South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc will wind down its loss-making mobile division after failing to find a buyer, a move that is set to make it the first major smartphone brand to completely withdraw from the market.
Its decision to pull out will leave its 10% share in North America, where it is the No. 3 brand, to be gobbled up by Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc with its domestic rival expected to have the edge.
“In the United States, LG has targeted mid-priced – if not ultra-low – models and that means Samsung, which has more mid-priced product lines than Apple, will be better able to attract LG users,” said Ko Eui-young, an analyst at Hi Investment & Securities.
LG’s smartphone division has logged nearly six years of losses totalling some $4.5 billion. Dropping out of the fiercely competitive sector would allow LG to focus on growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices and smart homes, it said in a statement.
In better times, LG was early to market with a number of cell phone innovations including ultra-wide angle cameras and at its peak in 2013, it was the world’s third-largest smartphone manufacturer behind Samsung and Apple.
But later, its flagship models suffered from both software and hardware mishaps which combined with slower software updates saw the brand steadily slip in favour. Analysts have also criticised the company for lack of expertise in marketing compared to Chinese rivals.
While other well-known mobile brands such as Nokia, HTC and Blackberry have also fallen from lofty heights, they have yet to disappear completely.
LG’s current global share is only about 2%. It shipped 23 million phones last year which compares with 256 million for Samsung, according to research provider Counterpoint.
In addition to North America, it does have a sizeable presence in Latin America, where it ranks as the No. 5 brand.
While rival Chinese brands such as Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi do not have much of a presence in the United States, in part due to frosty bilateral relations, their and Samsung’s low to mid-range product offerings are set to benefit from LG’s absence in Latin America, analysts said.
LG’s smartphone division, the smallest of its five divisions accounting for about 7% of revenue, is expected to be wound down by July 31.
In South Korea, the division’s employees will be moved to other LG Electronics businesses and affiliates, while elsewhere decisions on employment will be made at the local level.
Analysts said they were told in a conference call that LG plans to retain its 4G and 5G core technology patents as well as core R&D personnel, and will continue to develop communication technologies for 6G. It has yet to decide whether to license out such intellectual property in the future, they added.
LG will provide service support and software updates for customers of existing mobile products for a period of time which will vary by region, it added.
Talks to sell part of the business to Vietnam’s Vingroup fell through due to differences about terms, sources with knowledge of the matter have said.
LG Elec shares have risen about 7% since a January announcement that it was considering all options for the business. (Reuters)
Many talented and brilliant Nigerians have had their promising future ruined by their desperation to seek greener pastures abroad. Some of them who quit thriving jobs at home end up doing menial jobs abroad with several others becoming fugitives in the long run, GBENGA ADERANTI reports.
Henry was a top insurance broker in Nigeria before he migrated to the United Kingdom (UK) for greener pastures on the crest of Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) visa. As a top flight insurance broker, he had everything going for him—decent accommodation, fairly good car, reward for good performance and opportunity to rise to higher positions in his organisation. But all that, for the young man, was inadequate.
He had read about how well insurance brokers are paid abroad and imagined how his life would change if he travelled out and earn a salary which when converted to naira would turn him into an instant millionaire. To actualise his dream, he quit his job and left for the UK with a promise to people he left behind that he would soon begin to send cars and hard currency to them.
On getting g to the UK, he tried his best to secure a job similar to the one he was doing in Nigeria but he could not get any. He found himself sweating in the cold temperature of the UK as he found himself unfit for the system. In the end, a friend got him a job as a security officer with a small private firm. Unfortunately, the pay was not enough for him to renew his HSMP visa even though it was better than what he earned in Nigeria.
In the end, the Home Office (HO) gave him 72 hours to leave the UK. But rather than comply, he simply changed his residential address and carried on with his job without informing his employer about the change in his staying status.
A friend to Henry said: “The HO Police went to the office of the security company where he worked after a deportation order was issued and a call was made to him to report in the office immediately. But someone in the office tipped him off about the presence of the police, so he managed to escape deportation.
“He was lucky to be off duty at the time the police visited. Otherwise, he would have been arrested and deported after serving a jail term for working without permit. His predicament has since caused him to go underground, looking for menial jobs and begging for charity.”
Yet as far as the young Nigerian was concerned, it was better to remain a wanderer in the UK than return to Nigeria empty handed to be taunted by friends and relations.
Like Henry, Bukky, an experienced nurse in a government owned hospital in Lagos, also quit her job to travel to the UK on the HSMP visa obtained with the help of a relative who qualified in the UK as a medical doctor.
As a nurse, she had read and heard how much her services would be needed and rewarded abroad. Without wasting time, she saved enough money and obtained a working visa. With the HSMP visa conditions, she was tied to four year visa with her employer – at Camberwell.
A friend of hers said: “In order to change her visa to permanent stay without restrictions, she needed to prove to the Home Office that she’s now ‘settled’ in the UK. As a result, she travelled back to Nigeria to arrange a marriage with an old boyfriend. All the expenses were borne by her.
“She subsequently obtained a visa for the ‘hubby’ and both of them travel to the UK, but the man could not get a job immediately. At a point the man became bored and started having affairs all over the place, flirting and visiting so many dating sites.
“Of course, their marriage crumbled, only for Bukky to realise that the husband actually had another wife and a child in Nigeria to whom he had been sending money to regularly from Bukky’s bank account.
“Bukky literally went ‘mental’. She lost her pregnancy and has not been herself since. She’s now recovering in a psychiatric home while the whereabouts of the husband is unknown.
“The only good thing is that the Home Office has allowed her to stay in the UK permanently without any restrictions, and she is now waiting to become a full UK citizen. Will she ever go back to Nigeria? I doubt that very much. Not for another husband anyway.”
Bukky’s friend also shared the story of two Nigerian ladies who travelled to the UK on six-month tourist visas that could not be renewed.
She said: “Many Nigerians allow their tourist visas to expire without leaving the UK. And knowing that without their old passport the Nigerian Embassy in the UK, by law, cannot issue them ETC (emergency travelling certificate), they burn their passports and clone the identities of legal UK residents that they know. As things stand, many of them may not be able to visit their home country again.
“But the most tragic thing is that many of them are suffering and are at the mercy of other Nigerians in the Diaspora who have turned them into slaves of sorts. This is the story many Nigerians abroad would not tell their family members at home. To compound their problems, some embassies and high commission offices are not making things easy.”
In a viral video, the Nigerian High Commission in Atlanta Georgia, United States, was fingered as one of the places the issue of documentation and passport renewal are made difficult.
In the video, a Nigerian who was frustrated about the hurdles placed in the ways of Nigerians who want to renew their passports described the situation at the high commission as “chaotic”.
According to the man that speaks in the background of the video, the staff at the Nigerian High Commission, aside from collecting the passport application fee, would make Nigerians pay another 130 dollars.
“Nigerians have to stay in the sun outside the embassy disorganised dishevel, leave their homes, travel by flight and sleep in hotels. (They) spend about 1,500 dollars for this trip just because they want to renew their passports,” he said.
In comparison, he said, the citizens of a country like the Republic of Benin do not have to travel but only mail their passports.
“We must stop this. It is a fraud. Defrauding Nigerians in the name of ‘there is no money’ to run the embassy. Where has Nigeria’s money gone to? What happened to the budget?” he queried.
For many Nigerians who are living abroad illegally, returning home to settle down or visit family members could be a pipe dream. According to an immigration lawyer, the problem with most immigrants, especially those with multiple entry visas, starts when they want to work in the UK.
According to him, the visa confers on them the status of visitors who are not allowed to work. “Most Nigerian immigrants adopt other people’s names and use the documents of genuine citizens who are allowed to work. In most cases, when such a visitor is caught, the penalty is always grave. Unfortunately, most Nigerians who come as visitors always have it at the back of their minds to work in the UK.”
According to him, it is a bit better for those with multiple visas. But it is also a big risk. Most of them would come in, work and use the proceeds of their work to buy goods. He said what they normally do is to extend the visa for two or three years and they would start working.
“After a while, they go to the home office and change their status from being a visitor to that of a trader or a business person. But it is a big risk, because in the process of trying to gather money, nothing must go wrong. For those of them that managed to escape immigration, it is always neither here nor there because they would not want to come back to Nigeria because of the fear of being caught by the immigration at the airport.”
A Nigerian with dual citizenship who lives in the United Kingdom told The Nation that some Nigerians who are stranded in the country are sometimes assisted by people like him. But he said it could spell a disaster if they are caught.
He said: “If stranded Nigerians want to go out of the country (UK), what they normally do is to look for someone with both the Nigerian and the United Kingdom passports. The one with the UK and the Nigerian citizenship will buy the ticket in his own name, pretending that he is travelling to Nigeria, check in, collect the boarding pass or even travel together.
“The only snag is that you can’t use such in two places because the gate the foreigner will pass through is different from the gate the UK citizen would pass through. But as soon as the Nigerian gets to the airport, he would send the passport back to the UK.
“This costs a lot of money and it is a big racket here. They charge as much as £2,000. But if caught, the owner of such a passport could also go to jail. Though very risky, that is the only way those that had been stranded get out of the UK.
“Although using another person’s passport may be difficult, some who are not eligible to work also change their identity by using another person’s document to work. But this has its own challenge too as the salary or the wage is paid into the account of the owner of the identity. The real owner deducts his own commission at source and gives whatever they agreed on to the borrower of his identity.
“This has its own problem too because the owner of the identity could decide to be dubious. He may decide not to pay a dime to the person using his identity, knowing full well that the person would not be able to report.”
Speaking to The Nation, Susan, who has lived in the United Kingdom for six years, said she came to the country with a student visa. But after finishing her studies, she decided to stay and work and has been using another person’s identity. Suzan said: “I was employed by a Nigerian agent to work as a caregiver. Most times when it is time to pay, the owner of the agency, a woman, would have one reason or the other not to pay. She would tell you that if you are aggrieved, you may report to the police. It sucks. What can you do?”
Suzan said if she would be able to get a job in Nigeria where she would be able to earn N500,000 a month, she would definitely return home.
There is also the case of one Peter who travelled to the United Kingdom. At a point that things were getting difficult for him, he approached his friend who gave him his driver’s licence which he used to apply for a job in a supermarket.
He said: “It was my friend that applied for the job for me. He gave me his driver’s licence but warned me sternly that if I was caught he would deny me and tell the police that I stole his identity. He warned me not to use his identity to borrow from a bank or get into debt.”
Peter was lucky for two years, using his friend’s identity to work without paying a dime to the owner of the identity. He applied for asylum and for more than two years, he kept appealing. He had his documents in the home office and was eventually granted an asylum.
“I was just lucky. It is always sweet when you are not caught. I couldn’t see my family during that period because if I made any attempt to come to Nigeria, they would not allow me to return to the UK. It was traumatic.
But using another person’s identity brings a lot of trouble. A Nigerian living in Texas, Dele Peters, told The Nation how a Nigerian was caught using the identity of a dead person. The real owner of the identity is in Texas while the person that assumes the new identity lives in Ohio. “Unfortunately, the owner of the identity who lived in Texas died. But the one with a fake identity kept using the document of the dead person even when she knew that the owner of the identity was dead.
“Unfortunately, this country is wired. They knew that the real owner was dead but he was still paying tax. Everybody pays tax. So, if you work, your employer remits taxes on your behalf to the federal, state and county. That the name was dead in Texas and yet a company was remitting taxes on her behalf was a red flag.
“Of course, the impostor did not realise that this could be monitored. When the authorities went to check his place of work, they discovered that it was another person that was using the document. The fingerprint of the person using a dead person’s document was taken, so it became difficult for him to work again. Even if he wanted to work, it would be under the table,” he said.
According to Peters, the system is fashioned in such a way that if you are caught, you may be lucky not to be deported but it is the system that would render such a person useless. “You won’t be able to function if your name is flagged on employment issue, particularly if it is based on dishonesty,” Peter explained.
He said the good thing is that such a person could go back to Nigeria but it would be difficult to return to the United States.
According to him, there are many of them in different correctional centres in the United States due to some of the things we do at home that do not attract sanctions.
“Here, it is a big deal and you could be jailed for it,” he said.
According to him, having a relationship with a teenager, watching ponography at work may not attract much sanction in Nigeria, but in the United States, it is regarded as felony sexual conduct and this attracts serious sanction. “Ethically, it is wrong if you are as a nurse or a doctor to have porn on your phone. I know some Nigerians who were locked and had their licenses seized because of that.
“I know of someone here in this state. He was working with elderly people and the physically challenged. On duty he was watching porn. He left his phone because he needed to attend to an emergency. One of the physically challenged picked his phone and the first thing they saw on the phone was porn. That was a big error.
“He was prosecuted. He lost his licence and there was no way he would get a good job.
Fortunately for him, he ran to Canada because he is a citizen and reordered his life there.”
After returning from jail, such a person could be living on government benefits or foundation benefits. Such a person may not return to Nigeria because his record has been taken. And if he goes to Nigeria, he will not be allowed to return to the United States, except such a person is a citizen.
For some of them who are not citizens, they always prefer not to return to Nigeria because they would not be allowed entry into the country.
Peters also disclosed that some Nigerians deliberately prefer to be cab drivers because this gives them room to evade child support payment. “They know that if they do regular jobs, the government will continue to deduct their money from the source for child support. Some of them have two, three children outside without bothering to care for such children. In the real parlance, they have ‘baby mamas’ that they are not married to but have children with. If they are reported by the mother of their children, anywhere they work, their paychecks are always garnished.
“Quite a number of them do not like it. How do you make 6000 dollars a month and you can only have 400 dollars to show for it?”
“If you were married, doing well and all of a sudden, things started going south between the married couple, after divorce, one could claim spousal support. What that mean is that a percentage of your income goes to support the other even when you are no more married! But if you do not have an income that matches what percentage could be garnished, you’re free of such support.
“The medical doctor chose to be a cab driver where he only could determine his income declaration.”
He said if these set of people decide to come back to Nigeria, there is the tendency for the authorities to know that they had evaded their payments and could attract imprisonment. “So, most of them prefer to go underground rather than risk jail terms.”
While many other Nigerians were wandering the streets of London and New York, a nursing mother, Adeyinka Gbemisola, got a reprieve in court. Gbemisola, 45, had arrived in the UK on a visitor visa that permitted her to remain in the country till 2023, but not allowed to work.
According to a report by a magazine, Nigeria Abroad, a Manchester-based job agency, Local Care Force, became suspicious of Gbemisola after checking her CV and was unable to make contact with her referees.
According to the magazine, “the work documents she provided, upon investigations, it was discovered that she had previously worked illegally in the UK via another recruitment agency on £9 per hour and earned around £1,800.
Gbemisola was charged to court, where her lawyer, Joshua Bowker, argued that she had fled Nigeria from an abusive husband and had to obtain a fake UK resident’s card for a job in the care industry.
Gbemisola’s lawyer appealed to the judge to consider her, saying she took the chance “to put food on the table for her two kids, not to fund a lavish lifestyle,” and that her children would “suffer” if she was jailed.
Luckily for Gbemisola, the judge was persuaded by Gbemisola’s lawyer’s argument that she took the chance “to put food on the table for her two kids not to fund a lavish lifestyle,” and that her children would “suffer” if she was jailed.
Responding, the judge said that Gbemisola did what she did in order to earn money for her children, “but this must be taken seriously because those documents could have been used by someone with more sinister intentions to obtain work with vulnerable people and put them at risk.
“I take the view that you are clearly remorseful, have a realistic prospect of rehabilitation, are a full-time carer for your children and they would suffer greatly if you were to go to prison today.”
Gbemisola eventually got a six-month suspended sentence.
A suspended sentence, according to the magazine, places a defendant on probation and is likely to be discharged if the defendant does not break the law during the probation.
The Petroleum Equalization Fund Management Board (PEF-M) is currently hosting members of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) and their counterparts in the House of Representatives at a retreat on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in Istanbul, Turkey, with tax payers’ money, LEADERSHIP can authoritatively report.
According to sources, PEF is spending scarce foreign exchange on this retreat at a time when the cash-strapped Federal Government is planning to borrow the bulk of $1.5billion to rehabilitate the 32-year-old Port Harcourt Refinery.
Questions are being asked about the propriety of spending billions of dollars on futile turnaround maintenance over the years.
Although the Federal Government said about $800 million of the funds for the refinery would be coming from appropriation, $200 million from the internal operations of NNPC, and the rest from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), analysts believe that the current tough times call for judicious use of public funds.
LEADERSHIP findings revealed that the PEF retreat could cost up than N7million per participant. At the moment, return ticket to Istanbul is about N500,000. An average hotel in the city of Istanbul cost about N150,000 per night and such a trip could attract up to $10,000 per person as estacode (N4.5million).
LEADERSHIP gathered that since Nigerian public office holders crave foreign trips, this one may have attracted about 30 participants, costing the agency about N200million.
Nigeria attracts just a tiny fraction of oil and gas investment in Africa, even though the country is the continent’s largest crude producer and has significant untapped reserves.
The nation’s oil sector has a reputation for corruption, inefficiency and problems ranging from high production costs to unrest sparked by environmental damage and lack of development for local communities where oil is extracted. The government has been working on the PIB for 15 years.
In September, 2020, lawmakers received an amended Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) — there were several attempts before — with the aim of passing it by April and signing it into law by May. Nigeria hopes the PIB will encourage more investments into the country.
Yet, in the new Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) before the National Assembly, the Federal Government plans to set up Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority to regulate operators in the midstream and downstream oil industry which means the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and PEF that are currently the regulators of the downstream oil and gas sector would be merged.
Confirming this recently, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva on September 3, 2020, announced that PEF and PPPRA would be merged to form a new regulatory body called the “Authority”.
Why an agency that could become an “Authority” is hosting a retreat outside the country at this time is unclear. Also, whether the agency’s role is still tenable at all in a deregulated regime which the government is promoting, has been widely debated.
Meanwhile, the PEF had come under fire in recent times. Few weeks ago, the Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, urged the federal government to scrap the agency, and in its place make the 21 petrol depots across the country functional and accessible to oil marketers.
IPMAN national publicity officer, Elder Ukadike Chinedu told journalists in Abuja that bringing the products closer to marketers would eliminate the need for PEF.
Also, the Niger Delta Non-Violence Agitators Forum, NDNAF, recently protested alleged marginalisation and alienation of Niger Delta by the PEF (M) – Board, Abuja, in its last recruitment exercise, where out of 200 persons offered employment on July 13 and 14, last year, only 17 persons were hired from certain oil producing states, while 173 persons came from non-oil producing states. (Independent)
Today, I have elected to go the way of the over 160 years old American ideas magazine; the Atlantic monthly. The magazine states challengingly: “We seek debate over agreement, fact over favour”.
For two weeks, I have been providing some insights into the hypocrisy that was spruced up as an anti-corruption fight since the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency incepted in 1999. The moment I uploaded the first salvo; Ibori, Okowa, Obasanjo, Ribadu, Atiku, UK; Anti-graft “Politricks”
Dr. Mordi knows that I know his opinions about Chief James Onanefe Ibori, the present Governor of Delta state, His Excellency, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa and Delta state government, but that is not what I want to address today or ever, after all, a man is entitled to his personal opinions.
The issue I have with him is totally and entirely this: the thrust of my article under consideration was unambiguous: “How serious is Nigeria’s anti-corruption fight? Answer: That depends on the accused, the accuser and the amount of prejudice (bias, preconception, prejudgment, predisposition, partiality) and the “politricks” involved.
The best thing under the circumstances would be to get Dr. Mordi to debate me so that he would have the chance to expose me and for me to defend myself against his grave allegation. To accuse a writer of sophistry is to accuse him of the worst fault a writer could commit; fallacy and dishonesty. So, let him expose all the faults that I committed in that article, and then I will reply. Whatever way the academic give and take goes, some practicing and up and coming journalists would be able to gain from it.
That same evening I replied: “Dr Emma Mordi, I wrote some two thousand-word essay. Please now, do us a favour, or at least do me a favour; write so that people may read you. I hereby challenge you to an open debate here or in the newspapers.
Then he tried to dodge, saying: “Check me out on Google Scholar. I write for High Impact Journals, not newspapers.” I reminded him that Profs Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Femi Osofisan, Chinweizu, Adesanmi (who died March 10, 2019 on the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash) Farooq Kperogi, Olatunji Dare, Adebayo Williams, G.G. Darah, Edwin Madunagu, Biodun Jeyifo, Okey Idibe, Ayo Awojobi, Levi Ogwujiofor and other academics both living or dead, did not disdain the newspapers.
That was when Dr. Mordi accepted the challenge. He wrote: “So, these few lines took you two hours to write? Embarrassing. I have not found Tony worthy of my study as a media scholar. I study and write about the media. Why should I run away from this empty debate? Let’s dig it out. I am only reluctant because we have come a long way. I am better than Tony Eluemunor in every material particular. Start the debate and be deconstructed for all time. But let it be on record that I called you to ‘die the matter’.
Hahaha. What does Tony call an article? This is even more embarrassing”.
Well, I have waited for two weeks, but I have not read Dr. Mordi anywhere. That explains this reminder. I am waiting for him to point out the faults in my article. Anyone may wonder why I, who has been mentioning names in my articles, should challenge anybody to a debate. Well, Dr. Mordi gave no reasons why my article is nothing but sophistry. He should point it out, in the true spirit of scholarship. I have always furnished the points I have against those I have ever opposed, and challenged them to fault me. I wrote that what went on under Obasanjo’s administration was nothing but hypocrisy, and that Chief James Onanefe Ibori was targeted because of his politics. Dr. Mordi accused me of sophistry. What really is his point? How does he justify the charge of sophistry (fallacy, fraudulence, illogicality, dishonesty) against me? He should say so, and he and I will have an open debate to defend our positions. I promise to be very civil. I ask for nothing more.
And let the public be the judge.
Why I Itemized Index of Corruption Recently
There are university teachers and there are university teachers. Every profession, every trade, every vocation, has them; the real and the fake. The remarkable and the scandalous. The gifted, the skilled, the brainy and the worthless, the trashy, the insignificant and irredeemably irrelevant. Some are so terribly useless that they are toxic and sickening. While I await Dr. Emmanuel Mordi to debate me on my referenced articles, I thank Prof. Tony Afejuku for the question he asked over the same articles.
Prof. Afejuku and I offer short commentaries on each other’s articles; a short criticism here, a truth overlooked or a point that needs to be further developed there, but no punky flattery.
For two weeks, I had dwelt on what I laughingly call an index of corruption, where I mentioned spectacularly costly contracts that failed spectacularly, too. And then, two things happened that reminded me of Alexander Pope’s famous phrase, which in full or in part, has been used countless times since 1711. Pope describes an insolent “Critic” (such as Dr. Emma Mordi of the History Department of Delta State University, Abraka: “The Bookful Blockhead, ignorantly read, With Loads of Learned Lumber in his Head, With his own Tongue still edifies his Ears, And always List’ning to Himself appears. Name a new Play, and he’s the Poet’s Friend, No Place so Sacred from such Fops is barr’d, Nor is Paul’s Church more safe than Paul’s Church-yard: Nay, fly to Altars; there they’ll talk you dead; For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.”— Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, lines 612-615, 620-625.
Unlike Dr. Emma Mordi, Prof Afejuku sagely asked a simple question which demanded a complex answer from me. Well, there are lecturers and there are lecturers. He said: “Very interestingly loaded. But what purpose will this longish piece immediately serve”?
That was an important question, for a piece of writing must be engineered to have a particular effect, or the author would have wasted his time.
My reply: “Thanks. I want to show the people the “dark side of the moon”. It is there all right, but unseen.
I want to show that no anti-corruption fight was never on. It wasn’t. What ensued was power games, the sort no journalist ever wrote about. I want to show that what obtained from the Obasanjo era was AUDACITY OF HYPOCRISY…the title of a book I have been working on since 1999.
I want to show that Nigerians, including our journalists, columnists, professionals and Professors, especially them, failed Nigeria by surrendering the healthy skepticism they should have had, a good dollop of it, owing to their learning, and joined in applauding the masquerades they didn’t BOTHER to understand.
I want to show that we applauded the grandstanding of the hypocrites in power who were decidedly deceitful from the start. And thus we aided them in the destruction that ensued. And having been so bushwhacked by a series of generations of politicians and pseudo-leaders, we nationally raised our collective hands against Obasanjo’s enemy number one, Ibori, as the face of corruption.
Nuhu Ribadu, a political prostitute who was fighting mightily to make his friend, Nasir el-Rufai, President in 2007, identified Ibori as an obstacle and did everything to remove him from the political scene. (Ribadu began by fighting Obasanjo’s battles but went rogue when Third Term scheme ended.
Nigerians never knew of Ibori’s battles; the stout and lusty stand he took on MATTERS SOUTH-SOUTH AND RESOURCE CONTROL.
How many knew that during Obasanjo’s national conference, Ibori’s Delta state funded a Secretariat in Abuja for the entire South- South delegates? How many knew that the DSS operated one Secretariat to further Obasanjo’s Third Term agenda? I know the street where that office was, in Abuja. I know the building itself.
I want to show that we have been slaves fighting the slave-masters’ fights.
What could have happened if Dr. Alex Ekwueme became President in 2003, he and his seven-degree brain? He may not have been a political and leadership genius but he would have been a gentlemanly President, open to ideas different from his. He could have been accommodating. But Obasanjo was a bull in a china shop. That is why some people stole our elephants but we play blind to their infractions as we all pursue Ibori who the really corrupt and corrupting leaders want us to see as corrupt, because they say he stole our cricket”.
Did you notice how I emphasized the Professors’ failures? I did that because it was not only leadership failure that has made Nigeria a failed state, there has been followership failure too. How much did the military dictatorship shred the ties that bind Nigeria? How much does Nigeria mean to people from the various ethnic groups? What is Nigeria to our children? Are we getting more united or disunited? Does our military differ from the civilian population? If not, is that why some persons there may be sabotaging the fight against insurgents?
The July 1977 ATLANTIC monthly magazine article, THE WIDENING GAP BETWEEN THE MILITARY AND THE SOCIETY shows that an example of American Professors’ constant studying of America’s problems, unlike their Nigerian counterparts.
From that article came this: “Whatever the implications of these changes, they put society at odds with the classic military values of sacrifice, unity, self-discipline, and considering the interests of the group before the individual”.
Now, who has tracked the changes the military academies have on their graduates? Do they change at all, and in which directions? Is the military divided along ethnic lines? What about the civil service? The Judiciary? The Nigerian youth?
Nigeria continues to wither away; the governments fail to provide services that necessitate countries and governments in the first place and nobody studies or explains the effects of such on the populace.
Adieu, Yinka Odumakin
I am not sure Yinka and I met more than once. But we were friends based on ideas. We met on the internet discussion groups during the Goodluck Jonathan presidency and the Ibori London trial controversy was hot. It was I against the rest. And they kept it coming and I kept replying. Some days the engagements would go on for straight 24 hours.
Yinka and I jostled and jostled. But he was not only civil, like Prof Bolaji Aluko, Yinka would pick offence whenever anyone insulted me. He insisted that Nigeria would need the journalist in Tony Eluemunor after the Ibori controversy would have blown over. Over the years we exchanged countless e-mails.
Ah, Yinka was a federalist, supportive of resource control. He recognised that fiscal federalism was the way to go. Somewhere along the line, he and Ibori would have embraced, for he was fast learning that hypocrites have been hoodwinking Nigeria, and he was being attacked, tarred and demonised too for his position on issues. But he died too soon. May he rest in perfect peace. (Independent)
¶ ETERNAL DEATH & CONDEMNATION: “So those who are believers in Christ Jesus can no longer be condemned. The standards of the Spirit, who gives life through Christ Jesus, have set you free from the standards of sin and death” (Rom. 8:1,2)_
¶ ALL CURSES and CHARGES: “He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross … Christ rescued us from the Law’s curse, when he became a curse in our place…” (Col. 2:14; Gal. 3:13)
¶ SIN’S DOMINION and SICKNESSES: “Christ himself carried our sins in his body to the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness… By his wounds you have been healed…Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the LAW , you now live under the freedom of God’s grace” (1Pet. 2:24; Rom. 6:14)
Whatever The FALL brought upon us, The CROSS took away from us. And whatever The Cross could not finish for you, no man or “anointing” can.
Millions of customers who are subscribers of MTN Nigeria have in the last two days been at the receiving end of a dispute between the telecommunications giant, Value Added Service (VAS) aggregators and banks over commission fee.
This has led to a restriction of the unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) channels services offered by the aggregators to bank customers.
Aggregators (middlemen) are entities that provide a single platform through which VAS providers may access the services of network operators. VAS involves the provision of value added mobile/fixed services including premium rates services which are centered on entertainment, marketing, advertising, and commerce.
Examples of these services include airtime, text messages, picture messages, ring tones, graphics, games, multimedia, call center and call directory. There are about 233 companies licenced by the NCC to act as VAS aggregators in the telecommunications industry.
The Nigerian VAS market is estimated by the NCC to be currently worth $200 million and should be valued at $500 million in the next five years.
The VAS charges range between N10, N20, N50 and N100 depending on the service. For instance, airtime is sold at highly discounted rates to VAS Aggregators who share the revenue with the telcos.
Generally, revenue used to be shared between the telecom operators and VAS aggregators at between 60 per cent and 40 per cent. MTN, Airtel, Glo and 9mobile have separate VAS sharing ratio with the aggregators between 70 per cent and 30 per cent.
The USSD channels are short codes used by phone users to enable certain services such as mobile banking, games, ringtone and songs purchases, etc.
MTN customers can no longer purchase airtime from their bank accounts thus creating a dislocation in the value chain and causing inflation in airtime pricing as people now resort to purchase of paper airtime from shops and roadside vendors.
A telecom operator said the overnight suspension of airtime sales by some of the banks is not restricted to USSD channels alone, but includes airtime purchases through all banking channels – bank apps, bank USSD codes, even debit cards.
Bank customers’ efforts to purchase airtime from their MTN lines are now met with this message: “Dear customer, this service is temporarily unavailable. Kindly contact your telecom service provider.”
Industry sources disclosed that MTN had on Thursday March 31, 2021 reduced the commission accruable to the aggregators and banks from 3.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
The sudden change in commission and the urgency of the implementation did not go down well with the aggregators and banks. Efforts to make MTN come to middle ground failed, thus, the restriction of airtime sales from banks to MTN subscribers.
Today, bank accounts holders registered on MTN network can no longer purchase airtime from the account. An MTN subscriber, Calistus Nzenwa, caught in the crossfire between the warring parties said, “Unfortunately, it is happening while the country is on public holidays for the Easter festivities. This has caused a rise in the cost of paper recharge cards from N100 to N110, N200 to N210 and N500 to N520 depending on the location and vendors.”
An official of MTN who pleaded anonymity said that the telecom operator is coming out with alternative means where people can make their airtime purchases.
“In developed societies, what they get is between 0.5 per cent and 0.75 per cent but we are offering them 2.5 per cent. We own the infrastructure they are riding on. We are not bulging; we are coming out with alternative means for our customers to recharge their lines. People can now use JumiaPay, Flutterwave, MyMTN App, and others which we are going to announce shortly,” the MTN official said.
MTN sticking to its high horse may be viewed as overbearing on its USSD partners and the banks decision to cut off the cash flow from its customers’ bank accounts may as well be quick response but the underlying matter is that the customers are suffering in the fight of the two elephants. Millions of subscribers are in locations where physical vending is kilometres away.
Sources said MTN wants to make Digital Financial Inclusion (DFI), a major revenue earner and is positioning itself as a major player in that segment as average revenue per user (ARPU) keep going down across the telecom sector globally as more phone users make use of WhatsApp Voice, Facebook Messenger and Voice and other apps that bypass the telecom networks to make voice calls and send data and videos.
In a press statement signed by the Senior Manager, External Relations, MTN, Funso Aina, the telco said, ‘‘Please note that as follow-up to your story on the ‘MTN vs Banks’ USSD matter, it will interest you to note that for the benefit of our customers who have been greatly inconvenienced by the service suspension, we now have alternative channels of accessing MTN services electronically.’’
Meanwhile, the president, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Engr. Ike Nnamani said the dispute between banks and MTN, “Is being looked into and will be resolved. Recall there was an agreement on the way forward in terms of the future payments and charges. This was signed by the telecom and financial sectors regulators.
But parties were told to go and discuss on the outstanding issue of debts that accumulated for services rendered. There seems to be a disconnect between the parties on how that will be handled. All the same, because these are critical services, we know it will be resolved.”
Against the backdrop of the intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to resolve the N42 billion unpaid USSD debt recently, customers cannot afford to be caught in the middle of another fight between the banking and the telecom industry.
Therefore, it is instructive that the two regulators reign in the banks and MTN to maintain the status quo. It is also cheering that the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami has started engaging the CBN and NCC to resolve the dispute. (Leadership)
EASTER MESSAGE, April 4th 2021 By Matthew Hassan KUKAH, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese
If a religious leader is afraid to say what is right, what else can his silence mean but that he has taken flight? Hiding behind a wall of silence is like taking flight at the approach of the wolf. Pope St. Gregory the Great (540–604 AD) 1: Easter Sunday is here again. But first, let us step back to Friday. Good Friday was a Kairos moment for the beleaguered followers of Jesus, a defining moment that separated truth from falsehood and light from darkness. At Golgotha, Jesus remained silent when the first thief taunted Him, and when bystanders scornfully asked him to demonstrate His divine powers by coming down from the cross. Everything about Christ–the prophecies of His birth, His life on earth, the miracles He performed, the sermons He preached, His torture and subsequent death–now hung languidly on a wooden cross on the hill of Golgotha. There were two types of persons at Golgotha: observers and waiters. The observers had two characteristics, derision and curiosity. The waiters were characterised by hope, fear, and anxiety. Both sides watched and waited with bated breath. After His ignominious death, everything now depended on the third day. After all, He had said He would rise after three days (Mk. 9:31). 2: Let us pause and look back at the earlier events in the life of Jesus. Let us look briefly at the drama of the three temptations of Jesus by the devil as recorded by St. Matthew. First, the devil has a sense of perfect timing when he approached Jesus. He knows that Jesus had fasted for forty days and nights without food and was hungry (Mt. 4:2). Prove that you are the Son of God: turn these stones into bread, he said (Mt. 4:3). In response, Jesus says: Man will not live on bread alone (Mt. 4:4). Here, Jesus insists that there are higher goals for us to live or die for. The devil had hoped that like the dictators of today, Jesus could seduce the people with the bread of temporal power to gain cheap followership. No, Jesus says, you must set a higher moral goal. Second, the devil asks Jesus to throw himself down the cliff. After all, he tells Jesus, the Angels of God will hold you (Mt. 4:6). Here, Jesus is called to take a shortcut to fame. Why travel the hard road of suffering, sacrifice, exclusion, and powerlessness? Succumb to the seduction of the dreamer, the charmer, climb the actor’s shoulder. And then what next? Jesus rejects this temptation. Why? Because God demands more than theatrical performances from us. Third, the devil says he will give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world (money, power, territory) only if He bows and acknowledges him (Mt. 4:8). Wow! No better evidence that the devil is a liar. He knows he has no kingdom and what he has is his kingdom of darkness and lies. It was in this same manner that the devil deceived Eve at the Garden of Eden by mixing a concoction of lies. At the base of this temptation is the seduction of pride and power. God knows that the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God (Gen. 3:5). Think of the many who have sold their souls for ephemeral power, those who have denied Jesus by action so as to ascend the throne of power. By His resistance to the devil, Jesus shows that following His path will require tremendous sacrifice. 3: It’s now Saturday night. The clock is ticking. Will He or will He not rise as He said? No one knows what to expect. Will Jesus be exposed as a fraud? The Apostles are retired, desolate, forlorn, woebegone, and despondent. Has it all come to nothing? Have they lost everything? Has it all just been an illusion? Was Peter right when he asked what their reward would be, having forgone everything to follow Him? (Mt. 19:27) Has this been one wild goose chase? Where would they turn to now? The sun gradually sets on Saturday. The night has in its womb, a combination of the derision and curiosity binding the observers and waiters. A cloud of trepidation envelopes everywhere. The Roman authorities have built a concrete wall of military security around the grave. They sealed the stone and placed heavy military guard just in case, as they feared, His followers come and steal the body and pretend that He had risen (Mt. 27: 64). 4: Sunday morning would seal the fate of everyone on both sides. As it turns out, the world forgot that: He who guards Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps (Ps. 121:4). Before daybreak, a woman, Mary Magdalene, visits the grave to perform a simple ritual. To her shock, she finds an empty tomb! (Jn. 20:1). Slowly, painfully, unbelievably, the words go out: They have taken the body of the Lord away and we do not know where they have put Him (Jn. 20:2). They will soon realise that, indeed, His resurrection is only a fulfilment of what He had promised during His lifetime. The devil has been defeated, and the Lord has the final word. Truth has drowned falsehood. Light has overcome darkness. Good has triumphed over evil. Life has defeated death. 5: The Roman soldiers who stood guard over the grave were like dead men (Mt. 28:3). However, rather than face punishment, the Roman authorities offered to bribe them and asked them to lie that the Lord’s body had been stolen while they were sleeping! (Mt. 28:13). It is too late: The Lord is risen indeed! World history succumbs to the power of the Creator of heaven and earth. Time and space have merged. History’s calendar is split into two. Henceforth, everything will be marked by whether it happened before or after the resurrection of Jesus Christ! This is what Christians celebrate today. But what is the implication of all this for us in Nigeria today? 6: Nigeria’s current predicament reminds me of Israel’s situation that led to the death of Eli, the great High Priest of Israel. Israel’s defeat in the hands of the Philistines led to the death of 30,000 soldiers. The two sons of the 98-year-old priest – Hophni and Phinehas – died in the battle. Eli’s two sons had foolishly carried the Ark of the Lord into the battlefield for protection, only for it to become a trophy for the victorious Philistines. The high priest, Eli, collapsed and died after hearing this horrible news. Elsewhere, on hearing about the death of her husband, her father- in-law, and the loss of the Ark, Eli’s daughter-in-law went into premature labour. She was delivered of a baby boy–a call for great celebration in Israel! Strangely, she responded by naming her newborn son “Ichabod,” meaning, The glory has departed! 7: Taunted by Boko Haram, ravaged by bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, and other merchants of death across the nation, there is collective fear as to whether Nigeria’s glory is about to depart! Retired military and intelligence officers lament over what has become of their glorious profession as they watch the humiliation of our military personnel. Traumatised citizens are tortured daily by bandits. The nation has since become a massive killing field, as both government and the governed look on helplessly. A thick and suffocating cloud of desperation, despondency, desolation, gloom, and misery hangs in the hot air. We have no message and have no idea how long this will last. Our people seek solace and protection, but frustration and darkness threaten to drown them. Is their government on AWOL? 8: Two weeks ago, I came across a video in which a very frustrated Muslim cleric, addressing a Muslim audience, lamented: If you killed 200 chickens in the farm of any of the big farmers, you will be dealt with. But today, we are being killed. It is your fault. On the day of elections, you say, it is Jihad! Christians will take over Nigeria! Ok, the Christians did not take Nigeria. It has been left in the hands of those who sit and see us being killed. If we are killed, the head says, God forbid! He was not elected to say God forbid. This imaginary jihad won the elections now where are the jihadists? The lesson here is that politicians will use religion to mobilise for elections, but they cannot use it to govern.
9: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria weighed in with a strong statement on February 23, 2021, titled, We Must Pull Back from the Brink of Collapse. Part of the statement read: The very survival of the nation is at stake. The nation is pulling apart. Widespread serious insecurity for long unaddressed has left the sad and dangerous impressions that those who have assumed the duty and authority to secure the nation are either unable, or worse, unwilling to take up the responsibilities to their office. Patience is running out. Sadly, all of these warnings are still falling on deaf ears. 10: It may sound strange, but for us Christians, the celebration of the resurrection of Christ is the greatest assurance that all these will pass away. This is not a call for us to simply sit on our hands or believe we can pray our crises away. As pointed out above, the sufferings of Jesus and His Cross provide us with the perfect mirror of our hope. St. Paul reminds us: We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body (2 Cor. 4:9). These are the hallmarks of our faith. We must remain steadfast. 11: I appeal to Christians to continue in the spirit of the Gospel, the teachings of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. St. Paul says: Though He was God, he humbled himself, became man and remained obedient up till death (Phil. 2:6ff). Following in His steps, we Christians have lived through the life of martyrdom. Jesus taught us how to pray for our enemies (Mt. 5:44). Although His teachings are hard (Jn. 6:60), it was not the guns of a powerful army that brought down the walls of Jericho. The prayers of the priests did (Jos. 6:20). Jesus defied the temptations of coming down from the Cross. He knew there was a higher truth deferred. It was fulfilled on Easter day. No matter the provocation, we must arm ourselves with the weapons of truth, the Word, the Spirit, and love. At the heart of Christianity is the Truth and Love. 12: Today, many of us erroneously speak about the trial of Jesus by Pilate on Good Friday. In reality, it was Pilate who stood trial, not Jesus. Pilate sat on a throne to judge what he himself was ignorant of–the truth. Chained by ignorance, the powerful often grope around a twilight zone between truth and lies. At the mention of the word “Truth” by Jesus, Pilate was jolted from his chair. In trepidation and apprehension, the mighty man says, Truth, what is that? (Jn. 18:38). Pilate was looking for the Truth but did not recognise it when it stood right before him. In every age, the seduction of raw power tends to blind the Pilates of this world to the truth. 13: When governments face legitimacy crises, they fall back on serving the sour broth of propaganda, half-truths, and outright lies. They manufacture consent by creating imaginary enemies, setting citizens against one another by deploying religion, ethnicity, region, and other platforms while appealing to the base emotions of patriotism. We forget the reality that without truth, the throne of power often turns into a cage, and the occupant is turned into a prisoner. In reality, the truth needs neither a judge nor a witness. The truth is its own judge and witness. Without the truth, as the old song says, all else is sinking sand! 14: Recently, according to the World Happiness Report, we are one of the unhappiest nations in the world. This is unacceptable but understandable. Our clay-footed fight against corruption has not moved the needle of transparency forward. Of course, being the poverty capital of the world comes with its rewards such as banditry, violence, death, sorrow, blood, poverty, misery, and tears. Our cup of sorrow is permanently full; hence the exponential rise in the frustration curve across the country. 15: Sadly, human life is hemorrhaging so badly in Nigeria, but the greatest tragedy is the death of empathy from those in power. Mysteriously, the government is investing billions of naira in rehabilitating so-called Boko Haram repentant members and their other partners in crime in the belief that they want to turn a new leaf. These criminals have waged war against their country, murdered thousands of citizens, destroyed infrastructure and rendered entire families permanently displaced and dislocated. Why should rehabilitating the perpetrator be more important than bringing succour to the victims? 16: When kidnapped or killed, victims and their families are left to their wits. They cry alone, bury their loved ones alone. And our government expects us to be patriotic? The victims of violence need empathy, which the dictionary defines as the ability to understand and share the feelings of the other. A critical deficit of empathy on the side of the government makes healing almost impossible for the victims. We have not heard anything about a rehabilitation programme for the thousands of schoolchildren who have been victims of abduction. We seem to assume that their return to their schools is sufficient. Left unaddressed, the traumatic effect of their horrors will haunt them for a long time. Tomorrow’s parents, military generals, top security men and women, governors, senators, and ministers will come from today’s pool of traumatised children. The security quandary is the greatest indictment of this government. 17: There is a time for everything under the sun (Eccl. 3:1). Perhaps, we can paraphrase this by saying there is a time for war and a time for peace. There is a time for poverty and a time for wealth. There is a time for stealing and a time for returning what has been stolen. There is a time for politics and a time for governance. There is a time for tethering to the brink of chaos and a time for recovering the soul of a nation. There is a time for the collapse of morality and a time for moral recovery. There is a time for leadership and a time for statesmanship. There is a time for losing greatness and a time for achieving greatness. Nigeria must now ask itself: What is left of our glory? Where are the values that held us together? 18: On our national Coat of Arms, we profess our motto to be: Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress. But let us ask ourselves: Is Nigeria united today? Do citizens still have faith in the country? Where are the signs of peace or progress? Today, before our very eyes, these words have been emptied of their flavour and have lost their resonance and capacity to summon our citizens to patriotism. St Augustine once said: Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale? He further said that: A gang is a group of men (and women) under the command of a leader, bound by a compact of association, in which the plunder is divided according to an agreed convention. This is the fate of our nation today. Day by day, Nigeria drifts irreversibly into a dark tunnel. Things are falling apart with unnerving rapidity because those who govern have only a pact to protect their interests. Politics is merely its conveyor belt of ambition. Nigeria has a date with destiny. If we do not turn around, The axe is already laid to the roots of the tree (Mt. 3:10). 19: With some chance, we might pull through this, but it is getting tougher each passing day. Does anyone remember where we started and how we got here? On May 29, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari, at his swearing-in as President of Nigeria, said: Boko Haram is a typical case of small fires causing large fires. Now, before his watch, the fires are consuming the nation, and in many instances, they indeed start small. The rumblings over the wearing of a hijab in Kwara State suggest that we have not seen the end of individuals sacrificing national cohesion to feed their personal ambitions by starting small fires. Most politicians hardly think through the long-term effects of these pyrrhic victories of using religion. What started as a small fire with with adoption of Sharia in Zamfara in 1999, spread across the northern states. Ordinary people broke into ecstatic joy. Today, what has become of the north? What are the lessons? 20: In all, Nigeria’s troubles are growing by the day, but our hands must remain stretched out in supplication. Prophet Isaiah’s words should give us hope and consolation. He said: When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze (Isaiah 43:2). We shall lift our eyes to the mountain because we know that our help shall come from the Lord (Ps. 121:1). As Christians, we do not trust in God because we cannot revenge. We do not revenge because we trust in God. The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still (Ex. 14:14). Just as the chains of death could not hold Jesus in the grave, so shall we triumph. Break into shouts of joy together, O ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has consoled his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem (Isaiah 52:9). Have hope and be cheerful (Rom. 12:12). A very happy and peaceful Easter to everyone.
Louis Achi and Segun James pay tribute to the spokesperson of Afenifere, Comrade Yinka Odumakin, who passed on yesterday after a fierce battle with Covid-19
Former French president, Giscard D’Estaing’s counselled political leaders that, “There can be no response to history without effort.” D’Estaing’s sage counsel was clearly inspired by the environment of the human crises that defined his era. He was born during the First World War and fought in the second bloody, global conflagration.
Of the few Nigerians, who took this free historical advisory seriously, Mr. Yinka Odumakin – cultural icon, activist and politician – was one.
For a nation in the harsh throes of change, mirroring contrived crises of different colourations traversing the political, socio-economic and religious spheres, one Nigerian that gave so much of life, seeking to aid the birthing of transformative change was Yinka Odumakin.
Yesterday morning, Saturday, April 3, 2021, Odumakin joined his ancestors, treading the path of all mortals. He died of complications from coronavirus disease, at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, Lagos.
A statement issued by his grieving wife, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, noted that the late journalist-turned politician “was managed for respiratory issues due to complications from COVID-19, which he had recovered from about a week ago.”
His Life and Times…
Born on December 10, 1966, Odumakin hailed from Moro, Ife North Local Government Area of Osun State – same town, where the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, hails from. He studied English Language at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife and graduated in 1989. While at the university, he served as the public relations officer of the university’s students’ union.
He was employed by The Punch Newspaper as a reporter, and later joined The Guardian Newspapers. Odumakin resigned from the Guardian in 1993 and established Effective Company Limited, a media and publishing company in partnership with fellow journalist and a former schoolmate, Femi Ige.
Odumakin was part of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) that fought the regime of the late military head of state, Sani Abacha, after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election.
In pursuit of an old desire for a new Nigerian state, he also participated, alongside his wife, in the National Conference, convened by President Goodluck Jonathan, which held in Abuja in 2014. Odumakin, who was appointed the spokesman for the presidential campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2011, later turned his back on Buhari in 2015, when he supported then outgoing President Jonathan.
As National Publicity Secretary for the Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, as in his many feisty engagements, he wielded power with fetching humility and exemplary focus. He demonstrated that journalism, activism, culture and politics fundamentally address transformation of the human condition for good. A man of strong convictions, he mostly took pretty few prisoners in his many bruising fights.
In 1997, Odumakin married his lovely wife and fellow activist and blessed with children.
His Many
Odumakin has fought the biggest political figures and tendencies without any let up. He has engaged President Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and many others. He fought around a consistent theme: a new Nigeria. But in death, his erstwhile antagonists graciously recognise his convictions and merit.
Odumakin and Tinubu, who had worked together during the days of NADECO, broke up irreconcilably.
Odumakin once alleged that Tinubu was working for the late Abacha and was a fake democrat. His words: “You were with NADECO and also in bed with Abacha through whom you forged a friendship with the Chagourys, who are your business partners till date.” he wrote in an open letter to Mr Tinubu in 2019.
More, Odumakin stated that a former governor of Lagos, Akinwumi Ambode, “spent his life running errand for Tinubu but still got humiliated.” He was never a supporter of Tinubu’s 2023 presidential ambition and even accused Tinubu of lying over his age.
A former Buhari’s spokesman, he later became an acerbic critic of his administration, when he came into power in 2015. He boldly scored Buhari low on his handling of national challenges, especially, the herder-farmer crisis, corruption, insecurity among others.
His words: “We had thought that if he comes to power, things would improve. But in the last three and a half years, not one thing has been done to improve our electoral process. In fact, things have gotten worse.”
He was one of the advocates of national restructuring and he believed till the point of death that restructuring is the answer to the survival of the Nigerian state. According to him, those against restructuring are those benefitting from the ‘failed’ arrangement in the country “which favours few against the majority”.
In 2019, Odumakin stated that, “The way forward is clear, at 59, there are two options for Nigeria, to reset and go back to default, which is restructuring. Let’s go back to what our founding-fathers agreed. When we do this, there is a chance for Nigeria to survive but if we continue the way we are going, that would be disintegration.”
Odumakin also saw as a waste of time and resources in the Amotekun idea. Hear him: “You are in bondage; in a cage, and instead of looking for your freedom, you are looking for something else. Which ‘ekun’ (lion) are you looking for? You are in a cage, and instead of you looking for freedom, you are looking for a shortcut in Amotekun. Which ‘ekun’ does a rat want to know?
Tinubu’s Statesmanlike Reaction…
But like a true statesman, former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, who Odumakin engaged in one of his long bruising political face-offs brushed aside his pitched battles with the fallen politician and paid him a touching homage.
In a statement on Saturday, Tinubu described Odumakin as a committed fighter for democracy, dedicated civil society activist, courageous and outspoken defender of whatever ideals and principles he believed in. He said Odumakin remained fearless and unrelenting in speaking up in promoting the cause of justice and what he perceived as the best interest of the citizens of Nigeria.
Tinubu recalled Odumakin’s participation in the various students and youth struggles against successive military dictatorships in the 1980s and 1990s. “In the process, he was arrested, harassed and even detained several times. Yet, he never allowed himself to succumb to tyranny or be pressured into submissive and pliant silence. “In the struggle against the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election and the perpetuation of military dictatorship, Odumakin was never found wanting. He was at the vanguard of the battle even at the risk of his life and liberty.”
According to Tinubu, the late activist never held public office, but was a constant feature and part of the public consciousness over the last two decades of Nigeria’s unbroken democratic dispensation.
“He epitomised the true definition of the citizen; a patriot, who was ever conscious of the fact that his life could not be complete or his humanity meaningful if he did not take an active interest in and join like-minded fellow citizens in seeking to always promote the common good of his community and country.”
President Buhari has also condoled with the family, friends and acquaintances of Odumakin, describing him as dutiful, and a person of conviction. Buhari expressed sorrow at his demise, “especially at a time when he had a lot more to contribute to society and the nation at large.”
Many prominent Nigerians have paid their tributes to Odumakin.
Indeed, no society can live without its dreamers and achievers.
It’s perhaps in recognition of this that a former US First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt observed that, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Odumakin certainly did. He was a mettlesome politician with a good dose of swagger.
At times when there is palpable decline of faith in the nation’s common destiny, his peculiar energy and imagination represented a beacon of hope. His was the fearless voice that spoke abrasive truth to power. Like an adroit alchemist, he wove a delicate balance between the ethics of journalism, activism, politics and conviction.
He deeply shared with his compatriots in the dream of a new, prosperous, secure and equitable society. In truth, certainly, this is not merely a pious wish, but a necessity and imperative for civilised survival.
In the troubled evolution of the Nigerian state, while some forces remained apostles of socio-political stagnation and retrogression, others represented untiring catalysts for progressive change. Odumakin belonged to the later class.
Clearly, he was not a saint and never claimed membership of that arcane group. But then sainthood is not one of the parameters for assessing or picking individuals, who give their life in the fight for human liberty and freedom.
For being a key provider of clear, pragmatic leadership during periods of self-doubt by a citizenry under contrived political siege, in his beloved Yorubaland, he certainly will occupy a high pedestal in its lore – as well as in larger Nigerian state.
In life’s adversity, he certainly made a difference. (Thisdaylive)
When I saw a posting concerning Comrade Yinka Odumakin’s death, I thought the poster was still carrying out the pranks of “April Fool’s Day”. So, I told him to back off as April Fool’s day normally stops at 12 midnight on 1st April of every year. Out of sheer curiosity, and to fulfill all righteousness I however, I called one of our soulmates in the human rights and pro-democracy world, Dr Joe Okei Odumakin, who has been a life-long Yinka’s wife and heartthrob. I wanted to hear her deny the story and say it was false and fake. I yearned for her to burst out laughing with her accustomed baritone guffaw, saying Yinka was alive, hale and hearty. I just desired her to say it was a mere rumour, a “tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”.
But, alas! She confirmed Yinka’s passage, giving me eerie graphic details. I have not found my clarity of thought since then. I am devastated by Yinka’s untimely death. Yinka spoke to me only last month. Yes, you guessed right! About the struggle, of course. The need not to tire or give up. The need to fight on like Trojans. We spoke about the pending South-West, Middle Belt and South-East case, which was instituted against President Muhammadu Buhari and his government over the nepotic, cronystic, lopsided, sectional and prebendalistic appointments he has so far made, to the consternation and marginalization of other sections of the country.
Chief E.K Clark, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Dr Nnia Nwodo, Dr Kpogun, et al, lead the plaintiffs in this regenerative and self-defining suit. I am one of the lead Counsel. We talked. We exchanged ideas on strategy. We discussed Nigeria. Yes, Nigeria’s challenges. State of nadir. Despondency. Anger. Hunger. Melancholy. Sorrow. Tears. Blood. Pains. Pangs. Nigeria’s pain. And, of course, possible panacea. Solutions.
And this gadfly and searing pain in successive government’s flesh has gone? Just like that? This pear? This gem of a pan-Nigerian? This Yoruba Nationality Crusader for self-identity and self-determination? This shinny and incandescent example of a genuine Comrade and unflagging struggler, who, in his lifetime, inspired a whole new generation of rights crusaders? This bold, fearless, courageous wordsmith, whose pen was mightier than the sword? Good God! Our loss is heavens’ profit. Our pain is paradise’s gain. Odumakin championed the people’s cause. He fought on behalf of the voiceless and the beleaguered. He was not materially rich. But, he was a trillionaire in integrity, honour and dignity. His legacies are trailers-load. Yinka was not just an Activist per Excellence; he was an uncommon public Affairs analyst, social critic, politician and political strategist, who shot from all cylinders on matters of National interest. He was fecund cerebral. He walked the talk. He fought wars and battles. He won most. Odumakin, with his accustomed “Awo Cap” ever perched on his head, spoke truth to authority. He challenged power and impunity. He left no stone unturned and no turn unstoned in his desire for a better Nigeria. A Nigeria imbued with mutual respect, Ethnic Nationalities’ self-determination; inter-religious harmony, egalitarianism and social justice. This gladiator may have lost this war of mortality to Covid-19 complications, at LASUTH, Lagos. But, he won the greater war of immortality. Because Yinka has conquered death. He scorned death; laughed at it derisively in the early hours of Holy Saturday when he transited. So, death, where is thy sting? Yinka was gentle as a person. As gentle as a lamb. But, he was a lion and tiger combined together, in wars against injustice, oppression and repression. Mark Anthony (Julius Caesar Act 5, Scene 5, by William Shakespeare), summarizes my grief, when he said: “his life was so gentle, and the elements mixed so well in him that nature might stand up and say to all the world, This was a man”. Yinka, rest in eternal peace in the Lord’s bossom. Don’t bother to kick and fight from the grave, as I know you would readily want to. Just rest, rest and rest in perfect peace, till we meet on resurrection day. Then, we will part no more. For those of us strugglers you left behind, including your irrepressible wife of an Activist and Comrade, Dr Joe Okei Odumakin, we would continue the battle. It is a case of no retreat, no surrender. Aluta continua, victoria acerta. Good bye, Yinka. Fare thee well, compatriot.
An indemnity is a promise by one party to compensate another for the loss suffered as a consequence of a specific event called the ‘trigger event’ – the trigger event can be anything defined by the parties including, a breach of contract, a party’s fault or negligence, or a specific action.
An indemnity clause therefore is a clause within a contract, for example vendor agreements, business contracts or service contracts between two parties doing business together which promises to compensate the party at the receiving end in the event that they suffer a loss due to a defined trigger event.
Suppose therefore, ‘A’ who is a manufacturer sells products to ‘B’ a retailer, ‘B’ might be worried that, if the products are defective, they will be exposed to product liability claims by consumer. ‘B’ the retailer will usually seek an indemnity from ‘A’ the manufacturer against those claims, in order to be compensated if such claims arise. This is basically what Indemnity agreement or clause covers.
It operates as transfer of risks between the parties and changes what they would otherwise be liable for or entitled to under a normal damage claim. They are particularly useful when the actions of one party are likely to create a risk which the other party would otherwise have to bear. The major significance of an indemnity clause is to protect the indemnified party against third party law suits.
Commercial contracts typically include an indemnity clause among other standard terms. Words such as ‘hold harmless’, ‘defend’, ‘make good’ or ‘compensate’ etc, often indicate that the clause is, in effect, an indemnity clause.
Indemnity clauses
There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to indemnities. It depends mostly on the circumstances of the contract, the parties’ willingness to do so and their relative bargaining positions. It may be useful to seek an indemnity when:
One of the parties is likely to suffer a loss from a commercial transaction and/or
The remedies available with a pure damage claim would not be sufficient to compensate the loss suffered.
Examples of losses that cannot be indemnified are:
Losses caused by the receiving party’s deliberate acts
Losses caused by the receiving party’s own fraud or crime.
Indemnity clauses
The presence of an indemnity clause in an agreement can both be a sword and a shield, depending on who is using it. It is not advisable to provide an indemnity if it is going to unnecessarily open you to risks you may have absolutely no control over. You should therefore first negotiate its removal entirely if you are unsure of the avoidability of said risk. If the other party however, insists on the clause, you should ensure it is narrow, so you are less exposed to risk. If you are the party seeking indemnity, reasonableness must be your watchword.
If you need a lawyer to review or draft an indemnity clause for you, please click here.
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