Sun News 0ctober 14, 2012

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OCTOBER 14, 2012 SUNDAY SUN

Women in Leadership

‘Corruption,sit-tight leaders bane of Africa’s development’ the womenfolk. Coming to my contributions to women empowerment in my country, I ask you to just come to Uganda. I don’t mean to blow my trumpet, but when you arrive at the Entebbe Airport, just ask the immigration officers who Matembe is and they will tell where to find me. I really don’t want to concentrate on what I have done, so I will just say that the women of Africa have done great things to improve their standing in society. Take Rwanda for instance, the women ensured that they enacted laws that enable women to inherit property. They also have enacted laws that protect women from domestic violence. We have passed laws that challenged age-old harmful customs such as the outlawing of Female Genital Mutilation (FMG). We passed a law against human trafficking and domestic violence. I was among the 21-member committee that worked on our constitution and I, together with my colleagues, ensured that we had a gender-friendly constitution. However, we still have a long way to go. Patriarchy is deeply rooted in African societies. And women still face old challenges such as poverty, illiteracy and limited opportunities because our women are mostly rural dwellers held down by culture and tradition.

You and your colleagues in Uganda did what we haven’t been able to do in Nigeria. Till date only a few states have passed the Child Rights Bill into law just as Nigeria is yet to domesticate the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). How were you able to enact the laws similar to both UN conventions in your country?

For me, I wouldn’t condemn female politicians in any African country. It could be that they are doing their best but people on the outside don’t perceive that they are doing the much they can to change things. You have to understand that female politicians are operating in societies where patriarchy still has very strong arms that hold them down. So we should commend the little achievements of female politicians. Having said this, I also won’t be oblivious to the fact that once some female politicians get into office, they are swallowed up by male chauvinistic politics. In Africa politics is so masculine, the party rules are masculine and the party agenda often overrules that of the female politicians. Don’t forget that these women have to win the next election, so they often dance to the tune of their party.

When you say African politics is masculine in nature, are you talking about how capital intensive it is to contest election and other issues such as late-night meetings and sexual harassment?

Yes. When you look at politics on the continent, it is shaped by customs and traditions entrenched by men. Women have domestic roles they have to play. So you see that women are constantly struggling to balance public life with their responsibilities at home. This is a major challenge. Women are expected to do well in public office, yet society wants them to be on top of the situation at home.

In most cases the balancing act becomes too hard for women. In my country, women have lost their marriages due to their political career. I wouldn’t blame these women as many people do. I look at it from the angle that husbands fail to come to terms with the new role of their wives. Before your wife used to be the one to take care of the children and receive you when you return late, then, there wasn’t any problem. Now, your wife is a member of parliament, she goes to her constituency in the rural areas or she is kept away due to cabinet meetings, you the husband becomes sad that you have been reduced to a woman who receives the breadwinner when she returns. Other men despise husbands that support their wives. These circumstances take a toll on marriages. Therefore, it takes the cooperation of a couple for a female politician to succeed in the home and in public

Matembe office. So I don’t agree with some people when they say that women change when they get into public office, because I have been in the same situation and I can tell you that it wasn’t easy. I was a member of parliament for 17 years, I was a minister for five years and I was later a member of the Pan-African Parliament. Yet, my marriage is intact. It took a lot of cooperation from my family members. I was also able to earn the trust of my husband and children. For me, it is crucial for female politicians to earn the trust of their husbands and children.

How did you go about earning the trust of your husband and children?

Mine was a special case; I would say that God did it for me. I should also add that I always set my priorities right. But most importantly, if you truly

‘What do you mean by romantic wife? I am a wife and it is my husband who will determine whether I am romantic or not.

What I can tell you is that I am a successful wife and my husband is extremely proud of me’

How do your husband and your four sons react to the bashing you give men?

I am glad you asked this question. I remember during my campaigns some men would say ‘this woman that hates men has come’. I used to ask them how I could hate men when I live in the same house with five of them. I don’t hate men. I love them with the love of God. But I don’t like the wrong that they do. I don’t blame the men all through for the system that holds women down.

But I wonder why men want to continue with the patriarchal system. Maybe because they think it benefits them. But they don’t know they are also victims of a system that oppresses women. For me, I have fought this system and I will continue to fight it. I make my points clear anywhere I am.

Even while I was in the parliament and men described women in derogatory terms, I corrected them immediately. So everybody knows what I stand for.

What will you pick as the high points of the 17 years you spent in parliament?

My major achievement in political life is that I, along with other female colleagues, made women visible and audible. Before our time, women weren’t visible or audible. Secondly, I, along with other colleagues, ensured that the 1995 Ugandan Constitution was gender responsive. I ensured that the constitution had comprehensive laws that protect and promote women’s rights. I was also able, together with my colleagues, to ensure that women of Uganda had where to go to solve their problems like the Legal Aid Clinic and FIDA. I remember during one of my campaigns, my opponent, another female politician, went around telling the men not to support me. She said I brought FIDA into the constituency to torment them. Rather than back off when men reminded me of what my opponent told them, I would advise them that they should vote me back into parliament or I would have more time to work with FIDA. The men didn’t like FIDA at all. FIDA used to go to men’s offices to remind them of their child support and other courtordered payments they used to ignore. Of course, the men didn’t want me around with more free time to work with FIDA, so they voted for me and I returned to parliament.

Furthermore, we established the Ugandan Women Finance and Credit Trust, which trained and gave women loans. I also was uncompromising in my fight against child defilement. I was instrumental to getting the law against rape strengthened. Besides, for five years I served as Minister for Ethics and Integrity. When I was appointed, my duty was to fight corruption and build integrity in public service. I was the first minister with this portfolio. When I started, there wasn’t even one office allocated to the ministry. I was simply shown a desk and was told, “go sit there and fight corruption”. But by the time I was leaving, I established a full-fledged ministry. I gave the ministry a sense of direction with a strategic plan of action. I recruited the right people. I spearheaded the enactment of two instrumental laws. One was for leaders to declare their assets publicly and the other strengthened the office of the InspectorGeneral of Government who had the primary role of fighting corruption. I am satisfied with how much I contributed to the growth of my country. If I die today, I know that history will be kind to me.

How well did your ministry and the laws you enacted fight corruption in Uganda?

For me, the biggest constraint to fighting corruption in Africa is the lack of political will. African leaders in the highest level of government aren’t sincere about fighting corruption. African leaders only window dress when it comes to corruption. In Uganda, for example, I will say that corruption is the engine room of government. The government is corrupt. How can a leader surround himself with crooks just because they funded his election?

Around the continent our leaders are being held to ransom by crooks that fund their elections. I have looked around Africa and I have seen particularly in Uganda, that for our presidents, the love for power supersedes everything. Even if African leaders have a mission on their way into office, once they get power, they forget every other thing.

Again, in office they meet people who are ready to do anything to keep them in power so that they keep benefiting from government and robbing the nation. In order for leaders to pretend to the public that they don’t support corruption, they establish anti-corruption agencies they don’t sustain in the end. To me the political will to combat corruption can only be shown by strengthening the institutions and legal framework designed to fight graft.

It doesn’t help when you establish an anti-corruption institution that doesn’t have well-trained staff, that doesn’t have adequate funding, not even for the salary of its workers. How can someone who

are doing what God sent you to do, he will engineer all the issues that concern you in a way that you succeed. I won’t give myself much credit for my family still being intact, because work also kept me away from home till late in the night. I only succeeded because my political career was God’s purpose for my life. This is why I love to say that I am a politician by calling. When God calls you, he equips you and he engineers circumstances in a way that things work out well for you.

God did mine in a way that he gave me a supportive husband and children who understood why I wasn’t around. I say again that I earned my family’s trust, because when I say I have gone to play politics, you won’t find me in another man’s bed.

It’s true that some women went to other men’s bed after telling the people at home that they were headed to a political function. Really, some women have fallen short of expectations, they get into office, get carried away by the need to survive, they end up in other men’s beds and their husbands end their marriage when they find out.

You did not to stray into other men’s beds in your over two decades in the masculine world of politics? Are you still a romantic wife and a caring mother?

What do you mean by romantic wife? I am a wife and it is my husband who will determine whether I am romantic or not. What I can tell you is that I am a successful wife and my husband is extremely proud of me. I have raised good children. Two of my sons are married. I have five grandchildren and the other two of my sons will also marry someday. So, I can boldly say that I am a respected wife, mother and grandmother and my sons are proud of me. I have a niece whom I raised and two of her children are part of the five grandchildren I told you about.

Continued on page 38

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OCTOBER 14, 2012 SUNDAY SUN

Women in Leadership Continued from page 37 earns $200 a month investigate another person that has robbed the country of millions of dollars?

Is it because of the poor support given the anti-graft fight you left government?

I left government because I fell out with the president (Yuweri Museveni). I worked so well that I worked myself out of government, because when our president moved to alter the constitution by removing the term limit for the presidency, I told him that it was an act of corruption. I told him that manipulating the constitution for his personal interest was the highest form of corruption. And as his minister responsible for fighting corruption, I wouldn’t support him. Two weeks after, he reshuffled the cabinet and I was dropped. He used corrupt means to get some members of parliament to remove the term limit, but, of course, I voted against the amendment of the constitution. I fell out with government and the ruling party in 2003. In 2006, I completed my tenure in parliament and in the Pan African Parliament. Since then I’ve busied myself with NGO work. Though I am out of government, I haven’t stopped being the voice of the voiceless. I still speak against the ills of government. If you go to Uganda today and ask of me, they will say, “oh that woman doesn’t fear anyone”.

So how do you protect yourself and your family?

God protects us. My house doesn’t even have a fence. The big man in my country knows that I stand for what is right. He (Museveni) is not pursuing me because he doesn’t want to cause himself unnecessary problems. He only fights those he thinks want to remove him from office. I don’t want to. I only speak for the voiceless and shout to condemn things that aren’t right.

Were you ever approached with a bribe by those being tried for corruption?

I never touched money that wasn’t part of my wages. When I heard that ministers in my country took government money, I wonder how they did it. First, you don’t control money; it is the permanent secretary who is the chief accounting officer. My duty was to create policy and to give the ministry direction. During my time as minister I hardly touched money. Even when I travelled as minister, it was my driver who collected my travel allowances. It was him who used to pay for hotel bills and other expenditure once he got clearance from me. I hardly touched money.

You, like many others, have said corruption and sit-tight leaders have made a richly endowed continent like Africa poor. Are you among those that believe that this strange mix of bad leaders and natural resources equals a cursed continent?

Africa cannot be cursed. We are the most blessed continent in the world. God cannot curse a people he gave the best vegetation, the best climate and abundant resources. Surely, Africa isn’t cursed but Africans need to redefine and refine themselves. Africans need redirection. What we need is transformative leadership. Right now, most African leaders are self-centered and power drunk. We can only move forward when we get leaders who want to serve the people. I dare say we need godly leaders. Another major problem I have seen across Africa is tribalism. Tribal connections are stronger than the sense of nationhood in most countries. Africans are more loyal to their tribes than their countries. Maybe this is because of how these countries came to being in the first place. I say this because if you love your country, you will not steal from it. People love their tribes

Matembe

‘Women tend to judge each other harshly. They forget that women politicians work under tough conditions.

Female politicians are operating in societies where patriarchy still has very strong arms that hold them down’ more than their countries.

Could it be that the countries failed the people so they seek solace in their tribes?

As I said earlier, godly leadership can give people a sense of belonging in a country. Don’t you think that a good leader can change the mindset of people through service? When a leader loves the people and serves them, there will be a great difference.

Unfortunately, what we have in Africa are power-grabbing leaders that take from their own people. It is very clear to me that we have people that can be leaders with the love of the people in their hearts.

In Africa we have people who are ready to serve but they are often too afraid to join politics because of the way it is played in our continent. Despite the scenario I described, I believe that there is hope for Africa. Why I say this is because most African countries are reaching their jubilee year. And jubilee, according to the word of God in the book of Leviticus, is the year of freedom and restoration. I do have strong faith that by the time all African countries celebrate their jubilee year, Africa will experience restoration and freedom.

You have spoken on the future of Africa. Your book, Women in the Eyes of God: Reclaiming a Lost Glory seems to speak about the future of women. But you made certain controversial statements about women in the Bible. If your argument in defence of Eve is understandable, why do you try to exonerate Delilah?

In my struggle for women empowerment and gender equality, I have selected five major reasons women are suffering. One is culture and age-long customs. Second is ignorance. Thirdly, women have little or no access to legal help and they hardly know their rights. The fourth factor is poverty and the fifth is religious misinterpretation and misapplication. The fifth factor is what I addressed in my book.

Many people have picked parts of their religious books, which they use to marginalise women and undermine their status. Some Christians pick on certain women in the Bible and they use them to demonise women. Some of them quote the Apostle Paul asking women to keep quiet in the Church. In the case of Eve, they look at Adam as a helpless man who was given the fruit of death by Eve, a woman. But they fail to look at the story critically. The scripture tells us that it was Adam that God showed the tree of life and asked him not to eat of its fruit. Eve wasn’t created by then. So when the serpent asked whether indeed they were asked not to eat the fruit of the tree of life, how could she have known the correct answer? Besides, where was Adam when the serpent was having such an important and deep conversation with his wife? Again, when Eve approached Adam who was instructed not to eat the fruit, why didn’t he turn her down? If you look at the scriptures, when Eve ate the forbidden fruit, her eyes weren’t opened to see her nakedness. She only realised that they were naked when Adam ate of the fruit. Yet people chose to condemn Eve rather than blame Adam for failing to take responsibility for his wife and the Garden of Eden. Some people also pick on a woman like Rebecca over the issue of Jacob and Esau. They forget that Rebecca inquired of the Lord when the babies in her womb struggled and she was told that the older would serve the younger one. What she did by assisting Jacob to get his father’s blessing was in tandem with God’s plans for Israel. In the case of Delilah, people forget that she saved an entire nation by betraying a man that was too weak to fulfill God’s plans for Israel. God warned Samson not to cut his hair. But he was a weak man who gave away an important secret to the enemy. Above all, I can tell you that women are special to God. He loves women dearly. The most important thing is that God has reconciled with women and he did it without men. Eve brought the fruit of death but down along the road, a woman, the Virgin Mary, brought forth the fruit of life, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

‘Quotables’ Compiled by ADAEZE ATUEYI-OJUKWU

–Mrs. Chinwe Biringa demanding justice for her late son

It is not that crimes don’t take place in other countries, they do.

What is wrong is the reaction of government, the speed with which those who are involved are arrested, tried and punished accordingly.

–David Mark, Senate President, commenting on the state of crime in the country

Government would sack and replace teachers who do not show good attitude to work; we should see the children not just as pupils but also as our own children.

–Adams Oshiomhole, Governor of Edo State, pledging to restore the integrity of public schools

has failed. He has betrayed his people he swore to protect.

–Joseph Bassey, House of Representatives member, calling for the impeachment of President Goodluck Jonathan

It is indisputable that Achebe has the right to write on any topic that crosses his mind, but he has no right whatsoever to irresponsibly murder history by recklessly attacking a great leader like Papa Awolowo.

–Fata Salam, member of the Oyo State House of Assembly, speaking on Professor Chinua Achebe’s latest book

combat environmental challenges.

Everyone knows that all over the world the climate is changing. So, it is foolhardy to expect that the weather this year will follow the pattern of last year.

–Dr Ebenezer Alade, Coordinator, Association for Better Environs, decrying government’s response to NIMET’s weather forecasts

They make noise in the afternoon but in the night, they come to us and say don’t mind; we have to show that we are working. They come to hail the governor under the cover of darkness.

–Joe Igbokwe, Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria in Lagos State, affirming that the state is a nogo area for PDP

One of our major problems in this country is our failure to leverage on science and technology to

We want justice. Those who murdered my son must face the wrath.

We have lost confidence in the Presidency. The president himself

The implication of the incredible act of wickedness meted out to these young men is that many of our people are becoming numb to actions that should ordinarily jolt human sensibilities. This is what happens in uncontrolled violence as we have across our country now, where mass killings are becoming the norm.

–Action Congress of Nigeria condemning the lynching of four students of UNIPORT Our goals and interests are the same with the welfare of our people and the development of our country.

–President Goodluck Jonathan urging the executive and legislature to work together in the interest of the citizenry.

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Snaparazzi 70th Birthday and 47th Wedding anniversaries of Alhaja Abibat Bawa-Allah former registrar,Yaba College of Technology in Ikorodu, Lagos.

Photos by BIODUN ADEYEWA

L-R:Alhaji (Dr.) Kayode Bawa-Allah,Celebrant,and Professor Michael Filani,Book Reviewer at the Presentation of a book“ The Missing Cutlass�written the by the celebrant

HRM Oba (Dr.) Salawudeen Adekoya Oyefusi,Ayagburin of Ikorodu,right,and Chief Kabiru Shotobi,Odofin of Ikorodu

The celebrant with children and grand children

L-R:Deacon Dipo Ajayi,Professor Michael Filani and Chief Kola Filani

L-R:Mr.Tunde Aladetuyi,Oloye Fola Omotayo

L-R:Chief (Mrs.) Bukie Olonilua,Mrs.Nike Kehinde,Chief (Mrs.)Lanre Anifowose,and Chief (Mrs.) Gbemi Fola- Omotayo

L-R:Professor Kunle Wahab,Engr.Sam Soderu ,and Professor Nimbe Adedipe

Otunba and Mrs. Shola Fanimi

L-R:Mrs.Ronke Adio Saka,Mrs.Joko Ajasa,and Mrs.Bisi Solebo

Mr.Joseph Adeniyi and Mrs.Fehintola Taiwo

Ambassador Olori Muyibat O.Oyefusi,left,toasing with the celebrant

L-R:Aremo Adeniyi Ogunsanya,Barr.(Mrs.) Bola Animashaun, and Chief Monzor Olowosego,Pulisher,Oriwu Sun Newspaper

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OCTOBER 14, 2012

DELE ONATADE 08023441526 Photo-Scene-T Thesis Starwood luxury launch

The Nigerian tourism industry got a boost last Friday with the addition of the Le Meridian Grand Towers to the Starwood luxury brand. The commissioning and launching was held at Four-Point near Sheraton at Lekki in Lagos.

Minister of Culture and Tourism, Chief Edem Duke (right) with Chairman, Robert Dyson and Diket Ltd, Chief Sonny Odogwu.

Engr. Kunle Ogunbayo of KOA Consultants Ltd (right), with Mr. Shimon Chen of Nairda Ltd.

President, African Export-Import Bank, Jean-Louis Ekra (left), with President, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, Bashir Ifo.

Chairman, El Rufai and Partners, Husaini Dikko (left), with CEO. Odogwu Group of Company, Ken Odogwu.

Area Manager, Starwoods Group Nigeria, Mr. Alexander Gassauer (left), with CEO Koray Construction Company Turkey, Samil Capar.

Executive Director, Guardian Press, Mr. Toke Ibru (left), and Mr. Jide Subomi Balogun.

Iyi Uwadiae celebrates Head of National Office of WAEC, Iyi Uwadiae was in celebration mood on Saturday, October 6 as he hosted a retirement party to mark his retirement from the national office and to become the Registrar of the Accra office of the education body.

Dr Iyi Uwadiae (right) and Dr Ademola Awomolo.

Mr Godwin Uzoigwe and Alhaja (Mrs) Mulikat Bello.

Mr Adebayo Alli and his wife, Raliat.

Mr and Mrs Sesan Adeniji.

Barr. Kola Fatoye with his wife.

Mr Josiah Fagbemi and Mrs Bunmi Ogunlade

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Photo-Scene-T Thesis Green and White Groove The 2012 edition of Encomium and Primetime Entertainment Green and White Groove in celebration of Nigeria’s 52nd Independence anniversary was held on Monday, October 1 at Ikeja, Lagos.

Guests cutting the independence anniversary cake

Publisher of Encomium Magazine, Mr Kunle Bakare and his wife

L-R: Mrs Toyin Nwosu, Dammy Onime and Oyin Bada-Onime

Primetime Entertainment’s Kenny Ogungbe and Dayo Adeneye

Musicians Sunny Nneji and Lady Goldie Harvey

Mr Biodun Kupoluyi (middle) with guests

Africamagic award Africamagic Viewers’ Choice awards was held recently at Avenue Suit, Tiamiyu Savage street , Victoria Island, Lagos.

Mrs. Biola Alabi, MD M-net Africa and Mr. John Ugbe, MD, MultiChoice Nigeria

Tomi Odunsi, Tunde Kelani and Iyke Okechukwu

Richard Mofe Damijo and Geneveive Nnaji

Ramsey Noah and Prince Jide Kosoko

Stephanie Okeke, Geneveive Nnaji and Mrs. Biola Alabi, MD, M-net Africa

Uti Nwachukwu and Joseph Benjamin

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OCTOBER 14, 2012 SUNDAY SUN

Milestone

PHOTOS:OMONIYI AYEDUN

Day Rochas brought the world to Owerri

By SHOLA OSHUNKEYE,Owerri t could have easily passed for a festival of colours. Those who thronged the Heroes Square, Owerri, last Monday, the small and the big, the young and the old, the poor and the rich, the weak ad the powerful, they all dazzled and glowed in their variegation of colours. From every corner of Nigeria, and the Diaspora, from Africa and beyond, they came, in lustrous colours, to bond in joy and celebrate the man that Morgan Tsvangirai, prime minister of Zimbabwe, described as “the very embodiment of hope. Hope personified. An indisputable symbol of hope.”

That personification of hope is Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha, the populist governor of Imo State, who hit the age of gold, 50, last Monday.

It was, indeed, a day of blazing glory for the birthday boy as the capital literally shut down and emptied itself to the compact but beautiful Heroes Square, to celebrate the man who one of the beneficiaries of his philanthropy, described as “one-in-a-million treasure.”

Government establishments, schools, shops and markets, even private businesses shut down to honour the man of the moment. And what would you do if you were Rochas Okorocha, the subject of the wide adulation the world saw in Owerri last Monday? Frown and shrink in your cocoon? Or, purr with pleasure. Of course, you would walk on air and savour every second of the moment. That was exactly what the birthday boy did most of the time, that day, as dignitary after dignitary took turns to eulogise him for his gargantuan achievements at an age when some people would still be groping and wandering in the wilderness of life.

Okorocha’s colleagues in the Governors Forum led the pack of eminent personalities,

I

including Nigeria’s former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida (chairman of the event) who thronged the Heroes Square for the celebration. The roll-call include Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, Delta’s Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, Anambra’s Peter Obi, Bauchi’s Isa Yuguda (who was a little bit indisposed but still came all the same), and Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State. Several governors sent their deputies. The Deputy Governor of Imo State, and Rt. Hon. Benjamin Uwajumogu were also on hand to share the joy of the moment with Okorocha. From the international scene came Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwean prime minister, Dr. Nelson Mandela’s first granddaughter, and some diplomats who added diplomatic flavour to the celebration.

Other eminent personalities included Dr. Chris Ngige, former Governor of Anambra State, now a senator, Lai Mohammed, national publicity secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Senator Osita Izanuso, some traditional rulers and representatives of some interest groups from the north. The composition of the cream of eminent Nigerians gathered at the arena that day underscored the cosmopolitan outlook of Governor Okorocha, stamping him as a man free from our national prejudices.

However, apart from the celebrant and his wife, who understandably stole the show, the cynosure of all eyes were the thousands of colourfully clad students and graduating students of the Rochas Education Foundation Colleges from Kano, Jos, Bauchi, Ibadan, Owerri and Oboko, the governor’s homestead in Imo State. The governor is the president of the foundation while his daughter, Uloma, is the Acting Director General. The highly cerebral lady assumed the position recently following

the appointment of the incumbent as an ambassador by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Rochas Education Foundation, according to Uloma, who took charge of affairs after the preliminaries by the compeers and the DJs, started with just one child about 10 years ago.

And in the past 10 years, over 6000 indigent Nigerian children have received comprehensive primary and secondary education from the Foundation. For the past 10 years, Okorocha has been providing free comprehensive education for the poorest of the poor in Nigeria without taking a kobo or a dollar from government or any donor agency, and without going cap-inhand in the name of fund raising to fend for the children.

“Yet, they say he is just playing politics,” observed an obviously impressed General Ibrahim Babangida while delivering his speech as chairman of the occasion. Turning to Okorocha, he said, “If they say it’s politics, please continue to play it. This brand of politics is very good for humanity. It is very, very good for our nation.”

Uloma was at her best, recalling all the great works that the foundation has done, giving hope to the poorest of the poor, giving meaning to the lives of over 6000 children within 10 years.

“This can only be God,” says the sultry lady, to

the admiration of her proud parents who were with dignitaries on the stage. The stage was specially made for the mass graduation of some 3000 students from the foundation’s colleges across the country.

The importance of the occasion was not lost on the children. They were enveloped with raptures of joy and screamed their hearts out each time something was said about their mentor and benefactor. Apart from their loud appreciation of the celebrating governor, they also put up superlative performances during the march past, drawing endless ovation from the capacity crowd.

River State Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi could also not hide his excitement and appreciation of what Rochas has done, and still doing, with his personal resources under his education foundation. Amaechi said: “They say philanthropy is a gift. And you can really have that gift if you want. My brother (turning to Okorocha), if God is reluctant to hear prayers, He will hear the prayers of these 3000 (graduating) children, whose lives you have touched. He will hear their prayers concerning you.

Congratulations. ” Apart from the colourful march past, which thrilled the capacity crowd on end, another high point of the occasion was the graduation cere-

General Babangida and Gov. Okorocha

Gov. Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State

Senator Osita Izunaso

OCTOBER 14, 2012 SUNDAY SUN

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Milestone

Owelle Rochas Okorocha and Wife, Unuoma mony of the 3000 graduating students of the foundation’s colleges in Kano, Jos, Ibadan, Bauchi, Owerri and Oboko.

Governor Uduaghan administered the oath of graduation on graduands from the Ibadan campus, Sir Ibrahim Shema, Katsina State Governor, handled those of Oboko campus, Morgan Tsvangirai graduated students from Owerri Campus, Governor Rabiu Kwankwanso of Kano State graduated students from Kano campus, while Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda, handled the graduation of students from Jos campus.

It was also a festival of music as TuFace Idibia, Nigeria’s biggest music export so far, led other big acts to thrill the audience far into the night.

In his tribute on the occasion, Tsvangirai said children are very important component of a nation, “and what we have seen here today is an evidence of the dedication of a great leader to the total emancipation of the child. You must, indeed, be an engaging character to look after 6000 children the way you have done. It’s incredible. Africa needs leaders like you.”

Turning to the crowd, the Zimbabwean prime minister said: “The youth of Africa should be driven more by the quest for social justice and economic prosperity of their nations and the continent.”

On Nigeria, he said: “I have really never experienced such an exposure as this to the Nigerian nation. This is a great experience for me. Yours is a vibrant and dynamic nation. The sky is the limit.”

During the ceremony, I took out time to talk to some dignitaries at the state box on the man, Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha. Governor Shema traced his relationship with the celebrant to his early days as a lawyer when he just left Law School to settle in Jos, Plateau State, for his practice.

He met Okorocha in the Plateau State capital, where he (Okorocha) was living at the time, and he (Shema) had no problems flowing with him. In fact, he said he had to represent the celebrant in an aviation case.

“I know Rochas to be personally and intimately committed to the wellbeing of the less privileged,” Shema said. “On the issue of education for the less privileged, every right-thinking person should be able to appreciate this kind gesture of Rochas. For the foundation to be 10 years old and to run it in such selfless and detribalized way in this nation with locations in Jos, Ibadan, Bauchi,

(L-R) Gov. Shema of Katsina State, Gov. Uduaghan of Delta, and a monarch

Tsvangirai to Okorocha: ‘You must, indeed, be an engaging character to look after 6000 children the way you have done.

Tsangirai

It’s incredible. Africa needs leaders like you’

Okorocha

Kano and here in Owerri is quite commendable. I’m very happy at the way he is going. At 50, he has a heart of gold, he is a selfless leader. I wish him good health, many more years and more fruitful service in this direction.”

Eulogising the sterling qualities of the celebrant, Chief Victor Umeh, national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, said, “Owelle Rochas Okorocha, at 50, has been able to achieve what not many Nigerians in his position, even people with bigger resources and

influence, can achieve. I doubt if you can count some other Nigerians that can do such things. It is not about wealth accumulation, or being a governor or being in an exalted office. It is all about compassion for the poor.

It is all about compassion for the

under-privileged. It is all about making thousands of people happy.

“Imagine, about 6000 children were paraded before our very eyes here today, who are receiving free and compressive education from good colleges, spread across the country-Kano, Ibadan, Owerri, Jos, Bauchi, and Oboko, and more are upcoming. Only a selfless leader or person can do this. Remember the proverb that says ‘your happiness should not be in the things that you do for yourself to make yourself happy but in the things you do to make other people happy.’ Rochas Okorocha has lived a life of service, and it is very spectacular.”

For Senator Osita Izanuso, Okorocha has, within 50 short years, “achieved what many 70, 80, 90year-olds can only achieve in dreams, and that is if they ever give helping the poor a thought. He has done a lot of things for humanity. I am someone who believes so much in humanity. I am not aware of any single person or individual in this country or Africa who has about 6000 students under his scholarship.

This is a man training about 6000 people. Anything you are doing for humanity, you are doing it directly for and to God. Rochas has done well. I wish him many more years. I wish Rochas Foundation many more years.”

For Rochas@50

My Thoughts on leadership

By Eeefy Ify Ike here are leaders who have a full grasp of the significance of the position they possess, understanding that selfless service is paramount in leadership and does not place oneself above national interest.

Though we do not even acknowledge the efforts some of our leaders make to build the nation.

There’s a moral virtue that we must learn to adopt and that’s the virtue of appreciation. It’s unfortunate that this isn’t a culture that promotes gratitude, and gratefulness is an encouragement to the selfless service we expect from our leaders.

Yes, if you appreciate someone’s good works, then, the person would be encouraged to do more.

Encourage and support our leaders by highlighting their strengths and minimizing any emphasis on their weaknesses unless it’s for constructive purposes.

Constant criticism only compounds the problems we are facing. You can’t malign me in spite of my hard work and then expect me to do well by you.

Nigerians have this terrible habit of sitting around complaining about leaders… Yes, they are adept at crit-

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icizing and peddling malicious gossip about leaders who they deem incompetent for whatever reason.

Everyone is an expert on the faults of the country, who’s to blame? Yes, some of these leaders are indeed guilty; nonetheless, we need to understand that the government also needs the support of the people to serve them better. We must all take responsibility to build our nation. The people must synergize with the government to build the nation. There’s power in synergy!

It is not too much to keep reminding our leaders the full meaning of leadership, a position that epitomizes vision and inspiration. We must do away with mediocrity and focus on true leadership and stick to practicing the principle of using wisdom to guide, protect and provide comfort and happiness to his people.

YOUR EXCELLENCY, thank you for your nobility… The future of many generations is captured in your essence. My prayer will always be that you should steadfastly remain selfless, tolerant, benevolent and passionate about how you serve your people and improve their lives. Happy birthday!

Eeefy Ify Ike is a United States-based motivational speaker,model,author.

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Bruce Malogo

OCTOBER 14, 2012 SUNDAY SUN

Notes of a Wayfarer

08033325888 Banmalogo@yahoo.com

It’s back to nature, see? wo weeks ago in this column, I said that we should not be surprised to see the bread we cast in the water yesterday come back to us today, poisoned. That was in a manner of speaking. In other words, a people will always reap what they sow and the yield, to be sure, comes in multiples. And so, the other day, we had a glimpse of the yield of what we have been sowing. We saw it in the sordid killing of the four Uniport students. These were people’s children and our compatriots, killed in such paganistic manner. The killing was so obscene, so barbaric that few hours after it was posted in the internet, the site was blocked. It was blocked because what the world saw earlier was far beyond what most human beings could cope with, mentally and emotionally.

The incident was reprehensible, defeating even. A group of adult members of a community staged such a horrendous spectacle, hacked down young men in broad daylight and set them ablaze. It was a perfect recast of a medieval festival where human beings were used for sacrifice. Killing human beings in such paganistic frenzy. I read something close to that only as a fiction in William Goldie’s Lord of the Flies. As condemnable as killing of the four students, we should also note that such heinous act comes in different guises.

They have become our daily experience in different forms and textures. They come in various guises and disguises.

I said I only read something close that darkly act in Goldie’s fictional Lord of the Flies. The book tells of young boys let loose on their own inside a forest. They become barbaric because they are on their own – left on their own, left without guide; without rules; without order. They turn into themselves, into their most natural, beastly riposte.

They descend into barbarism. This is exactly what we have seen in the Aluu community of Rivers State.

This barbaric resort on the Uniport four has met with thunderous condemnation and spontaneous, concentrated rage. From every quarter, including the chambers of the National Assembly, nerves have been on edge as a consequence. If a concert of renunciation had the force and the swiftness of the sword, everyone connected with the killing would have been dead by now. But I ask: Is this the first time we are we witnessing such mindlessness in our polity? Is this act of bestiality a novelty with us? I’d be surprised if anyone tells me it is; that this is the first time we are seeing a thing as heart-rending and nerve-racking as the killing of the four students. It is not. I have said that these things come in different guises; it is an experience that manifests in several forms. The Nigerian nation has, for a pretty long time now, been subjected to obscene, reprehensible treatments. The sensitivity of the Nigerian people has always been subjected to constant haranguing.

The barbarism we saw in Aluu, I repeat, is only another in the series and consistent dehumanisation of the people of this country by everyone that has the muscle and the means to do so. It is a testimony, morbid as it is, of what we have become, unfortunately. When people assemble lethal weapons to fight political opponents, what do you think that represents?

And it is not a question of whether or not these weapons would be employed. They will, and always in the most dastardly fashion.

Violence of the political type, well sorry to say, has become part of us. Violence, in this instant, is not about throwing stones or hauling abuses. It is about throwing bombs. It is about shooting into campaign rally of an opposing party. It is about seeing your politi-

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cal opponent and killing him because you know that, that is exactly what he has in mind to do to you. So you get him before he gets you.

When politicians allot a hefty sum for security, what do you think they are aiming at?

When they engage goons and equip them with dangerous weapons, do you think they are asking these thugs to go and hunt for games or that they should go for picnic? No. Political thugs are employed and equipped for the obvious – go after my political enemies, anywhere they are; real or imagined. So, gruesome killings are not new here; they have been with us for a long time. Except two or three known Arab countries, maybe, I can’t think of any other nation where spilling of human blood has become a delight; where killing and killing in the most satanic manner is assuming a second nature, than in Nigeria.

A country where wickedness stalks the land with unceasing and unveiled impetus.

And talking about wickedness, how else would you describe people who have charge over public treasury and who, in turn, convert this treasury into private trove? Well, if you can’t see the evil thereof, I’ll tell you. It is a cliché that Nigeria has no business with poverty; that the wealth of this country would be enough for every citizen. It is a cliché that

‘Leaders are not helping matters and the led have learnt very quickly…Now there is hardly a sense of the other.

Decency has become old-fashion and integrity anachronistic. It is back to nature’

in all the countries of the world, Nigeria is evidently one of the few most blessed in all manner of resources. It is also a cliché that Nigeria, with all of these blessings, is one of the poorest in the world. And the other cliché is that the country is poor because those who come forward to superintend over its affairs, often turn out to be predators. It is the reason we should wonder why, if the resources of the country could make every citizen live decently as a human being, would MOST live in poverty and so many live in sorry circumstance? The reason is that the political leaders have made a tradition of endless bleeding of the country of its resources – they, in concert with their hangers-on, bootlickers, attack-dogs and the leeches in the public service.

If the majority of the country’s resources are appropriated by a tiny minority of the people to perpetual condemnation of the majority of the people to lack and scramble, tell me, does wickedness have a different meaning? It is why, when a member of this tiny minority has catarrh or toothache, he is flown abroad for medical attention. It is the reason also why the other Nigerian walks into a public hospital all

by himself and he is carried out a dead man.

Why? Because the resources that public hospitals need to function effectively for the health and well being of the majority, have been consigned as private bequest by the minority. That is a different form of violence on the people of this country.

In this country, many people have died because they were not able to pay for hospital registration card of N200. That is, in the same country where one man would dip his hands in the public purse and take for himself N2 billion. And when the system wants to mock the rest of the people, a graft agency would put halfhearted charges together against him, and when he gets to court, he’d appear like a pop star, smiling, waving and blowing kisses to a cheering crowd. I said in a recent piece in this column that such people behave that way, knowing that, that is the first and last they’d appear in court. And true to type, the court would grant them bail. End of story. With N2 billion, goes one vital medical equipment required in a public hospital or a major facility needed in the educational sector. That N2 billion may just be what is needed to do a significant stretch of the hell they call Benin-Ore road. That is what one Nigerian took all to himself. Imagine how much of such violence is done to our public treasury each time a new set of political leaders comes. Then you begin to appreciate how much violence is done to the mass of this country. It indeed does violence to our collective psyche. Literally, it impoverishes us. It denies us our humanity as individuals and robs us of our conscience as a people.

All of this will tell you why those who profiteer through violent activities will always see justification in their enterprise. As abhorrent as the activities of Boko Haram, members would tell you that their existence is instructed by what the system offers them. Sentiment aside, look closely and you’d see some truth in that. The one who kidnaps would gleefully tell you that he is not in it because he has few options, but because he has no option at all.

So if he cannot make meaning out of his life through honest, legitimate means, if his dropout cousin, after loafing about and finally becoming a local government councilor and now has houses in choice places and expensive cars in his garage, pray, why would he rot in lack? And the sweeter part of the story is that even the society that had once despised the cousin, now adores him. So, why won’t he dive into the same pool, after all, the end justifies the means?

It is the same with the ritual killer. What does he care about human blood when that is what some of our respected and revered “big men” and big politicians thrive on? So is the same logic with which those who massacred tens of students in Mubi have. The point is that the Nigerian society is too violent, violent in several guises. Human life hardly means much any longer. Leaders are not helping matters and the led have learnt very quickly.

Social conscience has been seared and individual sensitivity dulled. There is now hardly a sense of the other. Decency has become oldfashion and integrity anachronistic. It is back to nature. So, when Aluu community, the other day, killed those four university students, we termed their action barbaric. But we should know where that was coming from.

There is anarchy in the land. There is no more respect for human dignity. Violence, in all its guises and disguises, has taken over the land – psychological violence, physical violence, economic violence. And the sum of it is that we are reaping what we have been sowing; fetching the bread we cast in the water yesterday.

THE SOUND OF JUBILEE Rev. Kunat Amos Achi Pastor, New Estate Baptist Church, Surulere, Lagos.

Phone: 0802 307 0157.

Email: revakunat@yahoo.com

Power to heal and to save Two very devastating experiences of our humanity are sickness and death. They both constitute a major threat to our wellbeing and happiness. They are evils that every man would have wished did not exist because of the terrible pain they inflict upon us. You need only to stand by the bedside of someone suffering from acute asthmatic attacks or one who is at the mature stage of a bone marrow cancer, and see how they wriggle in excruciating pain without help. Some of the diseases we suffer are said to be terminal, but they kill very slowly. Sometimes one suffering from any of these would have gone through such situation for upward of 10 years before finally dying. The horror of such experience is better imagined. Equally painful is death, which takes away loved ones from our arms and permanently separates them from us on this side of life, whether they are spouses, children, parents, siblings, friends or business associates. It leaves us emotionally pained such that tears just run out of our eyes freely and almost endlessly. Words become very inadequate to provide the needed comfort. The bereaved suddenly feels robbed of all that could ever make for joy. Even the memories of good times shared with the deceased cause much deeper pain. Sometimes it looks as though the whole world has suddenly crashed. No wonder, you hear some bereaved persons exclaim, “What else is there to live for?” If men could pay to be saved from sickness and death, they would go to any length to raise money in order to escape these two evils, but these do not bow to the power of money. Even the medical solution to sickness only provides some temporary intervention and relief just for a while in some cases. As for death, man has no answer. These two are a fall-out of man’s disobedience to the word of God, and are therefore far beyond what he can handle in his strength. But thanks be to God for His inexplicable mercy in providing a divine solution to these plagues.

Only God has power to heal sickness and deal with the issue of death, and that power He manifested in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Though His earthly ministry was for a very short time, He demonstrated beyond all doubts that He had the mandate and power of God to deal with sickness of all kinds and death. They brought to Him all manner of sick people from their various towns and He healed all of them. The people wondered what manner of man He was that such a mighty power rested in Him. When He raised Lazarus of Bethany from the dead after being buried four days, the Bible simply says that many Jews who were there and saw what had happened to the dead man believed in Him – John 11:45.

In the city of Nain, He also brought back to life the dead son of a widow when He met with the procession that was taking his corpse to bury. The Bible records that there came fear on all who were there, and they all glorified God and said a great prophet was risen among them and that God had visited them. They saw God in Him, because only God has such power – Luke 7:1116.

My dear readers, let me reassure you that the power of life and death lies with God, and it has pleased Him to bestow it on His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, so that in His name all kinds of sickness can be healed and in Him life is restored to the dead. The testimony of His resurrection on the third day after His physical death, according to the scriptures, is enough proof that God has given Him power over death and all manner of afflictions that man may suffer. Beloved, physical death, terrible and most dreadful as it is, is only a shadow of a more injurious one, spiritual death, which comes upon any man who leaves this world without Christ in his life. I don’t know whether you are going through some physical, spiritual, emotional or mental affliction right now. Are you devastated by the fear of death due to what it has done to your loved ones of late? Please, be more afraid of eternal death which comes when you die physically and leave this world in sin. It is not for you to wait and experience it, and the only way to escape it is to do what those Jews did when they saw the triumph of Jesus over death. They believed in Him. Faith in Jesus ushers you into eternal life and gives you everlasting victory over death. It also brings you healing from that disease that you have been suffering from all these years. No matter what men have said about your health condition, God can heal you through His Son, Jesus Christ if you will believe in Him, accept Him as Lord and Saviour of your life, and pray to Him in that faith. If you will confess and turn away from your sins, and allow Jesus to live His life in you, you will truly cross over from death to life. Please, do that NOW as you say this prayer from your heart.

“My Father and my God, help me now as I accept your Son, Jesus Christ into my life. I repent of my sin and open my heart to receive your gift of salvation. Forgive me and make me your child today. In Jesus’name I pray. Amen”

OCTOBER 14, 2012 EXPLORE

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SUNDAY SUNR REVUE EDITED BY TONI KAN tkeditorsun@ymail.com

INSIDE

Quotes on writing from the masters

WOULD you believe it? The man who brought us some of the most elegant and aesthetically pleasing ICT tools; the Mac, the Ipod and Ipad used to stink so much no one would work with him.

Walter Isaacson’s masterful biography of Steve Jobs who died at 56 after revolutionizing the world of information technology on 3 different levels; the MAC, animation movies with Pixar and the Ipod/Ipad brings to life in clear and sometimes sordid brush strokes the life of a driven, ambitious, brilliant but nasty man. Toni Kan attempts a review on our Critical Intervention section.

The NLNG shortlist has been announced and we now have 3 women in contention.

See all the details in our ‘In The News’ section. And in keeping with the NLNG spirit we publish another book review from the pile; Onaedo: The Blacksmith’s Daughter

by Ngozi Achebe.

All our regulars are on parade from poetry to quotes and culture news plus the conclusion of the Salman Rushdie excerpt from his latest book, the memoir, Joseph Anton.

Enjoy

Fiction Depends on Place: Every story would be another story, and unrecognizable if it took up its characters and plot and happened somewhere else. Fiction depends for its life on place. Place is the crossroads of circumstance, the proving ground of, What happened? Who’s here? Who’s coming –- EUDORA WELTY Heaven Knows What Pains the Author has Been At: Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experiences he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours’ relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey –W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Dialogue Written in Dialect is Hard to Read: Dialogue that is written in dialect is very tiring to read. If you can do it brilliantly, fine. If other writers read your work and rave about your use of dialect, go for it.

But be positive that you do it well, because otherwise it is a lot of work to read short stories or novels that are written in dialect. It makes our necks feel funny

BOOK REVIEW

–ANNE LAMOTT

Cover Image: GELE BY ALUYIA EXODUS, 2011

One poem for the road Monday Morning in Lagos the street wears the lightness of another work day men wear trusts on their brows to shelter the sun’s heat the tar road snakes infinitely like lives on a course of resignation smothered groans are buried in blaring sirens life drives on borrowed wheels: a teenage boy sits in a corner embracing mary jane a man who could be his father drives off raising dust a stressed mother drags three children cursing the traffic lights which had changed to green without warning school children scamper the road mindless of learning hour noise of all sorts fumes into the air with the smoke of men the skies remains blue as the city embraces the wind oceans of men pour on the street to run the monday heat they wish for a little leisure sadly, there’s no little river to stand and stare…. on these streets fallen leaves skims memories of a village dream the city’s villagers have shed their dreams in the city rush they’ve taken solace in planting memories in the bustling culture between,

a little boys seek nature from a punctured cosmos: he searches kerbs for a plant that has grown amidst moving feet the wonder of a city where nothing grows – nothing remains like tropical weeds in a land corrupted with unending feet in motion and against these moving feet men recite the thoughts of their cell phones as they hurry to everywhere tracking money down to its crannies a long friend from the distant past consumes the rush in a flush of reminisces the craze of unending clangs wets ears into calmness monday monday mornings the monday mornings when the streets run the race of a year the monday mornings that we wake with a sigh the monday mornings when we wish against the hooting trucks the monday mornings when the street is a passage to our dreams and the streets lead us to the homes of our crest and the streets lead us to the homes of our crest.

© Jumoke Verissimo

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OCTOBER 14, 2012 EXPLORE

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CRITICAL INTERVENTIONS

Steve Jobs:

Brilliant, Driven, Ambitious and Nasty

By TONI KAN Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, published by Simon and Schuster; New York, 2011, 630 pages.

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T the tail end of his authorised biography, Steve Jobs is asked by his biographer what it feels to be relinquishing control at Apple.

“I’ve had a very lucky career, a very lucky life,” he replied. “I have done all that I can do.”

Those are fitting words, an appropriate epitaph to a life defined by genius, innovation, creativity and imaginative leaps of technological faith.

Steve Jobs did not rule a country neither did he invent anything in the real sense of the word. His genius lay in seeing potentials beyond what already existed; the laptop after Xeros, the iPod after Sony’s walkman, the itunes after netscape, Toy story after Lions King. He revolutionized things across industries from personal computers to graphics, from digital animation to music; his was a restless and prodigious imagination.

A master of design, Steve Jobs inhabited the nexus between the humanities and sciences, between design and technology. His products, from the Mac to the iPad are delightful feats of seamless design and engineering. Steve Jobs redefined the word seamless.

Born to a Syrian father, Abdulfattah “John” Jandali and American mother, Joan Schieble, whose parents were opposed to her marrying an Arab, the little tot was abandoned at birth and adopted by a white couple Clara and Paul Jobs, a librarian and mechanic respectively. His birth mother had left a caveat that the couple that adopted her son must have college degrees and send him to university too.

His adoptive parents didn’t have degrees but they sent him to good schools while his father led him down the path of engineering and design.

Steve says his life changed at about ten “when I realised I was smarter than my parents.”

His parents realised it too and helped him develop his genius. It helped too that they lived in Palo Alto which had a lot of engineering companies and would later become known as the Silicon Valley, a term coined by Don Hoeffler, a columnist for a weekly trade paper Electronic News in a series of articles he

wrote about the area in 1971.

In his book, Outliers, M a l c o l m Gladwell talks about the 10,000 hour rule for defining genius.

Reading the life story of Steve jobs one is constrained to agree with Gladwell.

Steve Jobs and his parents lived in a house that had a garage where they tinkered with stuff all the time. He had a neighbour who was an engineer and who introduced him to electronics. Steve Jobs also belonged to the Hewlett P a c k a r d Explorers Club which offered them insight via mentoring engineers who told them about the brave new things HP was working on. He was also a student of John McCollum’s famed electronic class. McCollum is a Silicon Valley legend, a former Navy pilot who felt that “electronics was the new auto shop.” He even made a call to Bill Hewlett, one half of Hewlett Packard who gave him a job at one of their plants thus exposing him to the inner workings of the electronic industry.

The point here is that Steve Jobs had access and advantage and these coupled with his genius set him on the path of technological innovation never before seen since, maybe, Thomas Edisson.

And it is fitting that Jobs, always with an eye on history and his legacy, sought out Walter Isaacson to write his biography. Isaacson had written the definitive Edisson biography and Jobs felt that he was an innovator if not inventor in the same rank as Edisson and he wanted the man who had documented Edisson’s life to document his.

The story of Apple and its effect on information technology is effectively

‘Steve Job died at 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was a brilliant, talented, driven, ambitious and well accomplished man but as this book makes clear, his was a very conflicted personality. Steve Jobs was a polarizing figure; the proverbial elephant that yields many sides to the seven blind men.

To put it mildly, Steve Jobs was not a very good person’

the story of two Steves; one well known, the oethr not so well known. The two Steves were an odd couple yoked together by electronics. Wozniak was already a graduate while Jobs was in college and McCollum’s favourite student. Wozniak was awkward, a loner and son of a brilliant engineer who graduated from CalTech. Jobs was doing drugs, a rebel and the son of a high school drop-out who fixed cars. But their love of pranks and electronics and music gave them a bond.

It was Bill Fernandez who introduced the two Steves in what has been described as one of the most amazing Silicon Valley hook ups. Bill told Wozniak “His name is Steve. He likes to do pranks like you do, and he’s into building electronics like you do.”

The partnership revolutionized things despite the differences in their personalities because as Jobs noted Wozniak was the ‘the only person I’d met who knew more electronics than I did.”

Their collaboration and break is Silicon Valley legend but the company they created will outlive them both.

That first thirst of success was adrenalin shot for Steve Jobs and he ran with it while Wozniak was content to just be an engineer. As he put it “My dad was an engineer and that’s what I wanted to be.

I was too shy ever to be a business leader like Steve.”

Wozniak had the engineering brain, Jobs had the vision, design, packaging and marketing flair to make the products they produced fly.

Steve Jobs almost did not make it to the university. After high school, he announced he was moving into a cabin in the hills with his girlfriend, Chrissan

Brennan. His father was upset, but Steve had his way. He would later apply to Reed College a liberal arts university where the rebel in him refused to take the classes he was assigned.

A year later he dropped out but didn’t leave school. Instead he stayed back and took the courses he liked which included a calligraphy class which he says sharpened his love for mixing design with technology. As he put it: “If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would never have had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.

And since windows just copied Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them.”

After leaving Reed, he found a job at game maker, Atari but had a tough time with his colleagues who complained about his hippie ways and body odour.

To keep him, his boss assigned him to the night shift where he could have fewer interactions.(As an aside, Steve Jobs named the company he would later found, Apple, mainly because he wanted his company to appear before Atari in the phone directory. He was that petty.)

Jobs and Wozniak set up Apple computers on April 1, 1976 in a 3 person partnership; Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Ron Wayne. The ownership was 45%-45%-10%. But eleven days later, Wayne who had stated a company and failed earlier on, had a change of heart and backed out, selling his shares for $2,300. If he had stayed on, his shares would have been worth $2.6bn in 2010.

The story of Steve jobs and Apple, of how he built and lost it then regained control is the classic American story writ large and Walter Isaacson does a fine job of it but it is also in many ways a cautionary tale about the limits of ambition and ego.

Steve Job died at 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was a brilliant, talented, driven, ambitious and well accomplished man but as this book makes clear, his was a very conflicted personality. Steve Jobs was a polarizing figure; the proverbial elephant that yields many sides to the seven blind men. To put it mildly, Steve Jobs was not a very good person.

But the whole world is united on one score; he produced good products; beautiful products that changed the way we work and play. Steve Jobs revolutionized things and redefined the way we communicate, share, have fun and interact in the digital age and for that he will forever remain one of the greatest titans of technology in the ranks of Thomas Edison.

•(Steve Jobs is one of the books that would be discussed at this year’s Lagos Book and Arts Festival (LABAF).)

OCTOBER 14, 2012 EXPLORE

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IN THE NEWS

EVENTS

LAGOS MEETS JOBURG

•L-R: Deji Toye of CORA, Jumoke, Siphiwo, Toni Kand & Anwuli Ojogwu.

CORA in partnership with Inspiro under the theme “A Tale of 2 Cities” during the Nigeria South African week organized an exciting evening which featured two Nigerian writers in conversation with two South African authors. The second South African author missed his flight so Toni Kan and Jumoke Verissimo ended up engaging just Siphiwo Mahala, author of ‘African Delights’ in conversation about the twin cities of Lagos and Johannesburg and how writers navigate the two locales in their literature.

Pictures.

•Feature writers Jumoke Verissimo, Siphiwo Mahala and Toni Kan.

•Welcome speech from Toyin Akinosho, Sec. Gen of CORA.

S S R BOOK REVIEW REVIEWER: Lavonne Neff AUTHOR: Ngozi Achebe Lola Shoneyin BOOK TITLE: Onaedo: The Blacksmith’s Daughter PUBLISHER: Mandac Goldberg Publishing YEAR: 2010

Next Week

IN

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Ngozi Achebe’s first novel, Onaedo, The Blacksmith’s Daughter, is a good book you’re probably never going to read, and that’s a shame.

EY, it’s not your fault.

The book is not in your library, nor is it in any bookstore near you. You can order it from Amazon, but at $19.95 (even though discounted today to $17.05), it’s overpriced. If you’re looking for a historical novel by a Nigerian woman who lives in America, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun is a better deal at $10.85.

And yet Onaedo is an engrossing story about a likeable, gutsy woman, and it is rich in fascinating cultural and historical detail. The story is set in western Africa some 500 years ago. Onaedo, the teen-aged daughter of a prominent Igbo elder, is resisting one suitor after another. Her heart belongs to Dualo, but he is not prosperous enough to ask for her hand.

Enter Oguebie, a rich but unscrupulous suitor who is involved in some nefarious business with a couple of Portuguese fortune seekers. You guessed it, probably sooner than Oguebie does - these are slave traders, and they want him to help them capture his neighbors.

Like her uncle, the famed Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe (Things Fall

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UNIGWE, ACHEBE AND OLUGBESAN CONTEND FOR NLNG PRIZE The list is impressive: a medical doctor, a former political office holder and an architect. One out of these 3: Ngozi Achebe, author of “Onaedo: The Blacksmith’s Daughter”; Olusola Olugbesan, author of ‘Only a Canvas’ and Chika Unigwe author of “On Black Sister’s Street” will be announced winner of The Nigeria Prize for Literature on November 1, 2012 in Lagos.

A press release from the sponsors of the prize, The Nigeria LNG announced via a press statement released on Wednesday October 9, 2012 that “the Advisory Board for The Nigeria Prize for Literature has approved a final shortlist of three books out of the initial shortlist of ten released last month. The books are Onaedo: The Blacksmith’s Daughter by Ngozi Achebe, Only a Canvas by Olusola Olugbesan and On Black Sister’s Street by Chika Unigwe.”

“Onaedo: The Blacksmith’s Daughter” is the story of Onaedo, a young teenager of Igbo extraction, in the time before the English colonialists, her daily struggles of being a woman in a patriarchal society and how she dealt with life, love and at some point, an unloving husband. Ngozi Achebe, practicing physician, lives in the United States with her children, Jennifer and Nnamdi.

“Only a Canvas” is a tale of exhilarating characters from different backgrounds with dreams intricately woven together to create a tapestry of life. Olusola Olugbesan is an architect, married with three children and writes as a hobby.

This is Olugbesan’s first novel.

“On Black Sister’s Street” tells a gripping story of the lives of four African migrants working the red light district of Antwerp in Belgium brought together by bad luck and big dreams into a sisterhood that will change their lives. The Enugu-born graduate of English Language and Literature, Chika Unigwe, lives in Belgium. She is married with four children.

The Nigeria Prize for Literature has since 2004 rewarded eminent writers such as Gabriel Okara, founding father of modern Nigerian poetry, Professor Ezenwa Ohaeto (co-winner 2004), Ahmed Yerima, for his classic, Hard Ground, Mabel Segun for her collection of short plays, Reader’s Theatre; Kaine Agary for Yellow Yellow, Esiaba Irobi who posthumously clinched the prize in 2010, with his book, Cemetery Road and Adeleke Adeyemi, with pen name Mai Nasara, last year, for The Missing Clock.

The Nigeria Prize for Literature rotates yearly amongst four literary genres.

This year’s prize is for prose fiction. The prize has a cash value of USD 100, 000 and a total of 214 books were submitted this year.

‘CORA REINVENTED THE ART AND LITERARY SPACE’ – TOYIN AKINOSHO The Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) has been keeping very busy this year which marks its 21st anniversary. Giving his organisation a pat on the back during a late night poetry reading session in the marquee at the Federal Palace hotel on Friday October 5, 2012, Toyin Akinosho, Secretary General of CORA said that CORA literally brought back literary events to Lagos. “This is our 21st year and we have done this forever. We probably created the idea of getting people together in this town. When we started on June 2, 1991 there wasn’t a lot of art gathering conversations. We were in the military era, there were no novels coming out, poetry was almost jinxed, and Nollywood, don’t forget, started in 1992. There was a break from what we knew as the golden era of film making in Nigeria... so it was that situation that we tried to turn around and we started this thing that said we must do an Art Stampede every fortnight and now we are very happy to see that virtually everyone is either having an open mic session or having a conversation or having a film festival.”

Apart, No Longer at Ease), Ngozi Achebe depicts a culture rich in familial relationships and traditional beliefs but threatened by European invaders. Whereas the uncle created tragic heroes who cannot reconcile the old and the new, the niece gives us a spunky heroine who manages to survive one disaster after another. Onaedo be the first and only book ever published by Mandac-Goldberg, about whom I could find no information except the little that is on their website. To their credit, they have given the book an attractive cover (though the title needs more contrast with the background if they want bookstore browsers to notice it) and a functional interior design. However, their publicity materials, including backcover copy, are amateurish; their pricing is unrealistic; and they apparently haven’t figured out how to get the book into bookstores and libraries.

The biggest problem with the book is its inadequate editing at all levels.

The copy editor, if there was one, did not understand standard syntax or comma placement. No content editor helped the author see that the 21stcentury Prologue and Epilogue in no way helped the story, or that the Prologue’s clumsy writing and tangled time sequences were likely to put off potential readers before the real story ever got started. Nobody

helped the author shape her complex plot with its multiple points of view and its sometimes confusing roster of characters whose names, strange to Western ears, all begin to sound alike.

This is unfortunate, because Onaedo is a good story by a talented writer who deserves better than she got. The book ends just as a new adventure is about to begin, so there will surely be a sequel. In addition, Achebe told an interviewer that she is now at work on a “coming of age story ... set during the Nigerian/Biafran Civil war.” An established publisher with a crew of professional editors and marketers could do well with Achebe on their list.

If she is very lucky, some such publisher or editor will read Onaedo as if it is a manuscript, not a published book; will see its possibilities and the potential for equally gripping sequels; will buy the rights from Mandac-Goldberg; and will work with the author to turn it into the excellent book it ought to be. I’d like to be able to recommend Onaedo without reservations. Perhaps someday that will be possible.

(SOURCE: http://neffreview.blogspot.com/2010 /09/onaedo-blacksmiths-daughterby-ngozi.html)

Continues on Page 48

Next week we bring you more fresh poetry, book reviews, engaging fiction, and our final review from the NLNG pile plus more of our regular.

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OCTOBER 14, 2012 EXPLORE

SSR R

FICTION

SENTENCED TO DEATH (2) (Fr om Joseph Anton, a memoir by SALMAN RUSHDIE 1989)

T

HERE had been a couple of photographers on the sidewalk outside when he arrived. Writers didn’t usually draw a crowd of paparazzi. As the service progressed, however, journalists began to enter the church. When it was over, they pushed their way toward him. Gillon, Marianne, and Martin tried to run interference. One persistent gray fellow (gray suit, gray hair, gray face, gray voice) got through the crowd, shoved a tape recorder toward him, and asked the obvious questions. “I’m sorry,” he replied. “I’m here for my friend’s memorial service. It’s not appropriate to do interviews.”

“You don’t understand,” the gray fellow said, sounding puzzled. “I’m from the Daily Telegraph. They’ve sent me down specially.”

“Gillon, I need your help,” he said.

Gillon leaned down toward the reporter from his immense height and said, firmly, and in his grandest accent, “Fuck off.”

“You can’t talk to me like that,” the man from the Telegraph said. “I’ve been to public school.”

There had been a couple of photographers on the sidewalk outside when he arrived. Writers didn’t usually draw a crowd of paparazzi. As the service progressed, however, journalists began to enter the church. When it was over, they pushed their way toward him. Gillon, Marianne, and Martin tried to run interference. One persistent gray fellow (gray suit, gray hair, gray face, gray voice) got through the crowd, shoved a tape recorder toward him, and asked the obvious questions. “I’m sorry,” he replied.

“I’m here for my friend’s memorial service. It’s not appropriate to do interviews.”

“You don’t understand,” the gray fellow said, sounding puzzled. “I’m from the Daily Telegraph. They’ve sent me down specially.”

“Gillon, I need your help,” he said.

Gillon leaned down toward the reporter from his immense height and said, firmly, and in his grandest accent, “Fuck off.”

“You can’t talk to me like that,” the man from the Telegraph said. “I’ve been to public school.”

After that, there was no more comedy.

When he got out onto Moscow Road, journalists were swarming like drones in pursuit of their queen, photographers climbing on one another’s backs to form tottering hillocks bursting with flashlight.

He stood there blinking and directionless, momentarily at a loss. There was no chance that he’d be able to walk to his car, which was parked a hundred yards down the road, without being followed by cameras and microphones and men who had been to various kinds of school and who had been sent down specially. He was rescued by his friend Alan Yentob, a filmmaker and a senior executive at the BBC. Alan’s BBC car pulled up in front of the church. “Get in,” he said, and then they were driving away from the shouting journalists. They circled around Notting Hill for a while until the crowd outside the church dispersed and then went back to where the Saab was parked. He and Marianne got into the car, and suddenly they were alone. “Where shall we go?” he asked, even though they both knew the answer. Marianne had recently rented a small basement apartment in the southwest corner of Lonsdale Square, in Islington, not far from the house on St. Peter’s Street, ostensibly to use as a work space but actually because of the growing

strain between them. Very few people knew that she had this apartment. It would give them space and time to take stock and make decisions. They drove to Islington in silence. There didn’t seem to be anything to say.

It was midafternoon, and on this day their marital difficulties felt irrelevant.

On this day there were crowds marching down the streets of Tehran carrying posters of his face with the eyes poked out, so that he looked like one of the corpses in “The Birds,” with their blackened, bloodied, bird-pecked eye sockets.

That was the subject today: his unfunny Valentine from those bearded men, those shrouded women, and that lethal old man, dying in his room, making his last bid for some sort of murderous glory.

Now that the school day was over, he had to see Zafar. He called his friend Pauline Melville and asked her to keep Marianne company while he was gone.

Pauline, a bright-eyed, flamboyantly gesticulating, warmhearted, mixed-race actress full of stories about Guyana, had been his neighbor in Highbury Hill in the early nineteen-eighties. She came over at once, without any discussion, even though it was her birthday.

When he got to Clarissa and Zafar’s house, the police were already there.

“There you are,” an officer said. “We’ve been wondering where you’d gone.”

“What’s going on, Dad?” His son had a look on his face that should never visit the face of a nine-year-old boy.

“I’ve been telling him,” Clarissa said

brightly, “that you’ll be properly looked after until this blows over, and it’s going to be just fine.” Then she hugged her exhusband as she had not hugged him since they separated five years before.

“We need to know,” the officer was saying, “what your immediate plans might be.”

He thought before replying. “I’ll probably go home,” he said, finally, and the stiffening postures of the men in uniform confirmed his suspicions.

“No, sir, I wouldn’t recommend that.”

Then he told them, as he had known all along he would, about the Lonsdale Square basement, where Marianne was waiting. “It’s not generally known as a place you frequent, sir?”

“No, Officer, it is not.”

“That’s good. When you do get back, sir, don’t go out again tonight, if that’s all right. There are meetings taking place, and you will be advised of their outcome tomorrow, as early as possible. Until then, you should stay indoors.”

He talked to his son, holding him close, deciding at that moment that he would tell the boy as much as possible, giving what was happening the most positive coloring he could; that the way to help Zafar deal with the event was to make him feel on the inside of it, to give him a parental version that he could hold on to while he was being bombarded with other versions in the school playground or on television.

“Will I see you tomorrow, Dad?” He shook his head. “But I’ll call you,”

he said. “I’ll call you every evening at seven.

If you’re not going to be here,” he told Clarissa, “please leave me a message on the answering machine at home and say when I should call.”

This was early 1989.

The terms “P.C.,” “laptop,” “mobile phone,” “Internet,” “WiFi,” “SMS,” and “e-mail” were either uncoined or very new. He did not own a computer or a mobile phone. But he did own a house, and in the house there was an answering machine, and he could call in and interrogate it, a new use of an old word, and get, no, retrieve, his messages.

“Seven o’clock,” he repeated.

“Every night, O.K.?”

Zafar nodded gravely.

“O.K., Dad.” He drove home alone and the news on the radio was all bad.

Khomeini was not just a powerful cleric. He was a head of state, ordering the murder of a citizen of another state, over whom he had no jurisdiction; and he had assassins at his service, who had been used before against “enemies” of the Iranian Revolution, including those who lived outside Iran. Voltaire once said that it was a good idea for a writer to live near an international frontier, so that, if he angered powerful men, he could skip across the border and be safe.

Voltaire himself left France for England, after he gave offense to an aristocrat, the Chevalier de Rohan, and remained in exile for almost three years. But to live in a different country from one’s persecutors was no longer a guarantee of safety.

Now there was “extraterritorial action.”

In other words, they came after you.

The night in Lonsdale Square was cold, dark, and clear. There were two policemen in the square. When he got out of his car, they pretended not to notice him.

They were on short patrol, watching the street near the flat for a hundred yards in each direction, and he could hear their footsteps even when he was indoors. He realized, in that footstep-haunted space, that he no longer understood his life, or what it might become, and he thought, for the second time that day, that there might not be very much more of life to understand.

Marianne went to bed early. He got into bed beside his wife and she turned toward him and they embraced, rigidly, like the unhappily married couple they were.

Then, separately, lying with their own thoughts, they failed to sleep.

(•Source: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/09/17/120917fa_fact_rus hdie?currentPage=all)

•Continued on page 10

OCTOBER 14, 2012 EXPLORE

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WardR Round

...Love your ‘bean-seed’ or gan?

By OGE OKONKWO

L

IKE the average human being, you know that feeling of relief you get when you step into a bathroom or urinal in a public building with a full bladder and send a nice jet of urine pouring into the toilet bowl.

With your business done, you probably just walk out and go your way. From now you should always say a prayer of thanksgiving to God each time you urinate. Why? The number of people coming down with kidney failure and desperately seeking financial help to enable them undergo kidney transplantation is lengthening everyday. Long before the huge amount required is raised, if it ever gets pooled, the victim’s life savings as well as proceeds from sales of disposable properties, like vehicles, would have been used up to pay for dialysis (at a cost of N25, 000 – 30,000 per session, two times weekly) which can only help to keep the person alive while waiting for kidney transplantation.

The kidneys are two vital bean-shaped organs in the abdominal cavity of the human body. They are responsible for excreting or removing various toxins (drugs and waste products of metabolism from the body through the urine formed by the kidneys. The kidneys are silent and efficient workers but if they get very ‘sick’ the whole body suffers.

The major problem with kidney disease is that majority of patients who ultimately develop renal failure have no warning symptoms. Occasionally, some patients may notice leg swelling which prompts them to consult a doctor. For

Dr. Amira

Anatomy-kidney-midsagital

this reason, there is need to ensure that one’s kidney does not fail by taking steps to avoid lifestyles and toxins that harm the kidneys.

Toxins include medications such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), statins, aspirin and Tylenol.

In addition, some other ways in which the kidney can be harmed include: being obese, ingestion of fluoride in water supply, using Teflon-coated cookware and other common household item

Reducing road crashes: Attitude, the change we need (4) Continued from last week HAT exactly do you think is wrong with the average motorist? What do you think is responsible for the avoidable crashes and deaths on our roads: bad roads, bad vehicles or bad usage of the vehicles and the road? Why should we lose about 1936 lives through 2717 road crashes in just six months in 2012 compared to 2235 crashes in 2011 which killed 2218 people?

Why does the average motorist indulge in violating laid down traffic rules? Why do convoy drivers believe they are above the law that governs speed, overtaking and decent driving? Why should such convoy drivers with VIP and armed uniformed personnel whose arms are bought with taxpayers

W ROAD ROAD SAFETY SAFETY

By JONAS AGWU, Corps Public Education Officer 08077690055 (SMS only) jonasagwu@yahoo.com Accident Emergency Numbers: FRSC, Lagos State: 08077690201, FRSC Emergency No: 070022553772

(Teflon is a material that prevents food from sticking to pots and pans); undergoing root canal treatment done with dental mercury amalgams; exposure to toxic mold in the home and elsewhere; use of pesticides and laundry detergents and other toxic cleaning material; artificial sweeteners of all types and consuming fructose, sodas and candies. Emotions can play a part with the health of our organs too and so be mindful that if you are frequently fearful, you may well be affect-

money jump traffic lights and assault motorists for daring to question them while the government official or very important dignitaries keep mute? The same dignitary whose life is as fragile as yours and mine? Why should a mother or a husband and his lively son jump into their car bought for over N2 million strap themselves with a seat belt, yet dump their lovely child at the back seat of the car without any protection even when all efforts are made to educate these same parents on the danger of their action? Why should these same parents hear of the death of a child because the child was not strapped in a car seat and yet hide under some spirituality by declaring, ‘God forbid, it is not my portion’? Why should a learner driver like the one I saw recently in the Federal Capital Territory carry children when the law prohibits a learner from carrying anybody except the licensed instructor? This same learner was equally phoning with her children in the car.

ing your kidneys and their functions.

Kidney disease risk factors include diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, smoking and age. Early detection and treatment can increase the life of the kidneys. Remember too that high blood pressure can lead to or be a sign of kidney disease.

Red flags to watch Kidney disease is called a ‘silent disease’ as there are often few symptoms but here are some of the signs and symptoms to note:

Why do we dare God by our actions on the wheel? God says obedience is better than sacrifice.

That same God commands that none should kill. He never listed the instruments, which means that if you kill anyone through reckless driving, you certainly run foul of God’s Commandments. Why do we forget that of all the laws or commandments of God, love your neighbor is the greatest of all. Yet in our usage of the roads, rarely do we have consideration for other motorists. Is it ignorance or just sheer attitude?

Everyday critics bombard us for the alleged little effort, which the Federal Road Safety Commission has put in educating motorists. A good number blame the okada madness on ignorance. They also blame bad driving on same ignorance. Even some non-governmental organizations feel the same way as they keep blaming the Federal Road Safety Corps for the level of ignorance among drivers and responsible for the increase in road

•Continued on page 54 crashes. Some are modest enough to describe our various strategies as pure waste and directionless.

Other observers are always quick to scream ‘cruxify the corps’ for what they often would describe as not doing enough to raise the bar of awareness of motorists, almost 25 years after the establishment of the corps.

Part of the statutory mandate of the corps as contained in the Federal Road Safety Commission Establishment Act 2007 is to educate the motoring public on the proper use of the road. The mandate explains why the corps published and revised the Highway Code. Like what is obtainable in other societies, the Highway Code is the bible for safe driving. It explains why we embarked on last week’s awareness campaign without enforcement. Having interacted with road users of all shades, I can bet my life that our problem is not the roads. Neither is it the vehicles but attitude.

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EXPLORE OCTOBER 14, 2012

Fashion Court ...with ‘Justice’ BOLATITO ADEBAYO (beetito2@yahoo.co.uk)

Prosecuting Counsel: AYODELE OJO

Thigh-ranny Who will rescue us from the tyranny of this thigh? How could you bare your back and your thigh in this manner and still expect the hearts of men at the event where this evidence was obtained not to do the 100-metres dash like Usain Bolt?

Even members of the jury were knocked off their seats and sustained serious injuries that compelled the court registrar to call in ambulances that rushed them to LASUTH, leaving the judge to adjourn sitting. For causing visual mayhem, pay N10 million fine.

Okokobioko!

What is the meaning of this vulgar show-off? Can somebody quickly cover the eyes of teenage boys before they begin to think Xratings. The jury after reviewing the evidence decided that your whole ensemble smacks of deperate attempt to attraction. You will be kept in our custody until visually acceptable clothes approved by Chief Oprah Benson (Iya Oge of Lagos) are made for you.

MOTHERS ARE WEEPING!

W

hen women recognise that it is not everything shown from fabrics qualify to be worn in public? Clothes are meant to decently cover nakedness.

And ensure public sanity. But some women have a contrary view as these fashion felons prosecuted today in this court clearly show. As long as there are recalcitant Unflattering women determined to bring shame to womanSomething is definitely hood and make mothers wrong when full grown women weep, this court will not decide to wear clothes meant relent in its task of sanfor teenage girls. You are too itizing the streets for old to make this ensemble decent people to walk sparkle. Besides, putting your on, visually unmolested. tattoed tits of public display is unacceptable. Exhibiting too much flesh not classy at all.

Pay N2 million fine.

OCTOBER 14, 2012 EXPLORE

51

Fashion Court Rainbow tube Sisi Oge, we know you were trying out the trendy block look. But this is a terrible way to do it. We counted the colours you blocked and got seven. So we took a peep in the Style Code and saw that you contravened section 457. The penalty for this offence is a fine of N200,000.

Witness Box ...With CHIMA JUPADIM nkiti2002@yahoo.co.uk

‘

I regret my indecent dressing at Nigerian Music Awards

‘

–Evang. Eucharia Anunobi, Nollywood top actress

Un-glamorous We are completely at a loss trying to define whether you going for a glamorous event.

Clearly your outfit does not indicate this. A splash of colour here and there would have given this look a real lift. To say that your look is un-glamorous would be to put it mildly.

Pay N2 million fine.

Enter the Witness Box. Let’s hear your comment. Call: 08036581512

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EXPLORE OCTOBER 14, 2012

Sunday fashion

By BOLATITO ADEBAYO

ScentE sational

very woman loves to feel clean, crisp and fresh, it’s a season of flaunting your femininity and one of the ways of doing it well is by discovering a fragrance that has great smelling standouts.

What’s your dream fragrance?

Is it musky, floral, romantic, starry skies or beaches? Match your mood here and you will definitely surrender control of your senses after having a pleasant whiff of this feminine fragrance.

Thierry Mugler Angel Aqua chic eau de toilette The star-shaped bottle is filled with lots of childhood emotions and memories all together, and stint of dreamlike infinity. It’s a mix of with a lemo pink pepper, cornflower and vanilla. It n, stands out for purity and innocent personality.

Diesel Fuel for life If you want something energetic, vibrant, fruity, and funfilled, then go get yourself a bottle of Diesel Fuel for life; it’s the one thing you can count on when you need an instant boost. It’s a blend of black currant, jasmine and patchouli.

Gucci Premiere eau de parfum What’s more appropriate for evenings than this rich smell. It’s a burst of orange blossom bergamot and white musk fuse with smoky leather and balsamic woods. It’s a major sex appeal bottled up in style.

Dior J’adore L’Absolu This is the intense version of the classic J’adore. It’s a mix of Turkish rose, tuberose and jasmine combined to make a truly pretty floral. It’s perfect for the weekends.

Chanel Coco Noir eau de parfum It’s one of the grand dame in the world of perfumes, with a base of sandal wood, vetiver, patchouli vanilla and musk, and a fresh jasmine heart, this fragrance is ultra luxurious and glamorous, too. If you are an ardent user of No.5 by Chanel, you might want to try this too.

Hilfiger woman Peach Blossom eau da parfum This is a combination of a freshly cut green grass such as Egyptian lily, magnolia, jasmine and peach blossom. Its smell is provocative and quite luxurious.

OCTOBER 14, 2012 EXPLORE

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En tre pre ne ur 20 12

Sunday fashion

By CHRISTY ANYANWU

MT Na nn ou nce sY ou ng Cre ati ve

Givenchy Very Irresistible Electric Rose If you are a romantic,this is the most sensuous fragrance of all time. This rock ’n roll-inspired floral pulse is a blend of fresh verbena and blueberry.

I

soken Ogiemwonyi has emerged winner of the MTN/British Council Young Creative Entrepreneur for 2012. MTN in conjunction with Style House Files and the British Council Nigeria have also shortlisted designers for this month’s fashion show.

Having emerged the winner, Ogiemwonyi, who is the co-founder of retail store, L’Espace, based in Lagos, will receive a cash reward of N2,000,000 courtesy of MTN, to be presented at the MTN/LFDW show this month.

In addition, she just returned from a tour of London Fashion Week and the UK fashion industry on the bill of the British Council. The London event also hosted 30 other Young Creative Entrepreneurs from different parts of the world. While congratulating her, General Manager, Consumer Marketing, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Kola Oyeyemi, said in addition to announcing winner of the MTN/British Council Young Creative Entrepreneur for 2011, MTN and its partners have also released the names of 12 young designers that would feature in its high profile fashion and design event, the MTN Lagos Fashion and Design Week, this month.

The shortlisted young designers are Karen Jacob, Kehinde Osotimehin, Wana Sambo, Adebayo Oke Lawal, Jennifer Adighije, Uju Offiah, Buchi and Okoro.

Others include Wisdom Anaba, Joseph Uduminue, Isi Atagamen, Agu Anumudu, and Ponmile Olawoye.

In her remarks at the exhibition, Omoyemi Akerele, founder of LFDW said, “Lagos Fashion and Design Week is all about making an impact, the idea is to move beyond innovation and transform African brands to household names worldwide. The invitation to Milan Fashion Week for these designers is a significant milestone, one that is bound to catapult them into the international fashion industry,” she said.

CK One by Calvin Klein It has a delicious richness that is sensual and revolutionary. This unisex blend has a light and refreshing tone of bergamot, lemon and mandarin.

Ralph Lauren floral Citrus eau de toilette If you want a swim in the oceans under the stars, then take a plunge into the Ralph Lauren experience. It is energetic and vibrant. It’s a blend of grapefruit and blue lotus.

•The 12 finalists shortly after completing their intensive workshop preparatory to the main event.

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OCTOBER 14, 2012

EXPLORE

WardR Round ‘Excess vitamin C dangerous to kidney’ Continued from Page 49 Change in frequency and quantity of urine passed especially at night (usually increases at first); Blood in the urine (haematuria); Foaming urine; Puffiness around the eyes and ankles (oedema); Pain in the back (under the lower ribs where the kidneys are located); Pain or burning sensation when passing urine and later on, when the kidneys begin to fail there is a build-up of waste products and extra fluid in the blood as well other problems, gradually leading to: tiredness, inability to concentrate, Generally feeling unwell, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, shortness of breath.

Health enhancement strategies Consultant nephrologist at Lagos University Teaching Drinking water prevents kidney stones Hospital, LUTH and crusader against renal disease, Dr. Toyin Drink eight glasses of water a day Amira counsels that one sure way to show love to one’s Doctors usually advise people to take in eight glasskidneys is to adopt a healthy lifestyle by keeping the es of water a day but this really depends on your age weight in check and ensuring that one’s Body Mass and condition. If you are sweating a lot and work outIndex (BMI) is within the healthy range.

“BMI is calculated by dividing one’s weight by the doors, you may need to drink more than eight glasses a square of the height; it varies from individuals but day. However, if you are above 65 years of age, you should be between 20 and 25; besides, you not don’t may do well with just six glasses a day. Drinking smoke; take alcohol in moderation; eat more fruits and enough water also prevents the formation of kidney vegetables and go for a routine checkup. A lot people stones, a painful condition, which if left untreated can have high blood pressure but don’t know and those also lead to kidney failure. who know about 50 percent are not on treatment and those who are on treatment, about one third are not Watch your intake of pain relievers and other controlled, so you see the complexity of the problem. drugs Hypertension has been rightly tagged ‘silent killer’ and Taking pain relievers like ibuprofen for a prolonged is about the leading cause of kidney failure in Nigeria. period of time may cause kidney damage. Because of So we all have to watch what we eat that is why the this it is advisable to limit taking these medicines to vegetarian diet is the best diet.” only a week or just when needed to let the kidneys rest Similarly, renowned nephrologist at the University of for a while before taking them again. While chronic the Philippine Teaching Hospital, Dr Elizabeth arthritis sufferers should resort to other ways to relieve Montemayor offers advice on how a person can start a pain such as using a hot water bag, pain reliever ointromance with his bean-seed organ: ment or safer paracetamol tablet. Certain antibiotics can also cause kidney damage but check with your Limit your salt intake Too much salt is not only bad for your blood pressure doctor first.

Be careful with tests and procedures using contrast but for the kidney as well. Fondness for food items with high salt content like fish sauce, plain salt and dyes Some test like CT scan and MRI use contrast dye salted fish; even instant noodles, chips and nuts are teeming with salt are examples of what to watch out which helps doctors delineate the organ better. Many for. The problem is that salt encourages the body to procedures such as heart angioplasties and some canretain water and can increase the blood pressure, which cer treatments also use ample amounts of contrast damages the kidneys. Therefore limit eating salty food. dyes. The problem with dye is that they can cause kidney damage especially in the elderly and those with Don’t load up on high-protein foods previous kidney disease. To be safe, consult a kidney Eating too much protein as pork and meat can over- specialist before undergoing such procedures. work your kidneys. That too much protein makes the kidneys work twice as hard, the kidneys could get tired Don’t take too much vitamin C and some of the weaker kidneys cells can die. Don’t Some patients are fond of taking high doses of vitaoverwork your kidneys; Moderation in everything will min C such as 2, 000mg range. Too much vitamin C serve you well. Eat a balanced diet of rice, vegetables, (Ascorbic acid) can lead to formation of kidney stones fish, and fruits and you can’t go wrong. in predisposed individuals. If you need to take vitamin C, a dose of 500mg or less is safer.

Keep your blood pressure at 130/80 or lower Don’t rely on food supplements to protect your kidIf your blood pressure is above 140 over 90, this can neys as there is still no food supplement that has been cause kidney damage within five years. The kidneys scientifically proven to protect the kidneys. The above are said to be ‘happiest’ with a blood pressure of 130/80 or lower. To help control your blood pressure, tips are so far the best tips to care for the kidneys. you should limit your salt intake, reduce weight and Get a kidney check-up take medicines for high blood pressure if needed.

A simple test such as a complete blood count, BUN, creatinine and a urinalysis are the first screening test Keep your blood sugar below 120 mg/dl Diabetes and high blood pressure are the two leading for the kidneys. Finding a trace of protein in the urine causes of kidney failure. Diabetes affects almost all can alert the doctor of possible kidney disease. Patients organs of the body. A person with uncontrolled dia- with diabetes and high blood pressure should also be betes for five to 10 years may develop significant kid- checked for early kidney disease. ney damage. Consult your doctor and keep your blood The bottom line is: kidney diseases are expensive sugar under control with diet, exercise and mainte- and difficult to treat, therefore take necessary steps to nance medicines. protect your kidney today.

By DR OLUBIYI ADESINA Consultant Diabetologist e-mail: fbadesina@yahoo.com 08034712568

Your diabetes questions answered (8) Dear Doctor, I wish to know if diabetes has been with mankind from the beginning or it is a recent occurrence. Also, what is the Nigerian story on diabetes? Thank you.

– Akin-Lewis HE United Nations General Assembly in year 2006 described Diabetes as ‘a chronic, debilitating and costly disease associated with severe complications, which poses severe risk for families, states and the entire world’.

The term Diabetes Mellitus is derived from the Greek word – Diabetes which means siphon, and the Latin word mellitus which means sweet as honey. The term denotes the continuous intake of water and the persistent passage of sweet tasting urine that is classically associated with the disease.

The carnage attributable to Diabetes is clearly demonstrable even in antiquity. Descriptions of the disease were made about 3500 years ago (1500BC) in Egypt in the Ebers papyrus. George Ebers found the Ebers Papyrus in Egypt in 1872. The papyrus is the first known written description of diabetes in which the disease was described as a rare disease that causes the patient to lose weight rapidly and urinate frequently.

About 400 BC, Charak and Susrat, well known Ayurvedic physicians in India noted not only the sweetness of the urine, but also the correlation between obesity and diabetes, and the tendency of the disease to be passed from one generation to another through the “seed”. The Hindus who practiced Ayurveda noted that insects and flies were attracted to the urine of some people whose urine tasted sweet.

The Holy Bible in 1 Kings 15:23 and 2 Chronicles 16:1213 tells of a king in Israel who had a non healing foot disease between the 39th and 41st years of his reign which is thought today to be due to diabetes. Non healing ulcers on the feet are closely associated with diabetes.

An important milestone in the history of diabetes was the establishment of the role of the liver in glucose production

by Claude Bernard in France in 1857 and the concept that diabetes is due to excess glucose production.

In 1921, Frederick Banting, an orthopaedic surgeon and Charles Best a medical student began to investigate the pancreatic islets in Toronto, Canada. They later on made an extract from beef pancreas, which was successful for treating humans with diabetes.

Another development, though less significant than that of insulin, arose from the German observation during World War II that certain sulfonamide derivatives lowered blood glucose. In 1955, the oral sulfonylurea (tolbutamide) began to be generally used as blood glucose lowering therapy.

Diabetes mellitus can be found in almost all populations throughout the world, but the incidence and prevalence of Type 1 Diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes and the relative distribution of these two major types of diabetes show major differences between countries and between different ethnic groups within individual countries.

The worldwide prevalence of Diabetes has risen dramatically over the past two decades and it is projected that the number of individuals with Diabetes will continue to increase in the near future. The number of adults with diabetes in the world is projected to rise from to 333 million in the year 2025, with worldwide prevalence rising from 5.1% to 6.3% during the same period. Similarly, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of adults with diabetes is projected to rise to 15 million in 2025. Type 2diabetes is the predominant form of diabetes worldwide, accounting for 90% of cases globally.

The prevalence of diabetes in Nigeria appears to be on the increase. More than four decades ago (1969) in Lagos, Nigeria, Johnson reported a prevalence of 0.5% in a community - based study. This was preceded by a prevalence of 0.38% in a hospital-based study in Ibadan in 1963.

A non-communicable disease survey in Nigeria in 1997 reported a crude prevalence of 2.8% and an age adjusted prevalence rate of 2.2%, with male: female ratio of 1:1.1.

The International Diabetes Federation in its year 2011 report estimated the current prevalence of Diabetes in Nigeria to be 4.04% which is expected to be on the increase as our diet become more westernized, as we grow more obese and as we exercise less.

T

OCTOBER 14, 2012 EXPLORE

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Explore Extra

He took me to Sweden, I converted him – Pastor Richmore understand it when we speak, only that they can’t speak. So, when we address them in Nigerian language, they reply in Swedish or English.

What is your husband’s name?

He is Joseph Richmore. He was formally, Francis Osagha but when God called him, God changed his name to Joseph Richmore.

Where is he from?

He is a Bini man from the popular Usagha family in Benin.

By CHUKS EZE (fazec1@yahoo.com)

A

T first sight, Pastor Rita Richmore’s Soweto women’s hat, which has become her trademark headgear, would make you think she is a South African. This daughter of the Niger Delta is the first woman to head a Christian Pentecostal ministry in Sweden. With just one year to the silver anniversary of her marriage, Richmore is blessed with four lovely kids. In this interview she talks about her family, ministerial work and reveals that some pastors in Italy encourage ladies to engage in prostitution.

Excerpts…

Why did God

change his name?

It was because, in their family, people used to die at 40.

And that situation had existed for ages. So, when my husband entered into a strong covenant with God, He gave my husband a new name to dissociate him from the old covenant of his family. That was how my husband escaped dying at 40. But, just three days before he clocked 50, he had an attack, in the night, and almost died. But God sustained him.

I suppose you have children?

We have four children – two boys and two girls. My first child, Osaze, is 23. He works with a telecommunications company in Sweden. And the last one is 11.

Were you aware such serial death existed in your husband’s family before you married him?

I never knew that such thing existed in their family. But the thing is that during the time we were getting married, I had newly received Christ and I was the one that drew my husband into Christianity. Incidentally, I also came from a very demonic family at that time, and I was the first person to be saved in my family. So, when I got saved and was living with my mother, my brothers and sisters were all mocking and making jest of me, querying why I brought Christianity into our family. But when they began to notice that everything was turning out favorably for me, they started realizing that God was more powerful than the fetish powers they believed in. So, when my mother lost two children in quick succession, it finally dawned on them that their gods, the idols, were incapable of saving them. And they began to seek the true God that saves.

Do they speak any Nigerian language?

No, they speak English because we did not teach them our local language. That was our mistake. We speak more of English in the house than our local language. But they

What then happened when you got married to your husband?

When I got married to my husband, even his people told him not to listen to me or follow me to church because my

Which part of Nigeria are you from?

My mother is from Benin and my dad is Itsekiri.

How long have you lived in Sweden?

I’ve been in Sweden for 24 years.

Are you married?

Yes; and my marriage is 24 years old. We will celebrate our silver jubilee on August 6, next year.

mother was keeping idol. You know, the first time I took my husband to church was for a Deeper Life Bible Church programme. Incidentally, my husband got saved at a crusade in Benin where Pastor W.F. Kumuyi ministered. His entire family was so furious because I took my husband into Christianity. They were all serving idols in various ways then. But when my husband became born again, he began to see things differently.

Do you remember the year your husband got saved?

I think it was in 1986.

Is your husband a pastor too?

Yes he is.

Was it through your ministry?

Yes. He travelled to Sweden as a guest student. He had finished his Masters degree and was studying for the doctorate (PhD) when he got married to me. After we got married, he stopped the programme and began learning the things of the spirit and was later ordained a pastor.

Did you meet your husband in Sweden or in Nigeria?

We met in Nigeria. He came to Nigeria to do his Master’s thesis when we met. I met him through one of his brothers who was very fetish and used to visit my mother for fetish practices. My sisters usually stayed at home when I attended church programmes. So, one day, when I was returning from church around 8.30 pm, the man who later became my husband had gone to our house with his brother. When they saw me, my husband said I was different. He told his fetish brother that if my mother was doing fetish things and I chose to become a Christian, there must be something different in me and that he must marry me. That was how it happened.

Was he the one that took you to Sweden?

Yes. So, he took you to Sweden and you took him to the Lord in Sweden.

(Laughs) Exactly!

Are you into full time pastoral work or do you do other things in Sweden?

I’m into full time pastoral work but my husband has a company through which he engages in import and export activities.

What is the most amazing miracle the Lord has done in your church?

There was a woman who had no child and doctors had said she could no longer conceive. But God proved them wrong and she later had three children. Even myself, after two children, doctors said I would not be able to conceive any more. But I told them that God revealed to me long ago

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OCTOBER 14, 2012 EXPLORE

Explore Extra ‘In Italy, some pastors encourage ladies to go into prostitution’ Continued from page 18 that I would have two boys and two girls and that I knew He would fulfill his word. They laughed at what they thought was my ignorance but God later proved them wrong by giving me two more babies.

Have you ever preached against homosexuality or same sex marriage in your church?

Yes I have, severally.

What was their reaction; did they vacate your church?

They did. I preach holiness. All my messages basically dwell on holiness. It is better to preach the truth to the people than compromising the word of God. I once told a pastor that millions that are in various churches are heading towards hell because people are not preaching holiness anymore. Many are busy preaching about money, rather than the truth. I preach the truth. If you do not like it you leave. When trials come, you will be forced to listen to the word.

Why is it that many pastors, like you just noted, shy away from preaching core teachings of the bible?

The simple reason is because many are called but few are chosen. The bible says that it is not all that “call me Lord, Lord are children of God.” Most of those who pose as pastors are hungry and interested in enriching their pockets. We call them, soul-selling pastors. And it is a dangerous trend in the body of Christ. I recently visited Italy, and I found it to be like another Sodom and Gomorrah now where Richmore pastors tell people to prostitute and bring the money to the house of God. Pastors are asking people to furnish their houses with the proceeds of prostitution. I believe that judgment would start from the household of God because of the rot there.

Many of these occultic people go to marine powers and native doctors to obtain power and use them to deceive people. But God will surely disgrace them on the last day.

Did you preach in Italy?

Yes, I did. And afterwards, some of those evil pastors took up the one that invited me on why he brought me to spoil business for them. I will still go back to Italy in November to minister again. I told them that the CNN is calling on war against slavery everyday but real slavery is going on in several churches in Italy without them focusing on that issue. It is really a sad story. When you are telling a human being, openly, to go make money by selling herself through prostitution and bring the money to you at the altar of God, it is slavery.

What other challenges are you experiencing as a pastor?

Part of the challenge we experience is that when you are a female minister, people don’t tend to accept you as they do the males. It is a popular notion in Africa that the woman is down and weak. But in the book of Galatians, there is neither Jew nor Gentile; all are one in Christ Jesus. So, it will take time before we are fully accepted but we are getting there. Since I emerged as the first female minister in Sweden, the number of female ministers in that country has risen.

Let us talk about you and your family. Considering the fact that full time ministry is time consuming, how do

you make out time to attend to your family, especially your husband?

I just had to find a way of working out my schedule to achieve a balance. I always tell people that God is first; my husband and children come second. So, I’m a very organized person. I come from a family where we were 30 children and I’m the sixth child. And my mother gave me to one of her aunts who had 22 children and all of them died. I lived with the woman for many years. She was a very hardworking woman and she taught me be very hardworking and organized in life. My husband wants to taunt me, he calls me “20 companies at a time” because I take up many issues at a time. So, I have time for my husband and children. We have family meeting every Sunday to enable us get track of our children. During the meeting, we discuss all that happened the previous week. You know things like: Did anyone offend you, did you offend anyone; did anyone misbehave and all that and we iron things out. You know that adequate communication is sine qua non to any good marriage or family relationship.

When you know how to communicate effectively, you will definitely have a good family. My mother married five times and I made a covenant with God that neither myself nor my children should live that kind of life. I did not marry early because I saw what idol worshiping did to my family.

They would marry, divorce, re-marry and divorce. And I took a decision that I would marry only one husband and have children for only one man. So, apart from prayer, communication is our strength.

And we play and joke a lot. My husband is my best friend and everything.

You know, intimacy is very vital to every marital relationship. How do you create time for this given the hectic nature of ministerial work?

You have to be able to meet up with such demand because if you fail in your marriage you fail in the ministry. I always tell people that if I cannot take care of my family – my husband and children – then I would not be able to take care of anybody. So, it is very, very crucial for every married woman to make out time for her husband and children.

Even in my church, I told members not to call me at certain hours because it is the period I set out for my family. So, they are barred from disrupting that special session. And I told them that in an emergency situation, they should call my spiritual son, Uche, who assists me. He will determine whether to handle the matter or contact me.

Do you see any of your four children taking over the work of God from you?

I know that God will pick one of them because they are already in covenant with Him. But I do not want to influence God’s plan. But the one that is showing such interest is currently studying law. When the time comes, I want God to handle it as He wills.

We witness a lot of dancing during church services in Nigeria, especially Pentecostal churches; is it the same in your church?

Oh we do a lot of dancing, praise and worship more than you witness in Nigeria. I’m a worshipper and I dance a lot.

All the pastors that came to our church to minister always felt wowed by the experience. They exclaimed, ‘wow you are alive!

SECURITY &POLICE ...with Ben Okezie 08034959119 (SMS only) okezieben@gmail.com

Security undercurrents (Twitter@okezieben)

F

ORMER Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Mohammadu Gambo-Jimeta recently stunned the country when he told journalists that the military destroyed the Nigeria Police Force.

Many people thought that he had water in his mouth when he uttered that confrontational statement. I have waited this long to see if he was going to withdraw his statement or say that he was quoted out of context. No show. The man once known as a super cop did not mince words when he made the categorical statement. Apparently Alhaji Gambo-Jimeta must have been ruminating over this issue and a question being frequently asked is: “How did the police sink so deep into the menace it found itself. Was the problem self-inflicted or the organization was afflicted? These questions can be better answered through a chronicled historical perspective.

It all started like an unexpected cyclone and before enlightened Nigerians could clearly fathom what the game was all about it had blossomed into a hydra-headed monster gradually emasculating the institution we call the Nigeria Police Force. I was just a young man braving through life as a crime reporter in Lagos on August 27th, 1985, when gaptoothed General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida was announced as the new Head of State after the crown was taken from General Mohammed Buhari, who he had earlier helped to wrest power from the elected president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari.

I vividly remember how IBB directed that cells operated by the then Nigerian Security Organization (NSO), later renamed the State Security Services (SSS), be flung open.

He made an open show of this by inviting journalists to capture and make caricature of the activities of the then NSO under a police officer named Rafindadi. He was then one of the toughest police investigators appointed to head the then NSO. His activities in trying to foil Babangida’s coup presented him as an enemy of the coup plotters of which IBB emerged as leader and eventually the military head of state.

It became a noticeable phenomenon that the growing power of the police and their no-nonsense stand coupled with their outstanding professionalism had become a threat to the military under IBB and his fellow plotters. The new military leader did not stop at what he did with the National Security Organization; he ordered the Nigerian Police under IGP Etim Inyang to surrender all the armored vehicles and tanks acquired during the leadership of retired IGP Bayo Adewusi.

Adewusi had developed the enviable mobile police force into a force to be reckoned with and was seen by the military as a threat. Apart from these, lectures were held in military schools where soldiers were re-oriented on their superiority to the police. In no time, soldiers were openly seen invading police stations to forcefully rescue their colleagues or their relatives arrested by the police for various offences.

Such open challenges sparked off bloody rows that led to the death of innocent passers-by.

The Surulere and Pedro Police station incidents in Lagos where public hearings were instituted to unravel the reasons for unfortunate clashes between the military and the Police Force were good initiatives yet, the animosity continued unabated. With each military head of state that emerged, different styles and policies were carefully designed to obliterate the powers of the Police, thereby presenting them as non-performers before members of the public.

One case that comes to mind was that of former Lagos Police Command Public Relations officer, Alozie Ogugbuaja who was alleged to have made negative statements about army officers and their pastime at the officers’ mess, where they were said to always plan coups over pepper soup. The army kicked against Ogubguaja’s statement and described it as a “reckless utterance coming from a police public relations officer.” They demanded that Mr. Ogugbuaja be seriously sanctioned. He was removed and transferred to Cross Rivers State where he was later relieved of his job under the commissionership of Mr. Parry Osayande, the present Chairman of the Police Service Commission. I was at this time the chief correspondent of National Concord newspaper in charge of Cross River and the newly created Akwa Ibom states.

To be continued next week