ABBA KYARI, GEOFFREY ONYEAMA’S BEST MAN?

Last Saturday morning, I was in my study writing the week's edition of Saturday Breakfast when Booboo, my young daughter breezed in. She asked if I had heard that President Buhari's Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, had died of COVID 19. There was a certain smile on her face which I did not like. I told her that none of us should celebrate the death of anyone as death is a price we all must pay and none can be sure who will die next.

Of course, I knew why my daughter would appear to be happy at the death of a man she never met. So much had been written about Abba Kyari none of which was pleasant. Abba Kyari was the unelected de facto President of our country who had made it impossible for anything to work in Nigeria. He was said to be an evil man and the head of a cabal that simply manipulated the president and imposed a well-crafted Northern agenda on the nation.   

I have read much of the stuff. I never met Abba Kyari and did not know him. I did not know what to believe and what not to. Of course, the passing of Malam Abba Kyari was everywhere on WhatsApp, now the world's most ubiquitous platform where everyone can publish everything, factual, imagined or completely nonsensical.

While I did not know Abba Kyari, I know Tony Okoroji who at 29 years old became President of a very disorderly PMAN. I worked 24 hours every day, seven days a week to turn the organization around and make it one of the nation's most admired professional associations. Indeed, I abandoned a lucrative job at one of the foremost recording companies in the world and had little time for my young family as I set to do that which I believed my industry and my nation needed. At the time, I lived in a rented three- bedroom apartment in Akowonjo, certainly not the best part of Lagos. I drove a Volkswagen Passat TS assembled at Pat Utomi's Volkswagen Nigeria Assembly plant in Ojo Lagos. I never threw any large parties nor did I wear any expensive agbada. I struggled with my family and had no money anywhere.

I woke up one morning to read in practically all the national newspapers how I had swindled PMAN and made huge sums of money off the association. They say that hell hath no fury than a woman scorned. I will add that hell hath no fury than a Nigerian whose request for a favour is rejected. I had rejected the request of a man who wanted to climb on top of PMAN to make millions for himself at the expense of the association. He decided he was going to show me 'pepper' and he went out to devote substantial resources to destroy me and to chase me out of PMAN. One moment I was the toast of the Nigerian media for my work in copyright, the Nigerian Music Awards and the great association we had built, the next, I was a fraud, a villain and a man not to be touched by anyone!

To put it mildly, I was dazed. I had gone on with the naivety that if you are honest, the world would see what your mind is made of. So, how could the campaign of personal destruction be appropriate compensation for the huge sacrifice I had made for my profession and my country? I have since learnt that serial defamation is a weapon deployed by scoundrels to decimate those strong enough to challenge them. There are so many scoundrels in Nigeria and they operate successfully because majority of our people have lost faith in the decency of their leaders, the legal system is so complex and slow and the tribal and religious divides produce substantial manure for such vegetations to grow wild. My repeated experience with serial defamation has been such that I do not take what I am told about anyone until I see hard evidence and I am able to interrogate the evidence.      

I was still chewing the Abba Kyarri situation with the many terrible commentaries and stories appearing everywhere when the next day someone forwarded "Tribute to Kyari: The Best Man" written by Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs. I was touched by the story told of Abba Kyari by a man who truly knew him. Abba, a Muslim Kanuri man was actually best man to Geoffrey Onyeama, an Igbo Catholic at his wedding to Sulola, his Anglican bride in an Anglican church in Idoani, Ondo State. Wrote Geoffrey, "Abba was a Pan-Nigerian global citizen, who recognized no boundaries between peoples, be they racial, ethnic religious, class or political. He made friends with everyone. Abba was a man of unimpeachable integrity. Absolutely incorruptible!"

I was touched by Geoffrey Onyeama's account of his friend's character, completely different from everything that has been written about Abba Kyari. It made me to think: If I could offend someone so badly in my little PMAN position, who knows how many people Kyari offended in his influential post? Immediately after reading the piece, I called the Minister. He did not pick but called me back five minutes later. We spoke at length about his friend and I commended him for the courage to speak up for his dead friend when there was an avalanche of bad reports about him. I however expressed my sadness that there was little effort to tell the story of the man while he was alive. I have no reason not to believe Mr. Onyeama. He is in the list of my ten favourite Nigerians.       

On a low level visit I made to Geneva some years ago, who came knocking on the door of my hotel room? It was Geoffrey Onyeama, the Deputy Director-General at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the big United Nation's agency. For an entire Saturday, Jeff as he was called by his friends in Geneva and his beautiful wife Sulola, did nothing else but drive me around the beautiful city and show me the colours of Geneva. The couple treated me like royalty. They had no reason to. I was not in Geneva as a big politician, an important government official or a big businessman. I was just an unheralded copyright activist from Africa. It did not matter to this incredible couple who have no airs around them. During the sweet ride, we talked a lot about Nigeria and the possibilities that exist if we will just have good leadership. Jeff and Sulola took me to their home and made me feel at home.

Five years ago, Geoffrey Onyeama was appointed Nigeria's Foreign Minister. Being Nigeria's Foreign Minister has not changed Jeff. I have not called Jeff once without his picking my call or returning it after. The Honourable Minister has never given me an appointment he did not keep. Two and half years ago, when he delivered the COSON Lecture in Lagos, he had so many good reasons not to show up or to send a representative. He came to Lagos and honoured me in a way no money can buy. In my several visits to his Abuja office, he has always been engaging and has never been too busy to see me off. Once, he actually rushed out of a meeting at Aso Rock to come and see me. Geoffrey Onyeama does not need to treat me with such decency.  We do no business together and have never exchanged one Naira between us. That is just the way he is. Polished!

I thank him for giving us something to think about in the Abba Kyari story, even though I believe it ought to have come earlier. I have written this because there are many good men out there who want to serve mankind conscientiously who may be scared to go the way of Mallam Abba Kyari. The truth must be told of all men.

See you next week.

MY NAME IS TONY OKOROJI AND I LIKE IT!

I have said before that I do not want to be Dangote or Otedola or Ronaldo or Donald Trump. I do not need to be a governor or a minister. I am Tony Okoroji and boy, I like it.

I do not say it with arrogance, conceit or egotism. I say it with humility and with thanks to the Almighty for what he has done and continues to do with me.

I wrote in "Half Bread is Better than None" my last piece in Saturday Breakfast that my phone crashed last week from the never ending calls from members of COSON across the country offering prayers to the COSON Board in every language spoken in Nigeria. I don't know about you, but their prayers are worth more to me than all the money in the world.

During the week, I called many members of COSON in several hamlets in the country who have had issues with receiving their Coronavirus relief from COSON. The joy in the voices on the other end that the Chairman personally called them is immeasurable. In almost every occasion, the problem was resolved.

Once again, I thank the wonderful COSON Board members and the management team of Vincent Adawaisi, Isa Haruna and Tony Imusen for not seeing the limitations but the possibilities. May God bless my great team for understanding that your life means nothing if you do not use it to lift others. I thank the members of COSON for appreciating our efforts.

I have said it before that I have little material wealth, no big estate, no zillions anywhere, no money in any foreign account, no oil well and no godfather but OMG, I have God the father and I drive on a full tank of faith and I am H-A-P-P-Y! I appreciate the grace that the Almighty has given me to work hard, focus on my challenges and achieve results that please Him. I walk with my head held high and love the gifts He has given me.

I have heard some people say that I am arrogant… me arrogant? No way! What they might see as arrogance is actually confidence. If you believe in God, you glow in His glory. I am not so stupid that I do not understand that whatever wisdom and strength any of us may deploy does not belong to us but to the Almighty. If you think that I am arrogant, please bury the thought. I simply glow in the glory of God the father who makes everything possible.

Those who know me and those who have worked with me will testify that I prepare, practice and practice for everything. I never want to go to a meeting without studying[to1]   the issues and fully understanding what I want to come out with. I do not embark on an event without checking every box over and over again and being sure that there is a Plan 'B', if Plan 'A' fails. I never take a case to court without being certain that my processes are very well done and that the facts and the law are on my side. The reality is that in the few cases I have lost in the court of first instance, I have won on appeal.

Almost every day, I am confronted by people who have come to meet with me with no prior preparation whatsoever. They want something from me and cannot explain what it is they want. They have failed to plan and naturally have planned to fail. The big problem is that when the failure stares them in the face, they take no responsibility. It is either the witch in their village or the fact that they come from a different tribe. They look for excuses everywhere when the real excuse is within them.

Across our land, there are many who go to 'work' every day without doing any work. They believe that they are entitled to be paid for going to work and not for the work they do. Many show up in the office just to deploy the company's WIFI to do Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Thereafter, they gossip and gossip and gossip. At closing time, they are the first to step out of the gate. Unfortunately, it is this group that shouts the loudest when salaries are one day late.  

Every day, people gather in persons or on the phone to hatch one conspiracy against me or another. They have lied and lied about me and began to believe their lies. They have shot at me with every weapon they can find. 1n 2017, a coup was hatched against and executed in broad daylight. Twelve days later, the coup failed in broad daylight. I was reported to the EFCC for something that has nothing to do with me and after a few months the matter died like Dodo. Men of SARS were organized to take over my office. In less than an hour, the good Lord dispersed them. The Police CID in Abuja was programmed to arrest me and parade me as a common criminal for stealing N60 Million! The senior police officer who called to summon me to Abuja later called to apologize to me and reported that he was being used. They conspired and filed criminal charges against me to send me to jail and a good judge saw through the gambit and I never was docked.

They have hired people who do nothing else but publish inciting and defamatory matters against me every day from dawn to dusk. The guy who leads this onslaught purports to sit on a pedestal which I worked hard to make famous.  Practically every power of a government agency which I helped to found has been thrown at me as they misinterpret laws which I helped to write.

They connived to shut down the bank accounts of the organization that I lead believing that such would grind us to a halt. For where? When all their gambit failed, they composed a new drab song called "Forensic Audit"

Each time they get one small ruling from a court, they celebrate like they have found the cure to the coronavirus.    

Lo and behold, nothing has happened to me. The energy they have deployed in doing bad is energy that they could have used to do good and be blessed by the Almighty. I am sure they keep wondering how I continue to stand and COSON continues to thrive. People like them would believe in juju and not realize that one with God is always majority.

In the last two weeks, members of COSON across Nigeria have publicly showed again that they cherish honest and purposeful service and that they see through all the conspiracy. I thank God for his protection. I thank Him for who he has made me. I do not want to be anyone else, no matter how rich or famous.

Thank you, members of my COSON family for your trust.

See you next week.

---

 [to1]

WHEN HALF BREAD IS BETTER THAN NONE

I could not sleep that night. I rolled over and over thinking of what had happened to me in the last two days of Coronavirus lock down in Lagos. In the middle of the night, I asked myself: what use really is my life and the position that I occupy if I cannot do anything to change the situation positively for anyone?

Stuck at home the day before, I had received a phone call from a well-known musician and member of COSON, the organization whose Board I chair. His wife joined him on the phone. They told me that they had been drinking garri for days and managing that way. The big problem was that they had run out of garri. There was none to drink anymore! They begged me to send them three thousand naira to buy some more garri.

As highly technology driven as I am, I have refused to have Internet banking facilities on my phone. The reason is simple: too many people have my number and I get too many requests for money every other hour. I am not a Dangote, an Otedola or an Elumelu. I am not a Larry Izamoje who has a printing press. I run a small business which manages to put food on the table for me and my family. I however have another job that gives me no salary, no housing allowance, no medical allowance, no leave allowance, one rickety official car that breaks down everywhere and many-many court cases, bad press and countless hours of work.

The incredibly surprising thing is that many people scheme and plot to take over my job as the leader of an organization that gets zero funding from any government whether federal, state or local. I very well know that their belief is that something must be happening under the table. In Nigeria, you are supposed to be an imbecile for having a job and not cooking something under the table. I am a good cook but I will rather be an imbecile than be a thief. I do not know how to take that which does not belong to me and I have begged the Almighty not to bestow on me the talent for stealing. As my brother and friend, Ugo Stevenson would say, "there is no successful criminal". I verily believe that ultimately, everyone pays a price for everything we do. I do not steal because I do not want to pay a huge price because I verily believe in the law of Karma.

How much can three thousand naira do for anyone? I started calling round to find someone able to transfer some money on my behalf to my colleague so that he and his wife do not starve. It was more difficult than I had thought but I finally found someone who sent five thousand naira to him. When they called me back, you would think that I had just sent them a million naira.

Not long after, I got a call from another COSON colleague who told me that he was dead broke and that he could manage but did not know what to do about his young son who was just a few months old. I reminded him that I do not do Internet banking and could not transfer any money to him. Despite the fact tha this gentleman lives more than five kilometers from me, he told me he was prepared to come to my residence to get anything to save his child.  I told him not to forget that there was no transportation anywhere and he assured me he was prepared to trek.  

Trek he did. Luckily, my daughter had made some soup the day before. My guy who was practically gasping for breath ate some eba and drank some ice cold water and came back to life. How much did he get from me? Just five thousand naira but he was so grateful, you would think I just saved his life. After some banter, he began his five-kilometer trek in the hot sun back home and called after a few hours to thank me profusely.

Then, I got an angry phone call from a COSON member in Benin City who was completely agitated by the lack of any real support from the government for the citizens who are suffering beyond belief. He asked me if I knew that no musician in Nigeria was earning any income as there was no entertainment activity going on in the country. He asked me why COSON cannot do anything for the members. I reminded him that COSON accounts in two banks were frozen and we could not access the funds. He sounded more and more angry and said that he was going to rally musicians to petition the President and the Vice President and everyone else so that the accounts are re-opened immediately. I was not sure he understood.

Rolling on my bed that night, it became clear to me that my life was no use if I am not prepared to do something about the glaring anguish of my constituents across the nation. As soon as it was daylight, I called a senior member of the COSON management and asked for a statement showing everywhere that COSON had accessible funds. In a few hours the information came. Then I called back to say that I was thinking of asking members of the Board to approve a sum of Fifty Million Naira to be distributed to COSON members across the country who are going through unimaginable trial. She gave me one hundred reasons why what I was suggesting was simply impossible and that the logistics at a time when the banks were rendering skeletal services were not possible to execute. She suggested that we should think about it after the lock down. After the lock down? I hung up the phone on her.

I called my driver, Abey, one of the greatest Nigerians I have ever known. I told him that as much as I respect the lock down, we must hit the streets on a mission to save lives. I called several members of the COSON Board on the phone and told them why we must find a way to do something immediately for our members despite the many challenges we face. The support was solid and it was decided that we schedule an emergency meeting on our digital platform to formalize the process.

Since Tuesday, a few thousand COSON members have received some money which is not a lot but gives them a chance to buy recharge cards, some drugs, some garri, a few cups of rice and possibly make some soup and have some hope. When you are rich, you don't know what eleven thousand naira means. My phone crashed two days ago from the endless calls from members of COSON across the country offering prayers to members of the COSON Board in every language in the country. I thank the wonderful COSON Board members and the management team of Vincent Adawaisi, Isa Haruna and Tony Imusen for not seeing the limitations but the possibilities. I thank the incredible Abiodun Fajemilehin, my buddy known by many as Abey without whom it would not have happened. May God bless my great team for understanding that your life means nothing if you do not use it to lift others.

See you next week.

 

AFTER CORONA, WILL AMERICA STILL BE THE WORLD’S SUPERPOWER?

It was about 15 years ago that I told my madam that the Peoples Republic of China would soon become the dominant country in the world. She sneered at me. At that point, China was not rated third, fourth or fifth in terms of GDP or productivity. Indeed, China was referred to by some as a developing nation!

Why was I so sure? The facts have been there to see for anyone who makes predictions based on facts. There is the unmatched population. This is not a large population of lazy people waiting for someone to provide food for them or give them "social security". The Chinese have an unparalleled work ethic. They get things done faster and cheaper than anyone else.

The Chinese fascination with technology was another factor. They gathered everything made everywhere else, tore them apart and studied them carefully. While the world shouted about Intellectual Property theft, the Chinese were on a crash course on how things are designed and built. At the time I had the discussion with my wife, half of the toys and wrist watches sold on the streets of New York carried the label, "Made in China". Unusually shiny and colourful, they made no pretentions to being quality goods. A lot of them fell apart after a few weeks but they were made in China.

We have all been taught in school about capitalism and socialism or the extreme version called communism. If you went to a school that was western oriented, you were indoctrinated with the idea that communism is evil and had no redeeming features. Capitalism and the market economy have been established as the only way for the progress of mankind. This was underscored when on Christmas Day, December 25, 1991, the powerful Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) the bastion of communism fell apart overnight, like a pack of cards. Before then, the struggle between nations, the war between the east and the west, was the battle between communism and capitalism. When the Soviet Union imploded, it provided hard evidence to capitalist scholars that Communism is unworkable. Around the world, capitalists celebrated. "Capitalism has defeated Communism!", everyone shouted and the Berlin wall fell.

What the world may not have considered is that there might indeed be a third way, a subtle combination of the market economy, the heart of capitalism with a command leadership structure, the soul of communism. That might sound mutually exclusive and unworkable. Not so, say the Chinese.  

The proof is all over the place.  The superpower USA is owing China over one trillion dollars in treasury bills and bonds. The Chinese Huawei 5G technology is today the most sophisticated network communication technology in the world causing a lot of fear in America and Europe. When the Coronavirus emerged, the Chinese understood the problem, went aggressively to deal with it and the report is that most of China is back to work churning out products for everyone everywhere. Meanwhile, America is in confusion. Not even a 2 trillion-dollar war chest has quelled the tremor in the American stock market. Last week, Donald Trump was toying with the idea of asking some Americans to go back to work by Easter because of re-election fears. He was shouted down by frightened Americans who see the death tole continue to rise.

Who would have ever thought that America will be begging China for ventilators and other critical medical supplies to keep America citizens alive? It is now such a mad scramble for American state governors and mayors. Nobody is worried about superpower status anymore. Critical life is at stake and China is ahead of the curve and has all the cards. Did you hear that Chinese medical supplies headed for Germany were two days ago hijacked and diverted to America? That is how crazy things have become.    

Donald J. Trump's "America First" swagger has revealed its frightening limitations and shown that it is all talk and bluster. Its soft under belly and lack of a long-term strategy have become very clear. The divisions in the population that Mr. Trump's "take no prisoner" style has created, has robbed America of the aggregation of enduring energy and trust required by any nation to do historic things.

In America, the reaction to or appreciation of the dangers of the Coronavirus is in the main, a factor of whether you are a Republican or a Democrat. When some people started calling for the United States Government to prepare the nation to wage a war against the oncoming virus, the reaction of the President and his supporters was that it was a "hoax" and that alarmists Democrats wanted to rubbish him in an election year. Not until the Dow Jones went on a free fall and businesses started to shut down left, right and center did it dawn on the Twitter President that there was trouble of immense proportions in the country and in the world. Sadly, the result is that thousands of Americans, in both blue and red states, will die who may have stayed alive if their government had its eyes on the ball.

While Donald Trump was busy picking a fight with every Democrat he could find, the power equation in the world may have been re-written. The big bang has occurred! The Coronavirus has revealed the strong limitations of a superpower status founded on nuclear weapons, inter-continental ballistic missiles and other forms of weapons of mass destruction. In the time that Donald Trump has been threatening and shouting at Iran, Xi Jinping has been building roads, rail lines and Airport Terminals across Africa and Latin America. Please tell me who has made the better investment.

People also looked down on Japan until Toyotas, Nissans and Mitsubishis took over roads across the world and Sony, TDK, Hitachi, JVC and co, took over our living rooms. Watch out for Chinese cars. They are on the way!  

Believe me or not, the wind has blown exposing the American bum-bum. The way things are going, the entire world may be on the way to becoming one big Chinatown.

See you next week