2015 ELECTIONS: NIGERIANS BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA

Democratic governance has as one of its beauties, the conferment of the right to choose who governs, on the people, and most often, even when the elections are rigged, they are skewed in the direction of the majority of the people. That position may be contestable, anyway.

December 2014 is running as fast as its legs could carry it to open the door for Year 2015, the year I called, year of great decision for Nigerians. The question as to whether we will get it right as a people hangs in the balance because even the “getting-it-right” is right now, a relatively personal issue. This is because the choice as to which is better between the two major contending parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) is, to every discerning mind, not better than a gamble.

Interestingly, I believe by a stroke of fate to prove my point above that the decision to choose any of PDP and APC in the coming general elections remains a gamble, the debate for local government financial and political autonomy resurfaced barely four months to the general elections. After the two chambers of the National Assembly had jointly passed the bill, it was transferred to the states for the constitutionally required 2/3 endorsement from the state Houses of Assembly.

Regrettably however, 23 states went against, killed and buried the bill. They are: Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Borno, Yobe, Taraba, Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi, Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, Rivers, Cross-River, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Akwa-Ibom, Enugu and Imo states. Their flimsy reasons to stifle life out of the people they are eating (not serving) are anchored on the following: irregularities in the bill, lack of sustainability of the proposed autonomy and immaturity of the local governments to be left unchecked by the state legislature.

Interestingly, all the states mentioned above who voted against the people are divided between the two leading contending parties, PDP & APC. Meanwhile, a state like Anambra, controlled by a small party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, voted in favour of the bill.

For the avoidance of doubt, without local government autonomy, the rampaging poverty, infrastructural decay, rural-urban migration, unemployment and other societal problems would continue unabated. That is the matter in this case. These states’ governors and their Houses of Assembly members know these facts, but felt unconcerned since their own nests are being well-feathered from our collective till.

My concern is how I will go out in February 2015 to either re-vote a party, to whom my plight is nothing, or newly vote into power, a party, to whom my breakthrough must, at best, remain a mirage. Let me worthily mention it that all these state Houses of Assembly voted in favour of financial autonomy for the Houses of Assembly; meaning that they have more money for themselves, and they have it as at when due, directly from source without any undue interference from the governors. However, that part that would further and better acquaint the people with the dividends of democracy was not only vehemently, but also unanimously opposed.

Nigerians, behold your two messiahs. Choose for yourselves, whichever you preferred: the devil or the deep sea?

EKITI, OSUN ELECTIONS: A POST MORTEM

Like every election, these two elections did not fail to come with their own jitters of what would likely happen, in terms of violence and who would or would not win. The rate of violence that heralded the electioneering campaigns was a major headache to all well-meaning citizens. Accusations and counter-accusations flew freely. Negative propaganda was rife with different rumours emanating from different camps against their most perceived electoral enemies. Personality and character assassinations became the other of the day with many hitherto angels and heroes becoming the devil and the villains just because of their political leanings, ideologies and colourations.

The razzmatazz of the Principal actors and their supporters was ebulliently enjoyed while it lasted. A few millionaires were made silently, especially in the entertainment world and amongst top politicians who knew their ways. Some artisans who were well connected also got their fingers oily in the event of things. Events unfolded, but are now folded back. The frenzy and flurry of the die-hard supporters that made them unnecessarily step on toes are now gone, and as it is said in some quarters, “their eyes don clear.”

In the ensuing event of things, many friends became enemies and vice versa, just because of their conflicting personal political interests. Many broken bridges were mended while many very healthy bridges cracked, and some, broken beyond repairs.  The axiom that “there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics” became frequentative as major players gullibly and frenziedly embraced the new political course, introduced right from the national assembly, jumpology, which describes the sudden and unusual defections as well as secret alliances amongst principal political actors. The question of whether these alliances were made in good faith with the downtrodden millions at heart is furiously begging for answers. How long the said alliances would stand is yet another matter altogether as some of the Jumping Masters have found that their known devils were far better than their new-found angels. Where all these leave their hopeless sheep is best known to God; not the masters, not the following sheep.

Before these two elections which were frantically fought for by the two principal parties, the PDP and APC, there was no gainsaying that most people, especially the opposition at the center were nervous as to what the electoral umpire, INEC, was up to. They accused the body of bias even before the exercises, thus predicting the gender of the chicken even before the egg was hatched. This undoubtedly heated up the polity as many types of rubbish were written on social media and the print media. When the Ekiti election came and it fell to the lot of the party at the center, Nigerians were treated to the best of what I know is the exclusive best asset of the APC, unrivalled intelligence, as a new English was added to our dictionary, photochromic and photochromism. While many battled within themselves to crack the meaning of this new political vocabulary, many of us with curious minds fled to our dictionaries. When we found it not, we took to Wikipedia; many thanks to Wikipedia that delivered us from the brain-cracking grammar of APC. Now, we know what that means!

Interestingly and as providence would have it, the election in Osun turned out to favour the opposition, and the margin between the parties was cognate with what we had in Ekiti. Many have now started asking the question as to whether the electoral umpire accused of having photochromically rigged the Ekiti election for the ruling party at the center has done same for the opposition party in Osun. To me, I strongly believe that this shows the end of human cogitations in the dynamics of God’s workings.

To be continued . . . .

THESE ABSURDITIES CALLED PERFORMANCE -2

continued from last week . . . 

AGRICULTURE

Ekiti State remains one of the most blessed lands in the whole universe. This assertion is because apart from other Western Nigerian states, Ekiti boasts of green vegetation all through the year. As well, we benefit from the two rainy seasons per year being enjoyed by some other parts of the country.

With this premise, Ekiti can boast of her agricultural prowess to conveniently feed the entire nation. No other state, save other Western states, qualifies to be given the acronym, “Food Basket of the Nation” except Ekiti state. Unfortunately, this natural endowment has been painfully neglected by this administration. I hope Mr. Governor and his boys will be able to tell the whole world, with practical visual figures, the number of tons of rice, maize and other grains as well as other food crops, harvested in the last one or two years which are being presently stored for the people of Ekiti state to feed from in year 2014.

It must be noted that Governors who came in after Fayemi have harvested food for their people to feed on or to replant for the benefit of their people. A good example of that is the Ogun state governor, who harvested 20 hectares of rice in December, 2013. In September, 2013, when Ekiti and some other like lazy states were finding it difficult to pay salaries, Uduaghan, the Delta state governor, boasted on AIT that they were able to surmount that obstacle via their investment in agriculture. Even the dry lands of the North, for example, Gombe, had used their initiatives to co-opt the Bank of Agric to benefit their people in agriculture.

In Ekiti, what we have is a promise that, come 2015, Ekiti will feed the West. The question therefore is when is this administration statutorily expected to lapse? Why playing on people’s intelligence by promising them 2015 when you know that the mandate you were given ends in 2014? Does that not amount to double-dealing and a dubious attempt to perpetrate oneself in office beyond the stipulated time?

My Governor and his boys will like to tell us about YCAD! Let them tell us the amount invested into YCAD for we read in “THE PUNCH” that some hundreds of thousands of US dollars have been expended on agriculture in Ekiti state. What has the state benefited from the inglorious agricultural programme? How many youths are presently involved, and what is their level of involvement? How many farms does the state have presently? How many tons of maize, rice and other grains and livestock have been produced and harvested for the people’s consumption in the last three years of this administration?

Timely answers to these questions will in no small measure help Ekiti people, home and abroad, in taking their decisions in the forthcoming election in choosing who steers the ship of the state for another four years starting from October 16^th, 2014.

SOCIAL SECURITIES

I consider it rather intellectually insulting, the practice of some of our politicians, who import programmes to Nigeria from Europe, America and other parts of the world, without a corresponding intellectual input from the so-called importers.

The Dr. Fayemi-led administration has prided itself over the last three years as the first to introduce social security funds into governance in Nigeria. Whether this argument is true is not the issue now; the issues are: how are the social securities carried out? Can the state’s economy support it? Is it a priority as far as the state is concerned? Are the beneficiaries getting the tokens as at when due? Couldn’t the meager resources being wantonly wasted on these be put into a rather productive use from which a larger number of these hapless people could benefit now, and for a longer period of time?

A paltry sum of five thousand naira (#5,000) is being haphazardly given to the aged. As at press time, the poor old people being hoodwinked by this shylock generousity are still being owned three months arrears which are likely to become a continued carry-over till the end of this administration’s life span. Our university graduates are being reduced to the level of boarding-house students who are being given the one-time popular pocket-money for sustenance. An insulting ten thousand naira (#10,000) a month is being dashed-out to our enterprising egg-heads after their many years’ training in higher schools of learning where they had been taught how to contribute immensely to the growth and development of our dear state in every ramification.

I make bold to say that these graduates are being paid for doing nothing when they could have been productively engaged. Little wonder then that many of them could not and can not account for what they used and are using the money they are being given for. The most appalling part of this frittering of our meager resources is that by October 16^th, 2014, this ignoble government would have squandered three billion, nine hundred and fifty million naira (#3,950,000,000) on this celebrated inglorious absurdity.

Painfully, the above amount could possibly have established at least two of the Aregbesola’s kind of garment industry, and nothing less than three thousand (3,000) people could have been gainfully employed. Alternatively, this father-Christmas administration could have used this wasted sum to revive the old Textile Industry discussed above, which painfully, has been converted to lock-up shops.

The beauty of these social securities is that Fayemi and his men have successfully turned Ekiti indigenes into beggars whilst encouraging and financing laziness amongst the youth populace.

EDUCATION

Shortly after inception, our dear governor and his incongruous team, in their wisdom, decided to distribute laptops to secondary school students and their teachers. In this project, the government distributed a total of forty-eight thousand (48,000) laptops at a cost not less than one hundred thousand (#100,000) naira per system. Simple primary school arithmetic brought the amount gratuitously blown away to four billion, eight hundred million naira (#4.8billion).

The project designed to pull the wool over the people’s eyes showed its thorough farcical nature as the computer illiterate students started using the systems for immoral purposes such as watching adult movies. Some of the students became experts in computer games while some others began to use the systems to learn and or perfect their internet fraud (yahoo-yahoo) skills. Beside these groups, some other sharp guys turned emergency DJs at social gatherings. The result of all these was that these students’ studies began to suffer. It took the intervention of some well-meaning parents to call the attention of Mr. Governor and his think-tank to these, after which they began to withdraw the laptops from the students. The students who refused to return theirs or whose had got spoilt were not and have not been given their WAEC and NECO results by their respective schools, even as this page is being typed.

It gladdens my heart to know that my governor is wide-travelled. I wouldn’t know whether the painting of school buildings is what is called educational development in all the overseas countries where he had travelled to. A school building, either newly built or just renovated and or painted, but without the necessary learning aids and facilities is like a brand new car that has no accelerator. We heard that there was an improvement in the students’ result last year, but we all know what happened in all the examination centers. I told people that the “excellent” result is not to be celebrated because there is no corresponding improvement on the students’ spoken English and performances in other areas. A visit to any Ekiti oriented group on facebook will testify to my words.

Likewise, we were told that we are running free education, but there is no single school in Ekiti state where fees are not being collected by using one logic or the other. The kind of free education we grew up to know is the kind where everything, I mean, everything, was free; not even PTA fee was paid. However, there is a modernization of free education today in Ekiti state; a senior friend, whose son attends one of the government-owned Government Colleges (names withheld), paid a total of Sixteen thousand naira (#16,000) at the beginning of this present session. What a way to give education free!

My dissident brothers may argue the free textbooks given to students, but I shall be quick to say that that is not a departure from what had been since the days of Awolowo and Ajasin (both of blessed memories) in the old Ondo State. What we clamour for in Ekiti state is a true change that will not only be, but engender a clear and total departure from the moribund pasts we have always had; not an intrusive repeat of them.

WORKERS’ WELFARE

I want to commend Mr. Governor and his team on this all-important area of Ekiti people’s lives, not because they have done anything commendable, but because they have not prided themselves as having done well in this area.

Fayemi’s administration has reduced the ever ebullient Nigerian workers, Ekiti state chapter, to a kind of servitude.  The local government workers are the hardest hit. It is only in this administration that I have come to see and know that if a worker came late (not absent for the whole day) to work on a single day, such worker will loose a whole month’s salary. I challenged some of Mr. Governor’s boys sometimes ago, on facebook, to tell me where such an erratically obnoxious provision is written in the Nigerian Labour Law. Unfortunately, none was able to say anything.

The e-payment system introduced by this government did not help situation either. This is a system that is programmed in such a way that if the name of a worker is wittingly or unwittingly omitted for one month, such a worker will definitely loose his/her salary for three months before such an error would be corrected; ditto for a worker who is either underpaid or overpaid.

The untold maltreatment meted out to the workers, especially at the local government level, by Mr. Governor’s Monitoring Teams popularly known as “Boko Haram”, is better not imagined. History has it that a pregnant woman who took to her heels to be able to get seen by these “Boko Harams” in order to save her salary fell on the way, and before she could be rushed to a nearby hospital, she gave up the ghost.

Many workers who have been due for promotion since 2010 when Fayemi came to power have never been promoted. Until now that he wants their votes for a second-term, Fayemi never thought it wise to work on the workers’ promotion. By so doing, the workers’ rights are being turned, not only to a privilege, but bait for them to vote Mr. Governor in for a second-term. The foolery of this administration shows more now in that virtually all the workers in the state are jostling for promotion now, all at the same time. What a government to behold!

The plight of Pensioners in the state is even worst! Presently, there are Pensioners in the state who still earn an insulting One thousand, five hundred naira (#1,500) as pension. When Mr. Governor was contacted on the gory welfare of the Pensioners and the fact that the Federal Government has reviewed Pensioners’ pays, the Governor replied that he was not aware of such developments. These developments and some others were the reasons the Pensioners in Ekiti state were the only set of Pensioners, the world over, who did not celebrate Pensioners’ Day on the 23^rd of November, 2013.

THESE ABSURDITIES CALLED PERFORMANCE - 1

It has been said that “when real initiatives are not present, politicians result to absurdities.” It is a common practice that when an individual has been long in an ailment, any drug brought to such is quickly taken with the highest hope of getting relieves from such. It is also not uncommon that when an individual has been hard hit by poverty, the least monetary note or even coin given comes as a saviour even if such can not provide one decent meal. Likewise, when a people had witnessed years of deprivation and impoverishments, their rights are quickly turned to privileges by any unthinking moron-turned hero.

By the way, I think the problem with governance really is the fact that governance is being reduced to the level of politics. The people in government need to know that governance is service. Governance is not gerrymandering. Politics should stop as soon as elections are won, and the elected need to busy themselves with services to the electorate (within and outside their parties). Invariably, it is the service or lack of it that will determine whether the people in power deserved to continue in power or whether they should be changed.

The above scenarios are not untrue of the past thirty-nine months of Dr. John Kayode Fayemi’s administration in Ekiti State. They have been months of intelligentsia absurdities by which the Doctor of war and his team have repeatedly insulted the intelligence of the people of the “Fountain of Wisdom.” Painfully, these affronts have gone unchallenged by the people of the state. Let us look at each of these absurdities, one after the other, that ignorant people celebrate as achievements, most of which were designed to hoodwink the populace.

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EMPLOYMENT

The outgoing administration boasts of having created thirty-eight thousand employment opportunities since its inception. The question is: what sort of employments? How gainful, reliable and dependable are the said employments? It is unfortunate that in a state that boasts of the best brains among the most populous African nation, Nigeria, an executive will make people redundant, whilst paying them, and call that employment.

What we have seen so far is duplicity of the Federal government establishments such the Traffic wardens (popularly known in Ekiti state as “Dagrin”), the Nigerian Police Force, and so on. Graduates who are engaged by the state government to control traffics and those enlisted into their “Peace Corps”, an unrecognized replica of the Nigerian Police, are being paid #10,000 a month. It must be on record that none of the said employments have any securities because (1) they have not been gazette by the state government and (2) none of the "employed" has been given any letter of appointment; hence, any successive government can easily do away with them. 

These were perfectly done while the state government converted the age-long Textile Industry into lock-up shops, most of which are not being presently used by anybody. Conversely, if the thinking of the government had been right, and the Textile Industry revived, it could have employed close to three thousand graduates if not more. Governor Aregbesola of the state of Osun never inherited any Textile Industry, but today, Osun has a functional garment factory that has absorbed about three thousand of their unemployed youths. Let me add that the Osun garment factory was coincidentally commissioned on the day Dr. Fayemi of Ekiti state distributed vehicles worth over One Billion naira (#1Bn) to Obas (traditional rulers) in Ekiti state while the youth remained unemployed or at best, frivolously employed.

Let it be known that this is the first government in Ekiti state that collected one thousand naira (#1,000) from her unemployed youths in order to employ them into the Civil service. It must be noted that out of almost eight thousand (8,000) eligible applicants, only seven hundred and fifty (750) were called for oral interview. As at the time this piece is being written, none has been given the said employment.

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ROAD CONSTRUCTION

Much of the noise of this administration has been about roads. It needs to be clarified that these roads are just being re-surfaced by this administration. It must be said that Fayemi’s administration, since inception, has not constructed any road in Ekiti State (save a 1.2 km road from Old garage through Ojumose to Atikankan in Ado Ekiti). All the roads being deceitfully exhibited on television stations by Fayemi and his cronies are roads constructed by the duo of Ayo Fayose and Segun Oni’s administrations respectively. In fact, the credit of opening up Ekiti state in terms of road projects must go to Ayo Fayose. It is not wrong to build on past administration’s achievements because government is continuous. However, it becomes an absurd when other people’s achievements are over-flogged as one’s. All the dual carriages within Ado Ekiti, the state capital were constructed by the Ayo Fayose’s administration.

Part of the absurdities is the Oye – Otun road - as a case study. No part of the road which is being celebrated by Mr. Governor and his boys has a sustainable drainage system save the few meters’ drainage within Iye; even, Isan, the governor’s town has no drainage, and sound is taking over parts of the road; thereby causing accidents. While I will not mention that the narrow bridge over River Ero (just after Ikun) was left unattended to, some parts of this road are already sinking (just three years on), and the part left undone at the boundary of Oye and Ilejemeje local governments has become the den of armed robbers. Apart from this boundary between Oye and Ilejemeje local governments, a very good part of the road remain as they were before Fayemi’s administration. I implore the public to travel through the road for more instructions.

Still on road construction, questions need to be asked on how much was expended on how many kilometers of road. A situation whereby, for example, a 1.2 kilometer road costs over a billion naira is highly questionable. It must be borne in mind that what we are looking at is road resurfacing, not construction.

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To be continued tomorrow. . . 

DO YOU KNOW MICHAEL OPEYEMI BAMIDELE (MOB)? - 2

MOB

How did the once upon a time a beautiful bride of Ekiti politics, Honourable Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, MOB, suddenly become a “traitor” and a bad person? How did a true “omo-oko” suddenly become a typical “omo-ale”? Is it because he asked for what rightfully belongs to us all? I have read many beautifully crafted lies about MOB; many of which I found so hard to swallow. Like I said before, it is a personal tragedy to attempt to define somebody when one can not even identify oneself, albeit properly.

Do you know MOB? I’m afraid many Ekiti people will answer this question in the affirmative, but if asked to exemplify their claims, they would falter, no doubt. Let me say, like I said in the part one of this piece that the name, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, and the face can be duplicated and carried by many people, thereby, giving a false impression of who MOB really is. For this reason therefore, I have chosen to know the man, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, through his deeds (which can not be replicated, but built upon) during his sojourn in Lagos State administration.

It is only a snake that passes over a rock and leaves no traces. MOB went outside this state to the commercial nerve-centre of Nigeria and proved himself. My dearest brothers and sisters of Ekiti descent, I didn’t know MOB until I went to watch an FA Cup final between Heartland FC and Eyimba FC at the long-abandoned and derelict Teslim Balogun Stadium located at Surulere, Lagos. The magical turn-around of the abandoned edifice, the installation of the state-of-the-art sporting equipments and facilities and the beautification of the entire stadium are second-to-none. The derelict-turned edifice is what Lagos state government will guide jealously for generations to come. For this, MOB received a number of accolades. The most outstanding of these accolades and awards was the award given him by the family of Teslim “Thunder” Balogun in May 2007 as an “appreciation award for your ceaseless efforts in the completion of Teslim Balogun Stadium.”

                                                                        

Besides, MOB’s contributions to sports development in Lagos state by way of resuscitating grassroots sports, innovation and stimulation of private sector participation in sports sponsorship, establishments of coaching clinics for coaches and secondary schools’ games’ masters and the rejuvenation of Lagos state sports festival are just a few of MOB’s monumental achievements which will be the benchmark for people that would occupy the office of the Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development in the future in Lagos state.

 I do not have the telephone number of any of the present Ekiti state executive council members, not even the commissioner from my noble town, but I have all of those of Lagos state. That is an innovation of MOB to re-define governance and give it a human face. With this innovation, Lagosians are able to reach their representatives, even the state governor; at any time they so choose, thus making the government really closer to the people.

It was during MOB’s era that Lagos State Television went on DSTV and the Radio Lagos launched on cyberspace, heralding the possibility of a worldwide audience.  Unlike our own EKTV whose signal is not received in most part of Ekiti state, these innovation ensures that both Radio Lagos and the age-long LTV are received in all parts of Lagos state as well as outside the state and even outside the shores of Nigeria. This kind of intellectual innovation, apart from ensuring that vital information reaches the people and contribute to in no small measure to the development of the entertainment industry which provided employment for thousands of youth, it also has its own way of immensely impacting positively on the social and economic well-being of the state; thus contributing to the financial fortunes of both the state and her inhabitants.

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Before the coming of Opeyemi Bamidele, Lagosians just go out in the morning not knowing where there was heavy traffic or not. It was MOB who established a dedicated Lagos Traffic Radio which gives the traffic report and situation all over Lagos state, every minute. With that innovation, the days of unnecessarily running into heavy traffic, either in the morning or evening has become a thing of the past except if one chooses to.

In Lagos state today, one does not need to search for ages before one could get information of whatever kind about the state. This has been facilitated by the establishment of Lagos State Records and Archives Bureau (LASRAB). LASRAB house is in Magodo, Lagos state. The essence of this kind of an innovation is seen in the gargantuan service it portends to render to researchers from any part of the world that may require one information or the other about the state. Likewise, this kind of a work ensures that the state’s history can not be lost. For this project, my people, MOB was recognized via an award called LASRAB AWARD in 2011 “in recognition of his contributions to the development of records and archives in Lagos state.”

                                                                           

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All these and many more that ‘am not able to mention here for space and time are what MOB did even as the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, during which he also functioned as the Chief Image-maker of the state.

There are too many things to say about this enigma. In fact, twenty episodes of this kind of a write-up will never be enough to chronicle his past numerous achievements. Ekiti needs a thinking, God-fearing workaholic, industrious and sincere person to captain the ship of this state.

                                                           
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DO YOU KNOW HON. MICHAEL OPEYEMI BAMIDELE (MOB)?

It is a tragic irony that people who do not even know their own stories will attempt to tell another person’s. Such dastardly acts results in nothing but a gross and regrettable misrepresentation of the personality being discussed. This has been the anomaly that had pervaded the Ekiti political atmosphere since Honourable Michael Opeyemi Bamidele declared his avowed intention to run for the highest political office in Ekiti state.

The workers of mischief, the scoundrels of the blackest dye, behind the political orchestra trying to malign MOB’S image are doing so for no other reason, but because the enigma, MOB, demanded true internal democratic cultures within the echelons of the APC which the handlers of the party did not want. So, they set their boys to ensure the bastardization of MOB’s personality. However, who will be against him, with whom the Lord had pitched His tent with?

                                                 HON. MICHAEL OPEYEMI BAMIDELE

Every human on earth is easily identified using three distinct parameters: name, face and deeds (personal or deeds done by the individual in collaboration with others). Talking about individual names, the fact is obvious that scores of people (even from different ethnic origins) could bear same name without any difference. Human faces are not different as many people have the same face and resemble one another. It therefore holds that these two parameters, name and face, are just not enough to identify individuals. Unfortunately, most analysts, since the MOB/JKF saga, have been using these two to tell MOB’s story.

It is tragically unfortunate that Ekiti is characterized with the inability to appreciate their own. Rather, we are very apt at derogating, denigrating and condemning our own at the slightest opportunity. MOB’s personality has been variously smeared and disparaged even by scoundrels of the darkest dye. It is saddening that a man who helped build Lagos during both Tinubu and Fashola’s administration to the extent that the state won various international accolades could be so hated by a section of his own people to the extent that even the people of that state can not but wonder what the matter is with us, the Ekitis.

I may not be able to say, but I wouldn’t know if there is any among all the four contenders to the governorship seat of Ekiti state that has MOB’s credentials before getting to or aspiring to get to the seat. Let us therefore, identify a dynamic and resourceful achiever, who has been severally celebrated outside the shores of Ekiti state.

I will not speak about MOB’s days both as the PRO of the “GREAT IFE” Students’ Union Government and his exploits as the National President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) during which he led the entire Nigerian students to fight to a standstill, the draconian military government of that era. I will not mention also, MOB’s activities in the NADECO days in Nigeria’s quest for the democracy which we are now all enjoying. It is on record that MOB was unjustly incarcerated, and without trial because of his activities in various pro-democracy groups by the military juntas. Telling all these will only help us to appreciate the fact that the man, MOB, had contributed immensely not only to the actualization of democracy, but also to the socio-political emancipation of this entity, called Nigeria. MOB has therefore paid his dues as a TRUE DEMOCRAT AND A SOCIAL CRUSADER AND ENGINEER OF NO LITTLE MIEN.

EKITI KETE O, “ka a ao ba ki un ni, i i, se la ki i un ao pada.” Meet me in the part two to this piece that endeavours to chronicle MOB’s achievements in his political journey so far.

Alale Ekiti a gbe a kete. Ase.

Let's meet tomorrow as we continue to chronicle the past achievements of MOB in our bid to know him, whom God has chosen, to lead Ekiti to the next level.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIA?

As we celebrate our centenary birthday as a nation, I consider it highly expedient that we reflect on our national life in this one hundred years’ journey as a country. After one hundred years, no water, no light, no good hospitals, no good roads, no work, no good schools, in fact, with the recent condemnable dastardly actions of the Boko Haram insurgents, the country is almost non-existent! While many people had because of all these said that Nigeria is moving towards the status of a failed state, many others had concluded that Nigeria is already, a failed state.

Nigeria, the most populous of the black nations has gone through much turbulence since her independence on October 1^st, 1960. Arguably the most blessed of all African nations by whatever measure, no aspect of her national life has justified the Mother Nature's benevolence to her by bequeathing her with more than abundant natural blessings. From human capital development to infrastructural provisions, the national impropriety is too transparent to be hidden from even the blindest man on the street.

I have read and listened to many commentators and their commentaries by which they blame the British for our national woes. The argument had always been that the amalgamation of the Southern and Northern Protectorates done in 1914 was the genesis of Nigerian calamities. Those who belong to this school of thought argued that Lord Luggard and his wife, by that arrangement had encouraged an “unholy marriage”, and that is why Nigeria is not settled. They argued further that by that “marriage”, the British successfully imposed the Northerners on the other parts of the country.

People who argued along this line strongly believed that the northerners are the most backward of all the regions in the country. It is therefore argued that there is no way the Northerners could be the ones dictating the pace of events in the land. The Southerners, especially the South-westerners who are generally adjudged the most advanced in almost all areas of human endeavours do found it a bitter pill to swallow for them to depend on or take orders from the Northerners. The power tussle has been hellish, and during most general elections, hell was let loose because of either perceived or real malpractice by any section of the country to favour a particular party which does not enjoy much patronage in that part of the country. The mayhems of the ‘60s and early ‘80s are living testimonies.

Another school of thought that dwelt on why Nigeria is fraught with so much national upheavals opined that Nigeria is too big to be only one country. They argued that ordinarily, and even according to the map of Nigeria, there are three distinct countries in this only one called, Nigeria. People of this school of thought are always very quick to conclude that until Nigeria makes way for, at least, three different smaller nations, which they considered more homogeneous, there would be neither peace nor national growth or development in the country.

The people of this latter school of thought believed that the reason the country is having difficulties is managerial inefficiency. They strongly believed that the country is too large to manage; it must therefore break up into smaller units which they consider manageable.

The external orientation of what the British did or did not do has continued to generate controversies that have hampered national development in no small measure. South Africa, a country that got their independence from the same British, thirty years (1990) after Nigeria got hers is today recognized as the most advanced of all African countries. Ghana, another African country that was also a British colony is not also doing badly, though after some problems, too. Power failure is almost non-existent now in Ghana, unlike Nigeria, where it had remained a daily dosage which many parts of the country can not do without. Of these two countries in question, none is as naturally endowed as Nigeria.

As a person, I have failed to see the evil in the 1914 amalgamation. My position really is hinged on the fact that both South Africa and Ghana mentioned above have almost the same national characteristic as Nigeria. They are multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious, and multi-whatever you can think of. For example, the language in South Africa is so diverse to the extent that they have seven official languages.

To the proponents and students of the second school of thought, I have been very quick to point out and mention a few countries that are much larger than Nigeria, and despite both their population and or land mass, are making serious progress in their national lives. Examples of such countries include India, China, the United States of America, to mention but a few.

So, what is the problem with Nigeria?