Edo State University Iyamho: Between Consolidating An Existing Legacy And Building A New One

by Eromose Ileso

 

Administrative Block, Edo State University Iyamho, Photo Credit: Edo University website

The Edo State University, Iyamho became the 41st state University in Nigeria and the 142nd University in Nigeria after it was approved by the Nigeria Universities Commission (NUC) on 23 March, 2016.

The University in Etsako Central Local Government Area of Edo State officially came into being following a law passed by the House of Assembly in 2013 which established it, and another law was passed that upgraded the College of Education, Ekiadolor to the status of a University now christened Tayo Akpata University. 

When the law was passed it was hotly debated in the local media, with the argument centred on the wisdom in the decision of the government to establish more tertiary institutions when the existing ones are bedeviled by chronic under funding and lack of any plan of sustainable infrastructural development. 

However, few, if nothing was said in the media circles for up to two years after the aforementioned law was passed, but after the Edo State University, Iyamho released a statement which announced vacancies to fill various positions at the institution, it suddenly awakened people's consciousness.

The announcement came as a surprise to many, as questions were asked about the fact that, while nothing had been done at the College of Education, Ekiadolor which was upgraded to a University, being an existing institution already on ground, meanwhile, an entirely new institution which started from scratch now have enough structure and infrastructure on ground to call for vacancies.

Lecture Thearte at Edo State University, Iyamho

When the law establishing the institution was passed, the debate was different because nothing was on ground at the time, but now that there are now physical structures and the announcement of the NUC of the university’s approval, the questions being asked now is whether it was a good move to build a new legacy or whether consolidating an existing legacy would have served a better purpose?

The existing legacy here refers to the Ambrose Alli University, (AAU) Ekpoma which was established by Professor Ambrose Alli. The Law establishing the institution was passed in 1981 by the Bendel state House of Assembly. It officially took off in 1982 to become the first state university in Nigeria. 

However, despite the fact that AAU is over thirty years old, it has not enjoyed any sustainable development plan since it was established. The institution suffers from under funding, and several of the courses at the school repeatedly suffer from lack of and withdrawal of accreditation from the various professional bodies.

1500 Capacity Auditorium at Edo State University, Iyamho

It is unfortunate that an institution that is over three decades old, does not sufficiently boast of the status of a university that is actually a University. 

Most state universities in Nigeria that are not as old as AAU can boast of more infrastructure, organisation and funding. With the problems facing the ivory tower at Ekpoma, one would have thought that it would be more economically viable and better for the state government to consolidate on the gains of previous governments by building on the structures already on ground at AAU. 

Ordinarily, nobody would leave a structure still under construction over the years, to commence the building of a new one. It could be possible in exceptional circumstances, but it is not the norm in a society where things actually work. 

With another state university coming on stream, bringing it to two the number of such institutions in the state, who is to say that the same problem that has bedeviled the Ambrose Alli University over the years, will not affect the new Edo State University in the years to come.

 

Already, with the country currently 

undergoing an economic crunch which has made it impossible for various state governments to pay salaries, building more institutions at this time raises questions bordering on motive and priority.  It is ironical that at a time when the Ambrose Alli University could do with more infrastructure and staffs, yet nothing is forth coming, while a new institution is calling on people to fill vacancies.

Lecture Theatre at Edo State University, Iyamho

There have been talks in some quarters that the establishment of another university in Edo state is a good move because it would create more employment, and that it would help open up another area of the state to development. However, should this be at the expense of an existing institution that is already struggling, and keeping it head just above water? 

Since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, it has been the manner of various state governors to establish tertiary institutions in different places for motive that can seriously be questioned. It is this lack of continuity and consolidation of existing legacies that has caused the proliferation of abandoned projects all over Nigeria, with successive governments preferring to commence new projects instead of completing or building on the old ones left behind.

This attitude has made it almost impossible for Nigeria to have mega universities, at a time when universities all over the world especially in Europe are merging to form mega and specialist universities, meanwhile in Nigeria, there are universities springing up all over the place that do not meet the required standards.

Already the existing tertiary institutions in Edo State are all currently suffering from under funding, poor infrastructure, irregular payment of salaries and lack of a sustainable development plan. From the aforementioned Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma to the College of Education, Ekiadolor, College of Education, Abudu, College of Education, Igueben and Edo State Institute of Science and Technology, Usen, the situation is the same. With all these problems facing the existing tertiary institutions, who is to say that the new university at Iyamho will not suffer from the same fate.

The reason why most institutions are established in Nigeria in the present climate goes beyond a genuine attempt to address any educational problems that are on ground, rather the reason borders on the age long adage popularly referred to in local parlance as “let me develop my own” it is the same reason why government at different levels have over the years set up industries and institutions in places that do not need such, but because of political, ethnic  and personal reasons, structures are sited in places they should not be in the first place. When a dedicated attempt to develop what is already on ground would have served a better purpose.

The Ambrose Alli University was established in a little over a decade that the University of Benin came into existence, yet the contrast between both schools in terms of infrastructural development is very obvious. Why UNIBEN has continually expanded existing structures being a federal institution, AAU has stagnated in this area, with what could only be referred to as an haphazard development at the University in the more than three decades it has been in existence.

The reason why Edo University, Iyamho has taken off at such great speed and in such a short space of time, is because it is located in the country home of the present governor of the state, Adams Oshiomhole. However, the situation will be different when he eventually leaves office as governor. At that time, it would be left to a new government to build on what is on ground. And with the existing Nigerian mentality of not wanting to build on existing legacies, it could go the way of other institutions in the state that has stagnated.

Whatever the reasons the Edo University, Iyamho was established; it would have been a better bet for the Edo state government to consolidate on the legacies of Professor Ambrose Alli by building and expanding on the existing structures at the University main campus in Ekpoma. 

Funding two universities will definitely be a financial challenge on the government in the long run especially with the present economic climate. The funding might end up coming from students that will be made to pay exorbitant tuition fees. With the university now in place, only posterity would judge whether it was a good decision. 

For now though, the problems aching existing institutions in the state remains.

The Gospel According To Fulani Herdsmen

Literally gospel according to the Concise English Dictionary means the teaching or the revelation of Christ or the record of Christ’s life and teaching in the first four books of the New Testament. 

There is also the gospel truth; something that is absolutely true. So it does not often come as a surprise that when the phrase ‘the gospel according to’ is used in a sentence, a biblical discernible person will quickly averts his or her mind to the aforementioned gospel of the opening books of the New Testament. 

However, good as that is with the different books, the gospel according to Fulani herdsmen has a rather complicated network of different books and chapters that leaves all who have been at the centre of their nefarious activities with bouts of snafu-ish nightmare, and that is for those who have been lucky enough to survive their menace. 

They have become a pest that has continually defiled pesticide. From the greenery of Benue to the plains of Taraba, and the forest reserves and farms of Edo, they kill, rape and destroy farm lands with impunity like a set of outlaws that are laws unto themselves.

For this, the gospel according to Fulani herdsmen takes the shape of the following volume of five books here.

            

            The Destruction of Farmlands

Fulani herdsmen are nomads that move around with their cattles, and this movement is common place in the dry season when the vegetation in the North is low which inevitably results in movement to the south which has more vegetation for their cattle, but these cattles do not just feed on vegetation by the road side, rather they end up in people’s farms destructing cash and commercial crops without regard for the efforts that these farmers have put into planting these crops. 

In January this year, hundreds of such cattles invaded a forest reserve and farm settlement in Uhunmwonde Local government Area of Edo State, these cattles destroyed plantains, ate all the yams that were harvested and left at some farm huts in these farms, and they practically destroyed what they met on their path. 

These led to the premature harvest of some of these crops from the few the farmers could savage. A common trend amongst these Fulani herdsmen is that they leave these cattles to wander around people’s farms while they disappear from site. Any attempt to inquire from them for these acts of agricultural sabotage is most times met with aggression which often leads to dead. 

All over the country especially in some of the North Central states, Fulani herdsmen destroys farm lands, and when they are challenged in return, they end up burning houses and driving away people from their homes. After their act of destruction, they suddenly disappear from site.

·        Possession of Firearms and dangerous weapons.

A common trend with Fulani herdsmen is that they always bear knifes and arrows. What is even strange is not the fact that they do this openly, but the fact that those that defend this, often claim that their possession of these weapons is part of their culture of dressing. 

However, culture of dressing all not, it’s the fact that they have used these weapons to send persons to their untimely grave just because, they had the temerity to ask them to leave their farms.

However, bearing of knifes is and has gradually become rather archaic. They now bear sophisticated firearms that some of Nigeria’s security agents cannot boast off.  

On February 7, 2016, a group of vigilante accosted two Fulani herdsmen in the Ikpoba Hill axis of Benin City, there were not with any cattle, but in their possession were two double barrel guns. Their defence was that they use it for hunting.

In a country where possession of firearms is to be illegal without the necessary permits, it should beat anybody hollow that some group of persons could openly bear firearms as if we are in a society without laws. 

And that is practically what plays out all over the place. You see a Fulani herdsman with his herd of cattle in front, with a gun and knife, and you begin to wonder, whether this is not a scene from 18^th Century Wild West.  And it is the same firearms and weapons they use in killing and maiming unsuspecting members of the society.

Which begs the question, how do they come about these weapons? In a country where there are so many questions where you cannot find direct answers, such inquiry is better left to the realm of imaginations, because it always a case of seeing less, whenever you try to look more as far as certain questions begging for answers in Nigeria is concerned.

·         

     Killings, Kidnappings, Robbery and Rape

The number of persons that have died from the activities of Fulani herdsmen cannot be quantified, especially when you consider the fact that the death of persons here is treated like a set of numbers rather than a genuine feel that a life or lives have been lost. 

Throughout the farm settlements of Ovia North East and Ovia South West Local Government Areas of Edo State and many other places throughout the country, women have been continually raped in their farms. 

There was a case of a woman, whose husband was hacked to death in their farm by some of group of Fulani herdsmen, while they also raped the woman there. 

Just in January, 2016, two brothers in Ovia North East went to farm, one of them left the other to go home, unfortunately for the other one, he met some Fulani herdsmen who had just kidnapped somebody and they were moving to their hideout in the bush. They shot him, and left him for death, he bled for two hours before his brother returned. In his dying declaration, he told his brother what happened. That man was in tears when he spoke live on radio. 

That was a Nigerian living a peaceable life by farming and tending to himself, yet his life was cut short by these agents of destruction. Throughout most of the farm settlements in Edo South, there is now a palpable fear from farmers especially women, who would rather stay at home than go to farm.

A person known to this writer, narrated how his neighbour went to his farm in the last quarter of 2015, and he saw group of Fulani herdsmen bearing AK 47 rifles. That man has not gone to that farm ever since, and he confessed that it was God that saved him. 

You have to ask yourself sometimes, what is wrong? Farms in Forest reserves used to be some of the most pristine places for farmers to hide away from the society while they tend to their crops, but many of these places have become so dangerous because of the activities of Fulani herdsmen.

There were times during 2014 and 2015 when a gang of Fulani herdsmen continually robbed passengers along the Benin-Auchi Highway by Ehor. They would abandon their cattles, and at certain time of the day, would rob several passengers traveling in buses to the Northern part of the State or country. When they were eventually caught after police set up surveillance, they were all Fulani herdsmen.

·        Environmental Nuisance

It is common place for these herdsmen to move with their cattles at night. But these cattle leave in their trail all manner of environmental nuisance with the faeces they defecate all over the place. 

At times, it can be so bad that you would be looking for a spot to put your foot when walking pass certain places. 

Besides that, these herdsmen sometimes leave their herd of cattle in the compound of individuals. 

A couple of years ago in the Uselu quarters of Benin at Medical Stores Road, a man suddenly woke up to sounds and lights of moving objects in his compound, a spiraling compound measuring 100 feet by 200 feet, when he got out from his house, he discovered several number of cattles ravaging the compound of eight flats, it is a fenced house, with gates, yet they found their way in. they messed up the entire place. 

And yet despite the fact that the cattles where in the compound, the Fulani herdsmen were nowhere to be found. 

They eventually showed up, and the 

inhabitants of the compound woke up that night, immediately the herdsmen saw them, they took their heels, and the cattle as if working on a remote followed their master in running out of the compound. 

Unknown to those in the compound, there were six other cattles somewhere in the compound that did not run out, it was little surprise therefore that some group of persons showed up in the morning to ask for these cattles. These are the principals of these Fulani herdsmen.  

Although, these cattles were eventually released to them, it was on the condition that they were never to bring the animals to those parts any longer.

The list of experience is endless for many that have been at the receiving end of these activities. All over the place, it is a signature of cattle faeces when you walk through your neighbourhood and in major roads during the dry season.

·      

            They Are Above The Law?

Many of these Fulani herdsmen that have been caught and arrested end up being released. And police officers will sometimes confide off the record that their hands are tied most times when it comes to dealing with the menace of these Fulani herdsmen. 

Except few that have met their death at the hands of security personnel, they are often left off the hook. In short, there are times; police do not like taking reports concerning the activities of Fulani herdsmen, because to them, their efforts most times end in futility in trying to investigate such matters. 

This is why there is a reticence on the part of the police to treat these matters with the seriousness it deserves.

Do this people operate within their own set of rules? The situation is such that what is applicable to other members of the society seem not to be applicable to them. 

These Fulani herdsmen are not direct owners of these cattles; rather they are agents to an affluent principal somewhere. It is this principal that pulls all the stunts to see that they are released whenever they are arrested for a crime.  Though there are admittedly bad eggs amongst them who embark on a frolic of their own.

Nigeria should practically be the only country in the world where herdsmen are allowed to wander about with cattles in the open across people’s farmlands, neighbourhood and build up areas at night and so on. 

There have been continuous talk of setting up ranches as it is done in most advanced countries in the world, yet as is mostly the case about so much talk, nothing has been done to make it work. And as a result, the Fulani herdsmen continue to wreak havoc through their various gospels of destruction.

Between The Emblem of Relevance and The Embrace of Agape

by Eromose Ileso

Life is a bundle of what you experience, and what you never get to experience. The things you do not experience, you can only imagine, and while there is actually no limit to what a person can imagine, imagination not wrapped in the willows of experience, remains like an inactive volcano. 

It is mostly in the wheels of experience that you get to grasps the meaning of certain things in life. The scientific exertion of Newton’s third law of Physics that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction holds sway when you consider how weighty any experience could be. The reaction of any action could either vary in size or direction.

There is nothing in life that is not relevant. Without which it would be difficult to actually bring yourself to attach true importance to such a thing. 

The relevance of anything is directly proportion to how often you get to use such a thing. Be it an animate or inanimate substance. The frequency at which you use it accords it a measure of relevance. Such relevance extends to our everyday life, our inter-personal relationship with others and those within our immediate environment. 

There is always this sub-conscious nature in man that is inbuilt that copious attention is paid to anybody or anything that is relevant. If a vehicle is important to the fortunes of a delivery outlet, there is a tendency that the vehicle would be maintained with the highest of standards to prevent anything that would prevent orders from being met. 

The same extends to a human relationship, when a person is relevant there is that tendency that communication would naturally flow all the time. Either one of the parties would be meant to carry out a job for the other or to get something that would be of benefit to the other person. It just like two lawyers, one lives in Benin, and the other in Abuja, when there is a Corporate Affairs Commission job. The one based in Benin would call the other in Abuja to aid in fast tracking the necessary searches and documents to get the papers done in good time. It is the relevance of the lawyer based in Abuja that elicits him/her to be contacted by the Benin based lawyer. This also extends to other professions in the circle of life.

Taking it further from another angle, the question then is assuming the other person on the end of the street or phone is not relevant what would happen? Certainly the call to a lawyer in Abuja would not be based primarily on just an exchange of pleasantries; there is a hint of business relationship in there. However, when the former is not relevant to the fortunes of the party that made the call, would he/she still make the connections?

In today’s world, it is what most relationship are premised on, be it in friendship, family or in communities and the larger society. The way and manner you are handled in some ways is based on whether you are relevant for the relationship to last the distance or whether you are relevant in a community to warrant being called upon when something wants to hold.

Going back to the question: what happens if the person is not relevant? Naturally, there is the tendency that such a person would be forgotten. And he would not be remembered when anything is to happen, no matter the occasion. 

This is where agape comes in. It is agape that makes the natural human mind to look beyond the fact that a person is irrelevant and has nothing to offer. It is the same agape, that makes you call that friend, family member, community neighbour, group member and colleague of yours to check how he/she is faring not because you intend to request for anything, but to exchange and extend pleasantries.

How a person that is not relevant could be forgotten can be gleaned from the Biblical account of a poor man, whose wisdom saved a city that came under attack, he was forgotten because, according to the Bible, he was poor. And being poor means he was seen as irrelevant. Assuming he was somebody that has wisdom that was wrapped in riches, and riches that the city would benefit from, he would never have been forgotten. It is however the manner of men to become easily amnesic to one that does not have a corresponding facet of relevance in terms of what he or she can offer.

A cursory look at the Newton’s third Law of Physics, that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction reveals some observations. 

In the first instance, there is a mention of equality in the first action. In such a scenario, it means both parties in such a case have the same equilibrium of relevance, and as such their actions are equal in their site. The professional that picks up his phone to call the other in the Capital for a job engages in an action that is equal which brings about the equilibrium of relevance in their behavioral patterns and communications.

However, on the other hand, the other part of Newton’s law mentions an action that has an opposite reaction. This is also apt because when a person is seen as not relevant, the action that would be taken about him would be opposite to his person. Just like the poor man in the bible that got an opposite reaction of being forgotten despite his action of using his wisdom to save a city.

In hindsight, it takes agape for any relationship to go beyond the formal circles of relevance that is common place in the business world. The importance of relevance in any relationship is not being relegated to the back burner here, relevance is the key to making choices. 

But the message being passed across here is that sometimes, it becomes imperative to modify the rose tainted spectacle of relevance, by using agape as another standard to measure a relationship. Notice the use of the phrase ‘another standard’ because for all intent and purpose, relevance would remain the standard of the world as it is an inbuilt human behavioural pattern.

Toothpaste row in Marriage Breakup

by Eromose Ileso

It is no longer news that marriages in Nigeria are collapsing like a pack of cards. The ratio of divorce has increased like the regular storms finding expression in the Pacific. 

A couple of years ago, you would seldom find matrimonial cases on cause list of matters in States High Court, but with the changing times, our High Courts and Customary Courts have a bevy of matrimonial cases at their disposal. 

While the reason(s) for the collapse of most marriages vary according to the parties on a case by case basis, in most instance, an inability to tolerate the other party is a prominent factor in most breakup. 

The culture where would be couples spend so much time, energy and resources preparing for a wedding, while neglecting the most important aspect which is the marriage has become prevalent.

Yet, you cannot rule out the fact that most of the things that have caused the breakup of marriages are at best trivial issues borne out of the inability of one or two of the parties to exercise restraint. 

Though what is trivial varies according to the character of an individual.

Ordinarily, it is virtually impossible for something as trivial as an inanimate object, toothpaste to end a living institution of a marriage. While on the other hand, cases abound where it has indeed led to the breakup of a marriage, and at other times, it has almost led to the breakup of a marriage.

This was how a row over toothpaste led to the breakup of a marriage.

There are people that prefer to press the rear of a tube when putting a paste on their toothbrush, while other people prefer to press the tube of the paste from anywhere, whether it’s the rear, middle or at the top.

In this particular case, the husband prefers to press his from the rear of the tube, while his wife does hers from anywhere in the tube. So on this fateful day, he complained that his wife was always fond of pressing the tube anywhere as it makes the tube undulant, her reply was that whether there was anything wrong with it, the response of the man's wife seem to exacerbate the situation which led the man to slap his wife, and the woman retaliated by slapping her husband back. 

The man's response was to beat his wife black and blue, which led to a swollen face and several bruises all over her body.

She packed her baggages and went to her parent's house. Her father's response was that a wife should not leave her husband's house just like that, he sent her back, but the woman's mother did not take the assault on her daughter likely, so he got her daughter's husband arrested. 

When he eventually got out of jail, he simply told his wife that since his mother-in-law arrested him, his wife should leave his house, and go and stay with her mother. Just like that, the simple act of how to use a toothpaste led to the breakup of their marriage, and to this day they are still separated.

There are people that would have reacted differently to such a situation. Obviously, no parent would take the assault on their daughter likely, especially when you take into consideration that one hit could lead to the demise of a person, cases abound where this has happened. So it is understandable that the mother-in-law got her son-in-law arrested, and the response of the man was to send his wife away after he got bail.

It is out of place for a man to hit his wife no matter what, the man obviously should have exercised restraint instead of beating up his wife over the use of a toothpaste, when just buying another one for himself would have solved the situation of whether pressing the tube of the paste from a particular position is acceptable to him or not.

It was this solution that a clergy proffered when he preached on a particular Sunday morning in church. In his congregation there was a couple that was going through the same situation of a where and where not to press the tube of a toothpaste, they were having the same issues that the couple above have had, the clergy simply said, instead of arguing over such a thing, while not you (the man) buy another one for yourself, 'is it not just a toothpaste' he said.

Certainly the easy way out in such situation would be to simply buy another toothpaste to avoid arguments, as there are habits which some persons exhibit inadvertently that you cannot change. It just sticks, there are some that leaves the lid of a toothpaste open after using it, and they also press it from anywhere, it is not as if it is deliberate or an act met to offend the other party, it just an act that has become innate in them that you cannot be changed.

Bishop (Mrs.) Peace Okonkwo of TREM, mentioned at the 2015 National Women's Conference of New Covenant Gospel Church that though, she has been married for almost 40 years, she is the kind of person that likes to press the tube of a toothpaste from anywhere, but her husband has learnt to live with it, though he was initially at variance with it. Yet it is little things as this that has led to the breakup of marriages and heated arguments amongst young couples.

On the issue of one of the couples getting their own toothpaste to use, some would say since an husband and wife are one, majority of the things they use should be one, that they should use the same toothpaste. 

In hindsight, it is better to toll the path of wisdom to avoid a larger problem, and get another toothpaste in such a scenario, if any of the couple cannot cope with such a situation, as "Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established:" (Proverbs 24:3).

Benin City: A Paragon of Uncleanliness

by Eromose Ileso

The ancient city of Benin and by extension Edo State is referred to as the heartbeat of the nation, and rightly so, because it got that moniker by virtue of its strategic location in being a link to the North, West and Eastern part of the country via it network of road.  

However over the last couple of months, one of the oldest state capitals in Nigeria has gradually descended into a heartbeat of dirt. Several sections of the city are littered with little refuse here and there that looks like an art work, or drains that are like sand dumps and roads that make a mockery of the few that where reconstructed or rehabilitated by the present government.

Benin City, the Edo state capital has expanded over the years, whereas, most of it development was previously restricted to just one local council, Oredo local government Area, today it has expanded to four other local councils, namely, Egor, Ikpoba-Okha, Ovia North-East and Uhwunwonde. 

Yet as the city has experienced expansion with new private structures springing up, the government has not been proactive in making sure that the new satellite towns that are effectively an extension of the city meet up with the required environmental standards that would ensure sustainable development.

What you see in most of this new areas, is a complete lack of government presence, and an haphazard planning of the area, without a pre-conceived plan from government to provide the basic infrastructure like road network that would easily link these new suburbs to the main city, it is no wonder that most of the emerging extension of Benin are already having environmental issues with gully erosion now ravaging some areas.

While the new areas of the city reeks of lack of developmental planning and environmental impact assessment to ensure that structures are not erected in low lying areas which would inevitably distort the flow of water, it is the main areas of the city which should have been paragon of pristine cleanliness, that has instead turned into an arena of dirt, foul smell and roads that make the lanes of South Sudan’s capital, Juba to look like a Formula One race track in comparison.

From the city centre at the Kings Square round about, popularly called the Ring-Road to the Government Reservation Area (GRA), there is little or no place in the city that is a bastion of cleanliness, instead what you get is dirt almost everywhere.

The GRA used to be a place that took people’s breath away with it well paved roads and serenity, the place has become a sorry sight, where there are more roads that fit for fish ponds than actual roads, from Giwa-Aimu, Boundary, Capionna, Ihama and several roads, it is really a sad commentary of a place that should shed light on the beauty of the city, rather it is a case of a system working against itself. 

Granted several roads have been worked on, but it is the complete abandonment of some key road network which plays an important role in linking several parts of the city that has left many in bewilderment. 

Most of these roads have failed portions that would not take much to fix, yet they are left unattended to, from where they become like ponds. The state of these roads have robbed the GRA of the beauty it once enjoyed, besides you are likely to be greeted by flood water when it rains in the GRA rather than a sense that you are in the area of the city where the government house is located.

The irony about Benin City is that even the paved roads are not devoid of dirt and filth. When it rains, moving around the Ring Road, Saponba Road, Murtala Muhammed Way, Oba Market Road, Stadium Road, Plymouth Road and New Lagos Road around the market, you are more likely to walk on a mud than a paved road, this is because the spate of unchecked street trading has made some of these areas so dirty that when it rains it makes the entire place to be filthy.

The less said about the state of market in the city, the better, as that is where the dirty nature of Benin City is really at its zenith.

Moving around Benin City whether in a vehicle or through taking a walk in some areas, you see refuse on the road, along the walkways, even in some flood prone areas, the walkways have become a curse rather than a blessing this is because the drains are too modicum in size to absorb the volume of flood water.

In the Upper Mission Road part of the city, around the Ewah Road axis, where the drains were constructed in such a way that it under the walkway, while a little outlet by the side of the walkway was provided for water to flow into the drains, however, what you get is that when it rains, the flood water instead flows on the paved road rather than through the drains, thereby causing more problems.

In several capital cities in Nigeria, there are places that are really quite beautiful and clean that you can easily differentiate it from other part of the city, after all that is what obtains in most cities in the world, but Benin City has become a city where you cannot draw a line between a place that is clean, and the others that are not, the entire areas of the city can be lumped into one category, because most of it is all dirt.

Visitors that arrive through the Benin Airport, with a ride through the well paved Airport Road, could easily fall into a false sense of the beauty that that part of town gives the city, but that is where it mostly ends, a drive through the network of roads in the GRA which the Airport road is part of, is a complete contrast.

Benin City is blessed with a network of roads few state can boost of, but what it has in good road network, it lacks in maintenance. In reality, there is no area of the city that you cannot assess even when there is a lock jam, you can beat it by using these link roads, but the state of these adjoining roads really paints the true state of the city. Most of the link roads are in such a bad state that they look like dump site.  This is reflected more by the state of roads in the Evbotubu axis of the city.

The filthy nature of the city is also reflected in the attitude of the people, most of them wait for the rains for them to remember to dispose their refuse. 

What they do is that they empty their waste into the drains without recourse to the consequences. It is not restricted to drains alone, in suburbs that have a sloppy terrain, those at the top, usually empty their waste in the flowing water for it to flow down to those in the low lying areas, where they will now have to feel the brunt of the moral bankruptcy of others.

The reason why the state of the city has reached this status of uncleanness is not far fetched; there is no longer a sense of responsibility, because the government of the day is gradually winding down. 

With just a little over a year left, there are few things going on. Little wonder that the city is now in such a state that it is an unclean republic. The local councils that should play a role in this are complicit in their inertia. This is not to say that the government of the day has not tried in the last seven years that much is obvious, but the standard has indeed fallen from the enviable heights it previously set.

The unfortunate place in which Benin City currently finds itself is reflected in some of the entry points into it, coming from the Eastern part of the country, you are greeted by the terrible state of the Benin-Asaba expressway by the bypass, on an unfortunate day when an articulated vehicle falls into one of the bad spots, travelers can spend man hours there with queues of vehicles stretching for long kilometres. 

The same can be said of the Benin-Auchi road, where coming into Benin from the Northern part of the country, the failed portion close to the headquarters of the Electoral body, INEC results in serious traffic problems.

The road leading to the Federal High Court which is close by is now a stream, while the compound of the nearby Court of Appeal, Benin Division is a tributary of that stream, as the place is a right off when there is heavy downpour.

It is difficult to find any level of cleanliness in a place where there is litany of bad roads that is exactly what the state of Benin City is at the moment. Nobody can possibly go into a road filled with water and mud to carry out cleaning exercise.

The state of affairs has been exacerbated by the rains, with the dirt and filth now more pronounce.

It can be forgiven when the various extension of Benin City whether from Ikweniro in Uhwunwonde, Oluku in Ovia North-East to Obagie in Ikpoba-Okha is littered with dirt, this is not to say they should not be clean, but it is unforgivable that the City Centre and the GRA all in Oredo are all unkempt. It is an indictment on those saddled with keeping the city clean.

It is not enough for the government to air jingles on the need for people to keep their environment clean when it gets to the monthly environmental exercise, the government has to show concerted effort to turn the state of Benin City around, the fact that there are several roads in a state of disrepair does not preclude the government from at least making sure that the Edo State capital attains a minimum standard of cleanliness.

Did Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and Emmanuel Ifeajuna get foreign help for Nigeria’s first coup?

by Eromose Ileso

By January 15, 2016 it will be 50 years since Nigeria’s first military coup. 

The military foray into the country’s political landscape changed the structures of the country entirely, and the domino effect of that singular act by several young officers in the army is still being felt still date. 

Prior to the coup, there were four semi automonous regions that were developing at their own pace. The Northern, Western, Mid-west and Eastern Regions did not need to go cap in hand for federal allocation as is the case now to develop their regions. 

However, that coup ripped off those structures, and General Agoniyi Ironsi’s Decree No 34 of 1966 which introduced a unitary system destructed whatever was left of the country’s regional system, and Yakubu Gowon’s creation of states to prevent Biafra’s succession plans was the final nail on the head of Nigeria’s striving post independence regional and federal structures.

The January 15, 1966 coup d’etat which was orchestrated by five majors with Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna as the arrow heads of the coup started at about 2am. 

The coup’s only complete success was in the North where Major Nzeogwu led other officers to put down the structures in Kaduna where several top military officers were killed. 

The Northern region Premier Sir Ahmadu Bello was killed along with his senior wife. The brigade command was successively sealed.

Major Ifeajuna led the Western Region part of the coup, but despite the fact that the prime minister, Tafewa Balewa and other top military officers were killed in Lagos, the coup failed in the West. The head of Nigeria’s army at the time, General Agoniyi Ironsi survived the killings, and rallied the army to put down the coup. 

No shot were however fired in the Eastern Region as the officers at the heart of the plot there somehow developed cold feet.

With the kind of planning that went into that coup and the fact that logistics and communications are key components in carrying out coup plots, it becomes key to examine whether there could have been foreign support in the planning of the coup.

One of the officers that was part of the execution of the coup in Kaduna, Ben Gbulie who was a captain at the time, was on record to have said that the situation of the country was discussed within the officers at the officers mess on a regular basis, and speaking against the situation in the country at the time, was a clue that such an officer was going to join in its execution.

That aside, General Yakubu Gowon said in an interview during his 80th birthday celebrations in 2014 that when he sailed on an ocean liner from the United Kingdom to Lagos in 1965 after attending series of military courses abroad, the possibility of Nigeria’s military staging a coup was put to him as a question by a foreigner during their voyage to Lagos, according to him, it was a notion he quickly dismissed, with the answer that the Nigeria military comprised of professional soldiers who would not venture into politics. 

For a foreigner to have raised such question months before a coup eventually took place raises some questions as to whether the possibility that some sections of the Nigerian military would end up staging a coup was not known to foreign intelligence services? 

It is not outside the realm of possibilities that there could have been interventionist powers from outside the country that played a role in the planning of the coup at the time judging by the prevailing circumstances of the iron curtail that was the norm during the cold war.

The 1960s was the height of the cold war with the Western and Eastern blocs fighting several proxy wars. While the Cuba missile crisis was just one of them, a crisis that almost brought the Soviet Union and the Americans to the brink of nuclear war.

But it was the direct intervention of these powers in the politics of Africa at the time especially through the barrel of a gun rather than ballot boxes which raised questions whether there was no foreign help in Nigeria’s first coup.

For instance, the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in January, 1961 the independence Prime Minister of Congo Kinshasa was orchestrated by the West through the Belgians and Americans after he sought Soviet help to quench an uprising in the Katanga province at the time. 

Besides that his strong criticism of the Belgian colonist during Congo’s independence ceremony in June 30, 1960 did not go down well with the Belgian King who was in attendance. Patrice Lumumba’s aim to attain control of the mineral wealth of Congo was antithesis to what the West wanted and his leaning towards the Soviet Union was the last straw that caused him to be overthrown and later killed.

In those early independence days of Africa countries, any flirting with the Soviet Union from an African leader was met with displacement through coup d’etat by the West.

Besides Patrice Lumumba, Sylvanus Olympio of Togo was assassinated by the Togolese military in 1963 largely due to the help of the French. The Togolese coup was the first in West Africa and indeed in sub Sahara Africa and it was due entirely to the handiwork of the West just like most coups on the continent at the time.

In the same vain, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana was removed from office in 1966 through a coup d’etat sponsored by the West after his leaning towards the communist Eastern bloc. Despite the fact that his popularity had waned in Ghana due to his dictatorial tendencies which affected the economy, it took flirting with the East for him to be removed.

The independence leader of Mozambique and head of Frelimo Eduardo Mondlane was also a victim of a Western backed assassination in 1969.

What was clear from the early years of African independence was that any leader that entertained communist tendencies was swept from power through the pains of coup d’etat.

That most of the leaders that eventually came to power became puppets of the West despite their poor handling of their country’s resources only reveals another side of the West’s self serving voracious interest as they turned a blind eye to such plundering. 

In this case, Mobotu Sese Siko could be found as an example, despite amassing the wealth of Congo Kinshasa for his own personal use, he enjoyed the goodwill of the West for more than thirty years before he was toppled from power by Laurent Kabila.

It is this carriage of events that does not rule out the possibility of foreign support in the military coup of January 15, 1966.

The world was a polarised place and most interventionist plans at the time were not carried out in isolation, but through the help of a foreign power.

The entire officers of the Nigeria military at the time where products of training from the Sandhurst military academy in Britain and majority of the officers that were involved in the coup passed through the famous Sandhurst Academy before returning to the country.

With the way the twentieth century world was structured, especially with the contending powers of the Western and Eastern blocs, it was common place for the principal players within these blocs to openly intervene in the internal politics of African countries during the sixties to suit their interest.

Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu was known to have been a charismatic soldier who was opinionated on several issues. He had an independent and revolutionary mindset which meant he held to his principles no matter what they were. It is not clear whether his decision to spearhead the removal of Nigeria’s first elected government was influenced purely by his principles or it was fuelled by intervening forces from outside the country?

Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna was the polar opposite of Major Nzeogwu. He was already famous and a pre-independence national hero before he joined the Nigerian military in 1960. He was the first Nigerian to win a gold medal in long jump in the 1954 Empire and Commonwealth Games. An achievement that made him famous. He was also a student of the University of Ibadan where he was a compatriot and friend to Emeka Anyaoku who later became the Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations. Major Ifeajuna had displayed revolutionary tendencies during his days as a secondary school student in Onistha where he played a frontline role in a protest in 1951. 

He also led students protest triggered by poor living conditions during his University days in 1957 after a rousing speech.  He later carried on to the Nigeria

 military, and like others that partook in the planning and execution of the coup, they felt they could not stand still and watch things go bad as Nigeria’s first government after independence was bedeviled by crisis.

Yet the independent views shared by these two men whose history in the roles they played both in the coup and in the Nigerian civil war have received opposite views largely due to the way their lives ended.

The fact that the coup d’etat was purely the handiwork of a group of young officers would not have been lost on the powers that be at the time. While the success of the coup was depended on the assassination and arrest of senior military officers several of whom lost their lives during the process, and the decision to take down all of Nigeria’s independent leaders was also of similar linings. It would have taken a huge task for this group of young officers to have undertaken such a mammoth decision if there was no measure of support from somewhere. 

Again, the plan that was hatched to completely eliminate a generation of Nigerian top military officers was both daring and herculean, and there is every possibility however remote that support could have been gotten from outside the country to carry out such a huge task.

The interventionist nature of world politics in the twentieth century, because of ideological differences only serve to show that there could have been a tweak from a world power at the time.

Nothing is known for sure yet the domino effects of the singular actions of a group of five majors continue to reverberate in Nigeria today.

JUSUN Strike: A tale of looking for a wetland in the Sahara

JUSUN Strike: A tale Of looking for a wetland in the Sahara

  by Eromose Ileso

The nation's judiciary has been beset by industrial actions for the last one year. It is uncommon for the judiciary to be plunge into industrial dispute, but following a judgment delivered by Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja on 13 January, 2014 where he declared that the practice whereby funds of states judiciaries are disbursed through state governments was unconstitutional, his Lordship asserted that the established tradition where the executive arm of government disbursed funds to the judicial arm through the executive was in contravention of Sections 83(1), 212(3) and 162(9) of the 1999 constitution. 

The normal practice was that funds of the judiciary should be disbursed directly to the National Judicial Council. The Accountant-General of the Federation was subsequently ordered to rectify the anomaly.

Further affirming the judgment, Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja in a judgment delivered on 26 May, 2014 ordered that the National Judicial Council should refrain from sending its budget estimates to the Budget Office of the executive arm of government or indeed any body under executive authority as it is presently being done.

Justice Mohammed further held that since the legislative houses are never required to send their budget estimates to any executive authority, there was equally no legal basis for the judiciary which is also an independent arm of government, to send its budget estimates to any executive authority.

The past Chief Justice of Nigeria, Aloma Mukhtar wrote to all state governors and the FCT minister on the need for them to comply with the judgment, she stated that the instalmental release of its annual allocation was illegal and henceforth the judiciary was no longer required to submit its budget estimates to the executive for inclusion as an item in its Annual Appropriation Bill.

On that premise, the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) embarked on a strike in July, 2014 after there was no hint of compliance, this was done in order to press home their demands for the executive arm of government to implement a judgment which effectively granted financial autonomy to the judiciary, and it was not appealed over one year after it was delivered.

That initial strike was called off, but in early January, it was resumed after the government failed to fulfill previous commitments made. 

However, after series of meetings, the Secretary to the Federal government, Anyim Puis Anyim promised that the government would through the Accountant General of the federation transfer funds due to the Judiciary directly to the National Judicial Council as was stipulated in the Court judgment. 

It was on this premise that the national president of the judicial workers union, Marwan Adamu announced the suspension of the strike action. It meant that the gates of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and Federal High Courts were finally opened for judicial activities.

However, the national president made a key statement when he announced the suspension of the strike in early February thus, that when the state chairmen of JUSUN get “commitments of compliance” with the judgment from their respective state governments, they can then suspend the strike at the state level. So far that compliance has been akin to waiting for a taxi in the Kalahari.

Which means that, almost four months since the strike was called off at the Federal level, the industrial action has persisted at the state level with the exception of a handful of states. 

Using Edo State as an example, the gates of the State High Court has remain shut for three months, and Judicial workers have equally not been paid their salaries during that period. This has had several domino effects. 

The situation has not only paralysed judicial activities in courts, it has also left both clients, lawyers and prison inmates awaiting trial in a state of labyrinth, to the point that some legal practitioners have been left in the corridors of impecuniousness.

A friend and colleague recently recounted an episode of a lawyer who has resorted to using his bus to transport passengers on an inter-state route in order to foot his financial commitments. Inevitably, he was forced to ask the lawyer cum, forced transporter: "has it gotten that bad?"

However, it does not need a soothsayer to see why some state governments are not enamoured when it comes to complying with the judgment delivered by the Federal High Court over a year ago.

Firstly one would have thought that this being an election period means that some state governors would go an extra mile to do what would warm it to the hearts of some as in the manner of some candidates that have resorted to rehabilitating roads to court favour from the electorates. But some of these governors tenure end in May, so they see no need to grant the judiciary financial autonomy just a few months before they leave office.  

At a time when some of them are complaining of the dwindling revenue profile of their state, a situation contemplated by the Federal High Court's Judgment would certainly not be appealing to them particularly as it would mean that a large portion of a state revenue would have to be transferred to the judiciary without recourse to the governor thereby foreclosing the present practice of instalmental payment in the long term.

Going back specifically to the situation in Edo State, the distrust between the judicial workers and the state government dates back before the issue of autonomy came up, judicial workers in the state have gone on strike on several occasions on reasons that bothers on their remunerations. 

The autonomy issue has only served to add more twist to the situation. Many by-standers and those in the legal profession in the state in particular and the nation in general would have thought that a state governor that came to office through the court’s validation of his mandate in 2008 after it was stolen in the 2007 general elections would be more sensitive to the plight of judicial workers in his state. It has been anything, but the opposite in that regard. 

The question then is; will a governor who was at loggerheads with judicial workers before the issue of autonomy came up, be willing to grant that autonomy? The answer obviously lies somewhere in-between.

Yet, this is purely a constitutional matter that has nothing to do with the whims and caprices of individual state governors even though they still have to approve it, which is where the problem lies. At a time when the Judiciary is already poorly funded, the situation has left the system at a nadir.

This is why the Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson should be commended for granting that state's judiciary financial autonomy long before the issue came up at the Federal High Court.

As far back as October 24, 2012, eight months after he assumed office as governor, he signed the Judicial Autonomy Bill into law, setting the tone for what became a national issue years after. It is easy to see why the governor went down that route, as he is a lawyer. 

But the same cannot be said of some governors who are also lawyers. Yet they have failed to align themselves with reason.

At the moment, the war shows no sign of abetting, while the battle to secure autonomy through the court has been won, the signs of compliance from the various states government has become like a case of looking for a wetland in the Sahara.