Thursday, 17 May 2012
Babatunde Raji Fashola: Before Night Falls Pius Adesanmi
Pius Adesanmi
Columnist:
Pius Adesanmi I am reproducing an old essay this week for good reason. I first published “Babatunde Fashola: the Loner of Sodom?” in 2008 when I initially began to pay serious attention to the incumbent Governor of Lagos state. If a week is a lifetime in politics, as the saying goes, Babatunde Fashola has had plenty of political lifetimes since I initially penned the article in question. His first term in office was such a study in visible, measurable, and quantifiable success that Nigerians began to wish he were in the saddle in Aso Rock. Within my own personal circuit of intellectuals, his name came up constantly whenever we drew up our wish list of presidential materials for 2015. Then he got a second term – and things began to go the way the cookie crumbles –apologies to James Hadley Chase.
It has been one bad news after one uncomfortable news since Fashola started his second term. I was considerably saddened by the fact that he came to Toronto to buy used trains for his rail project in Lagos. Activist Canadians even spoke of the immorality of dumping wagons that are being phased out by the Toronto Transit Commission on a third world city. I am not sure that there ever was a clear mechanism for reaching out to Lagosians and letting them know that their governor was coming to Canada to buy second-hand wagons that even the sellers feared may be unsafe (http://www.nowtoronto.com/daily/news/story.cfm?content=182186). I was disappointed that Fashola’s cerebral mind did not grasp the ideological implications of our people always being considered only good enough for oyinbo used products. In buying those used trains, Fashola placed economics over human pride and dignity. Then came the LASU school fees fiasco and the bizarre rationalizations offered by the governor. I have been in the University system my entire adult life. Fashola’s rationalizations of the fee hike were pathetic. His handlers should have told him to keep quiet. I was still digesting the school fees fiasco when Fashola added to my list of worries by egregiously mishandling the Lekki Toll peaceful protest march. I never knew that I would see the day when a legitimate peaceful protest would be violently dispersed by Fashola – a lawyer! What went wrong? What happened? Before night falls on what had the potential to be a brilliant political legacy, can anything be done? Can he be rescued from his debilitating financial peonage to his political Godfather, the underground source of his problems? What is left of the cerebral Fashola that I described so enthusiastically in this 2008 essay? Enjoy:
Babatunde Fashola: The Loner of Sodom
(first published October 27, 2008)
One of the earliest instances of the ubiquitous act of haggling in West African markets is recorded in Christian mythology. The iniquities of the city of Sodom having reached the ears of the Christian God, he decided to terminate the bacchanals by destroying the city. Fortunately, he had the good mind to seek the counsel of Abraham, his faithful servant. Abraham reminded God of the unfairness of destroying fifty righteous people along with the iniquitous majority. God answered: “if I find fifty righteous people, I will not destroy the city”. Sensing opportunity, Abraham began haggling. What about forty-five? Forty nko? E no gree thirty? Baba God, how about twenty now? By now a Nigerian trader would have lost patience and exclaimed: “you dey craze? You wan spoil my market dis early morning? Go price your mama market like dat! Oloshi!” Not God. He was in the mood to indulge Abraham. Ten? Five? We know the rest of the story. Apart from Lot who was already on his way to safety, God found none. No not one. This story comes to mind as I try to account, tentatively and extremely cautiously, for the mind of Babatunde Fashola, the current Governor of Lagos state, against the backdrop of the kalahari of the mind we call leadership and public service in Nigeria.
Let me enter some notes before I proceed. I am one of those intellectuals who harbor total contempt for the quality of the minds in power – and in government – in Nigeria. Lest I be accused of trying to carve an Archimedean space of non-implication in the morass I critique, I am the first to admit that my constituency, broadly defined as the knowledge industry, bears enormous responsibility for either vacating the space of governance and leadership for minds only slightly equal to orangutans – the orangutans I encounter in my subscription to National Geographic are better organizers and envisioners of orangutan society than Nigerian leadership is of Nigerian society - or participating in governance in a much more disastrous fashion than the obtuse rulers who invited them to “come and eat” in the first place.
Harvard and Yale-trained minds return home only to drink the strange water they drink in the corridors of power in Nigeria and become unrecognizable tragedies. They mostly become belly-driven jobbers, carrying important-looking briefcases all over Abuja. Professors “join government” to profess nothing or profess rubbish: a long list of Professors and public intellectuals professed a patina of legitimacy for moronic military despots in the 1980s-1990s; some were intellectual servicers of Obasanjo’s third term agenda. Others still are currently professing theories to rationalize President Yar’Adua’s personal philosophy of governance as an extended siesta. We – my constituency – have a long history of complicity in the rot that has become the lot of the state of Denmark.
We are thus saddled with a situation in which ideas and matters of the intellect are permanently banished from the space of governance and public service in Nigeria. Ideas. Matters of the intellect. We once had those. In the space of governance. As a teacher of African thought, it has become very difficult for me to teach the writings of the generation of Mbonu Ojike, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Mallam Aminu Kano and so many others. These were men who read. A lot. They read the books that must be read, to borrow a phrase from Odia Ofeimun. They fed and nurtured their minds. To enter into the epistemic world of these men is to stand in awed contemplation of the power of erudition and ideas instrumentalized for public service and the envisionment of society. It is to be in painful contemplation of the tragic aridity of the minds now in charge of our lives.
Whenever I go through 1950s and 1960s issues of the influential journal, Présence Africaine, and encounter the powerful minds of Nigerian leaders and public officials exchanging ideas with the best from the rest of Africa and pan-Africa, the contrast with what we have now becomes insufferable. I squirm in pain at the huge joke we now present Africa and the world as the mind of Nigeria’s leadership. The past generation authored books and trafficked in sophisticated ideas that were indicative of the level of their personal development. The current generation’s romance with the intellect is always about hiring people in my profession to author degenerate hagiographies, which they proceed to launch with fanfare. Hence you have the tragic case of what used to be one of Africa’s best critical minds making the transition from The Theory of African Literature to Prince of the Niger! This contrast is what makes it so painful for me to teach the works – and the minds – of our heroes past. To put it crudely, how did we transition from Ambassador Simeon Adebo to Ambassadors Sam Edem and Musiliu Obanikoro?
Reading was a subject of predilection for Chinua Achebe who once famously asked: “what do Nigerian leaders read?” If one’s frame of reference is Nigerian leadership after the aforementioned nationalist generation, there is only one sobering answer to Achebe’s question: nothing. They read nothing. Or so I thought until I encountered an essay on Babatunde Fashola authored by my good friend, the novelist and poet Tolu Ogunlesi. Published in The Guardian early this year, the essay tells the story of Ogunlesi’s chance ‘encounter’ with Fashola’s car. Ogunlesi somehow got close enough to the Governor’s car and was able to take a peep inside. He did not see a bevy of beauties requisitioned for night duty from the female hostels of the University of Lagos in the Governor’s car. He did not see hundred-dollar bills stuffed in Ghana-must-go bags, ready for shipment to the Governor’s Godfather(s). He did not see bottles of champagne struggling for space with bottles of imported French wine. He did not see a cache of Ak 47s sourced for distribution to political thugs. No, he did not see any of the trademarks of Nigerian government officials. He saw – wait for it – books! Books in a Nigerian Governor’s car? Unbelievable! Ogunlesi was so pleasantly shocked by what he saw that he rushed an article on Governor Fashola’s “reading list” to press.
Unlike Ogunlesi, I was not shocked, pleasantly or unpleasantly, by the possibility of the existence of a state Governor who reads in Nigeria. I was alarmed. Considerably. Ki lo de? Se ko si? “Hope no problem?” as we say in Nigeria. A Governor reading in an anti-intellectual national context where the average Nigerian “party chieftain” or “big man” can’t even be trusted to spell the word “manifesto” correctly, let alone being expected to have read his political party’s manifesto – where the Party even bothers to have a manifesto? Didn’t a Governor in one of the southern states wonder what a Faculty of Arts was doing in a University owned by the said state? He was of the informed opinion that his subjects did not need frivolities like the Arts and the Humanities. Could it possibly be true that God would find one reader, one cultivated mind that feeds constantly on ideas and traffics in matters of the mind if he paid an unscheduled visit to Nigeria’s Sodom of leadership and governance? I quickly called a few contacts who would know in Lagos, half expecting them to tell me that Ogunlesi was imagining things. They confirmed it! Governor Fashola reads. A lot. As folks gave me information on the phone, the expression “reading culture” had a strange ring to it, almost unnatural when placed in the same environment with our government officials. I decided to cautiously classify Fashola as one of the extremely rare public officials in contemporary Nigeria worth studying closely. Soon enough, I began to notice his articles in the op-ed page of The Guardian.
The Governor’s Guardian essays offer not only an auspicious window into the quality of his mind but also into his philosophy of governance. As I read each essay, the teacher in me swings into action – I can’t help it – assessing, evaluating, and gauging the quality of the intellect. Needless to say, these actions, borne of a pedagogic and scholarly instinct, have nothing to do with whether I agree or not with the Governor’s submissions. What the essays I have read thus far reveal is an erudite mind in a love affair with ideas. This mind has been able to map out contact zones between governance, leadership, and the production/consumption of knowledge. To offer one’s ideas for public consumption in the op-ed pages of The Guardian is to submit oneself to the critical judgment of the segment of society that is sophisticated enough to grapple with the opinion pages of a newspaper.
To trade ideas with the public – I am told that Fashola meticulously reads responses to and critiques of his essays – is indicative of a mind that sets considerable store by the instrumentalization of knowledge for public good. It takes a thorough grasp of the essence of the social contract for a governor to produce thought and submit it for consumption and evaluation in a public space that has become so hostile to intellection. Perfunctory noise about the notion of servant leadership may come from those who cannot tell pot from kettle in Abuja, it seems that the essence of that philosophy is currently being actuated in Lagos. That Fashola is a lawyer and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) is beside the point. Nigeria offers far too many examples of trained minds rendered intellectually impecunious by the soporifics of power, intellects gone prurient after feeding continuously on offal in the corridors of power. Besides, President Yar’Adua’s University training is sufficient indication that formal education is not always coterminous with visionary, progressive, and refined leadership. His somnambulistic and lackluster presidency is a tragic indictment of the University in Nigeria. Those of us who had argued for years that things should begin to change once a mind that has been humanized and instructed by the University got a shot at the highest office in the land now gnash our teeth and make animadversions in contemplation of Yar’Adua’s unbelievably sloppy and visionless presidency. And lately, he was woken up from his slumber to continue tyranny from where Abacha stopped.
This is the context which makes the idea of one Governor’s reading culture and quest for a cultivated mind worthy of more than passing interest. It also, sadly, raises the fundamental question of modes of access to and movement within political space in Nigeria. There are legitimate questions to ask about Fashola’s road to office. It is a photocopy of Yar’Adua’s route to Aso Rock: the route of brazen, nepotistic, and muscular godfatherism. Former President Obasanjo was the caterpillar who cleared brambles and every obstacle on Yar’Adua’s path to a purloined mandate. For Fashola, the bulldozer was his immediate predecessor in office, Alhaji Senator Chief Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
In essence, there is currently no clean and decent way for a refined, cultivated mind, singularly enamoured of service, to accede to political office in Nigeria. Ask Pat Utomi. Ask Kayode Fayemi in Ekiti State. Herein lies the tragedy of ethics in Nigeria. Nigeria hardly ever presents a situation where you could engage reality on the basis of good and bad, ethical and unethical. There is room to rationalize only between bad and less bad, unethical and less unethical. For instance, had Tinubu not had his way by nepotistically godfathering Fashola into government house in Lagos and subverting democracy in the process, that state would have faced an even worse and and absolutely more corrupt scenario of an Obanikoro/PDP hijack. Of two venomous snakes, Lagos state is lucky in essence to have been bitten by the less venomous. Does one celebrate observable results and close one’s eyes to the corruption of the paths taken to those results? The challenge lies in forging a scoiety where the decent, informed, and humanized mind, enamoured of service, does not have to travel on morally-challenged and ethically-tainted routes to office.
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Before Night Falls
Submitted by Emma Sawyerr (not verified) on December 28, 2011 - 05:43.
Prof Pius...this piece is extremely vital to help trigger erudite minds to action.It explains why it is said that "the pen is mightier than the sword". I loved it but would advise that you temper it with meaningful expectations. Lets give Fashola some props because none before him achieved what he has in such a short time. I have lived in the states for over 30 years and still do. He is the only Governor who has tickled my fancy.I am vehemently opposed to the Lekki toll road myselfbecause I know the idea is wrongly placed. Overall, the Governor deserves a break. Lets be prudent in our assessments and critic those who are deserving.
You are a confused man.What a
Submitted by ish (not verified) on December 27, 2011 - 02:43.
You are a confused man.What a rationale for bigotry.Getting peanuts / crumbs from Fash? You need to ponder on how much does it cost? And whats the cost of a new one.Google it,and you will be shocked.Dummy.
Used or unused train?
Submitted by akin(uk) (not verified) on December 27, 2011 - 02:06.
Whether fashola buy used or brand new train, why not tell your dearest president , coward and bombing hero , to buy a brand new train for nigeria railway?.
Well said
Submitted by Iwu Gideon (not verified) on December 26, 2011 - 16:14.
'Be careful lil' minds what you speak', don't allow your mind get swayed by sentiments. If you've got personal beef with Lagos governor, please feel free to take him on but if otherwise is the case, please let's not return us 12 years back.
I'm a critical mind but an objective one at that. If Fashola drives around the state without 'thug angels', how insane would it be to think of him deploying same alongside 'uniformed thugs'. Haba! What if the PDP did to draw your ire. Have you given that some thoughts. Think, anything is possible.
I understand the numerous allegations fired at his godfather and while I hold no brief for Tinubu, I just hope Fashola's image doesn't get mired in half his godfather's image. It stinks.
Proffer Solutions...
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on December 26, 2011 - 12:29.
@Mikey Stone, I don't think it is useful to anyone if the Professor gave solutions to problems because nobody listens anyway. Other people will also complain. Do journalists proffer solutions to articles? It is unnecessary.
Babatunde Fashola
Submitted by Mikey Stone (not verified) on December 25, 2011 - 14:04.
Dear Mr Adesanmi,
It is interesting to read one of your previous article written over 4 years ago and recycled for obvious reasons. It is amazing that a lot of the so called Nigerian writers like yourself will spend a lot of time criticizing policies and system of government but when asked for solutions and way out will either be short of ideas, no ideas at all or resort to name calling. In my opinion, your article would have received huge applause if you had taking your time to suggest solutions to the problems that you have identified but you shy away from it. You started very well but got distracted with historical irrelevance. Please, Oga professor in Canada, criticize and then suggest, opined or recommend solutions. Let's re build or recreate Nigeria with solution focused criticism not throwing mud on the wall hoping it will stick.
Used and New
Submitted by Tobi Austin (not verified) on December 25, 2011 - 11:57.
Seems TTC (sellers of the trains) just got a sweet guinea pig for an experiment in metal fatigue, read this from http://www.nowtoronto.com/daily/news/story.cfm?content=182186: “We should be ensuring that there is some service life left in these vehicles and we’re not going to be playing havoc with the lives of those who would ride these vehicles,” Haider said. “There’s metal fatigue, and that metal fatigue could result in dangerous conditions. I would be paying a close watch on this for the next ten years to see how many accidents do happen in Lagos.”
Fashola and Tinubu re joined in the pocket
Submitted by Omo Itire (not verified) on December 25, 2011 - 01:34.
The toll issue was said to be forced unto his neck but then he can remove him self from this corrupt arrangement! Local government election re foregone conclusion but one councilorship position in mushin itire area is to be rerun because the youth voted emasse for Babalawo against the ACN candidate called Alfa and they lost but with Fashola/Tinubu's consent the winner wasnt anounced. Its a pity we all called him a saviour while is reaklly nothing but a crock like is friend
Faahola and Lekki Tol
Submitted by Mike (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 22:46.
This suggests that, in your wildest imagination, Fashola woul roll thugs into the streets of Lagos to disperse peaceful protesters, the chide of used train might have been out of the way, but the protest smash, i definetly disagree with
Critical Appraisal (2).
Submitted by Lanray (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 21:50.
On the rail system - Lagos is in need of a durable mass transit. Going for second/third hand equipment suggests a myopia perhaps informed by uncertainty that the majority are not privy to - governance for the short term. Fashola probably knows something we all don't know.
The Lekki toll gate makes some sense. This is where the ingenuity of entrepreneurs can come in. For example are there monthly rates (Like a pass. Prof you know what I am talking about for those who use the 401 in Canada, for example)?
Governance is about results. Clear quantifiable results. Fashola, in my opinion has done that best in a very prominent and intricate part of Nigeria. However, he needs to guard against hubris or arising concerns over his mental health.
Critical Appraisal (1)
Submitted by Lanray (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 21:49.
Good job, Prof. Adesanmi. Considering this was written over three years ago. A critical appraisal of Fashola's administration will reveal much, even though my observation currently is that he has taken on the challenge of physical development in Lagos, frontally.
On the education issue (school fees in LASU), Fashola's argument is untenable and clearly lacking in logic. Rich and poor students etc, etc. What sort of reasoning informs policy choices? I can understand providing data suggesting how much the state spends on LASU and why =N25,000.00 would not cut it. Formal education today is expensive.
At least in the United States, if you are not from a rich family, you are paying for college through hard work. But the private sector steps in. Provide financial aid and so on. Even LASG can also do it. There is nothing inherently wrong in raising school fees, the issue is what is the logic (reasoning, behind it) and Fashola has failed woefully in pushing this program. I am disappointed.
IT IS A PITY
Submitted by eddy omo (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 19:01.
Kudos to Pius Adesanmi for putting up this article. may your days be long.
it is a pity that Fashola had fallen to the pressure of people that can hardly aticulate the least of his intelligence.
Fashola, if you were not a thug like your godfather, now is the time to run away from them. for your information, you've killed your future with the thugs and police officers you used to stop the Lekki Peaceful Protest. there is no doubt about that. ACN is finished in Lagos State.
take your family now and run away from Nigeria. then start releasing documents from there to the press that will be used to nail your godfather for good. that is the only way you can get out of the mess you've gotten yourself into. if you refused to go this rout, ACN will consume you sooner than later. mark it.
What We Need From Our Intellectuals......
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 16:18.
I share your views about Nigerian intellectuals contributing to society by teaching our leaders, but how much better it would be, if all our aspiring leaders first ensured the acquisition of sound knowledge of how politics works, before venturing to offer to lead?
Most of so called leaders are stark illeterates. Does it not surprise anyone how OBJ was carrying on as our leader. Even his spoken English is laughable, yet he thinks so very highly of himself as a leader.
Fashola was never a saint
Submitted by Simply Anon (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 15:34.
Merry Christmas Oga Pius. Fashola bought second handed trains because he does not value life at all. Does he think that the life of a Lagosian is just like the life of a cow? There was (and still is) enough money to buy new trains.
I think Lagosians were taken for a ride. Fashola was never a saint because he is allegedly Tinubu's in-law. Tinubu family run Lagos from from the inner chambers of their family tree.
Fashola has shown his true colours and bared his fangs. ACN can never win Lagos again at the gubernatorial level. The deal is over. Fashola and Tinubu are the winners of the game 'Pari Passu'.
On Raji Fashola
Submitted by Abdulrahman Yekeen (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 14:10.
This is certainly one of the best write-ups by Pius Adesanmi. But I differ with Pius on increase in school fees and tolling. Both are legitimate means of raising revenue by the govt of Lagos State. But I agree protest is a right to express grievances by the people. A peaceful protest!!
There are always alternatives 2
Submitted by acube on December 24, 2011 - 13:41.
For the Lekki road; LASG should have left the LKJ built road alone with necessary maintenance done. The Southern Foreshore / Coastal roads that are already planned should have been concessioned and tolled. I believe they would have still been commercial successes if all LCC tells us about the Lekki road is to be believed. It is totally unconscionable to leave a major part of the polity, particularly a part that contributes so much to the state's vaunted IGR, without an untolled access.
Abraham Idowu
There are always alternatives 1
Submitted by acube on December 24, 2011 - 13:39.
Could BRF have done any better on the three policy decisions Pius criticised? On the trains LASG should have made it very clear to the taxpayers and potential customers that it would, for cost and affordability reasons, use refurbished trains at least at the outset. The Economist did a piece recently about the high fares on China's many spanking new rail lines which have turned away the passengers, imperilled the viability of the projects and now constitute the largest chunk of toxic debt in the Chinese banking system. On LASU fees; no system that intends to make sustained progress can afford to exclude the poor but talented. All LASG had to do was grant the best 20% of LASU students full scholarships (tuition, bed, board, bursary etc), grant the next best 20% tuition only scholarships and load the cost of the scholarships on the rest 60%. This would have had the added benefit of turning LASU to the most meritocratic school in naija while leaving LASG in the same financial situation
Great piece! Thanks Prof.
Submitted by Anonymous9 (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 12:56.
Great piece! Thanks Prof.
Fashola The Crook II
Submitted by Justin (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 12:39.
Now, 2 d 2nd term issue, Fashola has his own corruption cabal now (Tunji Bello, Femi Hamzat, COS, Moji Rhodes, Bariyu Ashafa, Mutiu Are, Fuad Oki, Akeem Apatira, Baba Odunsi, Demola.... Known as Governor 2,etc). They planned the EFCC case against the speaker so they could him out of their way. Comparing Apples to Apples, looking @ federal allocation and Internally Generated Revenue of each state, Fashola needs to visit Akwa-Ibom, Edo, Imo, Ondo to mention but a few states 2 learn about Governance and development! Comparing the right statistics, Fashola is a HUGE FAILURE and a disgrace to Lagosians!!!!! I rest my case.
Fashola The Crook
Submitted by Jossy (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 12:36.
Guys.... This is a very timely article. First of all, let's becareful blaming Tinubu 4 all of Fashola's woes because whether you believe it or not, Fashola is a BIGGER crook!!! In his first term, he was crossed with Tinubu because while he was working on his Family's, friends, and relative's enrichment program, Tinubu wants his share of the state's pie. Check out Lagos State civil service today, Fashola's family and friends are @ the elms of affairs in strategic positions. Check out who's dominating political positions, His aunt's son/PA (Idris), Rasheed Muri Okunola and host of others are living large as if other people are not workin 4 money.
I love that imagery!!!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 11:49.
To put it crudely, how did we transition from Ambassador Simeon Adebo to Ambassadors Sam Edem and Musiliu Obanikoro?
It brings home quite poignantlyb the tragedy of our nation!!!
what we need from our intellectuals.. cont'd
Submitted by Ahmad (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 10:46.
I am sure that there is something we can start today that can make Nigeria as good as any European country in just 30 years. What our intellectuals owe us is to figure this out and teach us.
they should stop complaining about the situation in nigeria but rather should offer visions of alternative futures. the good thing is if the idea is sound you will surely get a follower in the corridor of power sooner or later. and he might not even be a nigerian.
what we need from our intellectuals
Submitted by Ahmad (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 10:45.
it does not behove of our intellectuals to look for short term and immediate solutions to our problems because this does not exist (except perhaps in the form of foreign military intervention like in Libya).
What Nigeria lacks is a philosophy that gives us a common sense of nationhood. We need a philosophy that can inspire all Nigerians and give all of us a common mission and a sense of being part of something bigger than our individual life? this is what our intellectuals need to work on. a firm bases for our nationalism that can erode the significance of the ethnic and religious differences.
if we want Nigeria to be great tomorrow, we need to start teaching our children the right attitude today. our generation is already wasted and although we still have to try, we certainly will not be the generation to see the promised land.
Seoul and Beijing Started Their Subways With Refurbished Trains
Submitted by Baba Owolowo (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 07:39.
Seoul, South Korea and Beijing, China both started their metro systems using second-hand, refurbished trains. Pius, please check this out and report. Fashola wants to get metro services started and running during the life of his admin., which ends in 2015. Specifying, designing, contracting, manufacturing and delivering a brand new metro car system can take anywhere from 5 to 8 yrs depending on the manufacturer selected. We've got to start with these refurbished H5 and H6 metro cars now, just like other cities did, and then make plans for better models in phase 2 onwards. There is no crime committed unless Pius is saying that Fashola is misrepresenting the refurbished trains as NEW, which he isn't as far as I know.
Am confused
Submitted by Omo eledumare (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 06:40.
Some nigerians living abroad have commanded Lasu students to pay the new fees, they also rebuked Lekki residents for peaceful protest.
Egbon Aladesanmi how many abroad(s) exist?
Lucky Fash
Submitted by Kole Dafe (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 02:13.
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State is very lucky indeed to have a constituency and host of admirers that like him and aren't afraid to be critical of his style of governance especially when certain decisions aren't making the right turn. Based essentially on this write-up, it appears the governor has the capacity to learn and won't be insensitive to corrections. He must look at the Lekki Toll palaver thoroughly and institute a remedial program. It is good to talk. It is wise to listen. Be human by admitting and correcting mistakes made. And the "people" won't forget. It is never too late to mend!
amazing
Submitted by obi 1 (not verified) on December 24, 2011 - 00:17.
Ur erudite essay was so beautiful....it brought tears to my eyes!this is a classic! Really hope and pray for GOD to help us navigate ourselves out of this quagmire...for if even d best among us I.e fashola is metamorphosing before our eyes...then which way nigeria?
E tu Joe
Submitted by Oloriebi (not verified) on December 23, 2011 - 23:42.
......and u too Joe Igbokwe. Ennnnnnn, so true say na hunger they turn everybody to activism. One of the last standing is singing a new tune. Shai, can we make it? There is hops anyway. I am thoroughly disappointed at Joe Igbokwe's comment on this issue. Let Fashola come and toll the road to your house. Why has he not tolled bourdilon? Adeola Odeku? Yaba? Or the new Isolo/okota rd. Do you know how much the Tinubu/Fashola administration raked from the Lekki axis? Are u aware that Chevron offered to foot part of the bill for the construction of this road and your party leader rejected this offer? Just because he intended to turn it into his pension. We shall see!!!!
MORE OF THIS PLEASE
Submitted by Oloriebi (not verified) on December 23, 2011 - 23:34.
Everyone has a part to play in the redemption of Nigeria, some would write, some would act, some would fight and some would die. The space should be big enough for all of us to freely express ourselves. When people start critiquing the wrong audience, it becomes very sad for Nigeria. What would you say to the shoeless student of Otuoke? What about the actvist who governs in Ekiti? What we lack is a virile opposition which has made people in Power to run government like their personal estate. How else can one explain Fashola's purchase of scrapped metal with precious foreign exchange without noise from the PDP-led opposition in Lagos. Also a very docile population. The only way to explain why the wish of the people never matter. Kudos to the Syrians, in the face of imminent death, the struggle continues. We will get there, it is a matter of time.
Enough of this PLEASE!
Submitted by friendorfoe (not verified) on December 23, 2011 - 21:18.
"The challenge lies in forging a scoiety where the decent, informed, and humanized mind, enamoured of service, does not have to travel on morally-challenged and ethically-tainted routes to office."
Neat conclusion Pius, once I waded through the dense preening self-regarding prose, you finally managed to ask a pertinent question. Perhaps just perhaps you might train your engaging mind to answering your own question. You owe Nigeria that much - otherwise week after week of high falutin grammar becomes as repetitive and as useful as those pastors slapping unsuspecting congregation with false hope.
We are tired already with what is wrong with Nigeria. We know and we are angry. What we dont need is another scribe, "Penguin award winner" (sic) rehashing the same old self-flagellatory shit. Do us and your country a favour and start thinking us out of this mess.
