By Ola’ Ajao-Akala

In the wake of recent unrest in Kenya, triggered by the controversial finance bill, there lies a poignant lesson for Nigeria—a warning about the potential consequences of perceived governmental insensitivity during times of economic hardship. As the Nigerian government contemplates the purchase of a new presidential jet for President Bola Tinubu, the tumult in Kenya serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of tone-deaf fiscal decisions.

Kenya’s current crisis began with the introduction of a finance bill that imposed new taxes and exacerbated the economic burdens on its citizens. The resultant backlash was swift and severe, with widespread protests and civil unrest. The Kenyan populace, already strained by economic challenges, viewed the bill as a blatant disregard for their struggles. This perception of insensitivity fueled public anger, leading to violent demonstrations and clashes with security forces.

Nigeria, with its own set of economic challenges, stands at a critical juncture. The country grapples with high inflation, unemployment, and a weakened naira, all of which have strained the average Nigerian’s ability to make ends meet. In such a context, the news of a potential purchase of a new presidential jet for President Tinubu could be perceived as an egregious display of government insensitivity.

The decision to acquire a new jet, a luxurious jet previously owned by a Sheikh and currently repossessed by a German bank because of the Sheikh’s inability to pay and which was estimated to cost 100 millions of dollars, is likely to be seen by many Nigerians as an extravagant expenditure that prioritises the comfort of the political elite over the pressing needs of the populace. This perception could ignite a wave of public discontent, similar to what has been witnessed in Kenya.

The optics of such a purchase are especially damaging when juxtaposed with the daily realities faced by ordinary Nigerians. Many struggle with inadequate public services, including healthcare, education, and infrastructure. The sense of inequality and injustice could be further exacerbated if the government proceeds with this high-profile expenditure.

Moreover, the timing of this decision is crucial. With the recent 2023 general elections, the Nigerian government must be acutely aware of the electorate’s sentiments. Public perception of governmental priorities plays a significant role in shaping political fortunes. A decision perceived as insensitive could erode public trust and support, with far-reaching implications for the political landscape, and with an already unpopular APC, such a decision would be more catastrophic for the political party.

The Kenyan experience underscores the importance of empathy and responsiveness in governance. When governments are seen as disconnected from the realities of their citizens, the resultant discontent can manifest in ways that destabilise societies. Nigeria, therefore, must heed this lesson.

Rather than proceeding with the purchase of a new presidential jet, the Nigerian government could explore alternative ways to demonstrate fiscal prudence and solidarity with its citizens. Investments in critical sectors such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure would not only address pressing needs but also signal a commitment to improving the lives of ordinary Nigerians. The government can also cut down on international travels, if they must, they should fly commercial airlines like Air Peace. They should also travel by roads while travelling locally, this will allow the president to experience what its citizens are enduring on a daily basis using our bad roads.

In conclusion, the unrest in Kenya serves as a cautionary tale for Nigeria. The potential purchase of a new presidential jet, if perceived as an insensitive and extravagant decision, could provoke public outrage and erode trust in the government. At this critical juncture, the Nigerian government must prioritise empathy and responsiveness, demonstrating a genuine commitment to addressing the challenges faced by its citizens. By doing so, it can foster a sense of unity and shared purpose, steering the nation towards a more stable and prosperous future.

Ola’ Ajao-Akala wrote from Osogbo, Osun State

By ISAAC OLUSESI

The ultimate for the critic is the relative acquisition and exercise of power, and at the take off point, from no where, the critic got a term as an elected lawmaker during which political rabble-rouses as self idiosyncrasies fired the critic at the speed of light, to the stardom of amoral populist, penchant like indifference to the rightness or wrongness of actions or deeds, and with a cult of criticism created for the critic as part of the arsenal of criticism.

But in social equation, the lawmaker or just any leader, for that matter, owes a moral duty to the constituents or the led upon which depends his right or wisdom to draw actuated populism. Reasoning, the critic has always, unfortunately, argued, is of no impact to gain eclat respect but shameless criticism, lacking in logic and facts, as obsessive magic wand to control people, in the critic’s own imagination. Control who?

Control nobody. The ex-lawmaker’s proclivity for criticism, with criticism as strong instinct, is not a communal thing, joined and shared by nobody, to have afforded the critic the command control of people, or clutched any intricate relatedness of the one and the whole in any acute or vicarious sense. Neither has the criticism any mass grip, the kind of fellowship that binds people together, in any camaraderie of conspiracy, in this case, on a goodwill message. Rather, the criticism of the goodwill is the hurt of all. And nobody, outside the critic, brandied any ovations. But what goodwill message? It’s a goodwill message, nothing but, the goodwill to the recent meeting of a chapter of the All Progressives Congrats (APC ) in Osun State.

Initially, it was silence at the criticism of the goodwill message, but before the binding dust of the furry died down, the shock of the criticism, shot itself, first, into limbo that got me between abysmal ambivalence and certitude. And I managed to tell myself that out of incertitude, one can scratch out some relics of the smirching with the mud of mischief, the criticism gave the goodwill message; and out of certitude, one can inject pragmatism.

And the piece on your hands is begotten between the two, with the first, almost knocked dead, but not as much of a bother as the seconder that came up and birthed the piece with every bit of frankness, desiring me to do, among others, more of education on the misunderstood place of the criticized goodwill message, in advancing party politics and administration; and to get the critic restricted under political therapy, away from further sycophancy, hypocrisy, noisy politics, and such nuances, in the garb of politics of criticism.

Or is the criticism of goodwill message, in its ordinariness as it were, a trivial matter? No, it is not. And that compels some huge lessons for impartation in party politics and administration for the benefit of all political parties, in the collective good of the nation in democracy. The critic’s argument against sending a goodwill message to the regular meetings of APC drew the flak of the perceptive and truculent political observers. Evidently, analysts of party politics and administration, now put on alert, have branded the criticism of the goodwill as a deliberate one to whip up sentiments, emotions and upset the apple cat to decelerate the party, and generally, political parties in the country from pushing full steam; and the gargantuan tragedies as consequence, cannot he ignored in the face of reasoned arguments for goodwill message to party meetings.

Such goodwill messages by the party leaders, the force for good that wished the meetings of the political party, constructive and productive deliberations, are the guidance angels for the soul of the party’s regular or extraordinary meetings. The first strand of the soul is the encouragement given to punctuality to such party meetings; and the second strand propels the party members’ active contribution to discussions at meetings. To be otherwise, is to drive the meeting into docility, the delight of the critics of goodwill message but, the criticism is a luxury, any mindful political party can ill afford.

And new ideas or frontiers of knowledge, hints of alternative operative or workable possibilities and correlative suggestions, other multiple physical, financial, moral or psychological healing solutions that could secure the party from disturbing swings and swerves, as part of the goodwill to boost the party and morale of party members but cannot be advanced due to such silly criticisms. In the context, the criticism is a malcontent, the beast one sees with a smack on its face and cannot be a favourite preference. And that was why everybody in the politics of Osun was shocked by the criticism of the goodwill message that made party members cast doubts on the integrity of the criticism.

There’s more sanity in sending goodwill messages to the meetings of political party at all levels, than the insanity of the criticism and its attributes of incomprehensibility. A goodwill message has networks of care for the party and its soul. To the critic of goodwill, the health of the soul of the party counts for nothing, that sends shock and disbelief to those who are not naive and were infact, worried but have chosen to remain quiet, by the abiding virtues of silence to pass for a sage, leaving the critic to his own gross ignorance and gross insensitivity to the soul of the party

Ignorance? Yes, so it’s generally, with small minds, the Lilliputian. And frankly, the critic acted as if he hasn’t any stake in the continued survival of the party and thinks so grand of his right to remain ignorant, but the sight and sound of the ignorant cannot be an edifying one. It’s not awkward to the ignorant to turn off self censorship and turn on the right to be self chained, perpetually in servitude to the criticism that is painful to the marrow, prospecting to gravitate the party politics and administration towards despairs. The criticism of the goodwill remains a blot on our collective conscience as a nation, and a precursor of what may yet come to show off more ignorance, and less essence of goodwill message to party meetings.

Instructively, the criticism, its politics, has made no impression, influential and pervasive, as though, the critic had spent the legislative tenure, and through now, still doing criticism, usually, unwholesome, that remains one count for which the critic in the art, will closely be assailed, in a kaleidoscope, by history. And that can not be anything, an anxiety for anybody but critic’s by the nightmarish process of self arrest. And for another, the critic has tethered himself to the solid rock of party leaders, the force for good personified, and the critic can only spare some tears of commiseration for self. A look at the critic’s face tells harmless, a lamb’s outside, but a tiger’s inside.

The critic for sometimes now has been under thematic therapy and found to be as fit as a fiddle. The extirpation only shows, the critic has to walk away with routine aloofness, from the virtuosi of criticism that daily make his ego superfluously, needlessly and deceitfully larger than life. Otherwise, watch out, the critic of the goodwill message would continue, engendering in the breach what he seeks to engender, amounting to a matchstick struk to light the near tinderbox.

That way, the value of some issues, in the instance, a goodwill message, clearly innocuous, from the party leaders whom God had bestowed so much intellect, to the meeting of the party, ought not to have accentuated to the danger realm of criticism by the critic, to articulate discordant voices and cause horrific uproar. The critic, for that matter, was supposed to be careful, circumspect in his utterances, and not to be seen with anything in dissonance with goodwill to the party. But the critic wishes always to instil, not hope for the best.

OLUSESI writes via [email protected]

By Bola Bolawole

On the evening of Tuesday, 16 January, 2024, an explosion rocked Ibadan, the capital of Oyo state. The location of the explosion was later identified as Aderinola Street, Adeyi Avenue, Old Bodija Estate. The explosion was of such magnitude that people in the vicinity thought the world had come to an end!

Close to 100 houses were seriously damaged or totally reduced to ground zero while not less than seven lives were immediately lost to the blast. Other losses owing to collateral damage caused by the blast followed. Hundreds of people suffered various degrees of injuries while property valued at billions of Naira were lost.

 According to the Oyo state governor, Seyi Makinde, preliminary security findings indicated that the explosion was caused by illegal miners who had stored Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in the house they lived in, in the area, thereby causing the blast. Makinde vowed that those responsible would be “brought to book” and that the victims would get the back of the government.

A statement posted on the governor’s verified Facebook page read as follows: “I have directed that the medical bills of all victims be covered by the government. We will also be providing temporary accommodation for those whose houses were affected and ensuring that they are supported to rebuild their lives” That was six months ago.

On Tuesday, 6 February, 2024, Gov. Makinde received an official report of the incident. A news medium reported the event thus: “Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, on Tuesday received an official report of the January 16, 2024 explosion at Adeyi Avenue, Old Bodija in Ibadan, the state capital.

The report, however, said three ‘persons of interest’ have been identified in connection with the cause of the unfortunate incident, adding that they will face the full wrath of the law based on the investigation carried out.

It will be recalled that five persons died, 77 others sustained injury and 55 houses were damaged during the explosion that rocked Aderinola Street, Adeyi Avenue, Old Bodija, Ibadan.

The report, which comprises findings of the Medical, Security and Engineering teams, was submitted to Makinde, on Tuesday, at the Executive Chamber, Governor’s Office, Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan.

Addressing newsmen shortly after the presentation of the report, the Special Adviser on Security to the Governor, Fatai Owoseni (retd. CP), said, “Three persons of interest have been identified in connection with the cause of the unfortunate incident, and they will face prosecution based on the investigation carried out.”

He explained that a Closed Circuit Television in one of the affected houses gave footage of how the incident happened, insisting that the state government would bring the perpetrators to book.

“The character of the explosive is known as ‘Water Gel Type Based Explosive’ and the explosion was triggered by an electric spark. The government will check on the immigration status of all the people of interest since a majority of them are from Mali. The street where the incident happened was Aderinola Street and not Dejo Oyelese Street, as earlier reported. The epicentre of the tragedy is No. 8A and No. 8B…

“The EOC has so far collated information, data of things that happened there and some of the data collated include census of the respective houses and the fatalities that were affected, including the extent of losses suffered. As of 6 p.m. on Friday, February 3, which was the 18th day of the incident, a total of 335 affected persons had registered at the emergency centre, including 16 companies or business operators, churches, mosques, three schools and the University College Hospital also approached the centre to report on their losses.

“The losses reported also include fatality, injuries of various degrees, damages ranging from total collapse and submerging of houses, houses that suffered collateral damage and the ones that suffered minimal damage…”

The Head of the Emergency Operation Centre, Temitope Alonge, said 80 victims in total were managed across various hospitals following the incident but that only five patients were on admission as of the time of the press conference. He explained that four of the patients are being treated at the University College Hospital and are at various levels of recovery, while one patient is at the Redeemers Hospital being managed for spinal cord injury.

As with everything Nigerian, the explosion attracted attention from far and near. The Minister of Mines, Dele Alake, vowed a diligent investigation to get to the roots of the matter. He also pledged that explosives storage rules would be reviewed. Despite official investigations and statements, all manner of conspiracy theories were still flown like kites. And the victims of the blast also accused the government of neglecting them. All is quiet now on the Ibadan front. Everyone is back to their daily chores. Statements made in the heat of the explosion now belong to the archives while the victims are left to lick their wounds.

 Early this month – Friday, 7 June to Sunday, 9 June, 2024 to be precise, I was in Oyo state, together with other top Nigerian journalists, on a facility tour of some of the legacy projects of the governor. We visited a plethora of projects. I took advantage to ask Makinde questions on the explosion. Yes, he made promises to the victims and is ready to fulfil them but the Federal Government is tardy with coming clean on its own promises. Makinde has written letters, paid visits and made efforts – all to no avail. In the event that the FG continues to drag its feet on the matter, Makinde said he would go ahead and give what he has to the victims and close the chapter. That will be sad!

I also asked the governor questions on the Strabag precious stones (gems) international market located at the Ojoo area of Ibadan where foreigners, their local godfathers and fellow felons strip the state of precious gems, with nothing beneficial accruing to the state. Is Makinde aware? My first report on that saga was in April 2021 and a special adviser to the governor at the time got in touch with me to say they were aware and were doing something about it. Makinde confirmed they were aware but Federal policies that tied the hands of State governments on the issue of mining made them impotent on the matter. Now that the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, mercifully, has reviewed the law, States can now acquire mining licences and tap into their God-endowed natural resources. Has Oyo state began to reap in this regard? Not yet, said Makinde, but efforts were in the pipeline.

This is one area where Labour leaders and our egg-heads in the Ivory Tower should focus attention instead of fighting over the peanuts they call minimum wage. I heard one Labour aristocrat complain that some state governments were yet to pay the old minimum wage of N30,000 per month and now you want them to pay N250,000 or whatever! Sit on the neck of state governors to begin to take advantage of the new policy by Tinubu to tap into the mineral resources of their respective states and create wealth for their people, instead of the present system where Malians and other foreigners are those making hay with our gems and precious stones.

 Why are the states not getting licences to mine gold, gems, etc? I have it on good authority that rather than apply for licences in the name of their state governments, many governors are doing so in their private capacity as individuals! Traditional rulers and top politicians are also involved in illegal mining all over the country. These are real issues that Labour leaders should concern themselves with.

The Ibadan trip opened my eyes to the quality of leaders that the Western Region had in the First Republic. At the Government Secretariat, we saw the Independent Power Project (IPP) that the Action Group government of Chief Obafemi Awolowo conceived and was constructing as far back as at that time. The structures stood solid after decades, despite wear and tear and the forays of the elements. At Fashola farms in the Oke-Ogun area of the state, we saw relics of Awo’s farm settlements (including cattle ranches) of yore, with the structures still standing solid, weathering the storm and neglect of decades.

Makinde echoed Chinua Achebe repeatedly: There was once a country! “With the vision of the leaders then, there was a country!” he said. His government was expanding the scope of the IPP and would restore and preserve other Awo-era structures at Fashola, including files and documents recovered from them. “The buildings are still standing after  decades. It shows the integrity of the buildings and of the leaders of that time. We will restore and preserve them so that people will know that there were men and women of vision in this country. There were men and women of diligence and integrity,” he added.

The first military coup of January 15, 1966 and successive military coups and governments truncated the only leaders with vision that this country ever produced. Military incursion into politics is the greatest havoc visited upon this country. Unfortunately, present-day politicians give no one cause for cheers. To whom, then, do we turn?

Bolawole a former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, can be reached via [email protected] or 08075525533