Jarring tales from across the land

This piece has been inspired by animated debates on a WhatsApp assembly to which I belong. Those of us on the platform were colleagues and friends in the Daily Times newspapers of yore, across generations. We all went our different ways at different times in the trajectory of Nigeria’s foremost newspaper conglomerate, in the run up to the eventual privatisation of the organisation in 2004, by the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo. A few months back, a good number of us across generations in the iconic organisation, rediscovered ourselves on a mutual platform of  the Agidingbi alumni, thanks to the initiative of a few Timesmen, alumni of the organisation as it were, driven by the desire for the preservation of the memories of the erstwhile institution, which was established in 1926.

Agidingbi, a district in Ikeja, Lagos, hosted critical human resource components, physical structures and equipment which powered the production and publishing of virtually all the publications in the stable of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc, (DTN), which were about a dozen at some point. They include: Daily Times, Sunday Times, Business Times, Evening Times, Lagos Weekend, Timesweek, Poise, Headlines, Home Studies, among others. It was only the London based West Africa magazine that was produced out there, much as the publication had a Nigerian office which operated from the apex administrative hub of the Daily Times group, in Kakawa Street, in the heart of Lagos.

For the avoidance of doubt, the octopoidal Daily Times group, had other subsidiaries, including the Times Journalism Institute (TJI); Nigerpak (producers of packaging products); Times Press Limited (which handled commercial printing jobs for the company); Naira Properties (which managed the physical assets of the organisation, mainly houses and commercial estates), and Times Leisure Services (TLS) Limited, organisers of the annual “Miss Nigeria” beauty pageant, a major event at the time, in the nation’s entertainment calendar.

It is so heartening to be apprised of the quantum leap that many of our colleagues have made over the years. Many erstwhile staffers of the old newspaper octopus, have farmed out into new vocations. They include those who returned, or veered fully into the academia, as the case may be, including those who have made the professorship grade, at home and abroad. Names like Godini Gabriel Darah (better known as GG Darah), Ayo Olukotun, Kayode Soremekun, Gbenga Ayeni, Diji Aina, Al Bishak, Dayo Alao (of blessed memory), among others. Soremekun, Alao and Aina, have indeed served as Vice Chancellors of many institutions in Nigeria. Darah was Chief of Staff to James Onanefe Ibori, former Delta State governor.

There are several other doctorate degree holders including Emeka Nwosu, Usoro Usoro, James Okoroma, Abiodun Rauf, Dapo Thomas, this writer and others. A sizeable number have savoured political experiences, in several ways, notably Onyema Ugochukwu, a former Editor and Executive Director of the organisation who was an Adviser to Obasanjo and pioneer Chairman of the Nigeria Delta Development Commission (NDDC); Rotimi Ogunleye, a former Commissioner in Lagos State; Segun Ayobolu, former Media Adviser to former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu and Hakeem Bello, who is still serving in a similar capacity like Ayobolu, with Tinubu’s successor and Minister for Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola.

Tunde Rahman is the current Media Adviser to Tinubu, while Uthman Shodipe also served with the Lagos State government in some capacity; Usoro was with the government of Akwa Ibom State; Tony Iyare, Ngozi Ikeano and Thomas Peretu, with the Edo, Nasarawa and Bayelsa state governments respectively, at various times. Musa Ebhomiana is incumbent Director of Press Affairs to the Edo State Deputy Governor, Phillip Shuaibu, while Emeka Odo is the serving Chairman of the Inland Revenue Service (IRS) of Enugu State.

Farouk Umar Mohammed, a former Editor and Executive Director of the organisation like Ugochukwu, has had stints with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in several information and public affairs management capacities, like Farouk Omar Ibrahim, a former General Manager, Northern Operations of the Daily Times and former Managing Director of New Nigerian newspapers. Angela Agoawike has equally savoured experience in OPEC, while Ndu Ughamadu, also a former Daily Times Editor, has serially served as Group General Manager, Public Affairs of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Tunde Ipinmisho, a former Sunday Times Editor, functioned in a similar role as Ughamadu, at the Federal Housing Authority (FHA).

John Araka, also an Editor and General Manager of Daily Times, was Adviser to Ugochukwu when he served in NDDC and subsequently media consultant to the organisation. Chijioke Amu-Nnadi, a former Deputy Editor of the human interest Poise magazine in the Times stable of old, better known these days as one of the most prolific and profound poets of Nigeria’s third generation of literary creators, is a Director at the NDDC. Femi Ajayi was at various times Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Director General of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and also Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) under the Umaru Yar’Adua/Jonathan government.

Idang Alibi retired as Director of Information from the Federal Civil Service. This is not omitting those who have remained in the newsroom in various capacities including Ayo Akinkuotu, one of the pioneers of Tell magazine in 1991; Lawal Ogienagbon, Managing Editor of The Nation newspapers, as well as Edozie Udeze, Arts and Literary Editor of The Nation on Sunday. Either way, the list is as long as the several vocational mutations which ex-Daily Times staffers have undergone, through the aeons. Wole Olatimehin and Osoka Okorie are in full time Christian clerics, while Victor Awogu is the traditional ruler of his community, Osomala in Anambra State.

Given the human resource quality and experiential diversity of the membership of the platform, subjects and inquisitions, expectedly are deep, very rigorous, as discussants tear up issues with similar fervour, as a pathologist does to the matter on his laboratory table. On that Daily Times WhatsApp platform recently, the issue of the unimaginable developments across institutions of learning across the country, triggered explorations into a wider range of unsavoury developments across the land. Many adherents of various religious beliefs will most probably conclude that Armageddon beckons. Indeed, subscribers to historical myths and mystique around the “ember” months of the year, will easily surmise that such deathly occurrences are consistent with the foreboding of doom and gloom, which typify this season of the year.

From the heightened indulgence by youths in all manner of killer substances which manifest in psychopathic, lunatic displays in the full glare of the public, to orchestrated killings of young people by their friends and contemporaries, our nation has descended into the abyss of crimson hate and jarring inhumanity. From untoward happenings in institutions of learning at the lower and tertiary levels resulting in the needless demise of young, promising children, our leaders of tomorrow, to blooming immorality amongst children, we do have substantive issues on our national plate. Kidnapping for ransom, ritual killings, decapitation and mutilation of innocent victims by heartless characters, collectively reiterate the flight of every modicum of compassion and humanity from the novel brood of modern day cannibals, even carnivores.

Rape cases, including the bizarre violation of minors are on the ascendancy; incest is suddenly a pastime where psychiatric fathers suddenly fancy their own biological daughters as sex partners, and the theft in broad daylight of children and newborns for possible transaction by child rogues, has grown in leaps and bounds. A recent incident of the slicing off, of a man’s phallus by an envious consort, and the increased subscription of our youths into internet fraud, known in Nigerian parlance as “yahoo yahoo,” among other deviant conduct, collectively announce the decisive arrival of the devil and his entourage not simply on a state visit to Nigeria, but effectively as possessor of a certificate of permanent residency in Nigeria.

The plague is across the land, from the federal capital territory, FCT, to Warri in Delta State; from Ibadan in Oyo State, to Owerri in Imo State, from Lagos the erstwhile capital of the country, to Ogun State, instances abound of the wanton crimes and criminalities being perpetrated around the country. The social media is routinely awash with videos and reports of youngsters hooked on various dangerous substances, including a very deadly type known as “Colorado,”  a new cocktail of psychotropic substances. Consumers get into fits of hallucination, instability and insanity. It has been known to cause heart attacks for many users. Unfortunately, its clientele are predominantly found in Lagos, Oyo and Gombe states.

In the nation’s capital Abuja, a supposed friend of a promising young attorney, Toritseju Emmanuel Jackson, was murdered in very suspicious circumstances, Sunday September 12, 2021. Jackson, who had just returned from law studies in Buckingham University in the UK and was awaiting participation in the mandatory one year stint in the Nigerian Law School, was lured out of the safety of his home in Asokoro district in Abuja, and delivered into the hands of faceless assailants in a hotel in Wuse. He was stabbed to death, throwing his family, friends and admirers into untold grief.

Three months before this incident, precisely on June 21, 2021, 14 year old Karen-Happuch Akpagher, a Senior Secondary One, (SS1) student of Premier Academy, Lugbe, Abuja, died of an infection, after a gossamer was found in her private part. Medical examinations revealed that her urine contained sperm. The concomitant infection and sepsis, led to her death. Her violators, whether they were students or otherwise, are yet to be established by investigators. Eleven year old Don-Davis Archibong, a Junior Secondary School (JSS) student formerly of Deeper Life High School, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, survived molestation, starvation and sexual abuse in an incident which came to the public space, December 2020. Don Davies’s mother, Deborah Okezie, instituted legal action against the principal of the school, Ndidi Solomon and four others, including the vice principal, housemasters and two others. They were recently remanded in prison custody on the orders of the Uyo Magistrate Court. Two juveniles involved in the saga are being tried in a juvenile family court.

Sylvester Oromoni Jnr, a 12 year old JSS 2 student of Dowen College, Lekki, Lagos, was not as fortunate. “Sly,” the nickname his friends and classmates prefer to call him, was bullied, bruised and battered by five of his seniors, who reportedly intended to initiate him in a secret cult, Saturday November 27, 2021. Notes by one of his friends to a certain “Tamara,” observed that the poor boy was so badly brutalized, that he fell off his school bed, even as his assailants, continued to pummel him. He was warned of apocalyptic consequences if he dared report the incident to anyone. Sly, baby of the Warri-based Oromoni family of 11 children, aspired to become a pilot according to his father, Sylvester Oromoni Sr. He died from that wilful assault by his own schoolmates. Hakeem Odumosu, Lagos State police commissioner, Tuesday December 7, 2021, confirmed the arrest of three of Sly’s attackers, even as a hunt has been initiated to get the others.

The Dowen College incident has thrown up debates about whether or not the boarding school system should be continued or not. There are compelling propositions about the continuation of boarding school which helps in augmenting discipline and child upbringing and encouraging youngsters to be self-reliant and less dependent on others. It would also seem that the boarding school impacts on student performance, since boarders interact with their classmates round the clock and are able to spare time to study together. The contemporary mercantilism which drives some entrepreneurs into establishing private schools specifically for profit and fiscal gains, manifests in the absence of holistic devotion to adding value to the education of children and justifying the huge investments of parents.

In Jericho High School, Ibadan, a mother recently hired thugs to invade the school and beat up teachers who attempted to discipline her daughter. Education Commissioner in the State, Rahman Abiodun Abdul-Raheem, has given orders for the suspension of the girl at the centre of the development. Down south in Warri, on December 4, 2021, an SSS 3 student of an unnamed secondary school, Michael Ogbeise, beat his teacher, Joseph Ossai to death, for flogging his younger sister, Promise Ogbeise. The killer, according to the police in the state, is on the run. To underscore the fact that bullying is not restricted to boys only, a recent video in circulation shows a female student assaulting a fellow female in the classroom of a school, described as the Federal Government College, Owerri. The girl beater, was most probably aware the scene was being recorded. But this did not deter her gloating idiocy. These are the kinds of end-time occurrences, which dominate public engagements these days.

The Abuja-Kaduna expressway was practically cordoned off by bandits and kidnappers recently, as they launched attacks on hapless commuters for four consecutive days, killing and abducting people. The Abuja-Lokoja road has had its fair share of similar experiences. Both expressways, abutting the heavily guarded and protected seat of government in the FCT, suddenly become “no man’s land,” when helpless Nigerians commute on them. This is as members of the outlawed Eastern Security Network (ESN), an affiliate of the equally discredited Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), recently hunted down and severed the heads of two policemen from their trunks. The gory incident was hoisted on the internet by the man-eaters, who have always claimed there actions were in retaliation to the hounding and attacks of their members. This is not forgetting that the streets of Enugu and Anambra states in particular, were killing fields in our recent past, defying logic and understanding.

There is indeed an almost total breakdown of law, order and sanity across the land, a trend which is gaining rapid traction rather than abating. Security services typically react after each occurrence, in typical knee-jerk style, ever “combing forests and hideouts” for the daredevil criminals. And it is convenient for government’s image launderers to continually apply gloss on the face of these developments, rather than sincerely admit the many afflictions of the country and profer pragmatic and sustainable panaceas. We cannot continue to delude and deceive ourselves, hiding behind one finger. Nigerians must be brought to discussion tables, to talk about issues affecting and afflicting them in diverse ways.

Let’s debate about equity, justice and fairness in governance. Let’s engage aggregate morality and decadence in the land. Let’s discuss insecurity in our country. Let’s talk genuinely about how to create sustainable engagement for our youths, beyond “tradermoni” and similar tenuous, superficial antidotes, which actually underscore the vacuity of rigour in governmental thought process. Let’s address the downward slide in the education sub-sector, beyond the serial approvals for the establishment of universities of all sorts. Let’s discuss our health sector for which billions of naira is regularly voted, but remain so disheveled that the Minister for Disaster Management and Emergency Services, is United States-bound as we speak, to have her baby. These and many more, must be talked about, not only for the purposes of mass catharsis, but with genuine intent to rewrite the presently bleak Nigerian narrative.

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