BusinessDay 22 Oct 2017

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26 BD SUNDAY C002D5556 Sunday 22 October 2017 TheWorshippers Church leaders need to take support for mission work more seriously – Rev. Ajiboye Rev. Dare Ajiboye took over the mantle of leadership as the eighth general secretary and chief executive officer of the Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN) in 2014. In this interview with Seyi John Salau, Ajiboye speaks on the journey so far, the need for church leaders to do more in supporting mission work, and the state of affairs in the polity. How has the journey been for you so far as the general secretary and chief executive officer of the Bible Society of Nigeria? If I say it has been smooth, then it is a great deceit. I came on board as the CEO specifically on 20th August, 2013 when the economy of this country was good, but you would agree with me that within the last two years the economy of Nigeria has nosedived. Of course, that does not mean that the economy started nose-diving in the last two years. The negative impact that we see in our economy started long ago. Being a leader at a time as this is not an easy task: you are struggling with how to get fund to pay the salaries of staff; you are struggling with how to even bring in the Bible, which is the core activity that we do. It simply means that to translate the Bible to different languages is becoming very difficult. But the economy is affecting the donors and by extension affecting us because we are not getting enough funds again. Besides that, we are finding it difficult to get dollar to bring in published translated Bibles because in Nigeria today, for me, there is no printing press that can handle the quantity and quality of the Bibles we bring in. And if we have to rely on dollar, how do we go about getting these dollars? Again, our roads are in a bad shape adding to the cost of leadership. If you come in through Western Avenue to our office here in Apapa, you can see how bad the roads are and we have to bring in our vehicles every day. And some of these vehicles are heavily loaded. We spend the little money we get to fix the vehicles with which the Bibles are delivered. Leadership has to do with leading people. I must say that I used to think I understood leadership, having led at various departmental levels in school as the president of the fellowship and leading in the various arms of the church. Within the last four years I want to tell you that I now know what leadership is all about. Leadership is a difficult thing. You even blame leaders for not taking your suggestions but looking at it holistically, I know why some decisions are not taken. Again, it is not an easy task to be able to bring people Dare Ajiboye to your life to see and run with the vision and probably still run with that vision when you leave. I have also seen that leadership involves relying on God, I have seen challenges within these four years and if God had not called me to BSN, I would have felt like going back and just leaving the job. Sometimes I tell God, ‘But I prayed to you before applying for this job and accepting it. You gave me this job, I did not lobby for it and I did not want to apply even after you told me to apply for it.’ With the help of God I have been given solutions to them by God, though it has not been easy, especially in a time of economic recession. To be candid, God has been faithful. What can you tell us about the projects being executed by BSN? BSN has translated the Bible into 24 Nigerian languages and we also have two that have been completed. We are only waiting for funding that God would provide to publish Okrika and Kalabari Bible. The two languages are spoken in Rivers State. We are trusting God for funding. Currently we have 10 translations ongoing; one of them is my own language, Okun. It is a language spoken in about five local government areas in Kogi and Kwara States and some local government areas in Ekiti State. So it is a vast language. Though it is not spoken the same way in these places, we understand ourselves. We are also working on Epie and Ogbia languages which are spoken in Bayelsa State, and we also have other languages. But in total we have 10 Nigerian languages that we are working on. It costs about a minimum of N44 million to translate the Bible into a language, that is why we ask for funds from Christians who are willing to support us. Earlier you spoke about funding for your activities. How has the support been like since you came onboard? I must say this is one of the major challenges that we are facing. Some churches feel we are competing with them. Some do not see BSN as adding any value to Christendom and this has been a major concern. They use the Bible, have branches in the rural area where they use the Bible in indigenous translations – Efik, Tiv, etc – yet they do not see us as relevant. We even try to educate them but they are more concerned about doing their own things. Yes, it is a good thing to have structures, mammoth crowd following us, but without the Bible there would be no church in the first place. And if there is no church there would be no pastors, and that is why I expect church leaders to take support for BSN with seriousness. We thank God for the few that are supporting us, whereas some do not even want to see us. I must say that The Apostolic Church, even when we go there and they sight us, they would announce our presence. They have been helpful. Christ Apostolic Church, Mountain of Fire and Miracles, The Baptist Church and ECWA are great supporters of BSN. Even some with all formality still do not want to see us because they think we are coming to beg from them. But I keep saying this to everybody that cares to listen: God has called me and I do not need to be a beggar to do this job. I do not need money for myself. Even if I have any personal challenge, I talk to God about it and thank God he has been taking care of my personal challenges. I have never begged. But the BSN needs the support of these leaders and they should know that without the Bible there would be no church and without church there would be no pastor. They use the word of God to preach, teach and grow their members. Then they should begin to think about how to support Bible translations. Away from the BSN now. The President Muhammadu Buhari administration seems to have fallen short of its campaign promises to Nigerians, which has resulted in calls for resignation in some quarters. Are the electorate right to have made such call? I do not know about what they mean by incompetence. To me competence is a combination of skills that leaders need to influence others to get positive result. So competence is a component of the type of knowledge, skill and attitude. When people voted for him, I think they believed he had the competence to lead. I agree that Nigerians ought to have got something better even from the present government, but people should not also forget that leadership is sequential. Somebody stayed 100 years and people who come after build on what they met. When the colonial masters handed power to us, things were not like this; those who took over after them were not selfish, but gradually things started changing, even Jonathan must have inherited challenges as well as Buhari and these challenges may be overwhelming, and people looking at it want quick fixes. If we want Nigeria to be better, then we cannot have quick fixes; it would take time, though what we want to see is not talking about the past again. As far as I am concerned, a leader should be less concerned about the negative things the predecessor did but know that he or she has been brought to leadership to do well. So they should stop talking about the past. Managers do not change situations but maintain status quo, but leaders influence changes, make things better no matter how bad the situation is; they do not make things static. Another thing is that you might have competency but may not have the right people around you. He might be handicapped in making some laws because it has to go through the lower and higher chamber which at the end of the day might take three years and he is handicapped and cannot do anything. If the judiciary and legislature arms do not have the competent people to help the executive, then we are wasting time. At this time we cannot ask him to resign because we voted him there and we would be disappointed if he resigns because we thought he could do it; so we are praying for him for good health and competencies to carry on. It is only by him succeeding that we would succeed. I encourage people to stop castigating, especially from a narrow perspective.
Sunday 22 October 2017 C002D5556 SUNDAY BD 27 Perspective When Wike hosted editors the 2nd time… IGNATIUS CHUKWU Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has made it clear that his administration was not competing with anybody and any state. He told Editors that came for the 2017 conference that Rivers State was marching ahead with an avalanche of project execution where most other states were struggling with salaries. Wike played host again to 13th Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) after the 2015 hosting, saying it was too huge an opportunity for an opposition government to pass up. He said editors were in the best position to tell the world the truth about his administrations achievements and the security situation in the oil state. At the opening ceremony of the 2017 Association of Nigerian Editors Conference (ANEC) in Port Harcourt, Wike said he had many projects to show to his guests; “When you undertake the tour, you will see the projects we’ve accomplished across the different priority areas, particularly, on road infrastructure, healthcare, education and security. You will see that we have since reconstructed almost all the bad roads in Port ernment Area roads we have either completed or are ongoing. For instance, you will see completed or ongoing road projects in Abua/Odual, Akuku Toru Andoni, Etche, Ikwerre, OkrikaObio/Akpor, Emohua, Eleme, Tai, Gokana and Khana Local Government Areas of the State. You will further see our efforts in healthcare delivery. You will see that we have comprehensively reconstructed general Harcourt city, including the ones in Diobu, mile one to mile three, Port Harcourt Township, old and new Government Reservation Areas, Harold Wilson Drive, Borokiri, D/Line, Oro-Worokwo, Ogbunabali, Nkporgu, Dr. Peter Odili road and other neighbourhoods of the State capital.” Mentioning others, he said; “You will also see the intra, inter-city and inter-local govhospitals in Abua, Nchia, Isiokpo, Rumuigbo, Abonnema, Bodo city, Opobo, Eberi-Omuma, Ngo, Emohua, Buguma and Okrika towns and communities across the State.” He said he had remobilised contractors to work on the ‘mother and child hospital’ and three of the four regional hospitals started and abandoned by the previous administration. “You will also see several other projects that are already in use, including the Port Harcourt ultra-modern Pleasure Park, the Okrika jetty, the Ecumenical Centre, and the Port Harcourt NBA Law Centre complex. Again, you will also notice that we have initiated some new projects you did not see during your first visit, including the construction of internal roads and land reclamation in Emohua, Ikwerre, Asari Toru, Okirika, Degema Local Government Areas and the renovation of 185 basic education schools across the State.” He said; “It is important to emphasise that we are not competing with anybody or any other State for laurels or for anything. We are simply doing our job as mandated by the good people of Rivers State and we are both grateful and encouraged by the outpourings of support and affection from our people. Furthermore, we are in a democracy and so we do fully acknowledge and respect the right of the opposition to criticize us as much as they can, but this right ought to be exercised in good faith and with all sense of responsibility. However, instead of projecting their relevance, if any, with alternative policies and programmes, the political opposition continues to live in denial of our achievements within two years as against the complete mess they left behind after being in power for eight unbroken years.” He criticised his opponents saying when they were on seat, many things including the judiciary crumbled. “For goodness sake, how do we compare? They viciously closed down the courts for no good reason and subjected every one of us in Rivers State to suffer the consequences of their obnoxious action for nearly two years.” He went on: “We are all aware that even in the height of militancy by Niger Delta youths, not even a single oil facility was attacked, occupied or shut down in Rivers State because of the measures we put in place in conjunction with the security agencies to ensure security for all the vital national economic assets located in the State. We believe that the media will do Rivers people a lot of good, if they hold every public office holder, including those at the Federal level to the same levels of scrutiny accountability.” He said the media in the state always goes into what he called muffled tones even when the political opposition goes to the extremity of using national institutions to undermine the authority of State Government, sabotage their security architecture, assault the national electoral system and intimidate the judiciary for self-seeking partisan goals. From the days of Mbu Mbu as commissioner of police, sitting governors in the state have always accused the police of carrying out hostile actions against the interest of the state and the media had always reported it. Wike however charged: “How else can we situate the active and virulent involvement of the Nigerian Police in rigging the legislative re-run elections that took place in the State in March and December 2016 in favour of the opposition All Peoples Congress? Is it not offensively true that the Nigerian police has refused to investigate and prosecute those that were caught and arrested in the D/Line area of Port Harcourt for printing fake ballot papers with INEC’s authentic serial numbers to be used for the December 2016 re-run elections?’ He pursued: “Similarly, why has the Federal Government refused to prosecute the State Commander of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad (SARS), Mr. Akin Fakorede, who was caught on tape and seen on national television brutalising an electoral officer at a collation centre in furtherance of his partisan commitment to deliver fake results to the candidates of the All Progress Congress in the December 2016 rerun elections? How can we accept the situation where an election tribunal discarded authentic results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, which is lawfully responsible for the management of elections, and in its place accepted fake results from the credibility-challenged Nigerian Police as the basis to provocatively award electoral victories to candidates of the All peoples Congress.’ Wike has continued to accuse the former SARS boss of offences. “Unassailable facts have just emerged about how SARS under Akin Fakorode has become an organize criminal robbery gang in the State, yet the Inspector General of Police would simply dismiss such serious allegations with a wave of the hand because the victims are Rivers people who are not entitled do justice. 35. We do believe that these recurrent acts of impunity, political intimidation, economic sabotage, state repression, election rigging, and abuse of power are wrongs not only against Rivers State; they are wrongs against the entire country.” The president of the Guild, Funke Egbomode, said Rivers State was a good place for conferences and that no amount of propaganda would change that view
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BusinessDay 22 Oct 2017

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