The House of Representatives Committee on Police Institutions today, Wednesday, November 20th 2024 visited the Police Service Commission to interact with the Management of the Commission to understand the challenges and see how it can Intervene to put the Commission in proper shape to render its oversight responsibilities on the Police.
The leader of the delegation and Chairman of the House Committee on Police Institutions, Hon. Barr. Aliyu Wakili Boya said civilian oversight of the Police “is an indispensable mechanism for promoting transparency accountability and Public trust in law enforcement Institutions. In view of this, he declared that there was need to strengthen the Commission’s ability and authority. He told the Commission’s management that in order to function effectively, there is need to provide adequate budgetary provisions, legal backing and operational independence for the Commission.
The Committee Chairman said he is aware of the financial challenges the Commission is facing and said he has discussed it with his colleague in the Appropriation Committee.Hon Boyo commended the Commission Chairman for the innovative programmes he introduced since his assumption of duty, stressing that the “Arena of Knowledge” lecture series was a demonstration of his commitment to improved staff knowledge, productivity and efficiency towards service delivery.He also commended the Chairman for his astute leadership, prudent management of resources and forthrightness in repositioning the Commission.The Chairman of the Commission, DIG Hashimu Argungu rtd mni, who received the visiting delegation at the Corporate Headquarters of the Commission expressed his happiness at the decision of the Committee to visit the Commission.
DIG Argungu noted that the visit was timely and remarkable and appealed for the support of the Committee in ensuring adequate budgetary provision for the Commission. The PSC Chairman said the constitutional responsibilities 9f the Commission has suffered due to financial incapacitation.He assured the Committee of the Preparedness of the Commission to improve the services of the Nigeria Police Force through credible and efficient oversight.DIG Argungu said the new leadership of the Commission has zero tolerance for Corruption and has launched the whistle blowing Policy stressing that these programmes would remain the benchmark for its oversight of the Police.DIG Taiwo Lekanu, Honourable Commissioner in the Commission and Chief Onyemuche Nnamani Secretary to the Commission were in the Chairman’s team that received the visiting delegation.
As today marks the first anniversary of Mr. Olalekan Bakare-Oki’s appointment as the General Manager of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), the Agency through the spokesman , Adebayo Taofiq said over the past one year, Mr. Bakare-Oki has demonstrated exemplary leadership, unwavering dedication, and a forward-thinking approach to addressing the intricate challenges of traffic management in Lagos State.Taofiq disclosed that under his astute guidance, LASTMA has attained significant milestones that have transformed traffic operations, enhanced road safety, and solidified the agency’s pivotal role in the socio-economic development of Lagos State. Some of these accomplishments according to Taofiq, include,Traffic Flow Optimization:Through strategic leadership, Mr. Bakare-Oki introduced advanced traffic management techniques, incorporating cutting-edge technology and data analytics to alleviate congestion along critical road corridors.
His efforts have resulted in the deployment of intelligent traffic control systems, dramatically reducing gridlock in key areas of the metropolis.Enhanced Operational Efficiency:Recognizing the centrality of a well-trained workforce, he initiated extensive capacity-building programs for LASTMA personnel, equipping them with contemporary traffic management skills while fostering a culture of professionalism, integrity, and efficiency.Public Engagement and Awareness:With a focus on road safety and compliance, Mr. Bakare-Oki championed comprehensive public sensitization campaigns aimed at educating motorists and pedestrians. These initiatives have led to a significant decline in traffic infractions and road accidents across Lagos State.Integration of Technology:His administration embraced technological innovations to streamline operations, including the introduction of mobile applications for real-time traffic updates and incident reporting.
Additionally, the establishment of real-time monitoring systems has bolstered LASTMA’s capacity for rapid response and proactive management.Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement:Under his leadership, LASTMA has cultivated deeper collaborations with transport unions, private sector stakeholders, and community leaders. This collective approach has fostered shared responsibility in addressing traffic challenges and improving the urban commuting experience.Infrastructure Improvements:Mr. Bakare-Oki has overseen the refurbishment and modernization of LASTMA facilities, creating an enabling environment that enhances the productivity of officers and ensures better service delivery to Lagosians.Launch of the LASTMA Toll-Free Call Centre:In a bid to bring traffic management closer to the public, Mr. Bakare-Oki inaugurated LASTMA’s first-ever Toll-Free Call Centre (080000527862), providing an accessible platform for reporting traffic issues and seeking assistance. Strengthening of Research and Statistics:To ensure accurate data collation for both local and international reference, the agency’s Research and Statistics Department was upgraded and equipped to function at an optimal level.”As we commemorate this landmark anniversary, we celebrate Mr. Olalekan Bakare-Oki’s unwavering dedication to excellence and the remarkable progress achieved under his stewardship.
His visionary leadership has not only elevated LASTMA’s operations but has also cemented the agency’s status as a benchmark for effective traffic management across Nigeria””Looking ahead, we are confident that LASTMA, under Mr. Bakare-Oki’s continued leadership, will achieve even greater milestones and further contribute to the transformation of Lagos into a world-class megacity” Taofiq
Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Brig Gen Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) has charged the Nigerian elites to key into the whole-of-society strategy by the NDLEA to curb the scourge of substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking in the country. Marwa gave the charge in his keynote speech at the Island Club Business Forum in Lagos on Tuesday 19th November 2024. According to him, “This is not a challenge for government alone. All of us are stakeholders on this issue and it is an assignment for all Nigerians. The standard whole-of-society approach to the drug issue is such that everyone is a stakeholder. The future of Nigeria belongs to us all. “As we are doing our bit at NDLEA, we expect society to complement our efforts by taking a huge role in preventing the young ones from falling into situations that encourage experimentation with drugs, whether licit or illicit. Every one of us has a role to play, and the simplest role is one of advocacy. By spreading the message, we can all become anti-drug abuse advocates. Spreading the word about the dangers of misuse of drugs can go a long way in shielding more lives from the ruins of illicit drugs. The Island Club can also join in this effort to safeguard the wellbeing of our society from the drug menace.” He told the gathering of business leaders, students and parents that since the retooling of NDLEA three years ago after he assumed leadership, the Agency has ramped up its drug demand reduction and drug supply reduction efforts leading to significant results, adding that the call for everyone to support the ongoing effort has become imperative because of the forecast by UNODC in 2021 World Drug Report that drug use in Africa will rise by 40% in Year 2030 especially among those within 25-29 and 30-34 age groups as a result of population growth. “By and large, the outlook of the future will depend on our action or inaction at curbing the drug abuse trend. I, being an optimist, believe the future favours Nigeria―only if we get the matrix right. A lot has been said about the future belonging to Africa. Indeed, the potential is glaring, when you factor in the continent’s burgeoning youth population, the digital aptitude of the younger generation and the enterprising spirit of young people. “But a lot of work has to go into the making of that vision. If we read the statistics correctly, the world’s biggest drug problem of the future could be in Africa. So, the future could be bright or bleak; it could be one of boom or gloom; it could be decades of prosperity or problems depending on the amount of work we are willing to do today. Tomorrow, the saying goes, belongs to the people who prepare for it today”, he stated. He said the enormity of the problem is further reflected by the anti-drug activities of the NDLEA in the past three years. “In just three years, we have arrested 52, 901 traffickers, including 52 barons, and 9, 034 have been convicted. The barons we have arrested are not anonymous people in society. They include big business people and socialites—some of them have chieftaincy titles—and also government officials, including those tasked with maintaining law and order. That tells how deeply the rot had eaten into the fabric of our society. Within the period, we have seized 8.6 million kilograms of assorted illicit drugs and destroyed 1,572 hectares of cannabis farms”, the NDLEA boss added. Other invited guests who spoke on the menace of drug abuse at the forum include: Prof Harry Ladapo, a consultant psychiatrist and Prof Lere Baale, President, Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy. In his welcome remarks, Chairman of the Island Club, Omoba Rotimi Olasode Martins acknowledged Marwa’s unwavering commitment to combating drug abuse adding that “his wealth of experience in tackling this scourge inspire us all.”
YHe described “drug abuse as a menace that has infiltrated every layer of our society, threatening our youth, destabilizing families, and undermining the socio-economic fabric of our nation.” “Today, we are gathered not only to discuss its devastating impact but, more importantly, to explore practical, sustainable solutions to this epidemic. This event exemplifies what Island Club has stood for since its inception – a hub for meaningful discourse, community engagement, and solutions-driven dialogue.
“As we embark on this journey today, let us remember that the fight against drug abuse is not just about enforcement or legislation, it is about building a society that offers hope, opportunities, and support to its citizens. Together, we can create a Nigeria where our young people can thrive, free from the shadows of addiction”, he added.
He reincarnated in the form of a cream coloured, two-storey building in the bosom of the boulder-braided, writers’ commune, in the rocky delight of Abuja’s Mpape district. His happy host, like him an erstwhile member of the tribe of wordmongers was despatched over a phantom putsch one decade before him. But he rolled out a carpet of dry laterite with the steady onset of northerly harmattan, to receive his new guest and kindred spirit. The air was sedate, the biosphere alluring and serene as his name echoed from the signage hoisted in front of the structure. This, henceforth, will be the haven of scribblers from across the globe desiring genuine solitude to commune with their muses in the very intricate venture of creative expression. Not too many of the young writers who enthusiastically witnessed the recent commissioning of the Ken Saro-Wiwa International Writers Residency in Abuja, however, knew enough about the martyr who was so canonised, nor the nexus between Ken Saro-Wiwa and his figurative “host,” Mamman Jiya Vatsa.
As part of the activities commemorating the 43rd International Convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (ANA), which held between Thursday October 31 and Saturday November 2, 2024, a newly built edifice christened after Saro-Wiwa, was scheduled for inauguration. Ken Saro-Wiwa remains one of Nigeria’s most multitasking and most productive writers of all time. He lived for only 54 years but left behind an authorial legacy which continues to challenge the prolificity of successor writers. Saro-Wiwa was a compelling novelist, an engaging essayist, a consummate poet, an arresting dramatist, and a fearless public scholar.
Regarded as Africa’s very first purpose-built writers village, the expansive hilltop project in Mpape, Abuja, was named after Vatsa, an army General who was a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), under the regime of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. Less than seven months into the Babangida milieu in March 5, 1986, Vatsa was executed by firing squad for alleged “treason associated with an abortive coup.” He was 45 at the time. Importantly, Vatsa was a writer who reportedly published about 20 poetry anthologies, including: Verses for Nigerian State Capitals, (1972); Back Again at Wargate, (1982); Reach for the Skies, (1984), and Tori for Geti Bow leg and other Pidgin Poems, (1985). Vatsa as FCT helmsman, it was, who allocated the generous swathes of hitherto pristine land with scenic views upon which the writers village is sited today. The complex is deservedly named after him in eternal gratitude by the writers fraternity.
Ken Saro-Wiwa was the fourth President of ANA. He succeeded the renowned dramatist and Emeritus Professor of theatre arts, Femi Osofisan, in 1990, and was a very energetic personality, famous for the tobacco pipe which was permanently seated on his lip, drawing parity with that of Ousmane Sembene, the famous Senegalese frontline African novelist and filmmaker. Saro-Wiwa had a multitasking career which saw him as a university lecturer in his earlier years; an administrator and public servant, and an environmental activist, at various times. He was leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, (MOSOP), which prosecuted a nonviolent campaign for the protection of Ogoni land and water resources from devastation by oil multinationals.
He backed up this enterprise with regular interventions in the public space as a writer and columnist for a number of authoritative newspapers. He consistently drew attention to the despoliation of the natural resources of his people and wrote regularly for Vanguard and Sunday Times, among other publications. He was a regular, long-staying guest of the gulags of successive military governments, through the administrations of Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha. In 1994, he was arrested and charged with instigating the murders of four Ogoni leaders, May 4, 1994, on a day he was indeed barred from accessing Ogoniland. Saro-Wiwa and his eight “accomplices” were executed by hanging at the Port Harcourt prison where they were held and convicted, on November 10, 1995, exactly one month after his 54th birthday on October 10, 1995.
By some uncanny calendrical coincidence, the Ken Saro-Wiwa International Writers Residency, was inaugurated early November 2024, the very same month he was despatched 29 years ago in 1995. Global outrage trailed the killing of Saro-Wiwa and his compatriots, with the Commonwealth suspending Nigeria for three years, among other sanctions. The death of Sani Abacha in June 1998, the subsequent acceleration of processes which returned Nigeria to civilian rule by Abacha’s successor, Abdulsalami Abubakar, and the enthronement of the Fourth Republic in 1999, gradually tempered the world’s coldness towards Nigeria.
At least three dozen book titles are credited to Ken Saro-Wiwa’s name. These include novels, novellas, anthologies of poetry, plays for radio and television, memoirs and diaries, and so on. His works have received requisite some international attention such that they have been translated into German, Dutch and French. His authorial oeuvre includes: Tambari, (a novel, 1973); Tambari in Dukana, (a sequel to Tambari, 1986); A Bride for Mr B, (a novella, 1983), and Songs in a Time of War, (poetry, 1985). Ken Saro-Wiwa also wrote Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English, (1985); A Forest of Flowers, (1986, short stories); Prisoners of Jebs, (a novel, 1988) and Pita Dumbrok’s Prison, (1991), which like the former is very biting political satire.
On a Darkling Plain: An Account of the Nigerian Civil War, (memoirs, 1989), a war which he witnessed firsthand, is also one of his very gripping works of prose. Saro-Wiwa’s public engagements are aggregated in several volumes of essays notably Nigeria: The Brink of Disaster, (1991); Similia: Essays on Anomic Nigeria, (1991) and Genocide in Nigeria: The Ogoni Tragedy, (1992). Even in his final days, weeks and months of his sojourn on this side of the divide, Saro-Wiwa “remained incredibly productive.” Posthumously, his family, foreign concerns and nongovernmental organisations continued to call-up manuscripts from his personal library to publish new works by him. A personal diary he kept while he was in incarceration before his eventual annihilation was published with the title A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary, in 1995. Over 20 years after his demise, some of his essays were assembled as Silence would be Treason: Last Writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa, and published by Daraja Press in Ottawa, Canada, in 2018.
The Ken Saro-Wiwa International Writers Residency is one of the first major physical projects delivered by the leadership of Usman Oladipo Akanbi. Fortuitously, Akanbi’s deputy, Obari Gomba, winner of the 2023 NLNG Prize for Drama, is from Saro-Wiwa’s Ogoni country. He must have felt gratified by the honour done his countryman, whose trajectory he followed as a much younger writer. The eventual breaking of the ice, the decisive commencement of the physical development of the hitherto forlorn and controversial expansive hectarage of ANA property was consummated under the leadership of Denja Abdullahi in 2017. Obi Asika, Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, (NCAC), commissioned the Ken Saro-Wiwa International Writers Residency.
The ceremony was witnessed by an impressive array of writers, headlined by Emeritus Professors Osofisan and Olu Obafemi, both former Presidents of ANA, as well as Nuhu Yaqub, OFR. Yaqub holds the distinction of being the only Nigerian scholar thus far to have served as Vice Chancellor in two federal universities, those of Abuja and Sokoto. Other literary greats at the event and the main Convention included: Professors Shamshudeen Amali, OFR, former Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin; Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo; May Ifeoma Nwoye and Sunnie Ododo, all Fellows of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, (FNAL) and the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA).
There were also Professors Joe Ushie, a Member of ANA Board of Trustees; Emeka Aniagolu; Udenta Udenta; Maria Ajima; Al Bishak; Mabel Evwierhoma; Razinat Mohammed; Vicky Sylvester Molemodile and Mahfouz Adedimeji. Immediate past ANA President, Camillus Ukah, Emeritus diplomat and writer Ambassador Albert Omotayo, featured at the Convention. Canada-based writer, scholar and Professor, Nduka Otiono who served as General Secretary of the association under the leadership of Olu Obafemi, was admitted into the College of Fellows of the body. Chairman of the Abuja Chapter of ANA, Arc Chukwudi Eze, was the resident host with compelling responsibility to stay through all events.
Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja
The Police Service Commission today, Tuesday, November 19th, 2024, appointed AIG Ari Mohammed Ali Deputy Inspector General of Police to replace DIG Ade Ayuba who has retired from service. Ali was until today the AIG incharge of Zone one, Kano and hails from Nasarawa state in the North Central region of the country.
He is assuming duties to represent the region from where the retired DIG Ayuba also hails from.
PSC Chairman, DIG Hashimu Argungu rtd mni, who presided over the emergency Management Meeting of the Commission called for professionalism and zero tolerance for Corruption from the new DIG.
DIG Argungu said the Commission will encourage the new DIG to fall in line with the Commission’s vision for a Police Force that is professional and accountable to the Nigerian people. He said the new PSC is building a new Police that will be a pride of the Nigeria people, free of corruption but full of vigor and determination to serve.
He noted that the Commission will continue to partner with the Police to ensure that it succeeds in its primary duty of protecting lives and property and dismantling crime and criminality.
He congratulated DIG Ari Mohammed Ali and charged him to go and give his best in the service of his fatherland.
Spokesman Ikechukwuu Ani, disclosed that DIG Taiwo Lakanu rtd, fdc, Honourable Commissioner and Chief Onyemuche Nnamani, Secretary to the Commission also took time to congratulate the new DIG and assured him of the Commission’s support.
Seasons of politicking have always excited me through the ages. They come with multidimensional appeal and inspiration for both the creative writer and the recorder of history in motion, the journalist. They are characterised by sights and sounds, specific to the season. They throw up slogans and soundbites, rhymes and rhythms, frills and thrills, which ring and re-echo in our consciousness beyond the period. Can I for instance ever forget a 2011 incident during which my SUV, an Infinity QX 56 was transported by a wooden ferry across the River Niger from Lokoja the Kogi State capital to Gboloko in Bassa local government area in Kogi State? It was during the off-cycle election which produced the Emeritus aviator, Idris Wada, as governor of Kogi State. My heart was effectively in my mouth for the duration of that trip. I opted to return to the Kogi State capital through a longer land route, rather than repeat that experiment.
Campaigns could turn boisterous and carnivalesque, generating a tapestry of tongues, a cacophony of colours, in the frenzied ambience of festivity. Afrobeats which has hoisted Nigerian music unto the global spotlight, has become sine qua non on Nigeria’s political trail. This is the trend in the liberal north central and global south of Nigeria, typically enlivening open air campaigns and concurrent roadshows. Most unfortunately, the “do or die” desperation which has blighted contemporary electioneering in parts, has impacted the characteristic blitz and glitz of electioneering in instances. My involvement in quite a few such exercises over several decades, at various levels, has privileged me with “seven-figure gigabytes” of on-field experience such that one can speak about these issues from an informed perspective.
Nigeria’s political discourse was noticeably enriched with new rhetoric in the run-up to the 2023 presidential polls. Incumbent President Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and a former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, were the flagbearers of the three foremost political parties. These were the All Progressives Congress, (APC); the Peoples Democratic Party, ( PDP) and the Labour Party, (LP). Tinubu encountered storms and tempests, en route securing the prized ticket. There was obvious conspiracy to deny him the ticket with over a dozen aspirants contesting against him for the flag, many candidate riding on the phantom endorsement of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
In obvious allusion to the overt plots against him at the time, an exasperated Tinubu told a crowd of supporters in Ogun State, that it was his turn to be President. He captured this in Yoruba as emi lokan. Tinubu has been largely credited with the coronation of Buhari as President in 2015. The “gentlemanly” agreement between both parties was that Buhari will reciprocate the good turn, come 2023. The expression emi lokan spontaneously became an Afrobeat song. The National Association of Seadogs, (NAS), better known as the Pyrates Confraternity, made the expression into a song which was further discofied by the Afrobeat artist, Dede Mabiaku. Trust Nigerians to make capital of almost anything and everything. Before that, there was Tinubu’s slip when he advocated the recruitment of “50 million youths” to fight ravaging insurgency and banditry across the land. They would be fed with garri, ewa, agbado, (cassava grains, beans and maize), was his prescription at the time.
Not too long after the “Abeokuta Declaration,” Tinubu at an event in Owerri in the South East as part of his campaigns, trailed off his script. He spoke about a townhall different from balablu blublu bulaba, which was not captured in his prepared text. The expression caught like wildfire and assumed a life of its own. Skit makers spontaneously feasted on it and came up with ingenious, hilarious copies of versions, calculated to throw barbs in the direction of APC presidential frontman. The phrase was adopted in Nigeria’s ever evolving specie of the English language to describe anything bewildering, confusing, fuzzy, perplexing.
The frontline media aides to President Tinubu are very well established professionals. Bayo Onanuga, (Special Adviser, Information and Strategy); Tunde Rahman, (Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media), and more recently Sunday Dare, (Special Adviser, Public Communication and Orientation), come to their schedules with lorry loads of cognate newsroom experience at the highest levels. Onanuga and friends founded the irrepressible TheNews magazine and PM News, which gave the administration of General Sani Abacha a good run in the mid-1990s by the way. He went all the way to serve as Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN), under the Buhari government.
Rahman worked at different times in the Daily Times,The Punch and Thisday. He indeed floated a private enterprise, Western Post, which he conceived to fill the lacuna created by the liquidation of Daily Sketch, a quasi-rival to the Nigerian Tribune, in the once-upon-a-time Ibadan media space. I was a gratis contributing editor to the venture. Dare, who is multilingual having been raised in the north of Nigeria, once headed the Hausa service of the Voice of America, (VOA). He cut his professional teeth under Onanuga and the co-founders of TheNews magazine. Such is the quality of media specialists in this tripod, available to support President Tinubu.
In the aftermath of the appointment of Daniel Bwala as Special Adviser to the President on Public Communications and Media, a list of over one dozen appointees has been making the rounds. It features the names and designations of these many aides whose functions devolve around communicating the President and boosting his corporate profile. For the avoidance of doubt, with the exclusion of Onanuga, Rahman, Dare and Bwala, the list reads thus: Abdulaziz Abdulaziz (Senior Special Assistant to the President, Print Media); O’tega Ogra (Senior Special Assistant (Digital/New Media) and Tope Ajayi, Senior Special Assistant (Media and Public Affairs).
There are also Segun Dada (Special Assistant, Social Media); Nosa Asemota (Special Assistant, Visual Communication); Fela Durotoye (Senior Special Assistant to the President, National Values and Social Justice) and Fredrick Nwabufo (Senior Special Assistant to the President, Public Engagement). Also on the list are Linda Nwabuwa Akhigbe (Senior Special Assistant to the President, Strategic Communications) and Aliyu Audu (Special Assistant to the President, Public Affairs). The last time I checked, there still is a civil service component to the media office in the State House, who are restricted to drafting press releases to be signed by the bigger bosses, eternally relegating them to anonymity. The list above does not include the nation’s Number One “salesman,” the Minister for Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris Malagi. It also does not feature the media operatives in the wing of the Vice President, Kashim Shettima.
You go through this list and your mind exhumes scenes from the very engaging sitcom, Fuji House of Commotion, hitherto aired regularly on national television. At its very centre was Chief Fuji, very ably acted by the renowned thespian, Kunle Bamtefa. Chief Fuji was married to four wives, some from sociocultural backgrounds different from his. Children filled the home, generating sustained intra-family bedlam. Not forgetting members of the extended family as well as family friends who stopped by on visits, contributing to the subsisting confusion. It was sure to be inevitable cacophony every single day with such a family configuration.
This subsisting presidential apparachik for public communication is a potential babel, the way it is. It is indeed a subtle prescription for possible dysfunction especially if the appointees work at cross purposes. True, there is an attempt at streamlining specialties in the present order, with novel creations like “visual communication,” “digital/new media,” “strategic communication,” “national values and social justice,” among others. Truth, however, is that this skinning and shredding of the flesh of the overarching schedule of presidential communication is susceptible to being counter-productive. There are glaring titular duplications and inevitable overlaps which could be latently combustible. Have we forgotten the proverb about “too many cooks spoiling the broth?”
Back in May, I wrote an essay titled: Wanted: A State of Emergency on the Cost of Governance. Therein, I canvassed moderation in the open-ended spree of political appointments, and the freestyle expansion of ministries, departments and agencies, (MDAs). All of these overburden the aggregate cost of governance, with specific regards to emoluments and overheads, to the detriment of tangible investment in infrastructures and services to drive socio-economic development. This is even as the federal government once committed to the implementation of the decade old “Stephen Oronsaye Report on the Reorganisation of Agencies and Parastatals,” which is yet to be implemented. We cannot continue to canvas foreign aid and loans, while mortgaging the futures of our children, without rethinking our penchant for rabid, voluptuous consumptiveness. Not forgetting our penchant for living large, living grand, as we would have seen in one video post which trended weeks ago, highlighting the bourgeois arrival of Senate President Godswill Akpabio to a routine session of the national assembly.
And why wouldn’t the President trust the tested Onanuga – Rahman – Dare triumvirate to headline his media marketing? True, Onanuga can contribute equally meaningfully to Tinubu’s government elsewhere having been on the media beat for over four decades now. He could as well be cooling off in the padded ambience of an ambassadorial role. This, however, does not detract from his proven capacities and qualities. About time for the President to rethink and reconfigure his media and communications ecosystem, en route to repositioning his administration for less wastage, and more impactful service delivery to his primary constituents. Every new appointment exacerbates our subsisting nightmarish indebtedness to shylocks across the world, and further pauperises our people.
Tunde Olusunle, PhD, a Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja
Sixty eight political associates of former governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki have been granted an injunction against the Nigerian Police from being arrested over a petition submitted by the Acting State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) submitted in July this year pending the determination of the case. They included political appointees, local government area chairmen, aides and others.
The suit was marked B/266M/2024, with the of them as applicants and the Inspector General of Police,the Commissioner of Police, Edo State, Deputy Inspector Police (Force CID Abuja) and the Police Service Commission (PSC) as respondents. It was filed before the Edo State High Court,through their counsel, Olayiwola Afolabi SAN,who sought for an interim Injunction against their arrest. Granting their prayers,Justice A. T. Momodu ruled that “an order of interim injunction is hereby made restraining the respondents either by themselves,police officers in their department and/or any police officer acting under their instruction from inviting, arresting and detaining the applicants in any of respondents office, in respect of the petition written by the chairman of All Progressives Congress (Edo State) dated 18/07/2024 to the 1st respondent pending the hearing and determination of the originating Motion filed by the applicant’s in the enforcement of their fundamental human right.
“It is further ordered that the enrolled order of The order be served along with the originating motion on the respondents”he added.
According to the report from the Sun, the National President of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Alhaji Abdullahi Bello Bodejo expressed appreciation for President Tinubu’s recent establishment of the Ministry of Livestock Development, a long-awaited move that previous administrations, including that of a Fulani president, had failed to accomplish.
Bodejo emphasized that the creation of this ministry under a Yoruba president demonstrates Tinubu’s commitment to addressing the needs of the Fulani people.However, he also expressed reservations about the minister, Idi Mukhtar Maha, suggesting that he may not be effectively carrying out his responsibilities. Bodejo recounted an instance when he was invited to meet with the minister in Zone Four, raising questions about the transparency and accessibility of the minister’s office.According to Bello Bodejo, “If a Fulani man insults President Tinubu, I will ask the person, ‘our Fulani brother was the president before Tinubu, did he create this ministry for us?’ This is a Yoruba man and yet has given the Fulani what they have been yearning for.
I expect the minister, Idi Mukhtar Maha to do the right thing. Two days ago, I received a phone call from somebody asking me to come to Zone Four to meet with the minister. I don’t know the day the minister office was moved to Zone Four. So, I didn’t go.”
As NDLEA arrests masterminds at MMIA, Abuja hotel; foils bid to smuggle opioids into Lagos from Ghana
By Ebinum Samuel
Attempts by drug syndicates to export large consignments of cocaine, methamphetamine and opioids through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja Lagos and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja to the United Kingdom, Italy, Turkey and Qatar have been thwarted by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, who in series of intelligence led operations recovered the illicit drugs and arrested the masterminds. A total of 13 parcels of cocaine weighing 4.40kg cocaine going to the United Kingdom via Frankfurt on a Lufthansa Airlines flight were intercepted by NDLEA officers at the export shed of the Lagos airport on 5th November 2024 while a businessman linked to the consignment, Ekeocha Anayo Nelson, was tracked and arrested on 8th November.
The bid by another businessman, Adegbite Solomon (aka Obama) to export 7,800 pills of tramadol, 180 tablets of rohypnol, and 60 bottles of codeine to Italy was also foiled at the departure hall of the Lagos airport on Monday 11th November when NDLEA operatives arrested him after recovering the opioids concealed in food and other items while attempting to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Italy. He claimed to have travelled to Europe through the Mediterranean Sea and earned a living as a street beggar before delving into logistics business.
Also related is the arrest of another businessman, Anoke Kingsley Roomy with 1,100 pills of tramadol 225mg hidden in his luggage while attempting to board his Ethiopian Airlines flight going to Istanbul, Turkey at the terminal 1 of the Lagos airport on Friday 15th November. Following credible intelligence, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, DOGI, and their counterparts from the FCT Command of the Agency on Friday 15th November raided a hotel room at the Federal Housing Authority estate, Lugbe, Abuja, where they arrested two suspects: Omeh Uchenna Jude, 36, and Anene Valentine Chigozie, 34. Recovered from them was 1.8kg methamphetamine, which they were preparing to travel with to Qatar.
Another suspect, Akande Moruf Olasunkanmi, was arrested with 1.8kg methamphetamine by operatives of a Special Operations Unit in NDLEA at his 9 Durojaiye street, Lawanson area of Surulere, Lagos home after weeks of intelligence and surveillance. In another intelligence led operation, officers of an NDLEA task force on Saturday 16th November foiled the attempt by a trans-border trafficker, Emmanuel Okechukwu Okeke to smuggle 50,000 pills of tramadol 225mg from Ghana into Lagos. The pills were concealed in the body compartments of a Toyota Hummer Bus belonging to GUO Transport Company, driven by the suspect. The vehicle was intercepted at Ijanikin area of the Lagos-Badagry expressway while coming from Ghana.
In Edo state, not less than 997kg cannabis was recovered during raids in parts of the state. While 680kg cannabis and a Sienna bus marked FST-320 AE were seized at a bush path to Oghada forest in Oghada, Orhionmwan LGA, 180.5kg of same substance was recovered from a suspect, Cecilia Ibe, 31, at Ofosu forest, Ovia South West LGA and 136.5kg evacuated from a building in Otuo community, Owan East LGA on Thursday 14th November. A suspect, Ifejimagha Chinonso was on Wednesday 13th November nabbed with 88.3kg cannabis by NDLEA operatives on patrol along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway while personnel of Kano Command of the Agency on Friday 15th November arrested Ahmed Goni, 30, at Gadar Tamburawa, Kano- Zaria road where they recovered from him 65,730 capsules of tramadol. In Kwara state, NDLEA operatives arrested a suspect Adio Sulaiman with 120.8kg cannabis and some litres of codeine at Gaa Odota in Ilorin West LGA, while Kelechi Obichere, 42, was nabbed with 75kg cannabis at Eziobodo, Owerri West LGA, Imo state on Thursday 14th November. A total of 563.74 kilograms of same psychoactive substance were recovered from a 60-year-old suspect Anthony Anakabi, following his arrest at Iyalode, Iyana church area of Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
With the same vigour, Commands and formations of the Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitization activities to schools, worship centres, work places and communities among others in the past week. These include: WADA enlightenment lecture to students and staff of Government Day Secondary School, Bazza, Adamawa; Community Secondary School, Ogan-Ama, Rivers state; NKST Secondary School, Adikpo, Benue state; Government Secondary School, Tambuwal, Sokoto state; Government Girls Secondary School, Kunchi, Kano; Ebele Chu Group of Schools, Nkpor Onitsha, Anambra; and Army Cantonment Senior Boys High School, Ojo, Lagos state, among others.
While commending the officers and men of MMIA, DOGI, DI, Oyo, Lagos, Imo, Kwara, Kano, and Edo Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) stated that their operational successes and those of their compatriots across the country especially their balanced approach to drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts are well appreciated.
The Police Service Commission has expressed its satisfaction on the performance of the security personnel who policed the Ondo State Governorship election that held today in the state.The Commission staff Monitors report shows that the security men, especially the Police arrived voting centres on time and was alive to their constitutional responsibility of securing the election space. Commission Monitors said the Police Officers were polite, civil but firm in the conduct of their electoral duties. According to a statement signed by Ikechukwuu Ani, DIG Sylvester Abiodun Alabi, Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Force CID, and, who presided over the security management of the election ensured a seamless deployment of security personnel with Commissioners of Police manning all the Local Government Areas.
He was assisted by other senior Police Officers including the AIG Zone 7, AIG Benneth Igwe, the Ondo state Commissioner of Police, CP Abayomi Oladipo Peter and Olatunji Disu, CP, Federal Capital Territory. There were however reports of pockets of vote buying in some voting centres which has become a recurring decimal in elections in the country.PSC Monitors report that the election security was generally credible and above average and has received the commendation of the Civil Society Situation Room. CLEEN FOUNDATION, Member of the Situation Room has also commended the Commission for its proactive oversight of Police conduct during elections.
