KINDRED SPIRIT IN CORRUPTION

 

When the frequency of negative criticisms overshadows and almost drones out genuine complements, the effect tends to become a crippling feeling of rejection. It gives reason for worry when people find no reason to complement each other or the government. In the interest of sanity, people will have to look out for what is good about them. The issue of corruption among Nigerians has been raised to the high heavens and many Nigerians are not allowed the opportunity to show their good side. Rather, they are condemned even before they stand trial. News for Nigerians however is that corruption is not peculiar to Nigeria and Nigerians; the whole world is corrupt. Many nations have overcome the stage of publicly justifying corrupt practices while they still actively practice corruption. Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for personal and private gain.

Over the last few months, civil rights groups and individual campaigners have become more vocal about the uncontrollable presence of the scourge of corruption in India. It was quite shocking to know that corruption manifest in the Indian economy and society is at a full scale. One of the activists, a retired police woman made considerable effort in establishing the fact that seeming wealth of India revolves around very few people within the society. With the issues of corruption plaguing the Nigerian society, one would ordinarily want to focus on how best we can address our own issues rather than echoing what is being said about other countries.

A debate on Tim Sebastian’s ‘the Outsider’ on Bloomberg TV channel featured the topic ‘there is no honest business in India.’ Listening to the panel of discussants and contributing members of the audience revealed several cases of bottlenecks and blockages put in the path of aspiring entrepreneurs; it is so bad that the politicians are the only class of people who can scale the bureaucratic huddles set up to discourage young business people. In effect to make a head way in business in India, one must be an established politician. Other than that, one is made to make settlements in expensive bribes to public officials and party stalwarts. It is was quite touching to hear one of the discussants Rajeev S., CEO of a telecoms enterprise recommend areas of business that the would-be entrepreneur must stay away from if he or she did not want to get involved in corrupt practices.

I am 100% confident that no government policy or official can officially suggest such to young Nigerian entrepreneurs but it is disturbing to see that many young Nigerian entrepreneurs shy away from many areas of business. In a recent interview, Richard Branson, CEO of the Virgin Group who was CEO of Virgin Nigeria lamented frustrations he experienced in the Nigerian aviation industry and sadly he was made to abandon the project with losses in investment. We see Indians surviving and thriving in the same aviation industry even at the expense of the lives of unsuspecting passengers who are being flown in  ‘airborne caskets.’ Invariably, the corrupt way of doing business in India has been imported into the already corrupt system in Nigeria that is why scandalous issues concerning the operations and crash of Dana Airline are being swept under the carpet.

The CNN Freedom Project exposes people who sell their children based on their culture, religion and excuses of poverty. I told my neighbor who is an Indian that the distance between Nigeria and India has been further reduced by technological advancement and that he could no longer deceive us that Nigeria is less developed than India. What I am saying in essence is that it is not his turn to bad-mouth Nigeria and Nigerians especially as he is the one who has come to Nigeria in search of the ‘Golden Fleece.’ We have our own share of social injustice issues in Nigeria which we are struggling with and I am fully convinced that as soon as many more young Nigerians begin to buy into the vision of the new Nigeria, they will begin to tidy up their acts.

In the same vein, security issues of nations like Israel and Pakistan are down-played when people discuss terrorist activities in Nigeria; activities that are now known to have been largely promoted and funded by international terrorist organizations.

New Nigerians will do well to believe that Nigeria is not in the league of the most corrupt nations on earth and spring forward in making progress while downplaying acceptance of the presence corruption.

GOD bless Nigeria  

LAGOS STATE TRAFFIC LAW AND COMMERCIAL MOTORBIKE OPERATORS

The use of motorbikes as a means of commercial transportation did not become popular until after the 80s. Prior to this time, people had used many variants of motorbikes for personal transportation and for sport. Motorbikes were very popular with women of the east central states of Nigeria and many of them received motorbikes as part of items for their boudoir when they got married. The Vespa was the favorite of Nigerians from the north while dispatch riders and a few newspaper vendors who could afford it circulated newspapers using their motorbikes as transport.

Failure of the few taxis and commuter buses to provide adequate commercial transport service, bad roads and traffic congestion combined to give acceptability to commercial motorbikes in Nigeria. The revolution started in city centers like Lagos and then Abuja and ever since, there has been an astronomical rise in the business of using motorbikes for commercial transportation.

Many artisans and craftsmen have taken to operating commercial motorbikes and this has posed a major challenge to employers of labour are faced with a scarcity of manpower. Many criminal activities have been traced to operators of commercial motorbikes and many states have made futile attempts to eradicate the operations of commercial motorbikes. There was a time a semi ban was placed on the operations of commercial motorbikes in Lagos State between 7pm and 7am and as soon as government seemed to cease to enforce the semi ban, they gradually reverted to status quo. The new traffic law has not placed any ban on the operations of commercial motorbikes in Lagos; rather it has set out to moderate the operations of commercial motorbikes in Lagos.

Civilized societies that we desire to emulate have moved beyond the level of using commercial motorbikes as a means of transportation. The use of commercial motorbikes was effectively banned in Abuja by the then Minister for Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai between 2005 and 2006 and the ban was enforced to the letter. People discovered other means of livelihood and transportation in Abuja did not become paralyzed as many people feared.

People who patronize commercial motorbike service have every reason to be apprehensive as we see there is virtually no age limit to registration of operators. We see young boys who toy around with bikes for a few days and the next thing they are ready to start business. Too many avoidable accidents have occurred that involved such unsuitable individuals as operators. We see young men who are supposed to be in school or in training for one vocation or the other who are on the streets operating motorbikes for individuals who they ‘deliver’ money to at the end of each day. They receive a stipend that practically exposes them to every suggestion of crime.

As the number of operators increased, they were able to form a union that has grown to become a formidable force in the transport service industry of many states of Nigeria. The unions are so well structured that governments like Edo and Lagos State recognize them and give them some attention and concession. The Lagos State Traffic Law 2012 is being contested by the union by the union who asked the state government to suspend implementation of the law. There are also recommendations that Lagos State reviews the law in favour of commercial motorbike operators of Lagos State to prevent increase in crime.

The Lagos State government in a meeting with the Association of Commercial Motorbike operators on Tuesday, 12^th September,2012 took a firm stand cautioning operators of commercial motorbikes who plan to continue operating in Lagos State to comply with the new traffic law or face the consequences as prescribed by the law. The Lagos State government has proffered alternatives in advising operators who considered the law too stiff to take up a form of skill acquisition training or try their hands in professional farming.

Using the Abuja template of banning, enforcing and ban and providing alternative sources of livelihood proved effective at that time. Implementing the law, enforcing the law and introducing effective control measures to prevent deviation or compromise will go a long way to help the Lagos State government moderate the operations of commercial motorbikes operators in Lagos.

GOD bless Nigeria.

GROWING INTEREST IN WRITING AMONG NIGERIANS

It is popularly believed that Nigerian youth have done away with the reading culture; in the same vein, it is agreed that young Nigerians are writing a lot so who reads what is being written?

I still wonder at how writers managed the onerous task of writing in time past. I grew up to see that writers always started the long and arduous publishing process by taking their handwritten manuscript to the copy typist to type for them at an agreed fee. Typing of such documents was done using typewriters and nothing was saved on any hard disk, floppy disk or flash drive. It was straight typing directly on to the page and errors were corrected using typist’s erasers and correction fluids.  The journey to the typists was repeated too many times until the writer is satisfied. The mere thought of the exercise gives me the shivers and I slowly developed an aversion for writing which is my first love because the people I recognized as writers seemed to be always poor.

Armed with the typed manuscript, the writer would hit the streets in search of the publishing house that would accept to publish the work. After overcoming the huddle of several rejections by publishers and editors, the next major problem would be marketing the work.  With no support at all from publishers, the writer would be thrown into the pirate infested market of intellectual property. I recall the late Idodo Umeh, the accomplished author and publisher who wrote and published very many books in his life time; in the end he suffered the heartbreak of discovering that his works were being pirated on a massive scale at Onitsha.

Today, virtually all writers have one electronic device or the other for typing their materials and saving the cost and the trouble of employing the services of copy-typists. Writers of this generation also have a limitless array of resources available to them for online research. Nigerian authors still suffer the unfortunate negative activities of pirates in the industry but whatever challenges today’s writers may be faced with cannot be compared to what earlier writers had to contend with.

It is a joy to see that professionals and business people are actively writing and publishing their works by the many available media of literary expression. Is it profitable? That will be a subject for another day.

The rate at which young Nigerians are taking to writing is quite inspiring. They express so much passion in their writing; it makes me remember how actively young Nigerians confronted the many challenges of the entertainment industry. The industry that was once closed up and restricted to very few daring producers, promoters and marketers has become so diversified that many young performing entrepreneurs are effectively playing the roles and the determination to conquer the entertainment industry is beginning to payoff.

The same passions is the driving force in the writing interest of many young Nigerians and in a little while, the force of young Nigerian writers will blow open the market for literary works so much that they will begin to rule the waves just like their counterparts in the entertainment industry.

GOD bless Nigeria.

GUIDELINES ENGRAVED ON STEEL

 

Every call from different quarters for the Sovereign National Conference (SNC) is a boost to the new Nigeria that Nigerians deserve and have been clamouring for. It is popularly believed that ‘a problem identified is a problem half solved.’ The dissatisfaction being expressed by Nigerian political leaders is a good sign that things are moving in the right direction and in the interest of Nigeria.

There was a time that the people in position were adequately ‘provided for’ and so they did not see any reason to raise any alarm over the divisive and unprogressive style of leadership and administration of Nigeria. Now the calls are getting louder and at a more consistently increasing frequency.

The reality that the people are faced with is not pleasant as what has resulted in the mis-management of Nigeria and her resources are decay in every sector as people see every new appointment as perfect opportunity to take their own share of the national cake; insecurity of human lives and property stemming from disgruntled politicians who believe that power is the exclusive preserve of the north; a rapidly growing crime rate and intolerance among the youth. These are the most prominent and disturbing of the ugly products that building upon a ‘faulty foundation’ has produced in the Nigerian society.

Again it must be stressed that Nigerian historians and political leaders must outgrow and overcome blaming Lord Lewis Harcourt, Lord Fredrick Lugard or the entire British for the Amalgamation of 1914. In fairness to the British, they used the model by which the United Kingdom was initially designed for Nigeria. A united nation is much stronger, richer and more powerful than a cluster of many little nations that are exposed to hostile attacks from much more aggressive neighbours; a modern-day example is the appropriation of the Bakassi Peninsula by Cameroun. The UK is one country that is made of four different strong countries that have over the years fought bitter wars, opted for insurgency until the eventually worked out a common ground for making progress and co-existing in peace in the interest of the union.

Originally, Nigeria is made of too many tiny, little, impoverished nations but Nigeria was earlier divided into three major regions. The division made perfect sense to the British and to Nigerians; further divisions have brought about calls for more divisions which could lead to the dissolution of the united Nigerian nation.

Concluding the draft constitution of 1999 and prohibiting every political leader from making any attempt to amend it in his favour; instituting a college of past leaders who have ruled Nigeria who know where they got it wrong and who will be willing to raise alarm when the current leadership is taking the same wrong steps and finally convening the Sovereign National Conference will to a large extent enable the vision of building one strong economy.

If these cannot be put in place, any call for further division or autonomy must be put on hold because the implication of autonomy for one nation will bring about calls for other small nations breaking away. The truth that Nigerians never want to confront is that no two Nigerian tribes or nations so to speak can co-exist in mutual respect of one another. Nigerians like to look down on one another and they find it difficult to outgrow tribalism so for Nigerians to live in concord there must be guidelines that are engraved on steel or else it will result in mockery of what should ordinarily grow to be one of the world’s most formidable economies.

GOD bless Nigeria.

TAKING STOCK OF DEVELOPMENT AT THE STATES LEVEL

 

Nigeria has come a long way but there is a long way to go. In fairness to ourselves, we have evolved greatly as a people but we do not appreciate this because innovations seem to be almost too minuscule for us to perceive.

Today, we see the Freedom of Information bill being passed and its benefits being maximized. The impact of social media in communication cannot be overstressed and we see that to a large extent, government responds. Information that one would ordinarily not find in the dailies are served to members of the public without fear that the reporter will be abducted or the publishers’ organization proscribed. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, we have leaders who openly interact with the citizenry on social media sites.

Due process is being followed in many departments of government especially in the area of awarding projects to contractors and the presence of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has instilled into their hearts the fear of corrupt enrichment that can be traced to government officials and they now tend to be cautious. This is an area for controversy because in truth, on one hand, there are still many corrupt leaders who have lost the sense of blushing as they feel no shame while robbing the nation; on the other hand, stealing by some of these corrupt officials has been greatly modified to appear like introducing diversionary measures along the tracks of EFCC and any other government agencies that are empowered to investigate and charge erring officials to court; going to such great lengths to conceal their fraudulent tendencies testifies to the fact that they are afraid of something. It is hoped that Nigeria can continue to make steady and consistent progress so that in due time, every individual that is given authority must give account of how he uses his office.

The elections conducted by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under the leadership of Prof. Atahiru Jega was applauded locally and internationally as a truly free and fair election; several disgruntled elements have expressed displeasure at the outcome of the peaceful and harmonious conduct of the elections and have resorted to violence that still plagues Nigeria to date.

Still under Prof. Jega, INEC conducted governorship election in Edo State that was popularly declared a free and fair election. The electorate left practically no room for elections fraud; again agents of backwardness could not be entirely kept at bay as they showed up to perpetrate acts of robbing the people of their mandate but their effort yielded results that are at best considered insignificant. The popular candidate carried the day and the votes of the electorate counted for something.

As Ondo State prepares to go to the polls for governorship election, it is expected that the same template used in achieving success with the election in Edo State would be applied to ensure that the wish of the people is respected and their mandate not hijacked by pirates.

Many governors of the southern states of Nigeria have embarked on development projects that are developing their states at a rapid rate. In a documentary of the effort of Owelle Rochas in Imo State on African Independent Television (AIT),  I was touched when I saw that many indigenes of Imo State had chosen to return to their state now that they see opportunities that have been made manifest in the vigorous campaign to rehabilitate old and worn roads and to construct new roads in a bid to ease traffic congestion in the state. Other development projects embarked upon by the administration has further made Imo State attractive enough for the indigenes to return home to consolidate the effort of the governor.

States like Edo and Rivers also have records of rapid development that have brought about many more indigenes returning home to tap from the abundance of opportunities for advancement that would help secure a better quality of life. Lagos State is the centre of economic pursuits and the grand plans of the governor to make Lagos State a ‘mega city’ are by the day coming to fruition. However the effort of other state governors are expected to lessen the pressure on amenities and infrastructure of Lagos State but there is almost no visible reduction in the population of non-indigenes in Lagos; it is hoped that other state governors will key into the vision to work towards more progressive changes into their domain as a means of attracting their citizens to return home.

Instead of embarking on bogus contracts that are structured to serve the selfish interest of a few party stalwarts, state governors would do well to provide good roads and drainages first as these would make movement within the states less difficult for the people. Farm produce would reach their destinations quicker and in better conditions, transportation business and trade will thrive and transport-related health issues will be adequately addressed. The very existence of the people would be improved a lot.

Once again, it is expected that there will be more improvement as we appreciate the fact that Nigeria is slowly rising to the occasion.

GOD bless Nigeria. 

ALLOWING OLD THINGS TO PASS AWAY!

 

Once again, the streets of Lagos were agog with students who put up creative skills in dressing and painting their faces to boost their comic appearance on the occasion of fund raising popularly known as ‘rag day.’ On separate occasions this year, I have seen individuals on the streets of Lagos who claim to be participating in the ‘rag day’ events for their schools. Ragging as students like to call it is voluntary charity work in the form of fund raising campaigns for the less priviledged people in our society by Nigerian higher institutions. The practice has survived over the last 50years and after such a long time, one wonders why school authorities have not been able to come up up with much more creative means of raising funds instead of putting students through the outdate and almost meaningless practice.

It has been reported that people other than students have been caught participating in the ‘rag day’ activities and I believe that is the reason why I saw some of the students displaying their school identity cards. One of the students who approached me with his school identity card, told me that he is a final year student of the Yaba College of Technology; I was taken aback because I did not expect that a final year student would have the time to be participating such charity work that is known to be quite tasking. I asked why he was still ‘ragging’ in his final year since he should have been done and dusted with such activities in his first year? He quickly moved away in search of likely givers.

The way rag day is organized by schools in Nigeria leaves no room for accountability as there are no standardized or break-proof cans for collecting funds; in effect students come up with any kind of small can that they can find and of course the students can easily have access to the money in the cans before delivering what they feel like to the school authorities. What proportion of what is delivered to the school authorities is given to the less priviledged in the society?

Students are exposed to predators in the society like perverts and ritual killers who are always on the prowl in search of whose life to damage. Students are sometimes sent out in groups but sometimes they stray apart; also some predators squeeze their call cards into the cans for students to contact them after the ‘rag day.’ Many students who stray off fall victims of people they cannot report while others do so in order to perform nefarious activities that are not line up as part of the events and school authorities would naturally not want to accept responsibility for any misadventure that may result.

It is time school authorities did away with this ignoble ceremony; changes in the society require that authorities design properly structured fund-raisers within the protective confines of the higher institutions and stop exposing students to the ever-increasing activities of predators in the society.

The novelty in ‘ragging’ has been completely corroded by the presence of beggars of all forms in our society and this makes students appear like beggars on a mission. Whatever beauty there may have been in such activities in the past has become watered down by the fact that many of the youth of today would ordinarily not want to go out of their way to lend a helping hand if there is nothing in it for them to gain.

School authorities could consider sports tournaments between higher institutions to attract members of the public who would happily buy their tickets. They could also consider organizing shows with celebrities who may have graduated from their schools and also throw their gates open for paying members of the public. It is high time schools started to encourage students to improve their reasoning power especially positively in view of positions of leadership that they may occupy in future.

GOD bless Nigeria.

CALL FOR YOUNG LEADERS TO STEP OUT

The 2012 Democrats National Convention (DNC) currently taking place in Charlotte, North Carolina in the United States of America has showcased the amazing oratorical skills of the American first lady, Michelle Obama as well as the abundance of young delegates who have committed their time and energy and actively worked in their assigned areas for the campaigns of Barrack Obama. I was particularly amazed at the level of interest and commitment shown by the youngest delegate at the convention, Vibhav Kollu, a student of University of North Carolina. His profile shows that he is already clear about his vision and is vigorously pursuing his political interests and taking his friends along. There are many other young delegates who have discovered that they would like to be actively involved in politics.

The beauty of having such a vision is that these young people already have a fair idea of where they should not be seen, who they must not associate with and what social limits they must not exceed because of the goal they have set for themselves. This is a very effective way of helping the young ones to embrace responsibility and steer off crime, fraud and all anti-social behavior. In addition to education, eloquence, composure, etiquette and finesse, they must acquire international exposure and be sensitive to the peculiarities of other societies of the world. Many of these kids have already recognized that there is a lot more to be achieved in so short a time.

We cannot demand or expect the same of the Nigerian youth because of the peculiar nature of politics in Nigeria. The amount of violence, injustice and corruption displayed in politics in Nigeria does not allow room for the youth to feel encouraged to have an equal power of negotiation. The Nigerian youth participate according to the dictates of the established politicians who prefer to spread some amounts of cash to youth who cooperate with them in further paralyzing Nigeria. The money they are given is not enough for them to do anything constructive for themselves and faster than they have earned the money, it is all gone and they have to return to the corrupt leaders for the meager stipend.

The youth of Nigeria have come of age; they have attained the height where they can afford to form unions and political parties that will protect their interests. Successful young Nigerians are called upon to invest in the leadership aspirations of young Nigerians in their own interest and quit dancing to the tune that our old politicians danced to without anything to show for it. Nigerians have come to realize that the younger politicians who have been elected into office before now always succumb to the dictates of the old and ineffective politicians. All hope is now on the youth of Nigeria and since the old politicians will not give them the stage to perform; they must begin to consider the possibility of withholding their mandate from the old politicians and using the mandate for their own candidate.

Resources abound at the disposal of young Nigerians enough to constructively start working on effective youth unions and political parties or movement for the liberal youth of Nigeria and not the highly regulated youth body that currently exists in Nigeria. Many preachers in Nigeria have followership that is predominantly youth and they encourage their followers to take interest in politics; these preachers could also encourage their young followers to actively take a stand and not just be arm-chair politicians.

It is time young people take a critical appraisal of how they have fared with the old politicians; some of these young people acquired property and many more liabilities in the course of serving the old politicians but civilized societies have gone beyond the level of acquisition of property.

GOD bless Nigeria.