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Tag: think

  • Financial viability: Why states must think, plan as countries, by Osinbajo

    In his keynote remark yesterday at the Leadership newspapers awards and conference, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo admonished states to think and plan as countries to be more financially viable.

    On the 9th of May 2018, while speaking at the opening ceremony of the 20th Conference of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN),  I had occasion to refer to the remarkable achievements of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, as Premier of  the then Western Region of Nigeria from 1954 to 1960.

    The Western region is what today constitutes Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, parts of Kwara and Kogi, parts of Edo and Delta; Lagos, as far as Jibowu, some parts of Ikeja and Agege. The six year period of the Awolowo government is often cited as one of the most progressive of any government in the developing world.

    Some of the major accomplishments of that government include the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University); the 26-storey Cocoa House, Ibadan, then, of course, an architectural wonder; Western Nigeria Television Authority, the first in Africa; the Ikeja industrial estate, several farm settlements, the Airport Hotel, Ikeja, several other industrial establishments – Oodua Textile Industries, Ado Ekiti, Okitipupa Oil Palm Mills, Oluwa Glass in Ifon, the ceramics industry there, Ire Ekiti Brick Industry, a network of roads across the region.

    But, by far the most significant of these achievements is the Free Universal Primary Education. In 1952, when the scheme was proposed, 381,000 children, about 30 per cent of children at the time, were enrolled in school. By 1955, when the scheme took off, 811,432 children were enrolled. And the number continued to grow. The Government devoted as much as 41.2 per cent of the 1958/59 recurrent budget to education, one of the highest in the world at the time. At the same time, the region nurtured a vibrant civil service and judicial system which is widely acknowledged as a model, even today.

    So, how were Awo’s phenomenal achievements possible? There was no oil revenue, no Federal revenue. In fact, the Western Region government gave revenue to the federal government.

    How did they achieve financial viability? Mostly it was taxes and revenues from agriculture, especially cocoa, and some from mineral resources. Free education, which was audaciously launched by that government, was directly on the back of income taxes, a capitation or poll tax was imposed by the Western region government mainly to fund free education, despite much opposition and protests.

    But, with military rule from 1967, and oil money, every one forgot about taxes. The Federal Government gave everyone an allocation.

    So, today, the states in the old Western Region, aside from Lagos, do not earn enough in taxes or anything else to pay salaries, let alone do major capital projects. Without federal allocation, most cannot survive. Indeed, the problem of the states is the same as that of the Federal Government; a complete reliance on a source of revenue that is extractive, and so requires no creativity or productivity whatsoever.

    Most resource-rich nations and subnationals in the developing world end up being poor and financially unviable because making easy revenues from the extraction of resources is habit-forming; a habit of easy money without effort, few jobs are created because there is no value added.

    So, Japan, Singapore and South Korea with no significant natural resources are some of the most successful economies, because they create enough jobs for most of their population. Why is that so? Because financial viability is based on innovation and productivity; productivity means adding value, not necessarily possessing the resources, but adding value to whatever resources, even if you have to import the resources.

    So, the consumers of crude oil, like those countries I have  mentioned, earn more than producers of oil, because they add value to the crude oil they import by processing it and converting it to petrochemicals in some cases, often selling these improved products to the oil producers at more profit.

    I have drawn my examples from the experiences of Nation States to illustrate the problems of the unviability of states, because I think a lot of the answers to the challenge of creating financially viable state governments are the same as the problems of creating a financially viable countries or Nation State. So, the prescriptions would always be similar. Many of the same principles that work for a national government will also work for a subnational government.

    So, for the Federal government, one of our priorities has been diversifying our revenue base. When we assumed office in 2015, there were only about 14 million taxpayers of the almost 70 million economically active Nigerians. Indeed, of the 943 persons who pay over N10 million in assessed taxes in Nigeria, 941 of them live in Lagos, the other two live in Ogun State.

    The question you have to ask is: how does any country survive when only a fifth of those who should be paying taxes actually pay them. And so we set out to implement the needed reforms, including our tax amnesty, which is being done in partnership with the state tax authorities. Today, we have added nearly six million tax payers. It is taxes usually that would pay for development.

    Secondly, is a focus on agriculture and especially value-adding by processing along the agro-allied value chain, creating jobs, reducing imports and exporting more.

    Since all the land is in the states anywhere, except, of course, for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the states that have created the most jobs are those that focused on agriculture and the value chain. Rice-producing states, for example, have witnessed a tremendous rise in the prosperity of their people.

    So, states like Kebbi and Jigawa states have noticed a significant improvement in the earnings of farmers and of the people.

    Thirdly, creating an enabling environment for business is another must-do. We have pursued this goal aggressively since 2016, and I’m pleased to note that we’re already started seeing the results.

    We have reduced business registration times, we’ve implemented a functioning Visa on Arrival system, launched an online system for filing taxes, among other reforms.

    “By dismantling the bureaucratic obstacles in the way of businesses and investors, we are hoping to unleash the full potential of private enterprise; the kind of enterprise that creates jobs, that grows the economy, and produces future tax revenues for the government.

    On account of these reforms, the World Bank recognised Nigeria as one of the top 10 most improved economies in the world, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cited the business climate reforms as a major contributor to lifting the economy out of the recession last year.

    We are actively collaborating with state governments, under whose oversight some reform areas, like land acquisition and property registration, fall.

    Very recently, Lagos and Kano states – two of the largest sub-national economies in Nigeria – launched small claims courts to focus on Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) litigations that do not exceed N5 million. Both Lagos and Kano have clearly recognised the place of a good business environment for attracting investments and thus improving their revenues.

    Similarly, Ogun State’s industrial parks have attracted businesses and produced taxes which have moved the state to number four in revenue generation.

    Abia and Anambra are moving confidently to becoming manufacturing hubs, especially for steel fabrications, shoes and clothing. Jigawa has established a seedling reduction plant. Now it’s beginning to sell improved seedlings to many other states. States must behave like countries and the dynamics of success are changing. And I’ll come back to this point shortly.

    Indeed we are heading towards a time when our states will be competing very actively against one another for big-ticket investments, as is already happening elsewhere in the world.

    Recently, Amazon, one of the most valuable companies in the world, wanted to open a new headquarters, and they asked cities around America to pitch. About 200 cities submitted bids and Amazon announced a shortlist of 20 cities a few months ago. A final announcement, of the winning city is now pending. Now, why is this important? The city that will host Amazon HQ2 will enjoy more than $5 billion in construction investment alone, not to talk of the tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs that Amazon will bring to the city, and the multiplier effects on the local transportation, hospitality, the entertainment industries, and the additional investment that other companies will bring because of Amazon’s presence in that city.

    Now think about what this development might mean for Nigeria soon, when companies make important decisions about siting their offices primarily based on how easy a state makes it for people to do business in it.

    States that make it easy for investors to acquire land, register property, pay taxes, and to access broadband Internet will be the clear winners, while states that make these things difficult or impossible will languish as the world carries on without them.

    If all of this sounds very theoretical, consider that Information and Communications Technology (ICT), which, of course, does not require natural resources, contributes about a tenth of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) already, up from negligible levels less than two decades ago.

    And according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecoms sector has attracted $70 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the last 16 years. That’s the size of the economic potential that we are talking about. And they can take their business anywhere once the infrastructure is right.

    The access to broadband issue is worth highlighting as an example of how states can make decisions that can make or mar their economic future. This is an issue that was frequently debated at the National Economic Council (NEC), which, of course, as you know, brings together state governors and federal officials, and which I have the privilege to chair.

    The argument was that states should not charge prohibitive prices for installing fibre optic cables; that our goal as a country at this time should be covering the entire country with broadband as an investment into our future.

    The alternative, of course, is for a state government to look only at how it can maximise today’s revenues by charging exorbitant fees for broadband installation. This would be a case of penny-wise-pound-foolish; short-term gain at the expense of the future potential and profit. In the future – and that future is right here on our doorsteps. Our states will thrive or suffer on the strength of things like how fast and cheap the Internet is.

    Thankfully, NEC resolved in favour of low standard fees, but this would not include the cost of damage to roads. But, the states also agreed to ensure that roads being built must have ducts to prevent costly damage to roads when cables for various types of infrastructure and services are being laid.

    This conversation about creating financially viable states should therefore be viewed through the lens of the medium to the long term. There will always be the temptation to prioritise raising IGR at all costs. If this is done in a manner that stifles today’s entrepreneurs and investors, then clearly there will be a great price to pay down the line.

    So, it is clear that governors have to think beyond four or eight year cycles. There must be a commitment to laying a foundation that our successors will build on, and for successors to be ready to build on foundations laid.

    One of the challenges with governance in Nigeria today is that penchant for dismantling or dismissing everything inherited. President Buhari insisted when we assumed office that we must ensure the completion of projects started, but abandoned or uncompleted by previous governments before starting new ones. Our problem, of course, in our country, is not in new ideas or starting projects, it is the lack of rigour and discipline to complete projects and to maintain them.

    One of the reasons Lagos State is possibly the most successful sub-national economy is the continuity in the implementation of a plan. Each governor in Lagos has followed the plan in financial reform, in land reform, laid out by the administration of former Governor Bola Tinubu, so also in infrastructure development. The BRT was started in 2005 or so. Then Governor Babatunde Fashola completed and improved upon it, (Governor) Ambode finished off the Ikorodu route and has continued to expand the BRT.

    The rail project, which was largely begun by Fashola, is being completed by Ambode. The way of progress is by trying to follow through a plan and completing what has been started.

    Even though the Treasury Single Account (TSA), was not our idea, we recognised its value and realised that the real challenge was the lacklustre implementation that it had suffered over the years.

    And so, President Muhammadu Buhari issued his first Presidential Order, mandating full-compliance with the TSA. The closure of more than 20,000 commercial bank accounts that followed has resulted in monthly savings of N4 billion that would have gone on bank charges alone. That’s more resources for us to use for the benefit of Nigerians.

    The Lagos-Kano standard gauge and the Warri-Aladja rail, Second Niger Bridge, have always been in the pipeline. We have taken the concrete steps required to complete them. We raised the counterpart funding in the cases of those requiring loans, and made sure the contractors are getting the job done.

    Financial viability is not just about earning more, it is also as much about doing more with less, which is our mantra at the Federal level; making the little we have go as far as possible. How? By embracing fiscal prudence, debt management, controlling overheads, and so on.

    But perhaps, most importantly, and this is the elephant in the room; stopping corruption, beginning with grand corruption. By that I mean that habit of simply converting money from the treasury to personal use and ownership.

    This is the stranger than fiction variant of corruption which seems to be a uniquely Nigerian phenomenon. Financial viability is impossible if the custodians of the finances want the money for themselves. Our states must think plan and act as countries, and why not?

    Ten of Nigeria’s states with the highest GDPs have higher GDPs than over 15 African countries.  In fact, I was saying the other day, that if you look at Rwanda, which is a country that is celebrated in Africa, the GDP of Lagos State is almost four times the size of Rwanda’s GDP.

    Thinking like a country means planning like one. And I think that one of the most important things for states to do is to begin to think and plan like countries do. And we cannot wait for constitutional reforms that may be required for further devolution to the states.

    We must act whether or not there is this reform. In many cases, states have control of some of the resources that can make a tremendous difference in the way that they operate.

     

  • REMY BAGGINS: I’m bold to say what I think

    REMY BAGGINS: I’m bold to say what I think

    Twenty-year-old music producer, singer and rapper Uremisan Solo-Edema, also known as Remy Baggins, is bringing a fresh vibe into the Nigerian music industry. The artiste who recently dropped an album, Remy Baggins VIV, tells JOE AGBRO JR. his beginning, the struggles and how he believes the future is sweet.

    On a normal day, Uremisan Solo-Edema is a 20-year-old 400 level Electrical Engineering student of the University of Lagos, Akoka. But when he assumes the personae of Remy Baggins, the first and only boy in a family of three children becomes an eccentric recording artiste, instrumentalist and producer.

    “I’m just bold to say what I want to say or have been thinking about in my head,” said the bespectacled Remy whose gentle looks contrast with his straight-to-your face and no-holds barred lyrics.

    “I think some very nasty thoughts and I’m proud to say them out.”

    And on his debut album, Remy Baggins VIV, those nasty thoughts are portrayed in the lyrics of some of his songs like Hit List, Shades of Purple, Dreadful Tale which contains some x-rated words. Using Remy Baggins as his alter ego, he speaks his mind on various issues – fast life, sex and debauchery – that plague many young people. Like having sex with his cousin as well as lusting over female superstars like Tiwa Savage, Simi and Seyi Shay.

    “For the sake of creativity, I say what is on my mind without limiting anything.”

    But regarding some of the frolicking with stars like Omotola Jalade, Seyi Shay and Simi which he has sung about, Remy Baggins is sure he’ll not let any opportunity slide.

    “If the chances present themselves, I will do it,” he says, laughing. “But I just want to make it in this music. I’m not chasing those kinds of things right now.”

    Other songs on the album include a gospel-inclined track, Alleluia, Real, Let Me Tell You, KLFSHII, Kiss Me and Decipher.

    Becoming Remy Baggins

    Remy’s journey into music began at age four. And in 2001, his uncle bought him a keyboard and he started playing beats on it. Discovering he could sing, he sang along to the beats. “I use to write some songs but I never took music seriously until 2010,” he said. And it was the song, Not Afraid, by Eminem, that flipped Remy to pursue his vision – music.

    As a student of Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary, Ikorodu, Lagos, he entertained his fellow students during variety shows held after school exams.

    “There was this song I wrote during that term,” Remy said.

    “I played the keyboard. As I was singing, people liked it. All the reviews were positive. I sang, I rapped. I continued doing more. That same year, I was also in my church (Archbishop Vining Memorial Church, Ikeja, Lagos) band as an instrumentalist. Through that, I got to learn about arranging music and composition. Then, somebody introduced me to production software, FL Studio. I got hold of it and I started making beats on my mum’s laptop.”

    In 2014, he decided on doing a compilation and started making beats. It was then he made beats for two songs, Alleluia and Decipher. But the journey has not been entirely rosy. On March 14, 2015, he and a friend whose birthday was on that day were robbed around Ikeja, losing his phone and laptop.

    “I lost all my beats since 2010,” Remy said. “Then, that same week, my external hard drive crashed.”

    Following the robbery, one of his friends started making fun of his height, saying were Remy taller, robbers wouldn’t have attacked him. The friend called him Baggins, referring to the short characters in the movie, Lords of the Ring. That night, he changed his name on BBM to Remy Baggins. And when his was time to release his EP, one of his roommates still played on Remy’s five feet four inches height, this time, turning it to VIV, its equivalent in roman numerals.

    From Engineering to music

    Combining studying Electrical Engineering with making music is a sacrifice Remi has endured. “For a time, I dropped music for more than eight months because I wanted to focus on school. But that department is one tough department. That was the year they (the department) decided to show me pepper. I said, let me start my music again.”

    But does he see himself practicing engineering?

    “I do not,” Remy answers curtly.

    “Because at the beginning of the engineering itself, I was not the one that chose it. I do not want to be an engineer. I was just confused. When I finished secondary school, I didn’t exactly know what to do. My choice was architecture but they (his parents) said no, go for engineering. Engineering is better. You’ll find jobs. So, I said, why not?”

    While his parents are aware of the development, they do not support his decision.

    “There is very serious quarrel in that house right now about music,” Remy said. “I just see it as inspiration that, one day, things will get better.”

    But he says he has fans in his two sisters and believes his father secretly loves what he is doing.

    In his second year in the university, Remy decided to have a home studio. To get started, Remy stopped attending his family church and started playing instruments in other churches to earn money and doing other studio jobs. Once the home studio berthed, it became the spot where Uremisan switched to Remy Baggins, working in the wee hours to produce music for the likes of Nafeesa, Dami Oniru and others including himself, before waking up to continue his ‘normal life.’

    Last year, Remy joined Chase Music and his label mates include Alternative/Highlife singer Jinmi Abduls and Dami Oniru, among others. Also a prolific producer, he has produced songs for a lot of musicians and he is not ready to stop any moment.

    And while the Nigerian music scene is very competitive, he feels confident about success.

    “I see myself breaking in one way or the other because I have too much to offer,” said Remy who confesses to love Reminisce’s music. “You have to admit that my style is very different from other people’s.

    “By January, I should comfortably say I have a lot of material to be considered albums ready, because to plan a release is another thing entirely.”

    And while he is garnering fans, Remy is yet to enjoy trappings of stardom. In fact, he says he has been at a place where people were talking about how they loved his songs and he was present.

    “My room mates, my friends, they are people that tell me, ‘guy, all these ones you’re doing, you’re still a dead guy. They keep me in check.”

    The fact that Remy doesn’t blow his trumpets so loud also ensures some people know his songs but can’t identify the musician behind it.

    On his website is a poem that focuses on his eclectic being and outlook.

    “This is a journey of self-discovery,” Remy writes about his musical odyssey. “And VIV is just the first step. In this body of work, you’ll find the raw and uncut versions of me.”

  • How to think and grow rich

    How to think and grow rich

    Thinking is very critical to ability to achieve success in life. It is not just any thinking, but right thinking. Your thinking is a reflection of whom you are. That is why I want us to examine the book titled: Think and Grow Rich this week.

    It is written by Napoleon Hill, who was born in 1883 in a one-room log cabin in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. As a teenager, Hill worked as a newspaper reporter to finance his way through Georgetown University Law School. As a result of his excellent display of (journalistic) excellence while working as a reporter, he attracted the attention of Robert L.Taylor, Governor of Tennessee and owner of Bob Taylor’s magazine who employed him at the age of 25 to write a series of success stories of great and famous men, among whom was Andrew Carnegie.

    Carnegie was so impressed with Hill’s articles that he commissioned him to interview 504 of America’s most successful men and find through their experiences a success strategy that would work for the average man. The result of the various interviews Hill had with these great and famous men is this book. Hill reveals how to surmount obstacles on the road to success and accomplish your goals in life. He also stresses why one man marches forward all his life accomplishing, earning and multiplying his wealth and happiness while another man is languishing in poverty.

    Hill discloses what gives one man great personal power and why another man is effectual. According to him, when you know the success principles that govern the entire universe, what they mean to your life and how to deploy them for maximum results, you will definitely achieve success and its accompaniments such as good health, happiness, wealth, etc. He says you will never fall victim of negative influences that dampen enthusiasm, eliminate love and prohibit you from experiencing the riches of fulfilment that can easily be yours, only if you are able to deploy these success principles well.

    Structurally, the book is segmented into 16 chapters. Chapter one is christened The power of thought. According to Hill here, truly, thoughts are powerful things when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence and a burning desire for their translation into riches or other material objects.

    He adds that the power that signals success is the power of your mind, adding that it is how to make life say Yes instead of No to your plans and ambition. “One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another,” says Hill.

    According to him, when defeat overtakes a man, the easiest thing to do is to quit. Hill says failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning. He adds that failure takes delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach.

    In chapter two tagged Desire: The starting point of all achievement, Hill identifies desire as the first step to riches. According to him, dreams come true when desire transforms them into action. Hill says the method by which desire for riches can be transformed into its financial equivalent consists of six steps. These are that you should fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire; determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire; establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money desired; create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once to put the plan into action; write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire; and read your written statement aloud twice daily.

    In chapters three to eight, Hill identifies faith, auto-suggestion, specialised knowledge, imagination, organised planning and decision as steps two to seven when we are talking about strategic rungs of attaining riches.

    In chapter nine, persistence is identified as the eighth step towards attaining riches.

    According to Hill here, persistence is an essential factor in the procedure of transmuting desire into its monetary equivalent. He says the basis of persistence is the power of will. Hill stresses that when the will power and desire are properly combined, they become an irresistible pair. He adds that men who accumulate great fortunes are generally known to be cold-blooded, and sometimes ruthless.

    Hill says when you recognise and sweep aside certain weaknesses which stand between you and your goals, your persistence develops into a respected, proved, progressive power. This author submits that persistence is a state of mind and it can be cultivated.

    In chapters 10 to 14, the author identifies power of the master mind; the mystery of sex transmutation; the subconscious mind; the brain; and the sixth sense as the ninth to 13th steps towards attaining riches.

    In his words, “The 13th principle is known as the sixth sense, through which Infinite Intelligence may and will communicate voluntarily, without any effort from, or demands by, the individual.”

    Hill submits that this principle is the apex of the philosophy, and it can be assimilated, understood, and applied only by “first mastering the other twelve principles”.

    Chapter 15 is labelled How to outwit the six ghosts of fear. Here, Hill says before you can put any portion of the success philosophy into fruitful use, your mind must be prepared to receive it. He submits that the preparation begins with the study, analysis and understanding of the three enemies that you will have to clear out. These enemies he calls indecision, doubt and fear. According to Hill, six basic fears are poverty, criticism, ill-health, lost love, old age and death. He says fears are nothing more than states of mind.

    Chapter 16 is tagged The Devil’s workshop. Here, Hill says another evil by which people suffer is the susceptibility to negative influences.

    By conceptual X-ray, the depth and efficacy of various wealth-creation strategies offered by Hill in this book deserve commendation. The language is simple while the ideas are well integrated. By predicating the ideas on the experiences of real people, Hill is able to convince and motivate readers. To boost understanding, he states the major points at the end of every chapter.

    But the title of the book should have been better tagged Think Right and Grow Rich.

    If you are prepared to deploy your thinking properly and get rich, then you need to get a copy of this book.

  • Asiwaju … not what they think

    Asiwaju … not what they think

    The Nigerian political terrain is replete with various shades of people. In my country, every Tom, Dick and Harry calls himself a politician, but one man stands out among the pack. Hate or love him, his place in history is already reserved. Through admirable political sagacity, open-heartedness and sheer political industry, he has been able to extend handshakes across the Niger. To the chagrin of his political adversaries, he is leading a team that is determined to re-engineer the entire national political landscape.

    To the progressives in the east, north, south and west, the man is one to be adored and “soaked” in panegyrics; but to the conservatives in these regions, the man is secretly revered but openly detested for being their nemesis. The conservatives and their kindred could not fathom why one single individual called Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Jagaban of Borgu, could successfully rally the whole country against the ruling party – a situation that is sending jitters down the spines of occupants of the Presidential Villa.

    No wonder they are secretly jubilating, albeit fleetingly, any time they remember the perceived prolonged overseas medical trip of Asiwaju. His absence from the nation’s political turf is not difficult to notice. Some politicians could afford to leave the scene without being noticed but not an Asiwaju, whose political clout and philanthropy, have defied ethnic/tribal boundary. His political adversaries recently went viral in the public domain with satanic speculations about his state of health. In market places, clubs, offices, Government Houses, homes, newspaper houses, newsstands, airports, government offices and public transportation among others, busy bodies at every opportunity talk about the Jagaban. Some idle talkers reportedly said the man could not walk; others maliciously concocted in hush tones – Parkinson, where none existed. God forbid!

    The truth is that Asiwaju is hale and hearty in London, where he is relaxing after a minor surgery on his leg in America. Yours sincerely, being an avid admirer of the great political leader, went searching for him during my on-going annual vacation in London. Any reasonable person would show admiration for the man for championing the ongoing political revolution in the southwest and Edo State. Sincerely, no one would have believed that ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s tyrannical grip and political tomfoolery, using the visionless platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), could end so soon and abysmally too. To me, Asiwaju deserves all encomiums and support for having assembled a steadfastly committed team, using his resources and vast contacts in the process, to rescue a sizeable part of the country from political exploiters…and at the moment, extending the frontiers of such revolutionary onslaught to the entire country through the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The journey to Asiwaju’s London residence began when l left Essex last Sunday with my elder brother and a junior one. I gave the address of his residence to my brother who inserted it into the satellite navigation of his car. The trip was smooth and in barely over 30 minutes, we were in the heart of West London. The ancient architectural splendor of that area’s buildings was a beauty to behold. The visit was unscheduled and behold, l was at the entrance of the building.

    My mind was wandering over all the lies of peddlers in Nigeria who derive joy in spreading negative things about their fellow being. At the entrance, I pressed the bell and the voice from the other end, surprisingly, was that of Jagaban himself. “Who is that?” He asked with bewitching humility. I answered: “I’m Mobolaji Sanusi from Nigeria sir.” Then, his reply: “Ooh, you are the one; push the door and come upstairs.”

    I ascended the stairs, knocked and opened the door to his apartment. Standing before me were Asiwaju and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. After greeting the duo, my host asked me to take my seat in one of the sitting rooms where I met some guests waiting to see him too. Later, Mr Dele Alake, the brilliant and highly revered information strategist of our era came in and went straight to where Asiwaju was seated with Ribadu.

    Jagaban donned a Tee shirt with blue sports shorts to match. On that day, yours sincerely watched with others, the Manchester town derby, where Manchester City devoured Jagaban’s favourite Manchester United Football Club team. In his boisterous mood, he admonished that no one should write off his darling team because it could be too early as the premiership is still open. Later, I sat alone with him to have general discussions before l left. He personally directed me to come back and I was there. In his routine morning exercise, he did seven miles on the bike. In the evening, he had another one-hour vigorous exercise that, honestly, made me green with envy.

    Afterwards, I commenced intense reflection on where peddlers of that unfounded rumour about Asiwaju’s health got it. The esteemed Asiwaju, on my first visit to his apartment, personally opened the door for me and was intermittently walking round the house to do one thing or the other with no sign of strain on his leg or any part of his body. Also on my second visit, I closely watched the political icon engage in intense exercise that any physical instructor of high stature would marvel at. His photograph with General Mohammadu Buhari at the train station was even published.

    I also sat with him alone, spending quality time in the process and could say that he is by the grace of God, as fit as a fiddle. His brain remains as sharp as before; his intellectual reflexes are still swift; his voice remained coherent and as loud as ever and his movement steady and balanced. He displayed in my presence, rare energy in hosting the deluge of very important guests from all over the world that visited him. H exuded coherence and mindfulness while receiving the avalanche of significant phone calls. He churned out specific instructions to his able aides, including Sunday Dare and youthful Oyefemi Oyatolu that are always with him round the clock.

    The Nigerian polity, because of lack of ideas by the ruling party, is fast becoming fertile field of damaging rumours and speculations. Most Nigerians, especially idle politicians, derive pleasure in peddling slander as news against the person of Asiwaju. But it is not what Jagaban’s visible and surreptitious adversaries are thinking by spreading rumours with bad intents about him. Their evil thoughts had been perished and the man is in good health condition and in very high spirit, waiting to come back into the country stronger than before in the next couple of days. My averment: Asiwaju, take heart because scandalous rumours were peddled against that great Nigerian nationalist, Nnamdi Azikiwe and he outlived his enemies for several decades. This is the price of leadership and greatness. May you live long, Asiwaju. Amen.

  • Time to rethink Nigeria, I think

    Time to rethink Nigeria, I think

    There is a regular, beer-parlour joke about marriage and it goes thus. In marriage, the priest usually intones, ‘a man shall leave his mother and father and shall cling to his wife with whom he shall become one’. Yes, a much beleaguered man replies to his neighbour, the question is which one. True, when two people decide to come together in a marital union, it is all you can do to stop yourself from pulling one or the other aside and asking in consternation, have you quite thought this through? Listen, what you’re about to do will not only land you in hot soup, you will even have to cook it yourself. More importantly, in the history of the world, no perfect couple exists; indeed God is still looking for two people who agree on the brand of toothpaste to use.

    So, with two people not being able to manage a marriage, here we are asking a country of different nationalities to manage their contrived and greatly multiplied ménage of strange bedfellows. Ha! This is why chaos rules in this land, ok! In this country of the deaf, lame and blind, all kinds of ideologies have come to play. Just listen here.

    Currently, we have an ideology that says one for one, none for all. This enables every individual to get to positions of power and then use that position for himself, family and group against the interests of the overall majority. Then there is another ideology that says some for one, none for all. By this, every individual is constrained to defend his or her tribal kinsman against the interests of the national majority. Finally, there is the strangest of all the ideologies: all for one, yet none for all. This permits all individuals to worship another individual who has elevated himself to the national common hood of thievery at the great expense of the vast and silenced majority.

    In all of history, no rat, elephant or lion has ever been known to adopt any of these ideologies for its own survival. It is not just because they have no pockets to hide things in, nor is it because they cannot open bank accounts to hide money in; it is more because I think they have not been able to throw away the sense of decency that God wrote into their genes in the way some Nigerians have thrown theirs over the shoulder. This is why a lion might kill to eat, but would hardly kill for hoarding or sport; a rat might hoard one or two things but believe me, it only takes things people don’t need or miss.

    I am thinking about the leaders in Nigeria who manage to show the entire world how not to manage exalted public positions. Take the example of the most recent story-break in the land involving hundreds of billions of Naira. The story is so nauseating its worse than cholera. Indeed it’s an outbreak that makes you go, ‘Yuk, what kind of country is this where people do what even animals don’t condescend to do?’ What is an individual doing with hundreds of billions of Naira, feeding?

    When we heard the story of the fellow who was alleged to have pilfered over twenty billion from the police pension funds, I reported here that it had me whistling in astonishment. When I heard recently how a certain chieftain of the Pensions Reform Task force, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, was said to have made away with something between one hundred and ninety-five to four hundred billion naira, pension funds of a group of people, I could no longer whistle. My lips puckered but nothing came out, especially when we heard he had been allowed to escape from the country with his loot. I just kept thinking, where is Michael Jackson to sing ‘This is it!’? This has got to be it. Anything after this I think will make Nigerians leave Nigeria for this government. Well, it would have failed to arrest the slide into total abyss, would it not?

    Anyway, I think it is not a normal situation that a citizen would fail to appear before the legislature, no matter their character, in defiance of the national law; it is not a normal situation for a police chief to be asked and fail to arrest the said citizen in spite of the fact that he was within the country and enjoying the fresh air of the same country he so flagrantly betrayed; it is certainly not a normal situation for the police chief to not be able to arrest any citizen in the land. I remember writing something in the papers a few years ago that displeased the police and I assure you, they located me all right in the little corner of the little city I lived in then.

    You have to agree that the situation begs for both questions and answers; I think it actually begs for more questions than answers. Why is it possible for such gargantuan levels of fraud and stealing to continue to take place? And as we look on, before our very eyes, why are the figures rising? Why are we now so helpless, police and all, if indeed we are? Have we completely gone bereft of our senses? Are there not enough things to use such monies for so that generations to come can bless us: an efficient rail transport system for the nation, electricity in every village including mine, public water flowing through every pipe in the land, a co-ordinated waste evacuation system in all the cities … people, there is so much to do with money in the country that this is just not the time to go diverting it.

    The problem with this country from the start has been the strange set of ideologies adopted by leading individuals in the course of our history and across the land. With our lips, every one of us has paid homage to a ‘new Nigeria’ but we have all failed to go to work creating one. A new, indivisible Nigeria, with a ‘non-negotiable unity’ requires selflessness, an ideology that, apparently, none is ready to adopt.

    So, rethinking Nigeria for newness involves three simple steps. First, we must change our national ideology. The ideology of selfishness must be replaced by selflessness. This is where everyone brings into the national purse his/her talents and resources in order to add and construct, not to take and destroy. The habit of destroying, knowing that regional, ethnic and even religious group adhesions would readily give support to individuals in case of prosecution, remains one of the most serious poisons working against this country.

    Secondly, there must be a new set of ethos to replace the current one which appears to give nearly every Nigerian the droit de seigneur over other Nigerians in his/her post. People easily forget that they are working for the public and get too carried away by all the power in the office. The greatest abusers of traffic laws are the police drivers, and drivers of state functionaries, including governors, lawmakers and those from government house. As a member of a sadly small but still sane community in Nigeria, whenever I have seen a government vehicle on the roads, I have given them right of way. That way, I ensure I get back home.

    This complete disregard for the law will not profit anyone in the long run. For us to rethink Nigeria, there must be a new regard for the law and this can only happen when leaders retain objectivity. Allowing someone who has committed such a financially heinous crime to escape is tantamount to allowing expediencies to drive the government. Evil portends evil.