2014: A pot-pourri

YEMI OLAKITAN 

2014 remains an eventful year in the history of Nigeria. It is a year that will definitely go down in the annals of Nigerian history as a mixed bag of the gory and the glorious. Senior Correspondent, Yemi Olakitan, chronicles the major issues that made the year one of historical importance in the lives of Nigerians.

 

Obasamjo

It is in 2014 that Nigeria celebrated her centenary anniversary – 100 years – since the amalgamation of the North and South Protectorates in 1914 by the colonial masters who acted through the territories’ Governor-General, Sir Frederick Lugard, whose wife, Flora Shaw Lugard coined the name Nigeria.

One hundred years after, a lot has happened in the life of the country called Nigeria. In 2014, which is 100 years after, landmark developments, positively and negatively, have taken place. In this year, for instance, Nigeria secured a permanent seat at the United Nations (UN) Security Council.

In politics, the All Progressives Congress (APC) joined other political parties, namely, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). Until then, there were fears in some circles that Nigeria was fast becoming a a one party state since it was the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that had continued to dominate the political scene at the centre. The country’s democracy took a new shape with two dominant political parties, APC and PDP, operating in the fields of governance. The success of APC led to defections and alliances. It was a year of deals, decisions and political manoeuvrings, ahead of the 2015 general elections. The highlights of the year include parties’ national convention, primaries, defections, endorsements and election protests.

The year is also the most dreadful, with the Islamic Jihadist and terrorist group, Boko Haram, proclaiming that Western education is a sin and must be eradicated. This dreaded sect swore to kill and destroy the country and her people unless an Islamic caliphate was established in the North-eastern part of the country. The Mohammed Yusuf-founded sect has been terrorising the citizens since 2008, but the year will be on record as one in which it became infamous. Since 2010, Boko Haram has targeted schools, killing hundreds of students. The group has insisted that the attacks will continue as long as the government continued to interfere with traditional Islamic education. Insurgent attacks intensified in the year. The sect has been blamed for nearly 4,000 deaths. On the night of 14–15 April this year, the terrorists attacked the Government’s Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Bornu State. They broke into the school, pretending to be guards. The students were taken away in trucks into the Konduga area of the Sambisa Forest where they have fortified camps. Houses in Chibok were burnt down in the incident. The school had been closed for four weeks prior to the attack owing to the deteriorating security situation, but students from many schools had been called in to take final exams in Physics. The children aged between 16 and18 years were in their final year at school. On May 5, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video claiming responsibility for the kidnappings. He claimed that “Allah instructed me to sell them…I will carry out his instructions.” and “Slavery is allowed in my religion, and I shall capture people and make them slaves.” He said the girls should not have been in school and instead should have been married since girls as young as nine are suitable for marriage in Islam.

in 2014, the #BringBackOurGirls campaign brought the country into international spotlight, not for winning the World Cup or the Olympics but for the widespread protests which the campaign inspired all over the world through the social media. Major world leaders and celebrities such as the First Lady of the United States, Mitchell Obama, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, and many others lent their voices to the crusade for the release of the Chibok girls. The ‘Bring Back our girls’ campaign took the world by storm. The world was angered by the sheer number of the young girls that was abducted by the terrorists and the inability of the Nigerian government to prevent the incidence or secure the release of the girls. Vigils and protests were held around the world to mark 100 days of the kidnapping. Participating countries included Nigeria, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Togo, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Portugal and protests continued to this day.

Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili a co-founder of Transparency International was instrumental to the start of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign on social media, which trended internationally. She had, on April 23, at the opening ceremony for a UNESCO event urged Nigerians to not just ‘tweet’ but participate in efforts to “bring back our girls”. Protests were held in major Western cities including Los Angeles and London on May 3 and 4, At the same time, the  tag#BringBackOurGirls trended globally on Twitter without ceasing as the story continued to spread and by May 11 it had attracted 2.3 million tweets. However, the Chibok girls are still not found despite the international hullabaloo.

The suspension of the Central Bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, was a prominent headline of 2014. It was in that year that he became the Emir of Kano, Although Sanusi’s exit as the CBN governor was anticipated, as he was due to leave office in June 2014; the unexpected suspension of Sanusi by President Jonathan took most Nigerians by surprise. The Presidency said Sanusi was suspended over “various acts of financial recklessness and gross misconduct.”

According to reports, Mallam Sanusi, had a run-in with President Jonathan when he alleged that huge funds were missing at the beginning of the year. He said the $67bn worth of crude shipped by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) between January 2012 and July 2013, was not recorded by the CBN, which only got $47bn, leaving $20bn unaccounted for.

He also revealed that between the same period, the NNPC failed to remit a $49.8bn of oil proceeds to the federation account. After verbal outbursts which generated controversies among industry operators and financial experts, Sanusi appeared before the legislature and quoted another figure. The Presidency moved in and imposed an indefinite suspension on him, leading to uproar. He was soon named the 14th Emir of Kano in the same year.

Many festivals and national holidays were observed in the year. Some of them include the New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. The Eyo Festival was also held in February on Lagos Island, at the Palace of the Oba. Dressed in white gowns and specially coloured hats, the Eyo danced all over Lagos praying as they went.

In the year President Jonathan and his predecessor, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, had disagreements over the state of affairs in the country, with the former President writing an open letter to President Jonathan. The latter replied to the letter via another open letter. Both letters were widely reviewed.

Also in politics, the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Dr. Bamanga Tukur was forced to resign on  January 15, over face-off between him and the PDP governors which was reported as the reason for his forced resignation. The party, on January 20, settled for Dr Adamu Mu’azu, a former governor of Bauchi State as national chairman.

Former governor of Edo State, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, emerged national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on June 14. Having merged last year, the APC in Abuja elected Oyegun by consensus, despite initial opposition in some quarters. With the outcome of the national convention which produced the APC national chairman, former chieftain of the APC and a crucial member of the merger process, Chief Tom Ikimi, crossed over to PDP. Another former chieftain of the APC, a former governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sheriff, moved to the PDP, citing irreconcilable differences. He had been in the opposition since 1999.

Former governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, also left the APC, moving to the PDP. Former Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, an integral member of the APC merger, defected to the PDP. Former governor of Anambra State,Mr  Peter Obi, switched from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to the ruling PDP. In Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko defected from the Labour Party (LP) to the PDP. Former vice-president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, formally resigned from the PDP and joined the APC.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, also abandoned the PDP for APC, which raised a debate over whether or not he should forfeit his seat. His party loyalists argued that he had not done anything wrong under the Constitution while the opposition insisted that he should resign.

Two governorship elections were held in Ekiti and Osun states. Mr Ayo Fayose of the PDP defeated the serving governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi. The APC cried foul and went to court but Mr Fayose still defeated them in court. Governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, of the APC defeated PDP candidate, Mr Iyiola Omisore, in the state election.

In the year, a national dialogue was held between March and August.  President Jonathan constituted a 494-member delegation that participated in the National Conference, under the leadership of former Supreme Court Judge; justice Idris Kutigi. The conference had a mandate to discuss various national issues and come up with resolutions. The APC rejected the conference, describing it as diversionary. President Jonathan’s plan to turn in the decisions of the conference to the National Assembly also generated heat. The confab faced criticisms owing to the suspicion that it could be used to prolong the President’s tenure. It ended with a minor amendment to the third volume of the confab report by replacing the draft constitution to read, ‘Resolutions of the conference as draft amendments to 1999 Constitution’.

This year also saw the removal of some elected government officers, prominent of which was former governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako. He was impeached over charges of abuse of office. Some analysts believe that his removal was influenced by Abuja over his allegation that the President was sponsoring the insurgency in the North-East region. Nyako had defected alongside four other governors to the APC.

There were also court cases that helped to define the political landscape. The eligibility of President Jonathan to contest the 2015 election was put to the test at the courts this year. Also, a federal high court in Abuja struck out a case instituted by the PDP seeking to sack five of its governors that defected to the APC. The national chairman of the PDP, Adamu Mu’azu, however, survived a move to sack him from office in court, over the manner of his emergence as chairman.

The electoral commission, ahead of 2015 general elections, began the distribution of the Permanent Voter Cards and the Continuous Voter Registration exercises.

Former president and ex-head of state, Chief Obasanjo, released his memoir entitled ‘My Watch’, a narrative of events while he was in office, which detailed some critical and uncomplimentary remarks on some famous Nigerians, including his former deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Nobel laureate, Perof Wole Soyinka; but he had positive comments for the late human rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi.

Keshi

In the sports arena, Nigeria’s Super Falcons made headlines when they reclaimed the continental soccer crown which they lost to Equatorial Guinea two years ago by beating the Indomitable Queens of Cameroun in the final of the African Women Championship in Namibia. They thus qualify

ied for the 2015 FIFA Women World Cup. The victory means a lot, especially because it comes at a time when the national male football team, Super Eagles, gave the country a heartache when it failed to qualify for the 2015 edition of the African Champions Cup which it won last year in South Africa. As a result, Steven Keshi, the coach, was sacked by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and Amodu Shaibu appointed in his stead. Amodu had set about organising a team to prosecute the last two games against South Africa and Congo, only for President Jonathan to order the reinstatement of the sacked Keshi.

The year could also be said to be when Nigeria became Ebola-free. The news that the couuntry is Ebola-free was received with much relief by Nigerians abroad. Reports say they were suffering some veiled stigmatisation. On Octo­ber 20, the World Health Organisation (WHO) de­clared “end of Ebola in Nigeria”. This could be described as a day filled with nostalgia among the Nigerian communities in Europe and the United States. The spectacular declaration that the country reached a 42-day mark without a new incident of Ebola virus, when odds were stacked against it because it was seen as one of the nations without adequate health care infrastructure was cheered in many quarters. Unfortunately, prior to WHO’s declaration, the Western media had dubbed Nigeria among the  Ebola-plagued West African countries which included Sierra Leon, Guinea, and Liberia, At that time the country was doing everything pos­sible to curb the disease; it was iden­tifying the chains of infection and breaking them to avoid the widespread of the disease. The negative media reporting made most Nigerians abroad fearful of stigmati­sation.

The fear was elevated when Dallas received its first index case in the person of Thomas Eric Dun­can, who arrived to Dallas from Li­beria via Brussels and Washington on September 20. Duncan first started feeling ill on September 24, and the next day he went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas where he was misdiag­nosed and sent home with some prescriptions. Still feeling ill, Dun­can rode on an ambulance to the same hospital on September 28 and was admitted as it became obvious he was exhibiting symptoms of Ebola virus. Once properly diag­nosed, Duncan began receiving treatment and died on October 8, 11 days after being admitted at the Texas hospital.

Duncan’s condition and his sub­sequent death sent America into panic. Nigerians in the U.S. were afraid of the stigma. It is reported that 19 people died of Ebola in Nigeria and that number could have been worse if not for the timely, deliberate and thoughtful actions taken by the gov­ernment to combat the virus. The leadership of President Jonathan demonstrated that Nigeria is capable of solving com­plex problems if synergy prevails in government’s approach to tackling issues.

The world knows that Ebola poses potential ominous threat if the links of infection are not timely, accurately and correctly identified and broken efficiently. This is the only way to contain and control the virus once an index case became known. Nigeria stood tall and calm in the face of the potential catastrophe.

Patrick Sawyer, 40-year-old American living in Liberia, flew in to Nigeria on July 20, on Arik Airline to attend a conference. He brought the Ebola disease to the country. On arrival from Liberia, the Ebola disease struck and killed him, but not without afflict­ing a few Nigerians with the virus. Many citizens only got to know about the Ebola virus after the death of the brave woman who discovered the strange illness which Liberian Sawyer brought into the country and stopped him before more damage was done.

Dr. Stella Shade Ameyo Adadevoh, a member of staff of the First Consultant Hospital, Lagos, saved millions by detecting the symptoms in the sick man (through an impressive set of laboratory methods, using his blood samples). This led to the call for those he had come in contact with on the plane to be quarantined. Ebola virus (EBOV, formerly designated Zaire ebolavirus) is one of five known viruses within the genus Ebolavirus. Four of the five known ebolaviruses, including EBOV, cause a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans and other mammals, known as Ebola virus disease (EVD). Ebola virus has caused the majority of human deaths from EVD and is the cause of the 2013–2014 Ebola virus epidemics in the West African region and has resulted in, at least 19,374 suspected cases and 7,533 confirmed deaths. On August 19, it was reported that the doctor who treated Sawyer,  Adadevoh, had also died of Ebola disease. Adadevoh was posthumously praised for preventing Sawyer from leaving the hospital at the time of diagnosis, thereby playing a key role in curbing the spread of the virus in the country.

On September 22, the country’s health ministry announced,

Said WHO: “As of today, there is no case of Ebola in Nigeria. All listed contacts that were under surveillance have been followed up for 21 days.”

According to the body, 19 cases and seven deaths had been confirmed, along with the imported victims, who died. Four of the dead were health care workers who had cared for Sawyer. In all, 529 contacts had been followed and of that date, they all completed a 21-day mandatory period of surveillance. The WHO’s representative in Nigeria officially declared the country to be Ebola free on October 20 after no new active cases were reported in the follow up contacts, stating it was a “spectacular success story”.

On October 9, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) acknowledged Nigeria’s positive role in controlling the effort to contain the Ebola outbreak. #

“We wish to thank the Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, Nigeria, and the staff of the Ebola Emergency Centre who coordinated the management of cases, containment of outbreaks and treatment protocols in Nigeria.”

Nigeria’s quick responses, including intense and rapid contact tracing, surveillance of potential contacts, and isolation of all contacts were of particular importance in controlling and limiting the outbreak, according to the ECDC. Complimenting Nigeria’s successful efforts to control the outbreak, WHO declared the feat ‘a piece of world-class epidemiological detective work’. World Health Organi­zation (WHO) representa­tive Rui Gama Vaz said in a news conference on October 20, in Abuja.

“This is a spectacular success story,” in­dicating that the spread of the deadly disease could be con­tained as the country is rightfully po­sitioned to be the international laboratory where skills on how to control infectious diseases could be learned.’’

In the Judiciary, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar assumed office as the first female Chief Justice of Nigeria; she was celebrated both at home and abroad. At the time of her appointment, the image and integrity of the Judiciary was at its lowest ebb. Diezani-Allison Madueke, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, was also appointed the president of the Organisation of Oil Producing Countries (OPEC) on November 27, in Vienna, Austria, at the organisation’s 

166th meeting.

In September, the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, made headlines for the strangest of reasons – as his private jet was involved in flying the sum of $53. 9 million to South Africa ostensibly to purchase arms. The plane and cash were seized.

Oritsejafor and his wife had tried all they could to clear their names. It was explained that the company managing the lease of his private jet was responsible for the deal and he was never consulted. Despite these explanations, heavy criticism pursued him.

In sports, Nigeria’s World Cup campaign opened with a disappointing 0-0 draw with Iran. Four days later, the team played their second game against Bosnia and Herzegovina. A 29th-minute Peter Odemwingie goal gave Nigeria their first World Cup win since 1998. They faced Argentina in the final game: a third minute Lionel Messi goal for the opposition was followed almost instantly with an equaliser by Ahmed Musa. Messi gave Argentina the lead just before half-time. In the second half, Musa levelled scores again, only for Marcos Rojo to put Argentina 3-2 ahead minutes later. Nigeria lost, but still qualified for the round of 16.

In the second round, Nigeria faced France, and held them off until the 79th minute when a Paul Pogba header gifted France the lead. A goal by Joseph Yobo in injury time put the result beyond any doubt: Nigeria was out. This would be the third time Nigeria will get to round of 16 and they’ve never entered the quarter finals.

In the arts and entertainment world, Nigeria remains relevant, thanks to vibrant Music and Nollywood artistes such as Davido, P-Square, Wizkid and many others who have the most watched music videos on YouTube. Others are rap sensation Phyno and Tiwa Savage. The show business sector lost four of its members in the year. The first was Femi Allen, a popular music promoter. He died on November 24. Another one was Yoruba movie marketer, Zentury Picture boss, Femi Adelakun, who was a member of the Oyo State House of Assembly, and the Chairman Committee on Local Governments. He reportedly died in his house at Ipaja, Lagos while taking his breakfast. Another movie marketer, the boss of Decent Picture also died a day after Zentury Picture boss departed on Friday, November 28. Popular lewd singer, Abdul Azeez Halidu aka Zee World died after battling with cancer.

 

adichie

Nigeria’s female novelist Chimanmanda Adichie’s, ‘Americanah’, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction and she made CNN most-inspiring women list. Her book was made into a movie; ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ took the title from the book. The stories in the novel take place partly during Nigeria’s civil war, also known as the Biafran War, from 1967 to 1970, when southern provinces tried to secede.

The movie was directed by a Nigerian, Biyi Bandele. The Nigerian film dealing with one of the most searing episodes in the nation’s history, its civil war, and uniting some of Nigeria’s major cultural figures, has been initially banned, the film’s director said ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ based on an award-winning novel by one of the country’s leading writers, Adichie, was scheduled to open in Nigeria last Friday. But because the country’s film censorship board has refused to issue the movie a certificate, “it means essentially they have banned it”, the director, Biyi Bandele, said in an interview from London. The film, which had its premiere last year at the Toronto International Film Festival, was already showing in Britain and is scheduled to open in the United States at the time. One of its stars is Chiwetel Ejiofor, was the Nigerian actor starred in the Academy award-winning film, ‘12 Years a Slave”’. Other Nigerians in the film included Onyeka Onwenu.

In August,  ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ finally screened for the public in cinemas across Nigeria. However, this screening came almost three months after its premiere in the United States. The Nigerian National Film and Video Censors Board (NFCB) had banned the movie for fear that it would “incite violence”.