By Tunde Olusunle

Since Nigeria’s last military ruler, Abdulsalami Abubakar handed over the reins of power to a democratically elected government on May 29, 1999, his visage has undergone very remarkable transmutation. Abubakar, a four-star General, handed over to a more senior colleague, Olusegun Obasanjo, who previously led Nigeria as military Head of State, between February 1976 and October 1979. Abubakar, hitherto known for his clean-shaved chin characteristic of the martial vocation, has since worn a luxuriant grey beard. He had a long and successful career in the military which spanned 36 years. The first three years of his military stewardship were spent in the Nigerian Airforce. This was before he switched over to the Nigerian Army in 1966. Every morning in the course of his remarkable career, he stood before the mirror in his bathroom to give himself that smooth, clean face. Rare exemptions from this norm in the armed forces were small numbers, more specifically from the Nigerian Navy. Perhaps because they regularly have to be on the waters and seas, they had something of an exemption from the age old tradition of clean chins in the military trade.

Onetime military governor of the old Niger State who would subsequently become Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Murtala Nyako, was the first military officer I noticed spotting a beard. Subsequently, Emmanuel Olu Omotehinwa, a Rear Admiral, (of blessed memory); Jubril Ayinla, a Vice Admiral, and Amadi Ikwechegh, a Commodore, were other officers whose profiles were defined by their well-kept beards. It would seem Abdulsalami Abubakar was in a great hurry to transmute into a new brand, in retirement. He really coveted a change of looks. Barely had he quit the political stage therefore, than he emerged with his now characteristic brand new grey look. In nearly 26 years now, Abubakar has settled into farming, which seems to be the pastime of many former military leaders. Obasanjo blazed the trail with his famous *Otta Farms,* back in the early 1980s. Nyako earned the alias *Baba Mai Mangoro,* (father and farmer of mango on an industrial scale), on account of his humongous investment in agriculture back home in Adamawa State.

Africa is one continent where the allure of political power has culminated in the transmutation of many leaders into sit-tight despots. Abdulsalami Abubakar won global plaudits for pursuing and delivering transition to democracy within a relatively short period of 11 months. He had promised the world at the United Nations General Assembly, (UNGA) in September 1998, that he was a man of his words. He decidedly therefore, differed from the rhetoric of one of his predecessors who popularised the duplicitous refrain: *This administration will not stay a day longer in office than necessary.* Abubakar delivered to global adulation, with hopes that Nigeria with its enormous human and natural capital, could provide the desired leadership to unlock the potentials of Africa. Nigeria previously exhibited aspects of its capacity and capability when it almost singlehandedly funded and led a 10-nation multinational military force between 1990 and 1999, to restore peace and democracy in Liberia and Sierra Leone. It was the first ever such Africa-initiated and driven military coalition, which was largely successful.

Abdulsalami Abubakar thereafter, became the toast of the world. He has chaired the Commonwealth Observer Group for Zimbabwe’s parliamentary election; served as Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General to the Republic of Congo, and led the Carter Centre delegation for the monitoring of the Zambian national elections. Abubakar has functioned as President of the African Strategic and Peace Research Group; as Economic Community of West African States, (ECOWAS); Facilitator/Mediator for the Liberian Peace Talks, and Special Envoy of the Chairman of the African Union, (AU) to Chad and Sudan. He has been the Commonwealth Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Gambia; Member of the AU High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan, (AUHIP), and is presently working for the AU on negotiations in Sudan.

In August 2023, Abubakar, now a renowned statesman, led the ECOWAS delegation put in place by Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu, to intervene in the political crisis in neighbouring Niger Republic. Within weeks of his inauguration as Nigerian President, Tinubu was entrusted with the leadership of the regional body and the Nigerien crisis was the first test of his problem-solving capability. The Abdulsalami Abubakar team engaged with Nigerien putschists, who toppled the democratic government hitherto led by President Mohammed Bazoum, in Niger Republic, in consonance with its mandate at the time. Accompanied by the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, himself a retired Brigadier-General, Abubakar’s group held bouts and bouts of meetings in Niamey, with the coup leader and former head of the presidential guards, Abdourahamane Tchiani, to no avail. Such has been the ever growing international stature of Abdulsalami Abubakar.

Back home, Abdulsalami Abubakar continues to avail Nigeria his time and aggregate experience in various ways. He chairs the National Peace Committee, (NPC), which is principally committed to the peaceful conduct of elections. The NPC routinely brings together political gladiators to a common table, admonishing them to commit to eschewing rancour and violence, during the electoral process. He is the Chancellor and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of *PAMO University of Medical Sciences,* located in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. He has continued to receive honours and accolades from various agencies and institutions. On October 15, 2016 for instance, the Abeokuta-based *Crescent University,* honoured him with a doctorate in Public Administration. Such is the manner of ascendancy Abdulsalami Abubakar’s stock has continued to elicit.

Back in October 2021, I had written about the tragic inferno which consumed the *Ebeano Mall,* a one-stop shop for residents of the districts abutting its location in Abuja. It was widely adopted as the indigenous variant of *Shoprite,* in districts contiguous with its location. The wholesale destruction was ascribed to the mischief of a little girl shopper who reportedly lit a match stick and threw it in a section of the huge store, where explosive products were kept. This culminated in a huge fire and bomb-like blasts. This subsequently brought *Ebeano Supermarket* down and has remained bothersome to me, given the magnitude of this private investment. I was listening to the radio in my car one of those days as I drove around trying to clear a mental block. I heard that that same edifice which was razed to rubble during that unfortunate incident, had indeed reinvented itself like the Sphinx! Out of curiosity, I decided to course through the Apo/Gudu/Gaduwa/Lokogoma conjoined districts in Abuja, so I could see with my own eyes the magical resurrection of the supermarket.

As I drove, my eyes caught this huge billboard on the road linking Gudu market with the *Ebeano* end of the road. It is a single lane which I was told was built by the proprietor of *Ebeano Supermarket,* in exercise of corporate social responsibility. Uncovered concrete drainages, run on both sides of the road. Sand silts in the drains were being evacuated as I moved and patchwork on failed sections of the road by direct labour was in progress. The billboard I saw announced that the shop was indeed back. The gridlock at the Lokogoma end of the road meant commuters could only snail along. I looked at the same signboard again and observed that the road we were plying, is named *Abdulsalami Abubakar Road* after all! I read the board a second time and was reminded that it is indeed the geographical memorabilia assigned to the name of the former Head of State.

As you drive around Nigeria’s capital Abuja, names of prominent Nigerians, Africans and global figures reverberate from signages across the city. They rejig your sense of history and geography as they beam from street and road markers. The Ahmadu Bellos, Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsis, Yakubu Gowons, Obafemi Awolowos, Murtala Mohammeds, Olusegun Obasanjos, TY Danjumas, Shehu Shagaris, Alex Ekwuemes, Muhammadu Buharis, Ibrahim Babangidas, Ebitu Ukiwes, Sani Abachas, Atiku Abubakars, Umaru Yar’Aduas, Goodluck Jonathans, Bola Tinubus, Oladipo Diyas, Mike Akhigbes, breathe from major roads and monuments. The Nelson Mandelas, Sam Nujomas, Robert Mugabes, Jimmy Carters, Bill Clintons, Margaret Thatchers, Andrew Youngs, Jesse Jacksons and similar global figures are immortalised by the affixing of their names to reputable landmarks.

Abdulsalami Abubakar was one of the dignitaries who attended the public launch of Babangida’s memoir, *A Journey in Service* last February. Babangida used the opportunity to clarify his role in the contentious annulment of the *June 12, 1993 presidential election* won by Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, under his regime. This has continued to generate robust conversations, especially against the backdrop that Babangida put the blame squarely at the doorstep of Sani Abacha, his Chief of Defence Staff and Minister of Defence who is not with us to state his side of the saga. Abacha torpedoed the *Interim National Government, (ING),* which Babangida hurriedly put together as he scurried off in retirement to his home state, Niger. General Abdulsalami Abubakar turns 83 on *Friday June 13, 2025.* For his uncommon integrity in fulfilling his promise to berth democracy timeously in Nigeria, for his continuing service and commitment to Nigeria and the world at large, a road named after him in Abuja, the capital city of his country deserves a planned face-lift.

With the approach of *Abdulsalami Abubakar’s 83rd birthday on Friday June 13, 2025,* Nyesom Wike the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), needs to “bake” a very befitting “cake” to commemorate the event. Abubakar midwifed the uninterrupted democracy we have savoured in nearly 26 years now, much as the citizenry have been successively shortchanged by various regimes. Wike will do well to visit, assess and energise the professional and proper development of the subsisting backwater road, which is presently festooned with the name of Abdulsalami Abubakar. Let’s give honour to whom honour is due. Let’s
acknowledge this unobtrusive patriot now that he is very much with us. This is the most appropriate time he he will appreciate such an honour. We need to act expeditiously. We needn’t dither until the grey- bearded, soft-spoken old soldier goes the way of our forebears.

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

BY BLESSING WIKINA.

Just as the last car in the Governor convey turned right onto the East/West road, and the siren roared to clear traffic from Road ahead, so also the air of expectation, doubts, and wishes came to an end.
Days ago, news had covered every household in Ogoni land, that Mr. President had accented to the take off of what will be known as Federal University of Environment Technology, Ogoni land.
What was not certain is when and how that will materialise, as the information came with an early morning sickness of double location, Sakpenwa and Koroma. How come a new University came with two campuses, when older University with only one campus can barely breath in Nigeria.

Predictably, Ogoni’s went to town with permutations, and suspicion that maybe Government had come again, with what late Music Maestro Fela called “instruments of Magic”
Some openly accused the Senator who sponsored the Bill of bias, as Ogoni leaders in the past, like late Chief Albert Badey, who brought the Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, selflessly located in Bori, not in Bado his home town. The Bill earlier sent by a former Senator, Magnus Abe, did not also propose his home town Bera as location for the university.

But with one visit, one inspection, one decision, Governor Sim Fubara showed wisdom, by handing over the facility, built by the Amaechi administration, at Kira-Tai, known as the “New Model Secondary School. For administration convenience, Government documents had labeled it as Sakpenwa, like the Refinery, and the Airport, whose place of location was swallowed by the Port Harcourt convenient town name.

Kira is a confluence town in Ogoni, and serves as an important historical junction leading to Bori on one flank, to Gokana via another artery, to Okirika, to Akwa Ibom, to Port Harcourt, and to Tai communities. Even the entrance into the new University is designed to veer conveniently form the old Kira road side.
In the colonial era, the first Court house in Ogoni was at a location called Maawoo, before it was rebuilt at the place mapped out an a land given by Kira and Boten communities and called Sakpenwa, by the colonial masters.
On April 20th 1968, late Ken Saro-Wiwa wrote in the book. The Ogoni Nationality, Today and Tomorrow, that on the ruins of the old. A greater story be told “adding
” we can no longer be excluded from the Blessings which modern education showers on most of our contry man……….. to this end the secondary schools at present in the Divisions must be converted to comprehensive schools”.
As if by divine promptings and in agreement with the Ogoni Dialogue Committee, led by Prof Dan Baridum, the Rivers State Governor accompanied by members of the Committee drove to Kira-Tai, and handed-over all that facilitor, as the Take off Campus for the new University of Environment Technology, Ogoni land.

This gesture would mean that the Matriculation Day for the new University would be Faster, quicker and sooner than Ogonis imagine.
In the words of a former Governor of Rivers State, Dr, Peter Odili, “those who make history, never realize that they are making history.
An Educational facility, via the University of Environment, may had added to softening the ground for the successes recorded in the oil resumption consultations by the Dialogue Committee.
As usual, the stake holders meeting in the communities and Local Government Areas, though largely successful, had some minor hiccups, as some Ogoni leader still displayed entitlement mentality. Some felt left out in the composition of the committee, and decided to sponsor contrary narratives about the dialogue.

For instance, at the main congress in Bori, after event picture, and video clips were cropped, copied and posted an their walls, purporting that the event was marred by violence.
Also, some notable politicians from Ogoni loyal to a particular bloc tried to subvert the process by shunning the stake holder meetings in their Local Government Areas, Noticeably, in Gokona, these politicians stayed away from the Local Government Council headquarter venue of the meeting, an the idea that “it would amount to supporting the Chairman”.
Some of this persons, had also shunned the first meeting between Governor Sim Fubara and the committee barely 24 hours after their inauguration I Abuja by President Tinubu.

But Arch-Bishop Ignatius Kattey, the alternate Chairman of the Ogoni Dialogue Committee, repeats at every venue, that the committee work is strictly for an all inclusive dialogue and consultation with every Ogoni citizen. “This is not a political exercise” Bishop Kattey said.
Barrister Tom Orage, the secretary of the Ogoni Dialogue Committee would re-echo that persons who are not present physically to publicly submit via the email:
[email protected].

THE LEDUM MITEE EXAMPLE
In a demonstration of the committee’s openness and Trust, former, Mosop President, Ledum Mittee pointed the way forward at the Bori Congress Meeting. While he was addressing the crowd, some sponsored persons emerged with placards bearing “Mitee and Ribadu leave Ogoni Oil alone” etc.

But rather than stop his speech, or get angry, Ledum continued his speech without stopping, a pointer that the committee will not allow any distraction to affect the process.
This approach may had guided the Committee to adopt their all inclusive stance at all meeting venues, as everyone was given access to the Microphone, every document received, and every group contented.
As the Committee rounds up their consultations, one prayer in the heart of Ogonis will be that Mr. President shows further sincerity by honoring the demands and concerns of Ogoni people as collated and presented by the Ogoni Dialogue Committee for a smooth resumption of oil activities.

*Blessing Wikina a journalist and public communicator, retired as Director from the Rivers State Civil Service*

By Sonny Aragba-Akpore

With 99% of telecommunications activities powered by Submarine undersea cables,the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has declared submarine cables as the lifeline of telecommunications.
Rising from a two-day submarine cable summit in Abuja recently,the ITU declared that cable resilience is the only way to sustain its viability for the good of humanity.
Globally,there are more than 500 undersea submarine cables running telecommunications services for network operators and sustain 99% of all data transmission.
Of these 500 undersea submarine cables,eight land and present in Nigeria.
These cables land in 1,400 stations across the globe.
Among the 54 African countries recognized by United Nations, there are 38 countries that have seashore and 16 that are land locked. Out of these 38 countries that have seashore, 37 countries have at least one submarine cable landing. The lone exception is Eritrea, considering Western Sahara is considered disputed territory.

By the end of 2019, among the 37 countries that have at least one subsea cable landing, 11 countries have only 1 subsea cable, 10 countries have 2 subsea cables, 6 have 3 subsea cables, and 10 have more than 3.

Nigeria has one of the largest numbers of cable landing and stations in Africa.

These undersea submarine cables play a crucial role in providing internet connectivity and enabling global communication from and to Nigeria.

These submarine cables in Nigeria include:

MainOne cable*: with 10 terabits capacity;ntel’s SAT-3*: has 800 gigabits capacity;Glo-1*: has 2.5 terabits capacity while African Coast to Europe Cable System*: has 5.5 terabits capacity.

There are also West African Cable System (WACS)*: with 14.5 terabits capacity,Nigeria-Cameroon Submarine Cable System (NCSCS)*: 12.8 terabits capacity

Equiano*: 100 terabits capacity and 2Africa*: 180 terabits capacity.

The two-day event was hosted by Nigeria’s Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, in partnership with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC).

The conference declared among others:

Strengthening cable protection through risk mitigation;

Promoting diverse routes and landings to enhance resilience and continuity;

Facilitating timely deployment and repair.

According to ITU ,governments, industry executives and international organizations have expressed support for strengthening the world’s vital undersea network of telecommunications cables at the International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit in Abuja, Nigeria.

The concluding Summit Declaration, developed by the International Advisory Body on Submarine Cable Resilience, includes a commitment to international efforts to reinforce submarine telecommunications cable resilience, centred on actions ranging from increased cooperation to technical advancements.

More than 99 per cent of international data traffic is carried by a network of about 500 submarine telecommunications cables spanning over 1.7 million kilometres worldwide. With an average of 150 to 200 faults reported globally each year, disruptions to communications affect economies, access to information and public services, as well as the daily lives of billions of people.

“Submarine telecommunications cables are a fundamental backbone of our interconnected world. Entire economies feel the impact of disruptions to service,” said ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin. “This summit is galvanizing global efforts to ensure the resilience of this vital telecommunications infrastructure.”

The declaration also includes a recognition that advancing sustainable approaches, fostering technological innovation, and facilitating capacity building are essential for addressing global challenges and driving inclusive development, with a strong emphasis on preparing for both present and future connectivity needs.

“With submarine cables forming the lifelines of the digital age, strengthening their resilience is a shared priority,” according to Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Co-Chair of the Advisory Body. “This summit and its declaration underscore our commitment to safeguarding the infrastructure that our digital economy is built upon. As a key landing point for submarine cables in Africa, Nigeria is well-placed to contribute to and help shape global efforts to enhance resilience.”
“This is a key moment for submarine cable resilience as this declaration clears the way for greater international cooperation,” said Prof. Sandra Maximiano, Chair of ANACOM and Co-Chair of the Advisory Body. “Given the importance of submarine cables in connecting Portugal, particularly our Autonomous Regions of Madeira and the Azores, and our strategic position for landing transcontinental cables, this declaration represents a major development for us. I believe it is an important achievement for the entire submarine cable ecosystem.”
The summit featured the first in-person meeting of the International Advisory Body on Submarine Cable Resilience formed by ITU in partnership with the ICPC in late 2024. The Advisory Body aims to help strengthen the operational resilience of submarine cables, supporting reliable connectivity for all.
“This summit brought together the global submarine cable industry and governments to focus on the continued protection and resilience of this critical infrastructure,” said ICPC Chairman Graham Evans. “This cooperation provides a key opportunity to work together on the practical steps to promote best practices to enhance the resilience of submarine cables across the world.”
Advisory Body decisions at the summit include the formation of working groups focused on risk identification, monitoring and mitigation, as well as connectivity and geographic diversity of landing points and routes, and timely deployment and repair of cables.
In terms of high concentration of undersea cables Egypt is a major hub for undersea cables, with many cables passing through the country.Egypt has a long history of using subsea cables to connect Africa, Europe, and Asia. Egypt’s central location and extensive coastlines on the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea give it an advantage for connecting these continents. Telecom Egypt is one of the largest subsea cable operators in the world .
The northern Atlantic Ocean between the U.S. and Europe has a high density of undersea cables.
The International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) is an organization that owns 98% of the world’s undersea communication cables.
As of 2018, nearly every African country had at least one submarine cable connecting it to the rest of the world.
There are many subsea cable projects in Africa, including Equiano, 2Africa, DARE1, PEACE, and Umoja.
Submarine cable networks connecting African countries are a way to measure economic progress in those countries.