18082019 -Anxiety over " Next Level" Ministers

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PAGE 16— SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 18, 2019 What I miss about Nigeria — Ogeh Cynthia By EKAETTE BASSEY anada-based Nigerian actress, Ogeh Cynthia, who also runs a PR and C entertainment outfit, LQP Image Consulting and Ogeh Cynthia Entertainment, in this interview, speaks on life as a Nigerian in diaspora, reasons behind celebrity marriage crash and lots more. Excerpts; Can you tell us more about yourself? I’m a fabulous daughter, a committed mother and a dependable partner. I’m called ‘The Lion Queen’ by those who love me. I’m also an actress and a business woman who is devoted to serving God and humanity. You have been scarce in movies, why? I have been very busy working behind the scenes. We now run a production company that produces drama, marketing campaigns and advertisements. We are working on a major TV series for Africa cinema. Please stay tuned. Besides acting, you’re also into so many other things, can you give us a breakdown? I’m an entrepreneur who is on the lookout for great investment opportunities. My partners and I are into general merchandising like, event and entertainment production, marketing and advertisement, content creations, relationship counselling, car importation, advocacy, and charity work. As a Nigerian in diaspora, how have you been coping? It is not easy living outside of your home. Trust me, I miss Nigeria all the time. There is no place like home. The western society is structured and very straight forward. Anyone who is determined and ready to put in the work will definitely make it. I am comfortable here but I miss my Nigeria. Do you have plans to shoot your own movies anytime soon? Yes. We are currently working on some quality projects. What do you miss about Nigeria? I miss the freshly harvested and cooked meal. I miss family and friends. I miss my village in Anambra state. How have you been coping with running an NGO in this poor economic state of the country? We have been fortunate so far. We are blessed with remarkable pair of human beings who are committed to our cause. They volunteer their time and support our programs with resources. We are currently working on a major healthcare intervention for our people. We will let you know as soon as we are ready to launch. Donors and partners are welcome. As a relationship consultant, what do you think is responsible for the alarming rate of celebrity marriage crash and baby mama syndrome? Marriage or any kind of committed relationship requires deep commitment and maturity. Committed relationship is a contract and a covenant that is binding. The parties involved must keep to their own side of the agreement. Marriage crash is as a result of a default in such agreement. These days, people are more conscious of avoiding exploitation. Baby mama on the other hand is a derogatory term created to shame and demean women. I find the term very irritating. I will rather use the term single motherhood to describe them. Single parenthood is not an easy thing. I will not degrade anyone working hard to raise responsible children. You started ‘Black and White Gala Ball’ in Canada but later stopped. Why? The Black and White Gala Ball Canada, was a pet project created to bring Africans together in an environment where they are respected and recognized. We ran it for two years before we moved to other projects. We are presently mentoring and shaping the future of young Africans in Canada. Africans are often associated with ineptitude and e c o n o m i c backwardness, we are increasingly changing that narrative. We are equipping these young minds with skills and leadership qualities that will propel them into management positions. Baby mama is a derogatory term created to shame and demean women. I find the term very irritating You seem to have a special kind of love for Anambra State, with regards to your famous Facebook page, what’s behind that? Anambra is home, and home is where the heart is. I want my people to access some of the beautiful things I have seen in Canada. Anambra state has a reputation for industriousness and business acumen. Anambra State is blessed with wealthy men and women who can do great and mighty things for our people. We can do better. We should do better. We must start it now. We must change the trajectory of our society. Looking back, what fond memories do you have of your home town? Many fond memories. I love moving from town to town. I love learning about each town and how their customs differ from our own. I adore the wealth of our humanity and the richness of our culture. Do you miss core Nigerian foods? I eat almost all the Nigeria foods that I love. What I miss most is my inability to cook with freshly harvested leaves. In Canada, our Nigeria vegetables are either dried or frozen. How fluent are your children in Igbo •Ogeh Cynthia language? T h e y understand Igbo language but they are not fluent in speaking it. They mix their Igbo with English. We are working on them speaking Igbo more fluently. I will admit, our progress has been slow. We will keep trying until success is achieved. Should more women venture into politics? Absolutely Yes. I’d love to see more women doing wonders for the nation. How do you think women can take their place in the society? As a people, we must pull down all visible and invisible walls socially constructed to limit and restrain women. Every Nigerian female should be encouraged to take up space in every sector •Ogeh Cynthia of our society. We need women occupying leadership positions in business, banks, entertainment, politics, markets, manufacturing, real estate and religion. What life lessons has been instrumental to your success so far? One of my greatest inspirations in life is the Bible verse which states: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. My mum endorsed the significance of education to me. She is my strongest human inspiration. Would you say you’re a fulfilled woman? I am a woman who is contented with her life. I am a woman in fullness of her agency. I love me because I am an original. I love God and I love humanity. What’s next for you in terms of projects? First, we are seeking for partners with visionary ideas. We are working on new campaigns for our charitable work. We also have some new products coming into the market soon. Creating and making things is a big part of our identity. Don’t worry, we will continually keep you updated.
Digging up wealth in the South, burying them in the North “The wretched nurseries of unceasing discord and the miserable objects of universal pity or contempt….” - Alexander Hamilton, 1757- 1804. hat was how Hamilton, Tone of the founding fathers of America and a former Treasury Secretary (equivalent to our Minister of Finance), described some of the nations of Europe when they were going through social, political and economic upheavals similar to what we are now experiencing in Nigeria. Invariably, the tensions were heightened by poor leadership and prolonged by lack of compromise on the part of the contending forces for supremacy. When a leader announces that he is, by nature, combative, he has simply forgotten that nobody has a monopoly on that attribute. One person’s perpetual aggression invites a similar response from others. Both the thirty years and hundred years wars in Europe started in one day and outlasted most of those who got them started. If war breaks out in Nigeria, it will most likely occur because we lack leaders and advisers with any sense of history. We would have been led to it by people who should not be leading us or who we should no longer follow. Nigeria, in 2019, can, with a great deal of justification, be called a wretched nursery of unceasing discord. We have, since the 2011 general elections, elevated the winnertakes-all brand of politics, which had been endemic since 1959, to new lows of mutual political hostility. Our language during campaigns and after elections had always aimed to divide the country. We were witnesses to the statements made about making the country ungovernable by the losers. We experienced the riots in some states which supported them. But, fortunately, the disturbances did not get out of hand. There was no cause for alarm in 2015 because the major loser was patriotic enough and statesmanlike as well, as to concede without even going to court to challenge the results. Had the loser, an incumbent President, Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, C-I-C, chosen to fight instead of going peacefully, only God knows how many Nigerians would have been needlessly sacrificed at the altar of one man’s ambition. Billions of naira worth of properties acquired with sweat and hard labour would have gone with the dead. The facts are before us and the difference is clear. Another difference, however unpalatable, is the fact that the President in 2011 is a Southerner; his opponent was a Northerner – who went to court. Now he is President and he resents anybody challenging his victory. That should tell us something about principles and leadership. It matters a lot what leaders do – in and out of office. Four years and three months after his re-election, Nigeria qualifies more to be described as a wretched nursery of unceasing discord and disunity. In 2011, Nigeria had one major security threat inherited from the government of President Yar’Adua. That was Boko Haram. The problem was of purely of Northern origin; no Southerner, not even Muslims in the South, had a hand in fomenting this discord which had consumed lives, properties, hopes for development as well as funds which could have been spent to avert Nigeria becoming the poverty capital of the world. Today, in addition to Boko Haram, the nation is contending with terrorists in the form of herdsmen, cattle rustlers, bandits and kidnappers – the last on an unprecedented scale. Nobody needs to be told where cattle rustlers operate and who they are. It is inconceivable that an Ijaw or Oron or Ilaje or Berom will attempt to go to Zamfara to rustle cattle and hope to return alive. Rustlers, if they are Nigerians, are Northerners. Now, the nation’s financial resources are being diverted towards solving another security threat which is absolutely Northern in origin. Bandits constitute another species of armed robbers who are everywhere in Nigeria. Bandits are the only group of armed robbers who are not only contented to steal properties – cash, GSM sets, jewellery, food items etc – they actually seem to take special delight in wiping out communities. The bestiality and viciousness are unmatched by any other group of armed robbers anywhere in Nigeria. The blood-thirstiness is totally unique to the North – especially the North-West. That raises three quick questions to which no answer will be provided now. First, what sort of society breeds people like these? Second, what religion do they practice? Third, what conditions exist in Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna which produced them of all the thirty six states of Nigeria? Today, unknown number of lives and immeasurable billions of naira worth of properties had Professor Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu (2) • Prof. Dame Anionwu She has written exten sively and is a co-au thor with Professor Karl Atkin of the book ‘The Politics of Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia’ published in 2001 by the Open University Press. She is a Patron of the Sickle Cell Society, the Nigerian Nurses Charitable Association (UK) and the Sickle & Thalassaemia Association of Nurses, Midwives & Associated Professionals (STAN- MAP). She chaired several projects for the NHS Sickle and Thalassaemia Screening Programme. These included: • the development of ‘Caring for people with sickle cell disease and thalassaemia syndromes: A framework for nursing staff’ that was accredited in 2010 by the Royal College of Nursing • ‘Understanding the contribution of sickle cell and thalassaemia specialist nurses’ (2012), funded through a grant from the Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity. “Her tireless work to ensure that people affected by sickle cell disease and thalassaemia get the support they need has touched the lives of thousands.” – Lord Victor O Adebowale CBE, MA CEO, Turning Point There is more- Professor Anionwu helped set up the Mary Seacole Statue Appeal, which culminated in a magnificent statue of Mary Seacole over looking the house of parliament and it is on the grounds of St. Thomas hospital in London. In 1997 Elizabeth was appointed as Dean of the School of Adult Nursing and Professor of Nursing at the University of West London. In 1999 she established and was Head of the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice until her retirement in 2007. The university then honoured Elizabeth with the award of Emeritus Professor of Nursing. Elizabeth was vice-chairperson of the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal from its launch in November 2003. The statue was unveiled in the grounds of London’s St Thomas’ Hospital in June 2016. Elizabeth is now a Life Patron of the new charity, the Mary Seacole Trust. Mary Seacole was a mixed race with Jamaican and Scottish parentage, who was a doctress and a woman of means and courage. Mary was a formidable woman who nursed wounded soldiers during the Crimean war. She was honoured by Queen Victoria and it was reported that when she to the UK, Firmer soldiers lined the road to get a glimpse been lost to these sub-human elements. No other Nigerian government until this one has ever spent a kobo on the problem of rustlers. That is a fact which the habitual dissemblers in Aso Rock cannot dispute. “A stitch in time saves nine”, according to an old adage we grew up with. A former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board, Burns, went further. He warned that if governments allow an untenable situation to go for too long, suddenly, they might find there are no good solutions left. Herdsmen palaver is a classic case of a government failing to check a problem before it becomes a serious crisis. Herdsmen were Under Buhari in the 1980s, Nigeria expelled Ghanaians – giving rise to the Ghana- Must-Go epithet. Now, as fate would have it, Nigerians are now being hounded out of Ghana. They have Buhari to thank for that hardly a serious security threat since the creation of Nigeria in 1914. They were as docile as can be. My first experience with them was in 1952 in our small community at Agbowa- Ikosi, Lagos State. They would come with the cows at harvest time to feed on cast-offs from our daddy’s farm. They never on their own entered the farm; any farm. We gave them food because they were transient friends and they occasionally brought dried meat for the kids. The relationship was symbiotic until recently. Now everybody in the community is on alert when the first cows are sighted. What went wrong and why now? Given space constraint, let me summarise how we missed the boat. TRAMPLING ON THE GRAVES OF AGATU When herdsmen sacked the small Agatu ethnic group in Benue State in 2016, the FG was presented with a golden opportunity to put a stop to in- SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 18, 2019, PAGE 17 discriminate killing of fellow Nigerians by herdsmen. tion until now. In 2019, it had managed that delicate situa- Agatu and Nebo in Enugu become another divisive issue. Is there anything Balewa, State occurred within weeks of each other. Nobody is certain how many people died Obasanjo, Shagari, Babang- Ironsi, Gowon, Mohammed, in Agatu. But, I was there and ida, Abacha, Abubakar, took some pictures which Yar’Adua and Jonathan were published in May that didn’t know about Shiites that year. Even if only a hundred is now known? What is it? We people were killed, the FG have now added captured should have demonstrated Shiites to the growing list of more concern for the security of its citizens. They should and fed at government ex- people who must be housed also have known that doing pense. How on earth can we nothing would foster impunity and more killings. A schools for kids when more of ever have the funds to build former President of France the little we now have is going mobilised the security forces to track down and elimi- Sorry, it took so long to get to the prisons? nate killers of only six citizens. The terrorists quickly gerians have become “the to the heart of the matter. Ni- got the message. If the FG, miserable objects of universal instead of offering excuses for pity or contempt” largely because, since 2009, we have the herdsmen, had demonstrated more statesmanship evolved a queer sort of federal structure in which eighty to instead of partisanship, after Agatu, we would have eighty-five per cent of the federally collected revenue is been saved the losses of lives and properties and prospects generated by the Southern which we now suffer. Now, States while the generally selfimposed problems, now con- we have N2billion RUGA money going begging and suming our resources (funds, no Middle-Belt or Southern manpower and time), have State wants to participate. their origins solidly in the Great opportunity is being North. Strictly speaking, our lost on account of mis-management of the herdsmen- even worse than “monkey- present federal structure is farmers-communities conflicts. We are now close to the become “monkey-work-bawork-baboon-chop”. It has brink of costly war. boon-chop and throw more Other problems exist, away”. which are totally Northern In 2015, we were not the in origin. But, only one deserves attention now – Nothough we were already the poorest nation on earth; almadic Education. As conceptualised, the Nomadic sal pity or contempt”. No na- “miserable objects of univer- Education programme was tion in the world welcomes designed to provide the opportunity for children of nations; whose leader we are Nigerians – not even African herdsmen/women to acquire supposed to be. Under Buhari some education. The burden in the 1980s, Nigeria expelled was expected to be shared Ghanaians – giving rise to the between the Federal, States Ghana-Must-Go epithet. and Local Governments. Now, as fate would have it, That has not happened. It is Nigerians are now being now completely FG-funded. hounded out of Ghana. They It is also in shambles. Nobody can account for how the Elsewhere in the more ad- have Buhari to thank for that. money is spent and the results achieved. It has become ed with the pity and contempt vanced nations, we are treat- a scam. We all know who we richly deserve. Countries attends Nomadic Schools living within hazardous boat on which funds generated rides of Libya can have nothing but contempt for those largely from the South is now being wasted. risking their lives on those Just as we thought everything had been released country of origin. Nigeria tops rickety contraptions and their from the national nursery of the list because most of the discord, Shiitism cropped revenue allocated to the region is thrown down the drain up. Every Nigerian Head of State, military, civilian, with very little hope of earning a return on Muslim or Christian, had investment. Always be confident about both your strengths and weaknesses. There’s often solutions to our problems, and to the differences that we may have which may pose barriers and thank her for her service. Mary Seacole’s contribution was largely forgotten if not for the drive of Professor Anionwu. Mary Seacole is now studied and spoken about due to the recognition in schools in the UK. Professor Anionwu is the author of memoirs Mixed Blessings from a Cambridge Union . Elizabeth Anionwu's memoirs 'Mixed Blessings from a Cambridge Union' are available in paperback. They can also be downloaded as an e-book from Kindle Amazon & Kobo. Please visit her website for more information: h t t p : / / www.elizabethanionwu.co.uk Visit Elizabeth's Facebook Page: https:// www.facebook.com/SickleTo- SeacoleMemoirs/ The book charts the fascinating story of her journey through a great number of childhood adversities, including severe beatings at the hands of her stepfather, racism and exclusion, and how she overcame it to become a nurse, health visitor, educator and PhD, and Emeritus Professor of Nursing at the University of West London. She was awarded the CBE in 2001. One reviewer said of the memoir: Do get hold of this and read it. This is the sort of book that changes who you are. It’s an astonishing story, beautifully told with sensitivity, humour and pace. Not only is it a revealing social history of British attitudes to the perceived stigmas of race and illegitimacy; it’s an intensely personal account of a remarkable woman’s realisation of the world around her and her determination to make it a better place. Elizabeth Anionwu is an alchemist, turning shame and prejudice into strength and service. Utterly inspiring.” In 2017 Queen ‘New year’s Honour list ,Elizabeth was honoured with a Damehood (DBE) in the her services to nursing and the Mary Seacole Statue Appeal. The Queen’s Nursing Institute awarded her a Fellowship (FQNI) in October 2017. In 2001 she was awarded a CBE for services to nursing. In 2004 she was presented with the Royal College of Nursing Fellowship (FRCN) for her work in the development of nurse-led sickle cell and thalassaemia counselling services and education and leadership in transcultural nursing. In July 2018, as part of the celebrations for the 70th Anniversary of the National Health Service, Elizabeth was included in the list of the 70 most influential nurses and midwives in the history of the NHS. Professor Dame Elizabeth Anionwu was awarded an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University in recognition of her major contribution to the profession. When asked what inspires her to keep going she said, “Seeing the improvements that have happened so far. But I’m not satisfied until other gaps in service for BME patients and health professionals are addressed.” During a speech at the graduation ceremony, she told graduands to make the most of their talents in their future careers and advised them to “always be confident” about their strengths and weaknesses Ȯn collecting her honour, Professor Anionwu, also paid tribute to Birmingham’s healthcare services, which made a major difference to the life of one of her cousins with sickle cell. “Be aware of who supports you, of who’s looking out for you,” said Professor Anionwu. “And it may not necessarily be the people that you expect, so we mustn’t stereotype the type of people we think will support us or won’t support us.” Professor Anionwu closed her speech by offering advice to graduates on making the most of their talents in their future careers. She said: “Always be confident about both your strengths and weaknesses. “There’s often solutions to our problems, and to the differences that we may have which may pose barriers,” she said. I have a feeling that that there is more Professor Anionwu has on her to do list and she of course is determined to accomplish every single one of them . Concluded
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