Category: Business Day

After four days of thought-provoking conversations, bold ideas, and meaningful connections, the curtains have fallen on the 58th International Conference and Exhibition (ICE) of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM), leaving thousands of HR professionals with a renewed commitment to create measurable value and lasting impact in their organisations.

The conference brought together over 4,000 physical delegates and over 1,000 virtual delegates from across Nigeria and beyond, reinforcing its position as Africa’s largest gathering of human resource professionals.

Delivering his closing remarks,

Mallam Ahmed Ladan Gobir, the President and Chairman of the Governing Council of CIPM, reflected on the journey of the conference and the significance of the conversations that shaped the event.

‘We came, we learned, we networked, and we connected,’ he said, capturing the essence of a conference that brought together business leaders, HR professionals, policymakers, academics, and global experts around the theme, ‘Repositioning for Value and Impact.’

Mallam Gobir noted that while the conference sessions had come to an end, the real work was only beginning.

‘The real conference begins when we return to our boardrooms, leadership teams and organisations. What we have learned here must be translated into action, measurable value and lasting impact,’ he charged.

According to him, the conference succeeded in providing delegates with more than just knowledge.

‘This conference has given us knowledge and memories to take home. The challenge before us now is to ensure that the lessons learned become catalysts for transformation in our workplaces and institutions,’ he said.

Expressing appreciation to participants, speakers, sponsors, exhibitors and partners, the CIPM President acknowledged the vital role delegates played in making the event a success.

‘There is no conference without the people, and you all brought this one to life. We are grateful to every delegate who travelled from different parts of Nigeria and the world in search of knowledge, collaboration and professional growth,’ he added.

Throughout the conference, delegates engaged in insightful discussions on some of the most pressing issues shaping the future of people management, including human-centred leadership, public sector transformation, organisational performance, governance, workforce productivity, artificial intelligence, human capability, HR standards, career development and the evolving expectations of business leaders from the HR profession.

A major highlight of the conference was the announcement of a growing international recognition of CIPM and its commitment to advancing global standards in people management.

Mallam Gobir noted that the Institute continues to deepen its global footprint through mutual recognition and strategic partnerships with leading professional bodies, including the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Chartered Professionals in Human Resources (CPHR), the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the World Federation of People Management Associations (WFPMA).

He described the partnerships as a testament to the growing influence of Nigerian HR professionals on the global stage and a reflection of CIPM’s commitment to ensuring that its members remain globally competitive.

In another significant announcement, the CIPM President revealed that the Third African Human Resource Summit will be held alongside the 59th International Conference and Exhibition (ICE 2027) next year, a development expected to further strengthen collaboration among HR practitioners across the continent and consolidate Africa’s voice in the global people management ecosystem.

The conference featured an impressive lineup of renowned speakers, business executives, public sector leaders and HR thought leaders who challenged participants to rethink conventional approaches to people management and embrace innovation, data-driven decision-making and value creation.

Many delegates described the conference as one of the most impactful editions in recent years. They praised the quality of the speakers, the relevance of the sessions and the diverse networking opportunities that enabled meaningful exchanges among professionals from different industries and countries.

As delegates departed Abuja with fresh insights, new partnerships and renewed inspiration, the closing message remained clear: the success of the conference will not be measured by the number of sessions held or contacts exchanged, but by the value created and the impact delivered in workplaces, organisations and communities.

With the curtains drawn on the 58th International Conference and Exhibition, CIPM has once again reinforced its position as the leading voice of people management in Africa, leaving participants with a renewed commitment to reposition themselves and their organisations for greater value, relevance and impact in an increasingly dynamic world of work.

Nigeria is calling for a fundamental reform of the United Nations’ global power structure, arguing that an institution created around the balance of power in 1945 must reflect the realities of today.

Delivering President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s national statement at the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, Vice President Kashim Shettima said reform of the UN must begin with the reconstitution of the Security Council.

‘The world of 2026 cannot remain captive to the distribution of power in 1945,’ Shettima said, arguing that Africa cannot continue to feature prominently on the Council’s agenda while remaining excluded from permanent membership.

Nigeria is seeking at least two permanent seats for Africa, with the full rights and responsibilities of permanent membership, including veto power for as long as the veto remains. It is also demanding five non-permanent seats for the continent.

The position is supported by the African Union, which has called for at least two permanent African seats with veto rights while the veto remains, alongside five non-permanent seats.

However, changing the structure of the Security Council faces significant diplomatic challenges.

The Council currently has 15 members, including five permanent members, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, all of which have veto powers.

The future of the veto remains one of the major issues in the reform debate. Proposals have included extending the veto to new permanent members, withholding it from them, abolishing it or limiting its use.

Africa’s position is that if the veto remains, any new African permanent members should have the same rights.

The debate also raises questions about Nigeria’s own diplomatic engagement.

President Tinubu has missed the UN General Assembly for three consecutive years, with Shettima representing him. The Presidency has maintained that the Vice-President has the President’s full mandate and that his representation does not diminish Nigeria’s diplomatic standing.

However, some analysts have highlighted the value of presidential participation in high-level international diplomacy.

Professor Ayo Olukoju, Professor of History and Strategic Studies at the University of Lagos, has described the General Assembly as a major diplomatic platform where direct engagement between national leaders can help advance negotiations.

Former Foreign Service officer Iliyasu Gadu has similarly argued that presidential-level diplomacy can be important where international decisions require the authority and personal engagement of the President.

Kelechi Nwogu, a research fellow at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, said Tinubu’s absence has implications for Nigeria’s international visibility and could reduce opportunities for direct engagement with other leaders.

Professor Joshua Bolarinwa of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, however, has argued that Nigeria can be adequately represented by the Vice-President, Foreign Affairs Minister or its Permanent Representative to the UN.

The debate therefore extends beyond whether the President should personally attend the General Assembly. It raises broader questions about how Nigeria can combine presidential engagement, professional diplomacy and multilateral representation to advance its interests.

For Nigeria and Africa, the push for permanent representation goes beyond an annual speech. It is a challenge to a global system created in 1945, but changing that system will require sustained negotiations and sufficient international support.

As Nigeria calls for a greater African voice at the UN, the debate at home also centres on how effectively the country is using every available diplomatic channel to pursue that objective.

Nations are often remembered through the leaders they elect. Just as often, however, they are shaped by the entrepreneurs they produce.

The story of modern Nigeria cannot be told without its great business builders. Aliko Dangote redefined industrial production. Tony Elumelu transformed banking and democratized entrepreneurship. Femi Otedola expanded his influence in energy while elevating the culture of strategic philanthropy.

Among them stands Mike Adenuga, one of the most consequential yet least understood figures in Nigeria’s economic history.

Known as both the ‘Gentle Giant’ and ‘The Bull,’ Adenuga has spent more than four decades reshaping Nigeria’s economy while avoiding the spotlight. He grants few interviews, makes even fewer public appearances, and appears to have concluded long ago that publicity is overrated. Instead, he lets his businesses do the talking.

They have been remarkably chatty.

From telecommunications and oil to banking, real estate, aviation, sports, and entertainment, Adenuga has built enterprises that touch virtually every strategic sector of the Nigerian economy. His companies have done more than create wealth. They have challenged monopolies, expanded access, created jobs, and strengthened indigenous participation in industries long dominated by foreign interests.

Nowhere is that more evident than in telecommunications.

When Globacom entered Nigeria’s telecom market in 2003, mobile communication remained too expensive for many Nigerians. A few operators dominated the industry and consumers had limited options. Adenuga recognized something simple but powerful: telecommunications could not drive national development if ordinary people could not afford to use it.

His introduction of per-second billing changed the game.

Competitors were forced to rethink their pricing models, and millions of Nigerians suddenly gained more affordable access to communication. It was not merely a clever marketing strategy. It reshaped an industry.

But Adenuga was never interested in winning today’s battle and ignoring tomorrow’s war. Through investments such as the Glo-1 submarine cable and an extensive fiber-optic network, Globacom helped lay the infrastructure for Nigeria’s digital future.

More than two decades later, Globacom remains Nigeria’s only wholly indigenous telecommunications giant. In a capital-intensive industry dominated by global players, that achievement is both commercial and symbolic. It demonstrates that Nigerian-owned companies can compete at the highest level and win.

His success in oil and gas tells a similar story.

Through Congas and Conoil Producing, Adenuga built one of Nigeria’s leading indigenous energy companies in a sector historically controlled by multinational corporations. At a time when many assumed only foreign firms possessed the expertise and financial strength to operate at scale, Conoil proved otherwise.

Long before ‘local content’ became a policy buzzword, Adenuga was already practicing it. His success challenged the notion that world-class energy companies had to come from somewhere else.

His influence extended into banking as well, although that chapter receives far less attention.

Through his early investment in Equitorial Trust Bank, Adenuga supported efforts to expand access to modern financial services during a critical period in Nigeria’s economic development. His philosophy was straightforward: people cannot build wealth, grow businesses, or participate fully in the economy if they remain outside the financial system.

That vision outlived the institution itself. Equitorial Trust Bank later became part of Sterling Bank during the banking consolidation era, helping create a stronger institution with wider reach and greater capacity. While often overshadowed by his achievements in telecoms and energy, Adenuga’s contribution helped advance financial inclusion and strengthen Nigeria’s banking landscape.

Yet his ambitions were never confined to balance sheets and boardrooms.

Across Nigeria’s cities, his real estate investments have helped shape the physical spaces where economic activity occurs. Telecom networks may connect people and banks may finance growth, but somebody still has to build the offices, commercial hubs, and developments where that growth happens.

Real estate rarely enjoys the glamour of a telecom revolution or an oil discovery. Innovation gets magazine covers. Buildings get security guards and parking attendants. Yet cities do not grow on headlines. They grow because investors are willing to commit to concrete, steel, and long-term confidence.

Adenuga understood that. The same logic explains his presence in aviation.

Private jets are easy targets in a country where inequality remains a concern. But managing an enterprise that spans telecom networks, oil assets, banking interests, commercial properties, and multiple markets is not exactly a work-from-home arrangement.

For Adenuga, aviation is less about luxury than efficiency.

It is the difference between waiting and moving, between delay and execution. His aircraft serve as business tools that keep executives, engineers, and decision-makers connected across complex operations.

More importantly, every flight supports an ecosystem of pilots, engineers, maintenance specialists, airport operators, and service providers. In classic Adenuga fashion, what appears at first glance to be a personal asset often turns out to be part of a larger economic machine.

The man buys a plane; an entire value chain clocks in for work.

Perhaps the most revealing aspect of Adenuga’s career is that he rarely speaks about national development while consistently investing in it.

His support for football, entertainment, and culture has helped project Nigerian talent beyond the country’s borders. Through sponsorships and strategic investments, he has backed not only businesses but also something economists often struggle to quantify: national confidence.

Successful nations export more than products. They export culture, talent, stories, and identity.

Long before ‘soft power’ became fashionable policy language, Adenuga appeared to understand its value. His investments in sports and entertainment have amplified Nigeria’s voice globally while creating opportunities for artists, athletes, and creative professionals at home.

Perhaps that perspective comes from his own journey.

Before becoming one of Africa’s richest businessmen, Adenuga worked as a taxi driver in New York while pursuing his education. His rise from modest beginnings to the summit of African business has become part of Nigerian entrepreneurial folklore.

Yet the significance of his story is not simply the wealth he accumulated.

Many people make money. Far fewer redefine industries.

What distinguishes Adenuga is his repeated willingness to enter sectors where Nigerians were told they could not compete and then proceed to prove the skeptics spectacularly wrong.

Most business leaders are remembered for the companies they build. A much smaller group are remembered for changing entire industries.

Mike Adenuga belongs firmly in the latter category.

Today, his influence is woven into the fabric of modern Nigerian life. Millions communicate through networks he built. Businesses operate within systems he helped shape. Entire industries became more competitive because he challenged assumptions others accepted as permanent.

Mike Adenuga is more than a billionaire. He is a nation-builder, a disruptor, a patron of culture, and a powerful symbol of indigenous enterprise. His legacy extends far beyond market valuations and rich lists.

The ultimate measure of his contribution may be the idea he has spent decades proving: that Nigerian-owned companies can innovate, compete, and succeed on the global stage.

Nigerian entrepreneurs have been urged to inspire a new generation of innovators as the Telecommunication and Technology Sustainability Working Group (TTSWG) convened a broad spectrum of policymakers and thought-leaders to deepen conversation on driving sustainable innovation acros the country.

ý’There are different milestones in building an innovation, but one critical part is the ability to inspire a new generation of innovators. This is part of what the conference seeks to achieve,’ Bankole Oloruntoba, lead consultant at the TTSWG Secretariat, said during the second edition of the Innovation Makers Challenge (IMC) Conference and Innovation Exhibition 2.0, themed, ‘Nurturing Innovation Ecosystems: Beyond Ideas to Real Impact.’

ý

ýOloruntoba said that the broader vision of IMC 2.0 was to deepen support for sustainability in the technology and telecommunication sector. According to him, the IMC was built on the premise of supporting innovation and creating a convergence for young innovators within those sectors.

ý

ý’We know the sector cannot attain sustainability with just technology alone; we also have to bring in other essential components or wide-range of activities.

ý

ý’When we had the first Innovation Makers Challenge Conference and Exhibition, we had quite a number of participants. The first edition focused mostly on two sectors, while today we have expanded to five sectors – health, agriculture, education, climate change and technology,’ Oloruntoba said.

ýDapo Otunla, senior vice president and chief corporate services officer, IHS Nigeria, said that the conference provided a platform for closing the gap between infrastructure and imagination, and between connectivity and capability by creating opportunities for young innovators to come into the ecosystem, leveraging their creativity to solve real-life problems.

ý

ý’As a company, we believe education is one of the most powerful forms of economic empowerment available to us. When entrepreneurs are equipped with the right knowledge, they build stronger businesses. They create employment, develop other people, make smarter decisions and scale responsibly,’ Otunla said.

ý

ýAccording to him, the conference aimed to solve critical challenges that exist between having an idea and knowing what to do with the idea. ‘This is the intersection where the Innovation Makers Challenge lives: the meeting point between infrastructure and imagination, between connectivity and capability. That’s the gap this conference exists to close.’

ý

ýThis year’s conference was characterised by a top-five live pitch session featuring all-female early-stage Innovators: QiqiFarms (farm produce offtaker AgriTech), Elcornel Business Enterprises Limited (climate-friendly AgriTech), Anatsor Limited (tech-based poultry farming management software enabler), Agrovesto (tech-based AgriTech pioneering operating system for bankable and sustainable agriculture), and Blue Sands STEM Labs (a virtual lab EdTech).

ý

ýThe three winners of the pitch received a combined N9.5 million seed fund to support their growth. Agrovesto received N6 million (prize winner); Blue Sands STEM Labs, N2 million (first runner up); and QiqiFarms, N1 million (second runner up).ý

Economic instability has become an unavoidable reality of doing business in Nigeria, and a few sectors feel their consequences as directly as project development and management.

From residential buildings and commercial centres to roads, industrial facilities, and public infrastructure, projects are conceived on assumptions about cost, financing, time, and market conditions.

Yet, those assumptions can change dramatically between conception and completion. Nigeria has experienced significant shifts in inflation, exchange rates, fuel prices, interest rates and the cost of imported inputs in recent years.

Although recent reforms have contributed to improved macroeconomic stability, inflationary pressures remain significant and external shocks continue to pose risks. The World Bank reported that Nigeria’s economy grew by about 4 per cent in 2025, supported by services, real estate, ICT and construction, while inflation remained elevated.

The IMF has similarly noted that renewed global fuel and food-price pressures can quickly feed into domestic inflation and transport costs. For project stakeholders, therefore, economic volatility is no longer something to be considered only after problems arise; it must be incorporated into project planning from the beginning.

The effect of economic fluctuations on projects is particularly visible in construction. A developer who prepared a bill of quantities, obtained financing and negotiated contracts at one price level may discover that the same project requires substantially more money several months later.

Inflation, exchange-rate movements, and fuel costs can affect cement, steel, electrical components, plumbing materials, finishing products, transportation, and equipment.

The situation becomes more complicated when projects depend on imported materials or equipment, because exchange-rate movements can alter the naira cost even when the international price remains unchanged. Recent Nigerian research has found significant relationships between exchange-rate volatility, imported material costs and budget revisions in construction projects.

This creates a dangerous cycle: rising costs produce budget pressures; budget pressures delay procurement; delays expose projects to another round of price increases; and the resulting cost escalation may threaten the original financial viability of the project. In practical terms, a project that looked profitable at commencement can become financially unattractive before completion.

Time, therefore, has become an economic variable in project management. Traditionally, project managers are expected to control the familiar triangle of cost, time and quality. In an unstable economic environment, however, these variables are increasingly interconnected.

A delay of three or six months is not merely a scheduling problem when interest is accumulating on borrowed funds, contractors are demanding revised prices and construction materials are becoming more expensive.

For property developers in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and other rapidly developing urban centres, delayed completion can also mean delayed rental income, delayed sales and additional security, maintenance and professional costs.

Globally, major infrastructure and construction projects face similar challenges from commodity-price movements, supply-chain disruptions, geopolitical tensions and changes in financing conditions.

The lesson is important for Nigeria: project schedules should not be treated as static documents. They should be actively monitored against economic developments, with realistic contingency provisions and clearly defined procedures for dealing with material changes in project conditions.

Financing is another area where economic fluctuations can fundamentally alter project outcomes. Higher interest rates increase the cost of borrowing and can make projects that appeared viable under one financial environment considerably more expensive under another.

Developers who rely heavily on debt financing must therefore examine not only the initial cost of a project but also the sensitivity of its financial returns to changes in interest rates, exchange rates, construction costs, occupancy levels and selling prices.

This is particularly important in Nigeria, where real estate development often involves substantial upfront expenditure and a relatively long period before revenue is realised. A sound feasibility study should consequently contain alternative scenarios rather than a single optimistic projection.

What happens if construction costs rise by 15 per cent? What if the exchange rate moves significantly? What if sales take longer than expected? What if interest rates remain high for another two years? Scenario analysis does not eliminate uncertainty, but it enables stakeholders to understand the consequences before committing substantial capital.

The contractual framework surrounding a project must also reflect economic reality. In periods of relatively stable prices, parties may be comfortable with fixed-price arrangements, but prolonged volatility can expose contractors, consultants and clients to risks that were not properly anticipated at contract signing.

Appropriate price-adjustment or escalation mechanisms, clearly defined variation procedures, realistic completion provisions and transparent risk allocation can help prevent economic shocks from becoming disputes.

This does not mean that every increase in cost should automatically be transferred to the client. Rather, the parties should determine in advance which risks each party is capable of managing and which risks require shared arrangements.

Professional advisers therefore have an increasingly important role to play. Quantity surveyors must provide realistic cost advice; architects and engineers should consider cost-effective specifications; valuers must pay attention to changing market evidence; financiers must stress-test project assumptions; and project managers must coordinate these perspectives into a coherent delivery strategy.

In a volatile economy, multidisciplinary collaboration is no longer a luxury-it is a project-survival mechanism. Technology and better information can further strengthen project resilience. Digital project-management platforms, cost-monitoring systems, Building Information Modelling, procurement databases and data analytics can give stakeholders earlier warning when project performance begins to diverge from the original plan.

Internationally, project organisations are increasingly using data-driven forecasting and scenario modelling to manage uncertainty in complex projects. Nigeria should move in the same direction.

A project manager should know not only how much has already been spent, but also why costs are changing, which procurement items are most vulnerable, how much exposure remains and what alternative actions are available.

For large projects, periodic economic-risk reviews should become part of project governance. Rather than waiting for a budget crisis, stakeholders can monitor inflation, exchange rates, fuel prices, interest rates and supply-chain conditions and incorporate the information into procurement and cash-flow decisions.

The objective is not to predict the future perfectly; it is to make the project sufficiently responsive to changing circumstances.

Ultimately, economic fluctuations do not necessarily make successful project delivery impossible; they make disciplined project management more important. Nigeria’s improving macroeconomic conditions provide opportunities for renewed investment, with the World Bank reporting stronger activity in sectors including real estate and construction, while the IMF has identified continuing external and domestic risks that require vigilance.

The appropriate response from project stakeholders is therefore neither excessive pessimism nor unrealistic optimism, but preparedness.

Developers must strengthen feasibility studies and financial planning; financiers must examine risk realistically; contractors must improve procurement and cost control; consultants must provide timely and evidence-based advice; and project managers must become more proactive in identifying and responding to economic risks.

The Nigerian project environment may remain uncertain, but uncertainty can be managed when stakeholders recognise that economic conditions are part of the project itself. In the years ahead, the projects that preserve cost, time, quality and ultimately value will increasingly be those managed not merely as construction or investment exercises, but as dynamic economic systems capable of adapting to change.

It is all colour and glamour across the destinations today September 27th as countries and people of the world roll out drums to celebrate the World Tourism Day (WTD)2026.

The celebration, which has been observed since 1980, puts tourism on global spotlight as stakeholders and the international community commemorate WTD in the light of the importance of tourism to global peace, economy and development today.

As of 2025, tourism and travel industry contributed a record $USD11.6 trillion to the global economy, accounting for 9.8 percent of the world economy, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

The industry also supported 366 million jobs worldwide, which equals about one in every ten jobs globally, while being projected to contribute $USD12 trillion in 2026 and $USD16 trillion by 2034.

The above are top among the reasons Skal International Nigeria took advantage of the celebration to spotlight the country’s tourism potential.

The Nigeria chapter of the world’s largest professional organisation of tourism leaders, took this year’s celebration a notch higher with a specially curated familiarization trip to Badagry, a Lagos border town, which is better known for its slave trade history and relics.

But the trip also did not dwell much in the past, it highlighted the enormous tourism potential of Badagry, how the potential, hugely untapped, can turn things around and push Badagry to a world-class destination.

Yet, the familiarization trip was special as it not only commemorated the 2026 WTD, it most importantly, hosted for the first time ever, André Hayes, world president of Skål International, who was on his way to the 85th Skål International World Congress 2026, scheduled for September 29- October 2, 2026 at Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa.

With the presence of Hayes, the Skal International Nigeria chapter’s WTD 2026, which was themed,

‘Roots, Royalty and Flavors: A Historical and Cultural Journey Through Badagry’, was all about fun, friendship in the spirit of Skal, and networking.

The full day trip, which commenced from two take off points: City Mall and Ikeja Mall at 8:00am, witnessed excitement across board until late evening when the tour buses headed back to Lagos metropolis with the satiated members.

Dressed in their Skal blue t-shirts, the members, who run thriving businesses in the tourism and travel industry, were elated at embarking on the trip.

From city tours, museum visits, community engagements, boat cruise, walk in slave routes and to eating with the locals, the trip lived up to their expectations.

The first point of call, on arriving Badagry by road, was the Badagry Heritage Museum, which is located on Lander Road, Marina, Badagry, where the Zangbeto Masquerade, entertained the visitors, welcoming them to the ancient town, while offering them a piece of culture and tradition of the people.

At the museum, which is located in the former administrative building of British District Officer, Peter Oliade-Mesewaku, the curator, noted that the building was constructed in 1863, and converted into a museum in 2002.

Read also: US chamber of commerce opens new tourism investment window with $10bn fund for EWAA

He guided the Skal International members through the eight galleries of the museum, amid trailing the history of slave trade.

Original slave trade objects like manacles and shackles bore witness of the inhuman trade, while replicas of slave ships offer more insights of the era.

He also took the visitors through conditions of the slave in the Americas, the abolition, freedom and post slavery era.

The visitors got many in sober reflection and mood. But the earlier warning by the curator not to bear grudges, helped them to recover afterwards.

From the museum, the visitors went for food tourism at Iya Alajogun Compound, where 73-year-old Iya Alajogun made Ajogun, the famous Badagry biscuit. Of course, the visitors learnt, had a taste and took home a piece of the heritage.

Another exciting stop was at the Agia Tree Monument, the spot where Christianity was first preached in Nigeria in 1842. Again, the tour guide took the visitors through faith and history combined in one spot.

Many, especially the Chritians among the visitors, took pictures at the spot, which now has improved fittings and infrastructure for tourists’ comfort.

At the Vlekete Slave Market Museum, the visitors were taken through the spiritual side of the slave trade business as lots of sacrifices were made to appease the goddess before the slaves commence their journey to the slave ships.

One gory sight at the museum is the dungeon for the unsold slaves.

But the boat cruise to Gberefu Island to see the Point of No Return, was the highlight for many.

The cruise allowed the visitors to cross the lagoon and walk the path their ancestors took to the slave ships to the unknown land.

The about 10 minutes’ walk from the lagoon across Gberefu Island to the Point of No Return by the Atlantic Ocean shore was nostalgic as many keep reflecting on the sufferings of the slaves, their mindset at the moment, and the huge loss to Africa as most of them were able-bodied, very intelligent, and brave.

Getting to the Point of No Return called for more moody moments and powerful moments of remembrance as the edifice signaled the last hope of light, of life, of existence, of touch with ancestral home and sadly, goodbye to relatives they can never see again.

The Lagos State government is building a gigantic arch, far bigger than the Point of No Return to recreate the journeys of the slaves to their last point of sanity.

What seems hope is the plan by the Lagos State government to attract Nigerian and African diasporas in the Americas home through the ‘Door of Return’, a gigantic door by the Badagry waterfront to Gberefu Island.

The cruise allowed the visitors to cross the lagoon and walk the path their ancestors took to the slave ships to the unknown land.

The about 10 minutes’ walk from the lagoon across Gberefu Island to the Point of No Return by the Atlantic Ocean shore was nostalgic as many keep reflecting on the sufferings of the slaves, their mindset at the moment, and the huge loss to Africa as most of them were able-bodied, very intelligent, and brave.

Getting to the Point of No Return called for more moody moments and powerful moments of remembrance as the edifice signaled the last hope of light, of life, of existence, of touch with ancestral home and sadly, goodbye to relatives they can never see again.

But the visitors were relieved after encountering the ordeals at Point of No Return by juicy coconut sold by locals at the waterfront. The medical water and unripe seed, rich in vitamins, did the magic.

The visit culminated with a sumptuous local meal at a trendy restaurant in town, where the visitors tried local delicacies.

Speaking on his visit during the meal at the restaurant, the Skal International Global President, who earlier led a delegation to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Lagos State, where they were received by Bopo Oyekan-Ismaila, the permanent secretary, thanked the Nigerian chapter for having him again in the country. It has been 30 years since I have been here and I am delighted to be back,’ Hayes said in Badagry.

Hayes, who noted that he was on his way to Skal International World Congress in Mandela Bay, South Africa, noted that despite all the political situation, at the end of the day, all are colleagues. ‘We started our organisation based on one legitimate situation, which was all about being friends.

‘We need to go back to our roots and to focus on what we are. We are friends before anything else. And despite everything that is happening, not just here in the region, but all around the world, we are still friends,’ Hayes reaffirmed.

Considering the changing times, the global president urged the Nigerian chapter to embrace the change.

‘One of the things I am going to encourage you is that times have changed. The industry is changing, and for that reason we have to change as an organisation, but without losing our values, which is the most important aspect of it’.

He also confessed witnessing the true spirit of Skal among members of the Nigerian chapter.

Apart from the ones that I have seen in multiple locations at world conferences, I am walking out today with 43 new friends,’ he concluded.

Speaking at the full day event, Ademola Sanya, National President of Skål International Nigeria, noted that it was such a satisfying moment to have Skal’s world president visit members in Nigeria.

‘He has gone to a lot of places. I think it is imperative that he visits a country where the largest delegate at any congress comes from, which is Nigeria,’ Sanya said.

Reflecting on tourism, Sanya regretted that there is so much potential that is untapped, while calling for collaborations to develop tourism and make it count.

‘Today we visited Badagry. The potential from an outsider is much. From those of us that are in the tourism space, we have seen so much potential here that can be harnessed.

‘The same thing that people sell around the world and make lots of money from is lying fallow around the streets of Badagry. Let me be honest with you.

‘If I live in Badagry, we will have an association in Badagry that will be selling artefacts, things that relate to Badagry,’ Sanya noted.

For Chudi Aligwekwe, president, Lagos Chapter of Skål International, the host, the visit to Badagry was very unique considering that it witnessed the presence of Skal’s Global President, as well as timely as it marks World Tourism Day 2026.

He appreciated the global president for his visit, which he described as timely. He also noted that Nigeria is very important to Skal considering the huge membership as Lagos alone has over 90 members.

Speaking on tourism, he noted that all over the world, tourism is a big industry. ‘I encourage people who are in this space to try and belong to clubs that go beyond just making money like Skal.

‘It is not just that we are here as members, we are first of all friends because the main tenet of Skal is friendship first and you can do business after,’ he concluded.

Enugu poet James Ngwu Eze has said that being named among the final three for the 2026 Nigeria Prize for Literature felt, for a moment, as if he had already won Africa’s richest literary award.

Eze’s third collection, Unbind Me Now (Masobe Books), shares the shortlist with Ogaga Ifowodo’s Why Does God Need a Gun? and Tares Oburumu’s Flora’s Love Colony. The three titles were chosen from 223 entries and an 11-book longlist. The $100,000 prize, sponsored by Nigeria LNG Limited, is expected to be announced on 9 October.

In an interview after the shortlist was published, Eze said a friend’s call brought ‘relief, disbelief’ and the sense that the book had ‘finally found its readers.’ He had completed the manuscript in December 2025. On 11 February 2026, before the public had seen the new poems, the English Department of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University honoured him as ‘The People’s Poet’ after a reading of his debut, *Dispossessed*.

‘It means a great deal to me that, out of 223 books, mine was named among the three best poetry books in Nigeria in 2026,’ he said. ‘I feel immense validation. I feel noticed. I feel seen.’

The prize advisory board praised Unbind Me Now for ‘fluid and aesthetically captivating language’ and a movement from sociopolitical dysfunction toward redemption. Eze said that reading matched his design: he had ‘deliberately woven layers of hope into most of the poems.’

Dispossessed was longlisted for the same prize in 2022 and won the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize in 2020. Eze described the new collection as a more battered speaker taking ‘a bold and courageous rise to the tongue of the inferno.’

He rejected talk of losing. ‘I don’t go into any contest with the slightest thought of not winning,’ he said. ‘God, who led me this far on this journey, will crown me with glory.’

If the book does not take the prize, he still wants it remembered as ‘a watershed in Nigeria’s contemporary poetry’ and ‘the book whose impact rang the loudest in recent memory.’

Every now and then, mass death occurs at an oil site, fuel tanker site, or a mine. The frequent news of mass deaths is looking like a new normal. Environmental activists and organisations have taken a note of this.

One of the organisations, The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre Nigeria (YEAC-Nigeria), led by Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface as Executive Director, has raised a red flag, saying as the 2027 general elections draw near, it is important for citizens to intensify their demands on the political elite, especially on issues neglected by the political class which, unknowingly to them, threaten the fabric, progress, and sustainability of Nigeria’s nascent democracy.

In a long review sent on in the week in Port Harcourt, Fyneface said apart from the dozens who died in Rumuekpe in 2021 at illegal refinery site, over 100 who lost their lives in illegal refining activities in the Ohaji/Egbema-ONELGA axis along the Rivers/Imo States boundary in 2022, and over 35, including pregnant women, who died in Ibaa community in Emohua LGA, Rivers State on October 2, 2023 (to mention but a few), in less than three weeks in September 2026 alone, Nigeria has lost over 74 citizens to alleged illegal petroleum resource tapping in Rivers State and the arrest, detention and death in an NSCDC facility in Minna over alleged involvement in illegal mining activities in Niger State.

He decried lack of adequate concern for such deaths by either government or facility owners. ‘Yet the solutions to these problems have been proposed and are readily available to them for implementation but neglected by the political class.

‘The spontaneous protest over the death of 37 citizens in Niger State showed at least that the people are pained, even if they died following involvement in alleged illegal mining. On the other hand, the bottom-top silence over the alleged death of no fewer than 37 citizens in Rivers State showed otherwise. The subsequent denial of their deaths, the unbroken silence, hiding of the incident and the threats to the life of one of those who tried to alert authorities so that steps could be taken to forestall future deaths, is a sign that some sections of society have lost sanity, absolutely so.’

He mentioned what he termed organized threats to YEAC-Nigeria for reporting the incident as the only form of response on the Okrika matter.

Fyneface seemed pained that YEAC-Nigeria was an environmental guarantor to $1.25bn loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) with which the company built the facility. He said the threats were a violation of the rights of a corporate citizen but a threat to civil society, freedom of speech, expression, association and community development.

The statement noted that threats were not new to YEAC-Nigeria because of its experience in B-Dere Community in Gokana LGA in 2022 where YEAC-Nigeria was asked not to advocate in the community anymore.

He said the incident led to his kidnap and the scuttling of the Solar Mini-Grid Electricity Facilities for Communities Without Electricity (CWE).

He said his organisation looked forward to more communities in the Niger Delta telling YEAC-Nigeria not to advocate for them or report incidents in their communities, saying it is only to cover up organised criminal activities going on.

The letter noted that YEAC-Nigeria could report back to the IFC about inability to continue to guarantee the loans and activities in the area because ‘Our movements have been restricted around the facility, its operational areas and environs.’

PACORDI:

He recalled how on July 16, 2020, the late President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja-FCT launched the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMI) to transform and integrate illegal miners in parts of northern and western Nigeria into the national economy.

‘Eight days later, on Friday, July 24, 2020, the Executive Director of the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria), Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, in a radio telephone interview recommended the establishment of a corresponding initiative for artisanal refiners in the Niger Delta to be called the Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative (PACORDI).’

He recalled how his proposal eventually attracted a $3,500 grant to YEAC-Nigeria by Nnimmo Bassey from Global Greengrants Fund (GGF), USA, for the new initiative among other project activities. He said Bassey subsequently presented the PACORDI proposal to the FG through various engagements, including at the National Assembly on October 12, 2020, etc.

He stated: ‘With these two initiatives for illegal miners and artisanal refiners in the North, West and South on the table, one wonders what the FG is still waiting for to fully activate them and save the lives of citizens interested in the solid minerals, mining, oil and gas sectors.’

He said Nigeria’s democracy runs in a reverse mode, never making the people the focal point. ‘Solutions provided by the people should have been speedily reviewed and considered for implementation, not perennially ignored while citizens continue to die in their numbers – especially now that crude oil itself will soon be phased out as energy transition efforts intensify.

Why PACORDI, modular refineries must kick in, fast

‘Be reminded that the Stone Age did not end because the world ran out of stones. Coal did not phase out in Nigeria because we ran out of coal in Enugu and other parts of the country. In the same vein, crude oil, which the government has refused to put policies in place to utilize safely to save citizens’ lives by transitioning illegal refiners to legal refining, will someday remain in the soil like stone and coal as the world moves away from it.’

Moreover, he went on, Nigeria has adopted gas as its energy transition fuel and solar electricity is spreading like wildfire despite the slow pace of thermal and wind energy adoptions in Nigeria. ‘Thus, we need to utilise our crude now that it is still relatively useful by allowing all those willing to participate, including the artisanal refiners, under both PACORDI and modular refineries with environmental best practices ensured and guaranteed.’

YEAC-Nigeria said the lives of citizens must be important to the government at all levels. ‘The death of a citizen, no matter the circumstances or how poor the citizen is, must be taken as seriously as the death of a very important person in the class of a Council Chairman, Governor, or President, because that citizen is also a potential Chairman, Governor or President tomorrow if the survival circumstances of today did not take his or her life.’

The executive coordinator insisted that the oil companies have failed in their efforts to protect their pipelines and must accept responsibility when third-party interference occurs. ‘Also, the government must accept that it has failed through its conventional security formations to protect the nation’s natural resources, having handed over the task to civilians under private security arrangements to do what all the country’s security operatives combined could not do – protect the pipelines.’

This failure has been judicially established in cases in the UK against Nigerian oil firms, saying pleading vandalism or sabotage has been rejected by courts.

He said this judicial precedence means that any oil related firm whose facility was liable in the Okrika incident can be sued in their foreign headquarters on fundamentals such as failure to secure its hazardous by-product (Crack C5) under duty of care; negligent distribution and lack of control over off-takers leading to illegal mining/tapping, storage in residential houses/areas and deaths including those associated with fire incidents; and failure to warn and failure to prevent foreseeable misuse.

‘Now that this failure has been established and civilian-led proposals to protect the pipelines have relatively worked better, why should government not consider other people-driven proposals aimed at permanently addressing these problems through alternative livelihood opportunities including PAGMI, PACORDI and modular refineries?’, the statement queried.

He argued that the success of private security companies in addressing problems that government security agencies could not solve indicates that more solutions to the problems in the country, especially in the oil and gas sector, lie with the people.

YEAC-Nigeria, he noted, has made several proposals which ought to have curbed oil vandalism, but nothing was done about them. ‘Many government workers do not go to work but earn salaries, and many who do, do nothing serious whole day but busy themselves with office gossip, pressing phones, and focusing on immediate gratification.

‘In a democracy, government must be participatory with listening ears and effective feedback mechanisms because its ownership is of the people, its process of attaining power and functioning is by the people, and the purpose of its existence is for the benefit and service to the people.’

Thus, he stated, for democracy to thrive, citizens need economic inclusion and alternatives to organised crime. ‘When survival depends on organised criminality, democratic values such as civic responsibility and respect for the rule of law are eroded and evaporated.

‘In a country as endowed as Nigeria, and in a democracy for that matter, government policy or policy failures must not graduate from citizens dying for oil to the state systematically killing citizens by looking away as part of ways of providing natural resource governance, product security and pipeline protection – just to ensure oil flows sustainably and earns foreign exchange to be shared among all 36 states, 774 LGAs and the federal government from FAAC every 30 days in Abuja, FCT.’

He said Nigeria belongs to all. ‘It is not one man’s or a few men’s estate. We must join hands to make it work and better. The time to do so is now! A stitch in time saves nine.’

what was the first thing that went through your mind-relief, disbelief, or a sense that the work had finally found its readers?

It was all three and more: relief, because I had been praying for it; disbelief, because the competition was fierce; and a sense that Unbind Me Now had found its readers. The book’s conceptual tapestry placed me as a voice of the people. This line in the title poem is not innocent: our hopes blaze in a soaring bonfire / the poet sits on the tongue of the inferno / a human shield against obstinate fate. It places the poet as conscience, burden-bearer and truth-speaker. That role was foreshadowed in Dispossessed: for i am the missing lobe of poetry’s kolanut / the fearless chest that absorbs the anger of razor blades / i surrender my anvil at the crossroads / and unscrew the cork on my silence. I finished Unbind Me Now in December 2025. On 11 February 2026 the English Department of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University honoured me as ‘The People’s Poet’-people who had not read the manuscript. Is that how life imitates art?

You were already long listed for Dispossessed in 2022. How does this shortlisting feel different?

Being shortlisted for Africa’s biggest literary prize carries real weight. Out of 223 books, mine was named among the three best poetry collections in Nigeria in 2026. I feel validated, noticed, seen. In the solitary business of writing, being seen is fulfilment. I am grateful to NLNG for that historic chance.

The judges singled out ‘fluid and aesthetically captivating language’ and a movement from dysfunction toward redemption. Does that match how you hear the book?

It does. It means I have found language strong enough to bear my feelings and still range as poetry. Toni Morrison wrote that we die-that may be the meaning of life-but we do language, and that may be the measure of our lives. I do language. When silence falls on all things concerning me, I hope the memory of what I did with language remains. I also deliberately wove hope into the poems. When a reader still meets we are not doomed / to the fate of our fathers / far from darkness / we are light or even the sky must weep / herself empty to summon / the light to birth a rainbow, they see that the book prophesies hope, not only gloom. The judges read that watermark correctly.

Standing beside Ifowodo and Oburumu-two very different poetic temperaments-what does this shortlist say about Nigerian poetry in 2026?

It is a huge honour to stand with Ogaga and Tares. The shortlist speaks to the growth of our poetry: diverse audiences, connected at Nigeria. Great poetry should address the dominant anxieties of its society. We all sought to treat global headaches from a Nigerian perspective.

Africa’s richest literary prize is also a public event. How do you want Unbind Me Now to be talked about if it does not win?

I do not enter a contest expecting to lose. I believe God, who led me this far, will crown the journey. That said, I want the book remembered as a watershed that spoke unwaveringly to the dominant issues of Nigeria in my time-the book whose impact rang loudest in recent memory.

Unbind Me Now

The title is a command. Who is being unbound-the speaker, the country, the reader, or all three?

It is a wake-up call, not a call to arms: a demand for immediate relief for a long-suppressed people. In the world of the book, poet, country, reader and fellow citizens are all in fetters. The poet speaks their most incendiary truths with candour.

Fire runs through the collection as revelation, rebuke and method. When did that metaphor take hold, and did you worry it would consume the quieter poems?

Fire arrived at the conceptual stage. It is physical-churches burnt, sacred objects destroyed, farmers charred in their sleep-and figurative: pent-up emotion and the country’s temperature. I did not worry it would consume quieter poems. Fire is the superstructure. A durable stem can bear extra load.

You have said the book grew out of ‘extreme displeasure’ and a wish to speak for the voiceless, while keeping art from being swallowed by anger. How did you manage that tension?

In a good poem every word must serve a predetermined end. Language, in competent hands, carries both life and death. I managed the tension by taking charge of language and sending it on an errand-fire and water in the same mouth.

Poems that name ‘unknown gunmen,’ burning flags and weaponised faith refuse neutrality. What is the difference between witness and propaganda?

My poetry is the voice of the streets. Those titles came from ordinary conversation; I cleaned and framed them. Who is better placed to write about ‘unknown gunmen’ than a poet who lives in the South-East, where their activities made life unbearable? Poetry must keep its pact with truth. Propaganda is manipulative and aims at a political end. Witnessing records the human condition. The poet of Unbind

Me Now is a witness to a traumatic period, not a propagandist.

The book moves from public blaze to inward reckoning-memory, inheritance, exile, pandemic silence, ecological grief. Was that architecture planned?

Deliberate in parts. Poems on George Floyd, Lekki Tollgate and COVID-19 were written as events happened, then joined a larger tapestry of anguish. Once the mental landscape was mapped, other poems queued behind the central theme.

Dispossessed was organised around innocence, transgression and atonement. Goosebumps was almost entirely about love. What did this third book demand that the first two could not meet?

Dispossessed maps the poet’s evolution. Goosebumps is the in-between experiment with a single theme.

Unbind Me Now continues that evolution, but the poet is no longer starry-eyed. The book demanded trenchant witnessing of a country in extreme distress-a rise to the tongue of the inferno, speaking artistic truth in thunder, lightning and rain.

You released it quietly on Good Friday rather than with a launch. Why that date, and why that restraint?

It was scheduled for Good Friday, then came earlier to meet a deadline. An introductory review had already announced the date. The book was released in silence because of its heavy thematic concerns. Loud celebration did not fit.

Craft and voice

You came to poetry through Gabriel Okara and have long kept company with Okigbo. What do you still steal from them, and where have you had to leave them behind?

Both ignited my imagination. I have drifted from Okara; Okigbo has stayed. Nobody steals from Okigbo comfortably-his genius hunts you. After reading that Ben Obumselu nudged him ‘towards greater clarity,’ I sought Obumselu out and learned the private meanings of some of Okigbo’s most recondite poems. In 2015 I co-founded Return 2 Idoto with Odili Ujubonu, the first poetry festival in the South-East, held at Ojoto by the Idoto River in Okigbo’s honour.

Critics talk about your language as both incantatory and accessible. How conscious are you of writing for the page and for the ear?

I am a journalist, trained to be accessible; a songwriter and speechwriter, trained to be understood; and a poet, charged to sound fresh and carve new idioms. I am bound to all of those things I have become.

Many of these poems feel like sermons that refuse the pulpit. Do you think of yourself as prophet, priest, pilgrim-or just a journalist who learned to sing?

All of those, and more. In a 2019 review of Dispossessed, Reuben Abati titled his piece ‘Here he comes: ‘Prophet, Priest and Pilgrim.” That tag has hung on my neck for seven years.

How do you know when a poem is finished-especially one that is also an accusation?

Is a poem ever finished? Okigbo wrote: And when you have done up my stitches / Wake me up near the altar / And this poem will be finished. Great poems provoke responses across generations. In Dispossessed I answered Eliot’s ‘April is the cruellest month’ with april is not ‘the cruellest month’ / i beg to differ, sir / for the seasons regain their footing with a stab of rain. Eliot started it; I continued it.

Another poet may pick up the thread. That is why it is hard to say a poem is finished.

Has living in Enugu, after years in Lagos newsrooms and government, changed the temperature of the work?

Enugu changed everything. Life is less cruel there; there is room to breathe. I wrote Dispossessed in Awka, Goosebumps and Unbind Me Now in Enugu. In Lagos I had no headroom for meaningful work.

Life before and beside the poems

You were a features writer at ThisDay, pioneer literary editor of Sunday Sun, a banker, a corporate communicator, and a governor’s spokesman. Which jobs most trained the poet, and which most threatened him?

All of them prepared me. Features taught story. Literary editing immersed me in literature as insider-outsider. Banking and corporate communications taught discipline and precision. Serving as a spokesman taught me that words have weight. Poetry needs all of these, in different degrees.

You helped start Chimamanda Adichie’s international creative writing workshops while at Fidelity Bank. What did that collaboration teach you about how literature travels in Nigeria?

It was defining. Serious writing is not merely physical labour. A good book in Nigeria still earns respect.

The idea that Nigerians do not read is a lie. Literature travels far here. Even as a little-known writer, friends and family hold me in high esteem. That is enough.

You have been called ‘the people’s poet.’ Is that a compliment you accept, or a burden?

It is an honour I carry with pride. Few Nigerian poets are celebrated by a university faculty. The English Department at COOU set aside a day for my work and, before the Vice Chancellor and scholars, gave me a plaque titled ‘The People’s Poet.’ A month earlier I had written ‘Voice of the Streets,’ a central poem of the new book. The challenge now is to carry that name with dignity.

Culture-building

Return to Idoto, A Flutter in the Woods, the Things Fall Apart Festival, Udala Nation-you keep building rooms for poetry to live in public. Why is the event as important as the book?

In my culture art is celebratory, and we do not celebrate in private. Events pass the torch. Strangers have known me from Flutter in the Woods; young writers remind me they were at the first Return to Idoto.

Events return attention to the book.

Udala Nation turns poems into songs. What does music give a poem that print cannot, and what does it take away?

Music and poetry are Siamese twins. Evocative, rhythmic poetry is called lyrical; a song rich in image and metaphor is called poetic. Udala Nation joins both so the feeling lives after the beat ends.

The udala tree, in your telling, is innocence and communal sharing. How much of that ethic is still possible in the Nigeria these new poems describe?

Communal sharing is still practised. Visit Igbo villages at Christmas: people reach out with whatever they have. It recalls children under the udala tree-when a fruit falls, it is shared so every playmate tastes it.

Nigeria, memory, the world

Unbind Me Now treats insecurity, political betrayal, racial injustice and ecological collapse as one crisis. Is that a poet’s metaphor or a diagnosis you stand by off the page?

Both. A forest fire does not pick its victims. Tomorrow in this country has rarely been better than yesterday-terror, abduction, fuel prices, economic displacement. How can a poet of conscience be quiet?

As the persona asks in ‘my roof is on fire’: how can i be quite / when my roof erupts in smoke / and vultures hover in the wincing skies?

Ancestral memory and Biafra still surface in your work. What is the risk of returning to those wounds, and of leaving them?

The tortoise travels with its house on its back; I am never without my ancestors. Biafra was prominent in Dispossessed, not directly in Unbind Me Now-where genocide is named, I had the Middle Belt in mind.

The memory should not be erased. Like Holocaust memory, it should warn that war is a road with no clear winner and only heavy losses.

You write of a country under siege and a world unravelling. Where do you still locate hope that is not sentimental?

In unexpected places: the woman walking her daughter to school through flooded Awka; the Benue farmer who still raises a hoe after herdsmen ruined the last harvest; the Middle Belt survivor who finds sleep again. We are stronger than the tragedies inflicted on us.

Silence, in this book, is complicity. As someone who has worked close to power, how do you live with that sentence?

Having written speeches for a governor, I know the cost of silence and of failed language. Words are like eggs: once broken they cannot be stitched perfectly back. A silent leader leaves followers guessing. A silent majority is an acquiescing majority. Democracy abhors silence. We must build a culture that can withstand robust debate.

After the prize

If you win, what changes-practically, and in how you write the next book?

When I win, my universe will be reconfigured. I will welcome the weight of victory and use the platform to work for a better Nigeria. The next book is already in the making; it will still be that book.

If you do not, what remains unfinished in Unbind Me Now that you still need to say?

I have asked God for victory. As a Christian I operate in faith. You do not pray for victory and then rehearse not winning. That would mock God.

What question do you wish interviewers would stop asking Nigerian poets-and what question do you wish they would start with?

There is no question a poet should be saved from. As witnesses to truth and repositories of the people’s wish to be heard, poets must be held to account by journalists on behalf of the people.

Fears of school fee hikes, staff retrenchment and opaque contracts have triggered protests by parents of students at King’s College, Lagos, over the federal government’s plan to concession the management of the institution to its old boys’ association.

The proposed 35-year concession of King’s College sparked controversies, with stakeholders raising concerns over transparency, accountability and the affordability of education under the arrangement.

Penultimate Tuesday, parents of students of King’s College, Lagos, prevented the leaders of King’s College Old Boys’ Association (KCOBA) from gaining access to the school premises as they protested the proposed concession of the college to its old students.

The parents, who came out in their numbers, were seen shouting, ‘We say no to concession, go to Abuja, go, buy your land and build your own schools. Why are you destroying the system that made you?’

In the same vein, the next day, the workers of the Ministry of Education prevented Tunji Alausa and other top personnel of the ministry from entering their offices in protest over the planned concession.

The protesters in Abuja could be heard chanting, ‘Alausa must go,’ while blocking access to the ministry’s premises.

BusinessDay engaged some of the workers and parents over the ongoing dispute. One of the parents said they were worried over the federal government’s plan to hand over the management of the school to its old students, for fear of a fee hike in future.

‘We learnt that the old students have earmarked N100 billion to revamp the college; obviously, after investing such an amount, they would in future want to recover their funds by increasing the fees,’ he said.

Jessica Osuere, a parent and educationist, said the proposed concession of King’s College, Lagos, to the old boys’ association raises important questions about public education, access and accountability.

‘While the proposed N100 billion investment could significantly improve infrastructure, facilities and the overall quality of education, the concerns of parents cannot simply be dismissed.

‘The critical issue is whether this proposed arrangement will preserve King’s College as an accessible public institution or gradually transform it into a school beyond the reach of the ordinary Nigerian family,’ she said.

Osuere emphasised that in as much as Nigerians advocate for quality education, it must also be accessible and affordable to the common man.

‘Any concession arrangement must be transparent, protect affordable access, guarantee government oversight and clearly define the role of parents and other stakeholders.

‘Investment in public schools is welcome, but it should not come at the cost of equity or turn a public national asset into an exclusive institution for the privileged,’ she noted.

Kehinde Olabode questioned the reason the federal government entered into an agreement with KCOBA without carrying the teachers, parents and other stakeholders along.

‘In 2001, when the St. Gregory College, Lagos was concessioned, the process was open to all. The government handed over the school to the Catholic Mission, which in turn had a committee in place to manage the school, while the old students were providing support mechanisms.

‘However, this time around, there’s no committee in place; why hand over the management of King’s College to its old students, who will later retrench workers that refuse to align with their ulterior motives,’ she said.

However, Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education, has reached an agreement with the workers that no staff member would be victimised or subjected to any form of punitive action for participating in the industrial action.

The minister emphasised that the arrangement is a concession, not a sale or privatisation, which is intended to inject resources and improve King’s College.

Meanwhile, leaders of KCOBA had clarified that the association has no intention of buying the school, but is interested in rebuilding their alma mater.

Femi Okunnu, chairman of the board of trustees at King’s College Old Boys’ Association, clarified while addressing journalists amid protests from parents and workers at the institution.

‘We’re not acquiring King’s College, and the college is not for sale. We are returning to serve it, to help manage, support and rebuild the institution that shaped generations of Nigerians.

‘This is a matter of stewardship, of responsibility, of service rendered in gratitude and not a bid for possession,’ he explained.

Leke Oshunniyi, former president of the association, who also spoke on behalf of KCOBA, said that an increase in school fees was not being contemplated, adding that it is even possible that students may not be paying fees at the end of the day.

Oshunniyi disclosed that KCOBA were targeting to raise about N300 billion, out of which pledges of N30billion had already been received.

Emmanuel Abugu, representative of parents of students of the college, listed three areas of fear being nursed by parents.

He said that except for the rumours that are flying all over the place, there has been no time the Old Boys Association formally and officially communicated to them what is going on.

They want to be assured that the move is not to convert some of the properties of the college into personal business. They are also worried that the move by the association is to ultimately increase school fees. The parents are also asking to be allowed to see the content of the contract being entered into between the government and the association.