For four days within a week the Lagos-Ibadan expressway was for want of better description under a virtual lockdown or a siege thus paralyzing movement and causing unimaginable hardship and pain to the traveling public. People spent over ten hours on the road till midnight of April 2 and early morning of April 3. A reoccurrence was witnessed the night of April 6 till the morning of April 7.Repeating the same thing and expecting different results is the hallmark of madness. If innocent people were not the victims of government’s indifference, it would probably just pass as the proverbial example of Nigerians being inured to suffering, humiliation and poor governance but in this case many ordinary Nigerians just wanting to be allowed to live were involved. A 70-year old year professor friend of mine on her way to the United Kingdom was caught in this horror and she spent 10 hours in the heat of the traffic snarl not knowing if she would come out of it alive. After 10 hours anybody, not to talk about a 70-year old lady, would be pressed to go to the toilet. This is just the case that I know but there must have been thousands of unreported cases. Of course the poor lady missed her flight and had to stay in Lagos for extra two days to find a seat on another scheduled flight after paying huge financial penalties for missing her flight. It is only in Nigeria where citizens are subjected to this kind of double jeopardy without anybody or institutions being held accountable.
There are two construction companies working on this 127.6 kilometre road which has been on the drawing board since 1993. From the Lagos end we have Julius Berger a Nigerian – German company and a subsidiary of Bilfinger und Berger based in Wiesbaden. This is a company with tremendous reputation of efficiency and reliability. This company was largely responsible for building Abuja as well as the modernization of Lagos involving the construction of all the flyovers among many major engineering landmarks in Nigeria. From the Ibadan end is a Nigerian-Israeli company, Reynolds Construction Company Limited (RCC) which has also been handling many construction businesses in Nigeria. The two companies were brought in after the failure of the Wale Babalakin-sponsored company Bi-Courtney limited which was given the go ahead to build the road as a private enterprise by the Obasanjo regime. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the minister of finance under Obasanjo had promised that since we exited from the debt overhang of the Paris and London clubs of external creditors after paying in the year 2000, a whopping $12 billion, the money being previously used to service the debts will be devoted to infrastructural renewal. Nothing like that happened; rather we saw the Lagos-Ibadan expressway privatized into the hands of Bi- Courtney. The award was further confirmed by the Goodluck Jonathan regime.
The question many of us asked then was why the major road artery in Nigeria connecting the main ports with the hinterland became the object of the experiment of the western capitalist inspired privatization mania of the PDP governments from 1999 to 2015. Even in the latter years of the Babangida government particularly under Major General Abdulkarim Adisa as minister of works, plans were afoot to reconstruct the road but all came to naught because of the political and economic instability which marked the last seven years of the military regime from 1992 to 1999.
Until President Muhammadu Buhari came in 2015, the expressway seemed jinxed with the spirit of abandonment. It was with great expectations that most people welcomed the appointment of Babatunde Raji Fashola as minister in charge of works, housing and power. His reputation as a modernizing governor predated him to the ministry. He did not initially disappoint his admirers. He took on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway with his usual aplomb. But his enthusiasm and drive were halted when Bukola Saraki as president of the senate stood in his way.
To curry favour of some powerful interests, Bukola Saraki began to suggest that the Southwest was not the only zone in the country and that whatever resources that were available for the Lagos-Ibadan expressway would have to be spread to all the six zones of the country. Thus the budgets for this road for the four years of the Buhari government were slashed and shared to other zones sometimes for frivolous projects such as boreholes and senators’ corrupt constituency projects .What Saraki forgot to remember was that the Lagos-Ibadan road extended to his fiefdom in his much-abused and humiliated Ilorin. The reality of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway is that it connects the North to the coast and also the ports of Lagos with the oil producing zones of the South-south and the Southeast. Not only that, the zone where the road traverses contributes 70% of the customs and excise revenues of the country as well as 60% of the Value Added Tax (VAT). Building the road therefore was of great and significant economic importance to the entire country. This simple logic could not be assimilated by those in the senate whose understanding of government did not go beyond buccaneering self-aggrandizement. Now chicken has come home to roost and innocent people are dying and suffering at the hands of the construction companies particularly Julius Berger.
For some strange reasons, Julius Berger is performing below expectations in its Lagos half of the road. The story in the past was usually about being owed money for job done. Yet, we were told that money had been secured for this project. Is someone deceiving the public and is Julius Berger still being owed money for previous work on this road? I travel on this road weekly and I compare the work being done by Julius Berger with that of RCC and Julius Berger is surprisingly lagging behind. The equipment and men deployed shows the unserious approach of Julius Berger. There are fewer men and equipment deployed by Julius Berger on the vital Lagos section thus slowing the pace of work and prolonging the suffering of the unfortunate Nigerian people. Our people in the best of times are also unruly and impatient thus compounding and contributing to the chaos on the road. When sections are blocked there is no intelligent provision for alternative routes. This does not happen on the RCC section. The inference one can draw is that Julius Berger is not interested in the job at hand and is waiting for the riot act to be read to it before being fired. It could also be due to a sense of ennui and tiredness of the corrupt Nigerian bureaucracy and government.
Whatever the case may be, President Muhammadu Buhari had better send Fashola or his minister of state to visit the expressway and other vital projects of his ministry. As I have said in this column several times, Buhari does not have the luxury of time to waste talking when what is needed is action. He is not going to run again but he is running against his place in the history of this country. He must remove all impediments and obstacles for his earning an enviable place in the history of this much abused and misgoverned country. All governments at the state and federal levels must realise that they are not just in government and authority they are there to ameliorate the suffering of our helpless and hapless people who have no recourse to anybody but God even though divine justice grinds very slowly. Our people don’t demand much than to be left alone to eke out their miserable existence. In this regard, free and passable highways are not asking for the moon but they are the rights of the citizens of this country. In short government is not just about those in government and state houses but about ordinary people too.
Tragedy struck yesterday at the Samson Siasia Sports Complex when a protocol officer in Government House, Wisdom Obua, slumped on the complex football field. Obua, a prominent member of a notable football club, Creek Heaven All Stars, created panic among his team mates as he suddenly slumped in the field. Members of the football club are mainly Government House officials and they meet regularly to play soccer.
Sources said the deceased, a coordinator of the football team, came in high spirits, prayed for his team and played the first half of a match between his team and All Stars International. It was gathered that during first half break, Obua collapsed and everybody around him including the Commissioner for Youths, Udengs Eradiri, tried to resuscitate him. It was learnt that Eradiri and others quickly rushed the late Obua to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Yenagoa.
“They were trying to manually revive him. When we eventually brought oxygen, they told us he was already dead. If the right medication had been applied immediately, our friend wouldn’t have died”, a source, who was among persons that rushed the deceased to the hospital said. When contacted, Eradiri expressed anger over the way manner Obua died in the hospital.
“He was in good health when I saw him. He coordinated our team. He was the one who led the prayers and distributed the kits. We exchanged banters and pleasantries. So, when he collapsed, we were all surprise”, he said. Eradiri said the government would consider setting up a quality control unit to monitor activities of health institutions and their equipment.
Pilgrims recount life-changing experiences at Hajj 2018 It’s a successful outing —NAHCON
AL-MASJID an-Nabawi towers as a gothic ornament to Madinah. From a distance, it glazes the skyline, ringed by faith and plazas of penance. Closer, the final resting place of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) unfurls like Jannah, mystic garden of unearthly delights to devout Muslims.
Walking into the mosque islike slipping into the folded petals of a scented flower. Its innards sprawl intricately: classic Ottoman architecture melds with gold, creating a flare of marble and fine jewels.
The first time Sabur Gbemisola visited the mosque, his faith bloomed fitfully in solace; the minarets and marbled terrace, humidifiers and wide tents, lavish scents, chandeliers and gilded shelves cuddling copies of the Holy Quran, coaxed him into a meditative spell.
“No words can describe the peace and feeling of being here at the grand mosque – Masjid an Nabawi. It’s the second holiest place in Islam after the Grand Mosque in Makkah. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) walked about and prayed here. Being here is a rare privilege. A dream come true,” he said.
Gbemisola got to live the dream of 1.8 billion Muslims. He saw and felt what millions of ‘lucky pilgrims’ experience in the Prophet’s mosque every year: pearl of the desert, melting pot of faith and culture, and long, open terraces forking into an ancient, spiritual paradise. All within the shining veins of Madinah, city of warmth and unforgiving sunlight.
From dawn through dusk, the mosque’s sacred paths pulse with suction of synthetic soles over gem, the sound pilgrim shoes make on the way to Salat (prayer).
•The Masjid al Haram, Islam’s Greatest Mosque houses the Ka’abah and attracts millions of pilgrims every year during the Hajj exercise
The mosque’s 1.6 million capacity complex booms with a million chants carrying penitence afar, heavenwards to be precise.
The pilgrims’ choruses waft melodiously; sometimes, amid the chants, a sob lets loose or a guttural cry ripples through torrents of tears as worshippers of vast racial stripes, gender and age demographics, seek their Creator’s mercies tearfully but determinedly.
Through the outburst of supplication and heart-felt penance, Abdullah Mukhtar Muhammad makes the same wish every year; that Allah grants him the grace to oversee a successful hajj exercise. The Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) prays for the safety of the thousands of pilgrims on his watch, hitch-free airlifts and tidier operations. Somewhere amid the flurry, he mutters a personal prayer or two.
Routinely, his entreaties drown in a cacophony of voices but it never gets misplaced or neglected. The NAHCON scribe attests to his answered prayers. For instance, he would readily tell you that while he worked assiduously with his team to ensure Nigeria’s successful participation at the 2017 Hajj exercise, it was due to Allah’s infinite mercies that transportation and food quality improved, and for the first time ever, Nigerian pilgrims were accommodated within the highbrow Markasiya precinct of Madinah, which is just a few minutes walking distance to the Prophet’s Grand Mosque. The 2018 Hajj also heralded remarkable improvements in Nigerian pilgrims’ Hajj experience, according to Muhammad. At a stakeholder meeting in NAHCON’s Ummul Juud, Makkah office, Muhammad declared this year’s Hajj a successful outing for Nigeria, thanking President Muhammadu Buhari and State Pilgrims Welfare Boards (SPWB) for paving the way for NAHCON to overcome its challenges.
Dying while on Hajj pilgrimage is a great honour to the deceased… it’s a blissful kind of tragedy because such people are honoured with being buried in Jannat Al-Mala in Makkah or Jannat Al-Baqi in Madinah
He also commended the Nigerian contingent for their patience, comportment, and most especially their orderliness. He acknowledged that most of them adhered to aviation specifications for hand luggage, thus the bane of arriving Jeddah Airport with multiple excess luggage was minimal compared to previous years. He enthused that all pilgrims will be transported home to Nigeria within the shortest time possible.
At the backdrop of Muhammad’s enthusiasm, pilgrims return to Nigeria with mixed feelings. According to a NAHCON’s operations staff, “It’s usually the case after any Hajj exercise. Things are never the same with the average pilgrim. Most people depart for home remarkably changed by the exercise,” said a NAHCON operations staff.
•NAHCON boss, Muhammad, inspects pilgrims’ meal in Makkah
The ‘forever’ pilgrims
Those are the lucky ones. Some pilgrims will never return home. Aishatu Balarabe, for instance, would never set foot on her home soil again. The female pilgrim from Ungogo Local Government Area (LGA) of Kano State died after a brief illness at the King Abdulaziz Hospital (KAH) Makkah on a Tuesday evening.
According to Dr. Ibrahim Kana, the National Hajj Commission (NAHCON) Commissioner in Charge of Health, Balarabe died soon after she was referred to KAH from NAHCON’s clinic at Al-Hijira road, Makkah.
“She was our patient and we referred her to King Abdulaziz hospital before she died. We have already captured her on our Electronic Health Medical Records (EHMR) system from patients referred to mortality,” he said.
Few days later, three other pilgrims died in an auto crash along Makkah-Madina highway. The deceased who were identified by as Jafarau Gidan Sabo, Abdullahi Shugaba Ruwan Dorowa and Mudi Mallamawa, were local government chairmen of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State and they died about 120 kilometres from Madinah.
Another pilgrim from Niger State died in Makkah, after mistakingy falling into the pit of an elevator under repair. The deceased stepped on the system not knowing it was under repair and fell into the pit; immediately the incident was reported, NAHCON despatched medical personnel to the scene, and after checks, they certified the victim dead.
Kana lamented that the residence managers knew that the lift had been defective for days, but they made no effort to seal it off and warn pilgrims to keep away. He said if they had taken such a precautionary measure, the incident would have been averted.
Kaduna State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board also announced the death of another pilgrim from Lere Local Government.
The victim died at Muna Alwadee Hospital after being diagnosed of chronic diabetes NAHCON’s medical team. Nigeria lost 12 pilgrims at the 2018 hajj. When death becomes noble
Dying while on Hajj pilgrimage is a great honour to the deceased, argued cleric and broadcaster, Abdul Semiu Echem. According to him, it’s a blissful kind of tragedy because such people are honoured with being buried in Jannat Al-Mala in Makkah or Jannat Al-Baqi in Madinah.
Indeed, a number of pilgrims said they are envious of pilgrims who die while performing Haj or in the vicinity of the Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah.
For instance, Egyptian pilgrim, Abdul Shafi Saeed, lost his friend, Sayyid Khaleel Hassan, eight years ago during Hajj. The latter reportedly died while in supplication at the plain of Arafat, the climax of the annual pilgrimage. In the same year, Abdullah Al-Roubi’s wife also died at Mina. The deceased reportedly expressed her wish to breathe her last and be buried in Makkah whenever she watched the holy Kaaba and the Grand Mosque on television. It was Allah’s will that she realised her wish while she was in state of Ihram, said her husband.
•Malik El Shabazz aka Malcolm X experienced his epiphany while on Hajj in 1964
Finding essence
There is no limit to how the average pilgrim seeks his or her epiphany, that is, the ‘ah-hah’ moment, during the Hajj exercise.
That moment need not be elusive, however, argued Hafiz Ryan, a pilgrim and Islamic scholar. “It subsists through the journey and the rites. It’s hidden in every gesture and every moment. For some people, the much sought epiphany booms through a gesture, a shared smile or meal. For some, it hits them in the Rawdah at the Prophet’s mosque in Madinah. Some never chance on it until they get to the Ka’abah in Islam’s Greatest Mosque in Makkah…Whatever the case, it behoves every pilgrim to come for Hajj with the greatest Taqwa (piety) ever. A pious heart is forever open to the most enlightening and rewarding experiences. You need humility too because every pilgrim performs Hajj stripped of his money, power and status. You are a nobody amid millions of nobodies. Only Allah counts. And piety enables you to find Him and appreciate the essence of the Hajj experience. And by the end of the exercise, you will leave a changed man or woman. Your soul will find peace that will sustain you,” explained Ryan.
Indeed, gestures boomed louder than words, particularly among the Nigerian contingent to the 2018 Hajj. In the spirit of Hajj and fear of their Creator, pilgrims engaged in random but deliberate acts of piety and honesty thus improving the quality of the Hajj experience.
First, when a Nigerian pilgrim, Musa Edotsu, from Gbago Local Government Area of Niger State, found a bag containing a key, an international passport, and money in Saudi Riyals, US Dollars and Dirham denominations, he took the bag to officials of the Niger State pilgrims board, who returned the items to the owner, Zukalraini Saeed, Chairman of the Enugu State Pilgrims Board, .
Edotsu was subsequently rewarded with $200 (N72,000) for his honesty, particularly at a period when most pilgrims were out of cash.
In another incident, Yahaya Omaki, a protocol staff in the office of the Nasarawa State First Lady, Salamatu Tanko Almakura, returned the cash equivalent of N500, 000, which he found while doing Tawaf in Makkah, to its owner, Faisal Saleem, a Pakistani pilgrim.
In gratitude, Saleem offered Omaki 50 riyal (N5, 000) which he turned down, saying he did it for Allah’s sake.
Kaltume Musa, another pilgrim from Plateau State, returned the sum of $800, which she found in a toilet at the King Muhammad Bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Madinah, to its owner, Salamatu Musa. The money was Musa’s Basic Travelling Allowance (BTA) for the Hajj exercise.
Islam commands the Muslims to be honest to himself and to others. This order recurrently comes in the Noble Qur’an and the hadith of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Islam orders the Muslim to tell the truth even if it is against one’s own interest. Islam orders him not to cheat or betray other people. A Muslim is ordered by Allah to be truthful in his words and deeds, privately and publicly alike.
Charity begins in Madinah
For most pilgrims, especially those who came in through Madinah, the much sought heightened spiritual awakening and enlightenment started in Madinah.
“Madinah offers you ample opportunities to brace yourself and build your stamina for ibaadah (worship). There, you can engage in random but heart-felt acts of charity, like feeding the poor, sharing meals with fellow pilgrims and so on. Although, one of the major challenges in Madinah was getting to the Rawdah (the Prophet’s grave); once there, I prayed fervently and observed nawafil (supererogatory prayer). One thing I wasn’t ready for, however, were the waterworks. I cried uncontrollably,” said Sumaya Bello, a medical doctor.
It is the dream of several pilgrims to visit the Rawdah. Although the span of the mosque’s premises is considered a holy ground, pilgrims aspire to pray in the Rawḍah, for there is a tradition that prayers uttered there are never rejected.
“Even the flimsiest fantasy that sprouts in your mind, while in the Rawdah, comes true, once its halal (lawful). In the Rawdah, Allah blesses every pilgrim’s heartfelt wish. I know from experience,” stressed Abdulmumin Hamouza, a pilgrim and paramedic from Mali.
Access into the area is not always possible, especially during the Hajj season, as the space can only accommodate a few hundred people.
The Rawdah, (literally translated “Garden”) is an area between the minbar (pulpit) and burial chamber of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). It is regarded as one of the Riyāḍ al-Jannah (Gardens of Paradise). A green carpet distinguishes the area from the rest of the mosque, which is covered in red carpet.
“Between my house and my pulpit lies a garden from the gardens of Paradise,” says a Hadith from renowned scholar and companion of the Prophet (PBUH), Bukhari.
I was overwhelmed by His infinite mercies upon me and my heart filled with gratitude. I was drenched in tears and looking around me, I realised that most of my fellow pilgrims were in tears. It was a very touching moment
The original size is approximately 22 meters in length and 15 meters in width.
“The Rawdah is part of the Prophet’s mosque, and the prayer in it equals in reward 1,000 prayers. Pilgrims attempt to visit the confines of the area; left to them, it’s the metaphysical bridge, ringed by penitence and arches of hope, between them and Omnipotent God, Almighty Allah.
“I visited here last year, and everything I asked for has been granted by Allah,” enthused Haroun Ishola, a journalist.
Entering the state of Ihram
From Madinah, the pilgrims proceed to the Miqat (pilgrimage boundary) at which point each pilgrim enters into the state of Ihram. This is the sacred state which a Muslim must enter in order to perform the major pilgrimage (Hajj) or the minor pilgrimage (Umrah). The pilgrim performs the cleansing rituals and wears the prescribed attire and makes Niyyah (intention) for Umrah.
At this juncture, each pilgrim starts reciting the Talbiya: “Labbayka Allahumma labbayk, labbayka la sharika laka labbayk, inna alhamda, wal ni’mata, laka wal mulk, la sharika lak” translatable thus: “I am here at your service, Oh Allah, I am here at Your service. You have no partner. Surely, praise and blessings are Yours, and dominion. You have no partner.”
For Zainab Musa, that was the “most defining moment.” It was one of her “most emotional moments…I was reminded of how powerful Almighty Allah is. I realised that He has granted me the opportunity to perform Hajj, a bounty that remains elusive to even the most powerful and affluent individuals. I was overwhelmed by His infinite mercies upon me and my heart filled with gratitude. I was drenched in tears and looking around me, I realised that most of my fellow pilgrims were in tears. It was a very touching moment,” she said.
From this point onward, pilgrims enter the state of Ihram and will not be able to use any scented items, as it would invalidate their Ihram. At this juncture, pilgrims can only use non-scented wipes, hand-sanitizers, deodorant, lotion, hand wash and possibly shampoo.
Depending on each pilgrim or contingent’s time line, on arrival in Makkah, they will rest a little, eat and then head for Umrah.
Doing the Tawaf
In performing the Umrah, pilgrims proceed to the Great Mosque in Makkah to perform the Tawaf, that is, circumambulation of the Ka’abah. There, most pilgrims break down in tears. For instance, the first time Safiyatu Usman set eyes on the Ka’abah, she cried. At her first entrance into The Grand Mosque of Makkah, also called Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām(the Sacred Mosque), the Ka’abah, also known as the Holy Qiblah, towered impressively over her.
She said: “An irresistible force settled over me. It was peaceful, comforting and very fulfilling. For the first time in my life, I felt at peace and in perfect communion with Allah. I felt His presence. The feeling stayed with me through my first six Tawafs (circumambulation of the Holy Qiblah) and at the seventh one, I whipped out my prayer book and chanted the Dua il Ganjual Arsh (The prayer of the treasure and the throne). There is nothing to equate such feeling in this world. I cried uncontrollably,” said Usman, stressing that her tears were triggered by awe.”
There is no gainsaying every visit to Islam’s greatest temple, leaves the pilgrim awestruck. Widely adjudged the largest mosque in the world, the Al Masjid-al-Haram surrounds the Islamic Qiblah (Direction of Prayer), that is the Ka’abah in the Hejazi city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Muslims face the Ka’aba while performing the Ṣalāh (act of worship).
After the first Tawaf, pilgrims perform the Sa’ey of Safa wal Marwah. During this part of Umrah, they are struck with imagery of Hajar trying to find water for her son, Ismail.
Afterwards, pilgrims undergo a minor hair cut to complete their Umrah. Then they proceed to Mina from where they engage in Hajj proper by proceeding to the plains of Mount Arafat to supplicate to Allah. Thereafter, they cast pebbles in Jamaarat at a symbolic devil and proceed to Muzdalifah, where they rest and collect pebbles for the first round of the three-part symbolic stoning of the devil in Jamarat.
Although Muslims world over celebrate the Eid-il-Kabir festival the day after pilgrims descend the plains of Arafat, the latter do not engage in similar celebration, rather at this stage, they shave their heads and exit the second and final state of Ihram. At this stage, their Hajj is complete, thus they can shower and use scented toiletries. The last and final ritual for Umrah and Hajj is Tawaf al Wada, which is known as the Farewell Tawaf. Pilgrims bid Allah bye at the Ka’abah in the Grand Mosque in Makkah, after which they depart for their individual homelands. The farewell is merely symbolic and representative of visitors bidding their Heavenly Host a temporary farewell.
Men distribute free buttermilk to thirsty pilgrims
A life- changing experience
There is no gainsaying the Hajj experience is widely clamoured by generations of devout Muslims who recognise it as the fifth pillar of Islam. Many Muslims who have been privileged to make Hajj often speak of how the journey is a life-changing experience. This is more the case for some than others.
Malik El Shabazz, a.k.a Malcolm X, experienced a life-changing Hajj in April 1964. As a former member and speaker for the Nation of Islam, a black spiritual and nationalist movement, he believed that the white man was the devil and the black man superior.
After leaving the Nation of Islam in March 1964, he performed Hajj. Writing on his Hajj experience, he explained how he experienced a profound shift in his perspective on race and racism:
“There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colours, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and the non-white.
“During the past 11 days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug)-while praying to the same God with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of the blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the ‘white’ Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.
I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug)-while praying to the same God with fellow Muslims… And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the ‘white’ Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana
“We are truly all the same-brothers. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.”
Like Shabazz aka Malcolm X, millions of pilgrims seek their moment of sudden awareness and spiritual revelation annually during Hajj.
For first time pilgrims like Gbemisola, the moment subsists in the Rawdah. Zainab Musa discovered it reciting the Talbiyyah in the sacred state of Ihram. Safiyatu Usman found it before the Ka’abah. And for recipients of Edotsu, Omaki and Kaltume, it probably subsists in the latter’s heart-felt gestures.
Yet, for deceased pilgrims like Balarabe, Sabo, Dorowa and Mallamawa, no one knows what wakefulness they encountered, particularly in their final hours.
Whatever the nature of awakening, each pilgrim’s epiphany becomes peculiar to him or her. Sometimes, it’s rapid, often times, it’s a slow burn; the mind migrates more fluidly than the body.
With Governor Ayo Fayose’s latest theatrics in Ekiti, you cannot but recall how apt is the Karl Marx famous quip: history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.
The slight exception here is that Fayose’s current theatrics, of grave allegations of some presidential order to kill both himself and his deputy, Prof. Kolapo Olusola Eleka — as hare-brained as they come — is a double turbo-charge: tragedy and farce all rolled into one; and dramatically and forcefully served, with more than enough cant and crocodile tears to spare.
Instructive: the Ekiti Mobile Police unit is central to the whole drama — which brings back the ghosts of 2014, a friendly apparition now turned infernally fiendish, from which Fayose now flees in blind panic. Poor guy!
Roll back to 2014. It was Fayose’s triumphant re-entry, when he strutted around in DSS bullet-proof vests, the toast of the Goodluck Jonathan-era security personnel, from the Army, DSS to the Police, who waited on him: just snap your fingers, our emperor, and we would jump at your bidding!
Aside from the security regulars, illicit flexing of muscles wasn’t left behind, as some suspected Niger Delta militants, camouflaged as regular security personnel, were alleged to be on the prowl, ready to strike. President Jonathan was determined to “capture” the Southwest, using Ekiti and Osun as opening gambits.
It was a period of high madness. The Jonathan security apparatus banned even partisan governors and other party heavyweights from accessing Ekiti, to attend Kayode Fayemi’s campaign rally, turning them back at Ikere-Ekiti.
At the climax of this brazen power show, the commander of the Ekiti local MOPOL declared, to a harried Fayemi, though a sitting governor, and Ekiti’s chief security officer: he knew of no governor. He only took orders from the IGP!
Fayose would later go on to win 16-0! That was a time, if there was any, when Wole Soyinka’s famous tongue-in-cheek became dire reality: the end justifies the meanness.
Four years later, change — which Heraclitus the Greek says is the only permanent thing in life — has shown itself. Those security apparatuses have changed hands. The friendly and enabling ghosts of 2014 have suddenly turned, for Fayose, fiendish and disabling ones.
To be sure, the change of sides could be real, given Nigeria’s sociology of power. But for a dramatist and soulless demagogue like Fayose, it could well be a case of the guilty fleeing, when no one pursues them.
Still, why would any president, whose party is going into an election, order the summary execution of Fayose (sitting governor) and his deputy (governorship candidate) — to what end?
But then, imagine the troubled soul that rot was coming from — that, in the middle of high delirium, “ordered” the president of the Federal Republic, come to campaign for his party’s candidate, to get out of Ekiti, where Fayose, in his own words, was “commander-in-chief”!
It was a classic case of high underdog rascality, in an insane gallery play. Well, it turned out, from Fayose’s tearful drama, that the so-called Ekiti commander-in-chief could command nothing but pitiful tears, which genuineness you can’t even vouch for.
Besides, did the other party crowd the streets with counter-partisans when Fayose’s PDP was holding its own mega-rally? Did anyone try to induce transporters to ground the state, for an alleged exchange of N10, 000 each, which alleged non-consummation reportedly resulted in the fracas, which the Police had to break up with teargas, in Government House precinct?
Whatever happens tomorrow, Ekiti should have learnt its lesson not to ever again vote a cur as governor. A gubernatorial cur is a curse to all. That summarises Ekiti’s situation today.
That President Muhammadu Buhari was persistently ridiculed and condemned as a failure even before his second year in office, was a direct consequence of his inability to uphold the corrupt but highly lucrative systemic bazaar of the past. Although Buhari’s leadership suffers the affliction of crooked men and women, his glamourised aversion to corruption and his ongoing anti-corruption campaign, resonates dangerously to the country’s crooked divide. Too many men and women accustomed to pocketing and spending money that they didn’t earn are suddenly aghast and petrified by their inability to conduct ‘business as usual.’
There is the oft-repeated logic and inclination to blame this persistent malaise on capitalism; however, attractive as such sophistry may resound, the impulse for acquisition, pursuit of gain and money in fact, has nothing to do with capitalism – it is merely a symptom, like perverse capitalism, of the society’s steady descent the slope of the decadent and grotesque.
Max Weber, the late German economist and social historian, would say it has been common to all sorts and conditions of men at all times and in all cultures of the earth but I would say that the Nigerian malaise is brought about by the absence of an enduring moral code.
This deficit manifests in deficiencies of personal and societal ethics – the consequence of which is the preponderance and regeneration of tyrants, greedy-guts, fraudsters, narcissists, murderers and bloodhounds of all kinds and of all nature, across the country’s landscape.
The trials of Nigerians’ moral degeneration as exemplified by the citizenry’s inordinate lust for money, the country’s recurrent tragedies and propensity to self-destruct, reveals an overarching tendency to savour short-term greed and relief over long-term prosperity.
Despite a protracted and tumultuous history of impoverishment and bad leadership, Nigerians continue to look for quick fix solutions thus mortgaging the country’s present and future for short-term benefits.
Through decades of moral perversions and self-inflicted disasters, Nigerians continue to bemoan their tragic fate. While many argue that the country ruins because the youth are too weak and too selfish to spill as much blood as is required to rid the nation of every human and institutional affliction, many more contend that the country’s woes will disappear immediately poverty is eradicated by the ruling class.
Today, the fear of poverty as the irrepressible lust for money, drive too many to commit gross acts of dishonesty and irresponsibility. Personal greed is pervasive and poverty is endemic. It represents the triumphal punch delivered by the proverbial system against the country’s poor, hopeless masses. Nigeria suffers the consequence of the supremacy of money. Money rules the Nigerian society. It elevates and ennobles the possessor of it; whatever the nature and import of the rich’s membership of the society, as long as he has money to flaunt and throw around, nobody cares what value he adds to and denies the society.
Thus the pardon and acquittal of several corrupt politicians and deposed bank chiefs; even after insurmountable evidences were marshaled against them by prosecution, they get off too easily with court sentences that were tantamount to a pat on the back. The poor, on the other hand, epitomise more of what is wrong and contemptible with the society. They represent that segment of the society that is easily swayed, viciously condemned and trodden by the power of money.
The power of money is indeed frightening and overwhelming. Like Okwudiba Nnoli notes, it uplifts and crushes, enhances and debases, exhilarates and disenchants, dignifies and dehumanizes, enlightens and blinds, unites and divides. Under the influence of money, humaneness and the quest for the collective good are ferociously smothered by disruptive and selfish considerations.
Materialism is fostered and greed is ennobled in the mad dash for money. Consequently, justice, freedom, equality, dignity and other human rights, are sacrificed on the altar of the perennial rat-race for the accumulation of money.
More worrisome is the reality of the poor in Nigeria being unquestioningly docile to the power of money. This impoverished lot is hardly impressed by humaneness and promising leadership. To them, these are manifestations of weakness. Their loyalty and sympathies are reserved for tyrants that treat them like dogs on a leash; to the latter, they exhibit the greatest obsequiousness and erect the greatest statues.
While it is true that the poor would often trample maniacally on the despot, who by a poetic twist of fate – be it by class politics or masses revolt – gets stripped of his power and authority, they do so because having lost his strength, the despot becomes relegated to an ignoble spot among the weak and repressed, who are to be loathed and not feared.
This is emblematic of Gustave Le Bon’s philosophy of ‘The Crowd,’ which was valued not only by Pareto, Freud, Mussolini, and de Gaulle, but even by Horkheimer and Adorno. Le Bon contends that the type of “hero dear to crowds will always have the semblance of a Caesar. His insignia attracts them, his authority overawes them, and his sword instills them with fear…Should the strength of an authority be intermittent, the crowd, always obedient to its extreme sentiments, passes alternately from anarchy to servitude, and from servitude to anarchy.”
Democratic ideas are therefore in profound disagreement with the psychology and experience of the Nigerian poor. It is unsurprising then, that materially and mentally impoverished folk would distrust democracy and its promise of collective good, to covet and pursue the vain and ephemeral perks of socio-political harlotry.
Tragedy struck Wednesday at the Mechanic village Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital as more than 15 shops with properties and wares worth millions of naira and about ten vehicles were burnt in an early morning fire.
The fire incident which started at 5:am is coming barely five days after some traders at the shop rioted to protest what they termed leadership imposition by some persons in the state.
Already there are strong allegations that the fire incident may have been deliberately set by one of the factions involved in the leadership tussle.
Meanwhile, some of the victims who spoke have lamented the loss of their livelihood and called on the state government to come or their aid.
Narrating his ordeal, Christian Enwerem, a victim said apart from his shop that was gutted by fire, the fire also destroyed equipment, Calibrating machine worth N3million, motor parts he was selling, customers’ properties among
others.
“I was in my house around 7am this morning when somebody and told me to come to shop immediately that everywhere was on fire and that our workshop has been burnt to ashes. When I came in, I discovered that my workshop has been burnt down by fire”
“We don’t use electricity here, I have generating set to energize my workshop here and I always off it whenever I am through with what I on if for. My injector calibrator machine, motor components spare parts inside the shop were gutted by fire”.
Acting Chairman of NATA, Chidiebere Uzor Expressed sadness over the disaster and alleged that it was masterminded by enemies of the mechanic village.
“I was in my house this morning when I received a call from one of the security men that there was fire in the mechanic village. I engaged many security men to be guarding the mechanic village but the crisis we had here last Friday stopped them from coming here again. So, some of them called at 5:30 am that this place was on fire”.
“I had to drive to the mechanic village. I rushed to fire service office and alerted them and we followed together and came to the mechanic village. Before we could get to the scene, vehicles have been burnt to ashes, shops have also been burnt. The fire wanted that to enter other shops but the fire service men quenched it.
“But I must tell you that the fire is suspicious. There are four burnt tires in four different locations where the fire emanated; it is not an ordinary fire. It is a planned deal and I wonder what the person who did it will benefit from it. Soon, they will be fished out because they cannot succeed no matter the way they planned it.
“We talked about peace Wednesday, we had peace meeting with Senior Special Adviser to Governor Umahi on Internal Security and we all agreed to maintain peace that yesterday Tuesday, why burning vehicles and shops today? I went there with all my executives for the peace talk but only two from the other faction were present and that is not how to make peace because every aggrieved member must be present so that if anything happens after the meeting, you cannot hold anybody”.
“For me to see all these burnt tires position round these shops and vehicles that were burnt, something is behind it. So, we will fish out the perpetrators and I will make sure that everybody know about it”
Three up and coming gospel artistes have allegedly lost their lives in a fatal auto accident, shortly after their performance at a concert in Ikotun, a Lagos suburb.
The accident which happened on April 7 was posted on the social media by one Oladele.
According to him, the trio, Adetuyi Temitope Michael aka ATM ; Yinka Destiny and an unidentified female singer were returning from a concert organised by one of their colleagues, when the incident occurred.
“The late artistes had participated in an all-night gospel music concert organised by one of their colleagues called Keji in the Abaranje area of Ikotun on April 6, 2018. One of them called ATM (Adetuyi) gave Destiny a lift in his car in the morning of April 7.
”He however lost control of his car at Orile Iganmu and crashed into a stationary truck and died on the spot. The unidentified female singer also died on the spot, while Destiny, who did not die on the spot was rushed to a hospital where he died on Sunday April 8.”
”Adetuyi was expected to release his latest album on Monday April 9, but the day turned out to be his funeral. The late singers have since buried,’ he added.
•“The child I fed at exactly 7.15a.m. had become a corpse for me to pick at exactly 9.45a.m..”
Shock. Unbelief. These words appropriately capture the state of the minds of Dr and Mrs Olajide Oyesanya, the guardians of Master Ezekiel Daniel, the ill-fated lad that was crushed to death by a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) bus at the Ogolonto Bus Stop along Ikorodu Road in Lagos on Monday. Ezekiel, a 16- year-old student of C & S Primary School in the area apparently misunderstood the flag man’s signal while dashing across the BRT corridor and got hit by a BRT bus.
The driver reportedly ran away. Even men of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) around also disappeared from their duty posts, leaving the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) men and other security agencies on ground to maintain law and order.
Ezekiel had left home that day after bidding Mrs Oyesanya, whom he addressed as grandma, goodbye. There was nothing to suggest that that was the last time she would be seeing him alive. Barely three hours after the boy left home, she got a call from someone who simply inquired from her if Ezekiel was safe. “Immediately, I started calling his teacher, but she refused to pick my call. I thought they were on assembly ground so I called the school director who also didn’t pick my calls. At that moment, I knew there was a problem. I was confused and my husband also called to inform me to proceed to the school … When I got to the hospital premises; I was told to identify the lifeless body of Ezekiel; at that moment I knew I had lost our dear child”. Then the most touching aspect of the story: “I couldn’t believe my eyes that the child I fed at exactly 7.15a.m. had become a corpse for me to pick at exactly 9.45a.m..”
What could be more saddening?
Without prejudice to the instant case, many people have been complaining about the reckless manner that some of the BRT drivers drive. Perhaps this informed the protest march by some concerned members of the public to the BRT headquarters in Ikorodu over the sad incident. The driver fled the scene obviously to escape the wrath of the irate mob that had gathered there. But where did he run to? Let’s even assume he did not want to wait for fear of being killed, he should have reported himself at a police station.
It is gratifying that feelers from the management of Primero Transport Services, operator of the BRT have indicated the company’s readiness to compensate the family of the deceased; but we all know that no amount of compensation can bring back the dead. We therefore would want the company to investigate the circumstances leading to the poor boy’s death. Was the driver negligent? Did he obey all traffic rules and regulations guiding their operations? For instance, what is the speed limit permissible in that axis even on the BRT lane, and did the driver go beyond this?
These questions have to be answered if we are ever to stop reckless driving on the part of some of the BRT drivers. Now that convoy recklessness is being visited with convictions, the same should be extended to the BRT and other drivers who see themselves as untouchables on the roads.
We implore the Lagos State government to provide a pedestrian bridge on this axis of the road due to the sheer number of pedestrians crossing the ever-busy road there daily, particularly the pupils and students. No doubt the government is doing a lot in this regard, but it has to do more regardless of whether pedestrians will use them or not.
We commiserate with Dr and Mrs Oyesanya over this painful loss and as well appeal to Primero to do the needful in the circumstance, and promptly, too.
Are Nigerians mere pawns in a hideous game? Could it be that there are persons who have untrammelled powers to turn our face back, front or sideways at will, regardless of our discomfort? Are there forces beyond the control of state officials propelling our country? Or are we just victims of gross incompetence of state officials governing a pretender to a modern state?
Who has answers to the devious happenings in our country? Who has an answer on the whereabouts of the missing 110 (or is it 105) teenage girls, kidnapped by the Boko Haram sect from Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State on February 19? Who will console the parents and relations of the maidens, now in the cold control of the dreaded Boko Haram? Who will save our country drifting heedlessly in a turbulent sea?
Nearly four years ago, we had situated the calamity that befell our nation, when Boko Haram abducted in a similar manner 276 girls from Borno State, to the gross incompetence of President Goodluck Jonathan’s government. Now under President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, which rates security as its best achievement, the sect has with reckless abandon carried our girls away again.
To show that we are back to troubling times in the northeast of the country, the sect struck again late last week at Rann community in the Kala-Balge local government area of Borno State killing three United Nation’s workers, three soldiers and scores of others whose identity is yet unknown. The sect also abducted Red Cross and other aid workers taking care of Rann community of 80,000 people and 55,000 internally displaced persons. Now, in fear, the aid workers have abandoned Rann.
Could it be that we celebrated the defeat of Boko Haram too early, or are there persons who have dubiously turned our misery into business, or are we just victims of cyclic incompetence in governance whether under Jonathan or Buhari? What do we make of the allegations and counter allegations between security agencies over who did what to aid this tragedy?
Sometimes I wonder at the complacency of those in position of authority in our country, especially when by their conduct it will be right to regard them as disinterested in taking steps to save of our country from the grave dangers facing it. The Jonathan’s government was rightly accused of complacency after the Chibok girls were abducted, and yet a supposedly security-conscious regime has been caught in the same mesh.
Now after initially playing the ostrich by pretending that there is absolutely no need to restructure Nigeria, the ruling party through the El-Rufai committee, lately identified the need to devolve economic and security powers to states to stem our descent into a failed state. Instead of declaring a state of emergency and organising urgently to give this proposal the attention it deserves, the leadership of the country relapsed into complacency, and now Dapchi and Rann punches our groin.
Could it be that our country is a tragedy waiting to happen? Instead of taking steps to amend the constitution and also deal with the neglected herdsmen menace, the Buhari government will spend the rest of its term fighting the renewed insurgency in northeast and to campaign for re-election. While effort to amend the constitution may not have stopped the Dapchi and Rann tragedies, it will at least save us the future tragedies that will come unless we change our security apparatchik.
If our leaders care less about their re-election and a little more about the future of our country, they would unite to make our country more productive and more secure. At least there is agreement across party lines that state governors should have more economic opportunities, as well as some control over state security. Surely, it rankles that a chief security officer of a state has no control over any policeman.
With disproportionate police protection, the military have been drafted to engage in police work, with all the dire consequences over professionalism of our army, while the police are neglected. Of course, any talk about creating state police without a corresponding devolution of economic power to states is bunkum. When more than two-thirds of the states cannot pay their workers as constituted, where will they gain the resources to pay and maintain a disciplined police force?
But do we have any option than to urgently devolve security powers to states, if we hope to continue as a viable nation state? Of course we don’t, and unless the Buhari government wants to be accused of complacency in the face of grave dangers, it should without any further hesitation set in motion the process of devolving the few economic and security powers that the El-Rufai committee which his party set up, grudgingly agreed on.
With the doubts that the re-emergence of Boko Haram terror is creating in the minds of Nigerians despite the claim of technical defeat by the federal government, joining the limited achievements of the federal government in fighting corruption, even as opponents of the Buhari government continues to regale its failure in the management of the national economy, are there conspiratorial forces bent on bringing the government to complete disrepute as the 2019 general elections draws near?
Perhaps the federal government will have to depend on Mama Boko Haram, Aisha Wakil, to help it rescue the Dapchi girls, just as it relies on Alhaji Aliko Dangote to help it solve the importation of fuel debacle. Hear Wakil: “I can assure Nigerians that so far they are with my son, Habib, and his friends; Habib is a nice guy, he is a very nice boy. He will not harm them, he will not touch them.”
She went on: “I love them for that and believe what they said on this”. On the release of the girls, Wakil said: “They will definitely give us the girls. All I am begging Nigerians is to calm down, be prayerful, everything will be over in God grace”. Hmmm, after nearly 10 years of Boko Haram menace and nearly three years of being in power, the federal government now led by President Buhari is at the mercy of a loving mother, whose lovely children are ardent at kidnapping teenage school girls for ransom. What a tragedy.
With Buhari government successfully negotiating the release of some of the Chibok girls and the University of Maiduguri lecturers, after paying huge ransoms in dollars as reported in the papers, is there a possibility that kidnaping and releasing the kidnapped under the banner of Boko Haram has become a huge racket for state actors? Perhaps that explains why the Buhari’s government has apparently become a lame duck presidency well before the last year of his presidency. Since our leaders have become helpless, shall we all troop to the worship centres to pray as Mama Boko Haram admonished us?
IT was a tragic end for a man identified as Izuchukwu Ugwoke after he was drowned in a swimming pool of a hotel in Asaba, Delta State capital.
The incident happened on February 14, 2018, which coincided with Valentine Day, a day celebrated as lover’s day all over the world.
Witnesses said the deceased, who was a cinematographer with a popular movie production outfit in Asaba had visited the unnamed hotel to celebrate the day when he allegedly drowned in a pool at the hotel.
It was learnt that his late mother was due for burial today in Enugu State.
His death, according to sources has led to a disagreement as to the possibility of staging a grand burial ceremony for his late mother.
A source said: ” Izuchukwu went to a hotel to celebrate Valentine’s Day commonly refer to as lover’s day without knowing the outing would turn tragic for him.
”He got drowned while he was swimming with others in the hotel’s pool and all efforts by bystanders to rescue him failed leading to his death.
