SATURDAY 24TH OCTOBER 2020

Lagos Puts 20 Policemen on Trial for Murder, Rights Abuses Bennett Oghifo The Lagos State Government has set dates for the prosecution of 20 policemen, including the dismissed Inspector Ogunyemi Olalekan, whom the police found guilty of killing Kolade Johnson in March, 2019, for various

infractions.

The 20 policemen, whose charges were listed in several tweets yesterday

by Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, are being prosecuted for offences ranging from alleged murder, manslaughter and violation of human rights in Lagos.

Beginning his tweets yesterday, Governor SanwoOlu gave a list of the pending cases reflecting the identities of the various judges assigned to each of them.

He tweeted: “Good morning Lagos. Today seems like a good day to get on to the work of rebuilding Lagos

and ending police brutality.

To show our commitment to the latter, here is a list of ongoing prosecution of police officers for offences related to the violation of human rights in Lagos.

“1. State of Lagos v. Insp.

Surulere Irede, Sgt. Sunday Ogunyemi, Corp. Hezekiah

Babatunde - Manslaughter.

Adjourned to 13/11/2020.

Justice Ogunsanya “2. The State of Lagos v.

Ogunyemi Olalekan - Murder.

Adjourned to 5/11/2020. Hon Justice Coker.

“3. State of Lagos v. Sgt. Gbanwuan Isaac – Grievous Bodily Harm. Set for

arraignment. Justice Sholadoye.

“4. State of Lagos v. Aminu Joseph – Murder. Adjournment date to be announced. Hon Justice Nicole Clay.

“5. State of Lagos v. Sgt. Alechenu Benedict – Armed Robbery. Arraigned. Hon Continued on page 5

Gold: FG Seeks ECOWAS Cooperation against Illegal Trans-Border Trade… Page 7 Saturday 24 October, 2020 Vol 25. No 9329

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#EndSARS: 62 Confirmed Killed, Lagos Destruction May Surpass N1trn to Rebuild Buhari briefs former heads of state, restates opposition to hooliganism Jonathan: No nation can ever win battle against its own people Ongoing police reforms will end impunity, Osinbajo tells US US urges Nigeria to prosecute killers of protesters Sanwo-Olu eases curfew, warns against further protests Fayemi threatens to deal with arsonists, looters Sunday Dare: Why Buhari hasn’t spoken on Lekki shooting Atedo Peterside: Youths must start now to make #Endsars come to life in 2023 Bennett Oghifo, Segun James in Lagos, Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja, Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo, DavidChyddy Eleke in Awka and Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti Investigation by THISDAY has revealed that 62 people were killed nationwide in the protests against the nowdissolved police Special AntiRobbery Squad (SARS), which metamorphosed into agitation for improved governance in addition to justice for victims of police brutality.

It has also emerged that over N1 trillion may be required to rebuild public and private property destroyed by hoodlums in Lagos. This was a rough assessment of the financial requirement after

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu visited some of the destroyed property yesterday.

This is coming on the heels of a virtual meeting held with former Presidents by President Muhammadu Buhari, who briefed them on measures taken so far to manage the #EndSARS crisis.

Official figures, which THISDAY accessed last night, show that 51 of those killed are civilians while 11 others were policemen.

The shooting by soldiers to disperse the protesters at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos had triggered more violence, resulting in deaths, largely in the state.

Earlier yesterday, Sanwo-Olu Continued on page 5

Amaechi: Economic Development, Antidote for Crime Reduction... Page 8

THE RUIN OF LAGOS...

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu standing in one of the burnt buildings of Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government during his assessment tour of the level of destruction to public and private properties by hoodlums during the EndSARS protests...yesterday

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PAGE FIVE #ENDSARS: 62 CONFIRMED KILLED, LAGOS DESTRUCTION MAY SURPASS N1TRN TO REBUILD toured parts of the city affected by the breakdown in law and order. He was badly shaken by the level of destruction across the state.

The long list of destroyed public and private property in Lagos are Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government secretariat; Palace of the Oba of Lagos; Lagos High Court, Igbosere; Oyingbo BRT terminus; Ojodu Berger BRT terminus; Vehicle Inspection Office, Ojodu Berger; Lagos State Public Works Corporation, Ojodu Berger; Lagos City Hall and Circle Mall, Lekki; numerous luxury shops in Surulere, The Nation Newspaper, TVC and Shoprite Lekki.

The state Commissioner for Information, Gbenga Omotosho, said 27 of the destroyed BRT vehicles cost $200,000 each, while 57 of them cost $100,000 each, all totalling about N3.9 billion.

According to the police, the 25 stations burnt in Lagos are Orile, Amukoko, Layeni, Ilasamaja, Ikotun, Ajah, Igando, Elemoro, Makinde, Onipanu, Ebute Ero, Pen-Cinema, Isokoko, Alade, Cele, Igbo Elerin, Shibiri, Gbagada, Onilekere, Makoko, Daleko, Asahun, Makinyo, Amuwo-Odofin, Anti-Kidnapping, Surulere.

Other police stations that were vandalised but not burnt were Ojo, Ojodu, Mowo, PPL and Morogbo.

The Governor was at the Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government Secretariat, where he saw several cars in the expansive premises of the LGA that were either burnt or damaged.

All the buildings within the premises, including that of an old generation bank located there, were also destroyed.

He then moved to the adjourning police station where he also saw massive destruction.

A number of people he met at the station lamented that they were sons and daughters of police officers and wondered why their parents should be singled out by the hoodlums when they were simply performing their lawful duties.

A particular woman, wept and complained that they could not be given decent education because their parents were poorly paid and appealed to Sanwo-Olu to see to the welfare of policemen and women.

The governor then left the LGA Secretariat to visit some other spots in the area that suffered extensive damage.

Lagos Relaxes Curfew Meanwhile, Sanwo-Olu has announced the easing of the curfew imposed on the state.

The announcement was made during a state-wide broadcast yesterday from the State House in Marina.

The governor said people are allowed to go out between 8am and 6pm from today.

He said, “We have decided that we are going to be easing

the curfew from tomorrow (today) morning; and what that easing means is that people will be allowed to go out from 8am to 6pm.

“For emphasis, from 8am tomorrow (Saturday) morning, you will be allowed to go out, to go wherever you wish till 6pm in the evening.”

The governor also warned against protests in the state, saying “enough is enough”.

Sanwo-Olu ordered the clean-up of the state, saying Lagos must heal.

He said, “We have also commenced the clean-up of the city because the city needs to be clean up. A whole lot of roadblocks, tyres burnt on the road…LAWMA (Lagos Waste Management Authority) are out already. They will be working all through the night.

“But in the event that they do not finish, I want to admonish and appeal to motorists and our citizens to be careful on the road. Please if you do not need to go out, please stay at home. But if you must and you have to go out, please drive with a lot of caution because there are still a lot of barricades, bonfires, broken bottles, burnt tires. Please be careful.

“We will try to clean up the city overnight. We’ve pushed all of the men outside.”

Buhari Briefs Former Leaders Meanwhile, President Buhari, during the virtual meeting with the former heads of state, reiterated that his government would not fold its arms and allow miscreants and criminals to continue to perpetrate acts of hooliganism in the country.

He said it was unfortunate that the initial genuine and well-intended protest of youths in parts of the country against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was hijacked and misdirected.

The former Nigerian leaders that participated virtually were Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida, Ernest Shonekan, Abdulsalami Abubakar, and Goodluck Jonathan.

The President recounted the initial concessions made by his administration on the demands of the youths protesting against the excesses of some members of the SARS. Buhari recalled that the youths had demanded that the squad be disbanded and articulated additional demands.

The President added that part of the demand that were met included the immediate release of all arrested protesters and justice for deceased victims of police brutality and appropriate compensation for their families.

Buhari added: ''Setting up an independent body to oversee the investigation and prosecution of all reports of Police misconduct within 10 days.

''Psychological evaluation and re-training of all disbanded SARS officers before they can be re-deployed; and increase in Police salary.'' ''We accepted all the demands and proceeded immediately to scrap SARS and started the process of addressing the other demands. ''Unfortunately, the protesters refused to call off the protest and engage the Government to address their grievances. Instead, they became emboldened and gradually turned violent.''

Buhari, however, expressed concern that in the mayhem that ensued, many lives had been lost, a number of public and private properties completely destroyed or vandalised.

The President reaffirmed that his “government would continue to improve good governance through our democratic process, including through sustained engagement.”

He stressed that his government would continue to ensure that liberty and freedom, as well as the fundamental rights of all citizens are protected.

“Here, I want to also reaffirm our commitment to preserving the unity of this country.”

The President thanked the former heads of state for attending the meeting and their invaluable comments, observations and advice, adding that ''Nigerians expect nothing less from responsible statesmen.''

They were unanimous in their view that generation of employment and growing the economy including through direct foreign investments were critical to checking youth restiveness.

Each of the former leaders also commended Buhari for steps taken so far to restore calm and order to the country and also applauded the presidential broadcast of Thursday as detailed and soothing to the country.

They also expressed their condolences to the bereaved families of civilians, policemen and soldiers killed as a result of the violent protest, and reaffirmed the commitment to respect the fundamental rights of citizens, including for peaceful protest as enshrined in the Constitution.

The former heads of state also condemned the divisive and inciting pronouncements of separatists, and were of the opinion that such acts should be stopped.

Obasanjo said, ''I commend the speech of last night. The nation had been waiting. You made points that I believe need to be commended.

Peaceful demonstration is part of democratic practice.

The demands of the genuine protesters were accepted, and you are working on implementation."

Equally, the former leaders commended the actions taken by governors to address the

demands of the ENDSARS protesters and their efforts to check the excesses of those who perpetrated violent acts and conduct.

They, therefore, called on youths to pursue peaceful means in seeking redress through engagement with Government and encouraged further conversation with the youths and other stakeholders in the country.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (retd.); Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olanisakin; Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu; Director-General, Department of State Services, Yusuf Bichi; and Director-General, National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Rufai, attended the forum at the Villa with the President.

Ongoing Police Reforms Will End Impunity, Osinbajo Tells US Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has assured that the proposed reform of the Nigerian Police Force would put an end to impunity.

Osinbajo stated this on Thursday when he received the United States government delegation, including the US Assistant Secretary, Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, Bob Destro; US Assistant Secretary, Bureau for Conflict Stabilization Operations, Denise Natali; the Counselor of the US Department of State, Thomas Ulrich Brechbuhl; and the Charge d’Affairs, US Embassy, Kathleen FitzGibbon, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande disclosed this in a statement issued yesterday, adding that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, was also at the meeting.

According to him, “The plan of both the Federal and State Governments to investigate police brutality and prosecute erring police officers, create new State-based Security and Human Rights Committees, as well as providing compensation to victims of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and other police units, would be a game-changer in ensuring an end to impunity.”

The Vice President revealed that at least 13 states in the country including Lagos, had since established Judicial Panels “to seek justice and to compensate those whose rights have been breached.”

He stressed that President Muhammadu Buhari had already supported the decisions of the National Economic Council.

Osinbajo recalled that on October 12, the Council,

which he chaired, with all State Governors and FCT Minister as members, resolved on the immediate establishment of State-based Judicial Panels of Inquiry across the country to receive and investigate complaints of police brutality or related extra-judicial killings to deliver justice for all victims of the dissolved SARS and other police units.

The Vice President noted that NEC had also agreed on the provision of monetary compensation to victims and prosecution of erring officers.

While responding to the concerns of the U.S government on instances of impunity in the country, the Vice President noted that these efforts were part of the Nigerian government’s commitment to implement extensive police reforms, adding that the establishment of Judicial Panels of Inquiry nationwide would further ensure that the Police and other security agencies protect the human rights of citizens.

He stated: “The concerns around impunity are some of the concerns that informed the establishment of Judicial Panels of Inquiry across states. Each state is now required to establish judicial inquiry that will look into cases of impunity, excessive use of force, extrajudicial killings etc., especially by law enforcement agents.

“Aside from two representatives of Civil Society groups, these Judicial Panels will have youth representatives and a representative from the National Human Rights Commission, among others. Each State is also required to have what is called the Special Security and Human Rights Committee to ensure that law enforcement and security agencies protect the Human Rights of citizens.

“Government is paying attention. The point we are making is that protests are a means to an end, but they cannot be the end. We are very optimistic that what we have put in place would eventually yield the best possible results for us,” Prof. Osinbajo stated.

He stressed that the herderfarmer crisis was exacerbated mainly because of land and resources struggle as against the misinterpreted Christiansversus-Muslim narrative.

Members of the United States delegation from Washington DC offered to collaborate with the Federal Government on these issues, a suggestion welcomed by the Vice President, hoping that such cooperation would create better understanding of the issues.

Atedo Peterside: Youths Must Start Now to Make #EndSARS Come to Life in 2023

non-profit organisation, Anap Foundation, Atedo Peterside, has urged Nigerian youths to start mobilising to take over political power in 2023.

The 65-year-old, who spoke yesterday on Arise TV’s Morning Show, was reacting to the #EndSARS protests against police brutality, in the last two weeks, particularly the gory event at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos as well as the widespread violence, arson and destruction of lives and properties in the country.

The former Chairman of Cadbury Nigeria Plc condemned the attacks and condoled with the youths and the families of victims.

Peterside advised youths to use their numerical strength to get what they want legally. He cautioned the youths against divisive elements and urged them to be wary of thugs.

He said: “2050 is for the youths of today. It is not for those in my generation.

“We are talking about the future of Nigeria and it is for the youths. So, if things happened that get the youths to be disenchanted nationwide, then we are in trouble.

“I think what happened on Tuesday, October 20, 2020, can be turned around because it was the event of that day that made those who had no interest in politics to wake up.

“The best time to build a nation is when the youths who are in the majority, they are at least 60 to 65 per cent, have been awakened. The gentle giants move a nation forward.

“The youths themselves have learnt some lessons from these incidents. You will be most effective when you link your demands with political activism.

They should start getting their voter’s cards. Don’t wait for the last one month or two months because then your cards may fail to arrive.

“There is no force more powerful than the youths in Nigeria in terms of voting. They should become politically active and send some messages.

“Based on what happened, I came to the conclusion that the youths should plan to take their country back from 2023.

I’m a democrat and I will not encourage anything that will subvert democracy.

“You voted for some people and you have to see it through.

Start planning now for the next election. Don’t let anybody tell you it is too early.

“One powerful signal the youths can send is that they won’t support anybody who today is above the age of 60. If you all unite on that, I bet you, all the ambitious people who are below 60 will be struggling to curry favour from you.

“When you send out that signal forcefully, they will obey you.”

Furthermore, Peterside

Meanwhile, the Chairman of

Continued on page 6

as Orderly Room Trial by the Command.

“The Orderly Room trial commenced on Monday, 01/04/2019 and ended on Thursday 04/04/2019.

“They were tried on three count charges: (1) Discreditable Conduct (2) Unlawful and Unnecessary Exercise of Authority and (3) Damage to Clothing or Other Articles contrary to Paragraph E (iii), Q (ii) and D (i) First Schedule, Police Act and Regulations, Cap 370 LFN 1990.

“At the conclusion of the trial, the first defaulter, Inspector Ogunyemi Olalekan was found guilty of Discreditable conduct by acting in a manner

prejudicial to discipline and unbecoming of members of the Force by shooting and killing Kolade Johnson; Unlawful and Unnecessary exercise of authority by using unnecessary violence, by using AK 47 rifle on the deceased in total neglect to the provisions of Force Order 237 on the use of Firearms.

“The Adjudicating Officer, CSP Indyar Apev awarded the punishment of dismissal from service and prosecution to the First defaulter.

“There was no evidence linking the second defaulter, Sergeant Godwin Orji to the shooting, he was therefore found not guilty and discharged and acquitted.”

LAGOS PUTS 20 POLICEMEN ON TRIAL FOR MURDER, RIGHTS ABUSES Justice Coker.

“6. State of Lagos v. Sgt. Adebayo Abdullah – Involuntary Manslaughter. Adjourned to 28/11/2020. Hon Justice Coker.

“7. State of Lagos v. Insp.

A Mohammed and 2 ORS – Armed Robbery. Adjourned to 10/11/2020. Hon Justice Sonaike.

“8. State of Lagos v. Matthew Ohansi – Murder. Adjourned to 19/11/2020.

“9. State of Lagos v. 1. Sgt. Segun Okun 2. Capt. Adekunle Oluwarotimi – Manslaughter and Attempted Murder. Last adjournment date 15/7/2020, Court to give next date. Hon Justice Nicole Clay.

“10. State of Lagos v.

Adamu Dare – Murder. Last

adjournment date 29/09/2020, Court to give next date. Hon Justice Nicole Clay.

“11. State of Lagos v.

Sgt. Mark Argo and 5 ORS – Conspiracy and Armed Robbery. Next adjournment date 18/11/2020. Hon Justice Nicole Clay.

“12. State of Lagos v. Corp.

Pepple Boma – Manslaughter.

Court to give next date. Hon Justice Nicole Clay.

“13. State of Lagos v. Insp.

Emmanuel Akpobana – Attempted Murder. Court to give ruling date. Hon Justice Balogun.

“14. State of Lagos v.

Emmanuel Uyankweke –

Involuntary Manslaughter.

Case part held. Hon Justice Akintoye.

“15. State of Lagos v.

Akanbi Lukmon – Involuntary Manslaughter. Information filed.

“16. State of Lagos v. Edokhe Omokhide – Murder. Adjourned to 12/11/2020. Hon Justice Akinkigbe “17. State of Lagos v. Afolabi Saka – Murder. Newly filed.

“18. State of Lagos v. Monday Gabriel – Murder. Newly filed.

“19. State of Lagos v.

Yahya Adeshina. Involuntary Manslaughter. Ready for filing.

“20. State of Lagos v. Aremu Museliu – Murder. Ready for arraignment. Hon Justice Shonaike.”

One of the indicted police officers, the dismissed Inspector Olalekan has been arraigned for murder after the police disciplinary committee found him guilty of killing Johnson on March 31, 2019, during a raid by the anti-cultism unit of the police command at Onipetesi, Lagos-Abeokuta road. This was confirmed in a statement by the Lagos Police spokesman, Bala Elkana, who declared that Olalekan was found guilty.

The statement said, “The two police officers alleged to have been involved in the shooting of Kolade Johnson on 31/03/2019 were apprehended and subjected to internal disciplinary proceedings, known

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NEWS #ENDSARS: 62 CONFIRMED KILLED, LAGOS DESTRUCTION MAY SURPASS N1TRN TO REBUILD criticised the speech of Buhari on Thursday night.

According to him, the President should have made reference to all those who lost their lives and not handpicked cops who died on duty amid the civil unrest of the last few weeks.

Oyetola Suspends 24-Hour Curfew In a related development, the Osun State government yesterday suspended the ongoing 24-hour curfew imposed three days ago due to unending protest by the youth protesters.

It noted the high level of compliance with the 24-hour curfew earlier declared to forestall the breakdown of law and order.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the state Governor Gboyega Oyetola, Mallam Ismail Omipidan commended the residents and citizens of Osun for their show of understanding and cooperation in the last 48 hours of the curfew.

21 Stations Attacked, One Policeman Beheaded in Anambra After the wave of attacks that rocked Anambra State between Tuesday and Thursday, the state police command has begun counting losses in the state.

A release by the Anambra State Police Command's Public Relations Officer, SP Haruna Mohammed showed that 21 police divisions were so far attacked by hoodlums who disguised as protesters, while seven of them were burnt down.

This was contained in a press statement titled: Update on attacks by hoodlums on police formations and other government facilities in Anambra State, a copy of which was made availabe to THISDAY on Friday.

Haruna said, "On the 21/10/2020 at about 11:30pm hoodlums in large number under the guise of "END SARS"protesters attacked Nnewi Police Station, set it ablaze and vandalised patrol vehicles and other exhibits but were prevented from assessing the armoury where they planned to cart away arms due to strong resistance from the police men on duty.

Similarly, on the 22/10/2020 between 3:30am and 5:pm, the hoodlums in large number equally attacked Nnewi Area Command, 3-3 Division, Ogbunike/ Isiuwulu, Nnobi, and Itchy Divisions as well as Peoples Club police post, burnt Police vehicles and set the facilities ablaze. They also carted away exhibits kept at the Divisions.

"Meanwhile, one police officer was beheaded and burnt to ashes while three others sustained various degrees of injuries. The injured police officers were rushed to the hospital for medical attention and they are responding to treatment."

He listed seven other police stations that the hoodlums attempted to attack, but were repelled to include; CPS/Area Command Onitsha, Ogidi, Awada, Inland Town and B'Division Awka.

Haruna said the hoodlums were successfully repelled, following resistance from police operatives in collaboration with members of the communities comprising of youths, vigilante and community leaders at Okpoko, CPS Awka, Oraifite, Otolo, Amichi and Oba. Speaking on policemen attacked, Haruna said,

"However, five persons were attacked in Onitsha and taken to the hospital for medical attention where three have been confirmed dead by the medical doctor while two others are receiving treatment.

"Other government property burnt or destroyed includes High Court Ogidi, Idemili North LG Secretariat, while Zik Statue at DMGS roundabout, Onitsha was vandalised. Arrest was equally made."

The command thanked the state governor, Chief Willie Obiano, saying that he was responsible for the successes recorded in curtailing the protest.

Meanwhile, as at the time of filling this report, Awka, the Anambra State capital and other major towns are peaceful, just as there is limited activities as a result of the 24 hours curfew imposed on the state

by Governor Willie Obiano.

Sunday Dare: Why Buhari Hasn’t Spoken on Lekki Shooting Sunday Dare, Minister of Youth and Sports, says President Muhammadu Buhari will speak to the public on the Lekki shooting when he has all the facts.

Speaking on Arise Television on Friday, Dare said Buhari has ordered an investigation into the shooting incident.

“For sure, the president has ordered an investigation. He had a national security meeting yesterday. I can tell you that this is already ongoing because the president wants to have all the facts which will absolutely be made public,” the minister said.

“It is important to get all the facts right before we go forward, in this case. It’s going to be difficult to hide these facts because we live in a multimedia world and we have pieces of evidence and corroboration and I think it is important to get the facts right.

“I think that’s the part the president has towed and I am sure that when the facts are made available, this president – because he has integrity – will level with the Nigerian people about what happened on Tuesday in Lekki.

“Previously, we just had lip service that SARS scrapped.

For the first time, you have a presidential pronouncement that SARS has been dissolved followed by the inspector-general and then we saw quick steps thereafter.

“And I think when you look at what has happened in the past and the level of responsiveness and concrete steps, the whole five demands of the youth were wholeheartedly accepted by the president and he set up a process.”

‘Invasion of Oba of Lagos Palace is Desecration of Culture, Tradition’ The Adeniji-Adele Royal Family has cried out that the invasion and vandalisation of the palace of the Oba of Lagos by hoodlums is not only abominable but a desecration of the culture and traditions of the kingdom.

The family, in a statement signed by Dr. Habeeb Gbadebo Adeniji-Adele on behalf of Oba Adeniji-Adele Royal Family said "this desecration is completely unacceptable and a traditional abomination with grave consequences for the perpetrators of these acts.

"We, the Oba Adeniji Adele Descendants hereby condemn this ugly incident and also stand

in total solidarity with our dear Royal Father, Oba Rilwanu Babatunde Osuolale Akiolu 1,and all White Cap Chiefs of Lagos in this trying period."

The family said they were shocked by the vandalism, saying that some "items of our traditional and ancestral heritage" were carted away by the vandals.

"The vandalisation on our ancestral Home was an attack on the indigenes of Lagos and very alien to our great culture.

The family therefore calls on all indigenes of Lagos to rise up and protect our traditional and ancestral heritage of Lagos.

"Anyone behind the desecration and violation of Iga Idunganran shall know no peace and will ultimately be humiliated."

Hausa,Yoruba Youths Clash at Fagba, Lagos A renewed clash between Hausa and Yoruba youths at Fagba, Iju Ishaga area of Lagos State yesterday left many injured.

One of the residents said there are causalities, but that could not be immediately ascertained by our correspondent.

There are also reports that buildings were damaged during the ongoing fight.

Another resident, Aina, told our correspondent that “We have not been able to leave our homes. They started the fight on Tuesday. We thought it was over yesterday until they renewed the fight again today.

“I don’t know the cause of the fight, but I saw people running helter-skelter some minutes ago.”

Also yesterday in Lagos, hoodlums vandalised the Sonic Japan warehouse in Abule Osun area of Lagos State, carting away valuable items such as gas cookers, generators, fans and other home appliances.

According to residents of the area, the hoodlums came in from the Tedi Mowe and Barracks area of the state.

Governor Udom Extends Curfew Akwa Ibom State government has announced the extension of curfew by 13 hours from 12noon yesterday to 7am on Saturday, 24th October 2020.

The curfew was imposed by Governor Udom Emmanuel, following the violent demonstration that erupted after two persons suspected to be EndSARS protesters were shot dead by a suspected security agent along Willington Bassey Way, Uyo Akwa Ibom State.

The commissioner for Information and Strategy, Ini Ememobong, in a statement yesterday said the extension was due to the unfolding events and situations being monitored by the state and security agencies.

Hoodlums Loot Osun COVID Palliatives Hoodlums yesterday looted COVID palliatives kept in warehouses located on the premises of Cocoa Processing Industrial, Ede, Osun State.

In video footage of the incident obtained by our correspondent, people were seeing carrying packs of noodles and bags of rice out of the premises.

The lawmaker representing Ede North State Constituency, Kofoworola Babajide, confirmed the incident.

He said, “They broke the warehouse before military men got there.”

Fayemi Threatens

Arsonists, Looters The Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi has threatened to deal with anyone hiding under the facade of EndSARS protest to unleash looting and arson attacks on the state.

The governor said the tension generated by the killing of some protesters in Lekki area of Lagos should be allowed to simmer since President Buhari has promised to take proactive actions to heal the wounds, get justice for the victims and meet the protesters' demands.

Fayemi said this in Ado Ekiti during a state-wide broadcast aired by media houses based in Ekiti on Friday.

Fayemi urged the youths to be peaceful, assuring that all their rights would be protected by his government and the Federal, by extension.

"As a result of those who unleashed mayhem and brigandage on private and public property, the state government was compelled to impose a 24 hour curfew on the State.

"While calm has been restored in most parts of the state, we have decided to watch development over the weekend before deciding on next steps.

It is for this reason that I have extended the 24-hour curfew on the state until 0600hrs on Monday, 26th October 2020.

This painful action was taken in the best interest of ourselves to ensure that the crisis does not escalate since criminals enjoy mimicking violent occurrences in other places.

"In the meantime, security agencies have been instructed to exercise judicious restraint in response to the tense situation.

The intention of Government is to ensure peace, under no condition should indiscretional responses be allowed to escalate the situation. I therefore appeal for the cooperation of our people and the security personnel who are doing a tremendous job to ensure that we live in peace.

"As for those who may still want to test the resolve of government by engaging in violent action leading to a breakdown of law and order, I urge you to think twice because I will not hesitate to bring the full weight of the law against such errant conduct".

Meanwhile, a Pan Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere Renewal Group(ARG), has declared that those hiding under the cover of EndSARS Protests to launch attacks on Yoruba heritage with sinister motive to destroy it, would be resisted.

Jonathan: No Nation Can Defeat its People Former president Goodluck Jonathan has condemned the “use of deadly force” on #EndSARS protesters in Lagos.

The former President who made his position known in a statement titled, “A call for Peace”, also comforted the families of those who had died in the course of the protests.

In a statement, Jonathan said such actions would only worsen the situation, calling on all parties to embrace dialogue.

The former president said the event of recent days had been a difficult to him.

He said the task of building a nation must involve both the old and the young, adding that Nigeria “cannot afford to lose the lives of our youth who we look up to take over leadership and continue our nation’s journey to greatness”.

Jonathan said: “As leaders, we must understand that a nation can never win a battle against

its own people. Thus, the use of deadly force against citizens only aggravates tense situations rather than assuage it. We must therefore move away from battlegrounds to middle grounds in our individual and national life. This, I believe, epitomises the essence of democracy.

“I condemn any unnecessary loss of life and urge efforts to be stepped up to ensure that there is no such reoccurrence.

“We all must accept that we are all brothers and sisters of one Nigeria, and always act towards each other accordingly.”

Jonathan, said “nobody’s interest is worth the blood of any Nigerian citizen,” and asked security agencies to ensure maximum restraint is applied in carrying out their constitutional responsibilities of protecting lives and property.

He urged aggrieved Nigerians to sheathe their swords, embrace peace, and give a chance to the efforts being made in some states to investigate cases of impunity against security personnel.

He noted that nation building is a collective task and urged everyone to continue to have faith in Nigeria, and to be circumspect in their actions and peaceful in their engagements.

“Nation-building is a collective task that involves the genuine efforts of all patriotic citizens; old or young. Our country cannot afford to lose the lives of our youth who we look up to take over leadership and continue our nation’s journey to greatness.

“As leaders, we must understand that a nation can never win a battle against its own people. Thus, the use of deadly force against citizens only aggravates tense situations rather than assuage it. We must therefore move away from battlegrounds to middle grounds in our individual and national life. This, I believe, epitomises the essence of democracy,” the former president added.

#EndSARS Group Stops Receiving Funds Feminist Coalition, a not-forprofit organisation and one of the leading supporters of the #EndSARS campaign, has urged protesters to stay indoors and observe the curfew in their respective states.

The group also said it received a total of N147.8m cash donations in favour of the #EndSARS protests against brutality and extrajudicial killings by men of the nowdisbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force.

It said the funds were raised “through the generosity of wellmeaning people and concerned Nigerians who want their voices to be heard and their demands to be met.”

The group, however, said following the speech by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Thursday night, it made a decision to “stop all donation inflows for the #EndSARS peaceful protest.”

It added, “The rest of the donations will go towards funding medical emergencies, legal aid for wrongfully detained citizens, and relief for victims of police brutality and families of the deceased.”

The group, whose objectives include “fighting injustice through peaceful protests, fundraising, and social media organisation” disclosed this in a statement on Thursday titled, ‘A Statement from the Feminist Coalition’.

The statement was co-signed

by Damilola Odufuwa, Odunayo Eweniyi, Layo Ogunbanwo,

Ozzy Etomi, Ire Aderinokun, Fakhrriyyah Hashim, Oluwaseun Osowobi, Jola Ayeye, Laila Johnson-Salami, Karo Omu, Obiageli Alintah, Tito Ovia, Kiki Mordi and FK Abudu.

The statement partly read, “The past two weeks have been tough for many Nigerians, most especially the last two days.

Many lives have been lost and properties destroyed at the height of what started as peaceful marches for the end to police brutality.

“The Feminist Coalition condoles with every Nigerian mother, father, son, daughter who has lost a loved one in these trying times. These Nigerians share the same vision for a better country as we all do and should be duly recognised as heroes.

“Following the President’s address, we hereby encourage all young Nigerians to stay safe, stay home, and observe the mandated curfew in your state.

“The Feminist Coalition has made a decision to henceforth stop all donation inflows for the #EndSARS peaceful protest.

The rest of the donations will go towards funding medical emergencies, legal aid for wrongfully detained citizens, and relief for victims of police brutality and families of the deceased.

“We wish to emphasize that we will no longer be accepting donations for #EndSARS going forward.”

The President had in a broadcast last night said, “I would like to appeal to protesters to note and take advantage of the various well-thought-out initiatives of this administration designed to make their lives better and more meaningful and resist the temptation of being used by some subversive elements to cause chaos with the aim of truncating our nascent democracy.

“For you to do otherwise will amount to undermining national security and the law and order situation. Under no circumstances will this be tolerated.

“I, therefore, call on our youths to discontinue the street protests and constructively engage government in finding solutions. Your voice has been heard loud and clear and we are responding.”

US Urges Nigeria to Prosecute Killers of Protesters The United States Government has condemned the shooting of unarmed demonstrators by military forces in Lagos, leading to death and injury.

The U.S. Department of State, in a statement yesterday tagged ‘Ongoing Protests in Nigeria’, said, “The United States strongly condemns the use of excessive force by military forces who fired on unarmed demonstrators in Lagos, causing death and injury.

“We welcome an immediate investigation into any use of excessive force by members of the security forces. Those involved should be held to account in accordance with Nigerian law.”

According to the U.S. Government, the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression “are essential human rights and core democratic principles.

“We call on the security services to show maximum restraint and respect fundamental rights for demonstrators to remain peaceful.”

The US government extended its condolences to the victims of the violence and their families.

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER Ëž 24, 2020

Ă?ĂĄĂ? ĂŽĂ“ĂžĂ™Ăœ Ahamefula Ogbu 08116759810 (Ă?Ă—Ă? Ă™Ă˜Ă–ĂŁĚš Ă—Ă‹Ă“Ă– ahamefula.ogbu@thisdaylive.com

FG Seeks ECOWAS Cooperation against Illegal Trans-Border Gold Trade

Kasim Sumaina Ă“Ă˜ ĂŒĂ&#x;ÔË

With a view to delivering its maximum economic benefit, the federal government has called for collaboration and cooperation of West African leaders in monitoring and halting illegal trans-border trade of solid minerals within the sub-region The Minister of State, Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah, stated this at the Opening Ceremony of Ouaga Dore, Gold West Africa in Burkina Faso.

Oga, in a statement to the press in Abuja by the Acting Director of Press of the ministry, Mr. Timothy Akpoili, while explaining efforts being made to diversify Nigeria economy, through the Mineral Sector, especially the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Initiative (PAGMI), said for the sub-region to properly harness the economic benefit of the abundant mineral resources, efforts must be made to curb illegal exploitation and transaction of minerals in the sub- region.

The Minister of State, who was a special invitee of the Burkinabe Government, emphasised the

need for sustainable peace and security in the sub-region to enable it leverage and harness the gold value chain for industrialisation, wealth and job creation for its teeming youths.

According to him, “you have made a quantum leap in the development of your artisanal and small-scale gold production and today’s presentation of refined gold bar medallions speaks volume to the international investors.�

He described the Gold festival and presentation of Gold bars sourced mainly from artisanal operators in the country as a significantly bold step in developing the Gold and Mining value chain and deepening integration across the West African economic corridor.

The minister applauded the Burkina Faso Government for putting in place the right policies, which had increased investment in the mining sector of the country, and led to the development of the country’s artisanal and small-scale gold production, as attested by the event.

Earlier, the Minister of Mining

Senate Queries Basin Authority over N220m Water Projects Deji Elumoye Ă“Ă˜ ĂŒĂ&#x;ÔË The Senate has queried the Niger Delta Basin Development Authority (NDBDA) over unexecuted water contracts worth N220 million in three out of the nine states that make up the Niger Delta Its committee on Public Accounts has therefore asked the parastatal under the federal ministry of Water Resources to account for the N220 million contracts awarded and fully paid for in 2012 but not executed in Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa states.

The Senate panel’s query was sequel to the adoption of the report of Auditor General of the Federation, Anthony Ayine, which exposed alleged massive corruption in the Niger Delta Basin Development Authority.

The contracts totaling over N220 million were awarded on October 18, 2012.

The Auditor General’s Report read in part: “N9.2 million being expenditure for unexecuted contract for the construction of 10 No’s Mono hand pump boreholes in Obio-Akpor LGA Rivers state was awarded to a company through letter reference AD/ NDBDS/C/20/12/050 and dated 18th October, 2012. It was claimed that the job has been completed and payment effected. “However, audit inspection revealed the boreholes on the sites were in existence even before the contract was awarded. “The contract for the construction of Solar power water project at Ekwetortor Delta State was awarded to a company on October 18, 2012 at contract price of N10 million with completion of six and half weeks. The total contract sum had been paid but a visit to the site showed that the solar power was not working as the residents confirmed. It was further observed that some aspect of the job in Beme were not carried out.

N3.8 million value of the contract has not been done. “The contract for the rehabilitation of Otir Ewhu water project was awarded on 18th October, 2012 at the contract price of N40 million. Examination of payment vouchers revealed that the sum of N36 million paid into contractor included contingency provision of N3.5m the reason for the inclusion for justification for the utilisation of the contingency was provided.

During inspection, it was observed that some provision of BEME were out as stated.

The Managing Director has been requested to recover N13 million being value of work not done and unexplained expenditure. “The contract for the construction of solar power boreholes in 19 various communities in Bayelsa was awarded to a company on October 18th October, 2012 at contract price of N238 million with completion period of three months . “The BEME for the job had provision for items of measurable nature and items value that have no strengthening and capacity building throughput the duration of the project, providing for riverine transportation cost of upland locations contingencies and so on to the tune of N33 million which was expended without recourse to extant regulations .

Payment for the contract value had been effected vide 2 PVs. No’s 026 of 11/072013 and 080/ of 01/11/2013.

However a visit to two of the sites (Ebenedebiri and Trofani) showed that the total value of work not done at two locations was N14 million because the project at Trofani was not executed. “The sum of N14 million paid for work not done and provisional inclusion spent without recourse to the extant regulations, respectively, cannot constitute legitimate change against public funds.�

and Quarries, Burkina Faso, Oumarou Idani thanked the minister for honouring the invitation and disclosed that the country was endowed with gold and manganese which were

its chief sources of its revenue generation.

Mr. Idani, stated that his country was working on attracting investors as well as supporting and promoting the production

of gold jewelries for export within and outside Africa, saying “we have a history of gold jewelers craft men in the country.�

Also, the Nigerian Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Mr. Zachariah

Mallam Ifu, said the Nigerian Embassy was looking at areas of collaboration that would facilitate bilateral transactions between Nigeria and Burkina Faso in the solid minerals sector.

CONFERING FOR SECURITY...

L-R: Zamafara State Governor, Alhaji Bello Muhammad Matawalle; President Muhammadu Buhari and Chief of Sta, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari during a visit to the State House, Abuja

Strike : Stakeholders Back ASUU, Ask FG to Secure Future of Nigerian Child Kemi Olaitan Ă“Ă˜ ĂŒĂ‹ĂŽĂ‹Ă˜

Stakeholders in the education sector, Friday threw their weight behind the ongoing strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), for improved funding for the revitalisation of public varsities and new salaries for the lecturers.

The stakeholders gave the backing at the engagement programme organised by the Ibadan Zone of the union held at the University of Ibadan Conference Centre, to brief them on the reasons ASUU embarked on the current strike and suggestions from members of the public.

The Ibadan Zonal Coordina-

tor of ASUU, Prof. Ade Adejumo who was represented by the former National Treasurer of the union, Prof. Ademola Aremu, said the plan of the government was for the children of the masses to continue to serve their own children who were educated abroad by deliberately under-funding public university education.

Those present at the engagement include the Chairman, University of Ibadan ASUU, Prof. Ayo Akinwole; Prof. Moyo Ajao (UNILORIN); Dr. Biodun Olaniran (LAUTECH); Dr. Femi Abanikanda (UNIOSUN), Dr. Adesola Dauda (KWASU) and Dr. Dele Ashiru (UNILAG).

While taking the stakeholders through the journey of ASUU

strike, Aremu said the union was fighting for the interest of children of the masses and the future of the country knowing fully well that an uneducated child will become terror to the country.

He stated that the Federal Government had not been faithful towards fulfilling the agreements it reached with the union but preferred to allocate more funds for the executive and the legislative arms of government.

He maintained that the strike

by ASUU was focused on funding for the revitalisation of public universities as contained in the FGN-ASUU Memorandum of Understanding of 2012 & 2013 and the Memorandum of Action

of 2017 and 2019; payment of arrears and mainstreaming of Earned academic allowances; renegotiation of 2009 agreement, constitution of visitation panels to universities, and remittance of withheld third-party deductions from ASUU members.

The President, University of Ibadan, Students Union Government, Comrade Segun Akeju, in his remarks, while supporting the union on the strike for the revitalisation of universities also urged it to carry students along in their strikes.

He noted that there was no way the strike would not affect the students but asked that the union should ensure that the strike achieves the reasons for going on the strike.

Youths Suspend Planned Shutdown Nigeria Hires Specialist to Settle Litigation with Eni SpA of Niger Hydro Electric Dams LaleyeDipoĂ“Ă˜ Ă“Ă˜Ă˜Ă‹

Respite has come the way of the Abuja Electricity Development Company AEDC following the decision of members of the Northern Youth Council of Nigeria NYCN to suspend its planned protest which would have included the shutting down of all Hydro Electric dams in the state.

The NYCN in conjunction with the Arewa Youth Movement and the Niger State House of Assembly Committee on Labour and Productivity had initially planned the protest for Saturday October 24, this year.

The protest was to force the AEDC to improve electricity supply to communities in the state which the organisation had failed to do despite appeals from many quarters saying that consumers were not paying their bills

Addressing the Niger state House of Assembly Committee on Labour and Productivity, the Niger State chapter chairman of the NYCN Malam Bello Sheriff said the suspension of the planned shutting down of the hydro dams was as a result of “security report� obtained by the group from the state Police Commissioner.

Sheriff said at a meeting the group held with the police Commissioner they were told that hundreds of people suspected to be thugs hired by unnamed persons arrived the state early in the week and are allegedly being lodged in several hotels.

According to him the Police believed that these people will hijack the protest and could embark on destruction of government and private assets if the protest was allowed to go on.

Festus Akanbi The federal government has recruited a specialist in settling litigation to participate in talks with Eni SpA over a long-running dispute over oil rights and bribery allegations.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva is said to have hired London-based consultancy Franklin Wyatt to represent and advise the federal government in “outstanding commercial and legal issues� over Oil Prospecting License 245, or OPL 245.

The Bloomberg, which reported the deal yesterday, said it was struck on June 29.

The report said Silva’s letter to Franklin Wyatt dated June 29 and was addressed to Franklin Wyatt’s managing partner, Matthew Carey.

The letter “serves as confirmation� that Franklin Wyatt’s

recruitment was approved by Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, and “may be produced as evidence� of the firm’s “authority to represent the ministry in discussions with relevant counterparties,� according to the document. As well as being head of state, President Buhari is also Nigeria’s senior minister of petroleum resources - with Sylva serving as his deputy.

Garba Deen Muhammad, a spokesman for Sylva, was quoted as confirming that the ministry of petroleum resources had hired Franklin Wyatt to “represent Nigeria on the Eni issue�, without providing further details. Bloomberg reports that Eni and Franklin Wyatt declined to comment.

Franklin Wyatt is a specialist disputes consultancy that often works on cases involving sovereign countries, according to its website.

8

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ 24, 2020

NEWS

OPC Threatens to Enforce Security if Violence Persists Deji Elumoye in Abuja The Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), a pan-Yoruba security outfit, has said it may be compelled

to call out its men to engage with hoodlums to prevent further loss of lives and property in the South-west.

A statement yesterday by

Otunba Wasiu Afolabi, OPC Deputy President to the Late Founder, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, called for “an immediate stop to the destruction of lives and bil-

lions of Naira worth of property in the South-West.”

Afolabi issued the statement after OPC’s executives held a meeting at the Century Hotel,

TWO GOOD HEADS...

L-R: Chief of Staff t the President, Prof brahim Gambari and Vice President Yemi Osinabjo at a virtual meeting with former Heads of State by President Muhammadu Buhari…yesterday

in Okota-Isolo area of Lagos, to review events of the last few days.

Lamenting the Lekki Tollgate killings on Tuesday and the subsequent wanton destruction of lives and property, Otunba Afolabi (alias “Askari,”) said that rioters should withdraw from the streets and end the era of violence.

OPC also called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to immediately empanel commissions of enquiry at both the federal and state levels to investigate, identify and sanction those behind Tuesday’s shooting of unarmed protesters at the Lekki Toll Plaza in Lagos.

“Such a heinous crime must not be swept under the carpet; or else we shall be nurturing a licence-to-kill mentality in our military men and security operatives, as well as open up our civilian citizenry to the abuse and impunity of those supposed to protect us,” Afolabi said.

OPC noted that the peaceful conduct of the #EndSARS protests had been hijacked by hoodlums who now found an opportunity to loot, cause mayhem and destroy the economic basis of the region.

“Private businesses, many of whom like OPC, backed the

highly credible #EndSARS campaign, should not suffer for the ineptitude of the government and the criminality of evil policemen.

And OPC as an organisation will not fold its arms and watch the region turned into the scapegoat of the #EndSARS protests,” the OPC Deputy President said.

However, the organisation noted that every agitation must end on the negotiation table and time had come for campaigners to step back and see whether or not the government would fulfil its promise to end SARS and bring about massive reforms in the police.

Afolabi said: “The #EndSARS campaigns got our unflinching support and we fully backed the protesters. Not only is it their legitimate and constitutionallyguaranteed right to express our collective pain, but indeed and in fact that arm of the Nigeria Police had turned itself into an unruly terrorist clique with clear and verifiable abuses of citizens’ rights to life, movement and liberty. As citizens, those protesting had a duty to denounce SARS and FSARS operatives in order to prevent them from continuing their evil business as usual.”

USAID Provides $136.5m to Fight HIV/AIDS in Nigeria

NGE, PJAN Condemn Attack on Media Houses, Journalists

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Nigerian Guild of Editors has demanded adequate security for journalists and media houses, condemning recent attack on some of them as unwarranted.

The Guild, in a statement yesterday, signed by its President, Mustapha Isah and General Secretary, Mary Atolagbe, said, “The call for adequate security for media houses has become imperative because of Tuesday’s attacks on Television Continental (TVC), The Nation Newspapers, Lagos Television and Traffic Radio. Other media houses such as Channels TV and Galaxy TV had to go off air temporarily as a precautionary measure.”

The Guild stated that the media

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced additional development assistance of $136.5 million, which is about N52 billion to support Nigeria under a bilateral Development Objectives Assistance Agreement (DOAG) with the United States signed in 2015.

The additional funding was aimed at boosting activities to combat trafficking in persons, mitigate conflict, peace, and counter violent extremism, as well as control and prevention of HIV/AIDS. The US Mission in Abuja disclosed this in a statement issued yesterday.

It read: “USAID recently announced additional development assistance of $136.5 million (NGN 52 billion) to continue its support to Nigeria under a bilateral Development Objectives Assistance Agreement (DOAG) with the United States signed in 2015.

“With this most recent notification to the government of the incremental funding increase, USAID has provided Nigeria $1.94 billion (N743 billion) in assistance under the seven-year DOAG. “Most of the assistance, nearly $133.5 million, will go to HIV/AIDS control under several new and existing awards that focus on prevention and treatment in some of the most vulnerable areas of the country.

“Another $3 million boosts activities to combat trafficking in persons, mitigate conflict, peace, and counter violent extremism, and $219,566 will expand USAID’s efforts to increase access to potable

water and reduce water borne diseases in Nigeria.”

The USAID Mission Director, Dr. Anne Patterson, was quoted to have said that Nigeria as the most populous country in Africa with the largest economy, has tremendous potential and influence over the future of the continent.

According to Patterson, With this additional funding, the United States continues to demonstrate its commitment to supporting development programs that will benefit the Nigerian people.

The United States is responsible for 80 per cent of the AIDS treatment provided in Nigeria. About 1.9 million Nigerians are living with HIV/ AIDS, according to the U.S. supported Nigeria HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS) of 2018.

Patterson added that in 2020, USAID tested 2.4 million Nigerians for HIV, and placed 89 per cent of the 119,000 who tested positive on antiretroviral therapy, bringing the total number of Nigerians on USAID-supported HIV/ AIDS treatment to 377,500.

Other activities provide care and support for more than 600,000 children and family members orphaned or otherwise impacted by the virus. Through the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) initiative, over 5.4 million Nigerians have been tested for HIV and one million put on therapy.

“For the first time in modern history, we have the opportunity to control HIV without a vaccine. In partnership with government, civil society, the private sector, and communities, we can help Nigeria overcome this disease.”

Bennett Oghifo

should not be made to operate in an insecure atmosphere, which was its reason for its appeal to the government “to provide adequate security for media houses to enable them perform their Constitutional role of informing the public and holding leaders accountable to the people.”

They said, “The government should also consider providing compensation to the affected media houses to enable them bounce back and keep their employees at work.”

They noted that “the Nigerian media contributed immensely to the current democracy being enjoyed in Nigeria and should therefore operate in an atmosphere of unfettered access to information and peace.

“The Guild recalls that journal-

ists had engaged in reporting all sides since the #EndSARS protests erupted.

“This is against the background of their Constitutional duty of informing the public of developments in the country, and they discharged such responsibilities even at the risk of their lives.”

Also, Photjourlists Association of Nigeria (PJAN) has condemned recent attack on three of its members by hoodlums.

According to a statement by the association’s Chairman, Mr. Kola Olasupo and its Secretary, Mr Sylvester Okoruwa, two of the attacked members were staff of The Nation Newspapers, Deputy Photo Editor, Comrade Isaac Jimoh Ayodele and Abiodun Williams, Ayodele, also served as NUJ Lagos

Internal Auditor.

The statement said Okoruwa was attacked by hoodlums at Mofoluku area of Oshodi, Lagos, while taking shots of the burnt Makinde Police Station. Williams was attacked at Yaba after he identified himself as a Photojournalist to the hoodlums who accosted him.

They said the third member, Mr. Mike Otogo a Photojournalist with The Economy Magazine, was attacked at Ojodu area of Lagos when he went to photograph the Ojodu Police Station that was set ablaze by hoodlums.

They were lucky to escape, the statement said but their cameras were smashed, the officials said, adding. “This attack is one too many, we plead with the protesters to see us as partners.”

Inactivity of Appointees Exposing Buhari Amaechi: Economic Development, Antidote to Unfair Criticisms, Says PGF DG for Crime Reduction, Better Security Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja The Director General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Dr. Salihu Lukman, has said that the inactivity of some appointees of President Muhammadu Buhari was exposing him to unfair criticisms.

He said while he had no reason to doubt their competence, but added that the inability of party leaders at all levels to work as a united front was slowing down the process.

The director general said that this had in many ways contributed to the frustration exhibited by Nigerian youths as witnessed with the #EndSARS protest.

The party chieftain explained that part of the bigger worry was also that appointees of government with the mandate to facilitate seamless engagement somehow are not producing the needed democratic responses.

Lukman stated this yesterday in Abuja during the media presentation of his new book, ‘APC and Progressive Politics in Nigeria’, saying that the #EndSARS protest was a culmination of years of failed engagements between the people and government appointees.

He stated: “Poor engagement of policy demands by groups in the country presented to elected governments through protests is a major problem. This requires that as a party privileged to be elected into government, we need to make efforts to change this reality. What differentiates democracy from any dictatorship is the capacity to engage citizens and based on such engagement shape public policy. Being a progressive party with a progressive government this should be seamless. Actually, it is the Next Level we should be working to take Nigerian politics to”.

Kasim Sumaina in Abuja With the level of insecurities bedeviling the country presently, the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, yesterday hinted that economic development was the only antidote for crime reduction and better security.

According to him, the only way there could be reduction in crime and better functionality by the security agencies in Nigeria was when there is infrastructural and economic development using the railway transportation as a case study.

The Minister stated this at a lecture delivered to participants of the National Defence College, Course 29, in Abuja.

Amaechi, in a statement by the Director Press of the ministry, Eric Ejiekwe, gave several instances where there was chaos and unrest by some

aggrieved Nigerians and the way he tackled the issue as a Governor and Minster of Transportation was to address infrastructural development that curbed youth luke warmness and restlessness.

According to him, “to create jobs we had to construct the railways and roads. This process saw a lot of Nigerians being engaged and insecurity dropped drastically.”

He noted that in the education sector, “we employed, 13, 200 teachers, we set up a banana farm with a capacity to employ over 500 persons every day and this saw a lot of jobless youths being engaged.

He said, “In 2013 the cost of tomatoes was extremely high and the then Minister of Agriculture invited me for a meeting and he said to me, can you provide railway transportation from Kano to Lagos .

9

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER Ëž Í°Í˛Ëœ Í°ÍŽÍ°ÍŽ

NEWS #ENDSARS‌#ENDSARS‌#ENDSARS‌#ENDSARS‌#ENDSARS‌#ENDSARS‌

Domestic Airlines Resume Flights from Lagos after Curfew Chinedu Eze

Domestic airlines have announced that they would resume flights from Lagos after the curfew, Saturday and would now connect other destinations from the commercial city.

Air Peace, Dana Air and Arik Air said that they were poised to resume full flight from Lagos.

The airlines relocated their operations to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja from where they connected to the states that were not under curfew like Kano, Kaduna, Yola and other cities.

With the curfew, which started last Tuesday being relaxed weekend, the airlines would resume flights from their Lagos hub.

The airlines said arrangements were on top gear to ensure seamless facilitation of passengers from Saturday.

Dana Air image-maker, Kingsley Ezenwa, said all tickets within the period of the curfew remain valid and can be rescheduled for free. “Following our earlier announcement on cancellation, we are pleased to

inform you that we will resume full flight operations from tomorrow the 24th of October 2020. “All tickets within the period of the curfew remain valid and can be rescheduled for free by sending an email to contact@flydanaair. com or a chat to our WhatsApp number 07051190363 Head of Communications, Arik Air, Adebanji

Catholic Bishop Faults Deployment of Soldiers to Lekki Toll Victor Ogunje Ă“Ă˜ ĂŽĂ™ ÕÓÞÓ The Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, Most Rev Felix Ajakaye, has blamed the Nigerian Army for deploying men of Operation Crocodile Smile Vl to coincide with a nationwide protest tagged 'EndSARS', saying this was largely responsible for the killings of peaceful protesters in Lekki area of Lagos.

In a statement issued in Ado Ekiti yesterday, the Bishop appealed to Nigerian youths to register and collect their voter cards from the Independent National Electoral Commission to effect the real change Nigerians deserved in the 2023 general polls.

Bemoaning the deployment of soldiers to dislodge legitimate protesters, Ajakaye said: "I regard the soldiers’ shooting

of the worthy protesters of #ENDSARS at the Lekki Toll Plaza, Lagos, as murder, and there is the urgent need to bring the perpetrators of the heinous crime to book.

"Unlike what the Nigerian Army told us then that the soldiers who killed the revered and noble heroine, late Mama Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (legendary Fela’s mother), were ‘unknown soldiers’, in this age and time, this is not acceptable.

"The NigerianArmy is claiming that the blood thirsty men in army uniform were not its members. Then, why were the ‘real’ soldiers not deployed to counter the ‘fake’ soldiers when the evil action was going on? We need urgent answer now from the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai and particularly, from the President and the

Commander-in-Chief.

"The introduction of the ‘Crocodile Smile’ during this struggle by the youths, whether involved or not, is ill-advised.

Nigerians, our authentic foreign friends and sympathisers are not smiling at all.

"When the nation is ‘burning’ and people are brutally murdered, I cannot imagine how and why the president will exhibit insensitivity in this very trying period in the history of Nigeria".

Ajakaye described the deployment of soldiers at this crucial time of legitimate protests as part of the militarisation of politics in Nigeria.

"Tuesday, October 20, 2020 will be part of Nigeria’s history, and this must be taught to generations from generations when the teaching of History

as a subject finally resumes in Nigeria.

"As I stated before, on the current wave of protests, tagged #ENDSARS, I would like the Federal Government of Nigeria to listen to the people’s grievances, not only against SARS and Police brutality, but also against indifferences to people’s plights, injustice, bad governance, recycled and incompetent leadership, insecurity, deceit, mistrust, with hunger and anger in Nigeria.

"The government should act promptly and should be seen doing concrete things for the good of all. I humbly appeal to the worthy protesters to exercise decorum and to be civil in their utterances and actions, and never to allow those who may want to use the protest for their criminal agenda and activities.

NACCIMA Sues for Calm, Dialogue Dike Onwuamaeze The Nigerian Association of Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) has sued for calm and called for a frank dialogue between the leaders of the protesting youth and various arms of government at all levels in order to douse the violence sweeping across the country in the aftermath of the protest.

A press statement titled “An Urgent Call for Calm and Frank Dialogue to End #EndSARS Crisis and Ongoing Violence,� whichwassignedandissuedyesterday by the National President of NACCIMA, Mrs. Saratu Iya Aliyu,saidthattheobjectivenow

should be to de-escalate the crisis being witnessed, which started with what is now known as the #EndSARSprotestsbytheyouth.

Aliyu observed that it was unfortunate that a hitherto peaceful and legitimate protest had been hijacked by thugs and miscreants, resulting in attack on businesses,destructionofgovernmentproperties,burningofpolice stations and correctional centres.

She said: “We recognise the right of citizens to peaceful legitimate protests, but we condemn and are totally against the wantondestructionofproperties and looting by hoodlums who have hijacked the peaceful protests. We cannot sit by and

allow the looting and other criminal acts by hoodlums to go on unchecked. We must work with others to put an end to the violence and lawlessness we are now witnessing. “We are, therefore, calling for an end to the involvement of the military in current situation. The impact of the crisis and wanton destruction of property as being witnessed is clear for all to see.

Goods worth billions of Naira have been lost in arson and looting. Business operations have also been seriously impacted whiletheNACCIMA's effortsas anationalchamberofcommerce to help project our country as a favourable investment friendly

destination to foreign investors over the years is now suffering a serious setback. At a period we are still struggling with the negativeimpactofCOVID-19on our economy and working on economic recovery, we must not byactsofcommissionoromission, aggravateoureconomicsituation. “As a national chamber, we cannot and should not stand by and watch the current crisis spiral out of control and result in anarchy and lawlessness.

We have the patriotic duty to join other stakeholders for an end to the crisis, not just because of our businesses,butbecauseofournation at this historic junction and for the sake of posterity.�

Masari Inaugurates Judicial Panel of Inquiry Francis Sardauna Ă“Ă˜ Ă‹ĂžĂ?Ă“Ă˜Ă‹ The Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari has inaugurated the judicial panel of inquiry to investigate the alleged cases of human rights violation and extortion against the disbanded Special AntiRobbery Squad (SARS) in the state.

Inaugurating the 11-man judicial panel headed by Justice Abbas Abdullahi Bawale at Government House yesterday, Masari said the nation was

passing through one of its most trying times that call for the deployment of democratic tenets to address the problems.

Consequently, the governor explained that integrity, transparency and good conduct remained the cardinal principles that members of the commission must imbibe and maintain while discharging their assignment.

He said: "The terms of reference of the commission as contained in the instrument establishing it are; investigate

and determine the constitutionality and the lawfulness of the arrest, detention, interrogation, recovery and confiscation, and asses the extend of injury and damage caused to lives and properties resulting from SARS operation in Katsina State.

"Identify officers and men of SARS directly or indirectly involved in the excesses, including extra-judicial actions and ascertain the roles played by such officers and men of SARS and individuals

instigating, aiding or abating such extra-judicial actions.

"Make specific recommendations as to what appropriate action to be taking on those found responsible for the excesses and extra-judicial actions. Long and short-term measures to prevent further occurrence of such excesses and extra-judicial actions and the forms and manner of assistance, compensation or aid for the victims of the excesses and extra-judicial actions and the families of the victims".

Ola had earlier announced that all its operations would be suspended but has now commenced operations to selected routes until normalcy was restored to start full-scale operations across its entire network. “Arik Air will be resuming limited flights to some destinations where there are no curfews on Friday, October 23, 2020. Specifically, the airline will be operating flights from its second hub in Abuja to Port Harcourt, Ilorin, Benin, Kano and Yola. “On Friday, Arik Air will operate one flight each from

Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja to Port Harcourt, Ilorin and Kano. Also, on Saturday, the airline will operate one flight each from Abuja to Port Harcourt, Benin and Yola. “The airline had on Tuesday, October 20, 2020 suspended all flights due to the 24 hours curfew announced by the Lagos State government. Flights from Lagos to other parts of the country will however resume upon the lifting of the 24 hours curfew by the Lagos state government,�

Ola said.

'Obey Curfew,be Patient with Govt' Omon-Julius Onabu Ă“Ă˜ Ă?Ă‹ĂŒĂ‹

Promoters and partakers in the #EndSARS protest in Nigeria have been urged to give peace a chance and allow government time to implement their demands,whichthegovernment has acknowledged.

Senior SpecialAssistant to the Governor of Delta State on Security and Intelligence Gathering, Hon Basil Ishiekwene, made the appeal yesterday while observing the level of compliance with the curfew imposed in the state at Asaba, the state capital.

He however expressed happiness that the declaration of a 48-hour curfew, which took effect on Thursday by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, was yielding desired results.

Specifically,Ishiekweneurged the youths to see reasons with the government on the need to obey the curfew, which became inevitable because criminal elements had obviously hijacked the no-police-brutality protests.

The recent spate of vandalism, arson and destruction of public buildings and defacing of monuments and centres in Asaba and Warri were pointers thatmiscreantshadundermined the genuine agitation for faster reforms in the country's police force through peaceful protest, with the hoodlums unleashing mayhem on the general public

across the land, he noted.

However, the governor's aide advised the youths against attacks on security agencies and condemned destruction of government buildings and infrastructure which constitute commonwealthandenhancethe aesthetic quality of our environment.

While restating the fact that government recognised citizens right to protest societal ills, he said such must be done peacefully and without taking laws into their hands or trampling on the rights of innocent citizens.

"The events of the last few days in our country Nigeria have put the nation on the brink", Ishiekwene said, adding, "We have seen peaceful protests hijacked by enemies of the people who went ahead to unleash untold hardship on the people.

"Lives have been lost and public buildings weren't spared; the peaceful protest have been hijacked by hoodlums and the curfew will stop the looting and stealing of the property of innocent people doing their legitimate businesses.

"Attacks on Correctional Centres and freeing of inmates will increase the insecurity we are crying about and we should also stop destroying the things that we might need tomorrow."

Ortom Condemns Lekki Attack on Protesters George Okoh Ă“Ă˜ Ă‹Ă•Ă&#x;ĂœĂŽĂ“ Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has condemned the attack on END SARS protesters at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos.

The Governor describes as unfortunate and unacceptable, the killing of innocent and unarmed young Nigerians who came out holding the National flag and chanting the country’s Anthem while calling for positive changes.

In a press statement by his Media aide Terver Akase, he stressed that democracy guaranteed the right of citizens to express themselves against unfavorable policies of government and states that security operatives owe the

people the duty to ensure that such protests remain peaceful.

Governor Ortom said visiting the END SARS protesters with violence was not a solution to the agitations, and urged the Federal Government to embrace dialogue and address the concerns of Nigerians as echoed by the protesting youths.

He called for thorough investigation into the shooting that led to the death of some of the protesters, to fish out perpetrators of the heinous crime, for prosecution.

The Governor also advised the protesters to remain peaceful and not allow miscreants to hijack their noble march towards a better Nigeria.

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͰͲ˜ ͰͮͰͮ

NEWS #ENDSARS…#ENDSARS…#ENDSARS…#ENDSARS…#ENDSARS…#ENDSARS…

We Won't Allow External Forces to Destroy Yoruba, ARG Vows

Victor Ogunje ÓØ ÎÙ ÕÓÞÓ

ARG , however, bemoaned the alleged shooting of some A Pan Yoruba socio-cultural peaceful protesters by soldiers group, Afenifere Renewal in Lagos on Tuesday evening Group(ARG), has declared as callous, but insisted that that those hiding under the shouldn't be a reason for facade of EndSARS Protests anyone to hide under this to to launch attack on Yoruba destroywhatYorubastandsfor.

The socio-cultural and heritage with sinister motive to destroy it, would be resisted . pressure group added that it

Frank wants ICC to Try Buhari, Sanwo-Olu for Pogrom Deji Elumoye ÓØ ÌßÔË The former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, yesterday, called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to try President Muhammadu Buhari and Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, over their alleged roles in the killing of #EndSARS youth protesters at Lekki toll gate in Lagos on Tuesday evening.

Frank, in a release called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to take strong action against Buhari, the Governor of Lagos State and the Nigerian Army for the pogrom.

According to him, “Buhari as the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces is in charge of the Nigerian Army and therefore he cannot deny giving

the order to deploy soldiers to the tollgate who rained bullets that massacred the #EndSARS protesters.

“It is evident, I dare say, that Buhari deliberately omitted to condemn the ignoble act and order investigation into the massacre of unarmed and peaceful #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki Tollgate on Tuesday night because he is complicit in deploying lethal force for the infamous military operation.

“It is unthinkable that after such a horrendous rain of bullets on unarmed protesters the President still could not empathise with the wounded nor sympathise with those who lost loved ones,” he declared.

Frank further posited that rather than being conciliatory and stooping to conquer, Buhari’s speech was filled with military rhetoric even as an elected President.

condemned the killings of the EndSARS protesters in Lekki area of Lagos State.

In a statement on Friday titled : 'The Wanton Killings, Destruction Must Stop; Those Planning to Destroy Yoruba will fail', by ARG's Publicity Secretary in Ekiti State, Prince MichaelOgungbemi,thegroup warned politicians to refrain fromstokingtheemberofcrisis in Lagos.

"This carnage and wanton destruction must stop. Yoruba won't fold their arms and allow the destruction of their

fatherland and inheritance.

"Killing of defenceless protesters was condemnable. We won't tolerate this nonsense.

"The fifth columnists in Yoruba should beware. They shouldn't allow themselves to be used to destroy their own for them to accomplish their devilishmotive,whichistotake over Lagos by force".

Ogungbemi called for total restructuring of the country, saying this would help to correct all the perceived lopsidedness and bring the right structure that would resolve

Kwara Govt Uncovers Alleged Plot to Attack Public Utilities Hammed Shittu ÓØ ÖÙÜÓØ Kwara State Government has raised the alarm over alleged plot by some suspected members of the public to launch violent attacks on public properties in the state. Already, the government said that security operatives have been informed about the plot.

The State Commissioner for Communications, Mrs. Harriet Afolabi-Oshatimehin said, in a statement in Ilorin yesterday that the alleged move was a grand plan to destabilise the country to achieve sinister objectives.

According to the statement, “The government is in possession of intelligence reports that some anarchists, backed by certain

political interests, are planning to attack public facilities in the state especially the capital city Ilorin".

The statement said that, "Specifically, we are aware of the evil plan to attack the facilities where the palliatives recently donated by the Federal Government are being kept for further distribution to victims of the recent rainstorm.

“It is important to state that the disbursements of the federal government’s palliatives to the victims began since Monday October 19. It is still ongoing as of today, October 23," adding that the law enforcement agencies have been informed.

Ndume Wants NASS, MDAs to Monitor FG's Intervention Programmes Deji Elumoye ÓØ ÌßÔË Former Senate Leader, Senator Ali Ndume, has called on the National Assembly and affected Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to ensure proper implementation of the intervention programmes rolled out by the federal government to address youth unemployment in the wake of the #EndSARS youth protest.

President Muhammadu Buhari had on Thursday eve-

ning mentioned some specific intervention schemes that the youthcanjetintoasbeneficiaries.

Commenting on the programme,Ndumesaidyesterday thatmuchasthePresidentmeant well for the youth, the onus lies with the federal legislature and theMDAstoensurepropermonitor and implementation of the schemes which several billions of Naira had been voted for.

He specifically mentioned the N75 billion National Youth InvestmentFundwhichhesaidthe

Ministry ofYouth Development aswellastheNationalAssembly should ensure its proper disbursement as well as utilisation.

The Chairman of the Senate committee onArmy also urged the youths to also channel their energy toward monitoring the implementationofalltheFederal Governmentempowermentprogrammes for the young people He called on prominent celebrities who took part in the last #EndSARS peaceful protests before it was hijacked

Ondo Lifts Curfew

Enugu Panel of Inquiry Commences Work

James Sowole in Akure

The Judicial Panel of Inquiry inaugurated by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State to receive and investigate complaints of police brutality or related extra-judicial killings, has requested interested members of the public to submit Memoranda.

The eight-man panel is chaired

by Honourable Justice Kingsley Ngwu Udeh (Rtd. In a statement by its Secretary, Onochiengwu Obuna, the panel said the Memoranda should be in twelve (12) hard copies of A4 size paper with double spacing and addressed to 'The Secretary, Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Police Brutality and Extra Judicial Killings. C/o Enugu State Judiciary

The Ondo State Government late last night announced the lifting of the 24 hour curfew earlier imposed in the wake of the #EndSARS protests. This is witheffectfromSaturday,October 24, 2020.

The lifting of the curfew was disclosedinastatementsignedby the Commissioner for InformationandOrientation,Mr.Donald Ojogo. The State Governor, Mr. Okuwarotimi Akeredolu said the decision to lift the curfew followed consultations with security chiefs in the state after a preliminary assessment of the situation in the state.

Akeredolu, said the decision to lift the curfew, was mostly

Headquarters, Old High Court (3), Enugu'.

The statement added that Memoranda, which should be submitted not later than November 20, 2020, “can also be submitted with the Registrars at the Zonal Judiciary Offices at the following locations: Nsukka High Court; Ogbede High Court; Obollo Afor High Court; Oji River High Court; Ezeagu High Court; Udi High Court; Awgu High Court; Agbani High Court; Enugu Ezike High Court”.

“A soft copy of the memorandum shall be submitted by E-mail to the following E-mail addres s:panelonpolicebrutality042@ gmail.com”, it added.

by hoodlums, to represent the youths and negotiate with the FederalGovernmentasawayof resolvingtheongoingimbroglio.

While urging the EndSARS protesters to suspend their actions on the streets to prevent hoodlums from further looting, therankingSenator alsoadvised theyouthtoorganisethemselves in such a way that would ensure that government implement all their five-point demands and other programmes announced for them by the President.

encouragedbytherelativepeace in Akure, the state capital.

"The relative peace in the state capital, Akure appears very encouraging just as the people's resolve,especiallytheyouths,not to allow brigandage under any guise is equally palpable. It is, therefore, only normal that law abiding residents are allowed to go about their legitimate businesses", Governor Akeredolu asserted.

Government however, emphasised the need for all to be vigilant and law-abiding. This is more so, that security agencies deployed to strategic areas of the State capital are under strict directives to enforce law and order for the enforcement of permanent peace.

the myriad of crises bedeviling the nation.

"With restructuring, each state would have enough resources to give the youth viable employments that would stamp out crimes and stoptheendlesstrendsofbeing willing tools in the hands of

destructive politicians .

"At this point, it is becoming obvious that the only weapon to stabilise our nation is restructuring. We can't run away from it, because with the pervasive mistrust in the system, Nigeria is now sitting on a keg of gunpowder".

Governor Oyetola Suspends 24-hour Curfew Hammed Shittu ÓØ ÖÙÜÓØ Kwara State Government has raised the alarm over alleged plot by some suspected members of the public to launch violent attacks on public properties in the state.

Already, the government said that security operatives have been informed about the plot.

The State Commissioner for Communications, Mrs. Harriet Afolabi-Oshatimehin said, in a statement in Ilorin yesterday that the alleged move was a grand plan to destabilise the country to achieve sinister objectives.

According to the statement, “The government is in possession of intelligence reports that some anarchists, backed by certain political interests, are planning to attack public facilities in the state especially the capital city Ilorin".

The statement said that, "Specifically, we are aware of the evil plan to attack the facilities where the palliatives

recently donated by the Federal Government are being kept for further distribution to victims of the recent rainstorm.

“It is important to state that the disbursements of the federal government’s palliatives to the victims began since Monday October 19. It is still ongoing as of today, October 23," adding that the law enforcement agencies have been informed.

'Even so, this serves to inform members of the public of the plots of some unpatriotic elements who have hijacked the peaceful protests nationwide to impose anarchy and advance their own political cause.

"The government therefore urges members of the public to be vigilant and not let down their own guards while every effort is being made to secure lives and properties of every citizen. Finally, the government urges members of the public to go about their lawful business without any fear,” the statement said.

PDP Puts Political, Electioneering Activities on Hold Chuks Okocha ÓØ ÌßÔË

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday directed that all its political and electioneering activities be put on hold as a further mark of honour for Nigerian youths who were killed at the Lekki Toll Gate as well as other killings that have occurred in various parts of the country over the unfortunate fall-out of the EndSARS peaceful protest.

The PDP had earlier on Thursday night directed that its flags in all its offices nationwide be flown at half-mast in solidarity with the mood of the nation at this trying time.

Also the party said that it is aware of the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to postpone the pending bye-elections in six senatorial districts and nine state constituencies in 11 states of the federation, earlier scheduled for October 31, due to the crisis situation in the country.

According to a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Olog-

bondiyan, the PDP said that though such comes at high cost to candidates and political parties, but added, " we hold that it is a step in the right direction under the prevailing circumstance."

In that regard, the PDP charged INEC to continue to monitor the situation and use the period to fine-tune its preparations to conduct peaceful, free, fair and credible elections as part of the much-needed panacea for the restiveness in the country.

Furthermore, the party urges the security agencies to also use the period to perfect their roles in electoral operations and tidy up all arrangements to guarantee the right atmosphere for peaceful and transparent polls where the safety of the voters as well as the sanctity of the ballot box are guaranteed.

The PDP also restated its call for calm and prayers for the nation at this critical time in the national life, even as all hands must be on the deck in finding solutions and the way forward for the nation.

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPA P PER ˾ OCTOBER 24, 2020

11

SUPER SATURDAY Austin Cheng nge e

The Nigerian Eyeing Michigan’s Top Job Benue State-born Nigerian-American, Austin Chenge, is focused on becoming the next governor of the state of Michigan, in the United States. The 34-year-old has all it takes to make history, writes Ferdinand Ekechukwu

A

ustin Chenge g wears a grin. g At a glance, g his image g simply pyg gives away y his effervescence. It is typical yp of him. His bio distinctively y captures p it and describes him as “ever-smiling g and always y a big g dreamer who has always y stunned critics by y achieving g what others consider impossible”. p The 34-year-old y Nigerian-American g from Grand Rapids, p MI. is the embodiment of the American Dream. This is a Nigerian g making g waves in the Diaspora, p USA. It is a source of inspiration p to others and a symbol y that is chang ging g the narrative of negativities g Nigerians g are known for abroad.

From Tiv tribe in Benue State, Chenge g has always y stunned crittics by y achieving g what others consider impossible. p He looks set to make history. y Joining g the race for the governorship g p position p in the state of Michigan, g the tenth most populous p p of the 50 states in the United States of America clipped him on the spotlight amid his recent reckonings. g Ag graduate of the School of Law at the University y of Birming gham England, g it is coincidental that he’s vying y g for the top p seat at the 11th most extensive by y area, being g slighter g larger g than the United Kingdom g and the largest g by y area east of the Mississippi pp River. The election is expected p to hold in 2022. Chenge, g who announced his intention to run for the next governor g of Michigan g in March 2020, is the fi first Republican p to do so. He would be contesting g against US Representative Lamar Smith, of the Democratic Party. y Chenge, g who took to his Twitter p page g to make the call on wellwishers to pray p y for him as he joins j the race for the governorship g election in 2022, said he would be addressing g Michigan g natives and residents in a video broadcast. “Please pray p y for me. Next month, in a Video Broadcast, I’ll offi f cially y address everyone y who’s a Michigan g native or resident, those at home and those living g across our State borders”. God bless. Austin Chenge, g #Veteran and First #Republican Candidate for #Governor of #Michigan g 2022.”

Earlier, Chenge g the Entrepreneur p and Conservative Republican p had vociferously y twitted: “We are at #war. The enemy y is tyranny. y The public p face of that enemy y is the #Dictator formerly y known as Gov #Whitmer of Michigan. g Never give g in. Do not be obediient. Resist at every y opportunity. pp y By y all means necessary. Together we will take back control of #Michigan...” g Buoyed y with creativity, y Chenge g is p popular p locally y for designing g the popular p p tricycle, y known as “Wazobia tricycle”, y in 2016, to improve p the lives of p peasant farmers all over Africa.

Since 2018, he has been serving g with the US military y as a specialist. p He is decorated with the Achievement Medal as a Distinguished g Honour Graduate with a Culmulative Grade Point Average g (CGPA) of 99.8% and for exceptional performance while on active duty. y Austin has always y stunned critics by y achieving g what others consider impossible. p Austin raised over $200,000 in funding g for his fi first startup, p Holla@Me/Holla.com (now sold) in England g and soon expanded p to San Jose in California. He created Waving g in a social networking environment in 2011, a concept later seen on Facebook’s Wave.

In May, y Chenge g promised p to pardon p those convicted of violatt ing g the present p governor g Whitmer’s COVID19 Orders if elected, amid other p promises. He will introduce the biggest gg tax cuts in Michigan g history. y Cut g government spending p g and keep p money y in the pockets p of Michigan g families and hardworking g Americans.

Create mental and p psychological y g emergency g y care units across Michigan, g and provide p better access to healthcare and education.

It doesn’t end there. He will also defend Michigan g constitution, their inalienable rights, their unborn citizens and American family y values.

While he would immediately y cut funding g to sanctuary y cities, repeal p the pension p tax fund and post-apocalyptic p p yp roads, his intended p policies are worth highlighting g g g as he p pledges g to do the following g without fear or favour: Defend American Constitution and introduce constitutional carry y (i.e the carrying y g of a handgun, g openly p y or concealed, without a license or p permit); fight g for the rights g of our unborn children, and p put Americans First; Immediately y cut funding g to all Sanctuary y cities; a promise p to introduce a two-year y freeze on residential property p p y taxes and extend it until the House brings me a bill that drastically lowers the rate.

If elected, Chenge g also promised p to create Mental and Psyy chological g Emergency g y Care Units all across Michigan g for better healthcare access including g Anxiety, y Depression, p PTSD, Opioid Use Disorder and more; ensure our God g given American values, including g Bible classes are taught g in our schools, and our children have access to skilled trade training; g Lift the ban on baiting and allow local authorities the latitude to regulate this.

12

ͺͼ˜ ͺ͸ͺ͸ ˾ THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER

COMMENTARY

OSINBAJO AND THE LEKKI TRAGEDY The Vice President is doing his bit to soothe the pains of Nigerians, writes Etim Etim

I

t is quite unfortunate and regrettable that the peaceful protests by young Nigerians have ended rather tragically in the shootings at Lekki toll points in Lagos last Tuesday night. What started as a campaign against police brutality by thousands of our young citizens across the country has ended in a painful calamity. The loss of lives at the Lekki Toll gate in Lagos and some other parts of the country would have been avoided had the protesters retreated after the federal government had responded by disbanding SARS and asking states to set up judicial inquiries into the atrocities of this police unit. The EndSARS campaign is undoubtedly a noble attempt by our young ones to raise their voice against police brutality, corruption, poverty and other ills plaguing our nation. But the infiltration of the campaign by hoodlums who burnt down police stations and private cars, invaded prisons and harassed innocent citizens was enough reason for the authorities to step in and stop the carnage. I believe that the authorities should have taken greater care to prevent the deaths of guiltless Nigerians. I am also aware that even after the government had responded, the young impressible protesters were egged on by some social media influencers (both foreign and Nigerian) who kept emphasizing the invincibility of Generations X and Y. It is just as well that many political leaders have condemned the killings and destruction. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo posted his words of sympathies and condolences to those hurt in the violence. ‘’I spoke to some of those in hospital. The pain of these terrible events is palpable in our towns and cities, and some losses are irreplaceable, but we can and will get justice for all of them’’, he wrote. It is the second of such outpourings of grief in as many weeks by the VP. Overall, the Buhari administration was swift to respond to the demands of the campaigners, and I must commend the Vice President in his untiring efforts in driving the federal government’s response to this crisis and the reforms of the police as a major law enforcement institution. First, it was the Vice President that summoned the InspectorGeneral of police on October 4 to his office after which the IG made the initial announcement of the ban on SARS. The following Friday, the VP took the IG to the President who then gave the authority that led to the outright dissolution of SARS on Sunday October 11. The creation of a new unit, SWAT, came a few days later. It is expected that the new unit will receive better training in dealing with the citizens.

Next, the VP used the National Economic Council, which he chairs, to further push and deepen the reforms. In its October 15 meeting and under the direction of the VP, NEC directed state governors to establish Judicial Panels of Inquiry to receive and investigate complaints of police brutality or related extra judicial killings with a view to delivering justice for all victims of SARS and other police units. The Council specifically resolved that state governors and FCT Minister should take charge of the interface and contacts with the protesters in their domain. So far, up to 13 states have established these panels. They are Lagos, Kaduna, Delta, Ekiti, Ogun, Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Plateau and Edo. Others are Nasarawa, Ondo and Akwa Ibom. In

THE ENDSARS CAMPAIGN IS A NOBLE ATTEMPT BY OUR YOUNG ONES TO RAISE THEIR VOICE AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY, CORRUPTION, POVERTY AND OTHER ILLS PLAGUING OUR NATION

addition, NEC also agreed that each State Security Council will have Human Rights components, in addition to asking all states to set up a Victim Support Fund that will compensate victims of police brutality. The federal government, I understand, will also contribute to these funds. to mitigate further abuses, state governments will also set up Human Rights Complaints Office and very importantly, governors will now supervise any police tactical units in their states.

These are some of the most comprehensive changes in our policing and human rights safeguards in this decade.

Soon after the NEC decision last week, the VP came out openly to apologize to Nigerians for their pain and frustrations over the atrocities of the police and the mass poverty and deprivations in the land. The VP also acknowledged that the administration had been too slow to act and largely taciturn in its engagement with Nigerians. ‘’We must take responsibility for protecting young people, even sometimes from those who are paid to protect them’’, Prof Osinbajo said last week. The tales of police brutality, wickedness and atrocities emerging in the aftermath of the protests are quite harrowing. I don’t believe that the police high command was unaware of all these. They must be held responsible and the offending officers should face their comeuppance in commensurate measure. The federal government should ensure that SWAT is a far better alternative to SARS. Prof Osinbajo’s role in the government’s response to this crisis is not his first step on the nation’s turbulent firmament. Early on in the life of the administration, the president deployed him to the Niger Delta region when pipelines where exploding and oil output significantly declining. The VP toured every community and won the peace, and with that oil production level went north once again. When the President was away on a long medical leave in London in 2017, the VP stepped in and led creditably well. In all the situations, he has been trustworthy, truthful, humble and honest with Nigerians. There is no doubt that Yemi Osinbajo has been a loyal and trusted partner to President Buhari. He has commendably made up for the boss’ weaknesses.

In moments of personal tragedies faced by some families, Yemi Osinbajo would step out to visit and comfort. In 2016, he sent his wife, Dolapo, to the family of the late Assistant Pastor of Redeemed Christian Church of God, Abuja, Mrs Eunice Olawale, who was murdered while evangelizing.

The 42-year-old mother of seven was killed by unknown assailants while she was preaching Gbazango West area of Kubwa. Last year, the VP himself visited the parents of an NYSC member, Precious Owolabi, who was killed during one of the Shi’ite uprisings in Abuja. Last March, the VP also went to a sleepy village on the outskirts of the nation’s capital to console the family of his police escort, Inspector Ali Gomina, who died on duty. In a moment of crisis, citizens expect to hear the comforting words of their leaders and see swift ameliorating interventions of their government. By stepping up and speaking to us when we hurt, and consoling the afflicted in their moment of anguish, the law professor continues to endear himself to us.

THE MAN WHO STOPPED A WAR WITH SPORTS’ POWER Fidelis Iyebote pays tribute to Pele, the King of football

E

dson Arantes do Nascimento is his official name. Universally, he is called Pele and planetarily, he is acknowledged as the undisputed king of football. No celebrity or government leader in all of history can claim to have a better name recognition than Pele who enjoys the goodwill of all--male and female, young and old--in virtually every country. Even the popular U.S. President Reagan acknowledged this fact when he said at an official reception for Pele in 1982. Said he: “I need to introduce myself as Ronald Reagan, president of the United States of America, but Pele does not need any introduction because everyone knows him.”

Born on October 23, 1940, at Tres Coracoes, Brazil, Pele was only 10 years old when an event that shaped most of his life happened.

On their grounds, Brazil lost the 1950 World Cup soccer finals to Uruguay. The nation was devastated and the people mourned.

On that day, Pele saw his father, Joao, who himself, was a footballer with the nickname Dondinho cry for the first time in his life.

As a way of consoling his father, Pele made him a promise, “One day, I will win you the World Cup.” Pele said afterwards, “seeing my father cry was more shocking to me than losing the World Cup.” It took Pele only eight years to keep his promise to his father when in 1958 he scored twice to beat Sweden 5-2 in the World Cup finals to lift the Jules Rimet Cup for Brazil.

In jubilation, Pele’s father and mother, Maria Celeste held him at the same time and kissed him on the left and the right cheeks on his return home.

Call it the application of sports diplomacy,

if you wish. A year and a half into their fratricidal Civil War the national mood of Nigerians was so sombre. The economic blockade of the Eastern Region and the bombings had left some calamitous effects on the lives of the people, especially children who died in large numbers from malnutrition. On the federal side, there were discouraging stories about cases of “inhuman” prosecution of the war. Most Nigerians, therefore, heaved sighs of relief when the announcement came late in January 1969 that a cease had been accepted by Federal and Biafran leaders in honour of Pele and his visiting Santos Football Club. The announcement added that Santos would play a peace-inspiring, match against the Nigerian national football team, the Green Eagles.

The friendly match was slated for Lagos City Stadium, Onikan with a Portuguese name Lagos, meaning lagoon, which hedges around the bustling metropolis.

So, on January 26, 1969, from about 2 p.m., the long lines of men and women fans began to build from the Racecourse bus stop at Tafawa Balewa Square via the Island club and from the State House, Marina end, all leading to city stadium venue of the match. “What is happening?” some uninformed passers-bye began to ask. Pele is coming to play at city stadium, they were told. Over the national radio came on the unmistakable voices of the inimitable Nigerian sports commentators, Ishola Folorunso and Yemi Fadipe. About an hour to kick-off, the stadium had been filled to capacity. I was lucky to get a ticket to watch the game. Nobody lives on trees in Africa as wrongly portrayed by the western media. But on that momentous day, some

people who could not get tickets to watch the game climbed on nearby trees to catch a glimpse of Pele. The game started on scheduled at 4:45 p.m. In quick succession, Pele struck twice to find the upper far end corner of the net past the great Nigerian goalkeeper Lawal Inuwa Rigogo to put Santos two goals ahead. Nigeria drew level with goals from the indomitable Muyiwa Oshode and mid-field motivator Baba Alli, both from Israel Adebajo’s Stationery Stores that formed the nucleus of the national team for several consecutive years.

My first face-to-face meeting with Pele was in Seoul, South Korea. One of his aides had given him a copy of my book, titled Nothing Like it Before: the untold Stories of the World Cup Soccer Championships which features on the cover Pele and President Bill Clinton playing football. Pele asked his aide to invite me to meet with him at his hotel in Seoul.

My meeting with him was such a delightful moment. After exchanging pleasantries, we talked for an hour over a glass of orange juice and I could see in him the humility, loving-kindness and compassion for people that motivated his establishment of Vila Olimpica--the sports-oriented school he built for the poor in the suburb of Rio de Janeiro.

The then U.S. President Bill Clinton and Pele played soccer with students of the school on October 15, 1997, during an official visit to Brazil. The Xerox Company arranged the visit to the school. President Clinton spoke some words of encouragement to the students, saying every child comes into this world with a gift from God--the power to dream of great things to achieve.”

Pele is aging gracefully with bright hope

for the future but as with older people, he struggles with some health issues ranging from urinary tract infection, kidney problems to eye ailments. Lately, he resorted to the use of a wheelchair to move around following a hip operation that was not accompanied by adequate rehabilitative therapy.

Although Edinho, Pele’s son said his father was “becoming reclusive as a result of his inability to walk around unaided, Pele was quick to respond, saying “I am good. I continue to accept my physical limitations in the best way possible, but I intend to keep the ball rolling.” He added: “I have good days and bad days and that is normal for my age. I’m not afraid; I’m determined, confident in what I do.” He said he was “not avoiding the fulfillment of his commitments” and daily routine.

Some fans and friends of Pele around the world have joined hands to wish him a happy and blessed birthday. In response to his physical, health, emotional and spiritual needs, they have formed the global association, Cheerleaders for Pele. The organisation seeks to “respond promptly to concerns the king of football expresses from time to time. and to help him in every way possible to age gracefully and warmly.” After the next World Cup in Qatar, the association will organize visits to Brazil to meet with Pele and listen to him to see how best members could help him live a more pleasant and productive life.

All hail, the king of Football.

Formerly of the Guardian and U.S. News & World Report, Iyebote serves as an Assistant Chief Election Officer in Fairfax, a Washington, DC suburb

13

ÍşÍźËœ ͺ͸ͺ͸ Ëž THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER

INSIGHT

Protest at Lekki Toll gate

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Beware, Android Generation

L

ike the perpetrators of the #ENDSARS protests, many Nigerians have also had cause to see beyond the atrocities of the disbanded SARS into the excesses of the Android Generation of Nigerian youth. Coming in the wake of the aborted NLC strike over escalated costs of living, the initial outflow of youthful rebellion against SARS was seen as a manifestation of the mood of the masses. But by the time the protesters swarmed the streets in their true colours many right-thinking citizens of all ages were sobered to wonder whether the outrageous villainy of the police squad had not been surpassed by the misconduct of some youths.

One of the shocking outcomes of the #ENDSARS protests was the projection of the rude reality of the extent to which our youth had been literally born again in the corrupted cradle of Western â&#x20AC;&#x153;civilizationâ&#x20AC;? that they helplessly found themselves in the quest for â&#x20AC;&#x153;educationâ&#x20AC;?. Like a bad dream of an alien invasion from the insane fringes of outer space, we beheld a bewildering procession of weird mutations of bodies, some completely mutilated but many were obviously still metamorphosing!

The clothes (?) were no less an assault on decency, but flaunted with abandon, ceaselessly taking â&#x20AC;&#x153;selfiesâ&#x20AC;? with phones that now dominate their minds and lives.

The larger picture of full-blown cultural imperialism now mobs our existence and mocks our values having practically abducted our children from their parental, cultural, moral and religious heritage.

We are further perplexed by the scale of regimentation and indoctrination that propels the actions and expressions of the #ENDSARS protesters. There is a sinister streak of ulterior motive and remote control in the conduct of the protesters and the protests from the reported social-media facilities of funding, coordination and strategy backed by Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, the major internet propagator of the #EndSARS campaign. The budget of up to N62 million powered by frantic donations of Bitcoins to circumvent government monitoring and control was a clear indication that the intended outcome had indeed more to do with instigating â&#x20AC;&#x153;101 protests across Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;? as they tweeted treacherously, than SARS and police brutality.

The refusal to at least suspend the protests following the unusually swift disbanding of SARS and a presidential pledge to embark on extensive reform of the police signaled the premeditated programming of the protesters to evade negotiations and escalate disruption of law and order especially in the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capital Abuja and Lagos. The deliberate blockade of major roads, highways and public facilities in the cities was meant to incite Nigerians while paving way for the predictable hijack of the protests by criminals and hoodlums.

Covertly, a civilian coup dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ĂŠtat was brewing!

It was particularly astonishing that a presumably educated and enlightened group like the #ENDSARS protesters who capitalize on their rights and liberties in a democracy would be so callous in infringing on the

rights of members of the public with arrogant bravado.

That they could actually insist on circumventing democratic due process and resorting to mob action rather than channel their political exuberance to capture the political parties, legislatures and eventually form government, erases all doubts about their mercenary mission to truncate democracy and destabilize Nigeria.

Of course, they also cared less about their glaring immaturity, alienation and contemptuous disrespect of socio-cultural norms of Nigerians, parading themselves paradoxically as the pathfinders to a better nation. In yet another dubious departure from established norms, #ENDSARS protesters have no leadership structure by their own admission. This peculiar deficiency was a self-inflicted ploy to frustrate any possibility of engaging in dialogue with the government towards resolving the crisis, which further spotlights the protestersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ulterior motive of destabilizing their fatherland.

It should therefore be a matter of regret that the future of Nigeria faces such a horrifying prospect of ending up in the hands of a deluded generation, which had lost its sense of responsibility for respecting and upholding the sanctity of their nation and citizenship.

If we were not sufficiently alarmed by the dangers of a disoriented youth population, the #ENDSARS protests have definitely demonstrated the gravity of its implications for national security.

The federal government and indeed all responsible Nigerians must now devote serious thought and concerted action to prioritizing cultural orientation and ethical values both at home and in schools in order to counter the deleterious impact of uncontrolled cultural imperialism on Nigerian youth and stability of the country.

Okafor Nweke, Enugu

Rename Lekki Toll Gate

T

he Lagos State government should scrap the Lekki Toll Gate in Eti Osa Local Government and rename it and turn the adjoining space to Lekki Freedom Park to recognize the patriotic contribution of the #Endsars protesters to Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s democratic development; and also to honour the memory of unarmed youths brutally shot to death or injured by Nigerian soldiers during the #Endsars protests, particularly on #BlackTuesday October 20, 2020.

Movement for Revolutionary Change believes the Lagos State government has a generational duty and historical responsibility to recognize the popular struggles of these unarmed youths, several of which lost their lives or were injured in the course of their non-violent #Endsars protests against police brutality and barbarism.

The Lekki Toll Gate is presently a symbol of corporate greed. It has been a symbol of crass opportunism, mass exploitation, cronyism, nepotism, and official robbery of users of the Lekki expressway; akin to what the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) typifies.

However, the Lekki Toll Gate has recently become the theatre of a popular struggle, the arena for the realization of the Nigerian dream, the platform for rabid patriotism, and infectious nationalism, and the stage for the dismantlement of state oppression.

The toll gate and its adjoining space should no longer be a tolling point but a national monument, bearing historical records of #Endsars heroes, operating as a national park, dedicated for non-violence protests, and robust debates on the way forward. The Lagos State government should identify every protester that was shot dead or was injured during the tragic events of #BlackTuesday and inscribe their records into the Lekki Freedom Park to honour the memory of these valiant patriotic youth.

Lekki Toll Gate is now Freedom Park and can no longer operate as a point of tolling the public and restricting their movements. We call on the Lagos State government and other state governments to identify similar spaces within their domains, and name them Freedom Parks to accommodate non-violent protesters, proffering solutions to the Nigerian question.

T H E SAT U R DAY N E W S PA P E R EDITOR YEMI ADEBOWALE DEPUTY EDITOR FESTUS AKANBI MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR KAYODE KOMOLAFE CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI EDITOR NATIONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN MANAGING EDITOR JOSEPH USHIGIALE

T H I S DAY N E W S PA P E R S L I M I T E D EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ENIOLA BELLO, KAYODE KOMOLAFE, ISRAEL IWEGBU, IJEOMA NWOGWUGWU, EMMANUEL EFENI DIVISIONAL DIRECTORS BOLAJI ADEBIYI, PETER IWEGBU, ANTHONY OGEDENGBE DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OJOGUN VICTOR DANBOYI SNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR ERIC OJEH ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS PATRICK EIMIUHI, SAHEED ADEYEMO CONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO HEAD, COMPUTER DEPARTMENT PATRICIA UBAKA-ADEKOYA TO SEND EMAIL: ďŹ rst name.surname@thisdaylive.com

Babatope Babalobi, Movement for Revolutionary Change

Disasters and Idiots

W

hen you hear the words COVID, disaster and idiot who do you think it would refer to, President Trump or Dr. Fauci? I want my medical advice from a medical expert and as Dr. Fauci is the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading immunologist I would listen to him rather than someone who has already caught the virus and has been reluctant to wear masks and still holds large open events where masks and social distancing seem very distant ideas.

This is a worldwide problem although America has lived up to its reputation as being a world leader, mostly for its number of cases and deaths.

Listen to the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leaders, the medical and scientific ones not the political ones.

Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne, Australia

14

Ë&#x153; Ëž OCTOBER 24, 2020

TRIBUTE

Anthony Ikemefuna Ugochukwu: 1951 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2020 Forster Ezenwelu

P

rofessor Anthony Ikemefuna Ugochukwu was the first child of Mrs. Evelyn Ugochukwu and late Rufus Onwuekwe Ugochukwu (RO) and was born on the 2nd of October 1951 at Mrs. Esmai Maternity Home in Nsukka when the father was posted as a nurse to Nsukka from Iyi-Enu Hospital. He grew up in Iyi-Enu Hospital Ogidi, Anambra State, where his father worked for over forty years.

Education Anthony commenced his primary education at Central School, Nkpor in Idemili Local Government Area of Anambra State, which was the closest school to the family residence in Iyi-Enu Hospital. After completing standard 5 in 1964, he gained admission into the prestigious Dennis Memorial Grammar School (DMGS), Onitsha. This was a rare feat in those days when admission to top Secondary schools was very competitive and many students would end up in less prestigious schools after years of frustration.

He entered DMGS in 1964 and was progressing well but his education was interrupted by the Nigerian Civil War from 1967- 1970. He eventually finished his secondary education in December 1970 with Division One in the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) examination.

In 1971, he gained admission into University of Nigeria, Nsukka to study Medicine. He graduated and obtained Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) in June 1977 in flying colours with Distinction in some medical subjects.

Upon graduation, he did his medical internship at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital UNTH), Enugu from 1977 to 1978 before proceeding to Kwara State for the one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

His father, being in the medical profession, knew the importance of Postgraduate training and specialization, decided to sponsor him for further studies in this regard and so in February 1981, Ikemefuna proceeded to United Kingdom for Post-graduate training in Surgery under the prompting of Doyen of Medicine, Late Professor Gilbert Onuaguluchi (former Vice Chancellor of University of Jos). In the United Kingdom, he attended the renowned Royal College of Surgeons in England. He also worked in various top-grade Teaching Hospitals in United Kingdom, like Hallamshire Hospital (University of Sheffield Teaching Hospital), Leeds General Infirmary (Leeds University Teaching Hospital) and Manchester Royal Infirmy and Hope Hospital (both of University of Manchester Teaching Hospital). He passed the prestigious Fellow of Royal College of Surgeons examination in October 1983, a feat he achieved in just after three years. He became a Specialist (Consultant) Surgeon, the first Achi British trained Surgeon and the third in the roll of British trained Specialist Doctors in various fields from Achi, behind Late Professor Gilbert Onuaguluchi and Late Dr. Bertram Igbogbahaka. Professionally he would go on to bag additional certifications and fellowships including Fellow of the West African College of surgeons (FWACS) and Fellow of the International College of Surgeons (FICS) amongst others.

Working Life Anthony returned to Nigeria in 1984 and started work at Iyi-Enu Hospital, Ogidi, where his father had worked as a Chief Nursing Superintendent. Within five years, he rose to become the Medical Superintendent (Director) of Iyi-Enu Hospital. During the years, he exhibited his dexterity in surgical skills to the admiration of other Doctors, Nurses and Patients. It is on record that many of the doctors who trained under him are now Consultant Surgeons working in various hospitals in Nigeria and abroad.

In 1989, he founded the famous Good Hope Specialist Hospital Onitsha with his younger brother, Dr Kingsley Ugochukwu and became the Chief Medical Director. During the period of running the hospital, he was frequently consulted by doctors in other hospitals to assist in carrying out complicated surgical procedures.

However, owing to his zeal for academics, in 1999 he moved over to Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) College of Medicine where he lectured in the department of Anatomy. He was appointed the first Dean of Faculty of Medicine in the year 2000, a position he held until 2006. He was also a Chief Consultant Surgeon to ESUT Teaching Hospital. In 2012, he was promoted to the rank of Professor of Surgery in recognition of over fifty scholarly publications in the field of Surgery in numerous local and international journals, as well as his contributions to Surgery in Nigeria. By this elevation, Professor Anthony Ikemefuna Ugochukwu became the first Professor of Surgery from Achi and indeed Oji River Local Government.

Ugochukwu

In 2015, he was appointed the Provost of ESUT College of Medicine Professor Anthony Ugochukwu was known to be very humane but striving always for excellence.

In his position as the Provost, he repositioned the ESUT College of Medicine to what it is today. The medical school under his stewardship became highly regarded and is now the pride of Enugu State.

On the 25th of September 2019 Professor Anthony Ugochukwu was appointed the Commissioner for Health, Enugu State by the Executive Governor of Enugu State, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyichukwu Ugwuanyi. His appointment as a Commissioner was purely on merit and was received with joy by Oji River people, who were excited at quality representation in Enugu State Executive Council. Unfortunately, ill health and eventually, death did not give him the opportunity to carry out his careful thought out plans for a turnaround in the services of the Enugu State healthcare system.

Awards Prof Ugochukwu received many awards for his academic excellence, dedication to duty and services to humanity, among which are: Award of Honour & Recognition by Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) for sagacious, kindhearted and indelible imprint on the sand of ESUT College of Medicine, Merit Award of Proficiency by Enugu State University Medical Students Association for Leadership Prowess and Selfless Services to the ESUT College of Medicine Community Services Prof mentored numerous students and doctors on their way to achieving their dreams. He was also a community leader and was involved in various developmental efforts in Achi and Oji River. A deeply religious man, he chaired the Building Committee of St. Bartholomew Anglican Church Isikwe Achi from inception till dedication by His Grace, Rt. Rev. Dr. Amos Madu, the 1st Archbishop of Enugu Province and Bishop of Oji-River Diocese (Anglican Communion). The church building is a double Cathedral in the bush, while our people call the edifice â&#x20AC;&#x153;jee lettaâ&#x20AC;?. He was also the chairman of the committee that organized the 2019 Oji-River Diocesan Synod that was described as the best Synod in the history of Oji-River.

Marriage Professor Anthony Ugochukwu got married to his first wife, Mrs Evangeline Olunwa Ugochukwu (nee Andy) in 1982 and the couple was blessed with a daughter.

However, the cold hands of death snatched her away in 2001 after protracted illness. In 2009, he got married to Mrs Udoka Ugochukwu (nee Ude) and they were blessed with three children.

Illness and Death In 2013, Prof was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. The illness took him to many hospitals in Nigeria and subsequently to United State of America and India.

His ill health was a great shock to many who depended on him for medical and social support. A woman once lamented loudly that it would have been better for death to take her life rather than that of Professor Ugochukwu as the Professorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s death would have the dire consequences of exposing the lives of many others that depended on him for their physical wellbeing. He battled the illness valiantly while quietly going about his duties in defiance so much so that many thought he had completely recovered from the illness. However, to the shock of many, on the 3rd April 2020, it was all over for Professor Anthony Ikemefuna Ugochukwu. His death is a colossal loss for the people of Achi, Oji-river and Enugu state in general. He will be sorely missed but his legacies remain for all to see.

He was survived by his widow Mrs. Udoka Ugochukwu, Mother Mrs. Evelyn Ugochukwu, four children, many brothers and sisters and other relations.

Funeral Programme released by his family indicates that there will be service of songs in his honour at the Cathedral of Good Shepherd Enugu at 5pm on Monday 26th of October, 2020 and Commendation Service in the same church on Wednesday 28th October, 2020 at 10am. His remains will be laid to rest in his residence at Isikwe Achi, Oji River Local Government Area, Enugu State on Friday 30th October, 2020 after funeral service at St. Bartholomewâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Anglican Church, Isikwe Achi at 10am.

May his great soul rest in peace Amen.

Tribute by Engr. Forster Ezenwelu

15

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͰͲ˜ ͰͮͰͮ

A d i e u J . P. C l a r k

Charles Uwensuyi-Edosomwan SAN, FCIArb

I

t is sad to write a tribute to the memory of John Pepper Clark, a poet, a Nigerian, an Izon and very importantly, an integral member of the Government College Ughelli family. He was a great man, all his own man.

Known simply as J P Clark, one saw in his appearance how a poet, a man of deep sensibilities and immense purpose lived an oxymoronic existence of so much wealth in means, wisdom and learning, but clad in sparse and simple apparel. He was so simple in his meaningful living, he was almost spartan. His lines in My Testament says it all about his uncomplicated and simple view of life: MY LAST TESTAMENT This is to my family Do not take me to a mortuary, Do not take me to a church, Whether I die in or out of town, But take me home to my own, and To lines and tunes, tested on the waves Of time, let me lie in my place On the Kiagbodo River.

If Moslems do it in a day, You certainly can do it in three, Avoiding blood and waste, And whatever you do after, My three daughters and my son By the only wife I have, Do not fight over anything I may be pleased to leave behind” {JP CLARK’S BOOK, FULL TIDE(COLLECTED POEMS),PAGE 385.} It is comforting to see that in a country and continent fraught with and stricken by the malady of base materialistic tendencies that have robbed the most of their children the ability to rise to the challenge of the higher good, J P Clark won his life’s war against the vanity that drives soulless materialism as life’s purpose for the many. Thus, he was the sort in his simple shirtsleeves and chinos or khaki pants that could make another, a vain one decked in damask, gold and diamond finery, feel inferior. That was J P. He was a man of a silent easy style, simple in his ways, but not self-effacing. His presence always asserted his force of personality with an authority that could never be mistaken for meekness.

In all his simplicity, he never came across to me as meek. He was indeed a strong Izon man from Kiagbodo. In his play Ozidi, he beat the drums of praise of his proud and industrious Izon ancestry and thereafter highlighted his family name of Bekederemo to the world. Many thereafter came to know him with the compound name of Clark-Bekederemo, a family of gargantuan Iroko that include Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark and Ambassador Akporode Clark.

On letters and words, he was a true wordsmith so globally acclaimed that stating it here makes no special significance more than being a mere platitude. He was up there amongst the world’s most talented and most celebrated! The real genius of his style was his deft pithiness in asseverating groundbreaking themes, the imageries of which are immediately revealed to his audience without the feeling of one pulling a tooth at the dentist’s as some poets would drag you through.

Four of his numerous poems make this point more than I can ever tell of it: *Ibadan, *Streamside Exchange, *Night Rain, and *Abiku.

In Ibadan, one saw the poetic irony of a rustic town in all its spread and beauty, splayed on the canvas of her seven hills with the simile of smashed earthenware scattered in the sun. All that powerful imagery and story of a great city, compressed in a quintain of very few words!

In Night Rain, more than anything else, one’s experience of the lines of that poem brought home sweetly the sedative quality of night rain that immediately threw you back in time to your grandmother’s room warmed by a wood burning hearth on the cold rainy nights of childhood.

And in Abiku, the emptied and exhausted breasts on the wracked body of the unfortunate mother, vividly and graphically brought home the grim misery of unending rebirths and burials of the ghoulish Abiku in repeated cycles of pain.

What about the metaphysical message of the eternal rhythms of life and time in tides and markets he pithed songfully in Streamside Exchange? Man’s sojourn on earth is subject to metaphysical rhythms over which he has no control. Tides and markets always come and go and so shall everyone affected by this eternal law of

J.P. Clark nature.

By his passing, John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo has finished his trades in the market of life and has gone out with the tide to eternity. He will be sorely missed for many have in his death lost a dear one in a husband and father, a friend, a great Izon, a great Nigerian, a great African, and for the Government College Ughelli family, a close family member, an irreplaceable elder

and an ancient mariner.

May God grant him rest and console his immediate family, the larger Bekederemo family and us all in the Government College Ughelli family.

Rest In Peace –––Charles Uwensuyi-Edosomwan, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Former Attorney General of Edo State.

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͺͼ˜ 2020

16

MARKET PLACE with Omolabake Fasogbon... 08155131874

IFC Seeks Reform to Grow Investment

Chief Executive Officer, Adloyalty Business Network, Dr Freeman Osonuga, (2nd left), receiving Yoruba Youth Leadership Award from the Yoruba Youth Assembly (YYA), an umbrella body of Yoruba Youth groups globally... recently

COVID-19: Guinness Extends Support to Kebbi, Abuja, Others As part of efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country, beverage giant, Guinness Nigeria Plc has extended its ‘Water of Life’ project to four more states - Edo, Kano, Kebbi, Nasarawa -and Abuja.

The Water of Life project, which is Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)-focused, is meant to enhance hygiene practices in communities in the wake of COVID-19.

According to the company, the project has impacted about 22,000 residents across communities in identified states.

Commenting on the initiative, Managing Director of Guinness Nigeria Plc, Baker Magunda, stated that the project is designed to reduce people’s risk of exposure to COVID-19 by providing water facility and hygiene education to at least 20,000 residents in selected communities across states.

He said, “Our belief that water is a basic

human right significantly comes through in these trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, our commitment remains unwavering in ensuring that people in underserved communities continue to have sustainable access to clean and quality water.

“The project specifically targets farming communities within Guinness Nigeria’s value chain. Through the construction and rehabilitation of water schemes in target communities, the project sought to increase access to clean water and create community structures to drive ownership and sustainability while improving lives and livelihoods.

“The intervention also provided the opportunity to educate communities on safe sanitation and hygiene practices towards improving health and wellbeing.”

Magunda added that the company has

been able to reach 2,427 persons across five states with its hygiene promotion activities.

He said that there had been proven evidence of communities embracing hygiene by washing their hands with soap and water, while providing a source of livelihood for a growing number of women.

He said, “Currently, the ‘Water of Life’ scheme is providing water to close to two million Nigerians in underserved communities, using solar-powered water systems and that it has reached a milestone of installing 39 of such water schemes across 28 states including the FCT. “The benefits of access to clean water supply in these communities will reduce the time and costs households expend in accessing alternative water sources and will lead to improved health outcomes, particularly the reduction in waterborne

The International Finance Corporation, IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has sought for reforms in key sectors of the Nigerian economy to boost local and foreign investments as well as generate employment opportunities.

It made this known in a new report, the Nigeria “Country Private Sector Diagnostic” (CPSD), that was launched recently.

The CPSD report, which was launched as part of the corporation’s economy recovery efforts post-COVID-19, suggested strategies that would drive opportunities and profitable investments to the private sector.

The IFC report identified agribusiness, manufacturing, and digital entrepreneurshi, amongst others, as the country’s bailout option post-COVID-19.

It noted that in addition to market access to other member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), private investors stand to gain hugely from Nigeria’s extensive agricultural and mineral resources, young and entrepreneurial labour force and its strategic position in Africa.

The corporation, however, urged the Federal government to address deficit in infrastructure and investment policies to make the sector more attractive.

Speaking further, IFC Country Manager for Nigeria, Eme Essien Lore, said, “Nigeria’s private sector is among the largest in Africa and plays a critical role providing goods, services, and quality jobs to the country’s growing population. Addressing the challenges holding back Nigeria’s private sector—challenges deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic—will be critical to the country’s goal of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by 2030. “Through the CPSD, IFC, and the World Bank have identified policy actions and interventions that can help unlock investment and jobs.”

According to the report, targeted investments in agribusiness could directly benefit Nigeria’s poorest households and help improve food security.

“Reforms in manufacturing could support and facilitate investments in the sector, boost quality local production and exports. The benefits to Nigeria of fully harnessing the digital economy are significant and would likely accelerate the pace and inclusiveness of economic activity in the country.

Also speaking, World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, said, “Nigeria’s Private Sector Diagnostic provides a road map to support the government in undertaking reforms that will help increase private sector investment and diversify the country’s oil-dependent economy.”

IFC and the World Bank have also published a COVID-19 Rapid Assessment alongside the Nigeria CPSD. The rapid assessment provides insights for stakeholders to accelerate Nigeria’s recovery from the impact of the pandemic.

TFN Fellow Emerges Winner of Most Mouka Wins Africa Kaizen Outstanding Lockdown Teacher Competition Large-scale Award Gideon Ogungeyimi, an alumni of Teach for Nigeria, TFN, a non-government organisation, has emerged winner of the “Most Outstanding Lockdown Teacher Competition”, organised by Educational Aid Global Initiative (Edu-Aid).

A fellow of TFN, Precious Adegunle, also emerged first runner-up in the competition which was organised to reward selflessness, creativity and innovation among teachers who ensured learning continued during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Teachers who applied for the contest were required to submit a one-minute video detailing their works, which were later assessed to determine the winners.

According to the award organisers, Gideon was able develop a “Learn at Home” model to engage his students during the lockdown.

“Under the Learn at Home model, Gideon created and printed worksheets in English and Mathematics which were delivered to the doorstep of his pupils and collected at a later date for assessments. He also launched ‘Project Feed100’ with two other Fellows, which provided low-income families with financial

palliatives to cater for their children’s education, feeding and health needs.”

Precious, on her part, was said to raise funds to purchase tablets for her students and began a project to digitise the Nigerian curriculum in indigenous languages, particularly Yoruba.

“She preinstalled these educational contents and also included games, movies, books and worksheets to encourage continued learning for her pupils. Precious went further to distribute these tablets to her pupils for free,” the organisers added.

Commenting, CEO, Teach For Nigeria, Folawe Omikunle, said, “We are tremendously proud to see not only the winner of this contest emerge from TFN, but also the first runner-up. This is evident of the leadership quality that exists in our teacher leaders.

“The pandemic widened the gap of inequity, and as leaders who understand the challenges in underserved schools, our teacher leaders did not only identify the challenges, but they also displayed a great sense of responsibility and agency in responding urgently to ensure that learning didn’t stop despite the school closure.

Nigeria’s leading manufacturer of mattresses and beddings, Mouka, has emerged winner in the 2020 Africa Kaizen Awards.

Mouka emerged winner in the Large-Scale Organisation category in the award initiative which was organised by the Japan International Cooperation Agency in collaboration with the Africa Union Development Agency (AUDA).

Chairman of the Examination Committee of the Africa Kaizen Award 2020, Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, stated that the company was recognised for the award category as a result of its commitment to quality.

“From clear objectives, effective processes, quality and productivity improvement, positive impact on workers’ motivation, impressive

work environment and spillover effects outside of the organisation, Mouka ticked all the right boxes.

In his remark, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Mouka, Femi Fapohunda, noted that the recognition was a step in an excellent direction in the pursuit of the company’s objective from where it was now to a more enviable height.

He said, “It is a boost from the previous Nigerian recognition in 2018 when Mouka was acknowledged for improvements in Kaizen by the Joint Japanese and Nigerian Productivity Councils.”

He added that the award further positioned Mouka as a leader in Africa’s sleep industry and one operating in line with international best practices.

Plus OLUSOLA AKANMODE

At 70, the More Significant thing is that I Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Feel Like 70

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾OCTOBER 24, 2020

PLUS

At 70, the More Significant thing is that I Don’t Feel Like 70 Prince Olusola Akanmode, technocrat, politician, farmer and Deputy Chief of Staff in the Obasanjo Presidency recently marked his 70th birthday. He spoke to Funke Babs-Kufeji on his growing up, trajectory, experience in public service, politics and Nigeria’s challenges. Excerpts

C

elebrating life at 70, how do you feel at this age. Is there a secret to your youthful look?

I get this kind of compliment on ‘not-looking-my-age’ almost on a daily basis. But for me, the more significant thing is that I don’t feel like 70. I believe the greatest secret of “youthful look” is the Grace of God who is the giver of good health. No matter how strictly you adhere to the playbook of staying young and healthy, you need God’s favour to succeed.

Tell us about your childhood memories and growing. What memorable event do you still reminisce on till date?

Growing up in what was a typically rural setting like Ayetoro-Gbede in Kogi State had its obvious challenges. I grew up in a house where, at any given time, there were at least 20 children because many of my father’s relations wanted their children to grow up in “the School Manager’s house” where strict discipline was guaranteed. Apart from the general atmosphere of discipline, there was hierarchy and military-like chain of command among the children. The most dreaded part of this early life was the daily routine of ending up in the farm after school hours.

The transition from this type of upbringing to the boarding school was not too drastic. However, the year 1965 witnessed one of the most poignant memories and a veritable turning point in my childhood.

In that year (I was in Form Three) some “rebellion” on my part made my father to stop paying my school fees. Fortuitously, the Northern Regional Government took over the then Provincial Secondary School Okene and it became a Government Secondary School. My School Principal Mr. D.J.K Farrar intervened and ensured that I was “assessed “ £3 per annum which he paid up to Form Five because as a Junior Table Tennis Captain, a Junior Debater and, more importantly, a good hockey player, I was one of his favorite students.

The main reason why I am mentioning this “turning point” is that even at that age, I developed the spirit to turn my adversity into a great motivation to be among the best academically. I missed having the best WASC result by two points and I came on top of my class in the Higher School Certificate (Cambridge) Examinations. My performance in the final HSC Cambridge examination automatically secured me a slot on the Merit List of the then Kwara State University Scholarship Scheme.

Now that you are 70, what’s next for you, are you thinking of retiring or doing something different?

As I was approaching 70, my earnest desire was to gradually exit partisan politics but make the experiences garnered in governance available to anybody who may need it, with or without a fee as the case maybe. I also looked forward to devoting my attention to my large-scale farming activities which I have been actively involved in since 2006. I have also given a

Akanmode

thought to writing my memoirs.

Looking back now on how far you have come are there things you think you would have done differently?

Definitely, a good number of things but they are too personal for me to talk about them here. What I can talk about openly is my big regret about the amount of investment I have made in agriculture.

It has left me economically prostrate and there is no path to recovery in sight. At the height of my farming activities three years ago, I had 350 hectares of cassava farm before the cattle herders took over. I don’t want to sound alarmist but from my personal experience we are heading for disaster. The level of impunity is alarming and we are just totally helpless.

You studied French as your degree in the university. Do you still speak the language and do you find it useful in your career path?

I studied French for seven years at the Secondary and Higher School level and for four years in the University including one academic year at the University of Dakar, Senegal, and three months Summer School at the University of Grenoble in France. This is why I still speak French but certainly not the way I spoke it about 40 years ago. If you are familiar with the complexity of the French language you will appreciate why. Did I find French useful

in my career path? Absolutely. First, the French educational system is very comprehensive. It takes you through the whole gamut of French language, culture, history and philosophy. It affects the totality of the man, his intellect, his style and his worldview. French has been variously described as a language of exactitude or the language of diplomacy.

Being a civil servant in Kwara and Kogi States for many years in different capacity, tell us what your service years were like and what your best or memorable experiences were when you served?

By the time I finished National Youth Service in 1975, I had a choice between accepting the position of Lecturer III at the Kwara State College of Technology or Administrative Officer in the Kwara State Civil Service. Although the package for the former was far more attractive, my childhood friend, Mr. S.K. Adedoyin, advised me to settle for the latter.

The first thing is the diversity of experiences gained in working in different Ministries/Departments including Finance, Health, Governors Office, Office of the Head of Service, Education, Government House, Commerce and Industry as well Works, Lands and Housing.

In 16 years of pulsating activities, I had the kind of fulfillment anybody could have wished for. I worked in a Civil Service

where early identified talents attracted more challenges, mentorship was strong and hard work was compensated with recognition and rewards. I became a Permanent Secretary at the age of 37 which was 13 years after I joined the service. As a Level 09 officer in the Governor’s Office, I was appointed the Secretary of Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Okene Local Government. Two Level 15 officers were appointed Secretaries of the other two Commissions of Inquiries set up at the same time.

When Group Captain Salandeen Latinwo became the Military Governor, his Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Nasiru Oniyangi took me to Government House and introduced me to the Governor as “the young man who had been doing those write ups”. That was how I became what he called “his staff officer” in Government House and ended up working with five Military Governors – Group Capt.

Latinwo, Group Captain Ndatsu Umaru, Col. Ahmed Abdullahi, Group Captain Ibrahim Alkaliand Col. Alwali Kazir (as they then were) as (Under-Secretary Special Duties), Secretary (Special Duties) and Permanent Secretary/Director General.

With each tenure came several memorable experiences. I cannot forget the kind of rapport I had with Col. Zakari who was appointed Military Administrator of Kogi State. As the first Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Works, Water Resources,

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾OCTOBER 24, 2020

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PLUS Working with Obasanjo, Atiku, Icing on Eventful Public Service Career me, it was the opportunity of a life time to watch at close quarters and even be involved in the formulation of enduring policies that radically transformed this country. Notable among them are Vision 20:2020, Fiscal Responsibility Act, Public Service Reforms, EFCC and ICPC, National Health Insurance Scheme, Contributory Pension Scheme, Banking Reforms, the Communication Revolution, the Agricultural Value Chain, the Infrastructural Concession Regulatory Commission, etc.

I consider myself extremely lucky that even when there were some tense moments, I enjoyed the privilege of a trusted honest broker and found myself engaged in shuttle diplomacy among Baba Obasanjo, Alhaji Atiku and late Chief Tony Anenih, among others. Unfortunately, at a point it dawned on me that I was no longer effective in that role. I voluntarily resigned my appointment on 1st December 2006, about six months to the end of our second term.

You are a member of the Pan-Okun People Relief Response Agenda, raising funds for effective health care across Okunland and to cushion the effect of the pandemic on the Okun people.

Tell us what has been achieved thus far with this initiative?

We set for ourselves a target of N500,000,000 (Five Hundred Million Naira) based on the objective of upgrading some selected health facilities as opposed to the provision of food items as palliatives.

Thus far we have been able to generate tremendous awareness and practical support for the project, but frankly we are still a long way from our target. I must add, however, that we are reasonably satisfied with the progress made in the face of the daunting economic environment.

Akanmode wtih his family

Lands and Housing, we worked round the clock to lay a good foundation for Kogi in four short months.

When Prince Abubakar Audu became the Civilian Governor of Kogi State in January 1992, I was the only Permanent Secretary he retained in the exercise of the powers conferred on him by the Babangida 1988 Reforms to dispense, if he wished, with the services of any Director General who had worked with his predecessors.

The political intrigue that led to my exit from his Government not long after is a story for another day. It will suffice to say that less than two years after leaving the service, I was appointed Secretary to Kogi Government by Col. Paul Omeruo.

The country has changed a great deal and the civil service isn’t what it used to be; can you tell us what you think needs to be done urgently to restore the civil service to its glorious state?

It is true that the Civil Service, like other important facets of our national life, has witnessed enormous changes and, sadly, not for the better in most cases. I am also conscious of what many people refer to nostalgically as “the golden age of the Civil Service”. There are many who believe that the way forward is to go back to that era. True, the Civil Service I joined in 1975 was a great institution but even at that time there were already strident calls for better ways of doing government business. So, with due respect, the issue is not to ‘restore the Civil Service to the glorious state’ of the past. We are living in a world where changes are rushing at us at a giddying speed and in some respects, the Civil Service we knew cannot meet the demands of the present and the future.

All over the world there is a clamour to reinvent government to make it more catalytic, entrepreneurial, result-oriented, mission-driven and customer-driven.

There are calls for performance management and radical shifts in the budgeting system.

The bane of our reforms is the stop-go approach. Reforms should not be a fad

that comes and goes with the season.

You served as director general at the Ministry of Education in Kogi State, so it’s safe to say you are conversant with the Nigerian Education system. In recent years, the state of government owned schools is beyond abysmal.

What in your view happened to the system and what has to change for it to return to its former glory?

I was Director-General for less than two months at the Ministry of Education in Kogi State. Although I was on posting to the Ministry of Education for about two years in the then Kwara State, I cannot speak as an expert. One of the most critical things to do is for all the stakeholders to recognise that our education system is in crisis and appreciate the need to prepare our children for the challenges of the 21st century. Secondly, public investment in education and training leads to higher achievements, higher productivity and reduces social costs to the nation. That is why investment in education not only makes social but also economic sense.

The third issue is to realise that providing good education is not cheap. Fourthly, education reforms must focus on teachers, improved facilities and participatory management of schools to include communities, parents, teachers and faith-based and Civil Society Organisations. Fifthly, every child should be given a head start i.e early, pre-primary education that is now the exclusive preserve of children of the elite.

We also need better academic programmes with emphasis on science and technology that will train children for “the jobs of the future” and be globally competitive, smaller classes and performance-based assessment of schools and teachers with reward for outstanding performance. In summary, our educational system should focus on quality, access (i.e availability) and affordability.

What is your take on the government opening up the economy and general handling of the Covid-19 pandemic,

and do you think the Government in Nigeria has done enough to be able to take this step like the rest of the world?

We must commend the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 for their handson approach. It is true, however, that we have been lucky to escape very serious challenges in Nigeria considering our population and the relatively small number of infections. I consider the amount of information and awareness out there adequate. But we are dealing with a pandemic on which even the best experts in the world don’t have all the answers.

More significantly the PTF has always maintained that we have not peaked. This is what should guide our approach to the opening up of the economy. We have to bear in mind our peculiar situation in which more than 95% of the actors are in the informal sector. It is extremely difficult to track them and we lack the financial capacity to bail them out.

The CBN has announced over N1 trillion stimulus package just as the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs has announced palliatives but the structure of our economy and our population make their impacts very limited. Everywhere in the world (except where these issues are needlessly politicized) it is a balancing act between lives and livelihood and our situation is not different.

What was it like working with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as Deputy Chief of Staff?

It was like being in a state of continuous animation. It was also like the icing on an eventful Public Service career. The beginning, of course, was the very uncommon circumstances in which Atiku made me his Chief of Staff barely two years after I met him for the first time. Then there was the great latitude which both the President and the Vice President gave me to express myself.

I believe a lot of people will concede to that Administration that it was a power house of ideas and initiatives and for

The governor of Kogi State believes that the Covid-19 pandemic is a hoax and has been quoted by some dailies saying “there are no cases of Covid-19 in Kogi State”even after the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in his state recorded a number of cases.

What is your take on this?

I think the Governor needs to be fair to himself, the people of Kogi State and to the Federal Government that is investing a lot of resources to fight the pandemic. A more generally beneficial approach would have been to acknowledge that Covid-19 exists and to continue to create the awareness among our people while working hard to prepare for any eventuality.

Seeing the state of our country, do you think more technocrats and professional should get involved in politics and why do you think this is important?

It is a question of enlightened self-interest for technocrats and professionals to get involved in politics because the critical decisions that will affect their success or efficiency in their chosen fields will be dictated by the environment created by policies formulated by politicians.

Another dimension is that if they constitute a recruitment ground for political leadership, they can significantly improve the quality of governance.

What is your advice to young Nigerians who want to go into politics?

There are very many young Nigerians who are in politics for the wrong reasons – mainly because everything else has failed. I am frightened by the prospect of many young Nigerians seeking to make politics a vocation. I will make a distinction between participating actively in the electoral process and making politics a vocation.

Those who want to do the latter should, as much as possible, first develop a career.

Otherwise with the level of monetisation of the process and their severe handicap, they will just be tools in the hands of wealthy and unscrupulous politicians whose credo, with apologies to Professor Wole Soyinka; is that the end justifies the meanness.

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͺͼ˜ 2020

SHOWBIZFLAIR

‘The New Normal’ Docks in Cinemas Nigerian movie buffs are to start viewing the flick, ‘The New Normal’, in Cinemas from November 20. Ferdinand Ekechukwu reports

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s it continues to receive worldwide attention and critical acclaim, plans to ensure that upcoming movie The New Normal is brought home to the cinemas in the safest and most entertaining way before this year ends is set as the dramedy gets November 20th date. Its official trailer was also recently released. The movie was produced and directed by Teniola Olatoni, the CEO and Creative Head at Sourmash Stories Production, featuring movie stars such as Richard MofeDamijo, Mercy Johnson-Okojie, Bimbo Akintola, and Enado Odigie.

Other stars in the packed movie include Adunni Ade, Meg Otanwa, Mofe Duncan, Femi Jacobs, Yemi Blaq, Kehinde Bankole, Kenneth Okolie, Broda Shaggy and more.

The New Normal revolves around the lives of four couples and a single friend as they navigate individual and collective issues of discrimination, nepotism, misogyny, infertility, addiction, and mental health, while trying their best to keep up appearances and escape society’s suffocating boots with their often hilarious and always surprising results; thus finding their way to a whole new normal.

Being that the phrase “The New Normal” is the biggest buzz word at the moment, stemming from the pandemic across the globe makes the theme so catchy. On the new movie title which fits so well with our current reality, one may think it was drawn during the lockdown.

But the director, Teniola puts it otherwise in an earlier chat.

“It is incredible what we are all collectively facing worldwide right now and even more so that a title I chose a year

Richard Mofe-Damijo

ago which I considered pretty apt for the themes I was exploring in the movie should be the world’s catchphrase now! I feel like a soothsayer.”

Without giving too much away, she further shared the most intriguing aspects for the audience to draw from.

“So, this is my take. Everyday, we have experiences.

Some simple insignificant ones we take for granted; others earth-shattering life changing. You have two choices – rollover and play dead or figure out how to deal with it. Each time we do that,

Mercy Johnson

we unconsciously create a new normal for ourselves. In The New Normal our audience will meet some very interesting, yet achingly relatable characters. Everybody knows a Banji and Nike, a Michael (OMG), a Sadia, even an Ejura (OMD).

“I cannot wait for you to meet them!

The lessons? Plentiful! The laughs, the tears, the emotions, the issues each character has to deal with will draw you straight in and have you reconsidering what you think is normal!”

In recognition of the likely groundbreaking impact the film would have

in Nigeria, the black Diaspora and the international community in general, the movie was found worthy and of the highest standard by the jury at the virtual American Black Film Festival Jury Awards where it won Best International Narrative last August. It was in a hotly contested category that had such amazing films like Coming From Insanity (Nigeria), The Male Revolt (Brazil), Get Luke Lowe (United Kingdom) and Efunsetan Aniwura (Nigeria).

In addition to the award, The New Normal has been invited to screen at other global film festivals.

Celebrating Pastor Adeoye, an Icon of Greatness at 50 Sunmbo Adeoye

You are more to me than words can ever express. Looking back since we met, you have been a dependable, trust worthy, caring and hardworking Man of God. You strictly believe in God given Biblical principles that guide you in your decision.

You consider the welfare of everyone around you and always willing to light up the destinies around and afar off, irrespective of whatever situation. As my father in The Lord, you have taught me never to look down on my self. You have demanded only the very best from all your children and charged us to be Great. You have studied tirelessly to always dish out the word of God to us at every opportunity.

You love knowledge, both to give as much as you love to receive it.

Your Love for God and dedication to Kingdom service is worth emulating.

How can I forget your allegiance to your country Nigeria and love for Local Nigerian delicacies, garnished with orishirishi. Pastor David Olatunde Adeoye, as your wife, I can say categorically that you are dependable & very loyal. You live a simple but predictable life. You are either in church, the office or at home playing with the boys and loving our princess endlessly. That, I cherish most.

Waking up to your Love, wisdom and protection is a blessing to me. I can’t seem to remember what life was like without you. I still don’t get how you understood and saw VALUE in my imperfect path. This can only be a GOD ORDAINED PERFECT LOVE. You are my Love, My Life, My Pastor and the kind of man worth crushing over for centuries to come.

Feasting off of your expression of Love and care is my Glow secret. You are so PEACEFUL, WISE, HUMBLE, AWESOME HUMAN, EXTRA ORDINARY FATHER. Thank you for awakening the gifts God has placed within me. You Rock baby, You ROCK absolutely!! Hands down!

My favourite place is spending quality time with you, building destinies, changing lives, erasing the limitations and waging war against mediocrity.

Until I find the perfect words to say how much you mean to me, here’s wishing you a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I Love you Baby and can’t stop celebrating what God knew before either of us was formed in our mothers womb. The harvest of you remains my divine compensation.

Looking at you today as you celebrate your 50th birthday, nothing shows that age at all. I admire your

Pastor Adeoye

slender frame and tall height. Your eyes are distinctive and it singles you out from a thousand men.

You are my Prince Charming and I Love you for life. God bless you today and forever my King. Happy Birthday.

From your wife, Sunmbo Adeoye.

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͺͼ˜ 2020

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SHOWBIZFLAIR

The Esiri Brothers Take ‘Eyimofe’ Abroad Arie and Chili Esiri’s movie, “Eyimofe” is set for premiere across Europe and the United States, writes Ferdinand Ekechukwu

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rie and Chuko Esiri’s flick, “Eyimofe” (This is My Desire) is set for screening at a number of film festivals in Europe and the United States this October. They are the 013 Cinecitta International Film Festival (CIFF), Tilburg, Netherlands; the Viennale film festival in Austria; and the Valladolid International Film Festival in Spain. It is also billed to celebrate its premiere in the United States at the AFI Fest on October 20.

“Eyimofe” had its UK premiere on October 11 at the BFI London Film Festival, marking the 60th anniversary of Nigerian independence. The film had its world premiere at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival in February.

Marking the twin brothers’ debut directing effort, the movie was funded entirely in Nigeria and made with a predominantly Nigerian cast and crew. Split into chapters and set in the present day Lagos city life, “Eyimofe” follows Mofe (Jude Akuwudike), a factory technician, and Rosa (Temi AmiWilliams), a hairdresser, on their quest for what they believe will be a better life on foreign shores.

But after Mofe loses his family and Rosa fails to deliver on a promise, their plans collapse. Mofe’s tale starts off ordinarily enough, as he tries to deal with his factory’s defective electrical grid, then hanging out at home with his sister and her two kids.

But things suddenly take a devastating turn when he comes back after a night moonlighting as a security guard — like Rosa, Mofe has to work several jobs to make ends meet — to find his family asphyxiated by a faulty generator in his apartment.

A passport, photos and a visa form recurring elements. The characters’ misfortunes are part of their everyday life and they are sketching out the need to leave Nigeria at the same time. At the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, status, money, gender, skin colour and family structures are inextricably connected. The longing for another life is but one thread in this complex mesh, a promise that floats above

A scene from ‘Eyomofe’

things at once near and far away. The near two hour movie (114 minutes) is written

by Chuko Esiri, who co-directed with his twin brother Arie.

Eyimofe captures a multi-layered panorama of Lagos life — from the tiny dwellings of its two protagonists struggling to make ends meet at the bottom, to the larger domains of landlords and mob bosses, to the upscale bars and luxury hotels where businessmen

and expats live like minor kings.

The two are part of the same working underclass and live in the same poor neighborhood, and yet they only manage to share the screen on one occasion. Beyond their parallel struggles, what the two also have in common is their desire to emigrate from Nigeria in search of a better life abroad, and the script is divided into two halves, each denoted by the country the characters

Axion Entertainment Releases ‘Endless Revenge’ Tosin Clegg

Axion Entertainment has released its blockbuster movie, “Endless Revenge”. Producer of the film, Prince Ifeanyi Dike said: “First, I am in partnership with this American company that promises to be producing at least four quality movies every year. The message in this movie cannot be down played or overlooked as it is a big issue in our society today.

The story is about a nun that was raped after which hell was let loose.

I don’t want to give out details of the

movie but it teaches a lot of lessons.

“By the time you watch this movie, there will be no more rape because there is a hanging message there. Axion entertainment has now come into the system to stay and part of our target is to discover new stars like Debbie Nwachukwu. Watch out for her.”

‘Endless Revenge’ will hit movie shelves in December and premiered in Lagos, Owerri and Michigan USA. It parades top stars like Segun Arinze, Prince Ifeanyi Dike, Dupe Noma, Frank Okafor among others.

Audition for the movie took place in Lagos, Portharcourt, Owerri and Abuja.

A scene from ‘Endless Revenge’

are hoping to escape to: Spain for Mofe, Italy for Rosa.

It stars Jude Akuwudike, Temi AmiWilliams, Cynthia Ebijie, Sadiq Daba, Tomiwa Edun, Jacobs Alexander, Tomiwa Edun, Chioma ‘Chigul’ Omeruah and other luminous cast. Its executive producers include Maiden Alex Ibru, Toke Alex Ibru, Olorogun Oskar Ibru, Kayode Akindele and Ifeoma Esiri.

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Ë&#x153; Ëž OCTOBER 24, 2020

MEDIAGAFFES

EXPRESSION/PEOPLE

BY

Kid Gloves, Not â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Kidsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Glovesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

A

N aside: what do media managg ers at all levels of government discuss with their principals vis-Ă -vis the poverty of response to the raging and calamitous national protests?

Unbundling of EFCC and ICPC: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Buhari reduces influence of 6 anti-graft related (anti-graft-related) agenciesâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ember months: We are ready, Lagos Police Command assuresâ&#x20AC;? Who did the command assure? â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Assureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; cannot function as a stand-alone. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Southeast bound (Southeast-bound) passengers stranded at Lagos Airportâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Facilities at AOCOED excites (why?) NCCE teamâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;I had it rough at (in) the beginningâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Proprii etress, Carol Schoolâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;CSR: Between philantropy and palliativesâ&#x20AC;?

Brands and marketing: philanthropyâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;...Toureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kidsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; gloves treatment of the Tuareg rebels (rebelsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;) insurgence as its main reason to....â&#x20AC;?

All the facts, all the sides: kid gloves. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Woman arrested for killing mumâ&#x20AC;? It is obvious that the sub-editor who treated this story has never heard of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;matricideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;! So, woman arrested for matricide. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The elevation of some police officers and retirement (the retirement) of 13 Assistant Inspectors General has (have) led to some bad blood (delete the word preceding bad blood) in the force....â&#x20AC;?

Elevation and retirement are distinct milestones that cannot be collapsed into singularity! â&#x20AC;&#x153;When Hafeez Ringim, then an Assistant Inspecc tor General (a comma) was elevated to the rank of Inspector General (another comma) all his seniors (DIGs) had to retire.â&#x20AC;? Not true: they were retired to pave way for the Ringim ultimate disaster! â&#x20AC;&#x153;Your unassailable wisdom and sterling qualities have made you stand out as trustworthy and reliable leader.â&#x20AC;? Happy Birthday: a (note the article) trustworthy and reliable leader.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Your ability to work out (answer/do) knotty political puzzles...makes you worth (worthy) of emulation.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Indeed, its (itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s) really a pleasure working with you....â&#x20AC;? (From The Senators of the 8th National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) â&#x20AC;&#x153;...so he could not have seen fire and tell (told) me to put my hand.â&#x20AC;? Alternatively, he cannot see fire and tell me to put my hand. â&#x20AC;&#x153;...the APGA governorship candidate in Abia State at (in) the April 2019 elections....â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why change your wardrobe every five minutes while all it takes is a different accessories.â&#x20AC;?

All it takes are different accessories.

Last but not least from last weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s edition of this medium: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Gen. Charles Airhiavbere should blame PDP over (for) the death of female students in Ambrose Alli University, Ekpomaâ&#x20AC;? (Full-page Advert Signed by Edosa Efosa Osazuwa, Bini Truth Movement 2012) â&#x20AC;&#x153;Assailant, vigilante member die in gun duelâ&#x20AC;?

Get it right: vigilance member. Alternatively: Assailant, vigilante die in gun duel. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Woman arrested with AK-47, 148 live ammunitionsâ&#x20AC;? The last word in the extract is uncountable. The Old English (Anglo-Saxon) period is gone! â&#x20AC;&#x153;This will remove the possibility of passing the bulk (buck)â&#x20AC;? No pedestrian English. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The organized private sector took the bull by the horn recentlyâ&#x20AC;Ś.â&#x20AC;? For a better society: take the bull by the horns. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Britain handed over the reigns of power to the politicians.â&#x20AC;? Modern English: reins of government. â&#x20AC;&#x153;One even wonders why government did not adopt that method from the onset (outset).â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is true given the restricted and guarded comments from those who have been priviledged to view the clips.â&#x20AC;? Spellings count: privileged. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Government needs to put (get) its acts together and prosecute the kidnappers.â&#x20AC;? My own comment: get its act (not acts) together.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Vigilante group accused of murderâ&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;ŚGet it right: vigilance group. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Apart from all these, the debt recovery (a hyphen confirms class) level of the banks have not been any issue of interest to NDIC.â&#x20AC;? Question CBN has to answer, debt recovery has (not have). â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is believed in some quarters that the Nigerian Police hasâ&#x20AC;Ś.â&#x20AC;? THE NATION: the Nigerian Police have. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And the leaders, being new on the saddle of political leadership (another comma) were.â&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;? The challenges of good grammar: in the saddle. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Efforts by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his group to remove Akintola from office was (were) fiercely resisted.â&#x20AC;? Why the discord? â&#x20AC;&#x153;As a new democracy, there was (were) bound to be problems.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the course of the crisis, Awo and some of his lieutenants were arrested and charged for (with)â&#x20AC;Ś.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;The ethnic colouration of the coup led to a counter coup (a hyphen) in July 1966.â&#x20AC;? Spell-check: coloration. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Have the previous exercises impacted meaningfully on the lives (life) of the average Nigerian?â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;This could not have been possible if they had been outrightly liquidated.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Outrightlyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is a Nigerian creation! The right word â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;outrightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; functions as an adverb and an adjective. Therefore, it does not require any inflexion. In other words: This could not have been possible if they had been liquidated outright. Even at that, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;liquidationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; does not need any qualification because of its causative finality. So, if they had been liquidated. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Reopeningâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; abhors hyphenation. It is not automatic that any word with a prefix must go with a hyphen, except where there is a vowel replication. For instance: re-entry, but readmit, readjust, etcetera. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Legislators, oil chiefs parley on industry enhancing issuesâ&#x20AC;? Imagine the classical excellence

EBERE WABARA

ewabara@yahoo.com, 08055001948

a hyphen between â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;enhancingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; would have conferred on the headline. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I said these are (were) beggars and I told my wife I better (I had better) get money ready for them.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;Śthe grassroots population of our people will remain the lifewire of the UBE scheme.â&#x20AC;? Adult literacy: livewire. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The remains of the Ovie, sources in the town revealed, was (were) later tiedâ&#x20AC;Ś.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;And just last Friday, it was reported that the police has (had) arrested the APC governorship candidateâ&#x20AC;Ś.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;The meetings were about some developments alright....â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Alrightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (non-standard) is unacceptable for â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;all rightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in formal settings. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My suggestion, therefore, is that our National Assembly members should tow (toe) the line of reason.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;Śespecially those public officers who remain suspect with regards (regard) to their qualifications and credibility to hold public officesâ&#x20AC;? Alternatively, as regards their qualificationsâ&#x20AC;Ś. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The nation has (had) in the past pardoned and forgiven itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (sic) past leaders and citizens who committed one offence or the other (or another).â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Such citizens had since been integrated back (reintegrated) into the system.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;A recent summit in Kaduna on education in the northern states provided the appropriate forum to revisit, once againâ&#x20AC;Ś.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Revisitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; cannot co-function with â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;againâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Gone are the days when government can (could) go it alone.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Infact (In fact) every loving parents....â&#x20AC;?

Parentage: either every loving parent or all loving parents â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the agricultural sector, the two countries can learn a lot from one another (each other).â&#x20AC;?

Babatunde Rotinwa

Desire to Replicate Standard Abroad Informed My Career Choice In this interview, with Ugo g Aliogo, g , the former Chairman, Lagos g State Local Government Service Commission, Alhaji Babatunde Rotinwa speaks on his career and local government administration in Nigeria

W

ho is the p person that inspired you while you were young?

I was inspired by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. His journey into national reckoning and his achievement as the Premier of the Western Region are still there for people to study and learn from. Growing up in as a young boy, I always read Tribune newspaper because my father was an ardent reader of the paper. Awolowoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life gave me hope that I could become what I desired and I am still proud of his developmental vision.

You had your university education in the United States and even acquired a Masters degree. Why did you decide to join the public sector instead of the private sector where you could make more money as a professional?

My decision to pitch my career tent with the public sector was borne out of my patriotic desire to use my knowledge and work with Nigerians of like minds to build the kind of society I lived in while studying abroad.

I was given a scholarship to study in the United States where I did my degrees in Biology and Natural Science at the Chicago State University. So it was natural for me to join the Lagos State service after returning to Nigeria.

I was employed as an Inspector of Education in 1976, I later taught in secondary schools in Epe and Ojo before I joined the local government service. At that time, General Obasanjo did the local government reform which unified the system of local administration in Nigeria.

Subsequently, I was appointed as a Council Manager, which used to be the Chief Executive Position then, and I contributed my quota to the development of Somolu, Epe and Mainland Local Government Areas before I was transferred to the State Civil Service where I worked at different times as a Director, Permanent Secretary and I retired from the service as a Head of Service in 1999.

Though, I could have joined the private sector from where I had offers, but I was more motivated to remain in the public sector because of my desire to replicate the kind of development I saw and benefitted from while I was in the United States. Some friends and family members

and LCDs are allowed to operate as stipulated in our constitution by all the state governments. They should be allowed to generate their revenue so that more laudable projects can be executed at the grassroot level. Apart from this, just like it is being done in Lagos State, more qualified and competent hands should be brought into these LGAs. We were able to do well as local government administrators because we had more free hand to operate and we were qualified and committed to a developmental cause.

Rotinwa

encouraged me to leave for the private sector so that I could earn a better salary, but I knew I could make more impact as a professional by remaining where I was. Today, I can say I have no regret on the patriotic path I took.

You spent some of your years in service as a local government administrator. How would you assess the performance of the local governments in Nigeria in the past 10 years?

Giving the resources at their disposal, I can say that they have not performed badly, but I believe that they can still do better. For example, the local governments and LCDAS in Lagos have executed many people oriented projects and programmes during these years.

However, having lived in the USA and other developed countries where I saw what the municipal government was doing and how they were allowed to play their roles, I believe Nigeria can develop at a faster rate if our LGAs

Can you recall any of the challenging periods of your career?

Every assignment comes with its own challenges, but my determination to make a mark made me looked for the best ways to resolve them. Working a councilmanager in the old Somolu, Epe and even Mainland Local Government Area was challenging, but I did my best to make these areas better than I met them. One of the most challenging periods of my career was during the military years when I was the Head of Service, there was an industrial conflict as a result of the implementation of a new minimum wage by the federal government and the military administrator of Lagos State did not want to implement the new wage in the state. I had to bring my experience and diplomatic skills to bear and cited the relevant legislation to convince the Administrator to implement the payment of that new wage in order to avoid the impending strike. We needed to write to the Head of State for a special grant which was given to the state.

What advice do you have for young professionals in the Nigerian public service who are looking up to you?

They should have it in mind that their action and in action affect the development of our nation, so they should work hard and be dedicated to their profession.

We can make our country better when everybody plays his roles in a patriotic way. They should also be diligent and make sure that they plan with the people. Professionalism and adherence to due process should take centre stage in their professional lives and they should be disciplined.

23

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ OCTOBER 24, 2020

POLITY

Celebrating Felicia Olisanwenye Mordi Martin Mordi and Helen Uwaezuoke

S

he passed away peacefully on the evening of Friday, February 28, 2020. This was after she had received the anointing of the sick. At 91 years and six months, she had attained a ripe old age. She died the way she lived, lovingly and peacefully surrounded by her son Ogbueshi Martin Mordi, her daughter Rev. Sr. Assumpta Mordi, Rev. Sr. Elizabeth Erhumwensee and her carers, Titilayo Bello and Goodness Sunday.

The third child of eight children, our dear mum Felicia Olisanwenye was born on August 7, 1928. This was at a time when her father Dick Anisha of Umuonaje, Asaba, whose job as a headmaster saw him moving from one end of Nigeria to another.

This, therefore, accounted for the fact that she was born in Abak, which is in the present-day Akwa Ibom State. As for her mother Susan Mgbasia Anisha, she was an accomplished entrepreneur from the Onyebashi family of Umuagu, Asaba.

Her father’s incessant transfers implied that Mummy had to attend several primary schools. But this changed when she was enrolled at the Anglican Girls Seminary boarding secondary school in Lagos.

Her eventually becoming a nurse surprised nobody since she was renowned for caring for people. With her double qualification in nursing and midwifery from General Hospital Aba, she enjoyed a fruitful career which culminated at the defunct General Hospital, now Federal Medical Centre, Asaba where she was popularly known as “The Matron”.

Marriage and Family life After she married our dad Cyril Chukwuma Mordi Esq. KSGG, KSM of Umuaji Asaba on May 9, 1957, Mummy made a few sacrifices. The first was her conversion to the Catholic faith, in which she grew to become so devout. The second was the suspension of her nursing career to become a full-time housewife.

She also willingly joined her husband in London, when in the early years of their marriage he became a diplomat. She did not resume her professional working life until when she was sure that her children no longer needed her full-time care. Indeed, her taking a break from her career for the sake of her family certainly helped her children in more ways than one. Being there to directly impact their upbringing meant that she positively shaped and influenced their lives individually and collectively. Amongst many lessons, her children learnt was that of cooperation and keeping the family unit together through prayers.

As for our dad, Mummy gave him her unalloyed love, support and service. This helped him rise to the pinnacle of his career as a

Felicia Mordi

Permanent Secretary in the civil service and later as Secretary to the Government in the defunct Eastern Region of Nigeria. She continued to support him, even when he came out of retirement to become the president of the customary court in Asaba. It was in recognition of her support for my dad that our aunty Ada Mordi (Mama Biabia) chose Ogolikwadodia (a supportive wife) as her Alor title name.

Religious and Social life Mummy was a daily communicant in her active days and a member of several pious/statutory organisations. Amongst them were St. Vincent De Paul, Catholic Women Organisation (CWO) where she was the leader of group D for years. She was also a Lady of St. Mulumba and was the leader of the only subcouncil then in Asaba/Ibusa and a national financial secretary.

She continually hosted her fellow knights and ladies in her home until her death. Two weeks before her demise, the Ladies of St. Mulumba visited her with some gifts. One activity that was remarkable in her religious experience was the pilgrimage she made to Lourdes, the Marian apparition site in France. For our dad and the rest of her family, she remained a bastion in the

practice of the faith.

Mummy also spent several vacations in London, the UK with her children and grandchildren there. A sociable and fun-loving person, she was very generous and loved to entertain and delight people with her culinary skills. Besides being a member of “Otu Jolly No 2” dance group of Asaba, she was also a foundation member of the Asaba Women’s Welfare Association, where she held different offices. Besides, she was a member of the Asaba Ladies League, becoming the president of its Asaba branch for some years. She so cherished her membership of this organisation that she sang their anthem with joy in her heart until her last days. She also treasured the visits of some of its members as they reminded her of the good old days.

Mummy had such good leadership skills that she was always at the helm of affairs in any organisation that she belonged to.

It was with great reluctance that they allowed her to relinquish the various offices that she held in various societies. Her wise, peaceful and calm disposition coupled with a great sense of humour endeared her to many. Many people sought after her prudent counsel and they were never disappointed with the ideas and suggestions that she came up with. Punctuality was her watchword, as she never liked to be late to any event.

Her Last Years on Earth A very lively person, she regularly attended most of the meetings in her various organisations and paid several social visits. She remained lively even at 80 years until she took ill and had a fall whilst she was recuperating. For over 10 years, the woman used to be a great dancer was never able to walk again.

This was not an easy experience, which she had to live with until her death.

In her wheelchair, she would attend the Sunday masses and with the rosary in her hand, she would pray for all her offspring, relations and friends. In answer to her prayers, God bestowed multiple blessings on her and her children and grandchildren.

To God be the glory! Her children and many others celebrated her numerous accomplishments. She extensively celebrated her 50th, 60th, 70th, 80th and 90th birthdays. At 88+ she was celebrated as the oldest female in her Kwekagbor lineage in Umuonaje, Asaba. She loved to live life and enjoyed it to the very end as best as she could.

We miss you Mummy, but we thank God for giving us such sterling and stellar mother. Mummy, whose remains was committed to Mother Earth yesterday, was a true Proverbs 31 woman in all ramifications. We thank God for your life. May your amiable soul find peace with the Lord. Amen!

––Ogbueshi Mordi and Dr Mrs Helen Uwaezuoke write from Asaba

Bamford’s Hat-trick Halts Villa’s Winning Run

A

ston Villa’s four-match winning run comes to an end yesterday as Leeds United move into third ahead of rest of Premier League games this weekend.

Patrick Bamford’s second-half hat-trick brought Aston Villa’s Premier League winning run to a screeching halt as Leeds won 3-0 at Villa Park.

It was a barn-storming performance from Marcelo Bielsa’s side - who caught the eye with their lightning counter-attacks, neat one-touch football and 27 shots at Villa Park despite a goalless first half.

Bamford had missed two glorious chances in the opening period, but soon put some demons to rest as he slotted home from an Emiliano Martinez’s save 10 minutes after the restart. The next two quickly followed - his second from a sublime effort which found the

top corner in the 66th minute, before he completed his hat-trick with a scooped finish into the far corner in the 74th.

Villa will look back at some missed chances and wonder ‘what-if’.

Jack Grealish had a shot cleared off the line by Luke Ayling in the first half before he and Ezri Konsa both went close early in the second

period.

But Villa were ultimately unable to deal with Leeds’ direct play and miss the chance to go top of the Premier League table, remaining in second. Leeds are hot on their heels though, surging into third ahead of the remaining games this weekend.

Al Ahly Book CAF Champions League Final Ticket, Beat Wydad Casablanca 3-1 An early Marwan Mohsen goal set Al Ahly of Egypt on their way to a 3-1 home victory over Wydad Casablanca of Morocco on yesterday and a place in the CAF Champions League final. Mohsen struck after five minutes. Hussein el Shahat added a second

midway through the first half as Ahly doubled their aggregate advantage having won the first leg of the semifinal 2-0 last weekend.

WYasser Ibrahim scored a third goal for record eight-time African champions Ahly before substitute Zouhair el Moutaraji pulled one back eight minutes from time.

Ahly qualified 5-1 overall and must wait until November 1 before knowing whether they will face fellow Egyptians Zamalek or Raja Casablanca of Morocco in the single-match final five days later. Zamalek were due to defend a 1-0 first leg lead over Raja today in Cairo, but the match was postponed when eight of the Moroccan squad tested positive for coronavirus.

Caf President Gets Association’s Support for Second Term

Patrick Bamford’s first Premier League hat-trick at Villa Park yesterday takes him to six goals for the season

Apotential second term in office for Confederation of African Football (Caf) president Ahmad is looking considerably more likely after 46 of the continent’s 54 association presidents have called on him to run again.

The support comes despite Madagascar’s Ahmad, who took charge in 2017, having yet to formally announce his intention to stand in March’s elections. The deadline to apply is November 12, with no formal bid having yet been submitted by any candidate.

Astatement signed by the heads of all Africa’s six regions suggests that the 60-year-old will have widespread backing should he opt to run again, even though he is the subject of an ongoing Fifa Ethics case. Ahmad has previously said he would seek guidance from the continent’s football fraternity before deciding to run, saying he does the role out of ‘collective motivation’ not ‘personal ambition’. “Today, we, Presidents of the six Councils of African Football Associations, supported by 46 presidents of our 54 member associations, call on President Ahmad to run for a second term in order to continue with his achievement,” the statement read. “If he decides to do so, we will support him.”

24

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ OCTOBER 24, 2020

POLITY

The Nation newspapers’s office, Mushin

The Ruin of Lagos Lagosians are still counting their losses after buildings, cars and other property were destroyed by hoodlums who cashed in on the EndSARS protest, writes Festus Akanbi

W

hat started as a peaceful nationwide protest against the excesses of the recently disbanded Special AntiRobbery Squad (SARS) by youths took a twist in Lagos on Tuesday, when a group of yet to be identified soldiers opened fire to disperse them at the Lekki Toll Gate, one of the spots for their protests in Lagos.

The spontaneous condemnation and the allegation of the complicity of some Lagos politicians provided the trigger for miscreants to set many public buildings ablaze in the city.

Observers noted that the reign of terror unleashed in Lagos festered because the police were confused as to the appropriateness of their intervention, having lost the trust of the people through the high-handedness of some members of SARS. As the various cells of the Lagos miscreants fanned out to different parts of the state to cause chaos, in what looked like a festival of fire, members of the public alleged that the police practically took a back seat, leading to the burning down of places like police stations and other facilities.

Police stations Some of the police stations that came under attack, according to the Public Relations Officer, Lagos command of the Nigerian Police, Muyiwa Adejobi included Orile police station (burnt), Layeni police station (burnt), Amukoko police station (burnt), Cele outpost, under Ijesha division (burnt), Mushin police division (attacked), Ilembe Hausa police division (attacked) and many others. As at the press time, the number was still rising.

Lagoon Hospital Suspected hoodlums on Tuesday afternoon vent their anger on a health facility owned

by Lagoon Hospitals in the Apapa area of Lagos State.

It was gathered that a victim with fresh gunshot wounds was dumped in front of the hospital building by an unknown person.

The hoodlums thereafter accused the hospital management of abandoning the male victim without providing treatment for him. They went on a rampage and vandalisedOyingbo-BRT Bus Terminal burnt the hospital facility. In a viral video, a bonfire was seen in front of the hospital building while huge plumes of smoke billowed into the sky around the facility.

Shoprite, Lekki, Surulere Lagoon Hospitals confirmed the development in a The Sangotedo branch of Shoprite, a popular shopstatement signed by its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Jimi ping mall along Lekki-Epe Expressway was not spared Coker but denied that it refused to attend to the victim. by thugs who ravaged the business premises. Videos of miscreants making their ways into the malls were Ajeromi Ifelodun Secretariat shared as early as 11am on Wednesday. All the sections The secretariat was a target of attacks by Lagos of the halls were vandalised as they hurriedly carted urchins, popularly called ‘area boys’ who carted away whatever their hands could touch. Similar away some valuable property including cars and air vandalism was recorded in the Surulere area of Lagos, conditioner. Other private medical and commercial where criminals from Orile were said to have had a buildings in the area were not spared either. field day robbing the Shoprite, Spar and other business

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ OCTOBER 24, 2020

25

POLITY THE RUIN OF LAGOS

Continued from Page 24

Layeni Police Station

Shoprite, Lekki, Lagos

Interior Lekki shoprite

Shoprite Surulere, Lagos

premises in the area.

Banks, Secretariat and Medical centre Between Monday and Tuesday, hoodlums broke into three new generation banks in the Lekki-Ajah areas of Lagos. Some of them were said to have attempted to break into the bank vaults although the affected institutions are yet to disclose how much was carted away during the raid.

Nigerian Ports Authority On Wednesday, suspected hoodlums invaded the premises of Lagos headquarters of the Nigerian Ports, chased out the workers before setting the facilities on fire.

The thugs also attacked the NPA facility in Dockyard, Apapa and carted away valuable items. All vehicles in the premises were also burnt down during the raid.

Oba of Lagos Palace Another set of rampaging mob unleashed mayhem at the palace of the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, who had to be ferried away by soldiers drafted to the palace. In what looked like an invasion, a video shared on social media on Wednesday, show the Oba’s staff of office, regarded as the symbol of authority being taken away by youths who turned against him after burning down the Ebute Ero police post in Idumota.

The invaders also took their time in the swimming pool inside the palace.

COVID-19 Palliatives Looted Dozens of miscreants in Lagos, on Thursday, began carting away food items stacked in a warehouse at Benster Crescent, in Monkey Village, Maza maza, in Amuwo Odofin. The food items, which were labelled ‘cacovid, not for sale,’ include bags of rice, macaroni, spaghetti, salt, garri, sugar and cartons of noodles.

Federal Road Safety Commission office, Ojodu On Wednesday, some hoodlums turned their attention to the offices of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and Vehicle Inspection Unit at the Ojodu area of the state, which they set ablaze.

Eyewitnesses said over 30 vehicles parked inside the premises were burnt. Most of the vehicles were those seized by the traffic management agencies.

BRT Buses Burnt Also, on Wednesday, some new buses belonging to the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) were torched by hoodlums who invaded the terminus in Oyingbo area of Lagos, where the buses were parked.

Similarly, more than 40 BRT Bus at Ojodu Berger Terminal were set ablaze early in the early hours of the day.

Governor Sanwo-Olu’s family house Miscreants also descended on the family home of the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Omididun Street, Lagos, throwing stones at the house before it went up in flames.

Eyewitnesses said that one of the youths holding a jerry can was seen soaking the house in petrol but was quickly stopped by residents for fear that the fire could spread uncontrollably. Moments after, however, the youths succeeded in burning the house. It was learnt that policemen attached to the Adeniji Adele Police Station had to race to the scene in a bid to quell the violence.

Ethnic Battle in Fagba area of Lagos There were also reports of unrest in Fagba community of Ifako Ijaiye Local Government Area, Lagos State on Wednesday in an ethnic clash between Hausa and Yoruba youths. Residents fled to safety as the hoodlums engaged each other with dangerous weapons. The fight continued till Friday when it spread to Agbado Crossing area, with residents fleeing to Ope Ilu and Matogun areas of Ogun State for safety.

In a viral video on social media, as miscreants went on rampage, trucks were set on fire. A petrol station was also burnt. Residents calling for security operatives’ intervention lamented that the absence of security operatives at the scene of the clash was responsible for the high casualty in the area.

Residents of Iju Obawole, Station and Iju Ishaga had to keep vigil in order to ward off the rampaging miscreants who reportedly regrouped before they started attacking the estates in the area one after the other. Several houses and shops were looted.

Lagos State, Magistrate Courts, Igbosere Hoodlums attacked Igbosere High Court, Obalende

on Wednesday evening, which they set ablaze after stealing computers, printers, files, fans, air conditioners and other items.

In one of the videos circulated on Wednesday, hoodlums were seen running around with different items with one of them wearing a judge robe and wigs while carrying a machete on the other hand.

Lagos Oriental Hotel Also attacked was a section of the Lekki branch of Oriental Hotel on Wednesday. Spokesman for the Western Metal Products Company (WEMPCO) Group, owners of the hotel, Taiwo Alli, confirmed the attack.

He said the facilities were attacked when hoodlums armed with guns, knives and bottles, forcefully gained entrance to the hotel, assaulted some of its security personnel and damaged property.

TVC Hoodlums also attacked Television Continental (TVC) in Lagos despite the 24-hour curfew declared on Tuesday. Eye witnesses said the thugs besieged the entrance of TVC in the Ikosi-Ketu area of Lagos and the policemen stationed in the area took to their heels. The mob later set the station on fire.

The Nation Newspapers The head office of Nation Newspapers at Matori, in the Mushin area of Lagos State also came under attack by suspected hoodlums. A statement by the Editor of the newspapers, Adeniyi Adesina said that the attackers arrived in a “commando-like manner,” and kicked their way into the premises brandishing sophisticated weapons.

“Some of the vehicles parked within the premises were set ablaze, others vandalised,” Mr Adesina said.

“Many boys came thereafter and swooped on the office, looting everything they could lay their hands on.

These include desktop computers, laptops, air conditioners and other office equipment.”

Ikoyi Correctional Service The Nigerian Correctional Service in Ikoyi, Lagos was attacked by suspected hoodlums on Thursday.

According to reports, the prisons were torched as the hoodlums made attempts to break into prison cells but were pushed back.

26

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPA P PER ˾ OCTOBER 24, 2020

POLITY

How Soldiers Killed Artisan in Auchi Godwin Ifijeh

T

he heart-rending g killing g in cold blood of a 25-year y old orphan p and automobile electrical apprentice, pp Godwin Iraoya y Junior in Auchi, Edo State on Monday y, October 19, 2020, by y two g gun-wielding g soldiers during gap peaceful #Endsars protest in the town instantly p y invoked p provocaation across the land. The incident moved many to uncontrollable tears, including g the Palace of the Otaru of Auchi, which reacted no less.

The last of his parents’ p five children, Iraoya, who turned 25 on October 3, 2020, having g been born on October 3, 1995, was allegedly g killed by y soldiers attached to Setraco (Nig) g Ltd Life Camp, p a staff housing g estate of the construction firm located a few metres away from Jattu jjunction in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State.

According g to eyewitness y accounts, Godwin Iraoya y Junior’s killing g arose from an unprovoked p assault on the p protesters by y the two soldiers, who were insistent on getting g g off the barricades p placed on the road by y them notwithstanding g that their movement was not hindered in any y way. y His killing g was said to have p particularly y elicited p provocation in the neighbourhood g because the young y g man was not in any y way y connected with the p protest but jjust walking g through g on his way y to the workshop, p where he was an apprentice pp when he encountered the peaceful p protesters p and got g shot by y the soldiers. In an effort to scare away y the protest p ters and g get the road cleared, the soldiers were said to have fired indiscriminately y and in the process hit Godwin Iraoya p y Junior, who fell to the ground g in his pool p of blood, reeling g in pain p until he was picked p up p by y some good g Samariitans and rushed to a nearby y hospital, p Jey yM Jey y Clinic, a popular p p private p medical facility y in the town, where they yg gave him the initial first aid in an effort to stabilise him. However,

he was said not to have immediately yg gotten any yg good treatment as there was no doctor on ground until a while after. When that eventu g ually y showed up, p he was said to have directed that the patient p was taken to the Irua Specialist p Teaching g Hospital p (ISTH), a directive that was not too pleasing p g to those who took him there, scared that he could die from the delayed y treatment and perhaps before he gets to Irrua from Auchi.

His conveyors y eventually y settled to take him to the ISTH, Irrua but like they y feared, he gave g up p the ghost g on the way y and his family y members led by y his Uncle, Mr. Titus Oisamoje j Iraoya, y and other sympathisers, y p who went with him, returned with the corpse p to Auchi and went straight g with it to the palace p of the Otaru of Auchi, where they y staged g some protests before taking it for deposit in a morgue g in Jattu.

His elder brother, Mark Iraoya, y had described Godwin as q quiet and easy-going, yg g stating g that they y were from Otuo in Owan East Local Government Area LGA) of Edo State.

According g to him, Godwin Iraoya y Junior and the rest of the children had been strug ggling, g g trying y g on their own to survive since they y became orphans p after the death of their father, Abel Oisadiaye y Iraoya y in 1997, and their mother, Mrs. Gladys y Iraoyah y Nee Peru’s, a year later from p y prolonged g g grieving g over her husband’s death, stressing g that Godwin, who completed p his secondary y education at Azama College, g Otuo, was born in Sapele, p their late mother, being g from the family y of Late Chief Peru of Okpe p Clan, Awolowo Road Extension, Sapele, p Delta State.

He appealed pp to the Federal and Edo State Governments to ensure that the chilling g murrder of Godwin Iraoya y Junior was investigated g and jjustice served as his life was unjustifiably j y cut short, stating g that he was neither a protester nor a violent person. p Video footage f g off his shooting g by y the soldiers recorded by y POPORITV has since gone viral to validate the incident.

Godwin Iroya

God, Christianity And Global Mysticism

Daniel Nyambi

I

read with relish Prof. Tunji Olaopa’s piece titled ”Finding God: Christianity and the Global Mystical Societies (THISDAY Newspaper, 26th September 2020). The piece raised a number of issues that need clarification as a prerequisite for holding any meaningful discourse on Christian mysticism. In this piece I intend to address at least two of them The fi first issue with the piece is the lack of terminologiical definitions. fi What precisely is mysticism and what qualifi ifies a person, society or institution to be regarded as mystic or mystical? A working definition fi of mysticism is clearly needed. The 15th edition of Encyclopedia Britannica defines fi mysticism as a quest for a hidden truth or wisdom stemming in part from the feeling alienation that many persons experience in the modern world. Put down as a religion of the elite, mysticism (or the mystical faculty of perceiving transcendental reality) is said by many to belong to all men, though few us it. The goal of mysticism is the union (of the human) with the divine or sacred.

The above mentioned definition fi will serve as our working definition fi in this piece.

The mystical quest presupposes the existence of some purposefully hidden truth (esoteric knowledge) whose attainn ment would assuage man’s alienation and ultimately unite him to God in a union of identity. Implicit in the mystical quest is the conviction that every man has an innate capacity for direct intuitive knowledge of and union with the divine in the present life once he overcomes the obstacles to this union by means of the various prescribed mystical practices (or techniques). The foregoing sets the stage for classical gnostic tendency among mystical practitioners of making the distinction between the enlightened and happy few (the elite) and unenlightened masses (who languish for lack of enlightenment). It is typical of the mystical current to equate knowledge with salvation.

It is instructive to note that the mystical impulse predates the advent of Christianity and is a tendency that is so universal and persistent throughout history and among virtually all cultures precisely because it responds to a basic and undeniable human experience of the limitations of earthly happiness. Man’s longing for the infi nfinite (Truth, Beauty and Goodness) is aptly captured by St. Augustine’s famous epigram: You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. This conclusion was the fruit of his long, tortuous and futile search for happiness and fulfi lfillment through knowledge and enjoyment of created goods which he outlines in his classic book the Confessions.

The mystical tendency throws up the following questions: Does man possess a natural capacity for an intuitive and direct vision of God in this present life? Is man capable of direct conn templation and possession of God in this present life? Addressing the issue of man’s communion with God, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches the following: “All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity.” All are called to holiness: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. [ CCC No. 2013].

A second issue with Tunji Olaopa’s piece is his understanding, and, the criteria he used to classify such disparate institutions such as the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity (ROF), Rosicrucian Order, the Illuminati, the Freemasons, the Knight Templars and Opus Dei. First, it must be stated that the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity (ROF), Rosicrucian Order, the Illuminati, the Freemaa sons, the Knight Templars and the Catholic Personal Prelature Opus Dei have nothing in common, and, share nothing in common at all. In fact I was appalled that Prof Olaopa mixed up the aforesaid institutions as if have anything in common or share anything in common. Of the aforesaid six, only the Rosicrucian Order AMORC identifi ifies itself as mystical society. It claims to be community of mystics who study and practice the metaphysical laws governing the universe. According to a Rosicrucian historian, Michel Maier (1568–1622) the origins of the Rosicrucian are Egyptian, Brahmanic, derived from the mysteries of Eleusis and Samothrace, the Magi of Persia, the Pythagoreans, and the Arabs. It is noteworthy, that there is no mention of any Christian inspiration or infl nfluence at its origin.

The Reformed Ogboni, on the other hand, identifi ifies itself as a fraternal organization in the pattern of the Freemasons but targeted at indigenes (Nigerians). It does not claim to pursue any special (esoteric/mystical) knowledge but rather seeks to foster mutual assistance among its members. It was started by an Ann glican clergyman initially for Christians only but membership was later extended to non-Christians. The same may be said of Freemasonry. The private character of its initiation rites and the anti-clericalism historically associated with some of its members has been subjects of controversies, speculations and censure by Church authorities. The same anti-clericalism has characterized the Illuminati, a secret society that was founded in Bavaria and whose infl nfluence it is believed endures up till today. None of the foregoing organizations meet the criteria for being labelled mystical based on our working definition fi of mysticism. The purported secrecy that surrounds their membership or initiation rites if at all may earn them the label of secret but definitely fi not

mystical societies.

The now defunct Order of the Knights Templar and the Opus Dei are the only institutions of the Catholic Church which – thanks to Dan Brown’s fi fictional narratives – are purported to be mystical in the write up. Having been offi fficially proscribed by the Catholic Church and already defunct, the Order of the Knights Templar does not need any commentary. With respect to the Prelature of Opus Dei however, its mischaracterization as a mystical society within the Catholic Church is wrong. This mischaracterization stems from Dan Brown’s hyperactive first place, based on its multiimagination than hard facts. In the fi secular experience the Catholic Church would never tolerate the existence of a mystical society within itself since it would contradict its universal mission of bringing the Gospel to every creature and not just a privileged elite.

Secondly, as an institution of the Catholic Church Opus Dei and its members adhere to the Magisterium (teaching authority) of Church and do not profess any peculiar or esoteric doctrines not explicitly taught by the Magisterium of the Church. Opus Dei seeks to foster the awareness of the universal call to sanctity among people from all walks of life and through its formative activities seeks to teach ordinary laymen and women how to grow in sanctity (love for God) in the midst of their daily work, family duties and social activities. The discernment of a divine vocation is a prerequisite for becoming a faithful of the Prelature of Opus Dei. However the discernment and following of that call (vocation) does not make the person a spiritual elite or superior Christian because the grace of the vocation is gratuitous and totally independent the recipients prior merits. St. Josemaria received divine inspiration to found Opus Dei on the 2nd of October 1928.

In sum, it may be said that while traditional Christian teaching tend to treat extraordinary mystical experience with caution, many Christians due to a combination of ignorance of traditional doctrine and a craving for the extraordinary continue to seek esoteric (hidden) knowledge as key to understanding the challenges and enigmas they face in life. The proliferation of secret societies is a universally validated human phenomena that is not peculiar to Christianity. Rather it is often a reaction to a cultural situation (often of enforced censorship) that leaves the dissenter of an offi fficial narrative with no other options than to go underground (form secret societies) in order to maintain and promote their viewpoint or stance.

–– Daniel Nyambi is an Electrical Engineer working in Lagos

GLOBAL SOCCER

3

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ APRIL 24, 2011

A

WEEKLY PULL-OUT

24.10.2020

NEWS

OLE, LAMPARD IN BATTLE OF WITS PAGE. 29

Victor Moses

New Home in Russia?

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER OCTOBER 24, 2020

28

GLOBAL SOCCER

Victor Moses

New Home in Russia?

Since the exit of Antonio Conte from Chelsea, it was obvious that subsequent Blues managers have no place for him, culminating in a loan stint in Turkey and Italy. With the egg heads of Spartak Moscow ready to make his latest loan move permanent if he impresses, the question is if Victor Moses can make a home in Russia as his chances of playing at Stanford Bridge is almost zero

O

ne thing was obvious after Victor Moses completed his loan spell at Inter Milan and returned to Chelsea, that another loan was in the offing as he was never in Frank Lampard’s plan.

Speculation then became rife as to where his next destination would be.

Last week however, Moses agreed to join Spartak Moscow for his latest assignment, and made his debut last weekend as an early second half substitute.

Speaking via his media team, Victor said he was excited about the new challenge and also described Spartak Moscow as one of the biggest clubs in Europe.

“It’s a pleasure for me to sign for Spartak Moscow, one of the greatest clubs in Europe, I can’t wait to get started and meet my teammates. It’s going to be an interesting season.”

He said.

The former Nigerian international replaced Nail Umyarov in the 55th minute.

As at the time of the former Nigerian international’s introduction, Spartak were losing 1-0, but with inspired Moses they would score three times in the next 20 minutes, and go on to win 3-2 to maintain their early-season charge to the top of the Premier Liga table, where they remain second only on goal difference behind powerhouse Zenit St Petersburg.

This development suggests that Moses can be challenging for another league title after achieving that same feat once with Chelsea in 2017 under the tutelage of Antonio Conte.

Moses wore the number 8 shirt at Spartak. The number has been previously worn by Guus Til, Denis Glushakov, Aiden McGeady, Nikola Drincic, Aleksandr Pavlenko, Dmitri Alenichev, Aleksandr Danishevski and Marcelo Silva among others.

Moses’s preferred number 11 which he wore at Crystal Palace, Wigan Athletic, Fenerbahce, Inter Milan and for the Super Eagles, has already been taken by Sweden forward Jordan Larsson.

The 29-year-old started life at Fenerbahce with the number 8 and wore the numbers 12, 13 and 15 on his back at Chelsea.

So far so good then for their ambitious plan to return to the glory days of the 1990s, when they were the dominant force in Russian football, winning nine titles in 10 years from 1992 to 2001 and were a

factor in European competitions as well after reaching the semifinals of the European Cup in 1991 and the quarterfinals of its successor, the Champions League in 1996.

Such ambitions don’t come for free however. Fortunately, as confirmed

by Spartak director Shamil Gazizov, Moses agreed to take a small paycut in order to join, and the move itself could be made permanent for a reported fee of just €10m should they qualify for the Champions League next season.

Expectedly, Moses was happy with how things panned out in his maiden outing in the Russian League and he expressed his delight with a tweet where he wrote: “Delighted to make my debut for this great club!

Great to start with a win yesterday, hopefully, the start of many.”

Spartak Moscow general director Shamil Gazizov says talks to sign Victor Moses from Chelsea went on smoothly.

Moses joined Spartak Moscow on a one-year loan deal last week with an option to buy for €8m.

Gazizov said, “I cannot say that the negotiations were easy, but they were warm. We agreed quickly enough. By October 5, we were already confident of the deal.

“We also talked to Marina Granovskai. The main issues were resolved with her.

“A strong manager, I can’t say anything else. What else to say about a woman who is quite successful at Chelsea?”

Moses’ present stint is his sixth loan move in eight years.

The 29-year-old was last on loan at Inter Milan. But before then, Moses had been shipped to Liverpool, Stoke City, West Ham, and Fenerbahce at different times from Chelsea Moses attended Stanley Technical High School, now known as the Harris Academy, in South Norwood.

Scouted playing football in the local Tandridge League for Cosmos 90 FC Crystal Palace approached him, with the club’s Selhurst Park stadium just streets away from his school.

Moses first came to prominence at 14 after scoring 50 goals for Palace’s under-14s side. Playing for three years at both Whitgift and Palace, Moses scored over 100 goals as well as helping Whitgift win many School Cups, including a National Cup where he scored all five goals in the final against Healing School of Grimsby at the Walkers Stadium, Leicester.

Victor Moses being unveiled at Spartak Moscow

Victor Moses

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER OCTOBER 24, 2020

GLOBAL SOCCER

Buoyed by Win against PSG, Man Utd Welcome Chelsea to Old Trafford Manchester United welcome fellow top-four hopefuls Chelsea to Old Trafford today for the headline fixture of week six matches of the 2020-21 Premier League season.

The Red Devils go into the match off the back of a memorable Champions League triumph in Paris, while Chelsea were held to a goalless draw by Sevilla midweek

Premiership Table Everton Aston Villa Liverpool Leicester Arsenal Wolves Tottenham Chelsea West Ham Leeds Man City Southampton Newcastle Crystal Palace Man Utd Brighton West Brom Burnley Sheff Utd Fulham

5 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 4 5 5 4 5 5

7 10 0 4 2 -2 7 4 4 0 0 -1 -2 -2 -3 -2 -8 -5 -5 -8

13 12 10 9 9 9 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 4 2 1 1 1

PREMIER LEAGUE TODAY

West Ham v Man City Fulham v Crystal Palace Man Utd v Chelsea Liverpool v Sheffield Utd

12:30 15:00 17:30 20:00

SUNDAY

Southampton v Everton Wolves v Newcastle Arsenal v Leicester City

14:00 16:30 19:15

MONDAY

Brighton v West Brom 17:30 Burnley v Tottenham 20:00 Manchester United striker, Anthony Martial waltz through three Chelsea players

W

hat a difference a week can make in football. Just seven days ago Manchester United were a club in crisis, having lost their last Premier League game 6-1 at home and missed out on all of their top targets in the transfer market, resulting in some hurried deadline-day business.

Now, they welcome Chelsea to Old Trafford flying high again after returning to winning ways in the Premier League at Newcastle United last time out and upsetting the odds to beat last season’s Champions League runners-up Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday night.

It is the second victory away to PSG of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s tenure, although he will be wary of a hangover of sorts - after the first 19 months ago they lost their next two games and only won three of their next 12 across all competitions.

Incidentally, that run was broken by a 4-0 thrashing of Chelsea in the corresponding fixture on the opening day of last season, and anything close to a repeat of that scoreline would go even further towards raising the gloom that had begun to surround the club.

Manchester United have now won five of their last six games across all competitions, but the main concern will be that all five of those victories have come on the road.

Indeed, the victory in Paris means that they have now won 10 consecutive away games in all competitions for the first time ever, but at Old Trafford it is an entirely different story.

The 20-time champions are still searching for their first home point of the campaign, having been beaten 3-1 by Crystal Palace in their opener before that already-infamous 6-1 humiliation at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur - their joint-worst ever Premier League defeat.

Only once in their entire history have Man United lost each of their opening three home league games of a campaign, with that coming in 1930-31 as they went on to finish bottom of the table.

Indeed, you have to go back to February

1979 for the last time the Red Devils lost three consecutive league games at Old Trafford at any stage of a season, while their winless home run stretches back even further.

United have only picked up two points from the last 12 on offer on their own patch and could go five consecutive matches without a home league win for the first time since February 1990.

It is just as well, then, that they welcome a Chelsea side whose away record could also do with vast improvement, particularly on the defensive side.

The Blues have shipped more away goals than any other club in the Premier League since the start of last season (42), while their away matches in total have seen more goals than any other team’s, with 87 going in.

Home and away, Chelsea are conceding an average of 1.5 goals per game under Frank Lampard in the Premier League, which is the worst rate of any of their managers to have taken charge of more than one game in the competition.

Three more arrived last weekend as the Blues twice squandered a lead to draw 3-3 with Southamptom, having raced into an early two-goal advantage courtesy of Timo Werner’s first Premier League strikes.

That failure to hold on to leads could come back to bite them against Manchester United; only Arsenal have dropped more points from winning positions than the Blues so far in 2020, while no team has gained more points from losing positions than Saturday’s hosts in that period.

Tuesday night’s goalless draw with Sevilla will have come as a relatively satisfactory result, then, and the fact that new goalkeeper Edouard Mendy has now kept two clean sheets in his two appearances will raise hope that their poor defensive record will improve when he is regularly in the team - and if not, Lampard always has Petr Cech to fall back on after the technical director was included in their Premier League squad.

The Sevilla stalemate also means that Chelsea have only won one of their last five games across all competitions, though, while they have only picked up maximum points once in the league since the opening day.

Chelsea’s last away outing in the Premier League saw them fall 3-0 down to West Bromwich Albion before salvaging a 3-3 draw, but they will know that Man United will not allow them a route back into the game so easily if they make another poor start.

However, the hosts do have a difficult spell coming up with this match against Chelsea being followed by meetings with RB Leipzig, Arsenal, Istanbul Basaksehir and league leaders Everton in the next two weeks.

Chelsea, by contrast, have a much kinder upcoming schedule and so can focus fully on this trip to Old Trafford without one eye drifting onto to the challenges ahead.

Head to Head 20/17/02 19/11/08 19/28/04l 18/20/10 18/25/02 17/05/11 17/16/04 16/23/10 16/07/02 15/28/12 15/18/04 14/26/10

Chelsea Man Utd Man Utd Chelsea Man Utd Chelsea Man Utd Chelsea Chelsea Man Chelsea Man Utd

0-2 4-0 1-1 2-2 2-1 1-0 2-0 4-0 1-1 0-0 1-0 1-1

Man Utd Chelsea Chelsea Man Utd Chelsea Man Utd Chelsea Man Utd Man Utd Chelsea Man Utd Chelsea

Barca, Madrid Set to Bounce Back from LaLiga Defeats with El-Clasico Bitter rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid will lock horns in the first Clasico of the 2020-21 campaign this afternoon, with both sides looking to bounce back from La Liga defeats last time out.

Barca lost 1-0 away to Getafe in their last league encounter on October 17, while reigning champions Madrid suffered a shock 1-0 home defeat to newly-promoted Cadiz.

The league table does not mean too much at this stage of the campaign, particularly as Barca have only played four times in La Liga this term due to their late start. A record of two wins, one draw and one defeat has seen the Catalan giants collect seven points, leaving them in ninth spot in the division at this stage, while Madrid are third with 10 points to show from their five fixtures.

Ronald Koeman’s side made an impressive start to the season, recording back-to-back wins over Villarreal and Celta Vigo, scoring seven times in the process and conceding zero.

Barca were held to a 1-1 draw by Sevilla before the October international break, though, before suffering a 1-0 defeat away to Getafe last week-

end. The one-goal loss was certainly a setback, but the team returned to winning ways in the Champions League on Tuesday, recording a thumping 5-1 victory over Ferencvaros.

Messi’s performances were always going to be under the microscope this season, and the Argentine has actually only scored once in four La Liga appearances in 2020-21, but a record of two goals and three assists in five outings overall is an indication that he is still heavily contributing despite wanting to leave over the summer.

The games are coming thick and fast at this stage of the campaign, with Barca back in Champions League action away to Italian champions Juventus next week before ending the month away to Alaves in La Liga.

Last season’s La Liga Clasico at Camp Nou ended in a goalless draw, but Madrid ran out 2-0 winners at the Bernabeu back in March. The title will not be won or lost this weekend, but there is simply no downplaying the importance of the contest as both sides look to respond to disappointing results last time out.

30

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER OCTOBER 24, 2020

GLOBAL SOCCER

Iheanacho

Pele

Kano Pillars Unveil Foreign Technical Adviser

By Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano

Kano Pillars FC have unveiled former French international, Lionel Emmanuel, to lead the three-time Nigeria champions for one season.

The French man is also expected to lead Pillars in their CAF Confederation Cup campaign.

According to the Chairman of the Sai Masu Gida, Surajo Shu’aib Yahaya Jambul, Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has approved the contract of the Frencan for a period of one season.

“We hope history will repeat itself that at one time, we reached the semi final of CAF Champions

League with a foreign coach. “ Mr Lionel is a Frenchman.

We hope this time around that we will not only stop there but win and bring the CAF Confederation Cup to Nigeria and to the ancient city of Kano in particular,” the Pillars boss declared.

Speaking after his.unveiling, the new Technical Adviser, Mr Lionel Emmanuel thanked the team’s management for giving him the opportunity to serve the club. He promised to uplift the club to greater heights.

Some of the new players contracted by Pillars include; Jerome Heutchou from Apejes FC in South Africa; Franck Laura

from Cocoa Guiaman AS Tonnere of Benin Republic; Mustapha Jibrin from Niger Tornadoes; Mukaila Musa from Yobe Desert Stars; Ayobami Junior from 3SC Shooting Stars of Ibadan and Nnaji David from El Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri.

Others include; Nnaji Williams from Wikki Tourist FC Bauchi, Haruna Sule from Adamawa Utd FC, Ojugidba Ezekiel of Lobi Stars FC and newly promoted young talent from the Pillars junior team, Muhammad Kamilu.

The Frenchman previously worked in some African countries like: South Africa, Tanzania, Cameroon among others.

Leicester Boss Hails Iheanacho

Kelechi Iheanacho became the first Nigerian-born player in history to assist two goals in a single Europa League match in Leicester City’s 3-0 rout of Zorya Luhansk at the King Power Stadium on Thursday night, according to OPTA. The Nigeria international got the nod to lead the attack in the absence of Jamie Vardy and claimed the assists for the goals scored by James Maddison and Harvey Barnes.

Iheanacho’s performance against

the Ukrainian Premier League team drew praise from Leicester City coach Brendan Rodgers.

“So yes, I thought we played very well in spells of the game, scored good goals, and their system really tests you. I thought Harvey’s goal was a great individual effort and showed great composure,” Rodgers told LCFC TV. “Madders (James Maddison) being up there and wanting to score was terrific and our pressure for

the third goal was really good and Kelechi, he slots it away really well.

“So, very pleasing, we can be better in areas, but like I say, to start with a win in the group was important.”

Nigeria-eligible winger Bukayo Saka was involved in three goals (1 goal, 2 assists) for Arsenal in their 3-0 rout of Eintracht Frankfurt on the opening day of last season’s Europa League, a feat repeated

by Iheanacho against Zorya.

Djokovic Regrets US Open, Roland Garros Failure

Novak Djokovic says he regrets the failure to win either the US or French Opens, despite playing some of the best tennis of his life in 2020.

Having won an eighth Australian Open in January, Djokovic was disqualified at the US Open after inadvertently hitting a line judge in the neck with a petulant swipe of the ball during his fourth-round clash with Pablo Carreno Busta.

He was then blown away by world No 2 Rafael Nadal in the final of the

re-arranged French Open in October.

Djokovic remains on 17 Grand Slam titles while Nadal and Federer are on 20 each after the Spaniard clinched a record-extending 13th Roland Garros title.

“There is a lingering regret that I didn’t win either the US Open or the Roland Garros this year,” Djokovic told reporters at his tennis academy in downtown Belgrade by the Danube river.

“I was in outstanding form at both

events but having reached the French Open final, I was beaten by a player who was much better on the day.

“I was below par and that’s it. As far as the US Open is concerned, I got myself into an unfortunate situation and was disqualified, but I won several other big tournaments.

“The US Open disqualification notwithstanding, I have only lost one match all season and I’ve played some of the best tennis of my life.”

El Clásico Airs Live on StarTimes Today There are few matches, if any that grab the world footballing headlines as much as the El Clásico.

Barcelona against Real Madrid – it hardly gets any bigger than when these two La Liga giants meet, as they will today at Camp Nou at 3 pm.

Africa’s leading digital-TV operator, StarTimes airs all the best action from the La Liga (French commentary) and it hardly gets better than the El Clásico.

For both teams, the league has not been going according to plan.

Last weekend, Real Madrid were beaten 1-0 at home by newlypromoted Andalusian club Cádiz, while Barcelona were beaten by

the same score by Getafe, leaving Blaugrana in ninth position on seven points from their four matches.

Real Madrid, meanwhile, are third with 10 points, but have played a game more than today’s opponents.

Barcelona fans are worried that their star performer – Lionel Messi, has found scoring much more difficult than in previous seasons and after scoring from the penalty spot in their season-opener against Villarreal, has now gone three matches without finding the net.

Messi at his best in an El Clásico is something that Barcelona fans will be hoping for. No other player has scored more goals in the matches

between the two clubs – Messi has 26 goals, 18 of which were in the league – and he comfortably beats Real Madrid legends Alfredo Di Stéfano and Cristiano Ronaldo by eight goals.

The two teams have played against each other 244 times in competitive matches, with both clubs winning 96 of these. Real Madrid holds a slight advantage when it comes to La Liga matches, having won 73, compared to Barcelona’s 72.

Football fans throughout Africa will be able to see whether Barcelona can pull level with their big rivals as the game will be broadcast live and in HD on the StarTimes football channel.

Pele at 80: Where does He Rank among the GOATs? No matter how old you are, or who you grew up watching, one man has long dominated the debate about just who was the greatest footballer of all time.

From World Cup glory at 17 to Escape to Victory theatrics via 1,000 goals, Gordon Banks’ save, and outrageous dummies, Pele has been a walking, talking showreel for more than half a century.

Was he the finest player to ever grace the game - or are the modern-day superstars a cut above?

As Pele turns 80, BBC Sport asks you to rate his achievements among some of the other Greatest of All Times, GOATs. A teenage dream who was the highest-paid and highest-profile sports star in the world in his pomp, Pele was a phenomenon.

Breaking on to the global scene aged 17 with a hat-trick in the World Cup semi-final and two more in the final, Brazil’s leading goalscorer is one of just four players to have scored in four different World Cup tournaments (1958, 1962, 1966 and 1970).

Giant Pele street mural unveiled in Santos to mark football icon’s 80th He won three of those and was kicked out of the ‘66 tournament in England through some brutal defending - the only way to stop him.

Not just a goalscorer, Pele had a hand in 53% of Brazil’s 19 goals as they won the 1970 World Cup (four goals, six assists) and was as adept at playing behind the main striker as he was leading the line.

The greatest? Or does the fact he never played club football in Europe hold him back in your eyes?

“Had he been playing now, Pele would surely have made the move to Europe,” says BBC Radio 5 Live football correspondent John Murray.

“It’s the difficulty with comparing generations. We can only judge him on the record he has and it is truly phenomenal.

“The achievements of Maradona, Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo make it a close call but, even now, Pele still has a strong claim to be considered the greatest game’s greatest player.”

‘Der Kaiser’ won the World Cup as player and manager and is living proof you don’t have to be an attacker to rank among the very best.

A playmaker even from centre-back, Beckenbauer was equally at home in midfield or defence and made his debut on the left wing. What you call a total player. He won three European Cups in a row for the dominant Bayern side of the mid-1970s.

A supremely gifted individual who was also all about the team - not winning a World Cup with his band of ludicrously good Dutch brothers in the 1970s may be the only blot on his copybook.

Produced one of the World Cup’s most famous moments, had a turn named after him, and went on to inspire Pep Guardiola and countless others when coaching Barca’s so-called ‘dream team’ of the early 1990s.

Lost a lot of money with an unwise investment in pig farming - which is not a line you’re likely to ever read about Messi or Ronaldo...

Di Stefano won his fifth and final European Cup in 1960 - still only one player has more wins.

He scored in five finals in a row, and won them all.

And, yes, he played for three countries on the international scene. Beat that.

What a player. If you haven’t seen it, please go and watch the recent documentary about his time in Naples. It’s superb.

Single-handedly (pretty much) dragged his Argentina team to World Cup glory, and carried Napoli to two Serie A titles. Does that separate him from Lionel Messi? Up to you. “No-one else does the things he does, the way he does them - and no-one ever has done. He is simply the greatest to have ever played the game.”

Can you even mount an argument against Messi being number one on this list? We all know just how good he is. Perhaps a lack of international success with Argentina and ‘only’ winning things with Barcelona? But we’re splitting hairs there.

There is a legitimate case for stating the ‘Magic Magyars’ Hungary team of the 1950s was the best in the world. They lost just one match in six years - which, unfortunately, happened to be the World Cup final.

That’s how good Ferenc Puskas was. He was 31 when he joined Real Madrid and still won five league titles, three European Cups and scored 242 goals.

He scored 514 goals in 529 matches in the Hungarian and Spanish leagues.

Ridiculous really, isn’t it?

The Champions League’s all-time top goalscorer and scorer of 100 goals for Portugal - Cristiano Ronaldo is a remarkable player. Especially when you consider how he has reinvented himself from spindly winger to powerful number nine.

Whether you rank him ahead of Messi or not is the debate of our footballing time - unlike Messi, though, he has won titles in three countries. And won a major tournament with his national side.

Culled from BBC Sport

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER OCTOBER 24, 2020

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GLOBAL SOCCER

ADEMOLA LOOKMAN

Has He Recovered His Groove?

He opened his goal account for the Cottagers with a spectacular strike at Bramall Lane to end a three-year Premier League goal drought last weekend. With Fulham still lying deep in relegation waters, has Ademola Lookman found his scoring form to take the Cottagers out of the deep?

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demola Lookman marked his first English Premier League start since 2018-19 with his first top-flight goal in three years as Fulham put their first points on the board at the weekend. Lookman has, at times in the past two seasons, appeared destined never to fulfill the promise he once displayed as a youngster.

During the first half of 2018, while on loan at RB Leipzig, the Nigerian had a hand in eight goals in 11 German Bundesliga outings, announcing himself as one of the most exciting young talents in the European football.

The years since have been fallow, however, as he failed to net in 21 Premier League appearances at Everton under Marco Silva, and wholly failed to ignite last term after being signed permanently by Leipzig Zero goals or assists in 300 minutes of Bundesliga action across 11 appearances was all the club got for a hefty investment of £22.5 million On loan at Fulham this season, and making his first start against Sheffield United on Sunday, Lookman served a reminder of his class, and at least offered a glimpse of why Leipzig were willing to part with such a significant sum to sign him permanently.

Picking the ball up inside a left-hand channel 13 minutes from fulltime, the wideman feinted to cut inside, lost his man with a change of direction, at one moment almost appearing to allow the chance to run away from him, then weaved through one defender and, advancing towards goal, slammed a left-footed effort into the roof of the net.

The goal was his first in the Premier League since January 2017, when he netted in Everton’s 4-0 rout of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and it served as a reminder that his talent is undimmed even though his career has lost momentum.

While it was a goal worthy of all three points, Fulham didn’t hold on to the win, although their point earned at Bramall Lane should offer some hope that they can beat the drop.

“I thought we should have got three points from the game, but it’s done now, so onto the next one,” Lookman told Fulham’s website.

“We all believe we can do great things this season. Obviously we’re a new group so we’re still gelling together, but that will come.”

Next up for Lookman and Fulham is a London derby against Crystal Palace.

The forward arrived at Craven Cottage on a season-long loan from Leipzig this summer and has been delivering impressive showings.

The 22-year-old was handed his first Premier League start for the Cottagers at Bramall Lane following his stand-out performance against Wolverhampton Wanderers last time out.

The Nigerian attacker made the most of the opportunity when he scored his first goal for the newly-promoted Premier League side against Sheffield.

Lookman put his side in front with a spectacular strike past goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale in the 77th minute.

Lookman featured for the duration of

Ademola Lookman tries to get past a Shiefield United opponent

the game along with Nigerian international Ola Aina, who is also another summer recruit and Tosin Adarabioyo.

The forward will hope to continue his impressive performances and help Fulham end their four-game winless run across all competitions when they take on Palace today.

Lookman switched his international allegiance from England to Nigeria, in spite of the 22-year-old forward, who was born in England to parents of Nigerian descent having played for the European country’s youth national teams.

Lookman helped England win the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in the Korea Republic and was also part of the England team which won the 2017 Toulon U-20 Four Nations tournament in France.

In the penultimate summer, Lookman set a new Nigeria transfer record when he moved to RB Leipzig from

Everton for a move worth up to £22.5m German Bundesliga club, RB Leipzig broke the Nigerian transfer record for Lookman after Everton agreed to sell the winger for a fee said to be worth up to £22.5m.Born as Ademola Olajade Lookman October 20, 1997, in Wandsworth, London to Nigerian parents, he attended St. Thomas the Apostle College in Peckham where he achieved three As and five As at GCSE. Lookman signed for Everton on January 5, 2017 for a fee of £7.5m rising to £11m on a four-and-a-half year contract and made his debut for the club 10 days later. He scored on his debut.

He received his first international call up on May 16, 2016 being named in the England U-19 squad for a double header against Mexico. He was subsequently named in the England squad for the European U-19 Championships the same summer.

G LO B A L S O C C E R ASSISTANT EDITOR KUNLE ADEWALE THISDAY ON SATURDAY EDITOR YEMI ADEBOWALE

THISDAY NEWSPAPERS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR KAYODE KOMOLAFE

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ 24, 2020

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ 24, 2020

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͺͼ˜ 2020

AUTO WORLD

Bennett Oghifo 07052343083 Email:bennett.oghifo@thisdaylive.com

TIPS OF THE WEEK

Wheel Alignment and Balancing: What You Need to Know New tires do not solve every problem At the service counter customers who purchased tires often asked, “Do I have to have them balanced?” And that was inevitably followed by, “Does it need an alignment, too?” Tire balancing coupled with wheel alignment can be expensive. So let us look at why balancing new tires and performing a wheel alignment are necessary.

Mercedes-Benz EQC 4x4² Electric Luxury Off-road

Mercedes-Benz EQC 4x4² Electric Luxury Off-road

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motive appearance, sure-footed on rough terrain and with futureoriented technology: the EQC 4x42 showsthatelectrificationatMercedesBenz already goes farther than the road network.

Asmall team of dedicated developers has created this drivable technology platform on the basis of an EQC4004MATIC(combinedpowerconsumption: 21.3-20.2 kWh/100 km; combined CO2 emissions: 0 g/km)[1]. The technical highlights include the multi-link portal axles, as well as the production of a powerful sound in the interior and exterior.

The headlamps turn into “lampspeakers”, because they also function as a loudspeaker at the same time, according to a statement by the automaker.

The EQC 4x42 is an electric car of extremes.

Mercedes-Benz wishes to test the limits with this vehicle, and show that e-mobility is not just urban, but also conceivable off-road. The one-off was developed by a cross-departmental team under development engineer Jürgen Eberle which has already put the E 400All-Terrain 4x42 on its studded

wheels. “Our aim is to combine modern luxury and sustainability with emotional appeal. The EQC 4x42 shows how enjoyable sustainable mobility can be. This is where electromobility high-tech and an intriguing customer experience are transferred to the mountains, thanks to MBUX and over-the-air updates. To put it succinctly, electric, progressive luxurygoesoffroad,”saysMarkusSchäfer,member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Mercedes-BenzAG responsible for Daimler Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars COO. “This drivable study clearly shows that alongside a passion for e-mobility, we at Mercedes-Benz lay a strong claim to leadership in this sector and will heighten the emotional appeal of this even further in the future.”

With the EQC 4x42 as a technology platform, Mercedes-Benz is demonstrating that love of adventure can be combined with lifestyle and sustainability. Its capabilities include driving through sand in desert regions and on beaches, on rocky terrain and through mountain streams.As well as great reliability and corresponding comfort,

the mature genes of the standard model also allow trailer operation and installation of a roof-rack. A roof-tent and inflatable dinghy allow the remotest areas to be reached - and when making an early start, the other adventurers in the camp will not even be woken up.

At 293 millimetres, the EQC 4x42 rides more than twiceashighasaproductionEQC(140millimetres).

Even a G-Class rides 58 millimetres lower. The fording depth is increased by 15 centimetres, to 40 centimetres. The tremendous ground clearance is made possible by the conversion to portal axles: unlike conventional axles, the wheels are not at the height of the axle centre, but are instead situated much lower down on the axle hubs owing to the portal gears. Or conversely, the entire vehicle moves up. The 4x42 suspension is attached to the same body mounting points as the standard suspension.

Just as impressive are the approach and departure angles – 31.8 degrees at the front and 33 degrees at the rear. By way of comparison, a conventional G-Class has an approach and departure angle of 28 degrees. The reprogrammed

2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Adds Innovative Design, Powertrain

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yundai has announced the introduction of its 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe SUV with a freshened design motif, advanced front and rear lighting signatures, new hybrid powertrain with all-wheel drive and extensive new driver safety and convenience features.

Astatement by the automaker said the hybrid propulsionsystemisthefirstapplicationofitskind in the Hyundai SUV line-up. In addition, a new, upscaleCalligraphytrimwillbeofferedforthefirst time. Santa Fe internal combustion models will be produced at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama and will arrive at dealerships by the end of the year, while the Santa Fe Hybrid model will be produced in Ulsan, Korea and will arrive in the first quarter 2021. In addition, a Santa Fe Plug-in Hybrid model will arrive later in 2021.

2021 Santa Fe Highlights Exterior New, range-topping Calligraphy trim adds even more content and differentiation New front and rear bumper fascia, grille, headlamp, tail lamp and LED lighting signatures New power-folding side mirrors and puddle lamps New front and rear skid plates and muffler design New alloy wheel designs Mechanical New, standard Smartstream 2.5-liter directinjected and multi-point injected four-cylinder engine (with idle, stop and go) with eight-speed automatic transmission replaces former 2.4-liter direct-injected engine New, available Smartstream 2.5-liter turbocharged, direct-injected powertrain with eight-

2021 Hyundai Santa Fe SUV speedwet,dual-clutchtransmission(DCT)replaces former 2.0-liter turbocharged engine with an 18 percent increase in power New,availableSmartstream1.6-literturbocharged hybrid electric powertrain variant with six-speed automaticHEV-tunedtransmissionandHTRAC® all-wheel drive standard New shift-by-wire transmission mode selector frees up center console switchgear space New7-pintrailerwireconnectionreplacesformer

Tire Balancing Despite advanced tire manufacturing processes and advanced rubber compounds used today, some weight imbalance can still be evident in new tires.

Therefore they should be balanced with wheel weights to achieve smooth rolling of the tire. An imbalanced tire expresses itself as a wheel shimmy (rocking back and forth of the steering wheel while driving, usually at a specific speed).

To balance a tire, it must first be mounted in the proper rim and then inflated to the proper air pressure and a new valve stem installed. Next, the complete tire/wheel assembly is affixed to a machine that is designed to spin the tire and identify the location and severity of the imbalance. The tech must then affix the proper weight to the rim in the location designated by the machine. Finally, the wheel is spun again to ensure that the tire is properly balanced. A tire is balanced based on the mass of rubber present at the time of its first balance. As the tire rolls down the road, rubber wears off, causing the tire to become imbalanced again. For this reason, when tires are rotated on the vehicle every 5-6,000 miles or 6 months, they should be checked and rebalanced if necessary.

Wheel alignment Those who have new tires would lose money if they do not have their vehicle’s wheel alignment done. So how could you lose money by not having an alignment done? By significantly decreasing the life of your new tires you will be losing money.

The steering and suspension of your vehicle have wear points: bushings, ball and socket joints, and miscellaneous mechanical links. When the steering and suspension system is new and adjusted according to factory specs, the rate at which the tires wear is minimized and the vehicle corners and handles smoothly.

Over time, the steering and suspension systems are jostled and hammered, often a result of America’s deteriorating infrastructure. This produces wear in these parts, causing the alignment to deviate from factory specs. And that variation results in poor cornering and handling, and a significant increase in tire wear.

There are three alignment angles that must be in line for the vehicle to handle properly and for minimal tire wear. Carmakers have built adjustment points into the steering and suspension that allow for re-alignment of the front end.

4-pin design on 2.5T models New trailer sway control function for towing

(Source: Autoblog)

Safety Forward Collision Avoidance-Assist with Pedestrian Detection New, additional Cyclist and Junction-Turning Detection New Parking Collision Avoidance Assist – Reverse Function.

Did you know?

It is estimated 71% of large truck accidents occurred as a result of the driver doing something other than only driving the truck.

(Source: MasterDrive)

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ ͺͼ˜ 2020

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AUTO WORLD

PAN Nigeria to Re-launch Affordable Vehicles

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he new core investor in PAN NigeriaLimited,NesbittInvestment Nigeria Ltd, has said it would re-launch affordable new cars into the Nigerian market.

This is just as they expressed grave concern that the over 50 assembly plants in the country enjoy incentives of the National Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP), known as the Auto Policy, without commensurate investments.

The new Chairman of PAN Nigeria Ltd, Honourable Ahmed Wadada Aliyu stated this at the handing over of PAN, by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), to the core investor Nesbitt Investment Nigeria Ltd, recently.

Aliyu said, “Our biggest concern is the over 50 of assembly plants who have not made any matching investments and are enjoying the incentives of the auto policy at the same time.

“PANNigeriawillinitiateconversationswith NationalAutomotiveDesignandDevelopment Council (NADDC) to enforce the assembly classificationandequipmentstandardisation.”

The chairman said they would inject USD150 million in PAN Nigeria, over the next three years, for retooling and upgrading of the assembly line, support infrastructure and for working capital, added that they would

“be appealing to CBN to support us and all other genuine assembly plants so that foreign exchange is made available for our imports.”

On the planned re-launch of affordable vehicles into the nation’s market, Aliyu cited statistics that in 2019 Nigeria imported at least 400,000 used cars (tokunbo) as against 68,000 brand new vehicles, stating that on account of “this imbalance, PAN Nigeria will be introducing new brands of vehicles into the market to re-launch brand affordability in Nigeria, such that Nigerians will have access to brand new vehicles.

“We will also be introducing a robust car financing scheme which will be a collaboration and partnership between our dealerships and a few selected banks. This will be in fulfilment of President Buhari’s wish for Nigerians to afford brand new vehicles.

We thank President Buhari for creating the enabling environment for our company to be able to commit to this huge investment. We hope the president will continue to sustain this favourable environment for more investors into Nigeria.

“We are appealing to Mr. President to fasttrack legislation on the National Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) bill so that National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) can enforce its implementation.”

L–R: The new Chairman, PAN Nigeria Limited, Hon. Ahmed Wadada Aliyu; the new Acting Managing Director, PAN Nigeria Limited, Ms. Taiwo Oluleye; former Managing Director, PAN Nigeria Limited, Mr. Ibrahim Tanko Mohammed; and Company Secretary/Legal Adviser, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Mr. Saidu Jallo, during AMCON’s handover of PAN to its core investor, Nesbitt Investment Nigeria Ltd… recently

JLR is Using Aerospace Technology for Vehicles

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aguarLandRoveristakingpartinpioneering research trials to test the capability of advanced lightweight metals and composites to be used in future vehicles.

As part of a two-year project, the company will use technology developed for the aerospace industry to understand how materials respond to corrosive environments, in global markets and over rigorous terrains.

Samples of new metals and composites planned for use in future Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles will be built into aerospace-grade sensors and put through their paces in some of the world’s most extreme physical conditions, tested for over 400,000km across North America.

The sensors will continuously measure the performance of the materials and share data with the Jaguar Land Rover’s product development team in the UK. With this information, the engineers can accurately forecast the material’s behaviour in the development of future vehicle programmes to ensure that next-generation lightweight metals meet the company’s stringent standards, delivering a longer-lasting, high quality finish.

Matt Walters, Lead Engineer, Metals and Process Materials for Jaguar Land Rover, said: “This research project is a prime example of our commitment to developing lightweight, durable

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and robust materials for our future vehicles. Using advanced aerospace-grade technology, such as these sensors, is testament to the quality and standards we are achieving.

“We are working alongside world-class partners on this ground-breaking research project and will improve the correlation between real-world and accelerated testing as we continue to raise the bar for quality and durability.”

The research forms part of Gesamtverband der Aluminiumindustrie (GDA), a consortium of aluminium manufacturers and car makers researching the longevity of materials and how they can be made lighter and more durable.

Working with industry leaders across quality assurance and manufacturing to develop future lightweight vehicles, increasing efficiency and reducing emissions further is a key part of Jaguar Land Rover’s Destination Zero vision - a future with zero emissions, zero accidents and zero congestion.

The project builds on continued research into future materials, from the REALITY project, a pioneeringrecyclingprocesswhichgivespremium automotive-grade aluminium a second life, to the development of printed structural electronics, which can reduce the weight of in-car electronics by up to 60 per cent.

Jaguar Land Rover to use aerospace technology

Danger Signals for Pedestrians

ast week, I concluded with the unfortunate death of Jeffery who was killed by a female driver while crossing the road in the heart of Abuja in the Federal Capital Territory. Jeffery’s death reminds me of a similar tragedy I shared a couple of weeks ago on this same page about the death of another young man even though the circumstance was different.

According to the story, Franz Uzor (not real name), his wife and their one year and six months old daughter were heading to church on a sunny Sunday morning in their black Lexus Jeep. He stopped by a bank to make a withdrawal for offering. After parking his car at a spot he believed was safe enough, Frank crossed over to the other side of the road, made his withdrawal at the ATM before crossing back to his vehicle parked at the other side.

He got into his car but before he could start his car and move, a Toyota Hilux lost control and crashed onto their Jeep. Frank who was anxiously waiting to lavish his lavish on their third-year marriage anniversary just few weeks ahead, died on the spot while his wife went into coma and was unconscious for two days before she eventually regained consciousness. Miraculously, their daughter who was strapped to a car seat behind was found just the way she was-strapped and unhurt.

SAFE DRIVING with Jonas Agwu amnipr, mcipr,mprsa,arpa Assistant Corps Marshal Zonal Commanding Officer Federal Road Safety Corps.

I know that there are other cases within the Federal Capital Territory and across other parts of the country. One thing that is clear is that a lot of people who claim to be drivers are really not one.

A good number are learner drivers who rather than allow the process of maturing as a driver would rather cut short the process in order to show off like others. I wrote about this in a piece I titled, ‘’Learners or Lunatics’’ for which some readers responded with insults for my choice of words.

While I maintain that a measure of insanity has taken over our roads, I must also state here that there is lot that is wrong with pedestrians and drivers irrespective of age or sex. For some drivers, it has to do with pride and ego as a handful would rather conceal their learner status and drive without their instructor as contained in the National Road Traffic Regulations. There is also the increasing traffic indiscipline such as driving against traffic which

calls for stiffer penalty by traffic officers.

But while I lament on this increasing development, I must note that pedestrians all over the world, including developed climes such as the United States of America, United Kingdom and others face similar risk of being knocked down. In the United State of America which I love to cite often on this page, pedestrian deaths totaled nearly 6,000 in 2017 for the second straight year amid mounting signs that walkers and drivers are dangerously distracted.

Although reasons for the recent rise have not been scientifically determined, smartphones and marijuana use are suspected key factors in the deadly trend. A report released estimates that 5984 pedestrians lost their lives in 2017, a figure almost similar to the 2016 record. According to Richard Retting, Director of Safety for Sam Schwartz Consulting, who authored the report for GHSA. “People outside cars are dying at levels we haven’t seen in 25 years. “This increase in pedestrian death is coming despite improvements in vehicle safety such as the recent introduction of automatic emergency braking systems, rear-view cameras and collision- alert technology.

A study by The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has identified poor headlights as a problem while poor design and failure to adopt lights that swivel with the curvature of the road are hurting especially at night. Despite these identified challenges, experts’ obverse that pedestrians are sometimes to blame, as well. While it is okay to state that we have a handful of distracted drivers, I must also state

again and again that we also have a handful of distracted pedestrians who are also not even literate on how to use the road. What we see daily on our roads are people both behind the wheel and walking in the street failing to take responsibility for their behavior by learning to walk or drive without using the phone. Even okada and tricycle riders have joined the bandwagon In the case of the United State of America, increased use of marijuana was identified as another potential factor causing the increase. In the United Kingdom, pedestrians are not left insulated as they face some problems. The problems include overcrowded streets, narrow footpaths and roads that are difficult to cross. In many areas there are not enough places to sit, inadequate protection from the weather and footpaths are so crowded that pedestrians are forced into the road. The category of pedestrians mostly at risk include children, older adults, people who are intoxicated. The result is that deaths in the United Kingdom as at 2018 involving pedestrians stood at 456, a 3percent decrease on 2017.The report shows that 26 percent of all road deaths were pedestrians.

There were 99 cyclist deaths in the UK in 2018, a 2percent reduction on 2017 The story in other parts of the world including the African continent and other developing societies is not different. This is why road users especially pedestrians must take precaution while using the road. Those living in satellite towns along the airport road and other parts of Abuja in the Federal Capital Territory should desist from endangering themselves despite the provision of pedestrian bridges provided for their safety.

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Ë&#x153; Ëž OCTOBER 24, 2020

PERSPECTIVE Nigeria and Mali at 60: ReďŹ&#x201A;ections on Lust for Power Seemingly caught between a rock and a hard place, citizens should not by default cast the military in the mould of de facto alternative government, writes Soyombo Opeyemi...

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n this occasion of the diamond Independence anniversary, there is the need to review the sharp vicissitudes of Nigeria with a view to building a better and prosperous country.

Amnesia is a fatal disease in any human concourse. It appears quite easy to forget that it was martial rule that led to the Nigerian Civil War, which cost the nation about three million lives and socio-economic dislocation that remains with us till date.

Army rule set Nigeria back 50 years in terms of development. Every coup-maker excoriated the previous government in order to gain legitimacy. No sooner had it settled down than it did worse than the regime it toppled. The military governments took the art of treasury looting to the highest point in Nigeria.

After stormy conferences in Ibadan (1950), London (1953) and Lagos (1954), the founding fathers of Nigeria agreed to live together under a federal arrangement. This led to an accelerated development in the three regions of the North, West and East. Nigeria had its golden years before the first coup. The military, with its centralized command structure, destroyed the federal structure, replacing it with a unitary system. The country is yet to recover from the strangulating unitary structure foisted on it through endless coups.

The military was not kind to itself either. One coup after the other, it destroyed the lives of many of its finest officers, retired senior and junior officers untimely and unceremoniously, shattered discipline, command structure and esprit de corps. Since a military government is patently illegal, it is always unstable, living in perpetual fear of coups from within its own ranks. Military interregnums brought Nigeria to its knees.

Therefore, it amounts to mental derangement for a people that suffered such cataclysm to perpetrate a situation that will orchestrate its recurrence. We must be wary of words, actions, speeches and write-ups that seem to suggest a loss of faith in the current democratic order.

Be it a good or bad civilian government, the era of military regime is over in Nigeria. The military is not the watchdog of the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s democracy and should not constitute itself as one. That role has been handed to the press by Section 22 of the Nigerian Constitution (as amended). The military is not an alternative government, being not a political party. There is only one alternative government; and that must be a political party. If one party in power is not doing well, then let another political party replace it at the next general elections.

Nigeria trains doctors and nurses to keep her citizens in good health. She trains teachers to educate her citizens. She trains soldiers to keep her citizens and territory secure from external aggression.

The military cannot claim to be more important than teachers. Neither can doctors claim superiority over the police. The teachers are carrying out their lawful duties in the classrooms, the doctors and nurses are fulfilling their constitutional mandates in the hospitals, the farmers in the farms; so should members of the armed forces fulfil their lawful duties of defending the citizens and the country against external aggression. Let everyone and every institution fulfil their constitutional roles.

With the manifest failure of the Nzeogwu-led coup dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ĂŠtat, the General Officer Commanding the NigerianArmy should have pledged his allegiance to the Constitution and loyalty to the new government. Major Kaduna Nzeogwu and other coup plotters should have been arrested (and they were eventually arrested) and charged with treason and murder. These measures would have preserved our democracy and forestalled the mindless orgy of blood-letting of imponderable proportions in the barracks and the nooks and crannies of Nigeria for gruelling 48 months!

One must state in parenthesis that the Nzeogwu military putsch was not an Igbo coup. Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, it could be argued, was more of a Northerner than an Easterner or Mid-westerner. Those callow officers, including MajorAdewale Ademoyega - who was among the leading mutinous soldiers that planned the coup - were merely hot-headed and prone to taking harebrained decisions. Nzeogwu himself was a doctrinaire Marxist who had been psychologically misled by a weird ideology.

Although there was spontaneous embrace of his coup by the masses from North to South, Nzeogwu also would have been one of the worst dictators in history had his coup succeeded. However, the mismanagement of the coup by Ironsi accounted for the imputation of an ethnic agenda. At any rate, it is the finger that sins that the king cuts. You cannot hold an entire race responsible for the sin of a couple of its members. That is totally inadmissible. Consequently, the pogroms directed at the Easterners were unwarranted and completely reprehensible.

In sum, the absence of justice or abuse of power sounded the death knell for the First Republic.

Equally, the same abuse of power using the Federal Electoral Commission, misuse of security personnel, especially the police (and elements of the armed forces) and political control of the judiciary by the President, resulting in escalating social tension, led to the December, 1983 coup.

Militaryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lust for power However, in virtually all the cases, whether in Nigeria or Mali, no military officers seize power on behalf of the people. The

billion dollars)! That is N1.8 trillion at the exchange rate of N360 to one dollar!

Babangida military usually cashes in on the frustration of the public to stage a coup in order to satisfy the lust of its officers for power. Hence one military coup usually leads to another.

The situation is the same in Mali. The rigging of parliamentary elections, using the electoral body and the judiciary, the abuse of power and misuse of security agents against the people (protesters) constituted the proverbial last straw that broke the camelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s back.

But let no one be deceived. Military officers do not grab power on behalf of the masses. When Lt. Moussa Traore seized power by force of arms from the civilian President Modibo Keita in 1968, the Malian citizens welcomed the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;saviourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; from the barracks! Traore had cashed in on the economic hardship of the masses. But what did the Malians get in return for their embrace of the unelected â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;saviourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;? Brutal dictatorship that lasted for 22 (twenty-two) years until another military putsch swept Traore from power!

Consequently, my snorts of contempt could be heard on the streets of Bamako when on the 18th day of August, 2020, news filtered to the world that many Malian civilians had welcomed the military putsch against the embattled President Ibrahim Boubacar KeĂŻta, who had failed to succumb to the month-long massive street protests calling for his resignation. Coups after coups, the African populations have failed to learn from history! â&#x20AC;&#x153;Well, the Army took over and they continued to blunder. They continued to do what they were trained to do: that is, to destroy: to kill; and to loot,â&#x20AC;? submitted Chief Mbazulike Amechi, Minister of Aviation in the First Republic. Have we not been here before?

Have Malians not been there before? Nigerians, in their millions, from North to South, welcomed virtually all military coups. But what did we get at the end of each and every coup dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ĂŠtat?

Collapse of economy A former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Alfa Belgore, once lamented how military rule stifled Nigerian development. He recalled the many development agreements with the German government in critical sectors of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy in the early 60s, which had to be abandoned because of army rule. The strong economic foundation laid by our founding founders began a gradual plunge from the period of military take-over in January 15, 1966, notwithstanding the oil money that came later, which was largely mismanaged. Martial rule signalled the premature death or decimation of hundreds of flourishing industries, many of them multi-nationals. Even those established during the heyday of the army rule did not survive the depredations of the subsequent military governments, as one coup succeeded another. The then flourishing private/ mission schools were taken over by force, progressively decayed and destroyed. Today, the carcasses of these schools are being returned to their original owners! The public corporations too collapsed under the mismanagement of military regimes - Nigerian Railway, Nigeria Airways, Nigerian National Shipping Line, etc., etc. Indeed, things became so bad for the country that national aircraft and ships were seized in foreign countries on account of unpaid debts!

No government could match the military regimes in the art of corruption. Indeed, it can be argued that the civil governments accused of corruption by coup-makers could actually pass for saints. The military reportedly introduced security vote into governance, which has now become a slush fund for some of those holding the levers of power. Indeed, the civilian public officers who currently indulge in corruption could be said to have learnt the art of brazen larceny from the military regimes. General Abacha alone is credited to have looted about $5 billion (five

Desk generals When on the 13th day of September, the media was awash with the report that the alliance of opposition politicians and civil society groups (the M5-RFP) who had led the masses to stage enormous street demonstrations, had rejected a transition charter of the Colonel Assimi Goita-led National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP), accusing the military junta/ coupists of an attempt to â&#x20AC;&#x153;grab and confiscate powerâ&#x20AC;?, noting that the military document â&#x20AC;&#x153;did not reflect the views and decisions of the Malian people,â&#x20AC;? I simply sniggered!

Even when you dine with the devil with a long spoon, the cutlery will still be grabbed from you and confiscated! Col. Goita!

Officers of his ilk are merely band of opportunists, who love to fish in troubled waters in order to satisfy their lust for political power. But for the decision of ECOWAS to shutter its borders and demand a civilian transition leadership, Col. Assimi Goita planned to remain in power for three years, during which he most likely would have settled down to transmute from military to a civilian dictator! Despite the Tuesday, 15th day of September, 2020 deadline given by the regional bloc for the military leaders to immediately hand over power to a civilian government, the dissident soldiers dithered.

ECOWAS and Malians should be vigilant. Goita may still overthrow the newly-inaugurated Transitional President, Bah Ndaw, in order to satisfy the coupistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lust for power. No military officers seize power on behalf of the masses!

In order to preserve constitutional rule in the region, ECOWAS leaders should have rejected any arrangement that would include the mutinous soldiers under the self-styled banner of National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP). No military officers impound power in order to save or serve the masses. They do so to sit behind desks in Government Houses in order to enjoy the perks of political office.

Here in Nigeria, and during the coup years, we saw generals emerge not by fighting wars, not by any acts of derring-do in warfronts but by sitting behind desks in Government Houses!

The civil populace bore the brunt. Many unarmed civilians were regularly mauled, tortured and imprisoned in a show of force by the desk generals. In one instance, Ola Rotimi, the renowned playwright and author of The Gods Are Not To Blame, was ordered to put his both hands on a car and horsewhipped like a schoolboy by one of the ubiquitous soldiers set to define their times!

Besides, no soldiers would risk committing treason and then hand over the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;fruits of their labourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to any other group! MKO Abiola waited in vain for the Abacha junta to fulfil its own part of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;bargainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; by handing over power to him! No military officers hijack power on behalf of the masses!

The germane question The corollary question would then be: how should state and non state actors respond when the political class becomes irresponsible and pushes their country towards the precipice?

The symptoms of a country on the brink are corruption, bribery, tribalism, nepotism, impunity, religious bigotry, manipulation of the electoral management body and the judiciary, misuse of the security operatives, especially the police and the armed forces, unlimited access to the public till by state actors, especially elected politicians. The list is by no means exhaustive. But the most dangerous causes of instability in Africa are the manipulation of the electoral body and the misuse of the security agents, especially the police, elements of the armed forces and the judiciary.

One easily recalls that the judiciary (the Constitutional Council) was one of the major institutions abused by the ex-President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Ivoire to push his country into a needless civil war. It is regrettable that President Alassane Quattara (78) of Cote dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Ivoire and President Alpha Conde of Guinea (82) have now pushed their countries on the brink of avoidable wars by misusing the electoral body, the judiciary and the security agents, especially the police and the armed forces!

Buhariâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cautionary note In this connection, we are full of effusive praises for President Muhammadu Buhari for practically confronting these unconscionable leaders at the 57th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government in Niamey, Niger Republic, on 7th September, 2020. Buhari deserves all the garlands for this unprecedented display of pointed frankness to his brother leaders of Ivory Coast and Guinea.

It behoves the other ECOWAS leaders to avoid the unsavoury situation of having to lock the stable door after the horse has bolted. They must follow in the footsteps of Buhari to ensure Presidents of Cote dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Ivoire and Guinea do not spark off a conflagration in their respective countries through their morbid desire to cling on to power.

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THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER ˾ OCTOBER 24, 2020

37

PEOPLE Margret Olele

Combining Home Front with Career is no Big Deal Margret Olele is the Chief Executive Officer of American Business Council, Nigeria. Margret is also a prolific writer and a seasoned corporate affairs communicator. She tells Festus Akanbi women have no excuse to shirk their responsibilities at home in the name of pursuing careers. She also speaks on a number of issues, including choice of careers for Nigerian students, and potential lessons from the ongoing EndSAARS protest Every country has the right to have their own foreign or immigration policy, no matter how hurtful it would be to the other side. If we have a consistently enabling environment, some Nigerians will never seek to migrate. However, the two countries still have a good business/trade relationship and we have US companies that have been in existence in Nigeria since 1960

Growing up spent the first three years of my life in Ibadan, Oyo State. In countries where the state of your birth is your birth state, I will say I come from Oyo State. Most of my early life was in Abule Oja, Yaba Lagos. I attended Our Lady of Apostles Secondary School and Queens College Yaba. Many higher institutions are situated near Abule–Oja - University of Lagos, Yaba College of Technology, Federal College of Technology or Trade Centre, as they called it at that time. It was an extension of the education community. The area was mix –grill- people lived in duplexes, flats, but others lived in ‘face me-I-face you’ homes. As children, we all played together, oblivious of the social and economic disparity. The last time I visited Abule-Oja (my family house is there), I was amazed at how rundown the place had become – very ugly storey buildings to cater to the increasing accommodation needs of students at the University of Lagos and, perhaps, those of Yaba college of Technology.

I

Career Path I had parents who encouraged us in our chosen career path. My mum bought many books that encouraged me to read a lot and expand my intellectual horizon. My father was always available to teach us, and even had to attend a course at UNILAG to fully understand a certain area of study in Mathematics when we were growing. I was both an Arts and Science student–a bit weird. In fact, I was the Lab Prefect in my school. I liked sciences, but loved the Arts, especially Literature. We had a young female Youth Corper who taught us Literature. She made Literature come so alive that it was not difficult to take a decision after that. Her name was Nkechi Alli–Balogun.

Lessons for Children They should learn to respect hard work; know that the highest achievement is possible. They should learn it is important to explore every side of our being and exploit it to the fullest. That it is important to respect timelines, and that ideas are like bubbles, and if you don’t burst yours first, someone else will catch the bubble, and that there are lots of natural ways to keep healthy. Overall, they should trust in God in all things.

Becoming CEO of American Business Council The American Business Council is the voice of American Business in Nigeria and the affiliate of the US Chamber in Washington DC. I sat on the Board of Directors representing one of the US companies.

When I retired from the company in 2017, I realised there was a lot I could do to support the strategic vision of the America Business Council and the founding Father, Dick Kramer. The rest is history.

Lessons from the ongoing EndSAARS protest Nigeria is a very interesting country and I’m not surprised Wole Soyinka sang ‘I love my country, I know go lie…’ Nigeria has different sides. When I discuss Nigeria with US companies, thinking of doing business in the country, we talk of the potentials of the country; a country with highest GDP in Africa, population, the dynamism and the indomitable personality of the people, especially the young population. I have also been involved in teaching a graduate class as an Adjunct Faculty at the Pan Atlantic University, witnessing first-hand the extremely intelligent and innovative youth in Nigeria, apart from engaging actively with my children and nephew’s friends. I believe the youth have a lot to offer this country and it is consoling to note that our youth are able to organise themselves in a non-violent way, definitely a sharp contrast in some roles some play during elections. I have also trained the medical corp of the Police Force at the Police Clinic and found very young and intelligent people in this engagement. I will say the lessons are unfolding. I will also say that the government is also responding, perhaps not as fast as the youth may want, but I see traction. Overall, I would be using the words of William Blake the eccentric English Poet in his Marriage of Heaven and Hell, “Without contraries, there is no progression”.

Olele

you with the next direction of your career path.

Police Brutality Police Brutality will always be there and it is not only peculiar to Nigeria. I have been a victim of anti–riot police in 1989 when I was studying for my Masters at the University of Ibadan. We did not have mobile phones then and I was living off campus. I was unaware that the school had joined the national student demonstration that year and that the Police had sealed off the campus. As a friend and I approached the campus, two of the anti- riot Policemen perceived we were students and they shouted that we should knee down. I refused, as I did not know what we had done wrong. I had a rain of baton blows on my person. But, for friends who pushed me to my knees and kept begging, it would have been a different story today. Police brutality has no geographical or time colouration. It transcends time and geography.

I believe this protest has become a metaphor to look at all areas that appear as pain points for government to redress. For me, it should also be an opportunity to end all anti-social responses, and that is the responsibility, not just for the government, but for everyone.

Nigerians excelling abroad They have a less challenging environment and more opportunities to excel. I use the Pawpaw (Papaya) tree at the back of my house as a typical example. It was lean and frail-looking until I began feeding it with rich natural waste composite. Three months after, it has fruits and I’m waiting to harvest, but it may have died if I paid no attention. We have to “feed” our talent.

Options for students in the face of growing unemployment First, do not read a course because other people are doing so, or because you just want to attend University. I learnt that early in life and it paid off for me. Learn to position yourself for the career or business you know how to do best and have a passion for. Begin to plan long before you finish school the options available to you. Learn from those who have succeeded what they did right. Leverage relationships from school, Youth Service et. al. They can provide

Combining career with home affairs It can really be fun if you see home affairs as another project that must succeed. As a person, I throw my passion into all that I do and love. So, it is not as challenging as most people think it is. It is always important to remember when you are no longer at the office and be the wife, mother and aunty that you should be. Very challenging sometimes, but try to make your children and spouse your friends.

Nigerians being excluded from US Visa Lottery 2022 Every country has the right to have their own foreign or immigration policy, no matter how hurtful it would be to the other side. If we have a consistently enabling environment, some Nigerians will never seek to migrate. However, the two countries still have a good business/trade relationship and we have US companies that have been in existence in Nigeria since 1960. The US government and companies have supported Nigeria during this Pandemic. I hope that this may not be permanent decision of the US government.

I also hope that a time will come when Nigerians will not see this as the only option to grow. I captured my thoughts on this in my recent article ‘Stop Whining, Time to Upgrade Our Huts’.

38

Ë&#x153; Ëž ͰͲË&#x153; Í°ÍŽÍ°ÍŽ

FAJ/JOE

THEFRONTLINES

As Controversy y Trails #EndSARS Lekki Tollgate Shooting

JOSEPH USHIGIALE

T

here is a huge storm currently trailing the recent shooting of unarmed #EndSARs protesters who converged on Lagos around the Lekki Tollgate to protest against police brutality and seek reforms for good governance. At issue is the alleged killing by armed military personnel of scores of protesters at the Lekki Tollgate. But the Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-olu inn sists that only one person reportedly died. The protesters were a group of youths drawn from different fi fields of endeavors but who all came together in agreement to stop police brutality and right the wrongs in society.

The protesters were engaged in a peaceful non-violent demonstration to drive home their points of correcting the ills in society with government. Within a few days of their debut, their messages resonated across the country and effectively crippled both economic and political activities and signposted the strong potential of creating a new political narrative driven exclusively by youths.

Protests began October 8, across some strategic states namely Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and later spreading across all Southern states against police brutality after a video emerged showing police officers thought to be from the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or (SARS allegedly shooting and killing a young man in Nigeriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s southern Delta State. Although the authorities denied the reports, protests erupted across the country calling to disband the unit and #endSARS. Apparently taken unawares and given the well coordinated approach of the protesters, the government was unprepared for the volcano that was fast burning into the fabrics of the country and panicked. Rather than embracing conciliatory and long term diplomatic initiatives to deal with the protesters, after receiving the protestersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 5-point reforms agenda which included: the release of all arrested protesters; Justice for all deceased victims of police brutality and appropriate compensations for their families; Setting up an independent body to oversee the investigation and prosecution of all reports of police misconduct (within 10 days);In line with the new police act, psychological evaluation and retraining (to be confirmed by an independent body) of all disbanded SARS officers before they can be redeployed; Increase police salary so that they are adequately compensated for protecting the lives and properties of citizens.

After receiving the petition with a firm assurance to do the needful, the authorities had expected the protesters to quickly disperse and go home.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. As President Muhamm madu Buhari captured it last night, he lamented that â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sadly,

the promptness with which we have acted seemed to have been misconstrued as a sign of weakness and twisted by some for their selfish unpatriotic interests. The result of this is clear to all observers: human lives have been lost; acts of sexual violence have been reported; two major correctional facilities were attacked and convicts freed; public and private properties completely destroyed or vandalised; the sanctity of the Palace of a Peace Maker, the Oba of Lagos has been violated. So-called protesters have invaded an International Airport and in the process disrupted the travel plans of fellow Nigerians and our visitors.â&#x20AC;?

The protesters dug in, consolidated and from the protests, it became clear that the birth of a new political movement, driven exclusively by youths was about to birth. To allow that happen was tantamount to digging ones own grave and a permanent retirement from politics and power which the typical Nigerian politician so much cherishes and would guard with the last drop of his blood.

Why did the protesters consolidated their position of sitting tight even with the assurances that their grievances would be sorted out? Any discernible mind that has been following the track records of the Buhari administration would by now conclude that it is a fascist regime, insensitive to the yearnings of the people and always reactive instead of being proactive.

If Buhari were to be a leader with empathy and a listening ear, heavens would not fall if he symbolically flew into Lagos to identify with the protesters in solidarity. After all, he is not a President to himself but to the people and for failing to take that chance, he totally missed a God-given opportunity to douse the tension, nip the violence that eventually played out in the bud and emerge as a hero of the campaign.

The second point here is the issue of trust deficit. The youths and majority of Nigerians (forget the contrived northern support) have trust issues with Buhari and his administration and this is traceable to the promises he and his party, the All Progressives Cngress (APC) made to Nigerians to transform the country to Eldorado within six months if he was voted to power. Today, however, Nigerians know better because the reverse is the case and Nigeria has never had a worse leader parading such woeful performance records in the last 60 years like Buhari.

The believability level of the people in the Buhariâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s governn ment has been shattered largely because, here is a government that does not even respect the constitution he swore to uphold.

His administration has contempt for rule of law and flouts court rulings at will. He has clearly jettisoned the federal character provisions in the constitution as regards appointments and he is

Ă&#x17E;ËŞĂ? Ă&#x201C;Ă&#x2014;Ă? Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x2122; ËŠ Ă&#x2039;Ă&#x2DC; Ă&#x161;ËŞË

I

n the light of the calamitous happenings of the past week around Lagos, and many cities across the nation, it has become necessary to underscore the critical need to rebuild trust between our very active, combative, mostly creative, and therefore, most impatient generation; in direct, who-will-blink-fi -first standoff with the long-lasting ageing generations whose grip on power dynamics of Nigeria have not really slipped since the 70â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and 80â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s.

The argy bargy between the two distinctly opposite generations culminated in a bloody confl n agration that left the younger folks asking for more blood in a gale of expletives; and subsequently, withdrawing into deeper recesses of distrust, disgust and unpolished vituperation.

This unfortunate and slippery gully of generational friction is worsened by the suspected insensitivity, callous silences and complicit aloofness of the ruling echelon of the older folks. They simply have no regard, and scant respect, for the ruling class. It was thus predictable that when the #EndSARS peaceful protest collapsed under the foolishly irresponsible fusillade of Nigerian army firepower, unleashed on Nigerian youth with nothing more dangerous than the national flag and their trenchant voices of stubborn resistance - something broke in their psyche.

Of course, the space between the sapped, muffled agitation of genuine protesters, and the cowardly disappearance of the yet unknown killer squad, was a perfect platform for urchins, undesirables, hoodlums and whatever adjectives are sufficient to describe mindless looters who are also largely youthful. The fiends unleashed terror and wanton destruction on law-abiding citizens, sacking police stations, government and private buildings, lynching fellow Nigerians, bankrupting businesses, malls, and countless other enterprises...gutting expensive vehicles, banks, media houses... In a rage and frenzy that sent shivers down the spine of hapless onlookers.

Yet, our focus now is to nudge the aggrieved towards dialogue...encourage the proliferation of goodwill and openness... maintain an air of cordiality and appreciation of the great sacrifice and legitimate agitation of our youth. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not a moment for grandstanding, or platitudes of neo-nationalism.

It seems auspicious, to me, that these times deserve every effort to promote peace, understanding and rapprochement. It is, in my estimation, quite useful to share values and temperaments

worthy of emulation, in building attributes and characteristics that can stand well in our young folksâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; quest for a sincere, productive, equitable and responsive nation. So, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s digress... from the current anger and anomie.

I have dug into my pouch of reliable homilies: nuggets of thoughts and practices, that can help build a complete Nigerian who is roundly equipped to function optimally from the smallest article of nation building - the family...the Nigerian home onwards to the finished personality with eyes set on leadership and propriety. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What Makes A Man Out of You: The headline should rather be â&#x20AC;&#x153;How to be a responsible father, or perhaps husbandâ&#x20AC;?. Of course, that title is a tad presumptuous, but a little conceit now and again makes us all the more human. We are billions on this earth, cartographers cannot stop telling us, and thus we cannot all act or anticipate in the same manner. Impossible. We also cannot all share the same mentality in the area of co-habiting, as couples, partners and associates. However, when we decide to scale down, if not totally drop, our individuality to make a wife or husband out of the object of our affection, then we must be mature enough to understand that the union, freely entered into, must be given all the chance it needs to survive and sustain productively.

In less colourful terms: Do not marry someone when you are not sure you can trust yourself to be faithful to that person. If your response is that we are all humans, and there is a wide gulf between hoping to do something and actually accomplishing that â&#x20AC;&#x153;hopeâ&#x20AC;?; I will like to remind you that you did not promise to â&#x20AC;&#x153;hopeâ&#x20AC;?, or â&#x20AC;&#x153;tryâ&#x20AC;?. You said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I doâ&#x20AC;? to the solemn promise, â&#x20AC;&#x153;to love, care, protectâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;? Even if you are not the â&#x20AC;&#x153;weaker vesselâ&#x20AC;?, and all things appear to go well for you, in spite of living a life of complete betrayal and disdain concerning that solemn vow you made on your wedding day; and if the other party remains faithful to the matrimonial double-edged â&#x20AC;&#x153;covenantâ&#x20AC;?... I am as confident as the fact that the sun will rise from the east tomorr row; your punishment is waiting for you at a junction in your lifeâ&#x20AC;Ś it is only a matter of time.

However, from my experience, few things can make a real man out you. Before I go far, let me share with you my definition of a â&#x20AC;&#x153;real manâ&#x20AC;?. The definition will come as series of statements. A real man ordinarily sees himself as the driving

jushigiale@yahoo.co.uk, joseph.ushigiale@thisdaylive.com 08023422660 (sms only)

openly divisive, impervious, clannish and has scant regards for other parts of the country that are not in the north.

Protests by citizens are recognised by the constitution as their democratic rights and in Buhariâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own admission, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The choice to demonstrate peacefully is a fundamental right of citizens as enshrined in Section 40 of our Constitution and other enactt ments; but this right to protest also imposes on the demonstraa tors the responsibility to respect the rights of other citizens, and the necessity to operate within the law.â&#x20AC;?

Again, globally, peaceful protests are recognised as a necessary democratic tool to air your grievances. We have seen the Arab Spring protests in the Middle East that led to the fall of Egyptian Hosni Mubarak, Muamar Ghadaffi of Libya, and Ben Ali of Tunisia etc. We also saw several occupy movements across the world pushing for peaceful change in their respective countries. In all these protests and occupy movements, most of them ended peacefully and very few broke into violence but they were adequately protected by security operatives in their respective locations.

Beyond this proviso, there is also the role of government in a protest. The role of government in a protest is to adequately proo vide security cover for the protesters. Whether an administration chooses to deploy the army or police, the security operatives are required to uphold their role of engagement (RoE) in a protest.

This means that under no circumstance would an operative open fire on a peaceful protest or protesters, doing so would tantamount to going beyond your brief and breaching the RoE. It was this proviso that Buhari rode on as a former military dictator to lead a protest against Jonathan challenging his inabill ity to rein in insecurity and calling on him to resign. Jonathan did not roll out the tanks after him and some pro-democracy and civil liberty organisations that were in cohort with Buhari to unseat Jonathan from power.

The point needs to be made clearly that, the Buhari administration must take full responsibility for abdicating its constitutional duties of safeguarding lives and properties of Nigeria. For failing to provide security cover for the protesters, the administration was deliberately courting chaos and it knowingly exposed a peaceful non-violence protests by the youths to hoodlum, area boys and miscreants to infiltrate and hijack the peaceful protests to discredit the youths and justify the invitation of the military to use maximum force that has led to the killing of unconfirmed number of youths across protest grounds in Southern Nigeria.

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COUNTERPOINT

FEMI

AKINTUNDEE-JOHNSON fajalive1@gmail.com 08182223348 - (SMS Only)

force in the relationship. He sees it as his DUTY to make sure everyone under his roof is happy, in appearance and communication. He fulfils his bread-winning obligations to the best of his capacity. He is prepared to protect and shield every member of his household from external aggression and invasion (which may come in different guises, including rag-mouthed relations and insufferable traditions and customs). The real man believes he is in a relationship with a good and dependable friend, and therefore is obliged to respond and react, as one will do to a good friend, in giddy or threatening climes. It is virtually unimaginable to start slapping and punching your close friend because of misplaced words, inappropriate actions and such indiscretions? You do not beat up a good friendâ&#x20AC;Ś no; you â&#x20AC;&#x153;yabâ&#x20AC;?, rile, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;discuss franklyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and such decent avenues of ventilating your grievances. For above all things, you desire to continue your friendship, share your disappointments; and dream together of great accomplishmentsâ&#x20AC;Śirrespective of your occasional differences. That is what friends doâ&#x20AC;Ś that is why husbands and wives should first be friends, in truth and in deed, before they really fall in love.

However, some people do find themselves in quandary, when what they thought was a solid foundation of their marriage was erected on a quicksand of infantile infatuation.

What they thought were signs of great affection and â&#x20AC;&#x153;I-go-dieâ&#x20AC;? emotional attachments, were actually well rehearsed script, and acutely delivered showmanship. Therefore, all embers of affection and mutual desire have simmered considerably in the relationship. The shell of a marriage is only sustained and condoned by the irremovable presence of good-looking and fast-growing children. If such scenario, God forbid, has been on-going in any oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life for a considerable length of time (and also where new child-birth is out of the question), then only God, I confess, has a say in that.

But if your marriage is young, and in need of an elixir to become a great union, a visit to the labour room, with your wife, will put you on the straight and proper road. Your life will never be the same again â&#x20AC;Ś that is if you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t faint at the sight of bloodâ&#x20AC;Ś I shall explain...next time.

39

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER OCTOBER 24, 2020

SPORTS XTRA Southampton Manager Showers Encomium on Nigeria Playmaker, Tella Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhüttl has been left impressed by Nigerian starlet Nathan Tella and has revealed the key attributes of the former Arsenal schoolboy who is comfortable playing as a winger and playmaker.

Tella is on the radar of the Nigeria Football Federation with a view to a call-up to the Super Eagles following his first team breakthrough.

With the exception of the 2-0 ome win vs West Brom, the Hale End Academy product has been named in every matchday squad announced by Hasenhüttl so far this season.

“What I like from him (Nathan Tella) is that he has

no fear and is going in with a good attitude,”Hasenhüttl said to Southampton’s official webpage.

“He is good working with the ball and against it. He has speed and bravery to go deep, to dribble and is a good combination.

“In the number 10 position you must have a high workload and he does it all the time.

“He can get better as his final decision making is getting better but he has some qualities that can help us in the future.”

The 21-year-old Tella has made four appearances for the Saints in the Premier League since his professional debut against Norwich City.

May face Argentina, Brazil or Canada

Cavani could Make Man Utd Debut against Chelsea, Says Solskjaer

Rashid Yekini celebrating Nigeria’s first goal at the Fifa World Cup in the United States

#EndSARS: Premier League Stars Planning Aid for Nigeria

P

remier League footballers are in talks over providing aid for victims of the disturbing crisis in Nigeria.

The country is in the midst of national emergency and there have been angry demonstrations as citizens protest against brutality from a now-disbanded section of the police called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

A number of British-based footballers of Nigerian heritage, including Odion Ighalo, Wilfred Ndidi and Tammy Abraham, have already used their platforms to speak out against the harrowing scenes that have shocked the world.

And it is understood discussions involving footballers from England’s top flight providing rapid aid for people affected are under way.

Speaking this week, Manchester United striker Ighalo

said: ‘I’m not the kind of guy who talks about politics but I can’t keep quiet any more about what is going on back home in Nigeria.

‘I would say the government are a shame to the world for killing your own citizens, sending military to the streets, to kill protesters because they are protesting for their rights.

‘Today, 20th of October 2020, you people will be remembered in the history as

the first government to send military to the city to start killing their own citizens.

‘I am ashamed of this government. I’m calling the UK government, calling all those leaders in the world to please see what is going on in Nigeria and help us — help the poor citizens.’

Earlier this year, Premier League footballers volunteered in numerous initiatives to help raise money to reduce the impact of coronavirus.

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says new signing Edinson Cavani has been “very meticulous” in training and could make his debut against Chelsea.

Cavani joined United on a free transfer on Deadline Day and could make his first appearance for the club against Chelsea in the Premier League today.

The Uruguayan - who has scored 341 goals in 556 club appearances during his career - had to undergo a two-week quarantine period following his arrival at Old Trafford but has been working on his fitness.

Cavani missed United’s impressive away victories against Newcastle in the Premier League and former club Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, but United boss Solskjaer believes the 33-year-old could feature this weekend against Frank Lampard’s side.

“Of course where he’s

been away from football for so long, he needed a pre-season,” Solskjaer said.

“He’s naturally fit and he’s been looking after himself.

He had two weeks in quarantine but we did provide him with all the facilities - the gym and a treadmill - and he posted (online) a few running sessions that he did.

“There is your foundation. Now when he comes in with us he’s getting more football and more training sessions individualised so he feels more ready to train with the team and then play with the team.

“He’s been very meticulous and very methodical in his training and his preparation. He didn’t feel ready for the PSG game because it was too early for him. He hadn’t done enough sharpness work, but he’s managed to do that this week and let’s see if that means he’s ready for the Chelsea game - I’m hopeful.”

Remembering the King of Goals, Yekini On the day that the Super Eagles’ all-time marksman would have turned 57, Goal pay tribute to the Bull of Kaduna.

It’s rare that a goal celebration proves to be more iconic than what precedes it; yet, Rashidi Yekini’s outpouring of emotion after scoring Nigeria’s first against Bulgaria in 1994 was a shift from the norm.

The Super Eagles’ number nine had just netted the West African nation’s first-ever World Cup goal, a feat that’ll never be erased from the history books.

The goal itself was a tap-in from about three yards, after Daniel Amokachi spotted and played in Finidi George wide right behind the European nation’s defence, before the wideman moved infield and squared to the forward to score.

To date, observers still haven’t made out what the late striker bellowed while vigorously shaking the net at the Cotton Bowl, still we all got the gist of his celebration.

After his heroics at the Africa Cup of Nations about three months before the global showpiece, it was only fitting for Yekini to be the man to create a bit of Nigerian history in the United States.

The Vitoria de Setubal icon netted five times in Tunisia to top the scoring charts, and was deservedly named the competition’s best player. While Ivory Coast’s Joel Tiehi came second with four, the next set of scorers – which included Emmanuel Amunike – scored twice, truly highlighting Yekini’s

prolific goalscoring at the finals.

Having fallen short in 1984, 1988 and 1990 since their 1980 Afcon success, Nigeria’s main striker was essential in bringing the coveted trophy back to the nation since they won it on home soil, thus ending a frustrating 14-year wait.

While the timely nature of Amunike’s pair of goals at the finals remains appreciated (the attacker scored a brace in the 2-1 turnaround in the decider against Zambia), the Super Eagles’ top striker’s impact in their run to the final, and especially in the knockout rounds, was noteworthy: Yekini followed up his two goals in a 3-0 group stage success over Gabon with a brace in the quarter-final clash with Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), a 2-0 win.

He then followed that up with another strike in the nerve-racking semi-final success over Ivory Coast. Nigeria twice came from behind against their West African rivals, with the joint top scorer pulling ahead of Tiehi by making it 2-2.

After the Elephants capitulated in the shoot-out, Yekini was the one whose composure from 12 yards sent the Super Eagles into their fourth final since 1984, which they finally won after finishing runners-up three times.

Yekini had actually featured in the final defeats in ’88 and ’90 by Cameroon and Algeria respectively, so victory in Tunisia will have tasted sweeter for

the frontman.

Still, the forward had Amunike to thank for not being a three-time losing Afcon finalist. Nigeria’s previously reliable number nine was unusually profligate in the final against the Copper Bullets, missing no less than three clear-cut chances, while he had an effort from a tight angle cleared off the line.

Even though he was mostly wasteful and slightly unlucky in the final, he proved more than a handful for the Zambia defence with his hold-up play and power, particularly difficult to deal with.

In the end, like Segun Odegbami (who ended joint-top scorer with three goals in 1980), Yekini was Nigeria’s highest scorer 14 years later.

It was to prove somewhat prescient that the latter supplanted the former as the Super Eagles’ top scorer, ending his international career with 37 goals. Odegbami’s tally was 22. The departed icon remains the West Africans’ highest scorer with his tally still unassailable after two decades.

The forward’s pioneering impact for football in the country saw him named African Footballer of the Year in 1993, which heralded a period of success in the 1990s. Amunike (1994), Nwankwo Kanu (1996 and 1999) and Victor Ikpeba (1997) claimed the coveted award in the 90s, while Okocha ended runner-up in ’98.

Tellingly, Nigeria’s dominance hasn’t been

sustained in the 21st century with the nation without a winner since Kanu’s ‘99 feat.

Yekini, though, foreshadowed that abundant spell for the country which forever cements his place as one of the country’s greats, and arguably the greatest.

At club level, he excelled for Vitoria Setubal in the early 90s, for whom he scored an wealth of goals between 1990 and 1994.

This culminated in Yekini ending top scorer in the 93/94 Primeira Liga campaign with 21 goals, taking the league’s new boys to a sixth-place finish in their first season back in the top flight.

For a bit of perspective, no player from the club has won the Bola de Prata since, with stars from majorly Porto and recently Benfica dominating the top scorer’s award.

Despite struggling to sustain his form after leaving the Portuguese league at 31, the 1994 Afcon champion will be remembered as one of Africa’s great forwards.

Interestingly, Yekini never scored another World Cup goal after that opener against Bulgaria, a surprising statistic in itself.

That, and his understandable decline in his 30s, showed he was only human. However, in his pomp, the Nigerian icon’s revolutionary impact on the continent and on the world stage eternally remains intact.

TR

Saturday, October 24, 2020

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PDP to Buhari “It is indeed heartrending that our once united, viable, resilient and cohesive nation handed over to President Buhari in 2015 is fast collapsing in his hands.”

– The opposition PDP accusing Buhari and the ruling APC of complicity in the killing of unarmed #EndSARS protesters in Lagos.

PENDULUM DELE MOMODU

dele.momodu@thisdaylive.com

Let Someone Remind President Buhari of Lagos State

F

ellow Nigerians, it is difficult to imagine the amount of mayhem that visited Lagos this week. Let me just put it bluntly, our worst nightmares became reality, in a jiffy. The peace and tranquillity that Lagos had enjoyed for decades as the heartbeat of Nigeria was shattered into smithereens within a twinkle of an eye. On Tuesday, October 20, 2020, the mega and cosmopolitan city instantly joined the comity of other Nigerian States that have been mercilessly ravaged by terrorism and wars of attrition. The only difference was that the terror and insurgency was unleashed on the people by the Government itself using the very same security forces that have sworn an oath under the Nigerian Constitution to protect the entire country and its citizens, including the hapless residents of Lagos State.

A simple and straightforward protest, primarily about police brutality and national insecurity, that was put together by different groups of very bright Nigerians was turned into a theatre of war and their blood flowed due to no fault of theirs. The protesters had turned the Lagos LEKKI Tollgate into our own Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.

We’ve never witnessed such orderly, accountable, visionary and transparently honest organisers in this clime. We were all excited that for once we are much closer to our destination. But the forces of darkness, as usual, were hovering in the wings, with their fiendish plans. As masters of the game, they struck unashamedly. In Abuja and Lagos, they brought out their hirelings with daggers, cutlasses and cudgels. As if bewitched, we saw some young people, some looking underaged, with bloodshot eyes who were ready to inflict maximum damage on the two most important cities in Nigeria and its inhabitants. The one in Abuja looked coordinated, as in broad day light we saw hooligans and thugs being corralled and marshalled by agents of State and ushered into areas of pacifist protests that these hoodlums would turn into hotspots of bedlam and mayhem.

I will not bore you with details which are already in public domains courtesy of unprecedented social media activities. Nigerians waited patiently for President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene.

To be fair to him, he did initially by receiving the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the harbinger of the message and requests from the #EndSARS movement. The Governor was well applauded by the youths. The President was seen receiving the letter from the Governor, but his response was only a dry smile, in his famous taciturnity. One may need the power of clairvoyance to understand what Buhari is thinking and planning, most times. His dead pan looks, and straight poker face can never be deciphered and translated into meaningful statements.

I had advised the President last week to resist the temptations of unleashing terror on the harmless, defenceless and peaceful protesters.

Any reasonable government would have protected them rather than open fire on those who were merely seeking a better life in their own country.

The Nigerian Army had issued a press release about its intention to engage in nationwide military drills that would include cyber operations and manoeuvre’s codenamed “operation crocodile smiles,” whatever that means. I immediately smelt a rat and had the premonition and foreboding of the tragedy to come. One didn’t need to consult a Prophet or the Oracle to imagine what President Buhari is capable of doing. His records are not hidden. I was old and mature enough in 1984-85 to remember the massive human rights abuses which the regime of sorrow, tears and blood, which he headed, wreaked on Nigeria.

His administration wanted to be known as one that employed strong arm and bully boy tactics,

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo Olu displaying not a hint of weakness, and I found those elements in his latest broadcast to the nation.

It beggars belief that a leader of a democratic nation, not to mention one that’s considered a shining light in the African firmament, would even suggest something like this.

I was one of those who foolishly believed that anyone with such military meanness as the President possesses could change and become a reformed Democrat overnight. Leopards don’t change their spots indeed. I’m deeply sorry I sold that big lie and today I’m wrong while those who attacked us then were right, after-all. I was taken in and persuaded by my personal involvement with our President. In all my interactions with President Buhari in Nigeria and London spanning ten years now, both before and after he became the President of the biggest black nation on earth, I realised that I liked his simple mien and sense of humour.

However, I have also discovered that his sense of managing people and resources is abysmally awkward and poor, to put it mildly. He appears to love to delegate when it is inappropriate and improper to do so. It would have been fantastic if he delegated to men and women of knowledge and wisdom. The most dangerous and calamitous of his personality traits is his apparent lack of empathy, which has become the biggest curse and burden on Nigeria today.

So, people died in Lagos last Tuesday. I do not believe that there can now be any doubt about that. On my part, I believe the question that is posed is whether people died on the scene or in the hospitals. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has come out to declare that at least one person has died in hospital. Nevertheless, there still seems to be a raging debate that no one died at the Lekki Tollgate, but clearly all parties agree many were injured. I have watched the video posted by DJ Switch and I’m reasonably convinced she’s a well informed and credible witness. Despite the futile attempts by the military to hide behind one finger, there was ample evidence of their irresponsible recklessness and that obviously endangered and compromised innocent citizens, turned a peaceful protest into a bloodbath and a usually serene part of Lagos into an ocean of blood. The cowardly heavily armed, well armoured and bullet -proof clad military personnel who rained bullets at unarmed, cowering and surrendering protesters, against all rules of military and civilian engagement and ethics could not be seen when the properties of government and some targeted citizens were being vandalised, looted and ravaged. The orgiastic and gratuitous debauchery and violence was yet to be totally quelled as at last night.

Now back to President Buhari. The big

masquerade finally came out of his gilded shrine two days ago. His suavely charming National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd.) was quoted as saying earlier in the day that the President was going to make some major announcements in his evening broadcast. Rumours soon developed wings like bushfire in the harmattan and we were being regaled with tales and stories began to fly that a state of emergency was about to be declared in Lagos State. No one knew the source, origin and veracity of the report but it seemed believable going by the hocus-pocus that was ongoing in the State. Several reasons were adduced. The conspiracy theorists swore that the Fulanisation agenda was real and the hawks were ready to descend and pounce on one man they considered too powerfully dangerous to take them on in 2023, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It sounded plausible when they added the fact that the rioters wasted no time in attacking his media empire, at TVC and The Nation newspapers, respectively. How come the same military that had more than enough ammunition to fire on vulnerable, and unnaturally exposed youths in Lekki had gone funereally silent by the following morning and was allowing the savagery and bloodletting by unhindered unhinged youths to continue without respite, response or resolution?

Of course, I dismissed the rumours as products of fertile imagination, but more rumours came in torrents. One thing seemed clear to me, that kites were being flown by Machiavellian persons intent on exploiting the rapidly degenerating situation for their own selfish and nefarious ends. There was yet another audio recording in circulation with the audible voice of the IPOB leader giving instructions to some specific men on where to destroy in Lagos. There was no confirmation as well and the motive could not be immediately established but it caused some anxiety.

As if to confirm the fears of those who saw Asiwaju as the target and the Lagos State Governor, MR Babajide Sanwo-Olu, as collateral damage, the speech by President Muhammadu Buhari was a veritable anti-climax, a non-event of no consequence whatsoever. It was bland and rambling. We waited endlessly for the monumental announcement, a declaration of some profound policy shift, a statement of great statesmanship and vision, but it was like waiting for Godot. This incidence of deja vu further confounded and infuriated Nigerians.

The President totally glossed over Lagos, only mentioning the desecration of the palace of the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu. By so doing the President registered and confirmed his disdain for, and denigration of, the most economically powerful State, bigger than many African countries, and under the control of his own ruling political party, APC. It would have been impossible for Buhari to become President in 2015 without the epic support from Lagos and the South West in particular. It is sad, disturbing and distressing that the President could pointedly and studiously ignore Lagos. He thus failed to give hope and succour to a State that was almost on its knees, one which is often described as the California or New York of Africa.

Memories are indeed very short. I remember with nostalgia how Lagos was one of the places Buhari used to visit regularly in those good old days before he attained power the second time.

Is it that the name Lagos has become so bitter to be mentioned in his speech? Is it that Nigerians who died, were injured, or lost their possessions in the ill-fated attacks and wanton destruction deserve no sympathy or empathy whatsoever?

I’m shocked that our First Ladies, who often parade themselves as our mothers, are nowhere to be seen mourning the dead, consoling and comforting the injured and commiserating with

their hapless and helpless families.

To worsen the situation, virtually all the party stalwarts of APC in Yorubaland went mute like victims of hypnotism. Their heritage was on fire, but they chose to bury their heads in the sand like the ostrich. The PDP which should have been a loud, voluble opposition, shouting from the rooftops in support of the remarkable protesters, has been missing in action. What an opportunity lost! What is it about this earthly power that makes some people become so squeamish about speaking up for their people?

Unfortunately, and to compound matters, what started easily as a very non-partisan, non-religious and non-ethnic movement is being deliberately turned upside down. It would take some wisdom for the organisers to bring this progressive movement back on track. My candid opinion is that their initial strategy has achieved its first aim. Their message has resonated globally and most Nigerians at home and abroad have bought into their ideas and ideals. They must not be discouraged. The time has come for them to restrategise. Since there is nothing more to hide at this stage, they should unite and pick their own leaders and form a formidable organisation.

A crusade and campaign without structures will eventually give rise to anarchy, especially if it is infiltrated by nihilists and subversives, who are up to no good, as has been the case this week.

The aim at this stage should not be political.

It should be how to reactivate and eventually actualise their demands. They are craftsmen and women who have created a sustainable and resilient platform. They now need to find a way of reaching out to the angry youths, the bitter destroyers, who have been going on rampage and committing acts of gross brigandage. These destructive elements have been neglected for far too long and no one should be too surprised that they are now extremely angry and giving vent to their pent-up frustrations. Our leaders and all the elites are culpable, and we must collectively accept the blames. When the wealthiest of the world live side by side with the poorest, and the rich pay no attention to the sorrow, pain and anguish of their neighbours, anything and everything can happen. The dark tomorrow has arrived on Nigerian shores, despite the good well-intentioned, nationalistic and patriotic actions of the craftsmen and women who originated the #EndSARS protests. By whatever means, next must come the magnificent, triumphant dawn.

It would take a miracle to have a change in Nigeria speedily. There are just too many problems to tackle. But our problems are not insurmountable.

All it would take is a determined and committed leadership. The absence of love is the beginning of destruction. The love for our nation and love by its people was openly demonstrated at the beginning of the #EndSARS protest. Government in its typical uncaring selfish and self-preservative ways chose to turn it into enmity and destroy our brittle, fragile fabric by unleashing unbridled and unrestrained terror on the populace!

We can surely do better, and the President must be the first to recognise this and change his ways. Like I keep telling President Buhari, it is never too late to make amends. Lagos State, like Nigeria, is greater than any individual or group of individuals. The President must remember his oath of office, and his promise to the nation and the great people of Nigeria to make their lives better. He must unite the country and heal its wounds. The best place to start is with Lagos State.

The time to start is now! He must recognise and speak out against the terrible outrage, atrocities and savagery that have occurred and remedy them. He must be fair and do justice. He must be the Father of Lagos State and the Nation.

Let’s all pray for our dear beloved country.

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