Opinion

Segun Ayobolu: Grit, quality and versatility on diamond eve

Published

2 years ago

January 18, 2023

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By Tunde Olusunle

For all his staggering attributes as a very formidable scholar, a distinctly rigorous inquisitor, a sound and profound political scientist, an inimitable reporter, an engaging writer, a perspicacious editor, he savours his reticence and unobtrusive carriage. In a world where dunderheads, impostors and wannabes hug the klieg lights, posturing as modern day standard-bearers, stars and men of letters, coveting conferments and adulation, he cherishes his quiet. He prefers to immerse himself in his study, lapping up multidisciplinary knowledge, further enriching his subsisting, even overflowing intellectual capital. His elected choices to remain “backstage” in a manner of speaking, receives authentication from his minimal photographic prominence, even on the internet. And we are talking about a colossus in his own right.

Reporting for work on my first day at the good old Daily Times of Nigeria Plc in August 1990, the singular acquaintance I had was Gbenga Ayeni. Ayeni, now a professor of mass communications at the East Connecticut State University, (ECSU) in the United States, and I were classmates, brothers and best of friends at the University of Ilorin. He was already on the staff of the Daily Times about two years before me and was excited I was joining him at what then was Nigeria’s largest media organisation. While I was going to serve in Sunday Times in the Agidingbi, Ikeja address of the establishment, Ayeni operated from the Kakawa, Lagos Island headquarters of the organisation.

He had been redeployed to the Lagos desk of the London-based West Africa magazine, which was owned by the Daily Times conglomerate. Paxton Olu-Idowu was bureau chief of the Nigerian office of the publication and Ayeni worked with him. While I would yet link up with him, I was a momentary loner in Agidingbi. I would subsequently meet the likes of Maurice Ogar, Wole Olatimehin, (now a clergyman) and Edwin Baiye, (now in the US), who were all schoolmates at Unilorin. Tunde Rahman, and Hakeem Bello, media advisers to Bola Tinubu and Babatunde Fashola, respectively, joined us later. This, however, could not substitute for reunion with Ayeni who was both my course mate and roommate in school, and with whom I played quite some school pranks for years together.

My initial loneliness was not going to persist for long, however. I’m told I’m an extrovert, that I make friends and integrate myself into newfound spaces seamlessly. I didn’t need a chaperon as I walked that long TPD corridor, flanked on both sides by a million doors, all leading to the offices and desks of different departments. I spontaneously met new colleagues and began my acclimatisation. There were iconic names one had encountered as an avid reader of Daily Times publications, which numbered over a dozen at some point. And here I was, meeting them live and direct, in flesh and blood! Segun Ayobolu’s was one of those salient, select bylines which had become recurring fixtures, engraved on the minds eye for his very insightful political analyses and resourceful intellectual investments in Daily Times publications.

Ayobolu’s desk was on the immediate left once you opened the door of the voluptuous hall called the newsroom. Writers and reporters were scribbling, typists were busy on their Olympia typewriters. The audio of television sets could be heard in the background. The slight creak from the hinges of the door I opened, stirred Ayobolu and he looked in my direction. He nodded approvingly and I returned the gesture. I let go of the swing door and walked up to him. I introduced myself as the newest Johnny Just Come, (JJC), as we shook hands and introduced ourselves. “You worked with “The Guardian,” I believe,” he asked me. “I’ve read you on the arts and literature review pages.”

I smiled and told him I was but a contributor who desired to be heard in the assembly of A-list professionals. While teaching in a rural secondary school in the erstwhile Oyi local government area of the pre-August 1991 Kwara State and working on my masters in English, I told Ayobolu, I had unfettered access to some of Nigeria’s unsung literary figures who could stand neck-to-neck with their colleagues elsewhere. They didn’t receive the breadth and constancy of attention which scholars in the Lagos-Ibadan-Ife tripod of institutions, enjoyed. David Cook, (British); Zulu Sofola; Olu Obafemi; Oludare Olajubu; Akanji Nasiru, were some of those eggheads. While doing my masters work, I interviewed them and sent the manuscripts to The Guardian, I said to Ayobolu.

We hit it as colleagues and friends from that moment. I would subsequently make more acquaintances thereafter. One could see Ayobolu’s most dutiful application to his work, his untiring commitment, the enviable fervour he deployed. Information technology was not as advanced as we have today, so the entire newspaper production system was almost totally manual. Political activities were gaining pseudo-traction under the administration of former President Ibrahim Babangida, and the newspaper sustained a daily section in the tabloid, and the political desk trusted to generate front-page or backpage reports.

Ayobolu attended the daily “editorial meeting” chaired by the superintending editor who included Onyema Ugochukwu, Femi Sonaike, Dapo Aderinola at various times, in our generation. He then rallied his team including Emeka Nwosu, Basil Obi, Tunde Rahman among others, to generate content for the political pages. He routinely functioned as sub-editor, wielding that famous metal ruler to allocate space to various essays, reports and photographs. The library was adjacent the newsroom where relevant photographs and illustrations. Ayobolu slept in the office on a number of occasions, trying to get the job done. We were basically quasi-bachelors and could take some risks. But such was Ayobolu’s immersion in his vocation.

Ayobolu’s intellectual versatility, his voracious appetite for knowledge, his scholastic expansiveness, his free-range mind of the prototype academic, find expression in his journalistic oeuvre. He gobbles poetry, works of prose, literary criticism, biographies, speeches, with the appetite of one facing an examination everyday. His insights into wisdom’s broad-spectrum, ooze from his journalistic output. To make assurance doubly sure, Ayobolu has reviewed four of my published books and written the Foreword to my upcoming aggregation of essays and articles. As in other instances, Ayobolu leaves you in no doubt about his depth, infinite vistas and abundance of capacity. Very few, ranking professors anywhere in the world, will do a better job of the laurel-deserving dilation of my works, than Ayobolu has done in all instances.

Joe Ibekwe one of our colleagues at the Times who now wields a doctorate, it was who reminded us on the Daily Times Alumni Platform, yesterday, that the date, Tuesday January 17, 2023 was the birthday of this beloved brother, exemplary colleague and inimitable professional, Segun Ayobolu. Across the road in our good old Agidingbi Daily Times office was White House, a restaurant and bar so christendom by we the regulars, after the colour of the building. Typically, whenever our “travel claims,” “continues honorarium” or “out-of-state” travel allowances were paid, or whenever some generous emolument was extended to us for genuine professional help, White House was the instantaneous converge. As desks in the newsroom emptied to an unspoken signal for assembly one of those days, Femi Ajayi, who was the science editor, remarked cheekily to the hearing of some of us: “Those guys have made a kill. They are going to their rendezvous!”

Milestones such as Ayobolu’s yesterday, would have engendered spontaneous congregation at White House, our famous watering hole. Gboyega Okegbenro, Emeka Nwosu, Lawal Ogienagbon, Musa Ebomhiana, Adamson Momoh, Bayo Oladipo, Yemisi Fadairo, (Basil Obi, Femi Olatunde, Imokhuede Ogunleye, Edna Aguocha, the last four sadly no longer with us). We were quite a bunch. Friends from elsewhere joined us on a day yesterday, including Ohi Alegbe, Reuben Abati, Gabriel Omohinmi, (Ademola Babajide, Eddie Ayo-Ojo, also gone to be with the Lord). The waiter at White House would be deployed in an endless relay, serving an assortment of drinks, going and coming, coming and going, regularly quizzed about the tepid temperature of lagers and similar liquids. The kitchen, would eternally simmer with the aroma of pepper soup, peppered meat and allied delicacies. The chant of O yes ooooo will seize the space. Title editors will be glad we all had turned in our copies before plunging into such revelry, which could well spillover to point and kill joints in Ogba, Alausa and similar places!

Segun Ayobolu was born January 17, 1964. His father, Elder Bamidele Samuel Ayobolu was one of the earliest sets of graduates from the Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU), Zaria, in the 1950s. Baba also obtained a diploma in administration at the London School of Economics, (LSE). The very bright and brilliant Segun Ayobolu therefore got off to a pacy educational start, obtaining his bachelors’ and masters’ degrees in political science at the University of Ibadan in quick succession, between the ages of 21 and 24. His lecturers conceived of retaining him for his doctorate, so he could pursue a career in the academia. The young and restless Ayobolu, however, voted for the media as a career which could find fulfilment even as a budding scholar. The mammoth “invasion” of newsrooms by academics and technocrats heightened by the inauguration of The Guardian in 1983, was a compelling inspiration for many of us.

Ayobolu was at various times: reporter, features writer, political editor and Editorial Board Chairman in Daily Times. He edited the Sunday Times, sister publication of the Daily Times, and has functioned as publicist in different departments of the nation’s governance structure. He served as Chief Press Secretary to several public office holders, notably: the Senate President in the defunct Third Republic, (1992 to 1993); Federal Minister of Education, (1993 to 1995), and the Governor of Lagos State, between 1999 and 2007, at the outset of the subsisting Fourth Republic. He was also Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to the Lagos State Governor, between 2007 and 2009. A columnist and Senior Member of the Editorial Board of The Nation newspaper, he is also an “Editor-at-large” of the newspaper. Ayobolu has in his pouch, enormous perspectives about different strands of our sociopolitics which he must avail Nigerians.

Ayobolu has been published in several journals and books, and has presented papers at several conferences and programmes. He has been involved with publications like: Tinubu: In The Mirror Of The Press: What the Papers Say: A Collection Of Press Reports On Senator Ahmed Tinubu’s Activities As Executive Governor Of Lagos State.* He has also produced *Biographical Sketches Of Members Of Tinubu’s Millennium Cabinet: May 1999 to May 2003 and Dele Alake: The Writer As Strategist. He co-edited the book: *Asiwaju: Leadership In Troubled Times, (published in 2012), with Tunji Bello and Sam Omatseye. He is married to Justice (Mrs) Ayo Ayobolu, and blessed with children and grandchildren.

Sege Baba, this is hoping we shall celebrate your conclusive completion of your doctorate on your diamond birthday. Congratulations!

Tunde Olusunle, PhD, poet, journalist, scholar and author is a Member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, (NGE).

Opinion

BENUE 2027:The Apa/Agatu Quest for Equity

Published

5 days ago

January 14, 2025

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By Tunde Olusunle

It may be well over two years to the next cycle of general elections in Nigeria. For the people of Apa/Agatu federal constituency in *Benue South, however, the measure of their participation and integration into the governance scheme will be defined in the run-up to the general polls that year. Nine local government areas make up the predominantly Idoma country of Benue State also labelled Zone C in the senatorial tripod of the geo-polity. The zone is also home to the Igede ethnic stock and the Etulo. Local government areas in “Benue Zone C” include: Apa, Agatu, Oju, Obi, Ado, Ogbadibo, Okpokwu, Otukpo and Ohimini. The other zones, Benue North East and Benue North West, are wholly dominated by the Tiv nationality, striding across 14 local government areas. They are christened Zone A and Zone B in the local political scheme of the state. Federal constituencies in Benue South are: Apa/Agatu, Oju/Obi; Ado/Ogbadibo/Opokwu and Otukpo/Ohimini.

The subjugation of groups and ethnicities considered demographically smaller, by the larger groups which has dominated Nigeria’s politics over time, has not been any different for the Idoma of Benue State. Until the circumstantial emergence of a Yahaya Bello from the Ebira ethnicity in Kogi State in 2015, the Igala had the relay baton of governorship of Kogi State, in rounds and succession. The Ebiras and the Okun-Yoruba zones in the state could only aspire to be serial deputies or Secretaries to the State Government. This political template was virtually cast in stone. The Ilorin people of Kwara State have similarly wholly warehoused the gubernatorial office, sparingly conceding the position to other sociocultural groups in the state. The only exception was the concession of the seat to a candidate from Kwara South, in the person of Abdulfatah Ahmed, by his predecessor, Bukola Saraki in 2011. Even at that, there were murmurs and dissent from those who believed Ahmed came from a community too close to the Ilorin emirate to be of genuine Igbomina stock, which prides itself as the pure Yoruba species in Kwara State.
Twenty-six years into the Fourth Republic, the maximum proximity of the Idoma to Government House, Makurdi, has been by the customary allocation of the Deputy Governor’s slot to its people. Ogirri Ajene from Oju/Obi, the charismatic blue-blood of blessed memory, was deputy to George Akume, incumbent Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF), from 1999 to 2007. Akume it was reported, genuinely desired to be succeeded by Ajene who exhibited competence and loyalty and could build on their legacies. The Tiv nation we understand, shot down the proposal. Gabriel Suswam succeeded Akume and had the urbane multipreneur, Stephen Lawani from Ogbadibo as deputy. Samuel Ortom, a Minister in the Goodluck Jonathan presidency who took over from Suswam opted for Benson Abounu, an engineer from Otukpo as running mate, while Hyacinth Alia, the Catholic priest who succeeded Ortom, also chose as deputy, Samuel Ode, who was also a Minister in the Jonathan government, from Otukpo. Arising from this precedence, Apa/Agatu has not for once, been considered for a place in Government House, Makurdi.
In similar fashion, the position of Senator representing Benue South, has repeatedly precluded Apa/Agatu federal constituency. David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark a former army General from Otukpo, took the first shot at the office in 1999. He was to remain in the position for five consecutive times, a distinctive record by Nigerian standards. Mark would subsequently become President of the Senate and the third most senior political office holder in the nation’s governance scheme for a string of two terms between 2007 and 2015. He was replaced by Patrick Abba Moro, who hails from Okpokwu and was a former teacher, in 2019. Abba Moro who previously served as Minister of Interior in the Jonathan government from 2011 to 2015, won a second term at the 2023 general elections and remains substantive Senator for “Benue Zone C.” He is indeed incumbent Minority Leader of the Senate, and thus a principal officer in the leadership scheme of the “red chambers.”
While Moro is barely two years into his second term, there are suggestions that he is interested in a third term which should run from 2027 to 2031! This is the core issue which has dominated contemporary political discourse in Benue South, especially from the Apa/Agatu bloc. For Apa/Agatu, it is bad enough that they are repeatedly bypassed in the nomination of deputy governors in the scheme of state politics. It is worse that they are equally subjugated by their own kinsmen within the context of politics in *Idoma and Igede land.* This is particularly worrying when both local government areas constituting the Apa/Agatu federal constituency, Apa and Agatu, are not in anyway deficient in human resources to represent Benue South. Names like John Elaigwu Odogbo, the incumbent *Och’Idoma* and respected clergy; Isa Innocent Ekoja, renowned Professor and Librarian; Sonny Togo Echono, FNIA, OON, Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, (TETFUND), and John Mgbede, Emeritus State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Benue State, readily come to mind.
Major General R.I. Adoba, (rtd), a former Chief Training and Operations in the Nigerian Army; Professor Emmanuel Adanu, former Director of the Kaduna-based National Water Resources Institute, (NWRI) and the US-based specialist in internal medicine, Dr Raymond Audu, are eminent Apa/Agatu constituents. There are also Ada Egahi, long-serving technocrat who retired from the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, (NPHDA), and Super Eagles forward, Moses Simon, (why not, hasn’t the retired soccer star, George Opong Weah just completed his term as President of Liberia)? The Member Representing Apa/Agatu in the House of Representatives, Godday Samuel Odagboyi, an office previously held by Solomon Agidani, as well as Adamu Ochepo Entonu, is, like his predecessors, a prominent figure from the resourceful Apa/Agatu federal constituency.
The Olofu brothers, Tony Adejoh, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, (AIG), and David, PhD, a renowned management and financial strategist, who is also an Emeritus Member of the Benue State Executive Council during the Ortom dispensation, are from the same federal constituency. So is Abu Umoru, a serial entrepreneur who represents Apa State Constituency in the Benue State House of Assembly. The continuing intra-zonal alienation of Apa-Agatu from the politics of Benue Zone C, remains a sore thumb which must be clinically diagnosed and intentionally treated in the run-up to 2027.
If previous top level political office holders from Idomaland in general and Apa/Agatu in particular, had diligently applied themselves to tangible, multisectoral development of the zone and constituency, the present clamour for inclusiveness would probably been less vociferous. *River Agatu* which flows from Kogi State, and runs through Agatu before emptying into *River Benue,* is a potential game changer in the socioeconomy of Apa/Agatu, Benue South and Benue State in general. Properly harnessed, it can revolutionise agriculture and aquaculture in the state, beyond subsistence levels which are the primary vocations of the indigenous people. Rice, yam, guinea corn, millet and similar grains, thrive in the fertile soils of the area. These can support “first level” processing of produce and guarantee value addition beneficial to the primary producers, before being shipped to other markets. River Agatu can indeed be dammed to provide hydro-electricity to power the entire gamut of Idomaland.
The infrastructure deficit in Benue South with specific reference to Apa/Agatu is equally very concerning. A notable pattern in Nigerian politics is its self-centeredness, the penchant for political players to prioritise their personal wellbeing and the development of their immediate space. This has accentuated the ever recurring desire of people to ascend the political pedestals of their predecessors if that is the principal window by which they can also privilege their own primary constituents. Motorable roads are non-existent, seamless travel between communities therefore encumbered. Expectedly this has been a major impediment to subsistent trade and social engagements between constituents and their kinsmen. Primary health facilities are almost non-existent, compelling people to flock to Otukpo, headquarters of Benue South, for the minutest of medical advice and treatment.
Apa/Agatu pitiably bleeds from the relentless and condemnable activities of vagrants and bandits who have reduced the constituency into a killing field. Reports suggest that in the past 15 years, no less than 2500 lives were lost to the vicious attacks of marauders and trespassers in the area under reference. This unnerving situation has compelled engagements between concerned Apa/Agatu leaders, and the leadership of the Nigeria Police Force, (NPF). The prayer is for the swift establishment of a mobile police outpost in the troubled sub-zone to contain bloodletting. The proposal, anchored by AIG Tony Olofu, NPOM, (rtd), and Echono, has received the blessings of the police high command. At the last update, a commander for the outfit had been named, while the deployment of personnel had begun in earnest.
It is very clear that in the march towards 2027, Apa/Agatu will refuse, very vehemently, to be sidelined and trampled upon in the political scheme of their senatorial zone. Abba Moro may desire a third term in the Senate, but the people of Apa/Agatu are quick to remind him that his curriculum vitae as a politician is sufficiently sumptuous for him to yield the seat in the “red chambers” and sit back like an elder statesman. They remind you that for a man who began his working life modestly as a lecturer in the Federal Polytechnic, Ugbokolo in 1991, Abba Moro has done extremely well for himself in Nigerian politics. For reminders, Abba Moro was elected Chairman of Okpokwu local government in the state as far back as 1998. Ever since, he has remained a permanent fixture in Nigeria’s national politics.
The people of Apa/Agatu will put up a determined fight for the Benue South senatorial seat in 2027, and no one should begrudge them. They are the proverbial ram which was pushed to the wall, which must of necessity push back with angered horns to liberate itself. They are already engaging with their kith across “Benue Zone C” to ensure that intra-zonal equity, fairness and justice, prevails in communal politics.

Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja

Opinion

The Prince Adebayo prescriptions for ease of doing Business: 15 Take-Aways

Published

5 days ago

January 14, 2025

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By Dr. Ag Zaki

On Thursday, 9 January 2025, Prince Adewole Adebayo presented a keynote address at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos. The occasion was the annual conference of a group of professionals, business executives and experts codenamed J9C for January 9 Collective. The theme of the Conference was “Business and Policy Strategy: Examining the Role of Reform in enhancing the ease of doing business in Nigeria.” Prince Adebayo is a versatile cerebral man of many parts, a lawyer, a multimedia practitioner, a real estate investor, a large-scale miner, a philanthropist, a community developer, and the 2023 Presidential Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The organisers of the J9C conference introduced him as an intercontinental lawyer because he currently practices law in over sixteen countries.

The full speech of Prince Adebayo at the occasion is available online and can be accessed by clicking at this url: https://youtu.be/SsHkcJbVNRg?si=ebvoOVqGh0zVOsnt or by scanning the QR code above. However, we are presenting the salient take-aways from this most incisive keynote address below for the convenience of interested persons and for the public good.

THE TAKE-AWAYS
Preamble
1. Not every change of policy or programme is a reform. A reform is a fundamental change in the activities, programmes, and policies structured to cause improvement. Genuine government reforms are people oriented and so citizens can interject, comment or contribute.
2. Reform may be internally motivated, externally forced or imposed, or technological driven.
3. The government of Nigeria must first reform itself to be able to implement development-oriented reforms to improve the country’s economic performance.

In general terms
4. Fiscal and monetary reforms are critical and are urgently required in Nigeria. While government can freely control its fiscal reforms, it must be bound by market forces for realistic and realisable monetary reforms.
5. Economic reforms must positively affect developmental policies, programmes and projects to engender economic growth, increase in efficiency, and lead to stability. Economic and political reforms must be implemented pari-passu for untainted policies and programmes.
6. Urgent structural reforms are required in areas of legal reforms, laws on banking controls and regulations, lending and borrowing as well as land matters.

In specific terms
7. Reforms which are aimed at targeting ease of doing business must be aligned with the Malam Aminu Kano maxim that “all civil servants should abstain from contracts or business”.
8. Nigeria must break the current odious and unwholesome conspiracies between policy makers, civil servants, and contractors, which can lead to irreversible endemic corruption, long foreseen by the revered Malam Aminu Kano, and which can permanently damage the economy.
9. Structural reforms must ensure that land laws open up maximum benefits and potentials of the land, encourage labour productivity and efficient and transparent entrepreneurship rules including registration, capital and lending matters.
10. Tax reforms should be broad-based, not about sharing of revenue but promoting productivity and competitiveness in all aspects of endeavours and infrastructure reforms should make transportation of people and goods safe and cost effective.
11. Monitoring economic crimes must be thorough and should go beyond arresting of “Yahoo boys” and those spraying Naira notes, but those devaluing the Naira and abusing economic rules and regulations.

Warnings
12. Adebayo left some stern terse warnings for the business sector and for the government of Nigeria.
13. Business executives and professionals should not ask or encourage government for specific reforms but for general broad-based reforms as firm-specific reforms can enhance operations of specific firms or business in the short term but will ultimately kill the industry.
14. Government should not meddle into business or be guided by partisan businessmen; government should meet business only at the junction of regulatory framework.
15. Government should be selfless and honest in carrying out reforms, incorporate measurable performance indices and ensure that reforms are implemented in a way not to inflict pains or punishment on the people.

# DrZaki25, 903 Tafawa Balewa Way, Abuja

Opinion

Governor Monday Okpebholo: A Blessing to Edo State

Published

6 days ago

January 13, 2025

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Monday Okpebholo

By Eigbefo Felix

His Excellency, Senator Monday Okpebholo, the Executive Governor of Edo State, has demonstrated that he is a blessing to the state through his policies, appointments, initiation of road construction across the three senatorial districts, and his deep love for the people of Edo State.

Governor Monday Okpebholo has begun fulfilling the five-point agenda he promised the good people of the state since his inauguration.

In the area of security, he has shown total commitment. He assured the people of Edo State that he would ensure their safety, and true to his word, the state remains peaceful, which has brought joy to its residents. He has provided the necessary support to security personnel.

The governor increased the subvention for Ambrose Alli University (AAU) from ₦40 million to ₦500 million. He also promised to address the issues facing AAU medical students. Additionally, he has started renovating primary and secondary schools across the state, underscoring his understanding of the importance of education.

The agricultural sector has taken a positive turn as Governor Okpebholo has allocated ₦70 billion to the sector. Recognizing agriculture’s importance to both the state and the nation, he is positioning Edo State to become the food basket of the nation with his investments in the sector.

During the electioneering period, Senator Okpebholo promised to create 5,000 jobs within his first 100 days in office. He has already begun the process, and soon, the people of Edo State will benefit from these employment opportunities. Unlike in the past, he will not rely on MOUs before making appointments. Furthermore, he has started appointing Edo State indigenes, rather than outsiders, to various positions.

Governor Okpebholo has commenced road projects across the state, from Edo South to Edo Central and Edo North. He believes that when roads are motorable, the prices of goods in the market will automatically reduce.

He has also begun investing in the health sector, understanding its critical importance to the people of Edo State.

Governor Monday Okpebholo’s initiatives and actions affirm his dedication to transforming Edo State for the better.