The Nation Newspaper

Tag: waiting

  • Waiting for Moses

    Waiting for Moses

    Women cherish the opening of the European football league season. Their men sit at home to watch their favourite teams fight weekly for the points required to play in the prestigious UEFA Champions League competition next season.

    From this weekend, beginning with the Charity Shield “London derby” tie between Barclays English Premier League champions Chelsea and the English FA Cup kings, Arsenal at Wembley Stadium, till May 2016, soccer-crazy families will be broken by the clubs they support during the 90 minutes duration of matches. Winners laugh; losers frown.

    The scenario is most exciting if the kids’ teams beat the ones supported by their fathers. The kids tease their fathers, who momentarily surrender the right to discipline them. It gets very interesting if the mother is a supporter of the kids’ clubs. Indeed, my colleague Emmanuel Tobi of the New Telegraph named his first son Fabregas. No prize for guessing that Tobi is a Gunner. I wasn’t surprised that his wife didn’t object to naming their first child after an Arsenal great. She too is a Gunner. I wonder what they would tell their son, now that Fabregas plays for Chelsea. Such is the awesome power of soccer. But I digress.

    These weekly sessions further unite families, especially the homes where the fathers are engrossed with the demands of their jobs. But, somehow, they find a way of getting home early to watch the matches with their families. The women however love this period most because they are sure where their husbands are. Even when they watch the matches with the boys, their wives know where they are and could pay surprise visits to such centres.

    Nothing is spared to ensure a hitch-free session. People don’t rely on the regular supply of electricity because they don’t want to miss any moment in a game. Power Generators are pressed to service. Fridges are stocked with drinks. Family members sit to watch the games, wearing different jerseys (for fathers who allow siblings and their wives freedom to belong to teams of their choices).

    For those who love to “conscript” their wives and kids, the fun is lost when their favourite team loses. The fun is best appreciated if family members are divided among the teams. Indeed, the zero moment is here after the hectic European transfer windows where teams strengthened their ranks with quality players. The fans cannot wait to see the game and share in the sighs, joy and sadness of each weekly game.

    Again, the fans, mostly the youth, throng viewing centres on match days to watch their favourite teams. The atmosphere in most centres can be tense, depending on the placing of both teams on the league tables or the trophies at stake. At the business centres, you will marvel at the fact that many of the fans wear jerseys bearing the names of their idols. Some others wear theirs with customised names. It is really a spectacle to behold.

    But, there have been terrible incidents, leading to deaths in many instances. People have wondered how people could kill themselves for teams who know nothing about their existence.

    But for journalists and national team coaches, this is the period to monitor our nationals to see those who prosecute the country’s international soccer matches ahead of continental and global football competitions.

    Perhaps the best way for Nigerian journalists and coaches to begin the monitoring will be on Sunday at the Wembley Stadium where we ex

    pect two Nigerians – Victor Moses and John Mikel Obi -to star for Chelsea in the Charity Shield game against Arsenal.

    Until recently, the rumour mill had speculated the movement of Moses to Stoke in a swap transfer for goalkeeper Asmir Bergovic. But Moses sneezed at the arrangement, insisting that he would rather want a proper transfer from Chelsea to Tottenham Hotspurs, another Barclays English Premier League side than any demeaning deal to Stoke, where he played last season on loan.

    Moses has played three matches, lasting 45 minutes in each game. And Mourinho has spared no adjective in describing Moses’ exploits. Moses can raise his chin up from Mourinho’s comments because it paves the way for him to shake the world with his sublime skills. Moses has what it takes to tie down a regular shirt, except that most Nigerians who ply their trade in Europe, usually cannot string five good outings together, raising fears about their ages.

    For Moses, this argument isn’t tenable because he is a young man. But he must concentrate for the 90 minutes and play to the tactics rehearsed at the training. Indeed, Moses’ knack for goals underscores why he would command a regular shirt, only if he boycotts the social vices that have ruined many Nigerian players in Europe.  I also hope that Moses can whisper to Mourinho’s ears the need for him to play for Nigeria, whenever there is a clash between club and country’s matches. Besides, Moses must change this penchant of reporting late to the Eagles camp, even when he is released early by Chelsea.

    Again, Moses must return to Chelsea after Eagles’ matches instead of remaining in Nigeria and getting back late. Moses and indeed Mikel Obi are guilty of these traits and it is the reason why they lose their first team shirts.

    At 24, Moses should be the pivot of Chelsea’s games, having played for England as a junior international. Moses went through the coaching regime that most of the English players were exposed to. He, therefore, has no reason being benched by players who looked up to him to win games, when they were much younger playing for England.

    As Chelsea file out against Arsenal on Sunday, most Nigerians will want Moses to grab the headlines with a meteoric outing reminiscence of what Nwankwo Kanu did for Arsenal several years back, when he rose from the bench in the second half to score the hat-trick that decided the game in Gunners‘ favour. Arsenal beat Chelsea 3-2 and Kanu’s name reverberated in the media for months. That spectacular outing by Kanu forms some of the landmark ties of the English game, which his kids now cherish now that their dad has retired from the game.

    If Moses doesn’t start the game, he would be introduced as a second half substitute they way Mourinho did in Chelsea’s last game. He needs to seize the day with a stellar performance. Moses looks like our best bet for the 2016 African Footballer of the Year diadem if he remains focused and enjoys an injury-free season unlike what happened to him at Stoke last season.

    Where does one start to write about Mikel and Chelsea? The cheery news that Mikel is second on the log to replace John Terry as the next Chelsea captain says a lot about his contributions to the team. Mikel needs to score goals for the Blues. This has been the distinguishing line between Mikel and those who bench him. Ivanovic’s choice ahead of Mikel has to do with his spartan fighting spirit, playing for Chelsea. Ivanovic is a flank defender, yet he has scored goals that have earned Chelsea cherished victories. Ivanovic doesn’t sit back to play defensively. He moves forward to score goals when teams appear to have caged Chelsea’s strikers. No coach will have Ivanovic and not give him the captain’s band when the need arises. Ivanovic is a fighter and a winner any day. These traits are lacking in Mikel’s game. Common Mikel, grab the headlines by being Chelsea’s captain by exhibiting the typical Nigerian can-do spirit this season.

    If Mikel plays for Chelsea on Sunday, it would be for tactical reasons. Yet, he needs to play the Ivanovic way because he has what it takes to be the most exciting player at Chelsea only if he dares to be ambitious and score goals. Goals win matches and coaches don’t joke with scorers.

    It’s interesting that Mikel is being considered to captain a big side like Chelsea. It underscores the abundant talents in the country. Pundits hope that NFF chieftains get the puzzle right, with the recruitment of Sunday Oliseh and the other facets of his contract, meant to produce truly young lads from the grassroots.

    I expect Oliseh to be at Wembley Stadium to watch Moses and Mikel. I expect Oliseh to use this visit to rub minds with his former team mate Michael Emenalo. He could use Emenalo to establish a rapport with Mourinho. They could sit in a meeting to streamline how he hopes to effectively use Moses and Mikel without clashes in fixtures between the two parties. A synergy between Oliseh and Mourinho will foster better a relationship. A picture having Mourinho, Emenalo, Oliseh, Mikel and Moses walking out of the Wembley stadium after the game will headline most Nigerian newspapers, especially if Chelsea beats Arsenal. Please, I have not tipped Chelsea to beat Arsenal. The better side should lift the Community Shield on Sunday.

    I also expect to see Oliseh and his men at the stands, watching our players during matches, instead of relying on views from partisan agents and scouts to pick players for Nigeria’s games. Oliseh should learn how to interface with the coaches of clubs where our players earn a living. That way, he can find out why they are being benched or relate with them when they are injured. This idea of using boys to prosecute our matches and not care about their welfare must stop.

    Our players must feel wanted by Nigeria. It starts with taking interest in what happens to them in their clubs and how we respond to their difficulties. When these two parameters are met, the players will give their best.

  • Still waiting for the ‘change’

    SIR: The only permanent thing in life is change. Here on earth, everything is in a state of flux. Nothing lasts forever. Asian countries like Malaysia and Singapore were once backwater countries on the Asian continent. Today, they are economically prosperous countries. Nigerians, who are long-suffering, want their country, Nigeria, to change for the better. Nigerians are desirous of change having suffered economic deprivation occasioned by political mal-administration and military dictatorships in the past. Both military regimes and the democratic ones caused the technological backwardness of Nigeria, and the ruination of our economy.

    Corruption is the cankerworm asphyxiating life out of Nigeria. Our national ills are linked to corruption which is pervasive. Consequently, nothing works here. No system of doing things is effective in Nigeria. Is our educational system not dysfunctional? Yearly, our universities churn out graduates who are found wanting both in character and learning. They are semi-literate; unemployable.

    Our dilapidated roads bring back memories of thorough-fares in war-torn countries. Successive governments in Nigeria could not fix those bad roads. And our hospitals have morphed to morgues where people visit and die. That’s why well-heeled Nigerians travel to Europe for medical attention.

    The insecurity of lives and property is threatening the corporate existence of Nigeria. There is no let-up in the murderous activities of the Boko Haram group.

    APC, the ruling political party, promised us change during electioneering period. But change hasn’t come to Nigeria. It is too early in the life of this administration for us to be assessing this government. But, are we still hopeful of enjoying improved standard of living given the tardiness that has marked this civilian administration? Buhari’s inability to form his cabinet somewhat betrayed his unpreparedness for governance. Will he take an eternity to form a cabinet?

    So far, he has taken action regarding some national issues. He gave financial bailouts to states that are in trouble. And he made some crucial appointments. I would like him to make appointments that will reflect the federal character principle that is entrenched in our country’s constitution. If every state is represented in his cabinet, it will erase the feelings of marginalization and alienation existing among us and deepen our unity.

    Unity is a sine qua non for national development. A country in political stasis cannot make progress as anarchy does not conduce to national growth. The internal political crisis rocking the APC at the inception of this government does not augur well for our national well-being. A house that is divided against itself cannot make any meaningful progress. So, it behooves on members of the top echelon in the ruling party to resolve the crisis that has bedeviled their party in order that they will offer us purposeful and result-oriented leadership that will have positive impact on the populace.

    APC should brace up to these hydra-headed and multiple national problems that have held us down for so long. Nigerians voted APC to break away from the past corrupt political order. And they are patiently waiting for the change the party promised to give them during the electioneering period.

    • Chiedu Uche Okoye,

    Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State.

  • PMB: Is the waiting game over?

    Mahatma Gandhi, the celebrated Indian statesman with a political philosophy of peaceful emancipation that reverberated round the globe, once reasoned: In matters of rigidity and indifference, the law of the majority has no place. President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB), confirmed the truism in this aphorism when he kept eager-for-good-governance people of this country waiting for nearly a month and half in the saddle before he could change the army service chiefs that he inherited from the inept administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Nigerians that placed too much hope in PMB cannot be blamed, for the President in all conscience, has been slothful despite the alibi of his being tactical in dealing with the clutter he met on ground. But the reality is that Nigerians that have suffered 16 years of indignity and pilfering of public till under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government will not understand why PMB has become enslaved by his own rigidity and avoidable political indifference to scheming that could help him achieve, in reasonable time, his promise to change the country for good. Justifiably, Nigerians believed that they voted for a president that had contested and lost the presidency on three occasions and having clinched the presidency the fourth time, he was assumed to have been well fortified with ideas, plan of and policy direction on how to move the country forward without prevarication or delay.

    Nigerians naively believe that a president with such Abraham Lincoln-like electoral defeats should have become repository of how every agency of the federal government operates and what to be done to put them aright where necessary by the fourth time that he won. But they are still waiting for the Buhari-Wonder to happen. Nigerians expected that by the time they voted for PMB on March 28 and the time he was declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on March 30 as the winner – one month to his swearing- in – he should by now have known how to handle the legislature in a way that would not stagnate or distract his government; they thought he should by then have known how to handle the issue of fuel scarcity; that PMB would come up with panaceas on how to solve the plummeting price of naira against the dollar and that a direction would have been shown on how he plans to create more jobs, resolve the epileptic power quagmire and mitigate the gorge of corruption that has destroyed the foundation of values system in the country.

    The reality today is that most Nigerians, including yours sincerely, were bemused by the politically naive statement of PMB that he was ready to work with anybody that emerged as Senate-President and Speaker in the bi-cameral federal legislature of the land. The president even said in his inaugural speech that he belongs to nobody but for everybody. Now that the treacherous duo of Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara have emerged as Senate-President and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively, against the ruling party’s position – but with the support of opposition PDP – why is the president reportedly now avoiding the Senate President? Was it not the same president that declared that the constitutional process had run its course with the emergence of Saraki and Dogara that has now belatedly realised his political imprudence?

    This column wants to ask: At what point did the president realise that the emergence of the duo ran contrary to the position of APC? What does PMB mean by his latter-day mantra of party supremacy when whether overtly or covertly, he as the leader of the ruling party, undermined its supremacy with his lethargic but deliberate and indifferent rigidity to political issues that can make or mar his presidency? This presidency has been quite unstable with its approbation and reprobation on important political and policy issues of state. This is one of the manifest distasteful attributes of the inglorious PDP regime that this presidency must drop.

    Sadly, the deliberate but injurious taciturnity of PMB informed the bad solipsism that made some Nigerians to give credit to what they termed as the ‘decisiveness’ of the despot called Olusegun Obasanjo on political/policy issues of state. What a bad comparism between a man of integrity like PMB that Nigerians reposed so much confidence in and a hypocritical oppressor and anti-democratic element like Obasanjo. PMB should be politically discernible and must know, in case he has forgotten, that without the same party and support of an important national leader of the ruling party in the southwest like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that the likes of Abubakar Atiku, Saraki and Dogara among other mischievous political elements are futilely trying to decimate, he will not be president today.

    This column is happy that the president, all of a sudden, seemed to have realised his groove and from nowhere, took one belated glorious step that the public had long been yearning for. What did he do? Precisely 43 days after inauguration and 72 days after being declared President by INEC, PMB on July 13, 2015, after keeping Nigerians in needlessly prolonged and embarrassing suspense eventually named his National Security Adviser (NSA) and also effected the long-awaited removal of the despondent service chiefs inherited from the inept former President Jonathan administration. And this column could not but ask: Is the waiting game over for the PMB presidency or what he did earlier in the week just a flash in the pan? Will he henceforth start putting things in the rightful place? Only time can tell.

    But, the president needs to move ahead and form a cabinet of very good hands that could think for him. In these past weeks, his government has been indecisive and also not been thinking as it should and this is bad if the desired change promised Nigerians would be achieved. Nigerians want no excuses from the PMB government but positive action that could lift their morale and remove them from the current morass. The president must know that Nigerians are tired of the political harlotry of Abubakar Atiku and his goading of the politically perfidious Saraki and Dogara whose inordinate ambition for power is fast becoming an inexorably impediment (if not nipped in the bud now), to the focus of the PMB administration. PMB needs the steadfast commitment and fidelity to the ruling party by its true pre-registration promoters like a Bola Tinubu and occasional matured intervention of a statesman like Maitama Sule amongst others.

    PMB must know that his integrity is on the line except he succeeds in putting in check a society that is on the precipice of irredeemable rot. Despite his wild political acceptance in the north, which indubitably more than anything else, made him the best candidate best suited to achieve the epochal record of sending a sitting government out of power at the federal level, he needs not put this to waste on a platter of political naivety. He should fear God and listen to only one voice that is his conscience by rewarding the political goodness towards him of benefactors like Tinubu with good which he is not doing by his reticence to the mischief of political opportunists that are out to bring him down without him knowing this. PMB should shed his Fulani pride and embrace political realism without necessarily compromising standards. By now, he should see beyond the dramatics of Saraki/Dogara and realise that beyond the average conscience, there is a still, low voice that should be saying to him that something is out-of-tune with the slow pace and avoidable indifference with which he has so far approached governance.

  • Teflon president-in waiting

    SIR: Teflon is a kind of plastic often applied on pans to prevent food from sticking to them. If anything can be said about the developments in Nigeria’s political arena these days, it is that Gen. Buhari, the APC presidential candidate is really”Mr. Teflon.”

    In its panic mode, the PDP campaign organization of President Goodluck Jonathan has thrown everything at its disposal at him. None, nil, nada has been able to stick!

    First, political darts were thrown to no effect. At age 72, Buhari was declared to be too old to be President by over-weight pot-bellied political hounds that cannot even outrace the General in a 50 metre race! Their contentions were laid bare when the honourable people of Tunisia elected an 88-year old gentleman as President of their country.

    Next, they went into the kitchen and started throwing everything at him. General Buhari has cancer they screamed. No luck! His doctors promptly disabused their minds and brains; they have become befuddled.

    They picked up another refrain; Buhari has no secondary school leaving certificate. For a time, it looked like their allegation would gain traction. Then the General displayed what made him a General; strategy! In a concerted, well-orchestrated response, all of the institutions the General attended made public all of the information in their possession. All of the information released by these institutions point to the fact that Gen. Buhari has satisfied the requirements of the appropriate section of the Nigerian Constitution. They have not stopped. Gen. Buhari wants to convert Nigerians to the Islamic faith, they avow, even though at all the times he has run for the office, his running mates have been Christians! Another blatant lie. However, Gen. Buhari gets more popular by the day and the endorsement by the people that really matter, the voters, are coming in bunches.

    The PDP and its cohorts, in my humble opinion, have two problems. First are the memories of the Nigerian people. They have gone through both administrations; Jonathan’s and General Buhari’s. They remember and prefer Buhari’s two years in office over Dr. Jonathan’s six years in office. The differences are just too glaring! Hence, they have picked up Gen. Buhari’s refrain of “change.”

    The second problem is encapsulated in late Chief S. L. Akintola’s memorable assertion – You have not suffered in life and you say you are wise. Who is your teacher? This assertion is a major problem for the PDP. Nigerians have suffered tremendously. And they are still suffering. Finally, the die is cast, the last straw has broken the camel’s back and they do not want to suffer anymore. They have smartened up!

    Nigerians want results now not promises. They want the electric power they pay for not the darkness that hovers over them for days, months even years. They want roads, hospitals, schools, and social services which they know the country can pay for but which have been denied them by peculator incumbents of public offices. They have realized that now is the time for good governance, not good luck! Nowhere in the world has good luck built a country. Instead, honesty, integrity, consistency, commitment, visionary leadership, cooperation and character build nations.

    Like Barack Obama, who rode into office on the crest of a popular political movement that destroyed every political “monument” or obelisk in its path in 2008, Buhari’s train is riding through the thick and thin of the needless hurdles being put in its path by mediocre political midgets, political prostitutes and hirelings of no consequence to the country, with the ease of a knife going through butter.

    Honestly, seems to me like this is Buhari’s divine assignment. He has a date with destiny.

    • Angelicus-M. B. Onasanya,

     Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State

  • Aven Akenzua still waiting

    Aven Akenzua still waiting

    Three years after the union between Chief Gabriel Igbinedion’s daughter, Omosede, and Prince Aven Akenzua, hit the rocks, the charming prince, obviously not one who sought for undue attention, went out of limelight. Not much has been heard about him ever since. But the buxom lady seems to be enjoying life and moving on. At a point, rumour mill was agog that she was giving matrimony a second trial. But the mother of one has picked interest in politics. She will be representing Ovie Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives come 2015.

    Theirs was one of the weddings of the year. It was a royal wedding that drew many from all walks of life. Aven is a son to Enogie Uyieken Akenzua, the younger brother of the Oba of Benin, His Royal Highness, Oba Erediauwa, and had against the wish of the Benin palace forged ahead and got wedded to Omosede, the eldest daughter of Lady Cherry Igbinedion. The marriage produced a baby boy in 2009 and was widely celebrated by the house of Igbinedion in a grand style.

  • Nigeria @ 54: Waiting for the messiah

    IR: When British colonial administrators lowered the union jack on October 1st, 1960, Nigeria was Africa’s faith and hope for economic transformation. However, despite the vast wealth of the nation and those early promises, it has continued to struggle to provide basic necessities for its citizenry.

    In 1999, when President Obasanjo took office, Nigerians were told that with the massive investment in building generating plants, Nigeria by 2003 would have at least 10,000 megawatts installed capacity. Eleven years down the line, the available power some months back was a meagre 2,400 megawatts. This is in spite of the several billions of dollars spent; the new generating plants said to have been built and commissioned and renovation of old ones.

    Countries like China, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates and others that have transformed their countries from backwaters of development to World class economies appreciate that corruption retards development and threaten their survival and sustainability; here in Nigeria, corruption has been allowed to eat deep into the fabric of the Nigerian system. Fifty-four years down the line, we celebrate independence and other anniversaries in an environment of impunity.

    A measure of the mismanagement of resources is the current situation in which less than 15 out of about 460 forest reserves are effectively functioning. The question is what has happened to the others?

    Employment which should be based on merit are now hijacked and shared by politicians among their cronies. In a country where youths are said to constitute 65-70% of the population, they are excluded from participation in decision-making including those that concerns their future; ironically, they are still regarded as the future of the nation.

    Insecurity and insurgency threatens to bring the country to its knees. If it is not Boko Haram, it is Fulani herdsmen on rampage.

    The only thing left for us to do  is to keep hoping for a messiah to emerge to save the country before it falls apart.

     

    • Temitayo Taylor

    Abeokuta.

  • Mandela…the waiting game continues

    Mandela…the waiting game continues

    After hours of vigils and secret family meetings, South Africans awoke to another day of unease yesterday as ailing anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela remained hospitalised in critical condition.

    “Former President Nelson Mandela’s condition remains unchanged in hospital and doctors continue to do their best to ensure his recovery, well-being and comfort,” the government said in a statement late Tuesday night.

    As the nation remained on edge, police barricaded the street leading to the hospital’s main entrance.

    Well-wishers hung balloons, stuffed animals and messages of support along the wall outside his Pretoria hospital . Crowds hovering nearby sang “where is Mandela” as they matched toward the entrance.

    Mandela has been hospitalised since June 8 for a recurring lung infection, and authorities have described his condition as critical in the last few days.

    “We need you!,” one sign read. “We love you tata, get well soon!” said another, referring to Mandela by the Xhosa word for father.

    Mandela’s former physician and the nation’s ex-surgeon general, Dr Vejay Ramlakan, visited the hospital yesterday, said the national news agency, South African Press Association.

    Considered the founding father of South Africa’s democracy, Mandela became an international figure while enduring 27 years in prison for fighting against apartheid, the country’s system of racial segregation.

    He was elected the nation’s first black president in 1994, four years after he was freed from prison.

    “He is our hero. He is my mentor, my father. He is everything to me,” said Kuda Nyahumzvi, 36. “But when it is his time, we wish his soul could just rest. He spent so long in jail and struggling.”

    Even as he has faded from the spotlight, he remains popular and is considered a hero of democracy worldwide.

    As South Africans steeled themselves for the worst, details emerged of the family’s meeting in his boyhood home of Qunu on Tuesday. An archbishop also stopped by the hospital and conducted prayers calling for “a quiet night and a peaceful, perfect, end” for the former president.

    Archbishop Thabo Makgoba joined the family at the hospital where the anti-apartheid icon remains in critical condition, the South African Press Association reported.

    “Fill them with your holy courage and the gift of trusting faith, and take away their fears so that they may dare to face their grief,” he said, according to a copy of the prayer posted on the bishop’s website.

    “And uphold all of us with your steadfast love so that we may be filled with gratitude for all the good that he has done for us and for our nation, and may honor his legacy through our lives.”

    During the meeting in Qunu, funeral arrangements were not part of the talks, family friend Bantu Holomisa said, according to SAPA.

    As a former head of state, plans for Mandela’s funeral are spearheaded by the government, according to Holomisa.

    A report in India Times yesterday said the family was divided over where his remains should be buried.

    The family is reportedly divided between his grandson Mandla Mandela, who wants the anti-apartheid icon buried at his birthplace in Mvezo village, and the rest of the family who want to respect his wish to be buried next to his children, The Star newspaper of South Africa reported on Wednesday citing three sources.

    Mandla is the head of the Mvezo Traditional Council.

    The controversy arose as Mandla had exhumed the bodies of his father Makgatho, uncle Thembekile and aunt Makaziwe from the family grave at Mandela’s homestead in Qunu and reburied them at his birthplace Mvezo in 2011.

    Makgatho died in 2005 due to a AIDS-related illness, Makaziwe had died in 1948 when she was just nine months old, and Thembekile was killed in a car accident in 1969.

    All three were children from Mandela’s first wife, Evelyn.

    According to the report, the family had gathered at the Qunu homestead on Tuesday for an “ibhunga” or a meeting to discuss an important family matter.

    Among those who attended the meeting were Mandela’s another daughter from Evelyn, also named Makaziwe, his daughter from second wife Winnie, Zenani, Mandla and his brother Ndaba.

    Bantu Holomisa, leader of the United Democratic Movement, Lindwe Sisulu, South Africa’s minister for public service and administration, and chief Bhovulengwe of the abaThembu Royal Council were also present in the meeting.

    Mandla reportedly stormed out of the meeting as the family members sought that the bodies of Makgatho, Makaziwe and Thembekile be moved back to their original burial sites in Qunu.

    “This is making it impossible for Mandela to be buried next to his children because they are buried in Mvezo. Mandela is going to be buried in Qunu. Mandla did this without consulting the elders,” The Star report quoted one of the sources as saying.

    When the newspaper called Mandla on his phone, he did not answer it, Holonisa refused to divulge what happened in the meeting and instead suggested that Makaziwe be contacted as she had called the meeting, and Makaziwe, on her part, said she doesn’t “talk to The Star”.

    Tuesday’s family meeting lasted from 11am to 2pm.

  • Waiting for delivery of second Niger Bridge

    Waiting for delivery of second Niger Bridge

    The Second Niger Bridge was proposed in 1992. Twenty-one years after, it has yet to get off the drawing board. Being a bridge of strategic importance to the Southeast and Southsouth, the Federal Government has promised to deliver the project in 16 months. Will it live up to this promise?
    OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE reports.

     

    With N12 billion voted for the second Niger Bridge in the budget, the Federal Government is set to make good on its promise to deliver on the project within a short time.

    The bridge is the link between the Southsouth and Southeast and its holds a lot of promise for businesses in the Asaba-Onitsha axis. Analysts believe the construction of the Second Niger bridge is long overdue, because of its commercial importance to the country.

    It is always a nightmare during the yuletide for people travelling to the east because of the traffic gridlock on the only bridge now servicing the axis. It takes hours for motorists to drive across the bridge while going to Onitsha on Asaba.

    The first bridge was initiated by the British colonial government and completed just before the civil war.

    The Minister of Works, Mr Mike Onolememen, said the second bridge, which would be completed in 16 months, has been awarded to Messrs Roughton International Limited for transactional advisory services for N325million under Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

    He said the ground breaking of the bridge would be done by the third quarter of this year, adding that the project was approved “because government is concerned about the challenges posed to road users on the route.

     

    Previous attempts

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo attempted to kick-start the second Niger Bridge in Onitsha, the Anambra State commercial hub, about five days to the end of his tenure. He described the project as “a promise fulfilled.” He blamed the delay in the execution of the project on the National Assembly’s failure to pass a law that would enhance the government’s participation in the PPP.

    Obasanjo observed that the volume of traffic on the old Niger Bridge clearly justifies the need for a second bridge, adding: “If anything happens to the old bridge, half of the country will be cut off.”

    He described the Niger Bridge as “the most significant line of communication between the Eastern and Western parts of the country.”

    Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, however, told the Senate Committee on Works then that the touted commencement of the second Niger Bridge by Obasanjo, was a fraud. He regretted that after the brisk foundation laying, no structure was added to justify its flag-off. He called on the government to redress the situation to enable the people of the zone to actualise their potential, socially, economically and otherwise.

    The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) also showed interest in the matter, forming a management consultancy company, NSE PREMS, which designed the bridge. Despite NSE’s effort, the project did not take off, as the government spoke of adding an East -West rail line to the project.

    This marked the beginning of intense politicking over the bridge with successive governments merely paying lip service to the project.

    For over three years, the then Minister of Works, Senator Mohammed Sanusi Daggash, raised the hope of millions of users of the bridge.

    He said the construction of a second bridge across the Niger River had become expedient, assuring Nigerians that while maintenance work will continue on the existing bridge, the government will work assiduously to construct a new one.

     

    Current efforts

    Onolememen, in a recent statement, said the government was desirous of taking immediate action to construct the bridge to provide smooth movement of traffic between affected geopolitical zones. He added that the government, in furtherance of its transformation agenda of addressing infrastructural deficit and improving the quality of public infrastructural services, recognised leveraging on private sector investment.

    The government, he said, also recognised the capacity to complement the drive towards bridging the country’s enormous infrastructure gap through the PPP.

    The issue resonated recently at one of the sessions of the House of Representatives.

    The House passed a motion sponsored by Mr Ezenwa Onyewuchi, representing Owerri Federal Constituency of Imo State. In the motion, he observed that the current River Niger bridge, which was built in 1965, is at the brink of collapse. In passing the motion, the House urged the Federal Government to engage the services of a competent contractor to commence the construction of the second Niger bridge to support the existing one.

    Presenting the motion, Onyewuchi noted that the bridge, which links the Southeast, Southsouth and Southwest and some northern states, is on the verge of collapse because of its age, over use and lack of maintenance. There is evidence of corrosion and cracks to the structural members of the bridge, which has been stretched beyond its limit and capacity.”

    He expressed worry that should the bridge collapse, it would result in the death of many Nigerians and motorists, adding that a lot of properties will be lost in the mayhem as sections of the country will be cut off.

    Onyewuchi stressed that the collapse of the bridge would lead to the dislocation and disruption of commercial activities, adding that the government will be forced to channel all its energy and resources in cushioning the hardship and other effects resulting from such collapse.

    “The promises of constructing a second Niger Bridge by the past and present administrations have been a mirage,” he said.

    In the Senate, Senators Hope Uzodinma and Margery Chuba- Okadigbo, also raised concern on the state of the bridge; the imminent danger it constitutes to the millions that use it and the desirability for the second Niger Bridge. They called for urgent action to be taken in expediting the construction of the new bridge.

    A Highway Engineer, Mr Afolabi Adedeji, notes that the issue of the second Niger Bridge has dragged on for too long, considering its importance as the ‘gateway’ to the Southeast and Southsouth.He said the route has been of great strategic importance for decades, noting that the existing bridge has become inadequate because of aging, wear and tear, poor maintenance and phenomenal demographic changes. He recommended the PPP approach as the best delivery model and asked the government to adopt it to fast-track its construction.

     

    Stakeholders’ perspective

    A driver who plies the route regularly, Mr Innocent Okechukwu, hails recent efforts to kick-start the construction of the second bridge and the maintenance of the existing one.

    He recalled the pressure he went through during the yuletide and how he almost slept on the bridge on December, 24, last year. He criticised the Southeast leaders whom he accused of not negotiating properly with political god fathers to attract infrastructure to the zone.

    A lawyer, Mr Nkem Duru, who experienced traffic logjam on the bridge during the Christmas season, said President Goodluck Jonathan would have scored a good political point if he succeeds in delivering on the second Niger Bridge.

     

    How will the second bridge look like?

    Onolememen told the Senate Committee on Works that the proposed bridge would be located downstream of the existing bridge on a new alignment with a dual carriageway bridge with eight traffic lanes and pedestrian walkways.

    The main bridge, he said, shall be approximately two kilometres long, depending on the location, adding that there will be other minor bridges, interchanges/flyovers along the road alignment; the approach roads will also be eight-lane dual carriageway with a total length of about 37 kilometres.

    He said experience has shown that PPP stimulate faster implementation of projects, and reduce the whole life costs of project.

    Onolememen said: “It offers better risk allocation between public and private sectors, better and sustainable incentive to perform, engender accountability in fund utilisation, and improve the overall quality of service. Evidently, it also leads to the generation of additional revenue and overall value for money for the entire economy.”

     

    Way forward

    He said his ministry has begun the procurement of the services of experienced concessionaires with full complement of relevant skills, comprising technical, financial and legal, to assist through the regulated phases of the PPP life cycle.

    The Outline Business Case (OBC), he said, has been submitted to the Infrastructure Concession Regulation Commission (ICRC) in compliance with the provisions in the National Policy on PPP. He said as soon as the “No Objection” is issued by ICRC, the ministry will re-seek the President’s anticipatory approval to enable the project to proceed to the next phase of the procurement. Early construction works will start immediately on site once the concession has been awarded to the preferred bidder.

    On the existing bridge, he said his ministry has issued a letter of intent for the rehabilitation of the existing Niger River Bridge at Onitsha to Messrs Matiere – Johnson Consortium of France. They are experts in steel bridges and participated in the bidding for the second Niger Bridge, and emerged as the reserved bidder. The company is expected to move to site within 30 days.

    The government, Onolememen added, would take steps to strengthen this strategic and crucial bridge, the only major link across the River Niger, while finalising the take-off of the Second Niger Bridge project.

  • The waiting game

    It is as if they are the ones on admission. But they are not. Everywhere you turn to, they are there. In the wards, at the dispensary and even the toilet. They are around, they claim, to give succour to their ill relatives, but should that be the case? OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA reports.

     

    The daughter in-law of Mrs Abolore Iyiola (not real name) developed acute kidney injury (AKI) that required a transplant. When the patient was being prepared for the transplant at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, Mrs Abolore chose to be near her daughter in-law.

    There was a snag hospital has no accommodation for people like her. She ended up spending the eight days her daughter in-law’s treatment lasted in the open space where mosquitoes kept her company. She made do with the public toilet provided by the hospital.

    At night, she slept on wooden benches used by daytime visitors. For change of clothing and food she relied on whatever relatives brought from home.

    When her daughter in-law was discharged. Mrs Iyiola was full of joy. “All my efforts were not in vain”. But then what was her in-put? Was her hanging around of any help?

    At the University Teaching Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, mothers don’t have to stay with their children on admission. Reason: a philanthropist donated a building where they can pass the night for as long as their children are on admission. This is not the case in other departments/units.

    At the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Yaba and Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, both in Mainland, the story is the same. Though relatives are not expected to stay with patients on admission, the socio-cultural milieu compels them to go.

    According to an official at the psychiatric hospital, the relatives need not come and subject themselves to such harrowing experiences.

    He said: “The main reason why most stay around is for financial incapability. Other reasons include, praying or offering information to the team of experts. It is equally important to note that the system is not perfect.

    “For instance, patients on admission are expected to be given adequate attention by the nurses and others, including, supplying and administering drugs, once they are paid for by the relatives or the patients. But we found out that it’s the relatives that go to pay for, purchase and even bring the drugs to the wards. It could be as bad as the relatives lifting up or assisting the patient on admission go to the toilet.

    “Can you beat a case of an orthopaedic patient interfering by a novice? It can worsen the patient’s situation. We have heard of cases where relatives administered drugs on a patient that was not part of the prescribed drugs. The patient could not sleep and the relative thinking she was being kind offered a sleeping pill. The patient grew worse on observation.

    “When her doctor got worried and was about taking blood samples for further investigation, that was when the patient offered the information on the pill. The doctor had to reverse her treatment so as to clear off the effect of the pill, before he was able to further commence treatment,” he said.

    At LUTH, a portion of the building housing the Doctors Lounge has been converted to ‘a waiting area’ with benches, that have been turned to beds by relatives of some patients. Efforts to get the hospital’s comment failed as the officials contacted said they were busy, promising to get back. They did not as at the time of filling this report.

    But an observer said for security reasons the hospital should know who passed the night in that section. “This hospital has experienced diverse assaults from rapists, thieves and all sorts. Even we have lost some members of staff to those nefarious activities. The crowd is teeming by the day under that building,” the observer said.

    At the psychiatric hospital, an expert who does not want to be named, said because of the nature of mental health illness, most times, relatives don’t hang around the hospital premises, except at designated time. “Most of the mental disorders are associated with negative stereotypes such as violence and danger. Not only that stigmatisation and discrimination abound in our culture against mental illnesses. For instance, depression, anxiety and eating disorders have been seen as increasing public interest, schizophrenia remains associated with much more negative stereotypes.

    “Schizophrenia has been found to be one of the most stigmatising conditions. To the present, most research on stigma related to mental illness has drawn conclusions on the adverse reactions faced by people with schizophrenia from studies on public attitudes or analogue behavioural studies. The views of those exposed to the stigmatising reactions, however, has largely been absent. Of all mental illnesses, schizophrenia appears to be the most stigmatised disorder.

    So we don’t see many people flocking around the hospital premises. Unlike what obtains in the convention or tertiary hospitals where visitors or relatives may even sleep on the bare floor in very cold weather. As experts, if we see such here, we may want to carry out further investigations to actually ascertain the state of the mental health of such an individual.”

    The expert said the problem has also contributed to loss of manhour because relatives of the patients usually stay with them for most of the period.

  • Waiting for Jonathan’s transformation

    Waiting for Jonathan’s transformation

    When President Goodluck Jonathan took over as President in May 2010 following the demise of his principal, Umaru Yar’adua, expectations were high. Despite the fact the he appeared unprepared for the task fate and circumstances had placed on his shoulders, a good number of Nigerians expected him to be different from his predecessors. Perhaps because of his saintly visage, peculiar name and the fact he was from a minority ethnic group, they believed that he was the messiah destined to lead the country out of the cesspool of failure where it had found itself.

    In those early days of his administration, Jonathan carried himself with the air of a messiah. Without talking much, he hoodwinked Nigerians into believing that he was heaven’s answer to their prayers. Between when he was sworn in as Acting President till when he declared his intention to contest the 2011 election, he did nothing other than firing his perceived enemies and planting his cronies in key areas of government in order to establish a firm hold.

    After about 10 months as President without any credible achievements, Jonathan threw his hat in the ring for the 2011 elections. Even though the decision clearly contravened the zoning principle of his party and almost threw the country into a political turmoil, he didn’t care a hoot because he felt it was his time.

    After a protracted battle with some northern political elites who were opposed to his ambition, he won his party’s ticket and embarked on a heavily funded campaign to become Nigeria’s president. It was in the peak of that campaign the he came up with this thing called ‘Transformation Agenda,’ with which he hoped to turn the country around for good.

    Lest we forget, what Jonathan did before the election cannot be described as a campaign. It was simply a jamboree where people ate, drank and got free souvenirs. As he crisscrossed the length and breadth of the country in search of votes, there was nothing inspiring in his speeches. There was no blueprint of what he wants to achieve and how he intended to go about it. The most memorable aspect of his entire campaign was that ‘I had no shoes’ speech in Abuja which has now become a satire for critics of his administration.

    When the time finally came to elect the country’s president it, many Nigerians voted for a man they barely knew. They willingly gave their nods to a man who had no direction, destination or commitment other than an abstract document called transformation agenda. Many of those who voted for him were naïve and overly sentimental. They stood for hours in the scorching sun to elect him not because his achievements but because like him, they felt it was his time and nobody should stand in his way.

    Now that the euphoria of winning a presidential election so cheaply has subsided, the real Goodluck Jonathan is gradually unveiling himself. He is showing Nigerians that there is more to a man beyond the look on his face and the clothes on his skin. What many citizens are experiencing today is the exact opposite of what they anticipated when they defied harsh weather conditions to cast their votes for him.

    Under Jonathan’s watch, things seem to have gone from bad to worse. The transformation agenda he spoke passionately about is fast becoming a forlorn dream that may never materialise.

    Counting from when he was sworn in as acting president till date, it almost two years and there is no worthwhile achievement that can be traced to Jonathan’s administration.

    In his inaugural speech as President, Jonathan promised to hit the ground running and almost 19 months down the line, he is yet to get his bearing not to talk of running. He promised to make some reforms in power, economy and other critical sectors but nothing has changed.

    With all the mouthed reforms of the Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s economy is still at its nadir. Even now that the fuel subsidy has been partially withdrawn, ours is still one of the poorest economies in the world where thousands of citizens are unemployed and live below the poverty line. Like other Jonathan apostles, she goes about analysing improvements in figures and graphs when the realities on ground show otherwise.

    The President recently gloated that Nigeria now generates 4,500 Megawatts of electricity, yet the entire country still languish in darkness. Somebody needs to remind him that South Africa generates almost 50,000 Megawatts which has made life better in the country. Because of the epileptic power situation in Nigeria, industries are collapsing and moving out of the country. The few surviving ones spend a chunk of their profits to run generators and it is only a matter of time before they collapse too. Yet, the president thinks he is working.

    In education, it is the same tale of woes. Jonathan established six new universities when he came on board but they are not different from the other derelict ones. Is it not a shame that no Nigerian institution is ranked among the first 20 universities in Africa?

    With the ways things are today, one can’t help but ask what Jonathan’s transformation agenda is all about. Is it a plan by Jonathan and his acolytes to make the country worse than they met it? If this is how he hopes to turn the country around, then we are on a journey to nowhere.