LET THE LEADERS OF TOMORROW BEWARE

I cannot exactly describe what my motivation was while I sat down to write this piece. Maybe it is anger or frustration or pity or...what else can it even be? All I can say is that my decision to write this warning to the young generation in Nigeria came from the 9pm news of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).
In the Nigerian context, who should be referred to as the leaders of tomorrow? If I am still living in a world of humans, I think it should be that section of the Nigerian population below the age of 45 years (maybe there is no age limit anyway, at least in Nigeria). I was watching the NTA network news last night and I saw Alhaji Tukur on the news, the National Chairman of the largest political party himself. It is clear from his physical appearance that he was born in those days when birth was being recorded on trees (those old men with no verifiable birthday!). He is older than my father, around the same age with my uncle who is about 15 years older than my father and yet, he is at the helm of affairs of the largest political party in Africa.
Alhaji made me think of elders his age that should have retired to the comforts of their sweet mansions but are still struggling to take the mantle of leadership in Nigeria. I remember the gap-toothed Major from Katsina State. That fair-skinned old man at more than six dozen years of existence is still battling seriously to become the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (I think these people are protégés of Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo...chop there, die there). How do you explain the fact that a man close to 80 years of age who had been President of this nation once is still struggling to get back to the corridor of power? Even in the Nigerian Civil Service, 60 years is the retirement age...or is it that ‘age of death’ is the retirement age for power-hungry people?
I also remember ‘baba omo keekeeke’, the ever-laughing Ila Orangun old man who is at the helm of affairs of the strongest opposition party in Nigeria (even though as a figurehead....we all know who calls the shots in that party). One would think at his age too, something very close to the age of my grandfather, he would have retired home to his people and serve in an advisory role to the younger generation of leaders but our old man is still loitering around in the corridor of power.
If Tukur is the PDP head, Akande is of ACN, Buhari is hustling for power, Wole Soyinka is still trying to stay in the limelight, Obasanjo is still a very prominent leader of a party, lecturers are hoping for a retirement age of 70 years, Civil Servants are using ridiculously reduced ages in service, the US Senate is filled with old men all very close to ‘God be with you till we meet again’, Pastors retire from one ministry only to go and start another ministry, Obas are hoping to reign on the throne for dozens of years and even beggars refuse to retire home at old age, when exactly will the leadership of the young ones commence? Will tomorrow ever come? Will a chance really be created for the young generation to thrive or would we have to wait till they all go to their creator?
The generation of young people in the world today needs to watch out, lest we like Esau, sell our birthright to these exhausted old men. They came, they have seen and some of them even conquered...what else do they want? As my people would say, ‘won fe je aye omo won mo aye’ meaning they want to use up all the treasures their children should use.
These old men still use us as thugs, bodyguards, under-paid staff etc in a bid to rubbish our future and use up what tomorrow have in stock for us. Let the leaders of tomorrow beware, in the world of today, it is destiny for sale.
Leaders of tomorrow , BEWARE!

THE BEGINING OF THE END

We have journeyed through the escapades of Ogbeni and the Bayelsa-born man without shoes. However, the most important task ahead of us is not our ability to perceive issues of National interest neither is it our manner of presenting what we feel about the happenings in our polity. The most important task we have to surmount is what impression(s) do we create in the minds of the inestimable population of people who are at the receiving end of our expressions. We cannot afford to be contradictory or double-mouthed, for to do so will be total betrayal of the belief they have in our clear expression of the truth, the way we feel it. We also cannot afford to be cowardly, for to do so will be a flagrant disobedience to the true feelings which forms the basis of our expressions. What option do we have other than to stay loyal to our pledge of saying the truth as we feel, see and can prove it, without minding whose horse is gored!
I was taken aback by the comments of the Baba Omo Keekeekee (wonder if you know him) over the weekend. He was of the opinion that “In Nigeria at the moment, only ACN Governors are working, the rest are sleeping”. What is this? A lie from the mouth of an elder statesman? It is not a lie dear readers, it is a political statement, one that has become characteristic of almost all politicians in our country. When it is not their party, it must be bad governance. How can we show this grandfather that there is no iota of fact in his statement? Of course we can only give him examples.
Godswill Akpabio is of the PDP and he is the brain behind the uncommon transformation in Akwa Ibom State (baba please visit that state to confirm). Muazu Babangida Aliyu is of the PDP and he is the one engineering the building of a new and modern Niger State. Raji Fashola is of the ACN and he is the man behind the unprecedented infrastructural development in Lagos State. Adams Oshiomole is of the ACN and he has been the mastermind of the giant strides in Edo State. Owelle Rochas Okorocha is of APGA and he is doing very wonderfully for the people of Imo State. Olusegun Mimiko is of LP and he has magnificently turned around the fortunes of Ondo people which became evident in his people’s emphatic rejection of Aketi and acceptance of Iroko in the 2012 elections in the state. I know baba is widely travelled so I am sure he is not ignorant of the giant strides of these governors as mentioned, he is just being sarcastic.
In our own Nigeria of today, performance in governance is not measured by party manifesto, because when you look at all these parties, you see a group of people engaging in politics for the enrichment of their pockets (which one of them got into government and did not become richer?). Performance is a factor of the person, his resolve to be an achiever, his determination to be remembered for good governance. The question is why then do our politicians like to utter slanderous statements just to score cheap points? It is because they are mostly liars, cheats and thieves. This is the very foundation of corruption in Nigeria, the refusal of our leaders to be truthful even in the smallest of senses. This is the cause of our current predicament as a nation.
For every cause however, there is an effect. It is one reason why I hold Isaac Newton as one scientist that possessed celestial understanding. He postulated that, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”. That is the principle of cause and effect. The effect of this cause is what I prefer to call ‘The Beginning of an End’. The Bible says ‘thou shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free’. We are at the threshold of truth, the point where the Nigerian populace gets wiser beyond every lie and every deception. We are at the point where the end of dubious elders begins to unravel. They will not be killed in a revolution, nothing like those in North Africa or Cote D’Ivoire (at least I hope for their sake), but they will be disgraced, they will fall from their high horses of corruption, their lies will be exposed and Nigeria will finally be free.
I remember a song I was taught sometimes ago, it goes: ‘All around the nations, all around the world; youths are longing to be free; no longer in the shadows, forced to stay behind; but side-by-side in true development.....Oh sing a song for youths, everywhere; let it ring around the world and never let it cease; oh sing a song for youths, everywhere; equality, development and peace!’ I see a new world order, starting from Nigeria, an order in which every lying tongue in the PDP, the ACN, the CPC, the LP, the APGA, the APC will be cut off and a stronger nation will be built. It is the beginning of an end, for when their lies get to the brim, they shall be disgraced for it. Their confidence in lying is the sign, their disregard for God is the symptom, of their unstoppable fall. Watch the scenario unfold!
See you again soon!

OGBENI - THE SCENARIO JUST UNFOLDING

Let me start this ‘gist’ on an introductive note. For most of you who do not know the man called ‘Ogbeni’, I will quickly introduce him to you. Ogbeni is the nickname (or rather title) of Mr. (not sure of his Engineer status) Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, the Governor of the State of Osun (some kind of nickname for Osun State).
I should also quickly tell you about the State of Osun. The State of Osun was carved out of Osun State on the 26th November, 2010 by the Justice Clara Ogunbiyi led panel of Appeal Court Judges. The State of Osun consists of twenty out of the thirty states of the original Osun State. You wonder how this is possible, the judiciary arm of government creating a state? Little wonders some of our esteemed judges in Nigeria led by the embattled Justice Isa Ayo Salami are now magicians. The creation of the State of Osun was made possible when the Appeal panel declared Ogbeni (I believe you know him now) the winner of the April 27, 2007 election by nullifying the elections held in ten local governments of Osun State. I guess you understand how the new state is now? Ogbeni is the governor of twenty out of the thirty local governments of Osun State and he is not arguing this fact since he named his governed entity, State of Osun.
You know his profile now, don’t you? Ok, for clarification, Ogbeni is the governor of the State of Osun, a 20-local government colony carved out of the 30-local government Osun State. He came into office through a major rot in the judicial system that allowed for never-heard-of kind of judgements. His profile cleared, we can proceed now.
There are things you should know about Ogbeni. It is not a mere nickname; ‘Ogbeni’ is a scenario, a scenario just unfolding before our own eyes. Ogbeni is like a piece of drama, playing out before our eyes, the start holding out diverse confusing meanings and the end showing signs of tragedy. Ask me, how do I know the likelihoods of the end of this scenario?
First, the scenario evolved upon a foundation of lies, corruption, pretence and rude disrespect for the vox populi. It is well known from the account of the Bible that, any house built on sand will be washed away by flood (tragedy). Second, the National Chairman of his party is Baba Omo keekeeke, Chief Adebisi Akande. This man is widely known for the unreasonable disengagement of thousands of workers in Osun State in the year 2001 while he was still the Governor of Osun State. What good can he mean this time as Ogbeni’s National Chairman? Need more signs? Wait for part two.
Ogbeni is almost completing his first tenure as governor and attempting another tenure in which he may be allowed this time to govern the real Osun State and not a figment of judicial imaginations. His attempts at attracting support is making him go back on some of his decisions, halting the attempted merger of schools, slowing down of tax enforcements etc, but I assure Osun people, this scenario is just unfolding and as soon as we make the necessary mistakes, we will be in the eye of a very mighty storm, none that can be compared with the Akande days.
Voters beware.....to be continued!

GEJ - The autocracy just arising

GEJ – THE AUTOCRACY JUST ARISING
When in 2011 the Otuoke man of Bayelsa State was elected as the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I had two vivid hopes. I believed he was going to be the breath of fresh air, I hoped he would be the vehicle of transformation in the clearly misdirected marriage of inconvenience, Nigeria.
To brighten my hopes, he began talking intensively about transforming the Power Sector, eradicating corruption, re-building the transportation sector; enhance transparency and due process in the oil and gas sector and a host of other juicy packages which he said he brought. I believed I was not overtly hopeful because these intentions sounded like a real force of dedication and a positive drive towards a better Nigeria.
I must categorically state that, within the last few years of his leadership, the electricity situation has been greatly turned around. At least for the first time in years, my town could boast of a week-long not-too-interrupted power supply and we could sleep peacefully at night with the fan working without having to wake up in the middle of the night due to excessive heat. I truly loved GEJ for his giant strides in ensuring stable electricity. Claps!!
His efforts in the transportation sector also caught my attention and made me think this village former poor boy of Otuoke was going to be the reference point in the re-building of the broken walls of development in our dear nation Nigeria. After a long period of being moribund, the Nigerian Railway Corporation eventually roared back to life and even though still using the usually noisy and slow-as-snail trains, we could at least boast of having something travelling the rail lines. Thanks GEJ!
However, I began having conflicting feelings about this Doctor of Zoology during the Fuel Subsidy removal saga of January 2012. Personally, I was in support of the total removal of fuel subsidy, but I found problems with the approach employed by our dear husband of Patience. He came around with the bombshell as a New Year gift and despite public outcry for dialogue between stakeholders to fashion out modalities to execute such economy-changing programme, the dark-skinned Ijaw man decided to go ahead without worry. At the time, he occurred to me as an incarnation of Pa. Mobutu Seseseko! How can a democratically elected President not bother about the complaints of the people?
I was almost forgetting the fuel subsidy saga when he began having personality issues with Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa State. Before the tussle could drag on for long, whatever Mr. Sylva had left of his personality had been wrecked by the sheer determination of our ‘oga at the top’. Just early this year, Mr. Sylva landed in EFCC net and I guess for him, unless some miracle happens, it is the beginning of the end. Why GEJ, why? Where are the freedom of speech and freedom of association rights in your copy of the Nigerian constitution?
Lest I forget, Olagunsoye Oyinlola also fell under the hammer. It is an open secret that the Okuku Prince has always been a pro-IBB person, call it military loyalty or whatever, it is your choice. He was clearly not disposed to the GEJ agenda before 2011 as there was no campaign office for GEJ in Osun and there was simply no structure put in place to assist the then acting President. Co-incidence or otherwise, Oyinlola was chased out of office by a controversial court judgement and his tale of woes began. As if that was not enough, he was again bundled out of the seat of the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by another controversial court judgement. Is it that whoever is not with Goodluck must be disgraced?
I loved this Otuoke man from the start, he was brimming with promise when he came in, but like Morgana of the fictitious film Merlin, inside his seemingly good heart, the darkness of tyranny is already growing. He started like the one who was going to be the fair king, but in his supposed fairness, an ugly face of a dictator is rearing its head.
Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi is the latest casualty in the GEJ autocracy agenda. What offence exactly can we say this Rivers man has committed to merit the series of witch-hunting moves targeted at him by the camp of Mr. GEJ? Do we talk of the grounding of his state’s plane, or the attack on his personality through the State Executives of the PDP in Rivers State, or the attack on him in the Nigerian Governors’ Forum? Even if it were to be the reckless talkative like the Headmaster in the 37th State of the Federation (the State of Osun) should he have merited such attacks?  
As if all these were not enough, what do we call his suspension from the Peoples Democratic Party on the grounds that he stubbornly dissolved the Local Executive Committee of the PDP in Obio Akpor Local Government of Rivers State when an action of that manner would have merely been termed ‘internal crisis’ in another state? Or, do we assume that he was suspended because he had a ‘stubborn’ star which had more ‘goodluck’ than that of GEJ that made him win the NGF election against all presidential odds?
Why should a man be so attacked because he had differences with the sitting President of a nation? Where is the freedom of speech in our constitution? Where is our freedom of association? Where are legality, sanity and fairness in the actions of Mr. GEJ and his ‘kitchen cabinet’? What kind of autocratic leader is GEJ quickly becoming? What kind of stubborn drummer is he that we all must dance to his tune?
Within this Otuoke born Ijaw Doctor of Zoology and husband of Patience is the spirit of a tyrant fast growing, in his heart a thick mass of rock is building, in his eyes a fiery fire of a ‘Sango-ish’ magnitude and his government is quickly changing the face of democracy to AUTOCRACY! Or, is he trying to bear serious likeness to the forcefully ousted Ivoirian well-loved democrat turned very-hated autocrat, Gbagbo? Whatever he is, GEJ should watch the autocracy growing in his style and deliver unto us the true fresh breath that he promised.
My pen rests!

My Integrity Issues with Ogbeni - Part 1

So many times when I write about the government of Ogbeni Aregbe, a whole lot of people tend to misinterpret my criticism as being that borne out of my political sympathy for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that was sent packing on the 26th November 2010. However, I may be in agreement with the PDP on certain policies of theirs, yet I disagree with them on other major issues.
Speaking in clear terms, my feelings against Ogbeni Aregbe is not borne out of political affiliations of mine, but out of the complications surrounding his integrity. I mean, his integrity is very questionable. Do not rush, I will throw more light.

EDUCATION
When Ogbeni came in, he made several public outcries concerning the deplorable state that he met the education sector in Osun State (I refuse to call my state the State of Osun), and castigated his predecessor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola over non-performance in this vital sector. He promised, as most politicians will do, that before the end of their first tenure in office, his government would have developed the education sector to enviable points.
However, 3 years down the line, what do we have? Let us do a checklist.
He began a policy whereby all students and pupils in Osun State are to wear the same uniform. My issue with this move is, where do we put student identification in this policy? How exactly do we curb truancy when a student of Ogiyan High School far from my house can easily mingle with students of ADS High School without being singled out? I would have loved for this policy to have been in place since my days in Secondary School, it would have afforded me the opportunity to sneak out of school in broad daylight without the fear of being caught!
He began the building of Mega Schools in a bid to improve infrastructural facilities in the education sector. Three years down the line, all these buildings are still works in progress with most of them being between 40-50% completion stages. This means so far, Ogbeni has had no contribution to the improvement in infrastructure of the education sector of Osun State, rather, his contributions are still struggling in the pipeline while our students and pupils still utilize the ‘Oyin Ni O’ buildings of the Oyinlola administration which Ogbeni claimed were death traps. One other thing that is called into question is, how can an Engineer (as he refers to himself) fail to complete one-storey buildings in 3 years? Or, is he a ‘kangaroo’ Engineer?
He has made so much noise about the ‘opon imo’ thing saving some phantom billions. My question against his integrity in this case is, how durable will those tablets be? If they are a cheaper alternative to paper textbooks, are they durability alternatives too? I believe textbooks can last for as long as 25 years and even more if properly handled, can those tablets last 5 years at all? Is this not some kind of policy that will result in wastage eventually? This is a serious question of integrity.
There has been so much noise about the school feeding programme. He makes this much noise that will make one wonder if those pupils are being served with gold plates or if this is an entirely new policy. Truth be said, this programme was started by Oyinlola, and Ogbeni’s effort is just a continuation of something commenced by Lagun. How peculiar are his efforts?
Let us look in other directions too.

PUBLIC HEALTH
On a visit to the State Hospital, Asubiaro I discovered that every structure standing in the premises of that hospital was built by the Oyinlola administration same with most of the hospitals in the state. This means, Ogbeni has had no meaningful contribution to the improvement of health care delivery in the state. What will be the merit of his administration in this regard?
The Mosquito net intervention of the Federal Government was almost hijacked by Ogbeni placing banners around the centres where the nets were distributed signalling ‘State of Osun Distribution of Mosquito Nets’. This move puts his integrity in serious question. Why must he attempt to usurp the efforts of the Federal Government?

Keep Reading for more!!!