Women behind the wheels

On a rainy Saturday morning in August, I had an appointment to meet hence I was somewhat in a hurry. By the time I hit the roads, the entire area was already water logged and traffic logjam was beginning to build up.
Since I was running a little late for the meeting, I drove a little faster than I normally would. But no matter how fast I moved, I was still conscious of traffic rules and not to swerve the car into an on-coming vehicle.

After being schooled in driving rules, at least the Highway Code has become another Bible for me (the fear of Federal Road Safety Corps and LASTMA is the beginning of wisdom); I made sure I did not overtake wrongly in order not to put the lives of other road users in danger.
That morning, there was a driver who tried to overtake me wrongly, because he saw I was a female. The man’s attitude underscored the impatience of most Nigerian drivers. But for the careful driver that I am, I stopped on my track when I realised the man deliberately swerved his bus in my direction.

At this point, I tried to manoeuvre the car, making sure he didn't pass me. But on a second thought, I decided to stay calm to avoid any dent on my car.
I realised too that the man like any other Danfo driver was just another crazy, impatient driver who loved to make trouble. Despite the fact that I did not struggle with him for right of way, he tried all he could to scare me off the road, but I didn't budge. “You be woman o, why you no wan comot for road? You no fit drive like a tasin drifa” he jeered wickedly.

The behaviour of some drivers in the Lagos metropolis has never ceased to amuse me, and at a point it became a cause for worry. I don’t understand why some drivers are so careless about the safety of other road users. Most times while driving, I've seen and heard other male drivers taunting female drivers with comments like 'E no sabi, na woman o, no wonder,' or 'I must drive myself, you no go tell your husband to give you driver?' or 'Na so woman dey drive?,’ are very common comments on our road.

The question then is: are there really that few or no good female drivers on our roads or it’s just that the male drivers are just being sexist? It annoys me on end though, when I see a woman who has no business driving, being a nuisance on the road.

I feel women like that make the male drivers generalise that most women are bad drivers. However, if it is a man, no one says anything, they'd just write it off as one of those things, maybe he's having a bad day, but if it is a woman it becomes a problem.
There is another side to it, when some male drivers realise that a woman is behind the wheel, it’s at that point they will begin to flex their muscles by offering to give instructions on how to ‘turn your hand,’ especially if you are reversing.

Even the most ignorant of them will still offer to help. Hence, at the slightest issue, every man on the road feels he must help you drive or give you directions. I think it's mostly a sexist thing.
And so, I believe there is no woman driving a car on the road that doesn’t know where she is heading. Yet, there are some men who are bad drivers than women. They only try to cover up their inadequacies with ego.

The 21st Century mum

The morning of last Saturday is one I will not forget in a long time to come. When I set out of the house, I never had an inkling of what to expect from the meeting I was going for. Some days before, I got a call from Adebola Williams of Future Awards concerning the meeting, yet I could not figure out what to expect from Oby Ezekwesili, World Bank vice president for the Africa region, who called for the informal meeting.

Since I was unsure of what to expect, I looked forward to the meeting with great expectation and curiosity. The meeting was scheduled for 8.30 am, but did not begin until 9.30.
When I arrived the Civic Centre, it was few minutes past eight. Uche Unaji of Ouch, the Igwe of style, as he is fondly called, with Dele Odufuye, were at the lobby waiting for the others to come. “We are the early birds,” Ouch said, as a way of welcome. “We arrived before those who live on the Island,” he added. “Yes, that’s true. It was difficult getting a place to park,” I answered. We walked back into the meeting room together just before Oby walked into the room.

“I am happy to be with you all,” she said, as she settled into a seat away from the high table, a sign of humility I suppose or she simply wanted us to feel free interacting with her. She told us how much she looked forward to meeting the 2009 winners of the Future Awards and how elated she was about the award. But what I found striking about Oby as she spoke that morning was her poise, humility and the fact that she exuded life.

I saw in her a woman who is in touch with this generation. She understands the needs of this generation and she feels its pulse. She knows the old’ school music, she knows the latest music, she tweets, as she is even on Facebook. She is a part of the Facebook and Twitter generation, making her is a 21st Century mum!

“I am so excited about your generation. No matter what people say, I am always happy about the opportunities of your generation. Many of you would have fallen by the way side but you choose not to. I am happy to know that you are by no means held back by any region. You are a citizen of the world and you are able to set a standard of excellence for yourself,” she declared.
“We are on the move,” she stated with a sting of pride, that she considered herself lucky to be a part of a generation that is resilient and internet savvy. “Let nothing stop you, you can rule the world. I want to do better than I have done; whatever you think I have done should be your start-off point. You must destroy every stereotype,” she charged.

As expected, she had a word for everyone, as she joked about her sons being good dancers, and however expressing her joy over Mosun Umoru’s interest in agriculture. She is a woman who believes strongly that agriculture has the propensity to grow the economy more than any other sector, and it will be a good way in tackling poverty in a continent that is still very agrarian. Of course, Obi never failed to let us into her private dream.
“One of the dreams,” she revealed with a giggle, “I have is to see the Nigerian fashion industry grow. In it, I can see an industry that can rule the world. The finesse of Nigerian designers is great. Nothing stops them from aspiring to becoming well known labels like Christian Dior, Armani, Gucci, among others.”

Undoubtedly, those words were for Ouch who expressed his displeasure about the ban on the importation of textiles. Oby’s last words were really striking and like a mother who understood needs of the internet generation and the tendency for it to be a copycat, she did not fail to highlight the importance of self discovery.

“In all of you, there is something deposited in you that is great. Share knowledge with one another, dig deep into yourself and discover what you have on the inside. In Nigeria, we don’t have the capacity to share but what we don’t know is that when we share knowledge it may trigger something in someone else that will be helpful,” she disclosed.
What I would have loved to ask Oby that morning was how she manage in checking her Facebook and Tweet, but Emili asked when she said: “I am sure someone updates them for you.” A statement Oby could not refute!

Sakawa: Ghana’s new rave in crime

Sakawa: Ghana’s new rave in crime
As global economic downturn takes it toll, many young people in Ghana are turning to get-rich-quick schemes. Most of these schemes are hatched and executed on the internet.
Evelyn Tagbo, Accra

For Asamoah, a 22 year-old resident of Accra, the good days are here. At least, so it seems. Until April last year when the United States embassy refused him visa for the fourth time in three years, Asamoah (not real name), dreamt about nothing but going to live in the United States. The mere thought of New York fascinated the high school leaver from the Ashanti region of Ghana. His uncle and his family live there. The stories his younger cousin tells him of the city thrilled him. But that was then. Things have changed.
Asamoah is no longer desperate to go to the United States. Not for now. Though he might not be living in the United States right now, he does live on the States and many other countries in Europe. (He only accepted to speak to The Business Eye, after a good friend of his assured him his identity would not be revealed.) He is presently building a four-bedroom bungalow in Dodowa, a suburb of Accra. For those who care to ask, he identifies himself as a businessman. “I am into IT (information technology) and systems installation. That’s what I do,” he says. He started identifying himself as such, after his first ‘deal’ came through and he opened a small cyber café. But that is not what is building his new home for him, he admits. “I do the obroni business,” he tells the magazine.
‘Obroni’ is a local parlance for a white person, much the same as ‘oyibo’ in Nigeria. What Asamoah refers to as ‘the obroni business’ is what is popularly known in Ghana as ‘sakawa’. It is not possible to be in Ghana since last year without knowing what sakawa means. It is the rave of the moment. In the last 12 months, the act has gained notoriety as one of the pastimes of many Ghanaian youths eager to make quick money. No day passes without a newspaper, a radio station or television carrying news on the latest act of sakawa.
Sakawa is Ghana’s equivalent of yahoozee in Nigeria – the act of defrauding people via the internet. In international criminal circles, it goes by different appellations. Computer crime, cybercrime, e-crime, hi-tech crime or electronic crime, whichever you choose to call it, it generally refers to criminal activity where a computer or network is the source, tool, target, or place of a crime. According to Meshack Opoku Afriyie, a crime analyst, sakawa which literally means ‘how to make money’ in Hausa, started in Swedru,( a suburb an hour drive from Accra) where young people and even adults enticed foreign nationals with pictures of nude girls who claim to be searching for other nationals to marry.
As the magazine learnt, the modus operandi has not changed much. Essentially, Asamoah’s tactics, is to impersonate beautiful ladies through social networking sites like facebook, yahoo and msn. In each of these sites, he poses as a white lady. He scoops pictures from facebook and pornographic websites to illustrate his false identity. His pranks first paid off when a victim, a 44 year old businessman in New Jersey, United States, fell for his lies and sent him $5,000. Posing as a beautiful 24 year old lady, (whose picture he had in the fake facebook and msn chat identity he created), Asamoah lied to his victim that he was a post-graduate student from a prestigious university in the U.S, who had come to Ghana for research, but was robbed and is stranded. He gave him false campus address, agreeing that the New Jersey businessman visit ‘her’ on campus on return from Ghana. Delighted at being able to help a stranded girlfriend, the man transferred the money to ‘her’ through Western Union.
Since June last year when Asamoah got that first ‘breakthrough’, he has swindled several other victims through similar means. He confesses he has made up to $80,000 through sakawa, an amount that even bank managers in Ghana do not earn as annual income. He owns a 2002 Toyoto Corolla car which he bought 4 months ago, and as he told the magazine, hopes to complete his building in two months time.
News about young people like Asamoah acquiring fortune through sakawa, has dominated media reportage in Ghana in the last few months. “Ironically, the more the media talk about it, the more youths you see go into it. I think government needs to come out with a legislation that gives serious punishment to sakawa, otherwise, we are likely to be overwhelmed,” said Mensah Dankyi, communication officer of a local NGO.
Nima, Kotobaabi, Madina and Maamobi, all underprivileged suburbs of Accra, are most notorious for sakawa. Last Tuesday an Accra Circuit court remanded four young men: Michael Ivan Kesty, Stephen Dadzie, Godwin Aborge and Julius Nutsukpo, for defrauding a Briton of 4,000 pounds. They allegedly assured their victim that they could facilitate the purchase of 5,000 acres for a fee of £100,000. They then requested for £10,000 from their victim for the documentation covering the parcels of land. They were also alleged to have informed their victim that the remaining £90,000 was to be paid over nine years in £10,000 annual instalments.
Two of the boys, Michael and Stephen, then sent a letter via the Internet purportedly signed by the Registrar of the High Court. According to the prosecution, the victim then sent £1,400 to them through the money transfer system. The prosecution stated that Godwin and Julius, the two other boys, on their part, informed their victim that their father had suddenly fallen ill with stroke and solicited for £2,600, which the victim sent.
The victim later discussed his transactions on the purchase of the land and his donation to God­win and Julius, the accused persons, with some London-based Ghanaians. The prosecution stated that it was during the discussion that the victim was informed that the transactions were fraudulent, adding that the victim then lodged a complaint with the police and under an arrangement, the victim informed the two groups that he had sent £750 to them and asked them to pick it up. It said a team of detectives laid ambush on the premises of the money transfer organisation and arrested the four men when they showed up to collect the money.
“Sakawa is the latest craze in town and even teenagers are getting hooked. A colleague of mine in the recently interviewed a 13-year-old boy who spoke about how he poses as a woman to dupe white men in Europe,” says Ato Kwamena Dadzie, a popular Ghanaian journalist. “Thanks to sakawa school dropouts have suddenly become millionaires, driving in posh Mercedes and BMWs. They are buying houses whiles graduates who are honestly earning a living struggle to pay their rents,” he says.
Aside impersonating ladies, there is also the traditional strategy of stealing people’s credit card details and other data, or tricking them into paying for services or goods that do not exist, which has also become very popular in Accra. Initially, some locals blamed the trend on Nigerians living in Ghana, but most suspects arrested since the surge last year, have been locals, many of them students and young school leavers. What makes sakawa serious in Ghana, according to one analyst, is that, different groups of people have joined this as a quick way out. Students, the unemployed, businessmen, pastors, and even gainfully employed people are trying it out daily. These groups approach sakawa in different ways.
Many of the young fraudsters have now penetrated some money transfer outlets with enticing offers to enable them retrieve large sums of money sent to them by their victims abroad. Recently, Daily Graphic, Ghana’s state-owned newspaper, reported a case of a lady attendant at one of the transfer outlets in Accra alleged to have been compromised by 'sakawa' boys with huge sums of money in kickbacks in lieu of the presentation of correct documents for the collection of their remittances. The attendant allegedly collects 10 per cent of the amounts involved from 'sakawa' boys who present code numbers and their personal identity cards to collect money in the name of females and 20 per cent from those who do not present identity cards.
“The problem is daunting, and it's getting worse,” said Oteng Adu-Gyamfi, a businessman, who laments the dent it is casting on the country’s image. According to a recent release from the United States Embassy in Accra, Ghana ranks second after Nigeria on the list of African countries that U.S e-retailers rejected orders from last year. 76 percent of merchants in that group shut off orders from Nigeria, 58 percent from Ghana, and 32 percent from Pakistan. Other countries blocked included Indonesia, 23 percent; Singapore, 19 percent; Romania, 18 percent; China, Russia, and Vietnam at 13 percent each; and South Korea and Hong Kong with 10 percent each.
According to Emmanuel Kwablah, a journalist with a local business weekly, the biggest threat to local business is, however, yet to manifest. In recent times, increasing numbers of entrepreneurs are providing websites for the display and sale of Ghana-made products, especially those that are targetted at the European and American markets, as well as other foreign markets. “It is only a matter of time for ‘sakawa’ to extend its ugly hand to this side as well, only to jeopardise Ghanaian e-exports,” he states.
“I really think that the problem is becoming bigger. If we continue this way, we very soon will be put in a position where we cannot do any other business outside,” says Clement Dzidonu, a professor at Valley View University, Accra. Dzidonu hinted that although the youngsters engaged in such crimes employ spiritism to achieve their ends, that does not write off the country’s increasing risk profile. Rising internet fraud and business scams originating from Ghana, he warns, could weaken the country’s e-commerce credibility on the international financial market.
Although internet service providers in the country have been tasked to check the crime, Michael, a 19 year-old former online scammer, who was guest on a national radio phone-in programme last month, said it will be a tough battle. He claimed the fraudsters use special software that blocks access to their Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. He recounted how some of his colleagues had been consulting spiritualists for certain potions which they used to ‘confuse’ their victims in Europe and America. “Some even die in the process of doing the charms,” he said.
Bedeviled with increasing rates of armed robbery, drug trafficking and lately ‘sakawa’, President John Evans Atta Mills, has his hands full as far as fighting crime in Ghana is concerned. Analysts say only a pragmatic crime busting strategy and a concerted national orientation effort can reverse the trend, which many acknowledge, is fast catching up with Ghana’s future generation.

Day I met Bill Clinton

Sometimes, I wonder why Nigerians no longer trust aन्योने As Nigerians, foreigners don’t trust us and we don’t even trust ourselves! More often than not, we are sceptical when dealing with colleagues in our offices, homes and beyond. Hence, I don’t know why we should complain whenever we travel abroad and people look at us with suspicion.

I could recall the statement of Nigeria’s immediate past president, Olusegun Obasanjo “The image of our country has been battered at home and abroad; more by our own mishandling and mismanagement than by anything else,” he once said at the launching of the “Nigerian Image Project” at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

So much has been said and written about the bad image of Nigeria abroad। It is true that some people have argued that much of the country’s progress and achievements have been beclouded and damaged by sheer weight of bad publicity and erroneous impression by the acts and actions of few individuals, corporate organisations and public officers whose activities have wrecked havoc on our reputation as the largest black nation in the world.

The launching of Nigerian Image Project by the Obasanjo regime raised many questions: what does the country intend to achieve? How will it be accomplished? What are the parameters for the execution and how credible are those involved in its implementation? But what we have failed to ask ourselves as a people is, how do we perceive one and another?

Sometimes last month, I was at a book launch, three books written by Imo State governor, Ikedi Ohakim. As expected, the who-is-who in the Nigerian political scene were gathered at the event and the hall was packed full of friends and admirers of the state governor. As also expected, it was a time for speech making.

After a few people had spoken, it was the turn of President Umaru Yar’Adua, who was represented by Ojo Maduekwe, minister of foreign affairs, to give his speech। Maduekwe began by extolling the virtues of the writer, praising him on the ongoing developments in Imo State while comparing it with people’s perception of the Yar’ Adua’s administration.

And of course, our dear minister like the Honourable Minister in Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People while delivering the president’s speech, tried to indirectly boast of his personal accomplishment in the course of carrying out his duties, yet he never failed to drive home his message.
“The other day I was in Washington,” he began, “I met Mr। Bill Clinton who said favourable things about Nigeria. He talked about...” Before he could end his statement, the whole hall said: “uhmnnnnnnnn...!” A sign that they did not believe his story.

At that point, I was deeply hurt and I reflected on how much Nigerians lack faith in our leaders। It’s amazing that story of the honourable minister of foreign affairs could be termed incredible by Nigerians. Given Maduekwe’s status, his story is not out of the ordinary. His office gives him the opportunity to mingle with and meet powerful people in the world. It’s possible that Bill Clinton could have walked up to him to express his feelings about Nigeria.

For this reason, the problem of image building of a country like Nigeria, just like any other African nation, is a very arduous task if it is only intended to attract the attention of foreign media। The process of re-branding starts with us. We have to believe in ourselves.

It is true what makes news about Africa, including Nigeria in foreign media, is gory tales of war, hunger, disease, communal clashes and endemic corruption, but we must learn to trust out leaders to an extent, even if they had betrayed the trust we put in them in the past. Many Nigerians do not understand why their trusted leaders often end up in unacceptable behaviours; perhaps this sparked the kind of reaction that greeted the minister’s claim from the audience.
The effects of such embarrassment have left too many souls with no answer।

Efforts by the government to reinvent our image and correct the very grave misrepresentation of our country and people by western media may become fruitful only if they can serve us faithfully. We believe that in terms of reforms, there is a lot going on in the country.
We have a very rich culture, the warmest people on earth and we have a land that if we are to develop to our full potential, could become a major tourist destination in the world। Unfortunately, Nigeria has acquired criminal connotations over time, on account, perhaps, of the activities of an insignificant number of our compatriots.

There is no country on earth that does not have this group of people; they are just everywhere. I believe as a people with one destiny, we must work hard on our interpersonal relationship in this vibrant country that holds so much promise. However, I hope Nigerians would believe Maduekwe this time, if he says he has met Hillary Clinton, after all, he had a special meeting with her the last time she visited Nigeria!

Not yet Utopia

As a young girl, I grew up reading the works of some renowned philosophers like Sir Thomas More, who talked about an ideal society free of troubles - an Utopia, a name for an ideal community or society, according to More.

In one of his books written in 1516, More describes a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system.
Utopia, a term that has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempted to create an ideal society and fictional societies portrayed in literature. Utopia is now sometimes used pejoratively, in reference to an unrealistic ideal that is impossible to achieve. Social planners, dreamers and religious leaders through the centuries have been haunted by memories of paradise lost and have tried to re-create these lands of earthly peace and contentment, at least on paper. The search for Utopia has created ongoing debates regarding the nature of humans and the best social milieu for a peaceful populace.

The journey to Utopia begins with Plato, a Greek philosopher and disciple of Socrates. When Plato wrote “The Republic” Athens was in decline. The philosopher complained that his fellow citizens had become too individualistic and suggested that they lacked discipline. To achieve a rational society, Plato believed that the common person needed benevolent direction from philosopher-rulers who could be depended on, to do what was best for the Republic.
Plato foreshadows George Orwell’s world of revisionist history and doubletalk when he admits that – in the name of Utopia -- “Our rulers will probably have to make considerable use of lies and deceit for the good of their subjects.”

Plato’s perfect society is composed of three classes of people: the wise, ruling philosophers; the courageous guardian soldiers and officials, and the obedient and temperate workers. The groups are united by their belief in justice and the good of the State. Private property is abolished, jobs are assigned and art is censored to ensure proper morals and attitudes.

The massive, all-seeing government was championed by Plato, who maintained that in a well-functioning society, the State must be supreme. To achieve uniformity, the nuclear family must be dissolved and replaced with communal living. In an early programme of eugenics, the State determines who may have children. Infants deemed healthy are raised in communal nurseries, while those considered defective are abandoned outside the city to die.

However, in the reality of the modern day society, Utopia is beyond our reach. I
believe that the concept of Utopian or an Utopian world does not exist in this
world.

This is because, if I look at the meaning of the word, it possesses something that is related to perfection. That means, if the world is being credited as Utopian, it must hold the hundred percent of peace, hundred percent of happiness, and hundred percent of everything. This would mean that the world is perfect.
Whoever is meant to live in that world will have the opportunity to grab a very perfect life. But that is not the case in our dear country where electricity power is unstable, the roads are in bad shape, there are still many people who cannot afford three square meals; you know, the list is endless.

Hence, I could not help but think the idea of Utopian in this world can only exist in fairy tales or in fictional world. This is because, in a fictional world, man has the right to create the perfection in the settings and characters of a certain fictional work. As a literature student, I have come across this concept in many literary works.

In which case, I came to believe the fictional world was the only place where the ideals of an Utopian can really happen. For example, in the fairy tales ‘Cinderella,’ the main character Cinderella is tailored to marry to her prince charming, and live happily ever after.

Nevertheless, some religious philosophers think an Utopia world only exist beyond here, a world being created by God. They believe the Utopian world only exists in the heavens, created by the Almighty as a reward for His obedience creatures. For them, it is only God who has the power to create the something perfect as the Omnipotent creator of the universe. Hence, the concept of Utopian is actually beyond the human thought.

While the Utopian philosophers disagree on the specifics of paradise, they do tend to hold a similar view of humanity. Generally, they believe that individuals are shaped by their environments and that crime and brutality can be eliminated through social engineering.

For the Utopians therefore, the goal of life is peace and contentment. To create a society without want or fear, these philosophers maintain, the happiness of the individual must be assured. In such an enlightened world, even the rulers would be content and would not be tempted to abuse power to their own gains.
The Utopians are above all optimists, believing that mankind is inching towards paradise. Nigeria as a nation may be far from becoming an Utopian state as we are not inching towards any paradise, the future may be dark as the present if we collectively fail to do anything!

Federal Road Safety Corp or Federal Road Safety Corruption?

The morning of last Saturday started really well for me. I was my giddy, trendy self who was looking forward to a ‘seminar’ a friend invited me to. It was actually a day packed with too many things for me to do.

Aside the seminar, I had to be at Phillip’s wedding. Not the wedding of the man on top, of course. Here at Business Day, in the newsroom, we have two Phillips. The first is the man on top, Phillip Isakpa, the other, Phillip Okafor is the man who handles the Work and Learning section of the paper. It was a wedding I had looked forward to until Federal Road Safety Corps official somewhat spoilt the fun.

I was riding in my friend’s car on my way to Phillip’s wedding after the seminar when we were accosted by the patrol van of the Federal Road Safety Corps at Osborne Road, Ikoyi. Initially, we were a little confused when we were asked to pull over. Even a policeman at a nearby checking point was pointing at the car before us until the FRSC van overtook us and one of the officials on it literarily barked at the policeman that we should pull over.

Eventually we did and got off the car. One of the FRSC officers by the name S.O Akintonde walked up to us asking for my friend’s driving license, which he gave to him.
“Where are the vehicles particulars,” Akintonde asked after he was given the driving license. My friend handed him the documents. My friend and I were still very surprised what he wanted to do with the particulars without an explanation of what our offence was. “What is the problem?,” I asked. None of the two men, O.N Bakare and S.O Akintonde, who stood beside us said anything. My friend could also not understand what the problem was. I moved to the back of the car where O.N Bakare stood with another man, whom I later learnt was the head of the patrol team, I was unable to get his name because he wore a pullover on his uniform.

It was much later it dawned on us that we were stopped because of the missing rear plate number. “What happened to your plate number?” Akintonde finally asked after finding his voice. “It got missing and I have applied for another one. But I have a police report with me,” my friend replied.

“Where is the police report,” Akintonde asked. My friend handed it over to him. It was at this point that a man with the pullover came running shouting at the top of his voice: “let m-e has the pa-pers, let me has them, I don’t has ti-me,” he spoke hysterically in disjointed English. Drive the car to our office,” he shouted at my friend. As he moved towards their van, he pulled out a note pad.

“You better go and talk to me before he starts writing on the ticket,” offered O.N Bakare.
“But you have to explain to us what our offense is,” I asked as I walked towards the man with the pullover. “We have a police report which we have given you, what else do you want?”
“Where is your receipt, an evidence that you have applied for another one,” he asked. “I was not given any receipt,” my friend replied.
“You get luck, I did not ask my men to impound your vehicle,” he said. “Impound the vehicle, for what?” I asked annoyed. “It’s not a stolen vehicle. There is a prove of ownership. The car cannot be impounded on account of a missing rear plate number,” I replied.

The man refused to listen to our explanations as he wrote frantically on a form. He did not bother to explain to us the meaning of what he wrote on the form, whether we were supposed to pay some money or not, where and how. He drove off with his men in annoyance because we never offered to bribe him. My friend and I had resolved not to bribe them. We prefer to pay the money into the account of the Federal Government than give them a bribe. That same day, we tried to locate the FRSC office at Sura, where an officer at the gate explained to us where and how to pay the money.

On Monday morning, I went to the UBA, one of the designated banks on the form only to be told by the lady at the customer care service that the FRSC account for plate numbers had not been activated. I had to return to their office for clarification. The officer on duty gave me a teller with the designated account number. “Someone just brought these tellers from the bank this morning,” she explained. The account number is on it.

Since I could not make it back to their office on the same day, I went back on Tuesday morning. An officer named Imam was on duty. After sorting out the details of the particulars collected by his colleagues on Saturday, I seized the opportunity to request for a plate number replacement.

“Plate number replacement is N13, 000,” he said. “That’s expensive, my friend earlier paid N10, 000 to the someone at Ikeja who is yet to bring them,” I answered. “Can’t I see your price list?
“We don’t have a price list,” he replied. “Which bank do I pay the money, can I have the account number?”

“We don’t have an account for that, you have to pay it here,” said Imam while walking out of the office. But I was still sceptical about the amount. Hence, I asked another female offer whose name is R.A Bello, in Yoruba if the amount was being asked to pay was the current fee. “It should be N10, 000. It depends on the officer,” she said while walking away when she saw Imam coming. “Can I see you outside so that we can talk ,” I asked sensing that she did not want the other officer have an inkling of what she had told me.

“Let me have your vehicle license,” she said as she walked up to me. I want to confirm the fee from someone else. She took the paper and walked towards a cubicle. “It’s true that you have to pay N13, 000. It’s a Lagos state number hence it is more expensive than our own (the one issued by FRSC). FRSC’s own costs N10, 000.”

And so, I went back into the office to pay the money to Imam. After he collected the money, I was expecting him to issue a receipt. “Where is the receipt?,” I asked. “We don’t give receipt. What I will do is to give you a note stamped and signed by me with my number on it,” he said. “But we were arrested on Saturday because we did not have a receipt, an evidence that we paid. So what do we do if we were arrested by your men again?” I asked in surprise.

“Don’t worry about that. I will put my number on the note and when you have any trouble you can call me and I will explain to the officer that your plate number is being processed,” Imam explained.
I was beside myself with surprise that day. It was ridiculous and really unbelievable that if FRSC could have accounts in designated banks for the payment of fines why would it not have an account for plate number replacement? I could recalled that our driver got a receipt when he paid a little over N3,000 for the renewal of his driving licence so why would I not be issued for paying N13, 000 for plate number replacement?

I also could not understand why I will have to show a note that could be forged by anyone as a proof that the plate number is being processed instead of a receipt considering the fact that my friend and I were fined for not providing a receipt. The level of corruption at the much respected FRSC is really sad. However, I hope to give you, dear readers, the second part to my story when I go for the plate number in two weeks. Before then, I hope the authorities at FRSC will read this and put things in order. It’s a shame if notes now serves as substitutes for receipt!

A pale-male’s tale of trepidation, trumpeting

By KEITH BELL
I’m a 40-something pale-male. A few years ago I had the opportunity to work and train journalists at BusinessDay newspaper in Nigeria. I hated Lagos. It’s a dark, grim poverty striken city of 43-million (the population of South Africa). I hated being away from home and my loved ones. I hated the black oily pollution of Lagos. I hated seeing burnt bodies next to the road (victims of mob justice). I hated the traffic-jams (sitting in a car for seven hours to and from work … pictured above). And I was terrified when I contracted malaria three times and typhoid. But I never felt unsafe in Lagos. Nigerians are good, friendly people … fighting everyday to survive. I’ve never seen people who work so hard.



I loved my colleagues at BusinessDay (Lagos). Beautiful friendly, generous, loving people … people like Charles Ike-Okoh (a life-long friend), Enam Obioso (who still phones to this day with his “how-now” pidgeon English), Monday (my friend, savior and driver), Friday (no joke … that’s his name), Nicholas (who took care of me when I had malaria, bringing me lemon tea), Kirk (who would shake my hand with a firm grip that I would wince in pain in anticipation of another handshake), Funke (a stunning journalist), Amaka, Anne, big Stan (a Kenneth Kaunda look-alike, who at first intimidated me … but wept and queezed the breath out of me when I left … pictured above) and BusinessDay (Lagos) publisher Frank Aigbogun (known for his dazzling smile, bright green, pink and blue shirts … and even brighter ties). I digress, but one day I joked about Frank’s dandy atire … the next day he arrived at work with a beautifully gift-wrapped present. Inside? A dazzling blue shirt … and an even more dazzling blue tie. I miss my friends in Lagos.

source:http://blogs.theherald.co.za/pitch/