1. Find your “something the Lord has made”

2. No setback in life is an end, it’s just a bend

3. Out of sight can be out of mind and out of greatness

4. If you are not having fun, then you are doing the wrong thing

It was a glorious and beautiful day. I woke up at 5.00am and got ready to go out by 5.30am. Actually, I didn’t sleep deep that night because one sentence kept reverberating in my head through the night

Walk for Light!

I ran to my mentor’s room to find out if he was ready and soon after we set out for the airport (Omagwa International airport, Port Harcourt). We had had a great time that weekend starting from saturday. We landed in Port Harcourt around 6 pm and went straight to Presidential Hotel from the airport for “Purple Night”. A event with over 700 people in attendance. My mentor spoke powerfully at the event and I met a few friends and members of my team there. It was a fun-filled event.

On Sunday, we went to church and then had to do 2 seminars on Holidays and Cash in the evening. My team in Port Harcourt were already having seminars at Little Africa Restaurant, Woji Road, GRA, Port Harcourt by 4pm and we needed to be there to support them. After which we moved to Landmark Hotels to hold another seminar for an older, larger team. I also took a trip into town to see my babe’s sister’s family and didn’t get back till quite late. I eventually went to bed in the wee hours of the morning all the while thinking about what the next day(Monday) held in store.

Me at "Walk for Light"

I had been waiting in earnest anticipation for the “Walk for Light” day. We had been told earlier that we’d march on protest to the governor’s office in church and that August 12 or so would be the date. This was announced around May/June. August came and went and nothing happened. I was beginning to think that the leadership of my church (Daystar Christian Center) were growing cold feet with respect to taking responsibility for our underdevelopment and lack of good leadership in this Nation.

The church has proved to be very passive and irresponsible in my view in the last few decades with respect to the emergence of a New Nigeria. They have neglected their responsibility to take action and substituted it for making long and ineffective prayers for God to do what they should do.

Statistics have it that 45million Nigerians go to church every sunday. That is all the critical mass needed to change a Nation of 140million people if they would only take responsibility. The church had taken a back seat too long and were becoming irrelevant as opposed to light shining in darkness.

On the backdrop of this, I felt my own church even though it has shown what church is supposed to be by engaging in empowerment and community development on a large scale, was retreating in the face of imminent confrontation. That is why when it was announced that the walk would happen on Monday, October 19 by 10am, I was ecstatic. Finally, we are going to let the world know that we don’t agree with the black state of our Nation (epileptic power supply) and we were going to do something about it.

Rev Sam Adeyemi, Pst Nike Adeyemi, Pst Godman and other ministers at Daystar's "walk for light"

So, that was the reason why I was so restless knowing that I was far removed from the site of the walk. We got an early flight that day though we missed the first one out of PH and I almost ran through the arrival lounge pushing my luggage trolley. Since we landed at Murtala Domestic Airport in Lagos, I had been communicating with a couple of friends who were already gathered at the church venue for the commencement of the walk. My mentor and a friend who I travelled with kept making fun of me as they saw my eagerness to get united with other Walkers for Light.

We got into the car quickly that came to pick us at the airport and told the driver directly that he should do his diligence to get us as close as possible to the walkers since we had already found out that the walk had commenced. We caught up with the first set of walkers around Radio busstop, Obafemi Awolowo way in Ikeja, jumped out of the car and immediately joined the nearest platoon of walkers.

We stood out as the odd ones for a while because we had no “Walk for Light” t -shirts which had been handed out to everyone to wear before the commencement of the march. We chanted and sang songs demanding for Light and expressing our sorrow, discontent and disapproval of the current situation of lack of power in the country. Many people laughed at us, some encouraged us, others wandered at us and some where disgusted at us.

Light walkers at the Governor's office in Alausa

We couldn’t care less. We were on a march for light. After all, we were the light of the world and the least we could do was “Walk for light”. We caused quite a traffic jam because over 4,000 people turned up for the walk. What amazed me the most was that people took time off from their regular jobs to participate in the walk.

Finally, I started feeling in my heart that

Maybe we are on our way to change after all.

Maybe the church is recognising that if only they’d get involved and committed to the New Nigeria project, it would move from being a mere dream to a reality our eyes will see in our own lifetime.

Anyway, by and large we got to the governor’s office in Alausa and expressed our compelling reason for marching in protest.

Let there be Light

Afterall, that was God’s first creation on earth.

If we must therefore rebuild a Nigeria that has become void and lacks any sensible form whatsoever, our first assignment must be

LET THERE BE LIGHT.

I am the future of the world

I am the hope of my Nation

I am tomorrow’s people

I am the new inspiration

And we’ve got a song to sing to you

we’ve got a message to bring to you

we’ve got a dream

for you and for me and tomorrow (tomorrow)

If we all can agree, there’ll be sweet harmony

tomorrow, tomorrow

and we all will be there, coca cola to share

feeling so real and so (feeling so real and so true)

promise us tomorrow and we’ll make a better world for (make a better world for you)

Those are the lyrics of the 1986 advert song for coca cola. I remember singing it then with a lot of gusto even though I didn’t know all the lyrics properly. Apparently, I didn’t understand it fully as well. I didn’t know that in singing that song, I was making a commitment to the world and my country. I didn’t know I was articulating a message that was so deep.

As Nigeria celebrates children’s day today, I cast my mind back to how much of an adult I’ve become and much I miss from being a child. How much hope have I given my Nation? How much of an inspiration am I or have I been? 

This song seems so right for Nigeria. If only we can all agree, there’ll be sweet harmony. Why is there so much negative competition between the North, South, East and West. What does federal character mean? Why isn’t the job given to the best man suited and available for it? Why is a particular tribe seemingly more powerful and influential than others even when they can’t necessarily match or exceed the intellectual capacity of the other tribes? Why will certain children from certain regions enjoy privileges their counterparts in other regions don’t?

I am currently very passionate and very involved in Nation building in Nigeria. My sleeping and waking thoughts are filled with a Nigeria that is getting developed progressively even though my environment screams out otherwise everytime I check. We currently seem to be sinking into the directionlessness we suffered in during the pre-democracy years. Our leaders are bereft of ideas. They are plundering the treasury and living fat on the wealth of the Nation.

There’s no common wealth anywhere. The Federal Government is currently at war with Niger Delta militants for control of the oil-rich region. The militants have made common the practice of kidnapping people, sabotaging equipment and shooting the place up. They have become menaces in the arena but you can’t really blame them. They are simply products of the environment. Victims of the prevalent greed and lust for power around them. Having served previous governors and top politicians to intimidate and kill people, snatch ballot boxes and rig elections, they have beome monsters that are simply uncontrollabe even by previous godfathers and benefactors.

These young children are the future of the world. They are the hope of this Nation, though they don’t seem to be giving any hope currently. They are the new inspiration. Imagine if all our children grow up in this hate-filled, corruption over-run, greed saturated country. What will the future of this Nation be?

I read a story today of a father and step mother who tied a 10-yr old boy’s hands and legs and left him starving for 3 days because he was alleged to have stolen N10. What wickedness!! What kind of a future would one expect that child who has a been a victim of such cruelty and hate to create? Why would one expect him to grow up having love and compassion for his fellow citizens and the world at large after having been treated like a common animal?

We need to rise up and help create a world of love and a nation of values for our children so that they can in turn give us a great future and make the world a better place.

The children of Nigeria are thus crying to us grown ones today saying “Please promise us tomorrow and we’ll make a better world”. What are you and I promising them with our lackadaisical attitude to proper governance, values and development.

Will they witness a better future because of you and I? Or will these children and your children look you in the eye and ask “What did you do to make Nigeria the most desirable nation in the world”. “Did you do nothing and just talk or did you rise up and influence change in the Nation”?

Person 1

Person 2: gd

Person 1: na wa o

Person 1: you no see wetin dey happen for ekiti?

Person 2: nna ur pple be as they get o!

Person 2: though i had a feeling it was gonna happen

Person 1: no be dem o

Person 1: na the party dey set them up

Person 2: as the PDP can not afford for pride to allow them lose ekiti

Person 1: exactly

Person 1: you get the picture totally

Person 2: it would show that they had lost their foothold in the west

Person 1: you r too much

Person 1: you r saying the same thing i told people yday

sola adepoju: lagos gone, ondo gone, ogun going, and now ekiti?

Person 1: and they wont succeed

Person 1: edo gone as well

Person 2: i wont be surprisd if when they declare ido-osi, they declare like all the registered voters voted for pdp

Person 1: oh! they’ve declared it earlier

Person 2: its jst crazy and the antics of our distinguished and very honourable senators ao arise and femi kila

Person 1: 15,000 votes to pdp

Person 1: and 3,000 to ac

Person 2: they declared like 15k for pdp and 3k for ac

Person 1: and there are not up to 10,000 registered voters in ido osi

Person 2: do they think we are idiots?

Person 1: they are silly guys

Person 2: i think i am a prophet

Person 2: the same thing wld happen in oye 1 n 2

Person 1: you r my brother

Person 1: yes o

Person 2: still there?

Person 1: but God no go gree them

Person 1: i’m really sa

Person 1: d

Person 2: who r the pple in d streets supporting?

Person 1: this is the same PDP who kept saying AC was importing thugs through fayose and fayemi’s fathers’ burials

Person 1: fayemi is the popular candidate

Person 1: with the grassroots

Person 2: who have the power to import more thugs, or thugs in police uniform, fake soldiers and all

Person 1: very dirty of the PDP

Person 2: all in all, i think we are approaching our rebranding the wrong way

Person 1: i didn’t want to be partisan before but now i can see that staying on the fence is tantamount to supporting evil

Person 2: lets start first with the pdp, or change the pay-off to “Nigeria, good pple, bad leaders”

Person 2: LOL

Person 1: PDP stalwarts are dealing with journalists as if they were the opposition

Person 1: lol

Person 1: not bad at all

Person 1: i’ll write a post today with that topic

Person 2: Edmund burke once said “the only thing needed for evil to succedd is for men of goodwill, to be unconcerned. or something like that

Person 1: yeah….the only permission darkness needs to prevaill is for light to refuse to shine…..my paraphrase

Person 2: i am really pissed with the situation

Person 1: not as much as me man

Person 1: i’m repulsed

Person 1: but i’m sure that the will of the people will prevail

Person 2: but the more important thing for me is that good governance should be entrenched.

Person 2: as the onus is for the opposition to show that they are up to the task.

Person 2: the onus is for oshiomole, mimiko and fayemi, if and when he is eventually allowed to be governor to show that they are a credible alternative to the PDP.

Person 2: Fashola is already laying a good foundation in Lagos

Person 2: i was in ogun last weekend and someone jokinly said that come 2011, they wld kidnap fashola and keep him in hiding for four yrs so that he can be telling whoeva becomes their governor how to make impact in the lives of pple.

Person 2: his only remedy wld be if he agrees to govern both states together.

Person 2: pple are now appreciating good things.

Person 2: at least pple are voluntarily paying taxes now seeing that government is having direct impact on their lives.

BUZZ!!!

Person 1: sorry man

Person 2: ore u still there?

Person 2: got to go work beckons.

Person 2: catch u some other time!

Person 1: yeah

Person 1: i feel you

Person 1: the opposition must rise to the task ahead

Person 2: k

Person 1: for me, i didn’t feel segun oni was a bad governor at all

Person 1: his only problem was that he had a disconnect with the grass roots

Person 2: that is the only way, if not they would just be part of the problem

Person 1: i believe both candidates are good 

Person 2: fayose was not also a bad governor but he had a lot of excesses.

Person 1: i agree

Person 1: fayose touched the grassroots but failed to discipline himself

Person 2: and the excesses eventually did not allow for much progress in the state.

Person 1: the people still feel that he was the best governor ekiti ever had till date

Person 1: not at all

Person 1: u served there abi?

Person 2: lets hope and pray and act so that the opposition can show that there is a beta way.

Person 1: you must have seen that the basic benefits of democracy is lacking in about 80

Person 1: percent of the state

Person 1: abi o

Person 2: fayose really had a way of connecting with the masses though it was all PR gimmicks. 

Person 2: i was there

Person 2: really got to go now.

Person 2: i’ll keep this conversation and like use it when i eventually write an article on ekiti state.

Person 2: be good ore mi busy

Person 2: bye

Person 1: no wahala

Person 1: thanks for yarning

Person 1: i’ll drop in to see you soon

Person 1: cheers man

Person 2: k

Person 2: looking 4ward to it

A while ago, I was given an assignment by The Future movement to go and deliver the future in Ekiti state. Funny, isn’t it? Now, my state of origin is Ekiti state. I hail from Ijero town in Ijero-Ekiti Local Government. My grandfather has a house in Ekiti State and though he lived majorly in Lagos and got a chieftaincy title in Mushin, he was taken to Ekiti when he died and buried in Ijero.

I gave you that info to let you know that the probable reason for sending me to Ekiti state may have been because of my affiliation to the state. Also, it may just have been coincidental as Ekiti state was due to hold re-run elections and it was timely that the future had a voice in ensuring that peace and equity reigned supreme in the Land. The major contestants in the election re-run are Dr Kayode Fayemi of Action Congress Party and Engr. Segun Oni of the People’s Democratic Party.

So, here was I being told to return to my place of origin to impact them positively. What was my assignment? My assignment was to get illustrious and notable sons and daughters of Ekiti state to grant a 30-sec recording where they highlighted the following:

            i. Your vote is your voice

            ii. Say “No” to violence

            iii. We are all one Ekiti family

            iv. We must deliver the future

As my worthy companion and partner on the trip I had Christian Love, a foremost change agent with respect to the emergence of a New Nigeria. Of course, I also had the blessings of Fela Durotoye, Deoluakinyemi, Femi Onagoruwa, SEGA (Segun Awosanya), Yinka Banjo, Akuns and Deola Kayode among others.  

Fela got in touch with Mr Dare Babarinsa who is from Ekiti and spoke to him about our project. He agreed to lend his voice and face to our recording and promised to link us up with some of our prospects. We had a camcorder recording of his message at his office about 1 week ago and he did link us up with a good number of prospects. We sent text messages to them and proceeded to Ekiti to make the historic recordings.

The first person who responded to our gesture was the former governor of Ekiti state – Ayo Fayose. I was shocked at his warmness and frankness. I half expected something else, but was pleasantly surprised to find that he was a humble man. He asked to meet us up where we were and truly came to meet us there. We were on the way to Ado Ekiti and had just gotten to Iyin Ekiti.

He found out where we were in Iyin and drove down to meet us there. He didn’t have elaborate security either. Just a couple of armed mobile policemen. I requested after greeting him that we go somewhere comfortable for him and he wished it away saying where we were was comfortable enough for him even though we were on the highway with bushes all around us.

He led us straight through a path in the bush and he told us he was ready. Our crew was almost disorientated but we put ourselves together and he gave us a spirited message of non-violence and peace. We exchanged pleasantries and he expressed his hope at meeting us again soon. He then appealed to us to ensure we involved the grassroots in our recording. He advised us to speak with market women and okada riders and not only known and respected personalities in the state.

So started my sojourn in Ekiti state on a mission for the future and immediately the team’s morale was boosted. We were certain that we’ll succeed on this quest. A few minutes later, a phone call came in from Senator Ayo Arise…

      ”Hello Sir, my name  is Busayo Akanro and I’m from the future.”

catch the rest later.

I had been given a mandate by the future movement to go and set the ball rolling with respect to organising a political debate between the political aspirants of the annulled April 18, 2007 elections. Elections had been annulled in 10 out of 16 local government council areas by an Appeal court and a re-run had been ordered. The election rerun in the state is billed to take place on the 25th April, 2009.

As a result, the whole of the nation has it’s eyes fixed on Ekiti and the re-run elections. What will be the outcome? Will the sacked governor return or will a new governor be sworn in? The question on everyone’s lips “Oni or Fayemi, who will it be?” Well, back to the purpose of my trip. I was sent to a particular Pastor who had a passion for seeing a new Nigeria emerge and another interesting young man who lived for the ideals of a new Nigeria.

I set out with so much unknown yet so much anticipation. I had prayed and was sure that God will direct my steps and put a smile on my face when I returned to give the report to the uture movement. I arrived Ekiti about 2pm yesterday afternoon, after a four and a half hour journey and after waiting for two hours at the bus park. I met with my young friend after a couple of phone calls and we both went to meet with the Pastor at his church’s new building site.

About a dozen people were engaged in one activity or the order, dirtied from sand, mud and dust, they were either pushing wheelbarrows laden with construction materials or mixing with spades or carrying head pans “pon-pon” filled with mixed concrete to pour in the mould that was made for the foundation of the building. The Pastor himself was dressed in very old clothes I discovered as he approached to welcome me and his hands very dirty with mud. He smiled as he welcomed me warmly and hesitated at my stretched out hand, showing me his mud covered ones and asking if I didn’t mind. I said I didn’t and locked his right hand in a very strong handshake despite the the dried dirt on it. Afterall, I was at home and was meeting with my own kin.

Immediately, I launched into the agenda of my visit and he came up to speed quite quickly with it. Anyway, according to him, it had been a burning desire on his heart so it seemed to be happening at the right time. We discussed together the factors we needed to take up immediately with regards to the seminar/debate. In a few mins, we had set out deliverables and he had assured me that if I was going to wait till the next morning, he’d give me an update on the reaction and decision of other key stakeholders he would be speaking with yesterday evening. I instantly assured him that I’ll be waiting till the next morning ofcourse. I had vowed to take responsibility for the political state in Ekiti and needed to begin to relate even more closely with its people as well as stay in the state a little more than before.

I left his place after we spent several minutes discussing the polity of Ekiti state and was picked up by my Auntie who serves as the chairman of the National Association of Nurses and Midwives-Ekiti Branch and we drove to her house where I spent the night. I was treated to a very large and delectable meal of pounded yam and efo riro soup with eja kika and beef.

Shortly after I loaded up with the food, my friend Kunle Alashi came calling and we had a good discussion on many aspects of life. I spent some time feeling the vibes of politics in the state while discussing my mission to my Auntie. She gave me some insight into why she preferred “the devil we know to an angel we don’t know”. Those were her exact words in referring to the two major gubernatioral aspirants.

I slept soundly feeling very strongly the fresh and very cool breeze of the country. I almost didn’t get out of bed excepting the fact that I had an appointment by 7am. I met our Pastor friend again and he gave me updates on the situation. Needless to say that he gave some very encouraging news and promised to tie up the loose ends by the end of the week. He set up a small committee to work with me on the project and I the feeling of excitement at the success of this project was thick in the air as I discussed it with them.

I was told that I had to make another trip to Ekiti by next week to tie up the loose ends and that what was most important now was getting the consent of the aspirants to appear for the debate. By and large, I left Ekiti this morning in high spirits dreaming about the program and its resultant success and ofcourse the effect of that success on the people of Ekiti state.

Enlightened followership would have been created and the middle class who usually don’t take  responsibility by voting will have been encouraged to vote. The title of the seminar/debate is “Your vote,your voice” and the name of this gracious Pastor friend is Tunde Afe of the House of Faith Church, Ado Ekiti. I’ll write about updates of this meeting as they happen and I believe another Barack Obama scenario is in the making. Ekiti state will be the pilot and the rest of Nigeria will surely follow. God bless Nigeria. God bless Ekiti State.

Hi guys. It so nice to have me back again aint it? I can hear some of you screaming “when will that guy write an article again?” It’s 11:48pm and I don’t want to sleep before I send this post. I got sent this link while I was networking online. I decided to check it  out immediately especially  because it was sent to me by one of my mentors.

One of Nigeria’s journalists of renown, Reuben Abati’s name  jumped out at me as I got to the site. I discovered it was a link to an online Nigerian newspaper. The fact that that the article was posted in the weekend edition also piqued my curiosity even more. This piece will be interesting, I told myself.

It was an insight into what the erstwhile Economic and Financial Crimes Commission chairman, Nuhu Ribadu thought about corruption and it’s effects in Nigeria and how from a trailblazer point of view, they tackled corruption without fear or favour during the Obasanjo administration.

He also gave a highlight into what life as a deposed and disgraced public servant and super policeman is now. The first ever policeman to charge sitting governors and senators to court over corruption and even send one to jail. The first cop to investigate the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and charge his daughter to court over corruption. The first cop to jail a sitting bank MD and handcuff  and jail a police Inspector General. He suddenly has become Public Enemy No. 1 because the current political proponents and crooks are out to deal with him for his selfless service and commitment to the eradication of crime in his Motherland.

Never before have I been this touched and impressed about the testimony and resolve of a Northern Nigerian. In fact in the discussion, he pledged his life to the fight against corruption. Hear him,

I swear by the Almighty that wherever there are people who are trying to make Nigeria a better country, I will be among them. Walahi.”

Mallam Nuhu Ribadu thus qualifies as a Hero for me and as a voice and face of The Future Movement and ultimately a New NIGERIAN. Three happy cheers for him. HURRAY! HURRAY!! HURRAY!!! What are you doing to take responsibility?

Please find the full article below.

I Saw Ribadu In Rwanda
By Reuben Abati

I RAN into him at the reception lobby of the Hotel Des Milles Collines in Kigali. He had just arrived and was trying to check into the hotel: Nuhu Ribadu, the erstwhile Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission who lost his job under rather controversial circumstances, and who is regarded as having been unfairly treated by the Yar’Adua government. I hugged him. He had lost nothing of his humility, his sense of humour and his humanity. He didn’t look like a man who had just been rough-tackled by the unpredictable Nigerian state whose moral compass is subject solely to the whims and caprices of whoever is in charge, and not necessarily principles and values.

The following morning, we sat together on the same long table, and I slipped a note to him. I wanted an interview with him for The Guardian. It is about time he told his story at great length. He read my note, and picked up his pen. I noticed that he is a Southpaw, and I chuckled remembering how so many southpaws tend to find themselves in the hot corners of history. In his response, he had said “we would discuss.” We were both attending a conference organised by UNECA in collaboration with UNDP to assess the efficiency and impact of anti-corruption institutions in Africa. There were anti-corruption chiefs in attendance from various African countries.

Ribadu wouldn’t grant an interview, but he was ready to discuss. “I think it is better for me to remain silent now”, he says. “I am using this period to reflect on what we did. You know when I took up the job in 2003, I resolved that I will try my utmost best. And walahi, I tried. I took the assignment seriously. Maybe I failed, but at least we proved that it is possible. So, I have been thinking and trying to figure out what further should have been done or could have been done differently.” We were soon asked to introduce ourselves. When it was Ribadu’s turn, he told the meeting: “I am Nuhu Ribadu, former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria, currently recuperating from a bloodied nose”. The hall cracked into laughter. But the other anti-corruption chiefs and operatives would not laugh later when Ribadu took part in a country case studies panel.

There has been so much speculation about Ribadu’s whereabouts in the Nigerian press. But the fact is that he is currently a Senior Fellow at St Antony’s College in Oxford University in the United Kingdom, working with Professor Paul Collier, the leading authority on African economies and politics. St Antony’s College has become the sanctuary for many progressives who get into trouble in the developing world. Ribadu stays in a residence that was recently vacated by Anwal Ibrahim, the embattled former Prime Minister of Malaysia whose only offence was that he fell out of favour with his boss, Mahathir Muhammed. “Such a nice man”, Ribadu says. “he left me his plates and cutlery and kitchen utensils.” One of the persons Ribadu met on arrival at St Antony’s is John Githongo, the Kenyan newspaper columnist and anti-corruption campaigner who had to flee from Kenya in 2005, after he discovered that the majorly corrupt persons in the country are his own colleagues: Ministers and the big men of Kenyan society. Githongo got their confessions on tape, but they told him bluntly that they are the ones milking Kenya dry. One fateful day, Githongo packed his bags and fled to London, from where he sent a letter resigning his position as Permanent Secretary for Ethics and Governance in Kibaki’s NARC Government. He has now returned to Kenya where he enjoys massive media and civil society support, and his book, written by Michela Wrong and titled It’s Our Turn To Eat will be released in London on February 23. It will go on sale in Nairobi the same day.

Unlike Githongo, Ribadu did not run away immediately he discovered that he had fallen out of favour. He stayed and tried to fight the system. He was sidelined and sent to a course he didn’t ask for in Kuru near Jos. Behind his back, they gave his job to someone else, without regard to the security of tenure. Then, they demoted him in what looked like a routine administrative exercise, but the political undertones were writ large. When he tried to resist the system, they shoved him out of the graduation hall at Kuru, and his employers, the Police sent him to Siberia: what Nigerians would call the Ogbugbuaja treatment. Ribadu got lawyers and again tried to fight back. He refused to report for duty. He refused to wear the uniform of the new rank.

One day, assassins trailed him and pumped bullets into his car. Having served in the Nigeria Police for more than two decades, he could spot a warning shot if one was fired in his direction. So, Ribadu succumbed to the logic of Bob Marley’s lyrics: “He who fights and runs away, will live to fight another day.” He is not likely to come anywhere Nigeria for a while. Those who do not like his face and his work have effectively driven him out of town. But he is a determined man. “What has happened to me is just a temporary setback”, he concludes. “I am a fighter, I don’t give up. I don’t believe the people who think they have dealt with me will have the last laugh.”

Like Githongo, Ribadu is spending his period in exile to think and write. “I am working on two books”, he told me. The working title for the first book is “The Problem of Corruption in Africa: The Nigerian Experience.” He explained: “You know corruption is the biggest problem we have in Africa. It is so central to the problems we have. But to fight corruption, the biggest man in government, the President or the Prime Minister must be honest about it. That is where it starts. Americans talk about Obama. We need change in Nigeria more than America does. What I discovered is that we have a challenge to give power to ordinary Nigerians, to ordinary people, to take it from the politicians. And we don’t have time. Change is important.” He didn’t have a working title for his proposed second book. But he offered an outline of its posssible contents.

“When I look back, I realise that some of the people who liked what I did also have issues with some of the things we did. I plan to do a second book to address some of their concerns. I intend to show for example that we deliberately went after grand corruption because that is where the problem is. We interrogated the Governors, the Senate President, the Vice President. I put a Bank Director, Bulama in handcuffs. The moment we did that, the banks knew immediately that there were no sacred cows. We needed to send a strong signal that corruption will not be condoned and the cleansing process had to start from the stop. The day I took the job, I knew that it could end up like this. I knew that I could be victimised or dismissed or killed. It could have been worse. That I am alive today is by the Grace of the Almighty and I am grateful. But my position is that some people just have to make the sacrifice to save our country. I swear by the Almighty that wherever there are people who are trying to make Nigeria a better country, I will be among them. Walahi.”

Another objective Ribadu intends to achieve in the second book is to comment on a number of case studies. “People go about saying that Obasanjo used me to go after his enemies, Obasanjo didn’t use me, in fact may be it is the other way round. If you check, you will notice that the people we went after were actually Obasanjo’s people. Alamiyeseigha was very close to the President. Odili was also very close to him. Saminu Turaki was an Obasanjo man. I deliberately did not go after the opposition. Yes, we investigated Orji Kalu. We also investigated Bola Tinubu. I know the President’s people would have wanted the EFCC to go after a man like Ken Nnamani. But we needed to start with the Obasanjo people to make a point that nobody is above the law. And that was why we investigated the President himself, And we went after his daughter. I was in Kuru then, but I knew about the Iyabo case. If we want to clean up our country, then let us do it. And that was why I went after Atiku. Atiku is from the same village with me. But Nigeria is more important. It belongs to all of us, not some powerful people.”

Ribadu’s book is also a response to questions about due process and the rule of law. “People complain that we didn’t obey the rule of law, that we violated due process and they use specific instances to criticise us. I plan to respond to all those criticisms. Take a man like former IG Tafa Balogun. I didn’t like what happened myself. I was against putting him in handcuffs. But I have to be sensitive to the people who work under me. They came to me and accussed me of double standards. When I accepted the job, I was inspired by the example of Jerry Rawlings of Ghana who went after the big fish and changed his country for good. So we decided that if we could put a Bank MD in handcuffs and follow that up with an Inspector General of Police, then Nigerians would realise that we meant serious business. That was what happened. I am a human being. I make mistakes. I admit that. But I was honest about what I did. So they say we abused the rule of law? What is rule of law? The same rule of law that has now been used to recapture Nigeria?”

I told Ribadu I can’t wait to read and review his books. When are they coming out? “This year. By July. We have to keep the anti-corruption campaign alive. For me personally, there is nothing left for me other than to dedicate myself to the struggle. I am not seeking to be an Obama. But people must be prepared to make the sacrifice. We need change more than America.” How is he these days? “I sleep well these days”, he said. “My needs are minimal. Look at this pair of slippers”. I checked: an over-abused pair of slippers with worn edges and threatening holes. “I have been wearing this since 2003 and I am okay. But I must tell you I have enjoyed a lot of goodwill since I left office. I was offered jobs by many international organisations. I receive invitations to attend conferences and to write books. I came here for example from Lusaka. I am happy to know that there are people out there who have faith in human progress and integrity.”

It was soon the turn of Ribadu to participate in a panel discussion focussing on country case studies. There were contributions from representatives of Nigeria’s EFCC and the ICPC, but Ribadu’s comments had a special accent which struck a chord among the participants. He said: “If you fight corruption, it fights back. If you go after petty corruption nothing will happen to you, But if you go after grand corruption, you’d be taking on the politicians and they have the money. And they will come after you, But you can choose to go to bed with them and you’d continue to be Chairman or Director, and you can go to conferences and enjoy tea and collect estacodes. But I made a choice, I decided to go after the big ones, even if they were the ones that put me there, I investigated President Obasanjo, I took his statement myself. I went after his daughter, a Senator, I went after Governors, I charged all of them to court. One of them offered me $500, 000 US and a house in Seychelles and an aircraft, but I rejected all of that. By the time I left EFCC, I had 275 convictions in a country that never had one on cases of grand corruption, I charged the Vice President to court – somebody from my village. I proved that it can be done.

“It is the most difficult work to do. To confront it will require people who make sacrifice like Mandela, like the people who fought for independence in our various countries. It requires people who have courage, people who do not think that they want to enjoy. If you want to enjoy, it is not the kind of work you can do. I have no regrets. It requires a strong will to make sacrifice. You have to make a fundamental decsiion. It can even mean you lose your life. They will try to compromise you, They will try to blackmail you. I survived an assassination attempt. I have bullets in my car. I intend to keep that car for life. I have no regrets. You have the media. You have to carry them along, be open, be accountable. I have never given a penny to anybody in the media, But there is no newspaper in Nigeria that has not made me Man of the Year, even though I charged some publishers to court and even threatened to close down newspapers. Which shows that people are good. If they see that you mean well, they will support you. I am out now, but Nigeria has changed. You need international co-operation. You also need to build capacity.

“We built a Financial Intelligence Unit, you have to be in control of Financial intelligence in your country. because money is at the root of all forms of corruption. If you track the money, you can stop the corruption. Be on the side of your own people. Don’t be on the side of the leaders. A President will go, but the country will be there, Those who are in control, it is only temporary. History will judge you and you will never regret.”

]]> http://busayoakanro.com/2009/02/22/public-enemy-no1/feed/ 3 http://busayoakanro.com/2009/01/28/is-our-foreign-ministry-jobless/ http://busayoakanro.com/2009/01/28/is-our-foreign-ministry-jobless/#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:01:32 +0000 bussee http://busayoakanro.com/?p=226

The inauguration of the 44th and 1st black president of the United States of America was realised on the 20th of January, this year. With regards to America’s standing as the leader of the free world, it was imperative that most countries that had foreign missions in America would have been represented at the inauguration one way or another. To buttress this, invitations were sent to such countries to have their delegates ably represented at the event. Nigeria, by default also got an invitation. We are the most populous black nation and the fifth largest seller of crude oil to the U.S. It would have been quite surprising if we weren’t invited.

As if that was not honour enough, I learn’t that some state governors decided to go and witness history being made live. One can only hope that they were not just fascinated about Obama’s glory but that they would have critically observed his story and will take actionable steps to implement positive change in their various states.

Anyway, the governors are not my concern. Everyone has a free will to take 1 or 2 days off to be part of history. What I read concerning our foreign delegation is what irks me. President Barack Obama who was sworn in on that day has since started work in earnest. Signing in documents into law, meeting with members of staff of the white house and his cabinet, dealing with the shutting of Guantanamo bay, addressing the way forward in Afghanistan and so on. Our own foreign mission representatives headed by Ojo Madueke are yet to return from the United States.

I really am not angry at them after thinking through deeply. Afterall, you can’t acheive history like that in Nigeria and just let it go so unceremoniously. Firstly, since the gods have finally accepted our prayers, they must be duely appeased with all sorts of sacrifices and festivities. Also, God almighty needs to be given the praise for allowing it to happen, so we need to give him loads of praise and worship with a few popular bands (about 2o) declaring these praises for a few days. Also, since of course, the president would have become president on the platform of a particular party, that party would have to host the president to a high profile success party with the party executives in attendance where the monies spent earlier on other celebrations are re-spent and a lot more noise made through the media, musicians and so on. And because the president is from some local area in the country, then his community must host him to another party where the traditional ruler and high chiefs of his local community can congratulate him in person and where ordinary citizens from the area can catch a live glimpse of their “brother” who has just become president.

Unfortunately, all these didn’t happen in the U.S. though our foreign mission must have booked for about 2 weeks in their hotels not expecting that all will be over so soon. It may be also that I’m wrong. Possibly, the foreign mission delegates might just have thought to themselves,

“since we are already in America, even though on official assignment that has elapsed, can we just convert

sometime into vacation. After all, estacode that we collected must not be returned. We must spend it

by every means possible even if we have to stay back in America for 1 month or is there any other country

that is swearing in their president or rebel leader that we can visit officially?”

I really don’t know which it is but I appeal to our representatives to please return home ASAP. Thank you for representing us. It’s time for you to come and earn your keep and add value to your country by serving to the best of your ability. America is that way because people made it so. Come back and make your country so………Deliver the future if you can, and please resign if you wouldn’t.

A few minutes ago I saw President Obama (doesn’t it feel good to call him that) escort ex-president George Bush to the “Mobile One” helicopter and went back to the steps of the white house to wave at him as he was flown off the white house premises. That was the activity that culminated the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States of America. A few minutes before then the president had been sworn in at the Capitol Hill and had given a land mark inauguration speech.
I saw the camera view change time and time again from the crowd at the Capitol Hill to crowds in Memphis, Tennessee, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and so on. Even in the National Museum was gathered a crowd to watch on screen the inauguration process. Crowds gathered in the streets of New York to participate in this uncommon but popular mark of history. I was moved to tears especially during his speech not only because it occurred to me that he was setting in clear terms the direction for the price of oil subsequently with statements like “We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories”, but also because I felt, if we ever have any inauguration or swearing in of a president that has as many people in the country participating in watching the process, then whoever that person is must be the right person this nation needs to rule it.
I have a dream that one day, crowds of people will gather to see Nigeria swear in a true president that is deserving of the office.
Regardless of how much emotion one feels at the fulfillment of such a seemingly far fetched goal, we must understand as Nigerians that loads of preparation and strategy must have gone into the process. Even George Bush never really knew anything about Obama until about two years ago and could never have had a bad dream in which Obama was running for president on the ticket of the Democrats not to talk of becoming the President he would hand over to. He was watching out for Hilary Clinton.
We as forward looking Nigerians, Nigerians who want to see a new Nigeria, Nigerians who desire a procession like that we just witnessed today; Nigerians who want to have leaders whose quotes generations after them would stand with pride and declare; Nigerians whose children and grandchildren would learn about in their primary and secondary schools with pleasure and a sense or awe; Nigerians, whose definition of leadership would be service and progress to humanity and the society; NIGERIANS WHO WILL DELIVER THE FUTURE.
Fellow Nigerians, interestingly the 2 verses of our National Anthem define how responsibility should be divided. Verse 1 points to our responsibility and verse 2 points to God’s responsibility. If we do our responsibility FIRST, we can then pray and trust God to do His part.
So then,
ARISE!!! O compatriots, NIGERIA’s call OBEY
to SERVE our father land, with LOVE and STRENGTH and FAITH
the labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain
to SERVE with HEART and MIGHT,
one nation bound in freedom, peace and unity

O God of Creation, DIRECT our noble cause
GUIDE our leaders right, our youths the truth TO KNOW
in love and honestyTO GROW, and living JUST and TRUE
great lofty heights ATTAIN, to BUILD a nation where peace and justice SHALL REIGN.

God bless you and God bless Nigeria

Many times I have in mind to write on something else but I soon discover that I can’t put away a gnawing at my heart to further spread some news to the regular visitors to my site. Just in case they haven’t read it elsewhere(taking into consideration those who live outside Nigeria).

I just read this article on ICPC recruiting 30,000 volunteers to battle corruption. I just hope the training and development content and model deployed for these ones will be adequate enough to equip them to deliver the future for Nigeria in eliminating corruption. I also believe credible Nigerians should be made patrons and partners of and with this initiative so that battling corruption becomes aspirational for these ones. Nigerians who have qualified to be role models by speaking against, standing up against and ruling against corruption should be brought in contact with the volunteers to boost their morale and make their commitment look golden. The Fela Durotoyes, Pat Utomis, Deolu Akinyemis, Gbenga Sesans of this world should be sought out to encourage these recruits by way of training or motivational speaking. Please read the article before I write too much on it.

ICPC recruits 30, 000 volunteers to fight corruption
From Emeka Anuforo, Abuja

THE Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has enlisted 30, 000 volunteers to aid its anti-graft war.

The volunteers, who are being mobilised under the National Anti-Volunteer Corps (NAVC), are to serve as vehicles for mass vigilance and education for attitudinal change against corruption.

Of the number, 2,000 are members of the National Youth Service Corps and they have been deployed to 354 local councils in 15 states.

It is expected that each of the corps members will train a minimum of 50 NAVC members before the end of their service year

National Coordinator of the NAVC, Mr. Folu Olamiti, said in Abuja yesterday that the corps now had presence in all states of the federation.

Olamiti stated that the commission would enlist over 10,000 volunteers per state this year to add further bite to the anti-corruption drive.

He said: “National Anti-Corruption Volunteer Corps (NAVC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission’s (ICPC) vehicle of taking anti-corruption crusade to the grassroots is now fully entrenched in all states of the federation with Lagos State topping the list with 2,500 members, followed by Kaduna with 2,000 and Abia third with 1,900. Altogether, 30,000 volunteers are now registered as members.

“The corps, a brainchild of ICPC’s Chairman, Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, is aimed at enlisting ordinary Nigerians in the grassroots and civil society organisations to fight corruption and corrupt practices in all the nooks and crannies of the country.”

On the involvement of corps members, Olamiti explained, “Primarily, the corps members are now the arrowheads for public education, mobilisation and enlightenment against lack of integrity in the grassroots.”

He stressed that the volunteers were involved in helping to monitor public examinations like the Joint Admission And Matriculation Board (JAMB), the National Examination Council (NECO) and the West African Examination Council (WAEC) in three states of the federation to ensure integrity in the conduct of examinations, noting that this had led to a significant drop in examination malpractices.

He added: “The NAVC, through the state and local government chapters, had monitored the conduct of re-run elections in some states affected in the last general elections in order to restore sanity and integrity in the con