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  • Bangladesh: Trafficked into nightmares

    Local agents have been smuggling victims across Benapole’s border by showing forged documents of family relations at immigration checkpoints. Sometimes the gang members marry the victims only to sell them into prostitution later.

    The Daily Star learned about this after talking to six victims and law enforcers in bordering areas recently.
    In most cases, the victims from different parts of the country are gathered at small huts built by the traffickers near Benapole border. At that point, they are treated nicely and given the impression that they would actually go to India for a better future.
    When it is time, their counterparts in India would notify their accomplices, and the victims are taken to the other side of the border.

    For commuting, the traffickers always use motorbikes just as locals in border areas do, and carry sweetmeat, fish or gift packets to avoid drawing suspicion.

    TRAFFICKING ROUTES
    According to victims and local law enforcers, the traffickers use Putkhali, Sadipur, Boroachra, and Gathipara points of Jashore to traffic the victims into India without passports.
    The victims are first taken to Jashore and then to the border points by motorbike before they are kept in the small huts.

    Take the case of victim Bonya (not her real name).

    The 17-year-old girl used to live with her parents in the capital’s Mirpur and was looking for a job after completing higher secondary education. She left home after a woman, her neighbour, promised her a better job in India.

    On Jan 28, 2017, she went to Jashore by bus with the woman’s boyfriend. From Jashore town, they went to Benapole by motorbike.

    “For the next five days, the man kept me in a small hut with a TV, almirah (a cupboard) and small bed,” Bonya said, talking to The Daily Star in Jashore town after her rescue.

    “The man asked me to stay inside the hut and went away. I was not allowed to go outside for security reason, and a woman gave me food timely.”
    Bonya come back home in March last year with the support of Rights Jessore, a human rights organisation.

    “On Feb 5, the man came back early in the morning and took me near Putkhali where a boat was waiting for me,” she said.

    “After crossing the river, I found a man with a motorbike. He drove me into a dense forest. One hour later, I saw a locality.”

    In the area, Bonya was kept in a house and forced to sleep with some men, she said. “After a few days, I was being taken to a brothel area. On the way, I ran from them and went to the local police.”
    Police then sent Bonya to a shelter home in West Bengal, and she finally made contact with Rights Jessore from there.

    This reporter recently visited Putkhali in Benapole, and met a person called Sagar with the help of a local man while posing as a client.

    During the conversation about how to cross the border without a passport, Sagar said he could make the arrangement, but it would cost Tk 5,000 (US$59.13) because “border security has been heightened recently.”

    When asked if there were two persons including a woman, Sagar grinned and said he could arrange that too, but the cost would go up to Tk 16,000. “We charge extra for women because it is risky, and it takes time.”

    After the correspondent agreed, Sagar said, “You need to stay near the border for one day or two. We will first clear the border for you and then help you cross it.”

    Sagar demanded an additional Tk 300 for every overnight stay and Tk 200 for food at the hut. He also advised the correspondent to carry some additional cash to buy sweetmeat or fruit on the way.

    CONTROLLING BORDER POINTS
    Locals and law enforcers said each of the border points is run by local ruling party men. They pay hefty amounts to law enforcers to run the trafficking activities smoothly.

    Executive Director of Rights Jessore Binoy Krishna Mallick said, “We have learnt from rescued victims and our local network that some people are leading the nexus at border points using political identity.”

    At present, one Ghana Biswas oversees the Putkhali point, Ashok Sen the Boroachra point, and Jahidul Islam the Sadipur point of Benapole, The Daily Star learned after talking to some accomplices of the gangs and sources of law enforcement agencies.

    All of them are supporters of the Awami League and have been involved in human trafficking for years, but were never arrested, the sources said. Locally, they are known as farmers despite owning luxurious multi-storey homes in nearby Sharshaupazila, they added.

    The Daily Star tried to communicate with them but their phones were switched off.
    Rights activists said the gang sells a woman or girl to Indian brothels for Tk 2.5 to 3 million.
    Asked about the alleged complicity of the ruling party men, Awami League’s Benapole unit President Enamul Hoque Mukul said some may get involved, but they are doing it in secret.

    “We take strict action against whoever is found guilty.”
    He said the law enforcers have tightened security, and the situation is improving now.
    Asked about AL men’s involvement, lieutenant-colonel Selim Reza, commander of Border Guard Bangladesh-49 (BGB), refused to give a direct reply.

    He, however, said they take action against those found involved in the crime. “The situation has got better now, and the number of trafficking incidents has come down to almost zero for our increased vigilance and action.”
    Salauddin Sikder, additional police superintendent of Jessore, said trafficking through the border declined in recent years although there were still some reports of trafficking.

    He said he had no specific information about law enforcers’ involvement in the crime but warned of action if any member of the force was found guilty.

    NEW TECHNIQUES
    In recent times, the traffickers have changed techniques. Now they get their prey across the border using the “legal” channel.
    “For a woman, the traffickers make fake documents like a marriage certificate and a passport. Then they cross the border like a couple going on a trip to India,” Masud Karim, officer-in-charge of Benapole Police Station, told The Daily Star.
    “In the same way, the traffickers get passports for underage girls. They identify them as children or siblings while making fake passports and documents,” said the OC, who claimed to have got the information after interrogating victims.
    Now few victims cross the border illegally, he said. “Some are still doing it without passports, but most of them have relatives in India, or they are sick and poor.”
    Asked about raiding the border huts, the OC said they often conduct drives and take action against the criminals. Sometimes, they also rescue victims from the huts.

    FAKE RELATIONS
    There are some cases in which traffickers marry a girl before selling her to a brothel in India.
    On January 18 last year, a Jashore court sentenced one Shohag Hossain of Narail for life and fined him Tk 50,000 for selling his wife to a brothel in Mumbai.
    Shohag married the girl of JashoreSadarupazila on July 7, 2007. Later, he told his in-laws that he would take his wife to India for a better job. The girl’s family refused but he kept insisting, the victim family told The Daily Star in May last year.
    Finally, Shohag went to India with his wife on April 15, 2009, without letting anyone know. When her family found him missing, they filed a complaint with police and went to Rights Jessore. A few days later, Shohag came back home alone, and said his wife went missing in India.
    Rights Jessore rescued the girl from a Mumbai brothel on May 7, 2010, using its network.

    This story by Mohammad Jamil Khan was originally published by The Daily Star on Jul 22.

    BEHIND THE STORY
    The reporter had to act as a local to get in touch with gang members who ran the trafficking trade, in order to acquire information pertaining to the story. Social workers and law enforcement sources, who worked with the trafficked victims, helped clue him in on the gang members tasks and whereabouts. However, he did not get much data or support from the local law enforcers. While working in the field, he convinced locals to help him cross Benapole’s borders without a passport by paying them sums of money. The NGOs who used to work to rescue traffic victims also assisted him in getting some ideas and provided him a database of contacts. As local political leaders were benefiting from the trafficking trade, the reporter was forced to hide his identity while staying in the bordering village. The social workers, who helped him throughout his investigation, alerted him to a possible threat from a political muscleman. After the story published, the reporter received dozens of phone calls congratulating him on the findings. To his knowledge, although illegal human trafficking is still underway through bordering points, the number of trafficking cases has reduced significantly.

  • Vietnam:‘Wasting’ our lives, we’ll let our country go to waste

    HANOI – A drainage canal is not a garbage landfill.
    Why state the obvious?

    Because, on the ground, they seem synonymous. Every day, their stench assails our nostrils.
    Yet, we persistently treat our surroundings as a free-for-all garbage repository.
    How many of our rivers and other water bodies have died or are dying?
    In April 2018, a drainage canal in Hanoi’s Yen Hoa area was partially restored after a pile of garbage was fished out.

    This included different types of untreated household waste and carcasses. After many years, the stench had become unbearable, but it was only after the media raised a stink that the authorities deployed sanitation workers to clean it.

    But the dead and dying water systems in the capital city and elsewhere are not just the authorities’ responsibility. Anyone can see that a year after Hanoi’s campaign to prevent its rivers and streams from being choked to death by garbage- mainly To Lich, Nhue, and Đay rivers – such efforts are just a drop in the ocean. Every Hanoian is complicit in polluting the city’s environment, and the same can be said of localities nationwide.
    Which also means that every Hanoian and every citizen of this country is responsible for cleaning up our rivers, our soil and the air we breathe.

    A Hanoian who has lived all 38 years of her life along the Kim Nguu River, a distributary of the To Lich River, said that despite the daily effort of workers from Hanoi Sewerage and Drainage Limited Company (HSDC) to dredge out the garbage, many neighbours do not hesitate to dump their household waste in it.
    The pollution is so severe that the river has stopped flowing and reeks of rubbish.
    Compare such crass indifference with the concern shown by someone like Gondai Shoichi, a Japanese national who is organising a volunteer group to collect garbage at different places in Hanoi including Van Mieu (Temple of Literature), Hoan Kiem (Return Sword) Lake, Thong Nhat Park and Thu Le Zoo. Gondai told Viet Nam News that the pollution of rivers and lakes in Hanoi was similar to that of Japan in the 1950s. He ticked off a few important points: garbage should be separated at source; environmental education should start very early; environmental regulations should be very strictly followed.
    We need to go much further.

    Beyond obedience to laws, every action that protects our environment should become second nature. This is the biggest lesson we need to learn from our Japanese brethren.
    Wako Takatoshi, a Japanese expert in drainage and sewerage who has been working as a policy advisor on urban environment with Vietnam’s Construction Ministry for the last three years, said that removing garbage from rivers and lakes in Hanoi, as was done with the Yen Hoa canal, was very important, but by itself, it was not a sustainable measure.
    The responsibility of individuals and agencies for maintaining different parts of rivers, canals and other water bodies has to be clear cut, and people’s awareness raised to a point that their habits change, he said.
    Wako also offered a key psychological insight: “People can easily litter in a place that is dirty, but they tend not to do so when a place is very clean.”

    Unlearning a few things
    According to the Hanoi Urban Environmental Hygiene Company in 2018, the capital city generates more than 6,200 tonnes of garbage each day. Only 70 per cent of this is collected and treated. The remaining 30 per cent is dumped into the environment, including our water systems.
    Hoang Thao, who founded the Noi khong voi tui nylon (Say No to nylon bags) group, said many people dump garbage thinking they are being clean and doing their part for the environment.
    “For example, they put nylon bags or plastic bottles into a waste basket and think that they are doing it right, but they are not. It takes dozens of years for the former and hundreds of years for the latter to decompose completely,” she said.

    Practical practices
    Wako, Gondai and Thao were participants at a workshop on “Clean Water for Healthy Living” organised last Sunday by the Japan-Vietnam JDS Specialist Network (JSN) and the US-based FHHER Social Impact Fund.
    The workshop was organised at a coffee shop on Lieu Giai Street, with participants being advised to bring their own mugs in case the shop had no environmentally-friendly receptacles to offer.
    Personally, the get-together, second in the JSN’s Coffee Talk Series, was an eye-opener that went beyond learning about safe water. Experts and environmental activists shared shocking information: Humans have created enough plastic to cover the eight largest country in the world – Argentina; Vietnam ranks fourth among top 20 countries in mismanaging plastic waste; globally, up to 91 per cent of the plastic isn’t recycled.
    Ironies abound in the way “experts” attend workshops on environmental protection, despite the lavish lifestyles many of them lead, the means of travel they use, the amount of plastic used at such meets and so on.

    #7 Day Challenge
    As a nation, institution or individual, the biggest change starts with a single step.
    One such step is the “#7 Day Challenge” launched on April 10, 2018 by the United Nations in Vietnam in collaboration with the Embassy of Sweden and the Live & Learn environmental education organisation.
    The challenge encouraged people to practice ways of eating, moving and living without damaging the environment. It commemorated Earth Day which was ambitiously themed “End Plastic Pollution” in 2018.
    Participants raised awareness by posting photos and stories of taking buses and bicycles to work, not using nylon bags or plastic cutlery, turning off all unnecessary bulbs.
    Our leaders, like the Environment Minister, the President and the Prime Minister, can give this campaign a powerful push by accepting the challenge.
    I hope to see this happen, but the question remains: Is this enough?
    No.
    We, as people, experts and politicians, are very fond of intoning the need for “drastic” measures, but fail to recognise that what is needed is a drastic, sustained change in our attitude and lifestyle, a change that cannot be postponed or passed on to others. The change starts with each one of us.
    Nothing else will work.
    More than a year after a hefty increase in fines for littering violations, there has been no appreciable improvement in the situation, not a dent in the magnitude of change that is needed.
    We can no longer afford to accept inane, comforting messages that say small actions make a big difference. We need big actions that make a huge difference.

    This commentary by Hồng Minh was originally published by Viet Nam news on April 13, 2018.

    BEHIND THE STORY
    Vietnam is one of Asia’s five worst polluters of ocean with plastic waste, according to international organisations. This commentary by Hồng Minh was published together with an anecdote about a dying canal in Vietnam’s capital city, Hanoi, due to littering. The writer investigated the pollution of the city’s water system as well as other parts of the country. The writer also met and talked to experts and activists dealing with the problem and had some suggestions on how to help prevent and reduce waste, especially plastic waste. The piece was then widely shared among sanitation and plastic waste experts as well as environmental groups. The problem of illegal littering and untreated plastic waste has become so alarming that the Prime Minister of Vietnam, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, launched a national campaign on June 9 to prevent plastic waste with the target to rid Vietnam of single use plastic products by the year 2025. Viet Nam News has been running a series of articles, news, opinions regarding the problem in the country as well as measures to reduce the consequences.

  • Why I made my assets declaration public

    Oyo State governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde, was a guest of the Oyo State Broadcasting Corporation where he fielded questions from panelists and residents of the state on the activities of his government in the first 100 days in office. He spoke about the directions of his administration in such areas as health, education, security and social infrastructure as well as his plans concerning the projects begun by his predecessors. YINKA ADENIRAN monitored it.

    There are lots of unemployed graduates in the state, while many others are underemployed. Many graduates have ended up as commercial motorcycle operators because there are no jobs. During your electioneering campaign, you promised to make life comfortable for all and sundry. How will your government address the issue of employment in the state?

    Let me repeat what I said during the electioneering campaign. It is true that I said the youth is central to our government. Oyo State has a comparative advantage over and above its counterparts when it comes to the landmass that God gave to us. We are blessed with many things, including solid minerals. People have been thinking that we should have achieved many things within a short period of time. For someone like me who studied engineering, I know there are processes towards achieving certain things. In the engineering field, at times, we complete the process of building a structure on the paper before the actual process begins. Truth is it might take time to lay the foundation that can bring about employment for the teeming youths in the state, though we have started.

    About two weeks ago, we launched FarmCrowdy farming initiative with a private company, and about 50,000 farmers will benefit from this programme.

    Secondly, most of the farm settlements we have will be turned into farm estates, which would not only take care of farmers that will process what we want to plant, we will build schools and some other infrastructural facilities that will make people live comfortably in those places.

    Of course, we have given our youths the impression that the future will be bright for them. There are also some of our youths who had been engaging in some unwholesome acts, but they are now retracing their steps. Some of them have approached us for help. They told us they want to be responsible and stop constituting nuisance to the public, and we have been acting on that. I can tell you that three months of this government is too short to fix the rot and bottlenecks created by the past administration. But I know if we are on the right trajectory, things will be easier for us. Now, everybody knows the path we are moving towards, which is agriculture and its value chain, to attract foreign investors into our state. One last thing I want to say is, if we fail to do the right thing for the youth, it means that this government has failed already. So, I want this to be in the mind of our youths. They must know that they are our main focus.

    In the last WASSCE result, Oyo State was in the 26th position out of the 36 states of the federation. Also, we have students in JSS3 and SSS3 who cannot read. What do you want to do differently from what was done in the past to improve the education sector in the state?

    On my way to this studio, I came with a book without even knowing a question like this will come up. I came to show it to the people of Oyo State. The book is a compendium of past questions and answers for students preparing for WAEC and NECO, starting from 2012 through 2018. When I was in the secondary school here in Bishop Philip Academy, Ibadan, not International School, Ibadan (ISI) but a public school, we looked for those who had sat for WAEC around the neighbourhood and requested for their past questions to study. We used that to prepare ourselves ahead for examination. But we published this book with the aim of giving them to our students preparing for exams for free. We didn’t have a book like this in Oyo State before now and it is the initiative of this government. The books will be distributed freely to those in private schools too.

    Similarly, we have put in place free tutorial classes for students that would write the WASSCE exam and we are making it mandatory for them. We are doing this because we know that the evaluation process cuts across students in both private and public schools. The teachers too will be given these books for free to teach the students, particularly Mathematics and English.

    We will employ teachers and deploy them to schools entirely different from where they teach such that the students will have different teachers taking them from time to time. The idea is, from Mondays to Thursdays, teachers will teach from 2pm to 4pm, and on Saturdays, students will receive lectures from 9am to 1 pm. With this, we believe that the result of our students who will write the next May/June exam will be better than what we have had in the past.

    Therefore, I encourage the parents to cooperate with the government to make this happen. They should make time for their children to participate in this exercise and not give them things to hawk when they are supposed to be receiving lectures. If these children become great in life, they can afford to give to their parents whatever they (parents) need. So, parents should allow their children to go for these extra-mural lessons that the government is organising for them for free.

    There are many projects scattered around the state, which were uncompleted or abandoned by previous administrations. What should the people of the state look forward to in this administration?

    I actually passed along Iwere-Ile Road and noticed that close to the election time, the past administration laid asphalt to a particular point and stopped. I am very sure that where the asphalt covered is not up to one kilometre before the election ended. There are many projects that have been abandoned since 2010, but I have promised the people that good governance supersedes the gimmick of politics. Because of this, I told the contractors who were paid by the immediate past government but abandoned the projects that they should go back to the site and do the work they collected money to execute. If they do well, we will allow them to finish with the work irrespective of the party that gave the project out. As long as it is Oyo State’s money, they can go ahead. This administration always wants to see value for any money spent on whatever project.

    When I went to inspect the Silo project in Awe, I understood that the state government had paid over N1 billion for the project but zero value is what is on ground for the state. The contractor handling the project said the case was in court because he had not been paid completely but I asked him to withdraw the case from court so that we could sit down one-on-one to discuss and settle the matter once and for all. During our discussion, he said if he could get another N350m, the job would be completed and I immediately approved the money to be given to the contractor. I learnt that he has gone back to site and he has been given an ultimatum of four months to complete the project.

    So, for us, it does not matter when a project starts, even if it was awarded during the time of Governors Akala or Ladoja, what is important to us is the value it will add to the state. Our government will continue to show commitment to whatever will add value to the people of this state.

    For instance, we have revoked the Moniya-Iseyin road construction project. But right now, we are in the process of re-awarding the road project to a more competent contractor. The last time I also passed through the road from Iseyin that leads to Saki during my campaign, I saw the nature of the road. Perhaps the people working on that road designed it in a way that one part must be tarred and the other should not be tarred. But what is left now is to just tar the remaining part and it is among the projects that are surviving.

    If you look at it, you will observe that we signed a budget into law. The past government came up with a budget of N280 billion. Meanwhile, all the money that has been realised till this moment is N70 billion. So, how come they have a budget of N280 billion? That was why we reduced it, because it is completely unrealistic. We thought that we need to cut our clothes according to our material but not to our size, because a small cloth is easy to sew.

    The electioneering period is always different from reality. With the election period now behind, what is the key message of your administration ahead of the next four years?

    Let me start by saying that I am happy to be serving this state. During the electioneering period, we came up with the roadmap for the accelerated development of Oyo State. Now, what we plan for the state is anchored on four pillars: health, security, education and economy. We know if we perform well in these areas, people will enjoy the dividends of democracy.

    For you to know that we are making efforts in raising the standard of education, I just came back from Oyo where we went to commission a SUBEB project of 20 blocks of classroom. If we give our children necessary education, exposure, they will succeed. We also know that if we take the issue of health seriously, this will make us productive and make our economy favourable.

    For us, once the economy is tackled such that the means of livelihood is considerably improved for all, you will see that standard of living will be okay for everyone and even the government won’t be preoccupied with the expectation of federal allocation. The federal allocation we get is not enough, but if we can expand our own economy, the money government gets from Internally Generated Revenue IGR will equally increase. If we can also utilise most of our infrastructure to target our economy, things will take a good shape for us in the state.

    So, we believe education and healthy living of the people will lead to productivity and expansion of our economy.

    I must sincerely repeat that all of these cannot be done in an atmosphere that is not safe and secure and that is why the fourth thing we want to do is to enhance security. We want to ensure that everyone goes about his lawful business without hindrance. We want absolute peace and security in the state for the people.

    A lot of controversies have surrounded the local government system. What is your government doing on the election into the local governments, which are the closest to the people at the grassroots?

    Actually, we are working on the local government administration. When we came in, we observed there were some cases in court but some of the cases have been disposed right now, so the coast is now clear. Those who conducted the local government election did not follow the provisions of the constitution duly and we don’t want to make the same mistake. We have Local Council Development Areas and we cannot conduct election into LCDAs. But what we can do is to appoint caretakers to manage the areas while we plan to soon conduct the election into the LGAs as provided by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    We will work with Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) within a short time and conduct election within the first quarter of 2020. Preparation will start once we conclude our internal arrangement with the OYSIEC. So, I enjoin the people of Oyo State to exercise little patience on this.

    Truly speaking, it is God that is piloting the affairs of governance in Oyo State and the people of the state also need to cooperate with the government to take the state to an enviable height. If we do the needful as a government and the people also, on their part, do what they are supposed to do, the Oyo State we all long for is what we will see.

    You have made a lot of lofty promises on the areas of health, security, education and economy, including provision of 100 security patrol vehicles. When will they become operational? There are also talks about the CCTV project embarked upon by the last administration. What will your government do about it?

    I think we need to always pass our messages across to the people comprehensively. A secure and safe environment is what we cannot compromise. If you look at it very well, investors, investments and foreign money won’t come to an environment that is not safe.

    Concerning the security vehicles, in a matter of days, you will start seeing them on the streets. I always say that good governance is beyond razzmatazz. I rejected a proposal to paint the secretariat because the furniture, key governance issues, computers, toilets and other things that are inside are not in good condition. I can do all these things inside even without anybody knowing. We have not been going around to announce some of the things we have done and those that we would do, but silently, we are going about our service to the people of Oyo State. I may or may not commission the 100 vehicles, as it does not mean anything much to us. But we are after people seeing them on the street and having confidence that they are in an environment where they can go to bed with their two eyes closed. I think that is what is important.

    Concerning the CCTV cameras, we have some of them in store before now. During the electioneering campaign, I did say I was going to scrap them. But when we got in here, we checked what the past administration has done and we observed it may not be possible to identify or go after offenders with the CCTV cameras. But of course, they have already spent money on the project before we came in and we thought scrapping them would be a disservice to the people. So, we decided that we will keep them, enhance them and, maybe in a few years, we can get to the point where it would be useful to identify and trace offenders.

    Looking at some new areas in Ibadan, there are places that are supposed to be beautiful to signpost what modern Ibadan will look like, but what can be seen are some embarrassing structures. The roads are bad. Even the type of urban planning you expect to be there is not there. Also, the internal roads in the state capital are in deplorable state. What are you going to do to empower the Urban Planning Department of the state to fix them?

    You will agree with me that a lot of people seem to be so much in a hurry and they thought we have been in government for the past one year or so. But this is just 100 days, which is still early for us. We do have plans. When you are in the public space, you should always provide enabling environment for the people that will come after you. But in a situation of a hostile take-over, you follow procedures and processes laid down to conduct government businesses, and we have been doing that. But, unfortunately, it has been slow. They come to you to get the final approval to execute and there are things we are looking at dispassionately for us to be able to get certain things right; to cut that cycle where people can come for one comprehensive approval, and once they are able to get the approval, they go ahead and execute.

    We are aware that we have to do certain things. I will give an example: I did not declare my assets publicly for fun. I declared it so that I can be held accountable. What we met when we came in was a situation where you have some amount of money voted for someone you appointed as the head of a public department. They came to me and said that whatever project you give to us, 50 per cent of it will go back to the governor. And whoever is heading the agency will also take 30 per cent and out of that, the governor’s wife is entitled to 10 or 15 per cent. So, how much are they really using to execute the job? It is about 10 per cent because there will be some wastage here and there from people that are going out to execute the job. So, we only have value for 10 per cent. We are trying to turn that situation around. When money is voted, please don’t bring 50 per cent back to me because if you do, I will probably put you in jail because if I take it from you, it means I am also an accomplice and we are both robbing the people of the state. That is why the second bill that was sent to the Oyo State House of Assembly is the Oyo State Financial Crimes Commission Bill. Once it is passed by the Assembly, I will sign it and all of us that you see in government will operate under the same law. It is something that is quite serious.

    If we are able to increase how much we are using to execute the actual roads and public work mandate, you will see appreciable improvement on those internal roads. I have, during the campaign period, gone through Oranyan, Idi-Arere, Molete, Beere and observed that those places are riddled with pot-holes. We can go ahead to resurface all the main roads, because there is a project going on right now at that place. The median from Gate all the way to Molete is being replaced and one would wonder what that is meant for. That contract too was awarded by the past administration. But we are left with the option of either losing some money or allowing them do whatever they want to do but try to derive as much value that is practicable under the situation we have found ourselves.

    You have also said you will improve on health care delivery. What will your government do on the mortality rate of pregnant women and children in the state?

    The statistics being put out there could be real or not, but what is most important for us is to go to our primary health centres and also the state-owned institutions to know what exactly they have there. This is also same with the health family. If I ask for the number of patients being attended to in our hospitals and the number of doctors we have on ground to attend to these patients, you will be surprised that they may not be available. How much do they budget for drugs they get in the hospitals? What we will find out is that the amount that is being released does not tally with the drugs being procured. If you also ask from them how they register patients, you will find out they don’t have. There have not been records and we are starting from the basics. We are looking at how we can capture the data in a reliable manner. No offence to the past administration, but it is our responsibility to do the needful as a government. If there was mistake in the past, we don’t have to continue but make some corrections. There is also a programme which the World Bank is supporting on nutrition and to ensure that pregnant women deliver safely. There are many primary health care centres that have no equipment and working facilities.

    I can remember that when we got to the Radiology Unit of Adeoyo Hospital, Yemetu, we saw all the facilities inside, but we were told that it has never been used since it was installed. Meanwhile, I saw letters from 2010 that everything was working perfectly there, because I went with the contractor that installed the machine in 2010. So, we do have challenges, and that is why we have been encouraging people to say something to us when they see something. This is because if we keep silent about everything, we will continue to go in the same circle.

    I believe that the Commissioner for Health will perform better in this area, considering his antecedents and wealth of experience. He has been in the system for long and he used to be the Permanent Secretary in the same ministry. So, we were deliberate in looking for hands that can assist us to quickly turn things around. And whatever it is that is required of us to release as resources to get things on track will surely be provided for.

    When I got to Adeoyo Hospital, Ring-Road, Oyo State already paid General Electric (GE) close to N1bn or thereabout. But they said they were yet to get the balance of N200m before they could come to fix the radiographic equipment. We have done it. We provided the money. We will walk the talk. We are not saying that we are perfect or once we decree something, it will happen immediately. No, we need to follow through the due process and our feedback mechanism will be such that we are not going to be fooled. I am not going to commission a project that will work while I am commissioning it and when I turn my back, it will stop working. Anyone who tries this in Oyo State in the next four years will be dealt with decisively. Whether big or small corporation, the standard is the same. If Oyo State is providing the resources, we have to get back the value for whatever the state is giving out.

    You approved N500,000 each for indigenes of Oyo State in the Nigerian Law School in the 2019/2020 backlog session; a development that has led to protests from the main batch of Oyo State students in the Law School. Similarly, other students are wondering if the bursary would reach all Oyo State students or just be restricted to Law students.

    Concerning the Law School students who were given bursary award, those who came to me were the backlog session students, and we did our research and got to know that the school fee each student paid was over N200,000. The last time they were given the bursary award was in 2012. So, those who came to me brought their list and I looked at it carefully and we approved an amount we know the state was capable of providing.

    So, let me say sorry to the main batch of Law Students. By next year, we will plan for both the main and supplementary batches. We will lump everybody together and ensure that we are consistent with whatever amount we want to be paying them.

    Moving forward, those students we have not able to reach out to now will be placed under the scholarship board and we will have a proper estimate and budget for them. That was why this government separated the Ministry of Budget and Planning from the Ministry of Finance. I can also assure that there won’t be abandoned projects, because we will properly plan for those projects.

  • How Adejuyigbe’s ‘delivery boy’ scooped 12 Amaa Nominations

    Last week, the 2019 African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) nomination list was released and a particular film, The Delivery Boy scooped 12 nominations across directing, acting and production categories. The film on the backstory of terrorism was written and directed by Adekunle ‘Nodash’ Adejuyigbe and produced by Something Unusual Studios.

    Adejuyigbe, the face behind the film, is a multiple award-winning filmmaker with years of experience producing TV Commercials, Feature Films, Documentaries and TV shows. He worked  for a TV network as Producer, Writer and Director of TV shows and Documentaries, later became the Creative Director and Head of Production of the TV network before he left to start his film production company- Something Unusual Studios.

    Adejuyigbe has made a mark in the Nigerian film industry; he has worked with reputable brands across Africa. In 2015, the Berlin Film Festival selected him as one of the 21 Cinematographers from around the world to look out for. His film, ‘The Delivery Boy’, which has screened in four continents to brilliant reviews at various national and international film festivals, won the best Nigerian Film Award at Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) 2018 and more recently scooped 12 nominations at AMAA.

    Nodash who is the MD/CEO of Something Unusual Studios is also the Team Lead of ‘The Elite Film Team’ (TEFT). TEFT is recognised as a production powerhouse and its members have participated in there is hardly any major film shot in Nigeria without a TEFT member on it and it seem to have become a pattern that when Nodash and The Elite Film Team are on a project the project will most likely win awards.

    Little wonder ‘Delivery Boy’ was nominated at AMAA in categories like Directing, Production Design, Soundtrack, Visual Effects, Cinematography, Editing and a host of others.

  • ‘We won’t make a headway until corruption attracts death sentence’

    Dr. Patrick Okomiso, a security expert, is also a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Cross River State. The former governorship candidate of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in the state is not one that hides his feelings about national issues. Although he says he is not interested in an elective office for now, he holds a strong view about local government reform and what President Muhammadu Buhari needs to do about it. Among other issues, he also advocates death penalty for corruption in this interview with TONY AKOWE.

    You once contested election to the office of the governor of Cross River State. What was the experience like?

    My experience was nothing to write home about. My experience made me to realise that the people are willing to elect their leaders, but the elites are not ready to allow the masses to elect who they want. I think that INEC should be decentralised and the elections computerised. We should stop the idea that somebody is given an election result. One should be able to sit down in his house and know whether he has won an election or not. Why we talk about other systems like the American system is that as you are voting, you are seeing what the other person is scoring. So, there can be no cheating. But here, we have to count ballots which are transferred from polling booths to collation centres. Let us computerise the system so that when you go for an election, you will know the number of votes you are scoring as the process is going on, because the vote cast all goes into one central system.

    INEC should have a server. We don’t have politicians but job seekers. Politicians are people who go to work for other people for free. See the example of Donald Trump. He ran election with his money. Have you seen the former Prime Minister of Britain, Tony Blair or Theresa May or Gordon swimming in money? They come out, declare their assets, and if you have a pin more than that, you are charged. Why do we have to pay a legislator N13 million? How many hours are they putting in? And there are 70 million Nigerians who are not working. Those are the issues I think Nigerians should basically begin to contest.

    More than 99 per cent of our politicians don’t have a second address. They have never learnt to sell anything to earn money. You graduated from the university and you are a politician. That is why we have thuggery. When people have a second address, we will not have thuggery. Clinton left and went to his law firm where he is making money. He is still representing clients in court. Tell me a Nigerian politician who has gone back to his business since he left office. The business of Nigerians is Nigeria. More than 97 per cent of Nigeria’s money is in people’s hands. My experience in politics has taught me that it will take us several years to get back to service to our people. People will not believe that there is going to be problem. There will be a revolution in this country. Let us call a spade a spade. The way the youths are going, there will be a revolution in this country. In Sudan, a 17-year-old girl started something on her twitter and you saw what happened in that country. We see what is happening in other countries and we think we are in the darkness? No. It should be all about services and not that in the 21st Century we should be thinking about ruga. We should be thinking of how Nigerians live. We should be thinking about how to have stable electricity, good education and how our universities would improve.

    Would it be right to say that your experience in politics is the reason you decided to lay back and not take active part in politics anymore?

    I am still very much involved. But what I have been doing in the past two years is getting more involved in party politics. I want to see how our parties can be truly parties. What we have now are parties owned by people like private companies where a man gets up and decides who becomes a governor. The only way I think things can work out well is going back to our constitution. Our constitution is very perfect the way it is. It is the operators of the constitution that are the problem. Take local government away from the states, hand it over to the federal government. Let local government elections be organised by INEC so that we can begin to have political parties that can produce a councillor from the ward and they hold on to that ward for as long as politics continues; where a local government chairman can give account of his stewardship and where local government can generate its own funds.

    The biggest election in America is the local government election. There are people who have never voted in their presidential election, but they turn up to vote in their local government election where they elect their councillors and Mayor. So, you see a certain local government being the traditional stronghold of a certain party which you have never heard of. It is like that everywhere. The way we do our local government now is sharing the allocation that comes to them. Have you seen a local government that passes a law that has been implemented? This is the problem.

    There are calls for the restructuring of the country. Do you think that is the right way to go at this point in time?

    If we want a turn around, it will not be about restructuring. Restructuring is a way of changing from the way we do things. That is what restructuring means. Every other definition is political. You can restructure yourself by accepting that from today, you will do a new thing. So, if we start from our local government, getting it right and doing things well, politics will naturally take its root. If you go to primary schools in the local governments, have you seen how the schools are? What is the local government chairman doing?

    I was in Sokoto recently and saw beautiful Nigerian children sitting under a tree, on the floor, learning how to read and write in a Nigeria of 21st Century. Is that what we should be talking about? If we are talking about constitution review, what we should be talking about is how to add death sentence to our constitution so that those who embezzle money should be shot. There should be death sentence for corruption if we want it to stop. Which human rights are we talking about? In America, if you commit a driving offence, may be you beat traffic, as soon as they park you, they will put handcuffs on your hands and legs and on your waste. But here, if you steal N10 billion, they will drive you in a limousine, you will request for permission to travel abroad for treatment. Which other country in the world have you seen a person standing trial for corruption leaving for another country for treatment?

    So, there are many things that are wrong with Nigeria. The judicial system is wrong. The judges are very corrupt. The prosecutors are corrupt. Lawyers are the most corrupt people in this country. That is the truth. Our system has collapsed. There is no value system again in Nigeria. In other civilised places, even in Ghana, if you have a case, the first thing your solicitors do is to advise you on the process of negotiation on your case because you will not win the case. Judges were put on trial just by the sense of a journalist. But here, people will read political, tribal or religious meanings into it. Let us first think Nigeria so that every Nigerian you see should first be a Nigerian. Let us stop the idea of doing a passport and putting on it ‘state of origin’. Let us stop doing employment form and putting state of origin. What we should put is local government.

    In America, you see people saying I was originally born in Chicago, but he is contesting election in New York. That is nationality and that is when people know they are building nations and not building individuals. The problem of Nigeria is building individuals. Let us first start by saying forget Igbo, forget Hausa, forget Yoruba and let us speak our traditional pidgin. Let us remove English as a compulsory subject in our schools. Have you seen an Indian who does not speak as an Indian? Let us use our Nigerian pidgin which everybody can understand. When you see an English man speak, you know he is an English man. When you see an Italian speak, you know he is Italian. What is the problem with the Nigerian trying to imitate others? Speak the Nigerian English and they will understand you. Why would you speak from your nose?

    One of the cardinal objectivse of the Buhari government is the fight against corruption. But many believe that the government is being selective in the crusade. What is your take on this?

    Corruption is not just about embezzling money. There is corruption in governance. Nepotism is corruption, tribalism is corruption, sectionalism is corruption. So, the Nigerian problem is man-made. God has given everything to this country. I see an African country using Nigerian corruption for comedy. So, practically, something is wrong with us. The bank girls are the biggest prostitutes on the streets because the banks give them targets. So, corruption is in every sector. Why would a bank tell a girl to go and look for deposits? Have you seen any bank abroad looking for deposits? I was in Angola a few weeks ago and we needed to do a transaction. In 30 seconds, an account was opened, the bank lent me 1,000 dollars to put in the account so that it could be running. But in Nigeria, a girl is on the street looking for deposits. That is the exact situation we find ourselves. So, what do we do? We need a revolution. We need mental education. We need to reset our mind. The restructuring you hear should be mind’s restructuring, because if you restructure your mind, everything will follow.

    We should learn to do things right and, if possible, we should cancel all we have and start all over again. Soldiers should not be seen on the streets with their uniforms except at their duty posts. After your duty, go home and remove your uniform. We should be able to build supermarkets in the barracks for soldiers to shop. The police should be paid well. There is nothing you can do when you send a man on the road from 6 am to 6 pm without water or food and yet pay him poorly and you think he will allow you drive your luxury cars there.

    Could that be part of the security challenges we have right now?

    Yes. You want a policeman to give you information and he is earning N45,000. The man the information is about comes and gives him N1 million, what do you think will happen?

    How do we address these security challenges?

    The security challenges can be addressed by equipping the police. That is the first thing we should do. If the police has a budget of N13 billion and you give them N3 billion, have you given the money? Our police has been bastardised and the recruitment process is wrong. I advocate that NYSC should be abolished. Gowon brought NYSC for reintegration of the Igbo into the Nigerian society. That was the idea. After the civil war, he needed people to know that the Igbo were Nigerians and brought the idea of NYSC. The NYSC has outlived its period. What we should be thinking about now is country service. When students come from the university, recruit all of them and give them serious nine months military and police training and post them to the military and paramilitary agencies and let them do two years services. At the end of the services, those who want to remain should remain and take up a career and then you up grade them according to their certificates. If you do that, you will bring up a crop of Nigerians who will be ready to die for their country.

    Will that not amount to militarising the system?

    How many American Presidents have not done military service? Even Donald Trump did military service. Emmanuel Macron of France did his military service in Nigeria. This is the language Nigerians speak that get me angry. What is militarisation? That English is manufactured by Nigerians who have no sense. Let us bring back our country by doing the right thing. I strongly advocate that there should be death sentence for corruption in our constitution and the judgment must be carried out. Let the local government be taken away from the states. I like what Buhari is saying about the local government, but he is not getting to the point I want him to get to. Let the local government elections be conducted by INEC and let the local government chairman have four years like every other elected person, and in the four years, let his people know what he has done. We have men and women in this country who can turn their local government into paradise in less than four years. That is what we should be thinking about and not about ruga and herdsmen.

    Let me tell you something: the Fulani herdsmen we are talking about, are not the ones killing people and kidnapping people. It is Fulani militias who have come from other countries and have taken over the forests, kidnapping people and using the Nigerian Fulani herdsmen as shades, threatening them. That is what is happening. Our intelligence should have known by now what is happening. Why can’t we defeat Boko Haram till now? Is the military well-funded? By now, we should have been asking them what was done with the $1 billion given to the military, and Nigerians should see the equipment bought and from which country. What has been happening to our soldiers at the war front? What kind of training have they been getting? What kind of arms are they using? These are the questions we should be asking ourselves. There is corruption in every sector.

    There is this belief that there is low morale in the military as a result of perceived career stagnation because the service chiefs have remained there for too long…

    The President and Commander in Chief knows his onions in the military. But I think he should equally sit back and reflect on the achievements of these people since they have been there for the past four years. You rate people with their achievements. As we are sitting down here, the only person who can rate them is the President.

    For some time now, Nigerians are being killed in South Africa and their businesses destroyed. You were there when Nigeria helped to fight apartheid. Are you comfortable with what is going on?

    I don’t like the South Africans and I have never hidden it. The first thing that turned me off about South Africans is that when Nelson Mandela came out of prison, I was among the first set of people who went to South Africa on assignment. When I arrived at the beautiful airport they have in Johannesburg, the first thing I saw was “real men don’t rape women”. So, I had a bad impression about the country. I see every South African as a rapist. I asked my host, why will you people write this and he told me that rape is the most common thing in South Africa. Unfortunately, I went to Pretoria and saw when five men raped a girl. So, I don’t have a good impression about the South Africans.

    Nigerians are making a mistake. We should stop being Father Christmas. In any help we are giving, we should be attaching condition to it. You see what the Americans did in Kuwait? We went to Liberia and liberated everybody and did not put any condition. None of our businesses are there. We liberated South Africa and today, they are laughing at us. We have turned back to live on their economy. If I was the President, I would have turned MTN to Nigerian company and indigenise all their companies. I would have hit them so hard and champion the banning of South Africa from the African Union. With the population and influence that we have, the rest of Africa will follow us. Do you know how much South Africans make from Nigeria and they don’t even pay taxes in Nigeria. They always bribe their ways out and we don’t take any action against them. We should stop being Father Christmas. Our boys are dying for nothing.

    You were there when Gen. Abacha was Head of State and you knew him at close range. What type of a leader was he?

    Abacha was a great leader, but he was not a thief. The day I will make a practical statement on the so called Abacha loot, you will know the truth. Abacha was a great leader and won’t take this type of nonsense. Let me say this to you: there is no action that is wrong. There is no decision that is wrong or right. The most important thing is to take a decision. For the past years, we have had leaders without decisions. The lion is not the biggest animal in the forest, but the only reason why the lion is king is that when he sees the elephant, he sees it as lunch. He takes an immediate decision to use the elephant as lunch. That is what Nigerians should be doing. You must take a decision. That is all I will say for now.

    Having assessed Abacha, what is your assessment of other leaders?

    I like Gowon. At the time he took over the leadership of this country, he was very young and was able to reintegrate the Igbo. No matter how we look at it, he brought the NYSC because he wanted to integrate the Igbo. His set of rulers were very patriotic. Obasanjo became a head of state under certain circumstances and took a bold step handing over to civilians. So, I see Obasanjo every day as a democrat in nature. So, he did well. Abacha was a fantastic head of state. Babangida did well. No matter how we look at him, we were able to have Abuja. If not for Babangida, I don’t know what we would have been going through in Lagos today with hold-up. Every leader that has come has done one thing or the other.

    Buhari came in his first term and talked about discipline, and in his second coming, he is not the same Buhari we knew. Age has stepped in and I see him talk about so much corruption. But I think that the people around him are not giving him the support. If they do, the Buhari I know, who is not corrupt, would have fixed a lot of things. I am in support of what he is trying to do about corruption, but he should go further and make INEC to conduct local government election.

    Do you believe the idea that there is a cabal within the system?

    I hear people say it, but I expect that the Buhari that I know should not allow the cabal to hold him. When something is coming from your home, they said there is no smoke without fire.

  • Plaqad launches campus ambassador program

    Influencer marketing platform, Plaqad.com, has announced the launch of its Campus Ambassador Program (Plaqad CAP). The program is an exclusive community of young, smart, and influential students in all leading university and polytechnic campuses across Nigeria.

    The Plaqad CAP which was founded in 2017 by Ayeni Adekunle aims to help 100,000 young Nigerians leverage the opportunities available through digital media.

    According to Gbenga Sogbaike, Plaqad CEO: “Many Nigerian students possess great potentials and seek opportunities to develop themselves. With the advent of technology and digital solutions, there is a need to equip undergraduates with skills required to fully harness the opportunities that come their way.

    “Due to this reason, we have developed Plaqad Campus Ambassador Program to help these students develop digital skills, and earn on the go while belonging to a strong supportive community.”

    Some of the benefits of joining the Plaqad campus ambassador program include: Earning up to N150, 000 ($500) monthly; a gift pack with Plaqad branded collateral; networking and collaboration with other ambassadors from campuses across Nigeria; career advisory, mentorship, and interaction with managers in Plaqad; free tickets to Plaqad events; learn about Plaqad culture and career opportunities; and inclusion of Plaqad campus ambassador experience in their resume among others.

    To join the Plaqad Ambassadorship Program, interested students must be a registered, full-time undergraduate student of any tertiary institution in Nigeria. Interested participants should visit www.plaqad.com/cap for more information.

  • Laf Up’s ‘Ibadan to the World’ comedy show to hold Oct 1

    Comedian Segun Abiodun Ogundipe is set to hold his comedy show, ‘Ibadan to the world’, on October 1 at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos. The show is expected to kick off by 5pm on Independence Day.

    According to the comedian who is popularly known as Laf Up, the maiden edition of the event promises to be fun-filled.

    Other comedians listed to entertain at the event are Ali Baba, Kenny Black, Woli Agba, Bash, Akpororo and others.

    According Laf Up, ‘Ibadan to the World’ is his personal story which allows him showcase himself in a different dimension and tell his story through comedy.

    “It is Ibadan to the world because it is my story,” said Laf Up.

    “Expect the best.”

    Laf Up, a University of Ibadan Theatre Arts graduate, started his journey as comedian and Master of Ceremony at his sister’s house birthday party in 1999 has since grown in leaps and bounds in the comedy business having performed in several big stages around the world.

  • DiReal releases second album ‘Integrity’

    Singer Biodun Savage known as DiReal has released his second album titled ‘Integrity.’ DiReal featured music maestro Oritsefemi in one of the 10 tracks album.

    The album listening party was held on September 21, 2019 at the GreenWall Hotels, Lagos in collaboration with The Music Revolution of Nigeria, MRN.

    According to the CEO of MRN, Paul Yusuf: “We had to bring some artistes to the event to make it more entertaining. And also a way of showing support to their colleague.”

    The evening also witnessed performances from up and coming artistes.

    DiReal, a former Banker and a graduate of Electronics Physics from University of Lagos.

  • SlizeBoy Ability to light up Makurdi in concert

    Benue University, Makurdi campus will on Saturday October 12, come alive as homeboy, SlizeBoy Ability, mounts the stage in a concert titled ‘Ability in the City.’

    The show, which will be the first of a series of shows by Slize Entertainment, will be rolling out on campuses and cities across the county in the coming weeks.

    The Benue University choice is to avail people of the state an opportunity to see their boy perform live before going to other regions. Recall that SlizeBoy Ability grew up and honed his music talent in the ‘Food Basket’ state.

    ‘Ability in the City’ will also feature other music acts, comedy and other fun activities. Other artistes expected at the show are Erigga, Jaywon, Razily, Chuddyk, Od Woods, Jumabee, Rapizo, Cygoz, Novbee, Slikish, Edido and many. Popular disc jockeys, DJ Ken and DJ Eli will also be on ground to spice up the show, while Nollywood stars like Baba Rex, Shaggy Bes and Patience Yisa will be making special appearances.

    According to SlizeBoy Ability, whose hits like ‘Happen To Anybody,’ ‘Confam’ and ‘Lobe’ have enjoyed bumper feature on radio and the various satellite stations, “Ability in the City is an opportunity to thrill my fans in my roots and across the country.”

  • 15th Akwaaba travel fair ends on high note

    After 14 years of existence, the annual Akwaaba West African travel fair, marked its 15th edition, this week in Lagos. It was a watershed in the 15-year history of the fair. It recorded the highest number in terms of attendance. It also succeeded in attracting visitors from its traditional market of Africa and the Middle East. There were participants from the Caribbean.

    The fair opened with a colourful lively ceremony. Nigeria’s Father of Tourism, Chief Mike Amachree, flanked by other dignitaries, including the Director General of the National Council of Arts and Culture (NCAC), cut the tape to declare the fair opened.

    The first major event of the fair was the “Jollof Rice War”, Jollof rice cooking contest. At the end of the contest, chef Folashade Shoyombo from Nigeria won the 2019 Jollof rice contest followed by chef Deborah from Nigeria who came second, while Chef Fatima also from Nigeria came third. No fewer than 20 chefs from Nigeria, Togo, Benin and Ghana participated in the contest.

    Other segments of  the fair included different panels of discussion on the African Diaspora tourism (Caribbean Experience ): Is tourism a sustainable business for the youths?

    Speaking on this year’s event, Mr. Ikechi Uko,  the founder of the fair, said 2015 edition was the year the fair’s vision came into fruition as a rallying point for Africans and Africans in the Diaspora.

    His words: “When we launched the ATQ metrics in 2003/2004, it was that we were going to link up the four continents that have the blacks. Our tag line was ‘One culture, many places.’ So, it took 15 years for us to reconnect with our Diaspora brothers. When we started Akwaaba, we connected Nigeria, then West Africa and  East, Africa, then South Africa. Then, this year, we are able to bring the Caribbean into the metrics.  This is the first time in 15 years that the vision has come to pass.”

    Assessment this year’s event, Ikechi said the 2019 fair turned out to be a monumental success.

    He said: “Seeing that vision come to fruition means that everybody, for the past 15 years, has been watching and observing. They have seen us go from one step to another step and they can see the conscious effort and the growth. This year, you saw everybody up their games. For the first time, Ethiopia had their day and it ended in a blast. It was not dependent on one person or the other, everybody played their parts.

    “One of the visiting ministers told me this is the only event where he has seen a blend of African culture in a travel business environment. So, everything came together. It is an authentic African event now.”

    Despite about 11 countries being in attendance, all the primary federal agencies in charge of tourism were conspicuous absent as they had no stands.

    Ikechi said they were all invited to participate: “There was a director from the ministry that was there from Monday. I wouldn’t know why they were not participating. We make our plans; make sure everybody knows what we are doing. We go out of our ways to invite everybody.

    “But on the last day, I saw the Director General of NIHOTOURS. He was in the youth panel along with a director from the ministry. NCAC had a stand. So, I wouldn’t know what they see and I don’t want to make judgment on other people’s decisions, but this year was a milestone not just for Nigeria, not just for me.

    “We had 200 foreigners stay here for one week. That is amazing and everybody is doubling their stand for next year. Every country wants to fly in her chef to join in  the cooking. We are likely to have Caribbean food next year along with European food.  Some European countries are thinking of introducing their food too”.