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Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe (15 August 1966 – 9 February 2024)
He made a living, and a fortune, pitching and being pitched to. In a viral video circulating in the wake of his passing, he’s captured pitching his latest project: a new University. “This is your project, and you will protect it with everything you have,” he says, in pidgin English. “There will be no University like this, no just in Nigeria, but even in Africa.” The crowd—young men from his ancestral home, where the University is sited—is fired up, and break into song and dance intermittently. This son-of-the-soil addressing them looks unsure whether to dance or not. He’s clearly far more at home in gilded boardrooms, speaking English, not pidgin. At the same time, venturing passionately into unfamiliar territory is how he’s managed to come this far.
Besides passionately sharing his many visions, Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe loved nothing more than closing deals, and executing projects. “His answer to me was always the same: my brother, done!” says someone who grew close to him in recent years. Over the course of two decades, Herbert, alongside his best friend and business partner, Aigboje (“Aig”) Aig-Imoukhede, whom he first met in 1989, built Africa’s biggest bank by customer base, and Nigeria’s largest by assets. At the time of his death, Access Bank Plc was settling nicely into a world-conquering phase, expanding aggressively in and beyond Africa.
His empire included his non-profit, The Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe (HOW) Foundation. (He signed-off social media posts with #HOW). Wigwe University, taking shape in Isiokpo, his bicycle-loving, masquerade-flaunting, oil-rich hometown, in Rivers State, to “raise the next generation of fearless leaders.” Craneburg, one of the most prominent construction businesses in Nigeria today, founded by his wife, Chizoba. And several other business ventures he personally founded or invested in, often quietly.
He was energetic, restless, ambitious. Executive Director at Guaranty Trust Bank at 33; Group Deputy Managing Director of Access Bank Plc at 36; Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at 47. He talked fast, moved even faster. Together, the pair of him and Aig formed one of the two most intriguing tag-teams in recent Nigerian banking history—the other pair being Fola Adeola and Tayo Aderinokun; the older-by-a-decade co-founders of GT Bank, from where Aig and Herbert resigned as Executive Directors in 2002 to buy and lead Access Bank. (Tragically, Tayo Aderinokun passed away in 2011—only a year younger than Herbert would be at his own death).
In their days running Access Bank, Aig and Herbert earned reputations as taskmasters. (Aig describes it, in his 2021 memoir, as “our fabled work ethic”). Critics saw them as willing to go to any lengths to achieve whatever they sought. The landmark takeover of Intercontinental Bank in 2011—which tripled their customer base—was believed to be a hostile, even ruthless, one. Not uncommon allegations, admittedly, at that level of performance.
“M&A Mindset”
In the wake of his death, the tributes pouring in all point to a man who was incredibly kind and supportive to many, always looking out to offer a helping hand. There was always room in his circle for people he considered smart and ambitious. His Executive Assistant came from Diamond Bank, which Access acquired in 2019.
His “Mergers and Acquisition mindset” (as a tribute by Alex Otti, banker and current Governor of Abia State, described it), fueled much of what he accomplished. Never satisfied with the status quo, he was always nudging the people around him to dream and to do more. Gbenga “GB” Agboola, founder of Flutterwave, one of Nigeria’s fintech Unicorns, recalls the challenges Herbert regularly threw at him: “GB, what’s the size of your ambition?” “Why wait to invest back in Africa?” “Who is the next GB? Back them! Make the journey easier for the next guy!”
He’d earned the right to ask this of others. When he and Aig took over Access Bank in 2002, it was 65th in size, among Nigeria’s 89 banks at the time. Today, the bank is setting African records. When his tenure as CEO of Access Bank came to an end in 2022, he stepped up to become CEO of Access Corporation, the new Holding Company created for the financial services group. Not having to directly run the bank did not diminish his influence in any way. It allowed him to add more to his plate, in fact. He was named President of the influential France-Nigeria Business Council in May 2023. He began to devote more time to his University, for which he budgeted half a billion dollars in personal investment.
Not to forget the palatial new home in Ikoyi, Lagos—built by Craneburg—of which breathtaking video footage has emerged since his death. It is said that, till the end, he was still requesting additional work on the edifice.
Giving and collecting
He gave generously to countless causes, often quietly. His church, the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) City of David parish, in Lagos, was a big beneficiary, especially in its mission to help poor children. Under his leadership, Access Bank sponsored the annual Lagos City Marathon (he died on the day the 2024 edition held), as well as sporting events and arts festivals within and outside Nigeria.
It is hard to think of a more ambitious Nigerian art collector than Herbert. In his vast collection sit two iconic pieces: separate portraits of him and his wife, Chizoba, painted by Kehinde Wiley, whose most famous painting is an official portrait of President Barack Obama. (Another famous Wiley portraiture subject is former President Olusegun Obasanjo, painted as part of a project documenting African Heads of State).
His passion for art also included acquiring, at significant cost, iconic work of Nigerian origin from foreign owners. There was the long-lost-but-found “Tutu”, painted in 1974 by Ben Enwonwu—for whom Queen Elizabeth sat for a sculpture, a decade before Herbert’s birth)—which Access Bank acquired in 2018. Also in the Access Bank collection, a set of seven wooden Enwonwu sculptures, commissioned by the UK’s Daily Mirror in 1960, for its new London Headquarters.
A wingless end
On a helicopter flight in 2017, Herbert told a protégé, “When it’s your time, it’s your time.” He was not unfamiliar with the grief of bereavement. His older brother, Osita, died in a car accident in 1997. Three years later, his pregnant cousin and her husband were killed in another tragic car crash. Then there was his recent cancer scare. Even as he became more health-conscious, quitting alcohol and taking personal fitness seriously, the fragile-ness of life was never lost on him. One of his last posts on X ended with: “Let us number our days.”
The final day came most unexpectedly, on a “wintry” February night, in the United States of America. Aboard an Airbus H130 helicopter chartered to fly him, his wife, Chizoba; eldest son, Chizi; and friend, Bimbo Ogunbanjo, from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, for the 2024 Superbowl, an annual fixture on his calendar. Exactly what happened to the chopper is still being pieced together by investigators. None of the four passengers and two crew members aboard survived.
He is survived by aged parents, three children, and siblings. And a sprawling business empire—including private investments in several businesses—the true size of which may never be fully known. “The scale of what he’s leaving behind, mostly uncompleted, is staggering,” says a friend.
In 1961, shortly after completing the Daily Mirror sculpture series, Enwonwu, the celebrated sculptor, said of the 7-piece collection: “I have tried to represent the wings of the Daily Mirror, flying news all over the world.” There is a 2017 photo of Herbert posing with the collection at an art exhibition in Lagos in 2017, a suited eighth figure amidst the ‘winged’ wooden posse. A fitting pose for a man who gave wings to every project he embarked on, and to many of the people he met on his life’s journey.
In an ironic twist of fate, the end came for him in the air, on a wingless aircraft—without a pitch persuasive enough to stave death off.
“I remember a friend of mine in the oil industry, who during a meeting of an economic think tank. He called the then president aside and said, ‘Mr President please stop this subsidy, we are tired of making money…We’re bringing in this fuel at an elevated cost and half of it is exported out of Nigeria by the same people collecting money for it”
There is an apparent consensus of opinion that Nigeria has not had a good outing under the stewardship of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The main extenuation for this lapse is that he inherited a basket case from his predecessor, Major General Muhammadu Buhari.That may well be the case but this extenuation flies in the face of his own verbalised utmost quest and carnal desire (lifelong ambition) to become the president of Nigeria. I do not exactly recall whether it was
Usman Dan Fodio who counselled society to be wary of whoever desires the aroma of power the most. Buhari’s obsession with power and what he did with it for eight years proves the point. May Nigeria be spared the repeat of the Buhari cross all over again.
Beware of what you crave, you may just get it. Having now been gratified with the object of his ‘lifelong ambition’, Nigeria lies prostrate before President Tinubu but he has so far failed to master the moment. In fairness to him and unlike his predecessor, he has largely refrained from making a song and dance of the Buhari (dysfunction) extenuation. Save when he characterised the transition from Buhari to his government as ‘moving from darkness to a glorious dawn’. While the characterisation of the former President’s tenure as an era of “darkness” is apt, it would amount to standing reality on its head to cite the incumbent president’s tenure as anything near a glorious dawn.
The potential crowning glory of the Buhari dysfunction and one I regret not supporting was his desire to foist former President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan as the president of Nigeria. And he was thick enough to try it. If he had succeeded, he would have sufficiently radicalised Nigerian politics, and clarified the choice before the country as never before. Already cut too deep, the cleavages would have irretrievably cut deeper. The affront was bound to foster a make or break crisis whose ramifications would force a fundamental constitutional review of the status quo or worse.
Imagine the spectre of Vice-president Atiku Abubakar as the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidate and Ahmed Lawan as that of the APC, and the certainty that the election will be rigged in favour of either presidential candidate. To the contrary, with the election of Tinubu as a sop to the Yoruba, Nigeria has won a battle but lose the war. As we have come to learn, the restructuring din has quietened down to a whimper. A very smart politician, contemporaneously I
cannot recall him ever owning restructuring as priority- that is if he ever touched the idea at all on his campaign rostrum.
As programmed, he has deflated the bubbles of the only viable status quo answer to the question of what ails Nigeria. I was surprised at the conniving power politics posture of the Yoruba intelligentsia towards the realpolitik of contemporary Nigeria. The better option of Peter Obi was put down as representative of Igbo triumphalism! It went all the way back to the politics of playing the Yoruba against the Igbo.
I marvelled at the spectre of respected scholars who taught us on how tribalism is the bane of Nigerian politics becoming the standard bearers of the very ill they professed against. It was the perfect opportunity to breach the to- your- tents-o-Israel barrier that had kept Nigeria down for so long. Love your neighbour as you love yourself, thus sayeth the Lord. And it was reckoned as one of the most important commandments.
“The two great commandments, as found in Matthew 22:36-40, are to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart” and “love thy neighbour as thyself.” The Lord did not qualify the commandment as applicable only to those you like. It is a challenge to our individual and collective morality and test of commitment to principles, to stand by a principle when it is not convenient to do so. The more cynical of them rationalised their position with the logic that if Nigeria is fated to ruin and damnation, it makes sense to have your son at the commanding heights!
As you might have rightly guessed, the reference to Rawlings in the caption is a metaphor for a near revolutionary take over of government. To a considerable extent, the inability of Tinubu to stare down the challenges and problems of Nigeria boils down to not wanting to commit class suicide. If he really wants to commit to doing his job well, he has two options.
One is to go for a constitutional review towards the end of securing the restoration of federalism. The other is to lead by the power of example. The latter point is not as trite as it sounds. In the affairs of men, it is inevitable for society to experience crisis and tribulation. So by itself, the bad spell Nigeria is going through is neither new nor unprecedented. What matters most is the demonstration of enlightened self-interest, the capacity of the ruling elite to mobilise the citizenry by the power of personal example and discipline.
Within the context of Nigeria, It may sound utopian, but think of a shirtless Rawlings driving a bulldozer. If you have your leaders miraculously borrow a leaf from this playbook, the masses will forget they have not eaten a piece of meat for weeks.
I do not need to go into the sordid details but the statement of intent indicated in the budget presented by the president a few months back is a contraindication of leadership by example and a mockery of the Nigerian masses. It is a budget of how not to mobilise the people behind your leadership. It is not a budget of how to exhort your people to think of what they can do for their country and not what their country can do for them.
As Nigeria’s cup of iniquity overflows with no discernable silver lining in the dark horizon, my mind has been waxing subjective and unorthodox dimensions. In my last outing, I wrote of making atonement for the sin of our forefathers participation and connivance in the slave trade as a spiritual panacea for what increasingly appears to be a digging deeper into the hole of mass immiseration and underdevelopment. I got this inspiration from the most accomplished American president, Abraham Lincoln. He believed that the American civil war over the institution of slavery was punishment and atonement for the role of America in the transatlantic slave trade.
As I contemplate the ratcheting up of public service corruption in Nigeria today to the level of unimaginable perversion and sickness, my mind wandered to how Shehu Yar’Adua came to terms with the dilemma. I doubt if decent society has any lessons to learn from the peculiarity and oddity but it is story worthy of being told. It is a story of how effective he was in securing his political goals and objectives. It was as cynical as it was effective. If the former number two man in the military government of Obasanjo, was sending a political subordinate on an errand, he would inquire about the cost implication of the task. Having been apprised of the financial implication, say ten million Naira, he would give the money as requested. He would then top up the money with another ten million, so the fellow would have less incentive to fignal with the original ten million. And it worked!
In theory and practice, I do not know how to substantiate this primitive formula but ranged against what presently obtains, it appears to me a good bargain (if we can get ten billion naira value for a contract awarded for twenty billion).
It is six months now since Isa Yuguda has made his earth shaking revelation. The response of the President was to cast a vote of confidence in the man at the centre of the worst scandal in Nigeria and reappoint him as the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. Neither has he deemed it worthwhile to invite the remorseful friend of Yuguda to come and tell all he knows as a participant-observer who has become tired of making billions at the expense of the Nigerian public
If I were to choose between the governed and its government, I will choose the latter. This is because it has been established that the former are fortune hunters who in a world of ‘survival of the fittest’, seize every available opportunity to inflict hardship on their fellow compatriots while the latter is saddled with the onerous task of keeping man who is often insane under control. Nothing brings this home more vividly than the ongoing war of attrition being waged not just by the political and economic elite, but by ordinary Nigerians against Nigerians.
We have all become vultures feeding on the blood of the most vulnerable. From fuel subsidy scammers, foreign exchange speculators to the Kano food distributors who short-changed farmers but locked up food items in warehouses while people starve, the egg and bread hawker on the streets of Lagos who attributed high cost of their wares to dollar exchange rate, the first instinct is always how to exploit the vulnerable.
I discovered from a nearby grocery store last Sunday that the price of a loaf of bread had gone up to N1, 300. It used to be N1, 000. Since there was no value added, I decided to drive to another store where I thought I could get ‘coconut bread’ for N1,200. There also, I discovered the price had gone up to N1,600. After wondering when we started importing flour and coconut, I was forced to buy the bread. The story was not different from my neighbour who supplies us fresh eggs from his farm at N2,400 per crate. The price has gone up to N3,500, per crate. He attributed the difference to high cost of drugs needed to treat his birds.
High cost of living has led to demonstration against government in a number of Nigerian cities. Last Thursday, it was the turn of Kano State. The city’s residents took to the streets calling on President Tinubu to come to their rescue as they could not “eat three square meals even the one square meal is now becoming difficult, as a bag of rice which used to go for N25,000 now attracts N70,000. And “Sugar which was sold for N8,000 now goes for N75,000”.
But as if to confirm we are all vultures, three days later, on Sunday February 11, the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-corruption Commission confiscated 10 warehouses with hoarded assorted foodstuffs in Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area of the state. According to Muhyl Magaji, the commission’s chairman, “The owners have been issued notice to report to the commission preparatory to facing charges before the court of law for their illegal activities”.
Perhaps we need a journey through memory to remind ourselves how greed by a few fortune-hunters led to the removal of fuel subsidy by government and the floating of the national currency resulting in current massive depreciation and escalating cost of living.
Fuel subsidy scam started at the onset of the fourth republic when PDP stalwarts and their sibling defrauded the nation to the tune of N1.7trillion by “forging papers without importing a pint of fuel,” in the words of Audu Ogbe the then PDP national chairman. A probe by the National Assembly indicted a number of fuel marketers. (Otedola masterminded a DSS sting operation to nail Lawan Farouk for receiving bribe in order redmove his name from the list.)
Then a forensic probe of Sanusi’s (CBN Governor) allegation that $49.8b was not transferred to the federation account by NNPC confirmed $10.8billion was never reconciled. Andrew Yakubu, NNPC group MD later said $8.76B of the amount was used for subsidy. (An Abuja High Court presided over by judge Ahmed Mohammed who ordered EFCC and CBN to transfer $9.8 million and 74,000 pounds recovered from Andrew Yakubu to an account under the control of the Chief Registrar of the court in March 2022, discharged and acquitted him of all charges).
Sanusi however insisted such expenditure without appropriation was unconstitutional especially since subsidy on kerosene had been cancelled by Yar’Adua since June 15, 2009 when it was discovered that ‘if anyone was benefitting, it must be marketers and government officials. Sadly, about N500 billion was purportedly spent on kerosene subsidy in four years when the product was hardly available at filling stations or sold for N150 as against consolidated N50 controlled price. President Jonathan knew about the scam but shielded his friends in PDP, NNPC and the petroleum ministry.
Buhari similarly failed the nation. Isa Yuguda, former governor of Bauchi State and chairman of the committee on subsidy in 2009 told Channels television “I am sad to let Nigerians know what I saw. We came across situations where subsidy was claimed on pipeline that never existed…. Those that claim to pump the product and those that are in the subsidy scam, they just fill papers, invoices and they claim subsidy on it”.
Yuguda was sure Buhari as president who doubled as oil minister for eight years, was aware of the scam. Buhari lacked the political will to act. He chose instead to leave the poisoned apple for his successor by refusing to budget for fuel subsidy beyond June 2023.But no sooner President Tinubu declared during his inauguration that ‘fuel subsidy was gone’, than the vultures in the guise of marketers swung into action. Within an hour of the statement fuel disappeared from filling stations across Nigeria or sold for about N700 per litre where available.
President Tinubu also admitted inheriting ‘a rotten’ financial system. The Jim Obazee-led special investigation of Emefiele’s tenure as CBN governor was to later unearth a damning report of monumental mismanagement, fraud and arbitrariness, looting, diversion of funds, forgery and collusion against Emefiele and about 15 others. Specifically, the was an investment of billions of dollars in over 500 banks IN USA, UK and China without approval of CBN board. There was £543,482,213 in fixed deposit in one of the banks in UK.
From alleged manipulation of the forex markets by banks, First Bank, UBA, Zenith, Access and GTB reported a combined N1.38trillion in forex revaluation in the first half of 2023.
As at July 2023, there was also N26.627 trillion in ‘ways and means’, whose “management was dogged by a lot of arbitrariness with funds taken out of the national treasury without necessary authorization”.
Government’s efforts at stabilizing the exchange rate through the unification of the official and parallel market exchange rates “hailed by economists and other stakeholders” have continued to be sabotaged by “some commercial banks who hold long-term foreign exchange positions to enable them profit from the volatile movements of exchange rate”.
In a move to reduce the pressure on the naira, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has raised a 7,000-man special task force across its 14 zonal commands to clamp down on dollar racketeers.
For President Tinubu, the subsidy removal and the floating of the national currency were fait accompli. Unlike President Jonathan and Buhari, there was no escape route. There was just no money to run the government. With 97% of our resources going into servicing debts, borrowing was not an option.
To reduce the burden of Nigerians, President Tinubu must recover our monies from all indicted oil marketers. The banks and some others owe AMCON close to N6trillion. These taxpayers’ monies must be retrieved from the banks and other debtors who are today serving senators or live like princes.
And as an elected sovereign, the president must be reminded he is free to take ‘protective measures including invasion of personal privacy and assault on group culture’ to safeguard the interest of the state.
THE American World Bank and the Europe an International Monetary Fund, IMF, have in the past few weeks circled round Nigeria like vultures waiting for the prey to die.
The twin organisations have become more active and quite audacious since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came to power on May 29, 2023. They are like predators, ready for the kill.
While Nigerians are hungry and their anger is beginning to boil over to street protests due to the stifling economic policies of the Tinubu administration, these organisations are praising Tinubu to the high heavens and telling him to tighten the noose round the necks of the people.
Inflation is at 32 per cent. Fuel price increased from N238 per litre on Inauguration Day to N617-N700, and the Naira has dipped from a depth of about N700 to the dollar last year, to over N1,500. While these have resulted in devastating consequences, both institutions tell Tinubu he has not gone far enough.
In its Friday, February 9, 2024, statement, the IMF praised Tinubu for making “a strong start”. It further encouraged him to heavily tax hapless Nigerians as part of a so-called “ambitious domestic revenue mobilisation agenda”.
In the statement signed by its Spokesperson, Julie Ziegler, the IMF, like a school master to an errant pupil, told Tinubu: “Fuel and electricity subsidies are costly, do not reach those that most need government support and should be phased out completely.” In other words, it is instructing him and his team to further increase the current prices of fuel and electricity.
The IMF also encouraged Tinubu to take more foreign loans because in its view: “Nigeria’s capacity to repay the Fund is adequate under the baseline.” As an incentive, it offered trade-offs “… between urgent humanitarian needs and debt service, including to the Fund”.
These IMF assessments and instructions tally with those of the World Bank. The latter’s Lead Economist for Nigeria, Alex Sienaert, had on Wednesday, December 13, 2023, told Tinubu: “We think the price of petrol should be around N750 per litre more than the N650 per litre currently paid by Nigerians.”
So, why are the IMF and World Bank so callous and inhuman? It is simply because that is why they were set up in the first place; to exploit poor countries, degrade and destroy their production capacity, control their resources and destroy their education system so they will be incapable of thinking. For instance, while the twin agencies are insistent on increasing the price of fuel, they do not encourage the local refining of fuel by an oil producing country like Nigeria. That will go against the belief they have instilled in the African people; that our role in the world is to produce raw materials while their God-given role is to manufacture.
This is why apart from raising what Franz Fanon called ‘Black Skin, White Masks’ as elites, they also go for the jugular by destroying our education system and convincing generations of Nigerian governments that we do not need to know about our past. That was why until 2022, they banned the teaching of history in all Nigerian schools.
Surely, it is dangerous to allow slaves to be educated. But where it becomes inevitable, the bosses of the IMF and World Bank, try to ensure that the education the former slave colonies receive, are uncritical, subservient, if not useless.
Let me tell you a verifiable story. The World Bank told African countries in the 1980s that they do not need universities; what they need is technical education to run a basic economy. So, it discouraged African countries from developing education by seeking to destroy the existing university education.
It got a listening ear in the Babangida military regime that thought learning is a danger to its dictatorship. The regime which had accused academics in tertiary institutions of “teaching what they are not paid to teach”, agreed with the World Bank to stop funding university education.
So, both sides in 1987 signed an agreement for the World Bank to carry out a “restructuring exercise” of all federal universities in Nigeria using a loan facility of $120-150 million.
Under the “Eligibility Criteria for Federal Universities” the government accepted the conditionalities of the World Bank which included the freezing of recruitment of all categories of staff, mandatory staff retrenchment, increase in tuition fees for remedial and non-degree students, cancelling remedial courses in the Arts and phasing out sub-degree programmes that are being offered in other tertiary institutions.
Other World Bank conditionalities accepted by the Nigerian government, include eliminating post-graduate programmes in any department that had not yet graduated undergraduate students, phasing out any department that has been “in existence for more than ten years, but has less than 40 full time equivalent undergraduate students” and phasing out any department that has been “in existence for more than ten years, and has less than two thirds of the normally required academic staff.”
The World Bank also demanded the commercialisation of facilities which may include classrooms and lecture theatres, and that the procurement of 60 per cent equipment by the universities “shall be in accordance with standard specifications and approved manufacturers“ of the bank. To cap these, the bank demanded that it must scrutinise all the curricular of the universities and that there must be the mandatory importation of expatriate staff whose salaries are to be heavily topped.
The bank and the conniving Babangida regime agreed that Nigerian universities must meet all the conditionalities between June 1990 and June 1994. All these were published by the World Bank under its “Progress Report on the World Bank-Federal Universities Adjustment Operation.”
The country was saved the implementation of this destructive agreement due to mass protests by the media, professional associations, academics and students. In its desperate attempt to implement this World Bank gambit, the Babangida regime shut down many campuses and shot four students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.
This slavish project was buried when in the bloody April 22, 1990 aborted coup speech, Major Gideon Orkar gave one of the reasons for the coup as: “The cowing of the university teaching and non-teaching staff by an intended massive purge, using the 150 million dollar loan as the necessitating factor.”
The twin institutions, which exercise power without responsibility, are predatory birds, and as the 1969 title of James Hardley Chase novel asserts: “The Vulture is a Patient Bird.”
The World Bank and IMF remind me of ‘The Vultures’ a poem by David Diop in which he wrote: “In those days, When civilization kicked us in the face, When holy water slapped our cringing brows, The vultures built in the shadow of their talons, The blood-stained monument of tutelage.”
Suddenly the walls collapsed! Wow! The barriers were completely removed. All these obstacles you are seeing on your way will melt away. Yes, they will. They must! It will happen suddenly, totally, swiftly. You will look for them after reading this message and you will see them no more. Nothing can block your blessings again. God has blessed you and it cannot be reversed. Yes, this is our season. Are you not seeing it? No wall, no barrier, no obstacle, no power, no conspiracy can stop us. God gave the Israelites the city of Jericho, but the walls were impregnable. It was high, broad and well-fortified. The gates were tightly shut and roundly guarded. It was simply humanly impossible to go in and conquer it. You know this story very well. God had to push down the walls himself. Look at that incredible account again, “When the people heard the sound of the rams’ horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the town and captured it.” Joshua 6:20. Every wall standing against you will fall today! Yes, those angels that push down the walls of Jericho are still around.
Maybe, we will go back a bit to get the background of this display of this rare phenomenal divine power. God miraculously took the Israelites across the muddy River Jordan. The records had it that immediately the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant stepped into the river, it parted. Yes, the God that divided the Red Sea will also divide the Jordan. He is always ready to repeat what he has done for us in the past. God of yesterday is also the God of today and tomorrow. He does not change. He will do everything necessary to confirm his words and keep his promises. He had already given Israel the Promised Land by oath and the detailed boundaries hundreds of years ago and will not allow any obstacle to stand on their way. Listen, no barrier can stop the plan and promises of God for your life. He said that forever his word is settled in heaven (and on earth). God’s program for your life is settled forever. It cannot be changed, hindered or truncated by any circumstance, man or devil. But you must also play your role very well and on time. What did Israel do to attract the divine fulfillment and possession? Listen very carefully.
Immediately they crossed the River Jordan, the people were circumcised and they also celebrated the Passover. These two events, sacrifices and dedication automatically activated their possession and victory. They were necessary if they must take over the Promised Land and conquer their enemies. And they were commanded by God himself. You can not totally possess your possessions or be completely victorious if you have not reestablished and reactivated the divine covenants over your life. I wish you have my book / audiobook – Power of Sacrifice by Gabriel Agbo. Most people miss this point and they rise and fall freely. Your level of obedience and dedication will always determine the depth and height of divine commitment to you. Israel will possess their possession but they must first go through the reactivation of their dedication to God. And immediately they did it, God said that he has rolled away the shame of their slavery in Egypt. My God! How deep is your dedication to him? How strong is your obedience?? Tell me. This may be why you are still finding it difficult to fully locate, possess and stay in his blessings. We will continue. Share this message with others. God bless you!
[OPINION] Lawyers Are Not Traders, The Legal Practitioners Act Is The Only Authority That Allows Practice of Law In Nigeria - OluKayode Ajulo, SAN
AdminThe purported signing of the Enhanced Trade Investment Partnership (ETIP) Agreement between the Nigerian and United Kingdom governments has garnered significant media attention. This agreement aims to foster collaboration in various sectors, including finance, trade barriers, healthcare, investment, customs and trade facilitation, agriculture, intellectual property, creative industry, and legal services. Speculations have arisen regarding provisions that may permit UK lawyers to engage in legal practice within Nigeria.
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), has strongly criticized the provision allowing UK lawyers to practice in Nigeria, following the announcement of the agreement by the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment. While the Minister has maintained that no such provision exists in the agreement, it is essential that we examined the legality of this alleged provision within the framework of the Nigerian law.
It is important to note that the legal profession in Nigeria is regulated by statutes and subject to specific regulations. Sections 8(1) and (2) of the Legal Practitioners Act Cap L11, LFN, 2004 establish that a "legal practitioner" has the right to represent clients in all Nigerian courts, contingent upon the payment of annual practicing fees. However, certain enactments may restrict the right of representation in specific courts.
Section 24 of the same Act defines a "legal practitioner" as an individual entitled to practice as a barrister or both as a barrister and solicitor, either generally or for specific purposes. The Act clarifies that an individual can practice as a barrister and solicitor only if their name is listed in the roll. Inclusion in the roll requires that a person, whether Nigerian or foreign, be called to the Bar in accordance with section 4 of the Act and provides the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria with a certificate of their call to the Bar as mandated by section 7(1)(a) and (b) of the Act.
In the case of Tijani v. F.B.N. Plc (2014) 1 NWLR (Pt. 1387) 57, it was held that :
"Section 24 of the Legal Practitioners Act defines a legal practitioner as a person entitled in accordance with the provisions of the Act to practice as a barrister or as a barrister and solicitor……….” (P.74, paras. F-G)
Also in the case of Oketade v. Adewumi (2010) 8 NWLR (Pt. 1195) 63, it was held that:
"By the provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act, a person is entitled to practice as a barrister and solicitor if, and only if, his name is on the roll. And "legal practitioner" means a person entitled in accordance with the provisions of the Act to practice as a barrister or as a barrister and solicitor…………By section 2(1) of the Act, the only person in the legal profession wearing his professional name to practice law in Nigeria is a legal practitioner and the definition of a legal practitioner in section 24 of the Act does not include a firm”.
Furthermore, in the case of F.B.N. Plc v. Maiwada (2013) 6 NWLR (Pt. 1348) 444,
"By virtue of section 24 of the legal practitioners Act, Cap. L11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, "legal practitioner" means a person entitled in accordance with the provisions of the Act to practice as a barrister or as a barrister and solicitor…..Only legal practitioners, human beings called to the bar, can practice by signing documents.” (Pp. 482-483, paras. G-A; 506-507, paras. H-C; 532, paras. E-F)
Section 4(1) of the Act stipulates that a person may be called to the Bar if they are a Nigerian citizen and meet the necessary character and qualification requirements. Similarly, non-Nigerian citizens can also be called to the Bar if they fulfill the requisite qualifications and character criteria. Furthermore, the Act allows for the possibility of practicing as a barrister authorized by warrant, subject to specific conditions.
Under section 2(2)(a) and (b) of the Act, the Chief Justice of Nigeria may grant authorization to practice as a barrister in specific proceedings to individuals qualified to practice as advocates in countries with legal systems similar to Nigeria. However, such authorization is contingent upon the payment of a fee specified in the warrant, and legal practitioners whose names are listed in the roll take precedence over those authorized by warrant.
Based on the aforementioned provisions, it is evident that the practice of law in Nigeria by foreigners cannot solely be facilitated through agreements or memoranda of understanding (MoUs) signed by the Nigerian and UK governments or any other foreign nation. The rigorous processes outlined in the Legal Practitioners Act must be diligently followed, and unqualified individuals cannot gain admission to the Bar through unofficial channels unless the legislation is amended. Any attempt to contravene these regulations will be strongly opposed.
Overall, the essence of this discussion, pertains to certain personalities being more devout in their adherence to Christian principles than the Pope himself. This observation arises from the fact that the Attorney General of the Federation, who holds the highest position in the country's Bar Council and the Chief Legal Officer has not made any statement or press release regarding the signing of the Agreement. Instead, we have only heard voices such as the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment championing and expressing strong support for the Agreement, seemingly focused on the economic benefits while disregarding the potential negative impact on the legal profession in Nigeria.
However, it remains clear and indisputable: lawyers are professionals, not traders. Our profession has its own boundaries and should not be interfered with by unqualified outsiders for any reason, as they may lack the foresight to comprehend the risks this Agreement poses to the legal profession and the erosion of its professional standards.
John J. Parker, a former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeal for the Fourth Circuit in his address to the student body of the University of South Carolina Law School, Columbia, eloquently distinguishes the aforementioned subject matter. He argues that "the practice of law is a profession - not a business or a skilled trade. While both involve elements of profit and service, the fundamental difference lies in this: the primary objective of a trade or business is personal gain, whereas the primary objective of a profession is public service."
One finds this proposition rather puzzling, as it is not difficult to imagine a future where, through a simple decision from a trade minister or any other government official, a non-Nigerian citizen could potentially gain the ability to run for a position in our National Assembly, the Office of the President, or even become a Governor of a State, all through a memorandum of understanding (MOU).
Conclusively, as a legal practitioner with a proven track record in Nigeria, I firmly believe that our noble profession consists of honourable men and women who should not be subjected to interference based on trivial matters, unrealistic or theoretical approaches, as it is already built upon solid foundations that remain unblemished to this day.
Herbert Wigwe everyone knew, but not many knew the backbone behind his immense success. I called you Chiz Baby. Queenette Allagoa called you Chiz Burger. Most called you Doreen. I remember when you came back from the United States of America 31 years ago. You were just 26 years old, armed with your university degrees and ready to start life afresh back home. We immediately bonded over our unique family dynamics and love of trading. I remember marvelling at your capacity to switch back and forth from an American accent to a Nigerian English accent with ease. I was immediately drawn to your infectious laughter which could be heard from a mile away and your tremendous industry. You were born into privilege, but you were never afraid of hard work.
Your dad, the late Chief Cyprian Chukwuemeka Nwuba (Uncle CY) was a chartered accountant and had worked for Shell Petroleum Development Company where he rose to the position of African Financial Controller, before transferring to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation where he was the Group General Manager, Finance and Accounts, before his retirement. Your mum was a senior public servant who worked in the education ministry before she took you, Alex and Pauline to live with her in the United States.
Despite spending your impressionable years growing up in the U.S., we would head out daily to Oke-Arin market in the heart of Lagos Island where we tried our hands at wholesale trading. I would later drop my forays into Oke-Arin market and give up the shop that my parents had paid for me as I forged a new career in journalism. But you never did, frugally saving and turning around every penny that you made until you became an immensely wealthy and successful businesswoman with interests in construction, real estate and the hospitality sectors.
I remember the beginnings of your relationship with Queenette, which was to blossom into a lifelong unbreakable sisterhood. Today, she’s inconsolable without you, but remains thankful to God for your life. I remember your first meeting with Herbert, then a young, freshly minted General Manager at Guaranty Trust Bank, and the twinkle in your eye after introductions had been made. It was at Queenette’s house where we used to hangout as young women, laughing our heads off and without a care in the world. I remember your wedding to Herbert and the reception at the Muson Centre. I remember Chizi’s birth a few months after and Tochi’s four years later. We would still hangout at Queenette’s house where Herbert would often turn up after work to pick you up, but only after he had helped himself to a hearty meal of edi kai kong, afang or fisherman’s soup that were regular staples at Queenette’s abode.
I recall when you ventured into the construction industry. Just a few of us knew that Craneburg Construction Company was your baby. You would regale me with stories about size of the contracts your company was taking on and I was amazed at your trips all over the country, executing and monitoring road, infrastructure and building projects. You would sometimes call me from Bauchi or Sokoto State and I would ask, “Chiz Baby, what on earth are you doing there?” You would always respond with your trademark laughter, “Ijeoma, I am working.”
It was your construction firm that built the highways, bridges and toll plaza from Lekki Phase II all the way to and within Epe town, making the journey to Ijebu Ode in Ogun State less arduous. It was your construction firm that built roads and flyovers in Ondo, Imo, Adamawa, Ogun, Bauchi, Gombe and other states. You took on airport construction projects, oil and gas, and marine projects like fish to water. Today, Craneburg is one of Nigeria’s largest, diversified construction groups that employs 7,000 people working across all major sectors of the economy. When you were not travelling around Nigeria, you would take off to China or Hong Kong to import all sort of things that you sold. No enterprise was too big or too small for you to handle. You revelled in it like very few people could.
I once asked you how Herbert felt about your far-flung business interests. You responded, saying that your relationship with him was built on trust and he was a confident man who was very supportive of your business. Herbert was later to confirm this over ten years ago when he proudly confessed to a mutual friend that you were probably wealthier than he was. More recently, in an interview on Arise News Channel, when the interviewer Ojy Okpe asked Herbert what his most prized possession was, without skipping a beat, he said you were his most prized asset and his everything. This was how much you meant to him. You were anything but a trophy wife. You were an equal partner in a blessed union made on earth and now in heaven.
As I watched your relationship with Herbert thrive, I was later to understand that it was your independence, industry and mutual love of children that solidified your bond as a loving couple. Just like Herbert, you loved children dearly and I watched your family grow with the addition of David, Hannah and Okachi. I remember your love and dedication to your children. Despite your business interests, you always took off for several months at a time watching over Chizi and Tochi in the UK when they were at boarding school and university. When David and Hannah were old enough to go to boarding school, you did likewise. I remember when you told me that Herbert found it difficult to let go of David and how he cried like a baby when he was dropped off at prep school in the UK. You and Herbert absolutely adored children and were planning to have more because they brought both of you tremendous joy.
Barely a week before you embarked on your final journey to the United States, I called you to introduce you to a friend of mine who wanted to build two multi-storey buildings in Lagos. Irrespective of the numerous projects that you were already handling, you were very grateful and excited at the new prospect and within 24 hours had met with her and her team at their office in Ikoyi. My friend is very sad at your passing but has promised to go ahead with Craneburg Construction as a mark of remembrance of your dynamism and industry.
Chiz Baby, what will we do without you? You were a beautiful woman, not just in looks but in spirit. You never, ever flaunted your success. You were always God-fearing, humble, playful, shrewd and intelligent. Last Saturday evening when I heard that you, Herbert and Chizi had been declared missing after the helicopter crash, I kept calling Alex your brother who was extraordinarily brave that night. We held on to whatever glimmer of hope that we had that all three of you had walked away from the crash and would be found. But as the night wore on and we learnt that you were no more, I completely lost sleep.
All I could do was to go down memory lane of our early beginnings as I showed you the lay of the land and introduced you to the few friends that I had. I thought of our minor scrapes as young women and our ability to move past them. I thought of your interactions with my mum and dad whenever you came round to visit. I thought of your interactions with your parents and siblings Alex, Pauline, Tolly, the late Anana and Chinny and how much you loved them. I thought of Tochi, Hanana, David and little Okachi who you, Herbert and Chizi have left behind. It was like watching life through a kaleidoscope.
Chiz Baby, right now we can only console ourselves in the knowledge that you and your dearest Herbert left behind separate, yet intertwined sustainable legacies through which we shall remember both of you for eternity. Thankfully, Tochi is your daughter through and through. She is almost the same age today as you were when you returned to Nigeria over three decades ago. We believe in her capacity, with the support and guidance of her numerous uncles and aunties, to look after and bring up her younger siblings in a manner that would make you, Chizi and Herbert proud. Despite the heartbreak, they will grow, prosper, and carry on the baton of the Wigwe family. They will be fine!
Sleep on my dearest Chiz Baby. Sleep on my dearest Herbie. Sleep on my dearest Chizi. And may your souls rest in eternal peace.
What you wish today may not be so appealing tomorrow, the world is evolving, and in its evolution dynamics change. Strategies are dynamic and ought to evolve according to circumstances. Time is an element you have little or no control over, but never fail to seize the moment. What is most important is you have a career plan, no matter how humble or lofty, it is your plan and like the lens of a glass, keep your thoughts and aspirations focused therein, sooner or later, you will generate enough heat and light a fire.
As in a lens, there is no time frame when the heat would generate a fire, the clouds could cover the sun momentarily but eventually it will pass. The winds could cool the heat or rains may fall but all these shall come to pass in time, let not your desire to accomplish wane. Nurture strength of spirit, believe and focus on yourself, you have no time to indulge on others, be thankful for God’s Grace upon your life, He that brought you thus far, shall never forsake you. What we term as misfortunes and setbacks only strengthen you, for what does not eliminate strengthens.
Fear is your greatest enemy, for he who dares wins. Be bold and daring, you are a stakeholder in this country, this continent and the world, and not a tenant. Globalize your aspirations where possible, but also be content with your humble strides, what is important is do positive things no matter how modest it may seem. Attitude in numerology is 100, imbibe the CAN DO SPIRIT, if I can think it, I can do it, or how else could the Wright brothers have developed the aeroplane? Consider where the world would be today without the daringness of those two brothers. Do not for once think there is someone out there looking out for you, or bail you out in your times of need, you are now O. Y.O, on your own.
Unfortunately, governance and caring do not correlate in Nigeria. Aspire for what will bring the greatest good to yourself and society. For instance, if theoretically, each one of you impacts positively the life of ten persons and they in turn impact a further 10 and thereon, in six short years we should impact the lives of millions of people.
That may sound absurdly impossible and impracticable, only because we have not made giving the creed in our lives. In tough times, develop the resilience to overcome, nobody said it would be easy, but never lose focus, always look at the sunnier side to life.
For me, when the times are rough and tough, I take to music. I learnt how to play the saxophone in a tough period in my life, do what you enjoy, to keep you in such moments sane, never allow disquietude overcome you, that is a sign of despair and the beginning of failure. Remember, quitters never win, and winners never quit. Personally, I’ll will respect you if you aim high and miss, rather than aim low and hit. Be of self discipline, for if you are unable to discipline self, which is self conquest, how could you conquer the world?
Ego is a diabolical weakness not a strength, it’s size corresponds to your weakness. Samson was a conqueror until he lost self discipline. Be punctual in your affairs, it’s better to be an hour early, than a minute late. Rather be the hammer than the nail, but never fail to show compassion in all your affairs for you are not just a human being, but a humane being. Surround yourself with people you can learn from, not those that entertain you for they are of transient value. Study and understand your failures, it’s telling you something. Pace yourself, we all have our race to run. It’s not necessarily for the swiftest.
Remember Kodak, they invented the digital camera, but failed to understand the digital revolution. Always improve and keep abreast of advancements, it’s an ever changing world. Never stand still, time is the greatest and scarcest resource in the world, but, remember as Martin Luther King once said ,“if you can’t fly, run, if you can’t run, walk and if you can’t walk, crawl, but by all means keep on moving”. Your watch phrase should be “good better best, won’t you ever rest, nay, until my good is better and my better is best. Let the DESIDERATA by Max Erhmann be you creed to life, it goes this way; “Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful and strive to be happy. In all frankly, self first, for if you are of no use to yourself, you can hardly be of value to others.
So set forth, your time is now.
Now let’s talk about Nigeria, Africa and indeed the world. Our population, resource base, positive aggression make it imperative that we play a dominant role in the black world or at least in Africa. That we claim we are the largest economy in Africa is akin to dwarfs arguing who is taller. The size of our economy which is hardly $500b is equivalent of perhaps two persons in the United States, several companies in the United States are far larger in worth than all of Nigeria, we need to contextualize ourselves vis a vis the rest of the world.
We still remain one of, if not the poorest nation on earth per capital. Ours is the typical “in the abundance of water the fool is thirsty.”
But there’s a new sound bite in the air. A trillion dollar economy in the next couple of years. But how do we achieve this and how does it better and prosper each or majority of us? What are our strengths that we can build upon that makes us as a collective, participants and beneficiaries in the overall upbuilding of our country. But a nation with the right planks can help catalyze this. And the proposition is based on four anchors, SKILLS, HEALTH, INFRASTRUCTURE AND TECHNOLOGY. Our world today is skill-based. Automation has over the past 200 years been replacing labor and over the last 50 years this pace has accelerated. It is automation that saw to the irrelevance of slave labor in the west and not morality and is currently leading to higher than required production levels that require unsophisticated markets for dumping. That explains the selling of good quality cheap products to the less developed, making it unattractive for this world to become productive entities in themselves. To bridge the productivity gap, we urgently need to bridge the skills divide. I’m not referring here to education per se; we have a sizable number of those. I am referring to a system of education that impacts on an individual a unique ability that is contributory to the overall beneficial growth of society, in other words, functional education as distinct from communicative education as we now have, that enables us read and write. The Germans have by their educational system articulated this perhaps more than any other country on earth with its high content of vocational studies and practical exposure during training, allowing and indeed encouraging innovation. It’s hardly conceivable that an automobile engineering student would not have dismantled and rebuilt an entire car by the date of graduation and his final year thesis being on how to improve some system within the vehicle. And to aid this further, German manufacturing businesses are an integral part of the educational system. The Chinese have recently adopted a similar system. Our inability to develop and implement a functional healthcare delivery system, has led nationally to both physical and economic hemorrhage. Physically, our productivity is one of the lowest on the continent and indeed the world. Malaria as a single scourge accounts for no less than 15 to 20% decrease in workers output, not to talk about poor nutrition and its impact on physical and mental health development. Besides, given the amount spent as international funds transfer around the world on healthcare and the attendant high cost for healthcare locally, it is nightmarish to fall sick in Nigeria. Stating broadly, until functional medicare is available within five minutes walk from our places of residence, as do churches , universal healthcare delivery will remain a mirage.
One of the great mitigations to achieving our full potential as a people and a nation is the absence of infrastructure. The paralyzing road, rail, air and seaport infrastructure mitigates the rapid movements of good, and persons.
The poor communication system does not help either; this mitigates the provision of services. To date our telecommunications system is a cellular one, which is a secondary means of communication with very limited data ability as against trunk lines with fiber optics with much larger data band width. What we call land lines, are indeed primary communication systems.
I need not talk about power or energy infrastructure. Ironically, Nigeria remains the single largest petroleum gas pollutant in the world. Flaring approximately 25 billion cubic ft. of gas daily, an equivalent of 25 million liters of diesel, an amount that could fuel enough turbines to power the entire continent, is simply inexplicable. Imagine if we piped the gas to every part of the country and made subsidized gas our stimulant to industry in our quest to achieving global industrial competitiveness. After all we flare the gas.
You have to use what you have to get what you want. And embracing technology would be the catalyst. Technology and particularly information technology is the growth trajectory for the next 50 years.
As sophisticated as it may seem already, it is still in its infancy and the only only way to bridge the development divide between the northern and southern hemispheres is to expedite our knowledge in this sector. It is indeed more crucial in today’s world than the study of English as a language and matched only by mathematics. (Truth is to study IT one must have a reasonable command of the language of instruction).
The usual question when I so postulate on what ought to be done is this: where is the money coming from? My answer is simple, several sources of financial engineering could bring this about, however, one obvious low hanging fruit, is amortizing our oil resources. With an estimated 40 billion barrels there must be a way to leverage on the short term this resource, indeed, it’s not so much the resource but rather our credibility as a nation that is hampering our collective access to capital. The true challenge is not finding the money, but its maximum, prudent utilization and this has thus far eluded us. Recent budgetary allocations betray succinctly this statements.
Is it easy? NO, and it should not be. The bumps and hiccups along the way only help to sift the boys from the men, the girls from the ladies or better put, determine the entrepreneurs from the flock, thereby improving and putting focus on the productive gene pool. But this would require tremendous discipline, fastidiousness and for us an uncommon drive. But bear in mind, HE WHO DARES WINS!!!
The foregoing are excerpts from a pre-convocation lecture given recently by Mr. Duke at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria
Old students’ associations can be a bridge between the past and future. In several countries, academic institutions owe their survival and development to the vibrancy of these alumni bodies. But though they engender a spirit of unity necessary to surmounting difficult challenges facing our country today, we are yet to sufficiently tap into this critical opportunity. Or at least so I thought. Until January last year when I received a call from former Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Director General, Mr Sola Omole. He made what I considered a rather unusual request on behalf of Fiditi Grammar School Old Students Association (FIGSOSA) of which he is a member. To mark its 70th anniversary this February (then 13 months away), FIGSOSA wanted a commitment from me that I would write a column about the standards of education in Nigeria over the past 50 years.
Five months later, 22 May 2023 to be specific, I received a letter jointly signed by FIGSOSA national president, Professor Adesola Ogunniyi, chairman of the anniversary’s organising committee, Mr Oladapo Lagunju and Omole who chairs the publicity committee. After highlighting the theme for the 70th anniversary, ‘Sustainable Youth Development—Roles for Old Students Associations’, they formally made their request. “Our desire is that using the celebration and our theme as background, you review our education standards and perhaps proffer ways of improvement,” their letter stated. “We want this to be our contribution to the all-important debate about the place of education in Nigeria. We request that this suggested piece appear in your backpage VERDICT column on any day between the 12th and 16th of February 2024.”
I thank the leadership of FIGSOSA for their concern about education in Nigeria. I feel very humbled that they consider my intervention on the issue of any consequence. Honestly, I have found it difficult to process the amusing request. Whoever came up with the idea obviously has more faith in this column than I do. But for whatever it is worth, considering the reminder I got last week, I intend to keep my promise. First, let me say a few words about Fiditi Grammar School in Oyo State.
Founded in 1954, the late Mr Christopher Okigbo (who would become a globally renowned poet) was a teacher and later vice principal and sports master at the school. The duo of Okigbo and then principal, Chief Alex Ajayi, according to Omole, recruited Teslim ‘Thunder’ Balogun as coach for the football team that won many laurels. Other prominent products of Fiditi Grammar School include Dr. Bode Olajumoke, a prominent lawyer, businessman and former Senator who was for 20 years FIGSOSA National President, Professor Adejare Agboola of Applied Botany Department at the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Professor Olufemi Durosaro of the University of Ilorin, and Professor Samson Omotosho of the University of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. Major General Kola Ogunkoya (rtd), a one-time NYSC Director General, Naval Admiral Segun Egbedina (rtd), who commanded NNS Aradu, AIG Lanre Bankole (rtd) as well as Professors Bridget Sokan, Adekunle Akinyemi and Ogunniyi, (current FIGSOSA president and consultant Neurologist), are products of the school. Of course, there are hundreds of other prominent ex-this, ex-that who have also passed through the school. Omole himself was for several years the General Manager, Public Affairs, Chevron Nigeria Limited, before returning to NTA as DG.
Now to the issue at hand. While FIGSOSA asks that I review education in Nigeria in the past five decades, I believe it would be more productive to share my thoughts on their 70th anniversary theme because it centres on the role that alumni associations can play in the development of education in our country. Indeed, the immense benefits of alumni networks have led to the establishment of global charity organisations including ‘Future First Global’, based on the findings of a research study that covered countries in Asia, East and West Africa, Latin America, North America, Europe and the Middle East.
The study, sponsored by the Open Society Foundations, reveals how former students can engage with their alma mater as role models, mentors, work experience providers and trusted advisers. Former students, according to Future First Global, UK, are an incredible and largely untapped resource that every school has. “We think there are over 500 million adults globally who would give back to their old schools if they were asked, and yet we estimate only 2% are currently doing so.” Not surprisingly, while only two percent of adults polled had engaged with or gone back to their former high (secondary) schools, 52 percent of those asked said they would be willing to do so. Therefore, we have a pool of resources that can be harnessed for the development of our education sector, especially in Nigeria. And I am delighted that FIGSOSA is leading the way.
From primary school which lays the foundation, to university which prepares students for an increasingly competitive job market, all levels of education are important. But perhaps the most important is High (secondary school) that stands in the middle. In an ideal scenario, this level of education covers a broader scope of subjects with just enough depth to prepare and equip an individual with the requisite knowledge for gainful occupation and economic self-sufficiency. But this critical sector, which provides the foundation for building productive and conscientious members of society, is seriously challenged in Nigeria. The fact that many of our university students are ill prepared for rigorous intellectual engagement and the graduates are unfit for the job market reflects the quality of the foundation they received in secondary schools.
This is a systemic problem. While most of us are products of public schools, we have long opted to send our children to private schools (and I also plead guilty here), without caring about those who cannot afford the huge costs. Of course, we all know what a succession of governments, at all levels, have done to public schools in Nigeria. Yet, the point we must underscore is that public schools have significant social missions they fulfill in every society. The most critical is that they guarantee equal opportunity for all children regardless of their parents’ social status. In the process, they help to unify a diverse country.
To secure the future, we must defend the integrity of our learning spaces. And beyond what government should do, meaningful interventions from alumni associations can make a world of difference. If anybody has a doubt about the crisis of education in Nigeria, the sight of fully suited-up young men and formally dressed young women (most of them graduates) distributing leaflets for housing estates should drive the point home. That some supposedly educated people believe they can build their life on, or find fulfilment in, distributing leaflets on major roads and street corners is telling. In recent years, my wife has been championing a free education scheme for indigent children in Abuja through her Not Forgotten Initiative (NFI) School. With that, I have seen the abysmal level to which our public schools have degenerated. And we cannot all just fold our hands.
Let me identify four areas in which our public secondary schools are deficient and where alumni associations can help to redress the situation. First is in the provision of adequate infrastructure and ensuring a safe and conducive learning environment. The second is in providing essential tools that include well equipped laboratories with required technical equipment, well stocked libraries, and access to computers. In many of our public schools today, students access basic tools through their imagination, which makes it difficult to comprehend most of the theories they are being taught.
It is noteworthy that to mark its 70th anniversary, according to Omole, Governor Seyi Makinde has been invited to open a skills acquisition center just completed for Fiditi Grammar School by FIGSOSA. “The centre will train school leavers, even those without a formal education, in various trades such as information technology and allied trades, carpentry, fashion design, catering and culinary skills among others,” Omole said of a project that should be emulated by other stakeholders in the alumni space if we must reposition the education sector in Nigeria. “This initiative is being undertaken in the belief that only those who can create and sustain personal entrepreneurial initiatives will survive in the unfolding global economy.”
However, as critical as conducive learning environment and infrastructure are, teachers are unarguably the most important element in formal education. Unfortunately, many of the teachers allowed into the system lack sufficient qualifications and the ones who possess these qualifications have not been cherished by the government. Tied to this is the issue of remuneration which remains abysmally poor. Aspiring to be a teacher was once a prestigious calling but the majority who enter the profession today are those who have no other means of livelihood. We need to change that paradigm.
Finally, there must also be an increase in funding. Nigeria’s yearly budgetary allocation to education pales in comparison to many other African countries and falls short of UNESCO’s recommended standard of at least 26 percent. Meanwhile, even the meagre budgetary allocation is mostly spent on recurrent expenditures, leaving little money for infrastructure upgrades and capacity building. If we are serious, we can use alumni associations to revitalize education in Nigeria. But the intervention must be structured.
In November 2019, a former Chairperson of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and then President of the Queen’s College Old Girls Association, Mrs Ifueko Omoigui Okauru posed a question at a townhall session on improving transparency and accountability in basic education in Nigeria. The question has not been answered: Can Nigerian authorities, as a pilot scheme, allow alumni associations to run some of our public schools for a specific period to see if it could help halt the decline of the educational sector in the country?
Omoigui-Okauru, who revealed that she met then education minister, Mallam Adamu Adamu to discuss wide-ranging issues on public school management in Nigeria said “the Queens College Old Girls Association has made a proposal to the federal government to take over the administration and management of the school for a pilot period of three years. The school can be permanently turned over to the association if government is satisfied with the management after the pilot period.”
I don’t know what happened to the proposal, but to revamp public schools in Nigeria, this is an idea worth considering. In a country where the government will continue to find it increasingly difficult to meet up with its responsibilities, we must encourage alumni associations to play a greater role. We need them to be more involved with the boards of school management and they can offer useful suggestions on the relevance of school curriculums to the demands of the professional workplace.
There will be a day to look at the private schools because they are also part of the problem. Last year, the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) alleged that many private school owners in the country employ quacks as teachers. Even though the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) rejected the allegation, it is a serious issue we also need to examine. Just as we need to look at the role that Parents Teachers Association (PTAs) can play and the state of teacher’s training institutes across the country.
Education remains the bedrock of national growth and development, and we all have a part to play by giving back to the institutions from where we studied. If we do nothing, the rot will continue and haunt us all in future. FIGSOSA is therefore reminding us that Alumni associations are critical stakeholders in the process of reforming the education sector. And to the extent that efforts to bring about sustainable change in the education system in Nigeria is a collective task, alumni associations must be allowed to play a critical role.
Once again, I wish FIGSOSA and all its members a happy 70th anniversary.
Goodnight, Herbert Wigwe
Having followed what turned out to be the most entertaining and unpredictable African Cup of Nations (AfCON) football tournament, with its twists and turns, I had a desire to watch the final live. I was therefore excited last Saturday afternoon when, in graciously granting my request, Vice President Kashim Shettima said I should be at the Abuja airport presidential wing by 1PM next day (Sunday) to join his delegation to Abidjan for the match. Unfortunately, a few hours later, news broke of the death in the United States of Herbert Wigwe along with his wife, son and others. I had to send a message to the vice president that regrettably, I would no longer travel because of the tragedy.
I considered the late Herbert a friend, but it is with his parents that I have a special relationship. When in June 2022 they marked their 60th wedding anniversary, I wrote about how, since 2001, Pastor Shyngle Wigwe, a former NTA Director General, had taken me almost like a son—and always called to pray for me and my family. I cannot begin to imagine what the Wigwes have been going through since Saturday. The overwhelming suffering and intense emotional pain that parents experience after such tragic bereavement, according to ‘Compassionate Friends’, a global NGO committed to supporting grieving families, “shatters core beliefs and assumptions about the world and the expectations about how life should unfold.” My thoughts and prayers are with the Wigwes at this most difficult period.
In her column, ‘Telling Chizoba’s Story’ yesterday, Ijeoma Nwogwugwu provided rare insights into the life and times of Mrs Wigwe who died alongside her husband in the helicopter crash. It is a moving and fitting tribute to a remarkable woman. Meanwhile, it was on a personal project, Wigwe University, that Herbert had lately invested considerable time, energy and resources. When we last spoke in December, he promised to take me to see the campus located in his ancestral Ikwerre land in Rivers State. That will no longer happen. I hope there are people who will help sustain that legacy.
For the WhatsApp philosophers who use the death of successful people to write and circulate drivel on the pretext that ‘life is fleeting’, ‘all is vanity’ etc., they must understand that Herbert has run his own race and is now with his maker. “Each man’s death diminishes me,” John Donne wrote in his immortal poem. “For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.” Herbert perfectly understood that nobody is guaranteed tomorrow. In a post on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle on 19th January, he left a fitting epitaph for the rest of us. “Today and always, let us remember that life is a precious gift – a chance to breathe, feel, love, experience and connect,” he wrote in a prescient manner common only to those who are spiritually alert. “Let’s honour this gift by living with purpose, kindness, and gratitude, making every moment count. Let us number our days.”
May God comfort his loving parents, remaining children, family members and his bosom friend cum business partner, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede.
- You can follow me on my X (formerly Twitter) handle, @Olusegunverdict and
I was going through some old files in my closet the other day when I saw some documents and receipts that absolutely cracked me up. Among the browning, time-worn papers was the receipt from a private primary school for the payment of my first daughter’s fees.
It was a middle-class school that charged N5,000 naira per term. Attached to the fading receipt was a thank you note by the bursar. I rocked with laughter. This was in 1995 when, after nearly seven years of working, my monthly salary was around 60k or so. I will not forget how my mother reacted when she found out how much I was paying for her granddaughter’s termly fees. “Did your university tuition cost that much?”, she asked despairingly.
Of course, it did, but not by a lot. As I held that rusty receipt in my hand on that day, the shock and despair in my mother’s face about how prices had gone up and how things had changed, for the worse, flooded my mind.
Yet, within three decades of my mother showing concern, the joke was on me. By this time, it was no longer a laughing matter.
“Ilu le o…!”
I had somehow managed to find out how much my daughter was paying for my granddaughter’s school fees in a school certainly more upscale than the one she attended, but by my reckoning, unlikely to be among the A-List schools in her part of town.
What she was paying for my granddaughter’s kindergarten per term was roughly ten times my salary after seven years of working. I couldn’t help wondering what my mother would have said or done if she had lived to see the school fees of her great-granddaughter, a kid enrolled barely out of her diapers! And this was only three years ago.
Many things in the old files in my closet reminded me of how the times are changing. When I think of Victor Olaiya’s famous highlife song, “Ilu le o!” (literally meaning, Country hard!) released over 40 years ago which was supposed to have captured the misery of men and women complaining about the hard times, I wonder exactly what the moaning was about.
Nuts for the rich
A few days ago, I had a conversation with my local cashew nut seller. I had been buying cashew nuts from her since when a bottle cost N800, which was not up to four years ago. Slowly, but steadily, the price climbed to N1,000, then N1,200, then N1,500 and before you could say, “cashew,” it became N4,000 per bottle – roughly the cost of my daughter’s one-term school fee in the late 1990s.
How do you buy a bottle of nuts for N4,000? Perhaps because I drive a big car – which is a Tokunbo, by the way – the nut seller thought she had me hooked; that I should be able to afford the nut, whatever the price. Well, she was mistaken and I told her so. Of course, she pleaded that it was not her fault that it was – you guessed right – the exchange rate! Dollar or not, I won’t buy cashew nuts now priced as luxury items.
Of course, I know about the fiber, protein and healthy fats that come from cashew nuts, not to mention blood sugar control, heart health and weight loss. But at 72.5kg, and with the gift of a stature that can eat both pounded yam and mortar without them showing, why should I lose sleep over weight? Whatever cashew nut offers, especially in fiber, I will get from sweet potatoes.
But cashew nuts are not the whole story of this cost-of-living crisis. Even potatoes have doubled in price. According to a BBC report, prices in Nigeria are rising at their fastest rates ever in the last 30 years.
This was how the BBC report described it: “A standard 50kg bag of rice, which could help feed a household of between eight and 10 for about a month, now costs N77,000,” that is, about double the price last December. The prices of other staples such as beans, garri, maize and millet have also gone up, costing the average worker two months’ minimum wage for a bag.
Portion control
Portion control was a frequent point of argument in my house. It’s a problem with men, of course, but it’s worse with African women brought up to believe that the proof of spousal care is in the size of the husband’s weight, measured by the amount of food on his plate. It’s considered taboo in many places, especially in the South of Nigeria, for example, for a man’s plate of soup to have only one piece of meat or fish. Or for his dough, famously called swallow, to appear miserly.
This well-intended culture of culinary excess is captured in Chinua Achebe’s Things fall apart, where the story is told of a wealthy man who gave a feast at which guests on one side of the table did not see those on the other side from morning until night when they managed to level the mountain of food set before them during the new yam festival.
If, however, Okonkwo’s guests were living in today’s Nigeria, where a sachet of water in a 50cl plastic bag costs N20, more than twice the price last year, they would be lucky to find enough water to drink after a meal of afafata, chaff of rice grain, which is now a staple in parts of Northern Nigeria.
My point about portion control is that after years of struggling to convince my wife, and often the female domestic staff, that measurements and smaller food portions, including far fewer pieces of protein in my meals don’t mean lack of care, the cost-of-living crisis is finally driving the point home!
As for other things such as the cost of petrol and other energy costs, which increased by 216 percent from N195 per litre after the removal of subsidy last May, I threatened to buy a bicycle to augment my transportation cost before a concerned staff warned me of the risk of cycling nearly 15 kilometres to work across two major highways.
There is, however, one area of adjustment, which after futilely struggling to contain without luck, I have decided to seek “divine intervention”, as we say: my BP medication. In a country where less than five percent of the population have health insurance and the rest pay out-of-pocket for treatment, persons with underlying medical conditions have been badly hit by the current inflation rate of 28.9 percent.
It’s not a laughing matter. Last year, for example, a packet of Co-Diovan 80/12.5mgs, my recommended BP management medicine, cost about N8,000. Now, it is N24,000 and still rising for the same packet which lasts 28 days.
Trouble in the world
Of course, it’s not a uniquely Nigerian problem. From New Zealand to Nepal, countries around the world have been battling with a serious cost-of-living crisis. This crisis is a combination of factors ranging from COVID-19 and the supply chain problems that followed, to the war in Ukraine and extreme climate changes across the world.
In fact, Nigeria is not listed among the 10 African countries with the highest cost of living, a list that features Senegal at the top, with others such as Cote d’Ivoire, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Cameroon and Kenya, among others.
Just like economic problems imitate physical diseases, countries with underlying structural problems have been the worst hit. The difference from place to place, however, has been in how leaders repaired trust and mobilised resources in response.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu campaigned for his current job knowing full well there won’t be a honeymoon from day one. I’ll need to file something urgently in my closet that my granddaughter might see someday to show that my vote for him was not a mistake.
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Those who bear the name Valentine dread the month of February like a plague. Besides close friends who always demand that you celebrate your name in grand style, most confront you with all manner of questions bordering on the concept that your name is supposed to embody. Thus, you are asked whether you were born on the 14th of February or whether you were a by-product of a love affair that took place in the month of February. One fact I have come to discover over the years is that people take those who bear the name of Valentine as experts in all known techniques of love, starting with its fundamentals to its metaphysics.
Despite much research, we cannot tell unequivocally the exact date the feast started, nor the route by which it entered into history. Perhaps it is connected to the life of a certain St. Valentine who was said to have suffered martyrdom in Rome as the Church hagiography would want us to believe. Perhaps, as the legend of the saint’s heroic faith says, it grew out of the love shown to prisoners by the saintly Valentine. Perhaps it has to do with the period in the year when birds of the earth look for mates. Perhaps it is another case of substitution of a pagan feast by Christian feast as a subtle way of blighting paganism at the bud. We do not know. Valentine’s Day is part of history whose beginning has been forgotten, and whose end we shall never reach.
The popularity of Valentine’s Day could be linked to the nature of the theme it celebrates – love. Writing about love, Archbishop Fulton Sheen called it “the most used, and the most misunderstood word.” The misunderstanding inherent in the nature of love often provokes people to ask questions such as: How much of what we claim as love is love indeed? Does love have different levels and spheres? Is it possible to love our neighbor as ourselves, as the Holy writ prescribes? What is love? These are the questions with which the most comprehensive theories, treatises, and analyses of love find it necessary to begin.
To the Greeks, love could be Eros, Philia, and agape. Plato’s ladder of love in the “Symposium” has different loves for its rungs, up to what we commonly call “Platonic Love”. St Thomas Aquinas distinguishes between love in the sphere of passion and love as an act of will. The former he assigns to what he calls the “concupiscible faculty” of the sensitive appetite; the latter, to the rational or “intellectual appetite”. Sometimes, people talk about metaphysical, contemplative, material, and acquisitive love, etc.
Whatever form love takes, it implies a complex psychical experience of strong attraction to, intense desire for, vivid appreciation of, a profound interest in, one's object of love. The object of love could be a fellow being, institution, cause, or even nature. It involves tender affection, sympathetic understanding, admiration, and loyalty, with reference to its object.
But apart from a few people who recognize the fact of plurality of love in their analyses, most of us, especially the youth, talk abundantly of love, commonly in the sense of amorous appetite. These are people who confess their loving the object of their love more than their own mothers. Recall the “sugar in my tea” and similar stuff. Our elders consider this form of love to be a form of “possession” or “madness”, and would frown at anyone who would propose it as a fit guide in the choice of a marriage mate. They do this, knowing that once the erotic side of love diminishes or fades away altogether, the disinterested element fades too; interest in the other’s happiness evaporates, all tender feeling is eroded, and the one desire is to get away. This is what Lucretius called “erotic befuddlement”. What Dedriot deridedly described as “the voluptuous loss of a few drops of liquid.” It is a spark thrown off by the contact or nearness of two opposite bodies.
In pursuit of this type of love, there is nothing that human beings have not done, or are not capable of doing. The love potion that some ladies brew for men they suspect of unrequited love has no platonic aim. It is not out of generosity, rather to get the object of their longing, that men spend lots of money in wooing women. Women themselves do as much. To attract men, they dress in manners to arouse precipitate passion. Eyelashes are darkened with gum ammonia. Cheeks and lips are painted with sticks of minium or alkanet roots. Adjustable eyebrows are used and often pencilled with lampblack or pulverized or sulphuret of antimony, sometimes it is thinned to diverse shapes or shaved off entirely and painted “crescent moons” or other forms. Eyelids are shaded with kohl. All sorts of things are rubbed on the face, in the hope that it will make them look beautiful. Some in the villages still wrap their fingernails overnight with henna leaves to make them purple. Padded brassieres are used to make the breast look poised and … Breast enhancement has since become part of beauty regimen. There is no part of the woman’s body, in pursuit of men, that has not been perfected, decorated, refined, stretched and squeezed, bleached, reformed, compacted, and shortened.
Higher than the afore-described love is what is often called genuine friendship. In this type of love, there is often the predominance of altruistic motives. It springs from mutual admiration. Here, love is thought to precede desire and to determine its wishes. Marriages built upon this type of love are often successful. Mature lovers discover that marriage transcends the act of multiplication of the species or the fantasy of sexual acts. There are some men who think that all a woman appreciates in a man is when he brandishes the erectile organ to her satisfaction. No. Marriage is more than that. It demands deep understanding and maturity from both partners.
All the foregoing classifications and distinctions, inexhaustible though, belong to the theory of human love. But the fact of love’s diversity extends to the Christian theory of love. Christianity brought about a basic shift in man’s thinking about love. Christianity sees love not in the emotion or passion, but from the infinite perfection and creativity of God. Writing to the Corinthians (2 Cor 13: 6) St Paul said that “love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth...” God Himself is love (I John 4: 4). “Love ye one another”. In this profound sentence, God summarized all the commandments. Love rules the world and was, perhaps, as Parmenides thought, “the very first thing created by the gods to rule the world”.
The key to peace in the world is for men to embrace the ethics of Christ – love. Confucius taught a version of it in his rule of reciprocity (golden rule). Immanuel Kant espoused it in his book, The Metaphysics of Morals in what he called the “Maxims of Categorical Imperative”. All great religions teach it. Until we start to imbibe this golden rule (love), the battle to re-make the world can as well be labelled a utopia.
The sooner we use the day of Valentine to promote this type of love, the better the world will become.
There is no denying the fact that Prof. Farooq Kperogi is as engaging as he is informed about Nigeria that he discusses with passion and flair. He writes with conviction and leaves no one in doubt he wants the best for his country, Nigeria. Many Nigerians have shed the toga of patriotism that Kperogi still wears like a badge. Nigeria, to many, is a lost cause already.
A professor of dentistry compared Nigeria to a cancer patient whose cancer can no longer be isolated for treatment because the virus has metastasized to other vital organs of the body. Even advocates of restructuring have since moved away from that prescription, believing that events have overtaken it. But no matter what we may say, Nigeria hopping on one leg is still a pot of delicious soup for those in the kitchen where the food is prepared.
How much of the suffering of the people do our leaders in all honesty feel? They are too far removed from the suffering to feel the pain. It’s like a fairy tale or Alice in Wonderland when you describe the deprivation that hapless Nigerians have to put up with. How people who do not feel the pinch will solve a problem they know little or nothing about remains to be seen.
Yes, Tinubu cannot and must not attempt to govern like Muhammadu Buhari did. Buhari’s administration was the most ruinous ever in the history of this country. He destroyed the present and mortgaged the future. He piled up mountains of debts for this and coming generations with nothing to show for it.
Like Fela's crooning, misery, sorrow and tears were Buhari’s regular trademark. His administration met us with only the scourge of Boko Haram but left those of Fulani herdsmen and bandits in addition. Blood flowed freely all over the country. Historians record that King Nero fiddled while Rome burned.
One carton I saw pictured Buhari picking his teeth while herdsmen, bandits and other sundry criminals ran rings around hapless Nigerians killing, maiming, destroying life and property and walking away free. Kidnappers strolled to the bank to collect ransom money. Yes, Kperogi is right: Tinubu cannot – and should not – govern like Buhari did. No country can survive two Buharis in a row!
Kperogi followed the mainstream narrative of the twin policy of fuel subsidy removal and one-window foreign exchange policy being the cause of the unmitigated suffering in the land and the recent protests over high cost of living, especially of foodstuffs, in some parts of the country. There is no denying the fact that these policies have contributed but they are not the real cause of the problems we face today. They may have acted as catalysts but the problems have been knocking on our door for decades.
The colonial masters diverted our attention from growing what we need (food crops) to growing what they need (cash crops). That was the beginning. Growing up in the late fifties, my father was a merchant-cum-farmer. He had sprawling cocoa farms with food crops like yams, maize, cassava and what-have-you interspersed in them. My mother was a petty trader and food vendor who also engaged in subsistence farming. On holidays, most children followed their parents to the farm, to return only a day or two before the resumption date. No more!
We are now all in the cities engaged in white- or blue-collar jobs! The farms are abandoned. Where will the foodstuffs come from? The problem of insecurity that has driven the remaining hands off the farm has accentuated the problem. That is why the food protests which, ordinarily, should have started in the big cities where the cost of living is more biting, have started from so-to-say agrarian backwoods. Why? Because agriculture is the mainstay of their sustenance.
There is little commerce that takes place there. So, with the dislocation of agriculture caused by insecurity, they are left high and dry. It may not be politics at work; hunger is what is inciting the people. Agrarian societies, where hunger, suffering and deprivation are more pronounced, are less able to survive in today’s Nigeria than the commercial centres.
Were we not aware that rural-urban migration that has been on for ages, draining the rural areas of the needed energy and manpower, would have deleterious consequences on food production? What did we do to stem the tide? Were we also not aware that uncontrolled population explosion (Malthus theory), where population growth outstrips the resources available, would also lead to undesirable consequences?
Think also of the three curses, nay four, that we have allowed to befall this country: The first is the resource curse where we depended, and still depend, on one resource – crude oil – and have failed to leverage on it to develop our agricultural and industrial sectors. Instead, we squandered our riches. One-time military Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, said the problem of Nigeria was not money but how to spend it! And not knowing how to spend the oil windfall, we squandered it again and again! And we think we will not pay a steep price for that down the line?
Growing up, we ate rice only during festive periods. Bread was not on the menu those days. Today, our taste buds are no longer for the foods we grow but for foreign foods and goods. We waste billions of dollars on food imports. Rice curse and wheat curse combined drain us of billions of dollars yearly! We are a country of net importers and we wonder why our Naira is weak!
In those days, foreigners came here to school; no more! Instead, we now spend billions of dollars yearly to send our children to schools abroad. In those days, our hospitals were, perhaps, the best in Africa, especially the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. No more! Today, led by our shameless leaders, we spend billions of dollars on medical tourism yearly. Industries that used to be here have voted with their feet. We produce nothing but consume everything foreign – and we think there would be no consequences?
In one of my recent columns, I proffered reasons why I think Nigeria was not moving forward. My editor, Comrade Nojeem Jimoh, called and said we should stop asking that Nigeria move forward! Instead, we should advocate that it goes backward! Yes, because our best days and years are in the past! May you not know better yesterday! But Nigeria has known better yesterday! Each government that comes appears worse than the one before it!
Nzeogwu and his colleagues who plotted the first coup described the politicians of the First Republic as “ten-percenters…who make this country look big-for-nothing” Today, our leaders not only take 100 percent after they have mindlessly inflated the contract sum, they also end up only signing papers and doing no job! Where any job is done at all, it is shoddy! Revelations coming out of the tour of duty of the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, confirms that. What Nzeogwu called corruption in his own days is like comparing a mere headache with today’s cancer that has eaten deep into every fabric of Nigerian society. And we think there would be no consequence regardless who is the president?
My own thoughts, dear Kperogi, is not Tinubu’s removal of subsidy and trying to stop forex round-tripping but what he has failed to do. Everyone agreed on the policies - but how and what should replace them? And what should we subsidize instead?
Tinubu was hasty in his announcement. It appears he did not have a plan of action on ground before making the announcements. He leaped before he looked. He acted before he had a full picture of what he was coming in to meet. Most importantly, Tinubu, surprisingly, has not engaged with the Nigerian people enough. He appears more intent on defending Buhari/APC than acting on the side of Nigerians. He seems more prepared to make himself the sacrificial lamb than haul Buhari and his henchmen into the public domain to give account of their stewardship, which many Nigerians would have preferred.
It is not that Tinubu, like Buhari, does not command his own cult-hero image but it appears he is reluctant to activate it. Wasn’t the same Buhari stoned in the North? Tinubu has what it takes to match any anti-Tinubu protests with his own pro-Tinubu protests. He can turn the tables and have the people in his corner - but will he?
Is it also not preposterous to hint that the South-west will abandon Tinubu where the feudal North did not abandon clueless and incompetent Buhari? The South-west is politically savvy enough to see through the trick and refuse to fall into the trap. Why is Tinubu unpopular in Christian Northern Nigeria, according to Kperogi, when Muslims in the same North accuse him of surrendering his government to Christians?
Christians have the very powerful offices of First Lady, SGF, Minister of FCT, Minister of Works, Minister of the money-guzzling Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, among others. What more does Christian Northern Nigeria want from Tinubu? His blood?
One advantage of subsidy removal has been the humongous amount that state and local governments now collect every month from the Federation account. What are they doing with this money? Food protests will achieve better results if the heat is turned on state and local governments rather than chasing after Abuja. After all, every politics, they say, is local!
Like in the case of Venezuela, Nigeria is experiencing what Economists describe as an extreme case of hyperinflation. In this case, the prices of goods increase by no small margin. Like Venezuela, the path Nigeria took to hyperinflation was not different from the mismanagement of its natural resources, profligacy, and recklessness. Plus, many of those are programmed to fail through a pervasive mindset of Nigerian greed; from the lowest to the highest societal rungs.
For example, the Anchor Borrowers Program —parceled to give loan access to Nigerian farmers —was marred by Nigerian corruption, where farmers and non-farmers —in cahoots with some government officials —got these loans only to divert them, used to defray non-agric expenses; facilitating ornate lifestyles; taking new wives and going for all sorts of adventures in the name of religion. All, with no apparent intentions to pay back the loans. Are we not reaping what we sowed?
As I have said repeatedly, the same, can be advanced for every government’s initiatives; from Unconditional Cash Transfer to Trader Money, to NPower, to Naira Redesigning, to eNaira, the same horrid fate; all sunk ships, left to fester at the ocean floor, from Nigerian greed. So, when I said it —unequivocally —that a leader doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and that a leader will NEVER succeed in an amoral society —not ready to purge itself of evil —this is what it takes to 'wobble and fumble' in the voice of coach Fanny Amu. It’s the end times and we are in for a long ride.
From a land flowing with milk and honey, how did a country like Nigeria, similar to Venezuela which was once an oasis of pleasure get to this sorry stage? Simple, maladministration, nepotism, profligacy, recklessness and corruption. Despite differences in geography and politics, Nigeria and Venezuela shared similarities between the two countries in terms of Attributes.
The two countries rank among the world’s top ten oil producers, with economies significantly reliant on oil, and both are very corrupt – placing 145th and 177th respectively on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index. Unsurprisingly, Venezuela/Nigeria suffer from the Dutch Disease as oil export earnings over the decades have been squandered on profligate populist policies.
As a nation, we are overwhelmed with a plethora of stories. The Nigerian economy is dominated by crude oil, which accounts for half of the government revenue and more than 75% of the country's total export earnings (Coface). Nigeria is among the first ten oil exporters, and its oil reserves are estimated at 37 billion barrels (OPEC). The country also has become one of the lead exporters of liquefied natural gas, which accounts for an additional 13% of exports (ITC).
Additionally, the country also extracts tin ore and coal for domestic use. Nigeria’s other natural resources include iron ore, limestone, niobium, lead, zinc, and arable land. On the flip side, there are no corresponding effects of the resources in the affairs of the citizens. Amid this plenty, unemployment is rising, hunger is on the increase, and frustration and crime are also on the rise.
In conclusion, I like to share with you the profound words of Abraham Lincoln, an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln remarked as follows: “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
Finally, as a birthday-mate with Abraham Lincoln, Although, today the 13th of February is mine whereas Lincoln is the 12th. I wish to rededicate myself in the service to humanity while joining millions of our compatriots at home and abroad in standing with our beloved country Nigeria and the family members of our dear 'Head-Of-State' General Murtala Ramat Muhammad 48 years after that black Friday 13th February 1975. Our matriarch Chief (Mrs) Hafsat Ajoke Muhammed, darling sister Aishat Oyebode nee Muhammed and my friend and brother Abba Risqua Muhammad.
REST IN POWER THE PEOPLE'S GENERAL.
How could such a fine gentleman, so generous, warm, humble and respectful die so violently with his wife, son and a friend? Why would such a visionary business leader, Godfearing and kindhearted human being perish so tragically? The United States aviation authorities should conduct full and detailed investigations into the helicopter crash that took away Dr. Herbert Wigwe, one of our finest and most industrious bankers and business icons, and his family. The callousness of the operators of that aircraft borders on criminal negligence. It is notable that Nigerian air accident investigators are collaborating with NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board), the agency that investigates air and road accidents in the US, to unearth the causes of this crash. It was in January 2020 that Kobe Bryant, an American basketball star, died in a similar chopper crash with his daughter also in California. If those helicopters in the US are not well maintained, they should not be put up for charter. If the Californian weather is too treacherous in winters, those choppers should be grounded till the conditions improve. It is unconscionable wickedness to carry innocent people to their deaths.
I am so sad, pained and devastated. This is one loss too much. The outpouring of griefs and the floods of messages from across Africa and around the world; from world leaders, colleagues and ordinary folks testify to Herbert’s extraordinary qualities and outstanding contributions. Millions of Nigerians from all walks of life, including millions of Access Bank’s customers, shareholders and employees, as well as the thousands of workers who are toiling to build Wigwe University are benumbed, stunned and pained by Herbert’s sudden death. To die at such a relatively young age with one’s wife and son is numbing, and, to say the least, disorienting. How is such a catastrophic calamity explained in the Bible? What does God say about good people dying so painfully and suddenly? Why did this happen, for goodness’ sake? The last time a young Nigerian’s violent and sudden death gripped the nation so painfully was on Sunday, October 19, 1986. If Dele Giwa’s death through a parcel bomb from some military evil planners had frightened the nation, Herbert Wigwe’s death in a helicopter crash in California has transfixed us all.
From all indications, I was chatting with Herbert some hours before his death. It was his habit to read his messages and respond promptly despite his grueling schedule. But when I noticed that he had not opened his phone for close to 15 hours on Saturday, I started developing a dreadful sense of foreboding, and I made a mental note to call him soon after the meeting I was attending that afternoon. But as soon as the meeting ended around 5pm, a call from a friend I haven’t heard from for long confirmed my fears. My hunch hardly goes wrong.
Herbert was an extraordinary human being who did not allow his outstanding attainments to dwindle his humanity. Some people disconnect completely from their roots when they get to the top. Not Herbert. He related well with the high and mighty as well as the low and forgotten. He kept in touch with his secondary school classmates; church members; village chiefs; community leaders as well as former staffs like me and other bank CEOs and Heads of governments. From one end of the spectrum to the other, he remains his witty, kind, humorous and amiable self. He was passionate about our youths and he created several mentorship programs for them. His philanthropic activities through his foundation are well known, but I guess, establishing a university for those he referred to as the ‘fearless’ generation will forever remain a timeless legacy. I am grateful that the people he assembled to midwife the institution have vowed to carry on the dream.
Working with Herbert in Access Bank, I realized early on that he was imbued with courage, boldness, determination and all the epithets that define fearlessness. The vision, mission and values of the bank were underpinned by the drive to conquer all obstacles and excel. It was for nothing that we called ourselves ‘’Access Warriors’’. I first met him on a Sunday afternoon in March 2008 when I appeared before him for an interview to join the bank. I was already used to his chubby face in the press, but in real life, Herbert looked serious, businesslike and his beady eyes were penetrating. I was slightly uncomfortable, but I was determined not to be intimidated. He asked just a few questions. My five years in the bank turned out to be some of the most rewarding.
The bank’s meteoric growth in the over 21 years he and his friend and partner, Aigboje, have been in charge reflects their collective business acumen. Herbert took over from Aig in January 2014, leading the bank through various growth phases till 2022 when it was restructured into a holding company structure. As the Group CEO of Access Corporation, the holding company, Herbert added economic diplomacy to his huge responsibilities. He visited foreign leaders, spoke about Africa renaissance, the climate crisis, green energy, the roles of tech in finance and the importance of giving our youths the opportunities they deserve as the bank expanded across Africa into Europe and Asia. The bank has invested billions of dollars in the 15 African economies it has operations in. The messages from Presidents Emmanuel Macron of France and Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa say it all.
I have reached out to Aig and a few other members of the Access family. The Group has lost three members in as many months. This must be the most difficult moment in the life of the institution, but I’m heartened to note that Aig has pledged to ensure that Herbert’s personal dreams, including the university, are not aborted. Now Herbert’s children are orphans. Losing their parents in such a circumstance could be traumatic. I trust that Aig will now step in to play a fatherly role to them (Proverbs 18:24).
I am told that we should not or cannot question the decisions of the Almighty God. I have also been told that God is not capable of doing bad things. But the mysteries of this life continue to confound me. Why are the good ones dying off so suddenly? While those who have stolen from this country and mismanaged it continue to flourish, others who worked hard to contribute to its development are quickly taken from us, some so violently.
The last message Herbert sent to me was that he would never be discouraged from working to change Nigeria positively. The development of this country was his obsession. May his aged parents, siblings, friends and colleagues be consoled.