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  • Rubble after storm

    Rubble after storm

    Ifon, Ilobu, Erin residents count losses after Osun communal clash

    The recent communal clashes between the Osun communities of Ifon Osun, Ilobu and Erin seem to have subsided for now. Many, however, believe that the current peace is temporary, and it is only a matter of time before another crisis erupts. GBENGA ADERANTI examines the causes of the communal conflict and explores potential solutions for lasting peace in the area.

    When will the ongoing conflict between the Osun communities of Ifon, Erin and Ilobu come to an end? That is the question on the lips of many inhabitants of the State of the Living Spring. The three communities have for decades engaged one another in series of communal clashes as a result of two parcels of land at Opapa and Gbere areas, over which Ifon and Ilobu dragged themselves to court in 1968.

    Findings revealed that the two communities aforementioned were in the legal battle up until 2018 with case numbers HOS/29/64, Supreme Court case of 1968; FCA/1/19/68, HOY/20/70 between Oba J. O. Akinyooye II, the Olufon of Ifon and Oba Aminu O. Siyanbola, the Olobu of Ilobu; Appeal No: FCA/I/1978 between Oba J. O. Akinyooye II, the Olufon of Ifon and Prince Salami Adesina; Suit No HOS/22/86 between Jimoh Adigun and Oba Asiru Olaniyan; Appeal No CA/I/153/98 between Amusa Akanni and Oba Asiru Olaniyan; Suit No HOS/22/86; Appeal No SC 94/2015; Suit No HOS/40/2015 between Oba A. A. Magbagbeola (Olufon of Ifon) & Orolu Local Government and the Governor of Osun State and others.

    The animosity that had built up between the two communities had led to a clash on July 22, 2005 as officials of the Nigeria Population Commission (NPC) were confused as to the community that should lay claim to some of the people. The clash was, however, quelled promptly.

    After another clash in 2023, the state governor, Ademola Adeleke, set up a 14-man Community Peace Resolution Committee after screening the representatives nominated by the warring communities and approved their selection. The committee consisted of four persons each from Ilobu, Ifon and Erin-Osun communities, while two representatives were also chosen from Okanla to make it a 14-member committee. However, the deliberations of the committee ran into a dead end over the involvement of Okanla, which Ilobu kicked against.

    The clashes between the affected communities in the last three years have led to the killing of more than 30 people while many others are still battling injuries they sustained from the war. Among the deceased persons was a student of a higher institution in the area. Proprieties were also destroyed. The recent clash between the three communities was, therefore, not a new phenomenon.

    Before the commencement of Ramadan, there had been palpable tension, with pockets of skirmishes between the neighbouring communities of Ifon and Ilobu. To prevent a large-scale crisis, the state government imposed a 24-hour curfew in the two communities. Unfortunately, the crisis erupted with no fewer than 30 residents allegedly shot, while N2 billion worth of property was said to have been lost.

    The last clash, the eighth since Governor Ademola Adeleke assumed office, was described by a stakeholder in the state as unprecedented, noting that there had never been a time when properties and lives of those magnitudes were lost in the clash. A former Field Commander of the Amotekun Corps, the state’s security outfit, Amitolu Shittu, described the recent communal clash as “avoidable”, blaming the Adeleke government in the state for the poor handling of the crisis.

    At the time of filing this report, many individuals were still mourning the loss of loved ones and property. Among them was Alhaji Hassan Abdulhakeem Taju, a tomato merchant in Ilobu, who lost goods worth more than N4.5 million within an hour.

    Speaking with The Nation, Alhaji Taju expressed despair and frustration over the state government’s failure to act proactively and prevent the situation from degenerating. He said he was merely a trader going about his business and was not involved in the crisis. While he is thankful to be alive, he believes that finding a solution to the conflict is challenging.

    He said: “I am neither a part of the warring groups nor affiliated with their ethnic backgrounds.

    “All I am hoping for is that the Almighty Allah brings peace among them if they desire it.

    “As it stands, so many people are living in grief. It would be better if those who died had not suffered so much destruction.”

    Like many others, Alhaji suspects that the crisis might have been orchestrated, given the nature of the attacks and the government’s response. He wondered how a government would be so slow in responding to a crisis that costs its citizens their lives. 

    Reliving his experience on the night when they were attacked in Ilobu, he said they had arrived at the market the night before to drop off goods, including tomatoes and peppers. He recalled that the conflict started at about 10pm as they were offloading their last items.

    He said that despite calls for help, no assistance arrived until about 4am the next day, even though the distance from Ilobu to Osogbo is less than 20 minutes drive. He said that when two teams of policemen finally responded, he felt a relief at the prospect of restoring order only for the policemen to be overwhelmed by the Ifon people who shot at them and forced them to beat a retreat.

    By his estimation, no fewer than 18 police officers were suppressed by the attackers. “If the government cannot manage a situation from 10 pm until the next day, then there is a serious problem,” he said.

    Another source who craved anonymity also blamed the government for the slow response, saying: “After the Ifon community completed their attack on Ilobu, the Erin community also struck, and the government did not intervene until three days later when relative peace was restored. How do you explain that?”

    In tallying his losses, Alhaji Taju estimated that he had lost more than N16 million. Tomatoes and pepper vendors, he said, could have lost more than N100 million from the crisis.

    He said: “I know of a woman who sells provisions. She must have lost more than N100 million, because her shop was completely razed. “Another woman, who sells rice opposite my shop, lost about 98 bags of rice and more than 60 cans of groundnut oil when her shop was destroyed.

    “I don’t know how she will start all over.” 

    He appealed to the government to assist the victims of the crisis, believing that it was politically motivated, as no one would dare to oppose the government.

    Read Also: Rainstorm destroys schools, mosques, others in Kwara community

    “We are in very serious hardship. The government needs to support us,” he added.

    Another victim of the communal clash, Alh Nureni Abdulraheem, an indigene of Ifon, lost his home and everything in it. He has accepted his fate and is appealing to those who are aggrieved to sheath their swords. Like many others, he believes that the crisis was unwarranted, as the three communities are related in various ways.

     “My family members are married to people from Ilobu, and Ilobu has also married into Ifon and Erin,” he said.

    While it is difficult for him to quantify his losses, he is thankful that he and his family survived.

    Abdulraheem added: “I didn’t take anything out of my house that was destroyed. My Islamic books alone were worth millions of naira.

    “My clothes, those of my children and my wife, her shop and so many other things were lost in the crisis.

    “But I thank God that I am alive and my family members are safe.

    “I’m very grateful for that.”

    He disclosed that while it is not uncommon for Ifon and Ilobu to disagree, such conflicts are typically resolved quickly after some stone-throwing. “After that, everything goes back to normal, and we continue to do business with one another,” he said.

    The recent crisis, however, came as a shock to many, and he described it as an unfortunate incident.

    “Those responsible should please stop, as we are all connected. Ilobu and Erin are part of the same family,” he pleaded, noting that during a previous crisis, Ilobu people destroyed many buildings in Ifon but Ifon people said nothing then.

    “This time, it is different. Ilobu started it. We must choose the path of peace. I pray that there will be no war again in our communities or Osun State as a whole.”

    Unfortunately, many people who are not involved in the crisis are often caught in the wave of violence. As things stand, the crisis has had a serious effect on the economy of the communities involved. The majority of traders and dealers who are non-indigenes of these communities have since moved out. When these traders would return, nobody knows.

    Politics of attacks

    In spite of troubles between these two communities, they share many cultural and historical ties. Reports indicate that since the crisis erupted many years ago, numerous lives have been lost and significant amount of property damaged.

    While stakeholders have continued to trading blame over the incident, investigation by our correspondent revealed that the root cause of communal clashes in the area has always been land-related issues.

    One of the stakeholders disclosed that until the government defines the boundaries within these communities, any peace move would come to naught.

    Unknown to many, a past administration in the state  had made an attempt in the past to find a permanent solution to the incessant communal clash among these communities, but the effort was allegedly thwarted by one of the traditional rulers.

    According to a source, the government, realising the genuine claim of one of the communities as being the owner of the disputed land, decided to pay the community compensation and thereafter cede the ownership of the disputed areas to the two other communities.

    “The condition was that the government would do a deed of agreement, which would confirm that the government bought the disputed areas. Unfortunately, the monarch of the community the land belonged to insisted on being personally paid part of the money.

    “The government refused to pay the monarch, saying the proceeds from the sale of the land was for the community and not an individual. Thus the deal was cancelled.”

    The source said if the deal had sailed through, the crisis would have become a thing of the past. Since then, the deal has not been revisited.

    Confirming the findings by our correspondent, a stakeholder who spoke on the recent communal clash, said the government’s inability to define boundaries among the communities has exacerbated the conflict.

    The stakeholder said: “This disputed land, according to Mr Governor at a function, is now a buffer zone where people from various communities farm and assert ownership. Unfortunately, the government did not officially designate the buffer zone or demarcate it or even gazette it.

     “The people of Ilobu began to build on this land, destroying kola nut and cocoa trees in the process. The Ifon community felt that the government was deliberately favouring Ilobu and granting them undue advantage.

    “They wondered why their farms were still being destroyed, alleging that while Ilobu constructed buildings on that parcel of land, Ifon was being resisted anytime they tried to farm on the disputed land, even to the extent of shooting the farmers.”

    The problem, he said, is compounded by the fact that the Ilobu community has developed on what is seen as uninhabited land, further angering Erin in the process.

    While violence among the Osun communities has become a recurring issue, never before had allegations of government support for one town over the other been so pronounced.

    Investigation by our correspondents revealed that the current government in Osun is composed of individuals with varying interests, making it challenging to resolve the crisis effectively.

    “How can one explain a situation where appointees of the state government align with one community against the other?” a stakeholder asked.

    Our correspondent gathered that despite previous conflicts, the current situation is different because Ilobu allegedly initiated the attack on Ifon, resulting in the death of a councillor.

    The Nation gathered that the alleged murder of an Ifon woman during one of the attacks further incited anger among the Ifon people and led to a retaliatory attack on Ilobu. Claims and counter-claims have continued to trail the clashes.

    Responding to the claim that Ilobu people drew the first blood, the National President of Ilobu Asake Development Union (IADU), Olufemi Salako, in an open letter, called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene in what he described as a sustained campaign of violence against Ilobu by neighbouring Ifon-Osun and Erin-Osun communities, which left many dead.

    Salako accused Ifon-Osun and Erin-Osun of launching coordinated attacks aimed at erasing Ilobu from the map of Nigeria.

    He said: “Over 100,000 residents of Ilobu have been displaced while N2 billion worth of properties were destroyed in the recent attack on us.”

    In another statement, the National President of Erin-Osun Progressive Union (EPU), Kayode Olawale, while deploring the attacks on his community, disclosed that several homes in disputed border areas were burnt down as vehicles and motorcycles were vandalised, leaving thousands of residents displaced.

    The community accused Ilobu residents and armed militants of attacking Erin-Osun on Friday night, setting houses ablaze and forcing many to flee.

    Mr Olawale said: “Despite our town’s neutrality in the renewed Ilobu-Ifon crisis, Ilobu attackers stormed our community, destroying homes and properties. Security forces were later deployed, but their intervention was slow, allowing the destruction to continue.

    “It was also reported that the Ilobu people launched an attack on an area in Erin, which led to Erin countering Ilobu. This retaliatory action made the Ilobu community to believe that Erin and Ifon had allied against them.

    “Ultimately, all three communities have faced serious casualties, though the extent of the damage varies.”

    Explaining what happened, a community leader from Ifon, Mr. Jide Adelaja, said “since the Osun State Government has declared Opapa village as buffer zone, the government said they are not saying it is either Ifon or Ilobu that owns the place.

    “We know that it is our ancestral village. They said nobody should work there. Since that time, Ilobu people have never stopped working in that place.

    “We have written series of letters to the governor, to the Commissioner of Police, AIG Zone 2, and they are saying that it is the state government that is to take a decision on that area.

    “The Ilobu are now taking advantage of the negligence of the state government who didn’t take any harsh decision against them.

    “They oppress people, they beat up people. The only thing we do is to go to the police station after going to the palace.”

    Adelaja said that at a point, the Ifon community had to invite the police to the scene to witness the incident.

    He said: “The killer squad that the police met at the scene attempted to attack the police; nobody talked.

    “The next thing we saw was that they just burnt the private house of Olufon yesterday. That was where the problem started,” Adelaja explained.

    Like others, Adelaja believes that the attack was politically motivated, “because if governments says don’t do something and you are still doing it, and the government takes any decision and you still went ahead to aggravate the crisis.

    “What the Ilobu people want, they are the ones that know. Nobody else knows.”

    Explaining how the attack began, a stakeholder said: “Historically, the Ilobu community has often been the aggressor. But this time, they suffered significant losses.

    “The Ifon community retaliated to the extent that they nearly overran the palace of the Ilobu traditional ruler.”

    Investigation revealed that while fatalities occurred in Ifon, the properties damaged in Ilobu were massive. Ifon destroyed markets in Ilobu and burnt down the family home of the former deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yusuf Lasun. Many houses were also torched in Erin.

    Describing the current communal clashes as unprecedented, a source said Ilobu, for the first time, had to fight its neigbours on two fronts —Ifon on one front and Erin on another.

    “Such a situation has never occurred before. The crisis might not have escalated if the Ilobu community had not felt that Ifon and Erin teamed up against them,” the stakeholder said.

    The source stated further that historically, Ifon and Ilobu have had their disagreements, while Ifon has also faced conflicts with Erin. However, skirmishes between Ifon and Erin have typically not escalated into serious violence, unlike the conflicts with Ilobu, which tend to result in casualties.

    “The Osun State Government should be held responsible for the crisis due to its failure to address these land disputes. The blood of those who died in the conflict is upon the government for not taking a decisive stance,” it stated.

    Another source said Ilobu people are dissatisfied and blame various individuals, especially the Ataoja of Osogbo, the co-chairman of a government committee formed to address the issue, as being partisan.

    However, a source claims there is no truth in the allegations. The complexities surrounding the crisis are extensive, with conflicting claims emerging from several parties.

    Our correspondent gathered that one of the SSAs to the governor in the investigative committee was dropped over bribery allegation.

    On the way out of the crisis, a source recommends that “a potential resolution would be for the government to take control of all land that is currently the subject of disputes, ensuring that any land falling within a community’s boundaries is ceded to that community.”

    A visit to the warring communities during the recent Eid-el-Fitr revealed that residents celebrated under a tension-soaked mood as they offered solemn prayers in their different Eid praying grounds. It was discovered that despite the curfew imposed on the communities, one could smell tension, anger, animosity and possible revenge by those that were affected by the war.

    On Ojutu Bridge, security operatives were seen in clusters frisking residents who were going in and out of the community as bike riders pushed their bikes through while their passengers walked with their hands in the air and vehicle owners drive very slowly.

    At the Eid praying ground in Ilobu, the Chief Imam, Dr Abd’Rahman Adewale Abdul-Azeez, addressed the Muslim faithful, sympathising with those who lost property to the crisis.

    He said: “We are not happy with what happened. We, the Muslim body, have now decided that we should help those that were affected.

    “The economy of the town has been affected and we need to come to their aid. All mosques will contribute N10,000 each while some of us that have Jumat capacity will contribute N20,000.”

    At the Ifon Eid praying ground, the Chief Imam, Sheikh Muhibullahi Adesina, urged the residents not to covet other people’s wealth or property, noting that life is vanity.

    He said: “Appreciate nature and what its gives. Don’t annex what it gives to others. Be mindful of greed because it kills faster than poison. Focus on the life after this realm.”

    There was low turnout of Muslim faithful at the Eid prayer grounds of the two communities compared to past celebrations. Most of the houses in the communities were deserted while others had few occupants who were aged.

    Findings also revealed that the state government neglected the welfare of security operatives charged with sustaining peace in the area, including Nigeria Police, Army, Immigration, Civil Defense and DSS.

    One of the security operatives, who pleaded anonymity, said: “We have been here since the crisis started and nobody is responsible for our feeding and other welfare. We can’t even buy anything in this town because most of the shops are still closed.

    “There is nowhere to buy food, drinks and other things we need. The government which ought to provide us food is doing nothing. It is so terrible here. War is not good.

    “During Ramadan, some Muslim faithful in the community used to give us food, but that has stopped now.

    “We are hoping that government will prioritise our welfare. Many of us have not seen our families since we were deployed here.”

    You need will, commitment to end communal clashes — Ex-Amotekun Commander Amitolu

    Amitolu Shittu, a former Field Commander of the Osun State Security Network Agency, also known as the Amotekun Corps, recounting how he managed the clashes among the warring communities in the state in 2021, said he permanently relocated to the community during the time of Oyetola.

    “I applied ’emergency’ because I wanted the hostilities to cease; I applied what you will call force. I told the then-governor, Alhaji Oyetola, that he should declare a curfew. Governor Gbeoyega Oyetola said okay, he would declare curfew by 6pm. On the dot at 6 pm, the curfew was imposed. I took advantage of the curfew to position myself; we made sure that we did not allow anybody to move at night and ensured that nobody burned any property.

    “I subsequently summoned the three kings and told them that they were going to Abuja if we were unable to agree on how to cease fire. The three monarchs who refused to talk to each other put their heads together.  Eventually, they signed a peace pact with us right there. But we warned them that if there was no change, we would come back and pick them up.

    “Later, we took them to the governor who was so happy that they said that the idea came from me, the commander of Amotekun. The following morning, no community dared us, and the hostilities ceased.”

    “There can be peace, but the government needs to talk tough. There cannot be peace without being tough. It is about will and commitment,” Amitolu said.

  • Storm in a tea CUPP

    As the day began, it looked like chaos. Men were scampering like rodents from one part of the senate chambers to another. Outside, the senate president was under police siege – a dunderhead of a move. The wave of defections had torpedoed APC majority. According to a report, the PDP had muscled enough numbers, some said 67 PDP to something like 44 APC. With that calculus, the legislative air was bleeding with Buhari’s impeachment.

    The social media was on the boil. Some who hated Buhari began to yell halleluiah. Some might even have squealed “crucify him.” To others, it was not enough to edge out Buhari. They must make the sweep complete by flinging Osinbajo into the mighty gale. That would make Saraki the default leader. Eleyinmi would now become Kabiyesi. Remember it happened once in the teevee drama when the megalomaniac with invisible hands held forte when the king was away.

    Suddenly, the scales began to fall. Reality jolted the apocalyptic optimists. So, APC still had its majority. It was all a counting error. The calculator had suffered a virus. One plus one was no longer two, apologies to Russian writer Dostoyevsky, who in his novel, The Man from the Underground, warned that science could destroy civilisation. Not only were the defectors not enough to tilt the balance, the coup plotters had suffered defections of their own. So, it was not the pandemonium that was first reported. It was no chaos. It was just a turmoil, a rollicking farce.

    There were two kinds of defectors. One was of the mind. The other was on his feet. Some were both. So, the defectors of the feet ratted to the PDP. Even some of them ratted back, including Lanre Tejuosho, who grinned with remorse to Buhari in his unique mould of the prodigal son. This son did not err for too long before retracing his steps. He defected on his feet, not in his mind. The other was Shehu Sani, who had defected in his mind but decided to return also in his mind. His feet remained transfixed in APC. Wamako, Aliero, et al retreated in both mind and feet.

    It shows that to jump boat is not an easy adventure. When it happened in the House of Commons in Britain with MPs ratting and re-ratting, Winston Churchill quipped: “Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.”

    But the real truth is that the ratting and re-ratting had begun about three years ago at the outset of the eighth National Assembly. Like the couples who cheated and pretended they didn’t know about it in Harold Pinter’s play, The Betrayal, the traitors to the APC family had moved over to the other side long ago. They had defected in spirit, in their minds. Everyone saw the crack on the mountain, so no one should be surprised at the leaks and eruption of the volcanoes. Although as poet Coleridge wrote, “anticipation is more potent than surprise.”

    When Bukola “Eleyinmi” Saraki became senate president and Dogara speaker, they gave the president and other party mainstays a black eye. They made mincemeat of Buhari’s quote about being for everybody and for nobody. These lawmakers were for themselves. The president was not able to heal the moment. The crisis developed hooves and horns like the character in Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. Saraki and Dogara as well as their herdsmen had become in spirit and in mind the opposition. They were not even loyal opposition.

    They hunkered down. The president and his men did same. The relations between the two arms metastasized into a stalemate, and sometimes reptilian standoffs, descending even into the caterwauling infamy over whether a customs man should or should not wear uniforms. That the splinter festered is, first and foremost, the fault of the president. He failed to bring the party together. The APC began as a hodgepodge of calculating egos held together only by the prospect of electoral victory. Having won, the spoils came but they were unevenly shared. Even then, the players became too spoiled to eat in harmony. It was the president’s job to cajole and reconcile. He hid in his high rampart, and allowed the contending forces to wrestle in the mud.

    If Buhari could not hold the party together, it was because he had never been anointed with such skill. The same way he has not been able to hold the country together, with charges of inequity in distribution of offices and a lopsided vision of ethnic coexistence. He could not build one tent for APC in the same way he could not erect one canopy for Nigeria.

    He could not bow when he should, smile when he should, backslap when it was necessary. If the House Republicans wanted Obama to fail, the first black president did not help his cause by is temperamental inflexibility. As Tolstoy wrote in War and Peace, “It is better to bow too low than not to bow low enough.”

    But the defections tell us, too, that the lawmakers are carpetbaggers, not subservient to virtue but mammon and the exigency of political relevance. Curiously, no one accused any defector or remainer of ideological apostacy or diluting of a party programme. It was all about butter and bread. There was not even a pretension to virtue or the people’s wish. It was an intra-class war in which the pedestrians could only watch and wonder in impotence. Last week was a spectacle in the failure of the Nigerian state.

    Rather than pretend, this is our autumn of politics when leaves change to the colour they have hid all year. With the weather adversarial, the leaves and flowers cannot hide their drab colours. They become what they are. The hypocrisy of our lawmakers are now shed. No longer what Senegalese writer Ousmane Sembene called “the perfidy of words and hypocrisy of rivals.”

    The other issue as to whether “Eleyinmi” Saraki or dawdling Dogara should remain on their perches as senate president or speaker is a moot point. It is a convention in sane democracies that when your party has a majority, the senate president or speaker is chosen automatically by the majority party. Our constitution makers took that for granted hence they asked the members to elect their leaders. They also exaggerated the sense of honour of our lawmakers, which was naïve of them. They did not study our historical penchant to subvert laws and protocols. They prorogued the assembly as a rogue move to woo for more defectors. We shall see if it is a plot of woe.

    If men like Saraki and Dogara had defected from their party in spirit early on, they are also parting ways with the spirit of the law by remaining as legislative leaders. They are aglow with opportunistic spirits. The law protects them, but honour does not. They are immune to such honour. With prehensile dexterity, both will remain leaders and show no shame that they belong to a minority party. Saraki will become like Eleyinmi in Village Headmaster who huffed and puffed while the real authority lay with Balogun, his feudal kryptonite.  We shall see whether he will swagger emptily or be ill at ease. I predict the former.

    In the larger calculus, the defections for Buhari is a storm in a tea CUPP. If it reflects the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) attempts to presage Buhari’s fortunes in 2019, they have to do more work. The defectors, apart from Rabiu Kwankwaso, were featherweights. A governor called them nonentities. As far as geopolitics goes, they have not even ruffled any of Buhari’s strongholds.

    If this is what the opposition is made of, they need more imagination. If they want to beat Buhari, they must tweak with map and own it. Buhari is an open target. But CUPP does not seem to know where to pull the trigger, as yet.

     

     

     

  • How to adapt to flood, storm, by UN report

    A newly-released United Nations (UN) report has   detailed how to adapt to climate change impacts, such as increased flooding or intensifying storms in human settlements, from mega cities to villages.

    Importantly, the report provides hands-on tools that national and subnational governments can use to build climate resilience in collaboration with communities, civil society organisations, research centres and the private sector.

    Released by UN Climate Change and prepared under the Nairobi work programme, the report, titled: “Adaptation in human settlements: key findings and way forward”, aims to share good practices and lessons learned to date and will be taken forward at an event at the May Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany.

    The report is said to be timely as both the contribution to climate action by cities as well as urbanisation are increasing world-wide. Already, more than 50 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a number which is expected to about 70 per cent by 2050.

    Climate change is reportedly exacerbating the vulnerability of human settlements to natural and human-made hazards globally to a disproportionate degree, especially in developing countries, coastal and delta regions and Small Island developing States (SIDS).

    Increasing the climate resilience of human settlements is thus an important measure to protect lives and livelihoods, preserve development gains, and promote sustainable development, according to experts.

    Cities around the world have begun realising this and more and more are taking action to increase resilience. Yet given the rate of urbanisation around the globe, more is needed to protect people and infrastructure going forward, says the UNFCCC.

    This often includes the need to close knowledge gaps around the issue for decision-makers and planners at the national and local levels.

    The report – available in all six UN languages – synthesises the latest experiences of resilience-building in human settlements by governments and organisations, as well as the latest research in this area.

    Its key findings concentrate on the following areas: assessing vulnerability and integrating short and long-term climate considerations into adaptation planning; the role of national governments in supporting local adaptation, including through national adaptation plans; city to-city partnerships on adaptation to climate change; a key event to build on the report as a launch-pad for boosting resilience in cities, towns and villages.

    During the May Climate Change Conference, which commenced last Monday, a side event will take place to build on the report and its findings and take it forward in concrete terms.

    The side event, tagged: “Closing knowledge gaps on Human Settlements and Adaptation: The way forward”, will discuss opportunities to close knowledge gaps related to human settlements and adaptation for decision-makers and planners at the local and national levels.

    The aim of the event, it was gathered, is to identify concrete proposals with partners to address knowledge needs in the short and medium term. The report and the side event are the result of a seven-step approach that aims at advancing resilience in cities, towns and villages through knowledge.

  • Ekiti commissioner promotes tree-planting to tackle flooding, storm

    Ekiti State Commissioner for Environment, Chief Bisi Kolawole, has urged the residents to plant trees and stop indiscriminate felling of trees to evade flooding.

    The commissioner spoke yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, while reacting to the havoc the recent rainstorms wreaked on the state.

    Kolawole said indiscriminate felling of trees is harmful to the environment because it could cause flooding.

    The commissioner noted that trees are essential in protecting homes and communities, adding that a minimum of two trees should be planted in place of every tree that has been pull down to protect the environment from rainstorm, flooding and strong wind.

    He noted that besides aesthetics and shade, mature trees stabilise soil and reduce erosion, increase soil fertility, enhance the capability of land to store water, provide wildlife habitat, moderate air and soil temperatures and regulate minerals in the soil.

    According to him, trees improve air quality for healthier breathing by absorbing carbon dioxide and potentially harmful gasses, such as carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide from the air, while simultaneously releasing oxygen into the atmosphere.

    He reiterated the determination of the state government to also end indiscriminate dumping of refuse and building of structure on waterways.

  • 9mobile in the eye of the storm

    9mobile in the eye of the storm

    A Lagos court ruling sacking the interim board of 9mobile may have plunged the telco deeper into crisis. LUCAS AJANAKU writes on the implications of the latest twist on ongoing efforts to sell the telco by Barclays Africa.

    BUT for the court judgment obtained last week Friday, the curtain would have been drawn today for the submission of bids by the five suitors of 9mobile. Barclays Africa, the firm superintending over the sale of the telco, which fixed December 31 last year as the closing day, applied for an extension of time to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The regulator granted the extension, thus pushing the goal post till today.

    With the judicial nullification of appointment of 9Mobile’s interim board, the suitors will have to wait for more times for the coast to clear before the realisation of their dreams to acquire the assets and liabilities of the telephone firm, adjudged by the NCC as the most innovative telecom firm in the country with a youth-centric DNA.

     

    How it all started

    About five years ago, Etisalat Nigeria secured a loan of $1.2 billion medium-term seven-year facility from local lenders to expand its network and make it more resilient to accommodate more customers.

    The funding of the repayment of the facility was not in the public space until an economic downturn of 2015 triggered sharp devaluations of the naira which negatively impacted the value of the dollar-denominated loan. The situation was further compounded by a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy that restricted access to foreign exchange/dollars on raw materials that could be sourced locally.

    According to the telco, the outstanding loan to the consortium stands at $227 million and N113 billion, a total of about $574 million if the naira portion is converted to the United States (U.S.) dollars. Going by available calculation, almost half of the $1.2 billion loan has been repaid.

     

    Repayment debacle

    Etisalat was servicing the loan until sometime in February last year, when discussions with the banks, regarding the repayment restructuring commenced. The $1.2 billion loan was serviced up until earlier this year when discussions with the banks commenced, the telco added.

    Etisalat’s engagements to renegotiate the terms of the loan have gone on for a while and are yet to be finalised though at an advanced stage.

    Some of the options on the card include the restructuring of the shareholding/change in ownership. Final arrangements regarding ownership and board structure are still in development stage.

    Sequel to this negotiation, Etisalat Group announced to the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange that it was transferring its shares in the company to an appointed security trustee of the banks.

    The trustee is the vehicle employed by the banks to hold the shares on behalf of the consortium.

    What has effectively happened is a ‘change in ownership’ not a receivership, bankruptcy or winding up. So, operations will continue to run and subscribers can continue to access services on the network as usual, the firm had assured.

     

    Lenders seek investigation

    A new dimension was introduced to the deal when the banks urged the Federal Government to investigate the telco over the loan.

    The telco, however, denied being under any investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), over an alleged petition to “the Federal Government asking that Etisalat be investigated” on how the funds from the syndicated loans were utilised.

    Its former Vice President (Regulatory & Corporate Affairs), Ibrahim Dikko, said in a statement: “Etisalat wishes to categorically affirm for the avoidance of doubt that the reports are patently false and most unfortunate considering the damage such misleading information can have not only on our business, but indeed on the telecommunications industry and the country as a whole.

    “A simple interrogation of the rigorous process for securing a syndicated loan from a consortium of reputable banks would have exposed the truth to the original writer of this story and other media channels who have subsequently re-circulated the falsehood without interrogation or verification.

    “Concerned parties have access to our books and do not require an investigation into how the loan was utilised. All of the infrastructure investment and services for which the loan was secured,

    “Contrary to the widely reported misrepresentations about Etisalat Nigeria’s debt obligation to the consortium of 13 banks, it has become pertinent to set the records straight. Prior to this time, Etisalat had consistently and conscientiously met up with its payment obligations. As at today, we can categorically state that the outstanding loan to the consortium stands at $227 million and N113 billion, a total of about $574 million if the naira portion is converted to US dollars.

    “This in essence means almost half of the original loan of $1.2 billion, has been repaid. Etisalat continued to service the loan up until February 2017, when discussions with the banks regarding the repayment restructuring commenced.”

     

    CBN, NCC wade in

    The CBN and NCC waded in with a mission to bring the loan deal to a peaceful closure. The regulators’ intervention was to save the jobs of the over 4,000 workers on the payroll of Etisatat and prevent asset stripping.

    Confirming the intervention of the two regulators, CBN spokesman Isaac Okorafor said: “Although it should ordinarily not be the role of a regulator to decide how individual bad loans are resolved, the CBN believes that Etisalat is a systemically important telecommunications company with over 20 million subscribers that if not well handled, may have negative implications for the banking system itself.”

    He further explained that the CBN and NCC, sensing that the banks might go ahead in the usual way and downsize the company’s over 4,000 workers, reached an agreement to intervene and implore the consortium of banks to reassess its position in dealing with Etisalat.

    Okorafor described some reports in the media insinuating the CBN handwriting on the issue as “the height of mischief and insensitivity”, explaining that the collaborative move by the regulators was aimed at preventing job losses and asset stripping and to ensure that Etisalat remains in business and be in a position to liquidate the loans.

    According to him, the CBN and the NCC plan to meet with the syndicate of banks and the IHS Towers, the tower managers and the equipment suppliers, in order to achieve what he termed “a win-win outcome” for all stakeholders.

     

    Regulatory caveat

    The NCC said its attention was drawn to a planned takeover of Etisalat by a consortium of banks.   Its spokesman Tony Ojobo said in a statement: “As a result of this planned action, the commission stated that it is aware of the indebtedness of Etisalat to the consortium of banks; in conjunction with the CBN, it had mediated by holding several meetings with the banks, Etisalat and other stakeholders with a view to finding a resolution. It lamented that these meetings did not yield the desired results.

    “The NCC wishes to reassure the over 21 million Etisalat subscribers that it will do all within its regulatory power to ensure that Etisalat

    “The Commission has taken proactive steps to cushion the impact of any takeover, this is without prejudice to the ongoing effort between Etisalat and the banks toward negotiated settlement.”

     

    Emergence of 9mobile

    Emerging Markets Telecommunication             Services Ltd. (EMTS), trading as Etisalat Nigeria later gave notice of the withdrawal of the brand name in the country, leading to the stepping aside of the Hakeem Bello and Mathieu Wilshere-led board and management.

    The development culminated in a rebrand to 9mobile and subsequent appointment of Barclays Africa as advisors to the telco. Its Chief Executive Officer Boye Olusanya said the brand name change will not affect the quality of services to customers, adding that all its commitment to CSR will remain. He also said the telco had its windows opened for new investors.

    Reacting to the development, the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) said the development further puts more pressure on the new management to find an immediate buyer for the company, as EMTS is effectively left without a recognisable brand name known in the industry.

    Its President, Olusola Teniola, said this so especially when it is considered that the Etisalat brand was associated with the youth segment of the market, it appears that there is urgent need to ensure that the services and products that EMTS delivers can replicate that unique experience!

    “The Etisalat brand name holds significant intangible assets to EMTS and this allowed the current subscriber base to hold faith with the international experience and good will that the Emirates brought to Nigeria. It would be best for the new management to learn from lessons already learnt from the various name changes that Econet went through to get to Airtel and ATCON seeks minimum impact on the subscribers if those lessons come to bear during this difficult period of transition for the company EMTS and the stakeholders in the industry, most especially the consumers.

    “Proactive effective messaging from EMTS is key to the success of any brand name change and to remove the uncertainty that surrounds any identify change. From Customer Care right through to technical support, it is important that infrastructure that supports the company is reliably run and in place to cope with the deluge of calls requesting information on ‘what next’ for the subscribers. Remember the ‘Customer is King’ in this situation,” Teniola said in email note to The Nation yesterday.

     

    The five suitors

    The NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Prof Umar Garba Danbatta listed the five bidders for 9mobile as Globacom, Airtel, Smile Communications, Helios and Teleology Holdings Limited. They were shortlisted from the 16 firms that expressed interest and filed bids with Barclays, 9mobile’s financial advisor.

    They include: MTN, ntel, Virgin Mobile from the United Kingdom and Vodacom of South Africa. Others are BUA Group, Morning Side Capital Partners, Obot Etiebet & Co, Blackstone Private Equity, and Hamilton and George International Limited.

    Dambatta said: “Five bidders have emerged for 9mobile. They have been allowed to access the data room of 9mobile in order to enable them access the financial situation of the company and subsequently make bids for the takeover of the company. But the takeover must be in a regulated manner.”

     

    Court wades in

    The Federal High Court in Lagos at the weekend nullified the appointment of an interim board for 9mobile.

    Justice Ibrahim Buba made the order based on an application by Spectrum Wireless Communication Ltd, which invested $35 million in 2009 in EMTS/Etisalat.

    According to the certified copies of the judgment endorsed by Alokpesi CN, registrar, the judge ruled: “An order is hereby granted discharging the ex-parte order made by this court in this suit in favour of the respondent on the 3rd day of July 2017.

    “The order made pursuant to motion ex-parte dated 3rd day of July 2017 was a nullity, made without jurisdiction and obtained by misrepresentation of facts. Same be and is hereby discharged and vacated as prayed.

    “The motion for stay is struck out, having set aside the order. The respondent shall reverse all steps taken by it since the order was a nullity.”

    The order nullifies the appointment of Dr. Joseph Nnana of the CBN as chairman, Mr. Boye Olusanya as Managing Director, Mrs. Funke Ighodaro as Chief Financial Officer, Mr Seyi Bickersthet and Mr. Ken Igbokwe on the EMTS board.

    The nullification followed Justice Buba’s dismissal of a preliminary objection filed by United Capital Trustees Ltd in response to the application by Spectrum Wireless, a shareholder of EMTS.

    United Capital comprises a consortium of local banks that provided funding for Etisalat.

    Spectrum Wireless claimed that the order was obtained through the misrepresentation of facts that alienated its interests in the company.

    The interim board of EMTS, which has the support of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), received bids from five bidders in its intended sale of the company, which was to be concluded by last December 31, but was moved to January 16 (today).

     

    Spanner in the works

    Spectrum Wireless Communication’s lawyers have warned that any institution or company who transacts business for the purpose of sale or acquisition of EMTS or 9mobile does so at his or her own risk.

    Following the exit of Etisalat and its directors in June last year from EMTS, United Capital obtained the ex-parte order of July 3, 2017 to appoint a transitional board to superintend over the company’s affairs.

    The board rebranded the company 9mobile and announced a bid for its sale to interested investors. Concerned that United Capital’s action did not consider their stake in EMTS, other non-bank investors in EMTS, led by Spectrum Wireless, challenged last December the ex-parte order granted United Capital.

    Justice Buba nullified the order, approved for the board’s appointment on the grounds that it was granted based on misrepresentation of facts.

    Spectrum Wireless is accusing the NCC of not taking the interest of non-bank investors in the telco into consideration before deciding to put it on sale.

    The firm which owns 17.5 per cent shares in the firm, said its interest and that of two others were not taken care of in the process leading to offering the telco for sale.

    Specifically, solicitors to Spectrum Wireless, J.A. Achimugu & Co and Dr R. O. Atabo & Co, all Kaduna based, lamented that its client invested $35 million in Etisalat since 2009, adding that no profit was declared

    Dr Reuben Atabo of Dr R O Atabo & Co, who spoke in a telephone interview, said several letters were written to the regulator with a view to notifying it of the need for all shareholders in the telco to be carried along, lamenting however that nothing was done.

    According to Atabo, his clients and about two others invested $100 million in Etisalat for building of infrastructure, lamenting however that when the telco went to raise loan from a consortium of local lenders, they (shareholders) were not informed.

    But, the NCC dismissed allegations that the interest of other shareholders in the telco was not taken care of, stressing that all entreaties to get at least, two of such members into the interim board were rebuffed.

    A source in the commission said all efforts made to enlarge the membership of the interim board were frustrated by insiders in the telco who said such an action could trigger legal backlash from Mubadala.

    The source recalled that the issue between the 9mobile and its consortium of lenders was purely a business deal, stressing that it was not a regulatory matter.

    The source said its ‘tangential’ intervention alongside the CBN was pursuant to one of its core mandates, which is to protect telecom consumers in the country. The source added that had the commission not moved in when it did, the fate of the over 20 million customers of the telco would have hung in the balance just as about 4000 workers would have been sacked. The source added that protecting the telco from going under receivership also saved the industry from going through needless stress which would have threatened the sector which is the second highest contributor the nation’s GDP.

     

    ALTON, ATCON react

    The association of Licensed Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ALTON), the umbrella body of all the telcos in the country, expressed concern over the development and hoped the matter would be settled soon in the interest of the all the stakeholders.

    Its Chairman Gbenga Adebayo, in an emailed report said: “The development is quite of concern. We hope all stakeholders will resolve the issues within a short time. Effort must be made by all concerned to keep the network alive.

    “There will only be continuous basis for negotiation and ownership shares if it remains a live network. Therefore, the first line of concern for all is to ensure that while these discussions are going on nothing will impact on the state of health of the network and degrade and quality of service 9mobile offers.”

     

    Way forward

    Adebayo urged parties to resolve all their differences to give new live to the network. “There is a good future for all investors once there is new lifeline for 9mobile which is a very important member of our association. We appeal to all concerned to please resolve the issues in the best interest of the network, the best interest of our national network, the best interest of the subscribers and the overall interest of our industry. We are offering all the needed support and we are confident that the issues will be resolved and the future will be brighter for 9mobile and our industry.

    Teniola shared the same sentiment with Adebayo.

    He said:  “What we hope for is that this issue is resolved in a timely manner and that there is certainty restored to the business. Telecom is a major driver of our economy and any impact on the sector will affect other sectors of our economy. We all must join hands to ensure we have a thriving industry.

    “The contributions of 9mobile to our economy and the Telecom sector cannot be ignored and we are calling on all the stakeholders to join hands and agree on the way forward. Time is of essence and we are hopeful that the next few weeks will bring more lights to a brighter and better future for 9Mobile and the entire telecom sector.”

    The National Association of Telecoms Subscribers of Nigeria (NATCOMS) said the lingering litigation cannot be death sentence on the telco.

    Its President, Deolu Ogunbanjo, said there was nothing unusual for parties in business to seek judicial redress, adding that what is important is early resolution of the crisis so that the telco can heave a new sigh of relief and serve the customers better.

  • Gathering storm in the Middle East

    It is strange that just as ISIS has largely been defeated in Racca, headquarters of their caliphate in Syria and routed from Mosul, the second largest city after Baghdad in Iraq the struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran has gathered pace and is becoming dangerous to the point where Israeli Defence minister is openly calling on Saudi Arabia and the Arabs to join it in confrontation against Iran. Iran is the leading Shiite nation while Saudi Arabia is Sunni. Thank goodness Egypt has not come out to take sides yet, but when the chips are down, Egypt will not abandon fellow Sunnis in the confrontation with Iran. Outside the Middle East, there are of course Sunni Pakistan and Afghanistan which share borders with Iran. Any conflict based on this sectarian divide in Islam could engulf the entire Islamic world drawing in, Africa and Turkey the most powerful Sunni nation. There is hardly any part of the Islamic world where the division between the two sectarian tendencies do not exist.

    The division between Shiite and Sunni Islam is rooted in history. The beginning goes back to the dispute about succession to Prophet Muhammad who died in AD 632. The dispute was between supporters of Husain bin Ali who was a cousin to Prophet Muhammad and after marriage to Fatima the prophet‘s daughter Ali became his son in law and was therefore considered by Shiites the first imam of Islam. It was claimed that Ali was the preferred Caliph and his successor by Prophet Muhammad. His Companions (Sahaba) finally prevailed on Ali to become Caliph in 656 and was assassinated five years later in 661. But this was after there had been three other Caliphs beginning with Abu Bakre (Abdullah) a trusted companion who was also father-in-law to the prophet through Aisha the prophet’s wife. He became the first Muslim caliph and ruled over the Rashidun caliphate from 632 to 634. His claim to the caliphate seat was disputed by some of Muhammad’s companions who believed that the prophet had designated Ali as his successor.  The first four caliphs known as “the Rightly guided ones “ were Abu Bakr, Umar ibn al- Khattab, Uthman  ibn Affan and Ali ibn Abi Talib. All the caliphs were regarded as amir al muminin while the Shiites consider only Ali as the only legitimate caliph and Amir al Muminin. This straight forward historical struggle for power had now snowballed into sectarian and doctrinal schism in Islam. The Arab Muslim armies conquered Persia, now Iran in 651 which led to the decline of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia. Persia had been an advanced civilization before the Arab conquest. But this conquest has always given the Arabs a sense of superiority which no Iranian would ever accept.

    The most extensive Islamic caliphate was that of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey which covered parts of Arab lands in North Africa and the Middle East but not Persia/ Iran.  What is important to note is that apart from Egypt at a point in time, Iranians never conquered Arab land. But there is no doubt that Persian influence in the Middle East has been considerable in modern times in the face of absence of a pan Arab nation. It is now that Saudi Arabia is trying to rally Arabs against what it considers unacceptable Iranian power and influence.

    The defeat of the ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria)or ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) has extended Iranian influence to the borders of Saudi Arabia because the government of Iraq is largely a Shiite regime and there are Iranian military units fighting along with Iraqi troops. This fear made the Saudi regime not to have been too excited in the war against the ISIS caliphate in spite of the horrible crimes committed by ISIS against humanity.  On the South-western border of Saudi Arabia is Yemen where Iranian backed Houthis rebels are challenging the Sunni dominated legitimate government of Yemen. This is a country that has not been at peace for almost two decades. Yemen is quite close to Saudi Arabia. In fact Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaida was an ethnic Yemeni. The Bin Laden family as represented by Osama’s father made all their billions in Saudi Arabia and have become a formidable family in construction and civil engineering sector in Saudi Arabia. The existential threat the Houthis pose to Saudi Arabia was the firing of a missile to Riyadh the capital of Saudi Arabia in October this year. In spite of Saudi Arabia‘s constant aerial campaign against the Houthis, the rebels have continued to wax stronger because of Iranian military backing. In Lebanon, the Shiite party of Hezbollah (the party of God) has continued under Hassan Nasrallah to dominate the country to the point where the Sunni Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned suddenly for fear of being assassinated. He announced his resignation on a Saudi Arabian television station in Riyadh leading to the perception that Hariri was forced to do this and that he was in fact in Saudi Arabian detention.  Hariri has now gone back to Lebanon and the situation remains inchoate. The Sunni and Shiites in Lebanon are evenly balanced at 27% each making a total of 54% while the different Christians divided along sectarian groups constitute about 40%. Lebanon is a small complex country that exists at the sufferance of her neighbours. Saudi Arabia now feels the newly emboldened Hezbollah, fresh from military successes in Syria, has become the main power in Lebanon opening the doors to Iranian influence in Lebanon. The Sunni revolt  in Syria, hijacked by ISIS and Al Qaida has finally been put down  by a strange and complex uncoordinated military campaigns by Russia, the United States, the forces  of Bashar al Assad, Iran, Hezbollah and Syrian Kurds in the north of the country has confirmed the hold of  the Alawite/ Shi’a  sect of Bashar al Assad. This also has confirmed preponderant Iranian influence on another Arab country after Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and then Syria. Even small Qatar is not out of the Iranian influence which has led to the United Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia cutting off ties with Qatar.

    One of the reasons for Iranian apparent success is because unlike Sunni Islam, the Shiites have a hierarchical order of priesthood from Ayatollah to grand and supreme Ayatollah making mobilization easier. This kind of organization is absent among the Sunni. It is also debatable whether the Shiites are as numerically smaller than the Sunnis in Arab countries. It seems that even where the Sunni are in power, there seems to be millions of Shiites without political voice which have been suppressed for long and is just waiting to break out whenever the opportunity presents itself. Also perhaps the sectarian cleavage merely hides deep seated political divisions in Islamic countries. What is important to state is that Iran through Shiite Iraq and Alawite Syria has a land route north of Arab lands all the way to the Mediterranean.

    This is the situation which seems to make Saudi Arabia feel that Arabs cannot just kowtow to Iran. Analysts feel what is happening is that Iran just happens to back the winning parties in all these theatres of conflicts.  To be on the winning sides also means supporting the right causes. Iran is not a democratic country but practices some kind of guided democracy under a theocracy, whereas the Arab states are either monarchies or oligarchies of family and military rulers. There is not much choice between the two but power and money  for example in Saudi Arabia are concentrated in the hands of thousands of princes and others holding their positions as fronts or nominees of the ruling Al – Saud family. This kind of government is replicated in most of the Arab monarchies. Egypt did away with its monarchy in 1956 but it is run now by a military class headed by Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el- Sisi.

    Perhaps in reaction to the feeling of weakness and paralysis, the Saudi monarchy has decided to pass on power to a 31-year old crown prince Muhammad Bin Salman Al Saud.

    The young prince is moving at a frenetic pace of change in the kingdom. He has liberalized the lives of women. They will be allowed to drive, and take part in sports. Education is being made available to them. Some form of elections to elect local officials is being followed. The crown prince has decided to tackle corruption no matter whose ox is gored including several princes who are now cooling their heels in detention. He is also committed to reining in funding of Islamic extremism abroad. The most dramatic move is the decision to challenge Iran. He is building formidable Saudi armed forces through purchase of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons from the United States and Great Britain and other western countries. It is curious that Turkey is not on board as can be seen in Turkish support for Qatar that has been put at arm’s length by the Saudis. The Saudis have the support of President Trump who recently made a highly publicized and triumphal visit to Saudi Arabia when the Saudis ordered almost a trillion dollars’ worth of weapons. If war were to break out in the Middle East, it will be terrible and may bring Russia and the United States into conflict either directly or through their proxies. The fear of some in the West is that the rapidity of events may undermine the Saudi dynasty itself.

  • A gathering storm

    There is a palpable tension in the land as never before witnessed; not even during the build up to the Nigerian civil war.  The country is in dire straits as we are adrift and lost in the high sea, tossed by virulent current of ethnic agitations to a breaking point.    There is a gradual erosion of civil and political authority in the face of leadership failure across the country.  It is true as held in a statement created to the leadership of the National Assembly that ‘Democracy is threatened or endangered’.  It is even truer to say that the actions and inactions of the National Assembly have played a huge role in undermining democracy in our country.  There have been claims and agitations of marginalization from left, right and centre and the Federal Executive Council as well as the National Assembly have failed to take dispassionate look at the issues with the aim of resolving them amicably.  Rather than engage the people who are aggrieved, the government and its officials resort to blackmails and use of force to coerce people into submission.  It is highly unlikely that social political problems of a nation can be achieved through military solution; that would be a delusion especially, given the perception of the military as politicized.

    We attribute the festering insecurity in the North-east to neglect of that region of the country over a long period of time just the same way we find it convenient to say that the agitation in the South-east is due to marginalization of that part of the country.  The emanating cacophonies of voices from the political leadership across the ethnic divide on the current problems of agitations for restructuring and secession facing the nation is coloured and  have no soothing and unifying tenor.     Our inability to live in peace and harmony with one another is a product of the rivalry and competition between the intellectual and political elites who relentlessly pursue divisive ethnic agenda as their only credential in order to remain relevant.

    Every people have a right to self-determination but I am not sure any person or group has a right to levy war on the state or kill other citizens from other parts of the country to claim or exercise such rights.  We are where we are because successive governments and political leaders have not consciously promoted the strengthening of institutions and the rule of law in governance to guarantee a healthy polity and equality amongst citizens.  Our leaders have not demonstrated that they could rise above sectarian interest to invest on a political capital of nationalistic agenda.  We have ethnic irredentists and bigots who pay scant regards to our diversity and national character.

    The Nigerian political and intellectual elites have no tribe and religion; they are one and the same, from the North, South, East or West.  They form a cult of leadership with the sole aim of remaining in power by perpetually fanning the embers of ethnic and religious hatred.   Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB in pursuit of their secessionist agenda are full of bile and venom of ethnic resentment and hatred towards other tribes in Nigeria as if the Biafra State when achieved would live as an Island.  We all need each other but when we feel that we can no longer live together as in marriage we should seek peaceful divorce rather than pull down the bricks that form the building blocks of this country by violence.

    President Buhari has been demystified and has become very vulnerable.  He has run out of steam and lost the bite as age is no longer on his side.  This is in addition to his health challenge as the political capital of his body language has since evaporated.   Even members of his cabinet do not share in his dream and vision and have made him sufficiently in-electable should he indicate interest come 2019 through their conspiracies and even open declaration of true allegiance to their political godfathers.   They are only waiting for the curtain to be drawn and the President would discover that he is on his own. The President has found himself in this situation because he is not able to appreciate Nigeria in the currency of today but prefer to view it through the prism of his stint as the Head of Military government in 1983.  Unfortunately, he has surrounded himself with ethnicists and bigots who do not appreciate the diversity of the country and the need to accommodate everybody.  In a situation like this, buffoons like Shekau and Nnamdi Kanu would get headlines and even push the country to the brink.  Indeed there is insecurity in the South-east just as there is insecurity in other parts of the country.  It would be beyond mere python dance for the military should they engage in full blown confrontation with Kanu-led IPOB militants as they have their hands full already from the intractable battle with the Boko Haram insurgents in the North-east.

    It was rather hasty for the military to declare IPOB a terrorist organization rightly or wrongly.  Whatever the canon of assessment, we are not in a military regime and it would amount to usurpation of civil authority for the Defence Headquarters through its spokesperson to declare IPOB a terrorist organization.  Even in the event that the military is called out in aid of civil authority as provided in the constitution, it is incumbent on the military to stick strictly to its professional duties rather rush to the microphone and television cameras to make statement without clarification and authority.  Silence is golden especially in military operations.  Our military are duty bound to help keep the peace when it is beyond the Police but it should be within the bounds of their rules of engagement and respect for the rule of law and the rights of citizens.  However, every citizen who is exercising his right to protest should also understand that they should keep within the bounds of the law because even when on Internal Security (IS) operations, the rifles of soldiers are charged with live ammunition and not chocolate.

    All said, the government should urgently wake up to the need to have dialogue with Nigerians on the burning issues creating unrest across the country before we wake up to see Nigeria vaporised.  Our ship of state is sinking!

     

    • Kebonkwu Esq is an attorney based in Abuja.
  • Tubaba, Osupa, Ayefele Storm Ekiti for arahfest 2017

    Tubaba, Osupa, Ayefele Storm Ekiti for arahfest 2017

    Three promiment music stars, Innocent Idibia a.k.a. Tubaba, Saheed Osupa and Yinka Ayefele, are expected to perform at Aramoko Heritage Festival (ARAHFEST) show in Aramoko-Ekiti in Ekiti State.

    Festival Director, Prof. Ojo Rasaki Bakare, disclosed this at a press briefing and unveiling of the festival logo in Aramoko-Ekiti, headquarters of Ekiti West Local Government Area.

    The festival which holds between 9th and 11th November 2017 will also feature Miss Aramoko Beauty Pageant, carnivals at the four quarters of the town, arts and crafts exhibition and homage to the Alara of Aramoko-Ekiti, Oba Adegoke Olu Adeyemi.

    Bakare, the first Professor of Dance in Africa, said the organisers had entered into discussion with a brewery, a telecommunications firm and other corporate organisations to bankroll the festival.

    The Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) don said ARAHFEST aims to project the culture and tourism potentials of Aramoko community which is a historic Yoruba town.

    Bakare revealed that series of training will be organised for youths and adults that will participate at the carnival with experts invited from outside of the state for that purpose.

    He said: “The festival was conceived to engage the youths of the town and take them away from criminality and negativity. Many of them have been idle and their hands have become workshop for the devil.

    “We want our youths to be busy positively and that is why we have loaded the festival with youth-related activities. Every activity will be a competition among the youths from the four quarters of the town.

    “We are bringing in Tuface, Yinka Ayefele, Saheed Osupa to be supported by local musicians. There will also be indigenous carnival to be performed by traditionalists, hunters, blacksmiths, farmers who will wear various constumes.”

    President of Aramoko Development Association (ADA), Dr. Dipo Aladeloye, said ARAHFEST is being redesigned, remodelled and rebranded from the old “Ara Day”  to showcase the culture and tradition of the town.

    The Alara, Oba Adeyemi said: “This festival will go a very long way to develop them. The festival would also motivate our youths to identify their talents and make good use of them.”

  • Former Edo Speaker in eye of storm

    Former Edo Speaker in eye of storm

    Elizabeth Ativie, the lawmaker representing Uhunmwode Constituency in the Edo State House Assembly, is often described as an Iron Lady. Her action during the impeachment of former Speaker Victor Edoror spoke volumes about strong will. Ativie is among the three lawmakers serving their third term in the House. She stoutly defended the Assembly during the reign of Uyi Igbe, when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) attempted to take over the House leadership. She has been the only female lawmaker in the 24-man Assembly for the past 12 years. Ativie has made history as the first female Speaker in the state.

    Ativie is the first short-lived Speaker in the House. She spent only 84 days. She is the first Speaker to willingly relinquished her position as by stepping down for the sake of balance of power. She is the first to move from being a Speaker to a Deputy Speaker. She is also perhaps, the first ex-Speaker to convert her official vehicles for personal use. That has become her albatross as the PDP has filed a petition before the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Matters Commission (ICPC) against her.

    Besides, the new leadership of the Assembly under Hon. Kabiru Adjoto has threatened to institute criminal proceedings against  Ativie, if she fails to return the official vehicles she aused as Speaker. The vehicles are two Hilux vans, a Lexus jeep 2016 model and a Toyota prado jeep. She has returned them.

    Ativie was made Speaker in May last year after Edoror was impeached for alleged high- handedness and financial impropriety. She was asked to step down for a lawmaker from Edo Central  for the balance of political tripod in the state. It was argued that since the former Governor, Adams Oshiomhole hails from Edo North and his deputy, Dr. Pius Odubu, hails from Edo South, the Speaker should to come from Edo Central.

    The APC knew the 2016 governorship campaigns would be difficult in Edo Central, if Ativie continued as Speaker. She stepped down in July for a first time lawmaker, Justin Okonoboh, to be made Speaker while she became the Deputy Speaker. Ativie was allowed the use of the official vehicles given to her as Speaker.

    On August 14, both Okonoboh and Ativie were removed from office. Okonoboh left the Assembly premises in one of his aides, car as tyres of his official vehicles were deflated while Ativie’s driver managed to take her official vehicles out of the Assembly premises.

    Attempts by the new leadership to retrieve the vehicles from Ativie met a brick wall as she replied through her Counsel, Olayiwola Afolabi, that she has sold Lexus Jeep.

    Afolabi said his client registered the vehicles in her name and acted as bonafide owner of the vehicles to sell one of them because the vehicles were permanently given to her by Oshiomhole as compensation for the sacrifices she made to step down for Okonoboh.

    He urged the Clerk of the House to advice the House leadership properly as the vehicles were no longer official vehicles of the House of Assembly and quoted part of the letter written by Oshiomhole. It to reads: “I wish to convey my compliments and recall the discussion between the leadership of the Edo State House of Assembly and the Executive branch on the geo -political stability of Edo State and the need to engender equity, fairness and sense of belonging amongst all sections and citizens of our dear state.

    “ Given the exceptional circumstances surrounding the issues and in an explicit acknowledgement of the enormous sacrifices you were required to make for the peace, security, stability and well-being of our beloved state, the official vehicles attached to the office of the Speaker are now yours.“

    But, Adjoto said claims by Ativie that the vehicles were given to her by Oshiomhole were untrue as there was no evidence to show that Oshiomhole and the leadership of the House took such decision.

    Adjoto said that the signature in the letter purportedly written to Ativie by Oshiomhole was not genuine. He warned Ativie of severe consequences of parading such document.

    He said: “As your client will recall, the said vehicles were purchased for the use of the office of the Speaker when your client occupied the office. Consequently, when she became the Deputy Speaker, the official vehicles were left with her office whilst alternative arrangement were made for the office of the Speaker.

    “Despite the clarity of the above, your client deliberately skewed the words used in the purported letter from the former governor claiming that the former governor wrote to say the vehicles were given to her, which is far from the truth.

    “Further, the original documents of the vehicles are still in the possession of the House of Assembly till date which means that title to the vehicles were never transferred or intended to be transferred to your client contrary to your client’s assertions.

    “Accordingly, I hereby reiterate my instruction and demand your client’s immediate return of the vehicles attached to the office of the Deputy Speaker which are still in her possession. Finally, if your client maintains that she indeed sold one of the vehicles, the Lexus Jeep 2016 model, then we expect that your client will furnish us with the details of sales.

    “The House expects to receive all the said vehicles or the vehicles that have not been sold, together with the details of the alleged sale of the Lexus jeep as enumerated not later than 2 days from the date of receipt of this letter. Failure to do so will attract the necessary legal action, both civil and criminal against your client”.

    The leadership of the PDP in Edo State has vowed not to allow the APC sweep what it termed criminal acquisition of government properties under the carpet. It has hired the law firm of Dr. Ehiogie West-Idahosa to help recover the vehicles from Ativie for the use of the Edo State Government.

    It also gave the law firm the mandate to ensure that all persons ‘involved in criminal acquisition of state properties are prosecuted.’

    The Chairman of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, put the market value of the vehicles with the former Speaker at N128m. He said the hiring of Dr. West-Idahosa was a follow up to the party’s call on security agencies to question Oshiomhole over missing government vehicles.

    He said: “Issues bothering on criminal acquisition of state properties must be treated with utmost seriousness. It is in the light of the development that the PDP mandated the legal firm of West Idahosa to swing into action to ensure that the vehicles in question are retrieved and returned back to government.

    “West Idahosa has petitioned the ICPC on behalf of the PDP. This is one matter we will not allow them sweep under the carpet. They cannot take it as an internal affairs of the APC. The anti- corruption crusade of the current government should be all embracing. It should not spare those who belong to members of APC.”

    In the petition filed before the ICPC, Hon Ativie is accused of violating sections 10, 19 and 23 of the ICPC Acts.

    According to the petition, “being a public officer, she received the said vehicles as benefits in relation to the business of the House of Assembly which is a public body, while serving as an Hon member of the House of Assembly for something alreaddone by her in contravention of the clear provision of Section 10(a)(1) of the Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act.

    “She used her position to gratify herself and confer a corrupt advantage of converting the official vehicles for the Office of the Hon Speaker to her own. She was ordinarily not entitled to the use of the said vehicles but for her occupation of the office of Speaker for about 84 days. The glaring corrupt advantage she gave to herself s contrary to Section 19 of the Establishment Act of your commission.”

    The PDP also threatened to obtain an order of Mandamus to compel the ICPC to commence criminal prosecution of all those named in the petition if the commission failed to act on the petition within seven working days.

  • Calm after the storm

    Calm after the storm

    EARLY last month, two warring communities -Ababene in Adun and Iyamitit in Okum, both in Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River State – decided to bury the hatchet and live in peace after several years of hostilities.

    Lives had been lost and property wasted on both sides.

    The cause of the feud was a piece of land which both communities were laying claim to.

    The peace process was facilitated by Mr. Chris Agara Agan, leading to the constitution of a seven-man peace and reconciliation committee.

    The committee was able to settle the differences between both sides and thus began a new dawn that formally commenced at an elaborate ceremony in Apiapum community in Obubra.

    Witnesses to the ceremony included the paramount ruler of Obubra, HRM Ovarr Clement Ewona; HRH Ovarr Patrick Erong Edom, the Kudidem (Clan Head) of Adun; and HRH Ovarr Robert Mbina Mbina Ajom III, Ohorodo I of Okum and Clan Head of Apiapum, as well as  numerous chiefs, and other stakeholders from the area.

    Both communities agreed that there would no longer be any skirmish between them as they await the government, through the Surveyor General of the state, to carry out a proper delineation of their boundaries especially the disputed area.

    The disputed land is expected to be taken over by the state government.

    Residents have expressed appreciation for the return of peace.

    Some of them told The Nation that their lives are much better off now following the peace agreement, as they could move freely amongst themselves without any fear.

    Commercial and farming activities, according to them, have also improved.

    They pray and hope that the new found peace will endure, even as they promise to keep working hard to sustain it.

    Ovarr Robert Mbina Mbina Ajom III, Ohorodo I of Okum and Clan Head of Apiapum, said: “We are so happy. Since the accord, we have been living fine. We now visit each other’s communities without any harassment.

    “Recently, there were burial ceremonies in my kingdom and many of those people who died, their relations came from the Adun side and performed the burial ceremonies successfully and then paid me a courtesy call. We entertained them and they slept for two nights before they went home.

    “During this period too, I have recorded about six weddings involving both communities. Of the six marriages, four were women from my side married to their people while two were women from their side marrying my people. That has been the cordial relationship we are enjoying.

    “Farming activities have also improved except in the area in dispute; a small area about half kilometre, which our governor has done very well by setting up that panel and asking us to stay away from there until a proper demarcation line is mapped out. That is where we are now.

    “I am happy because it has always been my cry that if I step into this office, I pray to God to bring back the peace between my people and Adun people; a lasting peace which even if I leave the world, our children will not come and suffer what we had suffered in the last 500 years.

    “Let it go into the records that it was during my reign that I brought about this peace. That is why during the fracas, the thing would have escalated to Apiapum and beyond, but I stuck my neck out and worked tirelessly to see that it did not escalate. I cried to the governor and to every arm of security to come to my rescue.”

    He expressed gratitude to Governor Ben Ayade and Barrister Chris Agara who initiated this peace.

    He advised the governor to “create development centres in Cross River State, because the state is so vast in terms of land mass.”

    He added: “In the whole of former Eastern Region, it is the largest land. The centres would help to stop this kind of infighting.”

    Also speaking, Chief Philip Ikpan from Adun, said except for minor issues with some hooligans who had been reported to the security agencies, the people are now living in peace.

    His words: “Farming activities have improved. Our people are beginning to return to their areas. I would advise that the people of both communities should accept the peace accord we have gone into.”

    Chairman of the Peace and Reconciliation Committee, Chief Ernest Irek, gave a recap of how peace was achieved: “What led to the agreement were the skirmishes we had been having between the two communities.

    “We were uncomfortable with what was going on, which spread to other areas. It was creating a friction among other communities in the two areas.

    “These were people who spoke the same language and shared the same culture. There is nothing for them to fight over. There is enough land for all of us and we thought we should look at the root cause of the problem, stop the battle and talk to them peacefully.

    “Mercifully, one of our Mbembe sons, Chris Agara, provided the logistics for us to discuss under very wonderful circumstances. We were brought together and I was made the chairman of the committee. And over a period of a month and a half, we had a dialogue with them.

    “We dialogued with everyone and brought them all together and we made sure all the villages that were in the forefront of this battle were brought together. We spoke to them and we got a commitment from them that they were ready to make peace.

    “What you saw on that day was the culmination of the efforts we had put in for about a month.

    “Right now, we are at the stage of implementing that peace, the state government has come in mercifully to sort out matters. The state government is going do something.

    “They have asked us to get all the documents and relevant papers together which we have done. We are monitoring the peace. Here and there, we have had some people trying to bend the rules, but we make sure they do not break them.

    “Right now, everything is going on normally. We keep trying to see that nobody breaks that agreement. The next stage we want to get into is the stage of supervising visitations. We intend that this September, which is a joyful period, the new yam festival, we want to get together again. We have a programme where we must make sure that all of them come together.

    “I am happy that their elites too have surrendered to the idea that there must be peace in that area. They are doing very well. On a daily basis, they are interacting with themselves, moving around.

    “Everywhere is peaceful. The markets are being revived. People are going back. Initially, this crisis was affecting trade. If you recall, even the cost of food items shot up very astronomically. But that has gone down now because we have been able to sort out the problem.

    “The skirmishes made it such that there was no food to eat. The people were not going to their farms. Even the ones they planted, they could not go to harvest. That had a direct impact on the economy of the local government and even the state because that is a garri producing area.

    “At one point, the price of garri rose to as much as N15, 000 for one basin, because cassava was no longer coming from that area. So many foodstuffs could not come out because of the crisis.

    “With this peace now, everything is going on well. We hope that we would be able to get a road from Ababene through Iyamitit. We are appealing to the state government to do that.

    “We are also talking about a police post. All of this we have put down in a memo to the governor. He told us that once he has settled down, he would approve all those.

    “Now, with the way things are going, they are harvesting what they planted the previous year. The price of garri has fallen, and I think it is reasonable now. The last time I went to the market, I heard it was N6,000 or so, and it would fall further. That has forced other people across the state to bring their prices down too because these are market forces.

    “Once that boundary is demarcated and the area that should be given to the government is done, that would provide succour to the people. A proper demarcation of the area is what would help resolve the problems.

    “Government would have to come in here. They have set up a committee of inquiry headed by a former deputy governor. We pray that with what we have achieved now, they can bring out their own report where a white paper can be brought out from.

    “Once they bring the white paper out, we hope that we can work with government, because we are the ones on the ground. We know the people. So we can now use that and see how we can project a situation where we can be having friendly visitations, festivals, and so on.

    “There are festivals for the various communities and there is a calendar for all of these and commit them. We would never get tired.

    “We would like to talk to our benefactor too; the man who started this. Let it not be like a political thing. Let it be a humanitarian thing; something he did from the volition that he is an Mbembe man, so we can now make sure that we can let them grow and remove our hands. It should not be too long.

    “The governor has directed that the team from the Surveyor General’s office should move in there and begin to demarcate the boundary, and once it is demarcated, it is okay.

    “The two communities had said long ago, they want that portion to be donated to government. We pray that while this is going on, we will continue to talk with the people that we don’t want any skirmishes anymore. They have seen the folly of it. There is no victor or vanquished.”