Opinion

At 58, God has given me a second chance

Published

4 months ago

August 5, 2024

admin

By Yusuph Olaniyonu

Perhaps I should not be alive. But I am. Despite the odds, I turn 58 today. I am still frail and fragile. But now, I can stand on my feet again, bearing testimony to those sacred words of the Almighty Allah himself that, “No soul can ever die except by Allah’s leave and at a term appointed (Quran 3: 145).”

It all started on 19 February when I drove myself into a government hospital in Abuja for an elective surgery. The surgery itself was meant to last for a few minutes and I should return home not later than two days thereafter. That was what I was told. But that was not what happened.

Since that fateful Monday morning, I have gone into and out of the surgical theatre nine times for six major operations and three minor procedures. I have spent six days in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), surviving on oxygen and relieving myself through catheters. I have become totally dependent on others for the performance of even such personal functions as cleaning myself. I have lost 20 kilogrammes in five months and was reduced to a mere sack of bones. I have lost the use of my limbs and, like a toddler, I had to learn to walk again. I have spent millions of naira and thousands of dollars of my own and other people’s money. I have travelled hundreds of kilometres to find help. I have reached the very bottom of despair itself; and I had made plans for my own burial. But somehow, I am still alive.

I am someone you could describe as a hands-on person, or even a keep-fit buff, careful about what I eat or drink and what I do with my body. Therefore, I seldom had any need for a hospital. However, since my dad died of prostate cancer 23 years ago, the doctor had warned me that male children of prostate cancer victims are predisposed to suffering the same fate. Since my 40th birthday, I had therefore ensured that a comprehensive medical check-up was a part of my annual ritual. In the course of one of those routine check-ups, I was alerted a few years ago of an enlargement of my prostate. Following this discovery, I enrolled in a public medical facility in Abuja and made sure to see the urologist every three months. At one point, I was also advised to also see a nephrologist once in a while.

All these visits, I understood, were merely precautionary. But I was beginning to spend too much time on the waiting line in the hospital than I could afford. Before long, I changed to another hospital closer to my house. Even though it is also a government hospital, it has a private wing that charges higher fees for quicker consultations and service. I thought this arrangement served me better. I was assigned a consultant urologist of my own. And I also saw a nephrologist in the hospital. However, while the nephrologist kept assuring me that everything was fine, the urologist started to raise an alarm. At a point, he told me that if we didn’t act fast, my enlarged prostate might begin to affect my kidney. The only solution, he said, was surgical intervention.

He was the expert, so I yielded to his pressure and agreed to do the surgery. That turned out to be a major mistake. But I only became wiser by way of a horrifying hindsight. My result from the prostate test showed that I was, in fact, in a much better place than several of my friends, who all were surprised that I chose to go under the knife for an ailment that, more often than not, offers a little more than just mere discomfort, as long as it is not cancerous. They were right. The only prostate-related complaint I had was that I urinated twice or thrice at night. I did not have any pains or difficulty in urinating, or any symptom beyond the ordinary. It turned out that all I needed was a slight change in lifestyle, not drinking or eating late into the night and to continue to take the drugs that were prescribed for management purpose, which, by the way, my urologist had asked me to stop taking.

Although it did not mean much to me at the time, but in this hospital, patients do not have access to the results of their laboratory tests. The doctor electronically sends requests to the laboratory and once the patient has made payment, the laboratory will conduct the test and send the results in the same manner back to the doctor. The doctor would access the results on his computer and based on this, make pronouncements on what the patient needs to do next. In my case, the verdict was surgery.

This was why I drove myself to the government hospital on 19 February and spent the night preparing for the surgery the next day. A week before, I had gone through a cystoscopy procedure. That was my first time ever in a hospital surgical theatre. But since the 20th of February, I have been in several theatres, more than an average person would in a single lifetime. It happened that during the first surgery, the surgeons had ruptured my bladder. In panic, they had to abandon the prostate operation that brought me in, hurriedly placed a catheter inside my urethra, and returned me to the hospital ward. It so happened also that the catheter was not properly placed, so urine was not going into the bag. I was returned to the theatre to remedy the situation. When I came out this time around, the urine was reverting to my genitals, which had by now become grotesquely engorged with fluid.

Three trips back to the theatre did not change anything. And this was enough to send everyone into panic. I was wheeled into the ICU, where I passed out and had to be placed on oxygen. At this point, it had become obvious that the medical team had reached its wit’s end. It had lost control. One of them had, in fact, quietly told my family that my chance of survival was 50-50. They were already thinking of moving to the next patient. After all, they had “tried their best.”

But then, to paraphrase Shakespeare, heaven has no fury like a woman about to be widowed. My wife, Odunayo, rose to the occasion. She thought that what was needed to save my life at that point were some ‘muscles’ that would compel the doctors to give me proper attention. She told my children, their friends, and my colleague, Akintoba Fatigun, who was already weeping after seeing how helpless I was, to stay strong. She picked up my phone and called my Oga, the Chairman of THISDAY and Arise TV, Mr Nduka Obaigbena, to inform him about my condition. All she needed were calls to people in top places on the need for the hospital management not to abandon me. Mr Obaigbena immediately called the Minister of Health, who in turn called the head of the hospital. He also promptly dispatched one of his top managers, Mr Israel Iwegbu, to move over to the hospital and report back to him.

Akintoba also called my boss, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, who was then in the United States. The former Senate President immediately directed Akintoba to get some money across to my wife and also promised to speak with the Health minister. My wife also sent an urgent message to my brother, the Senator representing my Senatorial District, Ogun Central, Senator Shuaib Afolabi Salis. The Senator immediately came over to the hospital to meet the Chief Medical Director.

With all these influential forces breathing down their neck, the hospital realised that this was one patient they could not afford to trifle with. I was returned to the theatre where they had to open me up – yet again – to properly adjust the catheter and ensure that I hadn’t suffered any internal damage. I ended up spending six days in the ICU and later returned to the private room. In the ICU, the traffic and calibre of people who came to see me surprised the hospital management. One evening, Dr Saraki himself led a very long and powerful delegation to the hospital such that when he said: “Yusuph, get well fast, look at the whole troops turning out to wish you well,” I could not but agree with him. In the same way there were the visits of Senator Salis and his son, Kamal, who was always traveling down from Kaduna to see me. Just as Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi once led his wife, children, and friends to check up on me.

After two weeks, I was discharged and went home. It was Ramadan. For the first time in over 45 years, I could not participate in the Ramadan fast. While in the hospital, I said my prayers most times lying on the bed. Although I had lost so much weight, it looked as if I was set on my way to recovery. Until something happened that would change everything, kick-starting another wave of anguish, fear and relentless pain.

It was the second day after Eid-el-Fitri. My son, Oladapo had persuaded me to take a small pack of Lucozade Boost juice on Sallah day, believing this might stimulate my appetite. This was on the 10th of April. The next day, my wife observed that my urine was the same colour of the Lucozade Boost that I had taken the previous day. She felt something was wrong. However, Oladapo and I thought it could be the effect of the Lucozade Boost drink.

For some reason, my wife then brought out her blood pressure monitor to check my ‘vitals’. She found out that though I was hypertensive, my blood pressure was low, while my pulse rate was unduly high. Then, I started having this electric shock sensation once I moved my head back, even a little. She became alarmed and kept on repeating the blood pressure and pulse rate monitoring. At one point, I suggested the machine could have malfunctioned. But when she used it on herself and Oladapo, the figures appeared normal. At about 7 p.m., we all agreed to visit a nearby pharmacy to use their BP monitor to double check, so we wouldn’t raise a false alarm. But we got the same reading from the pharmacy. The alarm was then real.

Immediately, we called a urologist working in another government hospital, who after listening to us promptly declared an emergency. He then directed that we should go to the emergency ward of the public hospital where he works and he would get a consultant to attend to us. We did as he directed. But one hour after, we were still waiting. No one was in sight to attend to us. After a quick deliberation, we decided to go to the private hospital where we were normally registered. It was at the private hospital that the doctor on duty alerted us that I had a septic infection and that I could go into shock anytime. This was the second episode for me. I had suffered from sepsis during my earlier surgical rounds in the hospital. Sepsis is a condition in which the infection-fighting processes turn on the body, causing the organs to malfunction. In other words, my body was beginning to poison itself.

The doctor at the private hospital urged me to hasten to the public hospital where I was recently treated. We called the urologist again. He directed that we report to the Accident and Emergency Ward. We did. Yet again, the doctor that was meant to receive us was nowhere to be found. Several panicked calls to her number, and there was no response. After what seemed like eternity, she suddenly materialised. She had gone to eat, she said, casual and indifferent as nature itself. This time, I was to spend nine days in the hospital.

But at this point, we had lost confidence in my urologist and we had started to make arrangements to find a hospital in Egypt to continue the treatment. One night, my family insisted that I should be discharged, even if against medical advice, so that I could make a scheduled trip to Egypt. My wife already signed the Discharge Against Medical Advice (DAMA) form before Senator Salis phoned me and said we should hold all actions until he arrived, as he had invited a leading expert in urology from one of the universities in Lagos to review my case that same night.��The Professor came in with the senator and took us through an hour-long lecture on the issues. He concluded that the case was not beyond what could be handled in the hospital. But “things could have been done differently during the surgery.” He also enlightened us that with sepsis not properly treated, it was doubtful if I could make a five-hour journey in an airplane to Egypt. He had come with a more senior urologist in the same hospital, who had been his student. We all agreed that I would stay if he could guarantee that the more senior surgeon would take over my case and report progress to him and the Senator.

Again, I returned home. This time I even felt better and was confident that my recuperation had started. But it turned out to be the calm before the storm; the biggest storm of all. We found out that as the days went by, I started to lose control of my limbs. As usual, my wife was the first to raise the question one morning. She asked why I staggered each time I tried to walk. I said it could be because I just woke up. I tried to allay her fears, but I could not hide for long. Soon, I was not able to raise my hand. My initial thought was that this was because I had stopped my morning exercise. I then resumed some guided workout sessions where one of my sons and Kamal Salis, my Senator’s son, would guide me through. But instead of any improvement, things continued to degenerate, and they were happening so fast.

In no time, I began to depend on my wife to brush my teeth, clean myself in the bathroom, put food in my mouth, perform ablution, and do any chore that involved the use of my right hand. Then my right leg soon followed. It was like something was switching off my limbs one by one. Then at night, the pains descended on my neck and shoulder like a boulder. Sleep became impossible. Turning became a torture. To find a position of relief, that small posture that would grant me a respite from this oppressive pain, no matter how fleeting, became impossible. All through this ordeal, I had tried to be brave. Now, I could no longer hold back. I cried. The pain was just too much. And it came in the night. Therefore each night approached with terror because I knew what laid in wait for me in the dark. Maybe if I stayed up. I told my wife that perhaps, I should try to sleep in a sitting position. But nothing I tried helped. The name given to this one, this latest harbinger of pains, is cervical spondylosis. But little did we know that it was much worse than that. One Saturday, we decided to go to a private hospital that specialised in orthopaedics. We were told to come back the following week’s Wednesday. But the pain would not relent. Whatever I did, wherever I turned, it flogged me like an errant child. The hospital later called to make a change from Wednesday to Friday. But by then, we had already sought a more urgent alternative. At 9 p.m. that same night, we met the orthopaedic surgeon. He recommended some drugs and a neck collar, which I must now wear on like a shackle. That night, after a long time, I had a strange sleep without pains. But it was like shooing off a wild dog with a stick. It may back off for the moment, but it would come back. By the next day, the pain returned, ferocious, as if angry to be disrupted for one night.

Before our next appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon, we took the initiative to do an MRI test. But by then, my case had become a desperate emergency. All my limbs have packed up. Throughout these ordeals, I had never missed my prayers and supplications to Allah. But that morning, I could not move even one finger to press the electronic counter or hold the tasbih.

“Is this illness also going to separate me from my God in my last days?” I lamented to my wife. She said it was only temporary and everything would be fine. But I learnt she later went into the bathroom to cry. She is a brave woman. But I am sure by this time, even she would also have started to contemplate the worst.

When the orthopaedic surgeon saw the result of the MRI test, he took us to see a neurologist in a private hospital as well. The neurologist explained that some bones had ruptured in my neck, which had disorganised the nerve supply system from the brain down to the limbs. Again, I had to go in for a surgery to restore the functioning of the nerves. The operation was to be carried out on 13 May. While waiting for the appointed date, my colleague, Akintoba Fatigun came to see me. He thought I was getting better. Many of my friends who were speaking to me on the phone thought the same, because despite all that I had suffered, my voice had remained strong and clear. I told Akintoba that in fact, the situation had gotten worse since the last time he visited and that I was actually waiting for another surgery.

When Akintoba left the house, he went straight to Dr Saraki’s residence and told him of my situation. The former Senate President immediately started to make calls to different hospitals in Saudi Arabia, the UK, and the US. I did not have a valid US visa and we had no time to apply for one. The Saudi hospital, after studying the MRI, later replied that they could not deal with the situation. Then, someone suggested Egypt. Contacts and appointments were made. To enter Egypt, one only needed a valid UK visa to obtain the Egyptian visa at the point of entry.�� By Monday, 13th May, I was set to travel. Dr Saraki had purchased business class tickets for my wife and I. He also provided money to pay for the surgery and living expenses for a month. A day before my departure, the house was full with several family friends, despite our best efforts to keep the trip as confidential as possible. They were people from different parts of the country and people of different religious persuasions. At that point, I was not Yoruba or Muslim to them. I was just another human being. Even as I lay helplessly in bed, contemplating the motley crowd that had gathered in my room, I wondered if they thought they were saying a final goodbye to me.

It was time to go. My wife and second son, Oladipo, had already packed the bags. Then we realised that there was yet another important challenge. My room was on the second floor. How do I get down and into the car? We could only think of two options. Oladipo would have to carry me on his back and take me downstairs or I would have to crawl down the staircase. But even these two options were fraught with risks. Yes, I had lost so much weight and Dipo is a burly young man, but he is only 23. The thought of having my son carry me on his back because I could not walk was a distinct trauma on its own. But what if he slipped, and we both crashed to the ground? There could only be one outcome. How would the young man forgive himself? But none of these happened. Dipo successfully carried me downstairs and got me safely into the car.

On the way to the airport, I told my wife what my Plan B was, if Oladipo had been unable to carry me, to crawl downstairs. “That would have broken me,” she said. I responded with a joke that I needed her to remain unbroken because a broken man could not depend on a broken woman. In the last five months, she had become my in-house nurse, minder, and caregiver.

Five hours later, we landed in Cairo. My hospital, Neuro Espitalia, is located in a city called 6th of October, which is about an hour’s drive from the Cairo International Airport. I learnt that the city got its name in commemoration of the day one of the Arab-Israeli wars broke out. We were joined at the airport by my third son, Oladepo, who had arranged a two-week leave from his London office and another two weeks to work from the Cairo office of his company. He was to provide an additional hand to me in Egypt for the next one month. Our guide was a Nigerian gentleman called Rabiu Hamza, a PhD student in one of the Egyptian universities.��We arrived at the Neuro Espitalia at about midnight on that Monday. For the second time in almost a month, I had another sound sleep. Tuesday was devoted to various laboratory tests and to getting my medical history. On Wednesday morning, I had the surgery, which, as they explained, was to “clean an abscess in the cervical vertebrae, stabilise the cervical vertebrae and expand the neural canal.” I didn’t understand everything, but I just wanted to get well. The surgical operation was led by Professor Ibrahim Lotfy, an elderly but friendly surgeon, and Professor Dalia Rushdi.

After the successful operation, the surgical team decided to culture fragments of bones and tissues extracted from my back to determine what went wrong in the first place. It was an investigation that took days and a lot of blood tests. What they found was, to say the least, shocking. It was described in medical terms as “necrotizing Granulomatous Inflammation Compatible With Tuberculosis of the Vertebrae. No malignancy.” In short, it is called tuberculosis of the vertebrae. This was the stealthy thief that had been stealing my limbs, one by one. But even the surgery could not return everything this disease had stolen from me. I had to recover them myself by re-learning the use of my legs and hands again.

This was when I realised how much grateful humans should be to their creator for even the most simple things we take for granted everyday. I realised that even the mere ability to scratch one’s face when it itches, what we do countless times everyday without even thinking about it, is indeed a big deal. When my face itched, I would need my son or my wife to scratch it. To change my sleeping posture, I would need them. To change the position of my hands, or clean the sputum that come sometimes when I coughed, I needed them to do these and everything else for me.

At a point I could no longer fold my fingers to form a fist in order to allow nurses take blood samples or fix the cannula for intravenous infusion. Over the past five months, my arms had been covered in needle marks like a dedicated drug user; to administer some injections, to take blood or to fix the cannula for intravenous medication.

A few days after the surgery, I began physiotherapy sessions in the hospital. Several physiotherapists came to work on me. But a particular one stood out for me. His name is Ahmed El-Sanadidy, the man from Alexandria. Even after I left the hospital for a rented apartment close by, we contracted El Sanadidy to continue my rehabilitation therapy. He got paid per session. He was such an effective, devoted, passionate, friendly, hardworking, and creative professional. He was also in hot demand in his hometown, Alexandria, and in the city of the 6th of October. In the early part of our sessions, he would form a protective ring around me with his arms to guard me from falling. He taught me to walk all over again, to climb the stairs, to use my arms, to strengthen my fingers, and to regain some level of physical fitness. I called him ‘my boss’. He was the reason I extended my stay in Egypt to two months. He was making some very good progress with my rehabilitation and I did not want to terminate it abruptly.

But there was yet another challenge. The hospital had tried in vain to get me to go to the toilet. For almost two weeks, even after two sessions of enema, nothing came out. After we moved to the apartment, I thought the privacy of a home would help, but nothing. I would feel pressed to use the toilet and spend time siting and groaning in pain, but nothing would come out. It was later realised that the muscles around my waist had become so weak they could not exert sufficient pressure to push out the waste. This became another source of agonising pain. My stomach felt as solid as if I had been fed concrete cement. This became another major prayer point for me.

“You should be saying ‘Alhamdulilahi Rabbil alaamin’ because we should let our gratitude to God be more than our requests to Him,” my wife said one day as I was petitioning God over the agony of my plumbing problem. It was a test of faith. But it was also a lesson never to forget. One morning, the plumbing problem resolved itself, not in the most dignifying manner. Since then, it has been easier than ever doing my ‘toileting business’. For more than four months, I was carrying a catheter around. At a point, they became two. But now, I am free of both of them.

Now, I am a bit stable. I can walk unaided. At a time I could not even move a finger, but now I can sit down and type this piece on my iPad. I can perform my salat, the ablution, ruku (bowing), and the sujud (prostration), all on my own. There was a time in the past when I had to rely on people to do ablution for me and I had to pray lying down. I could not even turn my head to the left or right. I stared at the ceiling all the time and developed a system that enable me use marks on the POP on the ceiling as counter for my supplications. I have learnt not to take anything for granted and to thank my maker for enabling any physical move that I am able to make.

I have written this piece to celebrate the fact that I am alive, despite my ordeal in the past five months. But I have also written it to share my experience of the Nigerian medical system. Even before I traveled to Egypt, I realised that so much is wrong with our medical system, for which I nearly paid with my life. But my experience in Egyptian hospitals and with Egyptian doctors made me realise this even more. Why do our doctors behave as if they are being forced to be doctors; as if there is no minimum standard to which they must comply; as if they can do anything and get away with it; as if it was enough for them to just claim that they tried their best? The Egyptian hospital was replete with stories of Nigerians who come there to correct surgical operations that had been performed in Nigeria, some from glamorous hospitals in Abuja where they charge exorbitantly.

At the government hospital in which I was almost killed, a night’s stay in the ICU costs ₦150,000. I doubt that many hotels charge that much for a standard room. Yet, patients are still made to pay what they call “utility fees,” calculated by the number of days a patient has spent in the hospital. We are not even talking about the cost of medication and drugs. The same hospital sold Tavanic 500mg, an antibiotic used for the treatment of infections for N42,000, while a pharmacy located only a few metres away from the hospital sold the same drug for N20,000. In Egypt, we bought the drug for 124 Egyptian Pounds which is about N4,092, at the exchange rate of ₦33 to one. How did we find ourselves in a situation where government hospitals have become the most expensive and the most inefficient in Nigeria? Health workers, doctors, nurses, etc., in the private hospitals may not be any better, but at least they appear committed to their jobs. Public health workers in Nigeria behave as if they would rather be somewhere else, as if they are actually doing the patients a favour. The painful truth is that they don’t care whether you live or die. There is work here for everyone – the government, professional bodies and training institutions.

I was lucky to have powerful people who could muscle them. What about the millions of Nigerians who don’t know anybody? If I were in their situation, I would have long been forgotten. Why would a Nigerian need tonnes of money and powerful friends to stand a chance of surviving a medical challenge in our country?

My last words are for those of us whose work demands long sitting hours. We need to be mindful of our sitting postures and be sure to get up intermittently. Please don’t ignore any pain. Regular check up can make a difference between life and death. Today I am alive. I give thanks to the Almighty Allah who has given me a second lease of life out of his infinite mercy, not necessarily because I deserve it. All glory be to Him. •

• Yusuph Olaniyonu, a communications strategist, journalist, lawyer, public affairs analyst and former Information Commissioner in Ogun State, wrote from Abuja.

Published by Premium Times, July 30, 2024

Opinion

The Hypocrisy of Power Game Between The North and South: The Time To Talk Is Now

Published

2 days ago

November 21, 2024

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The leadership of the Yoruba Council Worldwide (Igbimo Apapo Yoruba Lagbaye); the apex umbrella body for all Yoruba indigenous people globally is highly concerned about the recent devastating effects of the Northern quests and aggressive desperation for power ahead of 2027 or through any other irrational means before the ripe of time.

We are seriously concerned to witness all manners of unprecedented barrage of fireworks of incendiary rhetoric issued from different Northern elites as emanated from Prof Ango Abdullahi of the Northern Elders Forum seeking to call for an end of Nigeria based on the 100 years expiration of 1914 treaty after 10 years which lapsed in 2014.

To Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankanso’s crudity, unverified lies and tale of discords against the South: “Lagos colonising the North”, was his biased statements!

Hence, we must expressly express our dismay and disappointed on such insensitive rhetoric and by that laconically detest such an unflattering statement from chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, for intentionally misinforming and misleading Nigerians about President Tinubu’s Tax Reform Bills before the National Assembly.

Sadly enough, Alhaji Kwankwaso’s comments while addressing students of Skyline University during their convocation in Kano recently, demonstrated either a lack of understanding of the tax reforms or a deliberate attempt to politicize President Tinubu’s positive visionary and Renewed Hope initiative.

It is evident that Senator Kwankwaso is still grappling with the fallout from his abysmal performance in the 2023 presidential elections. This lingering disappointment seems to have influenced his repeated reliance on divisive rhetoric and unfounded accusations against the administration of President Tinubu.

While the 19 Northern States Emirs and Governors provokingly demanded their Senators and Reps to reject, end and fight the present Administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s tax reforms bill to a halt, in which one of the arrowheads: Senator Ali Ndume said the “TAX REFORM Bill is Dead on Arrival.”

Rather than engaging in constructive national dialogue or offering meaningful contributions to national development, Kwankwaso, Ali Ndume and other co-travellers appears to have chosen a path aimed at inciting division between the North and the South, and casting aspersions on initiatives being painstakingly designed to benefit all Nigerians.

Such actions are not only unhelpful but also risk undermining the unity and progress of the country at a critical time when inclusive leadership and national cohesion are paramount to stability, progress and prosperity of our dear nation.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s tax reforms are a necessary steps toward addressing the economic challenges facing the country and ensuring equitable development for all Nigerians, including those in the north especially the President’s initiative to tackle the disproportionate distribution of revenues from the Value Added Tax to all 36 states of the Federation and the FCT.

In strongest term we are not oblivion of the ongoing despicable threats bothering on excessive interference and high powered conspiracies to disrupt and hijack power from the South with the systemic and surreptitious renewed onslaught recruitment of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo as one of centrifugal forces being radically committed through his offensive and disparaging statements being deliberately orchid in running the current Administration down by all means possible.

Moreso, as reflective of his self styled selfish act and hatred for Constituted authority, his megalomaniac inclination and inordinate ambitions against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led government, especially having lost power through his proxy kid Peter Obi via the ballot in 2023 Presidential election.

We hereby warn former President Olusegun Obasanjo to refrain from making statements that is capable of undermining Nigeria’s unity, peace and progress.

While we reiterate and assert our absolute confidence, that the country is functioning effectively under President Bola Tinubu led Federal Government, though with some surmountable challenges, still as they postulated, peace is what matters and not a all manner of provocative statements within the polity, because there will be light at the end of the tunnel, God’s willing.

To set the record straight, hence, it is necessary to respond and react appropriately to Chief Obasanjo’s recent keynote address at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum at Yale University in Connecticut, USA.

Wherein in his address, Baba Obasanjo criticised Nigeria’s leadership, describing the country as being a failed state of “state capture” and urging Nigerians to prioritise credible leadership for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure electoral integrity.

Regrettably, former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s language of the war on peace time is a disaster and unpatriotic move in calling for anarchy, which is quite an anathema to the status of an elder statesman in his referential eldership.

The vituperation of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s lecture or better defined as tantrums Talk show, as the Chief harbinger of our worsening state of hunger and hardship was full of energy to condemn the current Administration with utter hatred of his avowed “do or die” mentality that has been infamously reputed to be offensive disappointing and disgusting as the only salvo that can be fired from a despotic and totalitarian personality only found to be hypocritically and deceitfully projected himself as a true democrat.

It was in record how he levelled the land of Odi with deadly precision and mortality even without any Justice till date, he removed Dariye and Fayose through illegitimate means of declaration of state of emergency all because he lacked the receptive mind for criticism and tolerance.

Now we must reiterate and state emphatically in admonishing the Northern elites to think twice on their incendiary staments and spiral bombardment of attacks through sponsored protests, media adverts or careless statements as well as the links such as: the #EndBadGovernance which started by some Northern youths, that was latter aggravated further and taken over by the #DayofRage led by thier proxies.

Unfortunately, this furtive and clandestine motivated underwater currents are largely engendered and orchestrated towards a obvious suspected Northern quest and desperation for power by all means ahead of 2027 Presidential elections.

How do we rate a situation wherein throughout the 8 years tenure of the former President Muhammadu Buhari, the entire Northern elites do not consider ending Nigeria treaty of 1914 only to wake up at the 99th hour of a Southwest Presidency to rage all manners of brimstone?

Hence, we warn in strongest term that this premeditated plan and well marshalled evil agendas to cause disunity, mayhem and strive among the citizens must be stopped once and for all for the betterment of our dear nation.

We vehemently frowned at the spurious and unverified lies, especially devastating propaganda actions targeted at the minds of their Northern kinsmen and women to hate and wish the President dead, this we unequivocally resist and condemned in its entirety.

This hypocrisy must stop now, wherein we lost lots of our brave minds to unbearable brazing manipulations and desperation in the past; Chief Obafemi Awolowo and MKO Abiola are proven records of similar antecedents of Northern hypocrisy and Power mongering.

It is hightime we talk truth to ourselves at a National Confab after each regional dialogue on the way forward, for if the North continuously hold the cliché of the “North are born to rule” ideology at the expense of the South, that means the rest of us are meant to be treated as their “slaves”, that are not safe in this country.

Have we for ones queried why the Northern Nigeria has more political advantages compared to their Southern counterparts: More state Governors and State House of Assembly members and Speakers, local government Chairmen and counsellors, Senators and House of Representatives members and more Federal institutions and employment opportunities and placements to mention a few.

This was why the Northern elites are eager to shut the tax reform bill down through their Northern Senators if the bill is brought for deliberation without having a concise dialogue with the rest of us.

If the Southern tax regime money is good to construct good roads and railway line to Maradi Republic of Niger, why now that the tax reform which is the best for the country is being campaigned against brutally, using legitimate means to commit illegality.

It is high time we are all captured into the ongoing comprehensive tax system, wherein both the citizens in the Northern and Southern parts are taxed eqaully , while the need to undermine this great efforts of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is highly condemned.

We are bold to say that the need and quests for power must be done with absolute decorum and human face.

2027 election should not end in Ethnic wars and civil strives, we can discuss No Holdbar on all issues of our Nationality without hurting ourselves.

In conclusion, we would not tolerate any capture of Power through coup or any other means of manipulations, or whatsoever in causing instability.

We use this medium to commiserate with the families of the late Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Taoreed Lagbaja, while as a matter of necessity we call for a detailed investigation into his cause of death and other surrounding circumstances, which calls for concern having witnessed recent threats of coup.

We implore President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to remain steadfastly committed and focused on ensuring good governance to the greatest benefits of greatest numbers.

We have emphatically and unapologetically spoken!

Signed:

Prince Isaac Aderemi Ajibola,National Publicity Secretary, Yoruba Council Worldwide.

Opinion

Day Mamman Vatsa welcomed Ken Saro-Wiwa to his Abuja Village

Published

3 days ago

November 20, 2024

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Tunde Olusunle

By Tunde Olusunle

He reincarnated in the form of a cream coloured, two-storey building in the bosom of the boulder-braided, writers’ commune, in the rocky delight of Abuja’s Mpape district. His happy host, like him an erstwhile member of the tribe of wordmongers was despatched over a phantom putsch one decade before him. But he rolled out a carpet of dry laterite with the steady onset of northerly harmattan, to receive his new guest and kindred spirit. The air was sedate, the biosphere alluring and serene as his name echoed from the signage hoisted in front of the structure. This, henceforth, will be the haven of scribblers from across the globe desiring genuine solitude to commune with their muses in the very intricate venture of creative expression. Not too many of the young writers who enthusiastically witnessed the recent commissioning of the *Ken Saro-Wiwa International Writers Residency* in Abuja, however, knew enough about the martyr who was so canonised, nor the nexus between Ken Saro-Wiwa and his figurative “host,” Mamman Jiya Vatsa.

As part of the activities commemorating the 43rd International Convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (ANA), which held between Thursday October 31 and Saturday November 2, 2024, a newly built edifice christened after Saro-Wiwa, was scheduled for inauguration. Ken Saro-Wiwa remains one of Nigeria’s most multitasking and most productive writers of all time. He lived for only 54 years but left behind an authorial legacy which continues to challenge the prolificity of successor writers. Saro-Wiwa was a compelling novelist, an engaging essayist, a consummate poet, an arresting dramatist, and a fearless public scholar.

Regarded as Africa’s very first purpose-built writers village, the expansive hilltop project in Mpape, Abuja, was named after Vatsa, an army General who was a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), under the regime of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. Less than seven months into the Babangida milieu in March 5, 1986, Vatsa was executed by firing squad for alleged “treason associated with an abortive coup.” He was 45 at the time. I had the privilege of meeting Vatsa’s only surviving biological child, Aisha, at the “World Poetry Day 2024,” hosted in honour of her father in March 2024, at the same writers’ village. Vatsa was a writer who reportedly published about 20 anthologies of poetry. These include: *Verses for Nigerian State Capitals,* (1972); *Back Again at Wargate,* (1982); *Reach for the Skies,* (1984), and *Tori for Geti Bow leg and other Pidgin Poems,* (1985).

The renowned literary scholar, critic, polemicist and Emeritus Professor, Biodun Jeyifo, was perhaps the first notable intellectual to engage authoritatively with Vatsa’s works in the primordial *Guardian Literary Series, (GLS),* published by *The Guardian* newspapers of old, in the 1980s. The essay is published in *Perspectives on Nigerian Literature, (Volume 2, 1988),* edited by Yemi Ogunbiyi. Vatsa as FCT helmsman, it was, who allocated the generous swathes of hitherto pristine land with scenic views upon which the writers village is sited today. The complex is deservedly named after him in eternal gratitude by the writers fraternity.

Ken Saro-Wiwa was the fourth President of ANA. He succeeded the renowned dramatist and Emeritus Professor of theatre arts, Femi Osofisan, in 1990, and was a very energetic personality, famous for the tobacco pipe which was permanently seated on his lip, drawing parity with that of Ousmane Sembene, the famous Senegalese frontline African novelist and filmmaker. Saro-Wiwa had a multitasking career which saw him as a university lecturer in his earlier years; an administrator and public servant, and an environmental activist, at various times. He was leader of the *Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People,* (MOSOP), which prosecuted a nonviolent campaign for the protection of Ogoni land and water resources from devastation by oil multinationals.

He backed up this enterprise with regular interventions in the public space as a writer and columnist for a number of authoritative newspapers. He consistently drew attention to the despoliation of the natural resources of his people and wrote regularly for *Vanguard* and *Sunday Times,* among other publications. He was a regular, long-staying guest of the gulags of successive military governments, through the administrations of Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha. In 1994, he was arrested and charged with instigating the murders of four Ogoni leaders, May 4, 1994, on a day he was indeed barred from accessing Ogoniland. Saro-Wiwa and his eight “accomplices” were executed by hanging at the Port Harcourt prison where they were held and convicted, on November 10, 1995, exactly one month after his 54th birthday on October 10, 1995.

By some uncanny calendrical coincidence, the *Ken Saro-Wiwa International Writers Residency,* was inaugurated early November 2024, the very same month he was despatched 29 years ago in 1995. Global outrage trailed the killing of Saro-Wiwa and his compatriots, with the Commonwealth suspending Nigeria for three years, among other sanctions. The death of Sani Abacha in June 1998, the subsequent acceleration of processes which returned Nigeria to civilian rule by Abacha’s successor, Abdulsalami Abubakar, and the enthronement of the Fourth Republic in 1999, gradually tempered the world’s coldness towards Nigeria.

At least three dozen book titles are credited to Ken Saro-Wiwa’s name. These include novels, novellas, anthologies of poetry, plays for radio and television, memoirs and diaries, and so on. His works have received some international attention and have been translated into German, Dutch and French. His authorial oeuvre includes: *Tambari,* (a novel, 1973); *Tambari in Dukana,* (a sequel to *Tambari,* 1986); *A Bride for Mr B,* (a novella, 1983), and *Songs in a Time of War,* (poetry, 1985). Ken Saro-Wiwa also wrote *Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English,* (1985); *A Forest of Flowers,* (1986, short stories); *Prisoners of Jebs,* (a novel, 1988) and *Pita Dumbrok’s Prison,* (1991), which like the former is very biting political satire.

*On a Darkling Plain: An Account of the Nigerian Civil War,* (memoirs, 1989), a war which he witnessed firsthand, is also one of his very gripping works of prose. Saro-Wiwa’s public engagements are aggregated in several volumes of essays notably *Nigeria: The Brink of Disaster,* (1991); *Similia: Essays on Anomic Nigeria,* (1991) and *Genocide in Nigeria: The Ogoni Tragedy,* (1992). Even in his final days, weeks and months of his sojourn on this side of the divide, Saro-Wiwa “remained incredibly productive.” Posthumously, his family, foreign concerns and nongovernmental organisations continued to call-up manuscripts from his personal library to publish new works by him. A personal diary he kept while he was in incarceration before his eventual annihilation was published with the title *A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary,* in 1995. Over 20 years after his demise, some of his essays were assembled as *Silence would be Treason: Last Writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa,* and published by Daraja Press in Ottawa, Canada, in 2018.

The *Ken Saro-Wiwa International Writers Residency* is one of the first major physical projects delivered by the leadership of Usman Oladipo Akanbi. Fortuitously, Akanbi’s deputy, Obari Gomba, winner of the 2023 *NLNG Prize for Drama,* is from Saro-Wiwa’s Ogoni country. He must have felt gratified by the honour done his *countryman,* whose trajectory he followed as a much younger writer. The eventual breaking of the ice, the decisive commencement of the physical development of the hitherto forlorn and controversial expansive hectarage of ANA property was consummated under the leadership of Denja Abdullahi in 2017. Obi Asika, Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, (NCAC), commissioned the *Ken Saro-Wiwa International Writers Residency.*

The ceremony was witnessed by an impressive array of writers, headlined by Emeritus Professors Osofisan and Olu Obafemi, both former Presidents of ANA, as well as Nuhu Yaqub, OFR. Yaqub holds the distinction of being the only Nigerian scholar thus far to have served as Vice Chancellor in two federal universities, those of Abuja and Sokoto. Other literary greats at the event and the main Convention included: Professors Shamshudeen Amali, OFR, former Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin; Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo; May Ifeoma Nwoye and Sunnie Ododo, all Fellows of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, (FNAL) and the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA).

There were also Professors Joe Ushie, a Member of ANA Board of Trustees; Emeka Aniagolu; Udenta Udenta; Maria Ajima; Al Bishak; Mabel Evwierhoma; Razinat Mohammed; Vicky Sylvester Molemodile and Mahfouz Adedimeji. Immediate past ANA President, Camillus Ukah, Emeritus diplomat and writer Ambassador Albert Omotayo, featured at the Convention. Canada-based writer, scholar and Professor, Nduka Otiono who served as General Secretary of the association under the leadership of Olu Obafemi, was admitted into the College of Fellows of the body. Chairman of the *Abuja Chapter of ANA,* Arc Chukwudi Eze, was the resident host with compelling responsibility to stay through all events.

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

Opinion

That ‘fake’ Sanwo-Olu vs EFCC suit: Whodunit? Who sponsored it?

Published

5 days ago

November 17, 2024

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By Ehichioya Ezomon

Strange things happen in Nigeria, one of the latest being a suit purportedly filed by Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to prevent the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from investigating, arresting, detaining or prosecuting him or his aides after his eight-year tenure of office in 2027.
However, the Lagos Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Lawal Pedro (SAN), has debunked the widely-publicised suit, saying Sanwo-Olu neither sued nor authorised any legal practitioner to file a suit on his behalf concerning the matter, adding that the EFCC isn’t investigating the governor and hasn’t invited him or threatened to arrest any of his staff, domestic or otherwise.
The odder and curiouser angle to the alleged pre-emptive writ at the Federal High Court in Abuja is that it’s filed in June 2024, almost three years ahead of Sanwo-Olu’s terminal governance of Nigeria’s commercial capital, the richest State in the Federation, and the fifth largest economy in Africa as of 2022 GDP figures, which Sanwo-Olu’s pledged to advance further by 2027.
Thus, the suit is a new one on Nigerians, as the proverbial bridge is way too far off – 36 months to Sanwo-Olu’s end of tenure – to attempt to cross before getting there! Snapets from EFCC’s moves against outgoing governors are telegraphed a few months or weeks before they bow out of office, so giving them the jitters. They either begin to express being squeaky clean, alleging political witch-hunt or daring the EFCC to carry out its threat to make them account for their stewardship.
Since democracy returned in Nigeria in 1999, a few ex-governors have escaped overseas and were forced to return to Nigeria to face prosecution; many have remained in the country to face the EFFC and years of legal ordeal; a couple of them, such as former Ekiti State Governors Ayo Fayose and Kayode Fayemi, have presented themselves to the commission for interrogation and/or prosecution.
Some former governors have engaged in a hide-and-seek, for instance, Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, who’d gone underground for months only to unexpectedly show up at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja in October 2024, and yet wasn’t booked, interrogated, or detained having been on the wanted list of the EFCC and the courts; two have been tried, jailed and served their sentences; one was tried and jailed but his sentence overturned on appeal and was released from prison; while one was tried overseas and served his sentence before returning to the country.
Lately, the EFCC threat to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute former governors has become mostly academic, and the norm rather than the exception. It appears some ex-governors now relish being dragged by the EFCC, at least, as a way to keeping themselves in the news after missing the years of free spotlighting.
But even as Sanwo-Olu’s reported counsel, Darlington Ozurumba, sues the EFCC as sole defendant over the said threat to arrest, detain and prosecute the governor after his tenure, the EFCC has denied knowledge, contemplation or plans by the commission or any of its officers to harass, intimidate, arrest or prosecute Sanwo-Olu after May 29, 2027,
As reported by The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), when the matter was called for mention on October 29, Ozurumba informed the court that he’d withdrawn the earlier originating summons, and that the EFCC had been duly served with the latest court documents, which the commission’s counsel, Hadiza Afegbua, said she’s yet to sight, even as the proof of service of the processes wasn’t in the court file, and Justice Abdulmalik adjourned the matter to November 26 for further mention.
In an originating summons, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/773/2024, dated and filed on June 6, Sanwo-Olu, reportedly raising seven questions and seeking 11 reliefs, prays for a declaration that, under and by virtue of the provisions of Section 37 of the amended 1999 Constitution, “the plaintiff, as a citizen of Nigeria, is entitled to right to private and family life as a minimum guarantee encapsulated under the Constitution, before, during and after occupation of public office created by the Constitution.”
Besides craving a declaration that, upon community reading of the provisions of Sections 35(1) & (4) and 41(1) of the Constitution, the threat of his investigation, arrest and detention by the EFCC during his tenure of office as governor is illegal, Sanwo-Olu allegedly prays the court to declare that the incessant harassment, threat of arrest and detention against him upon the EFCC’s instigation by his political adversaries based on false and politically-motivated allegation of corruption, is a misuse of executive powers and abuse of public office.
Hence, he purportedly seeks, among others, an order restraining the EFCC from harassing, intimidating, arresting, detaining, or prosecuting him in connection with his tenure as the governor of Lagos State.
However, the EFCC, describing as speculative and a conjecture the alleged Sanwo-Olu’s claims and reliefs in his fundamental right enforcement suit, has denied it threatened, invited or took any step at all to encroach on the governor’s right to freedom of movement or violated his right to private and family life and personal liberty.
Countering the originating summons Ozurumba purportedly filed on behalf of Sanwo-Olu, the EFCC, in an affidavit filed on October 31 by its lawyer, Hadiza Afegbua, the deponent, Ufuoma Ezire, told Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Abuja, that the plaintiff’s depositions in Paragraphs 4, 5, 6, 7 and even 8 are unfounded, untrue and unknown to the defendant, and calculated to mislead the court, and are hereby denied.
Noting that the EFCC isn’t investigating Sanwo-Olu, and has never invited him or threatened to arrest any member of his staff, domestic or otherwise, Ezire states that the EFCC invites members of the public for interview, interrogation or any engagement vide a written invitation, phone calls or text messages by any of its officers, who shall introduce themselves by name, rank, designation, and section to enable the invitee trace the officer easily.
Ezire says the EFCC is unaware of any threat to arrest Sanwo-Olu’s “aides, accusation of maladministration or diversion of Lagos State’s funds nor is it aware of any likelihood of a breach of the applicant’s right to liberty or right to own movable and immovable properties in this case.”
Stressing that there’s no petition or any intel gathered before the EFCC to warrant its officers to invite, or threaten to arrest the plaintiff at the moment, Ezire asserts that the entirety of the alleged Sanwo-Olu’s dispositions isn’t true, as the application is “misconceived and brought in bad faith to mislead this honourable court,” adding that, “it will be in the interest of justice to refuse the reliefs sought by the plaintiff.”
Similarly, Mr Pedro, the Lagos Attorney General, in a statement on October 29 rebutting “the news circulating in a section of the media, titled: ‘Sanwo-Olu sues EFCC over alleged plan to arrest, prosecute him after tenure,’” clarified as follows:
“Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, at no time, sued or briefed any legal practitioner to file a suit on his behalf concerning the above subject matter. Moreover, it is implausible for the Governor, who enjoys immunity as conferred by the Constitution, and has almost three years remaining in office, to engage any lawyer on this matter.
“To the best of my knowledge, my inquiry confirmed that the EFCC is not investigating the governor and has never invited him or threatened the arrest of any member of his staff, domestic or otherwise. We are currently investigating how the case came to be without our knowledge.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu has demonstrated exemplary service delivery and prudent, judicious management of public resources. Therefore, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who is tirelessly working to improve the living conditions of all Lagosians, has no cause for concern when he eventually leaves office at the end of his tenure in May 2027.
“We, therefore, urge media organisations to be cautious about the reports they publish on their esteemed platforms to avoid misleading the public.”
Needless to ask: Whodunit? Who sponsored it? Without a doubt, the so-called Sanwo-Olu’s suit, filed by an “unauthorised legal practitioner,” against the EFCC is the handiwork of his political adversaries trying to induce, instigate or coerce the anti-graft agency to embark on a fishing expedition it’s no reasonable grounds for, either from a petition(s) or intel that points to a likelihood of (mis)appropriation of funds and resources of Lagos by the governor or his aides.
That said, many will defend Governor Sanwo-Olu for perceptively seen as deploying the resources at his disposal to upgrade and develop existing and new infrastructural and human capital needs to match the Lagos motto of “The State Of Excellence” and its Mega City status that’s attracted unprecedented public and private investments.
These include the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA-) managed ground-breaking Blue and Red Rail Lines, the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system, the proposed Fourth Mainland Bridge, the Atlantic City project, the fully-automated Imota Rice Mill, and the Lekki Free Trade Zone that houses the multibillion dollar 650,000bpd-capacity Dangote Petroleum Refinery – the largest single-train refinery in the world at full capacity – which’s Nigeria’s window to self-sufficiency in production and supply of petroleum products.
Other areas in the Lagos socio-economic sphere: Education, ICT, innovation and technology, healthcare, commerce, agribusiness, small-scale industries, entertainment, showbusiness, tourism, and youth and sports development are receiving adequate attention, and have become a source of pride to Lagosians, and emulation by other States in Nigeria.
Lagos, a hub of international engagements all-year-round, has moved up the ladder as one of the most preferred destinations on the continent of Africa, and is up-scaling on the global leisure spots, thanks to Governor Sanwo-Olu and his vastly young, professional, dynamic and dedicated team, who’ve deployed their expertise in various fields to achieve a shared dream of Lagos leading or being among the best in all human endeavours.
Sanwo-Olu isn’t just a workaholic delivering on the promises of his administration, but he’s the epitome of the alias, “Mr Project,” in the true sense of the lingo in our clime. So, why should he be worried about the EFFC when he’s deploying the resources of Lagos to develop the state to an enviable standard! The “amiable” governor should free his mind and continue “to finish strong” with the good works he’s been doing, for which he’s received umblemished praises, accolades and awards within and outside Nigeria.