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OPINION: IBADAN: The Changing times | Sayo Aluko.
TWO nights ago, when Adetunji called to inform me that he was relocating (back) to Ibadan from Lagos, the excitement in his voice instantly found family in a thought that has found seat in my heart for a while now. This thought that Ibadan, the largest city in West Africa, is presently experiencing rectification, a gradual shift of some sort into what’s truly befitting of Nigeria’s culture, intellectual and political capital.
For a city with this sociocultural, people and geographical expanse, and also proximity to the nation’s economic nerve centre, one would expect it to be more than a mere domiciliary where residents just subsist with lil’ or nil economic activity. But, when I berthed here 8 years ago in search of a second academic degree, that was the kind of city I met – bland, bare and boring, worse still, dirty.
Back then, to the average young mind with dreams to cease merely existing and get productive, acknowleging that Ibadan was in terminal decline practically became a conventional legend. Ibadan bled and suffered a menstrual efflux of its youth, they literally ditched the Ibadan identity and deserted in droves for the accepting anonymity of Lagos. They ran for dear life, from the slow death offered by an older generation that was trapped in rhetorical gossip, political illiberality, personal conflict and unproductive traditional rituals. They ran from the early evening shut downs and the lazy hand of routine that plagued the city. And, who could blame them?
That Ibadan of then was an existential testament to the fact that the state as a whole had lacked Promethean leaders right through the early years of Nigeria’s nascent democracy. Leadership in the state was infamously steeped in amala politics and gbegiri policies, so much that the unanswerable underdevelopment and palpable stagnate state of Ibadan and its people wasn’t really farfetched. For example, to insiders and outsiders alike who watched Oyo from a distance, governance and its delivery was mostly limited to the crude wit of the Mòlété generalissimo, Alhaji Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu, albeit, in a 21st century; how contrasting, that. More so, quoting the common colloquial phrase, Ibadan was ‘big for nothing’, it was so obvious that its leaders at the time lacked insight to maximize its expanse for competitive good, per governance.
But as I said in the opening paragraph above, any keen and objective mind in the Ibadan of today, will observe that the state is presently undergoing a drift along the lines of rescue. This ongoing return to a place of pride is definitely gradual in pace, understandably procedural in delivery, arguably tardy in impact, but unarguably assured in intent. And without doubt, just as many residents of Oyo would unreluctantly attest, one can ascribe this gradual drift to the undamned style of governance of the self-christened “constituted authority”, Abiola Ajimobi, the incumbent governor of Oyo state.
His style of governance is a sharp departure from the towob’Obe (dilute) type that was obtainable prior to his term, and from reports, he “gored the ox” of the political establishment and stuck to his gun, whilst armed with a contagious intention to set his government on a course to redeem Ibadan and Oyo state from the damnifying effect of aged reverse. It took time, clearly.
Personally, as a rite to the idea of good governance, I’ve always had a thing for any government that thinks; nothing seldom besets a government with vision and the attendant chutzpah to implement it. For example, till date, anytime I enter the University of Ibadan (UI) and take in its organizational and structural expanse, I get lost in awe of the vision of the founding fathers. I mean, at a point in this same Nigeria, some leaders sat together, thought about setting up a university, and for that, they secured 1, 032 hectares of land? They made their vision occupy such huge stretch albeit from a little beginning? These men commissioned projects with a vision of the future in mind, and I’m always awed at that fact, while also always disappointed that years after, we’ve not been able to replicate such visionary mileage from a relay of leaders who rather choose to bask in cosmetic and/or transient achievements.
But then, this is why I’m somewhat impressed with the ongoing efforts at making Ibadan better via a similar ‘thinking’ perspective, and not a merely political perspective. I mean, for the first time in a tiring while, things now appear to be done for the electorate indeed, more than just seeking political or propagandist mileage. I say these after considering efforts the “constituted authority’s” government has channeled into making Ibadan a beehive of promising activities, where people, brands, institutions, parastatals, businesses and industries now come in to seek productivity and empower residents.
Before now as a case in point, I didn’t really understand why past governments in Oyo state could not seriously identify insecurity and dirt as the main and first antagonists to development and investments that’d make the state maximize its potentials to thrive. Prior to this present day, 6 out of every 10 people in Ibadan must have been either “obtained” by urchins of Idi-Arere or Molete, or must have stepped on human faeces at the city centre in Iwo road. And this was even toppled by the episodes of violence brewed by thugs. In fact, past governments and politicians actually seemed to have resolved to maintaining a romantic indulgence for rascals who produced man-made mayhem almost on a daily basis.
Don’t get me wrong, insecurity, even till date, is a national scourge happening everywhere in pockets, but, in this Ibadan of then, it was a staple, an almost subconscious expectation that lives and properties would be destroyed when these thugs chose to have their fill.
One would then ask – How could such city thrive or attract investments and human activities befitting of its history, expanse and heritage? How did past governments not know that the primal agenda of any thinking administration meaning to redeem Ibadan was to tackle insecurity and clean her up?
Well, this was what the Ajimobi administration got right at first cut by the manner of foremost thought. The preventive cum punitive policies, and the obvious headlong approach to discouraging crime and securing lives and property in the Ibadan of today have been nothing short of evidently effective; such that businesses are back, such that hotspots where no one dared to stay past 8pm, are now places where night life beams and booms. Relaxation spots and nightclubs now sprouting like autumn mistletoe leaves, one would never believe ’tis the same Ibadan.
Additionally, my friend is relocating back here because, like some other reported 3,000 skilled professionals, he just got a job (as a HR officer) with one of the over 100 foreign and indigent companies setting up shop in the 4,000 hectare (read that again, four thousand hectares!) Free Trade Zone and industrial park established by this government via a public-private-partnership (PPP) arrangement, right at the Ibadan end of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. Just almost opposite this industrial park is the newly established Technical University by the Ajimobi government, another PPP initiative. The rave reviews this new university had before it was commissioned about two months ago were so good I had to attend that commissioning to see for myself; and impressive, it was. According to reports, this Ibadan Technical university was conceived by Ajimobi himself after visiting a technical university in Texas, USA. And basically, the idea behind a technical university is to equip young minds with applicable, practical, balanced, and most importantly, hands-on education that suits the needs of their immediate environment, thus making them direct participants in the development drive and active employers of labour.
Today, the Ibadan Technical University stretches over a million square metre of land on that expressway, it is the first of its kind in Nigeria and Africa, and it is set to propel the city into international limelight. The best part to this is the array of truly direct-impact courses to be offered – Bio-technology, Environmental engineering, Renewable Clean Energy Resource technology, In-vitro fertility technology, Aircraft Maintenance/ Repairs, Industrial and production engineering, nanotechnology, Robotics, Automation, Cyber-security, Mechatronics, Tropical Agricultural Engineering/Food processing amongst others. 12 of these courses have been approved by the National Universities Commission (NUC), the school already has a board, it is presently recruiting more administrative and academic staff, and the first set of students are to resume by October, 2017.
In short, the whole of Ibadan, and by extension Oyo state, is back buzzing, productive human activity is on the rise, all of this simply because there’s a thinking government fuelled by insight and foresight in Agodi.
No, chill, don’t fret. This isn’t to emblazon an individual or state executive that is simply doing a job it was elected to do, rather, I’m aiming adulation towards the fact that a job is being done relatively better than predecessors, visionarily at that, and most importantly that the people are better for it. That’s the kókó of all these atótónu of mine – the PEOPLE being better for it!
To the Ajimobi government, I advice not to take their foot off the gas in the drive to make Ibadan and Oyo state become a reference point for transformative governance. In the remaining two years of its unprecedented 2nd term, more should be done per maintenance of projects done so far, especially roads, and more effort should be channeled into educating and enforcing compliance amongst residents as regards keeping the city clean. To us the electorate, I advice not to stop contributing our quota, at least, by continous objective criticism of this government, while we arm our thoughts with the need to elect an even better state executive come 2019. This state I’ve come to fall in love with its people and rich heritage, MUST NOT get back into sóóyòyò and agbádá armada governance.
This Ibadan, this sprawling megalopolis on Seven Hills, this expression of all Oyo state represents, once described as a “running splash of rust; and gold, flung and scattered” by J. P Clark in his “Ibadan” poem, is an endearing city of the ancient that is presently enjoying gradual matrimony with the modern; and this needs to be beyond celebrated, sustained.
Is Ibadan or Oyo state already at Uhuru? No, not at all, not even near it per se. But, I like this drift towards what’s befitting for the state and benefitting for its residents. It is gradual as I said above, but it is accelerating, clearly upping pace as the seconds tick by. Beyond anything, I think this should just be encouraged.
Ibadan mèsìògò, e kú changing times ooo.
By Sayo Aluko, Ibadan.
Photo credit : Tolani Alli
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has criticized the alleged forceful conversion of public reading and learning facilities in Dugbe, Ibadan, into shopping malls and lock-up shops by the state government, describing the development as shameful, ill-conceived, and unacceptable.
In a statement released over the weekend by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, and made available to journalists in Ibadan, the APC also raised concerns about the alleged sale of the modern motor park facility at Wema Area on New Ife Road, Ibadan, built during the administration of the late Senator Abiola Ajimobi.
According to the party, the motor park has been sold to a pastor who presides over a popular church near the facility.
Residents of Ibadan, the state capital, were reportedly stunned when they noticed the sudden erection of massive private business complexes within the premises of the Oyo State Library Board.
The facilities, built by the defunct Western Region government, had served as public libraries and archives for decades, benefitting students, researchers, and tourists until recently.
“It is a sad reality that the buildings which used to serve as public libraries and archives in Dugbe axis of Ibadan have now paved the way for the development of commercial and business structures,” Sadare said.
“The implication is that education and research development have been relegated to the background in the state by an administration that has done little to address the poor reading culture among young students.”
The APC expressed alarm over what it termed the erosion of public heritage under Governor Seyi Makinde’s administration, alleging that public properties are being sold or leased to private individuals and groups under questionable circumstances.
“How can a government wake up one day and convert public reading facilities and archives into lock-up shops in the name of making money, thereby subjecting society to the dangers of illiteracy and ignorance?” the statement queried.
The party also cited other instances of alleged mismanagement of public assets, including the concession of OYSADEP Guest House in Saki and Agbowo Shopping Complex in Ibadan, warning that the trend poses a serious threat to the state’s socio-economic development.
“Sad enough, the ignoble activities of the governor and a few other characters around him as they involve mismanagement of land and other resources belonging to the state have paved the way for a surge in land grabbing cases in most parts of the state capital. There are many cases involving appointees of the governor, PDP lawmakers, local government officials, and party chieftains,” the statement added.
The APC called on well-meaning individuals and stakeholders in the state to demand accountability from the Makinde administration and halt what it described as the systematic erosion of public resources and heritage.
On Monday and Tuesday last week, workers and political operatives within the precincts of the new Senate building in the National Assembly complex, Abuja, were treated to a replica of the Theatre of the Absurd. This type of drama originated in Europe and later spread to America in the 1950s. It was influenced by existential philosophy and Albert Camus’s essay The Myth of Sisyphus.
In that work, Camus captured the fundamental human needs and compared the absurdity of man’s life with the situation a figure of Greek mythology, Sisyphus found himself, where he was condemned to repeat forever the task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, and repeatedly sees the same roll down the hill as he approaches the top.
He, thereafter, juxtaposed life’s absurdities with what he called the “unreasonable silence” of the universe to human needs and concluded that rather than adopt suicide, in frustration, “revolt” was required.
82-year-old Dr. Muhammed Adamu Fika, former Clerk to the National Assembly and former Chairman, of the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC), who calls himself the “smaller Adamu Fika,” must have come across the Camus essay in deciding to lead an emergency meeting of the Council of Retired Clerks and Secretaries of the National Assembly on November 18. The emergency meeting, which was jointly held with members of the Association of Retired Staff of the National Assembly was meant to salvage the pathetic plights of the National Assembly retirees.
Eighty-two-year-old Fika can hardly gather the pace to navigate round the corners of the National Assembly, but he insisted on making the trip to enable him to preside over the meeting as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Council of Retired Clerks and Secretaries. As his retiree colleagues, many of whom are far younger, saw him struggling to walk the required distance from the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Library, originally fixed as venue to the new Senate building, they had to provide some shoulders to lean on. At one stage, an office chair was converted to a wheelchair to ensure the elderly Fika got to certain locations. It was a sad tale, especially if you look at the essence of Fika’s trip to the National Assembly. He was there to preside over a meeting to press home the need for the payment of the entitlements of National Assembly retirees. An alarm had earlier been sounded on the different Whatsapp platforms of the retired workers of the National Assembly to the effect their members were dying in numbers. It was revealed that no fewer than 20 retired workers had died awaiting the payment of their entitlements in the recent past. Another set of retirees numbering 12 were said to have been bedridden in different hospitals across the land. That alarm was more than enough to prompt Fika and his retiree colleagues to an emergency meeting. But the sight of an elderly man, fighting a just cause on an improvised wheelchair was more than absurd.
Payment of the entitlements got stalled after former President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the National Assembly Service Pensions Board Act, 2023, which mandated the National Pensions Commission (PENCOM) to hand over assets of the staff of the National Assembly in its custody after the passage of the National Assembly pension law.
In the beginning, there were no signs that things would go south on the implementation of the Act. Three months after the National Assembly Service Pensions Board Act came into effect, PENCOM had written the management to convey its decision to hand off the pension assets of the staff of the National Assembly, while requesting the National Assembly management to provide it with account details to remit the accrued funds. The 10th Senate and the House of Representatives also provided hope for the retirees by providing a take-off grant to the tune of N2.5 billion in the 2024 budget. However, the NASS management could not comply with the request from PENCOM because the Pensions Board had not been inaugurated. Months after months, the retirees waited. Those who were already enjoying their benefits when PENCOM was administering had the payments terminated, while the waiting game ensued.
In trying to fast-track the implementation of the Act, Fika, as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Council of Retired Clerks and Secretaries had forwarded a letter to the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, intimating them of the council’s recommendations for positions in the National Assembly Service Pensions Board.
Fika said in the letter, dated February 27, 2024, that “Considering the pathetic health conditions of our retired colleagues, Your Excellency will agree with me that the establishment of the National Assembly Pensions Board is overdue five (5) months after Mr. President’s assent.” He said that his letter was premised on the provisions of Sections 2 and 17(3) of the National Assembly Service Pensions Board Act, 2023, which indicate that the presiding officers of the National Assembly shall make the appointments subject to recommendations of the Council of Clerks and Secretaries. But some persons are insinuating that the undue delay might have been instigated by two strange bedfellows-politics and money. Where the two are involved, simply things hardly follow a straight course. However, nothing justifies the nearly 20-month delay in inaugurating the Pensions Board.
At the end of the emergency meeting on Monday, further meetings were said to have been scheduled at the instance of the Senate President, Akpabio, his deputy, Jibril Barau and others but there were no conclusive steps, yet.
A communique released after the meeting indicated that the retirees observed that the National Assembly Service Pensions Board Act, 2023 went through full legislative process in the 9th National Assembly and was assented to by President Muhammad Buhari. It further noted that the delay in implementing the Act has caused undue and untold hardship to the retirees who are unable to access their retirement benefits, adding that while a number of the retired Staff have died, many others are bedridden due to sufferings occasioned by the non-payment of their entitlements.
According to the communique, the meeting decried the pains the retired staff have been subjected to and recalled that appropriate recommendations as per the composition of the Pensions Board have been made to the Presiding Officers of the National Assembly, in line with the enabling Act.
Air Commodore David Olumuyiwa Babalola, a consultant clinical pharmacist in the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), has achieved an extraordinary milestone in Nigerian pharmacy practice, earning three prestigious honors at the 97th Annual National Conference of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN).
Held from November 4 to 9, 2024, the conference celebrated Babalola’s exceptional contributions with the Biogenerics Integrity Award, the Pfizer Excellence Award, and the Fellowship of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (FPSN).
Babalola was recognized as the best overall public-sector hospital pharmacist in Nigeria, clinching the Biogenerics Integrity Award. This esteemed honor, accompanied by a ₦1,000,000 cash prize, celebrates excellence in patient care, career achievements, innovations, training, research, professional service, philanthropy, and leadership in public hospitals.
Adding to his accolades, he was one of four pharmacists nationwide to receive the Pfizer Excellence Award. This award highlights outstanding contributions to hospital and community pharmacy and includes a ₦250,000 cash prize, a commemorative plaque, and a certificate.
Representatives of Pfizer Nigeria presented the award during the conference’s grand closing banquet at Flairmore Event Centre, Uyo.
This achievement makes history as Babalola becomes the first pharmacist in the Nigerian Armed Forces to win a PSN-sponsored corporate award since its inception nearly two decades ago.
In his acceptance speech, Babalola expressed gratitude to Biogenerics Nigeria Ltd and Pfizer Nigeria for their sponsorship, which he said inspires excellence in hospital pharmacy practice.
He also acknowledged the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal HB Abubakar, for fostering an enabling environment for pharmacists within the NAF and for approving the implementation of the Pharmacists Consultant Cadre in the force.
Babalola’s accolades were further crowned by his conferment with the Fellowship of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (FPSN), the highest honor awarded to pharmacists in the country. This recognition, reserved for individuals who have rendered exemplary and meritorious service, solidifies Babalola’s status as a trailblazer in the field.
As the first pharmacist in the Nigerian Air Force to attain the rank of air commodore, Babalola’s career is marked by groundbreaking achievements.
His latest recognitions underscore his relentless commitment to advancing pharmacy practice in Nigeria and inspiring a new generation of pharmacists.
The investiture ceremony for his FPSN honor is slated for early 2025, promising yet another celebration of his outstanding contributions to the pharmacy profession and the Nigerian Armed Forces.
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