News

OPINION: Tinubu, Matter Don Pass Be Careful

Published

3 months ago

February 12, 2024

Editor

By Lasisi Olagunju

The last premier of the Western Region, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, asked his guest what the town was saying. The guest told him the town was solidly behind him. The guest backed his claim with a cassette which he said contained the adulation with which the people of Ibadan welcomed every step so far taken by Chief Akintola. The premier listened to the cassette and brightened up. He thanked the guest, Chief A.M.A. Akinloye, as he took his exit. Akintola’s young confidant and aide, Adewale Kazeem, walked in. The premier told him of Akinloye’s good news and gave him the cassette to listen to. Adewale listened to the cassette, sighed and was downcast. The premier looked at the worried face of Adewale Kazeem and asked why. “The town is not good,” he told Chief Akintola, and added that the content of the cassette was not a true reflection of what the town was saying about the premier and his government. A shocked Akintola intoned “ta l’a á wàá gbàgbó báyìí (who do we believe now)?” The young man told the premier: “You had better believe me, Baba.”

The above happened sometime in 1964. A year later, the problem multiplied for Chief Akintola who became increasingly troubled, his hands unsteady; “he could no longer write his signature on a straight line.” One day, he was advised by the same aide, Adewale Kazeem, to resign his post as premier and end the raging crisis in the region. Akintola’s response was: “Adewale, ó ti bó; ikú ló má a gb’èyìn eléyìí (Adewale, it is too late. It is death that will end all this).” The above details are on pages 161 and 172 of the book ‘SLA Akintola in the Eyes of History: A Biography and Postscript’. The book, published in 2017, was written by a former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Kehinde. The author did not put those conversations in the book as hearsay. He heard them directly from Adewale Kazeem who rose in life to become a well-respected oba in Osun State.

At 5.50pm on 6 August, 1962, Chief Obafemi Awolowo left his place for the residence of the Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, for a 6pm appointment. It was at the height of the political crisis of the early 1960s. Awo arrived at Balewa’s 8 Lodge on the dot and wasted no time opening their discussion. He asked Balewa: “Are you sure in your mind that this crisis will end well for all of us and for Nigeria?” Chief Awolowo said “Balewa replied in a low, solemn voice that he was sure it would not end well…” (See Awolowo’s ‘Adventures in Power’, Book Two, page 249). And, did it end well? There is no point answering that question. We all know how it ended. Today, there is a new fire on the mountain. Things are bad; very bad. Paris-born Nigerian singer, Bukola Elemide (Asa) sings: “There is fire on the mountain/ And nobody seems to be on the run…” The first time we heard a cry of fire and fear in our politics was in the Western House of Assembly in 1962. Since then, the mountain of Nigeria has been badly scarred by political bush-burners. A fresh blaze is balding the skull of the poor today and the consequences cannot be imagined.

FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Nigeria Vs South Africa: Beyond Football

There are consequences for everything anyone does or does not do. Even the words that I use here will have consequences. Ethnic and business ‘friends’ of the president will abuse me like they’ve always done to poets who refuse to do palace clowning. They forget that I am a child of the farm; I walk the furrows, not the ridge. I am beyond their shot. Authored by researchers Iain McLean and Jennifer Nou, a piece appeared in the October 2006 edition of the British Journal of Political Science. And the title? ‘Why should we be beggars with the ballot in our hand?’ That is the question we dare not ask here without them saying we should bring our heads. They say the president is our brother who cannot do wrong. They forget that we were not taught in Yoruba land to merely chase away the fox and pamper the cocky bumbling hen. We were taught to give justice to fox and then to hen – one after the other. How is keeping quiet when the ‘war’ is all around us going to help “our brother”?

The hunger that is in town today is more serious than the hunger that made Sango burn down a whole town. Yet, our leader appears not worried. He is not scared. It is business as usual. Why are we not fearing the consequences of our misbehaviour? A journalist recalled that sometime in 1965, Prime Minister Balewa was at the airport in Ikeja and was asked what he was doing to quench the fire in the Western Region. The big man looked around and declared that “Ikeja is part of the West, I can’t see any fire burning.” Truly, he was kept busy with positive assurances by flightless birds around him. He lived in denial, or in self-deception, he ignored the firestorm. The fire he refused to see grew uncontrollably wild; it became a blaze so much that when the cock crowed at dawn on January 15, 1966, it was too late for the head of the Nigerian government to save even himself.

There were protests in parts of the country last week by hungry Nigerians. But President Bola Tinubu’s trusted people said the protests were unreal; they said the president’s policies are good and popular with the people. They are telling the president that the hungry are not very hungry. They said it was the opposition playing politics, inciting the poor against the state. I saw Lagbaja, the mystery musician, from a distance at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, on Friday. I tried unsuccessfully to reach him and get him to sing: ‘Mo sorry fun gbogbo yin’ to those telling the naked president that his garment is beautiful. The ‘sorry’ is more for Tinubu. He is the one chosen and crowned to rule; and he is the one whose tenure is being measured by mass suffering, mass hunger, mass kidnapping. He is the one being scaffolded from the ugliness of the street. Tinubu is an elder. Should it be difficult for him to know the next line of action when a load is too heavy for the ground to carry and is too heavy for the rafters? We say in Yoruba land that when the going gets tough and life faces you, shoot at it; if it backs you, shoot it. When you are alone, reconsider your stand.

FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Abuja And The Two Nigerias

Did President Tinubu read Segun Adeniyi of Thisday last week? The columnist asked him to go and watch again the Yoruba mainframe play, Saworoide. If you are not Yoruba, look for the plot summary of that play, it should be online. Read it. It should tell what the warning is all about. They are all prophets – the warners. Did the president read Abimbola Adelakun of The Punch last Thursday? She warned that “things are getting out of hand.” Did Tinubu read Tunde Odesola of the same newspaper the following day? He wrote that in Tinubu’s Nigeria, “the poor can’t inhale, the rich can’t exhale.” Farooq Kperogi of Saturday Tribune has written twice (last week and the week before) on hunger and anger in the land. He warned Tinubu two days ago not to see himself as Buhari who misruled big time but escaped the whips of consequences. Festus Adedayo yesterday in the Sunday Tribune likened today’s Nigeria to ravaged Ijaiye, a defeated community of hopelessness. I, particularly, find very apt Adedayo’s reading of today’s suffering as Kurunmi’s war-ravaged Ijaiye of 1860/61. In 2024 Nigeria, respectable people beg to eat; mothers sell one child to feed another. It is tragic. Bola Bolawole’s offering drew from French and Russian histories of social and political tragedy. I do not know what Suyi Ayodele of the Nigerian Tribune is cooking for tomorrow, Tuesday. I will be surprised if Tinubu’s ‘friends’ have not reported these warners to him as his enemies. That is how we are being governed.

The naira is ruined, the kitchen is on fire. We thought the regime of Muhammadu Buhari was the last leg of Nigeria’s relay race of tragedy. Now, it is clear he was actually the first leg in a race that won’t end soon. Tinubu took the baton from his game-mate and said his wand is made of hope in renewed bottles. His first eight months have proved that it is not true that the child does not die at the hands of the circumciser. This is better said in Yoruba – àsé iró ni wípé omo kìí kú lówó oní’kolà! This one is dying – or is dead. Before the president’s very eyes, the country has become a vast camp for stranded people; a nation of displaced people who live on food rations. The people now ask who is going to be their helper. Legendary Ilorin musician, Odolaye Aremu, at a moment of anomie as this, lamented that the one we said we should run to for safety is urging us to run even far away from where he is (eni tí a ní k’á lo sá bá, ó tún ní k’á máa sá lo).

Cluelessness is a physician treating leprosy with drugs made for eczema. Who told the president that opening the federal silos is the solution to a bag of rice selling for N70,000? It was N7,000 nine years ago. The protesting people from the north and in the south are not saying there is no food in the market. There is no scarcity of foodstuffs. It is not a demand and supply problem. There is food in the market, but the food in the market is priced beyond the earnings of the people. That is the issue, the problem, and it cannot be solved with handouts from grain reserves. It can only be solved with a magic that will shrink the price of foodstuffs to a size within the financial capacity of the poor.

FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Ibadan Blast, Makinde And Federalism

Some say it is age that ails Tinubu making him unfelt in this season of pain. But, he won’t be the first old man to be king. There was a prince in Ofa who owned neither calabash nor plate (kò ní’gbá, kò l’áwo). But he had a large piece of cloth as his only item of value. He did not use it; it was too unuseful to the poor old man who would rather lend it for a fee to others for use on their special outings. The man’s condition remained critical, his poverty unremitting. He prepared himself and went to an elder for consultation. He sought counsel on what he could do so that he might gain importance. He was told to give up the large piece of cloth, sit back and watch. He did as he was told and soon after that sacrifice, the king of Ofa died and the people of Ofa made the poor old man king. They said among themselves that “this one will not be long before he dies and another will take his place.” But the old man became king and refused to die. Instead of dying, he became increasingly robust, younger and stronger. Life and living in Ofa became good and pleasant as well. The poor became prosperous and the rich richer. The people of Ofa fell in love with their king; they no longer wanted him to die. He reigned long and well. At the end of his journey, the departing king was satisfied that he had good tidings to take to his alásekù – those who reigned without destroying the crown, the ones who passed the stool to him for him to pass to others. This Ofa story belongs in the grove of the wise; it is deeper than I have told it. Its code is with the elders.

All who are favoured are counselled to take it easy with life. They should cast away the garment of greed, of hubris and of lust for the self. If they care, they can take counsel from these lines from the ancestral scroll: “Do not run the world in haste. Let us not hold on to the rope of wealth impatiently. What should be treated with mature judgment should not be treated in a fit of temper. Whenever we arrive at a cool place, let us rest sufficiently well and give prolonged attention to the future; let us give due regard to the consequences of things. We should do all these because of the day of our sleeping, our end (Má fi wàrà wàrà s’ayé, K’á má fi wàrà wàrà rò m’ókùn orò. Ohun a bâ fi s’àgbà, K’á má fi sè’bínú. Bí a bá dé’bi t’ó tútù, K’á simi simi, K’á wo’wájú ojó lo títí; K’á tún bò wá r’èhìn òràn wò; Nítorí àtisùn ara eni ni).

Tinubu’s salvation lies with his orí inú- his inner head. That is the priest he should consult. It is what he should go and ask for the way. His reign is painful.

News

JUST IN: FG Moves To Review Mining License Rates

Published

2 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Editor

The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, has announced plans to review rates of mining licenses and other sundry fees payable by mining operators in the country.

Speaking during a consultative meeting with stakeholders in the mining industry on Thursday in Abuja, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, stressed that the review has become inevitable if government is to effectively fulfil its obligations of providing an enabling environment for mining operations whilst also raising more revenue for government.

He added that the plan would also boost the capacity of government to effectively reposition the mining sector and solicited the support of stakeholders for the impending increase in fees for mining licenses and other sundry fees.

Highlighting efforts to reposition the mining industry, the Minister revealed that asides from on-going reforms, the administration is sanitising the mining environment through the newly unveiled mining marshals, which he affirmed has been conducting operations in parts of the country to protect legitimate miners and combat illegal mining.

The minister in a statement signed by his special assistant on media, Segun Tomori said, “For us to continue to ensure that we secure the mining environment and keep putting in place measures that will ease the operational difficulties and challenges that confront miners, we need to review the rates of mining licenses and other sundry fees.

“We felt that we can’t just do this without letting you know because invariably, you are the players in the industry.”

Concerning the recent revocation of dormant mining licenses, the Minister noted that the government followed due process and extant laws guiding the action, emphasising that a 30-day restitution window still exists for operators that were affected.

It will be recalled that the Minister announced a restitution fee of N10m, 7.5m, 5m and 2.5m for Mining Leases, Small Scale Mining Licenses, Exploration License and Quarrying License respectively for revoked dormant licenses including those earlier revoked for default in payment of annual service fees.

In his submission, the Director-General of the Mining Cadastral Office, Engr. Obadiah Nkom, who also chair the fees review committee, stated that the committee recommended new rates that are affordable and will enhance the competitiveness of the fiscal regime of the mining sector in comparison with regional and global standards.

Speaking on behalf of the stakeholders, the President of the Miners Association of Nigeria, Dele Ayanleke commended the Minister for his efforts to put the mining sector on global frontburner, expressing support for ongoing reforms and plans to review fees payable by operators.

He urged the minister to consider challenges faced by miners and ensure the rates are affordable.

Other stakeholders in attendance include Representatives of Women In Mining, Gemstone Miners Association and top officials of the ministry.

News

EFCC Chairman Narrates How 17-year-old Hacked His Computer, Bank Account

Published

5 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Editor

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, narrated an incident where a 17-year-old successfully hacked into his personal computer and bank account while being interrogated at his office in Lagos.

The anti-graft agency chairman made this known in a chat with editors at the EFCC Headquarters, Jabi, Abuja, last Tuesday.

Olukoyede recounted inviting the 17-year-old for questioning at his own office, only to witness the young hacker effortlessly bypass the security measures of his locked computer right before his eyes.

He said, “I brought into my Lagos office a seventeen-year-old boy who is studying History and Anthropology. He is in the 200 level. He is not doing anything science-related. The guy sat in my office in Lagos and demonstrated some things to me on my laptop.

“He asked for my number, I gave him my number and through my number, he got my BVN. He then mentioned the name of my account number to me at the bank. I didn’t tell him anything.”

According to him, the country must take all necessary measures to discourage these young individuals, as their actions could lead to imprisonment or even fatal consequences.

“The problem is, I see crime in that, and I also see opportunities in it. So, if you leave these guys, we don’t make them know that what they are doing is wrong, if you leave them, they will continue to see it as a way of life to make money.”

He mentioned that due to their young ages, the EFCC would administer light sentences to punish youths for the cybercrimes they committed, while also focusing on helping them change their orientation.

“We plead for light sentences so that we can reorientate them and that’s part of what we’re doing. What joy will I derive from sending a 17-year-old boy to jail? You have destroyed his future. You have destroyed his career.

“Sometimes they give them options of fines and all of that conviction, so we bring them in, lecture them and talk to them.”

In a bold demonstration of his skills, the boy confidently informed Olukoyede that he could transfer up to 10 million naira from any account in a single transaction.

He said the 17-year-old boy, when he was done, said, “Look, oga, I can make 10 million now. I will demonstrate it to you. I will move money from your account to mine.

“I said no, don’t do that in my office and he was ready to do that. When he opened my laptop, I didn’t give him the key to my laptop and he had access.

“When questioned about his involvement in cybercrime, the boy explained that his parents, who are both farmers, were unable to work on their farm due to security concerns.

“He has two younger ones. One is in JSS2 and the other is in SSS2. He is the one feeding his parents and responsible for the payment of tuition for his younger ones.

“I saw a Bill Gates in that guy.”

Olukoyede, however, assured the boy that he would take responsibility for his schooling if he was able to stop the criminal act.

“I told my family, we are going to do that.

“I spoke to one of my friends who is also ready to help take up the schooling of the SSS 2 guy. So I’m still looking for someone who will take up the one for the JSS 2 sibling.”

This is not the first time the EFCC chairman has revealed the anti-graft agency’s plan to rehabilitate convicted internet fraudsters with reduced sentences.

Addressing a delegation of the National Association of University Students in March 2024, he said “when you think deeply, that tag ‘ex-convict’ is not a good thing. You can never tell where you will find yourself tomorrow, and they will want to profile you and discover that you are an ex-convict.”

“So, it is even in the interest of the youth that the EFCC is doing what it is doing to prevent them from indulging in the heinous act of cybercrime.”

News

Uganda President, Museveni Blasts Western Countries, Says ‘You Fund Seminars But Won’t Aid Manufacturing In Africa

Published

5 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Editor

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni delivers a speech at the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) summit for African Heads of State, held earlier this week in Nairobi, Kenya

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda took a bold swipe at world leaders during his speech at the World Bank’s International Development Association summit for African Heads of state, held in Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday.

In his remarks, Museveni opined that most of Africa’s problems predicted over 60 years ago were a result of philosophical, ideological, and strategic economic mistakes.

He alleged that a fundamental African problem is that aid from the World Bank and other Western bodies was majorly for profiteering.

“The crisis which is in Africa today is because of philosophical, ideological, and strategic economic mistakes which we have been talking about since the 1960s. It is not an accident when you see the crisis in many African countries, the collapse of States. We predicted this in the 1960s – philosophical, ideological, and strategic mistakes. I don’t have time to amplify each one but I was very happy to hear the president of the World Bank talking about prosperity instead of profiteering.

“Aid has been for profiteering, this has been the problem. Now, the World Bank people and other groups have been talking about sustainable development. Even in your documents, I have seen those words there, sustainable development”, Museveni stated.

He argued that what Africa needed to thrive as a continent was not sustainable development as always suggested by the World Bank, and other key players in economic development, but social and economic transformation.

He urged the World Bank and world leaders to quit pushing sustainable development as a key factor in achieving a more developed African continent.

“I would ask you to change those words in your documents. Africa does not need what you could call sustainable development. Africa needs social and economic transformation. The main reason why there’s no growth is because the growth factors are not funded, they are not even understood. What are the growth factors, we now talk of private sector growth. Yes, but for the private sector to grow what does it need? It needs a low cost of production”, he said.

In his opinion, the main reason Africa remains underdeveloped is because the growth factors are not funded and they are not understood by the Western world.

He added that for Africa to be more developed and independent, the private sector needs funding. According to him, adequate funding for the transportation, power and agricultural sectors will boost low production costs.

“Ministers of finance, what are the low costs of production? Number one is transport. You must have low transport costs. Where do low transport costs come from? The railway? If you don’t fund the railway how will you get low transport costs?

“Wonderful people, IMF, where will low-cost operations come from if you don’t have a railway? If you don’t fund the railway, how would you get low transport costs? I have been here for the last 64 years, I have been watching as a student leader, as a freedom fighter and now as the leader of a country. How many railways have been constructed or funded in Africa? The few that have been was by China, the Tanzanian railway to Zambia, and recently, another one here in Kenya. Tanzania on their own is building a railway line. So if you’re talking of developing Africa, fund the railway. If you fund the railway, you will have a low cost of transport and you can produce cheap products which can be bought all over the world.

“The second cost pusher is electricity. If you don’t fund electricity and you talk about sustainable development, what are you then talking about? We must have low-cost electricity not exceeding 5 cents per kilowatts, per hour. That is what I insist on in Uganda. I am tired of all these stories, I have put my foot down saying I don’t want to hear those stories. Uganda is a developing country and it will continue to develop because I don’t entertain nonsense anymore.”

Speaking further, Museveni who has ruled Uganda for over 40 years accused the World Bank and Western leaders of refusing to lend him money for capital projects such as the establishment of the Uganda Development Bank.

He lamented the rate at which loans are promptly approved and grated for frivolities but not for serious projects that would yield economic gains.

He said, “Borrowing, for what? Capacity building! Imagine! They call you to a hotel where you eat Chapati and mandazi, and they say that is capacity building. Capacity building should be on the ground and not just in seminars. So, the second point your Excellencies is electricity. The third one; is for those people who talk about private sector growth, I have been trying to borrow money for our Uganda Development Bank, a bank which funds manufacturers, but no, I don’t get support for that.

“They say they want my people to go to commercial banks. Those commercial banks are to encourage import because the only person who can borrow money from a commercial bank and pay it back is a trader who goes to China, Dubai buys goods, sells them quickly and pays the loan back. So, if you are serious, I need it here, about the low-cost funding for manufacturing, not stories.”

“How about funding for irrigation? Because if you want to stabilise agriculture, a country like Uganda is very rich, we have got everything. But sometimes, we have some erraticness because of the rains. So, to stabilise irrigation I’ve been trying to look for a loan for irrigation but I can’t easily get it, it is very difficult to get. But a loan for seminars is very quick.”

PUNCH