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It was typical of Prof. Damian Woods-Platt who has devoted his entire academic career at Cambridge University to insist that in order to properly appreciate the genius of William Shakespeare, the retired partners of KPMG, who are still awaiting their gratuity and pension would have to devote the rest of their lives to studying eight hundred years of European history and social trans-mutations. The response was as spontaneous as it was heart-warming and uplifting (of both the soul and the spirit). Our spouses rewarded him with a standing ovation – in jubilation that if all their husbands would be doing for the rest of their lives would be nothing more than feasting on William Shakespeare, glory be to God Almighty.
Anyway, for security reasons we switched our hotel to the Savoy Hotel,The Strand, London WC2R OEU, which was opened in 1889 and is on the banks of The River Thames,instead of the Dorchester Hotel which had been booked for us by KPMG along with dinner themed: “An Evening With William Shakespeare”.
As it was the peak of the summer season, getting rooms at the iconic hotel at such short notice was no easy matter. Fortunately for us some partners of PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) were just checking out. They were in a foul mood. Their loss turned out to be our gain.
As confirmation that Shakespeare is for ever and everywhere, the last occupant of one of the suites reserved for us had left behind what was captioned “The Tempest” followed by the front page headline of “Daily Sun” newspaper of August 9, 2016. “Corruption is official in Nigeria” – Pastor Bakare
“The convener of Save Nigeria Group and Presiding Pastor of Latter Rain Assembly, Tunde Bakare, at the weekend, said not only government officials were corrupt, but emphasised that “corruption is official in Nigeria.”
Bakare made this declaration during the birthday celebration of human rights activist, Monday Ubani and the launch of Onyekachi Ubani Foundation at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, while delivering the keynote address titled “the system that allows massive corruption in Nigeria must be bad”.
He noted that, “at the twilight of the military era in Nigeria’s political trajectory, the name “Nigeria” became synonymous with a certain word, a word that elicits the image of a cesspool running over corruption.
“At that time, precisely in 1999, Transparency International rated Nigeria the second most corrupt country in the world in terms of perception, second only to her eastern neighbour, Cameroon.
“For instance, given the unbridled looting of the treasury at that time, reportedly to the tune of over one billion dollars as was subsequently uncovered following the exit of the military, it was obvious that the abnormal had become the norm, the illegal had become legal, the outrageous had become banal and the aberrant had become the gold standard.
It was left to our French partner Louis Phillipe and his wife Louise to serve up “The Tempest” courtesy of a “Breaking News” report on Fox News by Will Worley with the headline:
“Under-17 squad banned from African cup for failing age tests”
“All but two footballers in Nigeria’s Under-17 first team have been dismissed, after testing revealed they were actually older.
In total, 26 players from the 60-strong squad were sent home from their training camp in the country’s capital, Abuja, after they failed MRI scans to test their ages.
The removals came as the team, nicknamed the Golden Eaglets, prepared for African Cup of Nations qualifying games.
“It is a disaster,” one official said, adding that the first team has been disqualified. Others described it as a “mass failure”.
“This is supposed to be a developmental thing which we are supposed to benefit from in the future, but we are always impatient to achieve,” said Kunle Ajai on Facebook, “I will suggest that FIFA strips us of all the medals we have won in the past, This is a national disgrace. The coaches and all those who are involved should be sacked.”
The Nigerian side has won five African Cup competitions since 1985. Last year the Golden Eaglets won the FIFA Under-17 World Cup.”
As for our Italian partner Romeo Bruni and his wife Juliet, they strove valiantly to conceal their angst over what they chose to call “The Merchant(s) Of Venice” on account of the “Daily Trust” newspaper front page report of August 9, 2016. Headline: “80 percent of 3600 Nigerian women enter Italy for prostitution – United Nations”
The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said that about 3,600 Nigerian women arrived in Italy by boat in the first half of 2016, almost double the figure in the same period last year.
More than 80% of these women, it said, were trafficked into prostitution in Italy (mostly Venice) and across Europe. Traffickers use migrant reception centres as holding pens for women who are then collected and forced into prostitution, the UK Guardian quoted the UN agency as saying.
“What we have seen this year is a crisis, it is absolutely unprecedented and is the most significant increase in the number of Nigerian women arriving in Italy for 10 years,” said Simona Moscarelli, an anti-trafficking expert at the IOM.
She said majority of the women were being deliberately brought in for sexual exploitation purposes. She added that the criminal gangs and trafficking networks engaging in the sexual exploitation of younger Nigerian girls had expanded.
Although a thriving sex trafficking industry has been operating between Nigeria and Italy for over three decades, there has been a marked increase in the number of unaccompanied Nigerian women arriving in Italy on migrant boats from Libya, the report said.
In 2014, about 1,500 Nigerian women arrived by sea. In 2015 this figure had increased to 5,633. Moscarelli warned that the current policy of placing Nigerian women in reception centres along with thousands of other migrants was playing to the traffickers’ advantage, with women regularly going missing.
She said six girls who went missing from a reception centre in Sicily last week were just picked up in a car and driven away. Most Nigerian women who arrived in Italy are already victims of trafficking, many have been subjected to serious sexual exploitation in Libya, she said. She described their condition as worse, adding; “They are really treated like slaves.” They arrive in Italy with debts of about £40,000 for their journey from Nigeria, which they are expected to pay back. Nigerian trafficking gangs use a toxic mix of false promises of legitimate employment and traditional “juju” ceremonies to recruit and gain psychological control over their victims.”
J.K. Randle, OFR, FCA
