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Fayose Still Has A Case To Answer —EFCC

<img alt="" class="alignnone size-full" height="225" src="http://www.rockcitygist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Mr-Ayodele-Fayose-360x225.jpg" title="Mr-Ayodele-Fayose-360x225.jpg" width="360" /><br /><br /><br /> The <span class="mlw873t7wryf" id="mlw873t7wryf_11">Economic</span> and <span class="mlw873t7wryf" id="mlw873t7wryf_4">Financial Crimes</span> Commission has described media reports that it had dropped corruption  case against the governor-elect of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, as  untrue.<br /> The agency’s Head of <span class="mlw873t7wryf" id="mlw873t7wryf_10">Media</span> and Publicity, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, told our correspondent on Monday  that the recent election of Fayose had not affected the ongoing trial of  the <span class="mlw873t7wryf" id="mlw873t7wryf_9">governor</span>-elect at the Federal <span class="mlw873t7wryf" id="mlw873t7wryf_6">High Court</span>, Ado-Ekiti, for alleged corruption.<br /><a name="more"></a><br /> <br />Uwujaren said that the <span class="mlw873t7wryf" id="mlw873t7wryf_8">case</span> would come up for hearing on July 15, 2014, adding that the immunity  clause in the Constitution only applied to the President, the Vice  President, sitting governors and their deputies, and not governors-  elect.<br /> <br />He said, “The <span class="mlw873t7wryf" id="mlw873t7wryf_3">EFCC</span> has not dropped the case against the former Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose.<br /> <br />“The trial is still going on; it is continuing at the <span class="mlw873t7wryf" id="mlw873t7wryf_14">Federal</span> High <span class="mlw873t7wryf" id="mlw873t7wryf_12">Court</span>, Ado-Ekiti. In fact further hearing comes up on July 15, 2014.<br /> <br />“As you know, immunity from <span class="mlw873t7wryf" id="mlw873t7wryf_13"></span><br /><div data-cid="2378" data-kw="prosecution" style="border-bottom: 1px solid; color: #f35b00; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: auto; padding-bottom: 1px; text-decoration: underline; width: auto;">prosecution</div>applies only to the President, the Vice President, sitting governors and their deputies.”<br /> <br />Uwujaren added that the case against Fayose, who is expected to take  over as Governor of Ekiti State in October, had made substantial  progress as the commission had called two <span class="mlw873t7wryf" id="mlw873t7wryf_15">witnesses</span> to testify in the case.<br /> Uwujaren also said that the issue of whether the case against the governor-elect would be <span class="mlw873t7wryf" id="mlw873t7wryf_16">withdrawn</span> or not when he takes over as governor was a matter for the court to decide.<br /> <br />“It is the court that would decide whether the case would be  discontinued or not; all arguments will be canvassed in court and it is  the court that would decide,” he said.

Fayose Still Has A Case To Answer —EFCC

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has described media reports that it had dropped corruption case against the governor-elect ...

Stephen Keshi Says Super Eagles Will Beat Argentina

<b>Following super eagles' 1-0 victory against Bosnia-Herzegovina  at the 2014 FIFA World Cup inwhich ended with 1-0 victory on June 21,  placing Nigeria in the scond round, the Super eagles coach, Stephen  Keshi has a message for Nigerians.</b><br /><br /><br /><br /><img alt="" border="0" height="360" itemprop="image" src="http://img.naij.com/151x85c/n/0a/f/keshi_01_world_cup.jpg" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 10px;" vspace="5" width="640" /><br /><span class="c1"><i>Super eagles coach, Stephen Keshi</i></span><br /><div id="stcpDiv"><br />Stephen Keshi who was reported to have agreed on a <b class="c2">2-year deal with South African Soccer Federation (SAFA) to manage the Bafana Bafana national team</b> speaking on the performance of his team on Saturday said: "Always be  patient. Don't write off any team in a tournament until that tournament  is over." <br /><a name="more"></a><br /></div><div id="stcpDiv">Stephin Keshi said: <i>"It was tough against Iran but Nigerians didn't  know how difficult they were until they saw Argentina struggling with  them. We knew what we did wrongly and worked on them before the match  against Bosnia,"</i> Keshi said in a  chat with Vanguard on Saturday. "<i>I'm proud of the boys. They did well. But we all need to do  more. We play Argentina tomorrow and we will give it our all. Argentina  are world class. They are good and they have many good players. We will  rely on our team work. Team work will see us through."</i><br /><i>"The time for preparation was short. We couldn't do all the  things we wanted to do. But we are gradually getting it right and,  hopefully, we will get better in our team work and get positive  results".</i><br /><br />The emphasis on team work probably led to the benching of Victor  Moses whose individual play had become a minus to the team. Moses would  likely learn from the performance against Bosnia and change his game.  Keshi is not ruling any player out but strongly maintains that team  tactics should prevail.<br />Osaze Odewengie played well in the eyes of many against Iran. Keshi  did not dispute that. But he did not quite position himself in a  particular way that could see him latch on rebounds, especially the drop  nodding from Shola Ameobi. Each time the ball dropped, there was nobody  to follow up. And that angered Keshi. But Osaze quickly understood and  made up against Bosnia and Keshi is very happy with him and the entire  team. Osaze's goal earned Nigeria the sweet victory against Bosnia.<br /><br /><i>"Everything is about team work. I think that we will play well  against Argentina. We hope to qualify and move on. I plead with  Nigerians to always be patient. The way they wrote us off after the  match against Iran was disturbing. Let's hope we get it right again on  Wednesday.</i></div><br />Meanwhile super eagles midfielder, Onazi is optimistic ahead of the  final round of Group F fixtures on June 25 and said Eagles would give  their opponent  a though time, adding that the <b class="c2">team isn't scared of Messi</b> saying: <i>"Messi is a normal human being, a football player."</i>

Stephen Keshi Says Super Eagles Will Beat Argentina

Following super eagles' 1-0 victory against Bosnia-Herzegovina at the 2014 FIFA World Cup inwhich ended with 1-0 victory on June 21, p...

Pregnancy Sscandal: Tuface Sues Magazine N100m For Libel

<strong>Award-winning Nigerian singer, 2Face Idibia has filed a N100  million lawsuit against a local soft-sell magazine, Icon Weekly, for  libel.</strong><br /><br /><br /> <img alt="" border="0" data-x-src="http://img.naij.com/n/07/c/tuface_annie_loves.png" data-zoom="1" height="360" hspace="5" src="http://img.naij.com/151x85c/n/07/c/tuface_annie_loves.jpg" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 10px;" vspace="5" width="640" /><br /> <span class="c1">Tuface & Annie Idibia</span><br /> <br />The lawsuit was filed by the Media/Entertainment Law Firm of L &  A- Legal Consultants on behalf of  Tuface, at the Ikeja High Court  asking the court to award their client the sum of N100million being  damages for the libelous publication posted on the magazine's online and  print platforms sometime in February this year.<br /><a name="more"></a><br /> <br />Icon Weekly magazine had published a story claiming that a young  Lagos banker named Teniola, who was supposedly Tuface's account officer  in one of the new generation banks was 3-months pregnant for him.<br /> Tuface had denied the report while his wife, Annie had taken to twitter to defend her husband.<br /> <br />However, it has just been revealed by a source close to the singer  that the story which turned out to be false had at that time affected  Annie, causing a rift between the couple.<br /> <br />Not only did it cause a rift in the marriage, Tuface was said to have lost a very lucrative deal due to the scandal.<br /> <br />Meanwhile, Icon weekly is said to have approached Tuface's team for discussions on a possible out of court settlement.

Pregnancy Sscandal: Tuface Sues Magazine N100m For Libel

Award-winning Nigerian singer, 2Face Idibia has filed a N100 million lawsuit against a local soft-sell magazine, Icon Weekly, for libel. ...

Kayode Fayemi, Despite His Loss, Is The New Brand of Leaders Nigeria Need Now

<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><br /></h3><div class="post-header"></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf5s2ZDGYR0_Jt4XYsvMKUndsQD4-4Xczf9vKLez5wDxDfXbSA5L1Pr0EeTBP10qERNg5MmCqwCQ0xe7K5bVGch7gxsUIfC0WH3Nh5an-wR0ykeQRyswklSQnVOgbv3kcjAQMeanQI6lFn/s1600/FAYOSE+and+FAYEMI+2.jpg" width="400" /> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I never thought our wasted generation would live to see a day in  Nigerian politics when a loser in an election would pick up his phone to  call his nemesis and later issue a very thoughtful concession statement   to an opponent  who has just beaten him flat in an election many  people would normally have expected him to win as the Governor in power.</div><a name="more"></a><br /><br />Kayode Fayemi has just done that in Ado Ekiti and I throw my salute to  him. I see  that as a big plus for Nigeria. I also want to use this  platform to congratulate Ayo Fayose the clear winner in that election  even though I would not have voted for him. He did what he had to do to  win and like I acknowledge in my previous article on him and Kayode  Fayemi, posted on the Internet, he is not a pushover in Ekiti or  Nigerian Politics given his track record as a former Governor in Ekiti  who has now led the opposition to defeat two Governors in Ekiti back to  back. I am talking of Governor Niyi Adebayo and Governor Fayemi.<br /><div><blockquote class="tr_bq">He, Ayo Fayose has got to be doing something right to have done that.   Ayo Fayose, the only politician to  call the bluff of General Olusegun  Obasanjo when he refused to support his third term agenda is not a  political strategist to be taken lightly. I respect him for his courage  and conviction but more so now for his resourcefulness in grass-root  Politics and his command and control structure in Ekiti...</blockquote><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1273158107245326844" name="more"></a><br />We can call him names as much as we want, the man knows his people and  he surely knows how to win with his “Adelabu Penkelemess” streak of  politics and hubris. The elites and the intellectuals in Ekiti are those  who favor Kayode Fayemi  as intelligently explained to me by my God  son, Ilupeju-Ekiti -born  Kayode Daramola of  New York who has an  uncanny insight into Ekiti and Nigerian Politics because he has friends  on both sides of the isle of the political divide,  and he is  razorblade-sharp in his analysis of the political situation in Ekiti and  more so in Nigeria. </div><div></div><div>Another Nigerian observer of consequence I must acknowledge in this  write-up is the Akure-born Olatubosun Adedipe of East Orange, New Jersey  who regularly speaks to me and update me on what is going on in Nigeria  from his own perspective. I pay attention to Nigerian politics because I  really want the country to do well. I have no permanent friend or enemy  in politics as some think I do. You are my friend if you perform and  keep the faith regardless of your party labels.<br /><br />The two gentlemen, Kayode and Olatubosun both agreed that  the Ekiti  intellectuals and  the elites were the people supporting Fayemi  while  the great majority of the grass roots in Ekiti were evidently rooting  for Fayose because they prefer his down-to-earth approach to politics  and his willingness to come down to their level, freely mix with them  and assure them his Government is going to side with them if they return  him to power. </div><div></div><div>Above all, Fayose has pitched his tent with the Jonathan-led Federal  Government who is willing and ready to bank-roll  his campaigns using  the limitless power, resources  and leverage of the Federal Government  which has no qualms at all using the Police and the Military to  intimidate and persecute opposition APC Governors like Governor Amaechi  of River’s State and Governor Oshiomhole of Edo who had wanted to come  give a helping hand to their colleague in Ekiti. Jonathan had their  planes grounded in Akure Airport just because he could.  I remain  opposed to Jonathan using  intimidation and pressure which should have  been reserved or directed to Boko Haram and their backers to destabilize  and oppress Governors who are merely exercising their rights under the  Constitution to help a colleague in some political distress. </div><div></div><div>President Jonathan had no restraint or reservation at all using the  Police, the Military and his Security contingent to intimidate those  Governors and the opposition in Nigeria. I remain opposed to that move  because a virile opposition is a big plus in a Democracy as clearly  shown in most of the developed nations like the UK and America where the  Opposition parties are equally protected by the Law and viewed as  alternate or shadow Government or a Government-in-waiting if the  Government in power fumbles. A situation where one party is allowed to  forever dominate power is not good for Democracy as I have often argued  in all of my write-ups.<br /><br />I commend  Professor Jega and his INEC for doing a good job in Ekiti  which has been praised by both the winner and the loser as free and  fair. The concession statement issued by Dr. Fayemi did  not contradict  that assumption and I did not see in that statement any suggestion that  Dr. Fayemi would be running to the Tribunal to dispute the validity and  accuracy of that election as losers normally do in most Nigerian  elections. I take that as a sign of progress. I have tried to study the  details of the voters registration data put out by INEC before the  election and the tabulation of the results from each of the 16 Local  Governments in Ekiti after the election. The mere fact that the ballots  were counted and recorded by each party’s polling agents before the  final collation of the returns at the INEC Headquarters in Ado- Ekiti  not Abuja, speaks to the validity and accuracy of those returns in my  opinion.<br /><br />Ayo Fayose has recorded a convincing win and he did it without any  substantial help from the Labor Party candidate Bamidele whose role was  to be a spoiler by taking away votes that should have gone to Dr. Fayemi  had he not broken away from the APC to run on the platform of the Labor  Party. Dr. Fayemi’s failure in the election cannot be claimed by Mr.  Bamidele.  If you add the votes received by Dr. Fayemi and Bandele  together, Fayemi  would still have lost to Ayo Fayose by more than  60,000 votes or thereabout. It was therefore a landslide victory for  Fayose any way you slice it.<br /><br />That said,  I like to make a quick comment on why Dr. Fayemi  in spite  of his decency and integrity as Governor had to lose so badly to Fayose  who many have described as a rabble rouser with some justification.  There is some method, however,  to Ayo’s madness if you want to  characterize it that way. The intellectuals and the elites in Ekiti do  not vote as much as the market women, ordinary people, the youths, taxi  drivers and Okada riders and Transport Union operatives and civil  servants across the state. </div><div></div><div>Dr. Fayemi had ran foul of the great majority of the voters and civil  servants by trying to reform the Civil Service too quickly  and by  introducing competitive examinations for teachers and civil servants and  by delaying the appointments of his Cabinet just to save money when he  first took office and by reducing the number of Commissioners and  Chairmen of Boards and Parastatals and by not seeking the favor and  cooperation of the central Government in Abuja which is out to frustrate  his Government and cause him to fail like Obasanjo  did to the Tinubu  and the Fashola Administration in Lagos when he refused to pay them  their entitlements or subventions from Federal Allocation.<br /><br />Fayemi’s decision to turn the Ekiti University into a multi campus  University to save funds and overheads on personnel which was the right  thing to do, by the way, was part of his problems in a bread and butter  politics we all play in Nigeria but more so in Ekiti which used to be  almost half of Ondo State before its creation. </div><div></div><div>Once upon a time Ekiti used to control 4 out of the 9 Local Government  in Ondo State and because Ekiti used to be the intellectual power house  of Ondo State, Ekiti literarily dominated Ondo State Public Service and  the Parastatals. I recall Ekiti holding most of the important positions  in Ondo State while Bandele Otiko, the Akure-born alumnus of Christ  School, Ado-Ekiti was the military Governor. That did not stop the  Ekitis from thrashing or rubbishing Otiko as “Governor Ofifo” meaning  Governor "Do Nothing” because Ondo State was starved of funds by the  then Federal Government with Buhari and Idiagbon as leaders in that  Government.  I was in Government at the time so I knew what exactly  transpired and I was close to Governor Otiko.  Ekiti would desert you in  a heartbeat if they don’t feel  they are getting enough from your  Government. Dr. Fayemi probably knew, that but he was far too principled  and too decent to get down and dirty. The Ekitis like most Nigerians  are not easy to govern is my point.<br /><br />They carried back to Ekiti State some of the traits that make the rest  of Ondo State to resent and distrust them at the time. As some of those  traits began to play out, most of the 16 Local Governments in Ekiti  began to feel  the pressure at a time when the internally-generated  revenues in Ekiti could not sustain the state. The State has to rely on  subventions from the Federal Government which was not willing or open to  help a government controlled by the opposition. Ekiti State became one  of the poorest states in Nigeria that Dr. Fayemi has to manage. His was  an uphill task as Governor. It was the combinations of those factors  that conspired to do him in.<br /><br />Many in Ekiti had the feeling that Ahmed Tinubu the APC leader in Lagos  was macro-managing Dr. Fayemi’s Government  like Tinubu has been doing  to Fashola in Lagos and Aregbesola in Osun for better or for worse. They  believe Tinubu was forcing Fayemi to start awarding contracts to  contractors sent to him by Jagaban Tinubu as the national leader of APC.  That perception did not sit well with most Ekiti voters, and Dr. Fayemi  was in no position to quickly disabuse their minds about that. The  disarray that the Opposition APC currently faced in Nigeria may also  have played a role in the outcome of the Ekiti election. </div><div></div><div>Up till now the APC is yet to settle on who exactly are going to be  their flag bearers in the 2015 elections. The in-fighting currently  going on in the APC and the determination of the PDP and the Federal  Government to fuel that instability and confusion is part of what has  played out in the recently concluded Ekiti election and the Osun  election  may go the way like Ekiti if care is not taken. One would have  thought that the Boko Haram problems faced by the Jonathan  Administration in Abuja should have been a drag or created an adverse  effect on the PDP political fortunes in Nigeria. Nigerians don’t think  like voters in civilized countries do. All they care about is how to  remain in power by all means so they can continue to loot the resources  of the central Government sad to say. You can expect a major  reallignment of political forces in Ekiti starting today with the return  of Fayose.</div><div></div><div>I am able to say this because I am not a card-carrying member of any  party in Nigeria and I was for many years an insider in Government at  the Federal level.  I am an independent observer. I speak the truth to  power regardless of whose horse is gored. The duplicity of the Labor  Party led by Governor Mimiko of Ondo State is another factor in Ekiti  State election. Olusegun Mimiko is only a Labor Party member by name. He  is definitely looking for the most appropriate time to formally declare  for the PDP. He is in a Caucus with the PDP Governors Association and  he is today a Deputy Chairman in that Caucus. He is also actively wooing  the relics of the Afenifere in Ondo State and in much of the Southwest  to toe his line. What more evidence does anybody need? When President  Jonathan went to Ekiti to campaign for Ayo Fayose, Mimiko led a powerful  delegation of his Labor Party to openly pitch his tent with the  President.<br /><br />Olusegun Mimiko is busy making preparations for his life and career  after serving as two-term Governor of Ondo State and only a blind man  will not know where he is going to end up after he leaves office.  He  wants to be relevant in Nigerian Politics for the rest of his life and  cannot afford to be in the Opposition having tasted of the forbidden  fruit for more than a decade in one lucrative position or the other.  That is why his Government has resisted all attempts to have him join  the caucus of the APC Governors  till tomorrow. He is able to do that   because Ondo State is one of the richest states in Nigeria today because  of revenues going to her as an oil-producing state.<br /><br />The relics of Afenifere and the defunct AD in the West are busy making  nocturnal overtures to the Jonathan-led PDP without saying it too loud  because many of their leaders have their eyes fixed on getting some  favors from the Federal Government. The Ekiti  voters are not oblivious  to all these factors and the combination of those factors is what inform  the very poor performance of Dr. Fayemi  in the just concluded election  in Ekitiu. Governor Ayo Fayose in a move hard to imagine in Nigeria has  this morning paid a visit to Dr. Fayemi  to start mending  fences. That  is a good thing for Nigeria and I totally welcome it without abandoning  my position that a virile opposition is a must in a Democracy  we all  must encourage.<br /><br />A one party dictatorship is not good for Nigeria but the opposition must  also show they know what they are doing and they must also demonstrate  to voters the clear differences between them and the ruling party they  want to replace. I don’t see that in the APC if you see what I see.<br /><br />A statement from the US Embassy today congratulating INEC and all the  parties involved in the Ekiti election is the first assurance to me and  to most objective observers in Nigeria that the Ekiti election was not  only free but fair all things considered. I join the Embassy in  congratulating the INEC and both Ayo Fayose and Dr. Fayemi for moving in  the right direction to stabilize Democracy in Nigeria without too much  bitterness. A lot still remains to be done as we go forward, but Nigeria  is on to a good start with the Ekiti election. The outcome of the Ekiti  election should be a major concern to the APC going forward. Need I say  more?<br /><br />I rest my case.<br /><div></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">By Dr. Wumi Akintide</span></b></div></div></div>

Kayode Fayemi, Despite His Loss, Is The New Brand of Leaders Nigeria Need Now

I never thought our wasted generation would live to see a day in Nigerian politics when a loser in an election would pick up his phone to...

REVEALED: Arisekola Knew He Was Going To Die

REVEALED: Arisekola Knew He Was Going To Die

A man who was very close to the late Alhaji Alao Arisekola has shared few details of his last encounter with the popular businessman who i...

Nigeria Football Federation Thank TB Joshua For Support

Nigeria Football Federation Thank TB Joshua For Support

Following Nigeria’s heroic performance against The Dragons of Bosnia early Sunday morning, Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) top brass ha...

Female Custom Officer Buried Alive with Her Daughter: The Man Who Did It Confesses

Female Custom Officer Buried Alive with Her Daughter: The Man Who Did It Confesses

The Lagos State Police Command on Monday paraded a 64-year-old native doctor, Alhaji Olatunji Azeez, who confessed to have killed a reti...

A MUST READ: THE SECRET OF THE NIGER

<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><br /> </h3><div class="post-header"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj9S41O2sRwIn_KF4kByBZP0kRMavEvzZmFcF1qS5BZftcQg615nMZBSgoUi7S7YSRNy8ggHIawk7K8B1CDuCSbBvAIGJtwCR6lyBCkfPkwIuZTg3NlnjwYI3mS401FQ_00tMrWH8PUumi/s1600/Nigeria+1.jpg" width="388" /> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Sule tries to get a peek through those cracks. It must be paradise. His  thoughts wonder off into what life is like in this palace. Royal  servants, big cars, plates full of all you can eat, not just dry parched  Gabza, that yucky corn meal he eats every day, but chicken, juicy  chicken. There must be big beds; you never have to wake up. “Get lost”,  the gate keeper yells, “mutumi banza (useless man).” Sule disappears  behind the tree at the corner, and then darts along back on his way to  school.<br /><div></div><div>He had been warned that one day he would be locked up in the guard room  for coming too close to the fence. They said he was a thief, but all he  ever stole was dreams of how life would be in that place. His dad had  said the owner was some government worker, or minister or something.<br /><a name="more"></a></div><blockquote class="tr_bq">"Why don’t you too become a government worker”, Sule had asked, “so I  ride in those big cars to English school and fly in the air-o-plane?”  “We are richer than them”, his father had replied. “The makaranta that  you go to will make you wealthier than they could ever dream."</blockquote><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1273158107245326844" name="more"></a>Makaranta was the name for Arabic informal schools.  Sule smiled. He had the best father in the world! Last year on his  eleventh birthday, his father had gotten him a bicycle. That was the  best gift ever. He rode the bicycle till the wheels went flat and pumped  and rode and rode and pumped the tires. It was a rickety, used bicycle  that his father had bought from the second-hand store, and the front  tire simply never stayed pumped for long, but that bicycle made Sule’s  world, that is, till the notorious dan-iska boys seized it from him.<br /><div><br />“Hamza, what’s going on?” Hamza is Sule’s best friend in the world. They  share dreams together, dare together and usually get punished together.  Hamza’s dad is a very weird man; he is quiet and very secretive. He  seldom goes out, has strange visitors, never laughs or cracks jokes. But  when it comes to the whip, he is highly expressive. “Wallahi I didn’t  sleep all night yesterday, my dad gave me fifty lashes for coming home  late. And there was no food in the house, he had locked mom up in the  room. I hate that man!” “God will save you”, Sule responded. “We have to  hurry; you don’t want Malam to add more lashes to the ones you got last  night”. Malam is the school teacher. He has a real name, but no one  knows it. Some say he is one hundred years old, but Sule’s dad laughed  when Sule asked if that was true, “Malam is just sun burned”, his dad  had said.<br /><br />The school is about an hour trek from Sule’s house. Sule goes to school  every day for four hours, that’s pretty much all he has been doing since  he was a kid. ‘Makaranta’ as the school is called in Hausa and Arabic  is the only working and reliable facet of the society. Nothing else  works. The government, free English schools have no chairs, and no  books, and almost no teachers. The few teachers don’t care to teach the  few students who come in, but only buy fura-da-nono, a Northern cow milk  beverage, and drink this and gossip all day till the bell rings. Oh,  not a bell, bell, but a rod that hits the old abandoned rim of a tire.  And when you finish school these days they say there is no work, so what  is the use.<br /><br />Sule’s dad used to teach in a government school, but he said he wasn’t  paid. He used to be a very rich man. He had an English university degree  and was a director of a textile mill. He never tired of telling Sule of  those good old days, when he commanded over fifty workers, and they  made the best textiles in the whole of Africa. “I used to drive a  Volkswagen beetle, and that was when your mom first fell in love with  me”. Sule’s mom had died while giving birth to him. He only saw knew her  in his dreams, and she was the softest and warmest, kindest person, and  so very beautiful.<br /><br />“Things were not as you have it today. We were all busy. This city was  the center of trade. We had the textile industry and people used to come  from far and wide to buy our textiles. Those who were not making cloth  were farming. Farming was lucrative then, your cousin, Hamza’s dad was  the best tomato farmer in this town. He had a very large farm and used  to control the price of tomato.” And then his dad’s face always became  expressionless. “And then things started to change quickly. Government  jobs opened, the military took over, from one military to the other, the  government announced measure upon measure, ‘austerity’ measure then  ‘SAP (Structural Adjustment Program)’ measure and then Hamza’s father  was in debt. </div><div></div>He sold his last harvest of tomato and told me he could no longer plant  tomato because of SAP. He was going to get into the cotton business.  Since that year I only see Yakub on Sallah festival. Now there is no  work in this city. We are the lucky ones; you should always thank Allah  and your mother for her prayers.”<br /><br />A little story, a little while, discover the Secret of the Niger. Unedited, from a book in writing.<br />To be continued…

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