The Nation Newspaper

Tag: metaphor

  • Africa’s tallest Christmas tree as Cross River’s metaphor for growth

    Africa’s tallest Christmas tree as Cross River’s metaphor for growth

    THE lighting of the Christmas tree has been a ceremony that usually ushers in the world-famous Calabar Festival, a 32-day long activities of fun and festivities over the years, often performed by the governor of the state midnight of November 30 every year at the Millennium Park.

    Besides boosting the economy of the state, the festival is hoped to be the platform for youths with budding creative talents to achieve their full potentials. Hence realising the importance of this, Nollywood superstars, as people who had excelled due to their talents and creative abilities, were brought in to participate in the lighting of the tree as representative of the intentions of the festival.

    Governor Liyel Imoke speaking at the lighting ceremony assured better quality from the festival this year. He said part of the aim of the festival was to expose talents.

    He said: “Cross River State has got talent and what we have done today is the beginning of the festival, the acts. We have showcased some talents we have never seen before. Some years ago Inyanya performed here but now he is a superstar and that is what we want to see happening in Cross River with our young men and women that have talent, who are creative and create beautiful things. This year’s festival represents an expression of our people and ourselves that as a people nothing can overcome us. We start the festival with the theme for the carnival simply, Aint No Stopping Us. That means there ain’t nothing that can stop us.”

    Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Edem Duke, said it was in recognition of the need to boost creative talents for the betterment of all that a N2 billion project for a creative academy was on-going in IkotNakanda in Akpabuyo local government area of the state.

  • Anambra and the metaphor of Nov. 16

    By certain twist of fate, November 16 has assumed a good measure of significance in the individual and collective social diary of Anambra people. On November 16, 1904, the great Zik of Africa, without whom Nigeria’s independence from Britain would have taken a different turn, was born. And on November 16, 1930, Professor Chinua Achebe, the man whom at death earlier this year, was reckoned as the most popular African, next to Nelson Mandela was also born. Similarly, November 16, 2013 is regarded as a watershed in the historic determination of the people of the state to reclaim its lost glory through the exercise of democratic rights in an election scheduled for that day. Chequered best describes the history of the state since the return of democracy in 1999.

    However, it must be admitted that the very major reason why the November 16 governorship election in the state is being hotly contested is the inability of the incumbent governor to engage unimpeachable leadership as its most portent tool in neutralizing the capacity of the opposition in the state. Had the Peter Obi administration posted an enviable and unassailable record, it would have been easy for APGA to solidify its hold on Anambra as its impregnable forte, making its mantra of continuity an easy ride. The reverse is however the case. Obi appears to have squandered a golden opportunity to etch APGA in the minds and souls of the people of the state. Besides, the APGA choice of candidate for the election came with its own dose of controversies. The insistence of Obi to restrict the choice to Anambra North, and went further to force out all other aspirants from the same zone, only to settle for his former officer in Fidelity Bank, ruffled many fathers and brought suspicion as to whose interest is served. Verily, APGA committed a tactical error in retiring Professor Chukwuma Soludo from the contest. It has been written somewhere that all the noise about November 16 gubernatorial election in Anambra would have been rested were this brilliant professor of economics the candidate of APGA but those who hate the collective interest of the state, who know that the erudite economist would neither be dictated to nor cover anyone else’s dirty track, and would have none of “Fidelity business “ conspired to impose Governor Obi’s puppet.

    As it is, Obi is finding it difficult to convince Ndi Anambra that his party is their best choice and that Obiano whom he wants to succeed him will lift Anambra beyond the extant ordinariness that he and his supporters are unwilling to accept. To many discerning minds, it is difficult to imagine that while rural states like Jigawa has built an international airport to shift attention from Kano, Peter Obi conceded billions in revenue accruable to our posterity to Delta State whose Asaba Airport is enjoying unprecedented boom from Onitsha commercial city. It is hard to fathom the sense in a development paradigm where a rural state like Ebonyi whom Obi deported their indigenes from Anambra is building a power plant, the home of industry, technology and commerce in the whole of West Africa under Peter Obi’s APGA is engrossed in building business parks!

    It defies every economic sense that while a rural Gombe State under brilliant Ibrahim Dankwambo is driving a regime of industrialization to take over from the nearby Plateau; few surviving businesses in Anambra are closing down and migrating to Asaba. It is shocking that a governor who has spent close to eight years in power has waited till the eve of his departure to announce intention to recruit 10,000 workers, worst, the interview for the jobs scheduled three days to the election. It is unnerving considering the manner monies not appropriated by the state assembly is being thrown about to woo governmental and non governmental institutions in the state. Many shudder at the religious and clannish dimension the campaigns have taken in a contiguous and mono-cultural state, forcing others to imagine endlessly without an answer, the meaning and essence of the continuity drum beat.

    But the campaigns are on and different candidates doing their very best. The APGA candidate, Willy Obiano, no doubt a gentleman is doing his very best to break away from the cocoon and shadow of his godfather, Obi. But his manifesto and promises are premised on continuity of Obi’s programme and policies. His later day programmes just released last week which included free education and free medicare appears a poor imitation of that of the candidate of the APC, Dr. Chris Ngige who anchored his on free education, free medicare for mothers and the aged, overhaul of the health sectors, re-engineering of the civil service with particular emphasis on training and manpower for the schools, reduced tuition fees at the state owned higher institutions and an airport.

    Notwithstanding the barrage of damaging propaganda from the APGA well-oiled media machine, Ngige remains the man to beat in the election. It is very difficult in this clime to see a politician who after eight years out of power is still as popular and relevant. This is also not withstanding ceaseless cash donations to churches, to schools and individuals by the APGA regime, aimed at intimidating and narrowing the influence of the man, probably chase him into his native Idemili River, but he looms larger in influence. Ngige no doubt has benevolent spirits all around him. For the first time in the history of the state, poor market women are voluntarily contributing money to the success of a governorship candidate. At Oye Olise Ogbunike, a local government market, just recently, market women pulled their wrappers for Ngige to march on- the highest respect one can earn from women folk in our tradition. Youths and children are not left out. His message is unrelenting. “I have done it before. I can do better even better. It is not about me. It is about our children and the future of the state. We have the human and financial resources to make Anambra State a place everyone would like to go to. Statistics don’t lie. While I was there, Anambra was the richest state in the country, today we are the 20th in poverty ranking in the country. We must look at people based on who they are and their ability to deliver”. He added, “The Party they belong to is secondary”, referring to Gov. Obi’s labelling of APC as a Yoruba party.

    The battle will be fierce but all the determinant factors for victory are pointing at his direction. In a state where Obi has polarized politics along denominational lines, Ngige is Catholic just like the APGA candidate. His native Idemili North and South where he is a prince commands a voting capacity that neutralizes all votes from for the four core councils of Omanbala where Obiano comes from while the remaining Onitsha North and South as well as Ogbaru of the same North are Ngige’s forte. Ngige will clear the rest of his central senatorial zone while the South will be free for all, with Ngige having an edge.

    • Obidiwe writes from Awka.

     

  • The Mo metaphor

    About a decade ago, a certain gentleman and business mogul, a Sudanese to be precise who goes by the name Mohammed (Mo) Ibrahim was so exasperated by the abysmal level of governance and leadership in Africa, he decided to do something pragmatic to change the situation. He set up the Mo Ibrahim Foundation which in turn created the Ibrahim Index for African Governance (IIAG). He then instituted the biggest of all prize money awards in the world for the African leader, president or head of state that behaved well and led his people right when in office.

    In deed, the Mo Ibrahim cash prize is a whopping $5 million (about N800m) to be disbursed to the winner over a period of 10 years; there is an added prize of $200,000 (about N32m) to be earned annually for life by such goodly leader. It is Mr. Mo’s pragmatic effort to impact leadership by seeking to eliminate pecuniary worries and providing an assured future for leaders who choose the straight and narrow route. Having reckoned that corruption occasioned by the fear of what the future holds leads many African leaders to covet public treasury thereby derailing their modest efforts at governance; the huge cash reward was meant to be an incentive for quality leadership.

    But after seven years of this noble experiment, Mo must be disappointed if not mortified that the Mo index may have become a metaphor, an indicator for gauging poor, irredeemable governance in Africa. The IIAG may have succeeded only in showcasing to the world that good leaders are hard if not impossible to find in Africa. Since 2007 when the Joachim Chissano won the inaugural edition, only two other leaders have won it – Festus Mogae of Botswana (2008) and Pedro Verona Pires of Cape Verde (2011). Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu were given honorary and special awards respectively in 2007 and 2012.

    Without any disrespect to Mozambique, Botswana and Cape Verde, it could be said that since its inception, the prize had not been won by any leader of note. The leader of such a country that would make a big bang and the reverberations would engender a push and pull effect across the continent. Where are the regional giants like Nigeria, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, South Africa, Angola, Kenya, Zambia, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, to name a few?

    Mo must get increasingly frustrated that an idea that was hailed as brilliant at inception is fast becoming a dead dock. In four out of its effective seven years, the foundation could not find a worthy recipient for the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership across the entire continent. Thus for 2009 and 2010 no awards; it is the same story last year and currently.

    But if only this was half of the story, perhaps Mr. Mo would not be so frustrated but in its latest survey of African countries by the Foundation from 2000 to date, Nigeria, the giant of Africa has been slipping down the ladder, representing a bad example for the rest of the continent. For instance, she fell eight places in the ranking down to 41st out of 52 countries of Africa. And in the sub-region of West Africa, Nigeria ranks 13th out of 16 countries.

    What this sad story means for Nigerians is that such small west coast regional countries like Benin, Togo, Liberia, Burkina-Faso and Guinea are better governed than Nigeria. The Mo index has actually become a metaphor for the very poor quality of governance and leadership in Nigeria more than anywhere else in the continent.

  • The metaphor of Abia Tower

    Two coloured birds sat complacently atop the Abia Tower this cloudy Sunday evening. They were chatting away happily, oblivious of the chaos of motorists below the height of about 100 meters. The gigantic concrete tower stands at the middle of the Port-Harcourt/Enugu Expressway at the interjection into Umuahia metropolis. Beyond its towering height and aesthetic grandeur, there is a quite significant meaning and message in the edifice. The imposing tower, built in Gothic cathedral designs with a concave metallic arch, is the first structure that welcomes one into the Abia State capital. With a certain reassuring air, it announces this hospitality with a bold inscription: Welcome to Abia ; God’s Own State. There are four of this inscription facing the four directions of the road, all written in bold white letters on a background of black metallic plates. The walls are painted in pink and light yellow colours which glow with the translucent lights overlooking the ground from the height. I see the tower as the first brand ambassador of Abia State and it has consistently lived up to this billing with the warmth and friendliness conjured into its magical designs – a quality it transmits to visitors and residents alike as they behold its majestic heights. It embraces everyone and quickly introduces the people and the style of the incumbent leadership. Since 1991 when the tower was built, it has remained a landmark structure with some architectural elegance around it. There is an effort, perhaps unconscious, to re-enact the surreal Gothic designs with its galloping pillars and the hollowness of its interior. A ring of iron bars encircles and secures it and there is a staircase that leads to the first elevation where a greenery of flowers has been laid out like a farm around it. There is a clear effort to create an enduring and beautiful statute. But, there is obviously no intension to have the tower speak in political tunes or stand as a fore-runner to the style of a current political leadership. All former leaders before Governor Theodore Orji saw it as only what it is – a statute, a tower. They could not see the potential in the concrete object as a great image-maker for the state and for the manner of leadership. Indeed, the Abia tower is an embodiment of the Abia story – a journey through stagnation and then revival. It is an epical monument capturing a dispensation in the people’s movement. Though a mere object of cement and gravel, it projects the message that is Governor Orji’s travails and triumph in the corridors of power. It celebrates the revival and the rebirth that are the governor’s stewardship. Before 2007 when Governor Orji came on board, the tower was a statement of stagnation. In very unmistakable terms, it told the story of the style and manner of leadership of Governor Orji’s predecessor. The tower was weather-beaten, dirty, dilapidated and literally abandoned. Happy and well-fed spiders built a mast of cobwebs around its concave parapets. The paintings wore out and the smooth surfaces peeled. The surroundings remained unkempt and overgrown with the inner pavement transforming into a defecation point for hoodlums and motor parks boys around the place. Some letters of the bold inscription cleaned off and the walls cracked with neglect. It was a shoddy sight which provided a parallax view of the eight-years of Abia’s stagnation. In year 2000, when I accompanied some tourists, journalists and movie-makers to attend the eight-day UgwuAbia cultural festival, the Abia tower was an eyesore. It was a demeaning testimony of neglect and stagnation and it spoke volumes about the style of the government of the day. Thank God! Today, there is a new Abia tower. Quite cleverly, Governor Orji saw an opportunity in the tower to tell the message of his vision and the giant political strides. Upon ascension to power in 2007, he quickly renovated the tower and has consistently maintained it as a treasure for the state. Since then, the towering structure has continued to wear a new and sparkling look. It has recovered its charm and mystique. With the new paintings, the bold inscription has come alive. On the ground and around the surroundings, there is a beautiful greenery dotted with flowers. And in place of the old garbage is a beautiful arcade which has added to the beauty of the landscape of this inroad into Umuahia. Indeed, the Abia tower of today speaks eloquently of the new Abia. The new, beautiful outlook, in abstract forms, represent the rebirth and the attendant changes that have come with the liberation. It is a testimony of Governor Orji’s transformation efforts transmuted in a concrete structure. This transformation has seen to the laying of a fresh foundation for Abia, an enterprise under which he converted Abia into a huge construction site. There are many sides to the message of the new tower. The first is the testimony of the two coloured birds. The sense of order and tranquility conjured by the uniformity of the design and the paintings represent the new society of law and order which is the current status of Abia. This air of peace evokes the memory of the governor’s pragmatic struggle to create a society of law and order out of the chaos of the past. There was a time when Abia was almost like a pariah state due to the challenges posed by kidnappers. Today, Abia is an oasis of sanity in the federation. There is security in Aba, Umuahia and other parts of Abia State, a situation that has transformed Abia to a destination of choice for major national events. The JAMB, NUJ, CBN, Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) and other national organizations have all come to Abia to hold their conferences and retreats. This is a testimony to the success of Orji’s commitment and policy in the area of security. From being a pariah state, Abia is now a destination of choice. The second message is coming from the renovated walls of the tower. It speaks of the governor’s large-scale programme of infrastructural renewal. Under this programme, Orji started by laying a totally fresh foundation for the state. With a paltry federal allocation, he has been able to build legacy projects, like the world-class Conference Centre in Umuahia, the new four-storey Secretariat Complex, the new Government House, the Abia Diagnostic Centre in Umahia and Aba, the new High Court building, new modern offices for the Broadcasting Corporation of Abia and a host of other monumental projects. The roads in Aba and Umuahia have been transformed. The third message lay buried in the beautiful grounds and greenery of flowers around the tower. I see it this the governor’s agricultural revolution and his efforts to revive the time-honoured Abia agro-economy. Under this effort, he revived the cashew and palm tree plantations of old. He disbursed N1 billion micro-credit to farmers and established the liberation farms in the 17 local councils of the state. Already, 50 Abians are working at the Okeikpe farms, the pilot project of the liberation farms where plantain is being bred Truly, the Abia tower is a lucid narrative about Abia’s transformation. • Adindu is the President-general of the Abia Renaissance Movement (ARM)

  • ‘Kakadu is a musical metaphor for Nigeria’

    With the symbolism of Kakadu, Uche Nwokedi (SAN) has been able to weave the story of the glorious days of the country into a musical theatre that is the rave of the moment. Edozie Udeze encountered him on the reasons for the play and the issues that informed the concept

     

    The story is a metaphor of sort, depicting the glorious days of Nigeria, using Lagos as a mirror. But more than that, Kakadu – The Musical, is hyperbolic in a refreshing dramatic sense. In a way that dazzled thespians at the Muson Centre, Lagos, last week, the show displayed Lagos in a time of infinite possibilities, beauties and unpolluted landscapes.

    Written by Uche Nwokedi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the story sets out to represent major landmarks in Lagos, and Nigeria as a whole, using salient social issues as the primary focus. In an interview, the playwright, Nwokedi said; “Yes the story is used as a metaphor not only for Lagos, but for Nigeria as a nation. Kakadu speaks about an era in Nigeria when things were good and people loved it.”

    For a lawyer-turned-playwright whose love for what is good cannot be disputed, “from the stories I have been told, in those moments in time, people lived happily as one people. It was the period when people saw one another as brothers and sisters and life was generally good.” And so with the cast and crew of over 60 people, Kakadu has come to represent one of the greatest ambitious theatrical ensemble in the country.

    The idea, in the reckoning of Nwokedi, was to “weave a story around songs that I grew up listening to, and at the same time using the songs both as a dialogue in the play, and as milestones for the passage of time. Thus the music became a character on its own and in a sense my alter ego in the story.”

    In a profound theatrical sense, the songs as they came in those moments of peace and glory as from the 1960s became pivotal in the assemblage of the stories embedded in Kakadu. Nwokedi explains further: “Yes, the songs helped me bridge the fact that I do not write music. And my own experience as a child in the civil war and attending boarding school in Lagos after the war, guided me in making the war the backdrop of the story of Kakadu… Well, a really good student is the one who learns from his experience.”

    And that, indeed, was what propelled him to dissect the events of the moment and package them into a wonderful stage performance that thrilled theatre audience to no end last week. Kakadu is best seen on stage where both the artistes and the era they represented appealed to the conscience of the people. With a broad based musical band playing different highlife tunes to ginger the people on, the stage was indeed electrifying to portray the moods of the people. It was so engrossing to see different fashions of the time, the type of people who made waves and what they stood for. It was such a moment of absolute glory, joy and happiness.

    A night club in the 1960s, Kakadu now defunct, was for Nigerians a place to unwind, a place to socialise and be at peace with one another. There was no fear in the air then. People were wont to stroll into the night to have fun, to dance and discuss burning issues of the moment. Although Lagos has since remained more than a melting point for all Nigerians, Nwokedi regrets that Nigeria has not been able to replicate more cities to help decongest Lagos.

    He said: “Let us be honest with ourselves. If we have another city that has as much promises and opportunities that Lagos has for Nigeria, we will be the best for it. People come to Lagos from all parts of Nigeria because of problems and social issues. But beyond that, it tells us to do things right so that the nation will grow and give hope to the people. Right now, security is a big problem in the country. Policemen are being kidnapped; people are being killed everyday. Ten years ago, if you told me this was possible, I would have said no. That is the major problem and I will throw the question back to everybody – is Nigeria getting better?”

    With the music of such quintessential Nigerian icons like Fela, Victor Olaiya, Victor Uwaifo, Rex Lawson, Celestine Ukwu, Bobby Benson and so on, Nwokedi’s Kakadu constituted a broader narrative into time. Some of the musical tunes even became more elegiac depicting the emotive issues they portended.

    “Highlife was the main music then in the 1960s and they represent what we are today,” Nwokedi concluded.

     

  • Iginor as metaphor for child abuse

    Iginor as metaphor for child abuse

    Over the years, the case of child abuse in Nigeria has been alarming. With no end to the cases of child abuse in every part of the country, it appears no one cares.

    In the Federal Polytechnic, Bida (BIDA POLY), Iginor is a form of child abuse, which is common in the city. Just as Almajiri has remained worrisome in the northern states, Iginor is deemed an open embarrassment to the locals of Bida, especially the educated among them.

    In Nupe dialect, Iginor means “a child” irrespective of gender. But on the campus, the term is used to describe an adolescent, who roams about the street and off-campus hostels to sell petty wares and help students to fetch water in return for money.

    These children, which are between the ages 5 to 18 years, are released by their parents to learn Arabic education but they are sent out to hawk on the streets due to financial problems of their Mullahs, who cannot feed nor provide the basic need of life for them. Therefore, these kids are sent out to source for what to live on and most times, they are given targets to be brought back each day.

    To attain the targets and to cater for themselves, Iginors embark on begging or labour work. Such children are usually aggressive and violent as they are exposed to pressure and hunger. The kind of work they do to make living demand energy. They visit hostels to wash clothes for students, and go to restaurants to do all sorts of menial jobs. Through such activities, the kids are exposed to molestation, hunger and other forms of social violence.

    The female among them risk being rape. There have been cases when some of them are sexually abused by local youths, who forcefully slept with them.

    A case of child abuse was recorded recently when a young female hawker entered one of the off-campus hostels. In broad daylight, the minor was raped by a male student. Friends of the rapists tried to bury the matter, but it still became public knowledge with the incidents being broadcast among students. But the matter ended there.

    Similarly, not too long ago, a young boy, whose age would be below seven, was seen struggling to carry a 25 Litre gallon of water on his head in order to be given N20. When asked on what he wanted to do with the money and why he had to fetch water, the chap said in Nupe dialect that he was asked by his parents to go and work in order to bring money. When asked if he was in school, he said he had not started going to school.

    These are some of the cases where underage children are subjected to hard labour and molestation because of pecuniary benefit. Of course, it is simply a child labour, which offends all known codes of human civilisation. Asking adolescents to do strenuous exercise, which many adults cannot do is child abuse.

    These children wander about without going to school. Without education, they will end up to be losers in whatever perspective we may look into it. Some of them are not even attending the Arabic schools for which they are sent much less western education.

    This practice must stop because these young ones are leaders of tomorrow. They are the future hope and pillars, without which the future may look bleak in terms of development. If Iginor is allowed to flourish unabatedly, all the violence visited on the kids will stick in their brain and they may grow up to become criminals in the society within which they live. This will surely be a setback for the society because increase in rate of crime is being attributed to increase in number criminals being bred in the society.

    It is important that children’s right be protected, preserved and maintained. The basic children’s needs are quality education, effective health care, shelter and nutrition.

    Once these basic necessities are provided, there is no doubt that they can perform wonderfully well in their undertakings and can deliver as leaders of tomorrow. No one knows who among today’s children will lead the nation to a greater height tomorrow. When a child’s rights are denied, the hope for a better tomorrow is prohibited.

     

    Precious, HND II Mass Comm., BIDA POLY