The body of knowledge about the effects of diabetes on the heart has been growing in leaps and bounds since 1883 when the association between the two was first noticed. This association was first made by Vergely who recommended that the urine of those with angina pains (chest pain due to reduced blood flow to the heart) should be tested for glucose.

Diabetes is now one of the leading causes of death in the western world and is also fast catching up with infections as the commonest cause of death in developing climes like Nigeria. The majority of deaths due to heart disease in the person with diabetes have its roots in the condition called atherosclerosis – which is hardening of the arteries due to accumulation of cholesterol in the wall of the arteries with consequent reduction in the caliber of the artery and thus restriction of blood flow to vital body organs. Thus, aside from diabetes being a disorder of blood sugar control, it is also known to be a cardiovascular disorder – a disorder of the heart and blood vessels. About three out of every four persons with diabetes are known to die from this disorder.

This atherosclerosis is also known to occur in those without diabetes. The consequences of this hardening of the arteries are most lethal when the arteries that supply blood to the heart itself called the coronary arteries and those that carry blood to the brain called the carotid arteries are affected. This atherosclerosis is known to be more severe in those with diabetes,  thereby increasing the risk of development of a stroke and subsequent mortality due to disruption of blood supply to the brain manifold.

Death from this disease of the heart and blood vessels is higher in the male diabetic, the black diabetic, those with a long duration of diabetes and those on insulin. Life expectancy is thus shorter in the male diabetic by about nine years compared to the non diabetic male and shortened by about seven years in the diabetic female compared to the non diabetic female.

Those with Type 1 diabetes, at the fourth decade of life, irrespective of the age at which they developed the diabetes will have started to manifest symptoms and signs of coronary artery disease. These individuals will then have increased risk of dying as they approach their sixth decade of life. Concurrent kidney damage denoted by microalbuminuria – the earliest sign of kidney damage further increases the risk of death from coronary heart disease.

Individuals with Type 2 diabetes have a two- to fourfold risk of developing cardiovascular disease compared to those without diabetes. This risk is particularly higher in women especially those who have attained menopause.

Why do individuals with diabetes have such a high risk and what are the scientifically proven steps that are known to significantly reduce these risks?

The progressive reduction in the effectiveness of insulin produced by the body (referred to medically as insulin resistance) leads to high levels of insulin in the blood which is known to increase the rate of development of atherosclerosis. This high insulin level also leads to high blood pressure, increased tendency for the blood to clot (become solid and thereby block the arteries) and cholesterol abnormalities.

There is a direct relationship between blood glucose levels and the development of atherosclerosis; those with higher glucose levels thus have a higher risk. There is also a direct relationship between blood sugar levels and the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The more chronic the high blood sugar levels, the higher the risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease.

Another major risk for the development of atherosclerosis is disorders of cholesterol. This disorder includes elevated levels of what is referred to as bad cholesterol that is LDL-Cholesterol which is known to be responsible for the problems within the arteries and low levels of the good cholesterol that is HDL-Cholesterol which is known to counteract the effect of the bad cholesterol.

About two months ago, around March 20, the public was inundated with the news report that the Osun State government had commenced the distribution of its computer learning tablets tagged ‘Opon Imo’ to secondary school students. Photographs of some students of Ataoja School of Science, Osogbo, were shown and the deputy governor, who also doubles as commissioner for education confirmed that the ‘Opon Imo’ project had taken off.

One was, therefore, surprised to read last week that the ‘Opon Imo’ computer learning tablet was launched again at a hotel in Lagos. Why another launch? And why Lagos? As I pondered over these questions, the figure of N8.6billion, which the state also said it would be saving kept flashing at me. I then remembered that that figure appears to be growing fatter by the day. Earlier, when it was launched in March, the figure bandied around as savings was N8.2 billion. I then decided to take more than a passing interest in the matter by examining closely what has been said. My findings were quite revealing and suggested to me that the Osun State government has been standing truth on its head with the so-called savings from textbooks. The savings could not have added to the tune of N8.6billion as stated.

To arrive at its N8.6 billion, the state government said 150,000 students would be supplied with the tablets and each tablet is loaded with 63 textbooks and that each textbook costs an average of N1,000.00. By inference, the state government wants us to believe that it spends about N63,000 on the textbooks of each child in the SS class. That claim is bogus and cannot be correct. What is correct is that each child sits for an average of 8-9 subjects and may not require more than an average of three books per subject. Therefore, the maximum number (average) of textbooks required by a student would be 27. Even at the cost of N1,000.00 per textbook, that gives you N27,000.00 and if you multiply this by 150,000 students, it gives you about N4 billion. So where did this bogus savings of N8.6 billion come from? One hopes this is a ploy to perpetrate fraud and or a booby trap to siphon money out of the state.

There can only be one motive for bloating the figure (so that it sounds big) and for taking the launch to Lagos; propaganda. This is a technique in propaganda aimed at appealing to emotion with the aim of swaying the opinion of an audience. Osun State has been awash with several of such in recent time. Without doubt, the Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Aregbesola has a public perception challenge. For most part of his government’s almost three years tenure, Aregbesola has put Osun State in the news more for the wrong reasons than the right reasons. Indeed, redeeming that image is one of the biggest headaches of the ACN in Osun today and no amount of re-christening by the Baptist or Anglican or Catholic can wash him off that negative toga. Time is also running out to do this.

How do I mean? I was privileged to sit beside a top politician from Lagos State at a function recently. In the first 20 minutes of our interaction, I could not contain the barrage of questions hauled at me about Governor Aregbesola: Is it true that Aregbesola wants to Islamise Osun State?  Is it true he has not performed satisfactorily? Is it true workers are on strike and all the tertiary institutions are shut down? Is it true he has mortgaged the future of generations unborn with huge debts? Is it true…? His series of questions suggested to me the deep-seated apprehension in the ACN camp about Governor Aregbesola’s re-election bid.

I tried to answer some of his questions but his quick summary and verdict was: “I think Aregbesola started wrongly and wasted his time trying to probe the previous government.” I could not disagree with him. Indeed, Governor Aregbesola started  driving the vehicle of the state using his inner mirror that only sees the back and not the front. He got carried away by the applause that greeted his victory at the Court of Appeal, and started nailing the ‘coffin’ with which he thought he had buried the PDP. He forgot that he would not be assessed by the outcome of his probes. He wasted so much time stereotyping every PDP member as a non-performer. He was busy destroying the characters of others using different models of propaganda. He never knew his antics would soon become cliché but now he is paying the price. He is facing the revolt of the people with strikes and demonstrations everywhere.

It was then it occurred to me that his government coming to Lagos to launch the ‘Opon Imo’ tablet was to extend his propaganda machinery to a Lagos audience that appears to have written him off. But there is a limit to propaganda. Very soon all his card stacking will be exposed. The government would need to come out clean on some of these issues that involve money and whose figures are being juggled. Very soon, the citizens of Osun State would demand what has been done with their resources in four years, just like Aregbesola and the ACN were asking former governor Oyinlola before he came out clean before Aregbesola’s panel.

Ironically too, the state government is recommending the ‘Opon Imo’ to other states of the federation for a bandwagon effect. Who would buy a scheme that is still experimental?  No serious government wants to toy with the lives and future of its students. The Osun State government has also not told Nigerians the other side or the negative sides of this ‘Opon Imo’. There is the challenge of power supply, there is the also the need for these students to print out important parts of the textbooks for memorization and easy study and yet there are no printers. Many more issues remained unanswered.

In the course of looking into the ‘Opon Imo’ scheme, I gathered that the contract for the supply may have been given to a brother-in-law to a serving member of government who used to manage a publishing outfit. He was the one whose company went round to pay for the rights to download those textbooks and put into the ‘Opon Imo.’ I also gathered that the publishing community is not happy about the introduction of ‘Opon Imo,’ which they believed may have a short-life span.

That is matter for discussion another day. The main concern of our people today is that the government should stop overstating its ‘achievements,’ if any. The government is being challenged to come out clean and prove to Osun State citizens how it is saving N8.6 billion annually with the abolition of textbooks and the introduction of ‘Opon Imo.’ How much is the total annual budget of the Ministry of Education? Please, let all these propaganda stop.

• Aluko-Olokun is director, publicity

and media, Senator Akinlabi Olasunkanmi Rasheed (SOAR) Campaign Organisation

I was distressed by the reports in some newspapers on May 1, this year, that a group of youths in Benue State attacked, in protest, the Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr Paul Botwev Orhii, and some officials of the agency at the destruction site for counterfeit medicines along the University of Agriculture, Makurdi (UAM), Gbajima Road, on the outskirts of Makurdi, the state capital.

But the agency had to swiftly react to the report, describing it as untrue. The image maker of the agency, Alhaji Abubakar Jimoh, said no such thing happened-that Dr Orhii was not anywhere near the destruction site let alone attacked by the angry youth. Subsequent checks had confirmed the agency’s position to be the correct version of the narratives in a section of the print media.

What was, indeed, correct about this other strange narrative was that a group of youths actually but uncommonly protested the location for the destruction of counterfeit medicines on grounds of the unsubstantiated claim that the emissions or smokes from it constitute a dangerous pollutant that could cause serious hazards to the health of the people living in and around the community.

Spokesperson for the youths, Francis Udoma, was quoted to have said that they would no longer allow toxic wastes to cause harm to the residents. The question to ask is: have they been victims of toxic waste before now and who was responsible? Read Udoma’s claims: “the burning of expired drugs has contaminated the only source of water in the area, resulting in the death of livestock; it has also caused rashes and body itching among the residents.” Was it the umpteenth time fake drugs would be burnt in Benue?

Whether his claims were founded or not is neither here nor there. NAFDAC did not forcefully take over the site for destruction of fake drugs.

The Benue State Ministry of Environment, according to reports, carved out the destruction site after carrying out the necessary environmental impact assessment. What the protest by the youth succeeded in doing was to delay the exercise for about two days as the drugs valued at over N400 million were eventually burnt in the full glare of the public. With the burning of the drugs, the agency has succeeded in taking the destroyed quantity out of the system. It can no longer find its way back into circulation.

Destruction of drugs worth over N600 million had similarly, in December, last year, taken place in Kano State where hundreds of cartons of counterfeit Chloroquine, banned Analgin injections and 14 million tablets of Tramoldine drugs often abused by commercial drivers and motorcyclists were affected.

There was no protest in Kano; or, anywhere else where indigenes of the community embarked on a protest to hamper the incremental progress being recorded through the burning of impounded fake medicines.

Burning of the seized caches of drugs serves to complement the other methods, especially the cutting-edge technologies such as Truscan equipment, Mobile Authentication Service and Black Eye that have been deployed by the agency to attack frontally the menace of fake medicines.

But beneath the protest in Benue, which incidentally is the home state of the agency’s DG, was an obvious political undertone- an attempt to politicize the campaign by the NAFDAC to rid the state of fake medicines. There were even reports that the youths, who protested, issued warnings and threats to Orhii to wait for his time to be governor of the state. One must condemn the cheap resort to blackmail and politicization of an issue as serious as waging a war against counterfeit drugs.

Although, Orhii, who is a thoroughbred technocrat, has not indicated his intention of going into politics, it is not surprising that some persons somewhere who perceive him as a potential threat to their ambitions in the event that he decides to throw his hat in the ring are already panicky. It simply means that they see some positives in the anti-counterfeit medicines campaign that he is driving at NAFDAC. Should he now ride on the wave of the wonderful performance to build political machinery back home?

This is the issue those trying to politicize the anti-fake medicine campaign in Benue find difficult to relate with. Rather than try to undercut his great effort at sanitizing and controlling our drug and food market, the institution of NAFDAC, much more than Orhii, needs the genuine support of all Nigerians, including the political elite in Benue, to combat the menace of fake drugs that has unfortunately and painfully robbed us of loved ones over the years and will continue to do so if all hands are not on deck to fight back.

This collective will does not need to be bogged down on the altar of politics, ethnicity or tribalism as death occasioned by ingestion of fake medicines does not know politics, ethnic background or tribe. Death through fake medicines diminishes mankind and reduces all of these primordial considerations six feet down the grave.

At least four persons were reported to have died in the state about the time of the “protest drama” over the site of fake drug destruction after they were administered with fake procaine penicillin and gentamycin injection. Orhii, according to media reports, said the victims died in Gboko, Makurdi and Otukpo Local Government Areas of Benue State. His disclosure was at a one-day Consumer Awareness and Sensitization Forum held in Gboko. He had urged Nigerians to stand up against the fakers of drugs in Nigeria, stressing that drug fakers were worse than armed robbers. I agree completely.

Armed robbers will collect all you have at gun point without pulling the trigger and leave you to pick up your pieces; but drug fakers will take the money for purchase of the drugs and still kill as many as possible that are unlucky to ingest the drugs. Responding to this challenge requires guts and passionate commitment to stand and be counted on the side of the movement of those who would spare nothing to make a huge success of the anti-fake medicine campaign.

It is cheering that successive leadership of NAFDAC has always provided the focus of attack against the sophistication and conscienceless courage of fakers of medicines as well as their importers and hawkers. It is clear that the NAFDAC leadership understands how well to prosecute the campaign by attacking the menace in multi-dimensional ways.

One other way, apart from the use of cutting-edge technologies to which burning of impounded fake drugs is complementary, is the conscious effort to promote local production of drugs. Research has shown that drugs that are faked are the imported drugs that are usually very expensive.

Orhii, according to media reports, had hinted that the Agency had approached the Federal Government for a N200 billion pharmaceutical intervention fund to help provide funds for pharmaceutical companies to aid the production of drugs locally.

His rationalization is that when finally approved, the fund would be readily available and accessible to pharmaceutical companies in the country to aid the production of drugs and thereby discourage the importation of fake drugs. There is no doubt that vast energies should be channeled into the anti-fake medicines war. These energies must include appropriate and adequate funding.

Federal Government must prioritize the funding of NAFDAC and offer it a window to generate and increase funds internally through a regime of regulations of the drug and food industry. It is obvious that government subvention, through yearly budgetary allocations, has proved incapable of strengthening the agency’s exertion.

The agency must be enabled, even if legally, for instance, to collect regulatory allowance or levy of five percent, as obtained in some developed countries, on such luxury items like tobacco products, energy drinks, alcoholic beverages which most people do not need.

I believe, as I have advocated before now, that the regulatory allowance will come in handy for NAFDAC. Indeed, NAFDAC will have enough money to take care of its operations and will be able to give some back to the Federal Government to be budgeted for other agencies that do not have the capacity to raise or generate funds.

The overall idea is to get and/or generate adequate funds that will be deployed to strengthen the agency’s operations and the anti-counterfeit medicine war, far beyond unnecessary local politics. Ojeifo writes via ojwonderngr@yahoo.com

It is no longer in doubt that who, among the 160 million Nigerians, will be the next president in 2015 is the new project in town. Abuja is already awash with posters of presidents and vice-presidents in waiting. Politicians are neck-deep in the battle for the soul of Aso Rock come 2015.

Who will be the next occupant of Aso Rock is the main issue and is tearing the ethnic nationalities in the country apart. It is both bitter and sweet. At the end of the day, a winner will emerge and occupy Aso Rock and heaven will not fall.

That is the beauty of Nigeria, this country Britain created by force through imperialism without due consultation of the various ethnic groups that make up the country. That imperial mistake is at the heart of most of the nation’s problems from independence till date. Let me also add that our politicians and their military counterparts have added to the problems caused by colonialism through their rudderless and inept leadership.

While President Goodluck Jonathan’s apologists, especially his Ijaw kinsmen from the South-South geo-political zone would like him to remain there for the next four years at least to complete the amnesty programme and other projects in the zone, his opponents, especially the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy who erroneously felt that Jonathan took their turn for power think that one of their own should in 2015 return to Aso Rock.

Also notable Yorubas, especially of the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu political camp, are in sympathy with their northern allies, especially those in the All Progressives Congress (APC). Arrowheads of this novel Hausa/Yoruba alliance are Tinubu and former military Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd).

While two of the major ethic groups in the country, Hausa and Yoruba are spearheading the APC revolution, the Igbo, another major ethnic group, which supported President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2011 presidential bid appear ambivalent. The Igbo, it can be recalled, had never been on one page politically-speaking since the demise of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe-led National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) of the First Republic.

During the Second Republic, Zik’s Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) could not bring the Igbos together in one fold, again for reasons well known to all, his role in the Biafran War. Even at that, diehard Igbo Zikists ensured that Zik’s NPP won the then two Igbo states—Anmabra and Imo—plus Plateau State. Other Igbo politicians angered by Zik’s betrayal pitched tent with the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), which gave the Igbo vice-president through Dr. Alex Ekwueme. Every other effort to form a pan-Igbo party since then has been thwarted by divisive forces within the Igbo.

One of these forces is the egalitarian nature of the Igbo. The average Igbo believes in individual effort and success. Such crass individualism is the bane of Igbo politics and other ethnic groups in Nigeria have exploited that weak point.
The attempt by the late Igbo leader, Dim Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, to bring the Igbos together through the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) could not work. The Biafran war caused so many divisions among the Igbos that they could no longer act together as was the case in pre-1966 Nigeria. Even in traditional Igbo political system, based on village democracy as opposed to centralized group hegemony of the North and Western Nigeria, there was consensus in political decisions among the Igbo. Once there is a shout of “Igbo Kwenu,” a consensus has been reached. But with the advent of western model democracy and the acrimony it generated in Nigeria, the Igbos are the worst victims.

And since the demise of Ojukwu, his political empire has disintegrated and his lieutenants scattered. Apart from APGA’s decision under Governor Peter Obi’s leadership not to present a presidential candidate in 2011 and support the Jonathan ticket, APGA has not been up and coming on burning national issues, especially as regards 2015. Certainly, Nigeria has not been fair to Igbos in many things, especially the issue of producing the president. Even in military rulership, Nigeria has been hostile to Igbos.

Because of this political persecution of the Igbos, Igbo politicians’ dream of the presidency in 2003 was botched by Olusegun Obasanjo’s second term bid. In 2007, Igbos gave their support to Umaru Yar’Adua. In 2011, the Igbo supported Jonathan. Some of them believe that he will hand over power to an Igbo come 2015. That is presumably if he did not vie for a second term in office.

Where are the Igbos heading in 2015? While Imo Governor Rochas Okorocha, who came to power through APGA, has embraced the APC, Chief Victor Umeh and Governor Peter Obi are fighting dirty over who owns APGA. Governors Martin Elechi (Ebonyi) T.A. Orji (Abia) and Sullivan Chime (Enugu) are holding forth in Jonathan’s PDP. With this scenario in Igboland, the Igbos are nowhere in Nigerian politics in 2015 except they support Jonathan’s PDP. Perhaps, it is through PDP that an Igbo man will rule this country one day.

The South-South as represented by ex-militant Mujahid Dokubo-Asari appears to be saying no Jonathan, no Nigeria. Dokubo-Asari’s comment came on the heels of earlier one, although not volatile credited to Hon. Kingsley Kuku, the Presidential Adviser on Niger Delta and the Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme on the need for Jonathan to continue after 2015. Kuku has since clarified his position on the issue. Although Dokubo-Asari might be accused of over-stating his own version by saying that Jonathan will be there for two terms of eight years. His views are opposed to Section 135 (2) of the Constitution that allows for a term of four years for the president. It does not guarantee a sitting president another term of four years. That is the point Dokubo-Asari missed.

However, His views on Jonathan’s continuation in office in 2015 are in tandem with those of his Ijaw kinsmen, the major producer of the nation’s oil wealth. Dokubo-Asari might also be replying to some threats from the Northern oligarchy on Jonathan’s presidency. Some northerners have said it is either the north or no Nigeria in 2015. The fire from Dokubo-Asari is a counterpoise to the disrespect and threat to Jonathan’s presidency emanating from some northern leaders.

Those Dokubo-Asari accused of such insinuation, in particular, are Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and Dr. Junaid Mohammed. Ijaw people might not be happy that a president from their clan is being rubbished with political Boko Haram and other threats to make the country ungovernable for him.

However, South-South leader and elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark has doused the tension and moderated the views credited to Kuku and Dokubo-Asari. He said that Jonathan’s second term should be based on performance and will of Nigerians. If he contest and loses, Nigeria will not burn. His views are well-elucidated in an advertorial in This Day of May 13, 2013, pages 12B and 12C respectively. Similarly, the Ijaw Youth Council has in an advertisement in Sunday Sun of May 12, 2013 page 65 explained their position succinctly. The IYC absolved Kuku and Dokubo-Asari of any wrong doing or treasonable felony as being insinuated in some quarters.

They held the duo in high esteem as well as their deep knowledge of the Niger Delta crisis. They aver that the duo’s “sincere and objective analysis of the state of our polity was anchored upon, especially given the monstrosity of the political creation called Boko Haram and its damage to the Nigerian State and its people.” They said that “despite the peace in our region and the obvious national economic rebound engendered by the amnesty process, the larger demands and aspirations of the Niger Delta people have not been met as we still hunger and yearn for rapid socio-economic development as part of the second phase target of Amnesty Programme.”

The South-South fears are genuine and should be understood, being a minority tribe. Nigeria as at now is fragile. Our continued existence as a nation should be based on true federalism and equity and not on who occupies Aso Rock in 2015. Keeping Nigeria one should be based on justice and equity. Injustice to one is injustice to all. Let us give more powers to the federating units, embrace fiscal federalism and reduce the fierce fight for the central power.

As far as an evaluation of actors in the public space go, it is fairly obvious that neither Nigeria nor Ndigbo know exactly what to do with (or about) Orji Uzor Kalu, the former Governor of Abia State. But he is doing something with himself, with Ndigbo and with Nigeria, so it is impossible to write him off. To pocket him is out of the question. To use him without his having a say in the matter is not to be contemplated at all.

That is why many have said ‘we don’t know what to do with that Orji fellow’, with a mixture of dismay and consternation. Let those who speak thus remember the words of the German Philosopher, Martin Heidegger. He heard people saying, “You cannot do anything with philosophy” and surveyed all of them and their various reasons and then said: “It is true, as you say, that we cannot do anything with philosophy. But it is quite possible that philosophy, if we allow it, might be able to do something with us”.

So is it with Orji Kalu, who is marching on with a jaunty air and doing something with everything and everyone. My view, which I have canvassed for years, is that the man is a thoroughly mismanaged resource of Abia State, Ndigbo and Nigeria. Some may even argue that Orji is the one mismanaging himself, but we all know that it is the failure of elders and a strong family culture that brings family matters to the market place. Prof. Chinua Achebe played host to Governor Orji Uzor Kalu on his last birthday, before he passed on.

It was a quite informal and yet very solemn occasion. More importantly, it was the celebration of a friendship that has lasted for decades between the two men. Orji’s goodwill, as well as his habit of religiously travelling to wherever Achebe was at any time to spend his birthday with him was always a given for Achebe. And it was also always one of the most cherished elements of the latter’s birthday anniversary every year – even until his very last birthday on earth. Achebe loved Orji and repeatedly vouched for him as he has not vouched for many people throughout his life. The trouble with Orji Uzor Kalu, or at least part of the trouble with him, is that he is an enigma in more ways than one. He has the energy of several very active people put together.

This is sufficiently alarming on its own. His contacts, business girth and political networks cannot be dismissed as an accident, as they are simply too wide, too well structured, too well choreographed and too effective to be the result of idleness. His understanding of politics and power in Nigeria stands at the very cutting edge of the political economy of power relations in a nation like ours. He has also always shied away from the politics of appeasement and would boldly take the blows arising therefrom – and without apologies. The other week he was in far away Asia telling the cream of the business world that Nigeria is the place to be.

He spoke like very few people have ever spoken in recent times about the beauty and strength of the Nigerian economy, environment and people. Orji spoke as a respected international businessman, among international business peers (not the beggarly and dishonest ‘private sector’). He challenged them with statistics about his investments and that of others, pointing out the critical role of Nigeria in the emerging new world economy. He spoke as a proud Nigerian and not as someone doing a paid job about the image of his country. He was able to silence many apparently informed commentators on Nigeria, who he exposed as not knowing what they were talking about. And, he did not speak like a government functionary. All of this took place at the Progressive Harmony Development (PHD) Chambers, Delhi, India.

Prime Electric Group of India organized the forum and Orji Kalu used it to do what our Diaspora platforms always do very badly, even after taking money from government. A successful businessman can showcase opportunities where others see limitations, contest the advertised image of Nigeria and argue, convincingly, that anyone who ignores the Nigerian market, business opportunities and its robust peoples and culture is missing out on a most essential element of future world development. And, who turned up recently to brief the British House of Commons, Westminster, London, United Kingdom, if not Orji Uzor Kalu!

He spoke on “The historical plight and precarious future of Igbo people,” to an audience that included members of the UK parliament, diplomats, state officials and members of Njiko Ndigbo, an organization he leads. The issue is not what he said, how he said it, or where he said it. It is the fact that Orji’s capacity for legwork is being allowed to run unharnessed by many who can make greater mileage by keying into his capacities and working with him. I am certainly not in on the 2015 Igbo Presidency Project of Njiko Igbo, but we must admit that Orji’s Njiko Igbo is filling a vacuum that Ohaneze Ndigbo and the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) cannot fill. Ohaneze appears content with gestural things and speeches, while MASSOB suffers from the twin problems of (1) appearing like a strong man who merely beats up his siblings and neighbours without being available for wars with other villages (ikena eke bauno) and (2) lack of political sophistication. Someone may ask: “in what capacity did Orji Kalu go to address the British House of Commons?

Another may also wonder why he should override Ohaneze and take up arms in defense of Ndigbo outside Nigeria. Saying, “let us forget the troublesome fellow and face more serious business”, can sum it all. But, what is this serious business? But we cannot deny the fact that Orji Kalu addressed the British House of Commons while those who wear the title of Igbo leaders (and who are perpetually ‘threatening’ to save Ndigbo) did not. As Orji Kalu is stimulating some serious thinking across several political divides on the way forward for both Nigeria and Ndigbo, he remains the only governor who never withheld any negative salvos from President Obasanjo.

Yet, he still got everything he ever wanted from the man (except Slok Air, of course) – because the latter respected his forthrightness and also feared his value in Real Politik Leadership involves being able ascertain and deploy people’s abilities in their areas of strength. Like it or not, Orji Kalu is an asset for which the right use must be found by Abia State, Ndigbo and Nigeria. Otherwise, none of his detractors shall sleep at all. An element of his character can be seen in the fact that he has been religiously propagating his views on leadership, development and sundry human-interest issues via a newspaper column, which many expected to die shortly after it was flagged off.

Years after he wrote the first column, it is still on. This is that strength of character, resilience and never-say-die spirit that has been the rue of many of his enemies. He is the one who actually writes his columns, unlike many in his position who would outsource it to a team of scribbling researchers whose limited experience often saddles their unsuspecting patron with strange postulations. Orji Kalu has even taken his writing further, as his Leadership Series has surfaced in another newspaper; where he rose in defense of the Aviation Minister and with a plea that the new Minister of Power be protected from the syndicate of doom undermining that vital sector. Hear him on Oduah: “When Stella Oduah was appointed Minister and assigned the Aviation portfolio, some critics and pessimists took rounds to malign and impugn her for no justifiable reason.

They likened her to a square peg in a round hole. The misogynists and chauvinists among the army of her critics painted a more pitiful picture of her … describing her posting to the Ministry of Aviation as ‘misplaced’. They would have preferred the less visible ministry in charge of women affairs or social development.” The curious thing is that Orji Kalu stepped down the column he had written for that week about his birthday, to dwell on the matter of Oduah and the Aviation sector. Hear his reasons: “Those who know me are already familiar with the fact that it is not in my character to praise people on the pages of newspaper. But I could not resist it this time, since the criticism of this innocent, hardworking woman has gone unchecked.

One of the functions of the media is to defend the weak and oppressed and give voice to the voiceless. At least, it will enlighten the ignoramuses and place in proper perspective the commendable job this woman is doing.” Is there anything strange, or even special about all of this? Not exactly, except that Orji Kalu somehow always manages to have the presence of mind to focus on things. It was at the end of the piece that he added this paragraph: “Tomorrow is my 53rd birthday. I thank God for his mercy and love upon me and my family these past tortuous years. I pray him to continue to bless and fortify me as I contribute my little quota to the development of our great nation. I pray him also to bless our country Nigeria, which currently is immersed in deep economic and political crises. I know at his time Nigeria will experience a new dawn.”

Which brings us back to the matter of what to do with (or about) Orji UzorKalu. He has carried on, and will continue to carry on, as Ejinduemegini, and those saying, “don’t mind Orji Kalu” had better note that he might eventually be their undoing. It is time to wake up to the reality of the current wretched profile of Igbo politics and stop pretending that Orji can be easily ignored. Let those who can, and who should, rise and make the best of an Orji Uzor Kalu while they still can! Culled from Thisday

Like a bolt from the blues, news of the emergence of yet another deadly militant group shot onto the national landscape last week. Identified by the bombastic name of Ombatse Militia Cult, and operating in Nasarawa State, the group members  signified notice of their intention to be taken seriously by the Nigerian authorities with their brazen murder of about 35 policemen in Alakyo Village, which is less than 10 kilometres to the Nasarawa State capital, Lafia. Some officials of the Directorate of State Security (DSS) were also killed in the incident that is tantamount to nothing but a dirty slap on the Nigerian government, the nation’s security agencies and, indeed, the entire country.

Apparently, the Ombatse Militia had been terrorizing the people of Nasarawa for some time, but somehow, its operations stayed well off the national security radar.  But, with the killing of the policemen and other security agents in Alakyo, the Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Al-Makura, had no choice but to make an official report of the group’s activities to the Presidency in Abuja.

In the absence of President Goodluck Jonathan who was away to Namibia last Wednesday, Al-Makura told Vice President Namadi Sambo how he had convened a security meeting on the activities of the militia group in Nasarawa where it was decided that security agents in the state would raid the shrines operated by the group in Alakyo and arrest its members.

But, the plan apparently leaked to the cult group, which then ambushed the security agents. At the end of the bloody encounter, 35 policemen were confirmed killed by the cult group with several operational vehicles burnt. About 30 corpses of security operatives killed during the ambush were initially confirmed to have been recovered, while many of the 90 policemen deployed for the operation are yet to be accounted for. Twenty-eight of the missing agents were, however, released by the group last Friday. President Goodluck Jonathan immediately cut short his state visit to Namibia. He met with his security chiefs last Friday and, as expected, ordered an investigation.

Since that gruesome incident, many people have been understandably worried about the matter.  While some of the operatives that survived the ambush alleged that the militia group might have charmed the murdered policemen, some security chiefs and the Niger State Governor, Aliyu Babangida, have attributed the massacre to failure of intelligence and inexperience on the part of those who directed the operation.

The mindless slaughter of so many policemen in the Nasarawa incident is a tragedy. Tufiaka!  Ee wo! Ye pa ri pa! Ombatse Militia has joined Boko Haram in wanton killing of Nigeria’s security agents! .Abomination is now walking on four legs in Nigeria, in broad daylight.  Policemen have become like mere flies, killed at will by militants.

If there had been any argument up till now over the fact that Nigerian policemen and other security agents have become endangered species in the hands of militant groups in the country, the Nasarawa incident has rested it. Anyone that did not come to that disheartening conclusion following the massacre of security agents in Bama, Borno State, last week, must surely be convinced by the latest incident in Nasarawa.

It is noteworthy that the image of policemen as overlords that the authorities needed to convince us are our friends, on account of their general high-handedness, unfriendliness and wickedness, is now giving way to that of the operatives as pitiable sitting ducks for militant group across the country.

These militant groups apparently have an upper hand over the police, and they seem to derive joy from killing policemen. This is a scenario that Nigeria cannot afford. Policemen should not be targets of all manner of disgruntled people in the country, especially when the nation is not officially at war.

Apart from addressing the failure of intelligence and inexperience of security operatives deployed for this assignment mentioned by the Niger State Governor, the police and other security officials need to tackle the problem of infiltration of their ranks by militants. Otherwise, how did the matter of a raid to be carried out by the operatives become known to the Ombatse Militia to the extent that the cult group was able to muster superior fire power to rout the security agents and send them to early graves? How did the Ombatse group know about the planned police raid, without the police getting a hint of the ambush planned by the group? Is this a case of the Ombatse being more adept at intelligence gathering than our police and the Directorate of Security Service?

One other thing that appears glaring is that the Police Command in Nasarawa did not appear to have a full grasp of the strength of the Ombatse militia. Even if it did, as the number of operatives deployed for the raid suggests, the Command obviously did not envisage that the cult boys could run over its team so easily. The team was apparently unprepared for the challenge of its planned raid of the group.

As Governor Aliyu put it at the opening of the Geo-political Security Awareness workshop in Minna, recently, intelligence gathering and security operations require silence, speed and surprise. The planned raid of the Ombatse group lacked all three.  It was not at all silent, and it was no surprise to the militia, which was apparently well prepared to confront them.

Serious security operations like the one that went awry in Nasarawa should be handled with all seriousness. They require careful planning and could be postponed if there is the slightest chance that they might have leaked to the targets.

Again, security agents must employ the best of equipment available for such operations. It is saddening to hear after the massacre that the state command could have asked for patrol jets and Armoured Personnel carriers from Abuja, but failed to do so, apparently because it expected to have an easy ride over the cultists.

This type of approach to such serious security problem must be avoided in future. With what has happened, one can only sympathise with the victims and the families they left behind. It is so sad to lose loved ones to avoidable deaths such as this.

Nigeria Police, which has been losing its men in droves of recent, deserves to be encouraged by the authorities. There is obviously need for training and retraining of officers charged with security duties.  Critical operations such as the one in Nasarawa should involve higher levels of police authority, especially at the planning stage. Our security agencies must put their best foot forward at all times.

The Ombatse cult has dared the Federal Government of Nigeria. An attack on policemen by anyone in a country is an attack against the entire country. What the Ombatse Militia has done is to run its hands over the blunt knife-edge of Nigeria’s security agencies, and dared them to bring it to book.

Nigeria must not fail to respond appropriately to this open challenge by the cult. The militia group has to be unmasked and made to account for this heinous crime, otherwise, Nigeria risks similar deadly groups rising up and killing policemen and other security agents with impunity all over the country.

In addition, the problems of unemployment, poverty, devaluation of our moral values and other ills that make a life of criminality attractive to youths should be addressed. Idle minds and hungry stomachs make a volatile mix that is the Devil’s ideal playground.

MAILBOX

Re: WAEC wields the big stick

Parents and officials of examination boards are the architects of examination malpractices in Nigerian schools  because of money. Parents want their children or wards to pass examinations at all costs through examination malpractice and other vices. It is a welcome move to shortlist schools that are involved in the act. What is the punishment for them?

Gordon Chika Nnorom,

07037288134

The piece was quite enlightening. I really appreciate your objective views.

Godspower Igwe,

Rivers State Youths Federation

07036247417

THOSE who posit that Nigerian politics heaves with hysteria are not basing their assumption on nothing. Our politics has become very divisive.

The country appears split down the middle, on ethnic lines. More than ever before, the fault-lines that divide us as a nation have widened. Things are reaching frightening level.Our worries are coming in torrents. Anxieties are rattling down everybody’s nerve paths.

A vast majority of our peopleare living dangerously. That is because every danger in a nation lies in discord. It becomes more deep-seated in politics when politicians begin to jostle for the next election two years ahead of time. For the incumbent President who wants to seek re-election, he wouldn’t want to see a challenge from the right, that is, his own party, worse still, from his own geo-political zone.

But, such frets are unnecessary if the President has acquitted himself well in the discharge of the office. In the last couple of weeks, the presidency, the president’s kinsmen and cronies alike, have raised the political temperature in the land to an all-time high.

In the last one week alone, we have heard revolutionary and incendiary comments, especially from political jobbers, cronies and campaigners threatening bloodbath in the country if President Jonathan fails to win a second term in 2015.Fiery leader of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Mujahid Asari-Dokubo and Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Mr. Kingsley Kuku have caused quite some tempest recently, spitting fire that they would make the country ungovernable if Jonathan was not returned to power in the next Presidential election.

While Kuku issued his threat from the United States, Asari-Dokubo,called a press conference in Abuja to drop his bombshell. For both men, it doesn’t matter whether the President is unpopular or has not lived up to his electoral promise that ought to guarantee an incumbent President a second term.

Rather, for these men, it’s all about the hackneyed claims that Mr President comes from the geo-political zone that produces the bulk of the nation’s natural resources. Nothing less. Asari-Dokunbo, a man of big appetite with bulging eyes and a build of a tank commander, is never short of outlandish clichés.

Asked if he was aware of claims that the President has not performed above average, this is what he said:” monkey no fine, but him mama like am”. Meaning, it makes little sense if the President has not delivered.

The ex-militant leader spared no harsh words against the Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi, whom he accused of betrayal for allegedly fraternizing with northern leaders who “are plotting against the President”. He also called members of the House of Representatives “cowards” and dared them to arrest him. There’s something interesting about Asari-Dokubo’s ‘love’ for Jonathan.

Few months ago, the same man expressed disappointment with the President’s performance and cautioned that he could lose the next election. He claimed that under Jonathan presidency his numerous businesses had collapsed. One can understand Asari-Dokubo.

With no fewer than four wives and other mistresses and over children 40(still counting),it takes loads of money to take care of these responsibilities, coupled with his own big appetite which those who know him claim is equivalent to that of Emperor Jean Bokassa of the Central African Republic. As the President’s professional mourners even without the President’s prodding could be a veritable means for easy access and other sundry gratifications.

And trust Dokunbo, he’s a warrior of a rare kind who’s not afraid of a battalion of soldiers. For sure, President Jonathan is facing torrid times, or what could be likened to the battle of Jericho,an ultimate challenge of his presidency in his pursuit for re-election at all costs.

Besieged in all fronts by security challenges,the latest being the emergence of a potent militia group in Nasarawa State,Ombatse that killed scores of policemen last week, few Presidents have had their fingers bitten to their skin as Jonathan.But, the battle to remain in the Presidency in 2015 could prove the most challenging of his political career. Understandably, so. Nothing of value, like the awesome power and pleasures that the office of the presidency bestows on the occupier, can be given up voluntarily.

I see nothing wrong per se with the president’s kinsmen falling over themselves for his re-election. But something is certainly wrong with the methodology, tactics and arm-twisting strategies that they are using. It’s the ethnic bent of it and the brinkmanship laced with the choice of words that tends to paint Jonathan as an ethnic President,(which he’s not) that stinks. The President is not helping himself either.

He sees imaginary enemies where there is none. The President needs no mirrors to show him, nor the clairvoyant powers of an astrologer to tell him what to do to be re-elected. Good performance is the key that can lock up other contenders. With solid performance, no enemies, even if they are as formidable as the walls of Jericho, can stop his re-election, except of course, it’s not God’s will. Good performance provides that confidence and spiritual strategy, like the one God gave to Joshua to overrun adverse circumstances. God’s strategies are simple but unique.

But the President’s campaigners are making simple things look difficult. The threats coming from the likes of Asari-Dokubo, Kuku, Godsday Orubebe, Chief Edwin Clarke, Atedo Peterside, etc; cannot win votes for Mr President. I believe good governance is not beyond Jonathan, only if he trust more in his own ability and depend less on tale-bearers.

Agreed that Jonathan has made some errors(and no one is perfect),politics matters if a President can learn the lessons of his own failures, he can manage them to bring about future successes.

That happens when a President pays close attention to things that go under his name. In politics, it pays to take the right advice. In the end,it is Jonathan Presidency, no one else’s that history will judge.

In Luke 4: 1- 13 we saw how Satan tempted Jesus Christ with wealth, and how Jesus resisted such temptations three times. How many pastor or G.Os can resist such temptations to make evil wealth in this time? If Satan tempted Jesus Christ, what makes you think he has not been tempting our so-called men of God and they have been falling down at the feet of Satan?

In the story of the rich young ruler (Mathew 19:16-30), Jesus separated riches from the kingdom of God. If Jesus Christ did not marry and acquire material wealth, why do pastors indulge in it and still claim they are men of God? Don’t they know such luxurious lifestyle is a distraction to the real word of God?

Why are they not following the footsteps of Jesus Christ, so that Satan will not find a place in their lives? Jesus Christ made it clear that you can’t worship God and mammon at the same time. The maintenance and sustenance of such luxury is a burden on its own and can breed desperation in order to maintain the status quo.

From what I have read and watched on films and documentaries, most churches and their founders are deep into occult and Satanism. With the Church of Satan, illuminati, Satanic 666 symbols, Church of scientology and so many other evil centers of worship masquerading as churches, one is confused which power is at work . Instead of biggest churches and richest pastors, why don’t we have biggest centers of salvation?

Why is it that with all the churches, Nigerians and Nigeria are not better in Spiritual and material living? It means that most churches are not from God, because Jesus told Peter that upon him he shall build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail over him.

The first Pope in Rome after Jesus was Peter. Unless we want to deceive our selves, Satan has entered the church and he is “empowering his people in various forms”. It is abnormal for you to be outstandingly rich without the mark of the beast. My people have a saying that; any child that gathers more fire wood than his mates probably gathered it from the evil forest. If not, how come immediately the G.O of a popular church dies, the church will die with him? Take an inventory of popular churches of the 70s 80s and 90s and what is happening to them today.

That is why it is believed that everything about Satan is temporal. It doesn’t last and it ends disgracefully. Jesus Christ came to lead mankind to God, but we killed him.

Again, some politicians do not pretend to be Godly or men of God. They are clearly mammon worshippers. So we can understand where they are coming from. But for a man of God to be exploiting people and lying in the name of God, is really deplorable.

For a man of God to be seeking power from Satan is the height of heresy. Why do you think the Bible said, judgement will start from the church? From the foundation of Protestantism and Pentecostalism, it is obvious that what they will produce is greed, selfishness, exploitation, falsehood and deceit.

If the Roman Catholic Church had allowed King James to wed twice, I am sure the new churches will not exist. I am sure nobody will be selling miracles, selling prayers, selling deliverance, selling wrong doctrines and brain washing people with wrong interpretations to suit their purpose. Anybody who is richer than his environment acquired evil wealth from somewhere.

Anybody who is exploiting the gullibility and ignorance of the people to hypnotize them in the name of church, has God to answer on the last day. Mention any church that respects and cares for the real poor among them. Mention any of the “powerful Pastors” who is accessible to the humble members who started the church with them. And why is this loyal member where they are and have suffered so much frustration? Instead of a place for all lovers of Christ, the church is now a place of class-consciousness for all manner of dubious characters.

To read theology at Bible colleges, build churches and preach the word, does not make anybody a man of God. Satan can do all these and more, after all there is church of Satan, presided over by Anton Larvey. The “illuminati cult” is the new world order and their members are directing world events and decisions.

Their symbols are visible on the American dollar currency. So what is this talk about hearing from God and receiving from him, when we know Satan can grant prayers and blessing upon conditions? Nobody in this corrupt age is qualified to hear from God. We are all living at His mercy.

All predictions, prophesies, visions are speculative, guess work and manipulations of clever charlatans. A G.O of a popular church once told us that Obasanjo will not live to do second term. At the end, Obasanjo did not only live, he wanted to do third term also and he still alive.

Abacha did not wait for anybody to predict his death. He simply surprised everybody. For example, let any Pastor or G.O tell us when a major event like Boko Haram will end and how it will end. Or do you mean all the men of God whose church has been hit by this group have not enquired from God? If you tell us what will “naturally” come to pass, you have not made any prediction. Elijah challenged 400 prophets of Baal.

Let our own Elijah rise up against Boko Haram. If the death of a church member or the child of a church member dies in a mysterious circumstance and the Pastor of the church is being suspected, then something is wrong with today’s church and their pastors Finally, my fear is that if this jet- preaching luxurious lifestyle, flamboyant dressing, deceit, exploitation, wrong doctrine and merchantilism in the church continues, the tax man, govt and national assembly, will begin to take more than a passing interest in church activities and you can’t blame them.

The solution is for the CAN and PFN to begin to regulate and standardize the activities of churches, monitor the lifestyle of pastors and G.Os and call them to order when the need be. If not, something will give very soon and the church will lose its position and what it stands for. Agomuo writes from Lagos.

Slok Group, a business concern set up by former governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, is an overriding forename in Nigeria and international business discourse. It did not just become an interventional and highly rated group of companies involved in different business interests. It became so because a strong-willed man like Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu is the navigator and the inspiration force behind it.

Chief Kalu’s recent visit to India to discuss business opportunities that will benefit Nigeria has been generating dust, the magnetic personality that Kalu is. It has been said in a venture by this writer that there is no contradiction that Nigerian leaders who are not investor-friendly are the most shady and, should be weeded out of the governing bench, because their lackadaisical attitude to employment kills more unrecorded number of Nigerians than any insurgent’s detonated bomb. This is where Kalu is different.

He has brought poverty to face the music for its crimes against the teeming Nigerian people. And, he is not loaded with money to spray around, but with business ideas capable of taming the menace of poverty in the country. It has also been said in another venture that just like the security agents fight crime, Kalu’s fight shoots at the root cause of crime, which is poverty. What many Nigerians have not realised is that with Kalu’s business initiatives and as one of the foremost employers of labour in Nigeria, he is fighting corruption.

With Kalu, many Nigerians are not fretting, because they know that employment is sure for them, and that it will bring income. This, he has proved in all his businesses. The India trip has further revealed that Kalu is not a man who is limited to making friends and empowering people alone. He is also a man who loves Nigeria and Nigerians to succeed. One other aspect of this trip is that it has uncovered Kalu’s potentials, which are embedded in decisiveness and resoluteness. As far as leadership is concerned, Kalu is of a higher standard, building personality beyond anything that can be called limitation.

Where others see as limitations, he sees opportunities. Following Kalu’s arithmetic on observing and doing business, it can be deduced that he explores new businesses when he feels that others are running the business badly. Kalu did not make a mistake when he opined that Nigeria is business- friendly, no matter the contrasting view, during the interactive conference he had in India that was, according-to-the-grapevine, organised by Prime Electric Group of India, in collaboration with Progressive Harmony Development, at the PHD Chambers, Delhi, India.

As an inspiration to billions of people worldwide in business and other positive preferences, Kalu has not hidden his wand to doing business and why he has been a successful businessman. He has always unraveled his business mettle. Discerning minds would recall that Kalu is an excellent businessman who has not hidden his voice to inspire the old, young and about-to-start business people, saying that a good businessman must be clairvoyant to see business beyond his or her confines; just the same way a newsman is always psychic on news. Kalu would advise that business opportunities do not just come by, if one does not espouse the ability of being extrasensory.

Meaning that a businessman must have his eyes, ears, nose, heart and brain trained on business, to prognosticate when there is an opportunity. Kalu is against the view that there are obstacles in business. He sees this as a lazy man’s excuse, even when obstacles can never be ruled out of business. There is no doubt that the President of Slok Group, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, is following his vision. And, there is no better way to succeed in business than to follow one’s vision. This is what compelled Kalu to go to India between April 28 and May 7, in furtherance of a plan to set up a steel mill in his hometown of Igbere. Ambassadors of countries and leaders of businesses were in attendance.

Just exactly this time last year, Kalu was in Abuja where he played the leader of the team that visited the ambassador to discuss business transactions and how more investors could be attracted to the country. Not thinking like a new customer to a business, Kalu’s foresightedness on efficacious business activities that have bettered the lot of many without any glimpse of egocentric tendencies, is commendable. It has also been written that Kalu’s approach to national issues as they relate to investment inflow shows the mindset of a man who would prefer hard work, through initiating business ideas for the citizens to follow. Nigerians have to appreciate the rapid progression with which Kalu fights poverty in Nigeria by making sure that those things that stifle business are dismantled.

Not long ago, I recollected in this newspaper that Chief Kalu is endowed with business ideas and determined to make sure that ordinary Nigerians are the beneficiaries. With this primacy, Nigerians have been benefiting from his business acumen, so that they don’t engage in shoddy businesses that have not helped any person in life. Today, many Nigerians have a right to take employment under Kalu’s business initiatives as long as they cn follow the business guidelines, and as far as they do not abuse their offices. And, one wonders how many thousands of people, if not millions, would benefit from the steel mill at Igbere, when it comes on stream, very soon.   Onwumere writes from Rivers State via apoet_25@yahoo.com

Some time ago, precisely December 2011, this column shared thoughts about our dear country as appear below. As many things do not seem to be changing, it has become necessary to reproduce our views, hoping that someday, someone would hear us and take the kind of actions that would advance the progress of our nation.

We said: Nigeria is one nation where everybody is busy for various reasons, some good, others bad or ugly. Some are simply weird and absurd. So, at all times everybody is busy. In the last few months, many people have become busy for the wrong reason. The Boko Haram sect is rewriting the history of Nigeria with amazing fierceness and the security agencies appear totally helpless. In Nigeria today, things are going sour.

Yes! Sour. As true patriots, we have also become very busy. We have lent our voice in the last few years commenting on socio-economic and political events in our dear nation. We have condemned leadership where they did not deserve commendation and praised them where they earned our admiration. We cannot relent. We will continue to join forces with our genuine brothers and sisters in the media, civil societies, charity organizations, churches, mosques, etc. to save the nation from collapse.

We believe that time has come for us to stop and take stock as a people and ask ourselves some basic questions in the light of recurring negative developments in our national life. Leadership may not admit it because it favours them, but the truth is that Nigeria is gradually but steadily slipping into the garb of a failed nation. The nation is at war. The leadership and the led; the rich against the poor; Muslims against Christians; light against darkness; Boko Haram and the people; ASUU against the FG; etc.

Everywhere there is war and the Nigerian womb is tormented by atrocities of the enemies of goodness and fair game. For Mr. President, this is time for duty call. Yes, even though he did not cause these problems, he has a moral and legal duty to solve them and this is where great men make the difference. He has to save this failing nation. Nigeria is plunging into the unknown. Yes, Nigeria is failing. The signs are clear.

The route to perdition is predictable, dependable, and certainly inevitable once a series of well-known landmarks and thresholds have been attained. The rise of leaders and cabals that are motivated by incurable greed for money, power and with scanty regard for the rights and needs of the majority and where life is very cheap; escalating human rights violations, sometimes resulting in self-help and violent disorder or ethnic cleansing; poverty and economic hardship, which subject majority of the people to malnutrition, starvation and penury; base sentiments powered by intolerance and illimitable discrimination on grounds of ethnicity, politics, religion, sex and class.

This is the point where the nation is operating today. So, what is the way out? This will be the thrust of this column in the weeks ahead. Education A society that values its future accords the highest priority to providing quality education for its entire young people. Education means developing the faculties of a person’s mind, heart and body in such a way that one would be gradually prepared to take one’s place in society as a useful citizen.

Therefore, education should be for all, but it is common knowledge in Nigeria that only the children of the privileged class receive qualitative and quantitative education in a nation that aspires to be one of the first 20 in 2020. The sad part of all this is that it is the children of the poor, especially the rural poor, who are receiving this ineffectual type of education, which doesn’t even give them an opportunity to go to college or university and compete favourably with others. There is simply no possibility for our country to be great unless we create a solid resource base of well-educated citizens from all the ethnic nationalities, with the skills, experiences and motivation to build our country.

This is the fundamentum. It is the basic norm. But Nigerians must build their country and mould its image in the manner they choose. This choice will prescribe hard lines, but requires commitment, sacrifice and focus by everybody under laws that fear nobody and respect no institution. It is not possible to solve all our national problems in one day, but we have written and talked enough to start positive action. The starting point is to change the mindset of Nigerians through functional education.

To do this, primary school education is the starting point. It is possible that if we get it right there, we may get it right in the other levels. The Rivers State example of building gigantic structures is commendable, but it is just one segment of the entire problem plaguing primary education in Nigeria. Positive attitude is the key to success. Schools are a reflection of society and if the society is rotten then the schools cannot be different.

For an effective primary education in Nigeria to have meaning, the teachers must be passionate and committed. It is not enough for any Tom, Dick and Harry to pick up chalk simply because he cannot find job elsewhere. On the part of the government, those who teach should not be seen as mere consignees for hell fire on earth. Teachers must live well and have a good reward for their work so that they can truly put in their best to teach the pupils.

A return to the old style is instructive. Inspectorate divisions of the Ministry of Education should be strengthened to check and balance the effort of Head Teachers and ensure optimum compliance with existing regulations and standards. Various communities should ensure that the schools in their domain do not become a dumping ground for trading and itinerant teachers. Consequences should attend objectionable behaviours on the part of teachers irrespective of who their godfather is and the political party they belong.

This is the way to prepare good pupils for secondary education. Next is secondary education. The situation in primary schools in majority of cases also applies here, and so the solution also applies. The failure of secondary school education in Nigeria is encouraging exodus of Nigerian students out of the country with consequential economic implication. Many Nigerian children are in secondary schools overseas, including some African countries for the simple reason that the cost of educating a child here in many private schools is equal to what it costs to do so overseas.

The truth is that secondary education is also passing through a delicate web of mixed problems that defeat its essence in our shores. The shameful JSS3 terminal examination results tell it all. The alarming degree of failure shows that the nation is operating in the high sea like a vessel without a compass. Rather than prepare and pass their exams, many students now buy guns and knives to secure cheating environments during examinations in nearly all the states of the federation with the active connivance of compromised principals and invigilators.

The result is that when their scripts are subjected to random markers that they are not able to reach, the futility of their cheating strings is exposed. Question is why has nobody been punished for cheating in a terminal examination in Nigeria? The answer is simple. Those who lead us at all levels; even in churches and mosques, are not ready to build a great nation, but if examples are set with some students and teachers facing proper prosecution in a determined national crackdown against examination malpractices, others will learn a lesson and toe the line of righteousness. This is why many people regret that Brig Gen Tunde Idiagbon did not stay long in office.

In him, Nigeria got its first restoration leader with the aim of rebuilding a true Nigerian Nation. Sadly, children now boldly demand special examination allowances from their willing parents and guardians to enable them bribe invigilators and sort out those undergraduates who help them to write the terminal examinations. What a shame! What a nation. University education is a topic for another day, but we believe that we can get it right if leadership and the Nigerian people say “…yes, we can”.