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  • Journalist defies odds, pain to complete 100-day run in Lagos

    Multi-talented journalist and runner Joe Agbro punched the air as he breezed into the expansive football pitch of Ladoje Primary School, off Oko-Oba Road, Agege-Lagos, penultimate Thursday, to mark his 100th day of road race which started on May 1, 2019.

    The writer and entertainment correspondent with The Nation newspapers had been running for 100 days, every day around Agege, Ifako, Ojokoro and Ikeja axis. He starts off early at six every morning to the sight and sound of the megacity and along the way captures the essential ingredients that mark a metropolis like Lagos.

    Timing himself with two reliable running apps, Joe, who also draws for a hobby, logs an average 7km daily and by the time he completed his 100 days run on August 8, 2019, he had logged 773km – a distance that is equal to distance from Lagos to Kaduna.

    Joe could have run on for more days gauging by his excitement and flexibility on the final day as he cruised on to do two more laps round the pitch feeling light hearted and animated. He laughed and shared bantam with his friends and colleagues waiting to celebrate this landmark with him. The runs started like a New Year resolution for Joe.

    “On the 31st of December, 2018, I told myself that I would love to stop soft drink. Before then, I used to take a lot of soft drinks. I just made the resolve and took my last soft drink on that day. Day one, day two, 30 days, 40 days and on to 100 days.

    “Thereafter, I shared my experience on Facebook and the kind of response that I got was that a lot of people are battling with things like this. They want to start something or stop something, so, I just resolved that I would do other things. So, I picked three things: abstain from alcohol for 100 days, run every day for 100 days and try to reach the 500 km mark and, thirdly, that I will draw every day.” Joe couldn’t keep up with the drawing part but kept on running even at difficult moment and time. The running also helped him to abstain from alcohol.

    “The whole idea is to text my resolve, my discipline, my dedication. It is so easy to start something but seeing it to the end is not easy. So, I decided to make my run more exciting by adding extras to it. I took pictures of things or places I covered during my runs. I always took pictures of myself and log or time my run. I varied my routes to view different sites of Lagos, then, shared them on social media.”

    That decision saved the project and inspired people.

    “When I started sharing the runs on social media, people started responding and many were saying they wanted to run like me, could I join them up? In-fact three of them actually started running. So, at first it was for me, but later it started consuming me and I felt I had to do it not just for myself but for others. In my own little way, I could use it to tell others that many things are achievable if you give it time. It may be difficult in the beginning but with perseverance and patience you will see it through.

    “There were a couple of times I could have quit. There were days I got up from the wrong side of the bed or that I slept late because most of the runs are early in the morning. However, I had to run because people were looking out for me.” Once Joe pulled a muscle but kept on running in pain inspired by kind words from a cripple (polio sufferer).

    “There was a day I was grateful about. A crippled friend popularly called T.M (Team Manager) in my neighbourhood met me as I rounded off my run that morning and said: ‘Mr Joe, I would have loved to run with you but for my leg.’ I felt bad. This is someone that wanted to run but could not because of his nature. I thought of what could stop me, maybe if I lose my leg and that made me resolve to go on.

    “Some days later, precisely on the May 28, 2019, I pulled a muscle. I was enjoying my run and coasting and powering up and tore a muscle. That didn’t stop me. I took some pain reliever and for about five days I was running in pain and massaging it. The only thing that could have stopped me is if I lost my leg.”

    For Joe, the gains are enormous. He has ridden himself of addiction to carbonated and alcoholic drinks. He said his health has improved tremendously and his insomnia cured.

    “Often time I hardly get home until 10, 10.30 pm and I’ve also been suffering insomnia. The earliest time I sleep is 12.30 AM and I wake up about 3.30 AM. However, since I started doing this run, I have been able to add an extra two hours to my sleep and I eat more. Generally, I can say my health has improved.”

    The sight of Lagos he has also seen and been able to see Lagos and people in a broader and insightful way. “One thing I always notice is the school buses and the children inside.

    I feel for school children because when I get up by 6am, I see their buses everywhere. I see some of them already on their routes; some take okada (motorcycle) or keke (tricycle) as early as that time. The buses are everywhere. The children are sleeping in the buses. It pains me so much because that is not how I grew up.

    “There is so much energy in the town. By 6am you find the cart pushers, tomatoes sellers, people fetching water at public taps, and workers struggling to get to work. Then, you have bad roads everywhere and traffic hold up starting that early. When it rains, there is so much rubbish on the road and there is a kind of jungle Lagos takes with motorist taking one way. There is disregard for joggers like me. It’s an interesting sight.”

    So what’s the next plan?

    “I would like to do something scarier, maybe run for 365 days; a whole year. I’m motivated when people scream wow! Are you crazy? Maybe run round Lagos State, run round the country or run round the world. Enjoy my life. This life is too short. Anything that keeps you afloat, just do it.”

  • Bayelsa 2019: Can PDP get a consensus candidate?

    Fresh moves to resolve the lingering disagreement between two major interest groups within the Bayelsa Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have led to talks for a possible emergence of a consensus candidate before the proposed primary election. In this report, Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, examines the possibility of this development and reports

    THOUGH the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is the ruling party in Bayelsa State, its preparation for the November 16 Governorship Election has remained most intriguing. This is because there has remained increasing fear in the state that except something concrete is done to resolve its internal crisis before its scheduled September 3 governorship primaries, it may loss the state to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 16, 2019 Governorship Election. This is because of fresh troubles threatening the unity of the party in the state.

    Party sources said the general feeling today is that it may be better for the warring ‘factions’ to consider negotiation for a consensus candidate since, according to them, such an arrangement would more likely accommodate the various interests.

    Taking cognisance of the result of last week’s local government election, in which PDP was declared the winner of all the eight seats in the election conducted by the Bayelsa State Independent Electoral Commission (BYSIEC), some casual observers had said the ruling party is still in firm control of the oil-rich Niger Delta state. But some insider observers said during the week that the real picture is significantly different given that the main opposition political party, APC, did not partake in the said LG election because of some alleged irregularities.

    The Nation also learnt that the lingering disagreement amongst the leaders of PDP in the state has left the party more divided today than it has ever been since 1999 when it first took over the governance of the state. As Engr. Adagogo Abbey, an insider puts it, “even during the 2015/2016 governorship election, when the party lost most of its leaders to APC also because of disagreements, the remaining members of PDP then were more united than what obtains today in Bayelsa here. That was why the remnants were able to stand behind the party candidate then, Seriake Dickson. PDP or Dickson won then, not because the party was not troubled, but simply because PDP members knew who was where. Everyone knew who was still in PDP and who had defected to APC then. Today, it is more of an internal quarrel and I can say that if nothing concrete is done before the primary elections so as to select a generally acceptable candidate, the party members may end up fighting themselves to the advantage of the opposition APC. This confusion is mainly because of the suspicion that Governor Dickson’s inner political cycle, the Restoration Caucus, wants everything for itself,” he said.

    Closely related to this issue is the icy relationship between what some insiders identified as two major camps in Bayelsa State’s PDP  the ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s group and Governor Seriake Dickson’s restoration government caucus.

    Abbey explains that what has made it difficult to resolve the suspicion between the two factions is the secrecy that has surrounded the disagreement over the PDP candidate to succeed Dickson. According to him, “both the former President, Goodluck Jonathan, and Governor Dickson have pretended in public to be on the same page, but everybody here knows that the battle line has long been drawn over which camp should provide the PDP candidate for the coming election.”

    Another source, who would not like to be named, told The Nation during the week that while most members of Jonathan’s camp still favour the candidacy of Timi Alaibe for the PDP’s governorship ticket, it has become increasingly clear that Dickson and his supporters may fight against it. The governor, the source said, is determined to crown the Secretary to the State Government, Kamela Okara, as the party’s candidate.

    But feelers from some members of the governor’s camp however suggest that Okara’s choice may not have been sealed finally as some influential members of the party close to Dickson are believed to be pushing for the candidacy of Dr. Nimibofa Ayawei, the Chairman of Bayelsa State Board of Internal Revenue.

    CALL FOR TRUCE

    Former President Jonathan while confirming this fear recently, during the PDP Elders Advisory Council meeting at Government House, Yenagoa, ahead of the November 16, 2019 election, warned that only unity can ensure victory for PDP in the forthcoming governorship election. He called on the leaders and members of PDP in the state, including the 21 governorship aspirants on the ticket of the party, to work together in a bid to retain victory.

    A statement by the Special Adviser to Governor Dickson on Media Relations, Fidelis Soriwei, after the meeting of PDP’s Elders Advisory Council, quoted Jonathan as saying that the PDP had all the requirements to record a landslide victory at the governorship poll.

    He quoted Jonathan as saying at the council’s meeting: “I need to plead with all the aspirants and all political leaders that there should be no mudslinging. We must free the space and eschew rancour because finally one person will become the candidate of the party and for that one person to win the election, all aspirants must work for that person.

    “It is only our unity that can give us victory and if we are not united, they (APC) can get away with it.

    “For example, it took the unity of the people of Rivers State, including women who were resolute against soldiers, to get the PDP victory in the state. If that had not happened, they (opposition) would have taken it.

    “For us to secure this state for PDP, we need maximum unity and that is why all the 21 aspirants are important to us; we must have that maximum unity and must not create any form of division or discrimination.

    “At the end of the day one person will emerge and all of us will work for whoever emerges as candidate of the party,” he said.

    The fear over whether the two leaders and their supporters would finally support a single candidate for the governorship election had been heightened by reports in the media that Dickson is now in full control of the party and that he is determined to choose his successor in November with little or no consideration to what the former President’s supporters may think.

    The analysts who make this permutation base their conclusions on the outcome of the last general elections in the state where all the PDP candidates that emerged victorious in the National Assembly and House of Assembly elections are said to be the governor’s loyalists.

    Out of the 24 seats in the House of Assembly, for example, it is believed that 20 PDP lawmakers are known Dickson’s loyalists. Based on this, Jonathan’s loyalist express fear that the governor will use his control of both the party structure and elected officials to dictate who would fly the party’s governorship flag.

    But in our earlier report on this, we had quoted Dickson as saying he would not impose any candidate on the party during the primary election. He gave this promise during a solidarity visit to the Chairman of Daar Communications, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, when the National Broadcasting Commission suspended his company’s license.

    Dickson gave the assurance while responding to a question over the internal wrangling in the Bayelsa State chapter of his party and if it was true he had perfected plans to impose the PDP governorship candidate for the November Governorship Election.

    He said then: “The people talking about manipulation are anticipating that they should be imposed. I’m not going to impose any of them. Any of them who feel they have experience and capacity should go and make their case to the people of Bayelsa State.

    “I hope the right person with competence and capacity emerges to build on the foundation which we have laid over the last seven years. I have no doubt that the right person will emerge with my support.”

    He also boasted that his party will sweep the governorship election. “The PDP is the most prepared party. I have in the last years built a solid, formidable and an all-inclusive party, such that even those who left, found it as the most attractive platform to return to,” he said.

    He however confirmed that party leaders like Jonathan and himself have important roles to play. Dickson said “the party leaders will play their roles and the delegates ultimately will decide who the candidate shall be.”

    We learnt that such understanding has already led to talks about the emergence of consensus candidate for PDP. The details of how the two ‘factions’ would arrive at the proposed candidate are yet to be disclosed. But we observed that both Jonathan and Dickson’s supporters are insisting that their leaders must play prominent role in determining who would fly the party’s flag.

    For example, Awoda Ayiba-Tara, a PDP member in the state, told The Nation during the week that it is not true that Dr. Jonathan have lost total control of the party machinery to Dickson. “Many of us still see the former President as the leader of PDP today, not only in Bayelsa here but also across the country. No one, not even Governor Dickson, can honestly deny that the national leadership of the party will easily take into consideration any piece of advise given by the former president on a critical issue like who should fly the PDP flag. That apart, the feeling among most experienced politicians here in PDP is that the aspirant that is believed to enjoy Jonathan’s support has the needed experience and political weight to deliver PDP in the state. So, what remains is to resolve whatever may be responsible for Dickson’s seeming disagreement with that choice,” he said.

    He condemned Dickson’s recent comment, who said during the official flag off of campaigns for local government elections that if delegates and leadership of the PDP give the governorship ticket to somebody not endorsed by him and his restoration family, the party could jeopardise its chance of retaining power in the state. As the governor puts it, “Let me tell you, Oforoma-Pepe (Dickson) is in charge; there is no candidate or aspirant in PDP, none of them that can lead our party to victory during the governorship election without my support, forget about those making mouth; we are the support base of PDP in Bayelsa.

    “Those who are boasting that they will take the governorship primary away from Yenagoa to another state, let me tell you, that kind of thing cannot happen at all. This year’s governorship election will be a clash between federal might and state might, just like what happened in 2015.”

    He warned party members against supporting unfaithful people seeking for the governorship position in the forthcoming election, describing those he called unfaithful members as “butterflies to the party”. He explained that supporting the unfaithful persons for a governorship aspirant would ruin the party’s plans and chances of winning the governorship election on November 16. “We have rebuilt PDP in the state, and we are going to defeat all other political parties,” he had said.

    But media reports on the public utterances of the two leaders since the recent meeting of the PDP Elders Advisory Council confirmed that efforts at reconciling the various interest groups within the party in the state may have begun to yield positive results.

    As we reported earlier, since the inauguration of the council, both Jonathan and Dickson have publicly spoken well of each other, thereby giving impression that they may have resolved to work as a family.

    It would be recalled that it was Jonathan that started it all when he commended Dickson, saying the state has taken shape under Dickson’s administration since 2012.

    A statement by Dickson’s aide, Fidelis Soriwei, said the former President actually praised Dickson for building a befitting edifice as office complex and official residence for the governor and the deputy governor.

    He quoted Jonathan as saying, “Let me use this opportunity to appreciate the governor for this office. I am saying this because this is the first time I’m entering the office and luckily all of us here are part of this story from 1996 and then of course as politicians when we took over May, 1999.

    “I knew that we started by using a bungalow, the party secretariat as the Government House office and so on; the governor started from living in a bungalow, the deputy also in a bungalow; that was how we started and now the state has taken shape.

    “We are now in a standard office; the governor is also residing in a standard house; so Bayelsa State is progressing. So, I thank the governor very sincerely. I always say that if you have the opportunity to be a head somewhere, president or governor, chairman of council or any other position, you should be able to add value to the environment.”

    PDP members in the state also confirmed that of recent, Dickson has been less confrontational in his public utterances. Commenting on the preparedness of PDP to retain the state, Dickson had advised members and aspirants to avoid pursuing their ambitions at the expense of the party.

    “The ambitions are legitimate but we must note that what is important is our unity and cohesion within the party,” he said.

    Observers said such guarded utterances suggest new resolve to allow level playing field in the forthcoming elections. The governor went further by naming former President Jonathan as his Honorary Special Adviser on the Bayelsa Education Trust Fund Board. Dickson told newsmen that his action was in recognition of Jonathan’s educational strides when he laid a solid foundation for the state’s education system as governor.

    IS CONSENSUS CANDIDATE POSSIBLE?

    Some insiders said if such love and mutual respect are sustained, there is now the possibility of Bayelsa PDP to get a consensus candidate even before the proposed September 3, 2019 primary election.

    Ayiba-Tara, for example, is of the opinion that consensus option would be a better strategy to get an acceptable candidate. “The political atmosphere here is already tense. Some of us believe that the party may not be able to manage a credible contest. So, it is better to negotiate and come up with a consensus candidate. Thank God that the national leadership allows such option. For us today, the choice of allowing the winner to take all will not be in the best interest of the party, given the prolonged suspicion amongst the various interest groups.”

    It would be recalled that PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, recently confirmed the possibility of holding talks on PDP consensus candidates in both Bayelsa and Kogi states. He was quoted as saying that, “aspirants are talking among themselves for concession. Meetings are being held at various levels to agree on the possibility of having consensus candidates. As far as the party is concerned, we are set for the primary election.

    “So, those who have filled and submitted the forms will appear on the day of (primary) elections, (and) will participate in the elections.

    “If there is agreement among the aspirants for consensus candidate, it is welcome. If the aspirants and the party can achieve that, it is welcome. And if it is a contest, it is welcome. Our party provides for that. So, either way, the party is ready,” he said.

    As at today, the PDP aspirants for Bayelsa governorship election include the incumbent Deputy Governor, Rear Admiral John Jonah; former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Timi Alaibe; the Senator representing Bayelsa Central Senatorial District, Douye Diri; a member representing Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency, Frederick Agbedi; Mr. Anthony George-Ikoli, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN); Teriale Oliver and Mr. Tobin Igiri, among others.

  • Actress Adediwura finds love again

    POPULAR Yoruba actress, Adediwura Becky Adesegha known as Adediwura Gold, is set to walk down the aisle again.

    The single mother of one, who had her son at the age of 28, will be getting married to her unrevealed fiancé coming 12 years after she walked away from her first marriage.

    The beautiful 40 year old actress, whose movie, ’40th Birthday’ is currently online, announced her engagement on Instagram, showing off her engagement ring.

    She wrote, “I Got Divorced 12 years ago & love found me again Congratulations to me. I’m taken. Thank you, Mr Moo. You know your baby loves you. @Akinthola Daddy is here”

    The Lagos State University English Language graduate got into the movie industry in 2008 and has featured in many Yoruba movies.

  • Zoning, rotation and their politics

    IT is a testament to the controversiality of his person and worldview that a prologue Governor Nasir el-Rufai contributed to a book written by Salihu Lukman, Director-General of the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF), has arrested the attention of Nigerians perhaps far in excess of the book, “Power of Possibilities and Politics of Change in Nigeria”, itself. The author probably desired it, knowing full well that Mallam el-Rufai, even in his mildest disposition, is both a bundle of contradictions and an indifferent instigator of rage and controversy. When invited to such occasions, the governor knows by instinct what is required of him, and he does not usually disappoint.

    In the prologue, a part of which has drawn the most flak, the Kaduna governor calls for an end to rotational leadership which he and most Nigerians often label as zoning. Zoning is a far more gentle and sanitised form of rotation; for while the latter tends to spread appointments, often to qualified people, the latter binds the society helplessly and sometimes fatefully to unqualified persons. The history of Nigeria amplifies this point very inelegantly. But for the purpose of examining Mallam el-Rufai’s suggestion, it is necessary to be restricted to the words he used, even though everyone knows what he really means.

    The governor argues in the said prologue that because Nigeria now has a surfeit of qualified people everywhere, the time has come to abandon the zoning of political offices based on regions. Here is how he put it: “Even with our success in the 2015 elections, there is room for improvement. Barriers to political equality, such as our seemingly entrenched though informal rule for zoning candidacies according to regions of origin, need to be de-emphasised and ultimately abandoned in favour of an emphasis on qualification, competence and character.” Those who have since last week taken the Kaduna governor to task over his connotations presume him to be making indirect references to the next presidential election and, perhaps more accurately, attempting to justify beforehand his ambition to run for the highest office in the country.

    If zoning is not abandoned, Mallam el-Rufai, who is from the same region as the current president, will be unqualified to run on the platform of one of the biggest political parties. He is of course free to run, as indeed his expedient role model, President Muhammadu Buhari, did in all his four attempts to win the presidency since 2003. There are no constitutional impediments barring the governor from vying for the presidency; as the governor acknowledged in his prologue, there are only expedient political arrangements that seem to bar segments of aspirants from time to time. But those who second-guess Mallam el-Rufai are not wide off the mark. They know by experience that the governor is highly ambitious and has not disguised his interest in running for president. His detractors may see his ambition as outsized ego at work, considering that there is no visible connection between his endowments and accomplishments with the exalted office of the presidency, but the governor knows that even the incumbent is far less qualified than he is, whether educationally or temperamentally. Assuming, as some say, that Mallam el-Rufai meant his controversial prologue as a means of testing the waters, nothing will deter him or moderate his long-standing quest for glory.

    This column has consistently joined issues with the subject of rotational presidency, arguing that it is limiting, puerile and restrictive. To that extent it is at one with the Kaduna governor in denouncing its usefulness as a tool to help Nigeria resolve its existential contradictions. But zoning has surprisingly seemed to be effective both in mediating the ambitions of Nigeria’s main ethnic behemoths in their insane zeal to win the presidency and in moderating their cataclysmic urge to bring the roof down on everyone whenever their ambitions were spurned. Even with the zoning statagem in place at the political party level, the crowd of aspirants has sometimes been unruly and unmanageable. It is unlikely that Mallam el-Rufai does not know this. But he appears to sense that if he would stand any chance at all of running for the presidency in 2023, his quest must begin in the closing months of his unremarkable and hugely controversial and partisan governorship.

    There is very little this column, el-Rufai or anyone for that matter can do to undermine zoning in the foreseeable future. Zoning may be inane and counterproductive, having enthroned a slew of fifth-rate politicians as presidents since 1999, starting with the inimitable ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo himself; but it has worked fairly well at least in proportion to the inability of Nigerians to know better. It will take a very bold and irreverent political party to repudiate zoning. In 2014, the All Progressives Congress (APC) knew that their presidential candidate was a suspect nationalist, an anti-intellectual, and unconvincing administrator, but they wanted someone who could beat the then president Goodluck Jonathan, whose ruling party at the time, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was brimful with campaign cash. The APC knew, both by experience and by instinct, that no one could conceivably beat something with nothing. Candidate Buhari, the inscrutable, laconic and inflexible former head of state and retired army general was their best bet.

    By 2015, power had been out of the hands of the North for nearly six years, and had Dr Jonathan won, it would amount to about 10 miserable, exilic years. By 2023, power would be out of the hands of the South for eight years. Should another ‘northerner’ win some four years to come, power could be out of the hands of ‘southerners’ for sixteen years. It is fruitless even for a political purist like this column to argue in favour of such an iniquitous arrangement simply because there are no guarantees zoning could produce a competent president. What even makes the zoning arrangement unfortunately more attractive for its proponents is the implacable promotion of sectionalism by the Buhari presidency, a presidency that appears to abhor inclusive politics, and one that intentionally or otherwise seems to promote the idea of ethnic superiority. One four-year term of the Buhari presidency has made more Nigerians than previously thought to regret the nature and temper of this presidency. Two terms of that same presidency would choke them to death. To argue for a third term, that is beyond 2023, and possibly a fourth term, would be sheer lunacy.

    It is from this prism that many Nigerians will view the 2023 campaigns, which Mallam el-Rufai seemed to make oblique reference to in his contentious prologue. President Buhari had the goodwill and the ample opportunity to lay a solid foundation for Nigerian democracy. But like his predecessors, he also appears blissfully unaware of the historic duty the presidency has placed in his trembling hands. Ex-president Obasanjo knew very little about democracy, but he still managed to retain some respect for that noble concept. Dr Jonathan knew far more about democracy, but he lacked the discipline to imbue it with the right structural foundation and permanence. Years later, it would take less than one term for President Buhari to almost annihilate democracy. Worse, in the same period, and committing excesses much worse than all his predecessors combined, the president has also managed to divide Nigeria in ways that his successor(s) will battle hard and long to remedy without any guarantee of success.

    The consensus of opinion among the ‘North’s’ vocal elite, including even the presidency at the moment, is that may the ‘best’ man win in 2023. It is not certain that President Buhari possesses as much moral and political conviction as any of his predecessors, and that he would recognise the unfairness and insensitivity of abandoning the expedient political arrangement of zoning. But even in his best of moments, he is unlikely to come down unequivocally in favour of zoning in 2023, not to talk of identifying and promoting someone of great stature and heft from the South. As hard as some northern politicians may try, the attempt to abandon zoning will not only fail to work, it may even backfire. By 2023, Mallam el-Rufai will have fully unravelled. Sturdier, less fanatical and far more sensible northerners will seek out like-minded politicians from other parts of the country to promote the ideal Nigeria, one far removed from the insularity and mediocrity that have paralysed the system and brought it dangerously close to the precipice. Indeed, those like-minded politicians will hope that given the unworkable structure of the country and the ineptitude of its rulers, they will still have a country by the next election cycle.

    When 2023 comes into view, Nigerians have a responsibility to seek out and embrace a new paradigm of seeking out and electing competent and effective leaders. It is not enough to just covet the presidency as Chief Obasanjo and President Buhari fanatically did, and it is certainly not enough to moralise about what ethical tones the presidency should set for the rest of the country. Nigerians must seek out those who are modern enough, democratic largely, and capable of galvanising the populace along great, far-reaching and noble causes. The Yoruba know from their history that to produce a president would require the aspirant to have the capacity to reach out to the rest of the country while balancing regional interests; the Igbo must also imbibe this culture if an aspirant from the Southeast is to stand any chance; and it is almost certain that no future northern aspirant without this liberal and inclusive quality will stand a chance. The world is changing. If Nigerians can rise boldly to effect the radical changes necessary to remake their failing country, if the various contending groups in the country recognise that they must give up much of themselves in order to get a sensible little of the collective, perhaps the country may not unravel after all as it now seems fated to do if not now, then sometime in the future.

  • The long tortuous road to justice for rape victims

    Rapists and paedophiles are ravaging lives in Lagos State. Blame the slow judiciary, and police prosecution hamstrung by systemic failures, reports Gbenga Ogundare

    THE phone rang againmaking it the third time in a series of intermittent interruption since the reporter arrived at the Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team office in Alausa, Ikeja.

    “Hello doctor,’ Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi ruptured the interview session, pleading, ‘is it possible for someone to help copy the medical report from the triplicate so the officer can have it, and sign for it. They are charging the case to court today,’ Vivour-Adeniyi instructed.

    Setting is Lagosa state notorious for its spiralling rape atrocities in the country. And the woman, Vivour-Adeniyi, is the Coordinator at the Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT), where responding to unrelenting gender-based violent emergencies across the length and breadth of the densely populated city–including sexual assaults, medical reports lost in transit enroute the police station and sex offenders disappearing out of sight before they are arrested–has remained a critical part of her everyday itinerary since 2014 when the initiative started.

    It’s impossible not to be so utterly flustered really. Incidence of domestic and sexual attacks in Lagos has shot up over timefrom 526 rape cases recorded in 2014 to 2,356 reported cases in 2018. That’s 1,830 or 448 percent spike in just four years. And 1,312 or 225 percent rise between the 2018 incidence and the 1,044 cases recorded in 2017.

    Over 170 rapists and paedophiles also have their names listed already in the register of sex offenders created in 2014 to shame sexual predators in the state.

    At least, the DSVRT also responds to an average of 150 new cases monthly, disclosed former Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Adeniji Kazeem.

    But that’s as far as the records at the DSVRT and Directorate of Public Prosecutions can reveal. According to Omotola Rotimi, Director of the Office of Public Defender, between January and September 2015 alone, the OPD handled about 70 child defilement cases and 406 rape cases. Another 1,143 of such cases, Rotimi revealed, were treated between 2007 till 2015.

    Grim as the statistics appears, lawyer and human rights advocate, Itoro Eze-Anaba says more attacks are stifled daily and buried in the labyrinth of ineffective legal process and cultural sentiments in the state. Such discrimination in law and practice against women and girls are not rare across the country though.

    “Majority of the perpetrators of rape and defilements are either neighbours or families of the victims who are suppose to be protecting them in the first place,” the founder of the LASUTH-based Mirabel Centre, and Executive Director at Partnership for Justice, told the reporter.

    “So you find out that when this incident happened, the perpetrator brings community leaders, clerics and family members to plead on his behalf and persuade parents of the victim to drop the case.

    “And if the father who happens to be the breadwinner of the family is the culprit here, it becomes even more difficult for the mother to bring in the police or seek to get justice for her child because she is persuaded that she needs the same man to fulfil his responsibilities at the home front. And this can’t happen if the man is in jail.”

    Forty-four percent of the crimes were committed at the perpetrators houses, and virtually in all, 98.4 percent of the victims  were female whose ages ranged from four to 56 years, while  42 percent of victims were mostly neighbours to the perpetrators.

    Slow law at work

    The combined intervention of the DSVRT and Directorate of Public Prosecutions in Lagos is getting some convictions all the sameeven though replete with frustrations, according to the DSVRT Coordinator.

    “We have secured more convictions this year alone,” Vivour-Adeniyi informed the reporter, “but that’s not to say we are where we should be yet as far as stemming the tide of sexual violence in Lagos is concerned.”

    Lawal Kamoru is one of such data in the statistics of rape convictions Vivour-Adeniyi and the DPP have secured at the Lagos High Court. The 22-year-old baker got a 13-year sentence in June 2019 after Justice Raliat Adebiyi found him guilty of defiling a 14-year-old girl.

    Though Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015 provides that “any person who has unlawful sexual intercourse with a child is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for life,” Kamoru nonetheless got his lean sentence five years after he unleashed his attack on the victim.

    Investigation at the court registry shows that the convict and three others at large, had on February 1, 2014, gang-raped the victim inside an uncompleted building on Oluwanishola Street in the Ilaje, Bariga area of the state.

    Kamoru wasn’t the only beneficiary of that warped jurisprudence in the Lagos judiciary. Edet Imoh, also reaped from the failure of judges to apply the maximum sentence in sexual assaults. For raping a 40-year-old sex worker in 2018, Imoh would only spend five years in jail after which he can then come back to the street a free rapist. That was a verdict in June 2019, courtesy of Justice Cybil Nwaka of the Sexual Violence Court.

    In Lagos, the Criminal Code Law (2011), in Section 258 (1) provides that: “any man who has unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman or girl, without her consent, is guilty of the offence of rape and liable to imprisonment for life.”

    Rape convictions at the Lagos High Court are painfully marginal apparently, placed side by side the huge tome of charges waiting in the dockets of their Lordship, investigation shows. In 2017, according to Babajide Martins, Lagos State Deputy Director of Public Prosecution, the state only managed to secure just three convictions out of the 1044 cases recorded in 2017. It was another 15 meagre convictions the following year, which is again less than two percent of the 2,356 rape cases recorded in 2018.

    But wonder not far. Getting justice for survivors of rape and defilement in Lagos can be slow and nauseating. “It takes up to two or three years on the average, and that’s even fast because of the Sexual Violence Court,” Vivour-Adeniyi disclosed.

    That’s not to say other courts are not prosecuting rape cases too, the reporter found out. In fact, Justices Hakeem Oshode, Atinuke Ipaye and a few other Judges in the Lagos High Court who have criminal jurisdiction have delivered judgments ranging from life sentence to 60 years jail term in recent time.

    March 20, 2018, a 35-year-old man, Okechukwu Nwachukwu, was sentenced to life imprisonment by Justice Josephine Oyefeso for defiling an eight-year-old child in 2014. He was accused of defiling two girls, aged 7 and 8 initially, but the prosecution could only secure conviction on one.

    During the trial, a medical doctor at Mirabel Centre, Lagos, who conducted test on the girls, confirmed that one of them had bruises on her private part, while the other had none.

    A gamut of reasons can as well motivate delays in the prosecution and administration of justice in rape trials in Lagos. For one, the courts are congested, and judges are burdened beyond tensile limit, explained Vivour-Adeniyi.

    And that’s not exactly untrue really. Investigation at the courts shows that Justice Cybil Nwaka of the Sexual Violence Court currently has over 600 cases inundating her lordship. Ditto for Justice Abiola Soladoye, also of the Sexual Violence Court too. She also has over 300 pending charges to contend with already, the reporter found out.

    And then, there is the victims’ disposition, which is largely impelled by their distrust of police prosecution and the judiciary. This, in addition to the social stigma associated with being a victim of rape, thus provide a disincentive for rape victims who desire to make public their experiences of sexual violence in order to get justice, Eze-Anaba groaned.

    “Cases stay so long in courts that parties are tired and see it as a waste of time. Even the police are not equipped to source and provide evidence in court and survivors are pressurized to drop the cases,” she griped.

    Bureaucracy in prosecution

    The sloppy criminal justice process is too glaring to discountenance in Lagos. Arrest and arraignment of sex offenders at the Lagos High Court is also fraught with obvious loopholes, the reporter discovered, and this administrative inconsistency makes dispensation of justice disconcertingly lethargic.

    For one, sex offenders are charged to the Magistrate Court initially. That is after the victim must have reported the incident to the police, and they have been able to establish that there was penetration actually through their preliminary investigation, which is further corroborated by medical examination and report, the reporter learnt.

    The Directorate of Public Prosecution then issues an advice to the police, either for prosecution or not. The process of advice takes two weeks normally, the reporter found out.

    But in Lagos, conviction for rape and defilement carries a life sentence according to the criminal laws of the state, a verdict that is beyond the jurisdiction of the magistrate court where the charge is instituted in the first place, so it has to be transferred to the High Court again, Vivour-Adeniyi explained.

    The process of transfer again takes maximum of one month.

    The bottleneck then continues at the High Court afresh. Investigation shows that the case has to be listed initially, and from there, wait for assignment to a judge before the offender is then re-arraigned. That process ideally, the DSVRT coordinator explained, eats up another three months.

    “But we are not in an ideal situation”, she lamented, “what I just recounted can take up to six months or a year. Sometimes the defendant may have been released at the magistrate court level. So by the time the judge begins to ask for the defendant and his sureties, they are nowhere to be found.

    “But let us just assume that the defendant is remanded and the police are able to produce him at the high court. The trial will begin, and prosecution and defence begin to call their witnesses. And you know lawyers; they like to take advantage of the court by asking for adjournments for diverse reasons.

    “And then the courts are congested. These judges have a lot of cases they are dealing with. I know as at 2018, Justice Nwaka has over 600 rape cases in her docket alone.

    “Normally, it would have been beautiful if they can sit back to back, but these judges are overwhelmed. So all of these issues contribute to delays in dispensing justice, and that’s why most rape survivors drop out of the criminal cases.

    “That’s why most times, we try to engage with the survivors and manage their expectations. Most of them believe that once a suspect is arrested, he is taking to jail straight, but the system is not perfect yet, even though we are striving towards perfection.”

    Looking beneath the surface

    Investigating and Prosecuting criminal atrocities such as rape and other gender-based violence are the direct responsibility of governmentthe enforcing arms that fulfil its obligations to protect human rights, and ensure safety, and security of Nigerians.

    That role falls on the police – the long arms of the criminal justice system. And Bala Elkana, Police Public Relations Officer in the state, told the reporter in a chat the Command is doing just that, notwithstanding the widespread public pessimism.

    July 2019, officers of the state police command arrested four men in different parts of the city, according to Elkanah, for offences bordering on rape and molestation of minors.

    One of the offenders, a 68-year-old Yisah Showunmi, allegedly raped his 15-year-old daughter and her friends.

    The girl reported the incident at Imota Police Station in Ikorodu, on June 27. She alleged that her father has been defiling her for the past three years, stating that when her two friends (names withheld) ages 15 and 16 came to stay in their house, her father also had sexual intercourse with them. The last incident, she narrated, happened on June 23, 2019.

    In a related incident, Akin Olatilu was also arrested for sexually abusing his step-daughter. According to the police, Olatilu has been assaulting the victim for five years when she was just 14.

    But on June 14, the lady approached the Police to make a report, after her mother had refused to take action despite reporting the incident to her.

    Another case was reported at the Igando Police station by a mother who claimed that her daughter was assaulted by her guardian, one Pastor Popo Paul, who lives at  Egan Igando, Lagos.

    The mother, who lives at Akure in Ondo State, had brought her daughter to Lagos, in 2017, to live with Paul’s wife. But she stated that she noticed her daughter was pregnant sometime in June, 2018 and that when she interrogated her, she mentioned the name of the suspect.

    According to the pregnant girl, Paul started sleeping with her in January 2018. She gave birth to a baby girl in April 2019.

    Aliyu Ali Mohammed was also arrested for allegedly having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl inside an uncompleted building in Peace Estate in the Iba area of Lagos.

    According to Elkana, the case was reported by one Harrison Chukwerueke, who caught the suspect.

    NGOs to the rescue

    The pockets of arrests in recent time is not without the technical partnership of the Justice for All programme which inspired the creation of the 15 Family Support Units across police stations in the state, and the European Union-funded Rule of Law and Anti corruption (ROLAC) which helped built the capacity of police officers and other factors impacting on the criminal justice system to gather evidence through effective investigation, Ajibola Ijimakinwa, State Coordinator for the project, told the reporter.

    “We have trained 27 Police officers, Ministry of Justice prosecutors and NAPTIP on the provisions of the Domestic Violence Law and Investigating and prosecuting domestic and sexual violence cases.

    “But we have a programme operating in Lagos– New Policing Programme that has done a lot of training for FSUs and JWC.”

    The impact notwithstanding, not many would cheer the police for their feat. And Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, Executive Director at Project Alert, is one of those ardent crowds of sceptics. January 2019, Effah-Chukwuma led a coalition of NGOs working on Violence Against Women to kindle debates on child sexual abuse and systemic failure in responding to such case.

    The tardy intervention in sexual violence cases, according to Effah-Chukwuma, starts at the police station, where officers goad already traumatized victims to fund the cost of investigation and search for justice.

    Damning reports

    Effah-Chukwuma is not exactly sentimental with her verdict as the Civil Society Panel Report on the Reform of the NPF says, the service is hamstrung by a combination of dearth of infrastructure, shoddy record keeping, corruption and incompetence which ultimately make effective prosecution a rarity.

    “Another cause of low public confidence in the NPF which came out strongly during the public hearings of the CSO Panel was police insensitivity to the plight of victims of gender crimes such as domestic violence and rape,” the report noted.

    “Not only do the police ridicule and trivialize cases of domestic violence and rape reported to them, they go further and blame the victims for their victimization. The result is a very low rate of reporting of what are known as gender crimes.”

    Getting records of cases from the police is also not easy as only 47 case files were available for review as most were missing due to inadequate storage, according to the researchers. Again, a vast bulk of the case files (76.6%) was withdrawn, 12.8 percent was said to be under investigation, while the status of 8.5 percent was unknown since 2004.

    It could not have been otherwise, the reporter discovered. The Family Support Units created to deal directly with domestic and sexual violence in the state are handicapped by poor funding and logistic deficit, officers at the FSUs in Idimu and Isokoko Police Stations lamented to the reporter who approached the two stations in the guise of a victim seeking intervention in a domestic violence incident.

    A police Station in the state gets between N30, 000 and N40, 000 monthly as running cost, the reporter found out, so the FSUS have no budget of their own, and are left with no option than to run after sex offenders with their money, they disclosed.

    The Police spokesperson also confirmed that resources are scarce in the state, compared to the gamut of social vices, such as cultism, kidnapping, armed robbery etc, demanding attention. So you really have to plan and deploy resources effectively, he explained.

    “It baffles me sometimes when everybody wants to shift the blame on the police. We are partners and every partner has their own peculiar problems.

    “Look we carry the bulk of the responsibilities in gender-based violence. It is the police that initiate the process: use its resources to go after the perpetrators; it is the same police that move survivors to medical facilities; police will mount pressure on doctors to give medical reports in some instances; the same police now will take the matter to court. And most times, it is our prosecutors who follow up on the matter. So the police carry the bulk of the burden from our little budget.

    “We deploy the most resources without support from anywhere, not even grants. So when people sit down somewhere and begin to blame the police, I just look at them. If you are allowed to go through half the trouble the police are contending with, you won’t survive because your organization will shut down.”

    Getting the acts together

    The fact that the country has not paid attention to the police worries Vivour-Adeniyi who said, “If we get the angle of the police right, we have gotten 60 percent of the criminal justice process right definitely.”

    Monday Ubani, human rights lawyer and vice president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has what it takes to fix the remaining rot. One potent solution will be to review the number of justices in the Lagos judiciary, in addition to creating more judicial divisions.

    According to him, “Also we need to equip our judicial system with basic infrastructure. It’s high time we left the long-hand process we are using in taking notes of proceedings. We should employ technology in the administration of justice. We see how other nations are not taking proceedings in long-hand, rather it is being recorded electronically after which they review and do the right thing.

    “Funding is also an issue. If we employ more judges, that means you have to pay more money, you also have to equip the court system and we must also amend some of our rules to accommodate speedy dispensation of justice.”

    The spin-offs are brutal and grim if the state doesn’t get it right as expected. Mental health experts say that sexual assaults can have serious physical, psychological and reproductive backlash for the victims, including death, unwanted pregnancies, complications in childbirth, and sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV/AIDS.

    And so, failure to fulfil the obligation spelt out under international human rights laws such as the CEDAW, for Dr. Charles Umeh, amounts to another violent rape on the psyche of the traumatised survivors. The Clinical Psychologist at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) at Idi-Araba says “the victims feel cheated and hold the belief that the society cannot protect them, and this in turn leads to a feeling of insecurity.

    “Don’t forget, women place a lot of value on their sexuality, and if they are raped, they naturally feel that something very essential for their existence has been taken away from them, and this can lead to trauma and loss of self-esteem in the long run.”

    It is well documented and widely accepted that trauma also spawn other mental health conditions such as anxiety, irritability and confusion, Umeh explained further.

    And for virgins, such as in the case of defilement, according to Umeh, the girls quickly come down with depression, eating disorder, loss of sexual interest and relationship difficulty as they grow up and enter into adolescence. This is also in addition to post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative identity disorder or what is simply known as split personality that further aggravates mental illness in the victims.

    The domino effects of justice delayed or denied for victims of rape and defilement are morbid and horrifying reallyboth in terms of economic and social cost.

    • This investigation was done with the support of the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ)

  • D’banj gets first movie

    AFROBEAT singer, Oladapo Daniel Oyebanjo popularly known as D’banj will be making his first appearance in a Nollywood film titled, ‘Sugar Rush.’

    Filmmaker, Jadesola Osiberu make this known via her Instagram page when she posted a teaser of the video that had names of the cast and D’Banj’s song, ‘Cover Me’ playing in the background.

    The cast includes, D’banj, Adesua Etomi-Wellington, Nkem Owoh, Zack Orji, Omoni Oboli, Toke Makinwa, Bisola Aiyeola, Tobi Bakre, Bimbo Ademoye, Adedimeji Lateef.

    Read Also: Tough times for D’banj

    “We are coming for all your coins this Christmas!! Sugar Rush isssa rush! We’re already cooking up 3 films to be shot 2020, so we can’t wait to end 2019 with a bang! Sugar Rush is a Co-production amongst Greoh Media, FilmOne, DKM Media and Jungle Filmworks. Thanks to my executive co-producers D’banj, Moses Babatope, Kene Okwosa, and Seyi Siwoku for making it happen” she wrote.

    The Kokomaster crooner, D’banj recently announced the launching of his reality show ‘Adventures of a Kokomaster’ on YouTube.

  • ‘Why some gospel artistes prioritise money over God –Rachael Owojori

    Nigerian Canada-based gospel singer, Rachael Owojori is one of the most sought-after gospel minister in the music sector. Owojori, a trained nurse, in this interview with OLAITAN GANIU, speaks on how she ventured into gospel music, humanitarian services in winning souls and evangelism, among other issues.

    HOW and when did you start singing?

    I started singing from the tender age of eight in the children choir and later joined student choir in a group called, ‘Gospel Student Fellowship’. The fact that I was not a good singer before when I was in Student fellowship, I prayed to God for a beautiful voice. I promised God I will give it back to him and He did.  I continued to develop myself in church choir and personal voice training. I’ve been singing God’s praise ever since.

    How do you get inspiration?

    I get inspiration from God through personal experience, the word of God, dream, nature, situation and what is going on around, listening to messages and Christian music.

    It is believed that gospel songs are meant to evangelize but most of today’s singers have commercialized it. What do you say about this?

    I won’t say “most singers” because I believe there are true gospel ministers out there. Some Gospel artistes prioritise money over the message of Christ. It is not right to favour money or fame over God’s calling. It is important for everyone that is truly called by God to follow God’s direction and pass the message of God to the people without looking back. Luke 9:52 states No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.

    What do you do to be different from other gospel singers?

    I try to be myself and follow the leadings of the Holy Spirit in my ministry. If I am seen to be different or the same with another gospel minister, that for me doesn’t matter. I believe in fulfilling Gods purpose for my life.

    How many songs or albums are to your credit?

    By God’s grace I released my debut single titled, Oduntuntun (New Year) in December 2016 and album Let’s Praise Him, containing eight songs in August 2017, which both are on Youtube. I also released a video in February 2019 titled, “The Name of Jesus” It is also on Youtube. I am currently working on three singles and hopefully it will be out next year.

    Any challenges? What are they and how do you surmount them?

    Yes, there are challenges, but God has been faithful. In this kind of ministry, as the Bible said, money is the vehicle of evangelism. To produce an album and to promote or market it cost a lot of money of course. We are praying for financial breakthrough to propagate the Gospel. We are also trusting God for volunteers and sponsors to help spread the gospel of Christ. Another Challenge that we are facing is getting Gospel songs to the public forum in Canada but thanks to God for open doors in this area. God is helping us to extend the gospel of Jesus beyond the four walls of the Church.

    Where do you see your music ministry in 5 – 10 years?

    Other anticipation for the future also includes how to work more on helping the orphans and the needy in Africa. We also plan to tour other African Countries, Europe, and U.S next year while we are trusting God for an open door in Asia and Middle East.

    Aside singing, what other things do you do?

    I am a registered Nurse by profession. I also volunteer for humanitarian services here in Nigeria and Canada. I’m a volunteer in children church and I am also the unit leader of the drama team of RCCG Jesus House for all Nations Saskatoon Canada. Some of our movies are on Youtube (RCCG Jesus House Saskatoon). I also love gardening

    Who are your role models?

    Role model: Jesus Christ is my role model, the bible says in Phil 2:5, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. My parents, Elder and deaconess Akintola are great inspiration to me. I do appreciate the gift of God in the lives of ministers like Pastor E.A Adeboye, Bishop David Oyedepo, Pastor Lekan Ayodele, Evangelist Dupe Olulana, Pastor Nathaniel Bassey, Evangelist Bola Are, Evangelist Bukola Bekes, Lara George, Evangelist Tope Alabi, Sinach, Evang. Gloria Bamiloye to mention just a few.

  • HANNAH REUBEN: How Nigeria Army boosted my wrestling career

    African wrestling champion, Reuben Hannah, has attributed her rising profile to the Nigerian Army’s unparalleled support for her. 

    Though she will be missing out in the forthcoming 12th All Africa Games to be held between 19th and 31st in Morocco, despite claiming gold in the 69kg at the Governor Dickson National Classics, her silver medal feat at the 2015 edition of the quadrennial championship in Brazzaville is still fresh in her memory.

    The Olympian said: “The Nigerian Army are really trying in their own way because what other support will be better than the privilege to train? I don’t think there will be another support that will be better than releasing me for competitions and that’s been the reason why I am growing in the sport.

    “If they did not release me and all I do is to stay back in the barrack with my Army duties. The release alone is better than the money they will give me as support. Training is what a sportsman needs and that is what they are giving me and I am being paid in my primary assignment.

    “My primary assignment is to perform my duty as a soldier and which I do because I go out to train in the morning and come back to the office by 10am. When there is competition, they will now release me to go and train. I will remain grateful to the Army.”

    A gal of many parts, Hannah had previously participated in boxing, swimming and judo before specialising in wrestling. The Olympian, who is a lance corporal with the Nigerian Army, shares her sporting experience along with her military regimen with correspondent AKEEM LAWAL. 

    Below are the excerpts…

     

    Joy of reclaiming national title in Bayelsa

    It was not that easy to win the gold medal at the Governor Dickson National Wrestling Classics. All thanks to God, it came out to be what I really wanted. I won gold and that is what I had been praying for so that I can qualify for the All Africa Games. Actually, I switched to the 69 kg despite the fact that I’d previously moved up to the 72kg category. In fact, 69kg was the weight I wrestled at the 2018 Africa Championship held in Port Harcourt. Interestingly, Sunmisola Balogun was in the 69kg category before moving to the 72kg for the Governor Dickson National Wrestling Classics. Sunmisola, against Reuben Hannah? You can’t compare the two names. Yes, she is an up-coming wrestler but I’m already at that high level. I had also competed in 69kg at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics in Brazil before they changed the weight categories after the Games. I just went for 72kg at this year’s African Championship in Hammamet, Tunisia, because I don’t really want to shed weight for the competition.

     

    Between 69 kg and 72kg weight categories

    Actually, before the African Championship in Hammamet, it was cold in Zaria at that particular time coupled with other reasons like work, Army duty, training, the stress and all that. So I just decided to go up and just wrestle. So I joined my Army team in Lagos and after two days, I checked my weight and it was 66kg. I asked my coach if I could go for 65kg and he said no, that they’ve already done the entry and there was nothing they could do about it. He said I should just go for the 72kg. I said ok and that was why I wrestled in that 72kg, it’s not that I cannot go for my normal weight. I am a kind of person that when it comes to my weight, I am always conscious about that. I don’t eat anyhow. Because one reason why I joined sport is to always feel good with myself whenever I appear. It’s not that I was scared of anybody.

     

    Postcard from Brazzaville 2015

    If it was about preparation; my preparation for the last All Africa games in Brazzaville was fine and I was at my good competition spirit. In the fight against Ennas Khourchid of Egypt, I knew I made some mistakes. I was leading and I did something and it led to another thing and the lady pinned me there and I lost. So it wasn’t good enough for me though. The Egyptian and I have already wrestled again after that Africa Games. Ever since I lost to her, every day I see myself, I see that scene of losing to her. So I came back and had to step up training. I went to You Tube and the United World Wrestling to get her video. I asked people that were at the last All Africa Games of my mistakes and they told me. Even the Nigeria Wrestling President, Honourable Daniel Igali, told me that I wrestled well and what was important was that I was tired. There was no sign of tiredness and that alone just gave me that courage. If not for the mistake, maybe I would have won the match. So I came back, stepped up preparation and defeated her 8-2 at the Olympic qualifiers.

     

    My breakthrough with wrestling

    If anyone had told me I would be a wrestler today, I would not even accept despite the fact that no one knows tomorrow. Actually, I was doing other sports. I was doing Judo and I was able to go for some competitions. At my teenage, I was fat that time because I was weighing up to 75-77kg as at then. So I did wrestle upper class. I would go for competitions, they would beat me, I would go again, they would beat me and it went on like that. Before then, when they did trials for judokas for the Gateway Games 2006 National Sports Festival here in Bayelsa and I was defeated. However, they had to take me there so that I could get the experience. So when I got there, the wrestling coaches asked me to join them. But because they had done the entry I could not compete for them. So we came back and in 2008, I started doing boxing. While training with my boxing coach, Enepkedekumo Okporu one morning, a wrestling coach, the late Ibo Ozite, said ‘do you know you are a wrestler?’ He said further: ‘Just look at your physique, you are a wrestler, you are just wasting your time.’ He then had a bargain with my boxing coach that I would do boxing in the morning and then wrestling in the evening. So we started it that way. I would train boxing in the morning while I did wrestling in the evening. Because we were just four persons then, I was like is it only me doing it but he told me that the senior team went for competition that I shouldn’t worry about it that I would have a lot of people to train with. My baptism in Lagos

    That same year September I went for junior wrestling championship in Lagos State and won silver. I was beaten by a judoka, Augustina Esther. When we came back, he said if I could win silver for junior just within few preparations that if I can come and endure I can achieve more in wrestling. But the pressure at home was not helping me. Don’t go to sport complex, concentrate on your studies and all that. As God would have it, I continued like that until 2009 again we went for Kada Games where I won a bronze medal. I went for my first championship at senior level, the National Championship in Ebonyi State. I was thrashed as if I and my opponents had other issues. So I lost. After that we went for the 2011 championship in Port Harcourt and I won my first gold medal, then I was still representing Bayelsa State. Again at Eko 2012, I won gold. Ever since then it has been either me or Aboy. If she goes up, I will win the gold. Then finally 2011 in Ibadan I became the number one in the 67kg  category. I continued till 2017 when I lost to Kemeasuodei Dressman before they changed the classes again. I went to 65kg. It was at the 2018 Africa Championships in Port Harcourt that I got my first African title. So that’s how I got into wrestling and I am not regretting it.

    My parents didn’t nearly stop me from sport

    My school was a stone-throw from my house and it was only a fence that demarcated my school from my house. There was one other boys’ school close to that primary school, UBE Township Primary School. We made a hole exit on the fence and sometimes we passed through it to play football against them. I just go, train and my parents would beat me when I get home. The next day I would still go. I attended training every day after school and when they wanted to beat me, I usually ran to my step mother’s place because she was the only one who supported me. The beating continued and the training continued. The funny thing is that my father doesn’t know what I was coming for. If you asked him he would tell you I was playing football. When he found out that I was doing swimming, he was against it, saying that water is not good and I left that sport. He finally got to know that I was doing wrestling because it got to a stage where my coach followed me to the house to talk to my parents. He only met my mum at home and she told him that she didn’t have problem with me doing sport but it was my father that was against it.

    But as time went on, my dad started supporting me too. When I returned from my first invitational competition in India, whenever my dad saw me at home he would ask me: ‘Why didn’t you go for training? Is there no training today?’

     

    My foray into the Nigerian Army

    One day after training, I got a call from somebody who told me that he wanted to see me. I said ‘ok, please who are you?’ then he said I should not worry that I knew him. He said he is a brother to our president. I went there after training and when I got there he was someone I knew. He told me there was a job slot given to his uncle who didn’t have anybody to fill the space and he wanted me to take the offer. I told him I only had my school certificate then but he said with that I could still acquire the job. Then I asked him what the job was and he said military. I told him I couldn’t do it because at that particular time, I had  hatred for military.. Then I went back to consult my coach, who advised me to get the form and go for the screening. I also asked Blessing Oborududu too because she is someone I confide in whenever I want to do anything. She also told me it was an opportunity which I must not let it pass. She said there was nothing like job opportunity at the sports council and I should just go for that one. So getting the job was to help myself and assist my family.

     

    Switching from civilian to military lifestyle

    Since I joined the military,  it has been another way God used to open up a lot of things to me. When I was a civilian I couldn’t get any title; I did not go to Commonwealth Games, not even the Olympics. When I got into the military, it opened way for me. I had my African title, went to the Commonwealth Games and others. They released me to go and train whenever there was any competition. I believe the military is where God designed for me to go and start shining.

     

    My steady promotion in the Nigerian Army

    For you to be promoted in the Nigerian Army, there is a specific year you have be in the service. In the military, when I joined, it was every four years to get a rank. So when it got to my fourth year, I got my rank. Though it was not that specific four years because it was the year that would make it five that I got my lance corporal rank because of some mix up when they were doing the nomination as I was in training camp that time.

    Coping with advances from men

    It is a normal thing to get advances from men. When it comes to man and woman issue, it is normal. But ever since I joined the military I have not gotten myself into any trouble because I have been busy. When a lady is focused, she wouldn’t get carried away by such things. It is all about self-esteem and the way you comport yourself. If you are the type that minds your business, do what you are assigned to do, I don’t think anyone will come and harass you. It is the same way you have responsible people in the civilian, they have it in the military too.

     

    Settling down with a military or civilian

    Settling down! I don’t want to answer that kind of question because if you are talking about a soulmate there is no specification. You cannot specify that it should come from the military or civilian. Marriage is something designed by God, it is Him that makes it work. So if you want to decide where your soulmate will come from you will get it wrong. You’re not the one to design where your soulmate will come from, but for me if it comes from military, fine; if it comes from the civil world, fine.

     

    Advice for up and coming athletes

    For the up and coming ones, my advice for them is that they should try and identify only what God wants them to do. When you identify it, it works and helps. At first when I started, I use to come here to do swimming, boxing, judo, squash to the extent people will say ‘na ashewo sport person you don become’, But it got to a stage now that everyone is saying they are happy and they are proud of me, seeing the person I became. Things are very difficult, not only in this country but world over. Teenagers out there, sport is one thing that can help youths out there to become what you want to be. When you come into sport, it builds you and develops you. For me at work, I am this soft type, I don’t even like arguing even when I am right. But coming into sport has added something to me because I can now defend myself. When you are wrong I tell you immediately. You are going to feel bad but it is best I tell you the truth. So I will advice youths out there, even if there is a close space or field, they should start up somewhere. I believe every individual has a particular talent that has to do with sport. If you cannot swim, you can do karate, play football and so on. Not only that, if you identify this sport, you have to apply patient and have to be discipline. You must not listen to people’s criticisms because people will come to condemn whatever you are doing. Youth should come into sport and also focus on their studies because it works hand in hand.

     

    On Nigeria Wrestling Federation

    The federation under Honourable Daniel Igali has done a lot on the development of the sport in the country. Like the Governor Dickson Classics, there were lots of talent that were discovered. People that never wrestled before but just trained for some weeks and they performed wonderfully well even beyond my expectation. So there are lots of talent out there and the Nigeria Wrestling Federation is catching them young, making sure the youths out there can see what is happening. And when they join the sport, the federation embrace and support you to make sure you put your mind into it. The federation are doing great.

  • Reviewing revenue allocation formula?

    THE Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mr Elias Mbam, recently told the media in Abuja that the government would set up a committee to review the current  revenue allocation formula. Currently, the Federal government gets 52.68 percent, states, 26.72 percent, and Local governments 20.60 percent. The committee will work with the December 2014 review earlier done by the Commission. But the outcome is unlikely to be fundamentally different from the current formula, regardless of the new economic realities the government has reluctantly acknowledged.

    It is strange just how Nigeria continues to dig itself into a futile hole, running a warped federal system, and enthroning inefficient and inherently defective political and economic structures. The present system is untenable and unworkable. Surely it is not too hard for the government to understand what it means to practice federalism. Their ignorance must be contrived and malevolent. What Nigeria needs is not a reviewed revenue allocation formula but real political and economic federalism, deep structural changes. Let states or regions make their money and pay tax to the centre. It is time to banish the cruel and unhealthy monthly circus to Abuja.

  • Suicide, sniper and go-slow system

    Simply allowing Nigerians to continue to take their own lives must not continue 

    SUICIDE, the act of deliberately killing oneself  is one great human tragedy. Sadly , it is also a growing phenomenon worldwide,  with Nigeria making   worrisome contributions.

    It has been said that suicides account for more than 50 per cent of violent deaths globally. Nigeria ranks number one in suicide rate in West Africa. According to the World Population Review , Nigeria has a  crude suicide rate of 1.5 per 100,000 . It is not hard to infer then that with an exploded population,  the numbers will not only be high,  but also be on the increase . In spite of this ,  there are no  programmes focussed on stemming the ugly tide of  suicide in Nigeria.  A whole lot is needed to be done to advance mental health or mental health services , bearing in mind that depression is a major trigger of suicide.

    WHO defines suicide as the act of killing oneself  , deliberately initiated and performed by the person concerned in the full knowledge or expectation of its fatal outcome. That is truly morbid. The WHO also says that about 800,000 die every year through suicide. Nigeria has the 15th highest suicide rate in the world.  However , as Nigerians seeing this , we know that this is a very conservative estimate,  dependent on ( media) reports of suicide cases. More incidences go unreported . Apart from our style of disregard for documentation , this is also because the cultural view of suicide , in both the North and the South of Nigeria,  is that suicide is a taboo.  The outcome is that a number of deaths through suicide are treated by giving the dead a quiet burial; as hush- hush as possible. In Nigeria,  in addition to extreme sorrow caused by the suicide death,  the families of the dead also experience shame.

    Another twist to all of  this  is,  for every successful suicide,  there are several more which do not succeed i.e. attempted suicides ; so there are a lot of depressed people in our midst who are actively on the brink,  but who have nowhere to turn to before it becomes too late. Evidence of the many failed suicide cases can be deduced from an academic study by the Medical University of Vienna published in 2015. They looked at male suicide survivors aged 18- 67 , as well as the family and friends of suicide survivors.

    April and May 2019 were particularly worrisome in Nigeria,  with case after case of suicide being reported from all across the nation.

    And from just the sparse data available to me, it would appear that like Japan and Britain,  there is a higher tendency for males to commit suicide in Nigeria , than for females. The only thing is that in Japan,  it is usually the aged who commit suicide . This occurs majorly after a divorce or loss of job, and the inability to continue providing for their families. In their case, it would be  viewed as an honourable way to die.

    In Nigeria,  the reasons for suicide range from joblessness, being jilted by a lover, or like the case of one Kogi man- it was the hardship caused by his  salaries unpaid for upwards of one year.

    Nigeria really needs to take a critical look now  at the issue of suicidal behaviour. Suicide prevention needs national attention,  and civil society organisations as well as NGOs need to become fully engaged .

    It has been observed that some recent,  reported suicides were executed by the use of a pesticide known as Sniper .  Sniper has been described as a ruthless pesticide. Sold in open markets across the nation , it has become  a quick and accessible tool for suicidal persons.

    People,  including our national lawmakers have decried its lethal qualities and have called for its outright ban. It has come as cheery news this week from the regulatory agency that the product will soon be banned in Nigeria.

    Dr Abubakar Jimoh, the Director of Public Affairs of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration,  NAFDAC , disclosed that after the regulators complete an ongoing sensitisation campaign,  Sniper would be banned from open markets across Nigeria. He said that the product would only be available for those who have a genuine need of it for pest control,  in the agricultural sector.

    This is a very good step in the right direction. Additionally,  the regulation has to be tightly enforced, to achieve the desired result.

    The rising incidence of suicides among teenagers and young adults should concern all who are interested in a future for Nigeria. Unemployment and underemployment is a crushing burden on able bodied people. The need to improve the welfare of youths in society is dire.

    A lot of suicides take place in the home,  with the chosen method being hanging.

    Young, active Nigerians should not be at home , in their numbers.  They need to be out in the marketplace  , productively engaged.  Deploying a few young men as political thugs,  and leaving the others hopeless and hungry is a recipe for disaster. That suicide in Nigeria is increasing is no more a matter for debate, and the current approach of government and the nation to simply allow Nigerians to continue to take their own lives must be dropped for more proactive measures.

    A  useful approach would be to study and adopt success stories of countries that are tackling suicide. The government of Scotland took a decision to increase funding for the issue of suicide.  With a solid programme in place , Scotland went from having the highest male suicide rate in the UK to becoming the sole region reversing the trend.

    In 2002, the Scottish government launched a 10 year action plan,  ‘Choose Life ‘.The plan was targeted at reducing suicide , and it has made noteworthy success.

    Nigeria has to rise to the current challenge to forestall escalating tragedy.

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