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Tag: Hope Eghagha

  • The Widow of Aguleri – By Hope Eghagha

    The Widow of Aguleri – By Hope Eghagha

    By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha

    Last week an obscene video of a young woman (described rather pejoratively as ‘a young childless widow) paraded naked in the streets Otuocha and Enuobodo in Aguleri community in Anambra State trended and caught the attention of the cyberworld. Though the vituperations were in Igbo language, the violent gesticulations of her traducers were enough for us to deduce anger and righteous indignation on the part of the men and women who had held the poor woman hostage. There was an atmosphere of sobriety mixed with angst and uncharitable fervour for communal vendetta, despising the laws of the land in such a despicable manner.

    One must from the outset state in clear terms a fundamental objection to extramarital affairs by married women. No law, conventional or traditional, supports a married woman having sexual relations outside marriage. Not even the family of the offending woman will support her. If a marriage is not working, they would rather you quit than remain and shame the family through adultery. Sadly, a woman who commits adultery does so with another man. The taboo does not seem to affect the man. Even in the woman caught in adultery in the bible, her co-offender is not dragged to the court of Jesus Christ! Apparently, the law which makes the woman so tabooed as to lead to her husband’s death does not affect her fellow culprit! It is a male-dominated world! Also, husbands are willy-nilly allowed to cheat on their wives in our society though both sexes who go outside marriage for sex break the marriage vows. Put plainly, society looks the other way when husbands go on the rampage with women around town!

    It was vintage barbarity, this public punishment on the ‘young widow’, made shameful the more because we are ostensibly in the 21st century, with prescribed and encoded rules of social engagement. But obviously our mindset lies in the dark arms of the Stone Age, especially in certain aspects of what some call culture. In the video, her husband’s corpse was laid on a stretcher on the floor. She was naked in a corner naked, looking forlorn, scared of what could happen to her. We do not hear her voice, her point of view, and her defence. The circumstances were shameful and tragic enough to numb her into culturally fatal docility. She was accused of causing her husband’s death through her adulterous act. Apparently, in that community, it is believed that when a married woman engages in sex outside her marriage, it will lead to the death of her husband. Another version of the story is that she poisoned her husband so that she could have the freedom to marry her okada-rider boyfriend! Of course, if she did, that was terrible, and in the words of my church minister Bro. E.M. Oki, ‘she added sin to sin!

    To be sure, there are some other ethnic groups which subscribe to this view. A married woman’s unfaithfulness, they assert, is dangerous to the well-being of the husband, the children, and the community. In some communities, just fondling any part of a married woman’s anatomy is sufficient to get her into cultural woes of a spiritual dimension. It is a belief system. Persons who subscribe to this cultural view would swear that if a man knows that his wife is messing around and takes no step to punish her, he will die, especially if he continues to eat food prepared by her or the children will fall ill and die one after the other until she confesses her sin.

    Whatever the circumstances, it was sheer wickedness and scandalous barbarity to treat a fellow human being the way the ‘young childless widow’ was traumatized. In the narrative, the addition of her ‘childless status’ was instructive, almost definitive of the depth and scope of her personal tragedy. She is no good, she is taboo because she does not have a child. It does not matter if her state of childlessness is because of her husband’s deficient reproductive equipment. Could that be why she foolishly had an extramarital affair? Did she really have a lover? Could having an extramarital affair cause the death of a husband? What informs that logic if not superstition and a fetish mindset? Why should the taboo offender stay alive while the innocent husband dies suddenly?

    The truth is that the scandal at Aguleri was disgraceful and offending to the rule of law, codes of decency, and natural justice. The matter has been taken over by the Police. Some of the persons, men, and women, boldly displayed their faces in the video because they believed that they were protecting tradition. They must be invited for questioning. There are doubts whether the Police will follow through, whether they will not be prevailed upon by the powers-that-be to allow sleeping dogs lie. This must not happen. The widow of Aguleri is a person with dignity and right to life. The mob leaders should be punished to serve as a deterrent to others. The First Lady of the State has condemned the action and called for the perpetrators of the barbaric act to be punished according to the laws of the land. I read somewhere that a group donated one million naira for her rehabilitation. We know that widows are still subjected to indignities once death occurs. From drinking the water which was used to wash the corpse to staying alone in a room with her husband’s corpse are other forms of barbaric treatment some widows suffer. This must stop. I expect women to be in the forefront of this fight.

    For the widow of Aguleri, hers was a double tragedy- loss of her husband and a terrible form of subjugation, denigrating and traumatizing her personality for life. I can bet that life will never be the same for her in that community. A relocation to a new town will help the healing process. Sadly, the trauma will remain her for the rest of her days.
    Professor Hope O. Eghagha (BA, Jos; MA; PhD, Lagos) MNAL

    Department of English

    Faculty of Arts

    University of Lagos

    Akoka Lagos

    NIGERIA

  • The ritual murder of Bamise Ayanwale – By Hope Eghagha

    The ritual murder of Bamise Ayanwale – By Hope Eghagha

    By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha

    As the world marked International Women’s Day last week, news of a missing 22year-old Ms. Bamise Ayanwale swept through social media, with a video of another woman Caroline Oni wailing frantically in front and around a BRT bus belonging to the Lagos State government. This wailing brought a personal dimension to Bamise’s plight and further deepened the tragic image of loss, frustration, and desperation. Caroline Oni, Bamise’s madam and adopted mother wailed loudly that her ward had boarded Bus 240257 that fateful night from Chevron Bus stop in Lekki heading for Oshodi and alerted the family that she was in danger. Apparently, she was right. She could not be reached on phone shortly after. A week later, her body was found in a morgue having been deposited there by the Police. The Police reported that her body had been found on Carter Bridge a week after her disappearance. It beats the imagination for a 21st man to believe that the harvested body parts of a human being can fetch them wealth and power!

    This is a now familiar sad story in Lagos. There have been reports of commuters who went missing in Lagos, stories about passengers who were forcefully taken into the bush in the Lekki axis and saved only by divine intervention from the hands of ritual killers. The Bamise story is familiar therefore, yet it is shocking beyond words how a young lady saw her death coming, alerted her family and nothing could stop the barbaric hands of a demented ritualist from snuffing out her life. Her death is another indication of how the State continues to fail Nigerians and the impunity with which the state reacts. For some state officials, this is yet another death. Nothing special. They seem to say that in a matter of weeks the tension would wear off, and we would move on to other disasters, forgetting poor Bamise in the cold grace that the barbarity of scoundrels sent her to in the prime of her life.

    There are questions crying to be asked and answered. How many others have lost their lives in such circumstances in Lagos and around the country? What were Bamise’s thoughts as she lay dying? The dread. The struggle, the terror. Then death! If BRT is unsafe, what is the fate of passengers who commute in those ‘danfo’ buses within the metropolis? How many have culprits have been arrested and prosecuted? How many more will die sadly like Bamise? What has Lagos State officials behaved as if the image of the transport company is more important than the life of a citizen? Why was the driver allowed to address the press like a free staff of BRT when he had to be arrested by the DSS and brought to Lagos from his hideout? Why are there conflicting reports about the state of her body from the Police and her family members?

    Fortunately, Bamise left enough traces for her murderers to be caught. She was smart enough to record the Bus number and communicate same to her family. If only she had let the scoundrel driver know that she had communicated his details to family members, perhaps they would have let her go. If you interview commuters in Lagos you would hear stories. There was a lady who worked in a television station in Ikeja. That early morning, she boarded a danfo, between Maryland and Ketu, she was raped inside the bus and thrown off the moving vehicle. There was yet another who was taken to a forest in the Lekki area. According to her, the place was a thriving market foe body parts. She was spared by the ritualists because she was in her monthly flow. A state that takes the security of life and property seriously should have burst the ring of ritualists in Lagos.

    Bamise must get justice. Her killers must be brough to book to the satisfaction of the citizens of Lagos. I suspect that the BRT driver had been in the dirty business for long. The impunity stinks. Lagos state government must redeem itself. Too many officials lies emanate from the state government. The way LASG handled the anti-SARS demonstrations in 2020 in which lives were lost is a clear demonstration of their capacity to tell barefaced lies. The investigative panels concluded that lives were lost yet the official position was that soldiers did not fire at protesters at the Lekki toll gate. They even had the temerity to challenge footage of the shooting provided by CNN! The Dowen College incident is yet another stain in official narratives from Lagos. The credibility gap is widening by the day.

    It is high time the government equipped the state roads and crannies with CCTV cameras. Every modern city takes security seriously and the surest way of monitoring activities on the streets and communities is the close circuit cameras which quietly record incidents. Lagos State ought to have its police force. The foolishness of the federal system that we operate makes common sense a rarity in governance.

    The point must be repeated that the killers of Bamise must be prosecuted. Justice must not only be done, but it must also be seen to be done, especially considering the circumstances of Bamise’s death. There is a feeling right now that someone or some forces are trying to change the narrative to create the impression that Lagos is safe for commuters. The truth is that Lagos is not safe. We move about and live by Providence, not because of the security measures which the state has put in place! Also, there ought to be a strong security action against the ring of ritualists in the country. Advocacy is needed too.

    Finally, Bamise cried for help before she died. In death, the only thing the State government can do is to unravel the circumstances of her death and send a strong message to others that they will ultimately be caught by the long arm of the law! #JUSTICE FOR BAMISE#

  • President Olusegun Obasanjo at 85 – By Hope Eghagha

    President Olusegun Obasanjo at 85 – By Hope Eghagha

    By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha

    Former President Matthew Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo turned eighty-five years on Saturday 5th of March 2022 and citizens from different walks of life stormed Abeokuta to celebrate with this icon of national politics. It was a busy week for him and his staff. I had an appointment to see him Thursday the 3rd and was witness to the calibre of persons who came in throughout the day. For a man who joined the military to get on in life, God has been really kind to him. He has governed the country in two different capacities- as a soldier and as an elected democrat- and continues to be a strong moral, political force even outside government. And the old man acknowledges a divine touch in his life’s choices and decision outcomes. Fit as a fiddle on his 85th birthday and coming out to pay soccer as an attestation of how fair nature had been to him health wise. How many 85-year-olds can jog round the football field without collapsing? Added to this is his level of mental alertness when he holds conversations and when he addresses an audience extempore. No man prays for more! For this he is eternally grateful. What is the secret behind this agile and solid framework in the ripe age of 85years?

    After his days as Military Head of State when he handed over power to a civilian administration in 1979, Obasanjo became a darling of the western world. Of course, we are familiar with the penchant of African leaders to sit tight in office upon seizing power, transiting to civilian rulers with the temperament of a soldier. Obasanjo said no to the that temptation and handed over to Alhaji Shehu Shagari in a very colourful ceremony in 1979. He saluted the new president and took a back seat. That singular action endeared him to the world, and he became an international statesman huge in stature, rubbing shoulders with the world’s Eminent Group of Persons.

    But Chief Obasanjo would not have become president if Murtala Mohammed was not assassinated in February 1976 in a coup attempt. It is on record that Obasanjo as Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters, effective Vice President of the country, did the yeoman’s job for that administration. He worked so well with the fiery Mohammed and became the natural choice after the latter fell to the bullets of reactionary coup plotters. Much against his personal will and desire, (the other members of the Supreme military Council had to compel him to step into the shoes) he became head of State and promised to lead the nation in the spirt with which Murtala Mohammed had led the nation – that of complete dedication. He then pursued the return to civil rule with a sense of urgency.

    He subsequently became a moral force in the country, often emerging from semi-retirement to write pungent letters to some of his successors once he thought the ship of state needed to be redirected. Indeed, serving Presidents prayed never to receive an Obasanjo letter. Presidents Ibrahim Babangida, Jonathan and Buhari have been victims of his trenchant moral missiles at different times. In such letters, he often spoke the mind of Nigerians, daring to say what persons in his class would not say openly. He has been involved in making presidents and unmaking them too. No government ignored such letters.

    His political fortunes took a nosedive during the tumultuous days of the Abacha junta when he was arrested and detained for coup plotting. The nation will never forget that footage of a bewildered Obasanjo shocked by the gravity of the frame up by that notorious regime which soon kicked the dust in a most disgraceful and tragic manner. The fear in the nation was palpable. Abacha had no qualms deleting people from the world if he thought that it would serve his interest. The tragic story of General Musa Yar Adua illustrates this vicious aspect of Abacha’s character. Obasanjo could easily have gone the way of Yar Adua and MKO Abiola. But fate smiled at him. Innocent of the coup charge, and favoured by his antecedents, from jail, Obasanjo was drafted to become a democratically elected President in 1999 under the aegis of the Peoples’ Democratic Party. Not too many persons have their grace in this world.

    As a young man, it was the post-1976 coup speech that caught my attention about him. He was virtually choking as he gave that speech to the nation. This man who had fought in the Nigeria-Biafra conflict of 1967-70, instrumental to the end of hostilities was badly shaken by the senseless violence of the 1976 assassination of his immediate political boss, Murtala Mohammed. And he conveyed that emotion to the shocked nation. He piloted the nation from 1976 till 1979 when he handed over power to a civilian administration.

    His years as an elected President was a mixed bag, owing to the peculiarities of the time. He was the first elected military officer to work with hardcore often mischievous politicians at the centre. But he made the mobile phone possible in the country, disabled the military capacity to plot and execute coups and stabilized the naira among other achievements. His contacts around the world facilitated a debt forgiveness programme for Nigeria possible. He helped to entrench democracy and won a second term in office in a landslide. Although the end of his tenure was almost marred by a rumoured third terms agenda, history will be kind to Chief Obasanjo. Already, he is seen as one of the best leaders in the post military era both in achievements and the moral authority represented by his vibrant personality on national matters.

    As he turns 85 years, I join him to give thanks to God for the grace of a long, successful and prosperous life and for his stabilizing personality in the affairs of the Nigerian state. A former king who becomes a king maker never really leaves the stage. Metaphorically speaking, Chief Obasanjo will never leave the Nigerian stage as long as he breathes the God-given fresh air of Mother Earth. If we all continue to wonder what Chief Obasanjo’s opinion is on national matters, then the man Obasanjo remains, relevant and powerful in the hearts of the people. Baba, I greet you from the bottom of my heart! Cheers!

     

    Professor Hope O. Eghagha (BA, Jos; MA; PhD, Lagos) MNAL
    Department of English
    Faculty of Arts
    University of Lagos
    Akoka Lagos
    NIGERIA

  • Super Cop, Super Fall – By Hope Eghagha

    Super Cop, Super Fall – By Hope Eghagha

    By Hope Eghagha

    It was not with any form of exultation or ululation that patriots read about the fall of DCP Abba Kyari from national grace to international disgrace. Perhaps his ‘enemies’ celebrated this national tragedy, this man brought down by greed and hubris in a dramatic manner. What was befuddling was how and why he complicated his already tainted picture with the drug escapade in a most messy manner. How and why did he fall into such a trap, being recorded inside a car negotiating a rotten deal? Was it a last-ditch attempt to hit it big and quit the stage into private life where he would swim ad infinitum in the wealth accumulated from service toe the morality of the underworld? Was it a feeling of invincibility accumulated over the decades of dubious public service, not being found out, not being caught, fully protected by the powers-that-be?

    It is not a good story. Yet it happened. And it could happen again. Who knows how many super-cops are out there in the dark, murky rooms of the Nigeria Police or other security agencies, extorting citizens, killing at random to bury all traces of their callous deeds? For as we know, too many people have lost their lives to extra-judicial killings in the land. These are men and women who have no voice. No power. No money. All they have is fear. Fear of the police. Fear for their lives. If the anti-SARS movement had succeeded in drawing the attention of government to the impunity, self-serving actions of some men of the Nigeria Police, would this slap-in-face have come to the open?

    A man who is licensed to carry a gun and who turns himself into an accuser, a judge and jury is danger to the community. The ‘I-will-kill-you-and-nothing-will-come-of-it’ mentality of the power-drunk cop is a nightmare to our youth who go about their daily lives. Sadly, they are here as they are in America. Especially in their relationship with the under-privileged, the minorities. Especially when dealing with boys and men who seem to drive a good car. Especially with the weak and beggarly. Achebe once wrote about a security official who told a citizen whom he is paid to protect: if I kill you, I kill dog! The target of this verbal assault ruminated over the vituperation. Saw the power dynamic. Philosophized over it. Am I a dog? In the end, as the rogue security officer took leave of the scene, the victim of that assault still had the courtesy to say ‘go well! Turning the other cheek? How do you tell a state official to ‘go well’ after he had dehumanized you because of the state uniform that gave him power to assault your person and your psyche?

    Apparently, Abba Kyari was made of such stuff. The power to dehumanize while carrying out both legitimate and illegitimate actions on behalf of us all. To be sure, the legitimate duties will not bring the stupendous wealth that he is reputed to have. Abba Kyari seems to love the good life. Swinging with the big boys. Giving them protection. Intercepting hard drugs. Seizing them and replacing them with dummies. Re-selling the seized stuff to the society. What cover supersedes that of a law enforcer who in the cover of the dark breaks the law? Who polices the police? A nation that has no police becomes a lawless nation. A policeman who is not policed by his conscience or by the institution he serves becomes a lawless officer. Of such officers we must beware. How many Abba Kyaris are still out there?

    The intelligence services must have picked up stories about Abba Kyari. But he was too big a fish to be caught. Perhaps. Until now. I can even hazard a guess that one or two senior persons may have advised him to cool off. But a man who was appointed by the executive arm of government, once celebrated as a super cop by the Legislative Arm of government would naturally feel fully protected by the high and the mighty!

    The hard drug dimension is a hard swallow. For this, we weep for the country, for Abba Kyari. Wherever he is, he would be asking how come he went this low? There is no armour against that which was fated to happen to a man after that man had destroyed lives and the institutions he was meant to protect. It is not a good story. Bad for him. Bad for the nation. Good for the image of NDLEA under retired Brigadier-General Marwa!

    To shield Super Cop Abba Kyari will be the final death of the Nigeria Police. He and one of his accomplices known as ‘Too much money’ should have their day in court. Of course, they are innocent until proven guilty. To us laymen the video of that drug-deal negotiation puts ashes in the mouth. If it is indeed true, then we shall have witnessed the super fall of a super cop. The other super cops should learn lessons from The Rise and Fall of a Super Cop!

  • Dealing with marriage-related stress – By Hope Eghagha

    Dealing with marriage-related stress – By Hope Eghagha

    By Hope Eghagha

    Marriage, the union of two or more people from different and often disparate backgrounds comes with its stress. Stress comes from finances (too much or too little of it), sexual relations, infidelity (the other woman, and in rare cases in Nigeria, the other man), the extended family, work hours, domestic chores, children or lack of them, and differences in religion or place of worship. There are no absolutes about this. There could be more. For example, how do we handle a situation when the woman suddenly becomes breadwinner in the family? Also, sometimes, people change after a few years of marriage. Or reveal their true character. My operative thesis from Day One is: Every Couple Must Decide, Must Work on Their Marriage. Not the pastor. Not the Imam. Not the Parents-in-law. Not a third party of fourth party.

    In my definition, I added ‘two or more people’ to accommodate polygamy, the practice of having more than one wife or more than one husband at a time. While the former is common in our clime, the latter is taboo in most if not all Nigerian cultures. We know of girls who keep multiple boyfriends, dubiously and humorously called ‘shareholders’ in their enterprise. Whereas most girls can tolerate men have multiple relationships in our culture, most men cannot stand it.

    The courtship period, the prelude to marriage, is often sweet. It is not in all cases though. Some girls see the bitter taste coming during courtship but hang on in the hope that the man would change after marriage. However, in a typical situation, both parties are often careful, especially if they both decide that they want to marry. Meetings are less frequent or limited to certain hours. Every moment they spend together is bliss. They are more tolerant of each other. There is nothing like ‘see finish’ if I may borrow our local expression. ‘See finish’ comes sometimes when a woman overexposes herself to the man before marriage. Some girls just move into the man’s apartment and start what in Delta State our people call ‘credit marriage’ or ‘paper bag’ marriage. Sometimes, the lady gets pregnant, and they must wait until she gives birth before bride price is paid. ‘We do not pay the bride price of a woman who is pregnant’, the people say. Why I ask? Are you paying for two?

    The discourse today is not on premarital issues. Arising from some discussions which I had during the week, I have decided to write on the stress involved in keeping a marriage together. When the popular line in most weddings compels bride and bridegroom to ‘say for better for worse’, it is in recognition of the stresses, challenges, and pleasures of a typical marriage. Anybody who decides to end a marriage on account of a stress factor, is likely to see more in the next woman. It is true that some persons could develop irreconcilable differences. Except they part ways, one of them may end up in the morgue. So, it is proper to not to take an absolute, fixed position.

    Finances. Couples must learn to manage their finances. The Nigerian marriage has run into trouble because we have not managed our finances well. If a wife feels that her husband is a bad manager of money, it could lead to dissatisfaction. This disenchantment may spread, dig deeper and gradually the woman would lose faith in the man. From Day One therefore, let there be an agreement on how to manage income in all circumstances. Some couples decide on a joint account. This has its advantages. It could also happen that the woman is a bad manager of funds. If ‘chop money’ is exhausted only after one week because madam spent money on other things outside the budget, and this becomes a recurring decimal, relations could be shaken.

    Sexual relations are a sensitive area. Both parties should understand each other and develop a rhythm. Some people are highly conservative in the ‘ozer room. A conservative man who marries a bedroom activist must strike a balance else he would have a permanently unhappy wife. What are your needs? Talk about them. Discuss them. Work on them. When. For example, a man suffers Erectile Disfunction (ED) it could be embarrassing if both parties are not mature. ED could be temporary or permanent. No party should jump to a conclusion. In one case, the woman accused the man of wasting his energy outside! Another man believed and expressed the view that it was a ‘spiritual attack. ED could be the result of medication or work and life-related stress. The operative word is: UNDERSTANDING through discussions.

    These days, there are too many cases of infidelity in marriages. Both men and women are guilty, though men are more disposed to it than women. Some men are discreet about it. Others flaunt their excesses before the longsuffering wife. Or are get caught through telephone chats. Women are urged to look the other way because in their view ‘all men cheat! It’s hard for most women to swallow. Some couples live together but lead two separate lives. They hardly communicate with feelings. A woman who is your wife needs attention. Often the attention is sweeter than money, especially when other things are okay. Money does not make love. Love in the deeper sense of it is sweeter than money. It is sweeter when there is money to make both parties meet their needs though. In the absence of plenty money, real commitment inmarriage through love creates an enduring marriage.

    During counselling, we tell both parties to give mutual respect to each other. There was a case in which the man always called his wife a ‘useless woman! The woman then reacted by staying away every weekend with her friends and relations. During reconciliation, the woman said if she was useless in the marriage why stay every day in the house of a man who thought she was useless. One of the lacking ingredients in the Nigerian marriage is lack of mutual respect. If one party sees itself as the senior partner, as it currently is, there is bound to be friction.

    Marriage as a topic, is inexhaustible. As a man married for nearly forty years, I still learn lessons almost during every new experience, I see my wife in a new light. Discovery can be sweet. It can also be bitter. It is always sweet if we decide to create sugar in our mouth and allow things that seem bitter to be sweet. Is it impossible?

  • Portrait of a Mother-in-law! – By Hope Eghagha

    Portrait of a Mother-in-law! – By Hope Eghagha

    By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha

    There are many stories about mothers-in-law, recondite with the extremities of this special breed of women in African folklore. Their activities are often directed against persons of their own gender- woman on woman, woman against woman, women being extremely hard on, wicked to women. Which is sad. A big irony. I recall reading a dramatic poem written by Poet Laureate Niyi Osundare in which a mother was confronted by her son about public perception of her and how she was a terrible person and so on. Responding, she said among other things: whoever said so, may his eyes see the back of his head… and so on! Hmmm! Character is like smoke!

    Some of these archetypal images have spilled into modern narratives and indeed modern families. In Nollywood, one actor, Patience Ozokwor epitomizes the fiendish mother-in-law who sees nothing good in a daughter-in-law. Here we refer to the type of mother-in-law who visits and begins to eye the clothes the new wife wears, the soup pots, what time she wakes up, the type of meals she prepares for her son, and the jewelry she wears. The one who believes that her son’s money is being wasted on frivolous items and confronts wifey after her son has gone to work! God save Wifey if she has no job or no visible financial contribution to the house or if she unable to makes babies! In some instances, the daughter-in-law is no respecter of persons. She is ready for battle after enduring many years of harassment.

    Why does a lady suddenly become an evil or a bad person in the eyes of her husband’s mother? Obviously, there is some rivalry between both women. One gave birth to the man, nurtured him, and must now cede him and all his affections to another woman, for whom the son has deep romantic affections. This is what some mothers cannot stand. ‘Losing’ their son to a total stranger! The stranger becomes the closest person. They sleep in the same room. On the same bed. One mother-in-law was reported to have said to her son’s wife: I breastfed him, he sucked my breasts as a baby. To which the perky young lady replied: ‘he doesn’t need your breasts anymore. Every night he sucks mine’. Such pettiness over control of one man! When some husbands lose their mother and wifey participates fully and joyously in the funeral ceremonies, one wonders whether she is mourning a death or celebrating freedom from the tyranny of a fiendish mother-in-law! Hehehehehe! The things that happen between some mothers-in-law and their daughters-in-law will wear a hat!

    The truth is that some mothers never really let go of their sons. For this reason, they become permanent intruders in the home of the young couple. In some cases, they make so much trouble that the young man finally bans his mother from coming to live with them till further notice! Fathers-in-law rarely get involved in the cat and mouse game! They are too busy or would rather the couple live happily ever after with minimum interruption from Madam Wife!

    Conversely, how does a son-in-law suddenly become a bad person to his wife’s mother, sometimes from Day One of their meeting? The second category is not as common as the first. A wife’s mother is usually more friendly with her son-in-law than the other way round. Perhaps because there is no rivalry between her and anybody. She treats him nicely so that he would look after her daughter. Except in rare cases!

    There is this mother-in-law who is fiendish to her own daughter and her husband. There is no record in the books to account for her behaviour. She left her marriage very early and brought up the kids by herself, at least to secondary school level. She always fights her daughter who looks after her. She is always bitter. Harsh. Mean. She extends the fight to her husband too. When some say its old age, the daughter will tell you that she had aways been like that. She once ordered her daughter to buy her a car and give her a driver. Daughter says to her: I don’t have that kind of money. She replies tell your husband to give you the money. My husband has no money to buy you a car! Fool! What about the money you made when you were in Abuja? You defend him all the time; is it because you are afraid that he would take another wife that you sound like a fool all the time? This exchange between mother and daughter is unusual. Once, she directed that her daughter should ensure that her salary was shared into three parts – one for mother, second part for her sister and the third part for the lady who earns the money. This same mother-in-law once locked her son-in-law outside his own house! What else is witchcraft in the real African sense? Such a fiend-in-law ought to be kicked bag and baggage out of the house without much ado!

    Mothers-in-law must allow their daughters-in-law live in peace with their husbands. Theirs is a new home. A home for two. Not three. If there is a third person, it should be a child. They should remember that troubling the young woman also affects their son negatively. No man really feels happy when the two important women in his life- his mother and his wife do not get along and quarrel all the time. Once a man takes a wife, the new woman has more rights and privileges than Mama, no matter how longsuffering Mama may have been in bringing up her son. The same spirit of ‘ownership’ flares up if a son dies prematurely. Some mothers-in-law and the big family often pounce on the property of the deceased man. Chase away the wife and kids and take full possession of everything in sight.

    Of course, not all mothers-in-law are fiends. I have seen a mother-in-law who takes her daughter-in-law lime her own biological daughter. Such a wife is the envy of other less fortunate ladies who enter a marriage where they become enemy Number One just because they entered matrimony with a man that they love! For me, the man to stop all the nonsense by intrusive mothers-in-law is son. Period. No man can marry his mother!

     

    Professor Hope O. Eghagha (BA, Jos; MA; PhD, Lagos) MNAL

    Department of English

    Faculty of Arts

    University of Lagos

    Akoka Lagos

    NIGERIA

  • WANTED: A Private Petroleum Refinery in the Delta – By Hope Eghagha

    WANTED: A Private Petroleum Refinery in the Delta – By Hope Eghagha

    By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha

    There is need for a private refinery in the Niger Delta. The nation needs a private petroleum refinery in the Niger Delta. In the interest of the nation and the region, a private refinery is needed in the Niger Delta to create employment and also tap into the main natural resources of the zone. The Niger Delta requires a private refinery for both economic and political reasons. It will be an act of self-affirmation because of the shoddy treatment which the federal authorities give the oil-bearing, long-suffering region. This is political. A massive petroleum refinery employing thousands of workers will boost the economy of the region. This is economic. Where are the big boys from the Niger Delta? This is a challenge to them. It is also a challenge to the political leaders of the region. Let them put together, or create a platform for a consortium of businessmen to build a refinery that will process crude and go into petrochemicals. Alternatively, one big businessman backed, by the leaders of the region, should throw his hat into the ring. What is so difficult about this?

    It is my considered view that leaders from different groups in the Niger Delta must consciously take decisions about the fate of their people, about education, transportation, agriculture, IT, and petroleum and gas. To achieve this, political leaders hold the ace. They have the contacts and reach to make things happen. They understand the terrain. They do not harbor the naivety of persons who have not been in government about how government functions in Nigeria. But they need intellectuals, especially public intellectuals to serve as a Think Tank for developing the region. It should be clear that individual survival cannot be guaranteed in a fragmented society, a society where the ordinary people cannot guarantee ordinary meals for months on end. For a legion of reasons therefore, political leaders of the region should think The Region and Think Nigeria as a development strategy, a strategy that the individual governors should key into.

    Of course we recognize the strategic role which the federal authorities play in the approval process, in granting access to crude oil after completing the refinery. Would there be concessions on getting crude? Would there be a concession on buying at the international rate? Would there be a guarantee that the local communities would not interfere with building and operations? A typical businessman would think the process through and decide whether the fight and returns would be worth the hassles. But a functional refinery in the Niger Delta is a question of collective survival through recognizing a strategic interest.

    Nearness to raw material has been advanced as one of the factors determining location of industries. It is true that in the modern age, crude oil could be piped across thousands of kilometres. For example, there are twelve pipelines that deliver natural gas from Russia to Europe; three of which are direct to Finland, Estonia, and Latvia. The Nord Stream is a system ‘off offshore natural gas pipelines in Europe, running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany’. Of course, this has an effect on installation and pricing of the product. There are pipes carrying crude in ‘the 16/24-inch, 674-kilometre Escravos-Warri-Kaduna Pipeline to service two of Nigeria’s major oil refineries at Warri and Kaduna’. Pause for a while and work out the cost of transporting crude to the long distance that is Kaduna or Lagos.

    Nearness to raw material and the fact that the Niger Delta produces the oil for Nigeria compel the establishment of a giant refinery in the region. The private effort in the Lekki area of Lagos is a milestone. But as usual, oil-bearing Niger Delta will emerge a distant 10th position in terms of social, economic, political, cultural, and employment benefits of a product that is in the belly of their earth. This is because of the prevailing notion that OUR OIL IS THEIRS but THEIR RESOURCES ARE NOT OURS. It is a narrative that is hinged on injustice and many years of political dominance. But nobody dominates and exploits no one group dominates and exploits another perpetually. When the time to break out comes, the will to do so will spring from the most unlikely regions of the psyche.

    There are men and women with the financial muscle to do the job. They need the motivation. The Niger Delta is rich in resources, human and natural. There are millions of young talents searching for an avenue to express their skills and competence and catch the train of career development and growth. They need the enabling environment. They need mentoring. They need industries. One of the biggest industries that could be located there with subsidiaries in all the Niger Delta states is oil and gas. In my short interaction with Ambassador Joe Keshi of and through BRACED Commission, all we need now is the will. A refinery that will also make an inroad into gas production is highly desirable and needed. Funding should be a joint affair between big businessmen, the banks and the sub-national governments of the region.

    Oil was discovered in Oloibiri currently located in Bayelsa State in commercial quantity in 1958. That community cannot boast of any significant gains from the wealth in its belly. It is an abandoned village with a decimated aquatic life. It is the same story that affects the entire region. If the federal government refuses to plan for the people whose soil produces oil, the onus is on leaders of the region to take their destiny into their hands. Of course we know that oil as a source of energy is fast losing its relevance with the world’s attention being focused on alternative sources of less-harmful energy. But it is inconceivable that all the derivatives of crude would simply vanish in fifty or more years. The truth is that the region ought to have built its own refinery decades ago. Yet, it is not too late to rapidly and massively utilize the God-given resources of the region by building a private refinery.

    Finally, I call on leaders in the region to summon the will and mobilize all resources to ensure that the region builds its own refinery and move on to harnessing the gas in the land both for export and local consumption. The multiplier effect will be a life saver in the region.

  • The End of your Rule is Near – By Hope Eghagha

    The End of your Rule is Near – By Hope Eghagha

    By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha

    The end of your rule is near. Mr. President. Mr. Governor. Mr. Speaker. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Legislator. The end of your rule is here. It has been four, eight, sixteen years since you danced into State or Legislative House after election victory. Or after a dubious victory awarded by a dubious court after dubious monies dubiously exchanged hands. Your humility while you sought votes was legendary. You shook hands, hugged cripples, visited the bereaved, paid school fees, and ate with the sick. You built alliances across zones, across religious groups, economic groups, across social groups. You made promises. You raised hopes. You preached unity. Now that the end is here, let us ask you Mr. Chief Executive, what kind of ruler, what kind of leader, what kind of administrator have you been? Did you dash hopes? Are you leaving the people worse than they were when you came into office? Did you create a few super rich, from your ethnic group, from your religious group, from your family? Are the people beating their drums in joy on the imminence of your departure? Will they start to ignore you from June this year when you become a lame duck? Are you now worried about how freely you can walk after you leave office?

    It is one of the beauties of democracy, beginning and end of tenure. You give account to the people, to posterity, and to the Great Judge ultimately. Because there is end of tenure, there are marginalised persons who wait for the end to come. Those you may have locked up in time or physically or psychologically. These hope that once you are gone, freedom will come their way, there will be a restoration. Also, the wrong policies which you have enunciated will be thrown into the dustbin. Those who had barely tolerated your greed or your foolishness or your wicked, selfish ways will now openly despise you. The sycophants who had licked your boots with histrionic relish will now move on to the new power base, forgetting you, cursing you and blaming the woes of their ancestors on you. You will become history, bad history if you have been a bad ruler. It is the story of the world; it is the story of life and the iterative narrative of humanity. Yet, we, the rulers and the ruled, never learn. The tragedy of man, according to Nietzsche, is that he forgets.

    Memory is the strength of the wise. Memory is the strength of successful societies. Institutional memory. Memory is the strength of successful nations. That ability never to forget the circumstances of their existence, their history, and their identity. In great societies, there is no collective amnesia. Some individuals may forget. But the institution that is the State never forgets. Some facts may slip into amnesia. But they will crawl back in the day of reckoning. Knowledge of the past is instructive and fundamental to building the future. So, our philosophers teach us. I remember Ernest Hemingway when he says ‘a man is a sum of his memories’!

    O mighty ruler, the bearded one with oil stains on his white robe, all the roads and projects which you concentrated in your own part of the land, all the appointments which you made to favour a section of the electorate, and/or your cronies will now haunt you. The viciousness with which you dealt with supposed enemies will haunt you. If you ignored the interest of the people to pursue your narrow selfish interests, it will be time to splash your acts of impunity on the pages of newspapers and social media. Did you think you were God when you kept people waiting for you, while you made older people kneel to you to make their requests? The people will soon say to you: ‘command no more, your rule is over’, as Creon tells the mighty Oedipus in Antigone in Sophocles’ classical play!

    A fool can and could win elections in Nigeria. But a fool cannot govern like a wise man, because a fool can only do foolish things that could hurt the people. An idiot or a man with idiotic ideas could win elections anywhere in the world. Demagoguery often starts from idiotic ideas and sentiments couched in fanciful or pseudo nationalistic language. Argentinian singer and author once wrote: ‘my grandfather was a brave man; he was only afraid of idiots. I asked him why, and he answered: because there are too many of them, and by being a majority they could even elect a president’. So, we are also worried about the people, the mob that Shakespeare despised in his plays, describing them through one of his characters in Julius Caesar as ‘you blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things, you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome’. Men and women who sell their soul for a mess of the proverbial pottage. They who would vote for the idiot who may not do much to improve their lot. These are the type the Prophet Hosea has in mind when he says ‘my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge!

    Real leadership is for the wise, the humble, and the visionary. A myopic man in office brings the office to his level. That is dangerous to our collective survival. Of such men we must beware. A fool should not go near the throne. He will endanger the empire. For this reason, blockheads were precluded from the throne in traditional African societies. Even the deformed were asked to go away from the road to the throne. In the modern age, thieves or crooks win elections all over the world. Crookedness could be hidden from the people. It is often in the dark. In saner climes, crooks get booted out. In our land, they seek and win elective positions because they carry a deep pocket.

    It is true that some current leaders or elected officials have been misjudged. As we know, there are some who have made a difference, who have touched lives, who have sacrificed a lot for the people. But all state officials are judged harshly on account of prevailing situations. Hunger, real hunger, is real in the land. People are barely able to feed. Inflation is near the sun. Insecurity is real. So, the people are frustrated. They are angry. And their judgment will be harsh. It is possible that with the passing of time, opinions would be moderated. For that time, we must wait though not everyone will be exonerated, not everyone will be around for the beauty of reversals. It is the way of man, it is the way of life!

    Mr Elected or Appointed Official, your time is up, the end is here. Those you have alienated, some who did a kind thing for you in the past, some who supported your election and were subsequently ignored by your ‘Almighty Self’, some you gave contracts and refused to pay for work done, some who fell under the moving bus because you listened to gossip and gave them no chance to defend themselves, some who were shoved from the inner table because they are not brothers and sisters from your ethnic group, they await your exit. The time has come when you must rise from the level of the beast that was Nebuchadnezzar and come to your senses. They will see you in public and walk past you in scorn. Or bring down the statues you erected as it happened in Imo State after the last governor left office. There will be money in your deep pocket, but there will be no political power in your hands, there will only be infant gums without teeth to bite the sweets of the world. What have you wrought O Elected Official, what have you wrought in the land of the living?

  • Return to herbal medicine – By Hope Eghagha

    Return to herbal medicine – By Hope Eghagha

    By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha

    We need to work on our local herbs. There are too many herbs and roots in our bushes wasting away. Our ancestors crudely used them. There were no labs. There were no lab scientists. Yet they knew the herbs to cure malaria. To improve fertility. They knew how to put the ‘womb in place’ through massaging. To treat bone fracture. To free the bowels through extreme bowel movement. They knew how to treat fainting spells. To control epilepsy. Migraine. They knew how to boost blood levels. They embalmed the dead. Some were trial and error methods which evolved into something permanent. Yet, this knowledge has been seriously denigrated, wasted sort of. It is further complicated by the refusal of those who have the knowledge to share it. In the past, such knowledge ran in families, passed on from father to son through practice. Why have we allowed our traditional thoughts and healing processes to lie fallow?

    These thoughts came to my mind as I read the headlines about alligator pepper and COVID 19 treatment as championed by Afe Babalola University. I don’t have the details. But the fact that some peer-reviewed processes had suggested that alligator pepper could counteract the virus got me thinking. What have our medical schools and our pharmacologists done with herbs which are traditionally believed to have medicinal properties? I have doctor friends who poohpooh the idea of herbs for treatment of medical conditions. They usually fault the traditional herbalists for not being scientific. For example, they ask: what quantity of herbs should one ingest to complete treatment? What is the makeup of that concoction that is administered to control epileptic fits?

    For me, our science community should be interrogating the herbal treatment practice by asking some questions. They should ask: what is the link between eating cassava yam and control of prostate enlargement? How can we establish that onions taken in high concentration can help prostate issues? How do the ‘bone setters’ sometimes treat extremely bad cases which orthodox medicine had condemned to amputation? What are the medicinal properties of bitter leaf or bitter kola or scent leaf (efirin in Yoruba)? What is the link between steaming in guava leaves, pawpaw leaves and efirin boiled in hot water and curing malaria or feverish conditions? What do traditional birth attenders do that ease birth? What skills do they have that can reverse breech babies just before birth?

    A nation which thinks scientifically, and which have self-confidence would have its medical scientists collaborate with the local herbs’ men and code their herbal mixtures after studying the properties in a laboratory. We love everything foreign. We condemn local creations. Colonial impositions have not helped matters. That encounter ensured that everything African was rendered inferior. Our dressing, our traditions, our cultural affirmations, even our languages were reduced in worth by claiming that Europeans came to civilize us. In school we were punished for speaking vernacular. It did not matter that we could comprehend some complex processes if they were explained in our local languages. Sadly, sixty years after independence we have not fully understood where and how the rain began to beat us.

    There are some nations that have made good with their herbs by codifying them and ensuring that the properties are known and documented. In some cases, their limitations are specified. This is what the Chinese have done with their teas. There are Chinese shops in London selling Chinese teas to control hypertension or caplets for cholesterol reduction. There are Chinese experts promoting their herbs in Nigeria, in America and the United Kingdom. What started as local brews have been globalized, fully registered in other jurisdictions. There are outlets in Lagos where Chinese medicine is applied for local health challenges.

    I once had a football accident as a boy in Sapele Delta State that bruised my right thumb badly. The shot fired at me as goalkeeper was too much for my young hands. The pain was killing. It radiated from the thumb up to my arm. It was the days of codeine and APC as painkillers which were readily administered. I only got temporary relief. Then my dad returned from work. He opted to take me to an Ijaw man who treated fractures and bone related problems. When we arrived in his place, he was having dinner. He went on eating his meal, inviting us to join. After his meal, he sat calmly and asked what the problem was. I explained as much as I could while being ravaged by the pain. He asked me to lie down. I did. He was so calm that if I had my way, I would have urged him to speed up the process. He went for my elbow. I told him that the pain was in my thumb and wrist respectively. He calmly asked me to shut up. He placed his thumb with some pressure on the inside of my arm and started tracing, moving slowly. At a point, there was a tingle and the pain vanished as if I had simply imagined that it had been there. He asked me to call again if the pain returned. I never went back. The pain was gone forever. I will never forget that experience. It opened my eyes to the skills of our Ijaw brothers to bone treatment!

    Some hospitals in Lagos State now accommodate traditional birth attenders in childbirth processes. This is good. But the nation should move into the field of herbs. What can we do with our herbs and make them more reliable? If we have herbal mixtures that can cure pile or haemorrhoids why don’t we commission our medical people to investigate and incorporate them into treating the condition in orthodox hospitals? It is my humble view that the rich vegetation which we have in Nigeria could contain treatment for cancer and other serious diseases which are yet unexplored. Research and development are key to developing our local treatment forms. The government through the Ministries of Health should create an atmosphere to make this possible. I expect universities to lead the drive instead of struggling to publish outlandish essays in international journals to enhance their chances for grants and fellowships which bear no relationship with the problems which control our people.

    The current world order which makes the COVID-19 vaccines scarce in Nigeria and Africa ought to make us return to our local herbs by improving them and verifying their efficacy in treating ailments that plague our people.

  • Man and the justice of heaven – By Hope Eghagha

    Man and the justice of heaven – By Hope Eghagha

    By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha

    In the light of the extreme forces currently ravaging the cosmos, challenging, and disrupting the world moral order, killing off human beings like birds eating ants, with the ascendancy of impunity and strongarm tactics, it may be apposite to examine what may be the last resort of man- an appeal, a reminder that ultimately, there is Great One, the Almighty Force which will hold man accountable for evil deeds known and unknown. How many eardrums will catch the drift of this treatise is cause for worry. How many will heed the warning is another kettle of fish! Yet the spoken or written word is testimony of the wailing one against the rapists of the world order!

    Eternal justice is the final principle which governs the affairs of humanity, of the world and of the cosmological order. Justice is crucial to a balance of the forces of nature, and of the relationship between man and man and between man and the order of things, visible and invisible, now and in the future. Justice and its principles, go beyond man utterly. So, it is a forever thing. Man often does not comprehend the depth or scope or dynamism of justice. He often ignores the principles of justice, hoping, praying, and believing that nemesis will never catch up with him. He thinks that he will get away with acts of injustice, impunity, of infinite callousness to fellow human beings. How small-minded can man be sometimes!

    All the religions acknowledge this. Sophocles the classical dramatist once wrote: ‘Justice that dwells with the gods below, knows no such laws’, recognizes no law which oppress the poor and weak. Man in his spiritual state knows this. But when he is swept away by the pleasures of the transient world, those deep things become ephemeral and he floats into the world of injustice, destruction, oppression and annihilation of beings he cannot create.

    Justice, we are taught is ‘the quality of being just, impartial, or fair’. It is the ‘principle or ideal of just dealing or right action. It is further seen as ‘conformity to this principle or ideal. Right and wrong are embedded in our consciousness. Remember that we speak of actions that have consequence. We speak of actions carried out when man is conscious; of our hidden and open acts in the world which invariably have effects on the order of things, on us and our descendants. There be some who face the consequences of their actions this side of the world. Some it is automatic, ddirect, flowing from the actions which we have taken. And we weep, ‘why me?, forgetting that which we have wrought with our evil hands. ‘Nemesis’, a philosopher once wrote, ‘is that recoil of nature that ever surprises the most wary transgressor’.

    In the eyes of mortals, man may even get away with acts which trample upon the ideals and practice of justice. But justice which rules the world from above is the final arbiter in the fate of man. Of one’s final fate we are not in a position to tell. Power- physical, financial or otherwise- has the capacity to lead us to a delusion. And for this reason, we will believe a lie, live with the lie, and perhaps die with the lie. At some point in the journey of life we realize that the consequences of our action have locked us in time or have led us to destruction. That is justice!

    In our age, the State is charged with the responsibility to carry out justice through the courts, the lower and higher courts. Man knows that even institutions of State charged with the responsibility of discharging justice sometimes enter into a miscarriage. A learned judge could ‘misdirect himself, in the course of dispensing justice. A judge could be compromised by the powers-that-be or by promise of the notorious filthy lucre. For this reason appellate courts are created. It is true that even the highest court in the land could trivialize or distort the rules and dispense injustice. In that hour, man appeals to a higher authority whose hands may not be openly visible. But when we remember the words of the Perfect Master that ‘we shall reap whatever we sow’, the eternal truth and power of justice is not lost on the man whose mind has an open eye!

    Men of power, ensconced in the material luxury of filthy ephemerals, often delude themselves by thinking that their power is forever, and that they would never be accountable. Even when they have knowledge that their power is ephemeral, it registers as an abstraction, a distant event which may never come. They may even raise the delusion decibel by believing that they would ask God’s forgiveness in the twilight of their lives. And so the fool tells his Maker: God please grant me patience, but hurry!

    Those who understand that whereas we could, we may escape man’s justice, the final justice which rules the world is a perfect system, not to be bribed, coerced, twisted, distorted, or manipulated by anyone. No man can escape it. It is beyond the power of any powerful man. It is beyond the power of the most powerful religious leader or charlatan. Who knows what man sees when he finally closes his eyes in the final sleep? As dreams torment the transgressor of sacred rules, are the wicked tortured once they close their eyes? Is that what some call hell, the condition of perpetual pain and suffering? Are there some who live in hell even before they die physically? Are there some whose current physical illness is the result of their improper actions? Is that what some call ‘judgment day?

    So, when the philosopher in Soyinka posits that ‘the first condition of humanity is justice’, he calls to the deep. For, that moral compass which directs man in all his dealings must recognize right and wrong, even in the smallest of matters in both our public and private lives. It is the only guarantee of the continued existence of man in the cosmos. If the most favourable political ideology rests on injustice, on exploitation, on racism, the future of humanity would be threatened. It is this notion of justice that holds perpetrators of genocide accountable, now or in the future.

    As with the giver, so with the receiver. Those who dispense justice or injustice today will certainly face their fate someday. It is as certain as day and night. The ends of justice therefore should not be toyed with. When the wall tumbles and earth finally closes earth in its pit, it is not the end of the journey. It is the beginning of the journey into the final act of justice!

     

    Professor Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha can be reached on 08023220393.