08042018 - Education in free fall! •Sector gets paltry N3.9 trillion out of N55.19 trillion in 10 years

PAGE 42—SUNDAY VANGUARD, APRIL 8, 2018
2019: You have failed
us, group tells Delta
lawmaker
*’My achievements are
verifiable’
From left: Assistant Director, Science and Technology Development,
Lagos State Ministry of Education, Aberuagba Olufemi; Head of Channel
Marketing, PZ Cussons, Ayodeji Adewale; Brand Manager, Anaekwe
Aishat; Director, Science and Technology Department, Lagos State
Ministry of Education, Ibiyeye Adebayo, and the Activation Manager –
Lagos, PZ Cussons, Olatunji Fisayo, First Stage, Examination of 5 th
Edition of PZ Cussoms Chemistry Challenge in Lagos.
I dreamt of building the tallest building in Africa
—Ogundele, MD/CEO, Sujimoto
BY DESTINY ESEAGA
Mr Sijibomi Ogundele, the
Managing Director/Chief
Executive Officer, Sujimoto, in this
piece, says he dreamt of building the
tallest residential building in Africa.
Years 2016 and 2017 were
probably the most difficult period
of my life.
I had dreamt and developed the
biggest project in my life – the tallest
residential building in Sub-
Saharan Africa estimated to cost 90
million dollars. I invested all my
money, time and passion into
something I believed in.
Unfortunately for me, the
economy was very bad and things
became very rough. I had to let go
the best people around me.
There’s a way life tries to snatch
your dream away and suddenly
everything you are doing looks
•Sijibomi Ogundele
impossible.
Some people told me that real
intractable. True?
No. I do not believe so. We have had
challenges of insurgency before and it
was curtailed. We have had occasions
where herdsmen quarrelled with
villagers, and such were curtailed. But
then, these things are on the rise because
nobody is paying due attention to them.
My advice is that the Federal
Government should appoint a
responsible and responsive Deputy
National Security Adviser to deal with
these internal crises rather than leaving
it to the multi-agency platforms
currently being used to tackle them. I
intend to be part of the search for
solutions for optimal security attention
to some of these issues when I get to the
Senate.
From left: Director General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (LCCI), Mr Muda Yusuf, Vice President. Ukrainian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Valery Aleksandeuk,
President, LCCI, Mr Babatunde Paul Ruwase, FCA, Deputy
Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine,
NataliaMykolska and Ambassador of Ukraine to Nigeria, Sergi
Skystil, during the Ukrainian Chamber Delegation to LCCI.
estate is a difficult sector, so it would
be best for me to leave my passion
and do something else. I visited my
old-time friend’s water factory in
Abeokuta and thought about
venturing into the ‘pure-water’
business.
I even went back to Ijebu Igbo and
visited some farms because it
seemed agriculture and farming
had become the new ‘oil’. Some
people began convincing me to
leave everything and deviate into
something I knew nothing about
(agriculture & farming).
Even the guy (my supposed best
friend) whom I borrowed almost
two million dollars was always
coming up with stories. I tried to
sell everything I owned to move to
NYC (New York City). I had spoken
to a successful Nigerian actor who
had moved to Atlanta because of the
steep recession. He said life was
easier there, things were stable and
I could access credit through a
flexible banking system.
I was confused and devastated, but
I kept the words of Napoléon Hills
book on replay in my head. I
remembered that my present
situation should not determine my
destination..
But I knew in my heart that
running away wasn’t the definition
of the Motomatics Philosophy I had
created, the Sujimoto I know and
advocated wasn’t a runaway loser,
neither was it lack of focus kind of
personality or company...
I developed courage and
refocused my life. I revisited my
options and created Guilliano, the
son of Lorenzo, the Grandson of
Cosimo the Medici. I
conceptualised, planned and
executed the project, even though I
didn’t have all the money. In less
than six months, though I am still
not where I want to be, but I am
thankful to the almighty that I am
not where I used to be.
It’s been the most inspiring, most
difficult and most challenging time
for me. But now, I am thankful I
didn’t give up, runoff or lose hope.
OSHIOMHOLE: THE ANATOMY OF A STATESMAN
Continued from page 41
workers apart from the fact that
he was not associated with any
godfather when he decided to
plunge into the murky waters of
Nigerian politics. Indeed he fought
godfatherism to a standstill in Edo
State and he had to quickly disband
the rainbow coalition he put
together after the titanic legal battle
to retrieve his mandate when it became
clear that those who made the previous
government fail in the state were
determined to undermine his resolve to
transform the state and take it to new
heights.
In Nigeria, we have a legacy of
dysfunctional political process marked
by executive dominance and political
corruption. This has created a
“godfather” political culture that sees
government mainly as an instrument
of personal power and accumulation
of private wealth. This was the situation
in Edo State before Oshiomhole’s
ascension to power. The “godfathers”
were intolerably powerful and were
unimpeded by law. Their hold on power
made them acquire more wealth and,
therefore, more power to the detriment
of the poor suffering masses of Edo
State. This obviously made the transfer
of power in an orderly manner difficult
in 2007 leading to many months of legal
battle after the massively rigged
gubernatorial election. Some few
months to the inevitable end of Adams
Oshiomhole’s tenure as governor of Edo
State, the polity was heated up because
of political realignments. Comrade
Oshiomhole was however helped on
this matter by the fact that the majority
of Edo people perceived the defections
of some former APC members to the
PDP then as an elite contestation for
power with nothing to do with the
interest of the common people and the
“fight” being merely a planned return
to the “elite” or “oligarchic”
arrangement of the pre-Oshiomhole
involvement in Edo politics. Edo people
were scared of the recurrence of old
patterns in their political life in the state.
During the period, Oshiomhole
continued to maintain his position on
the need to consolidate on the
monumental infrastructural revolution
he started in Edo state in the face of
suggestions that he planned to foist a
political lilliputian on the state after his
tenure. Before the 2015 general
elections therefore, there were ominous
signs of a simmering political tension
in the state over who to succeed
Oshiomhole. This continued till the
twilight of his administration.
In coming around the ensuing
political conundrum in Edo State, the
Comrade governor realized that
making progress was about making
politics work because politics
determines the choices we make. Politics
determines what kind of society we wish
to live in and create and hand on to the
next generation and it is politics that
will make poverty history. It is also
politics that helped him to
institutionalize his monumental
infrastructural developmental strides in
the state. There is widespread
recognition that politics is fundamental
in shaping development choices,
strategies, trajectories and outcomes. It
thus involves change that must
inevitably challenge established
interests, and prevailing structures of
power that has always held sway in the
state. Oshiomhole realized that politics
consisted of two fundamental levels.
The first concerns the rules of the game,
that is the procedures and processes
which underpin and structure political
life, which distributes power and
authorizes it’s use in particular ways.
The second concerns the games within
the rules, that is the normal
contestations over policy and power.
Since in Nigeria, the fundamental rules
of the game are not well established, it
was incumbent on him to balance his
desire to get a dependable ally to
succeed him after his meritorious tenure
with the delicate politics of the state
taking into consideration ethnic and
other considerations. Oshiomhole
performed outstandingly as governor.
It is not easy anywhere in the world to
be a harbinger of change as even the
people for whom change is intended
often resist the change.
Institutionalizing change and
development in Edo State was done with
the election of a successor who was part
of Oshiomhole’s success story from the
very beginning as Edo people could not
accept a throwback to the dark ages. A
shipwreck at that point would have been
catastrophic for the Edo people.
Nigeria unjustly denies Igbo of 80 local governments
Continued from page 41
The IPOB, MASSOB and other pro-
Biafra groups and the issue of Biafra
question, what is your view?
The agitations in Igboland take their
roots from the issue of marginalization.
What you see here is a deliberate attempt
to deny access to the South-East of
benefits of governance, of development
and of representation in some sensitive
and strategic areas and positions of
national discourse. This is structurally
embedded in the constitution. While
some zones have seven states, like the
North-West, others have six. Only the
South-East has five. The deficiency of
two states is a huge revenue loss. Just
check how much that accrues to each
state every month. My estimation is that
we are being denied of about 80 local
governments that should accrue from
two states that ought to be created from
the South-East.
Look at the revenue streams to the
states and local governments and the
monthly Federation Allocation
Account Committee and you will then
see the quantum of losses being suffered
by the South-East. Then you go to the
issues of national politics. While zones
with seven states have times three
senators making up twenty- one
senators, like the North-West; the South-
East has only fifteen. Also, the
Constitution says that each state should
have a Minister. Therefore in the South-
East we have five Ministers, while the
North-West has seven Ministers.
Likewise we have forty-three members
of House of Representatives while the
North-West has ninety-three. We must
look for a legislative solution to the issue.
Since the National Constituent
Assembly (Confab) recommended for
BY AFESTUS AHON
HEAD of the 2019 general
elections, the people of
Isoko North Local Government
Area, under the auspices of Isoko
For Development, have said the
member representing the area in
Delta State House of Assembly, Mr
Tim Owhefere, has failed them, urging
him not to run for fourth term.
The people, from across all the 13
wards in the local government area,
cited 13 reasons Owhefere should not
seek re-election, saying he should look
for employment in Lagos.
In his reaction, the lawmaker
described the group as faceless,
adding that they were bent on heating
up the polity.
He said their inflammatory
statements were capable of pitching
the people against one another, saying
the “allegations against my person in
the said publication can elicit negative
reactions from my teeming
supporters and the good people of
Isoko North Constituency, whom I
represent”.
The group, in a statement by the
President, Comrade Iruoghene Ufi,
listed the 13 reasons to include that
“for the three consecutive terms that
Owhefere has been elected into the
House, he has not fulfilled any
campaign promise to any
constituent that laboured for him
and the party during the elections”.
BOOK LAUNCH
The launching of a book titled:
“The Foolishness Of God” comes up
on Sunday 15 th April 2018 at St Paul
Anglican Church, Kirikiri Industrial
Estate, Kirikiri, Lagos. The book authored
by Ven. Levi E. Opara, the first
Igbo archdeacon in the entire Lagos
Anglican Communion, has set aside
50% of the proceed of the launch for
youth rehabilitation scheme.
The occasion will be chaired by
High Chief Olabode George.
Those who lost out in the scrabble for
political power and influence have
made it a pastime these days to
denigrate Adams Oshiomhole by
engaging in character assassination,
odious insults and throwing political
innuendos and brickbats against him
in the press and especially in the social
media. This has only made the man
more popular. He remains an issue in
Edo politics more than a year after
handing power to Mr. Godwin
Obaseki, a very compassionate and
versatile team player who has all
the attributes to continue the
developmental initiatives of Adams
Oshiomhole. Since his successful
handover of power, the Comrade
Governor, as he is still fondly called
has been involved in several
speaking engagements and helping
to build bridges of cooperation
among the various ethnic and
religious groups and communities
in Nigeria.
– Hon. Nzeribe
the creation of at least one more state in
the South-East, the leadership of the
South-East caucus should sponsor a bill
on the floor of the National Assembly
seeking for the creation of additional
state in the zone. You must not continue
to wait for the executive or constitutional
amendment periods to do that. You have
to sponsor a Bill; let’s move it up and see
how far we can go to realize the real
friends and the real enemies of the
people. That way you start addressing
the Igbo question. The Igbo question is
not the issue of Igbo presidency. Igbo
question is lack of representation,
inferiority of states, inferiority of local
governments, denials of revenues
accruing to the South-East. That is what
I call the marginalization of the South-
East. It should therefore be addressed
in the larger context of the Igbo question.