Ending AIDS By 2030

By Michel Sidibé and Isaac Adewole  

The AIDS epidemic has defined the global health agenda for an entire generation. The first AIDS-related deaths were diagnosed 35 years ago and HIV rapidly became a global crisis. The epidemic threatened all countries and had the power to destabilise the most vulnerable. By 2000, AIDS had wiped out decades of development gains.

Today, many nations have taken great steps in getting ahead of the virus. Nigeria, for example, has reduced the number of new HIV infections from 240, 000 in year 2010 to 190,000 in 2015. Estimated AIDS related deaths in the country declined from 160,000 in 2010 to 148,000 in 2015 while new infections among children declined by 20% between 2010 and 2015. HIV prevalence among pregnant women also has declined by 48.3% from 2001 to 2014.

Life expectancy has risen in many of the most severely affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa as access to antiretroviral medicines has expanded and testing and prevention services have been scaled up. Worldwide, there are now more than 17 million people living with HIV accessing antiretroviral medicines.

  But as world leaders grapple with a growing number of global concerns and threats, including terrorism, massive displacement, climate change and an uncertain economic outlook – it would be a misstep to let up on the response to AIDS. Here are three reasons why AIDS deserves continued attention:

1.    To restore dignity, health and hope to the people left behind in the AIDS response;
2.    To build robust and resilient societies ready to face future health crises ; and
3.    To serve as a beacon for what can be achieved through international solidarity and political will
Our generation has been presented with an opportunity that must not be thrown away. We have the technology, medicines and tools to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, avoiding more than 17 million new HIV infections and saving almost 11 million lives.

Dora Akunyili – An Exceptional Leader Worth Remembering

By The Association for Credible Leadership in Nigeria (ACLN)

The saying: “Great leaders don’t set out to be a leader; they only set out to make a difference”, is apt in describing only few Nigerians likelate Dora Nkem Akuyili (OFR), former Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

*Dora Akunyili

It is another June 7th marking the second year of your glorious departure from planet earth, thus the Association of Credible Leadership in Nigeria (ACLN) acknowledges her struggles and numerous achievements targeted at repositioning Nigeria. Born in Makurdi, Benue State, Akuyili started her educational career with a distinction in her First School Leaving Certificate at St. Patrick’s Primary School, Isuofia, Anambra State in 1966, and the West African School Certificate (WASC) with Grade I Distinction in 1973 from Queen of the Rosary Secondary School, Nsukka, Nigeria.

All through her career from school days up till the professional level, there have been traces of exceptional leadership characters, many of which were eventually seen by a larger population of Nigerians when she became the DG of NAFDAC in April 2001. For Dora Akuyili, everything she found herself doing was more than the ROLE, but about the GOAL to achieve.

She was Nigeria’s Honourable Minister of Information and Communications until December 16, 2010, when she resigned to further actualise her ambition of becoming the Senator representing Anambra Central in the National Assembly. She is an internationally renowned Pharmacist, Pharmacologist, Erudite Scholar, Seasoned Administrator, and a visionary leader. She has gained international recognition and won hundreds of awards for her work in pharmacology, public health and human rights.

That being said, one would have thought her brilliance and impressive leadership lifestyle would flicker with the pressure from workplace. Instead, Akunyili prepared herself for the administrative position at NAFDAC by her four years stretch as Zonal Secretary of Petroleum Special Trust Fund (PTF), coordinating all projects in the five south-eastern states of Nigeria (Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States). Recall that while serving at PTF under President Muhammadu Buhari, she took ill and was given a scary diagnosis in a medical facility in Nigeria which necessitated her going to the United Kingdom for treatment.

For Peace In South-East, South-South

By Wale Sokunbi

Nigeria has, for some weeks now, been reeling under protests by Niger Delta militants and pro-Biafra groups demanding self-determination and a number of other things from the Federal Government. Hardly any day has passed in recent weeks without gory reports on the bombings of oil pipelines, destruction of other critical oil facilities and killings of protesters, that are capable of distracting the government from the very serious challenges confronting the nation.

(*pix: vanguard)

With the incessant protests and destruction of oil facilities, the impression that is being created is that some of our compatriots are tired of the continuing existence of Nigeria as one country and would prefer to opt out of the Nigerian arrangement. The response of the security agencies to this unfortunate scenario is only succeeding in further hardening the agitators. Scores of protesters were reportedly killed by soldiers in Onitsha, Anambra State, during the celebration of the 49th anniversary of the declaration of the Republic of Biafra by the late Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, on May 30, while the military also laid siege to the Gbaramatu hometown of one of the leading Niger Delta militants. The government’s response to this situation has not stopped the Niger Delta militants from continuing with their bombing campaigns and threatening the Federal Government and the entire country.

Whatever the problem is, one thing that is clear is that the best way for the militants to achieve their objectives is not by destroying whatever is left of the country. They will do much better to channel their grievances against the state through their recognised leaders and National Assembly members to the appropriate quarters so that they can be addressed and resolved.  The problems that are currently blowing against the soul of Nigeria are such that can topple the nation’s ship of state, if not immediately and properly addressed.  As things stand, the nation’s economy is walking a tightrope on account of the fall in the price of crude oil in the international market.

The delay in the passage of the 2016 Budget has thrown the economy into a bind. Power supply is getting more epileptic, while inflation has gone through the roof. The pump price of petrol has almost doubled.

Scarcity Of Truth, Fatal In Governance

By Sly Edaghese  

It is fatal in governance when the citizens begin to perceive or see their President as lying through his teeth. The earlier President Muhammadu Buhari knows this the better for him. It is increasingly becoming the hallmark of the President and his administration to say one thing today and the next day you hear them reversing it or even denying it. This is referred to as a flip-flop. Flip flop is very harmful in politics, especially when it becomes pervasive, as we are seeing it happening in this administration. It started with the padding of the budget the President passed on to the National Assembly for debate.

*President Buhari and Lai Mohammed 

The document was inflated and stuffed with all sorts of unimaginable provisions by some unknown elements. As the President was saying that the budget proposal he sent to the National Assembly had been tampered with or padded with sand, so to say, the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, who seems unable to differentiate his propaganda work as APC National Publicity Secretary from his present portfolio as Nigeria’s Minister of Information, was saying another thing, that the budget remained as it’s submitted; that no one padded it. Later the budget was declared missing from the National Assembly. Who took away the budget, no one knew. Again, before you knew it, we heard the budget was not missing!

Then most recently, Buhari set a date, May 29, the Democracy Day, that he would be publishing the names of those who had looted the nation dry along with the amount of what each of them looted and what have so far been recovered from them. The day came and nothing of such or near to that was heard from the President in his national broadcast! Rather, as it were, the president developed cold feet and began to speak to the nation in “tongues”. Not a single name of looter was disclosed nor the amount of what was looted or recovered. It was only just two or three days ago the government published some amounts it claimed to have recovered from the looters, without stating the names of such looters. Yet another display of a master class in lying was when the President gave a notice the other day, first, that he was coming to visit Lagos State. Lagos made elaborate preparations to receive Mr. President.

At the eleventh hour, a change was made, the President would be represented by his deputy, because of his “tight schedule.” An online social media disclosed that the President not coming personally to visit Lagos was due to his ill-health: an ear tumour or so.  The presidency rose stoutly, as if the President was a superhuman who could not be touched by infirmity, to fault the claim of the online social media. To prove that the president was sound and healthy, they began to show him on TV the next day or so welcoming a visiting governor to his office. Next was the President’s planned visit to Port Harcourt.

Dora Nkem Akunyili: A Tribute

By Francis Agbo

Exactly two years ago, precisely on June 7th 2014, a day after my birthday, in far- away India, the cold hands of cancer snatched my second mother, former NAFDAC DG and Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Nkem Akunyili, OFR.  She was 59. For me, she was a mother of the motherless, activist in government, a courageous turn-around expert, uncommon anti -fake drug czar, anti-corruption crusader, a disciplinarian, a compassionate public servant and a devout Christian of catholic faith!

*Dora Akunyili

Going by what I know about her medical history, particularly her proactive regular medical check- ups abroad, it was difficult for me to accept her passing.  Even after I had joined her husband, siblings, and her former governor, Mr. Peter Obi, to deposit her remains at the National Hospital mortuary, Abuja, it was difficult to grapple with the irredeemable reality of her death. I continued to wallow in this state of disbelief even after she was laid to rest on August 28, 2014 in her Agulu country home, (Anambra State). 

I waited in vain for a miracle.  I had thought that one day, I would see her. Two years down the line, when her early morning calls ceased coming, I accepted the reality of her death. Indeed, I now know I can only see Dora in the hereafter because there is life after death! I joined Dora on the 6th of January 2009 as one of her media aides. Before I got to her office on the eight floor of Radio House, Garki, Abuja, she was already on her table treating files and dishing out instructions to staff of the Federal Ministry of Information and Communications.

I had thought that she would be struggling to fully settle down to work having been sworn in as minister in December 2008. But I saw a confident and passionate woman who took charge of her responsibility as if she had held the portfolio for years!  She had commissioned a media guru and a well-respected editor to hunt for a Special Assistant that would manage her image. Though I had been interviewed and selected for the job by the consultant and my CV sent to her, Dora still went ahead to interview me.

She then congratulated me after our interaction and allotted an office to me that same day. I was lodged in Chida International hotel, Utako until I was given a place in Wuse 2 both in Abuja. One thing that struck me on the 6th of January was that apart from me, many journalists were recommended by her kinsmen and friends in the media industry to work with her even for free. And those who couldn’t pass the Dora test left unhappy because many professionals especially journalists wanted to manage Prof. Akunyili to among other things, tap from her media savvy and fountain of knowledge.

She was very close to her aides and staff of the ministry; she even called us by our first names. She called me Francis my son. In spite of her busy schedules, she kept tab with our birthdays and congratulated us on our birthdays, in some cases, bought gifts for us. It was also on record that as minister, she personally wrote letters to senior journalists and correspondents covering the ministry on their birthdays. The letters were also followed by birthday gifts. This superb public relations sense, passion for Nigeria, uncommon courage, brilliance, industry, syllogism and patriotism endeared her to Nigerians and made her the reporters delight any day.

Power Generation As The Investors’ Nightmare

By Adeyinka Giwa

The four-unit Gas powered Electricity generating Egbin Power Plant in June 2012 was in a state of disrepair and neglect, and lacking in overhaul maintenance for decades. The plant managed to epileptically produce a paltry 400 Megawatts of its installed capacity of 1,320 Megawatts, at its best performance. Fast forward to May 2016. The units in the new vibrant Egbin Power Plant are overhauled and upgraded producing, when gas is sufficiently available, at its full production capacity of 1,320 Megawatts. The workers appear ready to drive this project to the next level: The investor’s plan to double the plant’s production in the first five years of taking over.

Since November 2013 when Sahara Power, a subsidiary of Sahara Group bought 70 per cent stake in Egbin Thermal power plant, the vast complex has come back to life and the plant, after a comprehensive overhaul which cost the new investors some $388 million, has resumed production, at full capacity barring no disruption to gas supply.

With the 1, 320 MW of electricity, Egbin currently produces one quarter of Nigeria’s total power capacity. Today, new facilities and structures have been put in place by Sahara Power, in collaboration with their technical partners, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). Egbin now boasts of skilled manpower, world class professionals and in general, a well-motivated workforce. That is why Kola Adesina, chairman, Egbin Power Plc. can beat his chest and assert that “since we acquired the assets, our passion has been to embark on constant upgrades in technology and investment in human capital to ensure we light up Nigeria.”

But beneath the giant strides so far achieved by the Egbin Power Station, lies a huge challenge. The power station currently suffers shortage of natural gas. The situation is worsened by renewed militancy in the creeks of the Niger Delta region, where oil and gas pipelines are being blown up on regular basis. This is a more compelling reason why the Federal Government must get its acts right in ensuring that peace returns to the region.

The company is at present grappling with economic woes occasioned by difficulties in accessing foreign exchange. At the time of the acquisition of the assets by the new investors, the exchange rate was N198 to the dollar. Having raised capital from banks, the investors are now faced with the harsh reality of paying back in time of economic down turn. Indeed, as a result of the harsh economic situation, liquidity problem has also set in, making it increasingly difficult for the company to finance its capital intensive operations.

Nigeria’s Fantastic Corruption

By Francis Ejiroghene Waive

Except that it was a public slap on our face, the British Prime Minister’s description of corruption in Nigeria as fantastic is true.  Many blame President Buhari for referring to our country as corrupt on the international scene and so hold him responsible for the label. We forget that Transparency International has held this position for years. Perhaps, our grouping with a failed or failing State like Afghanistan is what shocks our sensibilities this time. To some Nigerians, however, this could be the wakeup call to kill corruption in our country before it kills all of us.

While social media is filled with Nigerians claiming not to be corrupt I doubt if there is any Nigerian who has not been a victim of the scourge of corruption. I agree that not all of us are perpetrators of this ugly phenomenon but the malaise is so widespread that one brush seems to fit all. There is no sector of our economy that is not affected. As a young person starts life, you encounter it when you want to get into school and while in school. When you rent your first house and need electricity and other utilities, it stares you in the face. When you begin looking for a job or you start a business, you will be overwhelmed by it. For a foreigner, you first meet it at our borders or entry points into the country. The harassment and extortion of staff of the several agencies will cow you. Even our religious institutions and leaders are not immune from this disease.

All our public institutions are infected by it. What document do you want to process in our courts or ministries, government agencies or departments that you won’t pay a bribe for? What business do you want to transact that won’t involve kick-backs and kick-fronts?  Shamelessly, even the private sector is now an integral part of corruption. Private companies are wrecked by mangers and other officials. Is it a bank loan you are processing or a dealership in a product manufactured by a local company? There is no need to discuss the image of our police force battered by corruption. Most of our parastatals are simply run aground with corruption. Nigeria Airways, Railways, NITEL, NEPA and an unending list of many others. Even the privatization option was compromised as our leaders used government money to appropriate our national assets to themselves and their cronies. Top civil servants ensure ghost workers exist and they pad budgets and thereafter award contracts for capital projects to themselves and political office holders.

Nigeria, As Presently Operated, Is Not Sustainable

By Gani Adams  

I would like to salute the organisers of this event for counting me worthy to deliver this lecture on an issue that threatens the very basis of our unity as we speak. There are many sides to the farmers/herdsmen’s crisis but let us just consider two, namely the political and the economic.

*Gani Adams

The political side

Now, Nigeria, for many of its over 250 ethnic groups, is obviously not a nation in the sense that we regard France, United Kingdom or South Africa as a nation. That is why, as recently pointed out by Mr. Dan Nwayanwu, former chairman of the Labour Party, during a programme organised by the Ondo State Government in Akure: given an option, many of the ethnic groups in Nigeria would prefer to opt out of Nigeria.

Already, groups such as the Indigenous People of Biafra and the Niger Delta Avengers, among others, have more or less shattered whatever illusions we may retain regarding the Nigeria that we are living in. While Nigeria would obviously be better off remaining a nation, it is also true that a surgical operation is required to take out the cancer of disintegration currently ravaging the country on every side. And this is quite simply because Nigeria, as it is presently operated, is not sustainable.

Nigeria is supposed to be a federal republic but it operates a unitary constitution where the states, like children, simply go to Abuja at the end of every month to collect food. They cannot even feed themselves. Is it not an utter shame that the descendants of the Oyo empire, Kanem-Bornu empire, Benin empire, and so on, have to go cap in hand to Abuja, collecting allocation that cannot even pay workers’ salaries when the traditional system which guaranteed full employment and a decent standard of living can be recreated through proper federalism like we had in the First Republic?

In the USA, it was the states that came together to form the central/federal government currently headed by Barack Obama.

In Nigeria, it was the Centre or Federal Government that created the states for political reasons and to achieve what the eminent Igbo scholar, Chinweizu, referred to as Caliphate Colonialism; a system whereby some people are born to rule. This is quite simply an aberration, and our consideration of farmers/herdsmen’s clashes must thus begin from this context.

If we have a federal republic that is nothing but a sham, a big fraud, why then are we surprised that a group of Boko Haram members masquerading as herdsmen have been terrorising innocent farmers across the country? If, for instance, there is state police, would the herdsmen have found it easy to attack farmers, rape women and slaughter them afterwards, burn down entire villages, and even carry out major robberies on major highways while the security agencies look the other way?

What Is Fueling Demand For Biafra?

By Chris Enyinnaya  

The word Biafra has been a taboo to successive governments in Nigeria simply because Republic of Biafra was defeated by a coalition of Nigerian Armed Forces and forces deployed by Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to join them in 1970. The first thing the government of General Yakubu Gowon did was to outlaw the word Biafra, and gazetted it; which is why any mention of Biafra got any Nigerian government angry. Yet, the Igbo cannot do away with the word Biafra. Why? Biafra is a spirit. You can kill the body but not the spirit. That is why the word Biafra keeps recurring like a decimal. To the true Igbo man, Biafra means freedom from operation in this country called Nigeria. The Igbo man feels, and events seem to justify it, that he is oppressed in Nigeria nation. The Igbo man believes in fairness and level playing ground in a competitive environment. Like all competitions, it is winner takes all. The corollary is that the Igbo man believes in merit-driven, just and egalitarian society. Nigeria is not providing the Igbo man the platform to freely express himself.

When the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) was established by the Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe-led Eastern Nigerian government in 1960, it was widely criticised as a glorified secondary school when compared to the University College Ibadan, which was actually University of London, Ibadan Campus which was established in 1948. UNN was awarding her own certificates to pioneer graduates in 1963, when University of Ibadan, established was still awarding the certificate of University of London.

Because the Nigerian nation is denying Igbo man merit in the scheme of things, and in the right sense of the word, Igbo man feels short-changed with Federal Government policies like federal character, state of origin, catchment area, and equality of states principle applied in admission to Federal Government owned secondary schools and tertiary institutions. That was why my daughter, born in Lagos and classified as an indigene of Abia State with a higher cut off mark than Lagos State (72% post JAMB) was denied admission to read Economics at the University of Lagos whereas her classmate from Ogun State that scored 65% was offered admission.

 The irony here is that my daughter was born in Lagos like her classmate. But when it comes to admission to Federal government college or university, she is classed as indigene of Abia State where my father comes from, and get knocked out by higher Abia cut-off mark being classed as an educationally advantaged state instead of Lagos State which at the time was lower.

Nigeria: The Futility Of Bandaging Septic Wounds

By Chuks Iloegbunam

December 1994 and June 2016 are two ep­ochs, separated by 22 years, which send an unambiguous and implacable message – the impracticality of the most mouthed of Nigeria’s platitudes.

Dig this: In December 1994, a hysterical crowd forced itself into a Police station in Kano and bundled out a detained Gideon Akaluka, a young Igbo trader and Christian, who had been falsely accused of using pages of the Koran like toilet paper. The mob decapitated Gideon, spiked his severed head and carried it around town like a trophy.

*President Buhari and Emir of
Kano, Sanusi

On June 2, 2016, Mrs. Bridg­et Agbahime (74), an Igbo housewife and Christian, was seized in Kano and lynched – on a false charge of blaspheming Islam. Naturally, there has been the anticipated outrage and up­roar from the afflicted camp. It could be treated just like an­other statistic: an old woman murdered because she was of an unwanted ethnic group, and because she professed a religion that, in the eyes of her killers, automatically made her an in­fidel.

There are screams for the cul­prits’ apprehension and punish­ment. But, that does not address the problem; it merely scratches at the surface of a malignant tumour. Of course, it is natural for some Nigerians to blow hot air in the face of difficult chal­lenges. Still a fundamental clari­fication is imperative because anyone unaware of the sources of their pummeling stands little chance of activating a defence mechanism.

The crucial point is the politi­cally contrived dispensability of the Igbo life. It started in 1943 in Jos, when the first massacre of Ndigbo took place. There is a documented history to it all, which the volume entitled Mas­sacre of Ndigbo in 1966: Report of the Justice G. C. M. Onyiuke Tribunal [Tollbrook Limited, Ikeja, Lagos], will help to ven­tilate.

First, some background in­formation. Following the po­grom of 1966, the Supreme Military Council of General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi set up a judicial tribunal of inquiry to investigate the grotesquery. But, days before the tribunal was to start sitting, Ironsi was assas­sinated and his regime toppled. Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon, who succeeded Iron­si, promised that the tribunal would carry on with its assign­ment. When this promise was negated, Lieutenant-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, had no op­tion but to establish the Onyi­uke Tribunal via an instrument called the Tribunal of Inquiry (Atrocities Against Persons of Eastern Nigeria Origin: Per­petuation of Testimony) Edict 1966.

President Buhari’s Dissonance Problem!

By Reno Omokri

 How can two walk together except they agree? Now if two people cannot walk together except they agree how much more three, four or a hundred? For any government, company, family or association to succeed, there must first be unity of purpose. This unity of purpose does not mean that everybody must agree, but it means that behind close doors the groups meets to harmonize.

*President Buhari and APC National
 Leader, Bola Tinubu

Now that word, harmonize, is a much misunderstood word. Harmony does not mean that everybody has the same purpose, but it means that everybody’s purposes are brought together and through a process of give and take, a common thread is woven that encapsulates everybody’s agenda and when this is presented it produces an effect that is pleasing to the group and those it wants to serve. Both Christians and Muslims agree that God created the entire world with His words.

It is something we can all agree on and in agreeing to this, we agree that words are creative. They created the atmosphere of the world and they will create the atmosphere of our individual worlds. This being the case, we have to be careful, very careful, about the words we speak because if we agree that information is power, then the management of information is power and its mismanagement is weakness.

So often, many of us do not realize that the words that emanate from a leader and his surrogates must have credibility because those words affect everything within the domain of that leader. Every word that emanates from a leader is a promise. Don’t believe me? Try to get the British Currency. On every British Pound note you will find this promise ‘I Promise to Pay the Bearer the sum of’ £5, £10, £20 or £50. The promise on the British Pound is made by the Queen of England who happens to be the Head of State of the United Kingdom. There is nothing inherently valuable about the paper the British Pound is printed upon. It has no intrinsic value.

Atiku Should Define ‘Restructuring’

By Ochereome Nnanna

After one year of silence, Vice President Atiku Abubakar seized the opportunity of a book launch in Abuja last week to break his silence. He reviewed the state of the nation under President Muhammadu Buhari, which is what pretty much everyone else has done in the past one week. Of all that he said, I was intrigued by his call for a “restructuring” of the federation and the shade he threw at the leadership of Buhari, when he observed: “we also have a leadership that is not prepared to learn from the past and the leadership that is not prepared to lead”. Of this snide on Buhari, observers have already determined that it was Atiku’s first step towards a 2019 challenge for the presidency.

 

*Atiku

This may well be so because we all know about Atiku’s insatiable appetite for presidential contests, of which he has made five record bids in 1993, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. Atiku’s former boss, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, was the first to caper a similar political double shuffle some weeks ago when he described Buhari as a leader who is good in military matters (such as the fight against Boko Haram) but incompetent in economic and diplomatic areas. He gave the impression that after Buhari defeats Boko Haram another leader would be found (obviously the self-installed tin god of Nigerian politics, Obasanjo himself) to solve our economic problems. It is obvious that the mesmerism of Buhari is beginning to thaw as we steam towards the starting blocks of the next political transition, and it is going to be hot inside the All Progressives Congress, APC where, I am firmly convinced, Buhari will make a bid for a second term.

Atiku will definitely feature prominently in it, barring any earth-shaking circumstances. I am surprised that Atiku described himself as a “long term campaigner” for restructuring. Honestly, I have never come across that notion before. What is known to most Nigerians is that Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been a long term campaigner for true federalism and restructuring. For some quaint reasons, he has gone mute on this since the APC seized the reins of the Federal Government a year ago. It is on record that the APC had it as one of its long-winded litany of campaign promises. The party and the Federal Government it produced have backed out of many of these promises, but it’s not yet on record that the promise to establish true federalism is one of those.

Yet not a single word has been breathed of it either by Buhari, the APC or even its chief protagonist, Tinubu. If Buhari meant to implement this policy, I am sure he would have said so in his maiden broadcast on May 29th 2015. He would have seized the opportunity of his May 29th 2016 to spell out the pillars of the programme, with timetable attached. But of course, we have seen that Buhari’s fabled body language is not pointing towards any bloody restructuring of the federation. 

Kudirat Abiola: 20 Years After

By Hafsat Abiola-Costello

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of my mother, Kudirat Abiola.

A young woman, not quite 44 years old, Kudirat was different things to different people. She was a loving mother to her seven children, the youngest of whom was seven at the time of her death. She was also a dutiful wife and a principled Nigerian who believed that an electoral mandate given to her husband during the June 12, 1993, democratic election could not simply be set aside on the whims of a small band of men, whether they were armed or not.

*Kudirat Abiola 

I continue to draw strength and inspiration from her clear example in a country where, for most people, everything is negotiable. From her, I learned that it is better to stand with the truth even if it is to stand alone. 

It has taken so long for the tree of democracy that she and other women sacrificed so much to plant to show the promise that motivated them to take a stand. Yet, even now, it is still glaring in its failure to include women in elective positions. In this one thing, we reveal a flaw in how we understand and practice democracy. For if power were understood as primarily a tool to be used to serve all people, women would be encouraged to play their part. 

The absence of women reveals the fact that the current wind of change has not altered the fundamental perception of power as an instrument, not of service but of domination. Unfortunately, when used in this way, everyone loses as the cycle of divide and misrule that Nigeria has witnessed time and again will simply continue producing poverty, conflict and misery.

As we reflect on the fact that the National Assembly has only six percent women (6%), we need to be aware that Africa’s largest economy lags behind all but one other African country on this and gives us a ranking of 177 out of 193 countries.

Today, let us remember that when Chief Abiola was in detention when many pro-democracy leaders had fled the country to continue the battle against military dictatorship, Kudirat Abiola and others kept the flag flying at home. She led the marches. She sold her properties to support her husband’s household and to finance the movement. She gave interviews on national and international media channels. She was incarcerated and frequently threatened but remained undaunted. And ultimately she was gunned down on the streets of Lagos, Nigeria.

I remember her today as I do every day and pray for the continued peaceful repose of her soul. But on this day, 20 years on, I want to ask our leaders to be fair to the Nigerian women. No bird, no matter how strong, can fly with one wing. No country, no matter its potential, can thrive while keeping its women back. 

Most local government councils will hold elections this year and next, nation-wide. This time, parties should put in place mechanisms to ensure 30% women representation at the local administration level. The local government is a good level to begin fostering gender equity since it has purview over primary health care as well as primary education, issues of particular concern to women.

This democracy came at a price, which women and men paid, and should be made to work for everyone. It will work better when women are allowed to play their part.
 
*Hafsat Abiola-Costello is the founder of Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND)

W.F. Kumuyi, Quintessential Evangelist, At 75

By Banji Ojewale  

Preach Christ and live holy till you die
—W.F. Kumuyi

If the world would have its way, Pastor William Folorunsho Kumuyi at 75 should be the grand old man sitting by the fireside at night in a fenced house built for him by the Church. The young and the old would form a circle about the retired preacher, listening to great exploits of the man in his active days as an evangelist.

Pastor W.F. Kumuyi 

At sunrise the following day, he would sit in a cane chair overlaid with soft cushion, reading the Bible and watching the world go by, waiting for the moon to announce the delivery of more tales of the past to anxious listeners.

But the man God moved to found the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (Deeper Life Bible Church) in 1973 has confounded popular thinking about a so-called diminishing power in old age. As we mark his 75th birthday on June 6, 2016, he will be preoccupied with the Church’s main event every Monday: the Monday Bible Study.

He faces a large congregation of the faithful every Monday evening. Pastor Kumuyi will be on duty today again as he has always been every Monday, since that Monday on August 1973. He will be on his feet for close to one and a half hours opening the pages of the Bible to present the truth about the love of God for man. These days, the General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life has taken up more laborious work. He has become part of the Sunday evening House Caring Fellowship with a revival and miracle sermon which he delivers. The session sees him undertake a circuit tour of different locations in Lagos. Every Saturday, he preaches to the Church’s workforce, dropping nuggets of Bible truth to prepare them for worship service the following day.

In 2015, Pastor Kumuyi undertook a brawny 18-day city wide crusade with the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) partnering Deeper Life for the programme. If you analyse his sermons in the past six months or so you would notice a literary style that would challenge even the masters of prose and poetry. For Pastor Kumuyi, the mode of presenting such a message is not less important than the content. At the end of the day, a Kumuyi treatise turns out to be a massive structure resting on a tripod with more three-legged contraptions inside.

Coming To Terms With Niger Delta Avengers

By Paul Odili

To correct a wrong, it is sometimes necessary to exceed proper limits’. This doctrine is attributed to Mao Zedong by his personal secretary, Lin Ke.

Mao, founder of the modern communist state of China was a man of power, who had no hesitation using whatever means he judged necessary to protect his power and the state he founded. In this context, Mao was justifying the use of terror. 

I do not ordinarily believe in the use of terror by legitimate forces of the state, yet there are times you just ponder what are the options before state actors under certain circumstances. If Mao were to be the commander of Nigerian state, there is no question as to what he would do in view of the dystopia in the Niger Delta area.

The senseless attacks and economic sabotage going on in the Niger Delta by a shadowy militant group( Niger Delta Avengers) claiming to be fighting for the interest of Niger Delta, you wonder if there is no great wisdom in Mao’s doctrine. We don’t have a Mao here of course, we have PMB and PMB is no Mao clearly. And Nigerian state is neither a communist state nor resembling a Chinese society. We are Africans with our cultural mores and social and economic structure. But we are a society that must survive and we are under attack by a merciless force. Nigeria is in a state of war.

In any state of war, economic assets are legitimate targets. So what do we do? Let’s get inside PMB’s head. A retired old school Army General, strict and unbending, prides himself in promoting order and discipline above everything else, is now faced with one of the greatest existential threat yet to his administration. At a period of great economic stress, in which the main source of the government’s economic power is being systematically sabotaged and somehow he is powerless to do anything. This must be his worst nightmare! Naturally, his first instinct would be to use military force and exterminate these saboteurs.

He said as much when he declared that the Niger Delta militants would be dealt with like Boko haram. So far PMB is wrong. The terrain and associated circumstances are different. NDA have called his bluff. Almost on a daily basis one asset or the other has been blown up. Minister Ibe Kachikwu is lamenting the effect of this on oil production down to 1.4 million; the lowest production in two decades. With the hapless situation he is facing PMB must be torn between armistice with the militants or military operation to conquer. With public panic rising and economic downturn worsening with the continuation of this act of war, what should be done and done to end this conflagration once and for all?

Ugwuanyi And The Potency Of Diplomatic Governance

By Nwobodo Chidiebere

“Constructive diplomacy doesn’t mean relinquishing one’s right. It means engaging with one’s counterparts, on the basis of equal footing and mutual respect, to address shared concerns and achieve shared objectives.”

           --Hassan Rouhani

In a democratic system of governance like ours, strategic diplomacy has been adjudged, tested and trusted as the best approach to finding lasting remedies to burning issues of governance. Great and age-long results have been made possible through constructive engagement and dialogue with relevant stakeholders than by the use of dictatorial methodology.

Gov Ugwuanyi

The developed democracies of the world like America and Great Britain have elevated potency of diplomacy cum diplomatic skills in managing public affairs issues to its rightful place. The advancement of democracy and its culminating effects on the development of these countries cannot be detached from the values they placed on diplomacy—which is the sturdy foundation of democratic governance setting benchmark to our contemporary world.

In fact, America for instance, rate and evaluate its presidential hopefuls on their diplomatic capacities more than other qualities, because American President will not run White House alone, but from time to time dialogue with congressmen and women, business tycoons in Wall Street, ICT magnates in Silicon Valley and other relevant stakeholders before major economic or socio-political policies are introduced and allowed to scale through the congress.

Since the advent of democracy in 1999, Enugu State has never witnessed a thorough democratic system of governance—where an incumbent governor will long to consult and interface with genuine stakeholders and iron-out grey edges before arriving at a consensus, in implementation of polices of his administration. There is no doubt that His Excellency Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has not only redefined standard of stakeholders and community engagements in the Coal City via dialogue and diplomacy, but rewritten political template of Eastern hub; used previously by his predecessors in the art of governance. 

Before now, Enugu State had executive governors who operated like demi-gods, called the shots and determined who-gets-what without consultations with critical stakeholders and opinion moulders. They never bothered or alluded to overriding interests of Enugu people, provided they were in absolute control of the state government apparatus. Erstwhile governors of the state were feared more than respected. They propagated and enforced political ideology of absoluteness of power—which was averse to fundamentals of 21^st century democracy.