The Online Warriors by Reuben Abati

My criticisms of the excesses of the online phenomenon in terms of its brazen abuse in an unregulated environment has often made me the target of attacks, with many insisting on quoting the opening paragraph of a piece I once wrote along these lines as if it is a memorial verse, but further developments have shown that indeed, liberal, accommodative, useful and open as the growth of the new media may seem in Nigeria, we may well, if care is not taken, be dealing with a dangerous tool in the hands of the unscrupulous which could drive society towards the lunatic fringe.

      The beauty of the new media is its democratic temper. With any electronic device, anyone at all, can set up a communications unit, using a phone, a tablet, a laptop, a desktop, and simply occupy the social space and broadcast information which in a matter of minutes may go viral and condition public opinion. It grants the person involved absolute freedom, even anonymity, dangerous anonymity of self, space and location, but the worst part of it is the freedom from decency, responsibility and conscience. And so while so much good can be done by persons exchanging information, and as has turned out, creative jokes and skits which entertain and amuse, a lot of evil can be committed through resort to blackmail, abuse, and mischief.

Rights groups, Politicians eulogise Olateru-Olagbegi

FEMALE politicians, civil society groups, friends and family members gathered yesterday at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) to honour an icon of women's rights, lawyer and founder of the Women's Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON), Olabisi Olateru-Olagbegi.

Those present at the occasion honoured the late human rights activist by wearing navy blue Adire attire, which was the signature outfit of the late Olateru-Olagbegi.

Where are the Public Intellectuals? by Reuben Abati

SOMETHING sad has happened and is happening, and is getting worse in our society: the decline of public intellectualism.  And so I ask, where are the public intellectuals? Once upon a time in this country, the public arena was dominated by a ferment of ideas, ideas that pushed boundaries, destroyed illusions, questioned orthodoxies and enabled societal progress.  Those were the days when intellectuals exerted great influence on public policy, and their input into the governance process could not be ignored. Ideas are strong elements of nation building, and even where interests are at play, you know the quality of a country by the manner in which a taste for good thinking propels the leadership process.

Public intellectuals are at the centre of this phenomenon: they include academics who go beyond their narrow specializations and university-based scholarship to take a keen interest in public affairs and who use their expertise and exposure to shed light on a broad range of issues. They also include journalists, writers and other professionals who question society's direction, and offer alternative ideas. The beauty of public intellectualism is that the intellectual at work is a disinterested party, he is interested in ideas not for his own benefit, but for the overall good of society, and he does not assume that his opinions are the best or that he alone understands the best way to run society and its organs. The product of this attitude is that discourse, a culture of debate, is encouraged and in the cross-pollination of ideas, a good current of thought is created; truth is spoken to power.

We have had glimpses of this in Nigeria, and without trying to sketch a history of public intellectualism in our country or attempt a ranking of public intellectuals, let me just say that between the 60s and the 90s, there was so much fascination with ideas in this same country, it was as if the public mind was on fire. Academics from various disciplines took a keen interest in the prospects of the new Nigeria, and they went to the public arena to project ideas. Journalists became revered as sages, so much that certain newspaper columnists almost single-handedly sold newspapers.

Public lectures were organized which attracted persons who were just interested in ideas. Writers did a lot more than the professional task of producing novels, poems and plays and wrote public essays. The vendor's stand every morning attracted not just buyers and free readers, but also young Nigerians who every morning debated major topics of concern. On television also, there were debates and those in the corridors of power also took ideas seriously.  So influential were intellectuals in the public space that they soon got invited to be part of government and although the military had always opposed intellectualism, at least one government, the Babangida government had the largest collection of intellectuals in office since independence. Many who lived during that era will remember the debates over the IMF/Structural adjustment Programme.

As the years went by however, public intellectualism began to decline. In 2006, Jimanze Ego-Alowes published a book titled How Intellectuals Underdeveloped Nigeria and Other Essays, an allusion to the complicity of intellectuals in the crisis that had by then engulfed the country.  Four years later, Rudolf Okonkwo in an article titled  "The Comedy of Our Public Intellectuals" observed as follows:  "the world of the Nigerian public intellectual is a zoo. It is a zoo full of nihilists. Some are sectarian in their outlook and others are humorless. Some are eccentric while others are comical. But one thing they all have in common is an over-inflated ego of their importance in the scheme of things."

I don't know about over-inflated ego, but I do know that the flame of public intellectualism in Nigeria is now almost a flicker. There are extremely few new significant voices, saying anything of consequence, the soldiers of old have become old, the fire in their belly, now subdued.  It is as if our academics have lost interest in public affairs, as only a few of them maintain a column or write an occasional piece or take on public issues in the manner of the likes of Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Segun Osoba, Claude Ake, Bade Onimode, Ola Oni, Mokwugo Okoye, Mahmud Tukur, Yusuf Bala Usman, Ayodele Awojobi, Biodun Jeyifo, Femi Osofisan, Stanley Macebuh, Odia Ofeimun, Niyi Osundare, Chinweizu, Kole Omotoso, Yemi Ogunbiyi, Bode Sowande, Patrick Wilmot…The opinion pages of the newspapers are no longer vibrant. There is so much "opinionitis", but debate is rare and rejoinders are always self-serving.

What has happened is that politically neutral intellectuals have now become scarce; the typical intellectual of today is not public in the sense in which that word is used; he is in reality affiliated to partisan and sectional interests.  The intellectual influence in Nigeria's affairs is thus diminished because of obsession with individual interests: academics are now at best "acadapreneurs": the intellectual as an entrepreneur. Business and partisan interests have compromised media houses; those once vibrant platforms are no longer offering vibrant ideas. Within the cultural sphere, there is a total dumbing down. Where are the creative writers?  They are still writing, but few want to get involved in the issues of the day and offer ideas.

The effect is that we are in the age of clichés, of jargon writing, of mundane, unimaginative commentary. Whatever appears intellectual is written off as arrogant and there is no quality debate on anything because people have resorted to making fashionable statements that suit the moment and every one is locked in their own little corner, not willing to listen to the other side of the story.  The reading public, whatever is left of it, is also not interested in ideas or anything that requires rigorous thinking. We have thus lost a critical element of public intellectualism: an audience. The people are interested in easy stuff, in fashionable opinions that align with their own partisan interests. Nobody wants to read any long commentary; there is an obsession with short thinking, and whereas brevity may be a good technique, there are certain ideas that just cannot be reduced to a tweet.  It is really sad that today, intellectualism is seen as a threat.

Even when corporations and politicians in power draw intellectuals close; they end up usurping the powers of the intellectual, compelling him to hold his intelligence within the scope of the definition of his assignment. Intellectuals can be inside or outside, and there are classical cases of intellectuals in power making a difference, but that age appears ended, the disdain of intellectualism has turned politicians and corporate gurus into wise men that they are not, and the intellectual into an organic element of power. The greatest power of the intellectual lies in his freedom; when he is denied that under any circumstance, society turns off its energy source and gradually, it is the self-imposed wisdom of clowns that prevails.

The gap that has been created seems to have been easily filled by internet gladiators who spend the day shuffling from Instagram to Facebook to Twitter and other social media threads. These new culture activists project a democratic impression of public intellectualism – and yes, there is a sense in which everyone is an intellectual, from the village priest to the village idiot-  but I don't see the rigour, the breadth and depth and the aesthetic alienation that can elevate this genre and its promoters to the grade of public intellectualism. For the most part, social media in Nigeria is predominantly at the level of tabloid sensationalism, and it accommodates and offers the same degree of freedom to the ignorant and the mischievous, as well as the entrepreneur and the uncouth.  There is no doubt however that its content and the quality can be raised, but that will require innovation, the intervention of thinkers and the creation of new audiences that will be interested in something more than the quick and formulaic.

What we have lost is not the intellectual, as there are many educated Nigerians who are experts in their narrow fields, what we have lost is active intelligence as a tool for social progress. The rub is in the intelligence part of being intellectual. Being intellectual is about living a life of ideas and using those ideas to engage society intelligently in a committed manner.
In addition to other reasons, it may well be that our intellectuals are tired of engaging Nigeria.

Having tried over the years to engage the governance elite with ideas and to show that only good ideas should govern society and having been spurned by the politicians, Nigeria's intellectual elite seems to have become so frustrated, it has retired largely into a state of indifference and inertia. What is the point knocking one's head against a wall? But intellectuals in society cannot take such a stand. That will amount to an abdication of responsibility: when intellectuals do no more than make righteous noises, the harvest in the long run, is counter-productive.

Another factor is the emergence of a "climate of fear," and a culture of silence/co-optation/acquiescence. Politicians distrust intellectuals; they can't tolerate anyone around them speaking truth to power or raising disturbing questions.  The intellectual is expected to keep his ideas to himself and respect constituted authority. He is expected to enjoy his freedom in his head and dare not go public with it.  Ideas cannot thrive if the man of ideas is afraid to think, and whisper or speak. Rather than insist on the freedom to differ, many academics, journalists, writers and thinkers have since dropped the baton, and surrendered the public space.

But that is unhelpful cowardice.  Those who know better must continue to engage the public vigorously with ideas about governance and public policy, and encourage open debates, for the good of the entire society.  Those ideas must however, be relevant for them to be of any value; they must not be abstract theories that disconnect with the people's realities, but ideas that offer intelligent solutions to practical problems.

Right now, there are critical areas where such intervention is needed: budgets, economic planning, handling a currency crisis that is fast turning into a nightmare (France has declared an economic emergency and yet was not in as bad a position as we are in…Argentina made changes to its export taxes to address its own dilemma…). We have had schizophrenic interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria and yet where are the intellectuals to come up with analysis and desired alternative views, beyond bellyaching? Where are the inorganic public intellectuals to guide public thought?  Who are those thinking for government, the opposition and indeed the public space?

Inside Dambazau's shoes by Reuben Abati

"See what your friends are writing"

"Who?"

"Your fellow columnists. See how they are attacking the Minister of Interior, General Abdulrahman Dambazau, just because an orderly helped to shine his shoes in public."

"I really don't see what the hoopla is all about"

"Me too"

"I think many of our people just like to talk about shoes. For five years, Nigerians kept talking about how former President Goodluck Jonathan had no shoes as a child."

"But he was the one that started it. Last week or so, the former President was again talking about  shoes. In America."  

"I think people love shoes. That is why they won't also allow Dambazau to rest over his shoes."

"Read what your friend has written here. He says the orderly was subjecting himself to indignity by bending down to shine his oga'sshoes at a public ceremony."

"He doesn't understand. Many of the commentators are probably thinking of their own type of shoes. When you see some shoes, you'd certainly not want a speck of dust anywhere close by. There are shoes and there are shoes. All these people making noise, have they seen some shoes?"

"Someone once showed me his pair of shoes which he said he bought for 2, 000 pounds. I swear I'd gladly clean such shoes even if it is at a solemn funeral."

"Do you have any idea the type of shoes the Minister was wearing?" 

"No. But what does it matter? My point really is that people should stop blaming the Minister. Look when you are in public office, things like that happen. It is the duty of your aides to make sure you look good all the time. "

"I agree. A Minister of the Federal Republic must always be impeccably dressed. If you ask me to choose between Minister Dambazau and that one that wears beret and dresses as if he is going for a Man O' War session, I'll choose Dambazau any day." 

"My own point is that nobody should blame the Interior Minister. It is not as if he summoned the orderly and asked him to start shining his shoes in public. These things happen.  We should blame the aide. Aides in government corridors are too sycophantic, sometimes, they don't fit the occasion to the act."

"I have seen quite a few of such aides. I once went with someone to visit a state Governor.  The Governor was the only one sitting on a sofa. All his aides including commissioners sat on the floor. I didn't know what to do, whether to stand or join the aides on the floor. "

"Those aides often respond to their oga's body language though. And what did you do?"

"Me? I sat down on the sofa oh. I think it is the aides who are guilty. It is a peculiar kind of ailment: it is called eye service."

"I know. We don't really have a civil service."

"We have an eye service. Anything that will make the boss happy, even if the same aides will later turn around and bad mouth the same boss."

 "You know in some government houses, aides behave like robots. When their boss stands up, they also stand. When the boss sits down, they too sit down.  They eat what eats, and when they see the big man's wife, they start grinning from ear to ear."

"I have seen otherwise educated aides carrying bags for their Oga's wife."

"And you know they don't need to be forced to do all that. People just do it. It is a way of showing loyalty"

"But I think your friend's point in this article is that the big men should discourage such behaviour."

"Have you not seen where people kneel down to talk to their boss? Even when they are asked to stand up or sit down, you'd see adults saying, let me remain on the ground sir.  I am fine sir, Your Excellency. I am afraid one of these days, you'd see an aide prostrating publicly to make their boss feel good. Don't blame the boss, blame the aide."

"I still believe that some big men actually enjoy it. An old friend lost his job as a commissioner because he had developed the habit of arguing with the Governor at Council meetings. He refused to behave like other commissioners, theoga-is-always-right crowd."

"Any boss that is always right cannot get it right."

"You know, the guy told me that at a particular Council meeting, one of his colleagues stood up and told the Governor, sir in fact, I have been meaning to tell you, I don't know how you do it, you are the wisest man I have ever seen, the best strategist in the world, the best thing to have ever happened to our state. Then, he asked other council members to give the Governor three gbosas. Our friend said he was shocked."

"So, did he expect the Governor to sack the praise-singer?"

 "That particular commissioner always got anything he wanted.  Someone like that would willingly clean the Governor's shoes, he'd in fact gladly do it. "

"I imagine that it is the same in the corporate world. Some company executives behave like houseboys."  

"It is a Nigerian thing, then. I am sure if General Dambazau had asked that guy not to shine his shoes in public, he would have been very upset. He would think he has fallen out of favour. He was happy serving the boss, the same way policemen are happy to carry bags for other people's wives.'

"It's human nature. It's this whole thing about the survival of the fittest."

"Like surviving Lassa fever?"

"My brother! That's frightening. I understand up to about 63 people have died already in 17 states, and that more may die."

"The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole says the Nigerian Government will write the obituary of Lassa fever by April."

"I hope so. If it is possible to do it before April, that will help, because the way Lassa fever is writing the obituary of so many people, it may turn out to be worse than Ebola virus."

"I think the Minister and his team, and the various state governments are doing a good job of alerting the public to the dangers of Lassa fever. Even government agencies like the NYSC have deployed public enlightenment teams to market places."

"One man ran away from a hospital while being treated for Lassa fever. May be government should begin to quarantine people. These days, when I see anybody looking sick, even if it is ordinary fever, I start by imagining the worst and I keep my distance."

"I hear some people eat house rats."

"What?"

"Then, public enlightenment should become even more vigorous. Eat rat? How can anybody eat Okon Calabar?"

"Who is that?"

"Okon Calabar. That's what we called rats when I was in school. You know some of these big rats that don't run away from human beings. When they see you, they actually act like they want to jump on you. I believe those are the real multi mammate rats."

"I have asked somebody to help me buy two cats."

"You have rats in your house? What kind of house is that? Where do you live?"

"I live in Babana Island."

"Babana Island.  Not Banana Island? Oh, Babana. That island that is around Abule Egba, close to one refuse dump"

"You no well."

"When your house is dirty, and nothing is well kept, you'd breed rats, of course."

"I don't live in dirty surroundings. I am just taking precautions. And take my advice, also try and buy cats. Let's kill all the rats in Nigeria."

"I like that. Let's kill the rats and save lives. But you don't need cats, get a fumigator to drive all dangerous things away from your house: rats, cockroaches, mosquitoes."

"The cost of fumigation has gone up. I hear fumigators are making serious gains now."

"Very soon, the cost of cats will also rise. "

"Cats?"

"Yes. Don't you know that everything is business in this country?"

"There are too many human rats out there ready to take advantage."

"What do you mean human rats?"

"You don't know some human beings are like rats, causing fever?

"You are speaking in tongues.  Okay, name one human rat that you know."

"I am looking at one right now."

"Me?"

"Yes"

"No. I am not. You should be talking to those militants in the Niger Delta who are again sabotaging the country by blowing up oil installations, and giving the Federal Government conditions."

"The Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries have been shut down due to pipeline vandalism. At this rate, we 'd soon buy fuel at N200 per litre."

"God knows we can't afford another round of Niger Delta militancy. We have Boko Haram. We have the Biafra "secessionists."  And now Niger Delta militants are back to the creeks and trying to reverse the gains of the amnesty programme. In the end, we will all suffer for it."

"Don' t worry, those boys will be dealt with."

"At what cost? It is better to nip the crisis in the bud."

"How? By begging the militants? The Federal Government has made it clear that it will not succumb to blackmail."

"Who is talking about blackmail?"

"Wahala today. Wahala tomorrow. This Nigeria sef."

"Yes oh.  They are even saying we will now pay stamp duty on all monies paid into our bank accounts once the amount is over N1, 000.  When you add that to other bank charges, how much is left?"

"My friend, it is just N50."

"It is not just N50. Why must I dash government money? Is government now begging for alms? Is it that bad? If I want to give anybody alms, it should be my decision."

"There is a law called Stamp Duties Act. They want to enforce the law."

"So, a bank is now a branch of the Post Office? If anybody posts money into my account, government will force me to buy stamp? And yet we want a cashless society? Very soon, people will stop doing electronic transfers."

"Don't be stingy. Be a good citizen."

"N50 on every transaction. For people who run active accounts, that could amount to very heavy tax by the end of a month. You know what? I think they should just re-name the banks and call them post offices, since they are now selling stamps."    

"As in?"

"As in Zenith Post Office"

"Diamond Post Office"

"Union Post Office".

"Na wa oh."

A Visit to FRSC by Reuben Abati

One of the things I have had to do in recent times was to renew my driver's licence. This took me to the headquarters of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Abuja. The procedure requires the applicant's presence: forms to be filled, fees to be paid, fingerprinting to be done, and so, that was how I found myself in the expansive and impressive premises of the FRSC Headquarters.  It turned to be a memorable experience. In-between the processing of my papers, I was handed over to a young officer in the digitalized command centre at the Headquarters, to give me a brief overview of the operations of the FRSC. I considered this a special privilege, but it turned out that the FRSC opens its doors to visitors seeking information, because just as I was stepping out of the room after almost 45 minutes of briefing, another group of visitors including journalists, were led into the command centre for their own briefing session. I could not fail to notice the fact that the operations of the FRSC are highly modernized and digitalized.

       This is a sign of progress and growth because that was not always the case. When the idea of the creation of a special unit for road safety, separate from the Police Department, gained ground in the 70s, this was in response to the enormous carnage on Nigerian roads. Professor Wole Soyinka who suggested the idea to the Oyo State Government has written about how the Ibadan-Ife road had become a death trap for the students and lecturers at the then University of Ife. He would later take on the leadership role of sensitizing the Nigerian public to the evil of road rage, mobilizing volunteers to go onto the road to check drivers, or to assist accident victims.  In later years, he became the pioneer Chairman of the Federal Road Safety Corps. In those early days, road safety officers relied on their raw courage, and few equipment, but they were a truly inspired group.

     The need for road safety in Nigeria cannot be overstated. Over the years, so many lives and limbs have been lost on the roads. Today, Nigeria has a network of 204, 000 kilometres of paved and unpaved roads, with 12.76 million registered motor vehicles and motorcycles at the ratio of 57% and 43% respectively.  Between 1960 and 2015, a total of 1,521, 601 casualties were recorded on our roads. Road traffic cases were particularly most serious between 1976 and 1993, with casualty figures consistently exceeding 30, 000 per annum. Established in 1988, FRSC claims in its annual reports that casualty figures on Nigerian roads have been on a downward trend.  This conclusion must be in terms of relative figures in direct proportion to population. For, whereas total casualty figure as reported was 11,299 in 1960, it was 38, 059 in 2014 and 32, 826 in 2015.  In 1960 Nigeria's population was 45.2 million; today, it is about 183.5 million, with more vehicles on the roads.

     No one can question the wisdom behind the setting up of this strategic agency and due credit must be given to the founding fathers, the successive administrations that have built up the agency and international organisations like the World Bank, which have provided necessary support. In 1988, the FRSC had a staff strength of just about 300, today it has over 19, 000 workers on its payroll, and it is able to make its presence felt on all Nigerian roads. It is better equipped; its staff are better motivated, and it has attracted a large number of volunteers, also known as Special Marshals who at critical moments step in to act as traffic control officials. According to the FRSC, deaths on Nigerian roads per 100, 000 was 9.0 in 1990; over the next 15 years, this was reduced to 3.62.

       Whereas a total number of 8, 154 persons were killed on Nigerian roads in 1990, the number had reduced to 5, 044 in 2015. But perhaps the biggest area of achievement has been in the fact that more people today are apprehended for traffic offences. Between January and June 2014, about 258, 538 traffic offenders were apprehended nationwide; and for the same period in 2015 - 254, 203 persons.  In the various reports, the states with the highest cases of traffic offences and fatalities are Kaduna, FCT, Ogun, Kogi, Oyo, Nasarawa, and Edo in that order while the states with the least incidents are Borno, Bayelsa, Yobe, Ekiti, Taraba, Abia, and Akwa Ibom. 

      It is refreshing that over the years the FRSC has been able to generate such significant data on road safety and fatalities in Nigeria. When I visited the control centre, many uniformed officers were busy behind telephones and computers, receiving information from the public and satellite command centres across Nigeria. Two large screens in the room provided real live indication of  accident cases in all the six traffic corridors into which the country has been divided. I was told, and a live demonstration was used to illustrate the claim, that once there is a reported accident in any part of the country, the information is relayed to the nearest FRSC Command for immediate action, all the way up to the National Headquarters which monitors the dispatch of the nearest FRSC patrol team in that corridor on a rescue mission. The officer told me that the FRSC has the capacity to get to the scene of any road accident within minutes, because its men are all over Nigerian roads.  I didn't expect him to say anything otherwise. He was marketing his organization and he would of course tell me all the good things. But I wondered: how many Nigerians know the toll free emergency numbers to call in the event of an accident?

   I completed the processing of my driver's licence. And when it was time to take my leave, I was given some reading materials.  A careful perusal would offer more information: the FRSC Call centre receives on the average a total of 258 calls per month on road traffic crashes, and most of these calls are made between June and December.  It is as if Nigerians get more reckless on the roads as the year comes to an end. Then the vehicles mostly involved in road crashes are cars, followed by motorcycles, minibuses and trucks, while the principal causes are over-speeding, loss of control and dangerous driving.     

       On the whole, a lot still needs to be done to curtail road traffic crashes in Nigeria and to check the menace of dangerous driving; the area of challenge is in deepening the prevention strategies of the FRSC and similar organisations that have been set up by state governments such as LASTMA in Lagos and TRACE in Ogun state. A team of Road Safety experts from Nigeria are scheduled to proceed on a two-year deployment to Sierra Leone, which is encouraging, but before we begin to do Father Christmas across Africa with what has been achieved so far, we must never lose sight of the fact that the quoted statistics of persons killed or injured on Nigerian roads is not just cold data, but human lives. Nigerian motorists need to be constantly reminded that they cannot be allowed to either commit suicide or kill others.

    It is certainly not surprising that over-speeding is the major cause of accidents on our roads. The FRSC and similar organisations at the state level must insist on the observance of speed limits and impose the stiffest penalties on offenders. It is always very scary driving on any road in Nigeria. Most of our motorists, commercial or private, behave as if the best way to handle a vehicle is to exhaust the speedometer. Speed bumps on inner city roads have made little or no difference.  Even when persons are not driving under the influence, they just like to speed. Each time I see any major road being dualized, I immediately think in terms of the number of lives that will be claimed by the road once it is completed. Every person behind the wheels on our roads is a potential Formula One participant.

      The commercial drivers are worse. They drive dangerously and lose control, because in any case, they are half of the time, completely drunk. Every motor park has a nearby section where alcohol is openly sold. In between trips, the drivers worship at the paraga and ogogoroshrine, and get thoroughly inebriated before they jump behind the wheels. State governments and the FRSC must liaise with the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) to enforce the ban on the sale of alcohol at motor parks across the country; pro-active steps should also be taken to check drunk driving. In some other parts of the world, motorists are routinely stopped and asked to take a breath or sobriety test. We need that here.

       Nigerians like to break the law, or test it. When the compulsory use of seat belts was introduced, it was quite a battle getting people to comply.  In the same manner, they may resist the observance of speed limits, but this must be strictly enforced.  Loss of control while driving, is caused not only by drunkenness, but also the abuse of cell phones.  The way some people treat cell phones like a toy is unbelievable. Even while driving, they use one hand to hold a phone; the other hand is on the steering, while their mouth is engaged in animated conversation and their ears in a listening mode. Engaged in such a delicate task as driving, they are nevertheless distracted. I have seen many suicidal drivers on our highways, chatting on phone and going at top speed.  This must be addressed.

      The various FRSC reports didn't dwell much on the roadworthiness of vehicles on Nigerian roads.  Half of the vehicles out there are imported, used vehicles with broken down parts and bad tyres. Nigerian motorists are not likely to change tyres until the tyres burst, and of course, very few buy new tyres. Roadworthiness checks must not be voluntary or optional but compulsory. The roads are also bad. Bad roads don't make for safe driving. And to worsen it all: many motorists don't bother to go to driving schools or take driving tests, and they have no driver's license. They learn to drive by accident; they have no knowledge of road signs and traffic rules. They drive all the same and cause accidents. The FRSC should seek the enabling powers to ensure that certain traffic offenders are banned for life from driving on our roads. That is the surest way to reduce road carnage.

Jan.15: Where we came from by Reuben Abati

Nigerian Army

January 15 every year is Nigeria's Armed Forces Remembrance Day: wreaths are laid, statements are made, soldiers, government officials and the Nigerian Legion attend parades, pigeons symbolizing peace are released, a dinner is organized for widows of fallen soldiers and there is so much talk about death and dying for one's country all in honour of Nigerian soldiers who have had to die so that Nigeria may live. In terms of context however, what is also celebrated is the surrender of the secessionist Biafran forces to the Nigerian government on January 15, 1970, a throw back to the country's three years of civil war.

      This is downplayed just as government similarly conveniently ignores the fact that January 15 is also the date of the first coup d'etat in our country.  It is 50 years today since that incident.  And it is most unlikely that the Federal Government will devote much attention to that particular aspect of our history. But even if they don't, the families of those who fell to the bullet on January 15, 1966 will certainly remember.  It is a day that should be specially remembered by all Nigerians and students of history because that was when things finally fell apart and the rains began to beat our roofs. On this day in 1966, four Igbo military officers and one Yoruba, five Majors in all, led by 29-year old Major Kaduna Nzeogwu struck in Kaduna, Lagos, and Ibadan, as they sought to take over Nigeria by revolutionary means in a bloody coup d'etat.

Do you Speak French? by Reuben Abati

Reuben Abati

I was on my way back from Botswana, after attending a conference organized by the Africa Leadership Forum (ALF). This was sometime in the 90s, on that same trip was Professor Tekena Tamuno, the eminent historian of blessed memory. We boarded an Air Afrique flight from Johannesburg to Abidjan, where we were scheduled to join another flight to Lagos. But Air Afrique at the time had started having problems. Its flights were always delayed, services were poor, and the airline had become so notorious it eventually earned the sobriquet:peut-etre Afrique. Peut-etre in French meaning "perhaps or maybe." On this particular trip, the airline lived up to its poor reputation.

       The flight from Jo'burg to Abidjan was delayed, and we missed our connecting flight to Lagos. Our first instinct was to go to the Nigerian Embassy in Abidjan, after the airline had given us hotel accommodation for the night.  When Professor Tamuno and I arrived at the embassy, the Ambassador had closed for the day. We left a message. And lo and behold, the following morning, somebody came from the Embassy to look for us. The Ambassador, a gentleman to the core, had received our message and he would like us to stop by at the Embassy before our flight back to Lagos, later in the day.  A good diplomat on foreign posting will always look out for the interest of his or her country's citizens under whatever circumstances. We were impressed. But this is not the point of this article. It is as the title suggests, about French language and the need for Nigeria to take the teaching and the learning of the language more seriously and actively promote this in our educational institutions.

Davido, Baby Mamas and other stories by Reuben Abati

Davido & Babymama Sophie

“WHAT a relief, my friend!” “What are you relieved about?” “It is this David Adeleke and Sophia Momodu soap opera.”
“I tell you. It is a perfect subject for a good home video. But what is your own?”
“No. Nothing. I am just relieved that the parties involved have agreed to let peace reign”
“This will be about the third time I would hear of that matter being resolved.”

“Well, I think the Momodus and the Adelekes should just spare us. They should not forget there is a child involved. They have suddenly made I made Adeleke, the most famous victim of Baby Mama-Baby Papa palaver in Nigeria. Both Davido and Sophia and their supporters’ clubs should please protect the baby, and not make her a poster child for that kind of subject.”

Bisi Olateru-Olagbegi (1953-2015) by Reuben Abati

Our sister died. And we are all devastated. We called her Sista Bisi, Mama Kiitan, Olori, Chief (Mrs). To some other people, she was lawyer Bisi, or simply Bisi; at a time she was Bisi Cole, and later Mrs Bisi Olateru-Olagbegi, wife of the Olowo of Owo, HRM Fola Olateru-Olagbegi. She was a diligent, hardworking, generous, vivacious, public-spirited, passionate, committed, creative, astutely brilliant, optimistic, fashionable, and an absolutely lovely woman, who in addition to all that was gifted with an untainted love for all causes humanistic, decent and progressive. In our neighbourhood in Abeokuta, she was the first big sister to become a star, and who as she moved from one stage in her life to the other, took all of us: siblings, cousins, and family friends as her own, mentoring us as much as she could. 

2015: The Year of Democracy by Reuben Abati

 

  What is the most compelling, most impactful and most remarkable issue in the year 2015 that has just ended? In my estimation, it is democracy: its contents and discontents, its hopes and impediments, and the forceful manner in which these have compelled us afresh to focus on our circumstances and destiny as a people and a nation. In 2015, democracy shaped the national debate.
The government of the people, as simply and poignantly defined, has been, in the last 22 years, such a central idea and a factor in the lives of Nigerians, after so many years under purely authoritarian rule, inflicted by the military for decades by subterfuge. In those years that the locusts ate, as described by George Ehusani, Nigerians suffered.