The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigeria

  • Elumelu seeks $2.5b Japanese investment for Africa

    Chairman, Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu, has asked Japan to invest $2.5 billion representing  five per cent of its $50 billion commitment to Africa.

    Elumelu, African investor and philanthropist, spoke at the seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Yokohama, Japan.

    “At TICAD 2016 in Kenya, Japan pledged $30 billion for Africa. This year you have generously increased this to $50 billion. If we invested just five per cent in Africa’s new generation of entrepreneurs, following my Foundation’s robust, proven model of getting capital directly to those best placed to catalyse growth and create real impact, we could touch 500,000 lives, across the 54 African countries, broadening markets, facilitating job creation, improving income per capita, and laying the key foundation for political and economic stability”, Elumelu said.

    Read Also: Elumelu challenges global leaders to empower African entrepreneurs

    His statement captured his vision of a relationship between Japan and Africa, which prioritises economic and shared prosperity. He outlined the three key pillars of a bold and transformative structure: investment in infrastructure, partnership with the African private sector, and investment in Africa’s youth.

    He urged Japan to learn from the example of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, which champions empowering African entrepreneurs, as the most sustainable means of accelerating the development of Africa. The Tony Elumelu Foundation, in just five years has assisted over 7,500 African entrepreneurs across every African countries, with seed capital, capacity building, mentorship and networking opportunities through its $100 million Entrepreneurship Programme.

  • Cleric to Buhari: release Sowore, others

    Senior Pastor of the Awaiting The Second Coming Of Jesus Christ Gospel Church in Akure, Ondo State, Adewale Giwa, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to release the founder of Saahara reporters, Omoyele Sowore and other political detainees.

    On September 20, the federal government slammed Sowore with seven charges bordering on alleged treasonable felony, fraud, money laundering and cyber-stalking.

    Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal Court in Abuja ordered his release after observing the 45-day ruling to keep Sowore detained had expired.

    But days after meeting the bail condition, the DSS had yet to release Sowore.

    While describing the action of the DSS as against the principles of democracy, Pastor Giwa called on President Buhari to remember God that saved him from a long medical absence in the United Kingdom and set Sowore and others free.

    Read Also: ‘It’s premature for Presidency to intervene in Sowore’s case’

    “We make plans but the Lord determines our steps, according to Proverbs 16:9. Nobody is greater than Almighty God who created us, and everything is temporary, nothing is permanent.

    “I don’t know whether Christians and Muslims are serving the same God. If we do, president Buhari should think about the God that saved him from illness in the UK and listen to the cries of Nigerians.

    “Since 1999, Nigeria has produced three Presidents before Buhari and none of them is there as a sitting president. Your time shall go, and another person shall come in.

    “Out of the three past presidents, Nigerians today can talk about who did well or not. The most important philosophical question to ask ourselves is that; what can somebody say after you?”

  • OAU collaborates with academy to offer advanced professional certificate course

    Africa’s first Practical School of Integrated Brand Experience and Idea Management, Orange Academy and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State are collaborating to offer a new academic programme to be known as the ‘Advanced Professional Certificate in Brand Experience Design and Communication Arts’.

    The formal announcement of this collaboration and the new programme was made at the 10th Orange Academy Immersion and Art of Positive Thinking (APT) ceremony held at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja-Lagos.

    The ceremony, which is an annual rite of passage for every graduating Brand Experience Specialist of the Academy, celebrated the graduation of 75 graduands who now join an army of over 5000 alumni that are often referred to as ‘Orange Minds’.

    The event was also attended by family members and friends of the graduands, Orange Academy alumni, Orange Academy board members and stakeholders, who were delighted to warmly receive the team from the Obafemi Awolowo University led by Dr. Adeola Ogunrin of the Department of Adult Education and Lifelong Learning, who made the collaboration officially public.

    Read Also: OAU ex-student wins UNICAF scholarship

    Ogunrin, while addressing the gathering on behalf of the Vice Chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof.  Eyitope Ogunbodede, said: “This evening we have come before you to say that Orange Academy has become a part of us. We have studied Orange Academy very closely and believe very strongly that they are worthy of this collaboration. The Obafemi Awolowo University will ensure that the highest standard that we are known for is strictly adhered to during this programme and collaboration. The programme, Advanced Professional Certificate in Brand Experience Design & Communication Arts, fits into the vision of our department which is to fill the gap in vital areas of developing manpower, training, professional and other important components of adult life. The curriculum has been so designed to cater for relevance and advances at the workplace to impact lives positively for a better Nigeria.”

    The Advanced Professional Certificate in Brand Experience Design & Communication Arts programme is a two semester course that spans a six-month duration of major practical sessions, which upon completion will earn participants the Advanced Professional Certificate in Brand Experience Design & Communication Arts from the Obafemi Awolowo University.

    Speaking on behalf of the Provost, Faculty, Management and the entire workers of Orange Academy, spokesman for the academy Femi Odukoya said: “We are so delighted that after such a conscientious journey of creating and offering of the brand experience programme for 10 years, the Obafemi Awolowo University’s collaboration with us is an attestation to our commitment and vision of ‘This One thing’. Our vision of ‘This one thing’ is to discover and nurture the inner creative self to tell stories that can change businesses, brands and people for good.

  • Kogi PDP: Torn apart by primary

    The Kogi State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is battling with post-primary crisis that may affect its chances at the poll. JAMES AZANIA, reports.

    At the end of the governorship shadow election of the Kogi State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Musa Wada emerged as the flag bearer for the November 16 governorship election.

    The emergence of Wada, brother of the immediate past governor Capt. Idris Wada, who also contested for the ticket, upset his co-aspirants.

    Wada polled 748 votes to clinch the ticket. He was trailed by Abubakar Mohammed Ibrahim, the son of former Governor Ibrahim Idris (Ibro), who garnered 710 votes.

    Capt. Wada came third, with 345 votes, while Senator Dino Melaye polled 70.

    Others include Aminu Suleiman- 55 votes, Victor Adoji-54, Erico Joseph- 42, AVM Saliu Atawodi (retd.)- 11, Emmanuel Omebije- 9 votes, Mohammed Shuaibi- 4 votes, Bayo Michael- 2 votes and Jabiru Haruna- 0.

    The counting resumed in the disrupted primary, setting the stage for disagreement. If not well managed, litigation, post-primary litigation may affect its chances at the poll.

    The exercise ended abruptly, following the invasion of the Lokoja Confluence Stadium, venue of the primary, by gunmen.

    Voting by delegates had, however, ended and sorting of ballots under way, when the gunmen stormed the venue at around 1.45am, causing pandemonium.

    Votes in eight out of the 10 ballot boxes had been sorted and counted before the disruption. The Governor Umar Fintiri-led election panel called a meeting of the 13 aspirants and it was agreed that sorting and counting should continue.

    Counting was to proceed at a lodge, adjacent the Government House, Lokoja, with all the aspirants and their agents present.

    Many factors led to Wada’s emergence. Money played a big role.

    Read Also: Kogi PDP’s rubble after electoral storm

    The aspirants, in their bid to outdo one other, shared $1,000 each to delegates, while another was said to have added a motorcycle each, to the $1,000 he shared.

    Prior to the commencement of the shadow poll, an aspirant, on hearing that rumour of his purported withdrawal from the race was gaining ground, retorted: ‘how can I step down; when I gave the highest (money) to delegates?’

    Such was the uneasiness. Rumours pervaded the atmosphere, including an allegation that one of the aspirants ochestrated the invasion of the venue, on seeing signs that voting was not going in his favour.

    Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West), who was initially reported to be heading for the courts to challenge the outcome of the exercise, later rejected his appointment as the Director-General of the PDP Governorship Campaign Organisation, a position that later went to T. J. Yusuf (Kabba/Ijumu Federal constituency).

    The paradigm shift, in the emergence of Wada was near seismic, not jolting the party establishment, but also highlighting some perceived trends that stakeholders questioned.

    Wada’s emergence began to appear more in the shape of setting new trend in dynastic tendencies in the affairs of the major opposition party.

    A member of the PDP and former Acting Governor, Chief Clarence Olafemi, who served as the DG of the Abubakar Atiku presidential campaign organisation, during the general election, kicked.

    Olafemi, whose son was to run as deputy to Abubakar Ibrahim, son of former Governor Ibrahim Idris, if their permutations had materialised, opted for rapport with the APC government, saying he has been short-changed by his party, despite the sacrifices he made for it.

    He gave the hint that he was on his way out of the PDP.

    The primary also turned out to be a Kogi East affair. Kogi East is home to the majority Igala-speaking tribe.

    The Idris and the Wadas played central role in the process. Hence, the inevitable clash of family interests, more so that support crossed filial lines.

    Of the 13 aspirants that contested, the Wada family paraded two; the eventual winner and his elder brother and Idris Wada.

    Before the exercise, pundits had narrowed it to a two-way race between the immediate past governor and the son of Alhaji Ibrahim Idris.

    The PDP had ruled Kogi for 13 unbroken years, before the All Progressives Party (APC) wrestled power from it, at the November 21, 2015 governorship poll.

    While Musa Wada, younger brother of Idris Wada and son in-law to former Governor Ibrahim Idris (Ibro), emerged the candidate, followed closely by Abubakar Ibrahim Idris, another Ibro son, Ibrahim and an elder brother to Musa Wada’s wife, threw his support behind Capt. Wada.

    The initial bad blood between the Wadas was highlighted by a security detail, who spoke under the condition of anonymity.

    He claimed that when the shootings started, he and others made to safeguard the Wada brothers, and after managing to get the younger Wada into a waiting SUV, the elder brother and former governor, bluntly refused to join in the same vehicle, notwithstanding the danger that stared all in the face”.

    The primary panel had a lot to contend with. It called a meeting of the 13 aspirants, paving the way for the conclusion of the exercise, but not the bad blood.

    Between the Wadas, it would appear, however, that all may have been put behind them. The former governor was said to have declared afterwards, that he held no grudge against his younger one, and expressed his readiness to work for the victory of the party.

    “The delegates were wise. They rejected Ibro and Wada (the two former governors), because of bitter rivalry between them, and picked another person.

    “Wada after the election said he would not appeal, and also decided to call his brother to congratulate him and that settles the political feud. It is more complex in Ibro’s family, but I know common sense will prevail,” said a party chieftain.

    Not only is it feared that the rancour within the Idris and Wada clans may negatively affect the electoral fortunes of the party, other simmering and resolved grievances may further bedevil the main opposition party.

    Relations between Ibrahim Idris and Capt. Wada, who was handpicked by the former as his successor, is at low ebb.

    At the last Kogi PDP congress in Lokoja, Capt. Wada refused to acknowledge his predecessor. He did not exchange pleasantries with him, despite the close proximity in their sitting arrangement.

    Another son of former Governor Ibrahim Idris,  Suleiman, was the major backer of the failed return bid of the last Kogi PDP governor, to the Government House Lokoja.

    There is division in the Kogi PDP family. It can at best be summed up as precarious. The management will go a long way in determining the fate of the party in the election.

  • ‘Sanwo-Olu poised to develop Lagos’

    Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is committed to actualising the vision of making Lagos one of the top five African cities of choice to invest, live, work and recreate as a tourist destination, Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions Mrs. Ajibola Ponnle has said.

    She spoke at the opening ceremony of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) annual training for union members with the theme: “Labour Leadership: Growth, Opportunities and Challenges”. It was held in Ikeja, Lagos.

    Ponnle, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Office of Establishment and Training, Mr. Abiodun Bamgboye, said the present administration is resolute to build a greater Lagos anchored on inclusiveness, shared vision, prosperity, investment in people, safe environment and eco-friendly infrastructural development.

    Read Also: Lagos to host Global Citizen Festival 2020 —Sanwo-Olu

    She said the Sanwo-Olu administration is deploying the T.H.E.M.E.S. (Transportation and Traffic Management, Health and Environment, Education and Technology, Making Lagos a 21st century Economy, Entertainment and Tourism, Security and Governance) agenda as its strategic thrust for service delivery, stressing that the outcome is better quality of life and improved standard of living for the residents.

    Mrs. Ponnle hailed the union for the annual training of members, saying it was educative and informative.

    She said the labour leadership, like any other, must be better equipped with skills, knowledge, competence and attitude to manage followers in a more creative and productive manner.

    The commissioner said as a strategic partner with the labour centres and trade unions, her ministry looked forward to a more robust and rewarding government- labour relationship.

    TUC Lagos State chapter Chairman Comrade Gbenga Ekundayo said the essence of the training was to change members’ minds from the old ways of doing things to better opportunities that would not conflict with the fundamental purposes of trade unionism.

  • 203 students get scholarship, bursary

    Two hundred and three indigent and non-indigent students of tertiary institutions in Eti-Osa Local Government in Lagos State have received bursary awards of N20,000 each.

    Three got scholarship awards of N200,000 each, while 20 widows got N10,000 each and food items.

    Executive Chairman Eti Osa Local Government Saheed Bankole said the scholarship awards were given out to students with outstanding performances in their academic fields, noting that it was the first time such would be done in any local government.

    He  said the scholarship awardees were selected based on those with higher Grade Point Average. The students are: “Hikmat Maiyegun, Olayiwola Remilekun and Rufai Olamilekan Saheed.”

    Bankole noted that the local government in a bid to imbibe the attitude of prudent spending and the need for savings into the subconsciousness  of the students,  partnered  Wema Bank and created a personalized bank account and debit card for each recipient of the bursary award and scholarship.

    He advised them to be proactive and more enthusiastic, saying it gives credibility to all the efforts put in place either by the government or corporate organisations.

    Bankole added that the support for the widows was to put a smile on their faces.

    Secretary to the Local Government Idowu Badru advised the students to use the funds given to them judiciously and  craved the indulgence of the widows benefiting from the financial support to bear with the local government and manage what has been given.

    He pledged on behalf of the council to do more subsequently.

    A retired Director, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Mrs Abisola Adekoya, urged the widows to carry on their lives and build a sustainable business or career path for themselves.

  • For Lagos train, it’s 44 sitting, 99 climbing

    As the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) mulls the suspension of the Iddo-Ijoko Mass Transit Train Shuttle (MTTS) service today, DAMOLA KOLA-DARE, who rode on the train last Friday, urges the Federal Government to improve the narrow gauge.

    The bluish-black outstripping cumulus clouds stirred the fear of another heavy rainfall in the heart of those preparing for work. Time was 4.30 am when the reporter made for the railway station, despite the soft, seductive and alluring breeze almost drawing him back to the dream land.

    As a result of the heavy rain of the previous days, the road that leads to the ticketing office of the Agege station was marshy. The nondescript structure (a portakabin), which serves as the office for the railway brimmed with hordes of beggars even that early. Some could be seen in some corners folding their sleeping mats. Mosquitoes were seen waltzing in the air, but no one seem to pay their presence any attention.

    The only thing in the room that served as office for the ticket tellers were three old settees; one fully tattered; a wooden table darkened with soot and plastic chair. Not all passengers could sit inside when told to wait a little by ticketing officers. Those lucky to be inside had to give full attention to the mosquitoes who had a field day looking for where to perch to draw just a pinch of blood most mostly haggard looking people waiting for the next train.   In what was regarded as the normal practice, the ticketing officer, rang the bell to rally intending passengers to purchase tickets. Passengers trickled in to buy tickets. A ticket sold for N230 for a Mass Transit Train.

    According to one of the railway officials, the train coming from Ijoko station was headed for Iddo station. She stated that there would be two trips in the early morning rush hour and later in the evening. However, she noted that afternoon trips had been cancelled temporarily.

    Commuters who missed the morning trips will have to settle for public buses to their destinations and return the train station to see if they would be lucky to catch a ride home.In the meantime, everyone had bought tickets, and a blast of horn was heard from the train and several passengers started ‘the mad rush’, trooping towards the platform to board the train. Within minutes, all the 10 coaches were filled to the brim. Entry into the train, which was partially full even at this wee hour of the morning wasn’t easy.

    Commuters crowded the various doors to the coaches. As a first timer, the reporter wriggled his way through one of the coaches however and scanned for possible empty seat to drop his wearied weight. He found none. That meant standing all through the journey to Mushin. The clattering metals and the jerking raises pangs of fear – what happens if one of the coaches suddenly pulls off. The reporter quickly shut out the fear. Nothing, he said, must compound his fright. The train reminds him of a bubble waiting to burst. Men, women, boys and girls in their numberwere aboard the train.

    With everyone clustered up, there was no room to manoeuvre. Not even on the aisle. Before it got to Shogunle, there was no leg room again as people nestled on one another. The saving grace was iron bar at the roof which an army of hands clutched for support. It was observed that there were different groups of people on the train, those who prefer the free space atop the train (rooftop riders).The itinerant herbs peddlers, beggars going to their begging stations to eke out a living for the day, most of who are blind and are accompanied by their guides, traders and artisans living along the border towns who are rushing to their various stations for the day’s livelihood and those like the reporter having their first baptism of what the train ride feels like. The last set of people are easily spotted in the crowd, even from their dressing, which seemed out of place in the rickety contraption of the stuffy train.

    Moments thereafter, the train crawled out of the station, snaking its rusty way across the rutted old track. A boisterous cacophony of noise from inside the passengers inside the coaches mingled with the loud clatter of the iron wheels to create a noisome culture which many say was the culture of the train on the route. The rooftop riders, obviously in their own world, preened and chatted idly as the train gathered speed. Also, some passengers hung in between the coaches like bees in a hive. With the train extremely over-crowded right from the outside, it was an ugly sight which gave an inkling of what to expect in the disgusting interior. An official of the Nigeria Railway Corporation, who does not want to be named, said the organisation routinely arrests hitch hikers. For him, even if you have a fundamental right to commit suicide, the corporation would not permit you to execute it within its property.He described rooftop riders as “an accident waiting to happen”, adding that many fatalities recorded during derailments were always from roof riders.

    “These are people who are seconds away from disaster yet they remained undeterred.” Most rooftop riders, he according to him are hoodlums, adding that despite a N50,000 fine or prosecution slammed on anyone caught, the act persists.Bejide, a passenger who was displeased with those who nestled on the roof of the train, said: “Those guys have been warned several times, but they will not heed.

    They keep endangering their lives. They jump on the train because they don’t want to pay and would rather put themselves on devil’s way.

    ”When this reporter asked one of the train attendants who donned a jacket labeled NRC, if he could get a place to seat in any of the other coaches, having shown him his ticket, the tetchy official fired back with contempt: “Even those who had come much earlier didn’t get a place to seat…”The train which plies the Ijoko to Iddo route has seen better days. It is only fit for the scrapyard.

    As another passenger observed, the railway is a testament to the failings of a country that prides herself as “the giant of Africa.””It is a shame to think that such ramshackle contraption still exists in the country and citizens are still riding on in. The creaky coach painfully portrays the country’s glories carted off to the knacker’s yard,” the passenger said to no one in particular.

    Though the atmosphere was unsavoury with stench oozing from all corners perhaps owing to the overload, most people seemingly enjoyed it. They chattered and guffawed at will. Those who didn’t take part in any conversation slept while sitting. Others plugged  in their earphones as the journey wore on.

    At each station, commuters disembarked, and in the process barged into those standing, stepped on them and stained them with their dirty shoes. It continued like that as passengers alighted at Ikeja Along, Shogunle, Oshodi, Mushin. And thereafter, someone who looked well-groomed from home will now shockingly look disheveled like a spineless man who just had a wrestling bout with a madman.As the journey progressed, an elderly Muslim cleric preached to passengers. Speaking with the conviction of an orator, he not only held his ‘audience’ spellbound but dished out his message with magisterial swagger. His prayers were passionately responded to with loud “Amen.”It was like early morning tonic for adherents of the Muslim faith.

    Another elderly man with petite frame advertised a herbal concoction which he claimed could cure all ailments. Clutching a black polythene bag, he had to squirm his way through to make people buy his “magical” product.

    The interior of a cramped up train was not the best place to market such a product, but he had thought otherwise.

    A mild drama ensued between some passengers standing. A middle-aged man raised his voice to show his displeasure to another man who had seemingly insulted him. After sometime, frayed nerves were calmed.

    As the train galloped on the tracks, Yusuf, a passenger, who was delighted said: “I have always liked a train ride. For me, it is a great experience. It is cheaper when compared to commercial buses.

    Apart from that, it is an avenue to make new friends. Forget the inconvenience, we always have fun here either sitting or standing. In fact, a friend once celebrated his wedding with us in the train. It is nice,” he gushed.Another passenger disagreed with him, she said: “I don’t really fancy train ride in Nigeria, perhaps due to the old and unattractive trains we have here.

    For instance, we cannot compare trains in the UK and China to the ones we have here. Those ones abroad are much better and they offer pleasurable  and comfortable rides.”

    A regular train user noted that he uses the train service not because of comfort or pleasure but because there is no worry of incessant traffic congestion, then it is price-friendly.

    Railway, it has been observed comes across as one of the most explored form of transportation around the globe. Majority of people enjoy travelling by train for different reasons, for instance there is a chance to view different scenes that cannot be seen via cars, for some just for the fun of adventure and because it offers safety. But it is doubtful if one can enjoy a train ride especially with the regularly jampacked Lagos trains.

    Meanwhile, Lagosians wait with bated breath for the actualization of the Red Line from Agbado to Marina and the spur track from Oshodi to Murtala Muhammed Airport as promised by the state government. Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu had in July reiterated his desire to ensure effective, safe and reliable multi-modal transportation system that would aid unimpeded movement.Nonetheless, long after shuddering to a halt, the loud blast of the train’s horn still reverberates in the memory of this reporter.

  • ‘To secure, we have to love: herdsmen, kidnappers, Boko Haram and the climate of fear’

    It is also a story of economic hierarchy. The herders are not the owners of the cattle. Some of them are owned by shadowy big men, who encourage them to bring home the profits. So those who argue against the herdsmen also are pitching battles by proxy against the Fulani hegemon. It makes the matter even more complicated.

    The question of banditry has become another hobgoblin. Is the herdsman a bandit, or it is just the bandit masquerading as herdsman. If the herdsman was so busy trying to sell its cows, what time will they have to sell their cows if they lay ambush everyday on highways?  According to some analysts, the herdsmen exist who have always been with us. These men still occupy the farms and wreak havoc. They still want grazing fields for their animals. Yet, when we see them, we only see sticks. They don’t read. They don’t follow the fire and outrage of contemporary angst and debate. They just go about their businesses.

    But some say there are bad herdsmen, but most of the havoc we see come from bandits who have lost their way in the world. So, they live and die by killing and dispossessing the victims. According to recent reports of captured marauders, some of them are trained outside the country. They steal into the country through the borders. Yet, the reports show that they would not know their way around the country if they did not make companionship with locals. That is why the economic blends with the cultural. The Zamfara case tells us that it is essentially an economic matter.

    Zamfara State would, in a properly governed environment, be a near Eldorado with networks of highways, high-rises, shopping malls, a buzzing airport, the panoply of spinoff commerce, burgeoning cultural exports, et al. But it’s the hallowed ground of bandits and crude adventurers. It is the economic equivalent of a hoodlum’s paradise.

    Tied to this is the perception of the bandit crisis as class warfare. Take, for instance, the rage of elite kidnappings, especially in the north. The Abuja-Kaduna highway is now a thoroughfare of woe for even the Fulani elite. Those who say the bandit crisis is Fulanisation and Islamisation should answer why a governor, a minister, a permanent secretary, a money bag of the Fulani extraction would not travel that road with all the array of cars and security men. Rather they would huddle with others in the rowdy comfort of a train. The story is told of an imam who gave a pep talk in Abuja and told his audience that the Abuja-Kaduna expressway was safe. After his glowing delivery, it was time to return home to Kaduna. He did not hit the express. Rather his hosts escorted him to the train station. His faith was not tailored to his own soul, but to those he encouraged. Do what I say, but not what I do.

    Nothing demonstrates the confluence of class warfare and economic imperative than the issue of kidnapping. They have redefined the value of human capital. You kidnap a judge or a minister’s son, and that is a great investment in human resources. The return could be more profitable than drugs. Within hours, you can make as much as N20 million or N50million, or even more, depending on the opulence and desperation of the captive and their family. Why would the talakawa, who neither reads nor write, and who cannot earn with all his manic muscles more than N20 thousand Naira a month, neglect so great a financial salvation? Within a week, he can stun himself with enough to buy a new car and build a house and enjoy all the soft life and luxuries that Maigida has taken for granted. All he has to do is kidnap again. It becomes addictive. Any catch translates into a generational wealth in their eyes. He becomes a money-miss-road, dross in gold. So, to such gold diggers, they don’t see Fulani, they see Eldorado.

    In the northeast, the Boko haram flame has failed to abate. When it is not smothering lives in firestorms of surprise attacks, suicides bombs and all, it is smouldering in intermittent skirmishes. Yet, it all began with a class narrative. The poor under the cynical watch of former Borno State Governor, Ali Modu Sherriff, were used for elections and cast away. They needed shelter, food, and wives. A certain messianic creature known as Mohammed Yusuf provided them all these. All he wanted from them was his own version of Islamic piety. They are under the thrall of the man who gave them food. He works under what the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky designates as the triad of oppression. They are authority, mystery and miracle. These three weapons under a person’s command can make him a god on earth. That was Yusuf, and the founder of Boko Haram. After providing the Sheriff castaways with food, shelter and wives. He had made them his children, his urchins. As Dostoyevsky noted in his novel, The Brothers Karamazov, “anyone who can appease a man’s conscience can take his freedom.”

    With mystery, he gave them faith. With miracle, he gave them food, shelter, and all of that gave him authority.  To other classes of humans, food may not be miracle. To the poor who is hungry, especially the destitute, food and shelter are miracles from God. Again, as Dostoyevsky defines it, “In a realist, faith does not spring from miracle but miracle out of faith.” You define your own miracle.

    So, his followers now decided to strike. Was it about Islam? Well, yes, the extreme variant. But was it about class? Plenty. They brought down emirs, razed tony mosques, pillaged the markets, carted away the girls that would be brides to the rich, etc. They saw themselves not as evil people. They saw themselves as messengers of the Almighty, who loathed the moral squalor of the feathered class.

    Yusuf took away their freedom and gave them his own. They all want to be free to be terrorists. Philosopher Isaiah Berlin noted that freedom was not only about the classical idea of western liberal thought. Anyone can define it their way. As the Marxist wants his freedom, so does the terrorist, so does Boko Haram.

    Within the Nigerian state, we therefore see all of these clashes in the family. Each one wants a different definition of comfort and peace. In that ambience, peace is the major casualty, and where there is no peace, fear abounds.

    When Boko Haram was at its peak, the military brass backed by its Fulani elite waged a quiet genocide against the Kanuri. Anytime they saw a Kanuri gathering, or a kanuri traveller with their distinctive tribal marks, they were targeted for arrests, harassments and killing. The shoe, as they say, is in the other foot now. The targets are Fulani today. No one trusts them, including the Hausa. Even the elite Fulani suspects the talakawa up north. As Samuel Coleridge once noted, even “whoring brothers disagree.” So, we have created fear as an instrument of governance. It will take fear banishment and as sense of fairness for the fear to go.

    With each afraid of the other, we cannot stop banditry, or herdsmen crisis, or even Boko haram. We need a leadership of fairness and fearlessness. Is that not why the issue of banditry even in the southwest has become even a big problem. On the military level, why are we not using drones to target and isolate and knock out the hoodlums? Are they not living among us? Are they spirits?

    What did the former Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima deploy to flush out many Boko haram players from among the people? They were the Civilian JTF. They are the unsung heroes of modern Nigeria. We need drones as intelligence since the intelligence agencies in Nigeria have failed us. We need to create civilian equivalents of the JTF in the southwest and other parts of the country. Then the drones can track their hideouts, and the Air Force and soldiers can go to work. In short order, we can deal with the scourge. That is a short term solution to the herdsmen bugbear.

    After that, we can face the perennial issue of distrust. If we cannot stop it, it will haunt us, and the scourges will emerge in other dimensions.  We have to awake the right identities and paradigms for the future. That accounts for why the philosopher Rene Descartes said, cogito ego sum, “I think therefore I am.” In his own book of polemics titled, The Rebel, Albert Camus wrote, “I rebel – therefore we exist.” In his novel, Satanic verses” Salman Rushdie declares, “to be born again first you have to die.”

    So, it means we have to pursue a new birth and a new identity. Hence I titled this piece, “To secure, first we have to love.” That is love each other. It means a leadership of cooperative charisma beyond class and tribe and primordial loyalties. Or else we shall solve one and go into another problem. For instance, as Femi Falana has warned, the followers of Sheikh EL Zakzaky are fuming and growing. Is that the next bandit? Or cover for one?

    So, the problem is not in anywhere else but in us. It is because we fear ourselves.

  • Innoson: we enjoy huge patronage from Fed govt

    Innoson Group of Companies Nigeria Limited has said it enjoys huge patronage and support from the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

    The group’s Chairman, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, stated this yesterday in Nnewi, Anambra State, when he addressed reporters.

    He also listed Enugu, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Anambra, Gombe, and Bauchi states as well as the Nigerian military among those patronising vehicles from Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM).

    The company chief said Innoson could transform Nigeria into a vehicle manufacturing destination in Africa, if it gets more patronage.

    He assured the nation that his factory has the capacity to manufacture all brands of vehicle, adding that he hoped to expand soonest.

    Chukwuma said: “I can say that Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing is doing well, especially with the level of patronage and support the company is enjoying under the present Federal Government.

    “I must equally say that some state governments, like Ekiti, Imo, Enugu, Ebonyi, Kogi, Gombe, Anambra and Bauchi, are giving us a great boost.

    “As at today, Innoson vehicles are being used in some West African countries, like Mali, Sierra Leone and Ghana, and some Nigerians residing abroad return home to purchase our vehicles.”

    According to him, Innoson Group of Companies produces motorcycle tyres, plastic containers, ceramic and vehicles.

    Read Also: Court orders arrest of Innoson Motors chairman, others

    The frontline businessman said the company  has employed between 7,300 and 7,500 workers.

    “With more support and patronage from Nigeria, we hope to expand our vehicle manufacturing firm to help provide more employment to our youths,” he said.

    On the performance of youths from Niger Delta, who his company trained under the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Chukwuma said most of them had continued to bring their talents to bear towards the growth and development of the company.

    “Some of the youths in the Niger Delta, who we trained, are very talented. After their training, we retained some of them and they are part of the success story of Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing today,” he said.

    On the recent report alleging that an Anambra State lawmakers rejected Toyota Prado Jeep and demanded for Innoson products, Chukwuma denied knowledge of the report.

    He said anybody, including the lawmakers, were free to buy any brand of vehicle of their choice.

    The company chief said he enjoyed warm relationship with Governor Willie Obiano and members of his administration.

    He expressed the willingness to leverage on the relationship to impact positively on the state.

    “As we speak, the Anambra State government has ordered for 40 vehicles which they fully paid for and we hope to deliver them to the state by next week,” Chukwuma said.

  • ‘It’s unfair to assess Makinde now’

    The immediate past governor of Oyo, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, on Sunday said that it is unfair and dangerous to assess incumbent Governor Seyi Makinde barely three months after he came into office.

    The former governor, who maintained that Makinde was elected for a period of four years, insisted that it would be too early for him to access his successor, who was sworn in on May 29 this year.

    Ajimobi, who represented Oyo South Senatorial District between 2003 and 2007, was the governor of the state between 2011 and 2019.

    He said that he had done his best for the state, stating that it’s now time for Makinde to prove his worth.

    Ajimobi, who addressed journalists shortly after he was honoured with a meritorious award by the Catholic Archdioceses of Ibadan as part of the 70th birthday celebrations of the Bishop of the archdioceses, Reverend Leke Gabriel Abegunrin, urged citizens and leaders to continue to sacrifice for the development of the country.

    Read Also: Makinde’ll surpass Ajimobi, others in achievements

    The event was held on Sunday at Mary’s Cathedral, Oke Padre, Ibadan, Oyo State.

    Ninety-five eminent personalities received the award. Aside from Ajimobi, other recipients of the award include the Asipa Olubadan of Ibadanland, High Chief Eddy Oyewole; Chief Akanni Aluko, Ayo Fasoro , Chief Aloy Obi, Prof. Mercy Veronica,  Brig Gen.& Mrs. Eze , Chief (Mrs.) Francisica Otunla, Mrs. Grace Oby, Mr. Stephen Olasupo , and  Justice O. Ige.

    In his remarks, former governor Ajimobi said that he would henceforth maintain silence on issues concerning the state and allow the incumbent governor to do his job.

    The former governor said: “I feel really elated, I feel happy, very honoured, especially when you are being honoured by the people that we serve and the people that serve God. When you are recognised by clerics, men of God, it is the best honour you can get.

    “Yes, I have done eight years of talking; now it is time for me to keep silent and allow the other man to do his job.”

    Ajimobi further said that the media makes news when prominent people speak and when they decide to be silent.

    He said, “This is the problem with you people. When I talk, you will say that I am talking, now that I am not talking, you will say I am not talking. You are complaining that I am not talking now. So, what do you want me to do?

    “It is too early for me; I have been there for eight years. It is too early to assess him. Give the man the chance to do his job. I know that he has at least four years. He has just spent three months. It is too early.

    “I think it is good for us to work for the development of this country. We must all sacrifice for us to move this country forward, to grow. It is easier for people to talk, sometimes I read in the news particularly, on the social media.

    “The problem of the social media today is that beer parlour talk is now being elevated in the media.”