By Adeola Aderounmu.

After the mid 80s, the dwindling glory of Festac Town continued to take a turn for the worse. By the end of 1989, a lot of things have happened that revealed the recklessness of our administrators in Nigeria. The one that shook us most till today is how we lost our forest and all our playgrounds to construction of more houses in what became known as the fabricated and inglorious FHA plan B of Festac Town.

On W close of 5th Avenue, the popular FHA football field (where I spent my school breaks in primary school, watched glorious football tournaments and later played in competitions in my early teens) was sold to the first set of invasive millionaires that have just discovered Festac. We thought that was the worst that could happen. Wait! The expanse of playground on 23 Road, opposite D and E closes where virtually all schools in Festac Town usually host their annual Inter-House sports competitions was sold! Houses have since been built on them.

In Festac Town today, only one major field remains and this is the one adjacent to the former Inter-House sports ground. This one field that is now serving all the young football talents in Festac Town is the remnant of our several beloved playgrounds and parks. The small sand field on 322 Road where Victor Okechukwu Agali budded is a rare survival despite all the structures and shops that have grown around it.

In 1990 Festac, most parts of the Canal had been reclaimed and houses have been built on them. The forest that surrounded Festac before is now history. Today, all the grasshoppers and butterflies are gone while the monkeys and other wild animals suffered violent extinction. There are no more swings in the park-the park themselves have given away to a vicious plan B. The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) sold all our recreational centres. 

Even solid surfaces where Lawn Tennis was played around the neighborhood were not spared! Houses were built everywhere, on electric cables, on top of underground tubes for passage of human waste (sewage suck-away), in parking areas and any kind of space that you can imagine. There was a day a man’s house had to be pulled down partially to retrieve NEPA’s electric cable that ran under his house!

Overhead electric cables had to be constructed where houses cannot be pulled down or when the underground cables suddenly disappear from traceable paths. Even the infamous NEPA edifice at the end of 512 Road was built on a concrete-surface lawn tennis court! It was used as one of the two famous grounds for stone-field football before NEPA acquired the land. The only stone-field (previously a lawn tennis court as well) standing today is at 5th Avenue H1 Close or 23 Road X Close depending on your approaching point. This is the only place I have to play football whenever I am in Festac.

So, it happened that Festac in the late 80s and early 90s became a hot spot not only for Nigeria’s invasive millionaires but also for our corrupt politicians to flaunt their ill-gotten wealth. If you go to the popular Cocaine Avenue in Festac (also known as extension), the early settlers there are mainly popular but corrupt Nigerian politicians and some people whom we came to know later as 419 kingpins.

There are hardworking people as well who decided to join this invasion and of course the churches and mosques got their own share of the playgrounds. The giant mosque on 72 Road was built on one of the most famous football pitches in Festac Town! Many churches also built their worship centres on playgrounds. It was as a result of the rapidity with which houses sprung up on 4th Avenue extension that this area lost its original name and became known as Naira Burial Ground or Cocaine Avenue.

Today, this unnecessary overgrowth in Festac continues with the emergence of high class hotels, suites with swimming pools, several banking halls, fast food outlets, more petrol stations and explosion of the human population beyond the initial sustenance capacity of the festac village of 1977 to 1980.

The impacts of this negative growth and extreme carelessness of FHA is still revealing a sad situation in present day Festac. Crime became entrenched for obvious reasons. The corrupt politicians, the 419 kingpins and the subsequent emergence of high class hotels and suites may have influenced the making of the yahoo-yahoo boys in Festac Town. Festac Town acquired an international status for this advanced fee fraud crime thereby overshadowing the importance of the Black Art Festival of 1977.

There is no stretch of road in Festac Town that is not without its dangerous areas and pot holes. It was in Festac Town that I saw for the first time that cement can be used to substitute tar to repair roads. That reveals the extent of neglect that Festac is suffering in the hands of the federal government-the original owner of the estate, the state government-who don’t care so much about the estate and the local government with headquarters on 41 Road-whose sole interest is to collect tenement rate without regards to the mortgage agreements that many occupiers signed far back in 1977.

There are other vices and problems that typify the great fall of the once celebrated Festac Town. Sewage disposal is a major concern as houses have been built on the original channels that took the liquid waste to its terminal. Overflowing sewages are common sights nowadays and the tenants have to contribute money to private firms to clear the mess. Not doing that would have encouraged an epidemic.

The maintenance in Festac Town was neglected by FHA and all the houses especially the blocks of 16 and 32 flats now look very ugly. Some people contribute money and paint their buildings at some intervals depending on how soon the paints are washed away. The Primary Health Care Centre which we had in the beginning was very effective but the situation today is a sad one.

The availability of water in Festac is a dead issue. First, the taps went dried for inexplicable reasons. Then at a time, the water corporation was giving us water darker than Lipton tea. We were supposed to drink this reddish brown water coming from rusted pipes. Allow this water to settle and you’ll see your obituary staring at you in the face!

Ironically, Festac Town probably has the largest water reservoir in Lagos State. This structure lies today as a monumental waste on 22 Road, not far from TEXACO petrol station. It is impossible to re-count all the things that wasted away in Festac Town, from the shopping complexes that were misused and converted to religious centers to the stationary generators that were gradually torn apart by petty thieves and eventually removed by new land owners thus allowing them to build on electrical installations! 

 In 2007, 30 years after it was first inhabited, Festac is a far cry from the dreams of the founders. If the foreigners who were part of the construction of Festac Town houses and environment should visit the same Festac Town today, they will surely burst into uncontrollable tears (of sadness). The houses that Jack built 30 years ago now resemble 10th century attempts to modernize ancient Golgotha. 

No one used the bicycle tracks or perhaps we didn’t even realise that the tracks beside the main roads were meant for bicycles. Did anyone own a bicycle for the purpose of commuting? Make shift akara and dundun markets have taken over all these tracks. The damage in Festac seems irreparable. Many occupiers who arrived in 1977 have left the place more out of anger or frustration than the necessity to relocate to their personal houses or to rented places outside Festac.

If Festac had remained the paradise it was in 1977, perhaps the story would have been told differently. Sadly, Festac Town has come to symbolized one of the several places in Nigeria where children are growing up not realizing that their childhood had been stolen from them before they were born. Imagine the contrast between the wonderful atmosphere under which the early settlers in Festac brought up their children and the criminally inclined environment of the 90s that pervades in Festac to this day. This ugly scenario would have been prevented through proper planning.

Rather than invade Festac thereby accelerating the destruction of its original Master plan as they did in the 80s and 90s, the greedy politicians and other overnight funny millionaires should have solicited for the establishment of more estates similar to Festac Town across Nigeria. If they must live in Lagos, they could have demanded for the creation of Festac Town 2 and even Festac Town 3 in the suburbs.

For now, as the unfortunate residents of this extremely over-populated town, a micro-representation of the failure of the Nigeria nation, we are seriously faced with the hassles of crime, rage of violence, complete absence of drinkable water, disorganized transportation, bad roads, perpetual blackout, dilapidating schools and houses, scattered markets, stagnant drainage system, complete absence of recreational centers and youth delinquency.

Additionally, the emergence and activities of road-side estate agents and those who sold their flats or houses in Festac Town have made a complete mess of the purpose of the housing system. Festac Town is a Federal Government project that was grossly mismanaged and eventually left to rot away, if it must be salvaged in any way at all, the responsibilities rest squarely on the shoulders of the Federal Housing Authority. They should not have introduced the disaster called Plan B and they should not have reneged on their parts of the housing contracts.

That’s how we got to this point! (concluded). 

Nigeria, wherewithal thy Glory? 

By Adeola Aderounmu.

Femi Pedro, the former Deputy Governor (DG) of Lagos from 2003 to 2007 has now pitched his tent with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). Declaring for the party he stated that his action was the latest in his quest for an enduring and robust platform to serve humanity and actualize his dreams as a change agent in the society. He also added that “politics is too important to be left to those who abhor service.” According to a Front Page online report on the Nigerian Guardian Newspaper of November 3rd 2007, Pedro stated that he is a student of reason and a product of destiny. For him he added: “life is not a happenstance, but a series of deliberate, systematic and bold moves tailored to a positive end by the Almighty who orders the footsteps of men”. Still in his own words, Pedro now believes that with his defection to the party, he has now constructed and found the new “expressway” to victory for PDP in Lagos State.  

Femi Pedro made his name in the Banking Industry. Before he became the DG of Lagos State, he was the Chief Executive Officer of First Atlantic Bank, now First Inland Bank. He is a graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from University of Wisconsin-Superior (1976-1978) and a Master’s degree in Economics from Wichita State University (1979-1981). He has been described as an Economic Strategist and a Political Activist. His achievements in the Banking Industry speak volume. According to a Newswatch report of January 29 2007, Pedro was acclaimed as one of the pillars of ex-Governor Bola Tinubu’s administration. He was the chairman of the Lagos State internally-generated revenue team as well as the state Tenders Board. Having served the state effectively in his capacity as the number two citizen for about four years (then), Pedro thought that he was the better candidate to succeed Tinubu in the last gubernatorial elections in Lagos.

For reasons best known to Tinubu and the Action Congress (AC) Party, Pedro was not the anointed candidate to represent the party at the gubernatorial election despite his position as the DG, his popularity in governance, his loyalty and his acclaimed intelligence. Pedro felt embittered by what seems like a betrayal (a hallmark of Nigerian politics) and a long drawn cold battle ensued between him and Tinubu. On December 13 2006, Pedro dumped the AC to declare under the Labour Party, citing gross manipulation by Tinubu to favour a relative of his to become the Governor in 2007. When he joined the Labour Party, he said his decision was borne “out of the need to serve the masses”. According to him, “it was a divine choice”. He went further, “I have carefully studied the manifesto of the party and the principles behind its formation, and I have aligned myself with it. Labour Party is the masses’ party. It is the only party that can protect the right of the working class. It is the only party that can stop the country from retrogression. Labour Party is about taking care of the retirees, pensioners who have worked tirelessly to develop the country.” (Source: TheNews Dec 13 2006, Lead Stories by By Lanre Babalola, Akabude Uche-Peter & Ifeoluwa Ogunlana). 

Femi Pedro contested the April 14 gubernatorial election and lost. He resigned his position as the DG of Lagos on May 8 2007, citing electoral malpractices in the gubernatorial elections as the reason for his resignation. A Guardian Newspaper report of May 10 2007 stated that his resignation came as a seven-man panel was raised by the State Chief Justice Augustine Alabi to investigate the impeachable offences leveled against him by 33 members of the House of Assembly on April 23. Indeed, one can see the stupidity of the Tinubu’s administration as it went over the limit on this case. The Lagos State House of Assembly members under Tinubu impeached Pedro 48 hours after his resignation thereby making a serious mockery of themselves. How foolish can people get sometimes? For real, the relationship between Tinubu and Pedro got worse following the pronouncement by Pedro that Tinubu wanted to kill him when the ex-governor accused him of betrayal as a result of criticism of the outcome of the April 14 governorship polls in which Babatunde Fashola of AC was declared the winner.

The recent defection of Femi Pedro may be a revelation of how desperate Nigerian politicians can get especially after tasting power. Pedro is a Nigerian and under the constitution has both freedom of expression and association, yet a closer look at his antecedents and new found love with the PDP-a well known den of killers, reveals a variant that deserves criticisms. What has happened to the divine choice that took him to the Labour Party? What can be more desirous than a divine choice? In the Newswatch report mentioned above, Pedro perhaps describing the PDP said it was one that produces “the government that is under the shackles of one godfather or group or the other”. In his opinion, the PDP (and other parties) “lack freshness and are filled with over-used politicians”. He admitted that the Labour Party has no groups and no godfather. To him, been in the Labour Party will give the people the real opportunity that will allow their votes to be counted and protected.

That Pedro has now decided to pitch his tent with over-used politicians whose style have reduced Nigeria to a laughingstock and more than 50% of the citizenry to almost penuried existence leaves a lot to one’s imagination. So, he has now decided to construct his own expressway that will allow him to be a product of a godfather (an over-used politician) so that he can divert our money to the godfather if he becomes the next desperate governor of Lagos. As a confession of his new found unholy flirting, Pedro said that his action was the latest in his quest for an enduring and robust platform to serve humanity and actualize his dreams as a change agent in the society. To serve humanity? Isn’t this a blatant deceit to acquire power by all means?

In his campaign before the Nationwide-rigged 2007 gubernatorial elections in which he lost, Pedro made promises of heaven and earth to Lagosians. Tinubu did the same but he left Lagos in the hands of robbers and area boys. His dream project-LASTMA ran out of gas and eventually became a tool of extortion. Under Tinubu, corpses are commonly left to rot on the streets of Lagos. Pedro is now telling us that “politics is too important to be left to those who abhor service and that since political power is needed to form government in order to implement good programmes, a robust platform is needed to organize change agents for this task”. In the same vein, he needs to be told that Politics is too important to also be left in the hands of men who are desperate and who will seek refuge with the likes of Ahmadu Ali who has been intimidating the members of the National House of Assembly. How can Pedro associate with Ali or his party that declared Adedibu as the commander of the PDP garrison in Oyo State. It was Ali who also blamed Ladoja for accepting (that is he was not elected) to be governor when he knew he would not follow Adedibu’s commands to empty Oyo state’s treasury. In January, these were the kinds of godfathers that Pedro lambasted as he sought to serve the masses on the platform of the Labour party. Who does Pedro want to serve under the PDP if he gets selected as the party is known to do? Pedro is a man with religious background; he must be told that he cannot serve God and Mammon!

Why has it become an impossibility for Pedro to pursue his quest without all these AD-AC-Labour-PDP gallivanting? Why does he need an expressway on the PDP kind of service lane? Is the expressway needed because INEC had zoned Lagos to AD/AC? For sure, the exigent call in Nigeria today is a shift of our politics towards ideology and free and fair elections.  It seems like a tall dream but the masses are still earnestly hoping that their votes should be countable and meaningful as early as the next elections. It was the same hope that Pedro expressed on the platform of the Labour Party in January 2007. Such a hope fills our anxiety as we anticipate the realization of our re-enfranchisement as an essential tonic for our revitalization as a country. To now see a man of hitherto enviable character, humble background, noble achievements and a representation of our hopes dumping the Labour Party as a desperate means of becoming a governor under the platform of the PDP which is pivoted on dictatorial/autocratic principles is definitely a great loss to the much anticipated gains of electoral reform processes.

That is the way that I see it! 

GUARDIAN REPORT NOV 5 2007

From Uduma Kalu, Literary Correspondent, Enugu.

 DARKNESS fell again in the Nigerian literary firmament yesterday when veteran novelist, pharmacist and public commentator, Cyprian Ekwensi passed on. He was 86 years old.

The author of the popular Jaguar Nana series of novels was said to have died at the Niger Foundation in Enugu where he underwent an operation for an undisclosed ailment. It was not clear as at press time yesterday if he died during or after the operation.

Earlier this year, Ekwensi released Cash on Delivery, a collection of short stories, which turned out to be his last book. When he turned 86 last year, the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Lagos State chapter and the Committee for Relevant Arts (CORA), feted him.

Ekwensi was celebrated as the forefather of the city novel.

He is believed to be the author of the earliest published fiction on social life in the Lagos Metropolis. The accomplished novelist is remarkable for his down-to-earth style of writing and his prolific output, with over 20 novels to his credit.

One of his books, Divided We Stand, a lampoon on the Nigerian Civil War, is slated for discussion by experts in a conference on 40 years after the civil war.

“How far so far”, is one of the themes for discussion at the ninth edition of the Lagos Book Fair, holding on Friday morning at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos.

Told of the passing on of Ekwensi, poet and past president of ANA, Odia Ofeimu, was “shocked beyond words” to comment immediately.

To the newly elected Lagos State ANA chairman, Mr. Chike Ofili, it was an unnerving piece of information. He too withheld his comments till later.

News of the death broke as Nigerian authors were rounding off their yearly convention held over the weekend in Owerri, Imo State.

He was a Nigerian writer who stressed description of the locale and whose episodic style was particularly well suited to the short story.

Cyprian Odiatu Duaka Ekwensi was born at Minna in Northern Nigeria on September 26, 1921. He later lived in Onitsha in the Eastern area. He was educated at Achimota College in the Gold Coast, and at the Chelsea School of Pharmacy of London University. He lectured in pharmacy at Lagos and was employed as a pharmacist by the Nigerian Medical Corporation.

He married Eunice Anyiwo, and they had five children.

After favorable reception of his early writing, he joined the Nigerian Ministry for Information and had risen to be the director of that agency by the time of the first military coup in 1966. After the continuing disturbances in the Western and Northern regions in the summer of 1966, Ekwensi gave up his position and relocated his family to Enugu. He became chair of the Bureau for External Publicity in Biafra and an adviser to the head of state, Lt.-Col. Chukwemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.

Ekwensi began his writing career as a pamphleteer, and this perhaps explains the episodic nature of his novels. This tendency is well illustrated by People of the City (1954), in which Ekwensi gave a vibrant portrait of life in a West African city. It was the first major novel to be published by a Nigerian. Two novellas for children appeared in 1960; both The Drummer Boy and The Passport of Mallam Ilia were exercises in blending traditional themes with undisguised romanticism.

His most widely read novel, Jagua Nana, appeared in 1961. It was a return to the locale of People of the City but boasted a much more cohesive plot centered on the character of Jagua, a courtesan who had a love for the expensive. Even her name was a corruption of the expensive English auto. Her life personalised the conflict between the old traditional and modern urban Africa. Ekwensi published a sequel in 1987 titled Jagua Nana’s Daughter.

Burning Grass (1961) is basically a collection of vignettes concerning a Fulani family. Its major contribution is the insight it presents into the life of this pastoral people. Ekwensi based the novel and the characters on a real family with whom he had previously lived. Between 1961 and 1966 Ekwensi published at least one major work every year. The most important of these were the novels, Beautiful Feathers (1963) and Iska (1966), and two collections of short stories, Rainmaker (1965) and Lokotown (1966). He continued to publish beyond the 1960s, and among his later works are the novel Divided We Stand (1980), the novella Motherless Baby (1980), and The Restless City and Christmas Gold (1975), Behind the Convent Wall (1987), and Gone to Mecca (1991).

Ekwensi also published a number of works for children. Under the name C. O. D. Ekwensi, he released Ikolo the Wrestler and Other Ibo Tales (1947) and The Leopard’s Claw (1950). In the 1960s, he wrote An African Night’s Entertainment (1962), The Great Elephant-Bird (1965), and Trouble in Form Six (1966).

Ekwensi’s later works for children include Coal Camp Boy (1971), Samankwe in the Strange Forest (1973), Samankwe and the Highway Robbers (1975), Masquerade Time! (1992), and King Forever! (1992).

In recognition of his skills as a writer, Ekwensi was awarded the Dag Hammarskjold International Prize for Literary Merit in 1969.

Ekwensi, a one-time Commissioner for Information in the old Anambra State, is survived by children and grand children.    

By Adeola Aderounmu.

After the new government was inaugurated in Sweden last year (2006), Maria Borelius, the Trade Minister left the new government only after 8 days. What were her crimes? In the 1990s, she hired a nanny and she did not pay any tax on the nanny’s wages. She has a Television but she had not been paying her TV license regularly. She had been involved in some irregularities in a share trade and she is also living in a house that is owned by a company based in the tax haven of Jersey. These were the offences that led Maria Borelius to leave the government JUST 8 days after its inauguration. In a press conference to announce her exit, she stated: “The reason is the pressure that has been put on those closest to me. My family, my friends, my neighbours and their children, business associates, relatives, even my children’s friends, have been put under close scrutiny which means that normal family life has become impossible.”      

Just about 2 days later, the Minister of Culture, Cecilia Stegö Chilò also resigned. She was found wanting in matters relating to her private finances. She had not been paying her television license fee for 16 years! This means she had withheld 15 000 Swedish Kronor (about USD 2 330) from the public service broadcaster-The Swedish Television (SVT). In addition, she had a domestic help who was working black when her children were small. As she threw in the towel, these were her words: “By not paying my television license fee and employing black market domestic help in the period before becoming minister, I have committed errors which are not acceptable, but which I have attempted to rectify as far as possible. Since it will not be possible to rectify the situation within a reasonable period of time I no longer see any possibility of repairing the damage I have caused the government.”     

In September this year, the Defense Minister in Sweden, Mikael Odenberg resigned in protest against the government defense cuts. The Finance Minister had presented a budget which will allow a savings of 4-5 billion kronor but the Defense Minister said such a decision was made without basis or foundation. Speaking at a press conference on his decision, he repeatedly stated his opposition to the fact that the government had announced cuts in defense spending without first analyzing Sweden’s military requirements. He also hinged his arguments on the following points:“You can’t just take away lots of defense procurement spending without it having operative effects. The cuts would damage Sweden’s capacity to take part in international operations and would make it impossible for Sweden “to belong to the EU’s core in defense matters.” He indicated that his decision to resign was a matter of conscience: “I want to be able to face myself in the mirror and look our military personnel in the eye.” Odenberg said he did not have any objections to other aspects of government policy and added that he was resigning “entirely without bitterness.”     

So, it happened that Odenberg was the third minister to resign from Fredrik Reinfeldt’s cabinet. Maria Borelius resigned as trade minister after only eight days in the job. She was forced to quit after questions were raised over her tax affairs. Culture Minister Cecilia Stegö Chilò resigned two days later after admitting she had not paid her television license fee for sixteen years.      

If we put the events above in parallel with all the nonsense that have been going on in Nigerian Politics for the past 40 years, the first question that comes to mind is this: where is our honour in Nigeria? Other questions will obviously follow: do Nigerians or Nigerian politicians really know what shame is? Do they feel it?  Essentially, probity and accountability are absent from our political landscape. Our own politicians can NEVER resign or vacate their positions even in the face of the highest form of corruption. Imagine just how ordinary the kinds of crimes that these Swedish politicians have committed compared to very serious atrocities that we live with daily in Nigeria. Our politics is not only dirty in Nigeria; it is also an eye sore and stinking. Genuinely, all the woes and problems in Nigeria today have been trace to bad governance, a reflection of the ineptitudes of our seriously corrupt politicians. How did shame become a virtue in Nigeria?      

Do you know what? On the 31st day of October 2007, the secretary to the prime minister of Sweden left her job! She resigned! Her crime was this: she visited a Stockholm bar with a TV reporter while she was on call. The story appeared in the newspaper where her photos showed that she was kissing the reporter whom she is not romantically involved with. Actually, in recent days, her alcohol consumption has been a source of accusation for the government against the backdrop of her duties to the government’s emergency response organization. In the Nigerian context, many people will find this amusing. Imagine Action Congress Party asking Kingibe to resign because he had been drunk in an Abuja bar where he was found kissing a reporter from NTA Channel 10. Will Kingibe resign? It will never happen!     

The story of Nigeria is no longer news. One die hard woman killed another man while trying to rationalize the use of over 5 million dollars to renovate a new house. One man is not telling us where more than 10 billion dollars of our oil money is since 1991, and he lives among us. The idiot was even recently called upon to address writers and authors. Eh eh! What rubbish? One thoughtless man told us we will never have telephone in our homes, we still don’t have them, (save for mobile phones), and the man is our senate president. Another one told us we have to eat from the dustbin and we did eventually. Still, one shameless autocrat imposed another dude slash puppet on us and we pretended like it was alright. He, the animal called man, even stole our monies to fix his farm while we hunger. It was okay by us. For 40 years or more, we are still allowing thieves and rogues to live freely among us and spread their goodnews aka poverty, while we worship them. No greater shame!     

There is no honour in Nigeria Politics, period! Worse still, the parameters to confer honour to our politics are conspicuously missing. We have reached a point such that when we try to solve a problem in this country, we would need several-edged approaches. Taking care of one problem in Nigeria requires taking care of other multi-faceted problems that hang along with that original problem. For example, how can we eradicate corruption without having genuinely elected politicians in service? How can we transform our society at large to one in which the interest of the country rises above those of individuals? Leadership in Nigeria to this day is a big disaster, a monumental failure! Those who are supposed to be role models or good examples have helped to set the stage for calamities and discordant tunes. The wanton hopelessness and penury that is rampant in Nigeria will not go away UNLESS we start doing things right at some point in our lives. If green or orange revolution is the anticipated solution, we should let it be. My constant fear is for our children’s children. How can we lay the foundations needed for their existence? Are we going to find any excuse to explain to them that their childhood, adolescence and even adult life had been taken from them long before they were born?

Herein lies my pain, my passion.   

Acknowledgement; I got useful information from http://www.thelocal.se (Sweden’s News in English),