22032021 - Govs, APC, PDP, othersrally against attack on Ortom

26 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
Nigeria LNG, Prof Adimora-Ezigbo and
Nigeria Prize for Literature
By Prisca Sam-Duru
Emeritus Professor of English
at the University of Lagos,
Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, has
been appointed as the
chairperson of the Advisory
Board for the Nigeria Prize for
Literature.
The announcement was made
by the sponsor of the Prize-
Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG)
during a virtual conference held
to flag off the 2021 cycle of the
competition.
The newly constituted Board
assumed duties on Wednesday
March 18, 2021, as 202 entries
in Prose Fiction carried over
from 2020 into the 2021 cycle after
the prize’s postponement due to
the COVID-19 pandemic, were
handed over to a panel of judges,
marking the start of the cycle.
Professor Adimora-Ezigbo, a
past winner of the Prize, succeeds
Professor Ayo Banjo, Emeritus
Professor of English at the
University of Ibadan who had
served as chairman since the
inception of the Prize in 2004. Prof.
Adimora-Ezeigbo, won the
Nigeria Prize for Literature in 2007
alongside Mabel Segun, in the
Children’s Literature category.
She has also served on the panel
of judges for the prize.
Other members of the Advisory
Board include Prof.
Olu Obafemi, a
playwright, poet
and Professor of
English at the
University of Ilorin
who has served in
prominent roles
including as
president of the
Nigerian Academy
of Letters and the
Association of
Nigerian Authors
and, Prof. Ahmed
Yerima, a professor
of Theatre and
Performing Arts at
the Redeemer's
University. Prof
Yerima is a
playwright, theatre
director and a
Laurette of the
Nigeria Prize for
Literature in the
Drama category
(2006).
At the virtual ceremony held to
introduce the new Advisory Board
members and to hand-over the
entries, NLNG’s General
Manager for External Relations
and Sustainable Development,
Mrs Eyono Fatayi-Williams,
“expressed appreciation to
Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo and
Emeritus Professor Ben Elugbe
for their selfless service to the prize,
adding that the outgoing Board,
which included the late Professor
Jerry Agada, oversaw the growth
of the prize into Africa’s foremost
literature competition best known
for its principles of excellence and
integrity”.
Continues online @
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Babatunde brings intriguing legal stories into print
AS in William Golding’s classic
novel, Lord of the Flies, Layi
Babatude, exposes the capacity of
man for untold evil in his newly
released Dark Hearts.
Though, Golding’s evergreen novel
is pure work of fiction, which may
have been inspired by some actual
events, Babatunde’s work are reports
of actual life events uncovered in the
application of the laws of Nigeria.
In Dark Hearts, Mr Babatunde, a
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who has
been in legal practice for close to
four decades, brings into the open,
in simple prose, what would
otherwise have been buried in Law
Reports and other legal literature.
He delivers a chilling account, which
would make you ponder, on the
increasing loss of humanity amongst
humans.
Evidently aided by the legal
luminary’s well-known interest in
scholarship and incursion into law
reporting, through the Supreme
Court Reports (S.C Reports) which
he has edited and published for
decades; Dark Hearts is a collection
of 12 short stories based on actual
life occurrences, leading to
prosecution under the Laws of
Nigeria and decisions rendered up
to the Apex Court. The case
references or citation are in the End
Note.
Dark Hearts,(A collection of
short stories from decided
cases); Layi Babatunde, SAN,
reviewed by Niran Adedokun
PDF Compressor Free Version
And as the author says in his
introduction, some of the revelations
in the collection would make the
average person shudder at man’s
limitless capacity for evil. The
stories distilled from cases decided
by the Supreme Court at diverse
times, also amply tells that the
pervasive cold-heartedness and lack
of fellow feeling with which Nigeria
currently grapples may in fact be as
old as humanity itself, Indeed
Nothing is truly new!
From murder to armed robbery
to kidnapping, ritual killings and
even the desecration of worship
places in the perpetration of evil for
selfish gains, Nigeria is only
currently seeing an escalation
rather than a novelty.
And I would imagine that this is
one of the concrete benefits that this
timely book does for us as a people.
By jigging our consciousness and
reminding us that, we have as a
people always had a tendency to
jettison blood ties and affinities and
sacrifice a brother and sister for the
sake of becoming rich, Dark Hearts,
give sociologists and psychologists
in Nigeria a task more intense than
the general assumption that the
current economic downturn and
government’s inability to actualise
shared prosperity amongst its 200
million citizens is what is turning us
into money mongering savages.
This is one of the myths that
Babatunde busts in his collection of
stories. In one of the stories, Brother
Kills Brother, a man leaves Kano, in
the north-west of Nigeria all the way
to Iwo, in the south-west to source
for a hunchback required for a
money ritual for some men who
were desperate to be rich.
You are also confronted with issue
of unsafe school environment, the
kidnapping of children either for
ransom or ritual purposes.
And then you have a variety of
stories dwelling on armed
robberies, murders, and kidnapping
(including that of a magistrate), and
betrayal. A memorable one is the
story entitled: Band Manager Kills
•Prof Akachi
Adimora-Ezeigbo
Band Leader, which would resonate
with people conversant with the story
of a popular musical artist who was
murdered in south-west Nigeria
about four decades back. And for
this artiste, it seems 2020/2021 is
unwittingly commemorative given
the fact that production work has
just been completed on feature film
by the legendary filmmaker, Tunde
Kelani.
Continues online @
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By Providence Adeyinka
African or Nigerian politics
was initially devoid of
military participation. The
military in the concept of
Mazrut then assumed the role
of an idiot (Aristotelian
language used to describe a
citizen who is impervious to
politics). The absence of any
military insurgency in the
continent then, prompted
Claude Welch to refer to the
entire continent as a political
kingdom or the primacy of
politics.
Paradoxically, this epoch was
ephemeral as African armies
jettisoned the tradition of the
civilian control of the military
popularized by Carl Von
Clausewitz in his book entitled
“On War” published in 1832.
Therefore, the entire African
Continent became a theatre of
military intervention.
These are the words of an
Associate Professor who
lectures in the Department of
Political Science, Lagos State
University, LASU, Dr. Jimoh
Bamgbose, in his book titled
“Military Intervention In
African Politics”.
The nineteen-chapter book
Establishing IAAAS’ N60b
AILI in Nigeria
Across section of Nigerians
from different professional
background have given their
support to the proposed
establishment of the Africa
International Leadership
Institute in Nigeria.
The institute which is the
brainchild of the International
Association of African Authors
and Scholars (IAAAS) is
expected to provide the training
ground where leaders are
coached to lead effectively and
citizens are trained to learn
leadership skills first before
seeking leadership position for
individual development,
organizational growth and
nation building.
It will also offer national
leadership skills training in
programmes, seminars and
workshop which will educate
Nigerian graduates to be
empowered with leadership
and management skills
As a citadel of learning, the
institute will also provide
opportunity for working adults,
small business entrepreneurs,
youths and personnel working
in the private sector or
government agencies on
management and effective
with 266 pagination,
considered cases of military
intervention in Nigeria,
Ghana, Gambia, Liberia, Benin
Republic, Togo, among others
with a view to unraveling the
causes, the dramatis personae
involved and the impact of
those coups on these countries.
Bamgbose said: “Sight must
not be lost of the unanimous
decision by the African Union,
AU, Economic Community of
West African States, ECOWAS,
Economic Community of
Central African States,
ECCAS, as well as the East
African Community, EAC that
under no circumstance should
there be any change of
government by the use of force
regardless of what the coupists
say. But the popular saying is
that power flows from the barrel
of a gun. Liberia remained
under a democratic rule for 133
years but bowed to the military
by April 1980. African countries
of today should be careful and
govern aright.”
Speaking at the book launch
in Lagos, book reviewer, Prof.
Sylvester Akhaine, said that the
book is holistic in its approach
to the subject and as well looks
at the traditional African
leadership skills in achieving
maximum growth, greater
productivity, that will engender
progress and stability in the
nation’s quest for a better
society for the citizens.
The Institute’s leadership skill
programme is open to
Nigerians and Africans and it
will give dual certification that
meets national and
international accreditations after
successful completion of
courses
A cross section of Nigerians
who spoke on the establishment
of the Africa International
Leadership Institute in Nigeria
described it as a welcome
development which must be
encouraged and ensure it
comes to fruition.
Mr Taiwo Olaleye, a graduate
of the University of Ibadan and
an IT Specialist identified the
major challenge in the country
as lack of leadership.
Olaleye said there is real
acute leadership problem in the
country adding that for the
country to make progress
leadership training must be
taken seriously.
Continues online @
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Mr. Chinedum Igwe, Executive Director of IAAAS (with
microphone) at a seminar with members of the association in
Atlanta, USA.
Bamgbose’s new book explores military intervention in African
societies and their military
organization to background
the depiction of the military and
its foray into politics.
Akhaine said the book
overview military coups in
Africa with a focus on countries
like Benin, Ethiopia, Gambia,
Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria,
Sudan, Togo and Uganda,
adding that it reawakens to
political issues that are
consequential but lost in the
din of avarice of political actors
and devaluation of scholarship
by the proliferation of what
Paulo Freire has called magical
consciousness that seeks
causation in the otherworldliness
instead of
objective realities.
“The book is didactic; it talks
about the nature and dynamics
of military intervention in
politics and the factors that
drive such intervention and he
situated it within the
background of pre colonial
African history and our
experience within the post
colonial period. He wants
us to understand these
dynamics so that we can
consolidate our democracies,”
he said.
Continues online @
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