BY BOLAJI AFOLABI

Between the last week of August and mid September 2007, the writer was in the United Kingdom; first visit to the Queensland (or is it the Kingsland now, with the glorious passing of the legendary Queen Elizabeth?) for annual vacation. After few days of staying indoors to acclimatize to the weather-change which was occasioned by intermittent sprinkling of showers, my host, Mr. Adisa Ojo, a naturalized Briton came up with an idea as the weekend was knocking. Conscious of my passion for the round-leather game, he suggested we go out to watch any of the English Premier League matches at any of the stadia in and around London.

Being a confirmed, card-carrying, and fee-paying supporter of Arsenal FC, my host naturally had preference for us to watch his London-based club, who by the way were scheduled to play Portsmouth that weekend. As a soccer aficionado of sorts, who have no allegiance to any football club, the writer agreed with the proposal for few reasons. To have first-time experience at the magnificent Emirates stadium which had the imprimatur of iconic Arsene Wenger; opportunity to watch Nigeria’s Kanu Nwankwo, and his other African teammates including John Utaka, Sulley Muntari, Aaron Mokena, and two others; and enjoy the admixture of ecstasy, anxiety, passion, screaming, shouts, and singing usually associated with live matches.

Sunday September 2, 2007, we made our ways to the elegantly-looking, architectural masterpiece, and head-turning stadium. After over 90 minutes of beautiful football that was laced with players theatrics and taunting, Arsenal defeated Portsmouth three goals to one. While Togo-Nigerian born Emmanuel Adebayor, Cesc Fabregas, and Tomas Rosicky scored for the London club, Nigeria’s Kanu Nwankwo got the only goal; with assist from John Utaka for Portsmouth. As the match progressed, it was obvious that Kanu was the darling of Arsenal fans. Every of his touches, twist and turns, on and off the ball moves were enthusiastically applauded. For the visiting Portsmouth supporters, the former African footballer of the year was a genius. He joined the club at 30 years, played over 40 games in a career that ran from 2006 to 2012, and scored the “golden goal” that won the English FA Cup for Portsmouth. The club’s first and only silverware till now.

Game over, we settled for a sit-out at one of the relaxation spots around the popular Trafalgar Square. Within short space of time, the entire areas were filled up with people. Surprisingly, many of the players who barely an hour back were exchanging tackles and tantrums, made their ways to the square arms around each other with back slaps, hearty conversations, and youthful camaraderie. In the process, a young man moved towards us, requesting to join the table. After quick exchange of pleasantries, discovering we all are Nigerians, the trio had exciting, and exhilarating evening. It became more enticing and engaging when our “brother” mentioned the name of the subject of this article.

In the testimony of Daniel Umoh, a Swedish-based project engineer and systems developer, he encountered Mr. Hassan Taiye Ejibunu at the Ministry of Sports Development. On internship, he was one of the young men that Ejibunu always counsel, encourage, and support. The Akwa Ibom-born engineer reiterated that his life-story cannot be complete without the inclusion of Ejibunu. Noticing the writer’s inquisitive body-language, he called one Usman Abdullahi; another beneficiary of Ejibunu’s kind-heartedness. From his New Jersey, USA base, the Jigawa state indigene spoke passionately, and fondling about the impact Ejibunu had in his life while in Nigeria. The Infotech graduate who switched to the medical profession concluded that, “Uncle Ejibunu is a completely de-tribalized person who is always interested in the career progression of youths that comes around him.” Umoh added that, “he is always committed in touching people’s lives regardless of who you are, where you come from, and your status. He is a very good man.”

With such uncommon pedigree, unusual antecedents, and unparalleled commitment to human development, it was not surprising that staff of the Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development decided to organize a befitting send-forth for Mr. Hassan Taiye Ejibunu. He bowed out of national service after years of distinguished, and meritorious career in Nigeria’s Federal Civil Service. That staff members decided to honour him in such an elaborate and expansive manner aptly confirms that he was a man of the people, loved by the majority of workers. True, the owners of the Nuhu Musa Hall in highbrow Asokoro District in Abuja will be surprised with the quality and assemblage of guests that thronged the venue on Monday, December 22, 2024. The classy event was graced by personalities from within and without Nigeria. Not minding the preponderance of activities that crowds the yuletide season, dignitaries came in large numbers from Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Ibadan, Kabba, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, the United Kingdom, United States of America, and Abuja. The beautifully decorated hall was packed full with personalities from different walks of life who passionately identified with a man whose genial carriage, cheerful and cheery disposition, and amiable, accessible personality are easily noticeable at all times.

Instructively, the occasion was attended by the top management, and representatives of every of the other Ministries, Departments, and Agencies that Ejibunu served during his about three decade-long tour of duty. These includes Federal Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry; Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); National Commission for Refugees, Migration, and Internally Displaced Persons; Federal Ministry of Sports; Federal Character Commission; and Federal Ministry of Transport. Agencies which he had contiguous official schedules with; as Director in the Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development were also at the event. These includes the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA); Nigeria Airspace Management Authority (NAMA); Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN); and few others.

In their respective tributes, Ejibunu’s passion for excellence; commitment to integrity; consistency to transparency; resoluteness to the realization of set objectives; and undeniable quest for general well-being of people were variously highlighted. Leading a team of four Directors, Dr. Emmanuel Meribole, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development eulogized Ejibunu’s “hard work, composure, selflessness, and doggedness. He was a very simple, direct, peaceful, and easy going person loved by all staff in the Ministry. No doubt, we are going to miss him.” For the Federal Ministry of Investment, Trade, and Industry where as Director, Weights and Measures he developed strategic framework which is not only operational but positively contributing to national revenue, “with no science background, he turned the department around, and within months it became one of the most strategic and successful departments in the ministry.” Similar views were expressed by agencies under the Aviation and Aerospace Development Ministry who confessed, and commended Ejibunu’s display of professionalism and excellence as their direct supervisor despite not being an aviation person.

Speaking further, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Yusuf, former three-term member, House of Representatives describes Ejibunu as, “a good person through and true. He is at peace with everybody. Ever committed to community development. I recall that during my days as the representative of the good people of Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency, he was readily available to give support, advise, and encouragement at all times. He was one of the few people who regularly calls to know how I’m fairing.” On his part, Deputy Corps Marshal (DCM) C.O Oladele; who is a long-time friend of the celebrant said, “he is an extremely simple, courteous, and humble person. In our years of relationship which started as undergraduates up till now, I have never seen him angry. His love for people and their well-being is unbelievable.” On the sidelines of the epoch making event, Hon. Adedoyin Olamife, a former Deputy Governorship candidate at the last Kogi state Governorship elections, declared that, “my brother and friend is without doubt one of the very few extremely good people I know. He is full of empathy, and committed to friendship. He is selfless, and sympathetic to people. At various times, and in different positions, he has positively touched many lives.”

Hassan Taiye Ejibunu who logged over twenty years in public service, rose to the position of Director, Air Transport Management, Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development. Though not 60 years old, but had to retire in compliance with the Civil Service Rules that one cannot be Director for more than eight years. There were whisperings at the event that he was allegedly denied promotion to the position of Permanent Secretary for some purported primordial and ethnic reasoning. To this, a friend of his declared that, “you know he is a deeply religious person who believes in the will of God for all things. I don’t think he is bothered by these actions. His faith and trust in the fulfillment of God’s purpose for him remains irrevocable.”

Ejibunu, who is fondly called “Perez” by his friends; after the fifth secretary-general of the United Nations (1982 to 1991); Javier Perez de Cuellar, have another moniker that as my egbon, and in strict adherence to Yoruba culture, the writer dare not put on print. The accomplished technocrat, and quintessential administrator was born on August 1, 1965 to the illustrious Ejibunu family in Kabba; headquarters of the old Kabba Province which consists parts of present day Kogi, Kwara, and Benue states, as well as being the political and administrative capital of Kogi West Senatorial District. An alumni of the Ahmadu Bello University, where he graduated in 1988 with degree in International Studies. He has two Masters degrees in International Relations, and Peace and Conflict Resolution from the University of Benin, and an Austrian University. He has professional and graduate cerification from some institutions within and outside the country, as well as Fellowship and Membership of professional bodies including the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria. He is happily married to his heartthrob; Funmi, an accomplished educationist, and blessed with children who are making significant progress in their chosen careers and vocation.

* BOLAJI AFOLABI, a development communications specialist was with the Office of Public Affairs in The Presidency

By Tunde Olusunle

Our ambassadors in the national parliament on Wednesday December 18, 2024, spontaneously broke into a chant, serenading Bola Tinubu Nigeria’s President when he presented the 2025 draft budget to the bicameral body. *On your mandate we shall stand* gained ascendancy ahead of the 2022 presidential primary of the All Progressives Congress, (APC). Today, it is probably at par with Nigeria’s national anthem in the circuit of the ruling political party. Recall the viral video of the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), when he performed to the rhythm on one occasion of his visit to the office of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila a few months ago. The reflex resort of the congressmen to the “mandate” tune on that occasion was in reaction to Tinubu’s joke at the presentation of the budget for 2025. The President had erroneously announced that he was presenting a draft expenditure proposal to the “11th” assembly! He was promptly reminded that we are still in the 10th assembly, in 2024. Tinubu quickly humoured that it could just as well mean that the entire parliament had been reelected for the 11th assembly which begins in 2027.

Tinubu’s budgetary presentation had to be staggered by 24 hours for undisclosed reasons. Reports after the Wednesday December 18 eventual outing, however, suggested that the executive arm of government needed the 24 hours between Tuesday December 17 and the eventual presentation, for very robust, backstage engagements with the legislature. There were feelers to the effect that Tinubu’s budget would be expressly shut down because of his recent propositions on tax reforms which has not gone down well with sections of the country and their representatives. There are purported reports to the effect that while Members of the House of Representatives were advanced one billion naira each to augment the budgets for their “constituency projects,” Senators allegedly received a minimum of over 100 per cent more under the same nebulous heading. Such largesse should of necessity merit some singing.

While our parliamentarians decked in billowing robes and skyscraping headgears were clapping and caterwauling, giggling and guffawing that Wednesday December 18, 2024, deathly disaster struck in Ibadan, capital of Oyo State. The plan by a nongovernmental organisation led by Naomi Silekunola, a former wife of the Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi which proposed to put smiles on the faces of a number of people this yuletide season, had gone awry. Silekunola and her team intended to gift 5000 children below 13 years of age with a cash gift of N5000 each and offer each of them a food pack. There was a stampede at venue of the programme at Islamic High School, Bashorun District, Ibadan. Poor planning which precluded adequate security cordon, the absence of a standby medical team, among others, precipitated the death of 40 children. Many injured people are still hospitalised.

As though an angel of death was on a yuletide prowl, Okija in Anambra State was its next destination. A magnanimous well-to-do, Ernest Obiejesi, under the auspices of his *Obi Jackson Foundation,* availed the community of a rice consignment to be shared amongst the womenfolk in the morning of Saturday December 21, 2024, for the commemoration of Christmas. The raw ration came in 10 kilogramme bags of rice, out of which many people received just handfuls in bowls and cups. In the ensuing melee, 36 lives were lost, bodies littering the scene. Many limbs were bruised and broken, they are being patched up in various hospitals.

Despite popular assumptions that the streets of Abuja are paved with gold, the Okija tragedy was replicated, real-time, right at the very heart of Maitama, abode of the *nouveau riche.* Still in the spirit of the season, the Holy Trinity Catholic Church arranged to distribute food items to the less privileged as Christmas knocks on doors. The Abuja Command of the Nigeria Police confirms that 13 people including four children died from the surging and trampling at the scene. Over a thousand people have been evacuated from the church, many of the wounded receiving medical attention at the proximal Maitama Hospital, just metres away from the church. Hunger for sure is a deconstructor of geography. Within four days in Nigeria this harmattan season, over 89 lives have lost while foraging for what to eat.

Instructively, a day before the Ibadan tragedy, loyalists and former aides of former President Muhammadu Buhari, flew to his hometown in Daura, to accord him an 82nd birthday surprise. Former Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF), in Buhari’s regime, Mustapha Boss; Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, all visited a man largely credited with plunging Nigeria into its seemingly irrecoverable abyss. Femi Adesina, Buhari’s media minder also sang his boss’ praises on the occasion. He described him as *ore mekunu,* a friend of the poor, an ascription I found totally out of sync with the realities of his boss’s stewardship. Let’s hope Adesina is seeing on the streets, the hordes of Nigerians, instalmentally transmogrified into pitiable sub- *mekunus* by Buhari’s eight-year dysfunctional leadership. About 100 Nigerians perished in four day not because of a natural disaster, nor at the theatres of insurgency and military curtailment. They died looking for just that measure of rice to placate their growling stomachs. They died just hours and days after Buhari’s beatification by beneficiaries of his prodigal rulership.

Nigeria has been plunged into the worst economic situation in a whole generation, since the advent of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) at the centre. Poverty has never been as grim and piercing as we’ve witnessed beginning from Buhari’s coming in 2015. Poverty has been ruthlessly weaponised, the poor ready to dance to the drum of a currency note, even a scoop of peanuts. The indicators have determinedly and consistently pointed southwards these past decade. Inflation is spiralling towards the 35 per cent mark, the unaffordability of basic food items driving *mekunus* to assured Golgotha in cross-country scrounging, scrambles and stampedes. The same way Nigerians hustle to scoop petroleum products when a tanker falls to the ground, is the same way they throw decorum through perimeters when they are being insulted with sachets of pasta in the name of “palliatives” and “stomach infrastructure.”

The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, (NBS), is allegedly being bullied by the state to recant on its former announcement that *N2.3 Trillion* was paid out as ransom to bandits, criminals and kidnappers in the first 10 months of this year. The NBS which has belatedly announced that its systems were hacked, is in good company with the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC). INEC’s servers and terrestrial equipment are perennially compromised when election figures tend towards victory for the opposition. The President recently hailed the peaceful and transparent conduct of the presidential election in Ghana, recommending it as a model for Nigeria. Sadly, it should be the other way round. Other countries should take inspiration from the way we conduct our affairs in Nigeria.

Nigeria prides itself as the giant of Africa. Many African countries look up to Nigeria for guidance, for leadership. Our exploits in the liberation of countries like South Africa from apartheid, and the restoration of peace and democracy to neighbouring Gambia, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, are well documented. We recently offset our outstanding dues to the Economic Community of West African States, (ECOWAS), totalling over N150Billion. We do well at bragging and flexing our muscles, but fail where it matters the most. An essential characteristic of Ghanaian elections over the years, is the fact that the ruling party can be displaced by the opposition today. This allows the party so ousted to go re-strategise for the future. What do we do in Nigeria where election results are predetermined, where the electoral process is wholly corrupted, where true winners are intentionally dispossessed of their mandates and encouraged to seek redress in the judiciary? Didn’t a senior government official say in relation to Ghana’s exemplary election that a sitting government cannot be unseated in Nigeria? The stories of the backstage electoral thieveries anchored by INEC over the years will be told someday.

President Tinubu cancelled his official engagements for Saturday December 21, 2024, in honour of victims of the Ibadan, Okija and Abuja tragedies. Nigeria’s leadership must transcend the culinary indulgence and the merry-making occasioned by the yuletide to undertake very imperative introspection. There must be less dangerous, less dehumanising and less deathly avenues for lifting up the poor and indigent in our ranks. The President is celebrated as some economic whiz kid. Enough of the demeaning, insulting and dubious handouts always purportedly passed on to the less-endowed by ways of very opaque “cash transfers” and the “lorry loads of palliatives.” Can someone please show me a register of transfers to my constituents back home in my community? That scheme is wholly and totally a scam. Nigeria is not Somalia or Chad and similar countries ravaged by war and hunger, where the United Nations, (UN) and the Red Cross, drop dry rations from hovering helicopters into the hands of starving populations. Nigerians deserve a much, much better deal away from the most despairing *status quo.* Nigeria is too endowed to wilfully preside over the sustained pauperisation of its people.

*Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja*

By Tunde Olusunle

Call him a double-barrelled personality and you will not be wrong. He is both an accomplished technocrat and a distinguished bureaucrat to wit. How else would one describe a professional architect of four full decades, who has also spent his entire working life in the public service? He rose to the very top of the leadership of the national umbrella body of his primary profession, and his occupation, respectively. He was national President of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, (NIA). He equally coursed all the way in the civil service to become a Permanent Secretary and a long-serving one. These attainments were bagged strictly on merit. His enterprise has not gone unnoticed as he has been deservedly decorated by the highest honours of his professional calling where he is a Fellow. He has also received national garlands in recognition of his good work, notably that of the *Officer of the Order of the Niger,* (OON). He retired upon grossing 35 memorable years in service, back in 2021. He was barely catching his breath when duty beckoned for him to return to avail the nation his variegated experiences in yet another capacity. This has been the story of his life.

Several decades in the ovens and furnaces of the public service have invested him with the archetypal reticence of a prototype bureaucrat. They are not given to much talk, the essential credo of his lifelong profession requiring public officers like him being “to be seen and not to be heard.” He is exceptionally, comprehensively grounded as a public servant who traversed nearly a dozen ministries, departments and agencies, (MDAs), in a most eventful and insightful career. What can be more all-encompassing and enriching with regards to cognate working experience than when an individual straddles the ministries of: Works and Housing; Defence; Water Resources; Agriculture; Power; Communications and Education, at the highest levels?

With the bifurcation of the erstwhile Ministry of Works and Housing, and the excavation of a “Ministry of Livestock” out of the extant Ministry of Agriculture, he can fittingly be credited with many more service addresses. And all of these preclude the lengthy list of national and international ad hoc responsibilities which garnish his cumulative experiential scope. He was in the earliest generation of civil servants who, with the return of democracy in 1999, was groomed in “Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence.” This derived from the determination of the new regime to introduce more transparency in public procurement processes. He “evangelised” this credo in all his official bus stops.

It is Sonny Togo Echono’s birthday Monday December 16, 2024. When he’s addressed by the combination of the initials from his first two names, *ST,* he knows you come from years and decades back with him. It is supposedly a special day in the eyes of his family, colleagues, subordinates and friends. Customised greeting cards arrogate a section of his office at the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, (TETFUND) headquarters in Abuja, to themselves. For the Executive Secretary of the organisation, however, the day is a regular working day like every other. And there was plenty of work to be done. He prefers to operate from the conference table in a corner of his office which enables him ease of access to files and documents placed before him. He’s also able, with despatch, to attend to staff who desire his official guidance, as he looks up from papers placed before him from time to time. There’s no time for a meal as yet but he tosses a few nuts in his mouth from time to time.

TETFUND was established in 1993, and was initially christened the *Education Trust Fund, (ETF).* It is funded majorly from a two per cent tax on the assessable profits of companies registered in Nigeria. It was at inception, targeted to arrest the rot and degeneration in educational infrastructure, arising from long periods of neglect and miserly resource allocation. It was rechristened to its present nomenclature during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. TETFUND administers, appropriates and oversees resources so aggregated for the rehabilitation, restoration and consolidation of tertiary education in the country. It avails capital for educational facilities and infrastructure, including essential physical infrastructure for instruction and learning. TETFUND also supports research and development as well as the training and advancement of academics, among other segments of its responsibilities.

In a little over two years at the helm, Echono has striven to institute a new work ethic in TETFUND to ensure that it achieves its foundation mandate, especially against the backdrop of challenging economic headwinds. He has introduced sweeping reforms which has upset the preexisting apple cart in several ways. Echono has been very fastidious on issues of due process and effective service delivery. The system he inherited was fraught with entrenched power blocs which determined the running of the organisation to the detriment of its core vision. Echono has been uncompromising in his insistence that the institution must be run strictly according to the books. This is one resolve which was bound to unsettle the “indigenes and landlords” within, and their external allies, who hitherto, construed the organisation as a potential “automated teller machine,” (ATM).

Echono clarifies: “There were cartels in charge of TETFUND projects. They collaborated with all manner of political leaders to come to the organisation to collect ”special intervention projects,” as it is referred to. “There were no defined modalities in place which enhanced operational opacity.” Speaking further, Echono notes: “When I was asked to come here, I was given a very clear mandate to clean up this place and I’m doing just that. The system is the better for it because we have substantially minimised waste and our stakeholders acknowledge this much.” A confident Echono said he had indeed invited the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission, (ICPC), to check through the operations of the organisation: “I invited the ICPC to come and inspect our systems. They’ve visited us twice and are satisfied with how we are straightening up the system.”

Echono is aware that he has stepped on toes while trying to do the right thing. He insists there is no backing down on his mission. His words: “I’ve made enemies on this job. But we have a duty as people privileged to serve, to help in salvaging our country.” Discreet findings indeed reveal that there are internal mumblers and external discontents on his case. There are those who supposedly feel entitled to a perpetuation of their term in office. There are also as those who fancy being gifted the leadership of the organisation as political gratification. Some of them reportedly, had begun to make reassuring commitments to friends and associates, thereby preempting their consideration for the job and the express approval of the President. There are also suggestions about internal saboteurs who are in the habit of trading in classified information concerning the organisation. Some of them are indeed said to be politically exposed persons, fantasising about deploying the organisation for the advancement of their vaunting political aspirations.

While Echono is contending with this hydra, a certain Emeka Marcel Nweke has created a Facebook page with Echono’s name to defraud members of the public. Benneth Igwe, the Assistant Inspector General of Police, (AIG) in-charge of Zone 7 Police Command Headquarters on Tuesday December 17, 2024, disclosed this to newsmen. Echono it was who wrote a petition to the police about “criminal conspiracy, impersonation, fraud, false representation, cyberstalking, obtaining money by false pretence and threat to life,” upon which the police acted. Nweke was reportedly tracked to Awada, Anambra State and was found to have fleeced unsuspecting members of the public of over N10 million in the month of August 2024, alone. Such are the issues he’s multitasking to address.

Echono’s enterprise thus far, has accorded renewed respect and visibility to TETFUND. More and more high profile institutions and individuals, home-based and from the diaspora, regularly engage with the organisation in recent times to discuss partnerships. These include even the military establishment which is in the business of revolving tune-ups for its human capacity, consistent with global dynamics. The multidimensional Echono is equally very busy on lecture circuits these days, regularly called upon to chair, speak or to deliver papers at various events. His trophy-chest brims with glittering medals, gleaming plaques, glossy trophies and beaming mementos, awarded to him by several groups and associations, through the years. These acknowledgements are for inimitable altruism, selfless leadership and exemplary corporate governance, despite the odds.

*Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), is an Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Abuja*