The Nation Newspaper

Tag: lost

  • ‘8,500 construction workers lost jobs’

    Over 8,500 workers in the construction sector lost their jobs last year due to non-payment of funds to contractors handling various jobs for the Federal Government, the National President, Construction and Civil Engineering Senior Staff Association (CCESSA), Dr. Augustine Etafo has said.

    He also expressed fears that more jobs are likely to be lost this year because there was no budgetary provisions for the execution of projects this year, putting contractors and workers in a dangerous position.

    Speaking with reporters in Lagos, he lamented that the development was counter-productive to the growth of the nation’s economy. He urged the Federal Government to live up to its responsibilities by paying contractors as at when due so as to save the sector from collapse.

    While expressing hope that the construction sector local content bill at the National Assembly would bring renewed hope for the construction sector when passed into law, he charged the management of two cement companies, Lafarge and Holcim to ensure that the  welfare of workers are protected as the companies plan to merge.

    He tasked the companies to guarantee that all collective agreements reached are honoured, adding that  the companies must also commit to maintaining global level social dialogue that Lafarge previously participated in with unions.

    In a related development, CCESSA has urged the Federal Government to fulfil the agreement reached with companies in the construction industry.

    Etafo, who made the appeal, told newsmen in Lagos that the industry may have more job losses this year as uncertainties surround the Federal Government implementation of austerity measures.

    He said: “We call on the three tiers of government, especially the Federal, the state and local governments to fulfil their agreement reached with companies in the construction industry as over 8,500 workers in the sector lost their jobs in 2014 due to non-payment of funds to contractors handling various jobs for the Federal Government.”

  • How man lost leg, daughter same day

    How man lost leg, daughter same day

    •’I’ve accepted my fate, but the pains won’t go’

    Usually, on his birthday, his home is a beehive, with family members and friends coming to rejoice with him.

    But this December 12 was different. Kaseem Ayinla, 64, was not in a celebration mood because of his condition.

    He looked at his amputated right leg on his wheel chair in front of his Ogunlesi Street, Palmgrove, Lagos home and shook his head. A few sympathisers, mostly his tenants, watched as he struggled to suppress his emotion. Breaking his silence after a deep sigh, he cleared his throat, saying: “Al-hamdu-lillahi (To Allah be the glory).

    “I can’t but accept my fate, but I don’t know what I have done to deserve this; and the pains have refused to go,” he said.  

    Ayinla, popularly addressed as Oluaye by admirers, is the younger brother of former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Jubril Ayinla.

    How did it happen? He recalled that it happened shortly after last year’s  Eid-il-Kabir celebration. Ayinla said his first daughter, Bidemi, who was on admission at a Lagos hospital, died from shock minutes after his leg was amputated at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi (NOHI) in Yaba, Lagos Mainland.

    He said: “Everyone around me knows that sickness is alien to me. The day this trouble began, it was like a bad dream. About 5pm, I took a stroll to a friend’s shop just a stone’s throw to my home to take a bottle of drink. Before settling down there, I headed for the toilet to ease myself. To my dismay, my legs suddenly went stiff and lifeless. I could not move the legs. All I could ask myself was: ‘what is this?’ I had to wait for whoever would come there to urinate. Not quite five minutes later, a man came around and I pleaded with him to assist me. He was the one that promptly alerted others who came to carry me home.”

    After sometime, he regained the use of his left leg, but the right “unbearable pains.” “It was as if the bones in the leg were being smashed by an invisible hammer,” he said.

    From then, he became a regular caller at the NOHI, the Navy Hospital and the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja in his search hospitals for treatment.

    NOHI eventually became his second home. “I spent weeks there; I lost count of how many patients gave up the ghost while I was there, which is why I feel I have cause to thank Allah for this gift of life. Before I was rushed there, I was sitting in front of my house when strangely, my right foot dropped off. As one of my children was packing it inside a poly bag, maggots were dropping from the rotting portion. Like everyone around me, I was alarmed. So, my journey to Igbobi (NOHI) began,” he said.

    He went on: “If I had thought that I had a brother in Vice Admiral (Jubril), I knew better that I have a father in him. He is a rare one that any family would pray fervently to have. When he was not with me at my sickbed, he is on phone asking for my condition. He made sure I lacked nothing throughout my dark moments. Ah …… (Virtually lost in spontaneous effusive prayers). He rushed in from abroad, met with the doctors around and dropped more than the money I would need pending when he would return. He did not leave without assuring me that Allah was with me.”

    Ayinla said his doctor cracked jokes with him to get his back off the surgery.

    “I was made to fix my gaze on a moving object on an electronic board in my front after giving me some injections minutes earlier. I only got to know that I had lost my right leg some minutes later when the pains began. It was traumatic,” Kazeem said.

    While he was awaiting surgery, the late Bidemi was in pains in another hospital. A relation, who got wind of her father’s predicament, broke the news of his amputated leg to her during a visit her.

    “Hearing that his father’s leg had been amputated, Bidemi was said to have screamed on her sickbed and that was how she died instantly. But the news of her death was not broken to me until later on my birthday – December 12, last year,” Kazeem said, explaining: “I was at home here when my brother (Jubril) came with all sorts of gifts as it was my birthday. Some of my children and relations were around too. Shortly after settling down, my brother moved closer and held me by my shoulder. I was moved by the display of brotherly love. He reminded me that I was no longer a kid and that at my age and life experience, nothing should move me badly. So, he dropped the bombshell: ‘Take heart and be a man; Bidemi is no more!’ I was shattered. I wept like a baby. It was a day I would never forget in my life.”

    AVM Ayinla then got him a wheel-chair to aid his movements in his compound. Not long after, the ex-naval officer returned from abroad with a motorized wheel-chair which, according to Kazeem, costs between N1.5million and N2million. With the wheelchair, he can visit friends in the neighbourhood with ease.

    Weeks after, another a medical test revealed that the problem in his amputated right leg was about affecting the other. Then, he had to undergo another surgery on his stomach.

    Pulling off his shirt to show the reporter the affected part of his stomach, Kazeem said: “You can see the stitched portion. It was done in Abuja. My brother flew in experts from abroad to do it. It cost him about N5million. You can only join me in daily prayers for him (Jubril); he is my human saviour. Even after the surgeries, he has been taking adequate care of my upkeep and that of his other siblings among others in and outside the family.”

    On Saturday, the reporter saw him cruising around in his motorised wheel-chair. He was in a flowing agbada with cap to match. He told the reporter: “What has happened has happened; we have to move on with Allah behind us.”

    After a  exchange of pleasantries, he rode off, beaming with smiles.

  • Emir: we lost 105 in attack

    Emir: we lost 105 in attack

    MORE people may have died in weekend’s attack on Yargaladima village in Dansadau Emirate of Zamfara State.

    No fewer than 200 –not 70 as earlier thought- died, it was learnt yesterday.

    The Emir put the figure at 105.

    The village was invaded by suspected Fulani herdsmen who shot at everybody in sight during a four-hour operation.

    The attack on Yargaladima in Maru Local Government on Saturday followed a similar one on Burni-Tsaba and Manitsaba communities in Zumi Local Government, last week.

    The attack occurred at about 2pm when the hoodlums, riding on over 100 motorcycles and carrying various guns, including AK 47 rifles, stormed a meeting of a vigilance group and professionals planning how to confront insurgents.

    Police spokesman Lawal Abdullahi said the organisers of such a meeting ought to have informed him to provide security.

    A survivor of the attack, Mallam Muhamadu Yargaladima, said: “Between yesterday (Saturday) and today, we counted no fewer than 215 bodies.”

    He added: “Using AK 47 and other rifles, they began to shoot at children, traders, vigilante, community leaders, clerics, thereby killing 215 people at the end of the four-hour operation.”

    But the Emir of Dansadao, Alhaji Hussein Adamu, said his emirate counted 105 bodies.

    He told Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari, who visited the community yesterday to access the situation, that the killings were the worst in the emirate since 2010.

    Yari vowed to fish out the killers.

    He said the government would find out why the meeting that was not permitted by the authorities was held.

    “We will find out who insisted that the meeting must hold,” he declared.

    Assistant Inspector General of police (AIG) (Zone 10)Mamman sule said the meeting was not permitted by the police.

    He said 79 people were killed.

    No fewer than 25 people including politicians on their way to Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, to attend the APC stakeholders meeting/congresses, were at the weekend killed by suspected Boko Haram terrorists along the Maiduguri- Biu road.

    “Eighteen delegates on their way to attend a second stakeholders meeting slated on Sunday were ambushed in the bus they were travelling and killed.

    No fewer than seven motorists and passengers were shot dead a few metres from Gwargube village.

    A member of Civilian JTF said: “Some terrorists yesterday laid ambush to some motorists and passengers along the Maiduguri- Biu road and killed many people, before they invaded Gwargube village and solicited support from the villagers or risk deadly attacks. When they invaded the village after the road ambush, they did not attack or kill anybody. They warned them to cooperate with them or risk their lives”. He stated.

    Police commissioner Lawal Tanko said he was not aware of the attack.

    Residents are leaving Buni Gari, the Yobe State town where Boko Haram fighters struck on Saturday, in droves.

    Eyewitnesses said 17 people were killed in the attack, but the official casualty stands at nine dead and 10 injured.

    A resident, Ali Buni, told our correspondent: “If you were here yesterday, you would have seen people moving out of the town as if it’s water. Many people have left and more are leaving for fear of another attack.”

    Our correspondent who was in Buni Gari sighted many people moving towards Damaturu, the state capital, with their families.

    But, only five people were killed in the mosque attack contrary to the 20 that was earlier reported in the media.

    One of the worshippers who do not want his name mentioned said he had left the mosque less than five minutes when the boys struck.”I left five people in the mosque praying and all of them were killed. The boys came less than five minutes after I left the mosque. I had finished my prayers and I wanted to go and prepare for a journey to Damaturu”, he said.

    An official of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) said 52 vehicles and 10 keke NAPEP were burnt by the insurgents.

    Some of the shops stocked with grains were still burning at the time this reporter visited.

    The state government has promised to assist victims of the attack.

    Deputy Governor Abubakar Aliyu, who cut short his official engagement to Kaduna yesterday, visited Buni Gari to sympathise with the people and do an on-the-spot assessment of the situation.

    Aliyu, an engineer, extended to the people the concern of Governor Ibrahim Gaidam, who is in the Holy Land, praying for the state and the country.

    He directed the State Emergency Relief Agency to take a comprehensive stock of the destruction for the government to assist the victims.

    Aliyu regretted that the government does not know the insurgents and so it’s difficult to talk with them”.

    He, however, prayed that Allah should touch their hearts to repent from their sinful ways, adding that “the trying times of the state and the country would surely be over”.

    The executive Secretary of the State Emergency Relief Agency, Musa Idris told reporters that two trucks load of assorted food items and other relief materials have been distributed to the victims.

    But some of the victims have complained that only two hilux vans of relief materials were brought and were grossly inadequate.

  • Nigeria’s lost and jobless generation (I)

    Nigeria’s lost and jobless generation (I)

    I watched a documentary on Cable News Network (CNN) about three years ago where one of their correspondents posed as an undercover economic migrant seeking to enter Europe from Africa. The migrants he hobnobbed with were unaware he wasn’t one of them. Whenever he runs into a hitch, he will let the viewer’s know his journey would have ended there assuming he was a genuine economic migrant. He chronicled their lives in the bush struggling to make it to Europe. He took a keen interest on a Nigerian graduate from Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma. He wanted to know why, with his degree, he chose this dangerous and treacherous route to Europe.

    What actually caught my attention in the documentary was one of the immigrants who finally made it to Britain hanging under a trailer! When the surprised undercover correspondent saw him on the street on London, he asked him one simple question; “Now that you’re in London, what next?” The befuddled immigrant looked at him forlornly and said: “I don’t know”. That sums up the dilemma of youths bent on going to Europe or the United States at all cost.

    Recollect that only a few days ago, more than 300 African migrants from Eritrea drowned when the boat they were travelling in sank off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy. Close to 20 also died a few days after that incident. Since the identity of many of them could not be ascertained, they were buried and referred to by unique numbers! The irony of the whole situation is that Africa has been seen as the rising continent where there has been steady economic growth for the last three years at a time Europe and most part of the west is struggling. But unfortunately, this growth has not translated to a better life for its citizens.

    I met a former university course mate last week and after exchanging pleasantries and catching up with old times I inquired how things were with him. “You cannot believe that I’ve not worked in a structured place since we graduated” was his reply. It turned out he had taught in a couple of private secondary schools and worked in what he termed “unorganized private sector”. The sad part of his story was when he finally got a break and was about to be offered a job, but was told “you’re too old for the job”. Then he was just 32 years old. Another sad part of his story was that it also affected his two other brothers who graduated six and eight years after he did.

    I’ve heard such tales from the generation before mine and the present generation. Prof Wole Soyinka at a point referred to his generation as “the wasted generation”; Prof Pat Utomi referred to his as “the generation that left town” and I want to refer to mine as the lost and jobless generation.

    The term “lost generation” is not a recent coinage; it originated with Gertrude Stein, a noted American art collector of seminal modernist paintings and an experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays who, after being unimpressed by the skills of a young car mechanic, asked the garage owner where the young man had been trained. The garage owner told her that while young men were easy to train, it was those in their mid-20s to 30s, the men who had been through World War I, whom he considered a “lost generation”. In essence, the years that could have been used to train and properly equip them were wasted during the war years.

    The 1926 publication of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises further popularised the term, as Hemingway used it as an epigraph. The novel serves to epitomise the post-war expatriate generation. However, Hemingway himself later wrote to his editor Max Perkins that the “point of the book” was not so much about a generation being lost, but that “the earth abideth forever”; he believed the characters in The Sun Also Rises may have been “battered” but were not lost.

    Former late British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher was right on point when she made a profound statement in 1984, saying: “Young people ought not to be idle. It is very bad for them.” Though referring to the period when she was in power in Britain, anyone living in present day Nigeria cannot fault her submission; there are few worse things that society can do to its young than to leave them in limbo. Even “well-connected” individuals in Nigeria complain that they cannot find jobs for their wards.

    An instructive feature narrative on CNN about a month ago titled: ‘Europe’s lost generation’ depicts grippingly the plight of young European graduates between the ages of 19 and 26 with no jobs. As is well known, Europe is currently going through its worst youth unemployment crisis in its history resulting in 26 million youths without jobs. In worst hit countries such as Greece and Spain, youth unemployment rate is close to 60 per cent triggering a wave of migration to better off countries such as Germany. One report informs that most European graduates would have made 60 or more applications for a job before they finally get one and what they get maybe frustratingly below expectation as the majority of those employed do not have decent jobs.

    How about the United States, the land of ‘romantic dreams’ that most would give anything to settle in? It is a country in the throes of mass youth unemployment and underemployment as more than 10 million Americans under 25 are out of work. There is over 16 per cent unemployment rate affecting youths between 16 and 24; among Blacks and Latinos the rate moves up to 36 per cent and 28 per cent while in some cities such as Chicago, the youth unemployment rate among Blacks is 90 per cent.

    Described as an economic emergency, the desultory job market in the United States features many college (University) graduates in low skilled and low wage jobs such as serving tea or coffee while many have their careers frozen in internships with no remunerations. In other words, many youths in what is increasingly called the ‘generation jobless’ are not building up human capital assets either through experience at work or time spent in profitable study.

    What’s my point here? It’s simple; while these countries are passing through difficult times economically, they’re fully aware of their predicament and are doing everything possible to seek out solutions. But from what we have on ground and can visibly see, ours may not be on the front burner. In August, the Chairman, Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P), Dr. Christopher Kolade, said about 40 million Nigerians, translating to 23.9 per cent of the population, are unemployed.

    Quoting the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), he added that one of the challenges of graduate unemployment is the “inability of the system to absorb the about 300,000 graduates churned out of our tertiary institutions.” He added that the Graduate Internship Scheme (GIS) of SURE-P aims to employ about 50,000 unemployed graduates in 36 states and FCT in one year. The scheme is targeted at improving the skills unemployed graduates through work placement in registered firms.

    Kolade lamented that only 35 per cent of 2,000 registered firms had met minimum requirement for participation, saying over 96,000 unemployed graduates have registered on the GIS portal. The big challenge with this scheme remains our weak and mono cultural economy. We simply do not have the industrial base to employ the army of unemployed that we have. Most firms that have signed into the programme also complain that its website is difficult to access with some looking at it as a scam to siphon public funds by corrupt officials.

    What is more, the programme is only a palliative as graduates who sign on are only expected to remain in a partner firm for only one year, and then they have to move on and give others the opportunity to be ‘employed’. In essence, they would be unemployed again after their one year stint.

    A deeper worry is that the business environment is going through a particularly dramatic period of ‘creative destruction’. New technology is unleashing a storm of “disruptive innovation” which is forcing firms to rethink their operations from the ground up. Companies are constantly redesigning work – for example they are separating routine tasks (which can be automated or contracted out) from skilled jobs. They are also constantly redesigning themselves by “upsizing”, “downsizing” and “contracting out”. The life expectancy of companies is,therefore, declining. Policymakers elsewhere are finding it more difficult to adapt to this new phase and are seeking out lee ways. Are ours thinking in this direction?

     

  • How I lost my sight

    NATURE and inclement economic conditions, especially in this part of the world, often box the physically challenged, the blind in particular, to depending on others for their survival. It is, therefore, not uncommon to find some of them resorting to begging for alms on major roads to make both ends meet when they lack assistance for their basic needs, especially food.

    This is not, however, the case with Evangelist Upright Wonders, a visually challenged minister and proprietress of Eastern Star Care Foundation. She lost her sight in mysterious circumstance, that have defied medical explanation but uses her creative insight to add value to the society.

    She had the option of depending on others for her living, but she chose not to do that. Her choice has paid off today as many people, both able-boadied and physically challenged, now look up to her to make meaning out of life.

    She is consumed by the passion of liberating other physically challenged in the society from the world of abandonment, despair and poverty; a feat which even the privileged able-bodied people shy away from. She carries on with her activities without any sign of having any problem with her sight.

    As the proprietress of the foundation, she trains the physically challenged apprentices in her care on how to make handcrafts and home use products, thus empowering them to be self-employed instead of resorting to begging to earn a living.

    In an encounter with our correspondent at the 11th anniversary celebration of the foundation held at the Province two office of the Living

    Faith Church Worldwide, Oke Odo

    Bus Stop on Isheri-Igando Road, Lagos penultimate weekend, the soft spoken evangelist gave an account of how she lost her sight and how she got the call to quit her job and embark on the business of empowering the physically challenged.

    She began by explaining why she took the name Upright Wonders.

    She said: “Upright Wonders is not the name that my parents gave me but when I got the vision, I changed my name and it is pointing to where I am going and what I am supposed to be as a Christian. I am a ‘wonder’ and I want to live an ‘upright’ life. My real name is Ememebong Umondak. Ememebong means ‘the peace of God’. I am still using the name and have not discarded it.”

    She went on to narrate how she lost her sight at a time she was preparing to proceed to the university to further her studies.

    “I wasn’t born blind. I went to primary, secondary and high schools, with my sight intact. I was about entering the university when the challenge came up. I was then working with the then Cross Rivers State Television now known as Channel 45 Uyo. I had worked with them for two years and was about going into the university when the problem started.

    “After all the diagnosis, the doctors have not really been able to point at anything as the cause of the challenge. When the challenge came, I had to leave the media industry and enrolled in a school for the blind because I didn’t just want to live my life as a beggar. After my education, I worked with Aluminium Cement Company of Nigeria as a receptionist. Exactly two years after, the Holy Spirit put it in my heart that I am to assist fellow physically challenged and I answered the call by resigning from my job.

    “The name of my foundation came as a revelation I got from Mathew chapter 2 verse 2 that talks about that star that appeared from the east and led those wise men to where Jesus was born. The vision is aimed at leading the physically challenged and the vulnerable ones to their colourful destinies in Christ by forming their lives and empowering them and helping them to make heaven. We started the foundation 11 years ago and have affected the lives of thousands of people. We visit centres, organise crusades and also have fellowship where we address the challenges of the physically challenged. We have graduated many sets of people under us.

    “We train the physically challenged ones in adire making, beads making, and also have the products section where we train them on how to make home care products like liquid wash , izal and perfume. What we want to do is to discourage each and every one of them from begging and get them to be gainfully employed because they are not challenged mentally. The gifts of God are still in their mind; as long as their minds are still functional, they can still do something with their lives,” she said.

    Looking back at the number of lives she has touched, she said: “There are so many of the people that we have trained that are doing quite well today. I have one that is producing Izal and Detol. She has customers in the hospitals and has been supplying them these products. I have so many of them that are doing well and we thank God for that.

    “Some of them have not been doing as much as they are supposed to because of funds and this is where the need for support from individuals and corporate bodies comes in. These trainings are quite expensive because the cost of the materials we use in doing them are going up everyday and we don’t collect money to train them. We do train them free of charge.

    “After the training, we try as much as we can to empower them, rent shops for them and help them in marketing their products because so many people take the products from them to sell without giving them the money. We are trying to make sure that they are not exploited by dubious people. We have set up a team that would be monitoring such sales and we would devout a good part of our time to this and do it professionally.

    “Apart from the challenge of funds, our people also have the problem of marketing their goods as it should be because the products are not registered with NAFDAC. I can’t do it alone. I need the support of kind- hearted Nigerians, especially now that we want to establish a skill acquisition and talent centre with a bible school and music school attached to it. ”

    Speaking on how she acquired the skill she has been imparting into others, she said: “I acquired the skill on how to make these products by going for training. It was after I completed my training that I started making the products to sell. The money I get from the ones that I market for the foundation is what I use for training those under the foundation.

    “The market is not wide yet because we don’t have NAFDAC registration number and as a result cannot push it into the larger market. This is where we need NAFDAC to assist us by reducing the registration fee for us. I have not really got the official registration fee but someone told me that it is between N120, 000 and N150, 000. The day I went to NAFDAC office at Oshodi, the gateman did not allow me to enter. He said I should go to their office at Yaba. When I went to Yaba, they asked me to go back to Oshodi. After a fruitless effort to get the official registration fee, I gave up and went back to my house. They frustrated my efforts.”

    Apart from empowering the physical challenged to earn a living, she added that the foundation is also concerned about going into rural ministration to seek out and attend to the needs of the physically challenged.

    “ We also want to go into rural ministration and we trust God for it because the vision is from Him. This evangelical arm of the foundation is to organise crusades in rural areas. We are focusing on the widows, the physically challenged ones and the vulnerable ones because in our local assembly, when they are going for outreaches and witnessing, they don’t remember the physically challenged ones. They neglect them but God has raised us to go into the rural areas to minister to them because their souls have to be saved and their needs met by empowering them.

    “My message to the physically challenged ones out there is that they should locate a foundation like this where they can learn the truth about God. Many parents and guardians are keeping physically challenged people at home and not allowing them to do anything. They should know that they can still make it in life in spite of their condition. They should find a foundation like ours to make them acquire skills that would keep them away from begging to survive. We have been transparent in all we have been doing. Any money we get for the

  • The lost century

    The lost century

    Those who said Nigerians are the ‘happiest people on earth’ obviously knew what they were talking about. This is one country where you find the e go better expression on everyone’s lips, no matter how bad things are. No one is willing to confess negative. And that has its basis in religion, the opium of our people. That, I guess, is the source of our perpetual ‘happiness’. The only snag is that I have not found any link between that ‘happiness’ and life expectancy because it is also a fact that people who are happy tend to live longer than those who have sadness all around them. If our happiness is genuine, then we should be among the people with high life expectancy. At 47- 48, the lowest in the West African sub-region, we cannot say we are doing well. Yet, we are ‘happy’.

    That ‘happiness’ is apparently behind the Federal Government’s decision to celebrate the centenary of the amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates to form what is now known as Nigeria, by Sir Frederick Lugard (known simply as Lord Lugard), in 1914. Although Nigeria as a country will be 100 years old next January, the commemoration of the amalgamation began on Monday, with the centenary anniversary dinner held at the State House in Abuja. We knew this was what the government would do when, sometime ago they started flying kites as to the importance of the amalgamation. As a matter of fact, what would have come as a surprise was if the government had decided otherwise. Anything that involves spending is welcome by our public officials for obvious reasons; there is always money to make, whether the country is mourning or celebrating. Forget about whether, as the government said, the events would be funded solely by the private sector. The fact is that we know how to waste money. Indeed, this is another laurel that is waiting for us to clinch.

    With the government’s decision to go ahead with the celebration, the people who do not see any cause for celebration have been told they have no point. Yet, I guess if we were to subject the issue to a referendum, most Nigerians would have rejected the idea of celebration because there is no way it is going to affect their lives or meet them at the very point of their needs. But here we are, the nays have had it again; again on our behalf. However, now that those who should take the decision have decided that we must celebrate, the cost should be borne by the government. Obviously, the government quickly came out to say the celebration would be funded by the private sector to disabuse the minds of Nigerians that the celebration is meant to make some few Nigerians richer from the public till. This shows the level of distrust among the people, of the government.

    But I prefer the government sponsoring the celebration not just because that is the right thing to do since it (government), is the one that sees the sense in celebrating the anniversary. Secondly, from experience, when our private sector bears such cost, it is the average Nigerian that they ultimately transfer it to. The private sector is no Father Christmas. Moreover, it has its own problems, many of which the government has not been able to solve. Also, we know the price we paid (and we are still paying) since the 2011 elections. Such private sector ‘assistance’ rubbed on us economically, it also cost us a lot in terms of moral rectitude; it has blurred our vision as we have not been able to think straight since then, acting as a corrupting influence on virtually all areas of our lives.

    This apart, if the private sector bears the cost of the celebrations at the centre, what of the states? What would the states do with the Unity Square that each of them is expected to build in their capital which would be unveiled during the nationwide ‘unity rally’? Is it the private sector that would bear that cost too, and other programmes that the states might want to do? Yet, many of these states are having cash crunch. Yet, they would have to look for ways to fund these projects that have no direct bearing on their people. What do we need unity square for? How does that engender unity? As a matter of fact, when we say we are organising ‘unity rally’, it is an admission of the fact that there is disunity in the country. Yet, General Yakubu Gowon introduced the National Youth Service Corps Scheme in 1973 to enhance national unity, among other objectives. If that and other programmes have not succeeded in uniting us, then we should not kid ourselves that ‘unity rally’ would.

    It is unfortunate that Nigeria’s case is like that of a hunchback who is carrying a load and people say the load is bent. Is it the load that is bent or the person carrying it? Many people believe Nigeria’s problems started since the 1914 amalgamation. I would not know whether to agree with them or not; and my point is informed by the fact that the country once worked within the framework of the amalgamation. But, whether we accept it or not, the country is no longer working. Without necessarily looking for an alibi for why the Goodluck Jonathan administration has not done well, I agree that most of the problems predate the present government. But we cannot divorce the government completely from the sorry pass in the country since the return to democratic rule in 1999, some 13 years plus, when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been in power. That is why I find it comical when the president or some of his aides make allusion to the same statement that the country’s problems predate the present government. They conveniently forget that the present government is also a PDP government and, ipso facto, an offshoot of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration that begot the Umaru Yar’Adua government in which the present president was the Number Two Citizen. So, if they say we should not blame President Jonathan for our country’s problems, they should be honest enough to admit that the PDP has not been of much use to Nigerians since 1999. That is the import of what they too are chorusing.

    Even former President, General Ibrahim Babangida, also said that the mistakes of past administrations are putting pressure on the country today. He did not say what the mistakes were or the past administrations that made them. Will we say those mistakes were those of the heart or the head? Again, the self-styled president did not tell us. Even then, we know. He was also quoted as saying that even Lord Lugard who did the amalgamation gave it a life-span of 100 years. Apparently, Lugard did not envisage that crude oil would be found in commercial quantity in the country then. If there is anything that is still holding this country together, it is not because the country’s leaders by and large worked towards its unity; rather, it is because of oil. We need to see the oil dry up first to see whether Lord Lugard was right or wrong.

    All said, Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka once said his generation was a ‘wasted generation’. In the same vein, this century appears irretrievably lost, so, let’s look forward to the next. And, in order not to have the same verdict when that century ends, we have a lot to do. And this is not talking politics; it is not just about governance or winning (or fixing) elections; it’s about good governance which is as easy to identify (as obscenity), when we see one.

     

  • Nigeria’s only lost once before

    Nigeria’s only lost once before

    The new generation will enter the pitch of the Royal Bafokeng Sports Stadium in Rustenburg on Sunday knowing that Nigeria has only ever lost a Cup of Nations quarter final match once before.

    The Africa Cup of Nations started as a three-team tournament in 1957 and 1959, entertained four teams in 1962, welcomed six teams in 1963 and 1965 and became an eight-nation finals in 1968, which format it maintained till 1990.

    In 1992, the expansion to 12 teams, with four groups of three teams each, meant there would be quarter final matches. Nigeria finished top of Group A in Dakar and defeated Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) 1-0 in the quarter finals, courtesy a goal by Rashidi Yekini.

    Two years later, it was the same 12-team format, and the same Zaire in the quarter finals, and the same Rashidi Yekini to score both goals in a 2-0 win in Tunis. The Cup of Nations became a 16-team finals in 1996 in South Africa, but Nigeria was absent for political reasons and was therefore barred from the 1998 finals in Burkina Faso.

    In 2000, as co-host with Ghana, Nigeria finished top of her group in Lagos and then sweated hard to defeat Senegal 2-1 in extra time in the last eight, both goals by Julius Aghahowa.

    In 2002, the Eagles pipped Ghana’s Black Stars 1-0 with a goal by midfielder Garba Lawal in Bamako.

    Two years later, Jay-Jay Okocha and John Utaka scored as the Eagles prevailed 2-1 over Cup holders Cameroon in Monastir. In 2006, Cup holders Tunisia was to fall 6-5 after penalty shoot-out following a 1-1 draw in Port Said. Obinna Nsofor scored for Nigeria before Karim Hagui equalised.

    In 2010, Nigeria edged Zambia 7-6 on penalties after both teams tied 0-0 in a breathless game in Lubango. It was only in 2008 that Nigeria lost in the quarter finals, when Yakubu Aiyegbeni’s early goal from the spot was cancelled out by strikes from Michael Essien and Junior Agogo in Accra.

  • ‘How we lost contact with Sade Adu’

    ‘How we lost contact with Sade Adu’

    Yetunde Oladeinde was recently in Ikere-Ekiti, the ancestral home of the world renowned singer Sade Adu. In this report she chronicles her meeting with members of her family.

     

    It’s a Thursday evening and you are in Ikere-Ekiti in Ekiti State. Then someone points at a structure in the neighbourhood saying it belongs to Sade Adu’s grandfather. There is no mistaking that name. Sade Adu, the Nigerian singer, musician and model who has put the name of the country on world map long before many of today’s music stars were born.

    A well-heeled family

    Other structures owned by members of the Adu family are only shown to you and you know it is indeed a well heeled family. And they are indeed proud of this ‘daughter of the soil’ and wished she visits home more often!

    You get curious and want to know more about the family. You take a look around the buildings and you get different versions of her family’s history, especially the fact that they have recorded a number of firsts. This takes you deeper and deeper into the family tree of the singer, song writer and music producer whose fame and achievement made the nation proud especially in the eighties.

    A neighbour pays tribute to Sade’s father, Prof Adebisi Adu, the Nigerian lecturer who married an English district nurse, Anne Hayes, in 1955. A spot is pointed out to you, “He (Sade’s father) was buried somewhere here initially but when they were having road expansion his body had to be exhumed and it was taken to a new site.”

    James Adebola Adu, brother to Sade’s father lives in the neighbourhood and you finally locate his house somewhere close by. He receives you warmly and happily he goes down memory lane to talk about his late brother, family history and life as an engineer. “Sade’s father and I are from the same mother and father. The Adu family is situated in Afao in Ikere-Ekiti. Our father was Josiah Alawemo Adu, a popular chief.”

    Ask him about what he admired about his brother and he laughs, looks up in the sky as if he trying to find answers to your question and he continues: “My brother was a lecturer at the University of Lagos. He later became a professor.”

    Memories are made of these

    What are the things they share in common? “He came with his life and I came with mine. Share? I came to do my own thing in this life and he also came with his own agenda. We had nothing similar. We only share the same blood. I respect him and anytime I need his service I go to him and anytime he needs my assistance I also go to him.”

    Next you want to know what he does for a living and he answers this way: “I am an engineer, I am retired and also tired.” You take a look around and you find some of the things he does around. “That is what I do when there is nothing to do. I worked as an engineer in Dunlop and retired in 1993. I did some electrical sales in Lagos before moving here. I sell some parts and do some minor repairs, which is what I do now.”

    Why did he decide to go into engineering? “First I joined the Police Force and was there for about three years. At a point I wasn’t interested in what was going on and so I left the Police. Then I went to Yaba College of Technology where I bagged my OND. From that point, I went straight to Dunlop and I worked all my life there, and never changed job. I love engineering very much. After my education at Yabatech, I would say that Dunlop was almost like a higher institution to me. You know, they had all the equipment and I had the opportunity to work with all the machines. At the latter end of my career I became the chief electrical engineer, which made me work everywhere. We worked mostly in the night. I was the most senior man on duty, morning afternoon and night. This made me know so much about engineering.”

    So, did this experience change his life? “Yes. I earned a very good salary, lived very well. I married and had children, eight of them.” You also want to know if any of his children followed his professional footstep. “The only one who read engineering is dead. All the others include accountants, teachers and other professions.”

    What about music, is anyone singing like Sade? He replies: “When you talk about music there are lots of musicians in my family. On my mother’s side that is their business, we have a lot of them, they are just local musicians. That is the talent that we have. The real local music, my mother was also very good in it.”

    Dunlop wound down its business in Nigeria recently, as an insider what really happened? “Well, I had left before they decided to move to Ghana. They moved to Ghana but I don’t know what happened. Everything collapsed and I don’t know the situation now.”

    Sade, the family’s icon

    Are you in touch with Sade Adu? “No! When I was in Lagos she used to phone me, she wrote me once. I used to talk to the mother, I used to talk to her brother, Banji.But since I moved down to Ikere I lost my phone and I don’t have any contact. For the past four years now, I would like to have the contact if I have the means. Sade is a nice girl. During the time I was in contact with them (with her brother), they used to send me a lot of money.” When last did she come to Nigeria? “She was born here and when her father died about 18 to 20 years ago she was here.”

    Sade’s grandfather Pa Josiah Adu was the Baba Egbe of African Church Cathedral, Afao, Ekiti. “In fact, he was one of the strong members of the church who fought cultism in the society and so they compensated him with that title. By the time the church was to be built there, there were lots of occult people who ganged up against it vehemently.”

    A brave grand father

    History had it that when the foundation of the church was to be laid, the cult people went to the piece of land overnight and planted maize which grew that same day in order to scare people away! “By the time the masons and those who were to dig the ground for the foundation laying got there, they were scared, but Pa Josiah went there, took a cutlass and weeded everything and he stood by them to start the construction. That was how the church was erected.”

    Adu continues: “During his time he was a cocoa merchant, he gave people money to train their children in exchange for cocoa. He was a lover of education and that was why nearly all his children went to school. Majority of them went to Christ School, which was a missionary school and in terms of quality of education it was one of the best then. He was a religious man to the core and a polygamist. Sade grand’s mother happened to be the second wife and their mother too was a renowned businesswoman. She stayed most of the time in Ikorodu, Lagos State, and at a time she was referred to as ‘Iya Ikorodu’.”

    She stayed there and carved a niche for herself selling traditional medicine and herbs. “That was what she was known for until shortly before her death, she had to retire and came home. Sade’s father was the first born of the mother and second born of the father,” Adu said.

    The Adu family is quite large and they have a lot of achievers in Nigeria and in the Diaspora. “Some of the Adus have featured in the Olympics; these includes Bunmi Adu, who represented the country in chess. He is one of the grandchildren. There is another member of the family who retired as General Manager at Afprint Textiles. Sade’s father, by records, happened to be the first Statistics graduate in the country and one of the first graduates in Ekiti. He was a lecturer at the University of Lagos. Of his children I know Sade and Banji very well, their mum is Anne Adu and she is based in the United Kingdom. Then they used to come home but there are speculations that they had other siblings from another woman.”

    On the major road you would find the family house and the building next to it used to be the cocoa store. Adu stated further: “At the moment, one of the Adu family members who is a pastor is using the facility as a church; it’s called King of Kings Christian Assembly. He is also a returnee from England after he had spent most of his time there and studied Mathematics. He is Pastor Rufus Adu. In the government of Governor Kayode Fayemi administration, there is Richard Adu, a retired engineer with Ilesha Breweries. We also have Biodun Adu, a medical doctor who was formerly with the UCH, Ibadan who is now in London practising Medicine.”

    In conclusion, he has a word of advice for President Goodluck Jonathan. “As far as Jonathan is concerned, I love him. He is trying his very best. I love his administration but I think he is weak about the Boko Haram thing. I believe that there are big guns behind them and that is why he is afraid. My advice is that he should not be afraid of them.”

     

  • ‘N37 billion lost to demolition in Abuja’

    Property owners may have lost over N37 billion to the demolition of illegal structures in Lugbe, Abuja, between last year August and October, this year.

    The National President of the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Nigeria (REDAN), Chief Olabode Afolanyan, spoke at the weekend during a World Press Conference on demolition in Lugbe.

    He said over 1,004 houses were demolished within the period under review.

    Afolanyan said the demolition was crippling the economy.

    He said: “Following the renewed move by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to demolish 38 housing estates in the Airport/Lugbe axis as stated by FCT Minister Bala Mohammed during his budget defense at the National Assembly on Tuesday, REDAN will resist further demolition.

    “Events in the recent past, particularly in the housing sector, require urgent attention. You will recall sometime ago that we had an unfortunate incident, where a government agency went ahead against appeals and demolished houses built by members of our association in Lugbe.

    “Shortly after, we had to engage ourselves and it had always been accusations and counter-accusations. We met and agreed to put all title documents together and address the issues, but two days ago, I read on the pages of newspapers that during the budget defence, the FCT minister said he would carry on with the demolition.

    “I was shocked because leadership is not about forcing things on people, but allowing them to participate in decision-making. It is sad that the minister has chosen to abandon due process. You will be shocked by the way land has been allocated in the FCT in the last one year.

    “We urge President Goodluck Jonathan to call the minister to order. Nigeria is not a banana republic where anyone can talk and act as he wants without minding the effect of the economy. If people have erred, they should be called to order in a civilised manner.

    “REDAN will resist further demolition in the FCT. Land racketeering in Lugbe needs to be addressed immediately because it has affected many businesses. The cement factory in Gboko has been closed down because of the glut in the market and the next thing that will follow is loss of jobs. Infact some construction companies have started laying off workers.

    A Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Information Management and Strategy, Hajia Jemila Tangaza, yesterday said the number of structures demolished was irrelevant because the buildings were illegal.

    Hajia Tangaza said: “After we demolished the structures in 2011, the developers went on to rebuild. We sent them stop-work and demolitions notices several times at various stages of development.

    “We have documented evidences, including videos, pictures and newspaper publications to this effect. The developers ignored all these and went on collecting money from innocent Nigerians and building, even though they knew they had no Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) or building approval from the FCTA.

    “The FCT is one of the five fastest growing cities in Africa and the administration will not condone illegality by developers. Abuja is the only planned city in Nigeria and such random developments will defeat the purpose for its creation.

    “The administration, under Mohammed, is committed to the provision of affordable homes for low income earners. That was why we introduced the social housing scheme. With this in place, dodgy estate developers will be out in the cold and ordinary Nigerians will stop being scammed by them.”

  • Fashola: Nigeria has lost a compassionate politician

    Fashola: Nigeria has lost a compassionate politician

    Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), yesterday commiserated with his Kwara State counterpart, Governor AbdulFattah Ahmed, on the death of elder statesman, Senator Abubakar Olusola Saraki.

    Dr. Saraki, who bestrode the nation’s political sphere, particularly that of Kwara State, for nearly four decades, passed on in Lagos yesterday after a brief illness. He was 79.

    In his condolence message, Governor Fashola expressed sadness over the sudden passage of the elder statesman whom he described as one of the most vibrant, colourful politicians Nigeria has ever produced. He said the nation has lost a compassionate politician.

    Tracing the political history of the man who is widely referred to as the Father of Kwara Politics, Governor Fashola noted that from the time he emerged in the nation’s political space in 1977 as a member of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1979 Constitution, Senator Saraki had consistently impacted on the politics of the country with such effectiveness, which made him a household name across the country.

    He said: “The consistency of his political views, which he expressed eloquently, was, perhaps, responsible for the leadership positions he held in the Senate into which he was elected in 1979 on the platform of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN), the All Peoples’ Party (APP) of which he was the National Leader in 1998 and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where his influence saw to the election of his son, Bukola, as Kwara State Governor in 2003.”

    According to Governor Fashola, “Nigeria has lost a political giant whose advice is needed, particularly at this period when our budding democracy is cutting its teeth and taking its challenging steps towards consolidation.”

    He prayed for the repose of the soul of the elder statesman and said Almighty Allah should grant the government and people of Kwara State, particularly the Saraki family, the fortitude to bear the loss.