Federal Government has set up a 5-man inter-agency Committee, headed by the Minister of Education, to coordinate the re-opening of the Maritime University in the Niger Delta region.
This is coming on the heels of the several follow-up actions to the recent Presidential level interactive engagements with the Niger Delta oil producing communities.
A statement by the senior special assistant to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on media and publicity, Laolu Akande said that the committee has been set up also in clear comformity with the directive by the presidency for the resumption of activities towards the eventual opening of the Nigerian Maritime University before the end of the year, in line with the demands championed by major stakeholders in the region.
The committee has as its members, from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, National Universities Commission (NUC), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and Office of the Deputy Governor of Delta State
The statement said that the Committee is charged with finalizing the ongoing processes towards the opening of the Nigeria Maritime University in the 2017/2018 Academic Session.
The Committee will also work collaboratively with the current Principal Officers and the Governing Council of the institution.
“Besides this, and in further demonstrating its unalloyed commitment to a new vision for the Niger Delta, the Buhari Presidency has been working assiduously to evolve a number of robust strategies for key multi-sectoral outcomes and deliverables for the people of the oil-producing communities.
“Some of those include:
a) General guidelines issued by the Federal Government, reaffirming its commitment and outlining its objectives towards the establishment of Modular Refineries in the Niger Delta.
*This includes, the development of the technical criteria for issuing operating licenses that is now in final stages of drafting and would be released soon.
b) A roadmap for addressing regional development challenges is being developed by an inter-agency working group comprising of Ministry of Niger Delta, Niger Delta Development Commission, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Petroleum Resources and Ministry of Power, Works and Housing. This group is working in partnership with experts seconded by Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and key resource persons financed by a bi-lateral international development partner.”
The statement said that the roadmap will be based on the framework of the 16-point agenda developed by PANDEF and that a strategy for community-based participation in pipeline protection and policing is underway and will be validated with series of engagement processes, collaboratively with PANDEF, oil communities and other communities in the region that play host to the vast network of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta. [myad]
The chairman, chief executive officer of Lee Engineering and Construction Company, Dr. Leemon Ikpea, has stressed the need for Nigeria to take the lead in the development of the offshore technologies in the world.
He wanted stakeholders in the oil and gas sector in the country to rally the government to attain the mileage and ensure that Nigeria remains a leading nation in the development of world-class offshore technologies.
Leemon Ikpea, who spoke to newsmen at the just concluded Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), in Houston Texas, yesterday, Thursday, said that as a major player in the production of oil and gas in the world, Nigeria should be at the vanguard of development of offshore technologies in the world.
“In the last five decades, Nigeria as a nation, has been in the business of oil and gas exploration and we have the resources as a nation to develop and export modern technologies in the sector to other parts of the world.
“At our level, we shouldn’t be talking of petrol (PMS) or kerosene (AGO) scarcity in Nigeria. We should not be talking about Nigeria not been able to fix its refineries. With our experience in the industry, we should be able to beat our chest and tell the developed societies that we can do things big in offshore technologies.”
Leemon kpea who is one of Nigeria’s indigenous fabricator in the oil and gas sector as well as a representative of major offshore technology companies in the world, appealed to the government and stakeholders to come together to “do what the major leaders in the oil and gas sector are doing especially the development of modern offshore equipment and facilities.”
“What is happening in Houston should be happening in Nigeria as a major oil and gas producer in the continent. Nigeria should be leading all other Africa countries in this area. We should be able to standout in the world on the issue of oil and gas.
“We should not just be a seller of crude oil alone, we should strive to manufacture modern technologies in the exploration of oil and gas in the world by putting our local experience to use. We can do it if we are determined and I strongly appeal to the government to give the necessary support to major players in the industry to come together to achieve this feat. It is doable if we are determined.”
The oil and gas expert thanked the Nigeria government for encouraging indigenous companies to thrive in the sector, even as he said that the passage of the Local Content Act was the energy that the government gave to indigenous company to compete in the sector.
“The Local Content Act was a boost for those of us in the sector who are Nigerians but more still need to be done by the government to give indigenous companies the strength so that they can continue to support the government in boosting the economy.
“What the government has done with the Act is to lay the foundation for Nigerians in the sector to build a stronger and better oil and gas industry.
“The government still needs to do more so that we can have enough financial muscles to help in researches and development of modern offshore technologies in the country.”
He congratulated the organizers of the OTC in Houston for the successful hosting the 2017 edition and for also setting the pace in the exhibition of world-class equipment in the oil and gas sector. [myad]
Lagos is a melting pot; a land of promises fulfilled and promises unfulfilled; a land of wide opportunities for some and narrow opportunities others.
I came to Lagos on September 19, 1970, in search of the golden fleece at the University of Lagos. Lagos was three years plus old then. It was one of the 12 states created by General Yakubu Gowon on May 27, 1967. It is the only state in the country today that has escaped the infection of the mad virus of state creation by the military since 1967. No mean achievement.
I find it fitting and proper that the government and people of the state should roll out the red carpet and bring out the royal drums in celebration of its 50th anniversary, which comes up on the 27th of this month. It is, for one, the oldest state in the country today. For another, it is the most populous state in the country. And for still another, it has made such tremendous progress in human, economic and social development that no one can truthfully describe it as old for nothing. Age and continuity have conferred on it the wisdom that has pushed it along its own beaten path. The once dirty, sweltering city is now the welcome face of human progress. It is a miracle.
By the way, I found the golden fleece three years later and headed back home to Benue-Plateau State. I thought I was finished with Lagos. I wasn’t.
I returned to Lagos in August 1984 to co-found Newswatch Communications Limited with Yakubu Mohammed, Dele Giwa and Ray Ekpu. Together we trail-blazed the weekly newsmagazine publishing in Africa with Newswatch magazine. I have not left Lagos since then. I have lived here for 33 years. But I am still not a Lagosian. I am still a stranger.
In my 33 years here, I have seen that a lot of good things began in Lagos. And a lot of bad things began in Lagos too. The city has a fine present and a sordid past.
In my Unilag days, I witnessed a city in eternal struggle with itself. It was both the best and the worst period in its life. The oil boom brought unimaginable wealth to the city. The construction boom made sure that the ports were virtually clogged with ships discharging imported building and other materials that would serve notice on the world that our country had arrived. The cement armada said something of the ambition and the incapacity of a country whose sudden wealth pushed it beyond its managerial and administrative capacity. This became its burden.
I was here when it was not unusual to see corpses on some major and minor streets in the city almost daily. The late iconoclast, Tai Solarin, was once moved to take on the thankless job of getting rid of those corpses the police pretended they did not see.
I was here when Ishola Oyenusi led his gang to rob WAHUM of its workers’ pay. They paid for their daring and became the first set of armed robbers to be publicly executed at the Bar Beach. Oyenusi and his gang made armed robbery a bloody but lucrative enterprise. His pikins are still in the business, firing squad or no firing squad.
I witnessed the build up of the horrendous traffic bottle neck. Its local name of go-slow captured the endurance test that vehicular traffic in the city endured daily. I used to walk from Carter Bridge to the NIIA at Kofo Abayomi in Victoria Island. Civil servant friends of mine left the mainland as early as 4 a.m. on week days to get to their offices by 7.30 a.m. on the island. If they were lucky, they passed through their office doors at 1 p.m.
It was here, since January 1966, that the military learnt to use their guns to effect a change of government and plant themselves in office. Coups, successful or failed, were all hatched and executed here. Failed coup plotters were also executed here. Lagos was a city where the blood flowed.
I have mentioned briefly the underbelly of Lagos, our Lagos. In my 33 years here, I have watched with fascination, the breath-taking progress the state has made in almost all areas of human progress; minus constant light supply by NEPA, of course. I have seen land reclaimed from the sea and the lagoon turned into highbrow business, commercial and residential areas for those that young business reporters call high net worth individuals. Our generation knew them as wealthy men and women.
I have watched the rise of skyscrapers and the road network sporting flyovers. I have watched the single Carter bridge, once the only bridge linking the main land with the island turned into a dual carriageway. I watched the building of Eko Bridge and the Third Mainland bridge. And I have watched as good planning and execution have made go-slow almost history in Lagos.
Lagos is a melting pot; a land of promises fulfilled and promises unfulfilled; a land of wide opportunities for some and narrow opportunities others. The city was the welcome but treacherous face of the oil boom in the seventies. It promised easy life but not everyone of the thousands of Nigerians who poured into the city from their hardscrabble home states could find it. They came every year in search of jobs, a better life and living. After all, this was where the oil boomed. Everyone could hear the boom and everyone could see the boom in the changed upward mobile circumstances of their compatriots.
No, I do not think those who flocked here ever thought the streets of the city were paved with gold. No one would be foolish enough then to pour gold on the narrow and largely unpaved streets of the crowded city. The bright lights of the rich and beautiful city attracted them. The promise of an important city being the seat of the Federal Government and commercial nerve centre of the country beckoned them. They could not resist the allure of the lore. And they poured in their thousands with each of them clutching a big dream to his chest. If you could not make it in Lagos, you could not make it anywhere else.
For some, the city delivered on its promises. They realised their big dreams by securing good and important jobs. Some found and exploited opportunities in private industrial and commercial enterprises. But the city failed some. It could not deliver on its assumed promises. There were no jobs and no decent opportunities for a living. Without these, there was no decent accommodation. Those who could not make it found solace in the backwoods or ghetto called Ajegunle and Maroko. The latter is now history but we must remember it in the context of the narrow opportunities in the paradox of rural-urban drift.
Even Ajegunle and Maroko were beyond the reach of many. They found inhospitable accommodation under bridges and flyovers. I would imagine they put up with the rats, the mosquitoes and other vermin better entitled to their home under the bridges because they reasoned that being in Lagos was the best revenge against the hard life they left behind back home in their states of origin. In any case, condition not being permanent, we have also witnessed the God of miracles working the miracles in the lives of those the rich believed had been forgotten in the hard embrace of poverty and the hard life. No matter. If they could not make it here, there is always a fat chance they could exchange places with their compatriots in Maitama, Ikoyi, Lekki and other sumptuous places up stairs. This life is but a dress rehearsal.
The influx of fellow Nigerians into Lagos in the seventies doubled the problems of the city. It could barely cope with the burgeoning population. They clogged the arteries of its social development. The immediate consequence was insufficient water supply and inadequate housing. Millions of poor people lived in wooden shacks in Ikoyi and Victoria Island. The rich and the poor have never quite been separated.
The first military governor of Lagos State, the towering Brigadier-General Mobolaji Johnson, once described the people pouring into his state as the Dick Whittingtons. The man was frustrated. Dick Whittington was a character in an English folklore. It tells the story of a real life Richard Whittington, a wealthy merchant, who claimed to have escaped from poverty, thanks to his cat. Yep, people poured into Lagos to escape poverty. Thousands, who arrived here with coins jingling in their pockets, got lucky. They became rich from industries or commerce or, what the heck, plain corruption.
Thus, the great thing about Lagos is that many came to the city with small changes in their pockets and the gods of Eko transformed their lives. They found success. They made it. They grew wealthy. Lagos became their success story. Amazing.
No other city in the country has transformed as many lives as Lagos has. And no other state has the luck of Lagos: successor civilian governors of the state do not abandon projects begun by their predecessors. They complete them. Ask former governors Ahmed Tinubu and Babatunde Fashola. Then ask Akinwunmi Ambode, the current governor. Have I just revealed the secret of its success?
The Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa has commended the Muhammadu Buhari administration for its commitment to addressing the concerns of the Niger Delta people.
He told newsmen shortly after a closed door talks with President Buhari at the Aso Villa, Abuja, that the restoration of peace in Niger Delta had brought a lot of positive results to the oil and gas production.
Governor Okowa said that already, his government is actively working with the federal government on several of the plans, including the opening of the Maritime University.
The Governor said that he was in the Presidential Villa to show gratitude to President Buhari and the federal government, spoke with reporters after a brief call on the Vice President.
This is even as plans have been concluded by the Presidency to conclude the fact-finding tours to the Niger Delta with visits by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to Cross River and Ondo States.
It would be recalled that under the directive of President Buhari, the Vice President undertook visits to oil producing States in the Niger Delta. During the visits, series of town-hall meetings and consultations were held with a broad spectrum of stakeholders in a confidence building effort. [myad]
The retail segment of the interbank forex market received a huge boost today, Friday, as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) pumped another $388.66 million and sold to authorized dealers in that sector of the market.
The figures were the results of the bids submitted by dealers since Tuesday, May 2.
Confirming the numbers, the Acting Director of the Corporate Communications Department at the CBN, Isaac Okorafor, said that the sum of $87.885 was for spot sales, while $300.8 million was sold as forwards.
Okorafor explained that the forwards were sold into three tenors of 30, 45 and 60 days respectively. According to him, the Bank sold $100.95 as 30-day forwards; $110.48 million as 45-day forwards and $99.37 as 60-day forwards.
He also confirmed that the apex bank had continued with its intervention in the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment of the market to meet the needs of low-end users, adding that it is determined to ensure that it supplies enough forex to genuine customers and in the process sustain liquidity in the market.
The apex bank’s spokesman expressed the hope that the CBN will inch even much closer to its objective of convergence of the rates in the interbank and BDC segments.
It will be recalled that the CBN in the course of the week intervened in the wholesale and invisibles segments of the market with amounts valued at over $346 million to ease access to foreign exchange by different categories of customers. [myad]
The Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, has assured the nation that the Senate and the House of Representatives will work in tandem to pass the 2017 appropriation bill next week for the Presidential assent.
The deputy senate President, who presided over the Senate’s plenary today said: “by the grace of God, we will have it passed by next week and we send it to the President for assent.”
He assured that the national assembly would do everything possible to see that the bill was passed next week in view of the fact that the tenure of the 2016 budget would end on May 5.
According to him, the 2016 budget was passed on May 5, 2016 but under the Constitution, the Federal Government is entitled to continue to spend money based on the 2016 estimates up to June 30, 2017.
“We will not allow us to get into the reliance on the constitutional provision. Hopefully, by the grace of God, we will have this budget passed next week so that implementation will start in earnest.
“I just want to appeal for the understanding of the people of Nigeria.”
He said that though the senate was billed to receive the budget report today, Thursday, but that the Senate was informed in the morning that it was important for “it to be on the same page’’ with the House of Representatives.
“Let me emphasize for the benefit of the public that we were to receive this report today.
“It was only this morning that it was necessary for us to be sure that we are on the same page with the House of Representatives to avoid any possible conferencing.
“So, what we like to see is the House and the Senate laying just the same documents so that once we pass it, we will now send the documents to the President for assent.
“I think it is important that the point be made and the public know that the harmonisation which is going on should be concluded over the weekend to enable us receive the budget report by Tuesday.” [myad]
The United Nations Agency on Arms Conflicts in Nigeria has reported that at least 3,900 children have been killed and 7,300 more maimed by Boko Haram in the North East over a period of time since the insurgency started.
The first “Report of the Secretary General of the Agency,” which documents the impact on children of the severe deterioration of the security and humanitarian situation in the country between January 2013 and December 2016, said that suicide attacks became the second leading cause of child casualties, accounting for over one thousand deaths and 2,100 injuries during the reporting period.
The Secretary-General’s report strongly condemned grave violations against children committed by Boko Haram and urged the group to cease all such violations immediately.
“Boys and girls in north-east Nigeria continue to be brutalized as a result of Boko Haram’s insurgency in the region and the ensuing conflict.
“With tactics including widespread recruitment and use, abductions, sexual violence, attacks on schools and the increasing use of children in so-called “suicide” attacks, Boko Haram has inflicted unspeakable horror upon the children of Nigeria’s north-east and neighbouring countries.“
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, commended the Government of Nigeria for the measures already adopted and their collaboration with the UN to improve the protection of children.
She called upon the authorities to ensure that all boys and girls are provided with the necessary support and services to facilitate their reintegration into their communities. “The UN verified the recruitment and use of 1,650 children. However, estimates indicate that thousands more could have been recruited and used by Boko Haram since 2009, with credible accounts of children as young as four years old associated with the group.
“Testimonies from children separated from Boko Haram indicate that many were abducted, but that others joined the group due to financial incentives, peer pressure, familial ties and for ideological reasons. In some instances, parents gave up their children to obtain security guarantees or for economic gain.
“The children were used in direct hostilities, for planting improvised explosive devices, to burn schools or houses and in a variety of support roles. Beginning in 2014, children, and especially girls, were increasingly used in so-called “suicide” attacks. The UN verified the use of 90 children for suicide bombings in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, the majority of whom were girls.
“Schools have been targets of choice for Boko Haram and the United Nations estimates that 1,500 were destroyed since 2014, with at least 1,280 casualties among teachers and students. In some cases, schools also provided the settings for another of the group’s main tactics: the mass abduction of children. Credible reports indicate that at least 4,000 girls, boys and young women were abducted during the period under review, including the 276 girls taken from their school in Chibok three years ago.
“The UN was able to verify incidents of sexual violence affecting 217 children during the reporting period. However, as rape and other forms of sexual violence are more challenging to document, it is estimated that thousands of women and girls may have been victims of this violation. Many were subjected to forced marriage and forced religious conversion. When they managed to escape or were rescued, these girls often faced stigma and rejection from their families and communities, especially when children were born as a result of rapes during their captivity.
“While Boko Haram’s insurgency created immense challenges for children, the response also generated protection concerns, including allegations of extra judicial killings.
“The UN documented the recruitment and use of 228 children, including some as young as nine by the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), created in Borno State to assist the Nigerian Security Forces. Children were used mainly for intelligence-related purposes, in search operations, night patrols, for crowd control and to guard posts. The CJTF initiated a dialogue with the UN to develop an Action Plan shortly after their listing in the Secretary General’s annual report for the recruitment and use of children.
“I am heartened by the CJTF’s openness to improve the protection of children and encourage them to finalize the development and implementation of an Action Plan to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children,” declared Virginia Gamba. “I also encourage the Government of Nigeria to support this process.
“Another concern is the detention for alleged or suspected association with Boko Haram. Starting in 2014, children who surrendered or were captured during military operations have been detained for screening, with some classified as combatants and transferred to military detention facilities. In 2016, more than 1,100 children were also deprived of their liberty because of their parent’s alleged association with Boko Haram. On average, children were detained between three to four months, but 68 boys between the ages of 12 and 17 have been detained since September 2015. In a positive development, as of December 2016, 1,058 children have been released and UNICEF has worked with partners to provide them care and protection services. The Government of Nigeria and the UN are also engaged in ongoing discussions to enhance the protection and well-being of children encountered in these operations by developing joint standard operating procedures for the handover of children to protection actors.
“I welcome the efforts made to release children and to continue to provide access to the UN to facilities where children have been detained. I call on the authorities to treat boys and girls formerly associated with Boko Haram primarily as victims,” said the Special Representative.
“In conclusion, she urges all parties to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law and to ensure civilians are protected during armed clashes.” [myad]
The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside has asked American business people to take advantage of the federal government’s policy on ease of doing business to invest in the country.
Speaking today when he addressed selected businessmen from the United States of America, that the policy of ease of doing business, coordinated by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is already yielding fruits, particularly in the maritime sector. According to him, red tapes and bottlenecks which hitherto militated against investment in the sector have started disappearing.
Peterside said during a side event at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) currently going on in Houston Texas, with the theme: “Sub-Saharan African Oil & Gas networking session.”
He said that Nigeria allows income tax exemptions for infrastructural development in ship building, the NIMASA DG noted that there are financial incentives for ship building and ship scrapping with assurance of foreign repatriation of capital and profit.
“We ensure that we provide the basket of incentives to ensure that you get into the industry, maximize the opportunities in the industry for the benefit of both Nigerians and the investors.” [myad]
The Buhari Media Support Group (BMSG) has described the hues and cries about the ill health of President Muhammadu Buhari by some interest groups and individuals as mischievous, diversionary and laced with pure political motives.
A statement today, Thursday, by the group’s Protem Coordinator, Austin Braimoh and Secretary, Chief Cassidy Madueke, said that it is unfortunate that such interest groups have failed to realize that Nigerians are no longer gullible for cheap blackmail.
”Nigerians feel and are still feeling the presence of the Federal Government administration through programmes/projects being implemented all over the country as well as people oriented polices being churned out.”
“The true condition of the President as disclosed by the officials of the Presidency is that he is in recovery mode, and gaining energy from treatment he received in the UK; the President continues in his role as President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigerian and he has not abdicated his responsibility in that regard.”
“The President is getting on with the business of governance, on a daily basis, even though he may have stayed out of ceremonial activities.”
“We believe that this orchestrated propaganda that dwells on a daily reportage of the President’s health is simply an attempt by beneficiaries of the old order to distract attention from the war against corruption which is attaining new heights.
“Furthermore, BMSG observed that the war against Boko Haram terrorism, militancy and the sabotage of the economy in the Niger Delta have recorded huge success.
“The spotlight is an attempt to take away public attention from the enormous strides being made to pull the economy out of recession, a feat that is about being achieved in a matter of days or weeks.”
The group insisted that the Buhari administration has continued to record significant progress in the three cardinal areas of economy, security and fight against corruption, adding that no amount of campaign of calumny will deter the administration from serving Nigerian’s selflessly.
“It is not surprising that as soon as the country started witnessing economic recovery and progress in various sectors as well as local and international commendations, people who are not comfortable with the emerging order of things have devised this strategy to divert attention with the ill-health of Mr. President. “ [myad]
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has made it clear that the policy on some import items ineligible for forex has not been reversed and will not be compromised in future.
The apex bank said insisted that the media reports that it had made moves to reverse the policy were not true, adding: “the CBN has not reversed its policy on the 41 items ineligible for forex through the Nigerian forex market.
“The reports appear to be a misinterpretation of our circular titled: REVISED DOCUMENTATION REQUIREMENTS FOR ALLOCATION OF FOREIGN EXCHANGE FOR SMALL-SCALE IMPORTATION dated May 03, 2017, to the effect that importers of items classified as “ineligible for Forex” with transactions value of $20,000 and below per quarter shall now qualify for allocation of foreign exchange subject to the completion of form Q.”
A statement from the CBN said that this provision does oot refer to the 41 items that remain ineligible for forex sale in the Nigerian Forex market.
The statement asked the media and the general public to take note of the facts. [myad]
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Lagos, Our Lagos, By Dan Agbese
Lagos is a melting pot; a land of promises fulfilled and promises unfulfilled; a land of wide opportunities for some and narrow opportunities others.
I came to Lagos on September 19, 1970, in search of the golden fleece at the University of Lagos. Lagos was three years plus old then. It was one of the 12 states created by General Yakubu Gowon on May 27, 1967. It is the only state in the country today that has escaped the infection of the mad virus of state creation by the military since 1967. No mean achievement.
I find it fitting and proper that the government and people of the state should roll out the red carpet and bring out the royal drums in celebration of its 50th anniversary, which comes up on the 27th of this month. It is, for one, the oldest state in the country today. For another, it is the most populous state in the country. And for still another, it has made such tremendous progress in human, economic and social development that no one can truthfully describe it as old for nothing. Age and continuity have conferred on it the wisdom that has pushed it along its own beaten path. The once dirty, sweltering city is now the welcome face of human progress. It is a miracle.
By the way, I found the golden fleece three years later and headed back home to Benue-Plateau State. I thought I was finished with Lagos. I wasn’t.
I returned to Lagos in August 1984 to co-found Newswatch Communications Limited with Yakubu Mohammed, Dele Giwa and Ray Ekpu. Together we trail-blazed the weekly newsmagazine publishing in Africa with Newswatch magazine. I have not left Lagos since then. I have lived here for 33 years. But I am still not a Lagosian. I am still a stranger.
In my 33 years here, I have seen that a lot of good things began in Lagos. And a lot of bad things began in Lagos too. The city has a fine present and a sordid past.
In my Unilag days, I witnessed a city in eternal struggle with itself. It was both the best and the worst period in its life. The oil boom brought unimaginable wealth to the city. The construction boom made sure that the ports were virtually clogged with ships discharging imported building and other materials that would serve notice on the world that our country had arrived. The cement armada said something of the ambition and the incapacity of a country whose sudden wealth pushed it beyond its managerial and administrative capacity. This became its burden.
I was here when it was not unusual to see corpses on some major and minor streets in the city almost daily. The late iconoclast, Tai Solarin, was once moved to take on the thankless job of getting rid of those corpses the police pretended they did not see.
I was here when Ishola Oyenusi led his gang to rob WAHUM of its workers’ pay. They paid for their daring and became the first set of armed robbers to be publicly executed at the Bar Beach. Oyenusi and his gang made armed robbery a bloody but lucrative enterprise. His pikins are still in the business, firing squad or no firing squad.
I witnessed the build up of the horrendous traffic bottle neck. Its local name of go-slow captured the endurance test that vehicular traffic in the city endured daily. I used to walk from Carter Bridge to the NIIA at Kofo Abayomi in Victoria Island. Civil servant friends of mine left the mainland as early as 4 a.m. on week days to get to their offices by 7.30 a.m. on the island. If they were lucky, they passed through their office doors at 1 p.m.
It was here, since January 1966, that the military learnt to use their guns to effect a change of government and plant themselves in office. Coups, successful or failed, were all hatched and executed here. Failed coup plotters were also executed here. Lagos was a city where the blood flowed.
I have mentioned briefly the underbelly of Lagos, our Lagos. In my 33 years here, I have watched with fascination, the breath-taking progress the state has made in almost all areas of human progress; minus constant light supply by NEPA, of course. I have seen land reclaimed from the sea and the lagoon turned into highbrow business, commercial and residential areas for those that young business reporters call high net worth individuals. Our generation knew them as wealthy men and women.
I have watched the rise of skyscrapers and the road network sporting flyovers. I have watched the single Carter bridge, once the only bridge linking the main land with the island turned into a dual carriageway. I watched the building of Eko Bridge and the Third Mainland bridge. And I have watched as good planning and execution have made go-slow almost history in Lagos.
Lagos is a melting pot; a land of promises fulfilled and promises unfulfilled; a land of wide opportunities for some and narrow opportunities others. The city was the welcome but treacherous face of the oil boom in the seventies. It promised easy life but not everyone of the thousands of Nigerians who poured into the city from their hardscrabble home states could find it. They came every year in search of jobs, a better life and living. After all, this was where the oil boomed. Everyone could hear the boom and everyone could see the boom in the changed upward mobile circumstances of their compatriots.
No, I do not think those who flocked here ever thought the streets of the city were paved with gold. No one would be foolish enough then to pour gold on the narrow and largely unpaved streets of the crowded city. The bright lights of the rich and beautiful city attracted them. The promise of an important city being the seat of the Federal Government and commercial nerve centre of the country beckoned them. They could not resist the allure of the lore. And they poured in their thousands with each of them clutching a big dream to his chest. If you could not make it in Lagos, you could not make it anywhere else.
For some, the city delivered on its promises. They realised their big dreams by securing good and important jobs. Some found and exploited opportunities in private industrial and commercial enterprises. But the city failed some. It could not deliver on its assumed promises. There were no jobs and no decent opportunities for a living. Without these, there was no decent accommodation. Those who could not make it found solace in the backwoods or ghetto called Ajegunle and Maroko. The latter is now history but we must remember it in the context of the narrow opportunities in the paradox of rural-urban drift.
Even Ajegunle and Maroko were beyond the reach of many. They found inhospitable accommodation under bridges and flyovers. I would imagine they put up with the rats, the mosquitoes and other vermin better entitled to their home under the bridges because they reasoned that being in Lagos was the best revenge against the hard life they left behind back home in their states of origin. In any case, condition not being permanent, we have also witnessed the God of miracles working the miracles in the lives of those the rich believed had been forgotten in the hard embrace of poverty and the hard life. No matter. If they could not make it here, there is always a fat chance they could exchange places with their compatriots in Maitama, Ikoyi, Lekki and other sumptuous places up stairs. This life is but a dress rehearsal.
The influx of fellow Nigerians into Lagos in the seventies doubled the problems of the city. It could barely cope with the burgeoning population. They clogged the arteries of its social development. The immediate consequence was insufficient water supply and inadequate housing. Millions of poor people lived in wooden shacks in Ikoyi and Victoria Island. The rich and the poor have never quite been separated.
The first military governor of Lagos State, the towering Brigadier-General Mobolaji Johnson, once described the people pouring into his state as the Dick Whittingtons. The man was frustrated. Dick Whittington was a character in an English folklore. It tells the story of a real life Richard Whittington, a wealthy merchant, who claimed to have escaped from poverty, thanks to his cat. Yep, people poured into Lagos to escape poverty. Thousands, who arrived here with coins jingling in their pockets, got lucky. They became rich from industries or commerce or, what the heck, plain corruption.
Thus, the great thing about Lagos is that many came to the city with small changes in their pockets and the gods of Eko transformed their lives. They found success. They made it. They grew wealthy. Lagos became their success story. Amazing.
No other city in the country has transformed as many lives as Lagos has. And no other state has the luck of Lagos: successor civilian governors of the state do not abandon projects begun by their predecessors. They complete them. Ask former governors Ahmed Tinubu and Babatunde Fashola. Then ask Akinwunmi Ambode, the current governor. Have I just revealed the secret of its success?
Happy birthday to Lagos, our Lagos. [myad]