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Raymond Aliga: X-raying a ray of hope for humanity  

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By Alozie Ibe

 

Some people don’t like you because your strength reminds them of their weakness. Don’t let the hate slow you down.Dr Thelma Bryant Davis 

There is an African adage – which is very prominent among the Yoruba people – that discourages parents and people generally from comparing children with one another. Specifically, the adage says that if we compare one child with another, we may end up beating the other one who is not doing so well to death. So, it is better we allow all kids of different characters, traits, talents and abilities to grow at their pace and time.

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Having digested the theme of this adage, we in Africa over the years have learnt how not to compare two people at all, whether they are kids or adults. So in a family, community, workplace etc, we just silently dispense favours, benefits, commendations, awards, disciplinary actions and punishments on the basis of those who are deserving of any of them.

This is a culture we have to revisit for the purpose of inspiring, especially the younger generation to aspire for greatness. Because of this recent culture and the humility, modesty and fear of God in certain individuals, the fact that these individuals don’t blow their own trumpet, some persons have been seeking to rewrite our recent history and pull wool over the eyes of unsuspecting people by dressing truth as falsehood and packaging heresy as gospel. These people are trying to launch a lie that if we allow them to sustain in the front burner of discourse, it will begin to look like the truth.

Based on recent events in the political landscape of Abia state , we have to begin to separate the wheat from the chaff for the purpose of posterity. Raymond M. Aliga, a proud indigene of Nenu in Obingwa LGA of Abia state, a self-made, wealthy entrepreneur and philanthropist par excellence, is one of the underrated titans that I am talking about. A great, patriotic Nigerian who has for decades dominated the business landscape of the state and environs like a colossus and who has now expanded his terrain to Lagos and other parts of the country. An Industrialist of repute, Aliga has over two decades of experience in Shipping and General Marine Consultancy, Oil Field Services, Procurement Services, Construction, Oil and Gas, Hospitality, Agriculture and Manufacturing.

He is a multi-talented personality with a proven record of successfully steering organisations from humble beginnings to limelight. He holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA), Human Resource Management option from the prestigious Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, Oyo state. He also holds a Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Planning (Transport) from Lagos State University (LASU), and a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Shipping Management from the Certified Institute of Shipping, a Maritime University. Aliga is a Chartered Shipping Practitioner having been awarded Associate of the Chartered Institute of Shipping of Nigeria.

In 2005, he founded Allray Maritime Services Limited, an integrated shipping company which commenced operations immediately, offering services in Shipping, Air and Sea freight, LCL Consolidation, Trucking, Project Logistics, General Marine Consultancy, Oil Field Services and Procurement Services.

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A restless entrepreneur, Raymond Aliga also founded Goodseed Foundations, which is a co-founder of Australian Academy in Nigeria. The Goodseed Foundation, an Africa-based philanthropic organisation, focuses on vocational training and providing short courses for artisans.

He is also the Chairman of Goodseed Industries with technical college called Kiara De – Luke Academy and with clusters of six industries which include Goodseed Farms Ltd,Integrated Farm, Logistics, De Luke Garment Manufacturing Company Ltd, a company whose specialty is textile and garment production, Logistics De Luke furniture manufacturing company Ltd, that is employing over 100 Abians, Logistics De Luke Construction Company Limited which specialises on construction of all kinds of building and roads, Logistics De Luke Electrical and Logistics De – Luke Fabrications.

Aliga has a strong flair for humanitarianism and hospitality. He is the managing Director of Staywell Hospitality Services Nigeria Limited; operators of Aries Suites Hotel, Osborne Foreshore Estate, lkoyi, Lagos, Nigeria. He serves as a community leader in Abia State, also an Elder of United Evangelical Church.

Mr Aliga is furthermore, a member of the Board of Directors, Vica Hope Foundation (VHF) a humanitarian organisation whose mission is “to provide a platform for enhancing the status of women, teenagers, and children through education, empowerment, welfare, healthcare provisions/ skills development and to undertake interventions in poverty reduction, obnoxious widowhood and teenage girl abuses as well as promote maternal and childcare, women, and children’s rights.”

Democracy, with its accompanying freedom of expression, is however a leveller… The sort of leveller that makes all manners of roadside charlatans and nonentities take advantage of the lack of adequate gatekeeping on social media to spew all sorts of ridiculous stuff against honourable gentlemen who have over the decades toiled day and night to get to the top and build mighty empires that are the envy of all and sundry.

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As a result of the failure they have made out of their own below-average lives, some persons have conditioned their warped minds to think that it is impossible for anyone to make it as a result of decent toil or hard work. Because of their criminal mindset which would have made them loot the God’s own state dry if they ever got close to the cookie jar, they think people like Aliga had also depended on illicit money from politics to reach the heights it pleased God to take him to.

Let us however set the records for the sake of posterity, not for the purpose of these shady characters who are obviously uncoachable and can never learn. Aliga’s success in business did not start with the outgoing administration of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu. In fact, it was Aliga’s office that served as Ikpeazu’s campaign office when he aspired to be governor and won in 2015. It is therefore preposterous for people to insinuate or allege that Aliga made his fortunes from illicit funds from the Abia state government under Ikpeazu.

Aliga has for years been making game-changing impacts on the business climate of the state and beyond long before the coming of Governor Ikpeazu. Contrary to the lies the vocal minority would want to feed people with, all sane Abians will agree with me that Aliga has been making impact in philanthropy, human development, employment generation and community development and advancement of Christendom with his legitimate resources years before the coming of Governor Ikpeazu.

It was his contribution to philanthropy and humanitarian causes that earned him the national honour of Member of the Order of Niger (MON), which was bestowed on him by President Muhammadu Buhari last year. Even though he had prior to that time won several awards and commendations locally and internationally, the one from highest authority in a country like Nigeria is a crowning glory of his efforts over the years and a fitting tribute to his sacrifices and impact on his people. In a nutshell, Elder Aliga’s giant strides have over the decades been noticed by the people that matter in Abuja even though envious people do not know that their evil thoughts would never stop the work of God.

For us to be able to build a Nigeria of our dreams and reach the proverbial Promised Land, we have to be a society that gives honour to whom it is due. By the time we elevate the crooked elements among us and rubbish the icons who are deserving of celebration, we give our young ones the wrong impression that hard work doesn’t pay and that cutting corners pays, and by doing so, we destroy our society gradually.

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Elder Raymond Mkpuruoma Aliga, MON, deserves better !!!

Ibe, wrote from Aba, Abia State

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BREAKING: Death penalty for fake drugs! *NAFDAC to push new law at NASS

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Those peddling fake and substandard drugs in Nigeria should be ready for the hangman’s noose, if the thinking of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), becomes the new law.

Mojisola Adeyeye, Director General of the body, who said on Friday that no other form of punishment is fitting enough, gave instances of where the application of such dangerous substances in form of health drugs, had led to fatalities.

Advocating that only stiff penalties would deter peddlers especially when deaths of children became involved, the NAFDAC boss, who appeared as a guest on The Morning Brief, a breakfast programme on Channels Television, said: “Somebody bought children’s medicine for N13,000 or something like that, another person was selling about N3,000 in the same mall. 

“That raised an alarm. Guess what? There was nothing inside that medicine when we tested it in our Kaduna lab. So, I want the death penalty. Because you don’t need to put a gun on the head of a child before you kill that child. Just give that child bad medicine.”

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Advocating that the National Assembly and the judiciary to make the proposal a reality, adding that the agency was open to partnering with lawmakers and other stakeholders on the matter, she added: “You cannot fight substandard, falsified medicine in isolation. The agency can do as much as it can but if there is no deterrent, there’s going to be a problem.

“Somebody brought in 225mg of Tramadol that can kill anybody, fry the brain and you give a judgment of five years in prison or N250,000. Who doesn’t know that that person will go to the ATM and get N250,000? That is part of our problem.

“There are no strict measures to deter [people] from repeating the same thing. We can do as much as we can but if our law is not strong enough, or the judiciary is not strong enough to stand up, we’re going to have a problem.

“So, our judiciary system must be strong enough. But we are working with the National Assembly to make our penalties very stiff.  But if you kill a child by bad medicine, you deserve to die. We have a lot on our plate in stemming drug peddling.

“Withe about 2,000 staff members nationwide and limited funding, NAFDAC is constrained in carrying out its activities. So, when it comes to staffing, you’re right on the point. We are short-staffed and I am hoping things will be better.”

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Give us electoral offences tribunal to take care of heist – INEC  

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Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday, made a fresh push for the creation of an electoral offences tribunal, to curb the cases of attacks on the Nigerian democratic system.

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman, told reporters at the commission’s first regular quarterly consultative meeting with the media that the tribunal had become important owing to the backlog of electoral offence cases.

He said: “A major obstacle to the speedy dispensation of justice in this regard is that electoral offences are not time-bound as is the case with post-election offences through the tribunals. Furthermore, they are solely prosecuted by the Magistrate and State High Courts in the jurisdiction where the alleged offences are committed,” the INEC chief told the gathering.

“No priority attention is given to such cases as the courts deal with a variety of other cases. Consequently, electoral offences are carried over from one General Election to another which may sometimes affect the diligent prosecution of the cases. It is therefore imperative to renew our call for the creation of the Electoral Offences Tribunal that have a specific jurisdiction and limited timeframe for the speedy dispensation of cases.”

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Bemoaning the delay in the justice delivery system, citing the conviction of a returning officer in Akwa Ibom after six years in court, the INEC boss, said: “The recent successful prosecution of a Returning Officer in Akwa Ibom State is a case in point.

“The Commission has been diligently pursuing the case which arose from the 2019 General Election. In this particular case, it took nearly six years to achieve the successful prosecution at the trial court.

“Through our collaboration with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) cases involving 774 alleged offenders from the 2023 General Election are being prosecuted. So far, successful prosecutions have been recorded in Kebbi and Kogi States while our collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on vote-buying has yielded similar results in Lagos, Kwara, and Gombe States. Yet, many cases are still pending.”

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Again, terrorists attack Sokoto, kidnap 10 worshippers at a mosque

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A mosque in Bushe community, Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State, fell into the hands of bandits on Friday, after which 10 worshippers including the Imam were spirited away, adding to growing cases of terrorist attacks.

Channels Television reports that the gunmen invaded the mosque on Thursday while worshippers were performing their early morning Subhi prayer, quoting residents as saying that the gunmen had been molesting the people of the community for some time now, even with the presence of security agents.

Ahmed Rufai, spokesman of the Sokoto State Police Command, who confirmed the attack on Friday, said the police authorities were working with other security agencies to rescue the abducted victims.

A member of the Sokoto State House of Assembly, representing the Sabon Birni B state Constituency who also confirmed the attack, commended the security agencies for their timely intervention.

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