The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • 30 years after, alumni to renovate alma mater

    30 years after, alumni to renovate alma mater

    By Omolola Afolabi

     

    THE need for government to invest in infrastructure at the basic education level to encourage private sector and individual contribution was emphasised at a reunion of the alumni of African Church Primary School, Mosan, Ipaja Lagos.

    Being the first meeting of old students of the school after three decades, the group shared how dear their primary school was to them and how much they would like to revamp its facilities.

    Lamenting the poor state of the school, President of the alumni association, Mr. Mutiu Ogundepo, said the group would make its renovation a priority.

    He said: “It is heart breaking seeing the school we left 30 years ago coming back to it without seeing any improvement or development rather it is in a worse state.

    “We were thinking it would be bigger and something like a monument to the community but it was the other way around.

    “On getting to the school few months ago, we were talking to the teachers there on certain things they said what I was saying is not what they met on ground that they don’t understand what I was saying.

    “This is actually a wakeup call for other sets of the school because my set alone cannot get the school back to how it ought to be.  The school is really in a bad state.”

    Ogundepo added that the old pupils would seek support from government and the private sector for the project.

    “We cannot do this alone so we are seeking support from corporate bodies and we are also intensifying efforts to get in contact with the government. We want the school to redeem its lost glory in five years,” he said.

    Read Also: Alumni hold first reunion in 32 years

    Another old pupil, Mrs. Oluwabunkolami Oyerinde said the only thing left to be remembered of the school was a tree.

    “It is really an eyesore; it killed our spirit.  So that was something that really brought us together that this was a foundation of who we are today must not just go like that.

    “The only thing that we can see in our school now is the popular fruit tree that we used to sit under that is the only thing that we can see in existence, which is not supposed to be,” she said.

    Oyerinde added that the reunion was not only for projects but to foster better relationship among members and the school.

    She said: “We’ll be visiting the school often to know what next we can do, though when we started we thought it was something we can just move in and do on our own but we realised there are procedures before we can start anything.”

    A former head teacher of class 1990, Mrs Bernice Akintola, also expressed disappointment in the state of the school and appealed to the alumni to do all it could to bring the school back to its rightful place.

     

  • OANDO foundation to promote environmental education

    OANDO foundation to promote environmental education

    By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

     

    OANDO Foundation (OF), an independent charity, has initiated a project to promote environmental education and sustainable action for pupils in target schools and host communities in Lagos State with support from Sumitomo Chemical, a Japanese Chemical company.

    The project, tagged ‘Clean Our World’ (COW), aims to promote environmental education and responsibility by creating awareness and empowering children and teachers in seven public primary schools and their host communities with the knowledge of plastic recycling and waste management, while encouraging the adoption of eco-conscious lifestyles.

    Benefitting schools and communities include: Dele Ajomale Schools Complex (I–IV), Ilasamaja, Metropolitan Primary School, Orile-Iganmu, Olisa Primary School and Methodist Primary School, Mushin.

    It is estimated that Nigeria generates over 32 million tons of solid waste annually of which over 30 per cent is plastic. There is increased flooding across cities during the rainy season due to clogged drainage systems, directly attributable to poor waste disposal techniques.

    Read Also: Fire guts Oando tank farm in Lagos

    Head, Oando Foundation, Adekanla Adegoke, said the project would expose the pupils to experiential learning outside the classroom.

    “We believe learning transcends the classroom, encouraging environmental education through the COW project will help pupils understand how their decisions and actions affect the environment, build knowledge and skills necessary to address complex environmental issues, explore different actions to keep our environment healthy and sustainable for the future. Not only does COW offer opportunities for experiential learning outside of the classroom enabling pupils to make connections and apply their learning in the real world, it also encourages the development of critical and creative thinking skills necessary for enhancing overall learner outcomes.  We are working closely with the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) and relevant education agencies to implement the project across seven  schools and three communities in Lagos State,” she said.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Rector, academic board disagree over suspension

    Rector, academic board disagree over suspension

    The Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Ede is at loggerheads with the Academic Board of the institution over the ‘Dual Award Programme’ , a controversial programme he introduced and other issues. The rector has rebuffed the board’s attempt to suspend him as its chairman, TOBA ADEDEJI reports.

     

    WHEN the Federal Polytechnic, Ede resumes once the Federal Government gives schools the greenlight to reopen post-COVID-19, convening a meeting of the Academic Board may be an issue as the board suspended the Rector Dr. John Adekolawole as its chairman last month. However, Adekolawole has dismissed his suspension as a joke.

    The Academic Board is to a polytechnic what the Senate is to a university – overseeing decisions about academic activities in the institution.  It is made up of chief lecturers, heads of departments, deans, and other senior members of staff.

    On December 11, 2020, the Board suspended Adekolawole for flouting its directives regarding a programme he introduced at the end of which students earn both the National Diploma (ND) and the National Certificate in Education (NCE). While polytechnics award National Diploma and Higher National Diploma, which run for two years each (for full-time programme), colleges of education award the NCE, which runs for three years.

    A source told The Nation that the Dual Award Programme was not accepted by the board and did not enjoy the blessing of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) which approves academic programmes of monotechnics, polytechnics and colleges of technology across the country.

    “The recent crisis was as a result of Dual Award Programme introduced by the Rector where students who applied, at the end of two years will get both National Diploma (ND) and the National Certificate of Education (NCE). This is not practised anywhere in Nigeria,” the source said.

    Providing more context, the Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) Federal Polytechnic, Ede branch, Mr Adekunle Masopa, said the Academics Board passed a vote of no confidence on the rector because he flouted its directive to stop the controversial programme which had been running for over 18 months. He said ASUP had also monitored the issue.

    He said: “The union raised concern over the issue since last year and we followed it to National Board for Technology Education (NBTE) in Abuja. On September 16, 2020, we held a meeting with the former Executive Secretary of the NBTE and he declared the programme unapproved and illegal.  No polytechnic has the mandate to award NCE. The mode of admission is not known to anybody according to the website of the institution.The Rector signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a firm named M8 Global to run the programme award. All payments made by the students in this category were not remitted to the purse of Ede Poly.

    “The Academic Board of Federal Polytechnic Ede set up a committee to investigate the matter and they recommended that the programme be suspended. Yet, the Rector recruited part-time lecturers to teach those students.  When they commenced examination for them, it angered the Academic Board and he (the Rector) was suspended.”

    Adekolawole

    Apart from the dual award programme, The Nation also learnt that the Adekolawole’s suspension was premised on dereliction of duty – with the allegation that he absconded from office for about a month; and the claim that he created a bedroom furnished with a king-size bed as part of his office.The controversial programme was then cancelled by the board.

    There was uproar after Adekolawole’s suspension was announced. The four tyres of rector’s SUV were deflated by some workers following the meeting.

    The cancellation of the dual award programme also angered students who had signed up for it. They stormed the institution’s permanent site and hauled stones at the administrative building.

    To assuage the students, the institution came up with a way to convert the programme to a part-time National Diploma programme.

    A memo with reference number FPE/REG/C&N/015/071 signed by the Registrar, Mr Isiaka Agboola detailed the conversion of the programme.

    It reads: “Sequel to the decision of the Academic Board at its meeting held on 25th November 2020, members of the polytechnic community are hereby informed that the Dual Award Programme hitherto run by the polytechnic in conjunction with M8 Global Know Network Limited, has been out rightly cancelled and as such, the polytechnic is no longer involved in the running of any Dual Award Programme.

    “Students of the programme are hereby informed and assured of the successful completion of their National Diploma programme because they are going to be accommodated within the system whenever the Academic Board of the Federal Polytechnic Ede fashion out the modalities of doing same.

    “In view of the above, the affected students are advised to go ahead with their on-going examinations and to remain calm and be law-abiding.”

    Beyond the issues raised against Adekolawole that led to his suspension, The Nation learnt that part of the factors fueling the crisis was the proposed probe panel that Adekolawole planned to set up to look into the grants given to six staff of the polytechnic for their PhD programme by Tertiary Trust Fund (TETFund).

    It was gathered that since the six workers received the grant in 2013, none of them reported to the school on the completion of the programme to date. The rector alleged that they received the grant and diverted it to other personal gains because they failed to report the progress of their programmes to the Polytechnic management.

    A source in the polytechnic said, “The fundamental issue that is causing the crisis in our school is the issue of Dual Award Programme introduced by the Rector, probe of six officers who collected TETFUND grants through the school for their PhD which they have not given the school report of completion. One of those staff that collected the grants of TETFUND is the present Chairman of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP), Mr Adekunle Masopa.

    “Following the planned probe of the TETFUND PhD grants, they started to create unnecessary trouble in the school to foil probe. There was another issue where some senior officers of the school allegedly used N33 million to build 8 by 12 toilet. Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) is probing the matter and those involved are returning the money they shared.”

    Adekolawole told The Nation that the ASUP chairman was after removing him because he was one of those affected by the TETFund PhD probe.

    “The local chapter ASUP Chairman has been at loggerheads with me since 2018. He went for TETFUND PhD sponsorship but couldn’t graduate as his studentship was determined.

    “He, has, therefore been trying to unseat me to escape the customary sanctions. He has therefore been looking for every opportunity to indict me even on flimsy issues,” he said.

    However, Masopa denied that he had abandoned his PhD, saying he was still doing the programme at the University of Ilorin’s Sociology Department. He urged the Rector to probe the six officers, himself inclusive, over the PhD programme.

    “I urge the Rector to probe us. My PhD programme is still on. I collected two tranches of N500,000 which totaLled N1 million for the programme,” he said.

    On the claim that Adekolawole had a bed in his office, Masopa claimed that people who go to the office sighted the King-Bed size on many occasions. He said workers complained that the office door was shut against them.

    “Members of staff have instances whereby the Rector’s office door was locked against them no matter the degree and sensitivity of matter brought before him. It happened on the day he was suspended, he shut his door against staff,’’ he alleged.

    But Adekolawole debunked the claim.  He said he had no bed in his office.

    “There is no bed in my office neither do I sleep on duty,” he told The Nation on phone.

    “They photoshopped a room in a hotel and placed it in the media to tarnish my image! There’s no such room in my office,” he added.

    Defending dual award programme, Adekolawole said it was one of the school’s collaboration efforts in Open Distance and Flexible e-Learning (ODFEL) project saying: “It was presented, discussed over five months and approved by the Academic Board of the Polytechnic between December 2018 and May 2019. And we did sign a MOU. So it is not illegal.”

    Adekolawole also said he could not be suspended by the board because there is no provision for the Academic Board to move or pass a vote of no confidence on its Chairman (Rector).

    “It is not an elective but statutory post. No motion was being made when by the prearranged move, the Director ICE just got out of the blue and said he lost confidence in the Chairman!  We were trying to rule him out of order when the Dean School of Applied Sciences got up that he supported the motion (though improperly and untimely moved).”

    The Rector called for help from what he called a campaign to smear and remove him from office.

    “All human rights groups and well-meaning people should come to my aid and spare my family all these campaigns of calumny,” he said.

  • Trump, ‘Prophets’ and laughs

    Trump, ‘Prophets’ and laughs

    By Sola Adeyeye

     

    FOR most of the gods of men masquerading as men of God, religion is a very profitable business. Aside from deceptively mouthing breakthroughs for material prosperity, soothsaying is an extremely popular product to offer a generation with itching ears.

    The probability of correctly predicting the winner of a contest between two candidates is 50%. So, the “prophets” take the risk, lying with swagger in the name of God! And so, their profanities continue to be marketed with ebullient theatrics and chest-thumping guffaws.

    But for Trump’s wanton mishandling of Covid-19, he would have easily won the Electoral College again in 2020. And he would have become the first U.S. President in history to win the Electoral College (and thus the presidency) twice despite losing the popular votes. The “prophets” would have touted their capability to decode, like Daniel, celestial hieroglyphics on the walls of America.

    After Trump won the presidency in 2016 despite losing the popular votes by about three million votes to Hillary Clinton, he repeatedly referred to his victory as a landslide. It was in his typical display of garrulous exaggeration and shameless dishonesty.

    I have followed United States elections with exceptionally keen interest since 1980. In those 40 years, among those who got elected as president, only George Bush (the son) had performed worse than Donald Trump in the Electoral College. But Bush having beaten Al Gore in the Electoral College by only three votes in 2000, he, at least, beat John Kerry in the popular votes cast during the 2004 Presidential election.

    Obama twice beat his opponents in the popular votes. In the Electoral College, he won 365 and 332 votes in 2008 and 2012, respectively. The masterly Bill Clinton twice beat his opponents in the popular votes, winning in the Electoral College, 370 votes and 379 votes in 1992 and 1996, respectively. George Bush (the father) won the popular votes over Michael Dukakis in 1988; he earned 426 of the Electoral College votes. With such verifiable and irrefutable data on previous U.S. election results, what was the basis for Trump’s silly tantrums regarding a landslide victory? Such narcissism! Such self-serving revisionism! Such delusion!

    A time-honored tradition of American politics is to be magnanimous in victory and gracious in defeat. Alas, Donald Trump is totally lacking in both virtues; he is reprobately conceited in victory, tragically graceless in defeat. He seemed to have been absent when God was endowing good manners.

    If any American could boast about landslides in electoral performance, it should have been Ronald Wilson Reagan. He won 44 out of 50 states, garnering 489 Electoral College votes, leaving only 49 votes of the Electoral College for Jimmy Carter, the Democratic incumbent against whom he contended. Not once did Reagan fabricate falsehoods against his predecessor in office. His magnanimity kept the word “landslide” from his lexicon. By contrast, scurrilous campaigns of calumny against Barack Obama, mostly oozing from malignant racism, became the obsessive preoccupation of Trump before and after the election; it was his religion.

    Reagan settled to work. He found common ground with Speaker Tip O’Neil, a Democrat. Conservative Reagan yielded to public opinion by effecting some divestment from the economy of apartheid South Africa. Reagan was so politically successful that in 1984, he won 49 out of the 50 States, garnering 525 out of the 538 Electoral College votes! Phenomenal! Mind boggling!

    But after the election, not once did Reagan taunt Walter Mondale. This was unlike the incarnation of uncouth Ajantala who ascended to the presidency in 2016 and thereafter disdainfully goaded Hillary Clinton with endless sleuths of indecorous taunts and insults. Obviously, Trump has a terrible allergy to decency.

    Sadly, each lie that Trump told only emboldened him to manufacture a more blatant casuistry. As one Trump’s lie begat another, the escalation of his political shenanigans assumed a religious fervor. Soon, Trump’s seemingly hypnotized supporters locked their brain in an ultra-cold freezer and dug into what Fela Anikulapo called jooro jaara jooro dance steps of brainless zombies! They are akin to hibernating animals experiencing the metabolic and neurologic stupor induced by winter.

    At the height of his grip on the Third Reich, Hitler’s psychosomatic effect was so total that women experienced orgasmic euphoria just by listening to their Fkhrer! As it was with Adolf, so it is with Donald. Not that Trump has Hitler’s gripping command of rhetoric. Quite frankly, POTUS 45 often spoke with the blabbering cacophony of the retarded, a far departure from stirring Reagan or eloquent Obama. Trump’s commonality with the Fkhrer is the convergence of a megalomaniac psychopath with an audience of fawning racists and toady xenophobes.

    It is easy to forget that some of the worst despots in history ascended to power through the instrument of democratic ballot. Hitler and Trump arche-typify such ascension. Incidentally, Trump was never a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Were he to ever try pretending, Trump could never be mistaken for a sheep. Everything about him belongs to the recognizable phenotype of a coyote. He struts like a coyote, growls like a coyote, and feeds like a coyote. In devouring his opponents, whether in business or in politics, he spares no means, no matter how unconscionable, in his predatory and nihilist quest for conquest.

    He lies easily, indeed compulsively! He bullies mercilessly, often masochistically. Like a he-goat or skunk, his entrance fills any space with revulsion. But with cold Nietzschean calculation, Trump had undiscerning White Evangelicals to deodorize his foulsome stench with ecclesiastical perfume.

    Fortunately, it does not end here. Eternity waits! Meanwhile, even on this side of eternity, God needs no trap to bring the arrogant to reckoning. Conceited by its agility atop trees a monkey orchestrates its own fall. The arrogant inexorably ensnares himself!

    Trump contemptuously sneered at Biden as “Slow Joe!” He repeatedly disdained him as the worst candidate in the history of politics.  Republicans responded with thunderous applause. Soothsaying Evangelical preachers mistook such applause as echoes of God’s endorsement. They had forgotten that God often whispers in a still small voice rather than boom in the decibels associated with a volcano or earthquake!

    Only Trump can tell us how it feels to lose to “the worst candidate in the history of politics!” The pain must be throbbing enough to cause the insanity of openly leading a seditious insurrection!

    The last laugh belongs to God.

     

    • Prof Adeyeye is a former senator of the federal republic.

  • The last straw

    The last straw

    Lawal Ogienagbon

     

    IN HIS characteristic manner, he threw everything into the fight. Once it dawned on him that he would lose the November 3 election, outgoing President Donald Trump resorted to playing rough, as we say in this part of the world. He weaved conspiracy theories upon  conspiracy theories over the outcome of the election. He claimed that he was on his way to winning before the United States (US) presidential election was stolen from him.

    It all started before the election. But nobody paid attention to his shenanigans then when he said he would not concede if he lost the election. That was vintage Trump. He loves winning all the time. He is a well known bad loser. Whether in the field of sport, in business or in politics, he hates to lose. The fear of losing gnaws at his heart. So, he anticipates it before it happens. In preparing the ground for such eventuality, Trump builds things up to a crescendo, so that when what he fears most happens, he can say: “Didn’t I say so”.

    The election was, in a way, a referendum on Trump and his continued stay in power after his four-year tenure during which he gave America a bad name around the world. When he defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, the election was free and fair because he won. If he had lost, he would have behaved the same way that he is doing today. But, the world would have been spared the agony of seeing him desecrate the most powerful office on earth with his irrational and erratic behaviours. He gloated four years ago: “we won with a landslide”. He won by 306 electoral votes to Clinton’s 232.

    He lost by the same margin to Joseph Robinette Biden (Jnr) four years later. Trump did not like the way history repeated itself and put him on the losing line. He claimed that the election was marred by fraud, questioning the processes in Georgia,  Pennsylvania, Arizona and Michigan. He asked for and got a recount in each of the states because he met the percentage point for the requirements. He still lost with the recount,  yet he was not satisfied.  He went to court  and also lost. Trump lost up to the Supreme Court. In all, he filed 62 cases and the outcome was 62 – 0.

    His kind of president is rare in the annals of US. Trump tried to manipulate the Electoral College when it met last December 14 in order to have his way. He threw his weight round within his Republican Party in a bid to get pliable people from its controlled states into the  College that will upturn the will of the people. Again, he failed. But he was not done yet. The Congress, comprising the Senate and the House of Representatives,  is the last stop in the electoral process. The Congress’ duty is to ratify what the College did. Trump threw his last card there,  hoping to finally have his way. It was a big miscalculation.

    He was counting on his man, Vice President Mike Pence, who constitutionally is the Senate president,  to bend the law for him. Long before the Congress convened on January 6, Trump resorted to sweet talking him, saying at a rally in Georgia where he went to campaign for his party’s two candidates in the Senate run-off elections: “I hope Mike Pence comes through for us. Of course,  if he doesn’t come through,  I won’t like him quite as much. Nah, Mike is a great guy”. Pence sided with the constitution instead of a deluded president.  Hours before the Congress’ session began, he issued a statement, saying that he has no power to do what his boss is asking him to do: upturn the election and ask the states to reevaluate the votes.

    Seeing the handwriting on the wall, Trump swiftly rallied his supporters against his country that same day, all in his desperation to remain in office. For the first time in the over 200-year democracy of the US, a sitting president instigated violence against the state. The Commander-in-Chief became the Instigator-in-Chief. It was unimaginable seeing the president, with just 14 days to go as at then, inspiring a putsch against his own administration. All over the world, people watched on television as his supporters converged on the capital in Washington,  demanding his retention as president despite losing his reelection bid. He goaded them on, every inch of the way, giving them directives on what to do and what not to do.

    Was this happening in America? Not a few asked as they beheld the mob’s invasion of the Capitol Hill, which houses the Congress. The mob forced its way into the hallowed chambers of the Congress, demanding the heads of Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “Where’s Pence?” They asked no one in particular as they broke into the Capitol. Trump lapped it all up on Twitter as America unravelled before the eyes of the world. Instead of condemnation,  he was full of commendation for the mob that he called ‘patriots’. “These are things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly and unfairly treated for so long”.

    Politicians of the Democratic and Republican hue were livid.  The Democrats led by Pelosi and incoming Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer  called on Pence to invoke the 25th amendment for Trump’s removal as he can no longer discharge the functions of his office. Where Pence demurs, the House, Pelosi said,  would impeach Trump. That may have been done by the time you are reading this. If that happens, weep not for him for that is something he invited upon himself. Besides, he will go down in history as the first American president to be impeached twice. Why did Trump, who now has six days left in office before the January 20 inauguration of Biden, take the election outcome so badly? Where is it written that he must win? Or did he take to heart the predictions of some prophets in America and Africa that he would win? Their so-called ‘angels from Africa’ did not sanction their false prophecies.

    With his futile challenge of the election having come to a bitter end, there is need for him to ponder what the future holds for him after office. Trump would be escaping with the bare skin of his teeth if he escapes impeachment by the House. Not a few will say serves him right if he is impeached because his last act in office was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Yet, he is not remorseful. He still has the temerity to defend his role in the invasion of the Capitol. According to him, his statements on that fateful January 6 were “totally appropriate”. Were they? May his tribe decrease.

  • Ikpeazu’s infrastructural punch

    Ikpeazu’s infrastructural punch

    SIR: Governor Okezie Ikpeazu recently threw a very devastating punch on the opposition in Abia State. In boxing terms, it qualifies as a “technical knockout” and possesses the potentials of putting at bay the rantings of the opposition in the state.

    Hear the governor:” “Let our projects be the counter punch to their political noise; for now, pending when we will ask them to come forward and show their scorecards to the people who graciously elected us to serve them, and do their work, instead of working for ourselves. Our people should expect more values for their unflinching support, and with God on our side we will continue to deliver project punches that will ultimately knock out the political jobbers wishing to distract us”.

    Indeed, in the areas of infrastructure, Ikpeazu’s stride is unprecedented. He highlighted this fact when he noted that “In our continuing bid to totally reclaim Aba through the delivery of top class road infrastructure and development of SMEs in the state’s commercial nerve centre, we have completed work on Milverton, Ojike and Eziukwu roads.

    “Those who know the city will certainly applaud the solid work we have done within that cluster using a combination of rigid and flexible pavement technology to deliver roads with good drains on both sides that are seamlessly connected to Aba River”.

    In the Ndiegoro axis of Aba,Ngwa, Obohia and Ohanku roads are undergoing reconstruction. This is in addition to the massive watershed management work which is aimed at providing lasting solutions to the perennial flooding of the area.

    Abians are equally aware that most of these roads are done with “rigid cement technology”. Ikpeazu pioneered the rigid cement technology in this part of the country. Though the technology is capital intensive, Ikpeazu’s motive behind the adoption of the technology is that the roads will outlast his administration. Because, according to him, it will be counter-productive if the administration, within one to two years, solicits or borrows loans to rehabilitate these roads after they must have collapsed.

    Cement technology in road construction ensures the mixture of crush rock-based materials and other items to achieve a thickness fill and compaction to the level of 300mm. This is followed by a concrete reinforcement cast with 8mm to10mm-high tensil (mash of wires) reinforcement bars over the stabilised base before treating it with prime coat and asphaltic concrete.

    Though the cost of this technology is higher than those of the conventional construction methods, Governot Ikpeazu chooses this technology as a means of strengthening the load-bearing capacity of roads in Abia and to boost the strength and quality of the finished work. The technology has a sustainability guarantee of 10 to 20 years.

    Cement technology is one of the technologies used in the construction of airport runways, tarmac and places with heavy loads like machines and equipment. The technology is a good solution for achieving sustainable roads in Nigeria.

    Governor Ikpeazu is not claiming infallibility; he always acknowledges that he has not done everything but has done something.

     

     

    • Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu, Umuahia, Abia State.

     

  • Magistrates’ protest

    Magistrates’ protest

    Editorial

     

    IT was an unusual sight. Thirty magistrates from the 18 local government areas of Cross River State on January 4 and 5 staged protests at the governor’s office in Calabar, demanding payment of 24 months salaries allegedly owed them by the state government. They were employed in 2019. Dressed in their official regalia, the protesting magistrates carried placards lamenting their plight, as most of them have been reportedly unable to pay their house rents or school fees for their children, among other obligations.

    Apparently pushed to the wall, Safiya Iyeh Ashipu of the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Odukpani, a single mother, reportedly started the protest in a one-man demonstration in front of the governor’s office, demanding payment of her outstanding salaries, with her two young sons accompanying her and also carrying placards pleading with the state governor, Professor Ben Ayade, to address their mother’s plight. This spurred other magistrates to join in drawing public attention to their dilemma.

    Despite the well-known laxity and complacency with which public sector employers in particular treat workers’ welfare in Nigeria, necessitating incessant industrial disputes and strikes by labour unions, judicial officers have tended to have their salaries and other entitlements paid as and when due, thus making protests or strikes by magistrates and judges virtually unheard of. This is probably due to the realisation of the vital nature of the responsibilities of this category of public officers.

    This is why it is strange that duly employed magistrates by the Cross River State government have been performing their duties for two years without being remunerated. Surely, officers in the temple of justice do not deserve to be subjected to such injustice. A chief magistrate in the state articulated the plight of the affected magistrates thus, “It is strange because this is the first time something of this nature will be happening…Imagine hearing criminal cases, #EndSARS cases, looting cases and for two years you are not paid salaries. I don’t think there is anywhere in Nigeria where magistrates have protested for their salaries before”.

    It is indeed to their credit that the aggrieved magistrates carried out their duties for 24 months before being forced to protest in pursuit of their rights. They claim to have written severally to the attorney- general of the state, the Federal Government and the National Judicial Council (NJC) on the issue, without a positive response. Surely, if the state judiciary enjoyed the financial autonomy being clamoured for, this type of situation would be unlikely to occur. The magistrates claim that since their employment, they have been subjected to four screening exercises at the end of which they still remained unpaid.

    The reaction of the state’s acting chief judge, Justice Eyo Effiom-Itah, to the issue is baffling, to say the least. Saying that he did not know for how many months the magistrates had not been paid, he told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that “I was appointed Acting Chief Judge two and a half months ago and I heard that some magistrates were appointed but the governor said he did not give clearance for their appointments and would not pay them. Until Governor Ben Ayade changes his disposition, there is nothing anybody can do”. But then, somebody must have sanctioned the employment of the magistrates and also assigned responsibilities to them, which they have been carrying out for two years. It is wrong to punish them for a situation that is not of their making.

    Describing the reasons given for the non-payment of the magistrates as untenable, President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Olumide Akpata, has threatened that the association may sue the state government on the matter. We urge the NBA leadership to meet the state governor urgently, as dialogue should be able to speedily resolve issues in the interest of justice and human compassion.

     

  • Emenike hails Obiozor on election as Ohanaeze chief

    Emenike hails Obiozor on election as Ohanaeze chief

    Our Reporter

     

    A RENOWNED publisher and politician, Chief Ikechi Emenike, has hailed Prof. George Obiozor on his emergence as the President General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

    Emenike, in a letter to Obiozor, described his election as well-deserved.

    The letter reads: “I write to warmly congratulate you on your well-deserved election as the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. Given your pedigree and deep sense of history you are a natural choice, at this time, for Ndigbo leadership.

    “It is clear that for hundreds of Igbo leaders cutting across political divides coming together to overwhelmingly elect you is evidence of your unifying status.  You should ride high on this.

    “Your exposure at both local and international levels spanning the academia, public service, and diplomatic relations is worthy of note, having creditably served as director-general of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Cyprus, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Israel, and  lastly, Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States of America.

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    “Your predecessor, Chief Nnia Nwodo, deserves all the commendations he is getting for standing up for Ndigbo when it matters most. However, your team needs to sit down to review and articulate solutions to the persisting existential threats facing the Igbo people and the  deep frustrations of Igbo youths.  Your Excellency may need to go back and adopt the strategies of Igbo State Union of yore, including practising the mantra “Onye Ahala Nwanne Ya”, which ensures that all Igbo youths were engaged in both educational and mentorship pursuits.  Simply put, you have the capacity to take the Igbos to the Next Level.  Under your able leadership, Ndigbo can escape from their current status as Nigeria’s major ethnic minority.

    “You cannot afford to fail.  Under you, the Ohanaeze  Ndigbo should neither be a platform for  regular hollow pronouncements nor a forum for elites who wish to be heard or seen.  I have no iota of doubt that your leadership will do the needful to change the current curious Igbo narrative. We can overcome! You can count on my support, as I sincerely pray for your success.”

  • Boosting international trade, commerce through dry port

    Boosting international trade, commerce through dry port

    The Atlantique Marine and Engineering Services Limited (AMES) is promoting AMES-Edo Inland Dry Port (IDP) to boost international trade and commerce, writes Southsouth Bureau Chief BISI OLANIYI.

     

    ATLANTIQUE Marine and Engineering Services Limited (AMES) is  promoting the AMES-Edo Inland Dry Port (IDP) to boost international trade and commerce in Edo State, other parts of the Niger Delta and Nigeria.

    The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of AMES-Edo IDP, Dr. Charles Akhigbe, who is also the promoter of the project, during an interactive session, after receiving the senior management team from the Federal Ministry of Transportation at the project site in Benin, disclosed that on completion and having become operational, no fewer than 300 local government areas in Nigeria would benefit from the AMES-Edo IDP.

    He revealed that the AMES-Edo IDP, costing about N7 billion, would also enhance the socio-economic condition of Edo people and other Nigerians.

    Akhigbe hailed the Federal Government for backing the initiative, while calling for more support to ensure that the project comes to reality very soon.

    He said: “The aim of the AMES-Edo IDP project is to add value to the economy. We are closer to the end of the tunnel than when we started. More than 300 LGAs will be greatly impacted.”

    The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Transportation, Mrs. Magdalene Ajani, in her remarks, lauded the management of AMES-Edo IDP for the project, but she insisted that there was still a lot of work to be done.

    Ajani said: “The gap analysis that has been done by the consultant has been delivered to AMES-Edo IDP. We have advised the management to work on the identified gaps.

    “By the time those things are on the ground, we shall be returning to confirm the status.

    “The project delivery team, comprising officials of the Federal Ministry of Transportation, the AMES-Edo IDP group and other stakeholders in Edo state, other parts of the Niger Delta and Nigeria, will work together to put in place some technical things.”

    The promoter of AMES-Edo IDP (Dr. Charles Akhigbe) disclosed that the port had been granted approval in principle by the Federal Government, as a port of origin and destination.

    He noted that with the Federal  Government’s approval in principle, which was secured in October 2020, the inland dry port was set to commence agro export, while disclosing that AMES-Edo IDP was the first in the Southsouth geo-political zone of Nigeria.

    Akhigbe revealed that the AMES-Edo IDP would provide over 5,000 jobs and create more job opportunities for many Nigerians in the companies that would provide ancillary services at the expansive facility.

    He disclosed that 80 per cent of the construction work had been achieved in the five years concession to complete and inaugurate the massive project.

    The Transaction Adviser/Executive Director of AMES-Edo IDP, Chief Chris Orode, in a presentation to the Project Steering Committee of the Federal Ministry of Transportation, which was witnessed by Akhigbe and other critical stakeholders, revealed that the proposal for AMES-Edo IDP was submitted to the Minister for Transportation on June 2, 2015, while the transaction adviser was engaged on October 13, 2015.

    He disclosed that there was a meeting in Abuja with top officials of the Federal Ministry  of Transportation on April 4, 2019, which afforded the AMES-Edo IDP team to present the current status of the project.

    The gap analysis, according to Orode, was submitted to the Federal Ministry of Transportation in the first quarter of 2020, while on September 30, 2020, provisional approval was granted AMES-Edo IDP as a port of origin and a port of final destination by the Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, a former Governor of Rivers State.

    On the socio-economic vision of AMES-Edo IDP,  the executive director said: “It is to become the first and preferred IDP in the Southsouth zone of Nigeria, with economic link to the Southeast, Southwest and the Northcentral axes, leading to the Trans-Sahelian trade route (Lokoja-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano-Niger Republic).

    “It will provide value-added services for exporters and importers/industries/manufacturers. It will firm up and promote inter-regional trade on the ECOWAS’ (Economic Community of West African States’) international trade route (Abidjan-Lagos-Ore-Benin City, Lokoja-Kaduna).

    “It will improve stakeholders’ shipping experience, create wealth and jobs. It will drive the general export cluster business from Edo State and the nine adjoining states, with over 400 LGAs. It will drastically reduce the costs of import and export, greatly contribute in decongesting the Lagos ports and encourage increased value addition for industries and manufacturers.

    “It will contribute to accelerating the socio-economic transformation of Edo State, the Southsouth zone and other zones of Nigeria. Edo State is a logistic hub and rightly the gateway to the Southwest, Southsouth, Southeast and some parts of the Northcentral zones of Nigeria, with many small and medium scale enterprises (export/import), all of which can be serviced by the AMES-Edo IDP.”

    Orode also disclosed that the records at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) showed that over 70 per cent of cargo consigned to the Lagos ports complex were destined for the hinterland states, stressing that the economic opportunities in other adjoining states could be consolidated for non-oil export and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.

    He revealed that the Godwin Obaseki’s administration in Edo state had been very supportive of the AMES-Edo IDP, especially by waiving the payment of Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) fee and establishing industrial/enterprise park for non-oil industrial and manufacturing set-ups, very close to AMES-Edo IDP.

    The executive director also hailed Obaseki’s administration’s development of the Benin River Port, for rapid agricultural, solid mineral and industrial development, for the production, processing and export of various agricultural and mineral resource deposits

    He noted that the Benin river port would also provide a direct market for the viability of the AMES-Edo IDP as a Domestic Export Warehouse (DEW), in fulfilment of the zero oil policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

    Orode lauded Obaseki’s government for completing the survey of the 3.5kms access road, with drainage, from the project site to the Benin-Sapele dual carriageway, while also collaborating and assisting the AMES-Edo IDP with the security architecture to ensure unimpeded smooth operations.

    He also described as a step in the right direction, the Federal Ministry of Transportation’s alignment of the coastal rail line from Lagos, thereby passing through Benin City and Sapele, as well as Benin City-Asaba-Onitsha, before terminating in Calabar, the capital of Cross River state.

    While further speaking on AMES-Edo IDP’s product flow chart, the managing director disclosed that the process would be technology driven, thereby involving full tracking and traceability, for monitoring from departure to arrival.

    On the mode of transportation, he said: “The rail mode is the backbone of the AMES-Edo IDP in moving heavy duty cargo. In the financial model, it is projected that a rail track will be aligned to the AMES-Edo IDP’s site.

    “Coastal rail tracks have been prepared by the Federal Executive Council (FEC). The funding strategy is being worked out by the Federal Ministry of Transportation. The route will be Lagos-Shagamu-Ore-Benin City-Sapele-Warri-Yenagoa-Port Harcourt-Uyo-Calabar. The track will be aligned with the AMES-Edo IDP.

    “The proposed Koko-Ogbeye-Epe dual carriageway will be less than two hours to Lekki deep seaport, when completed. The AMES-Edo IDP base is 30kms from Benin City airport, 132kms from Asaba airport, 46kms from the Koko seaport, 65kms from Warri seaport and over 300kms from Apapa ports in Lagos. Benin City is a national logistic hub.

    ‘AMES-Edo IDP initiated discussion and paid for the advisory services of Nexus Capital LLC, New York, to source for funding in March 2018. The fee paid was lost, as the expected approval was not forthcoming.

    “However, after securing the provisional approval of the facility as a port of entry and port of final destination, AMES-Edo IDP is presently in serious strategic discussions with the following, to participate on a technical and financial bases in the project: Mr. Hassen El-Houry, the Managing Director of National Aviation Services, Kuwait; TFS Finance Limited; Amit Modi of Infrastructural Development Unit of CPSC of Canada and a Chinese company with base in South Africa.

    “They (investors) are all at the stage of conducting the initial due diligence on the company and the project, confirm if they can do business with us, get the necessary bank guarantees and sign all the necessary agreements with AMES-Edo IDP. We are hopeful that the success of these discussions and agreements signed, the execution of the gap analysis, with reference to the grant chart, will commence”

     

  • ‘Loyal party members have been jettisoned’

    ‘Loyal party members have been jettisoned’

    Our Reporter

    The Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC), Ghana chapter, Charles Micheletti has decried the sidelining of loyal party members for ‘new entrants’ into the party.

    He stated that many leaders rather than act as problem solvers, they act as ‘pocket looters’.

    “Not until we start placing values on the quality of human lives rather than on material things, Africa will remain backward.”

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    Micheletti stated that many party members are questioning the appointments given to some persons.

    He alleged that some PDP members who are new entrants into the party joined “ostensibly”. He further called on youths and upcoming leaders of the party not to be frustrated.

    “The fight is long drawn as it has forced many out of the party and is still doing so”, he added.

    Micheletti who spoke on the registration plans of the APC said, “The new registration exercise is a channel to give away the conscience of the party.”