Nigeria News
Birthday Notes To A Lost Nirvana
By Femi Osofisan
I know Kole Omotoso. Wrong. I used to know Kole Omotoso, the Nigerian writer. Some thirty years ago, when we were both at the dawn of our literary career, he was my friend. This week, on the 21st April precisely, he will attain the ripe age of 70; it is worth a celebration.
Many of the present generation will not know him. He has not been much around in recent years, nor featured in current debates. Kole left Nigeria in 1990, virtually in a state of desperation. His latest novel then, Just Before Dawn, had been more successful than his earlier works, but it was a mingled success, mired in controversy. Reactions generally were mixed, but in the quarters that mattered, Kole felt that the response was not only hostile, but increasingly menacing, to the point that he believed that, out of prudence, he should quickly get out, if only for a brief while.
There were other pressures of course at the time, mainly to do with the sad and foreboding plunge the country was taking already towards its current state of anarchy. But the threat of suppression or physical harm was the most dire. So Kole quit his job abruptly, took his family, and left. Abroad, he floated for a while, adrift like others, until he finally found anchor in the South African labour market, and settled there. He has been there since.
But misfortune sometimes has its gains. In that foreign country, fame came of itself to find him. In an extraordinary manner, and within a short time, Kole found incredible renown. Today, in South Africa, everyone will tell you that, next to Nelson Mandela, the most popular face is, unarguably, that of the Nigerian Kole Omotoso.
On huge billboards right from the gleaming airport to the city slums; and numberless times on the TV, Kole’s face will be there, with his close-cropped hair, his thin, pepper-and-salt beard, and his big eyes, soliciting you to become a client of one of the country’s mobile phone companies.
Most people probably do not know his real name; but ‘Yebogo’, his trade call, is known in every household. And it has become the name by which the whole population celebrates him.
It is a modern fairy tale. Forced out of his own country, out of the familiar ambience of his birthplace, here he was abruptly on the lap of incommensurable success. It was like King Oedipus, at the opposite end of his predicted destiny.
Except that, for some of us, it was not the right kind of honour he deserved. Kole deserves acclaim for many things–his unique creative talents, his fertile imagination and literary skill, his social and political vision, his commitment to the ideal of literature as a plausible weapon for communal restoration. But not, surely, for a cameo role in a phone commercial? Fate had obviously been both kind and cruel; in its munificence was a touch of mischief.
Indeed, fame in those days was not our goal at all, strange though it may sound now to say so. In our late twenties and early thirties, the only passion that burned in our hearts was that of changing the world, our world. And the most frequent word on our lips was ‘Revolution’.
Although we ourselves did not approve of sanguineous upheavals, our heroes were those who had inspired or led bloody uprisings–names like Lenin, Marx, Castro, Cabral, Fanon, and so on–men who, under the impulse of idealist visions, had burned their names onto the pages of history because of the urge to make the world better for the under-privileged. We yearned to be their reincarnations.
We longed to build a new society, liberated from the scourge of poverty and under-development. We wanted to obliterate retrograde superstitions, destabilise ancient but oppressive traditions, subvert obsolete hierarchies. And in our hurry to do these, time was an enemy, an obstacle. Twenty-four hours were just not enough for all that needed to be accomplished in a single day. Like Césaire’s King Christophe, we wanted our leaders to squeeze into a week, into an hour, the work that others had done in a century!
Returning in the 1970s to the country with our Ph.Ds, we forged friendships and alliances on this revolutionary vision alone; and avidly sought to mobilise kindred minds. We began to write poems, and plays, stories and essays and newspaper articles, with the sole aim of provoking a violent change in the consciousness of our people–and in particular of our ruling elite–such that they would be shaken to the pressing need to transform our society, create social justice, build modern institutions and infrastructure, and so on.
With time, we became a conspicuous presence in the Ibadan-Ife axis. In order to communicate fully, and be equally accessible to the educated elite as well as the common folk, we renounced the elevated jargon of our training as professional academics, and adopted ‘quasi-guerrilla’ tactics, in the form of performance poetry, ‘oral’ prose, popular travelling theatre, samizdat publishing, and so on. We established various organs such as the Positive Review, the Opon Ifa Chapbooks, the Akwei Circle, the APMON (Anti-Poverty Movement), the Kakaun Sela Kompany, and so on.
But among us, Kole’s writing was the most unique. His stories were the most startling in innovative strategies, and the most brilliant in the conception of fresh and astounding plots. Kole has always had this uncanny ability to design original narrative sequences and to fabricate totally novel techniques and story lines.
With the use of short, swift chapters, of simple diction and a handy vocabulary, Kole thought up the most arresting scenarios, again and again inventing, and effortlessly too, some truly ingenious approach to the art of story-telling.
He was, potentially then, the most appealing of all of us. And I say, ‘potentially’, advisedly. Because in this business, the successful weaving of plot, however deft or dazzling, is just never enough. But on this point, we quarrelled endlessly.
Kole’s problem, we thought, was his legendary impatience, his innate and incurable restlessness. He seemed born with an absolute inability to stay still for any length of time, and he brought the same restiveness to his creativity. Now, a work of art, like wine, requires time to mature. You need patience to complete the careful chiselling out, the polishing that would add refinement, the meticulous distillation that leads to mellowness.
But Kole had no such gift of serenity. His mind bubbling with a thousand turbulent ideas, all in a simultaneous rush to express themselves, he would abandon his story in the raw, in its crude and unpolished state of parturition, and hurry on to the next script. And inevitably this reduced the value of the works.
But examine his works closely, and you would see at once how much he was always in advance of the rest of us. In The (Golden) Cage, his first major play, he was the first on our stage to use symbolic ciphers for actual characterisation, much like in, say, Ionesco. His novel, Fella’s Choice, was the first to exploit the genre of espionage and crime fiction for a serious didactic intent. And Just Before Dawn was the first attempt to narrate the biography of our country in the disguised form of fiction, thus inaugurating here the literary category now known as ‘faction’. And so on.
But it was in the realm of laughter perhaps that the difference from the rest of us was most conspicuous. Admirably in Kole’s writing, his humour was never deliberately acidic, never designed to inflict a lasting hurt. No: his laughter was always meant to reconcile rather than annihilate, to admonish and not to humiliate; its subversive edge left a room for forgiveness and compromise. This was more than we others could ever concede, in our gushing, romantic élan.
Those were exhilarating days, no doubt. But it was obvious that the moment was just around the corner for the fissuring of the group. Especially also because, as Biodun Jeyifo pointed out not long ago, we were just as unsparing of one another in our disagreements as with our ideological opponents. The record of these fierce confrontations, interestingly, is there in Kole’s To Borrow A Wandering Leaf.
That moment of fracture came much earlier than we anticipated. Almost overnight, everything fell apart; and the world re-arranged itself around us. As the Cold War ended, and the Berlin wall went down, the entire socialist movement collapsed, even as the Soviet Union disintegrated. The era of Thatcherism and ‘market forces’ had begun.
In Nigeria, Obasanjo ordered a merciless assault on the leftists on campus, sweeping away iconic figures like Ola Oni and Bade Onimode. SAP soon followed, and the rash of ASUU strikes began. So did the mass exodus of intellectuals as the country plunged deeper and deeper into misery and squalor.
The vibrant Ibadan-Ife community collapsed: Soyinka, BJ, Folabo, Segun Osoba and several others caught the exile virus, with Kole ironically playing host to some of his erstwhile colleagues.
For it had become obvious not long after you left, Kole, that our dreams were not going to be fulfilled. And now I cannot but wonder how you must feel, as you look around on your return?
The younger ones you will meet are not in the least like we used to be. The serious dearth of employment, the horror of insecurity everywhere, the unprecedented brigandage in public offices, the festering corruption in the judiciary, the brazen cupidity of the rulers, all these and more have made our children and siblings more cynical, more callous, and completely self-centred. Nigeria is no longer the relatively compassionate society that we knew: the dreams of our youth float in the wind now like shredded rags.
True enough, you will see some ongoing rejuvenation efforts, especially in some of the southern states. You will see streets being cleaned and widened; new roads with glittering bridges; new markets; new classrooms; new universities.
But sadly however, just as rapidly as the new streets are built, so do new beggars clutter the pavements. The displaced vendors and hawkers only go to swell the ranks of the unemployed. Behind the giant billboards celebrating the ‘achieving’ governor grow new populations of the jobless. An ominous anger simmers unseen in almost every neighbourhood. Crime and violence have risen beyond control.
But still, as they say, home is home. And home is where the heart should be. Now that you have decided to come back to celebrate your birthday, I can only say—Welcome back, brother. Hope may be dim at the moment, but we must continue to wear it like a jewel. For it never dies.
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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.
Source: PM News
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Nigeria News
Kano Transfers Over 1,000 Almajiris To Different States Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic
The Kano State Government on Saturday said it has transferred 1,098 ‘almajiris’ to different states of the country.
The commissioner for local government, Murtala Garo, disclosed this while presenting a report before the state’s task force on COVID-19 at the government house, Kano.
Almajiris are children who are supposed to be learning Islamic studies while living with their Islamic teachers. Majority of them, however, end up begging on the streets of Northern Nigeria. They constitute a large number of Nigeria’s over 10 million out-of-school children.
Mr Garo said the Kano government transported 419 almajiris to Katsina, 524 to Jigawa and 155 to Kaduna. He said all of them tested negative for coronavirus before leaving the Kano State.
Despite the coronavirus test done in Kano for the almajiris, the Jigawa government earlier said it would quarantine for two weeks all the almajiris that recently arrived from Kano.
Mr Garo said another 100 almajiris scheduled to be taken to Bauchi State also tested negative to COVID-19.
In a remark, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the COVID-19 situation in Kano was getting worse. He appealed for a collaborative effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.
Mr Ganduje, who commended residents for complying with the lockdown imposed in the state, said the decision was taken to halt the spread of the virus.
Kano State, as of Saturday night, has 77 coronavirus cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
The decision to transfer the Kano almajiris is part of the agreement reached between Northern governors that almajiris in each state be transferred to their states of origin.
However, even before the latest agreement by the governors, the Kano government had been transferring almajiris to other states and neighbouring countries after it banned street begging in the state, most populous in Northern Nigeria.
Despite the transfers, however, no concrete step has been taken to ensure such children do not return to Kano streets as there is freedom of movement across Nigeria although interstate travel was recently banned to check the spread of the coronavirus.
Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria
Nigeria News
COVID-19: ‘Bakassi Boys’ Foil Attempt To Smuggle 24 Women Into Abia In Container
By Ugochukwu Alaribe
Operatives of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’ have arrested 24 market women hidden in a container truck, at Ekwereazu Ngwa, the boundary community between Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The market women, said to be from Akwa Ibom State, were on their way to Aba, when they were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the lockdown order by the state government.
Driver of the truck, Moses Asuquo, claimed he was going to Aba to purchase stock fish, but decided to assist the market women, because they were stranded.
A vigilante source told Sunday Vanguard that the vehicle was impounded while the market women were sent back to Akwa Ibom State.
Commissioner for Home Land Security, Prince Dan Okoli, who confirmed the incident, said that smuggling of people into the state poses great threat to the state government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID- 19.
Sourced From: Vanguard News
Nigeria News
Woman Kills Her Maid Over Salary Request
Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Yaba of the Lagos State police command have arrested one Mrs Nene Steve for allegedly killing her maid, Joy Adole
The maid was allegedly beaten to death by Nene for requesting for her salary at their residence located at 18, Ogundola Street, Bariga area in Lagos.
Narrating the incident, Philips Ejeh, an elder brother to the deceased said that he was sad when they informed him that his sister was beaten to death.
He explained that the deceased was an indigene of Benue State brought to Lagos through an agent and started working with her as a maid in January 2020.
‘’She reported that her boss refused to pay her and anytime she asked for her salary she will start beating her.
She was making an attempt to leave the place but due to the total lockdown she remained there until Sunday when her boss said she caught her stealing noodles and this led to her serious beating and death,’’ Ejeh said.
He called on Lagos State Government and well- meaning people in the country to help them in getting justice for the victim.
The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, stated that the woman and her husband came to Bariga Police Station to a report that their house girl had committed suicide.
Detectives were said to have visited the house and suspected foul play with the position of the rope and bruises all over the body which confirmed that the girl had been tortured to death and the boss decided to hang up the girl to make it look like suicide.
He said: “The police moved on with their investigation and found a lot of sign of violence on her body that she has been tortured before a rope was put on her neck.’’
He added that the police removed the corpse and deposited it in the mortuary for autopsy to further ascertain the cause of the death.
Elkana said the matter has been transferred from Bariga police station to Panti for further investigation while the couple have been arrested and will be charged to court.
Tribune
Boko Haram Attacks: Buhari Summons Urgent Meeting Of Service Chiefs
Ostensibly alarmed by the latest killings of dozens of soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an urgent meeting of Service Chiefs to find ways to stop the trend.
He has also dispatched the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, to the neighbouring Republic of Chad for an urgent meeting with President Idris Deby and his defence counterpart.
Knowledgeable sources said in Abuja on Friday that the president is worried by on the deterioration of security situation on the Nigeria – Chad Border that has led to the recently increased Boko Haram terrorism in the area.
The sources which did not want to be named in Abuja said: “Nigeria has a Chad problem in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to secure the Lake Chad basin areas and repeal the Boko Haram terrorist attacks against all the countries neighbouring the Lake.”
The sources noted that Chad is believed to be having their own internal security challenges and this has reportedly led to their pulling away their own troops manning their own border around Lake Chad, saying: “That lacuna is being exploited by the Boko Haram terrorists, who go in and out of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to launch terrorist acts. This is a clear illustration of the fact that terrorism is beyond national borders.”
When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the Defence Minister is going to Chad but said he is unaware of the purpose.
Meanwhile, the military authorities are said to be in the process of identifying the families of the latest victims with a view to making contact with them.
Credible sources revealed that it is the reason the president is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter.
“The President has called an urgent meeting with the Service Chiefs, as well as the fact that families of the latest victims of the Boko Haram are being identified and contacts made before a government pronouncement on the tragic attacks. This, it is understood, is the reason for the silence of the government over the incident,” the source said.
Sourced From: Tribune