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  • NBA seeks solution to nation’s challenges

    NBA seeks solution to nation’s challenges

    Why has Nigeria remained backward despite its abundant human and natural resources? Why has its leaders been unable to solve its myriad of challenges, particular insecurity, poverty and corruption?

    It is because it has had the misfortune of being governed by “transactional” and “pseudo-transformational” leaders, which has accounted for its underdevelopment, emeritus professor of political science, Jonah Isawa Elaigwe has said.

    In a keynote address at the 63rd Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), he said the country has not been blessed with “transformational” leaders.

    A transformational leader, Elaigwu said, wants to change the system to a new direction, and leads by example. A transactional leader, on the other hand, lacks vision, leadership skills and creative ideas of how to develop a nation, he said.

    The don described a pseudo-transformational leader is “a 419” (or fraudulent) head who transforms nothing but only uses the rhetoric of the transformational leader. Nigeria, therefore, needs a truly transformational leader.

    “One of the challenges of the country is to grow the economy. There can be no democracy on an empty stomach,” Elaigwu said.

    An estimated 8,000 lawyers gathered at the Tinapa Business Resort, Calabar, for the conference, which begin on August 25 and ended last Friday. It had the theme: Law, leadership and challenges of nationhood in the 21st century Nigeria.

    In attendance were Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), who represented President Goodluck Jonathan; former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar; Cross River State Governor Liyel Imoke and Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN).

    Also present were Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba who represented Senate President David Mark; House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal and Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Abubakar, represented by a Deputy Inspector-General of Police Marvel Akpoyibo.

    Former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Alfa Belgore, chaired the opening ceremony. The conference featured a show-case session with presentations by Atiku and Imoke, a plenary session, which examined lawyers’ reporting obligations under the money laundering regime.

    Several NBA fora, such as those on Section on Legal Practice, Young Lawyers Forum, Military Law Forum, Section on Business Law, Lawyers in the Media forum, Judges Forum, Women’s Forum, among others had separate sessions where they discussed various sub-topics bordering on the legal profession, rule of law and development.

    A day before the conference began, NBA held its pre-conference National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting. Religious services were earlier held to mark the beginning of event. Several social events were held.

    The kidnap of Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) led to several discussions on the country’s security situation, with lawyers calling for the creation of state police to tame the high rate of insecurity in the country.

    NBA President Okechukwu Wali said the conference theme was carefully chosen in view of the current trend of event in Nigeria.

    “The bar believes that once we get the leadership right in Nigeria, every other component of good governance will be well-established.

    “But we believe that apart from leadership challenges, weak legal framework which underpins sustainable reforms and economic development is part of the cog in the wheel of Nigeria’s progress as a nation,” he said.

    Adoke said any society which desires to bring about social justice and development will ultimately address “the functionality and centrality’ of law.

    “In my respectful view, social justice and a development perspective to a nation’s legal system requires that the rule of law must be sacrosanct.

    “This fundamental concept entails that rights (including economic rights) are protected and that arbitrary powers of the state curbed by the prescription of rules and codes that regulate and sanction,” Adoke said.

    For Atiku, nations are not built on empty promises, avarice, greed and corruption. There must be something which citizens can point to as a benefit from their country, such as security, education, health care, electric power, or good image abroad.

    “Our crossroads is clear,” he said. “The road to continued mediocrity is simply not an option. Nigeria today is on the wrong track. We must do better. We must change. We must finally realise greatness. This giant must rise!

    “The path to greatness demands honest, experienced and incorruptible leadership. it demands a sustained focus on economic development, critical improvements in infrastructure and uncompromised security system nationwide.

    “Greatness demands putting the dignity, hopes and dreams of Nigerians – especially our youth – first and foremost as we chart our next 100-year course,” Abubakar said.

    Mark said very Nigeria’s dream is to see a secure, just, equitable and prosperous Nigeria with strong social institutions and values, and developed infrastructure.

    “This Nigeria of our dream can indeed become the Nigeria of our reality through law and leadership. Our various problems will remain problems and challenges if we choose that they so remain.

    “On the other hand through leadership, leadership by everyone of us in any given position, we can turn these problems and challenges into opportunities. This we can do and must indeed do,” the Senate President said.

    According to him, in every calling or situation a citizen finds themselves, they must advance the common good.

    “Those in public life must offer selfless service and service from the heart; those in the legal profession must facilitate justice and not create obstacles to justice as we see today especially in criminal matters that affect the high and mighty of society.

    “Our justice system has created such widespread cynicism that it is now publicly canvassed that our criminal justice where the well-heeled are involved has been outsourced; that the big among us can only be successfully brought to justice beyond our shores. This situation is certainly not edifying and should concern the legal profession.

    “On terrorism, our judicial system is clearly yet to rise to the urgency of the need to stem the threats. The legal profession must always be resourceful and versatile to respond to challenges as they arise and you all must be involved.

    “We stand on the threshold of history and history beckons on us to seize the moment and transform our country. We must heed history’s call by contributing our very honest best towards making Nigeria of our dream a reality,” Mark said.

    Tambuwal said Nigeria faces serious challenges of nationhood, especially “crass insecurity of the proportions which in yesteryears was news from other lands.’

    “We have played games with tribalism and ethnicity; we have patronised the chess board of regionalism, sectionalism and now geo-political zonealism.

    “We have allowed these negative ‘isms’ to pull a wool that obliterates the reality that we are indeed a nation, however constituted, thereby denying ourselves the joy and benefits of oneness and unity.

    “In the face of stupendous wealth, resources and potentials with which we could build a united nation of prosperous people we are indirectly but gradually building two nations in one: A nation of prosperity and affluence on the one hand and another nation of poverty and squalor on the other, yet our desire and expectation is nation building.

    “It would appear that as a people we have thus far applied our intellect and wisdom in aid of our destruction. I am not in doubt, just as I am sure we all aren’t, that if we had deployed this intellect and wisdom in good governance over the years, we would not be suffering today from the challenge of mal-governance, from the challenge of poor infrastructure, from the challenge of insecurity, from the challenge of poverty and squalor, indeed the challenge of abject poverty of the majority,” Tambuwal said.

    Fashola, who called for the removal of Section 285 (6) of the 1999 Constitution that places a time-line on resolution of election petitions, said Nigeria will not need special agencies to deal with situation is people change their ways.

    On the need for an Electoral Offences Commission to prosecute persons for electoral offences, Fashola said such agencies only increase the cost of governance, consume tax-payers’ money, and in most cases, their performaces do not justice their existence.

    “The same money can be used to strengthen the investigative capacities of the police and the existing courts to do the same job. There, I say to us all, that we must never give up,” the governor said.

    He urged legal practitioners to see themselves as leaders, saying many nations have been led to greatness by their lawyers.

    “The Nigerian lawyers must rise from this conference and seek to be counted amongst the best professionals in their land by showing the way forward to build a nation where peace and justice shall reign,” he said.

    In a communiqué at the end of the conference, NBA said the Constitution, as it operates, does not truly reflect the people’s yearnings and aspirations.

    It added that ordinary amendments to its provisions may not necessarily cure the fundamental flaws in it.

    “There is, therefore, a dire need for a people-oriented Constitution, which will be subjected to a national referendum and will be self-enforcing,” NBA said.

    The NBA condemned the deplorable security situation in the country and “challenged” the Federal Government to review the strategy for fighting the menace of kidnapping and other forms of criminality. “The Bar condemns the seeming involvement of security officers in the payment of ransom for kidnapping and views this as aiding and abetting kidnapping,” NBA said, adding that payment of ransom by even the government can only serve as motivation and encouragement to kidnappers.

    NBA urged security agencies to rescue, sympathising with the police authorities and families of four policemen said to have been killed during the kidnap.

    The Bar identified corruption and unemployment as the factors leading to the degenerating security situation and urged the government at all levels to design workable policies to tackle the problem.

    NBA said to prevent the judiciary’s independence from being eroded, it should be well-funded, modern facilities should be provided in courts and corrupt judges must be sanctioned by the National Judicial Council.

    The association criticised the government’s economic policies, saying past reforms exacerbated the citizens’ economic condition.

    “The Federal Government should, as a deliberate and practicable policy, ensure that all economic reforms should be people-focused and oriented.

    “In its implementation of economic and social reforms, institutions should be structured and enhanced in order to achieve overall good for the people.

    “Governance should not be appraised in terms of the infrastructural development that is visible, but should be defined in terms of real human development indices.

    “Governance should focus on technical problems of political legitimacy, administrative and legal capacity and the improvement of public sector management, the legal framework for development, accountability through better auditing, decentralisation, the policing of corruption, civil service reform, and improved information on policy issues for both decision-makers and the public,” NBA said.

     

  • What about the state of the nation?

    In the noisy debate over the necessity to have the President address the National Assembly on the State of the Nation annually, fundamental issues are, once again, being ignored and the ridiculous being elevated. The federal lawmakers, in their wisdom, passed a Bill mandating the head of the executive branch to address both chambers once annually on the state or health of the country. S/he is to bring out salient issues, dissect them and provide answers to burning questions. It is expected that such an opportunity would afford the legislators the opportunity to ask and obtain answers to burning issues of national importance.

    Under the Parliamentary System, since the Chief Executive and his assistants are all recruited from the Parliament and continue to sit in the chambers, the Question Time affords the lawmakers to hold the executive accountable to the people through them. There is no doubt then that the most important arm of government is the legislature. This is not so under the Presidential System where the Chief Executive performs a range of functions that could sometimes lead him to believing that he is omnipotent.

    The kernel of the submission in asking the President to brief the lawmakers is that the Parliament is made up of representatives of the people and when the president addresses it, he accepts that he does not submit to the overriding Will of the People only during elections. The intendment is thus noble. However, does it really matter?

    What have the legislators done with the powers conferred on them in debating the general outlay of a president’s tenure at inauguration of the National Assembly? What has the federal legislature done with the power to debate and act on the Appropriation Bill? What have the representatives of the people done to ensure that only competent Nigerians are elected to key executive bodies? How thorough have the legislators screened those nominated as judicial officers? What has been done to amend the constitution to ensure that partisanship is shut out of the appointment of electoral and judicial bodies?

    It is funny that the Senators could, in one breath abdicate their responsibilities and in another attempt to assert themselves. The President is, in the first place, too powerful under the constitution and this is what the correspondence on the State of the Nation Address Bill has brought to the fore. President Goodluck Jonathan is right in saying he has power to scrutinize any bill forwarded to him. The constitution did not envisage that the Nigerian President would play the part of the British Monarch in assenting to Bills. Under the 1999 Constitution, as it was in 1979, the President is indeed the Chief Legislator. He initiates the most important bills and his signature is required in the process of transforming a Bill to an Act of Parliament. This is a fact that even senator Ita Enang, the ebullient Chairman of the Rules and Business Committee cannot contest.

    If the President must sign a Bill into law, then he could as well satisfy himself that it serves the nation well and, where he has an objection, he simply withholds his assent by sending it back to the legislature. It does not matter whether, in the process, he suggests an amendment or simply declines. It is his prerogative. The legislators also have the right and power to override that veto. This is the only response expected. It is political, not legal. Asking the Supreme Court to review the exercise of the President’s veto is begging the question.

    It does not require a judicial pronouncement to bring the President down to earth. He says he does not feel comfortable with certain sections of the proposed law and has pointed them out. The lawmakers have a duty to weigh his objections and see if they have merit. If two-thirds of members of the Senate and the House of Representatives think he has acted wrongly, his abjections are dismissed and the Bill is passed into law. At that point, it must be obeyed by even the President. But, where the numbers to do this are unavailable, the battle is lost.

    It is that simple. What would anyone gain by dragging the Supreme Court into this? At best, the Justices would rule that the President has acted ultra vires, not by returning the Bill, but by adducing reasons for doing so. So, what next? Does that transform the Bill into law? He still goes ahead and simply declines his assent? And what would the legislators and the nation have gained thereby? What we expect of these men who sit on top of cash in the chambers is ensure that the powers they have are well used.

    What well meaning Nigerians expect of their lawmakers is to use their powers in amending the constitution to ensure that only men f honour and integrity who truly obtained the mandate of the people in free and fair elections sit on the Presidential throne. They should ensure that never again are clueless men or women allowed to insult this great country by their performance. This they can do and must do if they do not want to be insulted over and over again.

  • Building a nation we want

    The idea of this country was conceived before 1960 that we gained independence. On October 1, 1960, we were given freedom to govern ourselves and grow as a nation. However, things did not go as planned.

    Before oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1958, agriculture was the main source of our income. Through this, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the then Premier of the defunct Western Region, built the first television station and a functional university among other things he did. When the geologists came to Oloibiri in today’s Bayelsa State, the story changed for the country.

    For years, Nigeria and its people wandered in the wilderness. The oil boom of 1960’s has now turned to oil doom in 2013. Instead of using the profit accrued to the nation from the sales of oil to develop and provide infrastructure such as electricity and good roads, the country witnessed unbridled official profligacy and fraud, which perhaps have not been witnessed in history.

    In 1999 when the military handed power to civilian regime, we had the opportunity to change our misfortune for good. Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, a former head of state, came in as the civilian president. Hopes and expectations were high. But at the end of Obasanjo’s eight years of misrule, Nigeria remained where it was during the Gen. Sani Abacha’s regime.

    Fourteen years after the return of democracy, nobody can answer if the nation’s fortune has changed for good. I have come to understand that Nigerians are great but desperate people, because we are ready to do anything just to get rich. We are best known in the Western part of the world as Internet fraudsters and money launderers.

    As I write this, many Nigerians are rotting away in foreign prisons for one crime or the other. But when one comes to think of it, most of our countrymen in jail abroad left the shore of this nation as a result of poverty in the land; without being allowed to work, some Nigerians believe that the only way they can survive is to engage in illegal business.

    The so-called elected democratic leaders, who got to office through our mandate – or should I say stolen mandate – pay little or no attention to the cries of the masses.

    The present administration of a man with no shoes is making now difference. Rather, through his policies, the president has made many Nigerians to suffer his fate while growing up by making a lot of us shoeless. The last time I checked, majority of Nigerians are still wallowing in poverty, a situation that has aggravated the security problem in the country.

    In all parts of Nigeria, criminally-minded people go on killing spree without anybody stopping or preventing them from committing the crime. A lot of lives have been lost to ethnic clashes. Recently in Sokoto State, 20 people were killed in a remote village because a cow of a Fulani man was slaughtered. Other parts of the country have not been left out in the bloodbath.

    The Federal government has not been sincere in tackling the root cause of crimes being committed on our land. Our destiny is in our hands. Up in the North, Boko Haram members hold sway. After declaring state of emergency, the criminal using religion to kill came back through the back door to attack secondary school, killing pupils and teachers in the process.

    When will this country of 52 years that prides itself as Giant of Africa starts intelligence gathering? Most of the killings in the North are sometimes targeted at selected individuals to settle personal or political scores. I once heard of a story of a man, who killed his boss by paying the assassins just N2,000 (equivalent of $20). This is the price of a life in Nigeria.

    It must be noted that poverty is the cause of these crimes being committed daily on our land. Presently, employment has reached unprecedented level; no job is being created despite huge funds that go into employment generating parastatal and agencies. It is only in Nigeria that we fight corruption using corruption.

    The truth is that the federal and the state government are not sincere about the plight of the people. In a level unimaginable, flood wrecked its havoc last year and two years ago, submerging some states and rendering people homeless and impoverished. This year’s raining season has begun but how many states governments and federal agencies are preparing for the consequence?

    When there is another flooding incident, perhaps the president might be on a tour of Asian countries, scouting for investors for a country where safety of human and businesses is not guaranteed.

    Nigeria is on the brink of collapsing; we must all stand up and fight for this great nation by tackling injustice, insecurity, corruption and vices, which have constituted cogs in the wheel of our nation’s progress. If Nigeria is to break today, it is the common men that would be worst hit, which is why we must act to save the country.

    Nigeria, as a nation, has a lot to offer its peer in leadership and economy. Ours is a country of great people but the onus lies on us to develop our country in order to provide the needed leadership for the rest of the African countries to follow. We must let go our religious and ethnic differences and work together as a united people to make this country better.

    The 2015 general elections is approaching; it is the time every Nigerian will get the chance to refresh his mandate and vote for progressive leaders that will have the interest of the country at heart. It is about time that we do away with selfish interest and do vote wisely to deserved leadership.

    Nigeria is a great country only if the people work in unity. That is when the world will know we are building a country and not a mere geographical entity where nothing works.

    If we don’t change who we are now, 2015 will come but there won’t be any difference in our politics, leadership and wellbeing. The change we have been waiting for won’t come if we don’t change our individual belief in thinking that we cannot get the government we deserve.

    Oluwatobi, 200-Level FUTA student

     

  • Nation hostage to peddlers of hope

    Teacher and Healer of Nazareth’ detested the hypocrisy and the evil intrigue that defined the essence of the temple of Jerusalem, the priests, elders, and the Pharisees of his day. He once drove out those who had converted the temple into a market for their wares. He was later to tell the murmuring self-conceited priests and elders that he could destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days.

    Jesus, as a friend of sinners, insisted the temples under Judaism, was no more than a business centre ‘where sinners seeking God’s mercy only got robbed by the priests’.

    And before his final betrayal, Jesus admonished his disciples saying ‘Neither in the mountain, nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship the father. God is a spirit and they that worship Him, must worship in Spirit and truth.”

    The Acts of the Apostle also told us that the Hellenists in Jerusalem after Christ crucifixion rejected the temple and took the message of God’s unconditional love for sinners to the Samaritans. They also in the First Letter to Timothy warned the congregation to “shun the teacher who is morbidly keen on mere verbal questions and quibblers’ because ‘God is to be contemplated about in the silence of the heart’. They therefore laid down a tradition of “prayer amidst poverty, faithfulness amidst suffering and of heroism capable of rising to martyrdom”.

    But 2000 years after the death of the Great Teacher and Healer of Nazareth, miracles seeking Nigerians and their jet age quibbling orators, like the Jews, their high priests and Pharisees have voted for temples. Massive churches of different architectural designs dot our land. The clarion call on Sundays and during special events such as burial ceremonies, by pastors is for generous donation in aid of new church buildings or for the renovation of existing ones. The fad among retiring civil servants, law makers and ex-governors is to build bigger churches for their communities. Even our president after collecting a gift of a small church for his community came to Lagos to rake in close to N7b to build a bigger church and recreation centre for his rural Otuoke fishing community. And for the multitude of jobless and poor miracle seekers, the bigger the temples, and the more loquacious their pastors, the greater the seduction their promises of hope and of miracle of ‘reaping without sowing’.

    And this perhaps explains the usual chaos and anarchy that is often associated with weekly migration of miracle seekers to Bishop Oyedepo’s 50,000-capacity temple where three services are held every Sunday, or to Pastor Temitope Joshua’s 15,000-capacity Synagogue of all nations every Sunday. And of course for over a decade, it has often been an agonizing experience for motorists passing through the Third Mainland Bridge, Ikorodu road towards Berger end of the Lagos-Ibadan Express way every first Friday of the month when Pastor Adeboye celebrates his Holy Ghost night. And for motorists coming to the commercial nerve centre of the nation, from other parts of the country, it has often been share misery.

    Last Friday, I spent over five hours between the University of Lagos and Berger end of the express road, a journey which will ordinarily take less than two hours in spite of the usual gridlock associated with Lagos roads. This situation which is said to be worse for other motorists coming to the nation’s economic nerve centre from other parts of the country has defied solution due to lack of political will by the federal government. It has often been lost on successive federal administrations that as a multi-religious society, Christians’ freedom of worship, must not impinge on the liberty of adherents of other religions including non believers. It is also often forgotten that even among us Christians, there are many who are not miracle seekers and that have chosen to abide by God’s injunction that man must live by his sweats.

    The number of miracle seekers has grown several folds in the last 13 years in the absence of a coherent employment policy by successive PDP administrations in the country. The Pentecostal churches and their prosperity prophets have become the only beacon of light providing hope for the hopeless and jobs for the unemployed.

    While ex-President Obasanjo, Vice President Atiku and other leading members of PDP and their sympathizers have built private universities charging outrageous fees, the churches and their owner pastors have also built institutions of higher learning solely as business endeavours, to cater for the needs of those that the government cannot cater for and their members that have the capacity to pay.

    The exploits of our pastors as successful entrepreneurs and employers of labour were late last year celebrated by Forbes which identified those it described as the richest pastors in Nigeria with diverse businesses interests in the hospitality, aviation, media, publishing and television.

    While government owned publishing outfits sold to favoured friends and sometimes crooks, have collapsed as a result of what the House Committee that probed privatization and BPE, described as ‘asset stripping,’ Oyakhilome’s publishing output is said ‘to churn out two million copies of his ‘Rhapsody of Realities,’ a monthly devotional which sells at $1 apiece.’ While Babangida, Abacha and Obasanjo sold Hamdala, NICON NUGA, Sheraton and Federal palace hotels in Kaduna, Abuja and Lagos, our pastors are running their own hotels as profitable ventures employing thousands of Nigerians.

    We can therefore say the churches and their jet age pastors have only come to fill a vacuum created as a result of government failure to meet its obligations to the people. And these churches and their prosperity prophets will continue to be relevant because if ‘religion is the opium of the poor’, as Karl Marx says, our market is huge. The will to survive by the desperate unthinking poor will continue to drive them to the embrace of con artists and quibblers who promise hope. And with abundance of unearned free money at their disposal, financial/oil fraudsters as well as thieving ex-governors and law makers protected by the state will continue to buy grace. The fortunes of private jet owing prosperity prophets will continue to rise.

    And today as it was in the old Jerusalem, in the last days of Jesus, some of our big churches both Pentecostals and orthodox, remain homes of intrigue where multi billion business deals are made, and havens for unapologetic vindictive ex and serving presidents.

    I think all we can do apart from reminding the state actors and the powerful pastors of the warning by ‘The Teacher and the Healer of Nazareth’ to the effect that, ‘repentant prostitutes will enter the kingdom of God before the Pharisees, is an appeal that the pastors take a cue from Jesus Christ, the true friend of sinners and his disciples who chose to move around taking the message of salvation and forgiveness of sins directly to the poor. They did not stay inside the Jerusalem temple to sell grace.

    Our pastors are after all better now equipped for true evangelization than Christ and his appointed apostles. They have access to technology, social media, and internet facilities. They own publishing outfits and television stations. They also have bullet proof limousines and armed security guards provided by the state. Some have even been credited with having as many as four private jets. Why must prosperity prophets, after robbing the poor, take a whole nation hostage in order to sell their invincible wares? These are after all mere promises of hope.

     

  • The Nation feted at Trade Fair

    The Nation was yesterday awarded a certificate of excellence by the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA).

    This paper was adjudged by ECCIMA as the best print media in the coverage of the 24th Enugu International Trade Fair.

    The award was announced at the closing of the 10-day fair.

    The certificate, signed by the president of the chamber, Theo Okonkwo and vice-president Emeka Ikpeze, was presented to the Enugu correspondent at the closing ceremony.

    Other media organisations which won awards include Radio Nigeria for the best in electronic media outreach; the Nigeria Televison Authority (NTA) and the African Independent Television (AIT) for the best visual electronic coverage.

    The News Agency of Nigeria won the best wire service media with permeating reach.

  • Farmer smiles home with The Nation promo car

    Farmer smiles home with The Nation promo car

    •Says: ‘I feel great

    A POULTRY farmer – Mr. Ganiyu Adeleke, yesterday smiled home with a brand new car in Abuja.

    Adeleke was the star prize winner of a sales promo organised for patrons in Abuja and the North by the The Nation and Sporting Life, a daily menu for sports enthusiasts.

    The lucky winner, a former employee of United Bank for Africa (UBA), now poultry farmer, described himself as an ardent reader of the brand, even without believing the promo was real.

    The promo was held at the corporate office of Vintage Press Limited, publishers of The Nation and Sporting Life, in Zone 3, Abuja.

    Adeleke, who is based in Jos, said the prize came at a time he was desperately in need of a new car.

    He said: “I felt great, I mean it was wonderful. When I saw it initially, I thought it was an arrange type we are used to. I am an ardent reader of The Nation. I have copies of the last two years in my office. So, when I saw the promo, I really didn’t give it any intention.

    “It was around the middle of November that something prompted me to participate in the promo. The spirit asked me ‘why don’t you do this thing, you have this papers in your house, why can’t you do this’ and I sat down and called my daughter to give me a scissors and I started cutting until when it was 92 pieces. So, I decided to e-mail it and I put it into prayer too.”

    When asked how he felt winning a car, Adeleke, who could not hide his appreciation, said: “I felt great; I mean it was wonderful.”

    Adeleke said he had a rickety car and that his children were planning to present him a brand new car on his forthcoming 60th birthday.

    He said it was the Lord’s doing for him to have won the car.

    His words: “I am a retired banker from UBA. I worked for 23 years and since 1997 I have been doing poultry business among other things. I have a car presently though, I do face some problems but I believe God for a new car.

    “My children are planning to buy a new one for me on my 60th birthday as a surprise gift and this one came. Really, it’s God’s gift.”

    He thanked Vintage Press Limited and prayed for God’s continuous blessing on the company and its workers.

    Presenting the keys to the Tata car to Adeleke, the Managing Editor, Northern Operation of The Nation, Alhaji Yusuf Alli, said: “We will sustain the excellence which has earned The Nation the confidence of avid and analytical readers in the country.

     

  • APC, hope of the nation

    APC, hope of the nation

    SIR: Until recently, I almost lost hope as to whether there was anything the progressives could do to revive this country from total economic and political collapse.

    It was on this premise I wrote a piece titled, “Open challenge to the progressives” published by this newspaper on April 7, 2012. It was a thing of joy when the progressives took the bull by the horns as they decided to work together and came up with “All Progressives Congress” (APC) to challenge the PDP. In my own opinion, what will differentiate APC from the PDP are its manifesto which all future governors and leaders of the party should adopt. As a Nigerian adult, I cannot mention PDP programme because the party has no clear-cut programme for Nigeria.

    I will like to suggest the following reforms to the committee in charge of manifesto for APC. Employment generation through agriculture should be given a place of pride. Since PDP took over the mantle of leadership in Nigeria in 1999, agriculture has gone into extinction. Agriculture, they say, is the bed rock of country’s economy.

    Education reform that will encourage qualitative output should be in focus. As a corollary, Advanced Level education should be re-introduced as a means of entry into our universities. More colleges of education should be established while the existing ones be properly financed. More Technical Colleges should be established to run courses such as carpentry, electrical installation, fisheries, refrigerator and air-conditioning etc: These of courses will encourage the graduates of these colleges to be self-reliant. Instead of the current three years spent in the technical colleges, the reform can make it four years. The Polytechnic education should be strengthened while relevant technological programmes should be mounted.

    Discipline should be entrenched into the country’s curriculum. If there is discipline in the land, individuals will not embezzle the pension and gratuity of those who had served their fatherland meritoriously. If there is discipline, a governor of state will not divert the resources meant to develop the state for his personal purse.

    Health is wealth, says the popular adage. More than 14 years PDP administration in Nigeria, top government officials and the wife of the President past and present still seek medical services outside the country. I personally feel ashamed of this. The manifesto of APC should accommodate functional health services at all levels.

    Electricity should be privatized to make it functional like that of Ghana and Togo. The party should introduce new things to Nigerians and let them have taste of what our leaders enjoy when they travel outside the country such as metro line, good security services etc.

    Once again, I salute the courage of the leaders of those political parties who have agreed to work together to liberate the country from the current economic and political bondage. It takes courage to do this, and God will see them through. They should not allow sharing of positions and personal interest to work against the smooth take off of the party. God will naturally arrest the enemies of this country, especially those who are determined to work against the merger.

    • Gabriel Enialola Ayimoro

    Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko

  • ‘Theatre is the soul of a nation’

    Martin Adaji is the Artistic Director of the National Troupe of Nigeria whose outing in China recently proved to the world the importance of culture in bridging friendship among nations. In this interview with Edozie Udeze held Beijing, Adaji China, bares his mind on the role of dance, theatre, tourism and more in keeping the world as one

    What to you is the role of the National Troupe of Nigeria in a bilateral cultural exchange like we had during the Nigeria cultural week in Beijing, China?

    The National Troupe of Nigeria has found this opportunity, a singular one for that matter, to prove its mettle, not only in the eye of the international community, but actually to express what we can do to our law-makers who happened to be on ground and who fortunately were satisfied with what we have done. It has not been easy but the most important thing is that we have been able to do what we are established to do – perform Nigerian dances to the best of our abilities not only in Nigeria but anywhere, where the country demands that we do so. What we have done during this celebration and how the people have received us have proved that we can always do it if the mandate is properly in place.

    What you saw yesterday and what the Minister of Culture, Chief Edem Duke, said is that the bond of friendship which has been more on the pages of newspapers has been realised now. The level of cultural relationship between Beijing and Abuja has been elevated and we all are elated about it. It is now on a more concrete terms. You could see Nigerians and Chinese bond together in love and peace.

    From the type of songs and dances on stage, both from China and Nigeria, you could see that we have certain similarities in terms of culture. This is going to promote a lot. Nigeria is more of a cash society and that aspect was hammered on by the minister. But that does not mean we want to launder money. Although gradually we can become a cashless society and that way we will come to terms with what obtains elsewhere, this is therefore part of what this visit will do to the understanding of both nations in terms of culture. It may not have its immediate yields and impact now, but what is there is that we have gone round to see that the possibility of empowering our creative sector is there.

    In terms of technical facility, we can partner with our Chinese counterparts and you saw that they have plenty of it. But in terms of workforce, Nigeria is equally rich. We can give much to our culture. The content of our culture is what the National Troupe of Nigeria is meant to portray and has been portraying. That content has to be provided for. A lot of people on the streets have the creative skills but cannot go beyond their practice.

    To empower such people is what we have been able to do so far. In order to make them flourish we provide them with some of these technical support. If we then have China as our partners, we will go a long way indeed.

    We propagate so much theatre in Nigeria, but do we truly practice theatre?

    What we must realise is that we have theatre, but do we really have a Nigerian theatre? Can we say we have a Nigerian theatre? See, we have over 250 distinct ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. To me, that is credit because it means the freshness of appeal of all our cultural heritage can never run dry.

    We have variety; all these ethnic nationalities have other distinct cultures which account for the variety we have in Nigeria. So, China has the packaging, we have the content. If we merge both, we’ll be able to develop our own. And you must know that the world is a global village now; no one individual nation wants to do it alone. You have to be in contact with others; you have to be in touch too making friends where necessary in order to move ahead.

    We have a lot of content but we lack in the area of packaging. In this area, we can now come to an agreement between the two countries. You see, what the Chinese team did on stage was not really extra-ordinary, it was the packaging that did it for them. There were no drummers but the music played on because it was produced. If we partner along that line, we can travel with less people and so on.

    Most troupes that come to Nigeria, they mime a lot but you’ll never know. They look so real and so nice. So, if we can package ours like that we can go places. We use so much human efforts to do little. But what we do now is to take so many people off the streets who will live on culture, ply their trade and move on.

    We do not have enough stages to do all that. What can government do in this regard?

    For me, this is a fertile ground and government cannot do everything. Capacity building can be private-sector-driven. A lot of entrepreneurs in Nigeria can go into it. They can build theatres on their own. It is goldmine; it yields money, but a lot of people may not know. People can build and let them out and make money from there. If we do that and develop the sector well, we will be able to keep arts alive and also attract tourists to the country.

    From what we have seen here in China, you will agree with me that culture holds a lot for a nation. But first the sector has to be properly developed by those who love to preserve culture. And you see, if we can take just two percent of Chinese going out of China to Nigeria during this cold period, we have a lot. And that means a lot of foreign exchange for Nigeria and for the sector.

    We should also stop thinking that tourism is an elitist pastime. No it is not. And that is why we need to develop our domestic tourism in order to encourage our people to fall in love with it. I know there are challenges with every day living. Nigeria is not an exception. But if you take a holiday for say a week or two in a year, trying to visit one destination, you discover you’ll be much more productive when you resume. As at the moment a lot of departments in the sector are making it possible for people to show more interest in tourism.

    I am sure if we key into this agenda, we will make room for more money to be generated internally from tourism, not to think of people coming from outside.

    We have infrastructural problem in the sector. How do we overcome it?

    Yes, insecurity is also a problem. But it is over bloated somewhat. Nigeria, to tell you the truth, is not the worst in the world. There are plenty of security problems in the world that are never reported. The press will help us in this regard. Other parts of the world fight for people to come to their country. This is what we need to constantly do too.

    Yes, the infrastructure will develop gradually. More people now show interest in the sector and with time it will be better. Nigeria is a beautiful country. You are here now in this room, you can’t get out because of snow. We do not have weather challenge. It is warm in Nigeria, the people are good, the food is good and so on. So, we will get there someday soon. Yes, we will, I can assure you of that. Let all of us put hands together to build an endearing sector for all of us.

     

     

     

  • For The Nation, it’s been a year of breaking stories, giving insights

    For The Nation, it’s been a year of breaking stories, giving insights

    in the last 12 months, The Nation has broken stories, provided fresh insights into general stories and shown leadership in the business of news gathering and dissemination

    It was not just about good prose. Of course, good prose makes for good reading. But facts were the oil with which The Nation dazzled its readers in the outgoing year. With prose, sometimes blended with poetry and facts, usually exclusive to the medium, this newspaper has been able to use “truth in defence of freedom”.

    Aesthetics, fantastic layouts and nice blend of pictures also stood the paper out in the outgoing year.

    It all started in January. President Goodluck Jonathan gave Nigerians a curious new year gift: increment of pump price of petrol to N120. It was a stock to Nigerians. Queues surfaced at filling stations. Black markets began to spring up. Labour leaders started talking tough. The Federal Government said there was no going back. And the battleline was drawn.

    For about five days, the country was shut down. From the South to the North, it was total collapse of the economy. Of course, Lagos took the lead with the Gani Fawehinmi Park hosting hundreds of Lagosians, celebrities, human rights activists and so on – venting their anger against the government.

    The Nation followed it all through. But not like others. It made extra efforts to be different. From its page one to the other several pages daily devoted to the debacle, it was vintage The Nation. Its front pages for the days of rage almost went tabloid with one-word headlines. One day, our photographer caught soldiers keeping watch at the Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota sleeping. They used their boots as pillows.

    Our knack for exclusives saw us breaking stories throughout the year. We also provided new leads to general stories. We broke stories on Boko Haram suspects in detention. On January 25, we reported that there was going to be a shake-up in the police, with a prediction that Jonathan was out to sack Hafiz Ringim as the Inspector-General of Police and that he was going to replace him with an Assistant Inspector-General of Police. The following day, Jonathan dropped Ringim and Dikko Abubakar, an AIG, was appointed as our report the day earlier indicated.

    Another good example of a knack for breaking stories is “Sokoto gives SSS clues on sect’s leaders”. We were also there to give fresh leads on the Halliburton scandal.

    The burial of the late Biafran warlord, Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, was another opportunity for the paper to show its class. Throughout the funeral days, the paper did special reports on various aspects of the Ojukwu story.

    The Dana Air plane crash was for this newspaper more than one event. It was an event with several angles to it. It was one story we never quite left. And we got accolades for it.

    Among several stories on the Dana crash, we told that of 35-year-old Ikechukwu Ochonogor, who until he died in the crash, was an employee of FEDEX Courier Services.

    His father, Mr. Ochonogor, 67, paced up and down without speaking when The Nation visited the family home in Akesan-Igando, on the outskirts of Lagos. He only acknowledged greetings from guests. At a point, the sexagenarian, who was blessed with six children (four men and two women) shouted: “Oh, my life is gone…” Ikechukwu was said to be his favourite child.

    His wife of about five years, Tolulope, was extremely sad. Their two-year-old child, Binichukwu, is still young to understand what fate has befallen him.

    The deceased’s mother, simply called ‘Nma’, 67, sat with her siblings but would not attend to media inquiry.

    We went after many others and let the readers into their world of pains.

    On May 21, the newspaper, as it is wont to do, took the Federal Government to task, with a three-page investigative story on Federal projects. Entitled: Federal Government projects: signed, sealed, but undelivered, the report x-rayed projects awarded between 2010 and 2011, it found out many of them were either abandoned or would not be completed on schedule.

    A part of the report reads:”One of the contracts approved by the Federal Government on September 22, 2010 was the supply of 60, 000 units of 240 litres Plastic British Waste Bins to Messrs. Pentagon Group of Companies. The conract sum was N927,600,000. The bins were meant for the streets of Abuja. But about two years after, the bins are nowhere to be found.

    “The Head of Department, Solid Waste Management, Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), Mr. Ahmed Rufai Hamis, told The Nation that the contract was stopped when it emerged that the contractor could not execute it.

    “On April 4, last year, FEC awarded a contract for the provision of engineering infrastructure to Maitama Extension District, Abuja, to Messrs Magrovetech (Nig) Ltd for N23, 650 billion. The due date for completion is May 2014.

    “For now, only clearing of the site has begun.

    “Another contract, not likely to be concluded as at when due, is the National Library and Cultural Centre. The government, on March 17, 2010, approved the augmentation of the contract for the construction of the National Library Headquarters Building Complex in Abuja to Messrs. Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) Limited at N17,005 billion. The amount was reviewed from the initial sum of N8, 415 billion. The project due for completion in 21 months. It has been over 24 months since the variation was done.

    “Workers at the sight referred the reporter to the Ministry of Education, where The Nation was told to write officially to request for information.

    “At the site of the design and construction of the Nigeria Cultural Centre and Millennium Tower Projects being handled by Messrs. Salini (Nigeria) Limited, building engineers asked the reporter to get information from the FCT ministry. The project awarded for N18.998billion has no specified time for its completion.

    “The Nation found out in Port Harcourt that the Land Reclamation/Shoreline Protection at Amadi-Ama in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area of Rivers State, awarded by the FEC on December 15, 2010, seems non-existent.

    “The Nation’s reporter moved round Amadi-Ama community in a taxi owned by an indigene of the area, without any trace of the project.

    “On the FEC’s contract for consultancy services and work on the establishment of the Centre for Skills Development and Training, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, with PTDF as Implementing Agency, the site could also not be located.

    “Officials of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing/Urban Development at the Federal Secretariat, Port Harcourt could not locate the site of the project.

    “Government officials contacted on the location of the centre could not provide information on the exact location.”

    On July 3, this newspaper discovered that the army uniform Jonathan wore at an event was that of a field marshal, a rank no Nigerian military officer has ever attained. We ran a front page story, which reads: “He has said he is neither a General nor a Pharaoh. But yesterday, he looked every inch a Field Marshal, a rank no living or dead Nigerian leader has ever attained.

    “The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, at the inauguration of a production line for arms and ammunition by the Army, frowned like a soldier as he took the salute. Not that he did not smile intermittently, but his countenance, for most of the time he gracefully wore his Field Marshal rank, was soldierly. He shook hands and smiled excitedly when a sharp, brisk salute would have been just okay. But Dr. Jonathan looked good in his customised army camouflage/combat uniform.

    “The President feels at home anywhere he goes. When in the Southeast, he becomes an Igbo man decking the traditional dress with a red cap.

    “The last time he visited Ibadan, Oyo State, he adorned buba and sokoto, with the abeti aja cap to complement it. When in the North, the babariga sits pretty on him as though he were one of them.

    “He has felt at ease in Tiv attires, just like Idoma clothes have seen in him a perfect frame.

    “On Saturday, when he was in Benin to campaign for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he became a Bini man, with red beads dangling on his neck.

    “He has also been momentarily Navy and Air Force officer. But his outing yesterday caused more than a stir in some circles. The President wearing a Field Marshal rank—perhaps the first to do so in recent times— sure takes the icing.”

    The murder of the late Cynthia Osokogu was another opportunity for this newspaper to show that it understands what it means to exhaust a story.

    We did it so well that the father of the deceased singled out the paper for praise for its professionalism in handling the matter.

    This newspaper showed leadership in the coverage of the United States November elections, which President Barack Obama won. Its reports have been hailed as second to none. With a reporter from the medium going from one rally or vote canvassing event to the other in places such as Milwaukee, Janesville, Chicago, Washington and so on, the newspaper was able to feed the readers back home what no other medium gave the Nigerian audience.

    The helicopter crash which killed former Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa, former National Security Adviser (NSA) Owoye Azazi and for others also gave this newspaper yet another chance to show its leaderships in news gathering. We were the first to see the Azazis, felt their pulse and let the world know their pains. We got his children to relive their last moments with him. No other medium but The Nation also met the parents of the co-pilot of the ill-fated helicopter at Iyana-Ipaja, a Lagos suburb. The Sowoles let us into their home and we let the world into the home of these parents whose 32-year old son was consumed by a crash no one is sure of its cause. We were also in Fadan Wagoma, the town which lost the late Yakowa.

  • The Nation man loses dad

    Pa Michael Olatunji Aderibigbe, father of Mr Yinka Aderibigbe, Head of the CityBeats desk of The Nation, is dead. He was 84.

    A retired school teacher, community leader and frontline member of the Anglican Church, Pa Aderibigbe (aka Baba Enire) was for many years a church warden and Treasurer of the St. Stephen’s Church, Itaasin, Modakeke, Osun State (now Cathedral of St. Stephen’s). He was as a selfless and forthright man.

    A disciplinarian and committed educationist, the late Pa Aderibigbe is survived by a younger sister, two wives, children and grandchildren.