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Tag: Oba Rilwan Akiolu

  • Akiolu sues for peace, commends Lagos Immigration

    Akiolu sues for peace, commends Lagos Immigration

    The Paramount Traditional Ruler of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu has called on his ‘brothers’ in the Niger Delta regions and those terrorising Northern States to desist from their anti-government policies which has long distorted the progress and peaceful coexistence of the country.

     

    He also sought the cooperation of men of all inter-service officers and security agents in the gathering of intelligence for effective performance of their duties.

     

    Oba Rilwan, spoke when a team of officers from the Nigeria Immigration Service (Lagos State Command) paid him a courtesy visit to his palace, led by the Comptroller, Mrs Clara Okojie. He lauded them for their effectiveness at the airports charged them to man the entry points in the view of happenings in the country.

     

    The monarch implored all to support the government, as soon, the challenges the country is facing will become normal.

     

    Okojie sought the assistance of traditional rulers in the various Local Governments to fish out illegal immigrants and rid the state of hoodlums who terrorise the state.

  • World Drug Day: Dalung, Akiolu, others call for support for NDLEA

    World Drug Day: Dalung, Akiolu, others call for support for NDLEA

    The Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, Oba Rilwan Akiolu of Lagos and other stakeholders have called for intensified efforts in the fight against drug trafficking in the country.
    Dalung said that all over the world, governments are committing billions of dollars to fight the menace of drug abuse.
    According to the minister, “investing in social programmes that discourage young people from going into drugs will yield fruitful results in the long run. The Youth and Sports Ministry will collaborate with the NDLEA in minimising the abuse of drugs and other substances especially among the youth.”
    Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu also called for improved funding for the Agency and provision of logistics for enhanced performance.
    He urged members of the public to volunteer useful information on the activities of drug trafficking organisations in their neighbourhoods for the NDLEA to serve them better.
    “I want the government to improve the funding of the NDLEA. Drug control cannot be fought without logistic support. Members of the public also have a responsibility to report the illegal activities of drug traffickers in their neighbourhood to law enforcement agents,” the Oba stated.
    Chairman and  Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Col. Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah (retd.) said that Nigeria remains committed to the dislodgement of criminal drug syndicates targeting the country and West African sub-region as a hub for illicit drug production, trafficking and abuse.
    The 26th of June was set aside as International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking by resolution 42/112 of the United Nations General Assembly on the 7th of December 1987.
    Abdallah who was represented by the Director General of the Agency, Mrs Roli Bode-George stressed that the country had maintained a rising drug control profile through capacity building and unwavering sense of obligation.
    He promised to work with stakeholders in ensuring a healthy and drug-free society.
    “Nigeria will continue to dislodge criminal drug syndicates seeking to turn our country and West Africa sub-region to a hub for illicit drug production, trafficking and abuse. We have maintained a rising drug control profile through capacity building and unwavering sense of obligation.
    The Agency will continue to work with stakeholders in ensuring a healthy, drug-free society” Abdallah stated.
    The NDLEA boss gave the assurance at an event to mark the 2016 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking held in Lagos. In his words, “As we mark this important day, stakeholders must review drug control strategies aimed at ensuring a safer environment. Moving forward, we must determine the effectiveness of existing measures.
    The adequacy of allocated resources to drug control, effectiveness of public enlightenment on the dangers of drugs and what areas should be given priority attention in terms of policy change and reinforcement.”
    Speaking on the global theme for this year’s campaign, which is Listen First; the NDLEA Chairman called on parents to strengthen the bond between them and their children. “This theme is a clarion call on parents to carry out a self appraisal on the relationship between them and their children and amend observed gaps. When parents fail to listen to their children, they are unwittingly creating room for negative confidants to mislead them.”
    He urged parents, guardians and leaders to continually reach out to young persons, interact and share in their concerns. This will help them to build positive attitudes and relevant skills needed to prevent drug abuse and other social vices inimical to societal peace, growth and development.
    Listening to children and youths is the first step in bonding with them to grow healthy and safe. As children advance through adolescence, they explore their environment and discover their unique potentials and capabilities. In the process, they are exposed to challenges of drug use, violence and radicalisation if not properly guided. Many youths have been negatively  influenced by peer pressure, poverty, exposure to violence, ignorance and absence of supporting parenting.
    Drug use often begins as a way to seek recreation, but the addictive properties of drugs soon make people dependent. This compulsion is uncontrollable and may interfere with the individual’s everyday life. Some of the effects of drug use include paranoia, psychosis, immune deficiencies, organ damage, dropping out of school, loss of job, unfulfilled dreams and premature death to mention a few.
    An estimated 246 million people across the globe, that is 1 out of 20 people between the ages of 15 and 64 years were reported to have used an illicit drug in 2013 by the World Drug Report 2015. It was equally reported that 1 out of 10 drug users about 27 million people, or almost the entire population of a country like Ghana or Mozambique are problem drug users suffering from drug use disorders.
     Almost half of this number about 12.19 million injects drugs while 1.6 million of those who inject drugs are HIV positive. Above all, about 187,000 drug related deaths also took place in 2013.
    Drug syndicates constantly seek ways of circumventing drug control laws. They introduce new psychotropic substances annually and change drug trafficking routes. In 2015, a total of 602 new psychoactive substances were reported by Member States to the International Narcotic Control Board (INCB).
    This represents 55 percent increase over the previous year when 388 new substances were reported globally. In Nigeria, we have observed a growing abuse of new drugs like cough syrups with codeine, tramadol, and Rohypnol. We shall continue to monitor demand and supply in determining the control of substances.
    Another threat of narcotic drugs that has capacity to undermine the sovereignty of nations is the nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism. Illicit proceeds derived from drug trafficking are so huge that such ill-gotten money can be used to finance terrorism and political ambitions of drug barons. We also know that most criminal acts are perpetrated under the influence of narcotics. Armed robbery, murder, rape and violent acts are most often induced by illicit drug use.
    Drug syndicates are targeting Africa as a trans-shipment point  for smuggling cocaine across the Atlantic into Europe as Eastern Europe is gradually becoming a transit and destination area. West Africa is equally becoming an established source of methamphetamine smuggled into East and South East Asia through Southern Africa or Europe. With the expansion of methamphetamine markets in East and South East Asia as well as growing use of methamphetamine in parts of North America and Europe, West Africa is now the focus of drug cartels.
    NDLEA will resist any move to use the sub-region as a hub for illicit drug production and trafficking. The arrests and drug seizures of the Agency reaffirm our commitment. Additionally, the timely arrest and prosecution of four Mexicans and three Bolivians underscores our resolve to stop the infiltration of foreign cartels into Nigeria. Apart from the huge seizures of narcotics at the airports, seaports and land borders; the Agency made a significant breakthrough by detecting eleven clandestine laboratories for the production of methamphetamine in the country since 2011.
    The war against narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances is a battle for peace and welfare of mankind. There is no better time to consolidate on gains recorded as we reappraise and streamline drug control strategies. Let us continue to extend the frontiers of drug abuse prevention programme through an integrated approach. A process driven by families, schools, communities and the media. The Drug Anonymous Support Group that will commence soon is expected to provide help to people with drug abuse problem. This shall be complemented with psychotherapy, which helps patients learn how to resist and redirect compulsions and individual counseling.
    The Agency will continue to undertake innovative approaches to drug control by strengthening international cooperation. Members of the public are encouraged to visit NDLEA website and patronize our social media anti-drug abuse counseling platforms. Through shared responsibility we can achieve far above our individual targets. We must continue to sustain the momentum until total victory is secured.
    The Agency honoured her fallen heroes who sacrificed their lives for a drug-free society adding that their sacrifices are not in vain. It promised to extend the scope of the campaign until total victory is achieved.

  • In defence of Oba Rilwan Akiolu of Lagos

    However distorted, Nigeria runs a federal system. The Ibos, like other immigrants from other parts of the country, have lived peacefully with their Yoruba host communities for decades.  The Ibos have always enjoyed better privileges in Yoruba land than among their own people at home. That they won an election in Lagos to represent indigenes whose language they don’t speak without the killings and mayhem we have witnessed in parts of the southeast is enough evidence.

    But even long before now, in the 1940s at a time when non indigenous Onitsha were regarded as settlers and denied the same privileges as the Onitsha indigenes, the Ibos in Lagos and part of Yoruba land were already standing for elections. (G I Jones, Report of the position, status and influence of chiefs and natural rulers in the eastern region of Nigeria (Enugu 1957).

    In 1950 when the indigenous ‘Onitshans’ which constituted only 12.5% of the population controlled majority of the members of the council and the non Onitsha Ibo had to form an association to agitate for equal treatment for non Onitsha in the manner of allocation of stalls and equal democratic representation in the Onitsha local council, (Richard Sklar, Nigerian political Parties: Power in An Emergent African Nation), the Igbo in Lagos controlled the NCNC which was initially a Yoruba party.  Zik, who was the only non-Yoruba at the inaugural meeting of NCNC rose on merit to become the leader of the party.

    Zik became a household name in major towns of Yoruba country. But for the overbearing activities of Igbo hawks and Zik’s 1949 gaffe when as the president of Ibo Federation Union he declared; ‘the martial prowess of the Igbo nation at all stages of human history has enabled them not only to conquer others but also to adapt themselves to the role of preserver,” yet, he was on his way to becoming the premier of the Yoruba country. That unrestrained statement was all the Action Group led by young Yoruba professionals and intellectuals needed to mobilise and convince Yoruba voters and traditional rulers that a Yoruba country should be led by a Yoruba and not an Igbo irredentist.

    Oba Akinolu’s anguish, I’m sure was not that Igbo won elections to represent his people but the body language and the indiscretion of a segment of Igbo elite. After the first round of elections, the Ibos, who gave block votes to President Jonathan not out of principle, (for four years he did not fulfill any of the promises to the south east), wanted the Oba to appreciate their newly acquired power to decide who governs Lagos.  If they embark on irrational block vote for the President, it becomes even more irrational to do the same to derail a government that everyone adjudged better than any PDP- run state in the country and which has allowed the Igbo to thrive.

    We must not forget these are the luxuries they don’t have in Abia, Ebonyin, Enugu, and Rivers Akwa Ibom where the Ohanezes, the Obis and Amayanabos decreed who to vote for and their anointed candidates won a landslide with statically impossible electoral returns of about 95% of registered voters.

    Leaders and Obas in Yoruba country cannot go against the will of their people. This perhaps explains why the Oba told the Igbo that those who work against the interest of Lagos will die in the lagoon. The Oba couldn’t have put it differently. Unfortunately, his Igbo visitors singing ‘winners o winner’, saw the Obas reaction as a threat because they don’t understand our culture that teaches us not to bite the fingers that fed us, a culture defines our behaviours and worldview.

    While it is part of the Igbo culture to ‘run away when calamity befalls the owners of the land who know how to appease their own gods, we as Yoruba have been forewarned that “eiyele ki ba onile je, ba onile mu, ki o salo ni ojo isoro” literarily saying you are not allowed to abandon your benefactor when he is in difficulty. Our respected leaders say:  ‘eniti o ba dale , a bale lo’(those who betray the cause of the Yoruba race will die a miserable death).

    This is not a curse but a call to maintain certain standard of behavior expected of ‘Omoluabi’. The only people who have anything to fear are those who are planning evil. Unfortunately, a segment of the Igbo elite, in the last few days have engaged in futile exercise of trying to teach the Oba democracy ignoring what was described by observers as vote allocation in the south south and southeast followed by screaming newspaper headlines such as “Bloody polls in Rivers, Ebonyi and Akwa Ibom”; “Police, thugs kill 18”; houses, cars burnt”; “policeman, youth, leader shot dead”; “INEC office, vehicles bombed”; “AIG Ogunsakin ordered out of Rivers”; “10 NYSC member, soldiers caught voting in General’s house”.

    They forget the dominant party ran neck to neck in Lagos and other parts of Yoruba country. And that was not by accident. If democracy is about participation, freedom of choice, checks and balances and accountability, the Yoruba country had practiced democracy for a thousand years before the advent of the Europeans. The pre -colonial history of Nigeria clearly shows a system of government existed in Oyo that was as good if not superior to the modern democracy, the world new god.

    The embattled Oba’s warning against an irrational use of block votes in the name of democracy to derail 16 years of development recorded in spite of efforts of clueless PDP-led federal government that did everything, including seizing Lagos state local government allocations, instigation of non indigenes against indigenes and bribing outlawed militant groups to cause mayhem during elections, came against the back drop of mischievous claims such as “we came from the east to turn jungle into a city” and “Lagos is no man’s land”.

    With such statements from a former governor of a state where elected governor was kidnapped and locked up like a criminal in broad day light by gangsters or from barely literate street traders who became stupendously wealthy; or still some parasites who emerged from detention over fuel subsidy scam to become chief fund raiser and campaign manager to a president, one can understand the righteous indignation of the Oba of Lagos.

    It cannot be any less exasperating when immigrants lay claim to a kingdom and territories his illustrious forbears fought the British to protect until they were forced to sign a treaty with the British in 1861.

    And for those on civilization mission, P C Lloyd has shown that the Yoruba country was more culturally developed not only than any part of Nigeria but more than Europe as at the time the Europeans came if we use urbanisation as index of measurement. For instance, while in 1921 the population of Ibadan was put at 287,133, Lagos 99,890, Ogbomosho, 84,880; Oshogbo 51, 413 Iwo 51,183, Ede 48,300, Enugu, a mining village had a population of only 3,170, Aba 2,327 and Onitsha 10,309.

    Of all the capitals of The Fulani caliphates, Sokoto had 19,335; Zaria -25,000); Katsina-17, 489 and Kano with a figure of 49,938 was the only town in the north with a population of close to fifty thousand. Ilorin that was closest to Kano with a population of 38,388 was for all intent and purposes a Yoruba town. As a matter of fact by 1931 when Ibadan had a population of about 400,000 and Lagos about 130,000, the most densely populated town in the old eastern region was Onitsha with population of about 18,000; ( P. Amaury Talbot “The People of Southern Nigeria(London 1935)vol.iv.)

    Oba Akinolu is greatly misunderstood. He has not threatened the Ibos. He was merely carrying out his responsibilities to his people.  As Thomas Hodgin has explained, ‘Yoruba Obas are constitutional monarchs who ratify decisions made by council of hereditary lineage chiefs who had consulted the wishes of their people’. Not much has changed in Yoruba land since that study. Except that we live in denial, even the United Nations recognized the right of indigenous people and has since December 23, 1994, dedicated 9th of August every year to the celebration of The International Day of Indigenous People.

  • In remembrance of things to come

    In remembrance of things to come

    To flee your fate is to rush to find it, so observes a famous Arab proverb. It is just as well. Ethnic termites are crawling out of the woodwork in Nigeria.

    In the hostile psychological jungle of multi-ethnic nations, ethnic chauvinism is a psychic weapon against adversity. But since it stifles the inter-ethnic cooperation and collaboration necessary for envisioning a new order, it is also the surest formula for continuing underdevelopment.

    After the elections comes the demon of ethnic chauvinism and its implications for the national project. The euphoria of a record breaking election and its record breaking aftermath had hardly subsided when a nasty ghost stole in to jolt us out of our reverie, reminding us of unfinished business. These old ghosts can be very remorseless and implacable indeed.

    An apparently off the cuff remark by Oba Rilwan Akiolu, the influential and irrepressible Eleko himself, to a visiting group of Igbo notables has sparked off an ethnic firefight the like of which has not been seen in recent times.

    In a manner reminiscent of Lagos circa 1948 when the deadly duel for political ascendancy between the Yoruba coastal aristocracy and the emergent Igbo elite first reared its ugly head, the current elites of the two remarkable Nigerian ethnic nationalities both at home and in the Diaspora simply lined up behind tribal ensigns presaging the eruption of ancestral animosities.

    It was not a pretty sight. General Buhari has just been shown a sneak preview of the nation he has inherited. He has his work cut out for him.

    Yet by the end of the week, it has apparently turned out to be a storm in a tea cup, or a repression of the returning. Common sense and political sagacity intervened on both sides.

    The problem with ethnic chauvinism is that it is such a deep-seated and entrenched group feel that it cannot be resolved by political fiat but by social engineering and the working out of implacable national contradictions.

    Anybody of Yoruba extraction familiar with royal rhetorical flights of fancy, its metaphorical flourishes should be able to contextualize Oba Akiolu’s fire and brimstone fulminations in all their grim, terroristic hectoring as nothing but instances of royal yabis. How many military divisions does Kabiyesi have? When was the last time an Oba of Lagos herded human beings into the Lagos lagoon?

    All of this, of course, would amount to cold comfort to an Igbo native who is culturally alien to Oba Akiolu’s flamboyant signifiers and who is bound to grasp the import of the message in its hair raising, horror-dripping literalness. You cannot blame such folks. The Igbo community is right to express a legitimate outrage.

    But it would seem that some Igbo sectors in spite of their legitimate outrage crossed the boundary into churlishness and tribal contumely by demanding an apology from the Oba of Lagos.

    This is an illegitimate affront on the Yoruba race. A Yoruba Oba does not apologise to anybody. This is the whole meaning of Kabiyesi. (He who cannot be queried or questioned)

    It is, admittedly, a dialogue of the deaf. To a non-Yoruba person, this might sound like some meaningless cultural gobbledygook; a dogged mystification of a profoundly secular matter. It seems we are back to the very constitution and contradictions of the post-colonial subject in a modern nation-state.

    The secular and rational plank on which an apology is demanded from the Oba of Lagos is that Nigerian is a republican state and not a monarchy.

    Yoruba nationalists might retort that Nigeria may be a republican state but there are monarchical enclaves within the nation-space and there is nothing anybody can do about that.

    In pre-colonial society, the Oba had a fatherly responsibility to all subjects under his domain. Everybody was free to ply his trade, religion and creed but with the signal proviso that there must be substantial compliance with the cultural ethos and ethics of the host community in order to maintain societal harmony and cohesion.

    Whosoever steps out of line is immediately whipped back either by physical force or by metaphysical agencies and enforcers acting as ideological apparatchiks of the native state.

    Some traditional cultures take this to another level by summarily banishing prospective settlers to the outer margins beyond the city walls.

    In their culturally circumscribed imaginary, these are nothing but citadels of sin and permissiveness where they can indulge in what looks to the indigenes as cultural shenanigans as long as they do not disturb the walled sanity of their host community. If they do, the infraction is met with swift and severe reprisal that did not exclude mass expulsion.

    The advent of colonialism and the modern nation-state has whittled down the power, influence and authority of traditional institutions. In truth, no one who has tasted the liberating tonic of modernity would wish to return to the dark days of traditional despotism.

    Yet that notwithstanding, the Yoruba people and most Nigerian nationalities  retain a great respect and reverence for their traditional rulers.

    The unintended consequence of the sacrilegious insult to the Lagos throne is to rouse a dormant Lagosian Yoruba ultra-nationalism in a way it has not been roused since the late forties. It has led to a sense of a great siege among a normally tolerant and accommodating people.

    Apart from the long term possibilities of ethnic tension leading to an unimaginably apocalyptic tribal conflagration, snooper will eat his tongue if this does not increase the size of Akin Ambode’s winning margin this Saturday.

    In a multi-ethnic nation, tribal narcissism often provokes tribal narcissism as a countervailing, self-protecting measure. As it was the case in Georgian Lagos which directly led to the ascendancy of Obafemi Awolowo as an avatar of his people and in 1966 when it led to pogrom and a civil war, so it may well be in the emergent conjuncture. The past is a dark mirror for remembering the future.

    Yet all of this would have been unnecessary had the enlightened Igbo community put on their thinking cap, and if their political leadership can be more politically discerning and be less consumed by irrational hatred of the Other. The history of human migration and shifting demographic complexion of an improbable megalopolis favour them in the long run.

    In about a hundred years to come, the dynamics of a tumultuous mega-city would have altered the current demographic balance of power and the kind of meeting which took place last week at the Lagos palace would be virtually impossible.

    If the dynamic, resourceful, adventurous and relentlessly advancing Igbo people continue along the same pattern and the Yoruba populace, as a result of empire hangover, remain lethargic, incurious, insular and unadventurous, the pattern of ownership and land distribution would have changed forever and it will be a new ball game.

    But that is only if Nigeria remains a single country retaining its current format; that is only if unscrupulous greed and the penchant for political short-termism among the current dominant faction of the Igbo leadership do not topple the country into the abyss of chaos and disintegration. To whom much will be given, much is also expected. Otherwise by that time, we would be talking of stiff immigration control and tighter internal regulation of prospective emigrants.

    From time immemorial and particularly since the advent of the post-Wesphalian modern nation-state, ethno-nationalism and ethnic chauvinism have been the bane of the human society. The British often dismiss the French as frog-eaters while Napoleon famous put down of England as a nation of shopkeepers still rings a bell. The French contempt for what they consider as America’s lack of culture and finesse finds epic summation in the short pithy putdown: “Les Americaines!”

    The good thing about this European tribal fencing is that they take place within the confines of respected borders. The world would have ended a long time ago were the British, the Germans, the French and the Americans to be packed into the asphyxiating cage of the same nation. Even then beginning from 1870 when the Germans memorably drubbed the sophisticated French to 1914 when the First World War erupted with the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, western nations chalked up among themselves about thirty one wars of ethno-national supremacy.

    African , Middle East and Asian nationalities are not so lucky having been boxed into convenient colonial cages of apocalyptic contraries against their will and wish. This is not even a question of strong states and weak states. As we have seen in the tragedy of Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union, strong states which try to liquidate the national question by forcible suppression merely postpone the apocalyptic meltdown.

    It has been said that mankind is principally a political animal. But humankind is primarily a homo economicus with economic warfare often disguised as political hostilities. Nigerians should ask themselves why it is so that the most vicious and virulent strains of ethnic nationalism rear their head whenever there is an ongoing brutal contention about who controls what economy.

    This is precisely what happened around 1948 with the advent of Yoruba nationalism in the nascent nation, in 1962 with the attempted take over of the buoyant economy of the old west and the summary liquidation of Awolowo’s ambition, in 1993 with the dramatic annulment of Abiola’s victory because it was an economic threat to northern plutocratic generals, in 1999 with the rise of Obasanjo and Sharia as mere decoy and now in 2015 and the dramatic dethronement of the ruling party which has led the Igbo political elite holding the wrong end of the stick. It can now be seen in immediate retrospect that Oba Akiolu’s fatwa and the hysterical reaction to it is all part of a complex struggle for economic control of Lagos.

    Yet as we have noted, without inter-ethnic cooperation and collaboration, without the consent and consensus of a fractious political elite, Nigeria cannot be envisioned anew or be made amenable to radical surgery and major re-engineering necessary for the greater wellbeing of the greatest majority of Nigerians.

    As we have said last week, General Buhari has his work cut out for him. The task ahead requires not just a strong political will but exemplary political skills and great dexterity. He can no longer rule by military fiat and therefore a creative and proactive presidency is mandatory. As a first step, the general must take a look at the current structural configuration of the country which has made it impossible to liberate the complementary genius of our various people or for power to be wielded for productive purposes.