Category: Features

 

 

By Jide Olatuyi

Abuja (Flowerbudnews): On Monday, January 22, 2024, Liberians will witness the official inauguration of Joseph Boakai, the winner of the presidential election held recently as the 26th president of the West African country. Today’s inauguration which is expected to draw dignitaries and international leaders, will be preceded by several other events and will most likely mark the new President’s difficult path to uniting and transforming the country for national development.

According to the National Steering Committee for the inauguration of President-elect Joseph Boakai and Vice President-elect Jeremiah Koung, said the presidential inauguration will be held on the grounds of the Capitol, the seat of the national legislature in the capital of Monrovia.

Joseph Nyumah Boakai, 79 is a Liberian politician born in the remote village of Worsonga in the Foya District of Lofa County on 30th November 1944. He had his primary and high school in Sierra Leone and Liberia before graduating from the College of West Africa. He later graduated in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Liberia.

From 1983 to 1985, he served as Minister of Agriculture under late President Samuel Doe. While Minister of Agriculture, Boakai chaired the 15 nation West African Rice Development Association. Having previously served as the 29th vice president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018, under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Boakai contested the presidential elections in 2017 but lost to outgoing President George Weah under very controversial and politically extenuating circumstances.

Boakai had committed to an anti-corruption political campaign agenda and became unpopular with Mrs. Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, the incumbent President and leader of the ruling Unity Party (UP) at the time. Sirleaf, on political expediency turned her back against her Unity Party’s choice in Boakai and preferred younger Weah who emerged as the 25th President of Liberia. However, Weah and Johnson have long parted ways. Johnson now supported Boakai to win the 2023 elections.

Apart from Boakai’s active philanthropic, wide community efforts, he has a very large grassroot political following. He had participated in organizing and fundraising for the rural electrification of Foya Kama in Lofa County, Northern Liberia. Before serving as vice president, Boakai has worked and consulted with several institutions, including serving as Chief Technical Advisor on Agriculture Policy, Ministry of Agriculture. He reviewed and evaluated the Liberian 1986 proposed Green Revolution and FAO World Bank 1986 Agricultural sector Review Document and evaluated AMSCO, Amsterdam Funded training program for projects in Uganda in 1994 and Tanzania in 1996.

Also, he chairs an enterprise committed to building markets to cultivate a vibrant network for small business owners, so they could have opportunities to transform their lives and communities. Meanwhile, in spite of his impressive background at development policy and practices in public and private sectors nationally and internationally, it is yet to be seen how Boakai will disentangle the fragile country from endemic corruption, multidimensional poverty and transform Liberia’s economy for public good.

Realistically, the contemporary post-conflict Liberia has never been short of leaders with very impressive backgrounds (from Ellen-2006-2018 to George Weah -2018-2023). There were high expectations of change when Weah took office in 2018. Many expected him to lift them from poverty. They saw a real chance for a better future.

Today, a good number of Liberians feel he squandered that bright opportunity and has lost his connection with poverty alleviation and with the people who elected a younger Weah into office. Over 50% of Liberians live below the poverty line. The rising cost of basic commodities prevents families from meeting their food needs. But, Weah alone is not responsible for all of Liberia’s problems. His administration inherited irregularities that plagued previous governments.

Yet, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) eLibrary’s data in 2022, Liberia stands as the 35th lowest out of 43 ranked Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries and well below the continent’s average of US$1,600. While the Gini Index in its 2023 Poverty & Equity Brief states that poverty in Liberia is prevalent in rural areas and is home to 71.7 percent of the poor, accounting for 68 percent of the total population. The poverty outlook remains grim according to the UNDP’s 2023 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report on global poverty, which rates Liberia’s MPI estimation of 2019/2020.

Based on these estimates, 52.3 percent of the population in Liberia (2,717 thousand people in 2021) is multidimensionally poor while an additional 23.3 percent is classified as vulnerable to multidimensional poverty (1,211 thousand people in 2021). The intensity of deprivations in Liberia, which is the average deprivation score among people living in multidimensional poverty, is 49.6 percent. The MPI value, which is the share of the population that is multidimensionally poor adjusted by the intensity of the deprivations, is 0.259.

In the 2022 World Justice Project (WJP) Rule of Law Index, finds rule of law fell globally for 5th consecutive year with Authoritarian trends and some pandemic pressures continue in majority of countries and Liberia’s score decreased as it ranks 20th out of 34 regionally. Liberia Ranks 112 out of 140 in Rule of Law Index globally.
Relatedly, a World Bank 2023 update on economic overview indicates that Liberia’s fiscal position worsened in 2022. The deficit is estimated to have risen to 5.6% of GDP in 2022, up from 2.4% in 2021.

This was partly a reflection of the change in International Development Association – IDA lending policy (specifically the decline in grants) and lower-than-expected royalties from iron ore due to delayed expansion of the Arcelor Mittal mining project, expenditure overruns on goods and services, transfers, and subsidies. With a debt-to-GDP ratio of 53.4 Liberia is assessed to be at moderate risk of external debt distress and high risk of overall debt distress.

Additionally, the country’s current account balance remained high in 2022, despite booming gold exports. With the higher global prices for food and fuel (of which Liberia is a net importer)
Expectations were indeed very high when the former football star George Weah became president in 2018. But, access to resources such as electricity, infrastructure, housing, water, and healthcare can be limited in Liberia. Safety concerns indicate that Liberia has a high crime rate, and crime and safety concerns are a factor to consider for those living in the country.
The Liberian economy is still predominantly agrarian, and raw materials, equipment, and consumer goods are imported. Production for export is carried out on a large scale through foreign investment in rubber, forestry, and mining. However, Liberia still faces serious issues with corruption, impunity, and violence against women.

Africa’s oldest republic has ranked amongst the poorest countries in the world for many years. The six counties in Liberia’s south-eastern region — Maryland, Grand Kru, River Gee, Sinoe, Grand Gedeh, and River Cess counties — are extremely poor and marginalized. And, going by common knowledge, the southeastern region enjoys the preponderance of political power over all other regions.

The level of the Liberian youths without work but available for and seeking employment is very high. Also, the cost of coping with unemployment levels remains high with the absence of any social security safety nets. Liberia unemployment rate for 2022 was 3.63%, a 0.04% decline from 2021. According to the World Bank 2022 economic outlook, Liberia’s unemployment rate since 2022 has averaged 3.63%, a 0.04% decline from 2021.

There had been a poor government performance on job creation and employment provision since 2018.
Educational attainment and public spending on education are comparatively low in Liberia. Net enrollment is lower than in SSA and LIC peers. Only 51 percent of school-age children attend school and overage and drop-out rates in primary school are high (IMF, 2019). Expected years of schooling of 4.2 years are the lowest in SSA, where they average 8.3 years. Harmonized test scores are amongst the poorest on the continent.

The share of public expenditure that Liberia devotes to education is only about half the SSA or LIC averages and so is spending per student in primary education in PPP-adjusted terms, although the deficit is less stark at the secondary and tertiary levels. Education spending is also highly skewed toward wages and salaries, which account for almost 90 percent of the total during 2015-20. Accordingly, teacher-student ratios are more favorable than the SSA and Least Developed Countries (LDC) averages. But teacher quality seems to be an issue.

The Ministry of Education (2016) estimates that only 50 percent of early childhood education staff, 62 percent of primary school teachers, and 34 percent of junior and senior high school teachers have the minimum qualifications for their positions. This may be one of the reasons why the gap between average years of schooling and average years of learning-adjusted schooling is particularly large, with the latter pegged at just 2.2 years.

Large infrastructure gaps hamper Liberia’s growth prospects. Liberia features the lowest percentage of paved roads among selected Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries.

This makes domestic and international trade challenging, especially during the rainy season when unpaved roads often become impassable. Similarly, electricity production and consumption are extremely low compared to peers, while tariffs are extremely high, even after they were cut by about one third in December 2021. Supply by the Liberia Electricity Company (LEC) is also highly unreliable, with large companies, like the local cement producer or the Roberts Airport (with the poorest connecting roads into the inner town in Monrovia), and most households not even bothering to connect.

Capital accumulation is held back by a lack of domestically financed public investment. Out of total public investment of around 10 percent of GDP in 2021, only 0.2 percent of GDP came from the central government’s budget, with the rest financed by development partners. Only modest amounts tend to be allocated to investment in central government budgets to begin with and they are then typically further compressed in budget execution when revenues fall short or current expenditures overrun their allocations.

The incremental capital output ratio (ICOR), a common indicator of investment efficiency, suggests that the productivity of new investment has tanked in the last ten years.
Two devastating civil wars during 1989-97 and 1999-2003 plunged Liberia into poverty, with real GDP per capita now only a third of it once was. At US$680 in 2021, it is the 35th lowest out of 43 ranked Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries and well below the continent’s average of US$1,600.

The poverty rate stood at 51 percent in 2021, also significantly above the Sub-Saharan Africa – (SSA) average of 44 percent. Raising living standards through sustainable inclusive growth is thus easily at the top of the economic policy agenda. The Government of Liberia is targeting at least 5.8 percent per year by 2023 in its National Development Plan, the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD). But how do we get there?

What insights does the growth track record offer about Liberia’s drivers and impediments to growth and the economy’s true potential? What policies are most promising to help unlock it? Liberia’s growth performance since the end of the civil war in 2003 is comparable to that of SSA as a whole and other low-income countries (LICs) but has yet to show distinct prospects for capital development.

In all of these, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has remained committed in its engagement with diverse political and economic stakeholders. ECOWAS fosters economic growth and poverty reduction through decreasing regional barriers to trade, such as impediments to goods crossing borders, inefficient transport corridors, and lack of access to power. It also works to standardize trade and border policy in all member countries.

It addresses peacekeeping, humanitarian support and peace building capabilities as well as the issue of cross border crime. Moreover, ECOWAS member States also adopted among others the Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance in 2001 as an instrument to promote peace, security and stability in West Africa. This was in addition to the Protocol Relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peace Keeping and Security, adopted in December 1999 and is arguably the most comprehensive protocol relating to peace and security in the region.

In this context, ECOWAS has established institutions, and programmes to realize the commitments of the above-mentioned protocols, including the Mediation and Security Council, Early Warning and Response Network (EWRN), ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF), the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework (ECPF) and the ECOWAS and Civil Society. This is all taking cognizance of the fact there are also external factors that could take advantage of Liberia’s fragility and undermine it’s recent progress at peaceful democratic transitions. For example, the Mano River Union, a sub-regional body of which Liberia is a founding member, remains volatile.

The recent military coup in Guinea, the anti-government protest in Sierra Leone, the general ominous clouds of terrorism, banditry, insecurity with recent unconstitutional change of governments in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger republic and the violence around Alassane Ouattara’s third-term re-election “victory” in Côte d’Ivoire are signals of vulnerability within the Mano River Union particularly, the ECOWAS region.

It is on the strength of this broad political frameworks and security architectures as well as the need for functional preventive diplomacy that ECOWAS continue to engage in the Liberia electoral processes. This essentially relates to adhering to the early response for stability and on democratic consolidation, with the intention to avert any dire volatility of post-election outcomes.

The 2023 ECOWAS Observer Mission (EOM) as led by Prof. Attahiru Jega, former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chair in Nigeria deployed a total of over one hundred and eighty international election observers across the entire Liberian fifteen counties in both rounds of the elections. Over a hundred ECOWAS observers consisting of long-term observer (LTO) and short-term observer (STO) teams witnessed the first round (7th to 14th October 2023) of the presidential and legislative elections in thirteen of the fifteen counties in the country.

In the second round, the ECOWAS in a statement acknowledged it deployed eighty observers (from 6th to 17th November 2023) for the presidential run-off in all the fifteen counties. The regional body also hinted of its support to the electoral process with logistics assistance to the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and the Liberian security services.

No doubt, ECOWAS as a regional economic community (REC) has had a very successful long-standing transformative, reformative and collaborative commitment to supporting not only the government and people of Liberia but generally the entire ECOWAS community in West Africa. The body is evidently rapidly evolving and it is re-strategizing approaches to deepen democracy and good governance, consolidate peace, security and stability as well as foster economic development in the region.

The 2023 EOM in Liberia was one of clearest demonstration of ECOWAS’ renewed vigour not only on qualitative techniques but with more nuanced quantifiable, evidence-based, social-scientific means of deepening the use of tracks I, II and III diplomacies. These have remained some of the very delicate systems to use within the very volatile climate of socio-political uncertainties to stay engaged in pushing the institution’s agenda-setting for consolidating democratic governance in West Africa.

By and large, the ECOWAS’ observer group had in an 8-page statement on the preliminary declaration on the 14th November 2023 Presidential run-off election in Liberia signed by the Mission Head – Prof. Attahiru Jega highlighted its findings on the general conduct of the election cycle / vis-à-vis the voting environment, engagement with stakeholders and briefing on deployment.

The statement closes with conclusions calling for urgent steps to foster greater inclusivity in governance, social cohesion for national unity and offering an array of sundry recommendations for all.

The 2023 ECOWAS Observation Mission (EOM) in Liberia has no doubt improved tremendously in recent years both in the conceptualization and the composition of its team logic, flow of communication and in terms of its deployment methodologies.

However, while the organisation continues to explore improvements for the EOM activities, it has to be noted that ECOWAS’ preventive diplomacy and active positive engagement efforts and supports have largely contributed to the very significant success of the tortuous and very complex political process that would ultimately culminate in the inauguration of president-elect Joseph Boakai as the 26th President of Liberia on Monday 22nd January 2024.

Moving forward, this would also readily pave the way to improving on the lessons learned in its next election observation deployment in Senegal’s Presidential election next month and in all future elections in the region.

Boakai defeated incumbent George Weah in the second round of the 2023 presidential election, which was held on 14 November. I was in Foya, the home base of Boakai in Lofa county for both rounds of polls. I witnessed vividly the determination, courage and the tenacity of how the voter population responded to the politically competitive campaign messages of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) who was asking for a second term to ‘continue’ its so called ‘development programs’ across the country.

The Unity Party (UP) on the other hand, campaigned for ‘change’ and to ‘end corruption’ that had crippled the country. The first round of the polls that produced Weah’s narrow lead of 43.83% to Boakai’s 43.44 garnered a very high 78.86% voter turn-out, one of the highest in the ECOWAS region in recent years….which is an excellent indicator for a socio-political engineering for change. At the end, Boakai with the Unity Party took the lead in the new alliances formed and the third-party endorsements over Weah’s CDC to clinch the 2023 presidential election victory.

President George Weah and a football legend has already conceded and called for unity in a deeply fragmented country after it became evident that his opponent, Joseph Boakai, secured a narrow yet insurmountable lead.
Generally, in the first decade after the end of the civil war, the economy benefitted from solid economic policies and several important tailwinds. But, from 2014, the economy stalled amid a series of negative shocks and policy slippages. On business climate and access to financing, structural reforms should be a promising avenue to promote growth. Despite the recognition of these reform needs, progress has so far been limited. It would also be highly desirable to advance reforms that promote financial sector development in parallel in a very open and transparent manner.
With that said, Boakai will evidently confront a highly polarised Liberia. Liberia is more divided than it has been since the end of its 14-year civil war in 2003.

The war ended with the signing of a peace agreement, but its scars are still visible across the country. Frustration around the soaring cost of living, cronyism, patronage, nepotism, and the culture of impunity which triggered the war is once again tearing the country of 5.4 million people apart. The inaugurated president will have to address three pivotal priorities first around national cohesion to lift the social fragmentation that continue to divide the country. Secondly is the need to work on cultural and endemic corruption. Corruption shows up in many forms and at all levels in Liberia.

It disrupts democratic decision-making processes, weakens public trust in government and undermines the rule of law. There are concerns in Liberia that the George Weah-led administration did not do enough to improve living standards. The nation’s integrity institutions lack independence.

They include the Liberian Anti-Corruption Commission, the General Audit Commission and the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. These agencies were created to curb corrupt practices. But they lack political independence, capacity and resources.
The third area relates to the need for stronger state institutions for policy, practice and good governance.

This can help to restore hope and confidence in Liberia’s recovery in the areas of education, health, building infrastructure, fighting poverty, combatting impunity, improving rule of law and access to justice. Liberian institutions are further weakened by a culture of impunity. Managerial appointments are often made on the basis of cronyism (jobs for friends and colleagues) and patronage (using state power to reward selected voters for electoral support).

Corruption is prevalent in the judiciary too. Judges solicit bribes in exchange for decisions that favour offenders. President George Weah and his predecessor, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, ran on the promise of fighting corruption, however, both failed to live up to their commitment. In 2017, after her terms as head of state, Sirleaf admitted that her government had not done enough to fight corruption.

In 2022, Weah had to suspend three of his top officials after the US imposed sanctions on them for corruption and abuse of state functions. No investigation has been launched and none has been prosecuted.

Weah himself has faced serious criticism for his refusal to declare his assets upon taking office and for violating Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’s standard procedures. The country ranks 142nd out of 180 countries in the corruption perception index (CPI). It could slide back into chaos unless the President Boakai takes serious actions.

Like Sirleaf, Weah pledged to build an equal, fair and just Liberia. But his lack of action in the fight against corruption sends the wrong message to development partners. And it undermines voters’ confidence in the electoral system.

There is also anger over the government’s failure to establish tribunals to try individuals accused of war crimes, as recommended by Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Victims of the war want to see warlords punished for their crimes. But the call for justice is ignored as Weah and politician Joseph Boakai forge stronger political alliances with perpetrators and war profiteers.

Weah’s 2017 election victory was largely attributed to the support he received from warlord Prince Johnson. Weah was also supported by Jewel Howard Taylor, his vice-president and ex-wife of Charles Taylor, Liberia’s 22nd president, convicted for atrocities committed in Sierra Leone.

An area that will pose very difficult for the newly elected president Boakai is how to implement his corruption agenda in the midst of former warlords who control large voting blocs, sought after by presidential candidates. Establishing a war crime court would amount to political suicide for him. But the new president must partner with the ECOWAS and the development institutions to introduce genuine reforms and promote good governance if he is to sustain peace or govern a region filled with political backstabbing, resource competition and the struggle for new global alliances.

Forging ahead, the new president must act decisively on deep-rooted and unresolved grievances. He must address public sector corruption, grant full independence to the nation’s transparency institutions and provide adequate resources for the Liberian Anti-Corruption Commission and the General Audit Commission to hold offenders accountable.

Transforming Liberia transcend beyond the lone action or vision of one individual leader. It is enough a rough ride for Boakai’s access to the exalted seat at the Executive Mansion of Liberia. It is likely to be a rougher more difficult ride for him amidst the unstable and insatiable Liberian political hawks to fall in line within his change and anti-corruption agenda.

Therefore, the new coalition and alliances that paved the pathway to Boakai’s ascendance to the presidency must work with national and international stakeholders to ensure that the recommendations of the General Audit Commission are followed through and empower the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate and indict those suspected of bribery, embezzlement and illicit enrichment.

Low-level corruption should not go unpunished. That includes things like patients paying bribes for medical treatment, and teachers demanding special favours from students to pass an exam.
The summary is there are multiple known and unknown socio-economic threats and political volatilities in Liberia. Manu River Union (MRU) remains fragile.

The ECOWAS Commission holds the strategic ace for realizing the expectations of potential opportunities for growth and development in Liberia and in the (MRU) area. It should therefore, stay closely engaged. Strengthen its own capacities to initiate programmes that can help Liberia kickstart and sustain its tortuous march towards the reform and transformative agenda for good governance in critical but specific sectors.

This can be done from the short to the medium – and long-term basis. Also, the regional body can outline for itself specific key support roles in rallying collaborative joint multi-donor sector-specific basket funds from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the UNDP, UNESCO, WHO, the World Bank, etc to assist in the pursuit of the new government’s agenda for socio-economic development and its anti-corruption drive.

Liberians desperately hope for a better future from beyond the 22nd of January inauguration razzmatazz of its 26th president. (Flowerbudnews)

Jide OLATUYI is an International Development Policy Consultant and the Executive Director at POLICY CONSULT in Abuja.

 

 

By Paul Ejime

Sierra Leone’s former President Ernest Bai Koroma, accused of treason by the government of his country arrived in Nigeria Friday on exile, although the Sierra Leone government is presenting his departure as “a medical trip.”

(Sierra Leone ex-President Ernest Bai Koroma welcomed in Abuja on Friday by ECOWAS Commission President Oumar Alieu Touray & former VP ECOWAS Commission Madam Finda Koroma, among others.)

The journey on a Nigerian Airforce flight was originally planned for the 4th of January, but the government of President Julius Maada Bio went back on its earlier agreement with ECOWAS, apparently when the hawks in his ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) questioned the plan under the erroneous impression that ECOWAS was trying to prevent Koroma from facing justice in his country.

The political tension in Sierra Leone following the disputed June 2023 presidential election had heightened with an alleged coup attempt reported on 26th November, which the government blamed on officials of the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC), including former President Koroma.

Koroma has denied any involvement in the alleged botched coup, but he was placed under house arrest and after days of interrogation by state security agencies, he was taken to court on January 3rd and charged with treason.

Meanwhile, during the ECOWAS end-of-year summit in December 2023, President Bio had requested the regional economic bloc to send a mediation mission to Sierra Leone.

Consequently, the Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government and Nigerian President Bola Tinubu dispatched to Freetown, a high-level delegation made up of the presidents of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo and Macky Sall of Senegal, accompanied by the ECOWAS Commission President Oumar Alieu Touray and Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security.

Sources privy to the Freetown meetings explained that it was President Bio who insisted that for peace reign in Sierra Leone, former President Koroma must leave the country, just like he (Bio) was granted political asylum by the United States after handing over power to now-late President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in 1996.

Former President Koroma was said to have rejected the Bio suggestion, but following persuasion by the ECOWAS delegation, the three parties (Koroma, ECOWAS, and Bio) eventually agreed to the exile plan with Nigeria as Koroma’s host country.

This was on the condition that the Sierra Leone government should drop all legal and administrative charges against Koroma, who should also retain his entitlements as former head of state.

Diplomatic sources in Freetown and Abuja agreed on Friday that “nothing has changed, it is the same plan initiated by President Bio that is being implemented.”

This means that the Sierra Leone government only introduced the “medical trip element to save face,” after creating the wrong impression that the plan was being imposed on Sierra Leone by ECOWAS.

It is unclear whether ECOWAS will still favourably consider President Bio’s other request for ECOWAS to send a stabilization Force to Sierra Leone given the air of uncertainty in the country following the alleged coup attempt and disaffection over the June election.

The government said 15 of Koroma’s serving and former bodyguards are implicated in the alleged coup attempt, while the former president insists on his innocence.

The trial of suspects in the alleged coup attempt will be watched with keen interest now that Koroma is out of Sierra Leone, which is steep in ethnic division and identity politics, and yet to fully recover from the devastation of an 11-year civil war that killed more than 50,000 people and rendered hundreds of thousands as refugees from 1991-2002. ##/Flowerbudnews

 

 

By Femi Fani-Kayode

Nigeria is the only country in the world in which history is not taught.

This policy has done us much harm and represents perhaps the greatest, most savage, most brutal and most destructive blow to the pysche, confidence, knowledge, intellectual acumen and mental health of our people.

The consequence of this egregious and unbelievable error and grave oversight is the fact that we are now having to contend with a vast population of over 220 million people who are essentially ignorant of their own past, that have no knowledge of their noble historical heritage and that predicate and rationalise their nation’s existence on lies, misinformation, disinformation, falsehood, folklore, fairy tales, fantasy, self-serving and selective clap trap and a more than heavy dose of intellectual distortion and historical revisionism.

This is precisely why we are, in the main, essentially a conflicted and confused people who have no idea where we are coming from, where we are today or where we are going tomorrow.

 

This is why we, more often than not, view, discuss and debate our nation’s history with an emotional bent and from a thoroughly subjective, unintelligent and unintellectual prism rather than an objective, plausible, logical, level- headed, factual and intelligent one with strong primary sources and unassailable empirical evidence.

 

We have little or no regard or appreciation of the heroic deeds, monumental struggles, historical achievements and extraordinary sacrifices that our forefathers made in the struggle against British colonial rule, the fight for independence, the struggle against military rule and the challenges and obstacles that our politicians from the First, Second and Third republics faced, surmounted and overcame to get us to where we are.

 

This is our reality and frankly it is pitiful.

 

I say pitiful because without any knowledge of our history we are nothing.

 

Worse of all is the fact that, having learnt nothing from our past mistakes and numerous historical challenges because we have no idea about precisely what those mistakes and challenges were, it becomes inevitable for us to repeat them.

Permit me to tickle your collective fancies by asking the following questiins.

 

How many Nigerians know who Alafin Aole Arogangan, Sheik Usman Dan Fodio, Bishop Ajayi Crowther, Rev. Emmanuel Adelabi Kayode (my great grandfather), Herbert Macauly, Sapara Williams, Rev. Suberu Fanimokun, Isaac Boro, General Murtala Mohammed, Alhaji Ali Akilu, Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, Colonel Gideon Orkar and Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim were?

 

How many know anything about Ernest Ikoli, Alhaji Aminu Kano, Chief Joseph Tarka, Owelle Nnamdi Azikiwe, Justice Daddy Onyeama, Chief Philip Asiodu, Chief Allison Ayida, Chief Hope Harriman, Chief Godfrey Amachree, Alhaji Adamu Attah, Alhaju Adamu Augie, Chief Solomon Lar, Alhaji Saleh Jambo, Alhaji Saleh Hassan, Oba Adesoji Aderemi and Alhaji Adamu Ciroma?

 

How many know much about General Hassan Katsina, General Ibrahim Babangida, General Shehu Musa Yar’adua, General TY Danjuma, General Sani Abacha, Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, Dr. Olusola Saraki, Chief KO Mbadiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Adetokunboh Ademola, Chief FRA Williams, Justice Atanda Fatayi-Williams, Oba Okunade Sijuwade and the Black Scorpion, Benjamin Adekunle?

 

How many know anything about the Black Victorians of the old Lagos colony or Sara Forbes Bonneta who was the god-daughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain.

How many have ever heard about Sara’s distinguished and well to do husband, Captain James Pinson Labulo Davis, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist from old Lagos.

 

How many know anything about the politics and history of Nigeria in the 1920’s, 1930’s, 1940’s, 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s?

 

How many knew that it was only in the 1950’s that Nigerians were allowed to live in the area of Lagos known as Ikoyi and that this came about only as a consequence of the long and bitter struggle and great and irresistible agitation of the proud and noble Nigerian leaders of the old Lagos colony of that day.

 

Up until then Ikoyi was a residential area that was the exclusive preserve of the European settlers and colonialists!

 

How many have heard about Justice Victor Adedapo Kayode, my Cambridge-University trained paternal grandfather who was one of the leading criminal lawyers of his generation, who was the third Nigerian to be appointed as a Magistrate (in those days all our judges were white) and who landed a dirty slap on the face of a British colonial officer in broad daylight outside the front door of the old Bristol Hotel in Lagos for his insolence, impertinence and overtly racist remarks!

 

 

The following day the matter was reported in the newspapers and it created quite a stir!

 

How many know about what really happened during our civil war and what led to it?

 

How many know about President Shehu Shagari and the Second Republic and how many have any knowledge of Chief MKO Abiola in the third?

 

How many know about military rule in Nigeria and who the main players were and how many have any idea about the coups and attempted coups we have experienced since independence?

 

Sadly most Nigerians, particularly in the Gen Z generation, know NOTHING about their nations past and its major players and even when they do that knowledge is sparse, scanty, shallow and, more often than not, minimal, inconsequential and obscure.

 

It really is a tragedy and one of the reasons that yours truly has written this contribution about the relevance of January 15th in our calender is to at least attempt to enlighten those that are intelligent enough to appreciate the importance of history and that have no idea why we even have or celebrate an Armed Forces Remebrance Day or where our seemingly unending troubles and turmoil really started.

 

Consider the following.

 

Today is Armed Forces Remembrance Day and it is a day that we are constrained to rembember our fallen heroes.

 

Many in the younger generation do not know why this particular day was chosen to commemorate those that fell and the tragic events that led to their brutal murder.

 

Permit me to enlighten those that know no better and to share the facts.

 

58 years ago today, on January 15th 1966, a bloody, vicious, merciless, unrelenting and violent mutiny took place in our Armed Forces in which many of our reverred, respected and beloved political leaders and senior military officers, together with some members of their respective families, were humiliated, tortured, mutilated and finally murdered in cold blood.

Those that were killed were Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Prime Minister, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of the old Northern Region, Chief S.L. Akintola, the Premier of the old Western Region, Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari, Colonel James Pam, Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun, Colonel Ralph Sodeinde, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, the Minister of Finance, Colonel Arthur Unegbe, Colonel Kur Mohammed, Lt. Colonel Abogo Largema, Mrs. Hafsatu Bello, the wife of the Sardauna of Sokoto, Zarumi, the bodyguard of the Sardauna of Sokoto, Mrs. Lateefat Ademulegun, the wife of Brigadier Ademulegun, Ahmed B. Musa, Ahmed Pategi, Sgt. Daramola Oyegoke, PC Yohana Garkawa, PC Musa Nimzo, PC Akpan Anduka, PC Hagai Lai and PC Philip Lewande.

 

Two others were also abducted by the mutineers from their homes that night and brutalised. Thankfully they both managed to escape with their lives.

 

The first was Chief Remilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode KC, SAN, CON, the Balogun of Ile-Ife and the Deputy Premier of the old Western Region (my beloved father).

 

I personally witnessed some of the events of that night when, led by one Captain Emmanuel Nwobosi, they came to our home and official residence in Government House, Ibadan and abducted him.

 

Thankfully he was rescued later in the day by loyal troops led by Lt. Colonel Yakubu Gowon (as he then was), Captain Paul Chabri Tarfa (as he then was) and Lt. Takoda, who stormed the officers mess in Dodan Barracks, Lagos where he was taken and was being held by the mutineers and freed him after a prolonged and bloody gun battle which resulted in deaths on both sides.

 

The second was Sir Kashim Ibrahim, the Governor of the old Northern Region who was rescued and freed by loyalist forces in Kaduna.

 

Both of these men were delivered by divine providence and went on to live for many more years and make their contributions to national development.

 

The coup was led by Major Emmanuel Arinze Ifeajuna and Major Chukuwemeka Kaduna Nzeogwu and 90% of the officers involved were Igbo.

 

The allegation that it was an Igbo coup is accurate and factual regardless of all attempts to revise and re-write history, often by the murderers and mutineers themselves, in a futile attempt to make it look otherwise and portray themselves as patriots and heroes.

 

They were far from either of the two and the bitter truth is that they were nothing more than a bunch of cowardly, treacherous, self-serving, ungrateful, over ambitious, power- hungry homicidal maniacs and murderous butchers who attempted to take power through the barrel of the gun and impose an ethnic and religious agenda.

 

The assertion that it was not an Igbo coup is patently false and we owe it to those that lost their lives on that terrible night to at least speak the truth about what happened and who killed them.

 

I commend the historians, commentators and writers, including individuals like @renoomokri, who have collectively continued to pronounce and enunciate this sacred truth despite the insults and threats which they are often subjected to by those who are blind to the reality, who have no knowledge of history and who have been misguided and brainwashed into believing otherwise.

 

The cycle of violence that the unprecedented amount of violence and bloodshed that took place that terrible night unleashed was horrendous and not only did it lead directly to what has rightly been described by historians as the “Northern officers revenge coup” 6 months later in July 1966 in which 300 Igbo officers and the Igbo Head of State, General Aguiyi-Ironsi, was murdered but also to the infamous pogroms in the North where up to 100,000 Igbos were murdered by angry mobs and finally the civil war in which up to 3 million Igbo civilians and Biafran soldiers (including 1 million Igbo children) were butchered alongside hundreds of thousands of Nigerian civilians and gallant Army officers.

 

My prayer is that we never witness or experience such bloody events in our history again but if anyone is interested in knowing where, how and why this terrible series of events and cycle of brutality started they must consider the events of January 15th 1966 when the murderous barbarians that called themselves young Army officers unleashed mayhem on our leaders and killed so many of them in the most beastly and cowardly fashion.

 

History records all those that were murdered that night as heroes and we shall never belittle, forget or undermine the supreme sacrifice that they made for our beloved nation.

 

They live on in our hearts and we resolve to soldier on regardless and make Nigeria an even greater and better country than they sought to make it and to honour their memory by building on their great and noble heritage and legacy.

 

May their precious souls continue to rest in peace, may the Lord continue to protect, comfort and bless those they left behind including their families and loved ones and may God continue to guide and lead our great nation Nigeria.

 

Happy Armed Forces Remembrance Day! (Flowerbudnews)

(FFK)

 

By Paul Ejime

In its usual stealthy but deadly manner, death has again struck, leaving a huge vacuum and an irreparable loss in its trail.

I trust that in his gentlemanly, unassuming character, Alhaji Isa Husseini would accommodate this humble tribute. I had been processing the news of his sudden passing since the 7th of January 2024 and the essence of life.

There was no warning only the announcement of his demise from a short illness and then notice about his burial according to Islamic rites all within 24 hours.

This homage is hardly sufficient to a colleague, who was always welcoming with a warm smile, planted on his shining “baby face” with a unique gap tooth, trademark spectacles and cap to match.

Isa and I met for the first time in the ancient northern city of Kano, during British “Iron Lady” Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s visit to Nigeria on the 7th of January 1988, exactly 36 years before his death.

It was at the peak of the anti-apartheid struggle and many Nigerians were angry with the August visitor for opposing sanctions against the Apartheid regime in South Africa.

But in agreeing to the visit, then Nigerian President Ibrahim Babangida must have weighed the importance of Anglo-Nigerian relations which both countries, can never take for granted.

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and various youth and student groups had mobilized for mass protests, but Nigeria was under a military dictatorship, and public protests were outlawed by the authorities.

Even so, some flag-burning in defiance of the general ban on protests took place in Lagos in front of the Yaba headquarters of the NLC, the nation’s umbrella trade union movement.

A small group of demonstrators also displayed anti-Thatcher banners outside the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, in Ikeja, Lagos when Thatcher flew in.

Fortunately, no violence was reported.

That visit was also significant because it coincided with the implementation of the Thatcher administration’s new visa restrictions announced in September 1986 for India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Ghana, which further eroded the visa-free advantages once enjoyed by many Commonwealth countries that shared colonial and historical ties with Britain.

Mrs. Thatcher, the no-nonsense British longest-serving Prime Minister was on her first visit to Africa since the 1979 Commonwealth Conference in Zambia.

She came prepared, telling reporters traveling with her from Nairobi, Kenya: “I can cope with a few demonstrations… that won’t upset things.”

As part of her two-day Nigeria visit, she met with her chief host President Babangida his government officials, and the Emir of Kano, and was also scheduled to address a Press Conference in Kano.

The Press Conference was for selected senior editors and I had the privilege of representing the Editor-In-Chief of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Malam Wada Maida, now of blessed memory.

There were no mobile phones and other digital technology devices then, but NAN had a reliable wire/radio system for the transmission of news services to its various clients.

With other senior journalists and officials of Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we flew from Lagos to Kano to await the Prime Minister’s arrival.

But before the meeting at the Emir’s Palace, I had to search for and identify Isa, the NAN Kano Correspondent, with whom I quickly bonded.

We arranged how to file our stories to the Lagos NAN headquarters for dissemination to waiting clients.

Isa and I were meeting for the first time, but you would think we had known each other for years.

Security and movements are usually a challenge during such high-profile visits, so the arrangement that Isa and I quickly put together to effectively cover the Prime Minister’s activities in Kano included how to dash to the NAN Kano office to file our stories.

Luckily, after the Emir’s Palace visit, the planned Press Conference was whittled down to a few Q & A followed by a mad rush to catch the flight back to Lagos.

I quickly handed Isa my handwritten draft to be consolidated with his notes into a story to be wired to our colleagues in the NAN Lagos Newsroom for editing and onward transmission.

With no social media, News Agencies served as the “Mother of Journalism,” which serviced the print and electronic media. Nigeria had a vibrant press, but broadcasting stations were mainly Federal and State government-owned, the space for private broadcasting had not opened up then.

Isa made sure that “our copy” from Kano reached Lagos satisfying the major attributes of top-flight journalism – Accuracy, Simplicity, and Speed/Immediacy.

Our relationship grew in leaps and bounds and we occasionally reminisced on “our Kano coverage” experience, which incidentally, marked my elevation to the position of NAN Diplomatic Correspondent, and later War Correspondent in Liberia, Sierra Leone; coverage of the Nigeria-Cameroon Bakassi duspute, and subsequently, the West Africa Bureau Chief of the Senegal-based Pan-African News Agency (PANAPRESS).

The rest, they often say is history, but Prime Minister Thatcher’s visit to Nigeria in 1988 and the collegiate, professional collaboration it ignited between Isa and me, will remain an indelible spotlight on my career.

I know that not a few colleagues at NAN and other media organizations have similar positive stories to share about Isa Husseini, a thorough-bred professional, whom I nicknamed “Gentleman
Journalist.”

Isa, who passed on to eternal at 72, retired from NAN as a Marketing Director.

His remains have since been laid to rest in Tudun Wada, Kaduna South Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

He left behind his widow, seven children, and grandchildren.

*Adieu, dear Isa. May your humble soul rest in perfect peace. Amen!*

 

By Paul Ejime

If any country should be grateful to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for the sacrifices and immense contributions toward the relative national peace it enjoys today, Sierra Leone is one and Liberia is another.

This fact ought to be obvious to all political actors in Sierra Leone, particularly Ernest Bai Koroma, president for ten years until 2018, and sitting President Julius Maada Bio, a retired army brigadier, who ruled the country as a military dictator from January 1996 to March 1996, when he handed over to the democratically elected government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.

However, it would appear that the present crop of politicians in the country has learned nothing and forgotten nothing!

This is most troubling coming from a country that evolved from the settlement of freed African slaves under the former British Empire, but which rose to become a citadel of learning for several independent African leaders through its renowned Fourah Bay College/University.
Somehow, Sierra Leone is still suffering the consequences of an 11-year civil war that killed more than 50,000 people and made hundreds of thousands of refugees from 1991-2002.

There is no love lost between Koroma, 70, leader of the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC), from the predominantly Temne ethnic group of the north, and Bio, 59, leader of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), who hails from the rival southeast Sherbro ethnic group.

To date, Koroma has not congratulated his successor Bio for winning the 2018 election and the political ambition, intolerance, and intransigence of the pair are now standing in the way of Sierra Leone’s progress and could degenerate into another avoidable bloody conflict unless drastic measures are taken.

The Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone declared Bio re-elected with 56% of the votes, against 41% for his rival Samura Kamara of the opposition APC in the June 2023 polls. The APC promptly rejected the results claiming that the election was rigged. But the party and its officials have also refused to challenge the results in court because according to them, the SLPP government controls the judiciary.

The post-election disaffection has fed into the country’s deep-rooted ethnic division and political intolerance with potentially dangerous implications.

In December 2023, Koroma was placed under house arrest after several days of interrogation by state security agencies. On the 3rd of January 2024, he was charged with treason over a reported attempted coup d’état on 26 November 2023, which the government claimed was masterminded by the opposition APC members.

During that second shootout within two months in Freetown following similar clashes in September after the June 2023 disputed polls, some 2,000 inmates were reportedly let out of a major prison in the nation’s capital Freetown, while at least 20 people were killed.

The Government alleges that 80 suspects including 15 of Koroma’s serving and former bodyguards are implicated in the coup attempt, but the former president has denied any involvement.

As part of a regional effort to douse the heightened political tensions in Sierra Leone, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government dispatched to Freetown, an ECOWAS delegation, made up of the Presidents of Ghana Nana Akuffo-Addo and Macky Sall of Senegal, accompanied by the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Oumar Alieu Touray and Amb. Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security.

The mission which was at the request of Sierra Leone’s government during the December 2023 ECOWAS Summit in Abuja, met separately, with President Bio and former President Koroma. As a mark of solidarity with Bio, the regional leaders at the Abuja summit, also agreed that an ECOWAS military stabilization force should be sent to Sierra Leone.

According to informed sources, it was President Bio who demanded during the Freetown meeting with the ECOWAS delegation that former President Koroma should leave the country, just as he (Bio) was granted asylum in the US after handing over to the now-late former President Kabbah in 1996. The sources explained that it took some persuasion by the ECOWAS delegation before Koroma could agree to his “temporary exile” plan in Nigeria.

This was based on conditions that – the Sierra Leone Government should discontinue all legal and administrative procedures against Koroma; continue disbursement of his benefits/entitlements as a former head of State; secure his residences in Sierra Leone and consider refunding his medical and travel expenses. Backend negotiations involving ECOWAS, the African Union, and the Commonwealth were also set in motion with government and opposition officials in Sierra Leone toward resolving the political disagreement.

But on the eve of Koroa’s planned travel to Nigeria on 4th January, President Bio was said to have received a letter from the ECOWAS Commission urging him to facilitate the process, but instead, observers were surprised to see Koroma in the dock, charged with treason by the Bio administration.

In the U-turn and utter embarrassment of ECOWAS, Sierra Leone Government officials were quoted as saying that Bio never agreed with ECOWAS that Koroma should leave the country. This narrative, canvassed mainly by hawks in Bio’s SLPP, is seen as the government’s ploy to further humiliate Koroma before granting him a presidential pardon and permission to leave the country.

Ordinarily, crime suspects should have their day in court, under the rule of law and a transparent process, but the way and manner the Bio administration is going about Koroma’s case smacks of political vendetta and a slap on the face of ECOWAS and Nigeria.

Instead of showing gratitude to ECOWAS for always supporting peace moves in Sierra Leone, Bio is in utter arrogance, behaving as if the region owes him and Sierra Leone a living.

It took ECOWAS’ principled stance plus resources and the sacrifice of the blood of men and women in the armed forces of member States to end the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
From Liberia, the ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) Taskforce moved to Sierra Leone in 1997.

On the 12th of February 1998, that force led by Nigerian Commander, Col. Maxwell Kobe reinstated Sierra Leone’s government of elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, which was sacked in 1997 by the Major Johnny Koroma-led Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and its rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) ally.

With much of Sierra Leone ravaged by the civil war, Kobe, who previously served as ECOMOG Taskforce Commander in Liberia in 1992/94, had to operate from Cape Sierra, the only functional hotel in the capital Freetown, where this writer as a War Correspondent first met Col. Kobe and his team in 1998, and witnessed first-hand how he and his team planned and executed military operations to mop-up remnants of Sierra Leone rebels.

A recipient of many awards for his gallantry, Kobe was later promoted to Brig.-General before he died on duty, serving as Sierra Leone’s Chief of Defence Staff (1998-2000).

To underscore the level of externalization of Sierra Leone’s conflict, Charles Taylor, Liberia’s former warlord president is currently serving a 50-year sentence in a UK prison for war crimes supporting Sierra Leone’s RUF, which started the civil war in 1991.

This chronology of events is deliberate to underscore the disappointment and outrage that Sierra Leonean political actors would be the ones pocking ECOWAS or Nigeria in the eye.

Unfortunately, Sierra Leone remains on the bottom rung of the UN Human Development Index, ranking 181 out of 195 nations, and perennially dependent on foreign assistance to finance its national budget.

The country’s sluggish economic growth is compounded by mounting local and foreign debts, rocketing inflation, and unemployment of largely uneducated youths, many of whom have been driven to drug abuse and other crimes. The government is also accused of corruption, nepotism, and mismanagement.

The proper approach for the Bio administration after a divisive and costly election is to encourage national cohesion, healing, and reconciliation.

The implementation of late President Kabbah’s Agenda for Change (AFC 2007) was truncated, just as his successor President Koroma’s Agena for Prosperity (AFP 2013) made little progress.

Yet, the issues highlighted in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Report of 2004, as the perennial root causes of conflicts in Sierra Leone, especially, successive years of bad governance, endemic corruption, and denial of basic human rights persist.

Apart from the opposition party’s complaints, local and international election observers also raised issues with the June 2023 electoral process, the 5th successive post-conflict polls, which had raised hopes for democratic consolidation in Sierra Leone.

The observers noted in their various mission reports that the result collation and management process lacked transparency, with some analysts pointing out that none of the presidential candidates could have scored the 56% vote threshold set by the constitution.

But assuming without conceding that Bio was re-elected fair and square, wisdom requires that he should be magnanimous in victory instead of engaging in a self-distractive witch-hunt.

ECOWAS should still engage with Sierra Leone political stakeholders, including President Bio and former President Koroma, who owe themselves, their country, and 400 million Community citizens an obligation and responsibility for peaceful, patriotic, and responsible conduct.

With the resurgence of military coups in the region and four of its 15 member States under military dictatorships, ECOWAS should recalibrate its intervention strategies to prioritize support and promotion of good governance and protection of community citizens in line with the vision of an ECOWAS of People, instead of an ECOWAS of States or ECOWAS of powerful and politically exposed persons.

No individual should be more powerful than the state, or above the law.
There should be no room for fraudulent military coups, but strict application of the “zero-tolerance” provision for unconstitutional change of government under ECOWAS protocols.

Deployment of regional military forces to prop undemocratic leaders will only promote tyranny and oppression!

**Paul Ejime, a former War Correspondent, is a Global Affairs Analyst and Consultant on Peace & Security and Governance Communications* (Flowerbudnews)

 

By Tayo Sanni, (Radio Nigerua Ibadan)

Ibadan (Flowerbudnews): It is my pleasure to felicitate and venerate a wonderful mentor and boss,ALHAJI OLUMIDE LATEEF OLASUBOMI LAWAL at 72.

Alhaji Lawal has come a long way
through thick and thin in the industry as a thorough bred broadcaster and a globally applauded public relations guru.

I remember that on the occasion of his 70th birthday anniversary in his home town of Ede,the whole world was practically at his feet.

An unforgetable revelation on that unique gathering wa s the prediction by a childhood friend that Senator Ademola Adeleke,who was the special guest of honor was going to become the governor of Osun state.

That prophecy has come to pass.

Thanks to Almighty God who used Alhaji Olumide Lawal to bring the mighty and the lows together in that hotel arena where God answered prayer.

It was an unforgetable moment for me and l don’t think governor Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke has forgotten in a hurry.

At 72, it is not easy.

But we thank God that worships and praises have never ceased from our mouth as we once again witnessed the reaching of a significant milestone in the eventful life of the world acclaimed and hugely celebrated “CASTROL” of our generation.

I join all members of his immediate family,relations,friends,professional colleagues and well wishers to wish the birthday boy,ALHAJI OLUMIDE LATEEF OLASUBOMI LAWAL many happy returns of the day in good health and more prosperity. My humble contribution Sir. (Flowerbudnews)1

About Veteran Journalist; Alhaji Olumide Lawal

Ailaka compound , Ede born OLUMIDE AbduLateef LAWAL, turns 72 today January 11th, 2022. A stylist and accomplished media, public relations expert was born to Baba Abdul,-Wahab Iyanda and Mama Rafatu Ayoka Lawal, both of blessed memory.

Abdul -Lateef, however was raised from infancy by his late paternal grandmother, Alhaja Sinatu Abegbe, who was so fond of him, that she was referred to as IYA LATI.

At 72, charismatic olumide LAWAL remains as fresh as lily, despite little health challenges he went through in the last quarter of 2023.

He literally worked through the valleys of shadow of health. But olumide lawal trust and faith In God was unshaken. He is using this medium to thank God and People of goodwill for remaining steadfast with him.

At 72, olumide lawal remains a solid reference point In the dynamic realms of journalism and public relations practice. Olumide LAWAL served meritoriously in different capacities in. Radio Nigeria,, Ibadan, Nigeria sugar company, bacita, Post and Telegraphy, Akure.

He was af various times media consultant to late senator Isiaka Adeleke, whom he served as executive chairman, directorate of information public relations and think tank under Governor’s office. He was also constant to senator Yarima Sanni of Zamfara state. Cocoa industry Ede among other notable clients.

He is reputed for his great skill in feature writing and documentary production. Married and blessed with good and God fearing children. This is to say! happy birthday and many happy returns. (Flowerbudnews)

 

By Lasisi Olagunju

Some cabinet members went to Western Region premier, Samuel Ladoke Akintola, to complain about the corruption of one of their colleagues.

They said the man was stealing their party’s funds and eating government money with reckless abandon. They said the gentleman’s impunity knew neither the fear of the law, nor of the party and the people.

“He is even building two houses at the same time,” they rammed it in. Chief Akintola listened attentively to the complainants and their complaints. He then turned to the accused who was also seated right there.

“You heard that? They said you are building two houses at the same time; you are building one in Oyo; you are building another in Ibadan. You are the party’s treasurer; you are also in charge of the government’s finances.

Can’t houses be built one after the other? (Ngbó, wón ní ò nkó’le méjì léèkan soso; ìkan l’Òyó, ìkan n’Bàdàn? Ìwo ni treasurer egbé; ìwo náà ni minister owó. Sé ilé ò seé kó ní’kòòkan ni?).” If that line of adjudication was strange to the complaint lodgers, Chief Akintola was still not done with them. He had some words for the accusers.

“Each of you is in charge of a ministry of government. If we flash a torch into your anus, won’t we see faeces?” He asked, looking straight into their eyes. They looked down.

Then Akintola faced the leader of the accusers. “And you, but I know that you have just built a house in Ibadan for one of your mistresses (Ìwo, mo sebí o sèsè kó’lé fún àlè re kan n’Bàdàn ni).

The accusers were shocked by their leader’s bent of justice. But they ought not to be shocked. The leader once said publicly that he was a master of equivocation.

The premier didn’t release his guests without a warning to both sides to be sensitive to public sensibilities in their use of public funds.

Dr Omololu Olunloyo, a second republic governor of the old Oyo State, will be 89 years old this year. He once told me the significance of this year in his life but I am not permitted to say it – at least, not now. Where I come from, a man does not tell all he is told. Olunloyo also knows too much, perhaps that explains his ‘refusal’ to write his autobiography despite our prodding and pressure. But he told me stories, one of which is the Akintola story I just told above – although I have hidden the names of the accused and the accusers.

I will tell yet another one from that former governor, especially now that the Federal Republic of Nigeria is enmeshed in an argument over whether or not it is permitted and legal in public service to officially move public money into private accounts.

Olunloyo was very close to Akintola. He was also very close to Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. One day, Balewa drew Olunloyo aside and told him his story of helplessness: “Doctor Olunloyo, this country is a country of thieves. As I sit here, my appointees managing the central bank are stealing money. If I move my seat from here to the CBN, right under my nose and supervision there, they will still steal money. Look, I just caught a thief, but they said I can’t prosecute him because of where he comes from – unless I catch at least one thief each from the other regions.”

If Vulture claims that it is not today that the rains started beating him, you think he is lying. Please, believe Vulture.

The two cases above occurred in the early 1960s – that was some sixty-something years ago. And it wasn’t only the political class that was implicated. Even the wretched of the earth believe in fish eating fish to get fat.

In 1952/1953, seven years before independence, there was a commission of inquiry into the administration of Lagos Town Council. The commission found that “in hospitals, nurses require a fee from every in-patient before the prescribed medicine is given, and even the ward servants must have their ‘dash’ before bringing the bed-pan; it is known to be rife in the Police Motor Traffic Unit, which has unrivalled opportunities on account of the common practice of overloading vehicles; pay clerks make a deduction from the wages of daily paid staff; produce examiners exact a fee from the produce buyer for every bag that is graded and sealed; domestic servants pay a proportion of their wages to the senior of them, besides often having paid a lump sum to buy the job.

” Can you see the class of those implicated in those findings? Ordinary workers. Public and private sector workers still do it; politicians do it; they buy and sell positions.

Indeed, our political situation has always been like eighteenth century England when “it was taken for granted that the purpose for going into parliament or holding any public office was to make or repair a man’s personal fortune” (R. M. Jackson, 1958, page 345).

Above, you read about people buying public and private jobs in 1952/1953 Lagos. You would think 60 years of independence should be long enough for a people’s redemption to occur. But jobs are still being purchased in Nigeria of 2024.

If anything has changed in our story over the last six decades, it is that the acorn of misdeeds of the past has grown to become an oak. The oak is that behemoth no one wraps their arms around to climb.

The oak is igi osè in my part of the world. If you are Yoruba, you should be familiar with this incantation: Wón d’òyì k’ápá, apá ò k’ápá; wón d’òyì k’ósè apá ò k’ósè…). That is what corruption has become. The law is helpless before the powerful because no sane person looks into a deep well and jumps into it.

It is our major gain in sixty years of flag independence. Our country is fully vaccinated against all virtues. Follow the variegated stories around Emefiele. Instead of retail stealing in the central bank, the CBN itself has been stolen – what we have there is ‘kòròfo ìsáná’ – a matchbox without matchsticks. Follow other recent scandals in Abuja. Instead of government ministers being content with stealing their ministries’ money “to build two houses simultaneously,” they are stealing the ministries.

Yet, nothing happens to the plunderers because they are like human eyes – they come with divine immunity from intrusive fingers – Àánú ojú kìí jé kí wón t’owó b’ojú. They are also like rattle snakes –Ìbèrù ejò kìí jé kí wón te ejò mó’lè. Another incantation!

You saw a document that surfaced some days ago signed by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu. In that memo, Edu directed the Accountant General of the Federation to transfer the sum of N585,198,500.00 into a private account belonging to one Oniyelu Bridget. There was a national uproar.

If you were part of the outrage, it means you no get job. Did you not see that the minister did not disown the document? With her full chest, she owned it and declared what she did as legal. She also did not forget to blame the leakage and the outrage on her enemies.

She called them desperate persons implicated in an earlier scandal of N44.8bn in the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA).

She said they wanted to “stain her integrity because she alerted the government on the ongoing N44.8 Billion fraud in NSIPA…” She was referring to the scandal that has led to the suspension of the National Coordinator and chief executive of the NSIPA, Mrs Halima Shehu, by President Bola Tinubu.

There are reports that Halima moved that amount (N44.8 Billion) into some unusual accounts. We do not have the details. And, we have not heard her own defence direct from her mouth. But her own people plead her innocence; they are accusing her enemies of being behind her ordeal.

Then the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Dr Oluwatoyin Madein, weighed in on Saturday. She said although her office received the said request from Edu, it ignored it. She said she did not make the payment as instructed because the procedure was wrong.

The engine of Nigeria’s bureaucracy has broken down. The Yoruba would say if the short one is not wise, what about the tall one? Were civil servants in Edu’s ministry who presumably drafted the memo for her to sign not aware of the existence of the laws guiding the processing, movement and use of public fund?

? There is Nigeria’s Financial Regulations 2009. Its Chapter Seven, Section 713 states that “personal money shall in no circumstances be paid into a government bank account, nor shall any public money be paid into a private account.” If the civil servants didn’t know the law, you would think the person signing that half-a-billion naira memo would pause and check. Was there not a retreat shortly after the ministers were appointed? What were they taught at those opulent sessions?

Things are happening. We only know what our husbands allow us to know or what ‘accidentally’ leaks like the N44.8 billion suspension and the N585 million memo. The present Federal Government with its three branches is particularly audacious in doing the unthinkable. The unthinkable is what you calmly do when you know you’ve conquered the world.

We can dismiss all these and say they do not matter, that after all, no money is lost (yet). But that deadly, slithering being called snake has a way of climbing its way to the top of the raffia palm. Ninety-two-year-old British political scientist, Colin Leys, in 1965 wrote on the consequences of corruption, impunity and sleaze on the future of Africa.

Writing in his ‘What is the Problem about Corruption?’ Leys argued that “If the top political elite of a country consumes its time and energy in trying to get rich by corrupt means, it is not likely that the (country’s) development plans will be fulfilled.” His prediction reeked of doom. About that time, Ronald Wraith and Edgar Simpkins published their book, ‘Corruption in Developing Countries’ (1963). They looked into practices in African countries, including Nigeria. They said they saw a “jungle of nepotism and temptation… a dangerous and tragic situation.” They described the landscape as “the scarlet thread of bribery and corruption.” They witnessed malfeasance flourishing “as luxuriantly as the bush and weeds which it so much resembles.” They saw the toxins of corruption “taking the goodness from the soil and suffocating the growth of plants which have been carefully and expensively bred and tended.” I suggest you read that metaphor of gloom again. If nothing fruitful grows today, it is because the earth was scorched yesterday.

The vaccine that will cure our political elite of greed has not been made. Lanrewaju Adepoju, a Yoruba performing poet who died recently, looked at a situation like this in the 1980s and declared that nothing overwhelmed a babaláwo more than being confronted with a bad case that permitted no remedial ritual. The Nigerian situation is pretty much like a terminal illness – or worse, like a carcass being mobbed by a pack of wolves and a wake of vultures. Everyone tears at it, exacting their share. And the predators are very bold and daring. Socialists and Marxists will blame this tragedy on the greed of capitalism and its lack of shame. English trade unionist, Thomas Dunning (1799-1873), quoted by Karl Marx in his three-volume work ‘Capital’ said “With adequate profit, capital is very bold. A certain 10 percent will ensure its employment anywhere; 20 percent certain will produce eagerness; 50 percent, positive audacity; 100 percent will make it ready to trample on all human laws; 300 percent, and there is not a crime at which it will scruple, nor a risk it will not run, even to the chance of its owner being hanged. If turbulence and strife will bring a profit, it will freely encourage both…” Just sit back and, like Akintola, take a long look at the accused and the accusers in the current scandal in Abuja. Look at the entire business architecture of government. Corruption is the only business that yields returns here. In 60 years plus, the Nigerian state has established itself as a crime scene. We all know that things can’t continue like this without the world coming to an end. But the questions are: Where is the face of the saviour? And who really is clean? (Flowerbudnews)