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Tag: young shall grow

  • The young shall grow

    Some 30 or so years ago when one of my nieces was getting married, I went to the ceremony with my young daughter who, having been born abroad was not familiar with our culture of deference to those who are older than us. I was already sitting on reserved chairs like all invited guests when one of my brother’s friends came in and could not find a seat shouted at me saying –”why are you sitting when there is no chair for me?” In good humour I stood up and gave him my chair. My daughter was upset and burst into tears and came to me saying I should not have stood up for the “bully”. I tried to explain perhaps unsatisfactorily that the man was “my older brother” who was exercising the right of an older sibling and that this was normal in Nigeria.

    Now the man who was a young man then is now my old self who is now the head of the extended family. That my “older brother” is still alive but blind but I will mention this article to him so that he can have a big laugh.

    I am acutely aware that times have changed and that I have no right to lord anything over even the youngest in the extended family. I can’t even decide for my own immediate nuclear family because they also belong to their own nuclear families as married people. In fact the tendency now is for my children to want to control my life because they think old age has caught up with me. Who knows? They may be right.

    It is a matter of joy seeing my children, my nephews and nieces making great strides in life.

    Some weeks ago in a phone conversation with Chief DejiFasuan from Ado Ekiti, he reminisced about the incomparable brilliance of my late brother Kayode Osuntokun while both of them were children in Christ’s School Ado Ekiti. He then asked me with concern and curiosity if any of Kayode’s children inherited his brain. He also asked with compassion for my brother’s widow, Olabopo who herself retired from the College of Medicine in Ibadan as a professor Of Ophthalmology. I told Chief Fasuan that the children were brilliant in their different ways spread across the professions of law, accountancy and medicine. None of them is in academia strictly speaking. I almost wrote thankfully when I said they are not teaching in any university where the vows of poverty would have been taken. Their father would have been disappointed about this but I do not think it would have mattered or changed the children from their carefully chosen career paths.

    One of his children has just made a mark which any parent would be proud of. Segun his third child and first son has just been appointed managing partner in London of a firm called Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP). This firm has 1400 lawyers in 32 offices across the USA , Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

    BCLP has a turnover in excess of $900 million. Segun is the managing partner of the City of London office of the firm. The city office has a turnover of over $200 million with 600 lawyers 150 of whom are partners. To the glory of God, Segun is the first and only Nigerian to be the managing partner of a significantly-sized city law firm or company. Having been educated in the London School of Economics and Oxford University, Segun is well prepared for his march through life. Segun unfortunately did not go to Christ School! Chief Fasuan would have been disappointed about this. I am also not too happy that none of my own children was baptized by the Holy Spirit in Christ School! I suppose those of us who went to the great school can stand in the gap as we say in the Pentecostal churches for our children!

    My late brother loved Christ School so much that he wrote in his will and made provision for an annual award and a cash prize for the best science student in the school. This award has been made 23 times since his joining the saints triumphant. I am sure Chief Fasuan is now persuaded that Kayode’s children are chips of the old block.

    Remembering the old times, Professor Kayode Osuntokunmost times felt the only pursuit worth following was medicine. If he could force all his five children, he would have made them doctors. I remember how disappointed he was when his second child, Remi said that she did not want to study medicine but that she actually hated the profession. When this child later became a chartered accountant and was recruited by an international oil company and she showed her father her salary package, he could not believe it and jokingly exclaimed that the daughter’s salary was more than the combined salaries of both her parents who were professors of medicine. In spite of this, he did not think too much of any other profession and he showed disappointment in people like me who took a totally different academic path. He was particularly pleased with his two youngest sons and two of his nephews and a niece who followed him into the medical profession. He had confided in me that he wanted his youngest son to specialize in nuclear and molecular medicine because according to him, that was the future of medicine and was prepared to spend all he had to support him. His early death changed all this and perhaps the young man he wanted to build in his own image would not have wanted to have gone the way his father plotted. It is nice to have a great father and Segun who is the centre of this article was pushed hard by his father. When he realized the young boy was not going to be a doctor or a scientist, he allowed him with tender advice to plot his own professional path. A good degree in Economics from LSE provided a jump off platform for the young man who later added an M. A in law from Oxford University, thus combining radical London training with that of conservative English legal education.

    In reflection, I am happy to witness the quiet successes of my nieces, nephews and my own children. But for the dire economic situation in Nigeria, these young people would have been at home to add to the quantum of knowledge necessary for the development of our country. It seems there are more members of my extended family outside Nigeria than in Nigeria. Well, I guess, we are in a global village but how does this satisfy the need for family ties and physical comradeship and relationship? One thing I am trying to prevent among those of us at home is letting politics spoil our family ties. People have strong views about politics. It is perhaps good that members of the family have different views and positions about the present and future of our country. My experience of growing up in a political family is not too good and if I have my way, I would not want any member of my family being involved in politics. That of course is not possible.Good and knowledgeable people’s involvement in national politics can only be profitable in the long run or else we will be ruled by idiots and nincompoops.  No one knows what the future will bring and no one can stop the march of God on earth and the future is pregnant only God knows what it will bear.

    The young shall grow indeed.

  • ‘Why kidnap attempt on Young Shall Grow Motors boss by Evans failed’

    An Ikeja Special Offences Court in Lagos State heard yesterday why an attempt made by suspected billionaire kidnapper, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike aka Evans, on Chief Obianuju Vincent, the chairman of ‘Young Shall Grow Motors’, failed.

    The narration of the botched kidnap attempt was made before Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo by Inspector Idowu Haruna, a member of the Special Intelligence Response Unit of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), who told the court that it failed because the defendants were not expecting their victim to go out that night with escorts.

    It was during ‘trial-within-trial’ on the admissibility of the confessional statements of the defendants.

    Evans is standing trial alongside three others, Joseph Emeka, 29, Chiemeka Arinze, 39, and Udeme Upong, 43, on a seven-count charge bordering on conspiracy, kidnapping and murder.

    Evans was represented by Olanrewaju Ajanaku; Emeka and Arinze were represented by Ogedi Ogu, while Upong was represented by A.B. Josiah.

    Led in evidence by the lead prosecution, Adebayo Haroun, Insp. Haruna told the court that he recognised Evans and others during investigation into the botched kidnap attempt and attack on Chief Obianuju.

    He said: “The first defendant, Evans, is the leader of the gang; the second defendant, Emeka, is a member of the kidnap gang; the third defendant did not carry out the operation with them, he surveyed the movement of Chief Obiajunu. The fourth defendant was the one that supplied the first defendant with the AK 47 rifles. He told them the guns were used in communal crisis”.

    Haruna said the attack on Obiajunu was carried out on August 27, 2013 along 3rd Avenue, FESTAC Town, Lagos while returning from where he had gone to play local “draft game” with his friends.

    “During the gun duel between Evans and his men and the escort of “Young Shall Grow Motors’ chairman, he (Chief Obiajunu) was shot in the left arm. One of his escorts, Corporal Ngozi, was shot dead; his driver, Peter Nweke, was shot dead.

    “Three of the kidnappers were shot dead by Inspector Simon, an escort with Chief Obiajunu, while other kidnappers escaped.”

    He said two rifles were recovered by ACP Okoro of the FESTAC Police Command, while the kidnappers went away with other rifles used in the operation.

    Haruna told the court that immediately the matter was reported at the FESTAC Police Command, the first defendant, Evans, was arrested and that he made confessional statement to the police, admitting being the leader of the gang.

    He said the third defendant, Arinze, said he did not know Chief Obiajunu would go out with his escorts the night he was attacked, contrary to the report he gave the gang that he did not move with them whenever he was going to play draft with his friends, adding that that was why they chose that night to attack him.

    Haruna said Evans and co-defendants willingly volunteered their confessional statement and affirmed same before a senior police officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Bello, who attested to the statements after they were read to each of them, stressing that they were not coerced nor forced to make and sign the statement.

    Earlier during proceedings, the police denied that activist lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) visited Evans in the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) office.

    Evans had in another kidnap trial before Justice Adedayo Akintoye of Lagos High Court, Igbosere, claimed that he was locked up in the toilet by officers of SARS in Ikeja when Falana visited him.

    But at yesterday’s proceeding, Ekundayo, while under cross examination by Ajanaku, Evan’s counsel, told the court that such incident never happened.

    “Femi Falana never came to our office,” Ekundayo said.

    ”His (Evans) lawyer was not there and none of his relatives was around,” the witness said.

    Justice Taiwo adjourned the case till December 31 for continuation of trial.

     

  • And the young shall grow

    And the young shall grow

    TO the magnificent Civic Centre adorning Victoria Island as it takes a gentle curve towards Lekki penultimate Friday for a grand reception by the Law Firm of Babalakin and Co for Oyetola Oshobi, a freshly minted Senior Advocate of Nigeria and the latest addition to the firm’s galaxy of legal luminaries. Oyetola, a !994 Law graduate, has quickly garnered a reputation among professional thoroughbreds for his brilliant draughtsmanship and exemplary briefing skills. The young shall grow indeed.

    It was a sombre evening. Dark clouds were rumbling in the background this evening to compliment the political mistiness that has enveloped the nation in every department of the game. Not even the major players seem to understand the higher cunning of this game of political blindfold. It reminds snooper of a famous match in Scotland involving the doughty Russians at the turn of the fifties. When the Caledonian fog finally cleared, it was revealed that the Russians had been playing twelve men.

    Yours sincerely arrived at the Civic Centre, sombre and despondent. In Nigeria, once you thought you have reached the limits of political absurdity, a fresh frontier of absurdity unfolds making nonsense of earlier absurdities. The limit you thought was the limit was not quite the limit. And the game goes on, as if it was all part of the elaborate protocol of bluff and counter-bluff. It takes a glutton for gruelling psychic punishment to live in contemporary Nigeria.

    Like a glutton for punishment, snooper’s gloomy fog was immediately dispelled once he entered the sprawling lobby only to be accosted by Funke Adekoya, the cerebral and forensically gifted legal luminary. “So, you also come down from your Olympian Heights to join mere mortals like us?” she quipped, sending yours sincerely into fits of laughter.

    The scent of blood was picked up by the host, Dr Wale Babalakin, who immediately proceeded on customary political slaughter of his aging kinsman and Egbon from the village over irreconcilable political differences. Snooper once considered reporting Wale to the elders of the village but the chap is too far gone in his irreverence to be threatened by any protocol of wizards.

    It was indeed an evening of worthy homage as speaker after speaker paid glowing tributes to a young man who has rapidly excelled in his chosen profession. As the evening wore on and amidst the merriment, a tall fellow walked over to speak to snooper. It was Niyi Adegbonmire, the lawyer son of the late Akure born political titan, Chief Wumi Adegbonmire aka Emo Ekun. He was as courteous and polite as ever.

    “Sir, when is your book coming out?” Niyi asked.

    “Very soon, possibly early next year”, snooper replied.

    Niyi must have been reading excerpts from the book and references to his illustrious father. It is rare for great men to beget great offspring. This is nature’s way of democratizing greatness. But Niyi is a rarity, cut from the same tough loins as his father. A little over thirty years ago, snooper, as the then president of the University of Ife Staff Club, banned Niyi and Victor Emevbore from the precincts of the club for unruly conduct. When his illustrious father protested, snooper added him to the list. Today, Niyi is a respectable SAN and prospective governor of Ondo State while Victor is a top player in Nigeria’s turbulent oil and gas industry. The young shall grow indeed.

  • The young shall grow, even in Nigeria, even in the perilous times and world we live in (3)

    The young shall grow, even in Nigeria, even in the perilous times and world we live in (3)

    Mr. Chairman, in moving to the last section of this talk, I wish to state with the greatest emphasis possible that while an uncountable number of things have changed in Nigeria in the last six to seven decades, one thing that is of great pertinence to the topic of this lecture has remained virtually unchanged. Permit me to list a select number of things that have changed in the period.

    The country’s population has grown exponentially. Oil wealth has increased immeasurably, even if most of it has been looted and wasted. We have many more airports now than at any other time in our post-independence history, leading to volume of air travel within the country that is second to none on the African continent. The number of universities has exploded and more are still being created and licensed every year. I for one never thought we would have private universities in Nigeria beyond two or three considering the amount of capital investment needed to establish and run universities, together with the extremely slow pace of profit yield they typically fetch their founders. But I did not reckon with the nature of Nigerian capitalism in which glorified secondary schools with little capitalization can still fetch proprietors of private universities super profits within a few years of their being founded. And so, I have been proved wrong and our private universities now outnumber the publicly funded institutions!

    Still on the topic of the unprecedented changes that have taken place in our country in the last seven decades, there are more states now than the three regions that we had in 1950. Meanwhile, though we cannot afford to run the 36 states that have so far been created, the clamor for more to be created has not abated. We could go on and on about the many changes that have taken place in Nigeria in the last six to seven decades. But one thing has not changed at all and this is the country’s median age. Around 1950 it was 19.1; around 2015, it was 17.9; and the projection for the year 2020 puts it 18.2. This in effect means that between 1950 and the future date of 2020, the statistical variation in our national median age is so infinitesimal that we could conclude that no change has taken place.

    Now for those who are not familiar with the concept of a national median age, there is no cause for mystification since it basically means that half of the population is below and half above the given figure. In our case, at the current figure of 19, it means half of all Nigerians are under the age of 19. With the figure for the national median age so low, it means that Nigerians under the age of 30 are more than 65% of the population which, in effect means the overwhelmingly, the young constitute the whopping majority of souls in our country. But that is only the beginning of the ramifications of the concept of the national median age. For instance, since the figure for life expectancy at birth for the country is (only) 52, it means that by an overwhelming quantum, Nigeria’s population is made up people most of whom will be gone before they are 60! I should not be saying such a thing at a gathering of mostly young people and at the invitation of a Club all of whose members are young men well below 30. Forgive me for saying it, but it absolutely has to be said. I say it also because I know that Nigerians have never been frightened by statistics and indeed, in general have a both healthy and unhealthy disdain for statistics! But there you have it by the juxtaposition of the statistical figures for our national median age and our life expectancy at birth figure: a vast majority of the young do not grow to old age in our country. Equally alarming, the young, in being the vast majority of the population in Nigeria, bear the brunt of the terrible deprivations, insecurities and thwarted hopes and aspirations that virtually all Nigerians, with the exception of a tiny economic and social elite, face day in day out, year after year.

    This is an alarming statistical projection, but I suggest that rather than being overwhelmed by what it tells us, we should focus instead on why the young are so endangered in our country. Here, we have some alarming statistics as well. For instance, youth unemployment in the country hovered around 17.51% from 2014 to the first quarter of 2016, whereupon with the figure of 24% in the second quarter of 2016, it rose to about a quarter of all youths. But then think also of this fact: the figures for absolute and relative poverty in Nigeria are quite close at around 70% for absolute poverty and 80% for relative poverty. This in effect means that whether you are talking of the absolute poverty of unemployed Nigerians or the relative poverty of the working poor, you are talking of alarming figures that should strike worry and fear into the minds of all thinking Nigerians that can extrapolate from these figures the levels of desperation and predisposition to violence and lawlessness that are already there or lurking just below the surface of reality for a population overwhelmingly dominated by the young. When Nigerians in general talk of the scourge of ethnic militias, of the nation-wrecking killings between nomads and indigenes, of the terror and insecurity fomented by extortionist kidnappers and bandits roaming around many parts of the country, they usually focus on the tribal-primordial and ethno-religious bases of these frightening levels and forms of violence and anomie, but they hardly ever link these factors to the terrifying statistical equation which tells us why our youths are such a trapped, :endangered species”: the juxtaposition of 19 with 52, that is to say of the statistic for our national median age with the statistic for life expectancy at birth.

    Mr. Chairman, in moving to the conclusion of this lecture, I must and will say this: nothing, absolutely nothing, should tie these two statistical figures together like Siamese twins as they are tied together in Nigeria. If the figure for life expectance at birth rises significantly in our country, the link will be broken and the young will in substantial numbers begin to grow into adulthood and well beyond that. This, I should remind the audience, has happened in some African countries and in many other countries of the developing world. Moreover, there is something of a “multiplier effect’ here because statistics for life expectancy will rise, will improve only if the other alarming statistics also improve: youth unemployment; criminality and lawlessness among an ever-increasing number of youths; avoidable deaths annually of thousands on our roads and highways; the multitudes of young people dying to find better life prospects abroad, mostly in the Western countries but also in other African countries like Libya and South Africa where they encounter experiences comparable to the proverbial terror of jumping from the frying pan into the fire. 19 juxtaposed to 52: if you remember nothing else from this lecture, please remember this equation. And remember also that we can and must break the link between the two.

    Statistics is not destiny; it is merely a guide to planning and planning well for the future. In my lifetime, I hope to see the current very high statistical figures for absolute and relative poverty to drop substantially. I will certainly work for it with all the resources of mind that I have. In this, I know that I am not alone, that there are hundreds of thousands across the length and breadth of the country also working, working hard for those doomsday statistical figures to change for the better. What I would like to see above everything else is for the young themselves to not only join the ranks of these Nigerians in very large numbers but to be in the forefront of the struggle. This is absolutely essential and in drawing attention to it, I would like to repeat the point I made earlier in this talk about youth being the period in life when so much can and is often accomplished, that is under the right conditions. But if the right conditions are not (yet) there – as in Nigeria at the present time – the youths themselves must work to create or bring about the right, auspicious conditions.

    The young shall grow, with the young themselves being the main force for ensuring that this slogan will not remain a mere wish but will become a veritable fact of the history ahead of us. For let this be clearly understood: one way or another, for good or for ill, the young are always involved in the making and unmaking of history. Boko Haram; the marauding hordes of kidnappers and bandits; the suppliers of the grisly commodity trade in human body parts in the occult economy of ritualists – they are all, overwhelmingly, composed of criminally dehumanized youths. There are young people and there are (other) young people. Will the young who will lead us to a springtime of historical renewal please step forward to be recognized – as individuals and as collective groups and movements? Forget us, but don’t illtreat us, we the old, especially those among us either to whom life and the country have been kind or have actually been at the forefront of the looting frenzy. Forget us and take your destiny or destinies in your own hands!

    Concluded.

     

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu