The Nation Newspaper

Tag: waiting

  • ELO EDEMA EDEFERIOKA: I’m waiting for the right man

    Nigeria basketball star, Elo Edema Edeferioka, is currently in D’Tigress camp in Lagos preparing for the 2018 FIBA Basketball World Cup for women in Spain. The D’Tigress forward, who won bronze medal with the team at the 2015 FIBA Africa Championship for women in Cameroon but missed out of the team that won gold at the 2017 edition in Mali, recently graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta where she featured for Georgia Tech women’s basketball team.
    In an encounter with AKEEM LAWAL, the prospective World Cup debutant revealed that she is still waiting for the right man, even though she is not thinking about marriage right now. Excerpt:

    D’Tigress is the defending champion of the Afrobasket, how prepared are you for the World Cup?

    I’m expecting that we do really well because our training has been going really well. We are not there yet, but we are getting there. So far we’ve improved a lot compared to whatever team we’ve had in the past. We try to support each other as much as we can and I know down the stretch we will go a long way. You can see we have new people in the team, we have different talents; everybody can actually bring something to the table. So I’m really excited because we have a great team and we are well prepared to actually showcase our talents to the world.

    Is the team under pressure going into the World Cup?

    We are not under pressure because we’ve always been underdogs and we love being underdogs because we have surprises for people. So right now we are not under pressure, we are not feeling any pressure to do anything because a lot of people don’t think we can do anything in the World Cup. They think this is a fluke, but we are just going to surprise them. That is just all I can say.

    You’ve been working with Otis Hughley for a couple of weeks now, how do you see him?

    He is very positive with high energy and very patient with the team. He is a great coach and I so much love him and he is doing a great job so far in getting the team ready. He is actually still working with whatever we used to do when Coach Sam was around. Work our way to whatever we have been doing and he has been very understanding, working with the team to make sure I and my teammates are really okay and understand the play. He has been very understanding with us and he has been doing a great job.

    How supportive is the federation towards actualising your dream at the FIBA World Cup?

    They’ve been very supportive, trust me. I’ve played with the national team for a couple of years now and this year is way different compared to what we have experienced in the past. Having two months of training camp before a tournament is really amazing. We’ve not had that much time before and Mactaben Amachree (General Manager) has been doing a lot of job to make sure we get some sponsor and make sure we get everything we need. To our treatment, recovery, she has been very active making sure we get everything we need. So the management has been doing well so far. We are staying in a nice hotel; we’ve never had that before. So everything is really going well. They are preparing us mentally to perform on the court.

    So what is the strong point of this team?

    We have a lot of pose players who are very athletic and very good. We have lots of guards that can shoot the ball and dribble. We have all the pieces to put together and that is basically the strong point of this team. We can rebound, we can run, we can set off offense, we can do basically everything. All we need in a team, we have it here. That is really our strength.

    How far do you think D’Tigress can go at the World Cup?

    Right now we are going to take it one game at a time. But I know we can go all the way. I trust my teammates, I trust my coaching staff, I trust the strategy and everything right now is on point, I would say. I believe we can go all the way and the focus right now is just taking it one game at a time and just take it from there.

    Let’s go personal, how was your growing up?

    I grew up in Warri, Delta State. I started playing basketball in 2008/2009 in Delta State and it was not the best basketball court ever. I didn’t have the right training shoes for the court and I didn’t have the right jerseys and sometimes I didn’t have money to go to the court to practice. Sometimes we would walk to the court and walk back home late at night. But all was determination to be different from wherever I’m from. It wasn’t the best experience growing up but I kept pushing, I kept striving. So as time went on, I got invited to the Nigeria junior national team in 2010 to go for the qualifiers in Egypt. So we went and we qualified for the Under-18 World Cup in 2010. We were supposed to go to Chile, but something came up and we could not go. Then I got a scholarship through Colonel Sam Ahmedu to the United States. So I went to the US and played in high school, with Life Centre Academy, and I got offer to go to Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and played for Georgia Tech women’s basketball team. Then I graduated this year and signed to go and play in Spain. Here I am with the national team.

    How supportive were your parents when you started?

    My dad passed away before I started playing basketball but my mom was very supportive because I was doing something different. At first, my family did not really support me because I was coming home late at night due to walking back from the gym. But later on when they found out that I was doing really well with basketball and I had the opportunity of going to the US to go to school, they gave me all the support I needed.

    You are no more a small girl, are you thinking about settling down for marriage?

    Marriage? (laugh). I’m not thinking about marriage right now. I am open to settling down if the right person comes but right now I don’t have anybody really major in my life. So I am actually just focused on getting my career right and taking care of myself and my family and when the right man comes I will be ready to settle down.

    Even while focussing on your career, there will definitely be guys at the corner disturbing you, how do you get over their advancement?

    It’s just priority. I make sure I get my priorities straight and don’t get distracted from what I am supposed to do from what I’m supposed to prioritise over other things. Yes, there are guys but that is not my main focus right now because I’ve not really seen the right person for me and I’m committing everything in God’s hands. Whenever the right person comes, as I said, I will be ready.

    Have you ever been harassed in the course of this sport?

    Like dating a coach to get into the team? No, no, no; we’ve never had that issue. I’ve never heard of that in Nigerian basketball and I don’t think that is going on here. That will never happen. We have coaches with great dignity and I do not think my coaches will settle for that. They will never do a thing like that and nothing like that. That will never happen here with my teammates.

    You were part of AfroBasket Women 2015 bronze winning team, how did you feel missing the 2017 team that won gold in Mali?

    I did not go to the 2017 African Women’s Championship because I was in Italy with my team. It was very hard not being part of that team, but as I said, it comes to priority. It was my senior year in college and I needed to stay focused and finish strong in my senior year. So I talked to my coach, MaChelle Joseph, about it and she wasn’t really happy for me to make a decision to come to the national team. She gave me all the reasons why I should stay back at Georgia Tech because it was my senior year and also we were going for foreign tour in Italy, which she didn’t want me to miss. So I could not sacrifice that year to actually better myself for my senior year and I should be with my team.

    Did you at any point get fed up and want to dump the country to take other nationality?

    No, I did not because when I played for the Nigeria national team, I had a great time. I always have fun with my old teammates and also being on a team where everybody is from the same country, in the same place, with the same focus. It’s actually different from going to Europe or playing in the US where you have different cultures and all that. It is always fun coming home to play with my teammates and I miss Upe so much. Upe is the best part of the national team and I love having her around. She is amazing, she has positive spirit and always energetic. I really miss her so much. So I love coming back to play for my team, and with my teammates playing for my country is part of giving back to my home.

    Who is your role model?

    Somebody I actually looked up to while growing up in basketball was Madaline Okatto; she has retired already. She is from Delta State and also coaches. She took me to go and play basketball.

    But when I started playing with the national team, someone else that I looked up to was Olayinka Sanni. She was a very good player when she was playing. Her pose moves were amazing. She was with us at Afrobasket in Cameroon. I looked up to her when I came to play in 2015 because I love her confidence, the way she played as a pose player and her energy.

    Aside basketball, what else do you do?

    Aside basketball, I want to go into fashion. I love fashion a lot. So I want to go into fashion and beauty. That is something I look forward to doing in a couple of years from now. Right now I’m just playing basketball.

    If not basketball, what would you have done?

    If not for basketball, that is a good question. I don’t know what I would have become but God knows. But I know I would have done something because I’m not a quitter. I would have done something better with myself.

  • Waiting for a Third Force (1)

    Waiting for a Third Force (1)

    Power, to the ambitious, is like an aphrodisiac. It creates the enabling self-satisfying platform for the realisation of other pursuits and wants that can only be assuaged by a higher dose of its finer or baser attributes. It has been used by leaders to subjugate and strangulate the opposition in the selfish race to personalise or colonise it. Others want power for its sake as a development tool or a vehicle to emancipate a larger mass of the people they lead. An admixture of these variants sometimes occurs.

    In its pristine form, the beauty of politics is the allure and aura of power. In the Nigerian context, there is the added tendency for some of the wearers of the power toga to use it to accumulate economic capital for self and cronies. It is not enough to apportion the accruing “dividends of democracy” as many of those within the periphery of the power modem develop a sense of “resource control” and “self-help,” as the case may be.

    It is in the light of the foregoing that we must situate the desperate and precipitate actions, activities and utterances of a certain section of the political class that has indulged in wanton disregard for constituted authority and rebellious activities designed to instigate other sections of the society to do same with intent to undermine the freely-elected president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and his administration by overt and covert means.

    The present cadre of politicians believe that the art of politicking is another dimension of war that must be fought with bile, angst and uncommon but intense vehemence to achieve the primary aim of acquiring power and all other “appurtenances” that will, necessarily, follow. Ordinarily, the foibles of the average politician are mainly predicated on the need to have a space in the market place of ideas to drive his quest for power.

    In recent times, the Nigerian polity has witnessed a subtle but clearly discernible jostle for political power with the most strident and baleful politicking in the nation’s history. It exhibits the frightful potentials for exacerbating the already taut and fragile security situation in certain parts of the country and the crippling economic recession, the existence of which many people believe some of the politicians are culpable.

    Conversely, a section of the political class, with hidden drum majors, has been fanning the embers of discord, hatred and bare-faced manipulation of the people’s set views through inciting statements, activities and proxy media interventions. These are carried out with pre-determined anti-establishment focus, bent and impact, to rock the boat of focused governance, preparatory to a final assault on the presidency in 2019. A very important area that most people are not paying any attention to is the frenetic and subterranean moves and posturing for the presidential elections of 2019. This is even so as the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is still tottering and trying to consolidate on the tenets of good governance it espoused during the 2015 campaigns.

    There is no gainsaying the fact that the virtual ‘war’ for the soul of the National Assembly, on the issue of the election of its principal officers, was one fought solely to position certain persons for prime positions at the presidency in 2019 and beyond. Among the top echelon and rank-and-file of the APC, there is talk of the likelihood of President Buhari doing one term and leaving the terrain to the likes of Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Abubakar Bukola Saraki (who is currently in the visible and powerful position of President of the Senate) and lately, the diminutive Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has silently crept into the emerging presidential list of possible successors in 2019.

    It is pertinent to note that Mallam el-Rufai is steadily building bridges of understanding and networking among the power bases in the six geo-political zones of the country as a dress rehearsal for 2019. He was physically present at the annual Ojude-Oba festival in 2016, an assembly of prominent Ijebu sons and daughters in Ijebu-Ode, three days after the Eid-El-Kabir festival. It is patterned along the ancient Durbar that is also held at about the same time in many cities in the northern parts of the country.

    A member of Buhari’s kitchen cabinet, el-Rufai is believed to be one of the brain-boxes of the CPC that co-joined with two other legacy parties to form the APC. Being at the epicentre of the scheming and posturing within the APC, he sees himself as that technocrat who is honing his skills to succeed a geriatric Buhari. The fireworks are expected to be set off as soon as President Buhari engages the home-bend in the dusk of his current term. This is mindful of the possible scenario that the president’s foot-soldiers will, either by self-help or prodding from the principal himself, plot a second term which he is constitutionally-entitled to and in the process, rubbish the ambition(s) of those who are rearing to go after his job.

    As it is, President Buhari has a date with history, positively or negatively, depending on how he will ultimately solve the myriad of problems and challenges besetting his present term of office. With the present dismal indices, he will either be remembered for assuaging the dire circumstances assailing the larger mass of the Nigerian people or for compounding them.

    It is believed that the most glaring leadership flaw that President Buhari has, as usual, is his susceptibility to being hijacked by a powerful cartel or cabal to take decisions and provide direction. It is this shortcoming that el-Rufai feels he is in the best position to reverse through the effective combination of goals and methods in the practice of good governance. In the camp of those disposed to a new presidency in 2019, the current president has been silently consigned to an Old Peoples’ Home even while he is the de jure occupant of Aso Rock Villa, a fact that is reinforced by the held perception by many Nigerians that President Buhari lacks the required “magic” wand to turn around the crippling downturn that is currently assailing the heart and hub of the Nigerian economy and by extension the people’s living standard.

    Purveyors of this empirical theory are wont to postulate that: if Buhari at age 73 is wobbling and fumbling to steady the similarly wobbling and tottering Nigerian economy without visible success, what do you expect when he is in the throes of age 80 and above?

    It is the younger cadre of APC faithful that is throwing up an el-Rufai or any other ‘Young Turk’ with a vaunting ambition to shove and shunt a geriatric Buhari aside and replace him with a young and mentally-active president who will be his own man. He will solve the nation’s problems and challenges through a digital approach and alacrity shorn of the drudgery and “slow motion” that is presently the rule of the day.

    It is rather ironical that el-Rufai had at a forum on October 5, 2010, shot down Buhari’s decision to run again in a fresh presidential election. Hear him in the following words which are still very profound and true in today’s circumstances: “… Babangida and General Buhari should just disappear. They should give way to a new set of people with new ideas. Young people, preferably… Obama is 48 and Cameron is 43, for God’s sake. So, why are we recycling leaders that ruled this country very well or very badly, 25 years ago?”

    Many also believe that a long list of possible successors are scheming on the side-lines and are building structures to actualise their projections. Saraki’s sly politicking that made him the president of the Senate has resulted in the orchestrated scheming to remove and disconnect him from the very visible role of the Senate President which many political watchers believe he is using to test waters and mainly to reinvent himself as a welfarist and caring bridge-builder.

  • ‘Waiting for Hassana’

    ‘Waiting for Hassana’

    Nigeria’s Ifunaya Maduka relays the story of the extremist organisation Boko Haram, which in 2014 kidnapped 276 teenage girls from Chibok, a Northeastern part of Nigeria, albeit from a witness’ account of how she escaped the terror group, and how her closest friend, Hassana, was not lucky.

    Entitled Waiting for Hassana, the narrator paints a picture of the good times spent with her friend and other students, touching emotions on how pleasant a girl her friend was.

    To the narrator, no one deserves to go through the harrowing experience of the Boko Haram organisatioin, let alone the amiable Hassana.

    The Boko Haram insurgency is an international story, but a personal account presented by a witness makes all the difference. While advocates may want to go to sleep owing to the fact that most of the girls have been found, Maduka reminds all that Hassana, and any other captive yet to be accounted for means the battle is not over yet.

    Rendered in Hausa with English subtitle, Waiting for Hassana is Maduka’s first documentary, and it is worthy of commendation.

  • Waiting for Hassana

    Waiting for Hassana

    Nigeria’s Ifunaya Maduka relays the story of the extremist organization Boko Haram, which in 2014 kidnapped 276 teenage girls from Chibok, a Northeastern part of Nigeria, albeit from a witness’ account of how she escaped the terror group, and how her closest friend, Hassana, was not lucky.

    Entitled Waiting for Hassana, the narrator paints a picture of the good times spent with her friend and other students, touching emotions on how pleasant a girl her friend was.

    To the narrator, no one deserves to go through the harrowing experience of the Boko Haram organisatioin, let alone the amiable Hassana.

    The Boko Haram insurgency is an international story, but a personal account presented by a witness makes all the difference. While advocates may want to go to sleep owing to the fact that most of the girls have been found, Maduka reminds all that Hassana, and any other captive yet to be accounted for means the battle is not over yet.

    Rendered in Hausa with English subtitle, Waiting for Hassana is Maduka’s first documentary, and it is worthy of commendation.

  • Waiting for Ogun Ministry of Health

    Last Monday, The Punch reported a very shameful case of a part-time lecturer at the Ogun State College of Health Technology, Ilese Ijebu, Dr Oluseyi Adu accused of impregnating a Dental Nursing student, Mosunmola.

    Mosunmola who is now nine months pregnant alleged that Adu was responsible for her pregnancy after they had sex in an hotel in August 2016, but the medical doctor who admitted sleeping with the lady after being seduced claimed he used contraceptive.

    Consequently, the  Ministry of Health where Adu works has set up a panel to probe the matter within seven days, while the school has washed off its hands of the case on the excuse that the lady had already graduated from the institution when the adjunct lecturer slept with her.

    Cases of sex for marks escapades by lecturers is not strange. Many of them usually get away with the condemnable act because the ‘victims’ usually don’t speak up due to fear of victimization and the stigma.

    The above case is however a good example of how many lecturers have no moral scruples and don’t see anything wrong in taking advantage of students they are supposed to teach and graduate for both academic and good character.

    How can a married lecturer claim he was seduced by a student he admitted sleeping with in an hotel. ?

    Hear the shameless lecturer : “ The question I ask is, did I rape her? Did I hypnotise her? You came to meet me where I was and we had fun, and now you are pregnant, and you are telling me I’am responsible for a pregnancy. I am denying ?”

    While the student has herself to blame for allegedly succumbing to sleep with the lecturer to pass the course she was said to have failed, Dr Adu has to be appropriately sanctioned to hopefully serve as a deterrent to other part-time or full time lecturers in the institution or others who are still indulging in sexual abuse of their students.

    The probe by the panel must be comprehensive and thorough. As the Commissioner for Health, Tunde Ipaye rightly stated, professionalism is professionalism and no staff or student should be allowed to bring down any institution of government.

    The narration by the student which was largely corroborated by the accused lecturer, except for use of condom or not provides enough grounds for Adu and others staff of the school to be quizzed.

    The panel will need to know who was the lecturer said to be interested in the student in the first year of study who allegedly failed her in his course which she eventually passed in the third year.

    The Head of department mentioned also need to confirm how many courses Mosunmola failed, including that of Adu and the justification for waivers granted her.

    It will also be necessary to know who was the other lecturer in the other room who slept with another student when Adu slept with Mosunmola.

    The school authorities cannot be exonerated from the matter as it cannot claim not to be totally unaware of cases like this in the institution. Instead of disowning the lecturer and student, the school should see this unfortunate incident as an opportunity to   take necessary steps to call students and lecturers to order.

    There should be avenues for reporting randy lecturers and cases investigated to protect the students. Romantic relationship between lecturers and students should be discouraged under any guise. Succumbing to seduction by students is not a tenable excuse like in the above instance.

    For the students, they should know that they are the ultimate losers when they opt for sleeping with lecturers instead of facing their studies or reporting harassment to everyone who should know about it.

  • Ex-President Obasanjo flays police for keeping him waiting

    Ex-President Obasanjo flays police for keeping him waiting

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday criticised the police for keeping him waiting.

    Obasanjo, who was the special guest of honour at the Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) Zone II maiden special training and capacity development, advised them to be ready when next they invite him.

    The former President was at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island venue of the training for about 90 minutes before the event started.

    Billed for 10:30a.m, the event didn’t begin until 11:52a.m, with the former President informing the gathering he had to return to Ogun State for an event he left midway to attend the police training.

    “Next time, before you call me, please be ready,” Obasanjo said as he stormed out of the hall.

    It was gathered AIG Kayode Aderanti, the host of the training, had sent a police helicopter to convey Obasanjo to the venue.

    There was, however, a communication breach between operatives that went to bring Obasanjo and the team expecting the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris.

    Speaking on the initiative, Obasanjo said there was no substitute for training, urging security operatives to be in tune with practices of their contemporaries in other parts of the globe.

    According to him, human institutions need constant appraisal, regeneration, introspection and training.

    He said: “Police must be aware and in touch with new developments in other parts of the globe. I can see my former IGP Musiliu Smith.

    “Smith is completely out of date to give lecture on police duty. He has experience to share with you, but not on modern way of doing things.”

    Idris, who got to the venue at 12:19pm – about 10 minutes after Obasanjo left – apologised for being late.

    He said: “I was told former President Olusegun Obasanjo was here and I would have loved to meet him. He’s a committed Nigerian, who has given so much to this country. I sincerely appreciate his coming, which shows the level of his commitment to our quest for democratic policing.”

    Idris hoped such trainings would improve the level of professionalism of policemen, adding that soon, the police would be celebrated at home and abroad.

    At the event were Smith; Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Training, Emmanuel Nyang; AIG Tunji Alape (rtd); Commissioner of Police (CP) Olayinka Balogun (rtd), Lagos CP Fatai Owoseni, Ogun CP Ahmed Iliyasu and former Director General, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Dr. Ndi Okereke, among others.

    Muslim advocated heavy investment on security, lauding the IGP for placing high premium on training.

    Aderanti hoped the training would enhance capacity of the participants.

    The guest lecturer, Dr. Charles Omole, said changing security landscape in the past decade had placed increasing and new demands on the police globally.

    He said the realisation created the need for revised and regular training for law enforcement personnel at all levels of government.

    According to him, the police must practise situational awareness consistently throughout the day.

  • Waiting for Dele Alake

    When Henry Dele Alake showed up the other day at a book launch at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Victoria Island, Lagos, the audience hardly expected remarks concerning his plan for the future, far or near.

    He spoke profusely about Jackson Akpasubi, the author of the two books presented, who was also Alake’s professional protégé back in their Concord newspaper days. He revealed in characteristic humility that resourceful reporters are always the flame of success of celebrated editors, linking his own flourishing era to the enterprise of field men like Akpasubi in his time as Editor, Sunday Concord. At that time Alake’s editorship came close to lifting the paper to rival the achievement of Gbolabo Ogunsanwo’s Sunday Times in a much earlier epoch in the 70s. The great Ogunsanwo took Sunday Times to a height never reached thereafter by any weekly paper in Nigeria.

    Later Dele Alake was to reinvent the wheel when he served in the administration of Governor Bola Tinubu in Lagos State in 1999. Coming in as a member of Tinubu’s cabinet following a hard fought battle to dislodge the military for democratic governance, Alake promptly sought the renaming of the Ministry of Information, Culture and Sports. He saw it as an unwieldy and elephantine contraption ill-suited to deliver the efficiency required for the challenges of the liberal democracy just birthed. Alake is said to have secured Tinubu’s nod to rename the department as the Ministry of Information and Strategy. He became the first in Nigeria to be addressed as Information and Strategy Commissioner.

    The title was not a bombastic appellation: it gave its owner and those identified with the department an urgent obligation to sync information and the dynamics of reporting government services as one indivisible activity. You were no longer bogged down by needless procedures or bureaucracy to communicate government business to the people. In addition you were to disseminate information with the objective of striking long term partnership with those who elected you. That amounted to the erection of a strategy of relationship between government and the governed.

    Now Alake happens to be one of the figures who used part of this political ground plan to first displace the military in 1999 and secondly to form the broad coalition that midwifed the current All Progressives Congress (APC) at the centre.

    At the book launch Alake spoke copiously about the roles he played during the momentous days that the events threw up in the country. He excited the crowd as he recalled how he and late MKO Abiola, the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election crisscrossed the length and breadth of Nigeria to campaign. He titillated the imagination of the public. The charismatic Abiola has become a folk hero Nigeria never had as their president. Nigerians insist that the current national challenges persist because we have not had a just and acceptable closure in the June 12 matter.

    Alake may have perceived the electrifying animation in the hall when he mentioned MKO Abiola and what he Alake did as his media adviser that led to the man’s election as the president-elect. Alake appeared to have grasped the attention of the audience when he promised that soon he would write a book on those heady days.

    And that was my takeout that day. A book capturing or relating the events that have dramatically shaped the politics and history of Nigeria is badly needed to redirect us, especially if it comes from the mind of a key player. American writer Clarence Day says: “The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man; nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out but in the world of books are volumes that live on still as young and fresh as the day they are written; still telling men’s hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead”.

    Too often, in our society, notable citizens have been known to be helpless victims of the falsification of their noble achievements. This illusory portrayal is then passed on as real to posterity in the absence of a pre-empting counterpoise and incalculable harm alas is done to the polity!

    I believe that Nigeria’s recurring social economic and political challenges are, in a way, the direct consequences of the dearth of books on compatriots who have been influential in our history to relate their story for succeeding generations to study, analyse, understand and learn from.

    For instance I recall how Abiola used the imagery of a transformer to drive home the pivotal role of leadership during the June 12 campaign. This was how his campaign team put it: All Nigeria needs is one transformer. In the bill-board that ran the advert, the body copy contained the message: “This country has the resources to ensure stable power supply. All it takes is one Achiever who can transform what seems impossible to be possible. MKO Abiola has the courage and honesty of purpose to unite us in a bold new move to solve our problems.” Thus Abiola’s image makers projected him as the man who could deal with the flawed and failed leadership Nigeria had been cursed with over the years.

    Nigerians are waiting for Dele Alake’s book to retell the story of an age which promised us a transformer and indeed delivered one. At the moment we are back to a challenging period when we need a genuine game changer.

     

    • Ojewale is a journalist and writer at Ota, Ogun State.
  • Waiting for January 20

    Waiting for January 20

    ‘And those are the days of life; we interchange them (like batons) among people….’                 Qur’an                    

    PREAMBLE

    All eyes, across the world, are on the 20th day of January 2017.  That is the day that the new America’s President elect, Donald Trump, will be formally ushered into the White House in Washington with a swearing in ceremony. Waiting for the event is a confirmation of America’s leadership of the contemporary world.

    There is no doubt that this event will be historically electric positively or negatively. A similar wait had taken place in February 1933 when Adolf Hitler was sworn in as the Chancellor of his country. The speech he delivered on that day eventually altered the destiny of Germany and reshaped the geography of the world. Will Trump be like Hitler? Time will tell.

    History as a teacher   

    History is a well known phenomenal teacher. It teaches the old and the young alike. Its students are always drawn from far and near. It examines those students from time to time and gives them examination results periodically. Its lessons are generational and cut across races and cultures. Yet, it has no peculiar language. But then, it faces a fundamental problem. That problem is not in repetition that has become the culture of history but in getting mankind to understand its repeated teachings and heeding its warning.

    In virtually all celestial religions, history plays such a prominent role that gives it the permanent identity of a teacher. And from its beneficial teachings, human beings build ladders of experiences with which they mount the pyramid of life.

    The Bible and the Qur’an

    In both the Bible and the Qur’an, we are told of arch-enemies of God’s message who dramatically turned round to become voluntary Ambassadors of the same message to which they had been antagonistic. One of such enemies was Saul, an avowed anti-Christ who dramatically accepted the message of Jesus after the latter’s departure and adopted Paul for a name.

    Another was Umar Bn Khattab who had plotted the murder of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) but dramatically accepted Islam on the day he was to carry out his plot. He eventually rose to become the second Caliph of Islam and spread the dine religion across nations and continents.

    Jesus had wished that Saul, a well educated person, accepted his message but that wish did not materialize until after he had left the stage. If Saul had not accepted Christianity when he did, perhaps the situation of that religion would have been different today.

    In the case of Umar Bn Khattab, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had prayed to Allah to enable one of the two famous persons bearing Umar in Makkah at that time accept Islam. Although his mind was on the other Umar, it however turned out that Umar Bn Khattab was the one favoured by Allah. And Umar Bn Khattab’s acceptance of Islam became so remarkable that the Prophet was reported to have once said of him as follows: “Were there to be another Prophet after me, he would have been Umar”.

    Irony of life

    Incidentally, another thorny bud seems to have grown, this time, under the armpit of an unexpected American bitter tree. That proverbial human tree is an avowed racist and morbid hater of Islam that has just emerged as President elect. His physical appearance anywhere is a vivid reminder of the fact that one man called Adolf Hitler once lived in the continent called Europe. And for the first time ever, majority of Americans, through a conducted poll, have openly expressed fear and uncertainty in the leadership of their newly voted President even before his swearing into office. But it may be too early now to rule out the possibility of fruitful hope. After all, no one expected the turn of event with Paul after Jesus and with Umar in the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Whatever happens in that so-called ‘God’s own Country’ however, as from the 20th of this month, is like an incubated egg waiting to be hatched. What kind of chicken will come out of it is a matter of guess.

    Future shock

    The narration above may be an indicator of a future shock for which the world must be prepared. Why was it that after the conversion of Saul, the Greek Empire and subsequently the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as an official religion? Why was it that after Umar Bn Khattab embraced Islam, the whole of Arabia formally accepted that Divine Faith as their state religion? And by analogy, shouldn’t America be getting ready for a similar eventuality? The coded bile of history is ordinarily bitter but when it becomes a part of the body system, survival without it becomes impossible. It sounded odd when speculations began that Rome could adopt Christianity as state religion. It sounded unbelievable that Arabia could adopt Islam as official religion. But reality eventually prevailed and today, the rest remains a property of history.

    In the same vein, far from prophesying, I foresee a day when America will become the home base of Islam to give the genuine Divine religion an impeccable reality of life. As it happened in Rome and Arabia of the past, the doubting ‘Thomases’ may commence their repugnant arguments from here. But the roots of tomorrow gargantuan tree of peace are being firmly planted in today’s fertile soil.

    Terry Holdbrooks Jr.’s conversion

    Terry Holbrooks is an American native of Huntsville in Alabama. He grew up a troubled kid with junkie parents that dumped him at age 7 on his ex-hippy grandparents to be raised. By 18, he’d completed both high school and trade school which is suggestive of brilliance on his part. But along the line, he indulged in drugs, illegal sex and tattoos which covered his arms from shoulder to wrist. His earlobes were stretched to a plug that a thumb could pass through.

    Thus, when he walked into an Army recruiter’s office in Arizona a year after 9/11 saying he wanted to join the Army, to be able to kill people and get paid for it, the recruiter looked up briefly and turned back to his computer saying “No, thank you”.

    Finally

    It was only during his fourth visit to the recruitment office that he was allowed to take part in the military’s aptitude test when the recruiter realized the potential in him. Then, Holdbrooks signed up for the military police because it offered a bonus. And when his unit was transferred to Guantanamo, the sergeant detoured through New York to take them to Ground Zero where he told them to “remember what Muslims did to us and who you are supposed to protect”.

    Thus, the 29 year old Terry Holdbrooks Jr., enrolled in American Army in 2003/2004 and was posted to Guantanamo Bay as a military Police officer in a detention camp earmarked for people pronounced as criminals. Part of his duties was not just to prevent those detainees from escaping but also to escort them to interrogation rooms and then return them to their cells. He knew the kind of stresses and tortures those detainees were undergoing in repeated questionings.

    How Islam beckons

    All along, his perception and understanding of Islam was not dissimilar from those of his military colleagues in Iraq, Afghanistan or even Guantanamo Bay. However, the thought of accepting Islam as a rightfully guiding religion crossed his mind after several months of conversation with the Muslim detainees in that camp.

    Before he became a Muslim, Holdbrooks was wearing the beard of a bald Amish guy, the tattoos of a punk kid and the twitchy alertness of a military policeman. Take him to a restaurant, and he’ll choose the chair with its back against the wall. Take his photograph and he’ll prefer to look away from the camera. That was Holdbrooks before 2013 when he embraced Islam.

    Horse’s mouth

    To hear from the horse’s mouth here is what he said about the book he wrote on his experience: “I tell this story and I wrote the book so idiot-simple that anyone could read and understand that the existence of Guantanamo is something to be ashamed of. I just want to share information with people in depth and then let them make up their minds.”

     

    Constructive rumination

    At Guantanamo, Holdbrooks mulled over the information which the Army instructors had taught him along with others about Islam after watching the so-called terrorists, days after days. What he’d been told wasn’t lining up with what he observed. He noticed that the detainees read their Qur‘an. They kept their daily schedule of prayers and remained undiscouraged under horrendous pressure.

    In appreciating their endurance, patience and courage, Holdbrooks said: “Here, I had all the freedom in the world, and I was miserable while they had nothing, and they were happy. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that something’s going on.”

    “You’ve got to realize the significance of that,” Holdbrooks said, his tough bravado breaking for a moment. “He’s been in this cage for 23 and a-half hours every day. If you lose your Qur‘an, you’re out of luck. That’s it. You’ve lost everything.”

    As a restless lackey that he is it took him just three nights to read the Glorious Book from cover to cover. For the first time, he found a religious text that met his logical criteria in the Qur’an. And after reading it satisfactorily, he said; “It made sense from the beginning to the end. It doesn’t contradict itself. There’s no magic in it. It’s just a simple instruction manual for living.”

    He took Shahadah

    And after three months of intensive study and conversation, Holdbrooks told the Muslim detainees one night that he wanted to become a Muslim. And in response, the detainees explained the implication of that to him. They said: “Converting to Islam means you would have to change your life style including your diet. You will quit drugs, drinking, profanity and tattoos. Then, be prepared for good relationship with everybody – wife, neighbours, the Army and the government”. Thus, little by little, Holdbrooks made the changes as he found a measure of health, discipline, family and peace of mind which he never had before.

    “If Prophet Muhammad (SAW) were to come back to the Earth today, people would find the best examples of Islam in the United States. American Muslims have a responsibility to live their faith so that others can see a true example, not the perversions of the terrorists or the tyranny of corrupt governments. He concluded that: “For every little step I took toward Islam, Islam was taking more steps toward me”. Thus, the man who was employed to quench the glow of Islam became a propagator of Islam in America.

    The same Guantanamo is now a subject of conflict between President Barrack Obama and President elect, Donald Trump. While the one thinks it should be closed down, the other wants it left open for African and Arab criminals. If Guantanamo had been closed down in 2004 as Obama planned, how could the like of Holdsbooks have become a vociferous propagator of Islam in America today? Allah’s way of doing things is full of wonders. Nothing is impossible with Him.

  • ‘Waiting for Godot’

    It should be obvious that the title for this piece is borrowed from Irish author Samuel Beckett’s two-act tragic-comedy that goes by the same title. But we do not intend to discourse here on the endless wait by Beckett’s protagonists in the 20th Century absurdist classic, Vladimir and Estragon, for the arrival of a phantom figure named Godot, who really never came. The burning issue for most Nigerians at this time has been the gruelling scarcity of fuel across this country, with the attendant hardships on citizens, and the earnest expectation by all of us for quick restoration of enduring normalcy in supply levels.

    I live on‘Main Street’ with ‘fellow Nigerians’ and can relate experiences from there. The long-drawn fuel crisis has made life‘nasty, brutish and short’ for many – in the fullest sense of that Hobbesian phraseology. The experiences are diverse and already widely reported, but we can do with recounting some here. Not a few of us have had to sleep overnight in filling stations, or leave our vehicles there, many times in vain expectation of getting some fuel to buy. Sometimes you needed to leave your house before dawn to get a good location on the queue for a long day of waiting in line ahead to get fuel.Where independent marketers managed to dispense the product, they did so at rates more than 100 per cent higher than the official price, and buyers had to do some calculation to know how much they really were to pay because marketers left their pump indicator at the official N86. 50 per litre. You didn’t have to be a savvy analyst to know it was a rip-off, but buyers were too glad to oblige because NNPC petrol stations that were expected to honour the official price regime hardly had product supply. The long and chaotic queues at many filling stations across the country witnessed mutually transferred aggression by embattled citizens, and there were reports of some killings in the desperation to get fuel.

    Some motorists found it easier to abandon the convenience of their vehicles and commute on public transportation, where available; and where not available, they simply trekked the long distances to their destinations. Operators of public means of commutation themselves – including tricyclists and motorcyclists –had gone through the fleece in getting fuel to operate, and expectedly must recoup their investment maximally in monetary and other value terms. And so, commuters paid through the nose for their services. But then, those operators didn’t have a monopoly on passing on the burden. Other than salary earners whose income was fixed, sundry players in the street economy simply raised their charges to defray their costs. It was basically a cannibalistic order, and there were really no regulating influences.

    With the crisis prolonged, the number of vehicles having fuel to move on the roads progressively thinned out by the day, such that by early last week in Lagos, you could well assume that there was some public holiday declared, as a result of which many motorists stayed back at home. Black marketers of petrol, of course, smelt gold and besieged the highways and street shoulders with the precious commodity in jerry cans – naturally at murderously extortionate rates. In many cases, the fuel they offered for sale had been adulterated and hazardous to the vehicles of buyers. But you only got to realise this after you had bought from them in desperation to keep your vehicle on the road. And you could not help but wonder how the black marketers were getting their own supply anyway, when there were so few outlets dispensing the product to motorists.

    Air travel was not spared the dysfunction, as flights were willy-nilly cancelled or rescheduled owing to the inability of operators to get aviation fuel for their operations. And the hardships were not limited to the outdoors: life at home had become an unrelieved ordeal owing to uninterrupted failure of public supply of electricity and the lack of fuel to power local generating sets. The parlance of greetings among many Nigerians readily formed around the general ordeal, with acquaintances swapping mutual enquiries, laced with a tinge of wonder, as to how you were surviving the fuel crisis. Meanwhile, the inflationary effect of the meltdown on the general cost of living has utterly gone off the hinge.

    That we lived through these experiences without dislocations to social harmony is a testimony to the resilience of Nigerians, which if properly harnessed by leadership, should be a sure ingredient for the country’s greatness. But that isn’t to say the crisis has been a funfest for citizens. Disruptions in fuel supply are certainly not new and have been a historical phenomenon in our country, but that fact did not in anyway lessen the brutality of the latest incident.

    Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, promised that the fuel crisis would end in Lagos and Abuja by Thursday, last week, and in other parts of the country in the following days. He earlier made the promise to the Senate when he was summoned over the fuel crisis, and again last week when he told journalists: “Hopefully, by tomorrow, Thursday, the fuel queues in Abuja should be over. Hopefully, the same thing should happen in Lagos and, thereafter, by the weekend, we should see same in Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Port Harcourt and a few other states.” Well, from where I stand, that hope as at the weekend was a forlorn hope. If you went in search of fuel around Lagos on Thursday, especially on the mainland, you would find that there were truly no queues in many filling stations – but only because they had no fuel to dispense. Those that had fuel for sale recorded huge and chaotic queues of desperate motorists.

    The ministerial promise seemed unrealistic ab initio as any ever could be. And the reason is this: Even if supply levels at filling stations were to suddenly outstrip the estimated 38million litres of daily petrol consumption by Nigerians (which evidently they have not), there has been so much drought of the product in the land over a prolonged period, such that it would require repeated surpluses in supply to meet panic demands before the queues can be expected to disappear. And if Lagos and Abuja were to have such surpluses, these would not immediately avail for residents because motorists in need of fuel in surrounding centres would travel over to source the product where it is immediately available. Really, not many people believed that fuel queues would disappear in Lagos and Abuja by last Thursday. The minimum expectation, however, was that fuel supply would stabilise, such that motorists could hope to get the commodity to buy, even if that would be after some queuing at filling stations.

    The experiences that have attended the prolonged scarcity of fuel have been excruciating for Nigerians, and our concern in this piece is limited to sharing a participant-account with those in whose hands it lies to provide swift succour. There have been fine and technically persuasive narratives on the concert of measures being pursued by government to guarantee long-term stability in fuel supply across the country. But on ‘Main Street,’ the recent experiences have been so life demeaning that the urgent expectation is for an immediate and sustained relief. We earnestly wait to see if the coming days would meet that expectation.

  • Waiting for justice in Anambra

    Waiting for justice in Anambra

    An Appeal Court has sacked the chairman of Njikoka Local Government Area in Anambra State but no one is enforcing the judgment, reports SEUN AKIOYE

    He was a retired Nigeria Army colonel before he became a politician. So when he decided to serve the people of his constituency of Njikoka Local Government Area, he chose to contest for the council’s chairmanship. That was in 2013.

    Since then, Col. Bude Okafor, also known as “Desert Fox” has been fighting a battle to reclaim the mandate he claimed was stolen from him by his party the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and its collaborators.

    The story of his battle to reclaim the mandate is one long labyrinth of court injunctions and protracted legal battle. This later resulted in a judgment by the Court of Appeal in the Enugu Judicial Division which gave an order declaring Okafor as the winner of the chairmanship seat of Njikoka Local Government Area. That was on July 28, 2015. But rather than bring a closure to this long and tiring legal battle, it has opened another floodgate of injunctions. And this was when the troubles of Okafor really began.

     

    An inconclusive election

    The primary election to select the flag bearer of the APGA for the Njikoka local government chairmanship election was held on August 17, 2013. According to the documents made available to The Nation, five candidates bought forms and submitted at the appropriate date and they include one Mr. Emeka Onuora. According to court documents, it was on the election day that one Mr. Tony Nwazojie, who allegedly did not purchase the forms surfaced and presented himself as a candidate for the primary election.

    Despite the reported protest of Okafor, Nwazojie participated in the primary and was declared winner with a total of 324 votes and Okafor who came second polled a total of 77 votes. But that was where sanity ended.  After the primary, one of the contestants, Onuora, who allegedly polled no vote, was declared winner and the flag bearer of the APGA in the local government election.

    Before the election, Okafor who spoke to The Nation said he instituted a court action against the candidate and the leadership of the party on January 9, 2014 at the State High Court, seeking an order to restrain Onuora from presenting himself as the candidate for the APGA for the Njikoka local government election. But the election held and Onuora was declared winner and subsequently sworn in as the elected chairman of Njikoka local government.

    The election held on January 11, 2014 and Okafor lost his case. The Hon. Justice H.O Ozor, sitting at the High Court of Anambra State on October 8, 2014 in the Suit N0 A/9/2014 ruled that the suit was academic and hypothetical because election had been held and the defendant sworn in.

    But Okafor would not give up and proceeded to the Appeal Court in case number: CA/E/640/2014 where he asked for a determination “Whether the Hon. Trial court was right in dismissing this pre-election suit which was filed before the election on the ground that it is academic and hypothetical, because the election had been held and the 3rd defendant sworn in after the election.”

    The Appeal Court saw reason in Okafor’s argument, upheld the appeal and set aside the High Court judgment; the Court also gave a landmark judgment on July 28, 2015, by declaring Okafor winner of the chairmanship seat. The judgment reads: “That the Appellant Col. Bude Nnakee Okafor (RTD) is hereby declared winner of the Chairmanship seat, as candidate under the APGA of the Njikoka Local Government election of 11th January, 2014, having satisfied the provisions of Section 87 (5) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) and Section 141 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) and Article 24 (6) of the APGA constitution.”

    The Appeal Court also granted the sum of N50, 000 in costs in favour of Okafor.

     

    Passing the buck

    But the Appeal Court ruling did not give the desired respite to Okafor as he has been battling for the enforcement of the judgment. According to his counsel, Emmanuel Ezeugo, the Attorney General of the state, Anali Chude was duly served with the court order but he did nothing about it. “He was served with the judgment of the Appeal Court and also the order and I requested for arrangement to swear in my client but after all that he kept quiet. He is the legal officer of the state and he is the one that can enforce it,” Ezeugo said.

    However, when contacted, the Attorney General said the Ministry of Justice does not enforce judgments. “The Ministry of Justice does not enforce judgments. I am sure the appropriate quarters saddled with the responsibility will tell you why,” he said.

    Also the chairman of the APGA in Anambra State, Chief Norbert Obi told The Nation that the party never received the court orders but declined to say if the party would respect the order if received.

    “ The party has no such court order per se, we have no information to that effect, we were not served the judgment in our office,” Obi said.

    Also the National Chairman of APGA, Dr. Victor Ike Oye in a message to The Nation could not comment on the matter, saying there is an appeal on the case.  With those who could enforce the judgment passing the buck, it left many questions begging for answers.

    What is the role of the governor,Willie Obiano in the unfolding saga? Is it true that the Attorney General was ordered “from above” not to obey the court injunction? Why is the Party not wading in to resolve the imbroglio?

    Ezeugo said a contempt motion has been slammed on the state Attorney General.  “We filed a motion at the court of appeal for contempt to try the Attorney General, let him show cause why he should not be committed to prison for disobeying the court order. The court removed the chairman of the Local government and declared Col. Okafor as the winner of the election and by that judgment, my client should have been sworn in since July,” he concluded.