THIS piece is the second instalment in a three-part series. You can read the first instalment here.
YOU will be amazed: On March 28, 2022, five men heavily armed with guns, knives, and other dangerous weapons invaded the home of Mr Olanrewaju Suraju and carted away valuables. Not without registering an enduring fear. They threatened to kill and physically hurt him and his wife, both of whom were later hospitalized. The assailants carted away a 2014 edition of Toyota Corolla car; five phones including 1 Samsung phone; 2 I-Phones; 2 IPads; 2 Macbook pro laptops; a Dell laptop; pieces of jewellery, Bank ATM Cards; car keys; bank tokens as well as official documents. Although the matter, according to a report on the official website of the organization, was immediately lodged with the police, since then, Mr Suraju and his family have been left to their fate, while the perpetrators remain at large.
The Nigeria Police have neither been able to track any of the assailants nor recovered any of the stolen items. Out of over 220 buildings in the estate, Suraju's house was the only one invaded on that day when the perpetrators collected valuable items in the house and coerced Suraju to provide all his security details including phone passwords, bank log-in details, laptops passwords after which they gained access to his email, phone numbers including Whatsapp and other messaging platforms as well as bank platforms. To date, Suraju and his family remain refugees in the homes of family friends.
But the Suraju-led HEDA is unwavering in its commitment, a major manifestation being twin events conceptualized by HEDA to commemorate this year’s edition of World Anti-Corruption Day which HEDA has decidedly stretched into a whole week for the teeming but continually victimised people of Nigeria. For HEDA and the rest of us, it should not be bad news for Nigerians on transparency and accountability all the times
No fewer than three agencies well known to this writer-no full-fledged Ministry yet-have elected to serve Nigerians with utmost commitment to accountability. These are the National Hajj Commission, NAHCON; Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, NIOMR and your well-known Is-haq Oloyede-led JAMB which keeps upscaling its transparency profile. The latest in the major transparency mechanism of JAMB is the recently activated VPN-enabled real-time notification system between JAMB and all relevant educational sector agencies of the Federal Government. As soon as there is any information for all such agencies from JAMB or from any of them, they get updated leaving zero room for false claims on developments and delayed action or total lack of it that may serve as cover for the award of undeserved fortunes.
Springing a most pleasant surprise is the new leadership of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, captained by Barrister Zikrullah Hassan, which claims and demonstrates its full subscription to optimal values for Nigerian Muslim pilgrims. In the face of a tumultuous forex regime, the new NAHCON leadership secured unprecedentedly cheaper accommodation fees for Nigerian pilgrims in Saudi Arabia coupled with the patriotic commitment of not requesting any subvention to run the service for the citizens. But for the ingenious decongestion of the accommodation fees for pilgrims in Makkah and Medina, hajj would have been highly prohibitive for Nigerians as Naira has been depreciating most unimaginably in the currency exchange market.
