ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE INAUGURATION CEREMONY OF THE LEKKI CHAPTER OF SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL ON 13TH DECEMBER 2020 By – Bashorun J.K. Randle
It is in trying times such as now when we are overwhelmed by the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to dire economic circumstances as well as political uncertainties of our beloved nation that we are compelled to acknowledge the lofty pedestal which is occupied by Soroptimist International – as the “strongest and oldest women’s club in the world with almost 80,000 members in one hundred and twenty-four countries.”
Its mission and vision have converged on three E’s:
- Educate
- Empower
- Enable
women and girls to realise their potentials and achieve – leaving the men to fend for themselves!!
Regardless, I thank you most sincerely for inviting me to join you as the Guest Speaker this evening.
I have chosen as my topic: MOVED TO TEARS. These are really troubling and turbulent days (and nights) in Nigeria especially in Lekki having regard to the shooting of unarmed peaceful protesters at the Lekki Tollgate on October 20, 2020.
I did not realize the depth of feeling over the shooting of unarmed protesters at Lekki Tollgate until I received a midnight call from 84-year-old Professor Amos Lawal who is a legend in his own right on account of his outstanding contribution to both Mathematics and Physics, as well as Engineering. He has been living in the United States of America for almost sixty-five years and has lectured at several Ivy League universities – Yale; Harvard; Stanford; Princeton; as well as Massachusetts Institute of Technology etc.
Two of his children have followed his footsteps and may have surpassed their father’s stellar achievements.
I have a vague recollection of Amos Lawal who as a student at King’s College won several prizes in Mathematics and Physics. He bagged an ASPAU (African Scholarship Program of American Universities) scholarship which catapulted him into University of Stanford, California.
Anyway, there he was on the phone. He was really tear-jerking and repeating “Lekki Tollgate” over and over again. He was clearly distressed and simultaneously beside himself with rage. I did the best I could to calm him down. It did not work.
Even now, several days afterwards, I still have trouble weaving a coherent strand through his outpouring of shock and disbelief over what he had been watching on television especially CNN regarding what looked at first to be a movie only to turn out to be the real thing – with live bullets competing with dead corpses for forensic examination.
At a point he replayed an announcement attributed to Nnamdi Kanu, leader of IPOB (Indigenous People Of Biafra) inciting Ibos resident in Lagos to go on a rampage
That was a truly amazing outburst. I felt compelled to caution the eminent Professor that pending confirmation that it was actually Kanu’s voice, he should refrain from jumping to conclusions.
He promptly sent me a video showing Adeyinka Grandson who, without disclosing the source of his mandate, gave Igbos living in Lagos forty-eight hours to pack their bag and baggage and exit Lagos. For the Professor, it brought a fresh round of tears. He kept repeating:
“JK, people like you should stop this nonsense. You must intervene. If your Dad was still alive, this sort of rubbish and nonsense would never have happened in Lagos. He was the Lisa (Prime Minister) of Lagos.”
Then he was back on track. This time it was to emphatically insist that according to the Nigerian Constitution, the Governor of Lagos State as the Chief Security Officer of the State is well within his rights to invite the military if the security of the state is under threat (where the police are unable to cope).
Suddenly, he went off at a tangent to lambast the police for their past misdeeds. He claimed that he had learnt from his relations in Lagos that he police were notorious for hiring out their guns and ammunition to armed robbers for a fee. Thereafter, the weapons would be returned as if it was purely transactional!!
The Professor also made a very strange observation. According to him, he had closely studied the uniforms of some of the “soldiers”/troublemakers involved in the Lekki Tollgate saga and discovered that their camouflage kit was stuff that would only be worn in the desert!! There was an element of fake uniforms from what he could discern.
As if to further compound matters, Professor Lawal sent me a video of a factory/warehouse somewhere in Ajegunle where the military had stumbled on a consignment of five hundred military uniforms which were ready for sale to customers who were eagerly awaiting delivery.
However, what was beyond contention was that for reasons which are yet to be explained, hoodlums had dug huge holes/craters across the Lagos/Ibadan expressway while the rioting and rage were in full swing.
What remains most puzzling is how come there were so many fatalities at Lekki Tollgate considering that the military insist that even though soldiers had both live and blank ammunition, they only shot into the air and those bullets were blank.
To my consternation, Professor Amos raised the possibility of a mix-up between live and ammunition even before the soldiers embarked on their mission. To my mind, this would be carrying absurd speculation and mere conjecture too far.
We had been on the phone for well over an hour but my caller insisted on injecting what he had stumbled across on the internet:
“OUR HEARTS ARE HEAVY WITH GRIEF AND OUR EYES FULL OF TEARS” – By Professor Usman Yusuf
“A lot has been said and written about Nigeria’s deteriorating state of insecurity that one wonders what difference another voice will make. But, dark as the clouds may appear, depressing as the news may be, hopeless as the situation may seem, giving up is a luxury we cannot afford. We owe it to our future generations to continue to raise our voices for the voiceless among us in the hope that things will change.
The deafening silence in the North to our people’s sufferings is not only morally wrong but it nourishes, validates and perpetuates the failings of our political leaders. Today, Northerners have literally become orphans with a living father on account of our silence.
I believed then as I do now that, no meaningful national development will be possible without security and if things do not change to halt the slide into this dark abyss very soon, the country may plunge into anarchy.
When I write about insecurity in the north, I write from the vantage point of one whose close friends and relatives have been victims to these marauding bandits. They roll into our villages in large numbers, three on each motorcycle, high on Tramadol and Cannabis, carrying nothing more than machetes and rusty AK-47s. They spend hours maiming, killing, burning, looting, raping, rustling cattle and kidnapping villagers for ransom.
These bandits are now literally the law in some of the rural areas in north western Nigeria simply because of the absence of any form of government in these villages. They roam the local markets with impunity carrying AK47 rifles slung over their shoulders.
On Friday 13th November 2020, BBC Hausa Service reported how farmers in some parts of Northern Nigeria now pay bandits tax and harvest fees before they can have access to their farms or avoid being abducted. This is exactly the same tactics used by Al-Shabaab in Somalia which is now a failed state.
On Tuesday 17th November 2020, BBC Hausa Service again aired the story of the kidnapping of twelve Police Officers who were on their way for special duty from Borno to Zamfara state. It was distressing to hear the voice of the wife of one of the officers recounting how the bandits called her demanding ransom payment.
On Tuesday 16th November 2020, Radio France International Hausa Service also aired an interview with a Member of the House of Representatives from Niger state on the state of constant fear, frustrations, terror and hopelessness that his constituents are in due to repeated attacks by bandits.
Abuja-Kaduna highway, a 200km stretch of federal highway has now become the highway to hell because of repeated kidnappings by bandits. This highway is the most important artery in northern Nigeria connecting nine northern states to the federal capital and southern part of the country. Those that can afford to, are avoiding the highway by traveling by train with all it’s limitations.
On Saturday 14th November 2020, armed men invaded the official staff quarters of Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, Zaria, Kaduna state, where they kidnapped a lecturer and two children.
On Sunday 15th November 2020, armed men kidnapped nine students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria returning from an excursion on the same Kaduna-Abuja highway. These bandits demanded a ransom of N270 million. The students were freed after seven days in captivity.
In a village called Kanoma in Zamfara state on Friday 20th November 2020, armed bandits stormed the village on motorcycles in broad daylight killing five worshippers and kidnapping the Imam and 40 worshippers during Juma’at prayers at the main mosque. Kanoma is a “community kidnappers” target due to the number of relatively rich sugarcane farmers.
These stories are but a few that make the news, there are several of such incidents happening all across the rural north that go unreported. The Government’s response to these tragedies have largely been defensive, dismissive and oftentimes trivialisation of people’s sufferings. How else can one explain the Hon. Minister of Police Affairs’ statement that bandits have been “degraded” or the Military leadership visiting the Abuja-Kaduna highway to disprove the news that the highway is deserted due to the activities of bandits?
Whereas six weeks ago Nigeria’s insecurity was predominantly in the three geopolitical zones of the north, the aftermath of #ENDSARS protests have stirred the hornet’s nest and opened up new theatres of insecurity in all the three geopolitical zones in the south resulting in the whole nation being consumed by this national tragedy.
Southern Nigeria will see an upsurge of insecurity as an aftermath of #ENDSARS protests for the following reasons:
A. The Police are not fully back on duty following the lynching of their comrades and ransacking of their stations and barracks.
B. Criminal elements are now in possession of AK47s that they stole from the ransacked Police stations.
C. Convicted criminals that were released from prisons by protesters are still at large.
D. Gang wars between Cults will increase as was seen recently in Benin City.
E. Armed robberies will flourish as was seen in the daylight robbery of a bullion van in Lagos.
F. Non-state actors will fill the vacuum created by the absence of law enforcement agencies resulting in warlords caving out their territories.
G. Any attempt to discredit Nigeria’s Police Force and it’s Armed Forces by tribunals, foreign organizations and the media will negatively impact Nigeria’s National Security going forward.
RECOMMENDATIONS
− Government should as a matter of urgency, restrategise the war effort as the status quo is not working.
− Government should mobilise the whole nation on a war footing to tackle this menace by actively involving all stakeholders: Traditional rulers, Clerics, Community leaders, Youths, Political leaders and Security Agents.
− Forest Rangers should be created using the youths in the affected communities who would be trained and supervised by the Military to be the boots on the ground in our unprotected forests where the bandits use as their hideouts.
− Unregistered SIM Cards: Should as a matter of urgency be blocked because bandits use them to communicate for ransom. There are numerous of them still in circulation, and appropriate sanctions should be meted to mobile operators for non-compliance.
− NDLEA, Customs and Pharmaceutical regulators should clamp down on illegal importation, sales, distribution and use of Tramadol which is the drug of choice of bandits, Boko haram insurgents, Armed Robbers, kidnappers and Cultists.
− Sale of Petrol: Bandits use motorcycles that use petrol, so Petrol Stations should be mandated to stop the sale of products in Jerry Cans in affected areas or face stiff sanctions.
− Cattle markets: Bandits sell cattle they rustle in local markets, so the sale of cattle should be monitored and certificate of origin provided by local traditional rulers and the Police or DSS.
− Local Intelligence must be cultivated as a vital tool in this fight.
− Political thuggery and Cultism should be banned and made illegal by the federal government.
− Youths Unemployment: Needs to be addressed urgently.
− ASUU Strike: Government should attend to the legitimate demands of ASUU to enable classes to resume in our Universities.
May God Almighty make it easy for us, Amin.”
He implored me to ensure that the message reaches the powers that be as a special request from him.
Then he veered off again on an entirely different subject – a branch of engineering that is
focused on medicine/healthcare. This is his own area of specialisation and he certainly ranks amongst the top ten in the world. He insisted that I must read what he had just sent me:
“DEATH WILL BE OPTIONAL BY THE YEAR 2045 – say Genetic Engineers”
“Dying will be ‘optional’ within just 27 years and the ageing process will be ‘reversible’, according to two genetic engineers during the presentation of their new book in Barcelona.
José Luis Cordeiro, born in Venezuela to Spanish parents, and Cambridge (UK) mathematician David Wood, founders of the operating system ‘Symbian’, have just published The Death of Death and say immortality is a real and scientific possibility that could come much earlier than originally thought.
Humans will only die in accidents, never of natural causes or illness, by around the year 2045, say Cordeiro and Wood, who say it is ‘crucial’ that old age starts to be classified as an ‘illness’ so that publicly-funded research into its ‘cure’ can extend.
Nanotechnology is key, among other new genetic manipulation techniques, the engineers said during the presentation at Barcelona’s Equestrian Circle.
The process will involve turning ‘bad’ genes into healthy ones, eliminating dead cells from the body, repairing damaged cells, treatments with stem cells and ‘printing’ vital organs in 3D.
Cordeiro, who is based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA, says he has ‘chosen not to die’ and that in 30 years’ time, he will be ‘younger than he is today’.
Ageing is the result of DNA ‘tails’, known as ‘telomeres’, in chromosomes – of which every cell except red blood and sex cells has 23 pairs – becoming shorter, and reversing ageing involves lengthening the telomeres.
Telomeres become damaged and shortened with the passage of time, a process that speeds up in the event of toxins entering the body – smoking, alcohol and air pollution are among elements that reduce the length of telomeres, thus accelerating ageing.
Cordeiro and Wood believe that within 10 years, illnesses such as cancer will be curable, and that major international corporations such as Google will be ‘entering the field of medicine’ because they are ‘beginning to realise that curing ageing is possible’.
Microsoft has reportedly already announced the setting up of a cryopreservation centre in which a scientist is researching the possibility of cancer being completely curable within a decade.
The engineers explain that, although ‘people generally do not know about it’, it was discovered in 1951 how cancer cells are immortal: when Henrietta Lacks died from cervical cancer, surgeons removed the tumour and kept it – and it is still ‘alive’ today.
Immortality will not necessarily mean the planet becomes overcrowded, the scientists say: there is still plenty of room for more people on Earth, and these days, people do not have anywhere near as many children as they did in past decades and centuries; plus, ‘it will be possible to live in space by then’.
“Japan and the Koreas, if they continue with their current trend of hardly having any children, will become extinct – within two centuries, there’ll be no Japanese or Korean people on the planet,” Cordeiro says.
“But thanks to these new techniques, there will indeed be Japanese and Korean people, because they’ll live forever and remain young.”
The cost of anti-ageing treatment was compared to that of the latest Smartphones.
“At first, it’ll be expensive, but with a competitive market the price will gradually fall because it’ll be something that benefits everyone,” Cordeiro says.
“Technology, when it’s new, is poor and extremely expensive, but it eventually becomes democratic and mainstream and becomes cheaper.”
The engineers say they have already been employing their techniques for two years – illegally, but in Colombia where there are fewer regulations covering genetic manipulation.
Elisabeth Parrish, their first human patient, ‘started to see symptoms of ageing and asked what could be done to prevent it’.
Her treatment is ‘very risky and even illegal’, Wood explains, but at the moment is going well, has not had any adverse side-effects, and the level of telomeres in her blood is ’20 years younger than before’.”
The last word belongs to Robert Merry (“The Sunday Times” November 8, 2020)
“You cannot argue with history. It goes its own way and buries its own dead. Often it
renders its own judgements with slow deliberation and sometimes it alters those judgements over time to make things interesting. But it always has the last word. History, as always, will have the final say.”
Let me share with you the front-page headlines of Nigerian newspapers of Sunday 21st
November 2020:
i.) “AGAIN, ECONOMY SLIDES INTO RECESSION, SECOND IN FIVE YEARS” – ThisDay
ii.) “NIGERIA SUFFERS WORST RECESSION IN THIRTY-SIX YEARS” – World Bank
• Rising debt profile, inflation, unemployment worsens economic woes.
• Experts blame COVID-19, #EndSARS violence, others for crisis
iii.) “NIGERIA SLIPS INTO WORST ECONOMIC RECESSION, CITIZENS GROAN OVER SUFFOCATING ECONOMY” – “Sunday Sun”
iv.) “REACTIONS AS NIGERIA’S ECONOMY SUFFERS ANOTHER RECESSION”
• Nigeria faces extinction – Hassan Sunmonu warns – “Sunday Tribune”
v.) “NIGERIA SLIDES INTO SECOND RECESSION IN FOUR YEARS”
• “We took live bullets to Lekki Toll Plaza – Army, “Sunday Telegraph”
vi.) “HARD TIMES AS NIGERIA ENTERS RECESSION AGAIN”
• IT means job losses, unemployment – Experts
• COVID-19 responsible
• The soaring cost of food items and other necessities have further worsened the predicament of Nigerians as the economy slumped into another round of recession. – “Daily Trust”
If these stupefying headlines do not move you to tears, perhaps we should share the following reports with you even at the risk of ruining your appetite for the sumptuous dinner which has been exquisitely laid out in an ambience which offers a combination of the exotic, sumptuous and magnificent.
i.) 2nd RECESSION IN FIVE YEARS EXPERTS BLAME COVID-19, #ENDSARS, FORESEE JOB LOSSES, REDUCED PURCHASING POWER”
• Yellow Fever Returns, Kills Over 76 In Delta, Enugu, Benue, Bauchi
• 100 unvaccinated Nigerians at risk
– Sunday Vanguard
ii.) RECESSION: DRASTIC ECNONMIC DECISIONS ARE REQUIRED TO AVERT DEPRESSION”
• Year 2020 has been a very bad year. The worst in recent history. We are faced with the double jeopardy of a stumbling economy and spiralling inflation. The October inflation numbers of 14.23 per cent was the highest in 10 months. In economic parlance, this condition is characterised as stagflation. The effects of these developments are evident in business and in households. Sales are slowing, profit margins are being eroded, production costs are escalating, unemployment is rising, poverty situation is worsening, purchasing power is weakening and there is a general social discontent.
Some of the newspaper/radio and social media “BREAKING NEWS” may have inflicted serious trauma on womenfolk regardless of your insistence that you are as tough as the men:
• HOW I WAS TORTURED IN AWKUZU SARS’ BLACK CELL FOR THREE MONTHS – Sunday Telegraph, November 22, 2020
• “LOSING THREE BROTHERS ON THE SAME DAY MY WORST EXPERIENCE – Female Commissioner, Gombe State – Sunday Punch, November 22, 2020
• SON FROM HELL KILLS 83-YEAR-OLD FATHER, BURIES HIM IN PIT TOILET – Sunday Sun, November 22, 2020
As for those who are persuaded that political crisis looms on the horizon, the front page of “Sunday Sun” newspaper of November 22, 2020 has provided ample evidence:
“NOTHING WRONG IF ANY REGION WANTS TO BREAK AWAY” – Aare Gani Adams
Before we proceed further, let us listen to BREAKING NEWS
i.) “THEY DISPLAYED MY MOCK COFFIN PUBLICLY – Jonathan
Photographs of My Mock Coffin Traumatised My Mother Who Lost Eight Children, says former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
“Former President Goodluck Jonathan says pictures of his mock coffin displayed in the media during the anti-fuel subsidy removal protests of 2012 traumatised his aged mother who had lost eight children.
Jonathan said this in his recently published book titled, My Transition Hours.
The former President said, “The protests continued unabated. In all of these, one woman I pitied most was my aged mother who was with me in the State House.
“Every day, she watched on television protesters carrying a casket with my picture on it and having the inscription ‘Rest In Peace.’
“I could imagine her trauma. This is a woman who had 10 live births with only my elder sister and I surviving.”
Jonathan said during the protests, several notable Nigerians visited him, asking him to reverse the increment in the pump price of petrol.
Some of the prominent Nigerians who visited him include: General-Overseer, Living Faith Mission (Winners Chapel) Bishop David Oyedepo; Primate of the Anglican Church, Rt.Rev Nichola Okoh and eight other clerics.
He said what was more disheartening was the fact that the opposition in Lagos had hijacked the protests.
Jonathan added that even the Nigeria Labour Congress which had been briefed on the matter before the subsidy removal was announced was co-opted into joining the protests.
The former President added, “In Lagos State for instance, it was like a carnival. Musicians, comedians and other celebrities were engaged by opposition elements to join the protests. Refreshments were served to protesters.
“Every morning Lagos State government workers cleaned up the Gani Fawehinmi Park and prepared it for the day’s protests. It appeared as though the protesters were very special guests of the Lagos State Government. Similar scenarios played out in other opposition-controlled states.”
Jonathan further stated that the House of Representatives, which was led by pro-opposition Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, decided to exploit the situation.
He said the House accused him of fleeing the country in a bid to exploit the situation for political gain.
The former President added, “The House of Representatives whose Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, was hobnobbing with the opposition (he eventually defected to the opposition) did not help matters.
“Thinking that I had left the country for South Africa to attend the centenary celebration of the African National Congress, Speaker Tambuwal convened the House to sit on a Sunday just to condemn the deregulation.
“That was the first and only time in Nigeria’s political history that the parliament sat on a Sunday. At that sitting, an opposition member of the House got up to allege that I had abandoned the nation at such a crucial time to join festivities in South Africa.
“Unknown to the House, on that same day while they were sitting, I was at Eagle Square to inaugurate mass transit vehicles my administration purchased to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal.”
For the feisty and equally charming women accountants (especially the Society of Women
Accountants of Nigeria) and financial experts/bankers, “BusinessDay” delivered a tear-jerking message on 7th December 2020:
“AFTER DECADE OF REVENUE MISHITS, NIGERIA FACES RRECORD BUDGET DEFICIT IN 2020”
When the curtain falls on 2020, Nigeria’s federal government is likely to have missed its annual revenue target for a record tenth straight year while the budget deficit could hit the highest level since at least 2011.
You are at liberty to ignore the male chauvinists who have been gloating that Nigeria has had three female Ministers of Finance in succession:
• Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (15 July 2003 to 21 June 2006; July 2011 to May 2015)
• Mrs. Kemi Adeosun (11 November 2015 to September 2018)
• Mrs. Zainab Ahmed (September 2018 to date)
From the United States of America, the out-going Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rather than bid us a quiet goodbye insisted on including Nigeria amongst the eleven countries who are on the U.S. blacklist on account of religious intolerance.
Headline: NIGERIA JOINS STATE DEPT LIST OF VIOLATORS OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
“The Trump administration for the first time on Monday designated Nigeria as a Country Of Particular Concern (CPC) for violations of religious freedom, one of 10 highlighted by the State Department for failing to stem the persecution and discrimination of faith groups.
Nigeria is the first democracy to be labelled a CPC for “particularly severe” violations of religious freedom, a designation that opens it up to economic sanctions.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the West African nation and nine others were being singled out “for engaging in or tolerating ‘systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.’ ”
“The United States will continue to work tirelessly to end religiously motivated abuses and persecution around the world, and to help ensure that each person, everywhere, at all times, has the right to live according to the dictates of conscience,” Pompeo said in a statement.
The designation was welcomed by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bipartisan federal entity that has recommended Nigeria’s inclusion on the CPC list since 2009, including in its most recent report released in April.
“Religious freedom conditions in Nigeria remained poor in 2019, with both state- and societally perpetrated violations,” USCRIF wrote in its 2020 report, highlighting widespread security issues contributing to both Christian and Muslim populations being open to attacks of intercommunal and militia violence.
“The Nigerian government failed to effectively improve justice and security for its citizens, and was unsuccessful in addressing the immense need for accountability and reconciliation around past conflict,” it wrote.
The State Department renewed the CPC designations for Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
USCRIF had also recommended that the State Department designate as CPCs India, Russia, Syria and Vietnam – but only Russia was highlighted by the agency, retaining its status on the special watch list, a designation for “severe” violations of religious freedom.
The countries of Comoros, Cuba and Nicaragua were also added to the special watch list.
The State Department also listed several non-state militarized groups as “entities of particular concern,” including the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, al-Shabaab, al-Qaida, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, ISIS, ISIS-Greater Sahara, ISIS-West Africa, Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin and the Taliban.
The State Department removed Sudan and Uzbekistan from its special watch list, with Pompeo saying the two countries had made “significant, concrete progress” by their governments in forms of their laws and practices that promoted religious freedom. The Trump administration last month also started the process of removing Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.”
I suspect that some (perhaps many) of you may have read “The Anatomy of Female Power” by Chunweizu who insists:
“Although men rule the world, women actually rule the men who rule the world.”
When this is juxtaposed with the deposition by the great Chinua Achebe in his book: “The Trouble With Nigeria” that:
“The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.”
It is self-evident that there is a subtle conspiracy to shift leadership on the shoulders of women and simultaneously heap the blame on our failures on the supposed leaders/rulers – women!!
What would be far more honest would be to give leadership to women and watch them perform. For convincing evidence, we need go no further than to acknowledge and celebrate the superlative achievements of the following women leaders in curtailing the COVID-19 pandemic:
i.) Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand
ii.) Angela Merkel – Chancellor of Germany
iii.) Sanna Marin – Prime Minister of Finland
iv.) Tsai Ing-wen – President of Taiwan
v.) Sahle-Work Zewde – President of Ethiopia
The least we can do is admit that men have made a mess of the affairs of our nation.
We also have the evidence of His Royal Highness, the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Garbai Elkanemi from the back page of “ThisDay” newspaper of Sunday 2nd August 2020:
“If the convoy of the Governor of Borno State, Professor Babagana Zulum could be attacked, nobody is safe. He is the Chief Security Officer of the state. If a convoy of such a highly placed person in the state will be attacked, nobody is safe. The matter is getting worse.”
On the front page of the same newspaper:
Headline: “SHEHU OF BORNO: OUR PEOPLE NOW LIVE IN FEAR”
“The Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Garbai Elkanemi, has decried the level of insecurity in his state, saying the people of Borno State now live in fear. He said the state was no longer safe for anyone, including the governor, Babagana Zulum, who is constitutionally the chief security officer. The paramount ruler spoke when he paid the traditional sallah homage to Zulum at Government House, Maiduguri, the state capital.
Elkanemi’s comments followed last week’s attack on the governor’s convoy between Baga and Munguno, and another attack in Maiduguri, on the eve of the Eid-el-Kabir festival, where six persons were officially declared killed and 27 others were injured.
Zulum had last week attributed the attack on his convoy to sabotage by the military. He was attacked while on a visit to Baga to distribute palliatives to internally displaced persons. The governor, who left Maiduguri on Monday afternoon and had already visited some parts of the state, was forced to spend a night in Monguno before returning to the state capital following the attack.
Speaking on the incident, the Shehu of Borno called for urgent intervention to secure the lives and property of the people. He told the governor, “Your Excellency, we are not happy about what happened in Baga the other time. It is very unfortunate and a great pity. If the convoy of the chief security officer of the state will be attacked, then, wallahi nobody is safe, because he is the number one citizen of the state; he is the chief security officer of the state.
If a convoy of such highly placed person in the state will be attacked, I repeat, nobody is safe. The matter is getting worse. I urge everyone of us to raise up our hands to seek Allah’s intervention.”
The royal father, who also spoke on the COVID-19 pandemic, urged residents of the state to continue to adhere to all preventive protocols advised by health experts.
He lamented the rate at which trees were being felled in the state, urging the state government to take urgent steps to halt the act to avoid a serious environmental problem. He also called for the reintroduction of tree planting, which was a regular practice in the past.
Responding, Zulum thanked the Shehu for the visit and assured him of government’s readiness to address the issues raised.
In a related development, a lecturer at the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), Professor Khalifa Dikwa, said President Muhammadu Buhari “is doing all in his power to end the war,” but claimed some individuals might be sabotaging his efforts.
Dikwa, who has been at the forefront of efforts to restore peace to the state, told journalists yesterday in Maiduguri, “Why I must exonerate the president, it is the view of the people that some of them (forces) do not want the war to end. They are making money.”
He said the attack on the governor’s convoy might have been initiated by some soldiers “to stop him from having a free movement in Baga. It is possible, since it is true that the soldiers have taken over the fish business in Baga, acting like gendarmes along Maiduguri-Ngala road.”
Dikwa said it was known to everyone that “soldiers are doing things other than their main job at the borders. The military will deny it even if the governor describes exactly what they are doing in Baga and Gamboru Ngala.
The fish packages don’t come to Maiduguri market, but go to Hadeja and Yola markets.”
Zulum had on Thursday accused the military of sabotage in connection with Tuesday’s attack on his convoy. He told reporters in Munguno, “As far as I am concerned, what happened in Baga is a complete sabotage by the military. There is no Boko Haram in Baga.
I wonder, we have over 1,181 soldiers in Baga, 72 officers; 400 soldiers in Mile 4 and 1,900 soldiers in Monguno. I see no reason why only five Boko Haram men will stop them from occupying Baga town.”
He added, “The troops have been in Mile 4 for over one year, there is complete sabotage, the problem is not with President Muhammadu Buhari but the command and control structure. There is a need to look into the command structure.”
Zulum had, in a viral video, told an army commander that there was an attempt to sabotage his visit with attack on his convoy.
The governor insisted that the exchange of fire was between the army and the Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), who were leading his convoy into Baga town, adding that Baga is not inhabited by Boko Haram.
Zulum said, “The shooting that happened this afternoon (Tuesday) is between the military and maybe our police and the civilians. There is no Boko Haram in Baga town. We remain grateful to all of you, but the commitment is not there at all.”
What is most ironical is that 2020 is the year when (under the regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo) for which we conjured up VISION 2020 and we set ourselves lofty goals and targets which we genuinely believed would be achieved. Alas, we have drifted way off target almost to the point of being shipwrecked. We have only ourselves (especially the men) to blame.
The #EndSARS disaster at the Lekki Tollgate could have been Nigeria’s finest hour. For the first three days the rest of the world watched in admiration as idealistic young men and women (along with a sprinkling of the older generation) embarked on a peaceful protest without any hindrance from the police. Suddenly, it all went awry and deadly.
According to Soren Kierkegaard, “there are two ways you can be fooled – one is to believe what isn’t true, the other is to refuse to believe what is true”.
Here is a report from “The Guardian” of what transpired in Lagos when traffic offenders had their cars impounded and auctioned.
Headline: “TEARS AS LAGOS GOVERNMENT AUCTIONS 44 VEHICLES FOR TRAFFIC OFFENCES”
“My heart bled seeing my car auctioned in my presence. I tried bidding, but each time I bid, there was always someone adding N100,000 to my offer. That was how I lost my car, which was auctioned for N1.2 million”. These were the words of a former Owner of Toyota Corolla 2003 model whose car was auctioned yesterday.
It was mixed feelings for car owners and bidders as the Lagos State Task Force on Environmental and Special Offences auctioned 44 vehicles forfeited to the Lagos State Government for traffic offences.
Offenders had arrived with the expectations to bid for their vehicles and get their cars back at an affordable price but they were shocked to meet crowd of businessmen, ready with cash to also bid for the seized vehicles.
While some wore long faces as the auction continued, others openly wailed persuading bidders to let go of the auctioning. A woman in tears appealed to some Police officers present to stop the auction at her bidding price, as it was the only source of income for herself and children.
The process usually starts with the car owner appealing to the crowd of potential buyers to allow them bid for their cars alone, starting with N100, 000 but some young men carrying nylon bags loaded with cash would scream N500,000, N1million and jerk up the price.
One of the owners of a Toyota Camry Car collapsed when her bid of N100,000 was raised to N1million by another bidder. All entreaties and acts to curry public sympathy for moderate bidding fell on deaf ears as ready buyers raised the bid beyond the reach of the Owners.
Some of the Cars auctioned were Murano Nissan for N450,000; Toyota Sienna for N850, 000; Honda CRV for N1.550 million; Toyota Corolla 2003 for N1.2 million; Toyota Camry 2008 model for N1.9 million; Hyundai car for N300,000; mini Bus for N505,000; a 14-seater Bus for N4 million, and a Mercedes Benz SUV for N9 million.
The Owner of Hyundai Elantra 2008 model said he was arrested on November, 10 for driving ‘One-way’ at Costain/Iponri Bridge, Surulere. He claimed that officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority [LASTMA] directed Cars to ply ‘One-Way’ to ease traffic, but was surprised he was arrested and arraigned before the Mobile Court while others were let go.
Spokesman for the task force, Taofeek Adebayo, said the exercise became necessary to punish offenders, with the aim of easing traffic on Lagos Roads, adding that the action was not punitive but corrective in nature.
“This is purely to serve as a deterrent to law breakers because since the #EndSARS protest ended, motorists have been driving recklessly against traffic, driving on BRT Corridors and causing obstruction on Highways, not minding security personnel on the road, which contravenes the Lagos State Transport Sector Reform Law 2018.”
He noted that the exercise would continue, as more forfeited vehicles by the Court would be auctioned to the highest bidder.”
It was under the government of Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN (2007 to 2015) that traffic
offenders were apprehended and allegedly marched off to Yaba Psychiatric Hospital. Some of the victims (as well as their wives and children) are still in shock and remain traumatised by the totally unexpected turn of events. Sadly, such draconian measures have done very little to persuade motorists to strictly adhere to traffic rules regardless of the chaos and mayhem as they strive to cope with pot-holes, congestion, policemen who are more pre-occupied with collecting bribes than controlling traffic, armed robbers, kidnappers etc.
What was most remarkable about the demography of the protesters at the lekki Toll Gate was that it was the females who appeared to be calling the shots (no pun intended!!) and they were very skilful and smart in terms of organisational dexterity combined with resourcefulness in raising funds mostly from abroad – to the tune of almost U.S. $2 million.
The freezing of their accounts by the Central bank of Nigeria has not gone down well with the international community where such intervention is reserved for terrorists in the category of ISIS; Al Qaeda; Boko Haram etc.
For those who still have tears left to shed, here is a snap shot of the situation regarding Ajaokuta Steel Complex, Kogi State:
“No Nigerian can visit Ajaokuta Steel Company ASC, see investments of more than $8b rotting in the African sun and not cry. I went there, I cried. what exactly is the problem? if I have written severally on this topic, but today let me do a comprehensive post.
Ajaokuta Steel Company is massive, she has 68km road network, 24 housing estates on the project. Some of the estates have over 1,000 homes, a seaport, a 110mw power generation plant, there are 43 separate plants in Ajaokuta alone. It is estimated that if Ajaokuta becomes operational, it will create 500,000 jobs.
There is no industrialized nation on earth that does not have a steel sector it’s that simple. A report by the Central Bank of Nigeria shows that Nigeria currently imports steel, aluminium products and associated derivatives of approximately 25 metric tonnes per annum estimated at $4.5bn, this figure will continue to rise, and the Nigerian economy continues to expand. Ajaokuta is an integrated steel company, it was designed by the Russians to be self-sufficient to get all its inputs from Nigeria and make steel. Ajaokuta strength is also its weakness, Ajaokuta can only work with all inputs available.
This will be a slightly technical post, but please try and follow.
Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon amongst other things, iron is the base metal in steel, to make steel, you need Iron Ore, Coke from Coal, Limestone as main components. these components are mixed in a blast furnace to produce liquid steel which can be long steel for rail lines or flat steel for automobile making etc
To give a simple example, look at steel as making jollof rice, iron ore is the rice, the limestone and coke are the pepper and salt the pot is the blast furnace. At a steel plane the blast furnace is ONLY turned on when the steel company is ready to make steel. Blast furnaces operate continuously and are never shut down. The raw material to be fed into the furnace is divided into several small charges that are introduced into the furnace at 10- to 15-min intervals. this means everything must be in place BEFORE the blast furnace is turned on, the iron ore, the coal, the limestone, everything, why? Because you do not switch off a blast furnace for another 10 years or however its campaign life is.
Nigeria is blessed with all the major raw materials needed to produce steel including iron ore in Kogi, coal and limestone in Enugu.
Nigerian iron has very low iron concentration. Agbaja has the largest iron ore deposit in Nigeria with about 2 billion tonnes but the Agbaja iron ore has a high phosphate content. Phosphate can cause brittleness in steel making it to fracture, thus Agbaga was abandoned for Itakpe. Itakpe iron ore has no issues with phosphate but has low iron content, thus to make steel with Nigeria iron ore, a process called “beneficiation” has to be done to process the Itakpe ores to raise its iron content to meet the required standard for steel production.
Coal? Most of the coal found in Nigeria is non-coking, thus, unsuitable for steel production. coal deposits in Enugu, have no impurities but are non-coking. The good news? Nigeria has abundant deposit of limestone and we have natural gas to provide power
So back to Ajaokuta, what really happened? why can Nigeria not make steel anytime soon? let’s link up the elements
- Policy Failure: The Ajaokuta contract was signed between the Nigerian government and the Soviet state-owned company, Tiajpromexport (TPE) the company was scheduled for completion in 1986. In 2012, the Federal Government launched her backward integration policy. Going forward import licenses for steel products were only granted to companies producing steel locally. TPE to ensure they could import steel parts for Ajaokuta simply went ahead and built the rolling mills in Ajaokuta before the actual steel plant was completed. They imported billet from Ukraine to accomplish this. Thus,
Ajaokuta was producing steel before the actual steel plant was started. Thus, amazingly Ajaokuta has a functional rolling mills but no operational blast furnace. Ajaokuta cannot produce steel from basic iron ore found in Nigeria in her blast furnace…this is the definition of cart before the horse.
- NIOMCO Factor: The iron ore in Nigeria earmarked for Ajaokuta is from Itakpe, it has low iron content thus the FG built National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO) a 2.15 metric tonnes beneficiation plant designed to process the low-quality iron ore from Itakpe to iron ore suitable for Ajaokuta Steel. Simply put, if NIOMCO does not operate, Ajaokuta CANNOT operate (unless Ajaokuta uses imported iron ore.). As at today, June 17th 2018, NIOMCO is not operational.
Railway: 15m tonnes of iron ore cannot be moved by road, as it will destroy the roads, thus a railway was to be built from Itakpe to Ajaokuta to take iron ore from the beneficiation plan in Itakpe to Ajaokuta. Itakpe to Ajaokuta by rail is just 52km. The rail line was to be delivered by March 2019, but the Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi revised the delivery date to June 2018 and converted the purely commercial railway to also carry human passengers. These changes meant the cost of the project and delivery dates had to change as passenger wagons and train stations had to be built. To achieve this, 12 new passenger stations and 12 access roads had to be designed and built. The Itakpe to Ajaokuta (IA) has two stations. As at June 2018, The station IA1 – Eganyi to Itakpe, is still under design. Station AW1 – Ajaokuta (standard station) (zero per cent work done). Thus, the railways are not functional.
Blast Furnace: The furnace in Ajaokuta is the heart of Ajaokuta, it is the pot where the jollof rice will be cooked, however it has never been turned on, why? Because there has never been any time Ajaokuta has had raw materials available to ensure continuous day in day out production for 5 years. Why have there never been materials? Because there is no railway to take iron ore from Itakpe to Ajaokuta. Why is there no railway from Itakpe to Ajaokuta? Because NIOMCO in Itakpe is moribund and not functional and cannot convert Nigeria iron ore to high grade ore for the furnace in Ajaokuta.
So, it follows that for Ajaokuta to work, we MUST have three key critical paths
- NIOMCO must be functional
Itakpe to Ajaokuta Railway line must be functional
Blast Furnace operational
All three are not functional, so its clear Nigeria cannot make steel in Ajaokuta. Nothing however stops a corrupt government official from importing billets and running them in the rolling mills to deceive tax payers. So, when anyone tells you Ajaokuta will soon work ask them, can a steel plant work without NIOMCO, railways and a blast furnace?
All is not gloom, Kayode Fayemi as Minister was able to secure an out of court settlement about Ajaokuta. We must build on this
In closing, Ajaokuta is the only steel plant in the world built by the USSR, sold to Americans, and then to Indians. All these teams have come and gone with their own technical style. There have even been accusations of asset stripping by the Indians.
So why this post? because I am a patriot, I will not sit by and watch scarce resources being wasted in a grand deceit. Probably some corrupt folks have told Mr President that Ajaokuta can produce economically viable steel if “small” dollars are spent. You can already see how the critical rail line delivery dates were moved back to ensure it is done in time for 2019 elections, yet it is still in design stage. Ajaokuta is Nigeria and probably Africa biggest failure. It has failed. Can it be made to work yes but the cost to integrate Ajaokuta with her mines and rails can be used to build new smaller modern turnkey functional steel mills. The government should get out of Ajaokuta, sell the place and allow the private sector to invest capital, inject expertise, restructure and own it.
If you want to make jollof rice and there is no rice the solution is not to keep boiling water without rice but to go and get rice”
Let us pause and remind ourselves of the high expectations of Dr. Nelson Mandela (Madiba):
“The world will not respect Africa until Nigeria earns that respect. The black people of the world need Nigeria to be great as a source of pride and confidence.”
Sadly, almost three decades ago, the phenomenal Gbolabo Ogunsanwo who died only a few days ago, wrote the epitaph for Nigeria under the caption:
“THE BABANGIDA IN ALL OF US”
“All condemn General Babangida (military ruler/Head of State) not realising that each is at his/her own level is Babangida. The people say in the morning: “On June 12, we stand” and in the evening say “On Aso Rock we stand.” All of us are guilty. Babangida is the phenomenon that happens to a generation or a country that cannot tell the truth, that discounts honesty and integrity.
How can you tell your children now, against the evidence of their own eyes, that honesty is the best policy in Nigeria? It is getting close to impossible in Nigeria to succeed materially, without having anything to do with corruption. Like the mythical Atlas that supported the world on his shoulders, Nigeria has been supported for too long by the god of corruption. The god of corruption has now presented his invoice for “settlement” in the currency of our own souls.
There has been an absolute collapse in living standards. The educational system has collapsed. The medical system is in the morgue. There is widespread unemployment. There is fear everywhere, and general insecurity of life and property. Poverty is the only thing available in Nigeria today. Out there in our urban centres and country side, there are hundreds of thousands of able men and women who desperately wish to apply their knowledge, their training, toward building the Nigeria of our dreams. They are all frustrated. They will never be able to achieve personal or professional self-actualisation. That is the message of our contemporary times. Chief Sam Mbakwe once cried that we were better off under the British while Wole Soyinka lamented that the current generation is a wasted generation. The danger confronting us now is, can we save our children’s future? But how can we when all our universities are dead and we decorate semi-literates with university academic certificates?
The naira in our pockets has been rendered useless while consumer prices have risen at least 15 times in the past eight years, while average household income had not risen correspondingly.”
Perhaps I should share with you the incisive declaration by Simone de Beauvoir (1908 to 1986):
“The oppressor (men) would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed (women).”
Added to this are cases of self-destruction by women. A case in point is that of Fiona Onasanya. She is a Nigerian who served as a Labour MP in the United Kingdom. She was struck off as a solicitor for lying to avoid a speeding conviction. Onasanya, who worked in commercial property law before her election to parliament in 2017, was jailed in 2018 for perverting the course of justice by claiming someone else was driving her car.
We also learn from the Gender and Corruption Report launched this week by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC] that:
“Consistent with what occurs in other countries, women seemed to experience corruption differently, and sometimes more drastically than men. Women, for example, were more likely to be confronted with corruption when interacting with the health sector, where often they have to grapple with the impossible choice between paying a bribe or not receiving treatment for themselves, their children or elderly family members in their care.
Women, in particular young women and girls are also subject to sextortion when their bodies become the means of payment. While the prevalence of this particularly insidious form of corruption was more complex to establish due to the related stigma, the report found enough evidence confirming the widespread nature of the phenomenon with close to 70 per cent of the respondents, both women and men, stating that sextortion was either very or fairly frequent.
Most revealing, however, were the findings relating to the likelihood of male versus female public officials engaging in bribe seeking behaviour. Taking into account the existing gender gap in most public institutions, the data clearly indicated that female public officials are consistently, and often dramatically, less likely to engage in corruption than their male counterparts.
Male police officers for example are five times more likely to take a bribe than their female colleagues, and male judges are six times more likely to take bribes than their female colleagues.
While differences are less marked in public services where a large share of women are employed, they remain stark. For example, medical doctors, teachers and lecturers are still approximately twice as likely to request bribes than their female colleagues. Interesting was also that services that employed large number of women appeared overall comparatively less prone to corrupt practices.”
The front-page headline of “The Punch” newspaper of December 7, 2020 cannot but move us to tears:
“AFTER BEHEADING 78 YOUTHS, BOKO HARAM GOT TIRED AND TOLD OTHERS TO GO AND SPREAD NEWS ABOUT THE KILLING.” – Bukar, Zabarmari Village Head
• Zabarmari is a Hausa settlement in Borno State. Its peace was shattered on Saturday, November 28, 2020 when Boko Haram terrorists attacked and killed farmers on their farmlands.
“Most of those killed were youths. Some were bachelors; some had just wedded…There was also one Tijja whose wife was delivered of a baby the previous day without any foodstuffs in his house and he went to the farm to help someone harvest rice so that he could get some money to feed his wife and kid.”
We also have the front-page headline of “Daily Trust” newspaper of November 21, 2020:
“INSIDE STORY OF KADUNA’S UNENDING ATTACKS, KIDNAPPING”
• I’ve no job, my husband is sick, we can’t pay ransom – Mum of Ahmadu Bello University abductee
• Bandits spared our women but killed our men – Albasa villagers
We cannot thank Soroptimist International enough for the tremendous amount of work and good causes you have accomplished in Nigeria. However, much of that excellent achievement has been subverted by the sheer scale of the abandoned government projects all over our beloved country.
“A 2012 report indicated that about 12,000 federal government projects had been abandoned between 1962 and 2012. From a strictly monetary perspective, a report by the Chartered Institute of Project Management in 2017 suggested that abandoned projects with regard to existing structures alone amount to over ₦12 trillion—that is 10% of the economy. A former Minister of Works put the costs of abandoned projects at ₦17 trillion, based on an investigation during the Jonathan administration.
With respect to the scale, one report claims that 15,000 of them are in the South-East, 11,000 in the South-South, 10,000 in the South-West, 6000 in the North-West, 7000 in the North-Central, 5000 in North-East, and 2000 in Abuja.”
Bashorun J.K. Randle is a former President of the Institute of the Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and former Chairman of KPMG Nigeria and Africa Region.
He is currently the Chairman, J.K. Randle Professional Services
email – [email protected]
25
Discover more from EkoHotBlog
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
Advertise or Publish a Story on EkoHot Blog:
Kindly contact us at [email protected]. Breaking stories should be sent to the above email and substantiated with pictorial evidence.
Citizen journalists will receive a token as data incentive.
Call or Whatsapp: 0803 561 7233, 0703 414 5611