Showing Where We Are By Olowogboyega Oyebade

Are you aware that some of the Chemistry teachers of the old were wrong?  Were you not told that parts of the property of water were  that it must be colourless and odourless?  Have you read ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ by Sir Rider Haggard? Have you ever walked in a real desert?  Are you aware that it is when you are near-death thirsty that you realize that water has a peculiar odour? Have you read ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ published in 1885?  Do you know that it is a popular fiction writer and fabulist revealing a search of an unexplored region of Africa by a group of adventurers led by Allan Quatermain for the missing brother of one of the party?  Are you aware that this novel prepared the framework  for Britain and other European powers for the 1885-1886 Berlin Conference that led to the partition of Africa into non-viable States?

​Are you aware that this was the first novel of African adventure published in English to capture the public’s imagination of an unexplored ‘dark continent’?  Do you know that Haggard came to the continent of Africa at the age of 19 at the peak of the Anglo-Zulu War and  was awed by South Africa’s vast mineral wealth and by the ruins of ancient lost cities being uncovered, such as Great Zimbabwe?  Do you know that Allan Quatermain character used in the novel represents Frederick Courtney Selous, the popular British white hunter who came to areas around South Africa for hunting games and possibly explorations during the colonial time? Are you aware that the acts crafted into Allan  Quatermain, Henry Curtis and Captain John Good in the novel were the real-life experiences of Frederick Courtney Selous, the British  hunter? Do you know that the Kukuana land used in the novel represents Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zaire, and all other diamond-reeking and gold-rich countries along that corridor?  And now the news. Do you know that Ventvogen, a character in the novel, while he and his colleagues are marooned in the desert and are near-death thirsty, languidly cries:  “ I smell water.” Friends, water has a unique smell.  Only the thirsty can understand. The people of our country are thirsty of good leadership like Ventvogen in the desert.  With the coming of President Buhari and Osinbajo at the national level and the emergence of Mr Gboyega Oyetola in the cock-pit of the State of Osun, the people of the State, like the fabled  Ventvogen,  are already smelling good leadership.  Do you say: ‘how’? Come along, please.

Have you ever walked in darkness in a danger-zone, making you a live-catch of marauding beasts?  In the novel, while Allan Quartermain of Durban and his jolly explorers get marooned in the very dark mines , Henry Curtis calls on Captain John Good and says:  “Strike a light to show me where you are.” The time for all Nigerians to strike light to know where they are is now.  Have you read ‘Nightfall in Soweto’ by Oswald MbuyiseniMtshali to appreciate what light can be? Please, have a read:

NIGHTFALL IN SOWETO

Nightfall comes like

a dreaded disease

seeping through the pores

of a healthy body

and ravaging it beyond repair

 

A murderer’s hand,

lurking in the shadows,

clasping the dagger,

strikes down the helpless victim.

 

I am the victim.

I am slaughtered

every night in the streets.

I am cornered by the fear

gnawing at my timid heart;

in my helplessness I languish.

 

Man has ceased to be man

Man has become beast

Man has become prey.

 

I am the prey;

I am the quarry to be run down

by the marauding beast

let loose by cruel nightfall

from his cage of death.

 

Where is my refuge?

Where am I safe?

Not in my matchbox house

Where I barricade myself against nightfall.

 

I tremble at his crunching footsteps,

I quake at his deafening knock at the door.

“Open up!” he barks like a rabid dog

thirsty for my blood.

 

Nightfall! Nightfall!

You are my mortal enemy.

But why were you ever created?

Why can’t it be daytime?

Daytime forever more?

Can you imagine how the curses of Nightfall continue as Mtshali signs out embittered about its periodicity? How can one be happy if the night will bring death as an unsolicited sworn mortal enemy ?  May you never walk in darkness.  Allan Quatermain in ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ and his co-adventurers walk in the dark cave. It is the experience of darkness that makes them to value light.  Henry Curtis, one of the characters in the novel, mutters: “…..we shouted, in terrified distress. To our intense relief, an answer came back in a choky voice. ‘All right; I’ve got hold of a rock. Strike a light to show me where you are..”  Are you aware that the much-feared 2019 elections had come and gone? Did you notice how some empires rose and some fell and some still constant as the northern stars? Do you know that this is the time to strike a light to show where we are in public duties and private thinking?  You care to know why?  Come along.

Hurray! A new Secretary to the State Government is here with us!  A new Chief of Staff is here with us.  And  new Deputy Chief of Staff is here with us, live and direct.  They are separate as fingers but woven into one like a hand, with integrity, experience and hard work as their defining signatures.  Do you know Mr Wole Oyebanji, a U.I trained Theatre Practitioner, a media- giant of OSBC extraction, a retired Permanent Secretary and a former member of the State Civil Service Commission? Can we have it better?  Do you know the iconic and cerebral Dr Charles Akinola, the new Chief of Staff, a Harvard-trained scholar in Governance and International Partnerships and an expert in Food Security, a guru in management of mass events and an unrepentant engineer of Social Protection?  Can we have it brighter?  And the Deputy Chief of Staff, Mr Binuyo, a consummate scholar, an accomplished internationalist and a seasoned hand in International Partnerships? With their appointments, light is here.  Do you know that the signal of quality and signature achievements by Mr Adegboyega Oyetolais here with us?  The Governor is building  a team with sturdy hands.  Do you know that building a team is a science?  Do you know that it must be fixed with exactitude? Come along, please.

Team building is a collective term for various types of activities used to enhance social relations and define roles in tasks begging for collaboration. Do you know that it involves: aligning around goals, building effective working relationships, reducing team members’ role ambiguity and  finding solutions to team problems?  Do you know that the four approaches to build a team are: setting goals, clarifying roles, solving problems and promoting inter-personal relations? Do you know that setting goals is intended to strengthen motivation and foster a sense of ownership?  Are you aware that clarifying roles is intended to reduce ambiguity and foster understanding of the importance of structure by activities aimed at defining and adjusting roles, emphasizing the members’ interdependence and the value of having each member focus on their own role in the team’s success?  Are you aware that solving problems is intended to identify major problems within the team and working together to find solutions? Do you know that building teams with fewer interpersonal conflicts generally function more effectively than others in organisations?  We must salute the adroitness of our Governor for his single-mindedness to come up with a good team.  We are sure that President Muhammadu Buhari will come up with a brand new team soon.  The tasks ahead in the country are daunting.  We must strike a light to show exactly where we are.

​Are you aware of the importance of March 15th, a day marked lightly last week? Are you aware of Consumer Protection? Do you know that consumer protection is a group of laws and organizations designed to ensure the rights of consumers as well as fair trade, competition and accurate information in the marketplace?  Do you know that these laws are designed to prevent the businesses that engage in fraud or specified unfair practices from gaining an advantage over competitors and to provide additional protection for those most vulnerable in society, particularly in areas where safety or public health is an issue, such as food?  Do you know that consumer protection is linked to the idea of consumer rights and to the formation of consumer organisations, which help consumersmake better choices in the marketplace and get help with consumer complaints?  Do you know that consumer protection covers a wide range of topics, including but not necessarily limited to product liability, privacy rights, unfair business practices, fraud, misrepresentation, and other consumer/business interactions to prevent frauds and scams from service and sales contracts, eligible fraud, bill collector regulation, pricing, utility turnoffs, consolidation and  personal loans that may lead to bankruptcy?

​World Consumer Rights Day is marked on  15th March annually.  Do you know that it is a means of raising global awareness about consumer rights and needs?  Are you aware that celebrating the day provides a chance to demand that the rights of all consumers are respected and protected, to protest against market abuses and social injustices which undermine those rights?  Are you aware that the World Consumer Rights Day was inspired by President John F Kennedy, who sent a special message to the US Congress on 15th March 1962, in which he formally addressed the issue of consumer rights?  Do you know that the theme for 2019 is TRUSTED SMART PRODUCTS?

Do you know that our INEC card -reader devices  are smart products covered by Consumer Protection legislation?   Do you know that we need consumer protection against products that are unsafe or dangerous to our  our democracy, security, economy, health and welfare including accidental discharges of bullets in some polling stations?  Do you know that we need it against deceptive and unfair trade and market practices including bringing fairly-used pants, bra, socks and shoes into our country?  Do you know we need it against all types of pollution from fairly-used refrigerators, micro-wave machines and completely useless TV sets imported into our country so that we can enjoy a healthy environment-free from water, air and food pollution? Do you know we need it against the abuse of poisonous soda and food supplements distributed by multi-national monopolies in our country?  Do you know that protection delayed is protection denied?  Have you not been seen the rapid spread of cancer, even among children in our country as we take sundry energy-drinks of dubious brands during our baby-making games?

Are you aware that we have the following consumer rights: right to safety against goods which are unsafe to life, health and  property, including appliances, inflammable fabrics, dangerous toys, food additive, food colouring to mention but a few?  Do you know that we have the right to be Informed about quality, quantity, potency, purity, standard and price of goods or services, as the case may be, so as to protect the consumer against unfair trade practices? Do you know that we have the right to choose to have access to variety of goods and services at competitive prices? Do you know that we have right to be heard by a standing institution to ensure feedback of information in business communication to listen to the genuine grievances and complaints from the customers?  Are you aware that we have right to get redress and  prompt settlement of complaints and claims lodged by aggrieved customers?  Do you know that we have right to receive after-sale service in costly and durable goods  such as mechanical and electrical/electronic appliances including our election card readers that were malfunctioning at critical times, creating a snag for the sanctity of our elections and a seeming challenge to our claim to democracy?  Do you know that we have freedom from pollution, including noise pollution caused by religious organisations in their cathedrals built in residential areas and X-ray facilities installed in high density areas?

​Do you know that there are 47 national constitutions in the world that are currently in force to include some sort of consumer rights? Do you know that Nigeria’s constitution is not one of such progressive constitutions?  Do you know that Kenya’s Constitution has the provisions that citizens have the right to goods and services of “reasonable quality”, information about the product, and protection of their health and safety in the use of the product and that  citizens have legal recourse in the case of injury or product defects?  That is the way to go.  We emphasise more on the election here than the security and welfare of the people which the Constitution sees, possibly erroneously, as the primary purpose of government.

Do you know that there are three mechanisms to enforce consumer protection rights?  Do you know some of these rights can be enforced by self-help through consumers’ unions?  Do you know that businesses can be self-regulating to enforce consumer rights?  Do you know that government can come up with special consumer legislation and strict implementation to ensure consumer protection? Do you know that governments can come up with redressal commissions at the  State, National and International levels?  Do you know that Nigeria needs to popularize Consumer Protection and empower supervising agencies  to remove the defects; replace the goods; return the price paid; pay compensation to the consumer for loss or injury and punish any defaulter?  Do you know that we cannot go on like this without giving serious legal bites to the Consumer Protection Council (CPC)  Act , Cap. C25 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004; the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON)  Act , Cap. S9, LFN, 2004; the  National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC)  Act,   the  Nigerian  Communications Commission Act?  Do you know that Nigeria as a country needs to bring actions against the manufacturers of our failing Electronic Card Reader machines if there are proven cases of malfunctioning?

Do you know that we need another Alteration Act to amend our Constitution to include Consumer Protection Rights, including the right to enjoy good government service? Do you know that government service is a product that is consumed and its jurisprudence should create liability for its lack of standard?  Do you know that the current statistics on Nigeria calls for the regime of Consumer Protection in all areas of our national life?  You care for this statistics?  Come along!

​The CIA Fact Book as at Saturday 16th March, 2019 puts the population of Nigeria at 203,452,505 despite taking into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected.  It is projected to grow  to more than  392 million in 2050, becoming the world’s fourth most populous country. We need to harness the potential of its burgeoning youth population in order to boost economic development, reduce widespread poverty, and channel large numbers of unemployed youth into productive activities and away from ongoing religious and ethnic violence. Highly skilled workers are  emigrating everyday and some of them are seeking for asylum outside Nigeria.    Nigeria is now a major source, transit, and destination country for forced labourand sex trafficking. Our new Consumer Protection Act should strike a light on these issues  to show us where we are.

Do you know that all of us should see the age structure of our population?  Are you aware that the approved age structures are:  0-14 years (children), 15-24 years (early working age), 25-54 years (prime working age), 55-64 years (mature working age), 65 years and over (elderly). Do you know that the age structure of a population affects a nation’s key socioeconomic issues?  Do you know that countries with young populations (high percentage under age 15) need to invest more in schools, while countries with older population need to invest in social protection?  Below is the Age Structure of Nigeria in 2018 estimates.

0-14 years: 42.45% (male 44,087,799 /female 42,278,742)

15-24 years: 19.81% (male 20,452,045 /female 19,861,371)

25-54 years: 30.44% (male 31,031,253 /female 30,893,168)

55-64 years: 4.04% (male 4,017,658 /female 4,197,739)

65 years and over: 3.26% (male 3,138,206 /female 3,494,524) (2018 est.)

​Do you know what we call the Dependency ratios?  These are a measure of the age structure of a population relating the number of individuals that are likely to be economically “dependent” on the support of others to survive. This is simply the contrast of the ratio of children (ages 0-14) and the elderly (ages 65+) to the number of those in the working-age group (ages 15-64). The Dependency ratio of the children in 2015 was 88.2 per cent.  The Dependency ratio of the elderly 5.1 per cent. The total Dependency Ratio was 88.2 per cent.  Our population growth rate is 2.54 per cent (2018 est.) with 35.2 births/1,000 population (2018 est.).  Do you know that the Death Rate is 9.6 deaths/1,000 population (2018 est.) Are you aware that our life expectancy is 59.3 years (2018 est.) male: 57.5 years (2018 est.) and female: 61.1 years (2018 est.), making us to be in 211th position? Do you know that we are having total fertility rate field listing of 4.85 children born per woman (2018 est.) whichputs us in the 16th position in the world?  Do you know that as at now, we have Health Expenditures of 3.7per cent of GDP (2014) which puts us at 167th position in the world?

Are you aware that we have Physicians density of 0.37 physicians to 1,000 population(2019 est.?   Do you know that the following statistics is trailing drinking water source? Do you know that 19.2 per cent of population in our urban areas, 42.7 per cent of population in our rural areas and an average of 31.5 per cent of our general population (2015 est.) are drinking unhealthy water?  On sanitation facility access, do you know that only 32.8 per cent of the population in urban arears  and25.4 per cent in our rural areas have access to good sanitation access?  Do you know that under HIV/AIDS – adult prevalence rate, we have 1.4  per cent of our population (14th March, 2019 est.)  ravaged and we are in the 20th position in the world?  Do you know that we currently have 1.9  million people (2019 est.) afflicted with AIDS/HIV and that we are in 4th  position in the world, with 150,000 (2017 est.) deaths from AIDS/HIV which puts us in 1st position in the world? What a curious satellite we have launched into space?

​Are you aware that currently our literacy rate is  59.6 per cent (2015 est.) with 69.2 per cent for males (2015 est.) and 49.7 per cent (2015 est.) for females?  Do you know that the world currently hass about 20 million out of school children?  Do you know that more than 30 per cent of them are in Nigeria?

Do you know that the entire GDP of all countries in Africa is less than the value of four IT Companies in the United States, namely: Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook?  Do you know that while African Development Bank targets 3 per cent growth rate for the economy of Africa in 2019, Microsoft is setting a target of 50 per cent growth rate for 2019?  Do you know that while still toasting  ‘Orijin Bitters’ for being the largest economy in Africa, do you know that about 62 per cent of the population lives in poverty?  Are you aware that despite our strong fundamentals as an oil-rich country, Nigeria has been hobbled by inadequate power supply, lack of infrastructure, delays in the passage of legislative reforms, an inefficient property registration system, restrictive trade policies, an inconsistent regulatory environment, a slow and ineffective judicial system, unreliable dispute resolution mechanisms, insecurity, and pervasive corruption?

Do you know that was why President Buhari and MrGboyega Oyetola were  popular with the masses to reverse these ugly trends in our country and State?  Do you know that was the reason the opposition parties were snatching card readers and ballot boxes to prevent their victories at the poll?  Do you know that our GDP  is $1.121 trillion (2017 est.) and the 24th in the world?  Do you know that our GDP – real growth rate is only 0.8 (2017 est.)? Do you know that the labour force is  60.08 million (2017 est.) and puts the country in the 10th position in the world? Do you know that the top 10 per cent of the population controls  38.2% (2010 est.) while the lowest 10 per cent controls 1.8 per cent of the economy which puts the country at 99th position in the world?  Do you know that Public debt is currently about 21.8 per cent of GDP (2017 est.)?  Are you aware that Inflation rate of consumer prices is 16.5 per cent (2017 est.) that puts us at 213th position in the world?

Do you know that the Commercial bank prime lending rate is 17.58 per cent  (31 December 2017 est.) that puts us in 25th position in the world?  Do you know that the country’s total population without electricity is 95.5 million despite $16 billion power intervention fund?

Do you know that we have capacity to generate 7,000 MWT but the kinetics of distributing only 3000 MWT which puts us at 67th position in the world?  Do you know that we are not listed in the names of countries generating electricity from nuclear and solar energy?  Do you know that we are not known in generating energy from bio-fuels?  Do you know that we have not been able to produce our quota of crude oil to the international market despite voluntarily putting 2.3 million barrels per day in our budget for 2019?  Do you know that gasoline still enjoys subsidy regimes?  Do you know that the carbon dioxide emissions from consumption of energy and gas flaring measured in metric tons, in Nigeria is 104 million Mt (2017 est.) that puts us in the 42 position in the world? And now the good news.

Do you know there are 144,920,170 (2017 est.) of telephone subscribers, thus making us the 9th in the world?  Do you know that the Federal Government controls 70 federal government-controlled national and regional TV stations with all 36 states operating  TV stations and several private TV stations?  Do you know that our Satellite TV Stations are more of liability as the mass of the people cannot afford subscriptions to them?  Do you know that the country’s Internet facilities are too costly to be available to all schools and research centres? Do you know that the country has annual passenger traffic on registered air carriers of  3,223,459 (2015)   with 54    Airports fields putting us in 88 position in the world? And yet, our national carrier is not viable?

​Do you know that our Military expenditures are 0.43% of GDP (2016) which puts us at 146th position in the world?  Do you know that full scale war goes on in the North and near-war in Zamfara?  Do you know that we face maritime threat in the  territorial and offshore waters in the Niger Delta and Gulf of Guinea with  very  high risk for piracy and armed robbery of ships?  Are you aware that we had 33 commercial vessels  attacked in 2017?  Do you know that the terror groups of BokoHaram and Islamic Caliphate are still very active with its largest presence in the northeast and the Lake Chad region; targeting primarily regional military installations and civilians?

These are the tasks ahead of President Buhari, all State Governors and the new National Assembly.  These are the issues that will define all of us.  We have to learn how to walk in the dark and escape all dangers that cam imperil our nation. For President Buhari and Osinbajo, there are only 50 more months to solve all the riddles. King Solomon’s Mines’ resumes again.   Henry Curtis, one of the characters in the novel, mutters: “…..we shouted, in terrified distress. To our intense relief, an answer came back in a choky voice. ‘All right; I’ve got hold of a rock. Strike a light to show me where you are..”  As we grope in partial light, we must get hold of a rock.  We must all strike a common light to show where we are.  To the newly appointed public officers in our State, we say congratulations.  And to MrAdegboyega Oyetola, Governor, of the State of Osun, we say thank you.