This weekend’s edition of Globacom-sponsored African Voices Playmakers on CNN International will host Nigeria’s literary colossus and global icon, Professor Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka.

The 30-minute magazine programme will engage the Nobel Laureate on the ideologies and the passion that formed the foundation of his enviable life and career.

Soyinka will share insights into his life, career, and the values that have shaped his work.  He will also discuss his extraordinary activism, which has inspired an upcoming movie about his political incarceration in Nigeria. The movie is scheduled to be released this year.

Born on July 13, 1934, Soyinka was born on July 13, 2024. In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in for his wide cultural perspective and poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence.

His impressive educational background includes studying at the University College, Ibadan (now the University of Ibadan) and the University of Leeds in the UK.

Soyinka’s accolades extend beyond the Nobel Prize. He’s also received the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature (1990), the Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award (2009), the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Lifetime Achievement (2012), and the Europe Theatre Prize, Special Prize (2017).

Viewers can watch African Voices at 8.30 a.m. on Saturday on DSTV Channel 401. Repeats will be broadcast the same Saturday at noon; Sunday at 4.30 a.m. and 7.00 p.m.; and on Monday at 4.00 a.m. The same edition will be repeated on Saturday next week at 8.30 a.m. and 12 noon and on Sunday at 4.30 a.m. and 7.00 p.m.

By Echika Ezuka

Change as a word has been appropriated by politicians who seek power either for themselves or for the interests they represent. Change is to alter, to take off (clothes) and put on different ones, to exchange (money) for the same amount in any other denomination, to abandon (one thing or person) for another, to denounce (one course) for another. You could change your accommodation, hair dresser, anything in life.

However this piece is about to talk of a fundamental change that involves many people at the same time. Recall the change that took place in the way Africans saw the white colonialists after the 1st and 2nd world wars. Africans returned from the wars to reveal that the white man was as weak or strong as any black man. They revealed that the white man, like other men, would cry or run in the face of fear and would bleed if cut by a sharp object. The white man is not a god. The change in the perception of the white man led to white spread demands for independence in Africa. The rest is history.

A more recent change was the change from military rule to democracy. The military seized power as disciplined patriots who were going to save Nigerians from the greed, corruption, thuggery, and nepotism. The citizenry were amazed that rather than cure the social ills the military added dictatorship and a new Nigerian variant called impunity. The people resisted military regime and a gruesome struggle followed leading to a return to democracy led by civilians. The change was so thorough that even strong men in the military who felt entitled to the President and Commander in Chief position were forced to transform to civilians in agbada before ascending to Aso Villa. That is the change from military to civilian regime.

There is another kind of change sweeping through the South East of Nigeria like a tornado. This change is cultural and concerns the fate of the girl child in terms of inheritance. The macho foundations of the Igbo society is under a serious threat of being redefined. The all-male Okonkwo society of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is about to give way to a challenge led by well-read Igbo women. These women are well read and have traveled nationally and internationally. They have also been exposed to other cultures through reading and academic interactions. Some of them are married to families from the North, West and the South-South. These women are asking questions and they want urgent answers.

They are quick to cite that in Lagos if a Yoruba man, who own an estate of six flats dies, his six flats are shared equally among his children – equally between boys and girls.  It’s a different ball game in Igbo land. For the purpose of this paper, Mazi would be the name of a father or head of a household. Let’s start with a common scenario among the Igbo. The culture recognizes the boy child as the real birth that has consequence. Only the boy child can guarantee the survival of the lineage. The boy grows up, marries a wife and begins to procreate to continue the family name. The boy child is, therefore, a must for Mazi, who may have as many as 10 children searching for a boy. Sometimes, only the youngest the 10th is a boy child – a consolation from his Chi. When Mazi passes away the nine girls get nothing from his estate no matter how rich Mazi was in his lifetime. To rub pepper into the open wound, the Igbo tradition dictates that the Ada, the first daughter must buy the coffin of Mazi.

The hurt bites deeper because when Mazi is feeble, old and unable to sustain the  living and lifestyle of his youth it’s often the girl child that provides food, clothing and medicines. The boys often are occupied with the herculean task of marriage and establishing a family. On the lighter side the boy child is more often consumed by the township culture of drinking, clubbing and fashion. This not generalizing that boys contribute nothing to the growth of the family but the girls are more helpful. Most times the girl child is given out in marriage. While the boy biserving a long apprenticeship or going through school. The girls bring in lump sums in cash or other valuables as dowries. The in-laws are an extension of Mazi’s family in terms of support at critical moments – village festivals, rites of passage and natural disasters.

The ladies are arguing, therefore, the girl child should have a stronger claim in matters of inheritance. She should not be treated as property already sold out to another owner another name of marriage. In recent years, tokenism has been used to try to melt down the anger of the girl child. While most of the pampered and ill mannered boys are shouting the Nigerian slogan –

“GO TO COURT”

The ladies did.

Today, there are scores of court cases, from the Customary Courts to the Supreme Court, involving Igbo families over inheritance. Siblings at each other’s throats or flexing muscles with their mothers, nwunye Mazi. Perhaps, the most popular of those cases is the fight for the estate of the popular transport magnate “Thank Jehova Motors”. Mazi, the magnate was a devout catholic and a Papal Knight. His sacramentally wedded wife gave birth to six baby girls in a row and Mazi was in despair. He defied the Pope and the Church and took a second wife. His Chi smiled and the second wife had three baby boys back to back. Mazi used his affluence to hold his polygamous-by-necessity together. He sent his children to the best schools in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. The girls from the first wife were older and had a head start. By the time Mazi passed away three decades later they were all graduates in those professions that the Igbo people adore – Medicine, Law, Engineering etc. The boys from the second wife were younger, also well-educated but were not as exposed as the girls from the first wife, a few were already married to high net worth individuals. His girls from the first wife spent a fortune to give Mazi a befitting burial.

There was a will and Mazi, expectedly gave almost everything to the second wife’s boys. The ladies convinced their mother and the will was challenged in court. Hush-hush, the Igbo hates the publicity of a police or court case. The Igbo man would pay an arm and a leg to avoid a police cell. Hush, it must not be heard that Mazi’s children were in court. A powerful representation and the case was withdrawn from the court for a settlement at home. A powerful arbitration, constituted by relatives, friends and the Church divided Mazi’s estate into two parts – Transport and Property. The boys chose the Transport business with numerous luxury buses, cars, and well-built terminals all over the nation. The girls settled for the Property section. As this piece is written, that Transport section, Thank Jehova Transport is dead, completely dead.

The hush-hush strategy doesn’t work all the time. Another popular Mazi, a big time trade in Enugu with his company Okoro and Sons unlimited, was not as Lucky. His first wife died during the birth of her second girl-child. Mazi married a second wife who bore him four boys. Okoro and Sons had five houses in Enugu and two in Owerri. At Mazi’s death, his sons seized the company and all its assets. They claimed the support of tradition. Anyway if Mazi had wanted his girls to inherit anything, they argued, he would have named the company Okoro and Children or Okoro and Daughters. In his wisdom he named it Okoro and Sons, so what a heck?

Again the ladies went to court and sued their step mother and her boys. The girls won the case at the Customary Court and the boys appealed to the Magistrate Court and got a reversal to the status quo. Again the Ladies appealed to the High Court that set aside the judgment of the Magistrate Court. Twenty years after Mazi’s death, the case was still at the Appeal’s Court where the Ladies were seeking justice. Meanwhile, the case has been abandoned and was most likely to be thrown out of court for lack of diligent prosecution. Both sides of Mazi’s family were completely exhausted. Mazi had seven houses and all seven were sold to fund litigation. Mazi’s sweat wasted and his family today lives in penury.

Let me not bore you with the scores of cases in court but there is one more pathetic case that would help you understand what’s happening in Igbo land. Mazi was the epitome of the Igbo workaholic business man. Mazi couldn’t read or write but he served an apprenticeship for seven years in Kaduna, made money doing street trading and linking buyers with sellers in the Kaduna Central Market now Abubakar Mahmud Gumi Market. Soon he had his own shop and had customers from the far North. By the time he ran home to escape from the killings in the North, he was a wealthy man. During the civil war he became a multi-millionaire supplying food to the Biafran Military. Mazi died forty years after the war he was multi billionaire with vast investments in Oil, Estate, and Tourism. I repeat Mazi couldn’t read and write, could hardly sign his signature but he incredibly established a Polytechnic.

This Mazi’s case was peculiar because at the height of his affluence, influence with multiple titles, his kindred insisted that he must take a second wife – a younger more polished Lolo befitting of his new status. Mazi refused because he had worked so hard and would not like to have two wives and their children waste his wealth litigating over his enormous wealth. Luckily his wife blessed him with eight children – four boys, four girls. The four girls are in court today contesting their father’s will. He loved them so much that he wouldn’t leave them without a share in his estate. Four girls versus their mother and four brothers. Raging waste of emotional and financial resources.

Igbo tradition and culture is complicit in the state of affairs because of the extra importance placed on the boy child. We don’t need to quote any authorities here other than to refer you to the image of the Igbo woman in the works of Achebe – beloved ornaments for child bearing and domestic chores. Recall the comic scene in Things Fall Apart – there was a rap on the door. Okonkwo opened the door and Ekwefi was standing there. Without a word Okonkwo lifted her to his shoulders and carried her into his inner room. Soon after his kinsmen paid her bride price and built a hut for her in his compound.  One could argue that it is different today with majority of the women acquiring western education. In spite of all that the woman is still treated patronizingly as a partner, albeit a very weak one.

The Supreme Court has taken a position – condemning the Igbo customary practice of excluding women from inheriting their fathers’ estate, declaring the practice null and void. The judges stated that the practice was repugnant to natural justice, and it contradicted the S. 42 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The cases in the customary courts are many and may drag on for many more years because the Igbo traditional institutions that are benefiting from the second class citizen status are pretending that they can resist the judgment of the Supreme Court. We know that they cannot. The bailiffs are there to enforce compliance.

Justice delayed is justice denied. Institutions in Igbo including the Ohaneze, traditional rulers, the Town Unions, and religious organizations must take advantage of this judgment to modernize the Igbo society. The traditions and customs of the Igbo society in relation to the status of the girl child must change. The fact that not one of the many limited liability companies of Igbo men survive their deaths can be traceable to the practice that grooms only the boys for succession.

The litigations that follow the passing away of Mazi unknowingly wastes enormous resources required for personal and communal development. .The intra family feud is unnecessary bloodletting for siblings who lived as one until the moment of inheritance.

Without supporting divorce or more broken homes, I must point out that a major difference between the Yoruba and Igbo house wives is that the Yoruba woman, if abused in marriage, will return to her father’s house and occupy the rooms she inherited in the family house.

The Igbo wife tolerates abuse, sometimes dying of it, because she cannot return to her father’s house where she would be treated as an intruder, unless she has wads of relevant currency to spend continually. The Igbo society will produce more Dorothy Akunyili, Okonjo Iweala, and Oby Ezekwesili if this wind of change is allowed to impact on Igbo land.  Perhaps, Social Clubs based in the South East must find their voices and issue statements immediately. Change must come now to save Ala Igbo.

By Olusegun Ayeoyenikan

National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) is mandated to make available in the Nigerian market the primary and intermediate capital products required for machine and equipment design, fabrication, and mass production to provide an enabling environment for sustainable industrialization of the country.

The agency, established in 1992, continues to make progress in Nigeria’s technological advancement, driving home-grown innovation and improving manufacturing capabilities. While playing this role, NASENI has successfully developed more than 150 innovative products as well as prototypes bolstered by its Development Institutes and Centres, thus contributing to fostering excellence in science, engineering technology and manufacturing.

Commendable so far, however, the NASENI’s socio-economy trajectories or real-time impacts in the country, its previous challenges included lack of patronage of its technologies and products by local entrepreneurs or businesses, exacerbated by low R&D results commercialization activities, leaving most research outcomes to waste away on shelves. True, NASENI always could boast of having various innovative products but it had very weak linkage with Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) or big corporations whose day-to-day activities required the use of various technologies, machines and equipment already developed by the agency.

As this particular challenge persisted over the years, then came on Monday 4^th September 2023 a new executive Vice Chairman/chief executive, Mr. Khalil Suleiman Halilu who was appointed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to lead NASENI. It is good to note that the President Tinubu himself is the Chairman of the Governing Board of NASENI in line with the agency’s establishment Act 2004.  Immediately on assumption of office, Halilu like a man who knew where the proverbial shoes pinched the most brought a dramatic management change of focus towards full commercialization of NASENI’s resources, to make available in the market and also end users its R&D products, machines and other equipment to boost the economy.

NASENI today stands as a beacon of hope for Nigeria’s indigenous technological advancement, aligning with its core mission of fostering needed dynamic science and engineering Infrastructure for national progress. The agency under the leadership of Halilu has articulated a bold vision and promoted a shared management-staff philosophy hinged on 3Cs principles of Creation, Collaboration and Commercialization to fuel Nigeria’s innovation and sustainable future. This approach has indeed opened more doors to result-based NASENI’s partnerships with both national and international corporate communities.

Inspired by previous experience as a techpreneur and businessman before his appointment to lead NASENI, Halilu’s leadership model is to do everything to conserve resources, avoid duplication of efforts, and shorten go-to-market time. What this means is that wherever NASENI finds serious partners who are already operating in areas of interest, it will work with them to improve the agency’s products and take these products to the market. As a government agency, Halilu said NASENI under him is not out to compete with the private sector. Instead, the agency will serve as partners and enablers, helping the private sector to achieve everything from design to testing, or helping companies in scaling-up production capacity and to seek out new markets.”

As a result of this strategy, within a space of one year the agency had unveiled to the general public some branded technological products manufactured in collaboration with its partners. They included solar irrigation systems, electric vehicles (ranging from tricycles to motorcycles), NASENI home solar system, animal feed milling machines, laptop, smartphone, solar street lamp and lithium battery. All these efforts were geared towards creating jobs and to reduce import bills.

Halilu brought a mix of deep private sector experience and working knowledge of the public sector, amassed from delivering high-impact technology and digital solutions across both sectors. In the private sector, before his sojourn in NASENI, Khalil Halilu had founded two start-ups-Shap shap technologies Limited, a Nigerian logistics start up focusing on the last-mile delivery market, as well as Africa’s first on-demand commodity marketplace, an innovation incubator and the CANs-the first eco-friendly Technology Hub in West Africa. In his consulting work, Halilu built and deployed solutions tailored to improve the quality of government-citizen engagement, election monitoring including support for victims of gender-based violence amongst others.

In September 2023, Halilu hit the ground running with the launching of a NASENI Strategic Launchpad which simplified attainable goals concerning the mandate, vision, mission and operations of the Agency into short, medium and long-term plans. Secondly, he changed the NASENI corporate logo to portray a predominant blue colour to reflect the agency’s operational affinity with the private sector or the business world. Halilu introduced a well thought out corporate plan called ‘strategic Launchpad’ which outlined four pillars that encapsulated the agency’s vision namely: Enhancing Nigeria’s Manufacturing Capacity, Reducing Nigeria’s Import Dependency through Research and Development, Strategically Repositioning NASENI and Leveraging the Comparative Advantages of Nigeria’s 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory.

Halilu’s philosophy on the need for a strategic plan before getting down to business was in line with the popular adage that “he who fails to plan, has planned to fail already”. The NASENI strategic document amongst others clarified in simple languages the mandate, objectives, targets and achievable goals of the agency within a stipulated or achievable time-frames, taking into account the factors of human, material and other resources given to the agency by the Federal Government. So far, the document has provided an effective guide for deployment of resources, its optimization and measurements leading to all the achievements which everyone now could see or touch.

The past 12 months: NASENI had deliberately signed critical Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) with local and international partners aimed at advancing Nigeria’s economic growth and development. Some of them include a $150 million deal with Schenzen LEMI Technology Development Company Ltd to establish a lithium battery manufacturing and processing factory in Nigeria.

It signed agreements with three other Chinese companies for new projects valued at $2 billion. They include Shanghai Launch Automotive Technical Co Ltd – to establish a new energy automobile facility for the production of new energy electric vehicles; China Great Wall Industry Corporation-for the turnkey delivery of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) assembly line projects; and Newway Power Technology Company Ltd-for the transfer of technology on lithium batteries, electric vehicles and allied technologies.

Others are: Galaxy Backbone Ltd to support NASENI’s High Performance Computing 2.0 projects; Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to provide technical support assistance and expertise using home grown renewable energy technologies; and PT Saputra Global Harvest of Indonesia to establish coal-based fertilizer plants in Nigeria. NASENI had signed MoU with Nasarawa State Government and Bobtrack Tractors to establish a tractor assembly and production factory at its Agricultural Machinery and Equipment Development Institute (AMEDI), Lafia to enhance food security; the Ministry of Defence and DICON to establish an ammunition production factory; a $21.7 million counterpart funding with the Technical Agency of the Czech Republic (TA-CR) for take-off of Delta-2 Projects; Niger State government for Agric mechanization; Family Homes Funds Ltd for affordable housing development; and Caverton Helicopters for the establishment of a drone assembly plant, a drone training school, and a service centre for helicopters; amongst other agreements.

NASENI is also collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to deploy existing technical competencies and exchange of resources by the two institutions to improve Agro-allied-industries development targets, climate change mitigations and smart solar irrigation aimed at dry-season farming. These partnerships will have a profound impact, generating hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs, contributing significantly to Nigeria’s economic growth, agricultural sector, food security, and renewable energy development. The efforts have no doubt positioned NASENI as a catalyst for Nigeria’s economic transformation, driving progress in critical sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, housing, energy, transportation, ICT and manufacturing.

The entry of Mr. Khalil S. Halilu has brought into the agency many strategic infrastructure development projects, including cutting-edge research facilities and technology hubs installed at NASENI headquarters and its development institutes. He has revitalised partnerships with local and international stakeholders, fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing, innovative initiatives to promote entrepreneurship, job creation, and economic growth.

He has not left any stone unturned in contributing to the promotion of the green energy initiative of the Federal Government and mitigation of climate change.  His recent partnership with Portland Gas Limited resulted in the establishment of NASENI-Portland CNG Conversion and Training Centre at Utako, Abuja which has raised the bar of sustainable alternative fuel solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save fuel costs for vehicle owners.

Also, Halilu did not neglect the issue of staff welfare and human capital development. Notable achievements in this area were the introduction of enhanced staff welfare package and training programmes including capacity building initiatives described as unprecedented. As at today, there is no staff of NASENI (from low to highest ranks) who have not attended one form of training or the other within the range of local and international trainings to improve work performance; inspiring a new mindsets and attitudes to work even as he is deliberately engineering new NASENI generation scientists, engineers, and innovators including other support staff to dream big for the agency. This new trend of focusing on staff development has created a renewed sense of purpose and optimism by the entire workforce. Many staff are saying that “it is a new NASENI indeed under the leadership of Khalil Suleiman Halilu as executive vice chairman and chief executive”

The NASENI family now is cultivating a culture of innovation, emphasizing continuous training and skill development to meet global standards and also to produce world-class products. This commitment to leveraging NASENI’s capabilities and fostering a culture of innovation has positioned it to make a substantial impact in Nigeria and beyond.

As NASENI continues to move ahead with Nigeria’s technological advancements and infrastructure development focus, the impacts on the economy will be profoundly felt soon. With focus on innovation, collaboration, and transformative leadership, the agency is set to make remarkable differences in shaping Nigeria’s technological landscapes toward economic prosperity. Exciting times lie ahead for NASENI as it continues on its forward-looking paths to propel innovation and economic growth for Nigeria under Mr. Khalil Suleiman Halilu as NASENI CEO. It’s truly a remarkable one year of renewed hope, 365 days of giant strides and transformation of the agency.

Olusegun Ayeoyenikan is the Director of Information, NASENI. He writes from the agency’s headquarters in Abuja.