The Trumpet Newspaper Issue 624 (May 29 - June 11 2024)
South Africans go to the polls to choose a new government: what's different this time
South Africans go to the polls to choose a new government: what's different this time
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<strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong><br />
Africans now have a voice... Founded in 1995<br />
V O L 30 N O <strong>624</strong> M AY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
Teenage<br />
murderer<br />
convicted<br />
South Africans<br />
go to the polls<br />
Victim - Rahaan Ahmed Amin<br />
South Africans<br />
go to the polls to<br />
choose a new<br />
government:<br />
what’s different<br />
this time<br />
By Dirk Kotze, University of South Africa<br />
Continued on Page 2><br />
A17-year-old male who cannot<br />
be named for legal reasons,<br />
has been convicted of the<br />
murder of 16-year-old Rahaan<br />
Ahmed Amin.<br />
<strong>The</strong> conviction comes after<br />
London Metropolitan Police<br />
detectives put together a compelling<br />
case, including tracing online orders<br />
for knives.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Old Bailey heard Rahaan was<br />
fatally attacked in West Ham Park on<br />
9 July 2023 after the 17-year-old<br />
cycled up to him and stabbed him in<br />
the chest. Rahaan died in hospital the<br />
next day.<br />
Homicide detectives launched an<br />
investigation immediately and a long<br />
red knife was found in a tree in the<br />
park. Forensic testing uncovered the<br />
17-year-old’s fingerprint and<br />
Rahaan’s blood.<br />
A number of eye-witnesses were<br />
also spoken to and CCTV was<br />
collated to piece together what had<br />
happened.<br />
A photograph was also identified<br />
on a Snapchat account linked to the<br />
17-year-old that showed a collection<br />
of nine knives lined up on a bed. One<br />
of those knives was identical in<br />
appearance to the knife found in the<br />
tree at West Ham Park - and also<br />
identical in appearance to a knife<br />
ordered on the internet through an<br />
online shop, DNA Leisure on 12 <strong>June</strong><br />
2023.<br />
Detectives traced the transaction<br />
details of that order, along with two<br />
similar orders, which had been placed<br />
using the name of the father of one of<br />
the 17-year-old’s friends. When the<br />
police told the man about these<br />
transactions, he had no knowledge of<br />
them at all. <strong>The</strong> last of the three<br />
orders for knives had a delivery<br />
address the same as the 17-year-old’s.<br />
<strong>The</strong> 17-year-old was arrested on<br />
suspicion of murder two days after<br />
Continued on Page 4
Page2 <strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong> MAY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
News<br />
South Africans go to the polls<br />
to choose a new government:<br />
what’s different this time<br />
Continued from Page 1<<br />
South Africa’s seventh general election since democracy in 1994, set for <strong>29</strong> <strong>May</strong> <strong>2024</strong>, takes place<br />
under circumstances different from any other election in the history of the nation. Some view the hotly<br />
contested national and provincial elections as a watershed moment for the country. We asked political<br />
scientist Dirk Kotze to explain the changed circumstances.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re’s a new electoral law in place.<br />
What does this mean for the ballot<br />
paper and voters’ choices?<br />
<strong>The</strong> new electoral system means that<br />
voters will receive three ballot papers instead<br />
of the two they got in the past: two national<br />
ballots (the regional and compensatory<br />
ballots) and one provincial ballot paper.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first national ballot has a list of<br />
political parties that are contesting 200<br />
National Assembly seats across the country.<br />
<strong>The</strong> second is the regional ballot in each<br />
province: it is for political parties and<br />
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independent candidates in the nine provinces<br />
contesting the other 200 seats in the National<br />
Assembly. In total there are 400 seats in the<br />
National Assembly. <strong>The</strong> third is the<br />
provincial ballot for the provincial<br />
legislatures. South Africa has nine provinces.<br />
Voters will therefore have to make three<br />
choices: two for the National Assembly and<br />
one for their provincial legislature. It creates<br />
the possibility of “strategic” voting. Voters<br />
can choose between different parties (or a<br />
party and an independent candidate) at the<br />
national level. It will also be possible to vote<br />
for one party at the national level and for<br />
another party (or an independent) at the<br />
provincial level.<br />
<strong>The</strong> amended electoral system also<br />
allows independent candidates to stand at<br />
both the national and provincial levels for the<br />
first time.<br />
<strong>The</strong> new system is therefore a<br />
combination of party lists and individual<br />
candidates. <strong>The</strong> new lists for the provincial<br />
legislatures look the same as the national<br />
“regional” lists.<br />
What about the choices on the ballot<br />
paper?<br />
Statutory Amendment (Date of Birth)<br />
I, Miss Adiatu Victoria Ramos - an Indigene of<br />
Lagos Island, Lagos State, Nigeria; known with a<br />
previous Date of Birth of 8th February 1970 wish<br />
to state that my correct Date of Birth<br />
is 8th February 1961.<br />
Nigeria High Commission London, Immigration &<br />
Nationality UK, Department of Social Security UK,<br />
Department for Work & Pensions, South<br />
Gloucestershire Council and NatWest Bank UK,<br />
should please take note<br />
<strong>The</strong> options on the national ballot paper<br />
increased from 48 parties in 2019 to 52 in<br />
<strong>2024</strong>. In 1994, 19 parties participated in the<br />
first national election. <strong>The</strong> number of parties<br />
has increased gradually over 30 years, not<br />
suddenly since the most recent elections.<br />
During the 30 years, the number of<br />
parties with seats in the National Assembly<br />
has remained relatively constant at about 14.<br />
In 1994, three – namely the African National<br />
Congress (ANC), New National Party (NNP)<br />
and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) – each<br />
received more than 10% support at the<br />
national level. In 1999, this changed with the<br />
NNP’s dramatic loss of support and the<br />
emergence of the Democratic Alliance (DA).<br />
<strong>The</strong> NNP party was dissolved in 2005.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Inkatha Freedom Party also declined<br />
between 2009 and 2016, but started to<br />
recover thereafter. <strong>The</strong> Congress of the<br />
People (Cope) (2009) and the Economic<br />
Freedom Fighters (EFF) (2014) emerged as<br />
newcomers. Cope has largely disappeared<br />
while the DA and EFF have increased their<br />
support to between 10% and 20%.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ANC, DA, EFF and IFP are therefore<br />
the main options in <strong>2024</strong>, followed by a host<br />
of small parties with 1%-2% support. <strong>The</strong><br />
latest addition is the uMkhonto weSizwe<br />
Party (MK Party) led by former President<br />
Jacob Zuma. Its support is still untested but it<br />
appears to have much potential in the<br />
KwaZulu-Natal province. Opinion polls<br />
suggest a national presence for the party of<br />
about 8%. In principle it means that the main<br />
contest is between about five to eight parties.<br />
This establishes a truly multi-party<br />
dispensation. It also enables a number of<br />
options for coalition governments.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ruling party risks losing 50%.<br />
What does this mean?<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>2024</strong> election might become a<br />
milestone because, for the first time since<br />
1994, a national coalition government is a<br />
possibility. It will differ from the<br />
Government of National Unity of 1994-1999<br />
(consisting of the ANC, NNP and IFP),<br />
which was an oversized, grand coalition<br />
agreed upon before the election as part of the<br />
negotiated transition package. It was thus not<br />
a conventional coalition government.<br />
<strong>The</strong> possibility that the ruling ANC might<br />
receive less than 50%+1 of the votes at the<br />
national level or in some of the provincial<br />
legislatures will be highly significant. That’s<br />
because the ANC has been a dominant party<br />
for 30 years.<br />
This is not unique and dominant parties<br />
were in the past or still are in power in India,<br />
Sweden, Japan, Botswana, Mexico, Namibia,<br />
Continued on Page 3
News<br />
MAY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong><br />
South Africans go to the polls<br />
to choose a new government:<br />
Page3<br />
Continued from Page 2<<br />
Mozambique and Zimbabwe. This started to<br />
change in South Africa at local government<br />
level in 2016. <strong>The</strong> ANC’s dominance of<br />
South African politics has been premised on<br />
the fact that before 1990 it developed the<br />
what’s different this time<br />
status (together with the Pan Africanist<br />
Congress of Azania) of an internationally<br />
endorsed liberation movement of South<br />
Africa.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ANC also enjoyed elevated status as<br />
the party of Nelson Mandela, its late worldrenowned<br />
leader. It enjoyed international<br />
recognition even before it was elected as the<br />
government of South Africa. It occupied a<br />
moral high ground which no other party<br />
could challenge. That moral status and<br />
popular support are now under pressure. <strong>The</strong><br />
risk for the ANC is that, if it loses its status as<br />
the sole governing party, its decline may<br />
accelerate without the possibility of recovery.<br />
Dirk Kotze is a Professor in Political<br />
Science at University of South Africa.<br />
This article is republished from <strong>The</strong><br />
Conversation under a Creative Commons<br />
license. Read the original article.
Page4<br />
<strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong><br />
MAY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong> Group<br />
News<br />
Jailed for the murder of<br />
Johanita Dogbey<br />
Field: 07956 385 604<br />
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PUBLISHER / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:<br />
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BOARD OF CONSULTANTS<br />
CHAIRMAN:<br />
Pastor Kolade Adebayo-Oke<br />
<strong>The</strong> Old Bailey has jailed 34-yearold<br />
Mohammed Nur for a series of<br />
random violent attacks which<br />
culminated in the murder of 31-year-old<br />
Johanita Dogbey in Brixton. He was<br />
sentenced to life with a minimum of 32<br />
years to be spent behind bars.<br />
Nur had earlier admitted to Johanita’s<br />
murder, possession of an offensive<br />
weapon and possession of a pointed /<br />
bladed article at a hearing at the Old<br />
Bailey on 17 November 2023.<br />
On Monday, 13 <strong>May</strong> he was found<br />
guilty of three counts of unlawful<br />
wounding following a trial at the same<br />
court – these offences related to three<br />
assaults carried out in the space of five<br />
minutes in the Brixton area on <strong>29</strong> April<br />
2023, two days before he attacked<br />
Johanita.<br />
In a statement read out to the court,<br />
Johanita’s father said: “Johanita passing,<br />
so violently, has left a big hole in our<br />
lives and a massive hole in our hearts. It<br />
wasn’t her time to go.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re are parts of your heart you<br />
could never imagine could feel so much<br />
pain unless you go through the loss we<br />
have gone through. It is not possible to<br />
fully explain how much this has impacted<br />
our family and all of us individually.<br />
Though we will remember her as the<br />
beautiful, caring, funny and bubbly<br />
daughter, sister and friend she was, her<br />
murder and death will always be one of<br />
the hardest realities we will have to live<br />
with. We are the ones with the life<br />
sentence now.”<br />
An investigation was under way by<br />
Jailed - Mohammed Nur<br />
police after three people had been<br />
attacked in and around the Acre Lane<br />
area of Brixton on Saturday, <strong>29</strong> April.<br />
<strong>The</strong> attacks took place between 23:25hrs<br />
and 23:<strong>29</strong>hrs. On each occasion Nur<br />
walked up to his victim and slashed their<br />
cheek with a sharp implement before<br />
walking off.<br />
On Monday, 1 <strong>May</strong> Nur attacked and<br />
killed Johanita as she walked in<br />
Stockwell Park Walk, SW9.<br />
After Nur was arrested by officers<br />
following a stop and search in Brixton<br />
Hill in the early hours of Tuesday 2 <strong>May</strong>,<br />
he was interviewed by police about all<br />
four offences. He refused to answer any<br />
questions put to him by police.<br />
Detectives had already recovered the<br />
weapon used in the attack on Johanita<br />
after it had been discarded as Nur had<br />
fled the scene. Forensic examination<br />
revealed traces of Johanita’s blood on it,<br />
alongside Nur’s DNA on a piece of fabric<br />
used to hold the weapon together.<br />
When Nur was arrested, he was found<br />
to be wearing distinctive clothing that<br />
matched the suspect captured in CCTV<br />
on the night of the <strong>29</strong> April attacks, and<br />
also the man seen to attack Johanita.<br />
Investigating officers trawled numerous<br />
hours of CCTV footage to build a<br />
timeline of Nur’s movements,<br />
demonstrating his behaviours in the lead<br />
up to and after the attacks.<br />
Detective Chief Inspector Matthew<br />
Webb, the senior investigating officer<br />
who led the investigation into Nur, said:<br />
“Mohammed Nur has been jailed for four<br />
violent offences, carried out at random in<br />
terrifying circumstances. I realise nothing<br />
can alleviate the pain and suffering that<br />
Johanita’s family continue to endure, but<br />
I hope they – and the three other people<br />
Nur attacked and injured – can take some<br />
comfort from the fact he has been<br />
convicted and will spend a lengthy period<br />
of time in prison.<br />
“Following these incidents, extra<br />
officers were drafted into the Brixton area<br />
to provide reassurance to the local<br />
community and support the investigation.<br />
It was as a result of a stop and search<br />
carried out by one of these teams that Nur<br />
was arrested. He was found in possession<br />
of a makeshift weapon and it can only be<br />
presumed he was intent on carrying out<br />
further violence.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> proactive work of these officers<br />
stopped Nur in his tracks and he has now<br />
been held to account for his actions.”<br />
MEMBERS:<br />
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Allison Shoyombo, Peter Osuhon<br />
<strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong> (ISSN: 1477-3392)<br />
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Teenage murderer convicted<br />
Continued from Page 1<<br />
Rahaan died in hospital (12 July) and he<br />
was charged on 13 July.<br />
Detective Chief Inspector Kelly<br />
Allen, the lead investigator, said:<br />
“Another young life has sadly been lost<br />
as the result of knife crime.<br />
“My team of detectives swiftly and<br />
diligently uncovered the evidence of the<br />
defendant’s guilt. This included<br />
forensically linking him to the knife and<br />
tracking him to the scene on CCTV.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> defendant’s claim that he acted<br />
in self-defence was completely rejected<br />
by the jury. Rahaan was murdered in cold<br />
blood after the 17-year-old cycled up to<br />
him and stabbed him within seconds of<br />
arriving, giving him no opportunity to<br />
react.<br />
“This case demonstrates how easy it<br />
is for young people to purchase deadly<br />
knives online. I would urge all parents to<br />
be aware of their child’s online activity<br />
and what purchases they are making. It is<br />
also important for parents to keep their<br />
ID documents secure to ensure they are<br />
not misused by their children.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> youth will be sentenced on 6<br />
September.<br />
Photograph on a Snapchat account linked to the 17-year-old showed a<br />
ollection of nine knives lined up on a bed
MAY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong> <strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong><br />
Page5
Page6 <strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong> MAY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
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<strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong><br />
Page7<br />
Produced in Association with HM Government<br />
It’s never too late to tackle addiction<br />
If you or someone you know is having issues<br />
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But it’s important to remember<br />
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This means that there will be<br />
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You can find details of treatment services on your<br />
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Remember that expert help is out there. Treatment<br />
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agree on a plan with you.<br />
Community support alongside treatment<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are also lots of groups within the community<br />
of people in recovery that offer support, including<br />
Alcoholics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous,<br />
Narcotics Anonymous and UK SMART<br />
Recovery - and, for families and friends, Al-Anon<br />
and Families Anonymous.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se self-helps groups can provide a vital source<br />
of support, alongside the help provided by the<br />
local treatment service.<br />
You can call FRANK anytime on 0300 123 6600<br />
for confidential advice and information.<br />
Help is at hand: Scan to reach out to the nation’s<br />
drug and alcohol advisory service FRANK
Page8 <strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong> MAY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
Opinion<br />
Democracy,<br />
governance and<br />
credible elections (1)<br />
BY ABIODUN<br />
KOMOLAFE<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is a problem about the<br />
institutional framework in which<br />
the Nigerian State as presently<br />
constituted is based. To have democracy,<br />
good governance and credible elections,<br />
there must be institutional reforms and<br />
great accountability in government. <strong>The</strong><br />
three are interwoven, only that we tend to<br />
think that democracy is all about<br />
elections. In any case, the fact that those<br />
ingredients are currently missing is an<br />
indication that Nigeria still has a long<br />
way to go. After all, without democracy<br />
and governance, there can’t be credible<br />
elections.<br />
To put it politely, Nigeria, even as we<br />
speak, has very weak institutions, and<br />
without a functional justice system, she<br />
can’t be said to have credible elections.<br />
For any democracy to stand and be as its<br />
definition, the power of credibility cannot<br />
be underestimated. However, the<br />
achievement of this ‘credibility’ is a huge<br />
task, because credibility means different<br />
things to different actors in democracy,<br />
more so as the definition hovers around<br />
the same center: the people.<br />
Notwithstanding, the issues of credibility<br />
in our elections requires a serious<br />
conference, taking into consideration the<br />
level of litigations that always go with<br />
elections in Nigeria. Take, for example,<br />
the United Kingdom where only one<br />
electoral dispute has ever gone to court<br />
over a long period of time. Of course, it is<br />
because she has a functional judiciary and<br />
nobody would want to waste his<br />
resources on frivolous litigations. <strong>The</strong><br />
lawyer who handles such cases can even<br />
be disbarred. So, how come Nigeria<br />
remains a semi-democratic country 25<br />
years into the 4th Republic?<br />
In any serious democracy, it is the<br />
government that sets the right template<br />
for an election to hold. Unlike countries<br />
like Spain, France, South Africa, even<br />
some other African countries, Nigeria<br />
needs a constitutional court so that her<br />
political practitioners can originate and<br />
conclude constitutional issues in record<br />
time. In a constitutional court for<br />
instance, the needless imbroglio currently<br />
troubling the peace of Rivers State won’t<br />
even take more than two to three weeks<br />
to resolve, instead of this long-winded<br />
abracadabra, which is no doubt affecting<br />
the perception of Nigeria as an unserious<br />
economy.<br />
What we are saying is that<br />
governance and elections are intertwined<br />
and that a political economy that is<br />
lacking in internal security mechanisms,<br />
weaponizes and actually glorifies poverty<br />
is not one where credible elections can be<br />
held because it is based on State capture.<br />
In a country under the subordination of<br />
the State to powerful individuals and<br />
vested interests, the idea is to make the<br />
people very poor so that, on an election<br />
day, prospective voters can be induced.<br />
Even when there’s no election, the<br />
masses are induced with palliatives. <strong>The</strong><br />
tragic truth is that political<br />
entrepreneurship has become the<br />
parameter for politicking and the<br />
determinant of victory. Otherwise, why<br />
should minimum wage even be a debate<br />
in Nigeria?<br />
Continued on Page 9
Opinion<br />
MAY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong><br />
Democracy, governance and<br />
credible elections (1)<br />
Page9<br />
Continued from Page 8<<br />
Again, that’s where the late Obafemi<br />
Awolowo excelled as a leader! But how<br />
come successive leaders have not been<br />
seeing the link between the minimum<br />
wage, the purchasing power parity and<br />
investments? Call it an election gimmick<br />
but that’s why Governor Godwin Obaseki<br />
of Edo State deserves a standing ovation.<br />
Well, it’s not that N70,000 as minimum<br />
wage for workers in the State is fair<br />
enough but then, the Governor has<br />
demonstrated that a worthy credit analyst<br />
would prefer Benin City where the<br />
purchasing power parity is N50,000 to<br />
Gusau where the purchasing power parity<br />
is N31,000. In a way, Obaseki has shown<br />
that, for any economy to attain its<br />
potentials, it is better to have 15 million<br />
people who are on a living wage of<br />
N105,000 per month than to have 200<br />
million people who are on a minimum<br />
wage of N30,000 per month.<br />
‘Ojú to dilè ni iroré ń so.’ (Pimples<br />
usually infect an idle face. <strong>The</strong> notorious<br />
truth is that we can’t have functional<br />
democracy, good governance and<br />
credible elections without a sound<br />
educational system. Had Nigeria also<br />
been blessed with a sensitive political<br />
class, Nigerians would have been<br />
benefiting from free and compulsory<br />
education as far back as 1974 or 1975. Of<br />
course, the difference would have been<br />
that Nigeria would not have been having<br />
all these problems because of a better<br />
educated population. Matter-of-factly, the<br />
better educated the people are, the better<br />
and the saner the choices. A better<br />
educated population is a better informed<br />
and more productive population. But<br />
when politics fails to deliver its goods to<br />
the people, waiting for much chemistry<br />
to work at the same pace for development<br />
to show up becomes the norm.<br />
Obviously, that’s what Awolowo got right<br />
and that’s why people like Joseph Stiglitz<br />
won the Nobel Prize for Economics.<br />
Secondly, compulsory education is<br />
the best form of population control. On<br />
the day of Nigeria’s independence in<br />
1960, the United Kingdom as the parting<br />
colonial power had 7 million more people<br />
than Nigeria. Whereas Nigeria’s<br />
population grew from 44,928,342 in 1960<br />
to 2<strong>29</strong>,152,217 in <strong>2024</strong>, the British<br />
population has grown by only 15.34<br />
million since 1960. <strong>The</strong> implementation<br />
of the Education Act of 1947, which<br />
made education free and compulsory up<br />
to the age of 18 in the UK, led to the<br />
halving of her population within one<br />
generation. Why and how? Educated<br />
people “marry later” and have fewer<br />
children. What’s more? Educated<br />
populace is better skilled, has higher<br />
Nigeria Democracy<br />
purchasing power parity and many other<br />
advantages. That’s why countries like<br />
Italy and Japan have declining population<br />
growth. <strong>The</strong>y are actually begging and<br />
bribing their citizens to have more<br />
children. For Nigeria, the story is<br />
pathetically different!<br />
Forget the delusion of grandeur,<br />
unless some steps are taken in the right<br />
direction, Nigeria as a country may be<br />
fast sliding into irrelevance. For example,<br />
South Africa is currently the biggest<br />
economy in Africa, of course with the<br />
soundest fundamentals. She is followed<br />
by Egypt and Algeria and only God<br />
knows the true occupier of the 4th<br />
position between Nigeria and Morocco.<br />
South Africa has strong institutions of the<br />
State. As a matter of fact, the ruling<br />
African National Congress (ANC) is<br />
already terrified of losing the<br />
forthcoming elections. Most importantly,<br />
she has basic industries like iron and steel<br />
and machine tools. So, she manufactures<br />
and exports cars to Europe. Unlike<br />
Nigeria, South Africa doesn’t assemble<br />
cars. As former President Donald Trump<br />
once said, “If you don’t have steel, you<br />
don’t have a country.” In terms of<br />
fundamentals therefore, how to arrest<br />
Nigeria’s descent into irrelevance should<br />
be the key question.<br />
But how did we get here? When<br />
Nigeria decided to throw away the<br />
Lyttleton’s, 1960 and 1963 Constitutions,<br />
it became obvious that the country was<br />
gone. Brazil currently operates the 1988<br />
Constitution, which is the 7th enacted<br />
since the country’s independence in 1822,<br />
and the 6th since the proclamation of the<br />
Republic in 1889. Look at today’s Brazil!<br />
She’s currently the world’s 9th largest<br />
economy. Not only that, 92% of all new<br />
cars sold in Brazil are powered, not by<br />
Petroleum Motor Spirit - PMS, but by the<br />
ethanol derived from sugarcane. For<br />
greater certainty, Brazil is a huge<br />
producer of sugarcane. Impliedly, had<br />
Nigeria kept up her existence on the 1960<br />
and 1963 Constitutions, she’d have been<br />
powering not less than 92% of her cars<br />
by ethanol derived from cassava. After<br />
all, dear country is currently the world’s<br />
largest producer of cassava with an<br />
annual output of over 34 million tonnes<br />
of tuberous roots. What this means is that,<br />
instead of buying a litre of PMS for<br />
N700.00, ethanol derived from cassava<br />
would not have cost more than N130.00.<br />
Besides, that would have been a boost for<br />
agriculture and industry would have been<br />
competitive because its cost would be<br />
lower. Added to these is that the destiny<br />
of employment generation in the country<br />
would have been given a lift-up.<br />
● To be concluded.<br />
● KOMOLAFE wrote in from Ijebu-<br />
Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria<br />
(ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk)
Page10 <strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong> MAY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
Opinion<br />
When Helicopters crash:<br />
Wigwe, Kobe, Iran...<br />
Media Vita In Morte Sumus (In the<br />
midst of life we are in death.)<br />
This is a Gregorian chant that I<br />
often recall whenever there is an accident,<br />
a sudden, shocking abbreviation of life in<br />
the midst of hope and promise, a most<br />
tragic reminder of man’s mortality. Life<br />
as either a chemical or biological process<br />
must come to an end when it will, but it is<br />
the time and manner of it that leaves the<br />
lasting imprint on our memory. <strong>The</strong> tragic<br />
death of the President of Iran, Ebrahim<br />
Raisi (63), his foreign Minister, Hossein<br />
Amir-Abdollahian (60) and seven others<br />
in a helicopter crash on Sunday evokes<br />
these thoughts afresh, as well as<br />
frightening memories.<br />
Nigeria was thrown into shock in<br />
February this year when the tragic news<br />
was reported that Herbert Wigwe, Group<br />
Managing Director and CEO of Access<br />
Holdings had died in a helicopter crash in<br />
the United States along with his wife,<br />
Chizoba, his <strong>29</strong>-year-old son, Chizzy and<br />
his lawyer, Mr. Abimbola Ogunbanjo on<br />
their way to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas.<br />
<strong>The</strong> quartet had a great future ahead of<br />
them. Wigwe had just completed a<br />
university, the Wigwe University in his<br />
home town of Isiokpo, Rivers State,<br />
through which he planned to raise<br />
educational standards and provide<br />
opportunities and quality. He and<br />
Ogunbanjo were full of life. <strong>The</strong> death of<br />
three members of a family in one tragic<br />
accident was beyond comprehension.<br />
Nigerians and the international<br />
community mourned. <strong>The</strong> week before<br />
his death, I had received a phone call from<br />
Herbert, sharing his views about a subject<br />
we had discussed on <strong>The</strong> Morning Show.<br />
He was a kind, affable gentleman,<br />
completely without airs. I know many<br />
people in high places who are just full of<br />
hydrogen, with blown up ego. Not<br />
Wigwe.<br />
“Reuben, I am travelling, but when I<br />
get back next Wednesday, I will call you”,<br />
he had said. He did not return. I was at a<br />
wedding party when news of the accident<br />
broke. It sounded like a fairy-tale but soon<br />
it was confirmed. Jesus! I was supposed<br />
to leave the wedding party and rush to a<br />
birthday party. I could not bring myself to<br />
go to that other party. I checked my<br />
phone. <strong>The</strong> call from Wigwe was still on<br />
my call log. How can somebody that<br />
spoke with me just a few days ago, die<br />
like that?”, I asked. <strong>The</strong>re was an<br />
Hossein Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (Photo - Wotld Economic Forum - CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0)<br />
outpouring of tributes from every segment<br />
of society that he was involved with<br />
proving the maxim, that a man’s worth is<br />
not determined by the length of his life,<br />
but the impact that he makes. As Abraham<br />
Lincoln put it: “In the end, it’s not the<br />
years in your life that count. It’s the life<br />
in your years.” Thucydides says: “What<br />
you leave behind is not what is engraved<br />
in stone monuments but what is woven<br />
into the lives of others”.<br />
Herbert Wigwe’s life was short, but<br />
his impact was profound. As was the case<br />
also with Kobe Bryant, American<br />
professional basketball player, five-time<br />
NBA Champion, two times NBA Finals<br />
Most Valuable Player and NBA Most<br />
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Valuable Player (2008), one of the most<br />
outstanding men on America’s basketball<br />
court. He died in a helicopter crash on<br />
January 26, 2020, along with nine others,<br />
including his 13-year-old daughter,<br />
Gianna. <strong>The</strong>y were going for a basketball<br />
game in Thousand Oaks, California.<br />
And now again, in the past few days,<br />
there has been yet another case of a<br />
helicopter crash involving prominent<br />
persons in Iran: the President, the Foreign<br />
Minister and seven others. <strong>The</strong>y were<br />
returning from a diplomatic mission to<br />
Azerbaijan, namely, the inauguration of a<br />
dam at the Eastern border which was<br />
attended by President Ilham Aliyev of<br />
Azerbaijan. It took a search and rescue<br />
party led by the Iranian Red Crescent<br />
Society, scouting around for 15 hours,<br />
before it was confirmed yesterday<br />
morning that the wreckage of the<br />
helicopter had been found, and there were<br />
no signs of life. President Ebrahim Raisi<br />
was a prominent political and religious<br />
figure in Iranian politics. He and the late<br />
Foreign Minister were aligned with the<br />
conservative and hardline factions in<br />
Iranian politics. Raisi had served as a<br />
prosecutor in his early years, and as a<br />
member of a panel of judges, the so-called<br />
Assembly of Experts which sanctioned<br />
the execution of political prisoners. He<br />
later became Attorney General of the<br />
Republic. He ran for the Presidency in<br />
2017, but lost to the more moderate<br />
Hassan Rouhani. He would be lucky in<br />
2021 when he won, and became President<br />
in what was a controversial election with<br />
low voter turn-out. It was believed that his<br />
emergence as President was carefully<br />
managed by his mentor, the man who has<br />
the final say in all matters in Iran, the<br />
Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini.<br />
He was looking forward to running for a<br />
second term in office in 2025. And now<br />
he is dead. As is the case with the death of<br />
all prominent public figures, there has<br />
been a surfeit of tributes from the Middle<br />
East, the EU, India, Russia, China,<br />
Hamas, Hezbollah, Malaysia, Pakistan,<br />
France, Turkey and the UN. Syria and<br />
Lebanon have announced three days of<br />
mourning.<br />
He has been described as a martyr who<br />
died while serving the nation by the<br />
Iranian State media. In the face of the<br />
testy relationship between Iran and the US<br />
and its allies, Raisi was a fierce<br />
nationalist, rabidly anti-Israel and anti-<br />
Continued on Page <strong>11</strong>
Opinion<br />
When Helicopters crash:<br />
Wigwe, Kobe, Iran...<br />
MAY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong><br />
Page<strong>11</strong><br />
Continued from Page 10<<br />
America. In the on-going conflict<br />
between Israel and Hamas, his sympathies<br />
were with the latter. Whatever praises<br />
may have been heaped on him in Iran and<br />
the Islamic world, Raisi championed a<br />
policy of oppression. It was under his<br />
watch in 2022, for example, that a 22-<br />
year-old woman, Mahsa Amini was<br />
detained, and allegedly killed in detention<br />
for wearing a loose headscarf. In the<br />
course of the mass protests that followed,<br />
more than 500 people were killed, over<br />
22,000 others were detained. He is praised<br />
however for the diplomatic truce that was<br />
reached with Saudi Arabia last year.<br />
In all the three cases of deaths<br />
resulting from helicopter crashes cited<br />
above: one common thread is that every<br />
accident occurred as a result of the<br />
malfunctioning of the helicopter and<br />
weather issues as well. In the Wigwe<br />
case, the reports cited poor weather, rain<br />
and showers in the area of the crash, on<br />
the edge of the Mojave Desert Preserve.<br />
When Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter<br />
accident at Calabasas, investigators also<br />
cited poor visibility and low cloud ceiling<br />
in addition to pilot error. Preliminary<br />
investigations into the crash in Iran have<br />
indicated challenging weather conditions<br />
and technical fault. In a political twist to<br />
the Iran incident, former Iranian Foreign<br />
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif blames<br />
US sanctions for the crash. <strong>The</strong> truth is<br />
that Iranian aircraft cannot be serviced<br />
with spare parts, due to sanctions, and<br />
hence, the fleet belong to the pre-1979<br />
Revolution era, old and deteriorating. <strong>The</strong><br />
helicopter that crashed did not even have<br />
a functional signal system. Besides, the<br />
Bell 212 that crashed is US-made.<br />
In all three, the aircraft crash landed<br />
and burst into fire. But the thing about<br />
death, is that even “in the midst of death,<br />
there is life, and that should shock us” –a<br />
reversal of the original saying by James<br />
Koester. My simple interpretation of that<br />
is that even when loved ones die, despite<br />
the pain and the anguish, life moves on<br />
nonetheless. Human beings have learnt<br />
the art of clinging to life. <strong>The</strong> finality is<br />
individual, personal. <strong>The</strong> community<br />
grieves and returns to the art of living.<br />
Herbert Wigwe died on Friday, February<br />
9, <strong>2024</strong>. By Monday, February 12, the<br />
Board of Access Holdings Plc had<br />
announced Ms. Bolaji Agbede as the<br />
Acting Group Chief Executive Officer.<br />
By March 14, the company re-appointed<br />
its co-founder, and non-executive<br />
chairman, as Chief Executive Officer of<br />
Access Holdings in a substantive capacity.<br />
Kobe Bryant’s wife, Vanessa has at every<br />
turn memorialized and honoured her<br />
husband, Kobe but she and her three<br />
surviving daughters have embraced life<br />
Helicopters are not as stable as regular planes.<br />
with equanimity. <strong>The</strong> family naturally<br />
feels the pain of death most, some people<br />
never heal, but still life goes on.<br />
In Iran, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah<br />
Khameini had urged the nation not to<br />
worry, and that “there will be no<br />
disruption in the country’s work”. Iran has<br />
declared five days of mourning, and the<br />
first official State funeral will take place<br />
today. Meanwhile, the Cabinet of<br />
Ministers has met, and replacements have<br />
been announced. Article 131 of the<br />
Iranian Constitution prescribes that in the<br />
event of the death of the President, the<br />
first Vice President assumes office, hence<br />
Mohammed Mokhber is now the Acting<br />
President of Iran. Ali Bagheri Kani,<br />
former Deputy Foreign Minister is also<br />
now the Acting Foreign Minister. Within<br />
50 days, the Constitution prescribes that a<br />
new election must be held to elect another<br />
President. So, even in Iran, life goes on.<br />
What remains is the country’s next<br />
election in early July. Who will be Iran’s<br />
next President? A hardliner or a moderate<br />
and what would be the implications of the<br />
choice among likely candidates at a time<br />
Iran faces serious economic, regional and<br />
global challenges?<br />
Helicopters are scary things, from the<br />
swirling blades that you have to be<br />
mindful of as you board or disembark, to<br />
the fact that they are very shaky most of<br />
the time when they are air-borne<br />
especially when there is a little shift in the<br />
weather condition. Helicopters are not as<br />
stable as regular planes. One of the<br />
reasons I felt all hope was not lost when<br />
the Jonathan administration left office in<br />
2015 was that I would not have to travel<br />
in those machines again, at least not as<br />
part of regular duty routine. In 2012, it<br />
was a really sad moment for the Nigerian<br />
government when General Andrew<br />
Owoye Azazi - National Security Adviser,<br />
Governor of Kaduna State - Patrick<br />
Yakowa, and four others died in a Navy<br />
helicopter crash in the forest of Okoroba<br />
in Nembe Local Government Area of<br />
Bayelsa State on their way to the Port<br />
Harcourt International Airport. <strong>The</strong><br />
helicopter burst into flames; its occupants<br />
were burnt beyond recognition. Every<br />
Nigerian President and senior government<br />
officials use the helicopter a lot, to cover<br />
distances, and in our time, the helicopter<br />
was the regular shuttle from the airport to<br />
the Villa, or to some nearby locations. On<br />
more than one occasion, going to the<br />
same Bayelsa State from Port Harcourt,<br />
we have had quite some anxiety.<br />
But it was in Switzerland that we had<br />
real anxiety about flying in a helicopter in<br />
a mountainous region. It was January<br />
2013, I think. We had travelled to<br />
Continued on Page 15
Page12 <strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong> MAY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
Opinion<br />
Celebrating Ken Calebs<br />
Olumese, <strong>The</strong> Guv’nor, at 80<br />
By Reuben Abati<br />
Yesterday, <strong>May</strong> 27, one of<br />
Nigeria’s iconic figures in the<br />
entertainment sector turned<br />
80: Ken Calebs Olumese, an Esan man<br />
from the university town of Ekpoma<br />
as he likes to describe his home town<br />
of which he is proud, as if every other<br />
town these days does not have a<br />
university but in those days when a<br />
university was established in Ekpoma<br />
(1981), it was such a thing of pride and<br />
achievement that Olumese took upon<br />
himself as a personal badge. But the<br />
real story about him and his life is his<br />
immense contributions to the cultural<br />
space in Nigeria, the impact that he<br />
has made in turning music, art, song,<br />
food, drinks, space and dance into<br />
entrepreneurial tools for the promotion<br />
of social cohesion, inclusion,<br />
solidarity, creativity and pure fun. He<br />
was the Don Cornelius, without the<br />
controversy, of the night club scene<br />
and entertainment arena in Lagos in<br />
the 80s and 90s. He was colourful,<br />
charismatic, decent, debonair, affable,<br />
and quite astute in making friends, and<br />
building bridges and relationships. In<br />
the Opebi, Ikeja area where he ran a<br />
nightclub that was famously known as<br />
Niteshift Coliseum, he was a lord of<br />
the territory, father of the kids on the<br />
streets and friend of the gentrified<br />
class with an understanding of the<br />
register of social and communal<br />
survival beyond the pale of regular<br />
entrepreneurship. He moved with a<br />
swag. He strutted with poise. He was<br />
the Guv’nor: who never went on<br />
transfer, or had to seek seasonal<br />
elections, or go on break, he was his<br />
own constituted authority running an<br />
entertainment empire. <strong>The</strong> phrase<br />
Guv’nor was first used in the 1840s, a<br />
variant of the more popular noun -<br />
Governor, but over time, it would gain<br />
resonance as the title of a film in 1935,<br />
and as the nickname of a number of<br />
sports figures – Diego Costa, Bobby<br />
Abel, Paul Ince, Lenny McLean.<br />
When Ken Calebs Olumese<br />
established the Niteshift club in Opebi,<br />
Lagos in 1988, he took the title as<br />
label, brand and cognomen, and thus<br />
began a fresh chapter in the<br />
entertainment story of the city of<br />
Lagos.<br />
Ken Calebs Olumese did not invent<br />
nightlife in Lagos, but he helped for<br />
about two decades to shape and enrich<br />
Ken Calebs Olumese (Photo - Reuben Abati on Instagram)<br />
it. <strong>The</strong> people of Lagos, being Yorubas<br />
are naturally fun-loving, and having<br />
fun at night time has been part of their<br />
culture even before the Victorian times<br />
in the 19 th century, aspects of which<br />
have been examined at great length by<br />
Professor Michael J.C. Echeruo in a<br />
book titled “Victorian Lagos.” <strong>The</strong><br />
city that became known as “<strong>The</strong><br />
Liverpool of West Africa” in the 19 th<br />
Century, an emerging commercial,<br />
port city was also a community of<br />
persons and cultural developments,<br />
including the media, culture and<br />
nationalism. Lagosians love the good<br />
life. <strong>The</strong>y enjoy the thrill of evening<br />
fun be it at the beach, or at the clubs,<br />
or on the streets of Ebute Metta where<br />
there used to be a party every evening,<br />
or anywhere else where the people<br />
could dance to highlife. By his own<br />
account, Ken Calebs Olumese arrived<br />
in Lagos in the late 60s or early 70s<br />
just like many of these persons from<br />
the hinterland who continue to troop<br />
into Lagos on a daily basis. Thousands<br />
arrive daily from all parts of Nigeria,<br />
very few go back to where they came<br />
from, indeed over time, they become<br />
part of the Lagos ecosystem, get lucky<br />
and excel. In Olumese’s case, when he<br />
left Ekpoma, he lived in Benin. He got<br />
involved in the Socialist Movement,<br />
which was quite a rave in Nigeria’s<br />
70s, the season of the cold war. He<br />
would eventually gain a scholarship to<br />
study Medicine in the Soviet Union.<br />
Many young Nigerians went to the<br />
Soviet Union at the time. <strong>The</strong> then<br />
young Ken Calebs Olumese returned<br />
with a degree in Microbiology. By<br />
1977, he, with the help of his kinsman,<br />
Chief Anthony Enahoro, played some<br />
role in the arrangements for FESTAC<br />
77, his first major direct involvement<br />
in cultural diplomacy. He was also<br />
closely associated with the likes of Dr<br />
Tunji Otegbeye, trade unionist,<br />
medical doctor and leader of the<br />
Socialist Workers and Farmers Party<br />
of Nigeria (SWAFP). <strong>The</strong> most<br />
notable part of that phase of his return<br />
is not necessarily FESTAC 77,<br />
however but the fact that he eventually<br />
ended up as a Sales Representative<br />
with the French Pharmaceutical<br />
Company - Roussel, where he rose<br />
through the ranks to become the<br />
Director of Administration and<br />
Finance. Olumese was like the rest of<br />
us: waking up in the morning,<br />
pursuing the nine to five hustle,<br />
struggling like everyone else to raise a<br />
family. He had a good career.<br />
It is one of those ironies of life that<br />
he would eventually become famous<br />
through his hobby, rather than his<br />
vocation. In 1988, he decided to set up<br />
a Night Club at 21 Opebi Street with a<br />
corporate office at 5, Ogundana Street,<br />
off Opebi Road, marking Olumese’s<br />
transition into the arena of<br />
entrepreneurship, from selling<br />
pharmaceutical products, to the retail<br />
of songs, food, drinks, and whatever<br />
brings joy. He had been a prolific<br />
nightlife denizen himself. He turned<br />
his interest into a passion and his<br />
passion into business. When Olumese<br />
arrived on the nightclub scene in Ikeja<br />
and Lagos in the 80s, there was<br />
already a thriving, habitual ecosystem<br />
in place. From Idi-oro in Mushin, to<br />
Jibowu, Ayilara and Ojuelegba, there<br />
was a buzzing axis of nightlife<br />
entertainment. In Ikeja, Ipodo,<br />
Awolowo Road, Allen and Opebi<br />
streets came alive similarly at sun<br />
down. <strong>The</strong>re was a gentleman called<br />
Omieba Dan Princewill, he ran two<br />
clubs – City Tavern and Daniel’s.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was the colourful, stand-up<br />
comedian, John Chukwu who owned<br />
a club called Klass, with Eddie Jay<br />
Omodiagbe as Dee Jay. <strong>The</strong>re was<br />
Ozone owned by Jibola Shitta-Bey on<br />
Allen Avenue. <strong>The</strong>re was also at some<br />
point, De Roof, Singer’s Cruise, Bread<br />
Continued on Page 14
MAY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong> <strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong><br />
Page13
Opinion<br />
Page14 <strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong> MAY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
Celebrating Ken Calebs<br />
Olumese, <strong>The</strong> Guv’nor, at 80<br />
Continued from Page 12<<br />
and Butter and another club called<br />
Princes. On Allen Avenue, Jerry Jones<br />
Anazia ran a night club called Ace. On<br />
Toyin Street, there was Climax, with a<br />
DJ called Stagger Lee. In those days<br />
of course, there was Shrine, the main<br />
watering hole for night crawlers, and<br />
beyond Ikeja, all the way towards<br />
Ojuelegba, there was a long list of fun<br />
spots including pepper soup joints<br />
such as Igbinedion, or Fafolu: point<br />
and kill joint, No. 67 Bode Thomas in<br />
Surulere, Empire Hotel, Tarmac.<br />
Many would also remember Kakadu<br />
Nite Club in Alagomeji, Yaba, where<br />
Fela used to perform in the 60s, and<br />
Bobby Benson’s Caban Bamboo,<br />
which in many ways was the old<br />
version of what the Niteshift Coliseum<br />
later became. <strong>The</strong>re was at some point<br />
Paradiso in Yaba, Faze 2, Lord’s Club<br />
around Maryland, and Hotspot Club at<br />
Abibu Oki, off Broad Street. Basically,<br />
for a while, the Lagos social scene was<br />
a mix of band life, joints and<br />
discotheques. <strong>The</strong> latter would later<br />
prevail.<br />
Ken Calebs Olumese changed the<br />
face of night life in Lagos, particularly<br />
with the rise of the discotheque, which<br />
he capitalized upon turning Niteshift<br />
Coliseum into a space where the<br />
hottest and latest music could be<br />
heard. He invested heavily in music<br />
and equipment. He raised the bar to<br />
such a level that others began to learn<br />
from him, and even copy him. He<br />
changed the game. Even when there<br />
was a seeming rivalry between Lagos<br />
Island and the Mainland, the arrival of<br />
Niteshift Coliseum gave nightlife on<br />
the Mainland, an edge. What Olumese<br />
did was simply to be different. He<br />
carved a niche and constantly<br />
reinvented it. Whereas you could go to<br />
Ozone, DeRoof, Klass and Climax and<br />
run into celebrities and prominent<br />
persons, mingling with others, dressed<br />
in both formal and bohemian attires,<br />
Olumese made it clear from the very<br />
beginning that his club was meant for<br />
the middle class and the upper middleclass<br />
members of society. It was an<br />
exclusive club and there were rules.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was a man at the door, “<strong>The</strong><br />
First Man” who would not even allow<br />
you to buy a ticket if you looked out<br />
of place. Jeans, slippers, any form of<br />
scruffy dressing were not allowed.<br />
You didn’t have to wear a tie, but you<br />
were required to appear decent.<br />
<strong>The</strong> club also had different<br />
segments. <strong>The</strong>re was an exclusive<br />
section reserved for Senior Fellows of<br />
the Gold Card Sector. This was a<br />
section reserved for prominent<br />
persons, diplomats, captains of<br />
industry on a discreet night out. <strong>The</strong><br />
lighting for that section was also<br />
deliberately dim. And there was the<br />
Section for the Glamour Boys (later -<br />
and Girls) of Nigeria: the reserved<br />
section for the upwardly mobile in<br />
society, but even then you had to be<br />
admitted as a member to sit there. In<br />
the general hall was the popular<br />
section. <strong>The</strong> status of a guest or<br />
member was indicated in the colour of<br />
the glass with which you were served.<br />
<strong>The</strong> staff were trained to know the<br />
differences. Everyone wanted to be<br />
part of the Niteshift crowd. Usually,<br />
when people left other clubs, they<br />
ended up at the Coliseum. <strong>The</strong> food<br />
was good. <strong>The</strong> air-conditioning was<br />
the coldest in the business. To add to<br />
the snobbery, Niteshift did not use the<br />
same terms as other clubs. Its<br />
bathrooms were called “<strong>The</strong> Vanity”<br />
for example. <strong>The</strong> hostesses wore<br />
something called “Oriental<br />
Ornamental.” <strong>The</strong> Dee Jay was “<strong>The</strong><br />
Flight Captain” sitting in “<strong>The</strong><br />
Cockpit.” And the entire night was a<br />
cruise. Olumese was the master of<br />
razzmatazz.<br />
He had a personal touch that could<br />
not be found among other club<br />
owners. He knew most of the regular<br />
clientele personally, and took an<br />
interest in their personal lives. He<br />
served drinks, and could be found<br />
correcting any error by any of his staff.<br />
His dressing was impeccable. From<br />
his hair cut to his shoes, he paid<br />
attention to every detail. He drank<br />
Remy Martin, and he could hold his<br />
drink. He was very generous to his<br />
guests. For young persons and others<br />
close to him, the first drink was always<br />
on the house, and in the morning, the<br />
club served tea or coffee on the house<br />
depending on individual choices.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re were days patrons stayed in the<br />
club till 7 am, not knowing it was<br />
daybreak. <strong>The</strong> Guv’nor of Niteshift<br />
Coliseum actively cultivated the<br />
friendship of the media. He knew<br />
every entertainment, arts and culture<br />
reporter and editor on the beat. He was<br />
similarly friendly with publishers and<br />
editors. He had one or two friends in<br />
every newsroom. Journalists were<br />
understandably some of the more<br />
prominent members of the club, and<br />
through this connection Niteshift<br />
became a place of choice for many<br />
media events. <strong>The</strong>re were times<br />
however when he had issues with<br />
journalists. He protected the privacy of<br />
celebrities who came to the club<br />
jealously and he would not hesitate to<br />
quarrel with any journalist who<br />
published gossip about any of his<br />
patrons. He used to quip that the club<br />
does not ask for marriage certificates.<br />
It is place of fun, not a church. Funny<br />
enough, Olumese is the son of an<br />
Anglican priest.<br />
Niteshift was not just about disco.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Guv’nor was constantly reinventing<br />
the concept. <strong>The</strong>re was in<br />
due course a full Niteshift band, which<br />
mixed the idea of disco with live<br />
performance. <strong>The</strong>re was also the<br />
Niteshift Musical Talent Show, on the<br />
platform of which the club provided<br />
space for the flowering of many<br />
talents including Felix and Moses,<br />
Tuface, Tony Tetuila, Tony Montana,<br />
Eedris Abdulkareem, Platanshun<br />
Boys, Sunny Neji, Daddy Showkey,<br />
Nel Oliver. <strong>The</strong>re was also Miss<br />
Niteshift beauty pageant. Niteshift was<br />
also the watering hole for many<br />
Nollywood artists – actors, actresses<br />
and producers. But the high point<br />
arrived in the early 90s when the club<br />
was moved from 21 Opebi Street to a<br />
bigger, more permanent space, the<br />
purpose-built Coliseum at 21<br />
Salvation Road, off Opebi. At this<br />
new location, the club had more space,<br />
more meeting rooms, a bigger dance<br />
floor, more of everything: an<br />
impressive edifice that was a<br />
testament to the success of the club,<br />
and the dogged vision of the founder.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was even a place called <strong>The</strong><br />
Dacha: a block of 12 rooms reserved<br />
exclusively for the use of members.<br />
<strong>The</strong> major highlight at the Coliseum<br />
was the increased focus on a special<br />
programme which Olumese had<br />
introduced at the 21 Opebi address -<br />
the Grand House Reception (GHR).<br />
This further differentiated the Niteshift<br />
Coliseum from its peers. <strong>The</strong> GHR<br />
was an evening of interaction with<br />
major public figures. It was a huge hit<br />
which attracted exactly the clientele<br />
that the Guv’nor wanted. Some of the<br />
prominent persons who featured on<br />
the platform included, to cite just a<br />
few: Chief Emeka Odumegwu<br />
Ojukwu, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Fela<br />
Anikulapo Kuti, Beko Ransome-Kuti,<br />
Alhaji Tafa Balogun, Mallam Nasir el-<br />
Rufai, Governor Gbenga Daniel,<br />
Governor Segun Osoba, Governor<br />
Orji Kalu, Chief Lucky Igbinedion,<br />
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu… H. E.<br />
Flt Lt. Jerry Rawlings, Alhaji Atiku<br />
Abubakar… and others.<br />
Ken Olumese kept raising the bar,<br />
and he was good at research, and<br />
monitoring the competition. I was one<br />
of the Glamour Boys of the Club,<br />
having joined that section sometime<br />
around 1989. I would later end up as<br />
one of the club’s major resource<br />
persons. I can conveniently report that<br />
I was actively involved. On many<br />
occasions we visited other clubs,<br />
before the start of business at the<br />
Coliseum. <strong>The</strong>re were occasions when<br />
the Guv’nor would arrange for us to<br />
go on a West Africa tour. We were in<br />
Ghana again and again to attend<br />
different night clubs and observe their<br />
operations. We used to travel on<br />
Wednesday and return on Monday.<br />
Niteshift Coliseum would also<br />
eventually introduce a Wednesday<br />
programme, a Ladies night, free entry<br />
for ladies and other programmes to<br />
boost the clientele.<br />
In 20<strong>11</strong>, I left for Abuja on national<br />
assignment. By the time I returned in<br />
2015, circumstances had changed on<br />
the Lagos night scene. <strong>The</strong> pulse had<br />
shifted from the Mainland to the<br />
Island, with new clubs patronized by<br />
the nouveaux riche and the Gen Z<br />
springing up on the other side of the<br />
city. Ken Calebs Olumese was also<br />
advancing in age. He has since retired<br />
and rented out the premises of the<br />
Niteshift Coliseum to another<br />
entertainment group called Floating<br />
World. Indeed, we live in a world that<br />
floats. But the Niteshift dream would<br />
be remembered for its impact and<br />
longevity. Many ventures of its type<br />
have short mortality rates, but Ken<br />
Calebs Olumese kept it going for more<br />
than two decades, even after the club<br />
was razed down in a mysterious<br />
midnight fire on December 18, 2003.<br />
It was a brilliant run, still and long is<br />
the echo of the Niteshift Bugaloo, the<br />
opening sequence of the club at 12<br />
midnight, taken from the song by the<br />
Commodores of the same title:<br />
Nightshift. Happy Birthday, Guv’nor.<br />
Lord Have Mercy!
Opinion<br />
When Helicopters crash:<br />
Wigwe, Kobe, Iran...<br />
MAY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong><br />
Page15<br />
Continued from Page <strong>11</strong><<br />
Switzerland to attend the World<br />
Economic Forum in Davos, something we<br />
did every year. But the weather was truly<br />
harsh that particular year. We landed in<br />
Geneva and hopped into the helicopter to<br />
take us straight to Davos. When we were<br />
airborne, it turned out that the weather<br />
was almost zero. It was so foggy up there<br />
we could not see anything ahead. And this<br />
was in Switzerland with the mountains or<br />
the Swiss Alps as they are otherwise<br />
called. We all became anxious. <strong>The</strong>re was<br />
panic written all over our faces, including<br />
the President’s.<br />
“It is not good for a President to die in<br />
a helicopter crash, and in a foreign<br />
country”, President Jonathan said, trying<br />
his best to remain Presidential. It is not<br />
good for a Special Adviser to die in a<br />
helicopter crash either, I thought quietly to<br />
myself.<br />
“But sir, these are oyinbo people sir and<br />
this is their country. <strong>The</strong>y will know the<br />
terrain very well, and I think they have<br />
good technology.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> President directed there and then<br />
that on our way back from Davos, if the<br />
weather was still foggy, we would all<br />
return to Geneva by road. No helicopter<br />
ride in that kind of foggy weather.<br />
Later that year, July 2013, President<br />
Goodluck Jonathan was in China on a fiveday<br />
State visit. It was a significant trip to<br />
strengthen bilateral relations between<br />
Nigeria and China. We were well received<br />
and everything went well. <strong>The</strong> hospitality<br />
was great. <strong>The</strong> chemistry was right. But I<br />
recall that one of the programmes on our<br />
list could not take place. We were to visit a<br />
particular province, but the issue came up<br />
that we would have to go in a Chinese<br />
aircraft, flown by Chinese pilots, because<br />
the route to the province is mountainous<br />
and even only carefully chosen and trained<br />
pilots are allowed to fly on that route.<br />
Mountains again, after the experience in<br />
Switzerland? <strong>The</strong> Foreign Affairs people<br />
and the PAF Commander had to find a<br />
diplomatic way of standing down that part<br />
of the trip. Besides, it would have been odd<br />
to allow another sovereign and its pilots to<br />
take over the management of the<br />
movement of the Nigerian President.<br />
Nonetheless, President Jonathan’s visit to<br />
China was successful. It prepared the<br />
grounds for the deepening of bilateral<br />
relations between both countries. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
were no more issues with helicopters and<br />
foggy weather for a while, except when we<br />
had a bird strike stopping our aircraft in<br />
South Africa and we had to change planes,<br />
and yet another bird strike during the 2015<br />
election campaigns in Northern Nigeria,<br />
and an aircraft had to be brought from<br />
Abuja to take us back. In life, we survive<br />
only by chance.<br />
Helicopter crashes have claimed the<br />
lives of many prominent State officials in<br />
the line of duty, including President Rene<br />
Ortuno of Bolivia (1969), Prime Minister<br />
Rashid Karami of Lebanon (1984),<br />
Burundi Defence Minister - Colonel<br />
President Ebrahim Raisi (Photo - duma.gov.ru - CCA-SA 4.0 Int)<br />
Firmin Sinzoyiheba (1998) due to poor<br />
weather, President Ibrahim Nasir of the<br />
Maldives (2008), Vice President John<br />
Garang of Sudan (2005), and Chief of<br />
Kenya’s military - General Francis<br />
Omondi Ogolla (<strong>2024</strong>). <strong>The</strong>re is also a<br />
long list of leaders across the world who<br />
died in plane crashes. Between man,<br />
technology and nature, there is a lot about<br />
man’s inability to master and control the<br />
universe. <strong>The</strong>re have been survivors<br />
though: In February 2019, Vice President<br />
Yemi Osinbajo of Nigeria escaped unhurt<br />
from a helicopter crash in Kabba, Kogi<br />
State. In Iran, two helicopters travelling<br />
with President Ebrahim Raisi made it back<br />
to Tehran safely. Life is complex, the<br />
mysteries within it are far more so. <strong>May</strong> the<br />
souls of all departed persons find peace<br />
eternal.<br />
Sport<br />
<strong>The</strong> old lion and the cub<br />
Continued from Page 16<<br />
from the village of Nkenglikok.<br />
Rigobert Song was still only 17 but,<br />
on the recommendation of his<br />
Tonnerre team-mate, was the<br />
unexpected cub in the Indomitable<br />
Lions’ pride. If height had divided<br />
Julius and Vincent immeasurably,<br />
age did the same for Roger and his<br />
“little brother” Rigobert. A<br />
staggering 24 years and 42 days to<br />
be precise – what remains the<br />
biggest gap between team-mates in<br />
World Cup history.<br />
“I was in disbelief when I made<br />
the squad,” said Song. “I’d watched<br />
the 1990 World Cup huddled round<br />
a black-and-white television. I was<br />
in awe of Roger Milla. He created<br />
complete euphoria in Cameroon.<br />
“Not in my wildest dreams could<br />
I have imagined that, only four years<br />
later, I’d be his team-mate at a<br />
World Cup! I was only 17 and he<br />
was Roger Milla!” Milla told FIFA:<br />
Roger Milla played his first match in the Americas in Haiti in1998 (Photo - Belmond, CCA-SA 4.0 Int)<br />
“It’s a record I am proud of. We<br />
showed that Cameroon is a land<br />
populated with talent and that we<br />
don’t have a generational gap.<br />
That’s something that continues to<br />
this day. “I’m old enough to be his<br />
father! But I learned as much from<br />
him as he learned from me. I was<br />
blown away by his enthusiasm. He<br />
put the same energy into training as<br />
he did into matches. In a way, when<br />
you’re around young people, it<br />
pushes you to maintain your rhythm<br />
and energy, and I think that helped<br />
me.”<br />
California was now the setting<br />
for the most peculiar partnerships in<br />
cinematic and World Cup history.
Page16 <strong>The</strong><strong>Trumpet</strong> MAY <strong>29</strong> - JUNE <strong>11</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
Sport<br />
<strong>The</strong> old lion and the cub<br />
By FIFA.com<br />
FIFA spotlights a World Cup record:<br />
Two of the most implausible of call-ups enabled two Cameroonians to set one at USA 1994.<br />
Twins, the 1988 Hollywood<br />
blockbuster, featured the<br />
oddest double act in<br />
cinematic history. It comprised<br />
Vincent, a pudgy, 4ft 10ins crook<br />
played by Danny DeVito, and<br />
Julius, a happy-go-lucky hulk<br />
played by former Mr. Universe<br />
Arnold Schwarzenegger. Its final<br />
scene was as emotional as it was<br />
euphoric. <strong>The</strong> brothers finally found<br />
their long-pursued mother.<br />
That same year, the final scene of<br />
a script written 13,000-plus<br />
kilometres away also saw tears and<br />
cheers. Its solitary star was a man<br />
who, like Schwarzenegger, once<br />
dreamed of competing in the<br />
Olympics. Roger Milla, whose<br />
teenage target was to become a<br />
gold-medallist in the high jump, was<br />
ending one of Africa’s greatest-ever<br />
football careers. <strong>The</strong> hip-wiggling<br />
forward had become the first<br />
Cameroonian to be named African<br />
Footballer of the Year. His 1981<br />
brace had upset Morocco and<br />
qualified the Indomitable Lions for<br />
a first World Cup. He was retiring as<br />
his nation’s all-time leading<br />
marksman, on 38 goals from 61<br />
outings, and fresh from propelling<br />
them to a second AFCON crown in<br />
three editions. His extravagant sendoff,<br />
marketed as ‘Roger Milla<br />
Jubilee’, featured local legends such<br />
as Joseph-Antoine Bell and Francois<br />
Omam-Biyik, and Gallic royalty<br />
Manuel Amoros and Alain Giresse.<br />
Salif Keita and Pele sent their wellwishes.<br />
A staggering crowd of<br />
<strong>11</strong>5,000 watched the second match<br />
in Yaounde, with its headliner<br />
swapping sides at half-time just as<br />
‘<strong>The</strong> King’ had done at his own<br />
swansong between New York<br />
Cosmos and Santos in 1977.<br />
An awestruck <strong>11</strong>-year-old will<br />
never forget watching it live on<br />
national television. Not even the<br />
most fanciful of scriptwriters could<br />
have concocted the same kid going<br />
on become Milla’s team-mate at a<br />
World Cup in the statal setting of<br />
Twins. <strong>The</strong>re was, however, an<br />
intervening chapter. In April 1990,<br />
Milla played in a charity game in<br />
Douala. Cameroon President - Paul<br />
Biya, in the crowd, was wowed. He<br />
asked the former Saint-Etienne and<br />
Montpellier man to go to Italia ’90.<br />
<strong>The</strong> soon-to-be 38-year-old laughed<br />
it off. <strong>The</strong> following day Biya called<br />
Milla. After some persuasion, ‘Old<br />
Lion’ came around. Biya, thrilled,<br />
called Cameroon coach Valery<br />
Nepomnyashchy and told him the<br />
news. <strong>The</strong> bull-headed Russian<br />
responded that it was not happening.<br />
Biya actioned Presidential privilege.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Indomitable Lions of Cameroon<br />
He issued a decree, Milla signed it<br />
and Nepomnyashchy had no choice<br />
but to accept. Milla went on to be a<br />
sensation at the tournament,<br />
averaging a goal every 59 minutes<br />
and 30 seconds of action as<br />
Cameroon became the first African<br />
representatives to reach the quarterfinals.<br />
It seemed unthinkable at the time<br />
that there could be life in Milla’s<br />
World Cup career. No outfield<br />
player in their 40s had ever been to<br />
the global finals. Yet when Henri<br />
Michel reserved 22 seats for<br />
California, where their Group B<br />
outings would unfold, his was one.<br />
So too, preposterously, was the kid<br />
who had watched Milla’s swansong<br />
Roger Milla at the Olympic Village Beijing in August 2008 (Photo - Jmex, CCA-SA 3.0 Unported) Continued on Page 15><br />
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