The geosynthetic method of shore protection, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, is “made of several geosynthetic sheets sewn together to form a shell capable of confining pressurised slurry. The slurry is sufficiently fluid so that it is possible to hydraulically fill the tube. After pumping the slurry in, the geosynthetic shell acts as a “cheese cloth,” allowing seepage of liquid out and retaining the solid particles.”
But many in Aiyetoro were quick to shoot down the method as employed by DAL. According to Bankole, there is nothing to suggest such a method would work in this instance. “ What they did was to sew sand in tarpaulin bags which were totally destroyed by the waves, all the bags burst open and the sand was lost. If you go to the shore right now, you will see the bags littering everywhere,” he said.
This reporter did and found sandbags violently torn apart by the waves indicating that again the project has failed.
DAL, girls, workers
The boat house where DAL workers live rocked gently on the lagoon at the entrance to Aiyetoro jetty. For many years, most of the indigenes have looked upon the workers with indifference; a few looked on them with envy. Among this group are the young, poor Aiyetoro girls.
With paralysing poverty, the girls saw the workers as the only means out of poverty, at least temporarily and threw themselves into their amorous demands.
Aside one or two incidents involving the local girls, the workers who are changed after two years have kept to themselves in their boat. The Nation correspondent went undercover inside the boat house and discovered a gripping tale of neglect.
There were about 11 workers in the boathouse living in squalor when The Nation got inside. According to the workers, the head office in Port Harcourt had abandoned them at the site. “Nothing is working in this boathouse; we don’t have a toilet, because the one here is bad. If you flush, the wastes go directly into our water system. By the way, our water tanks are bad too; so we cannot store clean water, what we use is rain water,” one of the workers who conducted the reporter around, said.
The bathroom water is leaking into the rooms and the house has no electricity as the two 1,000kva generators are no longer working. For their toilet, the workers had made a small demarcation using a rag by the generator where all such ‘dirty businesses’ are conducted directly into the river.
The kitchen is unusable; so the workers are engaged in the habit of cooking in their rooms. The floor of the boathouse is rust in various places and poses a serious danger, especially at night. “We have complained to the office but they never respond, they have abandoned us here totally. We are even lacking in equipment, nothing is working,” the workers said.
They also complained of falling ill constantly because of the breeze from the sea and with no money or medications, the workers are forced sometimes to be at the mercy of the community. “The community people laugh at us when we go to charge our phones there, saying we can’t even power our own house, it is such a shame,” they complained.
However, the workers said they still continue to do whatever they could to ensure that the project continues. “We were doing pipe laying yesterday (August 1, 2015) and tomorrow, we will start full dredging. I do not know when the work will finish but we are doing our best,” one who claimed to be the leader said.
The Nation also learnt that the contractor is already tired of the project which he considered a drain on his time and energy. “Director, as the workers call him, is tired of this place; he wants this job to finish quickly so we can move to another one. We are also tired, we have been here for one year and half and we are suffering,” another worker said.
The role of NDDC
But what is the position of the NDDC in the unfolding tragedy? How was the first company able to get away with a N650million mobilisation fee without turning a sand? Why does DAL still retain the contract after its almost nine years abysmal failure? Does the NDDC have an effective monitoring and evaluation team?
But the Resident Commissioner of NDDC in Ondo State, Barrister Benson Amuwa, told The Nation in an interview in his house in Igbokoda that the main problem of the shoreline protection was lack of sand.
“There is no need to be sentimental about the project, I am aware there is a problem of sand. When the company bided for the contract, they took it for granted that there would be sand in the ocean,” he said in an interview conducted in his residence.
He added: “If there is sand in the ocean, you will see it by the beach; they had a dredger but no sand. If they are going to get the sand, the extra cost has to be built in. Since I have been here, the commission has not mobilised any contractor. What we do is you work and the project and monitoring team comes to evaluate and then you are paid.”
Amuwa would not totally exonerate Dredging Atlantic. “Am I exonerating the contractor? No, he may be hiding behind one finger but we cannot deny the existence of that one finger. Aiyetoro is a historic community of great significance, we will not sit down and watch it come to an end,” he said.
From all indications, it seems Aiyetoro is coming to an end and the people try to make the best of whatever is remaining of their time on the island. Every night, aided by the flicker from the street lights, Broad Street comes to life, petty traders ply their wares on the road, music blares from loud speakers, boy meets girl. Not far away, the angry roar of the ocean could be heard.
Eretan sat in his new house and listened to the waves, a spiritual feeling took hold of him: “I know and believe that human technology can do it, but if they do not come to our aid, our God can help us, much more than humans,” he said in a defiant voice.
