Lost songs

I need songs:

Lovely tunes wafted from human cymbals

Melodies crooned from caged hummingbirds

I want to drink from the fountain of melody

From the juicy pots of nightingales

I need songs of life:

Melody of love

I want lyrics of peace

Lyrics of truce

I want destiny remoulded with sonorous voices

And the past sung into the urn of history

I desire future foretold in soothing symphony

And the present narrated in psalms

When shall humanity sing of love again?

When will man be at peace with himself

And stop dancing to the discordant tunes of

Hate

And war?

When will songs heal our wounds of ages?

Shall we again dance with

Our gaze smoothened by the song of hope?

From Ibadan with love: Reaction to tirade of hate

APPARENTLY to indicate his deep-seated hatred against the unimaginable filthiness of Texas, a south-central state in the United States of America, that equally served as the operational base of the Confederate Army during the American civil war, Phillip Henry Sheridan, an army general and a military governor of Texas and Louisiana afterwards, dropped a bombshell. It was rather a scathing sarcasm that portrayed Texas as the dreariest place to live on earth. Sheridan had said at the close of the 19th century that, “If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent out Texas and live in Hell.”

The last Sunday’s piece entitled, “Ibadan: Child of two worlds...From perspective of corps members” written by a corps member in Sunday Tribune leaves a sour taste in the mouth and could best be deconstructed as the latest exhumation of Sheridan’s I-hate-Texas-and-prefer-hell ideology. The corps member ‘brilliantly’ offered a perspective of Ibadan as a town in search of exposure and harmony of aesthetics.

Her pen dripped with anger as she wrote, “I advise you to get exposure because you lack it...when I consider the decorum of the majority of her inhabitants amid a decorous few, I dare ask: Ibadan, are you a city or a village? You are neither here nor there. Along what lines do I begin to argue your existence as a city? Is it Bodija, the refined environment of University of Ibadan...? They are not without streaks of that disposition that rabidly distinguishes you from contemporary civilisations.”

A Jungian psychoanalytic reading of the piece will better leave it as a release of an artist’s repressed feelings that equally shape the artist’s perspective. Feeling is a thing of the mind; it is an emotional construction that clearly underpinned the writer’s perspective. The corps member felt and let loose a tirade of pent-up thoughts, but feelings are not always correct.

Her perspective of the ancient city of Ibadan is steeped in what Carl Jung called collective unconscious and what Frank Mowah interpreted as the “inherited potentialities of human imagination.”  The perspective is largely shaped by a tribal strain.

To start with, Ibadan is inanimate without a people or its inhabitants. The inhabitants, mostly Yorubas, in the writer’s psychic disposition, lack exposure, hence her billion dollars advice, “...get exposure because you lack it.” Her archetype of Ibadan (Yoruba) people is clothed in the linguistic apparel of “indecorum”; little wonder their “pristine conception of civilization” and their inability to afford decent accommodation.

If one may ask, what is the writer’s conception of civilisation and modernisation? How did the writer arrive at the description of Ibadan and its people as being indecorum? Is Ibadan the only dirty place in the country? What about places like Aba and Onitsha that have nearly become putrid sores on the feet of the East? Is there anything like exclusivity of good or evil to a race? What is the writer’s knowledge of racial stereotyping? Does the writer know that Ibadan is the political capital of the Yoruba people, and an affront to the town could be interpreted as an attack on its people?

One is not defending filthiness and uncouth behaviour, but to transmute a town’s insanitary condition into a ploy for kvetching and attack on the civilisation of a people is rather condemnable. T.S. Eliot, in one of his critical works, The Metaphysical Poets, posits that “civilisation comprehends great variety and complexity, and this variety and complexity, playing upon a refined sensibility must produce various and complex results”. Ibadan is a result of historical complexity. You need to study the history of the town in order to know better.

Ibadan is as old as Timbuktu in Mali and other ancient towns in the old Mali and Songhai empires. The splendour of Ibadan is in its grey hairs. “O ni ohun ti oju agba ri ko to jin” (The hollow in an elder’s eyes results from what he has seen so far). The beauty of the ancient is that it combines the old and the recent to evolve a hybrid, and this takes a long process. The town is in its present position because of governmental failure. It has suffered decades of neglects, yet it will overcome its problems.

Civilisation is sacrosanct and should not be gnawed at. It is a cultural vehicle that conveys what defines the essence of a people. This is why it would be termed ignoble by taking on a people from their socio-cultural defining essence.

What is Ibadan? A city set on the hills of inter-racial harmony and peace that cannot be rubbished, a trail blazer in many respects, a town of nobles and warriors and the largest in West Africa. Forget Ibadan’s arrays of rusted roofing sheets; they too are a historical result of complexity. To the “corper” who wrote “Ibadan: Child of two worlds...,” Ibadan proposes a toast of love to you.

Kidney disease: How counterfeit drugs increase Nigerians’ susceptibility

With the recent revelation that the number of Nigerians suffering kidney-related disease is on the increase, EMMANUEL ADENIYI, in this piece, examines the disease and the roles of counterfeit drugs as a factor predisposing many in the country to renal failure.

WHEN former  President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s sickness became a common knowledge and was discovered to be acute pericarditis, a disease which experts said could have developed from renal failure, not many people, including nephrologists, gave him any benefit of survival.
Pericarditis is believed to cause poor blood flow to the body, including kidney, thus causing its failure.
In fact, a medical doctor, who claimed to have done several nephroctomies for patients, even asked in a published article, at the peak of controversy surrounding Yar’Adua’s ill health in 2010 that, “when a man’s kidney begins to malfunction, how long can he live?”
He was categorical in his analysis and expressed doubt about the chances of the former president’s survival.
Though attempts were made to save his life as he made trips to some of the best hospitals in Germany and Saudi Arabia, the former president eventually lost the battle against pericarditis.
Yar’Adua’s widely reported illness is one in millions of sufferers of kidney-related diseases in Nigeria. Some are aware of their ailment, a great number of them, due to their poor living conditions; however, do not seek medical attention to ascertain the level of the ailment in them.
According to the statistics recently released by the National Association of Nephrology, about 30 million Nigerians are said to be suffering from kidney problems, while many are said to die prematurely of cardiovascular diseases which are also linked to kidney malfunctions.
The president of the association, Dr. Chinwuba Ijeoma, was reported to have dropped the bombshell that no less than 20 per cent of Nigerians have kidney problems. Right now, the number of new patients seeking dialysis every month in the nation’s teaching institutions are said to range between 200 and 300.
A nephrologist, Dr. Adetuberu Samson of Olive Hospital, Ibadan, who spoke on the prevalence of this disease in Nigeria, attributed it to abuse of drugs and self-medication among Nigerians.
Said he, “This disease is often prevalent among people who abuse drugs and take drugs without doctor’s prescriptions. Though there are other factors that induce it, chief among them is misuse of drugs. The figure quoted recently is likely to multiply, because of the free access to drugs in the country.”
Another medical expert, Dr (Mrs.) Janet Orji, said the disease was rampant in the country because of the prevalence of fake and expired drugs often used by many in the country to cure various ailments.
She blamed the government and its drug monitoring agencies for not doing enough in mopping up and arresting criminals who always import or manufacture and sell fake drugs in the market, noting that many chemist shops in the country operate illegally.
“When you use drugs that are fake or expired or adulterated, they have the capacity to work negatively on your kidney. Human kidney does a lot of work, when it is impaired by phoney drugs; it becomes difficult for it to perform its regulatory roles in the body.
“Kidney helps to excrete wastes from human body and in the re-absorption of water, glucose and amino acid. It also serves as a natural filter of blood in humans. You can then imagine what will happen in the body if the organ responsible for these vital duties becomes incapacitated.”
“Counterfeit drugs are on the increase in the country. This portends a great danger to the health of the nation, because a large percentage of our people purchase drugs over-the-counter, while some even take herbs whose chemical compositions they do not know without consulting their doctors.”
She noted that most herbs taken by many Nigerians could harm human kidneys and liver and cause cancer, high blood pressure, kidney stones, stroke, coma and even death.
A pharmacist, Mr Bolaji Adewuyi, disclosed that most drugs in Nigeria have their chemical components either altered or adulterated. He said it was worrisome with the way many fake drugs find their way into the country, adding that one of the negative effects of using fake or adulterated drugs is to develop kidney-related diseases.
He decried the upsurge in the opening of chemist shops in almost every nook and cranny of the country, adding that most of these drug outlets are mere slaughtering slabs where counterfeit ( fake, adulterated and expired) drugs are sold to members of the public.
According to a public health analyst, Dr. Adeyinka Kayode, poor health facilities in the country have similarly worsened the cases of the disease, saying many patients of kidney-related diseases don’t have access to adequate medical attention.
“A visit to department of Nephrology in many teaching institutions in Nigeria will convince anyone that available facilities for the diagnosis, dialysis and kidney transplants in patients are not enough. In most cases, they are non-existent, this is why many kidney disease patients are transferred abroad for treatment,” he said.
On what Nigerians could do to stem the tide of the disease, Dr. Kayode said they should avoid taking pills from questionable sources, urging them to always adhere to doctors’ prescriptions before using any drugs.
According to the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan, taking safety tips by individuals before using pills are instructive. It states that to prevent kidney diseases in humans, people must not take any drug or substance without a medical reason or take pills given to them by a stranger or even a friend.
It urged them to also avoid the use of over-the-counter medications for more than 10 days for pain or more than three days for fever, and read the warning label before using over-the-counter medications, stating that if they have pain or fever for a longer time, they should see a doctor.
The foundation further warned, “Avoid prolonged use of analgesics that contain a mixture of painkilling ingredients. If you are taking analgesics, drink at least six to eight glasses of water per day. Use the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) only under your doctor’s supervision if you have heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney or liver disease or if you take diuretics (water pills) or are over 65 years of age. Make sure your doctor knows all prescribed and over-the-counter medications and herbs you are taking.”

Corruption is the cause of counterfeit drugs in Nigeria--Professor Olutayo

Professor Alebiosu Christopher Olutayo is a Consultant Nephrologist and Provost, College of Health Sciences, Osun State University, Osogbo. He speaks on kidney diseases among Nigerians. Excerpts:

ACCORDING to the National  Association of Nephrology (NAN), no fewer than 30 million Nigerians are said to have kidney problems. What do you think could be responsible for this?
Kidney problems are common, harmful and treatable but now occur in an epidemic manner globally. A huge variety of diseases can affect the function of the kidneys, from acute illnesses to drugs and chronic illnesses. Common causes of Chronic Kidney Diseases (CKD) include inflammatory diseases of the kidney, infections, obstruction in the urinary tract and inherited disorders like polycystic kidney disease. But in both developed and developing nations diabetes and hypertension are becoming the most common causes of CKD. The well-recognised risk factors for CKD include diabetes mellitus, hypertension, family history of kidney disease, cigarette smoking, and abnormal fat in the blood (dyslipidaemia). Others include exposure to heavy metals such as lead, low birth weight (with a reduction in the number of nephrons), and the use of herbal remedies, particularly in Africa. In Nigeria, the commonest causes of chronic kidney diseases are hypertension, glomerulonephritis, diabetes mellitus, and obstructive uropathy.
 With the frightening figure released by the association, does it not mean that the nation is losing the battle against kidney disease?
No, the battle is not being lost; rather it calls attention to the gravity of the problem. Government may not be doing enough in respect of addressing the problem of kidney diseases in Nigeria. Non-communicable diseases (which account for the greater majority of the causes of chronic kidney diseases in Nigeria) have become a major health problem, not just in developed countries but also in developing countries. For instance, the prevalence of hypertension in Nigeria is between 15 to 27.7 per cent and studies have shown that blood pressure control rates are poor. It is, therefore, not surprising that hypertension is still the leading cause of CKD in Nigeria. A lot is needed to be done to fight the war against the rising occurrence of CKD.
What does it mean to have kidney failure or kidney-related disease(s)?
The first consequence of undetected Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is the risk of developing progressive loss of kidney function leading to kidney failure and the need for dialysis treatment or a kidney transplant. The second is premature death from associated cardiovascular disease. Individuals who appear to be healthy who are then found to have CKD have an increased risk of dying prematurely from CVD (coronary disease, stroke, peripheral artery disease, and heart failure).
Could self-medication be a cause of kidney problem in the country? If yes, how?
Nigerians should refrain from consumption of medications without prescriptions. Certain habit like the chronic use of pain killers, especially the group known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents, is associated with the development of chronic kidney disease.
Can poverty and poor health care system in the country contribute to the rise of the disease in the country?
Health is recognised as an essential component of human development. Many Nigerians still live below the poverty line and do not have good and adequate access to health care. In sub-Saharan Africa, there is a double burden of diseases- infective diseases (such as malaria, gastroenteritis, pneumonia) co-existing with the non-infective diseases, in a resource poor environment characterised by inadequate and moribund healthcare delivery systems. Unfortunately, this dismal picture is further compounded with the emergence of another epidemic plague, HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) in the 80s, as well as the threat of avian and swine influenza infections. This leaves the country with a double burden of health problems – a new epidemic of infectious disease and unresolved infectious conditions, as well as a growing set of non-communicable diseases.
What other pharmacological and social factors could aid the rise of the disease?
Some socio-cultural practices can lead directly or indirectly to the development of chronic kidney disease. These include long-term ingestion of herbal concoctions/preparations, chronic analgesic abuse (certain pain killers) and the use of certain soaps/ creams/lotions used as bleaching agents. Chronic exposure to heavy metals such as lead (found in paints) could also aid the rise of the disease.
At what point does kidney problem become chronic kidney disease (CKD)?
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is said to occur when there is an evidence of kidney damage based on abnormal urinalysis results (eg, proteinuria, hematuria) or structural abnormalities observed on ultrasound images of the kidneys or a Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR) of less than 60 mL/min for three or more months.
How can the nation address issue of counterfeit drugs on sale in the market?
The consequences of counterfeit drugs are too grave for the country. The way out of ensuring that counterfeit drugs are done away with in the country lie with us all. First and foremost, the recent activities of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) are commendable. Government as well as corporate organisations as part of social responsibilities should, through the media, create continuous awareness amongst the populace on the dangers that such drugs can cause. NAFDAC over time has done a lot in this regard. Finally, corruption is one thing that has to be dealt with firmly and decisively as it relates to counterfeit drugs.
What can government and individuals do to stem the tide of this disease?
This can be achieved through targeted screening of people at risk for kidney diseases, imbibing positive lifestyle modification/behavioural changes as well as ensuring a healthy dietary pattern. Others include avoidance of infections – sexually transmitted infections and urinary tract infection as well as the need to cultivate positive attitude to pre-school and pre-employment screenings and routine medical checkup.

Cocoon of Injustice

In the assembly of skunks,

Congregation of pigs,

Parliament of fowls,

Decency is an abomination of the soul

  5            Morality- a crime in the mind.

In the gathering of scorpions

Congress of snakes,

Meeting of dogs

Innocence is harmed

10           Purity, a horse flogged dead

            In the rally of sheep

            Gathering of snails

            Freedom is cowed to silence

            Pliancy- an esteemed theatrics

15           The cocoon harbours them all.

            Wickedness is a messianic right

            The strong enjoy.

            Injustice and filth-

            An indefeasible prop of the govnots

20           The putrid pus in the festering anus of the strong

            Provides the milky solvent in the tea of the weak.

            Brotherhood is maintained, of course, when

            Our sweat fuels

            The lamp with which they read our bills of horror.

Footnote: ("Guvnots" is the corrupt form of governors or administrators who do not govern well)

Emmanuel Adeniyi

Ilesa.

"Mujemuje"

They

promised peace,

but

turned beasts.

They

vowed to love,

but stole her heart,

They

raped her innocence

before

her stunned offspring,

They

ate pretence

and

farted syphilitic fumes to her nose,

They

furrowed her body

with

mucus of their

choked cavities,

Their

lust has betrayed

her

trust.

Her

stunted hope weeps

in

their hearts of darkness.

Ogun,

never spare them rest

for

they’ve injured her conscience,

Sango,

to strike them

a

million times

will not be enough

for

their crimes.

This

Is why we

invoke

the gods to

arrest Mujemuje

in our

midst.
Emmanuel Adeniyi

Akungba (2002)

Footnote: Mujemuje (blood suckers), Ogun (Yoruba god of iron), Sango (Yoruba god of thunder)

Obasanjo didn’t influence my becoming Olowu of Owu - Oba Dosunmu

   

Oba (Dr) Olusanya Adebgoyega Dosunmu, (CON), is the Olowu of Owu, Abeokuta, Ogun State. He speaks with Royalty and Festivity about Owu kingdom, the thorny issue of unity among the Yoruba race and his relationship with former president Olusegun Obasanjo, among others. Excerpts:

YOU describe yourself as the Akobi Oduduwa, how did you come about this?
Olowu is the first grandson of Oduduwa; his mother was the first child and daughter of Oduduwa. It was Oduduwa himself who removed the crown and put it on the head of Olowu and coronated him, even as a child. Being the first to wear the beaded crown of Oduduwa, he became therefore the first born, the first child out of Oduduwa’s ribs to wear crown and become an Oba, outside Ife kingdom.
What is the relationship between Owu and Egba in general?

Egba was one of the four kingdoms to break up from its homesteads and settled down in Abeokuta.  A lot of people don’t know the difference between Abeokuta and Egba. The Egba people came from the South western part of Oyo kingdom after the Owu war between 1821 and 26. They were the first to be completely routed out of their residences and flee the attack of combined forces of Ijebu, Ibadan, Ife, Ekiti, Ijesa and Oyo people. When the forces found it impossible to penetrate Owu people and having wasted four years waiting, they decided to attack Egba people who did not join the combined forces to attack Owu. Egba was attacked unaware, the devastation was much because Egba towns and villages were scattered in a place called, Egba Forest located in the South western part of Oyo kingdom. The forces set fire on every Egba town; this made Egba people to run away and come to Abeokuta where they found solace under the rock of Olumo. All other Egba conglomerates, the Gbagura, Oke-Ona also fled to Abeokuta. Owu people, on the other hand, were the real target of the attack; they too fled to Ijebu but went back to Owu. When they heard that Egba people were peacefully settled they also decided to come down to Abeokuta.

Why was Owu singled out as the sole enemy of other Yoruba sub-nations and attacked by their combined forces?Historians have advanced so many causes. The remote cause is that Owu people were too powerful.  They had become allies of British slave abolitionists and were used to police areas where inter-tribal war was rife. They were the ones stopping slavery. At a time in their attempt to stop slavery, they arrested an Oyo prince and tied him down shamefully. This did not go down well with Oyo and Ijebu people, though they (Ijebu people) were not capturing slaves, they were collecting tolls on every slave, because all slaves captured in the hinterland were transported through Ijebu to Lagos. Ijebu people set up toll gates and collected tolls on the slaves that passed through their boundaries. For Owu to put a stop to this prosperous trade was not in the interest of Ijebu people. As a result of Owu’s campaign against slavery in Yoruba land, they were really hated, so, any attempt to deal with them was welcome. However, the immediate cause of Owu war was as a result of a misunderstanding that ensued over one Ijebu woman who came to buy guinea pepper, ata ire, at Apomu market, which was located in Owu land then. She bought six bags of the pepper and carried them to Ijebu only to come the next market day complaining that one of the six bags was short of two pieces of ata ire, and demanded full compensation.  It is amazing that in the gathering of Yoruba people that day, they could not settle the rift. In an attempt to settle the rift, the Akogun of Owu, who was in charge of the market, drew out his sword to threaten the people and mistakenly struck the Ijebu woman who was also pregnant in the belly. Ijebu people heard about the incident, that was how Ibadan, Oyo, Ijesa and others joined forces together to fight Owu.

Disunity among Yoruba people is as old as the race itself, do you think this has changed or reduced?I agree with you. We have a lot against one another, the center has never held in Yoruba land, except for the dexterity of the Yoruba people in terms of wisdom and ability to settle. This is again ironical that the people who are so adept in settling crisis among themselves could not settle an issue over ata ire. In real sense, the Yoruba people are not as dexterous in settling quarrel as people think they are. It was among them that the trade of slavery was rampant; they were capturing one another and selling into slavery, that to me is an aberration of the so-called ability of the people to mend fences. Till tomorrow, you can still see traces of in-built resistance against one another among the race.

What could be the cause?Some people think it is education.

Was it education that made them to take up arms against one another and sell their relations into slavery?Comparatively, they must have had some kind education, like all the learning and philosophy of Ifa which was their major source of enlightenment. By 18th and 19th centuries, the Yoruba were quite enlightened. Usually among the enlightened, you always find differences of opinions and ideas. When this happens, there will be rivalry and hatred among such people. Even in Europe between 14th and 19th centuries, same thing happened there, after all slavery started in Europe before it moved down to Africa. It is because of enlightenment. The thought of being wiser than the other would create envy and rivalry and this could lead to war.

You don’t see this internecine rivalry as a result of greed among the people?Of course, it is true.  The people whose eyes were forced open, the human nature is to rule and lord it over the other whose eyes are not quite opened. It is human. Human beings are just like that. We are not infallible.

Those factors you mentioned earlier, in what way have they shaped the destiny of the race within the Nigerian nation?In politics for example, our so-called enlightenment has taken us to a status of saying no to ideas we don’t like. You will find that the first division politically started in Yoruba land, whereas where leaders of other races lead, that is where their people follow, it is not like that in Yoruba land. This kind of intellectual rivalry is much pronounced here because of the people’s early exposure to education and civilisation.
What is your relationship like with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo?

We grew up together as children. We went to the same church, same primary and high schools. He has done things that didn’t seem well with me, we have argued. We have slugged it out, but then we are friends.

How would you react to the allegation that Chief Obasanjo tore the paper containing the name of a would-be king said to be the choice of Ifa and presented to him by Owu kingmakers?I must correct this, Ifa oracle didn’t have anything to do with my installation. We have done away with that in Owu kingdom a long time ago. For Obasanjo, I don’t know about his tearing any paper. I wasn’t there. I didn’t see it, but some people alleged that. We should ask why would he do it? I’m not sure he did it. If he actually did it, could it have been because of some discrepancies that could blow out into a more serious thing?

You were said to be his preferred candidate then?Did he want me? Do you know that Obasanjo was not even among those people who voted me as Olowu, though he is a king maker, he was not there. He was away from that meeting.

30 and an applicant? • Agonies of the unemployed, over-aged graduates

In many advertorials for employment, there is usually an age bar which always restricts job seekers nearing 30 from applying for jobs. EMMANUEL ADENIYI looks at the reasons behind this and concludes that, aside the redefining of the middle class age, continual disruptions in school calendar make an applicant older than he should be at graduation.
JAMES Okechukwu, 36, is a graduate of Sociology. After completing his one year mandatory youth service corps in Sokoto State in 2007, he virtually visited almost all companies in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt in search of a good job. James left the University of Ibadan with a good grade in 2006 with a high hope that all would be well. Apart from having a very poor background which slowed down his academic pursuits, he equally lost his uncle who was fending for him when he was in year two. The Imo State born promising man had to fight a long battle with poverty throughout his stay in UI. When he graduated eventually, he had hoped securing a good job would assuage his sufferings and past harrowing experiences.

Four years have passed, James is yet to get employed. The best he has got in a couple of years was an offer from a private secondary school to help teach junior secondary school students Social Studies with a meagre salary. He had gone for interviews in some blue chip companies but had been screened out due to what the managements of the companies called ‘old age’. Yet to get married, James told this reporter that he had lost his will to live, noting that as an unemployed graduate life had dealt him barrages of blows.

James’ pathetic story is reminiscent of what an average Nigerian graduate passes through. The labour market is already saturated, hence the outrageous and stringent requirements often stipulated by few employers in the country for millions of candidates seeking employment for a few slots in their companies.

Apart from asking candidates to have good grades, most employers of labour in Nigeria often set age limit for job seekers and also require them to have certain years of experience depending on the companies and positions being applied for.

In its graduate trainees recruitment, which ended recently, one of the leading new generation banks in Nigeria, put maximum age of 24 years old for potential job applicants. The bank specifically stated that any applicant’s year of birth should not exceed 1987. Many consulting companies operating in the country often stipulate age limits ranging from 22 to 27 for job applicants.

A source in Access told Sunday Tribune that setting age limit was one of the ways employers of labour sieve millions of job applicants who run after few positions, noting that it was also the bank’s policy to recruit young, intelligent and teachable school graduates who can fit in into the bank’s system. She said that it was a global trend as employers only recruit young applicants who are expected to grow on the job and eventually reach the top management level of their companies.

“Age is a factor in employment issue. It is believed by some employers that some tasks are better performed by individuals who fall within certain age bracket. It is a psychological thing. When you employ applicants close to their late 20s or early 30s, you have succeeded in bringing to your company people who may be battling with a number of psychological issues within them.

Issues such as marriage, educational commitment (for those who still want to continue their education), health and many others could interfere and serve as a disturbance in their jobs. The ultimate effects of this would affect the turn-over of the company where these people are working. It is believed that having a healthy staff with little or no physical or emotional burdens would also help in producing a healthy company with no burdens whatsoever.

“Our bank is not the only one that sets age limit, virtually all other banks operating in Nigeria do it, and the reason is not far fetched: to reduce cost of training and prevent bringing on board individuals who have nothing to offer. We only need more manageable and productive people who can easily imbibe our organisation culture,” the source said.

Job seekers at a recruitment venue.
Speaking with a psychologist on whether age could impact one’s performance, Dr. Tunde Olaoye of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, told Sunday Tribune that developmental psychology has truly established a nexus between one’s age and performance, either in the area of job delivery, sexual performance or life pursuits. He said as individuals age, they become introspective, thinking about a wide range of issues that shape their lives. “At this level, a lot of psychomotor actions taken by them affect them if they are working. When an individual has had turbulence sojourning through life and has encountered many daunting challenges, the possibility of getting affected by these stored up experiences could affect one’s choices and actions, because his actions will provide outlets for them. An old person that has gone through life ordeals is not likely to perform favourably on the job, because his performance will definitely be impacted by his past bad experiences. Many employers are aware of this. Pay a visit to some companies; you will see the way the workers there behave. In the civil service, banks and many other companies providing services to members of the public, you will be amazed at the way the employees there behave. They bark at you at the slightest provocation and ignore you as if you were an ant. Haven’t you encountered uncouth cashiers in a banking hall who will talk down on you as if you were their baby? It is as a result of their emotional upheavals and scores of bad experiences which they often let loose on customers who require their services. Companies, who know these, have devised means to put a stop to it. This is why most of them come up with age limit to employ good-mannered, intelligent and young school leavers whom they believe will not be difficult to relate with,” Dr. Olaoye noted.

A management consultant, who currently works in a leading employment consulting companies in Lagos, Ms. Bola Durojaiye-Jones, informed Sunday Tribune that her company had, in the last six months, received a large number of applications from job applicants. She said a look at the certificates and applications received from Nigerian job seekers showed graduates with good grades, but over aged. ‘Our clients gave specific instructions to recruit young school leavers, aged between 24 and 27. There is nothing we can do about it. We have to follow their instructions and get them what they want.

“They know that applicants are many, they are also aware of the dysfunctional nature of the nation’s educational system, yet they must source for employees from this dysfunctional system, hence their resolve to employ younger persons who can be trained and retrained in order to bring out the best in them. Bringing in old graduates is not cost effective, because most of them may amount to a waste, even when you have trained them and sent them for refresher courses,’’ Ms. Bola added.

When asked who is an old person, the consultant, said the prevailing socio-economic situations in the country, had changed the notion of age, saying an old person in Nigeria’s setting is someone who is beyond 27 years of age. ‘Middle age has been redefined here. It is no longer 40. It is around 27 or thereabouts. The fact of the matter is that nobody will employ you once you are above 27, because of productivity issue. Young persons tend to be more productive than the older folks,’’ Ms. Bola affirmed.

Nigeria’s labour law seems to be silent about age discrimination or age factor in the nation’s labour sector. Nigeria’s Labour Act of 1990, for example, is mute about the issue of age discrimination in employment. The relevant section of the Act only talks about the conditions on which a young person can work. Section 59, sub-sections 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 only state the conditions on which a young person can work in the country.

However, the U.K Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 2006 makes it unlawful for employers to discriminate against a person on the basis of age. This applies to all age group. In the US, there are regulations that give protection to older workers. Once one is within the legal working age, one cannot be denied employment on the basis of being old or too old. Many Western countries have followed suit by domesticating this legislation to protect the rights of employable citizens.

An Ilorin-based lawyer, Mr. Tunji Bello, said the National Human Rights Commission and the National Assembly have failed to notice this discrepancy, noting that employers of labour in the country ought to be called to order and be mandated to desist from the practice. “No nation can develop where a section of its population is rendered unemployed not on the basis of their competence but because they are old.

In advanced countries, emphasis is placed on productivity, competence and performance and not on age factor. It is ridiculous. The National Assembly, labour unions and the National Human Rights Commission have failed in their responsibilities, because they have covertly encouraged unemployment in the country by not calling employers of labour in the country to order,’’ the lawyer stated.

A job seeker, Gbolahan Adeleye, blamed prolonged school sessions for the late completion of education by many Nigerian graduates. He added that incessant industrial actions embarked upon by teaching and non teaching staff in the nation’s ivory towers had made many of them spent many years in school than necessary.

“A normal educational system ought to make one become a graduate at the age of 23, 24 or thereabouts, but in Nigeria, it is not like that because you have to add years wasted by ASUU, NASU and students unrest; by the time you put everything together, you would have spent close to eight or nine years pursuing a course that ought to last four years and ultimately become a graduate at 29, 30 or 32,’’ he lamented.

Stakeholders in the labour sector have, therefore, called on the Federal Government to revise its labour law, so as to cater for the interests of the disadvantaged who are denied jobs because of their age. They said if the nation’s labour law is not revised to accommodate relevant sections to protect job seekers, many competent and intelligent Nigerian graduates would be left roaming the streets, a situation they described as being counter productive.

Nigeria’s criminal justice system is sick - Barrister Ige

Critics of the conventional prison system have adduced a number of reasons why there should be another method of punishing law breakers. Chief among these are congestion of the nation’s prisons and failure of the system to reform offenders. Barrister Aderonke Ige, who is the Programme Officer for community service as an alternative to imprisonment for minor offences of the Justice, Peace and Development Commission (JDPC), Ibadan, spoke with EMMANUEL ADENIYI on the concept and the country’s ailing criminal justice system. Excerpts:

WHAT do you think is special about community service that your organisation has advocated for in the recent time?
The commission for a long time has been trying to provide welfare packages to prisoners, those who are awaiting trials and inmates generally, but then we came to a point when we realised that Nigeria’s criminal justice system is not something you can vouch for. We also discovered that majority of inmates in the nation’s prisons are those awaiting trial due to one reason or the other and the nation’s prisons have become terribly congested. We came to a conclusion that there is so much we can do, and that providing welfare to inmates may not go a long way, but rather identify the root cause of the menace. The major cause is that people are sent to prison for minor offences. Somebody has gone to prison because he fought with his neighbour; he will eventually come out worse because of the bad influences he will get there.
Community service is a system of punishment meted out to an offender in which he benefits and the society too benefits. Our concern is that for minor offences or those offences whose jail terms do not exceed six months or thereabouts, let the offender not go to prison, let him/her work for the society, they will not be paid for the services rendered. For example, they can be taken to an orphanage home to fetch water, more so when the country does not have an efficient water system. Use them to perform these duties for a particular period of time and probably certain number of times in a day. If the offender is a civil servant for instance, the magistrate while passing his judgment could consider the time period spent in the civil service and make the offender perform a particular duty between the hours of eight and five in the evening. The society can even be brought into it in such a way that chairmen of the landlords’ associations, JPs, Baales, will be used as supervising officers, while the coordinating officers will be agents of the state. The reason for the involvement of many people is to prevent it from being abused. That is the essence of community service. It is a laudable system. Even former President Bill Clinton performed community service when he committed perjury. He lied on oath during his case over Monica Lewinsky saga; he went to lecture in an elementary school. If a president could do that, I see no reason why same cannot be adopted here. However, somebody who has committed murder should go to jail, whoever that commits a serious offence should still go to jail.
Do you think the system will achieve the reformatory objective that informed prison system?
The basic reasons for punishment include reformation and deterrence. Let’s be sincere to ourselves, have the prisons in the country been able to achieve that reformatory goal? We have discovered that the reverse is the case. We believe in community service that it will bring about genuine reformation of offenders. You can imagine when a “big boy” is asked to clear drainages at Bodija market and he is monitored doing it. That will lower his ego and make him think twice before going out to commit same offence. A normal human being will have a rethink about his life and turn in a new leaf when given such a punishment. We have heard cases of people who are in prison, yet brag that nobody knows they are in prison and stuff like that. Some after their release lie that they went to Cotonou, Ghana, and no reformation is achieved. In community service, the whole world is seeing you; there is nothing to hide at all. The reformation will come in form of sobriety. Deterrence is also achieved when people see you serving your community; they wouldn’t want to repeat what you did that fetched you that sort of punishment.
You hinted that something is wrong with the Nigeria’s criminal justice system, what could that be?
We don’t have a sophisticated court system in the country. It is amazing to note that our judges still write in long hand. You don’t blame them either, because their records have to be adequate. Right in the court, you will see judges telling lawyers to hold on so that they can record what he (the lawyer) has said. Anything that does not go into that record means that it was not said. This slows down the entire process as a judge who is supposed to take five cases in a day ends up taking two. It means that we don’t have sophisticated trial system. Similarly, we need more people on the bench. We don’t have enough judges and magistrates as well as court houses. We also need another alternative to imprisonment, which is what led us to community service. A lot of technicalities are involved right from the police to court and the prison. It is cumbersome, you have got to obtain bail or pay fines, if you can’t get one or pay, you are remanded in prison. All these will be done away with in community service. Once it is proven that the accused committed the offence, he will go straight to serve the community. Another factor that makes the nation’s criminal justice system bad is that unlearned police officers are allowed to prosecute offenders. Though there are few good ones among them, a good number of them are not well informed. They don’t understand the legal system and its operations. This is why they come to courts telling judges that they are still investigating, they have not got enough evidence, a judge cannot fabricate his judgment, he has to hear out all the parties. My colleagues, lawyers, also contribute to this problem. Some of them keep seeking for unnecessary adjournment, though some do it genuinely.
Let’s look at the workability of this system of punishment, do you think it can work independent of the police and other agencies of the state?
Yes, it will work. It’s working in other states, so nothing stops it from working in Oyo State and other parts of the country. It doesn’t have to be the police that will handle it. We know what we are facing in their hands. If the government still wants to use the police, fine, but then a different agency could be set up to coordinate the initiative.

For Abiola, the struggle continues •How UNILAG’s name-change stirred a hornet’s nest

Following the renaming of the University of Lagos to Moshood Abiola University by President Goodluck Jonathan as well as the hue and cry the action has generated, EMMANUEL ADENIYI looks at the president’s declaration and the late Chief MKO Abiola in the light of uproar greeting his posthumous honour as a hero of democracy, especially as it happened barely 10 days to the 19th anniversary of June 12.

Last Tuesday renaming of the University of Lagos to Moshood Abiola University, Lagos, by President Goodluck Jonathan has, since the announcement, become a subject of controversy. Nigerians have been sharply divided by the president’s decision, which, to some, smirked of crass insensitivity and an avowed display of civilian authoritarianism.

To some, however, the renaming of the prestigious university was done in good faith. They see it as a way of honouring the memories of those who lost their lives in the struggle for the enthronement of democratic institutions in the country.

Perhaps, no other discourse in the recent times has divided the country since the protest that greeted the January 2012 fuel subsidy removal and its consequential effect on fuel price increase. Many in the country at the peak of the January crisis kicked against the subsidy removal, citing various reasons. A handful of people in the country, on the other hand, sided with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-controlled government, claiming the decision was in the interest of people in the country.

Another thorny issue that has currently divided Nigerians along the binary divides of president’s action or inaction is the renaming of the University of Lagos.

A student of the institution told journalists in Lagos that the reason some of them would die having the name of their university unchanged was its name. He said he would never go to any university other than UNILAG, because of the emotional attachment that he and his parents had for the institution.

President Goodluck Jonathan has, however, justified his action of renaming the university, hinging the action on the need to honour the memory of Bashorun MKO Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, whose martyrdom berthed democracy in Nigeria.

President Jonathan said in his May 29 Democracy Day speech that,  “the Federal Government has decided that the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola be honoured, for making the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of justice and truth. Destiny and circumstances conspired to place upon his shoulders a historic burden, and he rose to the occasion with character and courage. He deserves recognition for his martyrdom, and public-spiritedness and for being the man of history that he was.”

The president did not mince words to declare Chief Moshood Kasimawo Abiola, the winner of the 1993 presidential election, as a selfless, courageous and uncompromising advocate of social justice, whose achievements should not be reduced to mere conjectures, but worthy of immortilisation.

His Information Minister, Mr. Labaran Maku, had, last Wednesday, said; “the decision has been made in very good faith by Mr. President and we have seen the reactions by a section of the students of University of Lagos. We have also seen the outpouring of encomiums by patriots and statesmen who really understand the reasons the president honoured Abiola.

“It is our hope that reason will prevail and that the decision to honour one of our nation’s icons and heroes will be appreciated by all Nigerians, including our youths and students who are the future leaders of this country.”

The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie, has also praised the government’s decision, declaring that it had come to stay. He noted that process of reflecting the renaming the school after Abiola had started. According to him, “there is nothing you do in the university these days that students won’t react to.

“We have heard University of Ife changed in 1987; we have heard University of Sokoto changed to Usman Dan Fodio; we have heard Yola, (now) Modibbo Adamawa University; we have Nnamdi Azikwe which was University of Awka before. This is about the seventh.”

The governors of South-West states have similarly supported President Jonathan’s move, describing it as an enviable way to recognise the role of the Aare Ona Kakanfo in the enthronement of democracy in the country.

While speaking on behalf of the governors at the State House after their meeting with President Jonathan, Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, who was also an alumnus of the university, said the protesting students of the institution might not understand the import of the pivotal role played by the late Abiola in Nigeria.

Said he; “I know that the president means well by acknowledging the role that Chief Abiola played in securing this democracy we are all enjoying. As an activist of that era myself, I could not stress enough the importance of the role that Chief Abiola played.”

He disclosed that most of the students of the institutions were oblivious of the personality and charisma of Chief Abiola, adding that largest crop of the students were not born during the June 12, 1993 election and the subsequent struggle that followed the incident, which eventually engulfed the chief and one of his wives, Kudirat, as well as many pro-democracy activists in the country.

It is pertinent to recall that the late Abiola died in incarceration in an attempt to actualise his mandate, which was annulled by the military regime of Ibrahim Babangida shortly after the presidential election in 1993. Professor Humphrey Nwosu, the chairman of the defunct National Electoral Commission (NEC), the body that conducted the election, had in recent time, said Chief Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) actually won the election having defeated his National Republican Convention (NRC) opponent, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, in a landslide victory.

When Governor Fayemi declared that the students were clearly out of touch with the historical actuality that berthed the June 12 struggle and the eventual enthronement of democracy in the land, it could not have turned out to be a mere political statement.

His sentiment was also shared by the former presidential aspirant of Labour Party (LP), Chief Dele Momodu. He said the protesting students could not connect with the June 12 struggle, because they were either not born then or very little.

The fiasco generated by the renaming of the university has also led to the closure of the institution for two weeks.

Citing the reason he denounced President Jonathan’s renaming of the university, Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, disclosed in a statement, entitled; Goodluck Jonathan’s Gift Horse that the re-christening was a “gift horse which, contrary to traditional saying, must be inspected thoroughly in the mouth.”

Soyinka added that, “President Goodluck Jonathan did not even think it fit to consult or inform the administrators of the university, including Council and Senate, of his intention to re-name their university for any reason, however laudable. This arbitrariness, this act of disrespect, was a barely tolerated aberration of military governance. It is totally deplorable in what is supposed to be a civilian order.

“The university, solidly backed by other tertiary institutions nation-wide, should immediately proceed to the courts of law and demand a ‘stay of execution’. That should give President Jonathan time to re-consider and, perhaps, shift his focus to the nation’s capital for institutions begging for rituals of re-naming. After all, it is on record that the House of Assembly did once resolve that the Abuja stadium be named after the man already bestowed the unique title of “Pillar of African Sports.” He deserved that and a lot more.

“What he did not deserve is to be, albeit posthumously, the centre of a fully avoidable acrimony, one that has now resulted in the shutting down of one of the institutions of learning to whose cause, the cause of learning, President-elect MKO Abiola also made unparalleled private contributions.

“Let me end by stressing that my position remains the same as it was when the University of Ife was re-named Obafemi Awolowo University. I deplored it at the time, deplore it till today, have never come to terms with it, and still hope that someday, in the not too distant future, that crime against the culture of institutional autonomy will be rectified.”

Toeing the same line of thought, legal luminary, Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, said the renaming of the institution after the late Chief Abiola was “noble,” but illegal.

According to the former Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of the university, “it is pertinent to state that I do not entirely agree with the manner in which the government has gone about its decision. To my mind, a decision to honour the sacrifice of a man such as the late Bashorun MKO Abiola requires much more thoughtfulness and thoroughness than that which the current decision seems to display.

“I take this view in the light of the obvious illegality and unconstitutionality of the decision to change the name of the University of Lagos to Moshood Abiola University, Lagos. The university is a creation of statute.

“Everything relating to the university, including its name, administration and control, is provided and regulated by statute, therefore, necessitating that any action taken in respect of the university must comply with the provisions of the law.

“Being an Act of the National Assembly, the provisions of the University of Lagos Act can only be amended by another Act of the National Assembly. Prior to the decision of the Federal Government to change the name of the university, no amendment was made to the provisions of the University of Lagos Act.

“The decision of Mr. President, ostensibly acting in concert with the Federal Executive Council, amounts to a usurpation of the powers of the National Assembly. Section 4 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, confers Legislative Powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the National Assembly which consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives.”

Chief Babalola, who was also the late Abiola’s lawyer during the struggle, added that the Act did not “empower him to unilaterally direct or effect a change in the name of the university. I state this for the following reasons: The powers of the visitor are as expressly contained in the University of Lagos Act.

“It is settled that where power is vested in any individual or body, such body or individual cannot exceed the powers which had been so vested. To do so would be to act ultra vires. A careful perusal of the provisions of Section 16 of the Act will reveal that the exercise of the powers vested in the visitor of the university must be consistent with the provisions of the Act.

“Clearly, a unilateral change in the name of the university from that stated in Section 1 of the Act cannot, under any guise, be regarded as consistent with the provisions of the Act.”

President, Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS), Professor Oye Ibidapo-Obe, quipped that; “This is the most inappropriate time to make such a decision. It shows that the president is insensitive; this is a period of mourning. That decision to rename the university should not have been disclosed at this time. Education is not in the forefront. I’m sure President Jonathan did not make any consultation before going ahead with the decision to rename the university.”

Vice-Chancellor, Ekiti State University, Professor P. O. Aina, as well as the Provost, College of Medicine, UNILAG, Professor Oluwole Atoyebi, also joined other stakeholders to denounce the renaming.

The university’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) chairman, Dr. Oghenekaro Ogbinaka, re-echoed the angst of the institution’s students against the renaming, saying it was unacceptable.

In an interview he granted during the week, he noted that; “the Federal Government of Nigeria has chosen the wrong institution, because UNILAG is a brand that its stakeholders have laboured for 50 years to build. We are not ready to sacrifice this; as the implication of so doing is enormously disastrous to those who attended the university, who are in the university and who aspire to come into the university.”

Also, in what appears to be a denunciation of Jonathan’s decision by the Senate, Leader of the Senate, Victor Ndoma-Egba, was reported to have said that the National Assembly was yet to receive any bill detailing the renaming of the university.

But other opinion moulders have also queried some of the grounds on which the action of the Federal Government is being questioned.

For example, reacting to Dr. Ogbinaka’s quip, an Abuja-based lawyer, Mr. Chukwu Edibe, queried the logic behind the lecturer’s remark. He said: “As genuine as his (Dr. Ogbinaka’s) concern appears to be, it is uncertain how changing an institution’s name will affect its fortune. Will that diminish the quality of certificates issued by the university? How will the change plummet the university’s rating in the country and internationally? What is in names? What factors built the brand, UNILAG? How will the factors (uninterrupted academic calendar, a pool of world-class teaching staff, beautiful structures, good teaching and learning equipment, the successes recorded by alumni of the university in different facets of life and many others) diminish or devalue due to change of name?”

An educationist, Dr. Sotunde Adeyemo, said examples abounded of universities which were renamed and had not lost their glory all over the world. According to him, “the popular Havard University, USA, was named after John Havard, its first benefactor, after he donated a large sum of money and his private library to the university.

“It used to be Ivy League Research University established by Massachusetts legislature in 1636. The academic and research prowess of the university did not change after its renaming. The brand, Havard, has become a popular brand because of its past records and its continuous strife to remain world’s leading centre for training future leaders and conducting researches.”

His submission reinforced the raison d’être for the merging of three universities: the University of Port Elizabeth, the Port Elizabeth Technikon and the Port Elizabeth campus of Vista University  in South Africa, and their subsequent re-christening as Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in 2005, despite the history of the university which dates back to 1882.

Also, a lecturer in the embattled university, who craved anonymity, said there was nothing wrong with the renaming of the university, since it was not the first of its kind.

“The then University of Ife, which was renamed Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is one of the best in the country. Its renaming by Babangida administration in 1987 was also greeted with hue and cry, but the acronym, OAU, is now a popular brand the world over; students of the institutions have even used their ingenuity to nickname it Oba Awon Universities (OAU), meaning king among other universities. The OAU lesson is that of enduring brand sustained by traditions of academic excellence and breakthroughs in research conduct,” he noted.

The don, who is a linguist, said it was instructive to note that brands or names “are mere signifiers or linguistic structures that human minds attribute to an object or idea. They are human perception of the world and ways of organising experience, with no regard to objective entity existing in the external world.

“Swiss linguist-structuralist, Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), shared the foregoing sentiment when he said words (from which names are formed) were arbitrary and ‘unmotivated signs” and have no connections whatsoever with what they signify,” he added.

Other Nigerians who spoke with Sunday Tribune over the issue averred that same could be said about Nnamdi Azikiwe University, a federal university named after Nigeria’s first indigenous governor-general, Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe. The university used to be Anambra State University of Technology (ASUTECH), established in 1980 by the government of the old Anambra. It became a federal university in 1992 following the break of old Anambra into Anambra and Enugu states.

They also said that Michael Okapara University, Umudike, Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Ado Bayero University, Kano, were all Federal Government-owned universities and named after iconic personalities, saying their names were popular brands among comity of universities in Nigeria.

When contacted on phone, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Ebenezer Babatope, OFR, said that the alumni meeting of the university had been convened, nothing that he could not speak on the matter, until the meeting was held.

However, in what many have described as a bold and instructive move, the family of the late Abiola has, in a letter of appreciation to President Jonathan, cited examples of tertiary institutions that had been named after the late business mogul in other countries.

The letter also made a note of the contributions of the politician to the educational sector in Nigeria, besides being the martyr of democracy in the country.

The letter, signed by Chief Mubashiru Abiola, Chief (Mrs.) Adebisi Abiola, Chief (Mrs.) Omolola Abiola Edewor, Alhaji Olalekan Abiola, Miss Ayobami Abiola, Alhaji Jamiu Abiola, Mrs. Bolanle Akande and Mr. Abdul Abiola on behalf of the family, noted that the family had been baffled with efforts of previous governments to bury “the uncommon heroism of MKO Abiola.”

“As our leader you chose the time and manner that you would honour this great Nigerian. It was without our input but with our full approval. His sacrifices and contributions across every sphere of public life are too numerous to list. There has never been a philanthropist on the scale of Abiola in the history of Nigeria. His oft-repeated life’s ambition was to touch the life of very Nigerian one way or another. He may have succeeded in the area of education alone.

“In March 1990, he donated N1 million (equivalent of N40 million in 2010) to each state university, N50,000 (N2 million in 2010) to each federal university for students’ welfare, N20, 000 (N800,000 in 2010) to libraries of each of the federal universities and N25, 000 (N1 million in 2010) to each polytechnic and college of education.

“He is credited with the construction of 63 secondary schools and 41 libraries. He established Abiola Bookshops to provide affordable locally-produced textbooks in the 1980s when imported textbooks became out of the reach of ordinary Nigerians when the naira was devalued. He awarded over 1,000 scholarships to deserving students in tertiary institutions at home and abroad. In addition to those awarded by the Federal Government, MKO Abiola awarded bursaries to every single student from Ogun State. For every N500 they received from from the Federal Government, they received N250 from MKO Abiola. To delve into his contributions in sports, culture and welfare would turn this letter into a thesis,” the family said.

They went further to remind the president of the Yoruba high chief to politics before his death, stating that, “in politics as in philanthropy, he is unequalled. He broke tribal and religious barriers to a clear victory. He chose the path of valour and fought for the collective will of Nigerians from the four corners of this nation and everywhere in between. He willingly returned from exile, knowing the consequencies of that action, prepared to pay with his life. The circumstances of his death shook the polity to its foundations and established the democracy we enjoy today, by far the longest period of rule by the people in our history. He lost his wife, the late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, and his businesses were decimated. Yet, he voluntarily stayed in detention, rejecting conditional release. He died refusing to betray the mandate given to him by those who betray his memory today.

“No honour is too great for one of the men and women who laid down their lives for the democracy we enjoy today, that enables some to take to the streets, uttering irresponsible, abhorrent nonsense. We take a leaf from your book and illustrate the line, “help our youth the truth to know.” The government of Egypt named a school after Abiola in appreciation of his contribution after a devastating earthquake.

Egyptians did not take to the streets, yet, to their eternal shame, some people in Lagos did. But as the great man would say, as one is crying, one should still see. The machinations and motives of those sponsoring protests are obvious. If 13 years of deafening silence from the Federal Government built on the blood of this man could not diminish his legacy, the actions of a few hooligans and rascals with no sense of history will certainly not.”