The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Past

  • Forward march to the past

    •Asking electricity consumers ‘willing’ to pay for meters to do so is a sad reminder of our past 

    Abdication of responsibility: this simply is what the Federal Government has done by saying it would not oppose the wish of any electricity consumer that is willing to pay for meter based on agreement between such consumer and the distribution company (DISCO), and as endorsed by the power sector regulator, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

    Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, who made the new government’s position known at the 18th monthly power sector meeting in Abuja, last week, said: “Please recall that government had in the past attempted to intervene in meter supply through CAPMI (Credited Advanced Payment Metering Implementation) which ultimately I decided we should wind down because of the distrust and disaffection it was creating between consumers and DISCOs, with government caught in the middle with numerous petitions by customers who paid for meters that were not delivered within the approved time.”

    He added: “Some DISCOs have come back to say that their customers still want to pay for meters and they can reach agreements with them on how to pay for it. Government will not stand in the way of such an agreement. It is consistent with the intent of privatisation envisioned by the Electric Power Sector Reform Act or at least it does not violate the Act.”

    We wonder what would have informed the volte-face. While we agree that pragmatism should be brought into governance, particularly in resolving the power sector crisis, the government’s new position is pragmatism in reverse. How can the government in one breath say it is the responsibility of DISCOs to provide prepaid meters and at the same time ask electricity consumers who are willing to pay for them to do so, based on some so-called agreement with the DISCOs?

    It is not the business of the DISCOs to tell the government that some of their customers are willing to pay for prepaid meters. Rather, it is their business to invest in the provision of meters as part of their obligation to their customers. The meters are the property of the DISCOs, why should the consumers pay for them? Did the Federal Government make any independent enquiry on the claim by the DISCOs? This claim is not likely to be true. And if it is true, it is because such consumers see themselves as helpless as the government in making the DISCOs  provide the meters.

    It is the frustration with the system that could have led to such demand by the hapless electricity consumers. Much as the DISCOs continue to claim that they do not have meters to go round, reports have it that some people who are willing to grease palms are getting the meters whereas those who paid for them many years back are yet to be supplied. Nigeria is one of the few places where a farmer would go to the market without implements only to get there and be asking his customers to pay to enable him get the farming tools.

    We will continue to insist on things being done the right way, especially in the power sector, because our entire lives depend on it. If we do not get power supply right, we can never get anything else right. Our economic survival depends on it; even our well-being is dependent largely on the amount of stable electricity we have. Therefore, the Federal Government should not be seen to be pandering to the wishes of a few powerful persons who bought electricity firms only to be giving excuses, either after failing to do their due diligence or simply because they never envisaged a situation where they would be told to do business as it should be done.

    Nigerians, as electricity consumers, are customers and we are all familiar with the maxim: the customer is king. The Federal Government should not be seen to be dethroning electricity consumers from their kingship position to be the underdog in the power sector. Something must be wrong for consumers to plead with electricity firms to buy meters that they ordinarily should be provided free. When they do that, it is because they have been pushed to the wall by the outrageous and indefensible bills that are slammed on them by DISCOs.

    Rather than succumb to pressure or cheap blackmail from the electricity firms, the government should insist on a business model that can take us out of the woods, not one that can only continue to pamper electricity firms that are not ready to do business the way it should be done in a civilised environment. The government’s new stand on meters is a way to deepen corruption in the provision of meters to power-starved Nigerians.

  • Olakunle Churchill leaves the past behind

    When trouble knocks at the door of the coward, he seeks safety under his bed. But not Olakunle Churchill. The dashing dude and brain behind Big Churchill Haven has perfected the art of making the best of unpalatable situations. Simply put, when life hands him lemons, he makes lemonades. And he is pretty good at it too. Like the artful dodger of proverbial fame, Churchill coasts across tumultuous bights, with the practiced skill and wisdom of the ancients, till he chances on pliant courses.

    In the wake of damaging rumours about him, following his broken marriage to popular actress, Tonto Dike, Churchill has moved on to bigger and better things. He is currently implementing his latest empowerment programme, the Green Project; an agro-business empowerment scheme from which 36,000 youths across the country stand to benefit.

    While a large swathe of the public tend to view him with suspicion on account of some unsavoury rumours surrounding his collapsed marriage, Churchill’s apologists insist that he is simply a misunderstood gent.

    The nephew of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s love for humanity has led him to undertake several humanitarian initiatives. But unlike many who invite reporters and television cameras to witness their gestures, Churchill ensures that his philanthropic gestures are kept under the radar.

    It would be recalled that in the wake of the Southern Kaduna crisis, he donated relief materials to victims of the mayhem. He also sponsored the making of the movie ‘Kada River’ to document the sad episode for posterity.

  • Buhari @ two: Past is present

    “To be educated is, after all, to develop the questioning habit, to be sceptical of easy promises and to use past experience creatively” – Chinua Achebe

    Two years into the four-year mandate of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, the human condition in Nigeria is still very much the same. The government has made a good show of scratching the surface of things. Its snail speed, which is not even the problem, has not yielded the filling fruits of change that it bells out with deafening clangour. Let us not pretend about it, the two years of the Buhari administration have only secured train tickets for Nigerians for a journey to a land called change. The train has refused to show up; hence the passengers in their numbers have remained stranded at the train station of increased unemployment, insufferable economic hardships, and avoidable and mind-numbing killings.

    The rains of wanton disregard for the rule of law, deliberate lack of accountability, proud disinterest in speaking to the people, unhelpful rebuttals, and arrogant demonstration of paternalism have all wetted the Nigerian passengers at that humiliating station in those spectacularly uneasy years. Even when there exist some baskets of achievements here and there in those two giddy years, the dominant narrative is still that the Nigeria of today is not markedly different from the ones preceding the second coming of President Buhari.

    This is the very matter I wish to address in this piece. In claiming, as the title of this piece announces, that for Nigeria the past is still the present, I do not wish to be understood as looking in the direction of that disappointing behemoth called government. It will not be Nigerian government if its actions and policies significantly improve the quality of life of the people. The past remains the present in Nigeria because a considerable number of Nigerians are comfortably docile, joyously uncritical, and are outlandishly satisfied with easy, simple answers. Democracy in Nigeria is weak and malnourished because many Nigerians do not tend to it. Governance in Nigeria is distressing and killing because oodles of the people do not contribute to it. Elected and appointed public officials in Nigeria live above the dictates of the grundnorm because a large number of Nigerians either kick feebly in response, are totally indifferent, or too often work the accordions of approbation. The history of poor, enslaving, punishing governance in Nigeria remains the reality of the present because speaking up and asking the hard questions are an anathema to multitudes of Nigerians.

    To be more specific, the Buhari administration was swept into office by a huge tidal wave of uncritical and saccharine approval. Few Nigerians lobbed the stones of germane and uneasy questions, but a disproportionate majority fenced them off, frenetically declaiming that a Daniel had come to hand down the condign judgement to the knaves diluting the broth of justice and good governance in Nigeria. They stubbornly refused that the Daniel be asked a few questions on how he intended to achieve his lofty vision of change.

    My take is that had candidate Buhari been subjected thoroughly to a blaze of the right questions, had he been taken through the fiery furnace of scrutiny, we would have known the depth of his vision, the practicability of his ideas, his readiness for the job and, more importantly, the core weaknesses of his thoughts and capability. That knowledge, I insist, would have empowered Nigerians to help his administration in its undertakings. No, it does not mean that if we had done that, a vastly better Nigeria would have emerged by now. The fact is that we would likely not have travelled some of the disconcerting roads of the last two years. Candidate Buhari became President Buhari without his feet sustained in the fire of critical engagements in all relevant ramifications. The fault, therefore, is not entirely in the punishing myopia and alarming contradictions of the Buhari administration. It is in many Nigerians who have erroneously understood their duty as “citizens” to be praise singing, fawning, and genuflection rather than an engaging role of questioning, keeping watchful eyes on the government, and doing much more than taking its words and promises at their face value.

    The administration has been so indulged, cossetted, and lovingly over-accommodated that it has become abysmally emboldened to insult decent minds with a scorecard positively portraying the administration’s Lilliputian achievements in exaggerated tone in wanton denial of what actual reality serves. Whether it is the repudiation of the logic of pluralism as evident in the nature of the president’s kitchen cabinet, the uncoordinated anti-corruption waltzing, the flagrant disobedience of court injunctions, the unworkable economic policies (when it manages to put up something like policy), or, among many more, the kindergarten handling of the President’s unfortunate duel with what ails him, a number of Nigerians are convinced the Buhari administration is infallible and changing the country as promised. They do not see that their blind, uncritical support for the administration hurts it more than it helps it. They do not understand that the great and mighty works they wish to really happen in the lifetime of this administration are not happening because, like the administration, they spare no moments to reflect and examine the methods and manner of the administration.

    Democracy and good governance continue to elude Nigeria not only because those who call the shots are phoney, struggling democrats and are not (wo)men of ideas and visions, but it is also because a great number of Nigerians lack basic knowledge of civics and do not understand that citizens’ roles in a democracy are not to praise government, go to sleep and expect that while they sleep the government will not sow tares among the wheat. Every Democracy Day since 1999 has become to Nigerians the paradox of a past being the present. Things change in far little ways and worsen in ocean measures because too many Nigerians do not understand their roles. In other words, you cannot correctly blame blind leadership as the bane of good governance in Nigeria without identifying blind, worshipful following as strongly instrumental.

    If democracy in Nigeria is to mean more than having elections and peaceful transition of power from one underachieving civilian head to another with a truckload of promises, if good governance is truly to endure and be enjoyed, Nigerians in their substantial number must begin to speak up, ask the hard questions, demand accountability, pamper no government, and be alive to their other duties as citizens. Uncritical citizens do not make a good country. Citizens without the questioning habit ruin a country quicker than they are able to contribute to its progress.

    But for their massive critical citizens, countries who are today reference points in the practice of democracy and increasing realisation of good governance would have treated the world to different discomforting narratives. Nigeria’s story cannot be different; if this country is to change to a land of prosperity, rule of law, good governance, justice, and equality, many Nigerians must put off their slavish caps and don the one that allows them to think, question, and reject tokenism and ensnaring propaganda. More than ever before, this is needed now if the Buhari administration is to be remembered for good.

     

    • Ademola is a public affairs analyst based in Bodija, Ibadan, Oyo State.

  • Past in the present and present in the future

    It is for convenience that we human beings discuss our affairs in water tight compartments as if we can really separate the present from the past and the future from the present. As a human being, I am part of the past because I am a product and elongation of my parents and I see my future in my grandchildren. Just like human beings, the life of a state is a continuum in the sense that the present builds on the past and the future begins in the present. This is one of the reasons why history is an important discipline in all civilizations. When a country suffers a disconnect with its past, there is disorientation, chaos, planning without data cultural void and, reinventing the wheel , lack of confidence and focus, all of which manifest in underdevelopment. Development is not just building roads and other physical infrastructure, development is about people too. Various governments at various levels believe that tearing down edifices and building new ones is development but sadly this far from it. Conservation and change should be the philosophical principle of development. It is the lack of this fundamental underpinning of development that leads to the decay of existing facilities while we quixotically embark on building new ones. Cynics have always said that our people prefer new contracts which corruptly lead to pecuniary rewards and for self-aggrandizement than maintaining existing infrastructure.

    I took some final year students of the College of Humanities of Redeemer’s University Ede to Ibadan on a lecture tour of historical landmarks in Ibadan recently and I am sorry to say that it was not a pleasant experience. Saint Anne’s School, the oldest girls’ school in Nigeria, more than a century old is just struggling. Thanks to the old students, the school maintains a facade of life but when you go in, one notices that God has departed from the house of Israel. The school that prides itself for producing first female vice chancellor, ministers including Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, innumerable professors and wives of past leaders including the wife of current Oyo governor can do with modernization of existing facilities and redevelopment of the boarding houses within a secure environment. It is boarding schools of the past that moulded the character of those great girls who went to the school. Can Oyo First Lady, being an old girl of Saint Anne’s adopt the redevelopment of this school as her pet project? The school no longer runs boarding houses because of insecurity. A country that cannot secure its female children in schools is not really a country but an agglomeration of villages and towns and a mere geographical expression lacking soul and purpose. Ibadan is not on the coast open to invasion by Egbesu boys humiliatingly terrorizing Lagos while government security forces are shamefully publishing a list of places to avoid as if government is merely in authority but not in power.  If I was disappointed with Saint Anne’s, I cried when I saw Ibadan Grammar School, a school which used to be the pride of Ibadan. The place looks deserted with boarding facilities abandoned and teaching facilities unavailable. This was a school where I spent two happy years in the boarding house during my higher school years. What can I show my grandchildren in this ramshackle school? From Ibadan Grammar School, my students and I went to Government College Ibadan (GCI). Come and see how the mighty school has fallen flat on its face. I did not attend the school but went to Christ School Ado-Ekiti for which I am very proud and grateful to God because the school made me as it made others. But anybody in my generation who claims he did not want to go to Government College is lying. The reason why most people wanted to go there was because most, if not all their teachers, were graduates and most of them were from the United Kingdom. The school ran on English public school principles with emphasis on sports, academics, tradition and nurturing. Edward Abiodun Osuntokun, one of my brothers went there and we all used to admire him especially his mastery of the games of soccer and cricket as well as his embrace of English culture generally. We later found out that some of the chief examiners at the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate Examinations which we all sat for all over Nigeria were teachers in this school thus giving their students inside tract in the race of public examinations. But on reaching Government College at Apata Ganga , the school which our own Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka celebrated in his book the PENKELEMES years, I was shocked about the total decay and despair facing us. The children were filthily attired and scruffy. One of my students described them as riffraff. When I told my students those who had attended the school in the past such as Wole Soyinka, Oba Akenzua and Oba Erediuwa of Benin among notable Nigerians such as Dr Omololu Olunloyo, Professor Ladipo Akinkugbe, late Professor Olumuyiwa Awe among many others, my students could not believe it.  Government College students on a Monday morning were roaming around scantily dressed with their dirty shirts hanging limp on their  dirty bodies and dusty feet that left one without doubt that the kids may not have had their baths for weeks. Obviously the school does not run boarding facilities any more for fear of the children being kidnapped. We were so disappointed that we did not wait to find out what was the reason for the total collapse of a once famous school. The collapse began with the Unity Party of Nigeria ‘s free education at all levels when all schools were suddenly turned into day school thus sacrificing quality in order to carry out party ideology. From that time onwards, private schools replaced and filled the demand for good schools by parents who can afford them while the good old schools were taken over by the poor and the governments abandoned them and left them to their own fate. Thus the educational history and tradition of years were lost.

    It was not only in Yorubaland that witnessed this decline and disconnect with the glorious years of secondary education. I shudder to see colleges like Barewa, Government College Ughelli and Government College, Umuaihia. I remember Professor Jibril Aminu, a visionary, if there was one, asking as federal minister of education to be allowed to redevelop these historic colleges and preserve them for the future but advocates of state rights stood against him and the result is what we have today. What makes English public schools such as Harrow, Eton, and Winchester famous is the age and tradition behind them. Oxford University is not known for its modern buildings but for its antique bungalow hostels and the scholarship behind them. This is the point we are missing in Nigeria by allowing our famous schools to wither away.

    Instead of Oyo State building another so-called technical university, why can’t it simply take over Ladoke Akintola University and fund it properly while Osun State devotes its attention to its own underfunded university. Money will thus be freed to redevelop and rehabilitate the run down public schools for the sake of continuity and change. If Oyo state needs a paradigm in secondary educational facility as far as physical buildings are concerned, the governor should visit Osun State and behold the legacy schools Aregbesola is leaving for posterity .

    What is happening in Oyo is definitely happening at the centre where federal properties like the colonial secretariat and the abandoned federal secretariat at Ikoyi are rotting away and being turned into homes of vagrants and criminals. These properties could easily have been handed over to the University of Lagos and or Yaba Polytechnic to be used as either hostels or business school campus or given outright to Lagos State to use for whatever purpose it deems fit. Or the federal government properties in Lagos including the abandoned and rotten National Stadium standing as a symbol of waste and lack of planning and petty jealousy by those who feel Lagos does not need to benefit if other states cannot benefit? Has it occurred to such people that Lagos is critical to Nigeria’s overall economy and development? What really concerns me is that in the race of develop there should be no place in discarding the past while concentrating on the present which future governments may abandon unless we collectively begin to plan  on the principle on letting the past inform the present while the present points to the direction we need to take to the future. What better way to do this than by embracing the principle of continuity and change by not demolishing physical symbols of the past but maintaining them and changing them only where necessary.

  • How my past has affected me, by Ibadan OAP

    How my past has affected me, by Ibadan OAP

    On-Air-Personality, Enitan Olusegun Bamidele, known as EOB, has revealed how his family background and past has helped shaped his career.

    “My father was a jester and motivational speaker,” said EOB, one of Ibadan’s top broadcasters, who has worked in several radio stations, in a chat with The Nation.

    “Broadcasting has been part of my life. Even when I was at the Polytechnic Ibadan, I joined a drama group. In fact, the first day I gained admission to the Polytechnic, my department was organising their ASCOM Day. I went there and I was given a presentation, which made me so delighted. Since, I became popular in my department and almost every event happening in the school, the organisers would be looking for me to handle those events as Master of ceremonies (MC).”

    He also recalled how his father penalised him for wasting time and told him the peculiar nature of his job while he was anchoring a programme at OGBC.

    “One Sunday, as I was preparing my script for the next programme, my father came in and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was writing a script. He then said, ‘That is why you always waste all the time on your program without a keynote; you should allow God to handle it for you and not by yourself.’ It was that day he told me about my name ‘Enitan’. According to him, my mother carried my pregnancy for 15 months and during that period, he (my father) was seriously sick until the day I was given birth to; he became healed from his sickness the very day I was born. And to the glory of God, today I have bagged many awards both local and international through my chosen career.”

    EOB, who presently works with Yinka Aiyefele, served as Public Relations Officer during his National Diploma and Higher National Diploma course.

  • Ekiti @ 20: Past, present and future

    Ekiti was carved out of the old Ondo State on October 1, 1996 under the military regime of the late Gen Sani Abacha. Whichever perception one shares about the state of affairs, celebrating Ekiti at 20 is not immaterial. Taking cognizance of the protracted and fierce battle the leaders of Ekiti had to wage to effect the state creation, one would be adequately convinced that it sufficed for the citizens to roll out drum to celebrate the victory. I know other provinces like Ibadan, Ijebu and the Apas of Benue, who scrambled for the same opportunity and lost would perceive Ekiti as ungrateful and undeserving of the favour should the state fail to celebrate the feat with pomp and pageantry.

    The creation of Ekiti State was a lofty achievement – the greatest laurel ever won since the existence of the ethnic group several decades back. Not even the Kiriji War that was fought and won by our forebears matched this feat. But creating a state for an ethnic group for political balancing is not as relevant and pivotal as how that state tends to fare after its creation. When the former President Olusegun Obasanjo was being pummeled for influencing former President Goodluck Jonathan to assume presidency, he defended his action by saying: “You can help a person to secure a job, but you can’t help him to perform the responsibilities of the job”.

    In actual fact, the Federal Government had done the greatest favour, through concerted and unflagging instrumentality of some patriotic Ekiti elites by creating the state, but time to ruminate on whether the state has fared well in terms of development is apposite at this crucial age. Age 20 is a watershed in the life of any human being. At that age, the compass directing one’s life must be heading towards a positive side, failing which the person will get derailed or veered off the path of greatness.

    A critical dissection of the trajectory of development of the state under every succeeding administration gave a gory and pathetic indication. The military administrations of Col. Mohammed Usman and Commodore Atanda Yusuf sacrificed better and showed more commitment to the development of the state than the situation we are witnessing under the present PDP government in Ekiti. To an average Nigerian person, the military is regarded as an aberration and represents something sinister that lacks values and decency. Without sounding immodest, military regimes stand better than the present situation.

    Just like the chairman, Committee for the creation of Ekiti State, Chief Deji Fasuan once said: “Ekiti has not really fulfilled the dream of its founding fathers. Ekiti has not been governed well and we cannot say we have got to the Promised Land”. This statement connotes that Ekiti has failed to tap into its abundant human and material resources to develop the state.

    Intellectualism is the hallmark of any government and any state that is lacking in this is bound to hit the rock. It is an indisputable fact that the state has the highest turnout of professors in the country and galaxy of stars spread across various professional careers. But can we boldly say that we have tapped optimally into this gargantuan intellectual capacity?

    In terms of natural resources, the lush vegetation in the southern and northern zones of the state, the cocoa and timber plantation and other solid mineral deposits like Gypsum and Calcite in Ijero, Clay in Ire Ekiti and the ridge of mountains in Efon-Ikogosi axis and in Ado Ekiti capital city, were not really explored to energize the engine of development. They were practically abandoned, thereby giving Ekiti the sobriquet: “Land of Untapped Abundance”. This is not a wise concept and it is condemnable.

    As we speak, Ekiti has one of the most fragile economies among the 36 states of the federation. It has a narrow and monolithic economy heavily anchored on civil service architecture with little productivity to drive the system. This was responsible for why the state could not compete favourably with other states in terms of development.

    While defending the need for the creation of the state out of the old Ondo State before Arthur Mbanefo panel in Akure in 1995, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), said the state could derive its earnings from the abundant aforementioned human and natural resources. He also reassured the committee about the fact that the state has a good prognosis to survive and thrive economically, predicating this on the abundant human resources available to it.

    Sad enough, all these have failed to reflect positively on our economy. Today, the state can no longer pay salaries of workers and meet other obligations to its citizens, because it rests heavily on the lean resources coming from the federation account, which has not been forthcoming.

    When the democratic dispensation kicked off in 1999, the state soared on the country’s economic ladder, in terms of quests and drives for prosperity. Otunba Niyi Adebayo of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) made the move to return the state to the path of glory as set by its founding fathers. His administration started the economic dream by building the multi-billion naira Abuja house in Asokoro, to propel the state’s economy. It also invested in Odua Group of Companies and bought shares in many banks to invigorate the economy and make the state run independently of the federal government.

    Aside from this, he promptly engaged the services of Ekiti professionals in various critical sectors making Ekiti to live up to its name: ‘Fountain of Knowledge’. Those who didn’t see this unseen and silent investments condemned his style and laid ambush for him during his reelection bid, which he lost to Governor Ayodele Fayose.

    Ex-governors  Segun Oni and Kayode Fayemi, also built on the legacies by reviving the state’s moribund industries, like Ire Burnt Brick, Ikogosi Warm Spring,  Orin Farm Settlements, to mention but a few,  to assume highly commercial status.

    Fayose’s emergence marked the beginning of what could be best branded as fortunes reversal in Ekiti.  It was during his time that the state started relying solely on allocations from the federation of account to boost the economy. It was his time that the state intellectual capacity was being debased to the extent that charlatans, rascals and mediocres are in government, holding pivotal positions in trusts for the people. The intellectual giants have been relegated to the extent that they are now maintaining siddon look, which is dangerous to Ekiti, as an enclave.

    Though it would be tantamount to exaggeration for someone to conclude that the state fared optimally well under the trio of Oni, Adebayo and Fayemi, comparative analysis with the present situation point to the fact that those administrations were, in fact, Eldorado.

    Like Chief Babalola (SAN) adduced before Mbanefo panel that the state’s economic prowess would be derived from its abundant intellectual capacity. That has been the dream. But the scenario has been that both the human and material resources are underutilized, and time to live by that dream is now, or else, failure awaits us and that could be disastrous.

    The appropriate questions the teeming Ekiti populace must ask themselves is that: Why is Ekiti of yesterday better than now? For Ekiti of yesterday, we were the most educated in the country, the most sought after by employers of labour and the most organized set of human beings. But in Ekiti of today, the knowledge is gradually fading, criminality is taking the centre-stage.

    • Faparusi, a former member of the House of Representatives is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress.
  • Olufunke Agagu parts with the past

    Olufunke Agagu parts with the past

    IT is when fortune flees and leaves one marooned in the slough of despair that one often learns the true value of the fleeting moments of joy that life throws one’s way. This is the case with Olufunke Agagu, widow of former Ondo State governor, Chief Olusegun Agagu. After her long and unwilling romance with misfortune, the former first lady of Ondo State is slowly learning to look once again on the bright sides of life.

    For a woman who has been battered by dire storms in the recent past, this is surely a welcome development. Funke had lost her husband, the multi-talented geologist, politician and former governor of Ondo State, after a brief illness in September 2013. But ill-luck was not done, as the aircraft conveying her husband’s remains to Akure crashed at shortly after take-off, killing several persons including the then Ondo State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Deji Falae.

    The clouds of tragedy however gave way to a silver lining with the news that her son, Feyi, and her son-in-law, who were both on the ill-fated plane, survived the crash, though both were left in critical conditions.

    The gist in town now is that Lady Olufunke is slowly recovering her radiant disposition, perhaps bolstered by her son’s return to full health. In gratitude, she has vowed to dedicate the remainder of her life to serving God.

  • Gleaning from the past

    While awaiting my turn at the barbers shop last Saturday, I saw a teenager reading a colourful book on American historical heroes. I politely asked if I could flip through the book. It turned out to be a book of illustration with chronicles of over fifty heroes. After flipping through I asked my new friend – out of curiosity – what he found interesting about the book and what he had learnt.

    “I read about people who were fearless, selfless and determined to have a better society; I also read about people who hate injustice and stood for what was right like the fight to end slavery and the oppression of black people.” Our discussion assumed another level when he enthusiastically asked if I’ve heard of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Harriet Tubman, Andrew Carnegie etc. As he continued reeling out names from America’s past, people started clapping and commended his ability to recount positive lessons from the past.

    As usual wherever you see Nigerians gather, the discussion veered away from America to Nigeria. While commending him for his vivid recollection of American history and heroes including what they did for their country, I asked if he could recollect some Nigerian heroes and what they did for Nigeria. Almost everyone laughed and said I should forget it because “there’s nothing worth writing about Nigeria,” according to one of them.

    Ignoring the comment, I looked at the teenage with a gaze asking for an answer. He said he has not come across any book that will tell him about Nigerian heroes and society the way the one he’s reading did for America. He confessed that he knows more about America than Nigeria. For the short time we spent, I took out time to lecture him about Nigerian history and challenged him to visit the internet and read about our own heroes who fought for our independence and left legacies that we stubbornly refused to follow.

    When I got home, I reflected about the encounter with the teenager, how sharp he was with a virgin mind ready to be filled with positive things. If I had not given a contrary opinion he would’ve left the place with the impression that “nothing is worth writing about Nigeria.” I strongly believe this should be a wakeup call for us to look at our curriculum again. We have inadvertently raised a generation of Nigerians who know next to nothing about their country.

    Whether we choose to believe it or not, the past has a strong bearing on the present and any society that lives for the present alone does so at its own peril. This is what makes America and other “civilised” nations great. Whenever we’re sober to reflect, we’d see that we are just moving in circles repeating past mistakes because of our morbid belief that the past does not matter. So, we do not find it worthwhile investing in simple illustrative books to tell succeeding generations about the Nigeria story.

    In the past, Nigeria had a strong foreign policy thrust and direction. Africa was the “center piece of Nigeria’s foreign policy” and the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) and others were alive to their responsibilities. There were also development plans that served as roadmaps to where we intend to be. These are just two out of many instances. We simply lost the vibrancy years back. What happened?

    The missing link is the nexus between history and public policy formulation. Does history even play any role whenever we want to roll out new policies? Do we make out time to look at why similar policies failed in the past and how to ensure that the new one succeeds? From agricultural and other policies to ethical campaigns it is difficult pin pointed a successful policy.

    This brings me to Hal Brands and Jeremi Suri’s “The Power of the Past: History and Statecraft,” an important new book (published in January 2016) seeking “to work toward a more fruitful interaction between the production of historical knowledge and the making of U.S. foreign policy.” The co-editors – both professors – assembled a distinguished, bipartisan team of historians and political scientists to connect history to policy making.

    It succeeds in answering two key questions laid out in the introduction: “How and why do policymakers use history?” and “What light can history shine on the dilemmas confronted by contemporary policymakers?”  History, with its insights, analogies, and narratives, is central to the ways in which the United States interacts with the world. It came about because historians and policymakers rarely engage one another as they should.This book thus bridges that divide, bringing together leading scholars and policymakers to address the essential questions surrounding the history-policy relationship.

    In his chapter, entitled: “History, Policymaking, and the Balkans: Lessons Imported and Lessons Learned,” former Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg describes three dimensions in which policymakers tend to approach the past, starting with “deep history.”  Policymakers ask each other: Is the situation at hand another Haiti, Somalia, or Rwanda? In essence, they’re interested in finding out if the new policy will not fall into the same trap that made interventions in these areas to go awry. To this end, good history can contribute to effective policy by stimulating conversations that produce options and predict opportunities, costs, and risks.

    Other chapters examine the historical “lessons” from World War II, the Vietnam War, the Yugoslav War, and the Persian Gulf War, as well as the American occupation of Japan, the rise of human rights, prohibitions on human trafficking, and the end of the Cold War. Scholars and policy practitioners collaborate to offer insights about the uses and misuses of history, and possible ways to improve both historical scholarship and policy-making in the future.

    Driving this point home, former British Prime Minister, late Sir Winston Churchill made this comment at the House of Commons on May 2, 1935, after the Stresa Conference, in which Britain, France and Italy agreed – futilely – to maintain the independence of Austria. “When the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that it is thoroughly out of hand we apply too late the remedies which then might have effected a cure. There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the sibylline books. It falls into that long, dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed ‘unteachability’ of mankind. Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong–these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.”

    Back to my teenage friend; as most of us desire to have a nation we can truly be proud of, nothing should stop us from telling the Nigerian story. Yes, we may have derailed, but a derailed train can still be put back on its track after repairs to continue its journey. Nigerians over fifty years old often remember the Awolowos, Azikiwes, Ahmadu Bellos etc because of the impact they had on our early history.

    They laid solid foundation for sectors like education, agriculture, health etc. Our varsities were world class producing seasoned academics that are renowned globally. All that changed decades later with the universities they struggled to build becoming shells of their old selves.

    Is it too late for us to pick the bits and pieces? Despite the chaos and mess we are presently in, some good things can still come out. It will however not come from politicians but from an enlightened and united citizenry whose mastery of politicians’ deceptions and divide and rule politics will be high. The ball’s in our court.

     

  • It’s possible to make strokes a thing of the past

    It’s possible to make strokes a thing of the past

    Being aware of the risk factors and taking preventative measures can greatly reduce the chances of becoming a victim of stroke

    The key to reducing the frighteningly high incidence of stroke is taking control of the modifiable risk factors for the condition. And number one of these factors is high blood pressure or hypertension, which is a contributing cause in more than 50 per cent of strokes, according to the Stroke Association’s State of the Nation: stroke statistics report.

     

    High blood pressure

    The NHS says that ideally blood pressure should be below 120 over 80. Readings above 140 over 90 are considered hypertension. This puts strain on blood vessels, increasing the likelihood of strokes.

    “High blood pressure is by far the most important risk factor for stroke”

    Gareth Beevers, professor of medicine at the University of Birmingham and a trustee of Blood Pressure UK, says: “High blood pressure is by far the most important risk factor for stroke. In fact, when antihypertensive drugs became widely available in the 1960s, strokes were substantially reduced.”

    In a review of 14 clinical trials involving a total of 370,000 people with high blood pressure, antihypertensive drugs such as beta-blockers (heart rate lowering medications) and diuretics (water pills) reduced strokes by 35 to 40 per cent.

     

    Other risk factors for stroke

    However, other factors are at play. Obesity, diabetes, high blood cholesterol, lack of exercise, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption all increase the chances of having a stroke. And these are greater for individuals with atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat) and people who have a family history of stroke, or are of south-Asian or African-Caribbean background.

    As for increasing age, it’s worth noting that, while strokes are more likely among the elderly, one in four affect people younger than 65, according to the Stroke Association.

    This plethora of risk factors means blood pressure shouldn’t be considered in isolation, but in the context of other patient characteristics, explains Dr Nicholas Summerton, a GP in East Yorkshire and former clinical adviser in primary care diagnostics to the Department of Health.

    “A high reading matters more if, for example, you have diabetes or are a smoker. And a normal reading doesn’t necessarily mean you are problem free. It depends on your overall stroke risk,” he says.

     

    Promoting and supporting prevention

    Doctors can calculate a person’s stroke risk using a computerised tool (QRISK2) recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which provides national guidance on disease prevention and treatment.

    This enables timely, personalised prevention. And prevention can save lives. In a report on hypertension, Public Health England says: “In 10 years, 45,000 years of life could be saved, and £850 million not spent on related health and social care, if we achieved a reduction in the average population blood pressure.”

    But, achieving this goal requires a collaborative effort. On one hand, government and healthcare commissioners and providers must promote and support prevention. There are examples, such as the Department of Health’s Change4Life campaign, which encourages people to eat healthy and exercise more, and the NHS Health Check, a mid-life MOT offered to everyone aged 40 to 74. On the other hand, individuals must be willing to embrace prevention.

    The good news is there are effective ways of integrating prevention in everyday life. Lucy Wilkinson, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, recommends “reducing salt intake to less than six grams per day, as this is directly linked to hypertension; aiming for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week; and losing excessive weight”.

    She says: “Avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol consumption is also important. New guidance advises men and women to drink no more than 14 units of alcohol a week, and to have at least two or three alcohol-free days.”

     

    Regular blood pressure monitoring

    People should also have regular blood pressure checks. This is key to the early detection and treatment of hypertension, for the condition develops silently over many years, before the first symptoms become obvious.

    Ms Wilkinson points out: “Nearly 30 per cent of adults in the UK have high blood pressure, but about half – around seven million people – are not receiving treatment because they don’t know they have the condition.”

    Professor Beevers adds: “Every adult should have their blood pressure checked every five years or every six to 12  months if their blood pressure is borderline. The current recommendation is that higher-than-normal blood pressure should be brought below 140 over 90. But the general consensus is that interventions should be more aggressive and aim for readings below 120 over 80.”

    Pippa Tyrrell, professor of stroke medicine at the University of Manchester, agrees and highlights the importance of monitoring approaches that can help with this, such as ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, whereby patients are fitted with an electronic device that measures their blood pressure throughout the day as they move around, and self-monitoring at home.

    “They provide a large amount of data from readings taken in the patient’s own environment, helping with diagnosis and treatment decisions,” says Professor Tyrrell. Plus, evidence suggests that home self-monitoring, which a survey by the University of Birmingham estimates is already used by about 30 per cent of UK hypertensive patients, may improve health outcomes.

    In a study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, by an Oxford University team headed by Professor Richard McManus, self-monitoring led to greater blood pressure reductions than readings regularly taken by a doctor.

    “Wearable technology can also help with certain risk factors,” says Dr Summerton. “For example, pulse monitors can detect heartbeat irregularities due to atrial fibrillation, which is associated with a five-fold increased risk of stroke. And fitness bands seem to encourage people to exercise more. But the evidence supporting wearables’ efficacy is limited.”

    So there really are effective ways to control high blood pressure, address other risk factors and, ultimately, reduce the likelihood of a stroke. And these same measures can help those who have already had one. Therefore, the majority of strokes shouldn’t occur. As Professor Beevers concludes: “They should be almost a thing of the past.”

    •Culled from New York Times

  • Kogi 2015: From past to present

    The Kogi State Governorship Election is scheduled for November 21. The polls may still be weeks away, but the scenario has reopened an old wound. It has thrown up two known gladiators who have had the privilege of governing the state at various times. These two gladiators are: the incumbent governor and Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Capt Idris Wada and Prince Abubakar Audu, two time governor of the state who is contesting for the fifth time on the platform of the All Progressives Congress. There are also other contestants like Philip Omeiza Salawu, immediate past Deputy Governor to Ex-Governor Ibrahim Idris who will be flying the flag of Labour Party, LP,  Akwu Goodman, All Progressives Grand Alliance and Enesi Ozigi, of Peoples Progressive Party, PPA. While Audu and Wada are of the Igala Stock, Salawu and Enesi are from the Ebira speaking region of Kogi State.

    Political analysts have however narrowed the contest to a two horse race, between Wada and his main challenger, Audu. The two men are not in unfamiliar territory. They had earlier been the toasts of political pundits in 2011 when the state went to the polls to elect their governor. On that occasion, Audu suffered a bloodied nose from the then  inexperienced Wada as it were.

    The two major contenders have had the opportunity to govern the State so their leadership qualities are not new to the people.  Prince Audu was governor in 1991 to 1993 and from 1999 to 2003. Capt Wada is about completing his first term of four years.

    An objective profiling of the two men while in public office is therefore not out of place. An eagle eye look at their achievements, temperament and other antecedents therefore affords the electorate the golden opportunity to make informed choice based on their performance and character traits.

    Audu’s supporters largely present him as the father of Kogi. According to them his performance in office is yet to be surpassed by any other administration in the state.  They  list the establishment of Kogi State University (KSU), Establishment of Confluence Beach Hotel and Establishment of Diagnostic and Reference Hospital in Ayangba as his major  achievements. Audu’s opponents are however quick to point out that most of the projects he lays claim to are phantom projects- that could not withstand the test of time. For example, the university Audu established apart from being named after himself was just a university in name as it lacked the basic facilities to offer any accredited course. It was successive governments that renamed the university to Kogi State University and ensured that facilities and resources were provided for the category A accreditation that the university’s courses enjoy today.  Even APC stalwarts like Alex Kadiri pointed out in a recent interview that  “Audu merely used the infrastructure already put on ground by the World Bank. Kogi State University is standing on the site of the World Bank Agricultural Project, where they had an airstrip. All the houses the lecturers are living were built with the loans collected from the World Bank. The state is still paying back and it is part of the debt every government must pay. The loan may not be fully liquidated in the next eight to nine years”.

    Apart from ensuring accreditation of all courses in KSU, Wada has gone ahead to establish the College of Medical Science and is constructing a world-class 250-bed teaching hospital. He has also established the Faculty of Education to improve the quality of teaching staff in the state.

    Another major project credited to Audu is the Confluence Beach Hotel which played host to conferences during his administration. Apart from constituting a drainpipe on the state’s resources, the devastating floods experienced by the state in 2012 exposed the underbelly of that project as it was constructed without any environmental impact assessment study. Governor Wada on his part set up the first modern environmental laboratory in the state to forestall such poorly planned projects in the future. He has also attracted investors that will take over the rehabilitation and management of the hotel.

    One achievement that Audu’s supporters claim is the establishment of Dangote Cement factory at Obajana. Objective analysts in the state are at a loss how they come about that claim as no benefit in terms of dividend payment has come to Kogi State since the inception of the factory.

    An area where Audu’s supporters cannot claim any achievement is in the area of agriculture. Wada’s focus on agriculture has resulted in the state becoming the number one cassava growing state in the nation. The feat has attracted the World Bank, the Federal Government and Cargill USA- a top manufacturing company ; now there is a move to partner with the state to establish the first staple crop processing zone in the nation at Alape, Kogi State. When completed, the income of the state will increase by about N14billion per annum.

    Unlike Audu who operated under a period of economic boom, Wada is operating under an unprecedented period of sharply dwindling revenue. Today, he has achieved an unparalleled 200 percent increase in internally generated revenue throughout the creation of a single revenue account and e-collection of revenue accruable to the state.

    Wada has tried to keep faith with the state’s workers by ensuring that their salaries are paid as at when due. He has also cleared all the 21 years arrears of pension backlogs that he met. It is a known fact that in spite of the economic boom during Audu’s era, he owed civil servants for upwards of six months and blatantly refused to pay pensioners because he referred to them as ‘dead woods’. Another area where Wada is given full credit is the respect of the citizen’s inalienable right to freedom of speech. People of different shades express their opinions freely without fear of intimidation and victimization. The Wada administration is known for tolerance of opposing views even when they border on the absurd. During Prince Audu’s reign, this was not the case. The Prince reigned with iron hands and was generally intolerant of criticism and fostered tyranny on the people. People have not forgotten that in those dark days, a journalist was bathed with acid on the streets of Lokoja.  Today, journalists in the state can attest to the fact that they now operate in an environment where they operate without let or hindrance. Servants and the various labour unions also agitate for their rights without the fear of intimidation.  Traditional rulers can equally bear testimony to the fact that they no longer go through the excruciating pain of waiting by Jamata Bridge to welcome the governor whenever he travels to Abuja and his several trips abroad.  The arrogance and flamboyance of the past has today been replaced by simplicity and humility in governance.

    ‘Wada has tried to keep faith with the state’s workers by ensuring that their salaries are paid as at when due. He has also cleared all the 21 years arrears of pension backlogs that he met. It is a known fact that in spite of the economic boom during Audu’s era, he owed civil servants for upwards of six months’

    • Abu writes from Lokoja, Kogi State