Analysis I Fashola and his Gimmick on 2023

By Fred Doc Nwaozor

 

        

Penultimate week – precisely on Thursday, 25^th October 2018 – the erstwhile Lagos State governor and the present Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola enjoined the people of the Nigeria’s South-West to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari in the forthcoming 2019 elections towards guaranteeing a return of power to the zone in 2023.

        

The minister tendered this in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital at a special town hall meeting on infrastructure organized by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture headed by Alhaji Lai Mohammed in collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA).

         

Alhaji Lai led three other ministers including Fashola as well as Ministers of Transportation and Water Resources in the persons of Messrs Rotimi Amaechi and Suleiman Adamu, respectively, to the meeting which had in attendance key stakeholders from the area.

          

Mr. Fashola opined that besides the massive investment by the Buhari-led government on infrastructure across the country, South-West in particular, the zone would benefit politically by re-electing Buhari come 2019.

          

He stated in Yoruba language “Do you know that power is rotating to the South-West after the completion of Buhari’s tenure if you vote for him in 2019? A vote for Buhari in 2019 means a return of power to the South-West in 2023. I am sure you will vote wisely.”

         

It’s not anymore news that on several occasions, some leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South-East had boasted that President Buhari would be handing over power to the zone in 2023 if he gets votes from the people of the area come 2019. How then do we reconcile these contradicting gimmicks?

          

By this statement, Mr. Fashola has inadvertently concurred with the line of action of his predecessor, Chief Bola Tinubu. In recent times, the latter has been putting up behaviours that indicate he is aspiring to take over power from President Buhari. His body language suggests he’s warming up to succeed the sitting president whenever his service expires.

          

It’s quite intriguing that Mr. Fashola never minded the political implications of such an utterance before letting it out. This implies that the people of the South-West under the auspices of the APC cannot afford to allow any other zone or region succeeds Buhari when he bows out from Aso Rock.

         

If my thought is as good as yours, then you would agree with me that the APC’s gladiators of the South-East extraction have been deceiving themselves by going about telling their kinsmen and beyond that power would freely return to them after the tenure of Buhari.

         

One may even assert that the aforementioned set of people isn’t only deceiving but making ‘fool’ of itself. This is so, because, the way and manner they parade themselves as regards who, or which zone, succeeds Buhari appear as if a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) had already been reached and duly signed by the overall leadership of the APC.

         

This categorically informs that the Igbos need to wake up from slumber. It’s indeed high time they began thinking of how to become more politically aware in the Nigeria’s sphere. It’s obvious that overtime the people from the Igbo nation have been used as sacrificial lamb whenever it calls for acquiring power within the country’s political terrain.

         

They must realize to the fullness that power is taken, not given. No rational politician ought to expect power, no matter how lowly placed, to be granted or released to him/her on a platter of gold. Everyone is expected to ‘fight’ towards acquiring power or assuming any political post. Thus, one who believes that such position would willingly and freely be ceded to him is simply daydreaming.

         

However, Mr. Fashola would have at least considered the consequences of such announcement especially at this era when the ruling party is making frantic effort to remain in power come 2019. And acknowledging that the major opposition party – the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) – is damn prepared to reclaim the country’s seat of power, which they regrettably vacated in 2015.

        

Mr. Fashola, therefore, ought to have understood that such an avowal is liable to make the APC massively lose its prospective voters, particularly from the South-East. He should have realized that it is a sentence that has the tendency of causing the ruling party a grievous harm in the nearest future.

        

Having made the statement in vernacular, he might had thought that outsiders wouldn’t take note of it, forgetting the country at large is at the moment in a heat period regarding politics, hence an average Nigerian is currently far more socio-politically aware than he/she was just few months ago.

         

The utterance in question may have been erroneously and carelessly tendered by the honourable minister, but the point remains that it ought to be considered as an eye-opener by the members of the APC of the Igbo extraction. Even if it’s eventually retracted, it has already sent the message being required by the Igbos at such a critical time like this.

          

Notwithstanding, whatever the case might be, it’s time our politicians started being very mindful of what they utter in the public domain especially when campaigning for votes. Think about it!

-Comrade Nwaozor, policy analyst & rights activist,

could be reached via frednwaozor@gmail.com

Follow: @mediambassador            

  

JUST IN: As Strike Looms, ASUU, SSANU Get Ready

BREAKING: New Lagos Governor Emerges Amid Surprise

 By Rostrum

A student of Lafiaji Senior High School in Lagos State, Nigeria, Ms Gloria Ajala has graciously won the state's Spelling Bee Competition amid surprises.

Ms Gloria, who was a representative of Lagos Island East LCDA in the competition, has according to the existing tradition, equally emerged as the Governor of Lagos State for one day.

Rostrum correspondent gathered that the day for the swearing-in ceremony would be announced later. She is expected to be sworn in alongside her cabinet members. Her cabinet would constitute the co-competitors, particularly the runner-up winners. And their leadership is meant to last for only 24 hours.

Congratulating the winner after she emerged on Tuesday, 30th October 2018, Deputy Governor of the commercial-rich state, Dr. Idiat Oluranti Adebule said Ms Gloria would be given scholarship by the state government to pursue any course of her choice in any public university in the country.

Ms Gloria, who is reportedly a daughter of a Lagos-based barber, would also be sponsored together with her 'cabinet' to attend a cultural exchange programme in Finland.

The deputy governor also commended the 2018 edition of the Spelling Bee competition, saying it has been highly educative and competitive.

“I am very impressed with the performance of the competitors in the grand finale of the primary and the secondary school categories," she said.

Dr. Adebule, however, noted that the competition has experienced improvement in the areas of presentation and vocabulary development. She attributed the improvement to the various policies and programmes initiated by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode-led administration to encourage learning.

Grace Ikhariale of Tin Can Island Senior High SChool and Oluwatosin Akinbodewa of Iworo Ajido Senior Secondary School finished in second and third positions, respectively.

CRIME: Edo Okada Rider Kills Sibling and Runs Away

SHOCKER: German Nurse Admits Killing 100 Patients

 

A former nurse admitted on Tuesday, 30th October 2018 to have killed 100 patients in Germany, closing the case of the country's biggest, post-war serial killing spree.

On his first day of trial, Niels Hoegel, 41, admitted to killing 100 patients between 2000 and 2005 in northern Germany by injecting them with lethal drugs and trying to resuscitate them; an attempt that often failed.

When asked by the presiding judge, Sebastian Buehrmann if the allegations levelled against him were largely true, Mr. Hoegel simply replied "yes".

Mr. Hoegel is believed to be responsible for the death of more than 130 patients, but the cremation of more possible victims makes determining the exact number of victims nearly impossible as gathered by Rostrum's health correspondent. 

It would be recalled that Mr. Hoegel was first caught by a co-worker in 2005 when he was administering lethal drugs to a patient; a crime he received a sentence of seven years in prison in 2008.

In 2015, he was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted on two additional murder and attempted murder charges.

It's noteworthy that Mr. Hoegel’s trial is expected to end in May next year being 2019.

SPORTS: Real Madrid FC Sacks Coach Lopetegui after a Disgraceful Outing

 

The Spanish revered league, Real Madrid FC has sacked Julen Lopetegui as manager after four and a half months in charge at the Bernabeu.

The Spaniard succeeded Zinedine Zidane in June but the crushing 5-1 El Clasico defeat by Barcelona on Sunday, 28th October 2018 was their fifth loss in six games.

Real, Champions League winners for the past three years, are ninth in La Liga after their worst start since 2001-02.

The 52-year-old will be "provisionally replaced" by ex-player Santiago Solari, coach of B team Castilla.

Lopetegui took a training session on Monday, 29th October 2018 but his fate was confirmed following a board meeting.

A club statement said "there is a great disproportion between the quality of the staff of Real Madrid" and "the results obtained to date".

Eight of the current Real squad are on the 30-man shortlist for the 2018 Ballon d'Or.
Solari has a favourable run of fixtures for the start of his tenure, beginning with a Spanish Cup match against Segunda Division B Group 4 side Melilla on Wednesday.

Real then play Valladolid - sixth in La Liga - on Saturday, Group G's bottom side Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League on 7 November, and the mid-table Celta Vigo the following Sunday.
It is the second time Lopetegui has been sacked this year having been dismissed by Spain two days before the World Cup.

That sacking came after it emerged the Spanish football federation was unaware he was in talks to take the Real job after the tournament.

Real have 14 out of a possible 30 points in the league this season and have taken only one from their past five matches - their worst run since they went pointless in the final five games of 2008-09 under Juande Ramos.

They are now six points above the Spanish top flight's relegation places, and seven behind leaders Barcelona.

TechDeck: China and Quest for Manmade Moon

By Fred Doc Nwaozor

         

Penultimate week or thereabouts, I reliably gathered that China would soon launch an artificial moon in the sky towards her quest to illuminate the country’s existing streetlights.

         

My blog – Rostrum – that does not joke with technology-related matters did not hesitate to publish the news on arrival. An old-time friend of mine Segun residing in Italy, who is an ardent follower of ‘Rostrum’, quickly put me on call the moment he got the mind-blowing information.

         

He was sceptical over China’s motive to actualize such a weird project. He was of the view that actualization of the goal was far-fetched, hence urged me to prove his perception wrong having recognized that he was speaking with a tech expert who doesn’t play with research.

         

In response, I humbly asked him to jettison the mentality invariably worn by a typical Nigerian. I tried to let him realize that an average Nigerian believes that virtually everything is impossible as regards proposed science inventions. I told him that though he was based in an advanced country, I was surprised such mindset still lived in him. The rest is history as I ended up convincing the buddy.

          

Lest I digress; like I earlier stated, the night skies might soonest have a company as being reported. The Chinese scientists disclosed that they were making frantic effort to launch artificial satellite, precisely moon, into the orbit by 2020. The report read that the scientists were hoping to hang the satellite above the city of Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwestern Sichuan province.

          

The moon, which would be essentially an illuminated satellite, will bear a reflective coating to cast sunlight back to the Earth where it will supplement streetlights at night. The scientists estimated that it could be eight times more luminous than the actual moon. It would equally orbit much closer to the Earth at about 500km (310 miles) away compared to the original moon’s 380,000km (236,000 miles).

          

According to the Chief of the Tian Fu New Area Science Society, Mr. Wu Chunfeng, “its expected brightness in the eyes of humans is around one-fifth of normal streetlights”. He however stated that it could assist first responders during blackouts and natural disasters.

         

On the economic value, Mr. Chunfeng – who said that if the project proves successful, it could be joined by three more additions to the night sky by 2022 – further disclosed that new moons could save the city of Chengdu about 7.2 billion Yuan ($173 million) annually in electricity costs.

         

In his clarification, “much more testing needs to be done to ensure the plan is viable and will not have a detrimental effect on the natural environment. We will only conduct our tests in an uninhabited desert, so our light beams will not interfere with any people or earth-based space observation equipment”.

         

As I applaud the Chinese over their dogged quest to supplement the Moon, they must be duly informed that such an anticipated scientific feat can only be actualized by involving all the needed research works as well testing techniques. They must, therefore, note that the country wasn’t the first to register suchlike weird and amazing technological motive.

          

It would be recalled that in 1990, Russia experimented with using an orbital mirror to reflect sunlight on some of its sun-deprived northern cities. But the project was regrettably abandoned in 1999 after the mirror failed to unfold and was incinerated in the atmosphere.

         

Similarly, in January 2018, the American aerospace manufacturing firm, Rocket Lab launched an artificial star into the space. But scientist criticized the satellite, which was branded “Humanity Star’, as the reflective mini-satellite was dubbed for contributing to artificial light pollution and cluttering in the Earth’s orbit.

         

Away from the testing processes, the environmental side-effects when successfully installed ought to equally be taken into thorough consideration with a view to averting any possible future health hazard among the supposed beneficiaries of the project. Thus, further holistic consultations must be carried out prior to the launching stage.

          

It’s now clear that the Chinese scientists are not resting but invariably busy trying to commercialize every aspect of their patents cum talents. So, it wouldn’t be an overstatement if one asserts that in no distant time, the Asian country is likely to emerge as the world power.

        

We must acknowledge that the point China is today took a very rigorous pathway. A lot of processes were duly involved before they got to this stage. It suffices to say that this is not rocket science as some of us may presume. Everything pertaining to science and technology requires adequate time, energy, research and resources.

         

It’s on this premise I once again challenge the Nigerian government to endeavour to borrow a leaf from China. If we look inwards, we’ll definitely discover that there are tremendous talents imbedded in our various citizens as well as patents belonging to several indigenous institutions in the country. But the major challenge these individuals and entities face remains lack of enabling environment to thrive.

          

Intriguingly, sometimes when a Nigerian indicates interest to bring a change in a certain area of the country’s technological plight, some bad eggs would rather contribute in killing the patent on arrival, perhaps owing to selfish mindedness or business interest. Most of the country’s importers would perceive such inborn invention as an enemy to their respective businesses.

         This indicates that for us as a people to get it right regarding technology, governments at all levels must wear the required political will like clothe. Think about it!

Comrade Nwaozor, tech expect and activist, could 

be reached via frednwaozor@gmail.com 

Follow: @mediambassador                  

       

INTERVIEW: Rostrum's time with the National Coordinator of Right Thinkers

FEATURE: Insight on the Owu Dance Festival in ancient Oru Kingdom of Imo State

compiled by Fred Doc Nwaozor

 seated owu masquerades

        

Oru is a community situated at the West Pole of Imo State otherwise known as the Eastern Heartland in Federal Republic of Nigeria. It’s surrounded by many neighbouring communities which include Orsu to the North, Njaba to the North-East, Mbaitolu to the East and South-East, Oguta to the South, Amorka in Anambra State to the Weat and so on. Politically, it was formerly recognized as Oru Local Government Area (L.G.A) till late nineties, 1998 precisely, when it was divided into Oru East and Oru West.

         

Among other cultural heritage, Owu, a cultural dance is the most renowned and constant tradition observed by ‘Oru’ indigenes. Its unique status and features has attracted the keen interest of series of people from different social classes. It’s indeed a ‘common language’ spoken amongst the entire people, both indigenes and residents, in the ancient land of Oru kingdom. History has it that the festival originated from Oguta, one of the neighbouring communities to Oru.

         

The Owu cultural dance is often accompanied by ‘Okorosha’ masquerade. Customarily, a certain masquerade known as ‘Ofu-Uzo’ is expected to parade itself at night prior to the day the cultural dance is meant to take place; in a situation whereby it fails to do so, the Owu dance would never take place. 

         

The Owu festival is an annual event. It commences in Oru by the month of June every year. It’s being celebrated separately by each of the sub-communities/towns that make up Oru ancient Kingdom at different time intervals or dates to be fixed by the towns in question.

        

One of the most impressive features of Owu festival is that, only male indigenes are allowed to participate in the dancing competition. Needless to say; participation of the female folk is customarily forbidden. Another remarkable feature of the festival is that, it can never be carried out on ‘Nkwo’ market day.

         

Apart from the hosting of Owu in the land of Oru, it’s also hosted in other states in Nigeria such as Lagos, and in the diaspora. This is the most exemplary aspect of Owu festival. Each year, after it has been observed by the entire people of Oru, other Oru indigenes that reside in Lagos State and other States as well, would follow suit. In Lagos State, it usually takes place at Bariga, a town dominated by the Oru indigenes in the month of august unless it’s uttered by any circumstance. This very phenomenon originated several years ago. Having  been celebrated in Lagos State, and other states in Nigeria that have a high concentration of Oru indigenes, it would be subsequently observed by the Oru indigenes in the diaspora; mostly in other continents such as Europe and America, U.S.A precisely.

         

The above practice observed by eminent sons and daughters of Oru is strictly ceremonial. Suffice to say that, most traditional rituals or prerequisites usually observed prior to the festival are invariably skipped or ignored.