Nigeria Content Online

Nigeria’s National
Pledge, one of those interesting macro speech acts in which the Patria
plays with the intelligence of the citizen by presenting a command(ment) as
if it were the voice of the citizen making a commitment, requires
Nigerians “to serve Nigeria with all (their) strength.” From the way
government and its agencies treat pensioners who had in their working
lives been subjects of this national oath, it would seem as if serving
the country has become a crime. Judging from the narratives of woes
that pensioners recount concerning how they are being tossed around by
government agencies responsible for the payment of their entitlements,
one can clearly glean an attitude of extreme callousness and
heartlessness being presented to these ex-civil servants as the reward
for their years of service.

These elderly
individuals are made to travel long distances to attend fruitless
verification exercises. Given the risky nature of Nigerian roads, it is
only predictable that some of them breathe their lasts on the way to or
from where they have gone in pursuit of their monies. Some slump and
die while waiting to be attended to at offices where their fellow
Nigerians sit on their files and their monies.

Or, has it not
almost become common that many of these pensioners turn to beggars
either to be able to travel back home after failing to get positive
answers to their requests, or have taken to regular begging as their
post-retirement employment, in a country where rebranded politicians
earn and spend millions monthly?

Other Nigerians who
are still in the service of the government have learned to look towards
their days of retirement as the most dreaded days of their nunc
dimitis. Little wonder that many indeed die shortly after their
retirement, being unable to face the agony of travelling up and down to
pursue their entitlements. Some others try as much as they can to steal
enough money from government to cater for their retirement. Gofment
work no be chop make I chop?

And what happens if you no chop belefull before dem ring bell talk say e don do?

To retire from
government service no longer means to go for a deserved and highly
desired rest. It rather seems to mean the beginning of another struggle
for survival, a very punishing type since many of these retired
individuals are actually tired of Nigeria’s wahala. But are they not
forced by the difficult pension life in Nigeria to present themselves
again as “retired but not tired,” framing their lives as the rhyme of
endless suffering, a kind of “work, work till you drop”?

Many of them who
are able to secure contract employments after retirement from
government service are thrown back into the pool of suffering that
defines civil service life in Nigeria.

Some of these
elderly individuals have ended up being consumed in accidents on
Nigerian roads as they shuttle between home and their new service
locations. In a very frightening sense, dying on the road as they
search for means of survival after retirement seems to suggest the
fatality of one’s journey to a Nigerian life, a life that is a road
bedeviled by risks, and Nigerians, it seems, can never “retire” from it
except through death! I dare not think of the curses that could
possibly be coming out of the lips of the elderly Nigerians as they
drop dead while looking for means of post-retirement survival.

To think
of those curses is to invite masked spirits to start chasing me in my
dreams! Death, as the only retirement from Nigerian life, of course,
provides another opportunity for the government to extend the
punishment to the next-of-kin of the deceased retiree who would come
forward brandishing a death certificate to claim an entitlement. Hello!
Did you say “entitlement”? Does that fellow making a noise out there
not know what he or she is entitled to? Please, tell that fellow that a
next-of-kin is entitled to what his or her dead relative is entitled
to! Make dem come tomorrow. Over! Is one therefore surprised that some
people in government service see what retired workers are passing
through and conclude that it is not worth it being “faithful and
honest” or serving Nigeria “with all (your) strength,” that it is better
to serve oneself first with all of one’s strength?

A dangerous and
unpatriotic orientation, one would say. But it is indeed what the
system has established as the “right” orientation and those who fail to
recognize and follow it are characterized as not just the mugus in the
system, but also the obstacles that others have to watch and deal with.

It is important for
those in government service, and indeed all Nigerian workers, to take
the issue of planning for retirement very seriously and not wait till the last few years of their service before they start thinking of
what to do with themselves after retirement. Such planning, to put it
bluntly, should not be synonymous with scheming to steal from a system
that “steals” from its subjects.

A government that treats the affairs of its retired workers with
indifference confesses that it is grossly irresponsible and
mischievous. The Nigerian government needs to view the case of
pensioners in the country as a crisis situation and take urgent
measures to rectify it. The chaotic arrangement that currently exists
in the transfers and updating of workers’ pension accounts by the
Pension Commission (PENCOM) and Pension Administrators (PFAs) is
terribly frustrating for workers and has further intensified the
tradition of inflicting additional but undeserved punishment on those
who have served “Nigeria with all (their) strength.”

The issue of corruption in high places in Nigeria has never been a hidden fact.

However, at a recent forum in Minna, Niger State, all residual doubts were lifted by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

At a book launch in honour of Babangida Aliyu, the
governor of the state, Mr. Obasanjo, who is not known to suffer fools
gladly, bluntly accused lawmakers of being utterly corrupt and
unaccountable. He did not stop there; according to the former leader
all his efforts during his tenure as President to know the exact salary
of a lawmaker came to naught. He also accused them of inflating budgets
for their own pecuniary gains. This is no mean allegation.

A few days later, the minority leader in the House
of Representatives, Mohammed Ndume, a member of the opposition All
Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), came out to confirm Mr. Obasanjo’s
allegations, but with a caveat. Mr. Ndume, who is also known for his
frank and brutal talk agreed that the legislature was corrupt and said
that Mr. Obasanjo was not by any means in a position to accuse anyone
of corruption. He took exception to the penchant of the former
president for casting aspersions on the National Assembly and said the
issue of corruption does not begin or end with the legislators. He
insisted that the tag of corruption should be extended to all of
“Nigeria or politicians” in general. He added: “To single the
legislature out, I think he is not being fair. Is it not Obasanjo who
bred corruption in this country? It was during his tenure that
corruption moved from low level to high level.

It was during his tenure
that he gave N50 million each to members of this House to extend his
tenure. Go and look at his account when he came out of the prison to
become the president and look at his account now. That will answer who
is corrupt. It was during his tenure that NAFCON, NITEL, refineries,
etc, were sold to girlfriends and cronies. What was that? When you look
at that, you will have the answer as to who is truly corrupt.” This
exchange between Mr. Obasanjo and Mr. Ndume brings to
mind the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s classic song, ‘International Thief
Thief’ (ITT). In that song there was an exchange of words between two
persons: one accusing the other: “You be thief!”, “You be robber!”; the
other protesting: “I no be thief!”; “I no be arm’ robber!”. The
exchange continued, with each party justifying its position.

It is this situation that is playing itself out
now between the two – Mr. Obasanjo and Mr. Ndume. In agreeing with Mr.
Obasanjo’s accusation, Mr. Ndume went further, “He is correct to say we
are padding the budget, but that is a result of government failure. If
the government built hospitals, schools, roads, there will be no need
for constituency projects.” Our take on this is that the two men have
provided the raw material and the evidence needed by the nation’s
anti-corruption agencies to institute a prima facie case against them.
Mr. Obasanjo accused the legislature of corruption; in response a
member of the accused arm of government came out publicly to admit that
he and his colleagues are indeed corrupt. He did not stop there but
went ahead to confirm what had hitherto been in the realms of rumour;
that Mr. Obasanjo is the “grandmaster of corruption” because he bribed
them with N50 million each to elongate his term.

These are serious allegations. In a society even faintly serious
about the fight against corruption, the two men would by now be
answering questions from law enforcement agencies. If Nigeria, and the
Goodluck Jonathan administration, are indeed serious about tackling
corruption, the place to start is with these two men.

Darfur’s
joint U.N.-African Union peacekeepers face a dilemma in Darfur , which
could shape the future of the world’s largest U.N.-funded force.

After violence left
five people dead in the highly volatile Kalma Camp, six refugees sought
sanctuary in the UNAMID force’s police base there. They are thought to
be rebel sympathisers and the government accuses them of instigating
the camp clashes, demanding that UNAMID hand them over.

Kalma, just outside
Darfur’s largest town Nyala, has long been a problem for the Khartoum
government, whose offices in the camp were burned down by angry
refugees. Rebel supporters in the camp have obtained arms and there
have been clashes with government police in the area.

Now if the six are
responsible for the violence, which was between refugees who support
rebel leader Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur and those who took part in
peace talks, which Nur rejects, then it is Sudan’s right to try them in
a court of law.

However the
government is headed by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, a man wanted
by the International Criminal Court for presiding over genocide and war
crimes against these same Darfuris,

which is why they are in the refugee camps in the first place.

Repeated reports
during the seven-year conflict of the torture of Darfuri detainees give
a pretty good indication that they are unlikely to get a fair trial if
UNAMID hands them over.

So what to do?

This is the stuff of nightmares for U.N. peacekeeping officials.

If they hand them
over they lose the trust of the 2 million Darfuri refugees they were
sent to protect and could be subject to attacks by rebel forces, who
would see them as an enemy. But if they don’t hand them over, they are
stuck in a standoff with Khartoum.

The force relies on
cooperation with the government for its own security. The government
also allocates visas for staff, allows equipment in through customs and
gives travel permits. And the government has shown it is ready to use
these powers against any foreign organisation that annoys it.

According to U.N.
sources, the instruction came from New York not to hand over the six
refugees without a bona fide arrest warrant based on real proof they
had committed a crime and guarantees they would get a fair trial, which
UNAMID would need to follow very closely and publicly.

As one UNAMID staff member told me,

“If we can’t even do that we may as well go home.” Catch-22.

Should UNAMID hand them over?

Can UNAMID guarantee them a fair trial?

Can UNAMID continue to defy the government request?

In 1811, the popular novelist Fanny Burney learned she had breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy without anaesthesia. She lay down on an old mattress, and a piece of thin linen was placed over her face, allowing her to make out the movements of the surgeons above her.

“I felt the instrument – describing a curve – cutting against the grain, if I may so say, while the flesh resisted in a manner so forcible as to oppose & tire the hand of the operator who was forced to change from the right to the left,” she wrote later.

“I began a scream that lasted intermittingly during the whole time of the incision – & I almost marvel that it rings not in my ears still.” The surgeon removed most of the breast but then had to go in a few more times to complete the work: “I then felt the Knife rackling against the breast bone – scraping it! This performed while I yet remained in utterly speechless torture.”

The operation was ghastly, but Burney’s real heroism came later. She could have simply put the horror behind her, but instead she resolved to write down everything that had happened. This proved horrifically painful. “Not for days, not for weeks, but for months I could not speak of this terrible business without nearly again going through it!” Six months after the operation she finally began to write her account.

It took her three months to put down a few thousand words. She suffered headaches as she picked up her pen and began remembering. “I dare not revise, nor read, the recollection is still so painful,” she confessed. But she did complete it. She seems to have regarded the exercise as a sort of mental boot camp – an arduous but necessary ordeal if she hoped to be a person of character and courage.

Burney’s struggle reminds one that character is not only moral, it is also mental. Heroism exists not only on the battlefield or in public but also inside the head, in the ability to face unpleasant thoughts.

She lived at a time when people were more conscious of the fallen nature of men and women. People were held to be inherently sinful, and to be a decent person one had to struggle against one’s weakness.

In the mental sphere, this meant conquering mental laziness with arduous and sometimes numbingly boring lessons. It meant conquering frivolity by sitting through earnest sermons and speeches. It meant conquering self-approval by staring straight at what was painful.

This emphasis on mental character lasted for a time, but it has abated. There’s less talk of sin and frailty these days. Capitalism has also undermined this ethos. In the media competition for eyeballs, everyone is rewarded for producing enjoyable and affirming content. Output is measured by ratings and page views, so much of the media, and even the academy, is more geared toward pleasuring consumers, not putting them on some arduous character-building regime.

In this atmosphere, we’re all less conscious of our severe mental shortcomings and less inclined to be sceptical of our own opinions. Occasionally you surf around the Web and find someone who takes mental limitations seriously. For example, Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway once gave a speech called “The Psychology of Human Misjudgment.” He and others list our natural weaknesses: We have
confirmation bias; we pick out evidence that supports our views. We are cognitive misers; we try to think as little as possible. We are herd thinkers and conform our perceptions to fit in with the group.

But, in general, the culture places less emphasis on the need to struggle against one’s own mental feebleness. Today’s culture is better in most ways, but in this way it is worse.

The ensuing mental flabbiness is most evident in politics. Many conservatives declare that President Barack Obama is a Muslim because it feels so good to say so. Many liberals would never ask themselves why they were so wrong about the surge in Iraq while George Bush was so right. The question is too uncomfortable.

There’s a seller’s market in ideologies that gives people a chance to feel victimized. There’s a rigidity to political debate. Issues like tax cuts and the size of government, which should be shaped by circumstances (often it’s good to cut taxes; sometimes it’s necessary to raise them), are now treated as inflexible tests of tribal purity.

To use a fancy word, there’s a metacognition deficit. Very few in public life habitually step back and think about the weakness in their own thinking and what they should do to compensate. A few people I interview do this regularly (in fact, Larry Summers is one). But it is rare. The rigours of combat discourage it.

Of the problems that afflict the country, this is the underlying one.

© 2010 New York Times News Service

Madness may mean a
terrible state of psychiatric disorder, lacking common sense and not
reasoning logically, or an excessive interest in something almost to
the exclusion of everything else. Is it what we are discussing today?
Or are we trying to play around the title of one of Kongi’s best
sellers – “Madmen and Specialist”? The answer interestingly is no!

I have no
intention, in anyway, to be rude or offensive. I preach and teach
respect, not only for human beings, but also for institutions,
especially those I believe are ordained by the greatest sportsman
Himself, the Lord God Almighty. Take it or ignore it, whether we like
it or not FIFA has been put in place globally to administer football
and there is nothing anybody can do about that now. This is one
organisation you can only hate to love or love to hate, especially in
Nigeria. Don’t even think of beating them. The only thing you can
successfully do is join them and do their bidding.

What ails FIFA?

But I ask once
again, is FIFA M.A.D.? Or let me simplify the question a little bit
more. Is FIFA M.A.D. in Nigerian football? Have you now got the gist?
No? Okay, I will explain. M.A.D. is an acronym for “Making a
Difference”. Aah, so now you get it and I can hear some of the readers
saying stuff like – “Paul, you must be mad”. No, I reject that by fire
and by force, but I agree, if you say I am M.A.D.

Let me quickly
confess however, that this title is borrowed from Tony Marinho, a
thorough bred Nigerian, M.A.D. from his base in Ibadan.

The answer to the
question ‘Is FIFA M.A.D.?’ as far as I am concerned is no. Does FIFA
for instance not realise the fact that constitutionally, the National
Sports Commission (NSC) and the so-called Nigeria Football Federation
(NFF) are illegitimate and therefore have no right to administer
sports, especially football in Nigeria? Would anyone in FIFA claim not
to be aware of the fact that about 98% of the football teams (not
football clubs) in Nigeria are funded by government with tax payers’
hard-earned monies? I am absolutely sure that no one in FIFA can claim
not to know that “the tune is dictated by the one who pays the piper”
and it can’t be different here in Nigeria. Would FIFA claim not to be
aware of this fact – 20 years after the founding of the Nigerian
Football League, we are yet to have a football Club in Nigeria,
according to the guidelines of the so-called statutes that were meant
to establish the football clubs? Does FIFA not know that the natural
administrative pyramid that should be in place, from the local
government areas (LGAs) to the state and eventually to the National
level – that pyramid, that should provide the Associations, from the
LGAs, where genuine grassroots developmental football programmes for”
catch-them-young” initiatives – do not exist in Nigeria?

The two-faced nature of FIFA

Well, if it is true
that FIFA is ignorant of some or all of the issues raised above, then,
someone should please do us one big favour, by informing Primo Corvado,
FIFA’s representative sent in to monitor the forth-coming NFF
selection, now rescheduled for Thursday August 26, 2010, that the ‘FAIR
PLAY’ gospel preached by FIFA is still strange to us here in Nigeria.
Please let Corvado know that here in Nigeria, medical doctors,
carpenters, engineers, architects and even farmers (and I refer to them
in he most derogatory manner, for the purpose of this write-up) aspire
to become President of our football ruling bodies. Let him know for
instance that there are no football associations in most our LGA’s and
where they exist, the associations are administered by officials of the
ministry of agriculture.

Please tell
Corvado, that the selection exercise he has come to monitor is shrouded
in deceit, uncertainties and controversies. If Corvado himself believes
in decency, it behoves him as a gentle man to publicly respond to the
protests sent to FIFA by Segun Odegbami and other NFF Presidential
aspirants.

It will also be
appreciated if FIFA can declare – publicly, how much has been invested
on football development in Nigeria. Truth is that nature abhors any
form of vacuum and there is so much information vacuum as regards this
sensitive issue of funding of football. I am one of the several
subscribers to the monthly FIFA magazine and we read of millions of
dollars invested on football development especially at the grassroots
level by FIFA in developing countries. Has Nigeria benefited from this?

Permit me to end
this piece on a rather serious note. Can FIFA dare to make a difference
by calling on the federal government and state governments to stop
funding football in Nigeria?

Let FIFA call the bluff of the NSC and Bio in order to stop all the
“shakara” going on now. And finally, maybe Bukola Olapade, a.k.a.
“Ozoganga” was right when he submitted that the next NFF President
should be a mad man or woman. I would have voted for you my friend, but
unfortunately Mr Corvado of FIFA will not allow me. So, I say
congratulations in advance to whoever is chosen on Thursday. But be
prepared to be M.A.D.

It is hard not to
be impressed by the man known as Rafa Nadal. Barely in his mid-20s, he
has achieved a lot more than what most tennis players dream about. To
date, he has won eight Grand Slam titles, 18 Master titles, and an
Olympic Gold medal, amongst others. To put it in better perspective,
over the last decade, he has accomplished more in the world of tennis
than what 200 million Nigerians have achieved in the last century in
the same field.

How does he do it?
How does he manage to keep up his speed, his agility, and still find
time to shampoo and style that glorious hair of his? The answer to that
question can be found in those characteristics that have become the
bedrock of most success stories — hard work, dedication, and a lot of
good healthy advice; factors that are unfortunately in short supply
within the shores of Nigeria.

Football is
undoubtedly the leading sport in the nation today. It is played in the
fields and on the streets. It is even rumoured that a few people
actually once considered playing it on the Third Mainland Bridge.
Sometimes, the game of football appears to be the only sport that
people are willing to consider. Most Nigerians are yet to come to terms
with the idea of a Nigerian basketball league and even more Nigerians
would probably choose to work all weekend in their offices instead of
having to watch a match of cricket. Unfortunately, it is this blind
stubbornness of ours that has resulted in the dwindling fortunes of our
sports sector.

When all is said
and done, there really is no reason why Nigeria as a nation is unable
to challenge at the highest of sport levels. Outside the world of
football, in the listing of many world sporting events, Nigeria appears
to be regularly absent. What prevents a sponsored team of national
cyclers from challenging at the next Tour de France event? Why can’t
Nigerians finally break out of the mould and make an appearance at the
next Wimbledon tournament? Outside the rules, the requirements of most
sporting events are the same. People must possess the right amount of
body appendage. The last time I checked, most Nigerians have their arms
and legs in place.

Many might blame
the government for its failure to provide the structural facilities
needed for the advancement in sports but this reason is not completely
true. Today, there are hundreds of Nigerian footballers plying their
trade in foreign countries. Their successes in this field are not the
direct results of governmental intervention but simply the outcome of
their dedication and desire to succeed. To stress the point further,
sporting stars such as Rafa Nadal, the Williams sisters, and Didier
Drogba are not the direct outcomes of government programmes. They are,
instead, superstars who were raised and supported by family members
during their early years.

Unfortunately, the
desire for most Nigerians to groom children who end up working with
multinational companies has led to most parents nipping the sporting
dreams of their children before they even begin. Nigerian parents do
not want their children talking about sports. If a 10-year-old boy by
the name of ‘HC’ was to announce to his father that he wished to become
a lawn tennis player, he probably would get knocked on the head and
then enrolled in after school lessons so that his mind could be
“sharpened” on more important things. Outside the world of academics,
nothing else is ever supported. Children who would aspire to be
artists, musicians, and athletes are turned into the newest recruits
for the banking and oil-servicing companies. Instead of raising the
next Rafa ‘Onyekachi HC’ Nadal, parents are happy to settle for bank
tellers who earn less than $1000 a month.

In a couple of days, the screens of millions of televisions will be
graced with the antics of the US Open. For people like me, who happen
to be fans of tennis, our days will likely be spent watching players as
they slog it out on one of the hardest courts in the tour. I already
know exactly where my allegiance will lie. This year, as has been my
practice for the last three years, I will be rooting for a certain Rafa
Nadal. Next year, however, with any bit of luck, my attention just
might be taken by a new introduction to the world of grand slam tennis.
That of a Nigerian challenger.

It is two years
this month since Abayomi Ogundeji was gunned down by unidentified
assailants on his way from work. If anyone expected the Nigeria Police
to find his killers, the expectation was in vain as it would have
amounted to asking the Police not to be what it is – an incompetent
force.

Abayomi was a
friend. I knew him since 1992 just after our national youth service. I
first met him when he joined the African Guardian as a budding
reporter. It did not take long for Abayomi to prove the stuff he was
made of. He distinguished himself as a writer to watch. When the
Babangida government closed down The Guardian newspapers as part of its
destructive agenda for Nigeria, Abayomi joined us at Theweek magazine
in 1995 and our friendship blossomed. With the likes of the late Godwin
Agbroko and Muyiwa Akintunde as editor and deputy Editor, Abayomi’s
writing style found vent.

He returned to The
Guardian later and thereafter moved to The Punch where he became its
features editor and The Comet as its Sunday editor. After about three
years as editor, Abayomi quit in 2005 saying he was done with
mainstream journalism and started a media consultancy. His first major
client was Tokunbo Afikuyomi. Given who Abayomi was, it was
unsurprising that the relationship did not last. He then became a
publicist to Femi Pedro, Bola Tinubu’s deputy governor, and this ended
after the 2007 governorship elections.

Abayomi returned to
journalism as a member of Thisday editorial board. He had hardly made
his mark there when he was killed by agents of darkness; in the same
manner Agbroko, Thisday’s former editorial board chairman was killed.
No doubt, the police have forgotten about Agbroko’s case, a trend that
started in 1986 with the murder of Dele Giwa.

Abayomi had this
easy flow with words and communicated in a way that distinguished him
as an intellectual. I am, however, not remembering him today because of
his writings but because of who he was and what he stood for. We shared
a lot in common, principally the state of the nation. We often agonized
about Nigeria, why we are not where we should be and why we are good at
manufacturing bad leaders.

Abayomi was a
humanist, an intellectual and a patriot. He studied history at the
University of Ibadan. He loved life. Though a Baptist from Ogbomoso, it
was not until late 2007 that I knew that he was named Paul.

When I teased him
that ‘Paul’ did not fit the near-Marxist Abayomi, he responded, “I am
not only Paul; I was a soprano in the church choir in Ogbomoso where I
grew up! Father was the head of the ushers; mother a deaconess.
Religion suffused my background, as Ogbomoso people are Baptists.

Yet I became a
Marxist at the first opportunity to be independent in University of
Ibadan. Now, I am back as an aspiring capitalist and, you never know,
possibly a pastor as old age knocks. See, we will become our fathers!”
The killers’ bullets aborted these dreams.

After I left Lagos,
we lost touch, but during the period, Abayomi married Jennifer, a
banker from Edo State. Before he was killed at 40, they had two sons, a
scenario regarding which he humoured that his wife “is petitioning the
Girls’ Guide in preparation for the third child!” His is a great loss
to his immediate family, friends, colleagues, and the nation at large.
Worse, his killers still prowl the land unmolested. To think that
journalists, who are very visible, could get killed without the
criminals being apprehended signposts the precarious security situation
in Nigeria. Often, people blame the poor handling of crime in Nigeria
on the lack of adequate funding for the Police. Nothing could be
farther from the truth.

I argue that the
police is over-funded relative to most other sectors. In yearly
budgets, provision to the NPF in particular and security/defence in
general, is one of the highest.

But two main
reasons, corruption in the police and high rate of unemployment, make
the Force unable to discharge its constitutional responsibilities. The
National Bureau of Statistics has put the number of unemployed
Nigerians at 12 million by December 2009. That is a time bomb, a ready
army for crime of all shades. So, most of the jobless youths go into
one form of crime or the other for survival.

Governments are not
providing jobs. For example the Niger Delta states receive 13%
derivation with nonexistent employment opportunities.

Except in one or
two states, unemployment is high. But these are states that receive
several billions of naira monthly from the federation account. Much of
the money is used to provide luxury facilities to be enjoyed by 1
percent of the states’ population.

The National Bureau
of Statistics records show that the national unemployment rate as at
March 2009 was 19.7% (of people aged 15 to 64), a steep rise over the
14.9% figure in the corresponding period in 2008.

In the absence of
social security, it is only when unemployment is brought to the lowest
level that crime can reduce and the police can adequately fight it. It
is only when the police are able to arrest perpetrators of crimes that
we can safely say that the likes of Abayomi Ogundeji did not die in
vain.