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When trapped in a
sea of wishful thinking and unrealised dreams, one is bound to look for
ways to justify one’s action or inaction. At this point in time, one
would conclude by saying, if to se. as a prelude to an explanation. In
Nigerian Pidgin, the phrase if to se simply means, “assuming that”.
This could be further broken down as “if to se ah no” or “if I had
known.”

In the light of the
growing usage of Nigerian Pidgin in the country today, I am confident
of its endorsement as one of our official languages alongside the
English Language in the near future.

As individuals, we
usually explain away the reasons for our failure to deliver, or any
development for that matter, starting with “if to se…” I must say
that, this is a cheap approach to starting a sentence and it places the
speaker on the defensive. Conscious of his financial unpreparedness to
attend the marriage ceremony of a colleague in far away Yola, one of my
friends, Mr. Abdullahi pretended not to have been ‘pre-informed’ of the
event. Two days to the said event, he was confronted by a mutual friend
of ours who enquired as to whether he would be attending. He said: “if
to se dem tel mi bifo, ah fo sabi hau ah fo pripẹ”, meaning, “assuming
that I was informed of the marriage well in advance, I would have made
adequate preparations towards attending”.

This may sound an easy way out of defending his intention not to attend the marriage, but it was definitely selfish.

Overwhelmed by the
perquisites of office, most politicians had ended up disappointing the
electorate who voted them into office. But a quick flash back to when
they were campaigning for votes, would bring back memories of their
numerous promises which were usually backed by, “plenti plenti if to se
dem.”

For example: if to
se ah de fo di pati we de fo pawa sins, una fo si hau ah fo don sopraiz
una wit beta beta rod, wota an gud hospital. Dis taim, tins go chenj
(Had I been a member of the ruling party, I would have surprised you by
the provision of good roads, pipe-born water and a functional hospital.
This time around, there will be great change for the better).

The above is a sad
report of a politician who couldn’t deliver on the dividends of
democracy, ascribing his failure to the fact that he was a member of
the opposition party. Having now joined the ruling party, he is
promising positive changes.

For me, “if to se
ah bi president of Naijiria, a fo mek Pidgin awa nashonal languej”
because with Pidgin, we will have simpul an shot budgets, explained in
a language, which we all will easily understand. Tu mosh grama na im de
spoil mata.

Imagine all the
time it takes for budgets to be prepared and eventually signed into
law. Haba! With the ol di gramatika rigmarole we see on national TV, I
know for sure that if Pidgin was used as a language of discourse at the
National Assembly, we would have shorter sessions and increased turn
out of bills into law!

Imagine the
following scenario of the president at a joint session of the National
Assembly addressing the members in Pidgin: Nigerian President: Ah tek
God nem grit ol of una. (I greet you all in the name of God) Senate
President: Awa oga kpata kpata wi grit yu. (Our dear President, we
greet you in return) President: Hau fa? Hop eviritin de kankpe. (How
far have you gone with the job at hand? Hope all is well).

Senate President:
Evritin don don. All is well. We have concludedeverything.

President: Una bi koret pipol. Mek ah sign mai pat jare. (You are all wonderful. Let me append my signature).

When the National
Assembly handles all its activities wit alakriti, we will experience
kpa kpa kpa in governance and the only way we can get there is by
making Pidgin a formal language in Nigeria. No big big gram, and, we
will begin to experience less work for the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC).

If to se man pikin na president ah fo du somtim. If to se …

In the past year,
global giants like Rio Tinto, Google and Apple have found that events
in China will not only impact share value but, potentially, a company’s
global revenues and brand. A multinational company’s overall industry
position is now often closely tied to its China performance.

China is the
world’s number one exporter with gross domestic product forecast by
many to soon surpass Japan’s. Many Chinese firms are clearly low margin
businesses at home, the twin opportunities of emerging domestic
consumption and actively securing footholds abroad bodes that Chinese
companies will grow in stature.

This growing
competition from China comes in the form of a new wave of cross border
merger and acquisition deals, purchases of new technologies and
investing in the supply chains for critical raw materials. Meanwhile,
growing sophistication permits China’s leading players to provide
competitive financing and bid responses for large industrial and
government infrastructure projects.

The once sleeping
Dragon is wide awake in its own lair while also roaming out of it and
international companies must rethink and retool.

Shareholders,
corporate boards and managements need to dig deeper and start to
understand that many companies do not have the correct China strategy,
structure and leadership because the attention the country gets at the
corporate level is still below what is needed to achieve success there.

In the early years
of China’s Open Door Policy the country was viewed by most
international businesses as a market for the future. To play the
football analogy in this World Cup year, foreign companies can no
longer afford to consider China as a pre-season exhibition game. It is
now a critical away game with the significance of a World Cup
qualifier. The final result of the China game, may determine a
company’s world ranking and industry dominance.

With Chinese
companies moving offshore, Fortune 500 companies are properly
double-tasking their China executives to perform in the domestic market
as well as execute strategies to protect overseas markets from Chinese
competition.

The ability to
consistently deliver proactive and intelligent responses to
opportunities and challenges in China begins at senior board level.

International
companies would be wise to create a rigorous China management team
exercising genuine independent thinking and, most importantly, to
listen to them. The corporate world is full of former China executives
who quit in disgust because head office wouldn’t listen to what they
were being told.

Companies will
benefit from having an active and independent China Board or Advisory
Team feeding views to the senior board rather than viewing the China
operations as those of a branch plant.

For the best
results, foreign companies in China should embrace processes that
address critical issues and time-sensitive decisions including:

• Should additional internal capital or external capital be allocated to expand market share in China?

Is it time to consider a merger or acquisition with a Chinese domestic player?

What is the correct
strategy to enable China’s emerging research and development capability
to contribute to business development?

What is the best way to protect intellectual property and brands?

Are there sufficient oversight and a strong governance processes in place in China operations?

Does the China theatre have a crisis management process and team in place, to deal with vital issues like “reputation”?

Are government
affairs, including community, public and media relations processes part
of the China team’s mandate and performance review?

Is the local operation compliant to local environmental and labour laws and regulations?

A company’s
response to the emerging challenges and opportunities in China will be
company specific. Experienced and empowered China-based oversight of
operations is the common trait vital to designing and implementing
business solutions.

Most Western
companies are still feeling their way through the regulatory, political
and market complexities of doing business in China and more often than
not additional input is crucial to the issue of making the right
business decisions while preserving a company’ core values. Foreign
companies must also recognise that the challenges of implementing and
sustaining market position and investment returns in a post-WTO Chinese
marketplace are increasingly complex. The old ways of China hands and
“relations (guanxi)” has evolved into a mature corporate environment.
Clearly, many of the perceptions created by the existing business
literature about China are outdated.

In the past, the
oversight processes in China for foreign companies were often a
rubber-stamp process. Governance and internal reviews comprised only
internal employees based in China or drawn from the parent company’s
regional operations.

Foreign vested
firms rarely empowered local, independent boards or advisory council to
provide oversight, leadership, experience and control.

Western companies
operating in China now have a star choice: they can pay the costs for
boards, advisory groups and governance or face a higher recovery cost
later, when poor governance ensures that an investment in China falters
or fails.

Unfortunately just
as failures of integrity exist outside of China they also may transpire
within China. This alone should be a motivation to want to strengthen
local governance of what is now a mission critical market.

John Gruetzner and Alan Reid are principals of Intercedent, which has provided investment services in China since 1991.

The holy book
enjoins the faithful not to build their spiritual house by the seaside
lest it be washed away by strong tides, neither in the open fields lest
it be blown away by strong winds, nor among thorns and weeds lest it be
choked to death by worldly concerns, but on the rock where it can
withstand inclement weather. The moral of the message is that life is a
continuum; that your earthly mission prepares you for the life after
and that what you sow you reap.

One man who seems
to have taken the lesson literally is the gap-toothed general. Away
from the vulnerable fields of Obalende, and the threatening waves of
the Bar Beach, our man moved to Abuja and built himself a House on the
Rock.

As the landlord, he
knew all the nooks and crannies of the place but when with one
misunderstood stroke of the pen he cancelled a freely conducted
election in 1993 and all hell was let loose, he patriotically stepped
aside. Sixteen years, five administrations and several distortions
after, he is poised to return to his house to restore its original
master plan.

In doing so he is
following the path of history. Two of his predecessors also toed that
path; one tragically, the other successfully: Jack, the innocent
general, who wined and wedded while the country fought itself, tried to
retrieve what he left behind sixteen years after being shooed out of
office, while the Ota chicken farmer recaptured the crown he
voluntarily relinquished 20 years earlier. As the original landlord,
the gap-toothed general should know how to navigate his way faster to
the house he built.

It is a welcome
development. After witnessing the hell raising and bullying style of
the chicken farmer, the sedentary and sleep-inducing way of the ailing
president, the tenderfoot steps of the acting one, every patriot should
know that what is needed is the experienced, serenading surefootedness
of the one who built the House on the Rock. Who could have forgotten
how he unchained the mouths of a voluble people long caged by the
stern, thin and vengeful general; or how he set free the two
journalists jailed under Decree No 4, thereby running an open
government, the envy of black Africa?

Let no one raise
the spectre of later proscriptions of opposition publications, or the
jailing of many journalists without trial.

All was done for
the orderly development of the country, and no more than child’s play
compared to the antics of his successor, the dark-goggled one, who
holds the dubious honour of having locked up more journalists and
banned more publications in our history.

Let no one mention
that he tried to sap life out of our people with his Structural
Adjustment Programme. Who does not know that it was a visionary
programme, poorly copied by the chicken farmer with his endless
increase of fuel prices in the name of deregulation? Only the patent
owner can apply it again with debilitating effectiveness to modern
times.

Let no one whisper
the enthronement of the ‘settlement’ culture. It is another indication
of how the media often fail to close up on the big picture by focusing
on long shots. Who has forgotten that he jailed a former oil minister
for drinking tea and receiving a gold wristwatch in his patriotic war
against corruption? Who does not know that he prevented a population
explosion in the cells by simply collecting proceeds of multimillion
Naira graft and warning the culprits to go away and sin no more, while
jailing only petty thieves? If the media were even-handed, they would
have harped on the spiritual basis for the general’s action to the rich
that ‘to err is human, to forgive is divine’.

The one that galls
most is the endless reference to the June 12 election. Since everyone
agrees that the general conducted the freest and fairest election in
Nigerian history, why do they deny him the right to also annul it?
After all, as military president, he did not pretend to be an elected
one. Besides, it is only a mad man who will not avoid a moving train
hurtling in his direction in the shape of the dark goggled one. In line
with our people’s saying that ‘he who runs away lives to fight another
day’, he stepped aside for a new experiment when the people were
shouting ‘crucify him’.

To underscore the
saying that ‘you don’t appreciate what you have until you lose it’,
hasn’t the country been the loser for the early departure of the
gap-toothed one? At a time when brother African presidents such as
Mobutu Sese Seko, Omar Bongo, and Gnassingbe Eyadema were laying good
examples for longevity in office for the likes of Hosni Mubarak and
Robert Mugabe, the general was harried out of office. Witness the peace
reigning in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the blooming democracy in
Zimbabwe and Egypt, and the ease with which the younger Eyadema
inherited power, and every patriot will root for the return of the
builder of the House on the Rock!

Dear President

Obama:

Apologies for
crashing this unsolicited letter into your tight schedule. I am
directed by my conscience to write you urgently with regard to your
recently disclosed tax returns for the 2009 fiscal year. You and your
wife declared a joint annual income of USD 5.5 million out which Uncle
Sam sliced USD 1.8 million in taxes.

In essence the
President of the United States and his wife jointly made USD 3.2
million in 2009! The bulk of that money is from book sales and not from
your salary and perks of office.

Mr. President, this
is truly frustrating and embarrassing. You have only just hosted
Goodluck Jonathan, the Acting President of Nigeria. All those
ministers, governors, and ‘miscellaneous aides’ you saw grinning from
ear to ear behind him are known in Nigerian parlance as his
“entourage”. Some of those fellas could make your annual income in just
one ‘food for the boys’ contract in Abuja. A contract that will never
be executed even after full payment has been made upfront.

Some of them could
even spend your annual income on a Dubai vacation with a girlfriend –
usually an undergraduate sourced for them by aides. Your annual income,
Mr. President, is in the region of what an ordinary local government
chairman could claim to have spent on “stationery, entertainment, and
miscellaneous” in the first quarter of a given fiscal year in Nigeria.
If you ever visit Nigeria and spend 24 hours, Mr. President, Aso Rock
and the National Assembly could easily invent a supplementary budget
way beyond your annual income to host you.

I have given you
these background details so that the suggestion I am about to make
would not sound outrageous to you. Mr. President, you and Mrs. Obama
are wasting time in America. You are violating the message in this
Yoruba proverb – omo to pa owo wale ni iya e nki kaabo (a mother
reserves a special welcome only for the child who brings home sack
loads of money)”. In the spirit of this proverb, I suggest you resign
as President of the United States, an office that can only guarantee
you less than $5 million a year, and move to Nigeria urgently.

A man of your
stature should have no problem becoming a Nigerian citizen within 48
hours. If there are problems, authentic citizenship papers can be
arranged very quickly once you land in Lagos. Ask people about Oluwole.
It is election season in Nigeria and I think you should contest for
chairmanship of a local government area.

Mr. President, I am
suggesting local government chairmanship because it is the only safe
haven left to make dollars in millions in Nigeria. You are a man whose
modesty and simplicity are legendary. The money you would make at the
local government level would be way beyond what you and Mrs. Obama have
ever dreamt of, but you would still be able to maintain your sanity and
return to America with enough money to merit that special welcome by
Mrs. Obama’s mother.

To advise you to
run for political office at the state or federal level in Nigeria is to
expose you to pure madness. Unfortunately, the madness at those levels
is viral and contagious. As governor, rep, senator, minister, or Aso
Rock hang-around, we are talking of hundreds of millions, or even
billions of loot able dollars.

Mr. President, I am
not sure that your mental frame could take the idea of being suddenly
plunged into the category of the less than 5% of 150 million Nigerians
who could make five hundred million dollars in just one deal, have
difficulty spending it, and discuss it like chicken change in the
public sphere. That is what we are talking about once you venture
beyond the local government level that I am recommending. Mind you, a
great deal of the money you would make would be loads and loads of raw
cash – transported endlessly in what we call Ghana-must-go bags by your
aides. If you encounter a man called James Ibori, he will introduce you
to the art of ferrying raw cash daily from Nigeria to Dubai – all that
cash passing through Nigerian airports unchecked.

This is the sort of
vicious, symbolic violence Nigerians have to cope with everyday.
Violence is the knowledge that not a single Nigerian is able to
confidently declare that we have one, just one, elected official
anywhere in the country who isn’t stealing at the levels I have
described. Violence is the kind of figures that are in the newspapers
every day: billions and billions being looted in broad daylight by our
friends in Abuja and the state capitals. That is terrible knowledge
that erodes the sanity of every ordinary Nigerian bit by bit.

Mr. President, if
you know that you are going to be able to deal with the quantity of
cash available for loot as a governor, rep, senator or Aso Rock insider
without losing your mind, then by all means contest for office at those
levels. And please do not deceive yourself that you could go there and
be principled. The truth of the matter is that every elective office in
Nigeria is by nature rigged to turn you into an instant
multi-millionaire in dollars.

If you rebel
against the nature of your office, Mr. President, if you try to stay
above the muck and rot, you will become a clear and present danger to
all the Ali Babas around you. They will kill you. So, just go to
Nigeria, spend four years jejely as a local government chairman, and
return to America with the kind of money that will ensure that your two
daughters will never have to work.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Tatafo

Senator Kamarudeen
Adedibu representing Oyo South Constituency has been in the news
recently not for sponsoring a bill or contributing to a worthwhile
debate but for doing something that leaves a burnt taste in the mouth.

Recently at a
public relations event by the British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN)
in Iseyin, Mr. Adedibu said categorically that the National Tobacco
Control Bill (NTCB), sponsored by respected and distinguished Senator
Olorunnimbe Mamora, is dead. Curiously, he went ahead to say the ‘dead’
bill is intended to close down the tobacco industry and with it the
jobs of over 600,000 Nigerians who directly derive livelihood from the
tobacco industry.

Earlier in July
2009, at a two-day public hearing on the bill organised by the Senate
Committee on Health, Mr Adedibu had made the same allegations. Let me
state categorically that the statements credited to Mr Adedibu are in
bad taste, anti public health and irresponsible of a federal legislator.

The allegations he made are baseless.

Firstly, the NTCB
is not about closing down the tobacco industry but about regulating the
operations of a company whose product kills 5.4 million people every
year. It is about protecting the lives of millions of Nigerian
children, who are being targeted to become smokers, those who also
labour on a twelve hour shift in the tobacco plantations in Oyo State,
represented by Mr. Adedibu.

The bill is to
domesticate the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) a treaty
of the World Health Organisation (WHO) that seeks to protect the lives
of the people from the dangers of tobacco use. Every responsible
government the world over has passed one law or another on this.

President Obama has signed two bills into law in one year, limiting the activities of the tobacco industry.

Secondly, the
Senate Committee on Health is still working on the bill, which is due
to be presented to the House plenary any time from now. How did the
Senator get his information that the bill is dead? His motive is to
rubbish and tarnish the image of the members of that committee and
influence the outcomes of the report to favour the tobacco industry. He
has grossly erred against his colleagues and the leadership of the
Senate must call him to order immediately.

He has
mischievously insisted that the bill is to close down the industry.
That means he has not seen even the cover of the bill. Nowhere in the
bill was it suggested that the industry should close down. The tobacco
industry itself has praised the bill and acknowledged it was not aimed
at closing it down. At the public hearing the industry representatives
made that clear.

Thirdly, the
tobacco industry represented by Tony Okonji at the public hearing
stated that it employs less than 1,000 Nigerians. Mr Adedibu has lied
to his constituency and Nigerians. I now join the Environmental Rights
Action/Friends of the Earth to call on him to voluntarily tender his
resignation if he has any honour left in him.

How much lower can
a senator go? If Mr. Adedibu has turned against the popular culture of
investing in the health of the people, of curtailing the activities of
the tobacco industry and limiting the inherent dangers, why should we
not accuse him of doing the dirty jobs for the tobacco industry? Why
should we not ask him to step down while his constituency asks for an
account of his stewardship in the Senate?

What about the
children age 5-21 years wasting away their prime on the tobacco farms
in Irawo Owode. Mr Adedibu should be ashamed of himself for fighting
against a bill that would change that situation and for his blind
support for the tobacco industry, a rogue industry condemned and
ostracized all over the world for the death and disease its products
have been shown to cause, but embraced and loved by Mr Kamarudeen
Adedibu representing Oyo South Federal Constituency.

Seun Akioye is a media officer at the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria.

On April 14, 2010,
Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court Asaba issued an interim
injunction restraining the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) “from arresting, harassing, intimidating, or attempting to
arrest, harass, and/or intimidate (James Ibori) in any manner
whatsoever and howsoever” pending the hearing of the substantive suit
next Tuesday, 20th April 2010.

This judicial
intervention followed an ex parte motion filed by Mr. Ibori’s lawyers
less than 24 hours after the EFCC declared him wanted over fresh
allegations of corruption and money laundering to the tune of N44
billion in relation to his tenure as Delta State governor.

Since an ex parte
motion is heard by a judge without notifying the affected respondent,
Justice Buba ordered that notice of Ibori’s motion be served on all the
respondents in the case, including the Attorney-General of the
Federation (AGF), the EFCC, the Inspector General of Police and the
Director of the State Security Service before the substantive hearing
on Tuesday.

Although there is
absolutely no provision of Nigerian law that allows Justice Buba to
convert this interim injunction to a perpetual injunction purporting to
restrain the EFCC and the other respondents permanently from taking any
action against Ibori, the selfsame Justice Buba had on March 5, 2008
issued a perpetual injunction restraining the EFCC from carrying out
its statutory functions in relation to the alleged looting of the
Rivers State treasury by Peter Odili.

Just like in
Ibori’s case, he initially granted an interim injunction restraining
the Commission from taking any action against Odili in a suit brought
by the Attorney General of Rivers State. When Odili sought to enforce
the order by way of an ex parte motion, he ordered that all parties be
served notice of the motion. At the hearing of this motion, he rejected
the EFCC’s objection and granted Odili the perpetual injunction he
asked for.

The National
Judicial Council recently dismissed my petition against Justice Buba
for gross incompetence and flagrant abuse of power amounting to
judicial misconduct and breaches of the Code of Conduct for Judicial
Conduct on the issue. The Council branded the petition “unmeritorious”
but failed to provide any explanation whatsoever for supporting an
unprecedented injunction that effectively places Odili above the law.
The Council exonerated Justice Buba at its meeting on 24th and 25th
February 2010, in time for his recent transfer to Asaba with effect
from 1st April 2010.

Against this
background, it is significant that of all the 31 Divisions of the
Federal High Court Justice Buba was transferred to Asaba and he (the
newest judge) was the one to which this matter was allocated.

Mr. Ibori is notorious for being a beneficiary of bizarre decisions from all levels of the Nigerian Judiciary.

The decisions of
the Election Petition Tribunal and the Supreme Court in 2003 that the
James Onanefe Ibori who was convicted for stealing building materials
from the construction site of the Lower Usman Dam by a Bwari Magistrate
Court Abuja on September 28, 1995 is not this James Onanefe Ibori
easily come to mind.

The fact that the
relevant Magistrate, Alhaji Awal Yusuf, positively identified this
Ibori as the Ibori he convicted in 1995 and testified that this Ibori
begged him at a meeting on January 23, 2003 to “assist me and I would
pay you back in cash of 10 million naira in any denomination” was
apparently of no consequence to the great judicial minds that dealt
with the matter.

It is also worthy
of note that Justice Marcel Awokulehin of the Federal High Court Asaba
last December dismissed a 170-count indictment brought against Ibori by
the EFCC, purportedly for lack of evidence.

The war of words
currently raging between the EFCC’s spokesman Femi Babafemi and Ibori’s
team typifies the incompetence with which the Commission has handled
this and other matters since Farida Waziri took over as chairperson.

It is notable that
after the Commission found itself in the curious position where its
case against Ibori was dismissed for lack of evidence, Mr. Babafemi
condemned the decision, claiming that the Commission had overwhelming
evidence against Ibori. But rather than put this evidence before a
different judge immediately (since Ibori was merely discharged and not
acquitted), the Commission embarked on the long and tortuous and
completely unnecessary process of an appeal to the Court of Appeal,
which will no doubt be followed by a further appeal to the Supreme
Court.

It was also under
Mrs. Waziri’s watch that the EFCC failed to appeal the illegal
perpetual injunction granted to Odili by Justice Buba in 2008 or take
any other action whatsoever on the matter.

The AGF
superintends the EFCC and is required by the Constitution to “have
regard to the public interest, the interest of justice, and the need to
prevent any abuse of legal process” in carrying out his functions. Yet,
Michael Aondoakaa, who was a respondent in the matter, did not object
to Odili’s application for a perpetual injunction; did not appeal the
decision; and did not direct the EFCC to do so.

How the current
case is handled will go a long way in determining whether the new
attorney general, Mohammed Bello Adoke, who is indeed the first
respondent in the case, is a breath of fresh air or more of the same.

Osita Mba belongs to the Anti-Corruption Committee and the Public
and Professional Interest Division of the International Bar Association.

No Nigerian is surprised or feels offended when the issues of corruption or extra judicial killings are linked with the Nigeria Police. In fact, the surprise is for any denial of these atrocities to be made, and this often happens when senior police officers say the police is not corrupt nor involved in extra judicial killings.

It was therefore like a fresh air in a polluted atmosphere when the chairman of the Police Service Commission, Parry Osayande on a visit to police formations in Ibadan, Oyo State, and Abeokuta, Ogun State, came out to acknowledge that the force is guilty of many malfeasances it has been accused of.

Mr. Osayande in what could be termed a true confession admitted that the image of the police has been battered through the unwholesome activities of some of its men in uniform. He regretted that the uniform and the profession have generally lost respect and glamour.

In a rather candid and truthful manner, he said, “There are extra judicial killings in the Nigeria police. We are involved and engaged in extra judicial killings, even rape, and other forms of corruption. We use our power unlawfully. We are brutal. We are involved in torture and intimidation of members of the public. We are involved in illegal road block activities.”

If we dissect these words one by one, we are going to have a lot to agree with Mr. Osayande. On extra judicial killings alone, the incident that readily comes to mind is the mindless killing of the leader of the Boko Haram insurrections.

Mohammed Yusuf was captured alive by soldiers who were called in when the police couldn’t overpower his men. He was then handed over to the police only for them to claim that he was killed in a shootout. The circumstances surrounding his killing still remain a mystery as the panel set up to probe it has not made public its findings.
Mr. Yusuf’s case is of public knowledge just because of the high profile nature of it.

There are thousands of other innocent citizens who have been killed in police cells across the country.
The other issues raised by Mr. Osayande in his treatise concerns morale and how the police is viewed by the society.

In calling the attention of the police authorities to these he said, “Everyday people are laughing at us. How would your children feel if other children are discussing the corrupt activities of their parents? We are now talking to ourselves, in order to change. Before we can change, we have to know what is wrong with us.”

In truth, we all know what is wrong with the police, at least in a way. The argument has always revolved around the issue of poor remuneration and conditions of service. However, in recent years there have been attempts and efforts by government to tackle this by increasing their pay.
But this has not in any way helped to resolve the endemic corruption that has permeated the service of the police force. It is not a hidden fact that children of police men are taunted by their colleagues in school because they see what their parents do at road blocks.

Mr. Osayande’s words are biting but true. But the task of reforming the police is that of all and not for him or the chief of police alone. It is a collective task. This has, however, been made less tasking since Mr. Osayande and the top echelons of the police have not claimed any ignorance.

There is an urgent need to take a critical look at the curriculum of what they teach new recruits in the Police College and other training schools. It should also interest the authorities to find out why the police that we deride at home go abroad and get good commendation for the country. Is it that we send our best products abroad and leave the dregs to police our society?

Finally, it is important for us to re-orientate the members of the police and for them to live up to the saying that the police is your friend. It is the duty of Mr. Osayande and his team to fashion out a way to make the institution more respectable.

For the past week,
the airspace above most of the UK and continental Europe has been
closed. Who would have thought that what terrorism and war could not
achieve since the skies opened to man with the first flight in 1800,
the force of nature could.

Who would have
thought that the eruption of a volcano, with an almost unpronounceable
name, Eyjafjallajokull, in a small island famous for its white
silica-mud and bathing in the Blue Lagoon Mud, and infamous for its
bank that trapped the deposits of UK local councils, could have such a
reality-altering and economically devastating impact on a 21st century
world.

One of the major
cultural differences between the Western world and the rest of the
world is our relationship with nature and our attitude towards it.

To be generous to
the West, as outlined in Kluckholn and Strodtbeck’ dimensions of
culture, is that some people believe that we “should live in harmony
with nature, preserving and supporting it. Others (and perhaps a
majority now) see nature as our servant and supplier. This view allows
us to plunder it without concern. In other parts of life this
translates into the use of all kinds of resources and whether it is
used up or sustained.” Living harmoniously with nature involves
controlling it to some extent. This attitude is largely predicated upon
the premise that with planning, preparation, and the investment of a
whole lot of money, they can avert, mitigate or cope with whatever
nature throws at them.

Lately, with
unstoppable bush fires, destructive landslides, raging storms and
shattering earthquakes, that confidence is gradually being eroded.

This time, coming
on the heels of recovery from a man-made financial crisis, governments
are struggling and sometimes failing to cushion and prepare for the
effects on their citizens and local economies of this natural disaster.

There have been
several indicators that life, as we know it, has substantially changed.
Firstly, why should failing mortgages in the Unites States affect my
local bank and the availability of loans for my business?

Iceland can attest
to the fact that they never thought they would be so hard hit. This was
just the precursor to the potential downside of what it means to be a
global village.

Downside of global village

Another indicator
is how plastic waste and industrial pollutants thrown in inland creeks
make their way onto the coastline of the Bight of Benin, and across
national borders further afield.

Now, the combined
effects of an ash-cloud emanating from an island has closed the skies
over almost all of continental Europe and putt paid to all the plans we
had for the past seven days.

People are talking
about the negative impact on the airline industry, on the hospitality
industry. They are also talking about profiteering on trapped
passengers in the hotels, car hire companies, trains and ferries.

Lately, the focus
has shifted to the significant impact on industry, agriculture, and
retail owing to the unavailability of air cargo services. It got me
thinking. Yes, some of our governors and ministers are trapped in
Europe. Others are trapped here on their way to Europe, including
foreign students who returned home for Easter and cannot get back now
that term has started.

Look inwards

This has been a
lesson in self-sufficiency for every nation. In the event of a
disastrous event that isolates us from other nations, or from other
continents, can we feed ourselves? Can we tool and equip ourselves and
can we heal, educate, trade within our borders, sustain our businesses,
retain Internet access? The world really has globalised, but have we
all continentalised, and regionalised? Are we saying that there are
insufficient markets in Africa for the cut flowers and green beans from
east Africa?

Multinationals are
here precisely because Nigeria alone is a massive market – not just for
goods and services, but for human and material resources too.

In medical
emergencies, until recently, our VIPs flew themselves to the UK,
Germany and the US. Lately, they fly to the Middle East, India and
South Africa. But if our borders were closed and the skies were a no-go
zone, even with billions of dollars, the air ambulance would not make
it.

Where would we be
able to get quality medical care? Where would those trapped foreign
students enrol to gain a similar standard of education to what they
have abroad? Are we prepared or even now preparing for that eventuality?

Our religious
community must be ecstatic. We are fond of phrases such as “God
willing”, “Insha Allah”, “Deo Volente (D.V.)”, “L’agbara Olorun;” but
for how many people are they more than just turns of phrase, or habits?

They take on a new
poignancy now. The consulting gynaecologist who was due to start his
job at a UK hospital, last Tuesday, did not tell them he would be there
by “God’s grace.” He is only one of a multitude whose plans have come
to nought. God willing, we will reach the destination tomorrow that we
are planning and working towards today.