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Tag: touch

  • Katsina at 30: The Masari midas touch

    Katsina at 30: The Masari midas touch

    When Governor Bello Aminu Masari took over the mantle of leadership in Katsina State on May 29, 2015, he was prepared to deliver democracy dividends to the people and rescue them from the shackles of gross mismanagement. This he has done effectively within two years. This is why Katsina State can boast of numerous developmental projects, which impact are  felt by the people.

    Masari has done well in many areas. For instance, in the area of provision of portable water supply, the administration’s intervention has led to the resuscitation, upgrading and expansion of many water supply projects across the state. Major works were carried out in six major water works to boost supply to towns and villages. The Ajiwa Water Works has a capacity of treating 50 million liters per day. It is serving Katsina and environ with potable water for both Domestic, Commercial and Industrial purposes. It is now a dilapidated condition operating at 40% of its install capacity.

    To restore back the design capacity of both the Dam and the Treatment Plant the current administration through the Ministry of water Resources has entered in to a contract for the Rehabilitation and Upgrading of the Ajiwa Dam and Water Treatment Plant with Kaibo International Limited at the total cost of N1,996,861,690.85 with 40% advance payment of N798,744,676.34 already paid to the Contractor. The aim of the above Contract is to restore the actual designed production capacity of the Ajiwa Water Treatment Plant to its optimum designed capacity, by replacing the damaged and aged equipment of the plant, and repair of dilapidated structures. A new pumping station will be constructed in the contract.

    Masari has awarded the Contract for the procurement and installation of 1No High Lift Pump, 3No Non return valves and 3No Butterfly valves at the total cost of N86,390,106.00 and also the award of another contract for the procurement and installation of 1000KVA transformer amounting to N9,855,000.00 at Ajiwa Water Works.

    Malumfashi water supply scheme was constructed and commissioned in 1983 with a capacity of 4,500 cubic meters per day.

    The scheme is meant to supply Water to Malumfashi, Kankara towns and the villages along the pipeline.

    The flood of 2008 washed away a portion of the pumping main and High Tension line near Bonn dawa village, consequent upon which Malumfashi was cut-off from the Water Works thus making pumping of water from the Treatment Plant to Malumfashi town impossible. The damage was not attended to since then, until the coming of the present administration in 2015.

    The administration awarded the Contract for the repairs of the damage portion in October, 2015 under the Emergency rehabilitation of Malumfashi water supply scheme, to the contractor M/S Central Lead Nigeria Limited, at the total cost of N141,705,983.05. The work has since been completed and water supply restored to Malumfashi town since March this year (2016) pictures attached.

    The administration is in the process of awarding another contract to desilt the dam and expand it by raising the spillway level and embankment height to increase the storage capacity to a level that will facilitate future expansion of the treatment plant to at least double the present production capacity.

    The Funtua Water Supply Scheme was in the early 80’s extended to Bakori and Kabomo towns. In 1993 boreholes were drilled and commissioned in Bakori in order to augment the Bakori and Kabomo water supply from Funtua due demand that was far above the supply from Funtua. The Bakori water supply which comprises seven number boreholes is also supplying water to Women Teachers College, Kabomo. The system is inadequate and is in need of expansion and rehabilitation. The current administration inherited a contract for the improvement of Bakori Water supply amounting to N47,440,442.00. The works are completed now. Another achievement of this administration in Funtua is the award of contract for the procurement and installation of 2No High Lift Pumps at the total cost of N28,907,570.00 this is to argument the water supply in Funtua and its environs.

    The Daura Urban Water Supply Scheme which supplies water to Daura and Sandamu, consists of 22 bore holes with three numbers well fields. The scheme was out of operation for five years prior to the coming of Masari administration. The administration has completed the rehabilitation of the scheme at the total cost of N34,300,450.00. The Contract was completed and Daura is enjoying a daily water supply of about 5-million litres.

    The 500KVA transformer for the Jibia Water Works was out of service (burnt) for a long time. The Scheme is using generator as source of power since the station was brought back to service over a year ago by the Masari administration. This administration has procured and installed a 75OKVA transformer amounting to N7,560,000.00. This is in addition of the supply of more diesel to run the scheme. Many areas which were hitherto not getting water are now supplied daily.

    Prior to the coming of the Masari administration, the Dutsinma water supply scheme is operation for between 6-8 hours per day. Now it operates for 16 hours per day due to increased diesel supply by the State Government.

    In agriculture sector, the availability of more water from our dam reservoirs allows for agricultural /irrigation activities to empower more people and ensure the food security of the nation. The water resources sector has also impacted on the industrial development of the State.

    Disturbed by the dwindling fortunes of Katsina State due to Nigeria’s economic downturn, the administration of Governor Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari CFR came up with the Restoration Project with the view of restoring the lost glory of Katsina State particularly the agricultural sector that has hitherto supported the economy of the State and Nigeria at large. The Agricultural Restoration Project was therefore developed to correct the negative sector growth enhancers; low budgetary allocation, poor extension services, lack of infrastructures, zero financial and inputs support to farmers, very low mechanization of farm operations, poor agro-marketing structures and system, low staff moral, dependency of the rain for agricultural production.

    In last year’s budget, agriculture had substantial allocation in the budget that was much higher than all the previous years. Priorities projects were develop to form the basic growth framework that will ensure effective governance of the sector and catalyze growth.

    Records on farms, farmers and their production are key to effective planning and success of any development initiative. More importantly, government needs to know the number of its people engaged in farming activities, their categories, location and other parameters necessary for effective governance of the sector. The agricultural resources available in the State also need to be documented for proper planning, therefore, reliable and up to date data that eliminate blind planning and policy processes is of essence.

    Katsina State Government has engaged over 2,000 youths, majority of whom are unemployed graduates in conducting the farmers’ data capture exercise  to generate and store authentic data on farmers’ land size, location and soil type. This will put the State in a better stead for proper planning on extant and future projects and programmes.

    In its effort to develop the economy based on agriculture through ensuring food security and providing raw materials for agro-allied industries, the government has chosen four value chain crops (rice, wheat, cotton and tomato) and aquaculture (fish production), Sheep and Goats. The State has secured Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) approval for participation in its Anchor Borrower’s Programme on massive production of these crops and livestock species. The programme will ensure adequate and timely provision of needed inputs to the participating farmers, while linkage to market is ensured through readily available up-takers.

    ABP will begin with 20,000 famers for rice and wheat production for the 2016 dry season. This will be followed with cotton and tomato for the year 2017 and later aquaculture, sheep and goats will follow. As an additional boost, the State has keyed into the Competitive African Rice Initiative (CART), whose main objective is to facilitate the production of rice in a competitive manner (comparing with international standards), and the improvement of the output of the smallholder farmer.

    There is no gainsaying the fact that agricultural mechanisation is very low in Nigeria and Katsina State in particular especially in the light of the devastating effect of cattle rustling on our farming activities. To mitigate this, Government is deploying 325 tractors, 1,083 power tillers; and 300 gravitational drip Irrigation kits to the farms in the State. Already 42, tractors are in the State and fifty more are expected before the end of October while the remaining balance will be available before the year 2016 ends.

  • Project ‘Touch a life today’ launched

    Project ‘Touch a life today’ launched

    Project ‘Touch a life’ visited Ughelli General Hospital and Kiagbodo General Hospital in Delta State on May 2.  131 patients, including children, women and men had their medical bills subsidised.

    It is the brainchild of the Global Initiative for Peace, Love and Care (GIPLC), which was launched a new initiative which will be taking place from April 25 to May 17. Project ‘Touch a life’ will reach 1000 patients in three states in three weeks.

    The non-governmental, not-for-profit charity organisation, which was founded in 2006 to cater for orphans and vulnerable children in Nigeria, has launched this new project as part of Igho Charles Sanomi II’s birthday celebrations and to commemorate the GIPLC’s 11th anniversary. 1000 identified vulnerable Nigerians in Abuja, Delta and Benue States will receive financial support to subsidize and assist their medical bills. Visits will be made to patients to follow up on their progress.

    A full professional team of GIPLC staff, doctors and nurses will be deployed to ensure the desired impact is met and lives are touched and saved.

    Sanomi, founder and chairman of Taleveras, and past recipient of a Dr Martin Luther King Legacy Award for Philanthropy and International Service, said: “Supporting the work of the GIPLC is something I have done for many years, in many ways. This year I wanted to do something which would help even more of the vulnerable people who have been at the core of the GIPLC activities. This unique initiative seeks to touch the lives of the most needy members of our communities at a time when they need it the most. This is something I believe in wholeheartedly and to which I am pleased to have been able to lend my support.”

    Nuhu Kwajafa, GIPLC Co-ordinator, said: “We give God all the glory for His blessings and the capacity and the will, for people like Igho Sanomi to give back to those in need.  We pray that by this gesture, ICS II will endear others to do same, so we may sustain this practice on a yearly basis. Ultimately, the goal is to stimulate the mobilisation of resources and raise awareness on the plight of those living in especially difficult circumstances. GIPLC will coordinate and share this experience daily. God bless you all.”

    The initiative was founded in 2006 to cater for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Nigeria by providing food, medical assistance and learning materials for their development.  It also aims to stimulate sustainable, participatory, community based projects, which will help to meet the needs of vulnerable children and other persons living in especially difficult circumstances.

    “Life has been interesting since I started GIPLC because I look at it like a cash register, in that every account, every thought, every deed, like every sale is registered and recorded. The best use of life is to spend it for something that will outlive life itself. I believe at my age I have lived half my life for myself. Right now I am dedicating the remaining half for humanity,” Kwajafa.

    Sanomi II was born in 1975 in Agbor Delta State, the fifth child (and first son) of a devout Catholic family. His father, the late Dickens Oghenereumu Patrick Sanomi hailed from Delta State and was a retired Assistant Inspector General of the Nigerian Police. Mr Sanomi’s mother, Mabel Iyabo Sanomi holds a Royal title of Yeye Jemo of Isotun Ijesha Kingdom in Osun State. She was a renowned nurse and medical entrepreneur from Osun State in South Western Nigeria.

    Sanomi entered the world of business shortly after completing his Bachelor’s Degree in Geology and Mining at the University of Jos in Northern Nigeria. Mr Sanomi is the Chairman of Taleveras which he founded in 2004. He is also Chairman of the Dickens Sanomi Foundation board of Trustees. He also sits as Chairman and co-chairman of various companies which he founded or co-founded. These companies’ activities span from Telecom to Shipping, Aviation and Real Estate Investments worldwide.

  • Abdulsamad Rabiu’s Midas touch

    In a clime where material success is treated as the be all and the end all, BUA Group boss Abdulsamad Rabiu would be forgiven for flaunting his deep pocket like most of his peers do. But that is not the way of the Kano-born dude.

    At barely 24 years of age, he took on the task of transforming the fortunes of his father’s ailing business and built it into the formidable BUA Group of today. While his father, the renowned businessman Isyaku Rabiu, was cooling his heels in detention on the orders of the military government of the time, young Abdulsamad picked up the gauntlet and steered the company with uncommon dexterity into safety and profitability.

    The Nigerian conglomerate has interests in sugar refining, cement production, real estate, steel, port concession, manufacturing, oil and gas, and shipping. With an annual turnover of $2 billion, BUA Group is one of the biggest names in the Nigerian business environment.

  • A light touch

    A light touch

    Driving the other day in the Abule-Egba axis of Lagos State, I ran into a sort of traffic snag. I was forbidden to take my usual route to Otta, and I had to negotiate a diversion. It was a laborious engagement. With the diligence of ants, vehicle trailed vehicle in an eternal slog through serpentine roads.

    Suddenly the sight ahead absorbed the driver. A flyover. The structure is a high curve towering over all, and with workers furiously at work. Ahead was a chaos of industry, of working to meet a deadline dangling like the bridge. The chaos of men, machines, engines revving, men hollering orders to others who obey with their bodies buried in white dust.

    Suddenly the vehicular ache was no longer a scandal. The architectural marvel ahead reminded one of what used to be at that same point. That is, another anarchy of horns, or cars ramming into cars and sometimes into men. It precipitated a paralysis of movement.

    The contrast of optimistic chaos against paralytic anarchy brought to mind a line I read in William Wordsworth’s immortal poem, Intimations of Immortality. “The things I have seen I now can see no more,” wrote the bard. It reads like a religious, out-of-body experience. It is, however, a sort of ecstasy of miracle from human hands.

    The flyover, now a seeming bridge between earth and sky, promises to connect people to people and place to place with a lightness of touch. It is not just the work of money. It is the triumph of thinking. How much difference one contraption can do to the lives of millions who live in that part of town!

    That is a big snapshot of the style of Nigeria’s alpha governor, Akinwunmi Ambode. His is an administration powered less by money than the force of mind. As Einstein once said, “imagination is more important than knowledge.”

    If the Abule-Egba is money, less money is about to turn gridlock into ease in Lekki merely by doing away with the onerous roundabouts. Or is it the near-miracle drive through the Third Mainland Bridge by constructing a layby on a tract of land which seemed invisible until his eyes look. Many of such are sprouting in major centres of the state.

    He will have to do that, he knows, against the ambition to turn many pot-hole ridden inner roads into mercies for cars and commuters. Last year he redeemed 114 roads. He plots 181 for 2017, and it is not to save roads for saving sake, but to link them to major arteries. That betokens more traffic and better traffic management. He is looking at many major areas, such as Agric-Isawo-Arepo Road in Ikorodu, Ajelogo-Akanimodo Road in Epe, Oshodi to Murtala Airport Road and Ketu-Alapere Inner Road Phase II.

    It is often said that administrators should restrict themselves to one passion, and if they do it well they endear themselves to now as well as after. Legacy is assured. George Bush Sr. said he wanted to be known as the education president and unleashed the phrase, “a thousand points of light.”

    The risk, often, is that things may not work for that one dream. Finance and the concourse of events may overwhelm the leader’s plans. As Richard Nixon once asserted in his autobiography, “history affects us more than we affect history.” That pushes leaders to move from one interest to others. Obama just ended his reign doing things other than health care and pulling troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. For instance, he became the enabler of the greatest environmental agreement in history, a feat Theodore Roosevelt would envy in his grave.

    So, the alpha governor is looking at other areas. One of the most cheering for me has been the launch into the arts. He is now at work on theatres across the state. This is counterintuitive. We are, by all accounts, at our philistine nadir. The arts, including drama, are places where governments pay next to no attention.

    But Governor Ambode has worked up his bona fides for such an undertaking. With his security measures, Lagos is bubbling back to night life, and theatres are an important part of it. But this is no arts as snob. Each part of Lagos will express its sensibilities. So, he is not offering the eyebrow variety, keyed to the Victoria Island brood.

    While digitalising modern-day libraries for schools, he is also rejigging the environment with a new cleaning programme that will disrupt the swagger of the accustomed and contracted firms and make the exercise more accountable.

    The Christmas period was marked by the rise of rice, or what many called LAKE rice. If that was more than a little surprising in itself, it was even more so because of what it means if we take our jobs seriously. This was just one season. The deal between Lagos and Kebbi only came to light a year earlier and we already reaped the fruits. This makes nonsense of many years of dilating over locally grown food that continues to cost us billions of dollars a month in foreign exchange.

    As he keeps working, Governor Ambode is making governance look easy because he is a creative dynamo. He knows, just as the artist Pablo Picasso said, that “everything you can imagine is real.” His imagination is becoming every Lagosian’s reality.

     

    Okowa, Okubo and $10 million mistress

    Last week, the news media online buzzed with speculations about Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa over this newspaper story about a governor that laundered $10million to a mistress who escaped with the loot. Even the APC in the state railed at Okowa, asking him to own up. The Delta State governor’s media team harped that their boss is innocent of the charge.

    This newspaper did not mention Okowa. It merely stated that the suspect is a governor in an oil-rich state in the Niger Delta.

    But I was quiet until I read a Facebook comment from one Festus Okubor, who accused me of being behind the news story, and that I was working with social media woman Olunloyo and a third person that courage fails Okubor to mention.

    Okubor was information commissioner under James Ibori and chief of staff to Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan. I wondered why a person who has held such responsible positions could act so irresponsibly. One, I am not the owner of The Nation as he claims. He said: “Sam Omatseye’s paper published…” Two, on which source did he conclude that I was behind the story?

    Three, the newspaper did not mention Okowa’s name. It only said the suspect was in an oil-bearing state in the region. Is Okowa the only governor in that region?

    Four, I can authoritatively say it is not Okowa, and all the facts based on our sources point to someone else. So, how come an Okubor could accuse me of such fiction? He was an information officer of the state and he is the exact mockery of information management. He traded in fantasy in the name of sycophancy. He had served Ibori and Uduaghan, now he is grovelling to Okowa and he is even praising him for a non-existent infrastructural stride.

    He even vouched for Okowa, saying “he has no girlfriend, whether Ika or Itsekiri, anywhere in the world.” Who asked him if Okowa has a Fulani or Yoruba or Ibibio or Turkish mistress somewhere in the world? He is a serial doormat and lickspittle, and Governor Okowa should be aware of such crawlers around him.

  • Touch and go (to jail)

    •Senate goes tough on randy dons; passes sexual abuse bill    

    Senator Ovie Omo-Agege was justifiably exuberant, after the senate passed the Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Education Institution Bill 2016, which he sponsored. The bill makes sexual harassment in our higher institutions a strict liability offence, and provides for five years imprisonment or five million naira in lieu, upon conviction. Addressing the press after the passage of the bill, the senator reportedly said: “Now, it is touch and go. You stay away from these girls. You touch them as a lecturer; you know there is a price to pay. Somebody describes it as a zip up legislation.”

    While there are still some more efforts to get the bill to become law, we believe that most Nigerians will be excited over the prospects, considering the menace posed by randy lecturers in our higher institutions. To actualise the bill as a law, the House of Representatives would have to pass the same bill, and then the president has to give his assent. Between the passage of a similar bill by the lower house and its harmonisation, we urge the National Assembly to consider extending the law to other institutions and even the work place, considering that sexual harassment is not limited to higher institutions only.

    We appreciate the unsavoury experiences of victims of sexual harassment, so criminalising such scandals is very appropriate. Some females who have been victims of sexual harassment bear the marks sometimes for life. Indeed, some of the stories surrounding the scandals in our higher institutions are very unnerving. Such heart-rending tales include the lecturers asking the victims to arrange and pay for a rendezvous for the abuse, or where the victim is adamant against such exploitation, to pay money in lieu.

    But there may still be the challenge of under-reporting the threats and even the abuses by victims, because of stigmatisation and collusion by school authorities and even the police. We hear that when such cases are reported by victims, sometimes the authorities connive to bury the scandal, perhaps out of sympathy for the lecturer involved, or based on outright quid pro quo, considering that the investigating authority may also have skeletons in its own cardboard.

    So, there may be the need for the senate of higher institutions and education authorities of secondary schools to develop a minimum code of conduct for their teachers and students. Such basic rules will regulate the relationship between the teachers and the students, and they should be strictly observed, while infractions are punished. For, while a law may come to regulate where the internal mechanisms fails, school authorities where they are willing may prove efficient in curbing the menace. Preventive measures will also save the institutions the scandal that will come with a trial of a lecturer, under the law.

    It is also good that the bill provides a framework to punish false allegations, so that students and even rival teachers do not use the law for self-serving purposes. We hope the law, when passed, will also criminalise such potential dubious behaviour capable of ruining an honest teacher. Part of the challenge of the bill is that any relationship between a student and a teacher that results in sex automatically becomes a criminal offence, even when the parties are consenting adults.

    Since the bill will still be passed by the House of Representatives, and be harmonised before it goes to the president for assent, perhaps a public hearing of the views of specialists may be helpful. Specialists in psychology, sociology and medicine could throw light on how to mediate between consent and sexual abuse that casts a slur on our institutions.

     

  • Keshi in touch with players for Rwanda tie

    Keshi in touch with players for Rwanda tie

    Super Eagles Head Coach Stephen Keshi may not have signed a new contract with his employers, the Nigeria Football Federation(NFF), but SportingLife can reveal he has been in touch with all the players he intends to invite for the Africa Nations Cup qualifying match against Rwanda holding in September.

    The Big Boss, who spoke with SportingLife from his North Carolina base in the United States of America, said: “All the players are ready for the qualifiers. I am very much in touch with the players. I have called virtually all of them, and they have all expressed their readiness to honour the invitation immediately the time comes. The good thing is that the Leagues would start before the match, and also virtually all of them are on pre-season tour with their clubs, which makes it easy for us as relatimg to the issue of fitness”.

    The former national team captain, who failed to let us into the likely players he would invite for the match, said: “Our building processes continues. In this new phase, we are now going to consolidate on whatever gains we had the last time. The areas we had lapses, we are going to fortify them, and be able to give Nigerians a very strong team that they can always be proud off”. Keshi also expressed his happiness on the recovery of most of his injured players.

    “I am happy with the recovery rates of  virtually all the boys. Leon Balogun is okay now, and he is training. Dike, Ogenyi Onazi have recovered and resumed training with their clubs, same as Babatunde Michael and Elderson Echiejile. It gives me joy, because it gives us the opportunity for various options. I pray that everyone remains in good health”.

    The former New Nigerian Bank of Benin Captain said he remains committed to the service to his fatherland first before any other option.  “I would only have considered other options if my employers NFF never needed my services. But as long as serving Nigeria is there, any other option can wait. No matter the amount of money. I have sacrificed for the country as a player, so, why would I go back now,” he said. He confirmed that he would return to the country this week to tidy up all the contractual agreements with the NFF, and begin adequate preparation for the Nations Cup qualifier in earnest.  He also hoped that all the agreement that would be entered into this time around with the NFF would be respected to the letter.

  • Commendation for Natures Gentle Touch

    SINCE Natures Gentle Touch began the Root of the Matter initiative, hundreds of women have experienced a journey that is sure to set them on the path to having a naturally beautiful and healthy hair. They all have been full of appreciation for the rare opportunity afforded them to tackle the roots of their hair and scalp problems.

    Anchor salon for the Natures Gentle Touch Root of the Matter initiative, Make Me Beauty Place, has been a beehive of activities since the programme started. Various hair and scalp problems like dandruff, hair breakage, receding hairline, slow hair growth and alopecia have been diagnosed and treated.

    The Root of the Matter initiative is designed to help Nigerian women to understand and overcome the various hair and scalp challenges which often times discourage them from being proud of their natural hair.

    The initiative is in partnership with select salons in Nigeria where Natures Gentle Touch hair care experts will offer free hair consultations and free hair treatments. Brand manager for Natures Gentle Touch, Mr. Austen Umeani, said that the project is an affirmation of the brand’s promise to help African women to live and maintain a healthy natural hair in the country.

    Meanwhile, the Proprietor of Make Me Beauty Place, Surulere, Lagos lauded Natures Gentle Touch for coming up with this novel idea and said that every lady who has taken advantage of the initiative can never forget in a hurry the memorable time they had during the time.

    Natures Gentle Touch is a natural hair care brand that provides solutions to different hair and scalp problems such as hair breakage, dandruff, slow hair growth, weak and damaged hair. It is specially designed to suit the beauty needs of Africans living in Africa.

  • ‘Ogun LP is out of touch with the people’

    The Ogun State Government has said the criticism of its infrastructural projects by the Labour Party (LP) “is borne out of ignorance”.

    It said it was a demonstration that the LP leadership has lost touch with the people.

    In a statement yesterday, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Alhaji Yusuph Olaniyonu, said the projects were in response to the inadequacy and outdated state of infrastructure, many of which have not been renovated in the last 20 years.

    Olaniyonu said: “The 16 roads being built across the state are aimed at modernising our state and making it an investor’s destination. That is why we have set a standard for our roads to be six-lane with necessary facilities.

    “The administration has been very frugal and transparent in the award of contracts. We can boldly say that with the quality of roads we are constructing, nobody can fault our contract costing.”

    The commissioner advised the opposition to stop playing politics with development issues and support the government in improving the state.

    He said: “Is the LP, which is rarely known in the state, working in sync with our people? Does it understand their needs? Why is it casting aspersion on projects our people are happy with? A good indication that our people are happy with the administration’s projects is the way they reacted to the demolition of their buildings to pave the way for road expansion.

    “Our people know what they want and who is protecting their interest. They will not listen to mischief makers, who are pretending to be critics.”

  • Touch of Fate (2)

    Don, what’s the matter? Are you alright?” Helen asked worriedly.

    He did not respond but closed his eyes and placed his right hand on his brow. After a while, he opened his eyes and spoke.

    I’m ok. I’ve been taking these malaria drugs and they make me feel dizzy at times,” he explained.

    “Sorry about that. Maybe you should go home and rest. We could always hang out some other time,” she said, still looking worried.

    He shook his head, insisting he was fine.

    They chatted for a while with Helen doing most of the talking while he listened, a pensive look on his face.

    Before parting that night, he promised to call in a few days so they go out on another date.

    “I’ve enjoyed our time together. Let’s do this again,” he said as he kissed her on the cheek before she alighted from his car in front of her house.

    About a week later, when she did not hear from him, she called his mobile.

    “I was worried that maybe you had not recovered from the malaria,” she stated. “So, how are you feeling now?” she enquired.

    He told her he was alright but had been unable to contact her due to work commitments. But Don knew in his heart that that was not the whole truth. Much as he liked her and wanted to see more of her, he had decided to keep away for certain reasons which he could not explain to her.

    “Actually, I have an invite for you,” Helen said, adding, “One of our executive directors at the bank is retiring soon and a party is being planned for him next week. It’s at the Ritz Hotel and it’s going to be a classy do. I want you to be my date for the evening.”

    His initial reaction was to decline, but hearing her sweet voice again and realizing how much he had missed her, he accepted.

    The party turned out to be a glitzy affair as Helen had predicted. Mr Thompson, the director that was leaving, who was a Briton, was one of the pioneer staff of the bank when it was established some decades earlier. Some of the top officials of the bank including the M.D, some directors and senior management staff were in attendance. There was lots to eat and drink and plenty of speeches as well.

    “Nice party,” Don said some time later. They were taking a walk by the hotel pool. Inside the hall, a live band was playing and some of the usually serious minded bankers were letting their hair down and grooving to the beats.

    “You can go back and continue with your dancing if you want,” she suggested, sitting on a chair by the pool. He had danced with a couple of her colleagues including the loquacious Tina who had been clinging onto him all evening. Due to her leg injury, she could not dance and had sat watching the couples on the dance floor a bit enviously.

    “No. I’m cool. It was getting a bit stuffy inside,” he said, sitting by her. They sat in silence for a while, taking in the scenery and savouring the cool, fresh air.

    Then turning to him, she said:

    “I know you might say it’s none of my business. But you told me the other day that you called off your wedding to the lady you were planning to marry a week to the day. What really happened?”

    He sighed, before telling her a tale of infidelity and betrayal.

    “I caught her in bed with my best friend. He was someone I trusted so much and we were like brothers. He was to be my best man at the wedding. I just couldn’t get over the betrayal of trust especially on her part. It put me off relationships for a long while,” he stated quietly.

    She reached for his hand and held it.

    “What a sad story,” she noted. “These things happen. I have some horror relationship tales as well,” she added. And she went on to tell him about her last boyfriend who turned out to be a fraudster. “He claimed to be a businessman, an importer of computers and accessories. One day, he told me he had secured a contract at a government ministry to supply computers worth about N100 million. He begged me to use my connection at the bank to secure a loan to import the items,” Helen narrated. It was while the loan application was being processed, she added that a colleague who knew someone at the ministry made enquiries concerning the contract.

    “It was then the truth was revealed- there was no contract! He wanted to dupe the bank and disappear abroad with the money once he had received it. Of course I ended the relationship! The most painful thing was that instead of showing remorse for his misdeeds, he wrote me a terrible letter. He called me all kinds of names including a cripple, disclosing that the only reason he dated me, was because of my job- as I could facilitate his access to bank loans easily. Can you imagine that?” she said.

    “He was a very bad person. Thank God you found out about him on time,” Don stated.

    “Yes. It was a lucky escape for me. As his guarantor, I would have ended up being saddled with repaying the money. Where will I see such a huge amount of money to pay back to the bank? “ she wondered.

    “You know, we are two of a kind, been through so much heartache…” Don said, holding her by the shoulder and drawing her close.

    “Yes,” she intoned, resting her head on his shoulder…

     

    The revelation

    After that night, they saw regularly for the next couple of months. And soon, a relationship blossomed between them. To Don, it was never part of his plan to get so close to her but try as he could, he could not stay away from her. There was something about her that kept drawing him to her and it got to a point where he stopped trying to resist. He had fallen in love and there was no point denying it. Besides, he found in Helen some of the qualities he had always wanted in a woman- she was caring, loving and faithful. After the incident with his ex-fiancé, he wanted a woman he could trust and he saw that in Helen.

    About eight months after they started dating, Don proposed to her one evening at his home. Though she had been expecting something like that from hints he had been dropping, Helen still looked surprised when she saw the ring he had slipped on her third finger.

    “It’s so beautiful!” she enthused, then added. “Of course I will marry you, darling! At least that will stop Tina from trying to snatch you from me.”

    After things had quietened down a bit, they sat making tentative plans for their wedding.

    “But Don,” Helen stated some time later, “Much as I love you and want to be your wife and I suspected you were going to propose, I thought maybe, you would wait for sometime…”

    “Wait for what?” he asked.

    “For us to get to know each other better. We’ve not even been dating for up to a year,” she noted.

    “Baby, what more do I need to know about you? Afterall, I’ve known you since you were a little girl like this,” he said, raising his hand to indicate the height of a ten year old child.

    “Don! That’s not true! I was not as small as that!” she said heatedly.

    “You were!” he insisted, laughing at her.

    She picked up one of the empty bottles of red wine on the table they had drunk to celebrate their engagement.

    “Say that again and I will hit you with this,” she said, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

    He jumped up from the couch and standing at a safe distance, repeated his earlier statement about her height, his hand raised at the same angle.

    “Ah! Somebody is going to join his ancestors today!” she shouted, getting up to run after him, the bottle raised in a threatening manner…

    * * * *

    It was about a month to the wedding. Preparations were in top gear and like most brides-to-be, Helen was excited about the coming nuptials. One evening at his apartment, they sat going over the guest list on Don’s computer. It was growing longer by the day and Helen was trying to prune it to a reasonable figure.

    “It’s too long. I think 300 is a more reasonable number,” she said, scrolling down the list of names.

    “You are right. Well, you take care of it. I’m going to see Patrick about the groomsmen’s outfits,” he stated, picking his car keys from the side table. Patrick was going to be his best man at the wedding.

    After he had left, she worked on the list for a while. She was saving the document in a folder when something attracted her attention. She clicked on the file and began reading it. At the end, she sat staring at the screen, too stupefied to move.

    Could this be true? Or was she dreaming? How could it be? That her own Don, the love of her life, the man she was planning to marry was the one who had been driving the night of the accident back in school that had left her nearly crippled? But it was all there- the details of what had happened that night; the party, the drive back to the campus, hitting her and abandoning her by the roadside half-dead, wounded, bleeding, unconscious…

    It was in his private files which she had stumbled upon by chance. In a way she was glad, the truth was out. But on the other hand, she wished fervently that she had remained ignorant of the truth and had continued in her dreams and hopes for the future that now suddenly looked so bleak.

    “Baby, I’m back. How is the list coming up?” Don said as he walked in through the front door. But he was stopped in his tracks by the strange look in her eyes- a mixture of despair, anger, disappointment and hopelessness…

    To be continued

     

    •With this revelation, things can definitely not be the same between the lovers. What next? Don’t miss the juicy details next Saturday!

    •Names have been changed to protect the characters’ identities

     

    •Send comments/suggestions to psaduwa@yahoo.com or 08023201831.

  • Amosun’s Midas touch in Ogun

    Amosun’s Midas touch in Ogun

    Immediate past Ogun State Commissioner for Information, Sina Kawonise, must be commended for re-awakening our memory about the pervasive air of fetishism that dogged the administration of his erstwhile boss, Otunba Gbenga Daniel. During that era, lurid stories were told of the practice of necromancy in high places. Many of these were documented in Wale Adedayo’s book, Microseconds Away from Death. Adedayo should know. He served that government for the best part of six years, including as director of communication, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ogun State and later, media director to former Governor Daniel.

    Eager to prod us to remember our recent, most despicable, misfortune of being saddled with the most archaic government ever, Kawonise, in a recent piece, accused Governor Ibikunle Amosun of being responsible for the “death of prominent Egba chiefs” in recent time. He did not stop at that. He accused Amosun of “spiritually” responsible for the carnage on federal roads, including Lagos/Ibadan and Sagamu/Ore – axis in Ogun State. How much worse can an individual exhibit intellectual stagnation!

    It is heart-warming, at least, to know that throughout his piece, Kawonise could not pin a single case of physical violence intent on Amosun since assumption of office. It may be necessary to recall immediate ugly and shameful development that led to Kawonise’s emergence as information commissioner. Before him, two former predecessors of his left office in record hullabaloo. One, Niran Malaolu, allegedly got slapped for daring to attempt to instil decorum into the governor’s activities. The other, Kayode Samuel, fled the shores of Nigeria, fearing that the goons of the administration would take it out on him, before throwing in his resignation letter.

    Shortly after Tunde Oladunjoye, erstwhile boss of Ijebu North East Local Government, who, by then, had fallen out with Otunba Daniel for his patriotic opposition to pilfering council fund by the executive branch, went to town, armed with copiously intimidating evidence, some pictorial, that the wife of the governor, physically led rag-tag undertakers to unleash terror on his home in Ijebu Ife.

    Indeed, three media managers fell out with the Daniel administration in circumstances as intriguing as they were nearly bloody. Take the case of Adedayo, Daniel’s erstwhile media director, who engaged in a gun duel with suspected agents of the government at Ilishan before he went underground.

    This is a mere snippet of the general air of terror which pervaded Ogun State in our recent past. Now, is it not curious that while his three predecessors scampered out of office in the circumstances painted above, Kawonise, a hitherto unknown media figure, not only worked cordially with a government openly accused of murderous tendencies but also still keeps company of his erstwhile boss.

    It is a known fact that the menace of cultism and youth brigandage spiralled during the eight agonizing years of the Daniel administration. Boys, barely out of their pre-teen, were armed to unleash mayhem on opponents of the administration. The ripple outcome of this is the overwhelming possession of illicit weapons in wrong hands, a situation that has led to increased cases of violence in our environment.

    Not prepared to be caught napping, the Amosun administration recently introduced the highest number of Armoured Personal Carriers in crime control in Ogun State. Amosun deployed 13 of the equipment as against the only one dubbed “Iyalode” (for its eternal immobility) purchased by the Daniel administration.

    While he inherited 16 Hilux trucks meant for use by policemen, the Amosun administration, barely a year in office, bought 182 of the vehicles. The government also bought a large number of bullet-proof vests, helmets and riffles, precise number of which can not be disclosed here for obvious reasons.

    As soon as he came into office, the Amosun administration recruited 5,000 youths, mostly university graduates, into the civil service. At the moment all the lucky individuals have been fully integrated into the service.

    Unlike the practice of his predecessor in office whose officials spoke to the people only through cudgels and, sometimes, the gun, Governor Amosun personally went around the state to interface directly with the people who would be affected by massive road reconstruction currently commencing in Abeokuta, Sagamu, Yewaland and other places. Many of them, particularly in the state capital, Abeokuta, have received momentary compensation for their property that would give way to the modern roads. Others who have not received theirs are already being prepared to take their entitlement as well.

    Many of these roads have become incapable of withstanding modern day traffic across the state. As a matter of fact, many of them were built at a time when the state population was less than half of what obtains today. Therefore, it needs no further prodding for any responsible government to know it is, indeed, time to overhaul them.

    On the economic front, over 500 transformers were acquired by the Amosun administration. They have since been distributed to needy communities. In no small manner, this gesture has greatly assisted economic empowerment of citizens since a large potion of the populace derive their survival from availability of electricity.

    Still in the empowerment arena, a total of 77 buses, the largest ever in the state, were drafted into the hitherto epileptic mass transportation system of Ogun State. These consist of 27 pieces of 43-seaters luxury buses; 30 of 18-seater Toyota buses and 20 Nissan buses. Aside remarkable positive intervention in the sector, this move has also provided gainful employment for no fewer than 250 indigenes of Ogun State.

    In place of the practice of yesteryears when youth were deliberately armed by the government to cause havoc in the society, the Amosun administration has begun the arduous, but necessary, task of steering them away from crime. In January this year, the Amosun government flagged off the distribution of N1.8 billion worth of textbooks to private primary and secondary schools in the state. This was a follow-up to a similar gesture involving distribution of instructional materials such as note books, pencils, biros, file jackets and school bags among others. To promote the process further, 28 model schools are currently being built across the state.

    • Lawal is publicity secretary, ACN, Ogun State