The Nation Newspaper

Tag: reflection

  • ‘Ramadan is month of reflection’

    An aspirant of upper chamber of the legislative building from Osun West Senatorial District, Omoba Dotun Babayemi, has urged Muslims to observe the last 10 days of the ongoing fasting in strict adherence to the stipulation of the holy Quran.

    After his visit to 110 wards in 10 local government councils of the district, Babayemi said being a Christian does not rob him the understanding of what the month of Ramadan symbolises to the Muslims, pointing out that fasting is one of the bonds that exist between Muslims and Christians.

    Babayemi later distributed consumable items to his hosts with words of assurance that they would regularly be empowered by his foundation to live more meaningful life.

    If elected, Babayemi pledged to give the electorate adequate representation, adding that the era of a senator burning the bridge after election is over.

    Oluwo of Iwo Oba AbdulRasheed Akanbi told Babayemi of the need to encourage the youth to take active position of responsibilities.

    Babayemi promised the monarch to sponsor pro-youths bills when elected into the Senate.

    “My political philosophy is built round empowering the youth because in it lies the hope of this country. This is my focus, and I am not going to relent in this laudable project,” he said.

     

  • Need for reflection in a season of anger

    Wondering why I was so angry after reading my last week piece on nPDP and PDP, a friend, tongue in cheek congratulated me for trying to outdo Lai Mohammed, the versatile Culture and Information Minister who has no match in his trade. But then are we not in a season of anger? I am not sure there is anyone in Nigeria today, young or old who is not angry. The target of our collective anger is President Buhari, an elected sovereign, supported by awesome apparatus of state power to deal decisively with enemies of Nigeria, who instead of action, chose to dwell on problems he inherited as if that was not the reason 17 million Nigerian miracle seekers desirous of an end to thirty years of Babangida, Abacha and Obasanjo’s deceit, mischief and mismanagement in just three years, elected him.

    Nigeria elder-statesmen like Anyaoku, Balarabe Musa, wole Soyinka who have asked the president to wake up from his deep slumber are angry. Younger Nigerians who traded their freedom and liberty for his protection after reading his 1983-1985 exploits are angry. Our frustrated highly trained young professionals are angrily moving away to Canada in droves. Others left behind by the system are trying to escape through the Atlantic and the desert at their own peril.

    Ortom of Benue like other helpless Middle Belt states governors are angry. Thousands of those who lost their loved ones and have now become refugees in their own country because President Buhari cannot protect them are angry.  Roman Catholic faithful who lost two of their priests and 17 worshippers inside their church to those security reports now say may not be Fulani herdsmen are angry. The Fulani herdsmen and their leaders are no less angry.

    Now President Buhari, the target of everyone’s anger and on whose table the buck stops is himself angry. Besides being overwhelmed by our crisis of nation building and serial betrayal by some of his trusted close aids, I think what probably irked taciturn Buhari who revels in his own sense of righteousness is the intrigue and hypocrisy of Babangida, Obasanjo, Jonathan and nPDP led national assemblies, all architects of the nation’s current nightmare.

    This perhaps explains why an embattled old and frail-looking General Buhari (rtd) has now challenged into an open duel, an equally old frail-looking General Obasanjo and Jonathan, his god son he alleged jointly spent $16b on power without anything to show for it and those law makers he dismissed for having nothing to show for their over ten years in the national assembly.

    Apparently, while Buhari who once admitted ‘corruption fighting back’ jailed him for three years and his mother had to die for him to secure freedom, was ready for the frustrations from the legislature, the judiciary and the media, in his current crusade, he is not prepared to allow Ex-Presidents Obasanjo and Jonathan, his godson to continue with their hypocrisy and intrigue at his own expense.

    Here is Jonathan who has not been able to defend the involvement of his embattled wife and family members in alleged fraud against the state, and a man who has been fingered as the mastermind of illegal deployment of $2b arms funds to fighting the 2015 election by some of his associates already charged to court, eulogizing Ayo Fayose who EFCC claimed received N3b of the mismanaged funds. And Fayose’s achievement:  he took loans to build bridge over land in Ekiti where most inter-city roads are in state of decay.

    It was more tragic that in Ado Ekiti, Jonathan addressed a crowd of mostly shortchanged  okada (motor cycle) commercial riders and political thugs, creations of  his god father’s  mainstreaming which destroyed the educational legacies of first and second republic south west visionary leaders such as Awolowo, Ajasin, Enahoro,  Bola Ige, Ambrose Alli and Onabanjo.

    And then as if to prove Buhari’s anger was not misdirected,  an audit firm, KPMG commissioned by NEC gave a damning report about how Eighteen Federal Government’s revenue generating agencies failed to remit N526bn and $21bn into the Federation Account during the Jonathan years, 2010 – 2015.

    And just as he was swearing never to lobby the National Assembly for sitting on the budget for over six months, a book by Okonjo Iweala, former Minister of Finance, titled “Fighting Corruption is Dangerous”: The story behind the Headlines” which confirmed the fears of Nigerians about the manipulation and sabotage of the national budget by the David Mark/Ekwerenmadu led 7th Senate, was released to vindicate his resolve.

    Okonjo Iweala revealed how Jonathan’s administration (with its hand probably soiled) was blackmailed to part with N17 billion to pass the 2015 budget. This according to her was besides the NASS N150 billion annual ‘standard’ budget which they refused to reduce despite dwindling oil revenues but to which they in fact  reintroduced  an additional N20 billion later reduced to N17b after some horse trading, as election expenses for National Assembly members. Okonjo-Iweala also added, “The NASS leadership, working through the various committees, “sought to add more to individual projects or create completely new, unappropriated major projects, thereby distorting the budget”.

    As for ex-President Obasanjo, his combative cronies who claim President Buhari lacks capacity to read and comprehend anything beyond newspaper cartons have not said monies budgeted for power was judiciously used. Their claim is that the bulk of the monies were disbursed after Obasanjo had left office without admitting he appointed those who derailed the power sector projects. That many of those recommended for EFCC’s investigation by a House probe today populate his new coalition is enough evidence Obasanjo has no apologies for the short changing of Nigeria. By his PDP boys.

    Last week’s alarm by the NASS about the embarrassment Nigeria national library has become seems to further support Buhari’s expressed contempt for leaders who think leadership is delegation by abdication

    In a November 6, 2017 update of their earlier report on the state of Nigeria National Library, Ajuri Ngelale and Ronke Sanya  of Channels television titled ‘Nigeria National Library: intellectual sanctuary in ruins’, they claimed that beyond the National Library’s rotten structure, the books, gazettes and official documents dating back to 1800 and pictures dating back to 70 years are rotting away.

    According to the same Channels report, a contract for a proposed new library was initially awarded at an original cost of N8.5billion with an initial completion timeframe of 21 months from the date of first mobilization to site on April 29, 2006. From N8.5bllion, the contract was upwardly revised to N17billion before being revised up again to N38.7billion. It was finally revised upward again to a staggering N78billion. The library is only 40% completed after 12 years.

    Compare the fate of Nigerian National Library to Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) whose contract was awarded also in 2006. Of the N7b projected cost of (OOPL) Obasanjo raked in about N6b during the launching on 15 May 2005.The list of donors include  Dr. Mike Adenuga, of Globacom Communications, Alhaji Aliko Dangote of  Dangote Group,  Mr. Femi Otedola, of Zenon Oil  and $20 million (about N2 billion from oil firm majors operating in the country. Others include Chief Arisekola Alao and Olorogun Michael Ibru. In all, the 36 State governors contributed N360 million, the private sector, N622 million and the Nigerian Ports Authority, $1 million;

    Today, OOPL advertises its museum, “ a white magnificent building, a gleaming steel and concrete structure housing exhibits that illustrate the life and times of Olusegun Obasnajo”; a green legacy houseguest resort made of 153 room suites; an amusement park, nightclub; Wildlife park which houses over 140 indigenous and exotic animals including collection of lions spotted and stripped hyenas, archives containing genealogy, education, birth family and achievements and legacies of Obasanjo in war and in government.

    The Guardian newspaper had in in a recent editorial described Nigeria’s failure ‘to respect and nurture the basic elements of nation building and to have a proper archive of their evolution, as a disgrace”. Nigeria’s loss is Obasanjo’s gain.

  • Okorocha calls for sober reflection

    Okorocha calls for sober reflection

    Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has called for a sober reflection during the yuletide.

    The governor urged adherents of the Christian faith to review their activities and utterances “to see whether they have been exercising or demonstrating love for one another since the birth of Christ connotes love”.

    Okorocha, therefore, advised Christians to be preachers and practitioners of love for all, including the leaders, and to pray for the country’s togetherness and progress.

    The governor, in a goodwill message by his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, noted that “Christians should be at the forefront of the war against corruption, hate-speeches and divisive tendencies, but promote charity among all, not minding tribal and religious differences”.

    “With prayers, the country could become stronger economically and more united, while tribal consciousness, instead of national consciousness, would be jettisoned,” he said.

  • International Day of Charity: Ex-deputy governor seeks sober reflection

    Former Deputy Governor of Benue State Stephen Lawani has called on Nigerians to spare a thought for the less privileged as the world marks International Day of Charity.

    Lawani, in a statement in Abuja yesterday, urged Nigerians to always remember the sick, motherless babies, widows and the aged.

    “As the world marks International Day of Charity, I wish to call on our brothers and sisters in Nigeria to continue to support all forms of charity work both in our immediate environment and outside.

    “For our world to be better, we must constantly show love to fellow citizens, even at the risk of some inconveniences. That is why on a day like this, we must encourage ourselves to continue working for the good of our neighbours and those we may come in contact with.  I know that for every good done to somebody in need, there is always a reward because the Almighty God notices.

    “As we are all aware, September 5 was set aside to create awareness and provide common platform for charity-related activities all over the world.

    “This day, it will be recalled, was also chosen to mark the anniversary of the passing away of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. This Catholic nun, who spent her life serving the poor and the needy, was yesterday canonised as a saint in the Catholic Church by the Pontiff, Pope Francis.

    “Therefore, as we mark this day, we should not forget that like Mother Teresa, we will be remembered for every good by both heaven and earth.”

  • PDP calls for sober reflection

    PDP calls for sober reflection

    The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged sober reflection, imploring Nigerians, irrespective of religious and ethnic affiliations to eschew all forms of bitterness.

    A statement yesterday conveying the party’s Eid El-Fitr message and  by the spokesman of the PDP caretaker committee, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, said the country needed unity to attain greater heights.

    The party called on Nigerians to use the occasion of the Eid El-Fitr to reflect on various sermons received during the Ramadan to pray for peace and unity in the country. It urged the people to inculcate the lessons beyond the celebrations.

    “As a party, we wish all our Muslim brothers and sisters happy Eid El-Fitr and urged them to use this period to reflect on the virtue of faith, service and total submission to the will of the Almighty God as exemplified by the Holy Prophet Mohammed”, the statement added.

    The PDP also called on Nigerians to continue to pray for their leaders for divine guidance in the running of the nation’s affairs, particularly in these trying times.

  • Reflection on Bayelsa State

    Bayelsa State is a quintessence of how crisis of social values is at the root of the economic underperformance of societies and nations. Speaking on television networks in the first week of this month, Governor Seriake Dickson ascribed his inability to pay the workforce in almost half a year to humungous debts accumulated by his predecessors. Many governors borrow massively from banks and issue to the accountant general of the federation an irrevocable standing payment order (ISPO) to deduct the loans from source and pay creditors. “I did not see what they did with all the monies they borrowed”, Dickson bemoaned. Though he did not reveal his predecessors who put Bayelsa in peonage, the list may include Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.

    If the list does indeed include Alamieyeseigha, then Dickson must accept responsibility for the state’s economic mess. Only last April, he organized a high profile state executive council meeting in honour of Alamieyeseigha, attended by former President Goodluck Jonathan and Alamieyesiegha’s widow, where he proudly announced the renaming of the state’s banquet hall and the road linking the state capital of Yenagoa and Alamieyeseigha’s hometown of Amassoma in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area for the late former governor. He also announced that a mausoleum would be built for Alamieyeseigha in ijaw Heroes Park. At the requiem service on April 19 for the former governor who was jailed for plundering the state (not Nigeria), Dickson called him repeatedly “a true hero”.

    The governor-general of the Ijaw nation, as Alamieyeseigha was fondly called, was one Nigerian public officer whose looting is fairly well documented. In 2010, seven years after he was impeached, the British government returned to Bayelsa State a whopping five million pounds stashed away in the United Kingdom by Alamieyeseigha who had been arrested in September, 2012, at Heathrow Airport for money laundering. Alamieyeseigha had purchased five properties in London, kept one million pounds in raw cash in his London home and left $2.7m in an account with the Royal Bank of Scotland. He also had houses in the United States and South Africa—all acquired while he was governor of one of Nigeria’s poorest states. While being tried in London in 2005, he escaped to Nigeria where he hoped that the constitutional immunity conferred on him as a governor would save him.

    Many Africans do not seem to appreciate the correlation between high ethical standards and economic development. A society which allows its people to indulge in massive corruption cannot develop economically. In 1958, the distinguished American sociologist, Edward Banfied, called attention to this reality through his seminal book, The Moral Basis of a Backward Society. Banfield did a study of southern Italy which is called the Third World of Western Europe because of its economic backwardness, unlike northern Italy which is as developed as any other part of the First World. The cultural values in southern Italy enable criminal organisations like the Mafia to reign supreme in cities like Sicily and Naples.

    This great work by Banfield practically faded from the radar screen of many western scholars until in 1997 when Francis Fukuyama published his second book entitled Trust: the Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity in which the polyvalent intellectual argues that the difference between poor and rich societies is the difference in the levels of social capital. By social capital, Fukuyama means the stock of values like honesty, loyalty, integrity and trust. He calls societies with a substantial stock of these values high-trust ones and societies where the reverse is the case low-trust. The examples Fukuyama cites for explaining why many nations in the Third World cannot build big businesses which outlive the founders and their families and consequently contribute significantly to national economic well-being are arresting, but beyond the scope of this essay.

    As a new millennium was about to dawn, Harvard University organized in 1999 a symposium to interrogate the powerful place of cultural values in societal and national development. Papers delivered at the symposium were published the following year in a book edited by Lawrence Harrison and Samuel Huntington entitled Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress. In a penetrating introduction, Huntington, author of the magnus opus, The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order, provides a glimpse into why Southeast Asian nations like South Korea and Singapore have recorded fantastic progress, despite the absence of natural resources, but not African countries like Ghana, in spite of the superabundance of resources like cocoa and gold. Writes Huntington: “South Koreans valued thrift, education, organisation, and discipline. Ghanaians had different values. In short, cultures count”.

    Despite its low population and relatively sparse population, Bayelsa receives one of the largest allocations from the federation account every month because it is a leading oil-producing state. Still, it owes workers for several months. In contrast, a state like Anambra which receives almost an infinitesimal amount from the federation account and has a large population and a huge workforce, not only pays workers before month end but even increases salaries, employs more workers and continues with the construction of a large number of roads and state of the art aesthetic bridges. Why wouldn’t Bayelsa be in financial doldrums when Dickson insists on holding up Alamieyeseigha as a role model in a state with personages like Larry Koinyan, Gabriel Okara and Mrs T. K. Agari, among numerous others who can hold their ground anywhere in the world intellectually and morally? It should come to no one as a surprise that the incidences of contract padding and ghost workers in Bayelsa have been proved to be the worst in the whole country since Dickson, compelled by the ongoing economic crunch, began to check several leakages in the state’s treasury.

    The terrible crisis of values is not peculiar to Bayelsa. A major public housing estate in Abuja is named for Ibrahim Abacha for dying on a presidential jet on January 17, 1996, while frolicking with his girlfriend. The Kano State stadium is named for Sani Abacha, a pathological buccaneer, with the millions of dollars he looted still being returned to Nigeria, 18 years after his death. In Anambra, the military regime changed Achalla Road in the capital to Prince Arthur Eze Avenue, after Eze had received $110m and a huge naira component from the African Development Bank for rural water supply and rural electrification in old Anambra State and the building of an industrial development centre in Awka but did practically nothing. Eze took over the chairmanship of Premier Breweries, the biggest industry in Anambra State and third largest brewery in Nigeria, and ran it aground.

    In typical Nigerian fashion, President Jonathan awarded him a high national honour.  About two months ago, the University of Nigeria at Nsukka bestowed an honorary doctorate on him.

    It is a shame that most Nigerian public officers do not know the close relationship between values and economic development. Worse, our universities are steeped in a profound moral cesspool.

     

    • Adinuba is head of Discovery Public Affairs Consulting.
  • A time for reflection

    A time for reflection

    Delta, Rivers, Cross River and Akwa Ibom are four Southsouth states with new governors. The governors of Edo and Bayelsa are not new. Adams Oshiomhole is serving his second term in Edo State, while Seriake Dickson is warming up for a second term in Bayelsa State.

    With almost all the governors in this region new, I sincerely believe it is a time to let their Excellency knows that poverty walks on all fours in this region. What better way can I do this other than go back to a piece on this space last September 26?

    The piece titled ‘The common Niger Deltan’ is a food for thought. Here it is:

    I write this for no one in particular. It is just the thoughts of a man who needs to speak out before becoming a patient at a psychiatric hospital. Let me do a brief introduction: I am what many will prefer to address as the common man. But, since I fall into the geographic divide called the Niger Delta, I opt for the option of being addressed as the common Niger Deltan. What sets me apart from the other Niger Deltans? It is simple. I am poor, stinking and not sure of where the next meal will come from. I live in the creeks. My house, made of wood, is covered with palm front, which I have to change from time to time as they wither away.

    For me, luxury is a stranger. It is something I hear about and see when the rich choose to throw their weight about. Some of my children could not go to school. I don’t have to tell you the reason. It is obvious. Did I hear anyone talk about free education? It is a mirage to me and a source of pain too.

    But, do I really have any reason to be poor? I don’t think so. I was born into wealth. Not that my father was rich. My mother was a good friend to poverty. What I mean by being born to wealth centres around the fact that I am from the Niger Delta, where the oil of Nigeria’s prosperity is drilled. A constant reminder of this is some minutes away from my abode: the Residential Area or RA, as we are wont to call it, of the multinational the government gave the licence to drill our oil on its behalf. My house and those of others around me when compared with the RA cannot be described better than saying “heaven and hell, side by side”. Ours is hell; theirs is heaven.  I guess we have sinned and come short of the glory of God to be consigned to that sort of existence.

    On a second thought, I think it is not God that we have sinned against. It is our leaders, the men we elect to lead us. Or, better still, the men who forced themselves on us as our leaders. In my part of the Niger Delta, we never see night. I will explain. The multinational operating in our area has its flow station so close to our homes. It sends out gas flares throughout the day. So, the only way to differentiate between night and day is to check our wrist watch, something that is a luxury to many of us. In my town, oil pipelines are not underground. They are in the open. And often they burst or are burst and our soils and existence are damaged in the process.

    We have shouted, protested and threatened violence over our fate, yet change has refused to come. It is as if the multinational also has another licence: to send us all to our early grave so that our leaders can have all the wealth for themselves, including the little they manage to spend on basic amenities for us. This environmental genocide, as some have called it, is having serious effects on us. Strange diseases are killing our people. Pregnant women are developing strange allergies. Yet, we have only one ill-equipped health centre to take care of our health needs. We have several people with aggravated asthma, increases in respiratory symptoms, such as coughing and difficult or painful breathing, chronic bronchitis and decreased lung function. Premature death is not uncommon.

    What further baffles me is that this multinational goes about painting a picture of being an asset to us, when it is, indeed, a curse. Every Christmas, the company sends us cows, two cows to be specific, for this big town to share. You need to come and see the fighting this usually causes. Poverty is not good. We end up fighting over something we are supposed to reject and throw back at the bearer.

    I heard the other day that the company says it is all out to ensure no harm comes to us as a result of its activities here. Yet, as I write this, my brain is being flared out by the gas flares from its flow station, which is at the centre of our town. The truth is, they are more interested in the oil than in our well-being. We can die for all they care. Oil is more important than man; that is their mantra. Our government is an accomplice in this man’s inhumanity to man. Once the royalty keeps coming in, to hell with the people. Meanwhile, they will tell us “Power to the people”. Soon, they will come around distributing rice, George and wrapper and all kinds to buy our conscience and votes. Willingly, we will sell. No thanks to poverty.

    It is lost on our government that the richest nations in the world are agro-based. The country used to make so much money from cocoa, groundnut and other cash crops. But, oil has made us mad. We have lost our sense of reasoning. We just don’t give a damn about its down side. The madness has eaten into the youths who are now looking for easy money. That is why they see militancy, kidnapping, illegal bunkering and armed robbery as better than tilling the few good soil left. I agree with the school of thought which argues that our leaders brought about the laziness among the young ones. Someone needs to show them leadership and direction.

    Our leaders must try some radical approach to increase revenue. Agriculture will help. Rice farms will do a lot of magic. We are known as fishermen, but we are not doing it well. If we do it well, we will make lots of cash locally and foreign exchange will also increase tremendously. In many of our communities, crops, such as plantain and banana, just sprout out on their own. We don’t have to plant them. I read somewhere in one of those scarce moments when I come across newspapers that plantain can be imported too. This is something that just grows on its own on our soil. We need to think.  We must harness this potential for the betterment of the state.

    The other time our past governor acquired fishing trolleys. We were happy they would help us get more from our fishes. As I write, these trolleys are abandoned at a waterside, another evidence of how we waste our limited resources. It is a tale of ‘Papa Deceiving Pikin’. We are just one big nation of liars. Leaders lie. Journalists bend the fact. Oil companies twist the facts. It is just a big game of deceit. But, we must not continue like this lest we perish.

    This is where I rest my case hoping somebody will rescue me from the huge oven the flare from the oil giant’s flow station has turned my home. Or, may be my last hope lies in my son, the only one I managed to send to the university but ended up a militant when there was no job. Through the Amnesty Programme, he was trained as a pilot. If he gets a job, may be my sorrow will be over and I will leave this oven I call home and start life afresh. But, like many who benefitted from the Amnesty Programme trainings, he is still jobless and living off his monthly stipend, a percentage of which goes to his former militant camp leader.

    What else is there to say other than that the Niger Delta narrative must change. The common Niger Deltan deserves to tell a better tale, not a warped one like this. And with a Ben Ayade, a young professor in Cross River, and other new ones in the region, things should improve  in the next few years.

  • Re: Who owns Lagos ? – A reflection!

    I want to first of all thank you for the column on the above in: “In Touch” in the April 13, 2015 edition of The Nation. I read through your write up and come to the conclusion that, Lagos State and indeed the entire Yoruba States in the south west should be commended for their spirit of assimilation, habitability and good neighbourliness spirit towards all and sundry.

    Personally, I lived in Lagos for about 22 years before relocating to the South South. All my children were born in Lagos and even my wife was also born in Lagos. Lagos is home to all and sundry. If the sons and daughters of Lagos were not hospitable, I don’t think I could have spent such time in Lagos.

    Given that the Lagoon jibe from his Royal Highness, Oba Rilwan Akiolu (1) has exceeded its limits, which we all condemn and himself graciously apologized promptly via his aides, my original opinion about Lagos and its people still remain intact. The Oba is a human being. I am not speaking for the Oba; but come to think of it, as a human being, there are occasions one speaks out of emotions at least once in a while as a result of happenings in his or her environment.

    I hold the Oba of Lagos in high esteem no matter what mischief-makers would want to make out of it. Lagos is indeed home to all despite the neglect of the Federal Government especially from 1999 till date. I feel pained in my heart that despite the contributions of Lagos State to the centre, no meaningful assistance is received from the Federal Government to help Lagos in its development efforts. Tell me, how many states in the Federation can the FGN be owing a whooping sum of over N51billion for maintaining Federal Government facilities in Lagos and can still survive in its operations; yet some enemies of progress would not give up. This must not continue. That is why I am particularly happy that Lagos state is now on the same page with the Federal Government of Nigeria and many other states under the present political architecture.

    To this end, I will always thank God for the kind of leaders that Lagos is blessed with like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu – a visionary, courageous and team playing personality. May God continue to bless this country with such leaders by way of granting them more fruitful years on earth. I feel pain in my heart as I am writing this response to your column today.

    From the results of the gubernatorial elections that God in His infinite mercies gave to the progressives in Lagos, it is evidently clear that attempts were made by enemies of progress to thwart the efforts of Lagosians from 1999 to 2015, especially in her developmental strides. I noticed protest votes from some inhabitants of Lagos who came from other states despite all that Lagos has done for them all these years because of the retracted Oba’s Lagoon jibe. What has the centre government under PDP done in Lagos for the past 16 years that PDP thinks they can now come to Lagos over night to produce the governor, no matter the conspiracies of the outgoing president, PDP and the security forces?

    It is trite that one cannot eat his cake and have it back. God cannot lie. You can only harvest or reap after you have sown. There is always a wide gap between the time of sowing and the time of harvest. Not that the outgoing president will just fly to Lagos overnight with dollars and Pound Sterling to commandeer vote for Jimi Agbaje just like that instead of him to quickly conclude on his handing over note to the peoples’ general – GMB. You can see that Jimi Agbaje plus running mate, Bode George, Obanikoro and the loquacious speaker – Femi Fani-Kayode, all lost their immediate polling units on March 28 and April 11, 2015. No success without pain. Money is not everything.

    It is in Lagos State that you can have non-indigenes as members of the House of Representatives elected on the platform of an opposition party. Go to Anambra State from inception till date and tell me how many Northerners or South westerners have achieved that. Please, let no one provoke me to anger. Go to other non-Yoruba states in the whole Federation and tell me how many states have Yoruba as Members of Federal House of Reps, commissioners, etc in their cabinets.

    It is not in question as to who owns Lagos? My piece of advise to all that care to listen is that, let no one take the hospitable nature of Lagos citizens for granted as some of us who are non indigenes of Lagos will not be happy with such diversionary tendencies in an attempt to cause crises in Lagos.

    The Yoruba owns Lagos and there is no question about that. It will amount to an insult for anyone to ask that question. Let the peace of Lagos be allowed to continue. We have a very serious task at hand under the new political dispensation in Lagos State and indeed Nigeria at large.

    Finally, my special congratulations to the Jagaban of Nigerian politics – Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who allowed himself to be used by GOD Almighty as a political catalyst for progress and development in Nigeria. More grease to his elbows.

    Also, my special congratulations to Governor Raji Babatunde Fashola (SAN), who understood the dream of his predecessor and now passing the batten to  Ambode Akinwunmi to continue to consolidate on the change brought to Lagos in the last 16 years. It is our prayers that the enemies of LAGOS STATE shall not distract him. Above, all, my heart felt congratulations to the President-elect – the Peoples’ General – GMB over his well deserved victory, against all odds. To God belongs all the glory. Long live Lagos; long live federal Republic of Nigeria.

     

     

     

  • Reflection on Afe Babalola’s attainments

    He was a farmer’s boy. The first 10 years of his life was spent on a cocoa plantation. He had several encounters with tigers and escaped narrowly. He was given a chase by angry and fast moving snakes during some of his hunting expeditions but survived. His childhood days had death strewn all over his paths, but some great benevolence, God’s grace and destiny, ensured that he survived. The bare floor of the farmhouse made of mud was his bed and banana leaves were his duvets. While on the farm, he neither wore clothes nor shoes. To him, “Life on the farm was the best”, more because there was plenty of food to eat.

    Young Afe was enjoying his life on the farm but his father, Babalola, had other plans. Even though he was his only son at the time and needed his support on the farm, he decided to send him to school. He never liked it at first. He ran away from school several times because of corporal punishments but his father would insist that he must go back. While in the Primary school, Afe was a very serious student having imbibed the culture of hard work on the farm where he would never sacrifice his farm work for any pastime.

    Afe was not flippant with his studies. Little wonder that he was one of the best in his graduating class in 1945 when he completed his primary school education in Emmanuel school, Ado Ekiti. He came second in the final examination. That was the end of his classroom education. Despite gaining admission to Christ School, Ado Ekiti, his father could not afford to pay his tuition fees. He sat at home and studied for School certificate examination. Something that was rare at the time, He passed his GCE ordinary level examination of University of London in 1952 and GCE advanced level in 1954, each at one seating. Babalola worked hard to break the yoke of poverty. He was a chip off the old bloc. His father worked from morning till evening for seven days a week. His father taught him that his palms were his best friends because they would never desert him.

    That was the very humble beginning of the “farmer’s boy”, Aare Afe Babalola who by dint of hard work and God’s favour has become the first African to be awarded the LLD honours of the University of London in the University’s 179-year history. The award has put the legal virtuoso in the league of former South African President, Nelson Mandela who received the honorary doctorate degree in Economics from the University in 1996 and Archbishop Desmond Tutu who was honoured seven years ago with the honorary doctorate degree in Divinity.

    The University of London honorary degrees is usually conferred on people of conspicuous merit, who are outstanding in their field, who command international recognition, and have given exceptional service to the community among others. Afe is no doubt a legal icon. After bagging the University of London degree in Economics through private studies in 1959, Afe enrolled as an external student of London University in 1960 for his law program where he was acclaimed as “the wonder man who specialises in private study” by the Secretary to the Senate of the University upon his arrival. He graduated in 1963, and has been in the legal profession ever since.

    In his over 50 years in the legal profession, Aare Afe Babalola was known as brilliant and very hardworking; a lover of legal analysis who usually saw through fine points which others did not see. Even though he started his private practice from a windowless garage, his desire to succeed was his driving force. He was a criminal law specialist who hardly lost any of the criminal cases he handled.  He handled over 200 criminal cases and about 150 divorce cases. He also handled many celebrated cases like the missing $2.8million NNPC money in 1982; the Alaafin vs. Ooni superiority battles in the 80s and 90s; the Ashipa vs. Alaafin case over M.K.O. Abiola’s Aare Ona Kakanfo chieftaincy title; Falae vs. Obasanjo and Buhari vs Obasanjo’s election petitions, among many others.

    Former president Obasanjo reposed so much confidence in his legal sagaciousness that he once said “I know when a person gives you (Afe Babalola) a case (to handle), he need not worry. I know you would handle it well”. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, he is the only lawyer in Nigeria, dead or alive, who has produced over 15 senior advocates, the highest recognition that can be accorded a Nigerian lawyer.  On four occasions, he was offered the position of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Nigeria, but he turned down all the offers because according to him, “I cannot cope with the slow pace of work in the civil service”.

    His contributions to the legal profession went beyond litigations. He has distinguished himself as a teacher and author. He taught law at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Centre for African Law Research and Development, Lagos as well as the Postgraduate School of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ibadan. He was also a newspaper columnist on legal issues. His column in the Nigerian tribune titled “You and the Law” is a must read for law practitioners and a reference material for law students in Nigeria and beyond. He has also authored many books including Injunctions and Enforcement of Orders, Law and Practice of Evidence in Nigeria, Electoral Law and Practice (Vols. 1 & 2), University Administration in Nigeria and over 500 lectures.

    The legal genius has exerted his astuteness in the educational sector as well.  Having worked tirelessly to build a polytechnic for his community in Ado-Ekiti in 1982, he served as the Pro Chancellor and Chairman of Council of the University of Lagos between 2000 and 2007. At the University of Lagos where he worked pro bono, he was transparency personified. He was named the Pro-Chancellor-of-the-year on two occasions by the National Universities Commission and the university became the “University of First Choice” for many Nigerian students.

    He founded Afe Babalola University six years ago and the University is now reputed as the fastest growing University in Africa and “a miracle model reference point and benchmark for other Universities” according to the National Universities Commission. A family man to the core, his children went to the best schools in the world and all of them hold at least a second degree. Just like him, three of his children studied law at the University of London. It would not be a waste to say a well-deserved kudos to this legal icon on his well-deserved LLD degree from the University of London. This is indeed another “impossibility made possible.”  Like the biblical Caleb, Aare Afe Babalola is still conquering mountains at 85.

    •Adeolu Durotoye PhD, FCIPM is a veteran journalist and political scientist. Email: adeolud@yahoo.com

  • For tenants in power, a reflection

    For tenants in power, a reflection

    The much awaited year 2015 is just unfurling. Just nine days ago, year 2014 yielded ground for this new season. Among individuals, especially the occupants of exalted positions in the corridors of power, the way last year ends might vary but we can only hope and pray for the best in 2015. Now that the merriment of Xmas and the New Year celebrations have ended, there is need for deep and sober reflections. As private persons or as public personalities, how far have we gone in meeting set goals; for self and society, in the vanished year? We should not become victims of excuses, even though there is never enough time to do all we set out to achieve; we should strive to be nothing but conqueror of objectives: And by objectives, this column mean those deeds that could stand the test of time and benefit humanity.

    Time is of essence in life. It is what keeps everything from happening at once. Every living being has own time or better put-magic moment. The year is ending and now that individuals have their time in their hands, how best have they deployed it. Is it used for egocentric purposes or for more enduring ventures? Whether you are president, governor, minister, commissioner, local government chairman or directing mind in an organisation among other powerful positions, by the turn of May, 2015, your days in office would come to an end, except for re-elected first term politicians in office. The crowd of people you see around you today would not be there forever. They throng around your position, not your person. When another person occupies the seat tomorrow, you automatically become history and what you live on subsequently is your good deeds-or better put legacy. Have you, despite your present position, ever given this inescapable looming reality any deep thought in the midst of privileged reverence that you are daily accorded by virtue of your position?

    Let us all remember in whatever grandeur it might currently please God to place us as another year runs evolves that there comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is our own hearts- the ultimate judge of human conducts. The earlier we learn the sound of our hearts, the better so that we can correctly decipher what it is saying and follow it. The problem with powerful men is that they have avoidably failed to be loyal to their conscience and have failed to discern inevitable change and challenge when about to occur. The saddest words that could ever come out of the mouth of once-upon-a-powerful-fellow are: ‘It might have been.’ As this year begins, you still have the power to shape you today and the future. Whatever part you deliberately chose, whether of self perdition or sentence to irreverent oblivion should not be subsequently called mistakes?

    Remember as the year commences that there have been tyrants and slayers, and for some time, they can seem insuperable, but in the end, they always fall. Remember that it is your action, not the fruit of your action that would count against or for you on judgement day which is why you must endeavour to always do what is importantly right. Let your action not be informed by personal gains alone because that may not be in your power to decide. God in His infinite mercy might decide to let your action benefit only humanity and nobody can stop that? But you would be remembered, long after you have gone as the harbinger of that good action, and would be duly celebrated one day. But that doesn’t mean you should stop doing the right thing because there may not be immediate personal gains. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result to celebrate in the world.

    As 2015 unravels, remember that yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream. What dreams do you have as a leader- for the country as her directing mind and the world at large so that there can be a peaceful global village for all to co-habit? Do not be deceived by the false friends or deterred by true enemies that success usually attract. Just make sure you put in your best in all you do in whatever position you might presently be privileged to occupy.

    Having gone this far, it is pertinent to remind our privileged men of power on the need to engage in pertinent self re-examination. The president, governors and other political appointees by now would be buying time in power. The president and most of the governors would have become lame duck in their positions since fresh elections have been fixed for February, 2015 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Political parties have nominated candidates that would stand for elections into these exalted positions and the likely candidates that would take-over power would be seeking the hands of the people. That has been the tradition of change of baton in the political firmament. But those that did well by the end of February would be filled with certain sense of fulfilment.

    How would our current crop of elected and appointed public officers want to be remembered? What future have they built for their families through their handiwork while in government? Is it one that will invite opprobrium or acclaim from members of the public? Is it not probably too late for them to remedy their avoidable pitfalls of the past now that the elections are just weeks away? And for Nigerians: Are they ready to tolerate the misfits in government that continue to rigmarole them with bad governance? Are Nigerians going to over look any failure whatsoever from the presidency, from governors and even INEC in the imminent 2015 general elections?

    We should continue to fervently pray for God’s special grace in Nigeria so that the coming 2015 general elections would not be the last to be held under this dispensation because of insinuations of violence that rents the air. This column believes in such prayers and would continue to do everything to seek divine protection and blessings for the country. But above all, the ruling class must stop its destructive do-or-die politics with which our polity has been replete with in the about 16 years of democratic rule. In conclusion, this column is wishing all its readers, once again, a belated merry Xmas and hopefully gratifying New Year, in prayerfully a peaceful country post May, 2015. Let us all do things in this political season with moderation and more importantly, love our neighbour as we love ourselves. We must respect and allow the people’s votes to count in the coming general elections.