The Nation Newspaper

Tag: peoples

  • Osun Poll: CSO commends high voter turnout

    Mr Ezenwa Nwagwu, Chairman, Partners for Electoral Reforms, a Civil Society Organisation (CSO), has commended the high turnout of voters in the ongoing governorship election in Osun.

    Nwagwu, who is monitoring the election in the state, made the commendation in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Saturday.

    He said that between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. accreditation and voting had already commenced as people trooped out in orderly manner to exercise their franchise.

    “We are coming out from Ife now, accreditation and voting is ongoing. The punctuality is pretty nice in the areas that we have observed between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.

    “But generally, people are coming out to vote and the climate is calm and relatively peaceful,’’ he said.

    The chairman also commended the relative peaceful atmosphere under which the process is going on.

    He, therefore, expressed the need to encourage the people of the state to continue to maintain the maturity they put in during the campaigns and the poll and remain peaceful.

    He expressed optimism that the outcome of the election would reflect the will and aspirations of a greater percentage of the people.

    Read Also: Osun Decides: Massive turnout in Ife

    “It is good to continue to encourage the people of Osun to maintain the maturity that they put in during the campaigns and ensure that they remain peaceful.

    “We hope that the outcome of the election reflects the will and aspirations of a greater percentage of Osun people, ’he said.

    News Agency of Nigeria reports that a heavy security cordon was thrown on the state with massive deployment of policemen and other security personnel including soldiers who were sighted on the outskirts of the state capital.

    News Agency of Nigeria also reports that there are 3,010 Polling Units and 755 Polling Points spread across the three senatorial districts and 30 local governments’ areas of the state.

    Although INEC registered a total of 1,682,495 voters, some 400,000 Permanent Voters Cards remained uncollected as at Friday.

    News Agency of Nigeria also reports that although 48 parties are participating in the election, the frontline candidates are Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples, Democratic Party and Iyiola Omisore of the Social Democratic (SDP).

  • ‘People’s well-being our priority’

    ‘People’s well-being our priority’

    The Executive Secretary of Iba Local Council Development Area, Hon. Isiaka Yaya has said that one of the priorities of the council is ensuring that the well-being of the residents is guaranteed. This, he said, would be through making sure that the environment is healthy.

    According to a release signed by the Information Officer of the council, Mrs Jimoh Sharafat, the council chief stated this while sensitising residents to the importance of maintaining clean environment. This was during the environmental sanitation exercise which he and some council officials monitored at Iyana-Iba and Okokomaiko and their environs.

    Hon. Yaya, who said strict enforcement of council’s and Lagos State environmental laws, would go a long way in keeping Iba LCDA in particular and Lagos State in general clean expressed his dissatisfaction over nonchalant attitude of some members of the council towards the environment. He said incessant dumping of waste in unauthorised garbage sites is inimical to people’s health and that of the environment.

    At a garbage site near Okokomaiko, Hon. Yaya described it as a blot on the landscape, even as he advised the leader at one of the parks to ensure that his members keep the environment clean at all times. He also urged sanitary inspectors to make sure that residents stopped dumping of garbage there to avoid outbreak of epidemic.

    He said: “Human health has always been threatened by natural hazards such as storms, floods, fires, landslides and droughts. Their consequences are being worsened by a lack of preparedness and by human actions against the environment.

    “A clean environment is essential for human health and well-being. However, the interactions between the environment and human health are highly complex and difficult to assess. This makes the use of the preventive principle particularly useful. The best-known health impacts are related to air pollution, poor water quality and insufficient sanitation.

    “Major environment-related health concerns are associated with air pollution, poor water quality, poor sanitation and hazardous chemicals. The related health impacts include respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, cancer and asthma.

  • An attempt at the true origin of the West African peoples

    An attempt at the true origin of the West African peoples

    Title: Exposition: The Hebrew Origin of The West African Peoples
    Author:Olalekan Abiola-Kushehin
    Publisher: Liberal Consults
    No. of Pages: 109
    Year of Publication: 2014
    Reviewer: Gboyega Alaka

    Are you one of those who have been wondering about the true origin of the West African peoples? Better still, do you wonder about the amazing resemblance in languages, cultures and the possible relationship between tribes like the Ewe, Yoruba, Idoma, Akan, Igala, Edo, Igbo, Nupe, Aku, Efik, Ga, Ibibion, Urhobo, Ijaw, Kanuri, Fon, Itsekiri, Tiv and co?

    Then the book, EXPOSITION: The Hebrew Origin of The West African Peoples, written by Olalekan Abiola-Kushehin may just come handy. Abiola-Kushehin, a widely travelled pastor at the Good News Baptist Church, Surulere, Lagos who has spent a good length of time in Isreal encountered similarities in the culture and languages of West African tribes, which he found too striking to be mere coincidence, prompting a further research that finally culminated in the book, EXPOSITION.

    According to the author in the preface, EXPOSITION is a book written for one vital, though quickly forgotten reason: to create the necessary awareness amongst the people of West Africa of their Hebrew origin, and the need for all to return to God….The book is written out of the burden I have to actually search for the true origin of my people. There are three angles I have looked at in the realisation of my goal: Religious, Cultural and Linguistic geography.”

    The 12-chapter book starts with Return To God, where the author sought to establish that the fall of man is a consequence of his disobedience to God. In page 4, he pointed out that slavery is one of the ways God punished his people, talking about the Hebrews, who transgressed.

    “This same slavery is the chief reason why we lost touch with our Abrahamic origin- talking about Africans, leading us into various strange land. It also continued, when we as Africans now, were taken away to the Americas and Europe for all forms of labour.”

    In “The Sin of Idolatary: A Justification (Chapter 2), he tries to show that “It is not man that holds man captivity in all cases, but the sin of man.” he cited the captivity of Isreal in 586 BC as an example where they were severally warned through several prophets, before His wrath fell on them. In the same vein, he said Nebuchadnezzar was also fulfilling God’s plan; same for the Roman invasion led by Gen. Pompey in 63 BC; the Jewish revolt against the Roman rule, which ultimately led to a massive destruction of Jerusalem and a further plundering of the Jews; right through to the most recent in history, when 6million Jews were reportedly massacred by Hitler’s Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945. Never mind the fact that even Hitler himself was later confirmed to be a Jew through a DNA conducted on his cousin years later.

    He also debunked the theory that the enslavement of the West African people has  direct link with the Hamitic curse in the bible and the British physician, C. G. Seligman Hamitic hypothesis that the sub-Saharan Africans never developed a civilisation, citing the Nok culture that dates back to 1000BC and the Ife Bronze and Terra-cotta.

    Immigration and a Peoples’ Language (Chapter 3) tries to link the history of West Africans, citing how the Yoruba, who claim to be from Saudi Arabia and actually only passed through the Arabian peninsula in the course of their sojourn like several other Jewish tribes, leaving residues as they travelled and spread across the African continent; picking bits of languages and cultures.

    Quoting Dr. Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, an eminent Historian and Igbo Scholar, he cited the similarities in vocabularies amongst the Igbo, Edo, Yoruba, Igede, Idoma, Nupe and Igbira with words like biwa nibi, bia neba, meaning ‘come here.’

    ‘Isreal to Nigeria’ (Chapter 4), traces Oduduwa’s root as a prince of Juba (Judah), who actually came to join his people who had come ahead of him and settled in Ile-Ife after the 70 AD attack on the Jews. He debunks the theory of their Mecca origin saying “the Yoruba are not Semitic Arabs but Semitic Jews, judging from the Yoruba traditional religion of Ifa, which is Judeo-Christian in practice.” He also said that if they are indeed bonafide Arabs, the story of them being driven out of the Arab peninsula would never have arisen.

    Chapter 5 talks about culture and tradition and the fact that it is a way of life of a people that is hardly dropped. He uses cases like circumcision, which is a covenant known only to Abraham and his descendants, linking it with how the Yoruba and Igbo (page 37) have religiously comply with this 8th day culture from years immemorial; same for naming, reverence for twin children, bowing as a sign of respect, animal slaughter, endogamy and talent and love for music.

    He went further in chapter 6 to debunk the autochthonous myth of Ile-Ife as the origin of creation, saying this was the outcome of the peoples falling out of favour with their God and having to regenerate themselves over centuries and settlements.

    In page 45, he said “Around a thousand years ago, Ile-Ife was a fortified city like Jerusalem,” concluding therefore that “it is my opinion that Ile-Ife is merely a cognate of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire where the people from the Northern Kingdom of Isreal were taken captive in 743 BC .

    On page 52, he also alludes that Ile-Ife was the spread out point for all the West African tribes that eventually emerged in the sub-region and that it was Oduduwa who gave the Igbos (who actually arrived Ile-Ife first before spreading out) the name Igbo (awon ara igbo, meaning people of the forest, since they resided in the deeper side of the forest).

    In chapter 7, he says “Ifa is referred to as an Oracle, the Lord Jesus Christ who has being (sic) speaking to man since creation… a divine utterance to man, usually in answer to a request for guidance.”

    In page 64, he said, Orunmila, in Ifa is the same divine person as Jesus the Christ in the Christian scripture.”

    The author also dedicates a whole chapter (9) to Obatala, saying “Obatala is one of the numerous names of Jesus in Ifa traditional religion of the West Africa peoples. Other names are Ela, Orunmila, Orisa-nla, etc.

    Chapter 10 focuses on the vocabularies and a striking resemblance between words of Yoruba and West African origin and the Hebrew language.

  • Politics, peoples and principles

    In the name of politics, people act in ways that raise the question “what principles motivate their actions?’ Then, of course, there is a not-too-strange-for-our-clime reaction: “in politics who needs principles?” For which a reasonable response is available: human beings do; otherwise we are no different than brutes.

    What is depressing is that the majority refuses to ask questions and we are all still prisoners of primordial attachments and sectarian affiliations. Break loose and secure a semblance of the freedom of the mind, which in the end is the most prized object of our humanity, and you become a suspect subject to mental evaluation. Political correctness runs amok and the irrational loyalty of tribal jingoists and religious bigots are ever present distractions of readers’ comments on many topical stories on the websites of our media outlets.

    A case in point: Question the propriety of invading states with the intimidating force of the military and the aggravating scenario of having them masked and you are immediately underwhelmed with a variety of responses, not a few justifying the practice on nothing but an unsound recourse to “my side is always right and the other side is never right.” And when the Chairman of INEC himself came up against the practice, was there a rethink on the part of those folks who saw nothing wrong with the practice? No. It makes the stomach turn.

    The need for principles in our politics cannot be overstated because just like vision, without principles, the people and the nation perish. And there is a difference between principled approach to politics and its tactical counterpart, though it is easy to confuse them. Almost all voluntary actions are aimed at achieving one goal or another and tactic is the chosen path or method of getting there. Needless to say, if the goal is devilish, nothing can make the tactic or method angelic. Just as a good end does not justify an evil means so a good means does not justify an evil end. And much of what we have in our politics is the combination of evil means and evil ends.

    We need a constant reminder that the ultimate end, the fundamental assumption, the principle of politics, especially democratic politics, is the good of the people. When monarchs fight over territories, they play politics, but not necessarily for the good of the people. Our advancement from monarchical rule in favor of the republican ideal is an indication of our belief that the people’s interests are the sole justification of whatever we do and their voices are pivotal to the recognition and promotion of their interests. We err irredeemably if we act as if we know more than the people what those interests are and how they ought to be promoted.

    Elections are the means or method by which the people not only register their interests but also choose how they will have them promoted and through whose instrumentality they will have them satisfied. Let us concede that even in matters so fundamental and so intimately connected to the people, they can be mistaken in their judgment about how or by whom. But that is their prerogative: to be mistaken. We cannot therefore justify the imposition of our will on them by appeal to the possibility, even probability, of mistakes on their part.

    By and large, elections are the means by which the will of the people is frustrated, violated and undermined. And much as it may have been cast in that light, this is not just an inter-party issue, it is also an intra-party phenomenon. Witness the demand for internal democracy within political parties. With elections, tactics trump principles for a good number of our political players, and because it has happened very often, even otherwise decent and morally conscious people take it as the norm. Coming in a variety of forms and shapes, it is anything but normal.

    With the fierceness of our electoral competitions, where the stakes are high, political tactics come into their full focus. While principles underpinning elections are about fundamental ideals of government by consent of the governed, tactics are the means of brightening the electoral chances of particular candidates. These may include such mundane ones like securing the support of political heavyweights or, in the case of a party, fielding popular candidates. These appear innocuous though the devil is in the detail.

    There are far more insidious tactics, including the use of de facto political power to intimidate opponents (with troops and police), the use of state funds to buy voters and starve opponents of access to funds, and most objectionably, the politicisation of ethnic and religious sentiments to divide the people with the sole objective of manipulating the electorate and having an edge.

    This has gone on for far too long with impunity. Many would maintain that the political parties are equal opportunity offenders, but the most daring culprit has always been a party that controls the centre. We don’t have to quibble over this because the evidence is copious from the beginning of the republic. Unfortunately it is getting worse and it is time that reasonable stakeholders, people of goodwill, think seriously about the harm it does to the psyche of the electorate and our long term interest in the deepening of democracy.

    The effectiveness of such odious tactics has always been an issue but it depends on the integrity of citizens and how much they understand the evil that the actions of the politicians do to the system. If they have a good understanding, it also depends further on how much they personalise the actions as an insult to their dignity, itself a factor of education and wellbeing.

    In 2011, candidate Jonathan rode high on the goodwill of the electorate who saw in him a fresh start with a transformation agenda. They also saw him as a victim of a gang-up by a section of the political class. But the honeymoon didn’t last before the realities of federal ineptitude stared citizens in the face. Increased insecurity, increased mass poverty, increased corruption and the regionalisation and spiritualisation of disenchantment have marred the transformation agenda of the president. In the face of these developments, the ruling party has effectively severed the relationship between politics and principles in favour of crude political tactics. Included here are such tactics as the recourse to the politicisation of religion, the manipulation of ethnic sentiments and the deployment of security agents for partisan advantage. So much for transformation!

    The few examples I cited are not unknown to readers. But someone would object that having observed that all political parties are implicated, I chose to scapegoat the ruling party. It is no scapegoating and there is a good reason for taking my samples from the practice of the ruling party. The PDP has ruled the country since the return of civil rule. Since 1999, states and governors have been at the mercy of the centre. The various agencies of government, including the EFCC, Police, Military, etc, have acted under the direction of the President, the leader of the ruling party, or his designee. A truly transformational agenda would have nipped the repulsive practices in the bud. Instead, the proverbial witch has only continued to breed more offspring.

    I have alluded to the common belief that the parties aren’t different and there may be some truth to it. But at the inception of the political parties in 1998, what was true and still is to some extent was that PDP was the party of the military, peopled by characters with no moral scruple about politics and people. They didn’t care about the evil that was visited on the nation post-June 12, 1993; they were into militarised politics and they had a shareholder mentality about politics, including a cut-throat competition for power for material benefits, with no enduring agenda for the common people. Fifteen years later, this leopard has not changed its skin a bit.

    I grieve internally for some of the genuinely decent and humane persons now taking a decision of a lifetime to associate with this group of devourers.

  • Why we seek peoples’ mandate, by Aregbesola

    Why we seek peoples’ mandate, by Aregbesola

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola yesterday spoke of his motivation to seek the peoples’ mandate.

    He said he had a passion to serve.

    The governor spoke during a live broadcast to mark the second anniversary of his administration in Osogbo.

    Aregbesola said: “We are happy we have maintained this course and your investment of hope in us have not been in vain.”

    He saluted the courage of judges of the Court of Appeal in Ibadan that upheld “our appeal and kicked out the impostors who have fraudulently usurped the power of the state.”

    The governor expressed gratitude to the people for standing by “us when it was unsafe to do so, you have stuck by us since then, through thick and thin.”

    He said: “Our philosophy and principle of governance have been that the basis of political power is commitment to the welfare of the people through selflessness, integrity and sacrifice. It is therefore a great priviledge for me to have provided leadership for the greatest people on earth for the past two years.

    “I was not under any illusion that our journey would be a bed of roses, but because I have you behind me, I was confident that we would weather any storm and overcome any obstacle. I told you at my inauguration that we were resuming our journey to greatness, I am happy that we have made giant strides together.

    “When we came into office, our greatest challenge was the infrastructure of the mind. The people have to be mentally prepared for development. This is because development is about people. Infrastructure is not development; it is just a tool for human development.

    “We have real development only and if our people are developed. This is the essence of the Omoluabi concept. We have been able to mobilise our people to project a positive self image and realise the innate goodness in them and their capability for greatness.

    “This is our first major victory and breakthrough.

    The rebranding exercise is actually a win-win. If our people are positioned as Omoluabi and they act accordingly, the markets in the state will attract more patronage from all over the world because shoppers know they will not be cheated and they will get real value for their money.”

    The governor said he considered two key areas as very central – education and agriculture.”

    He said through education, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo carried out the policy of free primary education that “our people had a 50-year development gap with the rest of Nigeria.”

    He said: “Education, therefore, is the key to leading people to greatness. There is no nation that is ever great, whether in contemporary or antiquity, that did not pass through the path of great education. That was why we quickly carried out the education summit where stakeholders critically looked at what went wrong with our education and proffered solutions to them.

    “We have reorganised the state’s school system into Elementary, Middle and High schools. We have started building modern school buildings with a capacity to accommodate 900 students at the elementary and middle school levels. The new high school building is a three-in-one which will accommodate 3000 students. Other facilities, in consonance with international academic standard, will include a standard football pitch, recreational facilities, laboratories, libraries, food court and examination hall that is big enough to sit a minimum of 1000 students.”

     

     

     

     

     

    “In our elementary schools, we have introduced school feeding programme. We are also providing free uniforms for all pupils in public schools. Our vision is to provide world class education infrastructure manned by well motivated teachers who will in turn produce global leading scholars. What we spent on primary schools alone in one year, is more than what our predecessor spent in eight years.

    “We have made conscious decision to ensure that our students become ICT compliant, both for learning and self-development. Towards this end, we will soon begin to distribute the computer tablets (Opon-Imo) for the SS 1-3 students in public secondary schools. The tablet is preloaded with 17 subjects offered by students in the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) and National Examination Council (NECO). It also contains six extra-curricular subjects, including Sexuality Education, Entrepreneurship, Yoruba Proverbs, Civic Education, Yoruba History and the Yoruba Traditional Religion. This we are happy to announce is a first-of-its-kind project in public sector education in this part of the world.”

    The governor disclosed that his government is planning to employ 3,230 teachers in the primary school sector and fill vacancies that will be left by retiring teachers this December.

    On agriculture, he refered to his achievements which he said had led to a revolution in the sector.

    He said: “Under the Osun Rural Enterprises and Agricultural Programme (O’REAP), we have organised our famers into functional cooperatives and we are distributing thousands of hectares of already prepared lands along with farming inputs to boost food crop production. But we have not stopped there, because our approach to agricultural revolution is an integrated, multi-level system that encompasses other areas which include animal husbandry under the O’Beef Chain Development Project, poultry farming under the Broiler Production Scheme (O’BOPS), fish farming, and bee-farming.

    “In pursuit of the implementation of the O’Beef, we are dedicating and developing hundreds of hectares of land into feedlot, grazing reserves, cattle markets, breeding centres, and fattening hubs. We have taken a big step in this direction by inaugurating a 78.8-hectare Cattle Ranch at Oloba, which will be equipped with a feedlot infrastructure to accommodate 1,500 cattle. Already, we had successfully fattened rams at this ranch and also in partnership with the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and the OFFER Centre, Oluponna, for the last Ileya festival.

    “Two bigger-capacity ranches will follow in due course at Ede and Ejigbo, which will cover 400 and 1,000 hectares respectively. We have already acquired land in these areas for this purpose. We will also be establishing modern abattoirs where all butchers can come to slaughter their animals for a fee. We will start with Osogbo, Iwo and Ilesa.