The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • LAUTECH: A vision abandoned or aborted?

    LAUTECH as Ladoke Akintola University of Technology is affectionately called was established on April 23, 1990 as a technical state university with a motto of “Excellence, Integrity and Service” and located in Ogbomoso. It has a student population of 30,000 and staff strength of 3000 most of whom are administrative, technical and non-academic staff.  The university was previously known as Oyo State University of Technology and was owned by the then Oyo State. But when Osun State was hived from Oyo State on August 27, 1991, the university became jointly owned by Oyo and Osun states, two sisterly states that outside politics should have no problem running and adequately funding the university.

    The university was renamed Ladoke Akintola University after the second and last premier of the old Western Nigeria, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, a great and foremost politician and wordsmith who by coincidence was a native of Ogbomoso where the university is located. Ogbomoso is the second largest town in Yoruba land and during British colonial rule when censuses were taken with honesty and integrity, Ogbomoso was the third largest city in Nigeria after Ibadan and Kano in that order. Lagos was fourth before the deluge of population flooded the city after the civil war and the oil economy of the 1970s.  A college of medicine of the university was established in Oshogbo a year after the university started operating from Ogbomosho. Today the university is more of a comprehensive university but with social and management sciences existing as service faculty while the humanities and education remain happily in abeyance avoiding the unnecessary duplication characteristic of tertiary education in Nigeria.

    In 2003/2004 Ladoke Akintola University was adjudged the best state university in Nigeria and one of the best universities, state or federal in Nigeria. But since then, the fortune of the university has witnessed a downturn. Hardly is there a semester without strike by staff who have not been paid or students agitating against one financial imposition or the other. The cause of the problem is inadequate funding by the two states that jointly own the institution. Since 1999 return of politics, different political parties held sway in Osogbo and Ibadan. The effect has been devastating on the university. It was in these circumstances that Governor Akala built a rival and much more elaborate teaching hospital in Ogbomoso against the puny one in Osogbo, obviously with the idea of concentrating the entire university in Ogbomoso and rendering the so-called College of Medicine in Osogbo redundant and irrelevant. His plan did not pan out and the College of Medicine has remained in Osogbo while Akala’s white elephant has remained unused or underutilized. But who is the loser in all this? Of course, it is the students, the state and the nation.

    There is a need to find a lasting solution to the problem of Ladoke Akintola University so that its mission and the vision of the people who conceived it can be realized. Osun State has since established its own university in December 2006. The state is not capable of jointly funding another university. This is the truth. I know Osun State very well and I lived there for two years and as educationally ambitious as the state may be, the financial capacity is just not there. The enormous resources Rauf Aregbesola diverted to the educational sector particularly building of great primary and secondary schools nearly bankrupted the state and almost leading to his being run out of the place when he could not pay workers. As a friend of the state and a longtime resident of Ibadan, I appeal to the governors of Oyo and Osun states to resolve the problem of ownership of Ladoke Akintola University amicably. Let Osun concentrate on funding its own university which should now include the College of Medicine in Osogbo while Ladoke Akintola University with its modern teaching hospital is allowed to prosper as Oyo State-owned Ladoke Akintola University. I understand there is a restraining judgment on this scenario, but the two sisterly states can approach the court to vacate the restraining order.

    Read Also: LAUTECH: Makinde announces release of N500m

     

    Governors Seyi Makinde of Oyo and Gboyega Oyetola are mature individuals who should by this singular decision write their names in gold in the history of higher education in Nigeria but particularly in Yoruba land. As the Yoruba would say – charity begins at home.

    Then what becomes of Ajimobi’s hastily established Ibadan Technical University? My advice to the governor of Oyo State is to ask if Oyo State really needs two universities of technology? If the answer is yes, then our governor must increase exponentially the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of Oyo State so that he would have money for his two universities of technology. I honestly believe that Oyo with its huge population should not be going bowl in hand begging for the monthly federal allocation. That allocation should be solely used for capital projects and not for recurrent expenditure. What Oyo State should do is have a land use charge like Lagos, of course not on the same degree because we don’t have disposable income like the Lagosians. But a charge on citizens who own the government would still be appropriate. Secondly, if the answer as to if Oyo needs two universities of technology is no, then Ajimobi’s Ibadan Technical University would have to be merged with Ladoke Akintola University  if not scraped completely to save cost and to avoid duplication of offices viz vice chancellors, pro-chancellors,  governing councils, registrars, librarians, bursars and so on.

    Ibadan is blessed with University of Ibadan already and the city remains the intellectual centre of Nigeria. It has as a result of this attracted the major publishing houses in Nigeria, namely University Press, Heinemann Books Nigeria, Macmillan Press, Evans Publishers, Spectrum, Bookcraft and others. The Catholic Mission also has St Augustine University in Ibadan.  Ibadan is home to the rapidly growing Lead City University. Chief Kola Daisi has also established a private university in Ibadan and one or two sectarian Christian missions are roaring to go in the establishment of their own universities. In essence, Ibadan city is not crying for an abiku university that will again be a financial burden to a harassed government which needs to be engaged in social welfare for the people, urban renewal and building of modern houses and generally making life better for the harried and harassed people.

    The going trend in global higher education is for well-established universities particularly in the western world such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Berkeley, Columbia, Cambridge, Oxford and London to mention a few to establish colleges in developing countries, selling their well-established brand of excellence and graduating students in the countries of residents of their colleges overseas. This is catching on and such colleges already exist in Europe, Asia, particularly in Egypt, Lebanon, Malaysia, Dubai, South Africa and even China. Ghana is already preparing to welcome such institutions. Once these colleges are established, the home universities may have to fight to survive. In other words, instead of establishing universities merely by name, we should concentrate our efforts and resources on those we can adequately fund. While on funding, we should tell ourselves the home truth that university education is not cheap anywhere and it is in most cases, elitist. Even in the USA and Europe, the percentage of those who go to universities is small compared with the national population. If this is so and if we want excellent universities, somebody had better be prepared to pay. Where parents are unable to pay, state and local governments will have to give scholarships. Banks and commercial houses, as was the case in the past, must allocate funds as part of their corporate social responsibility for scholarships to students in universities. Politicians must desist from using “free university education” slogan in their campaigns for elective offices and as much as possible, universities must be allowed to charge their students reasonable fees for services rendered to them. This will free government from concentrating too much resources on university education with little left to create investment friendly environment for self-employment and also for governments to establish job creating industries that will absorb the teeming products of our tertiary institutions.

  • Kogi: How INEC and police flouted warning signals

    Sir: It is neither coincidence nor conspiracy that negative reviews have trailed the just concluded governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states. It is also no fluke that election observers are speaking in one voice, condemning the complicity of the police in the conduct of the governorship election in the states, especially in Kogi State.

    The Bayelsa and Kogi governorship elections was expected to provide an opportunity for all election stakeholders especially the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigerian Police and political parties to improve on the conduct of the February general elections. Unfortunately, the process was blighted by several complicities, which undermined its standard in virtually all ramifications. It is even more sad that all election stakeholders, especially INEC and the Nigerian police, saw this coming as there were available warning signals of voter inducement and electoral violence. Few weeks before the elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states, an article underscoring early warning signals of violence and voter inducement was published along with myriad of other concerns raised by election stakeholders. The concerns were either met with assurances or neglected.

    Similarly, the report on recruitment of thugs and stockpiling of arms was widespread all over communication platforms and its almost impossible to imagine the security agencies didn’t take heed to this critical warning signals before it escalated. It is even more ominous that despite the setting ablaze of a political party office and attack on a female candidate contesting in the election during the stakeholder meeting in Kogi, in the full glare of police chiefs, security apparatus didn’t prepare to curtail the impending violence in the state.

    Read also: Kogi: An election and its aftermath

     

    Just two days to the election in both states, YIAGA AFRICA hosted both the Public Relations Officers of both Police and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSDCDC) on its weekly program to discuss election security ahead of the polls.  As expected, security agencies gave all the assurances left in this world saying at least 35,000 Police officers have been deployed to Kogi State with over 10,000 NSCDC personnel to support. Security officials appeared on various fora and meetings ahead of the election to boost electoral officials’ confidence on the safety of personnel and materials while also assuring citizens safety of their lives and properties. One of such meeting was the early warning scan organized by Search for Common Ground; another Civil Society Organization who observed early warning signals before the elections. At the meeting, stakeholders including journalists raised major security concerns, which was met by assurance by the police chief at the event saying the police force is embarking on visibility policing to track any unwanted incidences that may want to disrupt the process. Assurances upon assurances was what the citizens got from security agencies before elections but it’s so unfortunate that the police service commission claim the force was overstretched to manage just two state elections.

    The challenges that faced the Kogi elections lies squarely on the failures of security agencies, the police in particular, political parties, the major candidates and their state and non-state accomplices. These stakeholders deliberately worked to undermine the election. They appeared to be more concerned about electoral victory than the credibility and legitimacy of the process.

    Until the law and those that implement it have the guts to shame and prosecute culprits of electoral complicity, Nigeria may just begin to give up on its electoral democracy. While waiting for stakeholders charged with the responsibility of conducting a free, fair, credible and peaceful elections to take responsibility, there is further need for the executive and legislative branches to expedite necessary actions on electoral reforms.

     

    • Moshood Isah,

    YIAGA AFRICA, Abuja.

  • Pantami, populism and telecom sector

    Sir: The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, has taken the telecoms industry by storm, churning out what he often termed broad telecom policy week in, week out, ostensibly to attract applause. The telecoms sector is however too delicate to experiment with.

    A brief analysis of the minister’s 24/7 engagement on his Twitter handle, where he impulsively and emotionally takes some far-reaching decisions on the industry shows a lot about his psychology as a man who needs to strike right a balance between populism and sound decisions.

    The minister seems to have the luxury of time to acknowledge every single praise, deserving or not, with a like or a retweet. The minister seems to be easily carried away whenever the applause is high, and when it’s at low ebb, he issues a new “broad policy” to satisfy his appetite.

    These impulsive actions of the minister are now exposing his failure to take advice from experts in the industry, making him appear like a bull in a china shop who finds solace in: “I was not informed.”

    If media reports are anything to go by, there over 39,000 base transceiver stations (BTS) reportedly built by mobile network operators (MNOs) as well as thousands of fibre optic cables laid across the country which are facing serious threats which must be acknowledged by all stakeholders.

    While these facilities have been adjudged grossly inadequate to provide optimal services to the increasing number of Nigerians yearning for ‘superlative’ telecoms service – both for voice and data, the existing facilities are also said to be facing major challenges that conspire against operators’ quest to optimally utilise their infrastructure to satisfy consumers. No operator desires to have downtime or poor service delivery in a highly-competitive market as we have it in Nigeria.

    From lack of direct access to public power supply, to vandalism, fibre cuts, high cost of right of way (RoW) or denial of RoW permits, indiscriminate closures of telecoms BTS by state governments and their agencies, theft of telecoms equipment at sites, among others, telecoms infrastructures continue to face serious attacks.

    While these challenges affect MNOs, who also must strive to meet the service delivery KPIs set by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the minister appears unconvinced that these challenges are real.

    Read Also: Another home for NCC

    For instance, after a detailed briefing on the challenges confronting the industry by the regulator, the minister had hastily accused the NCC “of defending the operators…” He was also quoted as saying he was “not fully convinced with the explanation” offered by the NCC with respect to cost of services and quality of service experienced by the consumers.

    But Pantami should have realised that each of the challenges itemised by the regulator during the reported briefing will naturally increase overheads and consequently impact the cost and quality of service by MNOs.

    The minister should take time to understand the issues and intricacies of the telecoms industry and shun working for applause.

    He should be weary of social media comments which are increasingly becoming the basis for his various directives.

    For instance, it was such emotionally-based decisions that characterised the minister’s directives to set aside a legal determination for the operator’s proposed charges for unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) usage by consumers; then, the directive on data reduction, and then, the latest directive on voicemail.

    These directives undoubtedly verge on interference in regulatory matters which are within the powers of the NCC.

    If unchecked, the minister’s current stance might discourage further investment inflow into one of the country’s critical sectors and stifle the quest for deeper broadband access.

    The minister’s call on all state governors to protect telecoms infrastructure as critical national infrastructure suggests that he is now “convinced” about the centrality of telecoms to the nation’s economy and security architecture.

    This is the way to go. He should use his position to improve the industry. That way, history will be kind to him.

     

    • Charles Ebele,

    Port Harcourt.

  • Henry Olujimi Boyo (1948-2019)

    In an age full of amoral individuals who shape their views to suit the most profitable perspectives, the late economist, industrialist and columnist Henry Olujimi Boyo stands out for the searing honesty of his arguments on Nigeria’s economic development and the passion with which he delivered them.

    Boyo was a prominent member of a select group of Nigerians who started speaking on economic issues that were becoming increasingly important with the return of civilian rule in 1999. These individuals were often private citizens, but had both the experience and the expertise to speak with authority on the structural and systemic challenges that were preventing the country from attaining its vaunted potential.

    In making informed economic commentary his forte, Boyo was undertaking a critically-important task. For too long, this area had been dominated by academics whose love for jargon had made them inaccessible to the majority of Nigerians. Boyo, in contrast, sought to make his arguments as clear as possible.

    His thesis was simple: Nigeria’s monetary framework was so contradictory and dysfunctional that it had become a hugely counterproductive drag on economic development. This argument was hinged on a fundamental issue, namely the country’s handling of its dollar revenues, and the consequences it had for inflation, price stability, foreign exchange rates and the cost of funds.

    The higher inflation rates were, the lesser the purchasing power of citizens became; the higher the cost of borrowing, the more difficult it was for manufacturers to stay in business; the more artificial foreign exchange rates were, the less likely that increased export earnings would positively impact the economy.

    Boyo argued these points with a passion that was distinguished by close reference to the latest statistics, the repeated use of down-to-earth examples, and a marked lack of political partisanship. As far as he was concerned, the issues were clear and the failure of the nation’s successive economic managers to properly apprehend them was unforgivable.

    He continually warned that increased dollar revenue was not an end in itself, and urged a more flexible system of distributing the nation’s foreign earnings, including the payment of allocations to states in dollars in order to reduce the inevitable pressure on the naira after the disbursement of such allocations.

    He kept pointing out that the country’s staggeringly high interest rates were wiping out any advantages that could be derived from its high population, its relatively mild climate, its strategic geographical position, and its geopolitical preeminence in Africa.

    Read Also: Mobolaji Johnson (1936-2019); a tribute

    In a nation notorious for double-speak, and on a subject distinguished by incomprehensibility, Boyo was the quintessential straight-talker. His queries demonstrate this: “So, how come from 2011-2013, when we had 10 times the income we had about 10-15 years ago, why are we poorer?” “If the banks pay 14 per cent to borrow from the CBN, at what rate would they lend to their customers?” “… how does a market woman work out the tenancy of giving her money free to the banks and then borrowing it back at excruciating cost?”

    Henry Boyo’s independence of thought is the logical consequence of a life characterised by hard work and legitimate achievement. He was born in Warri, in present-day Delta State, on February 9, 1948. He went to Igbobi College Lagos and Dulwich College, London.

    He was also at the University of London between 1968 and 1973, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics, and went on to get a Master’s degree in the same subject from the City University of London in 1974.

    He worked with A.J. Seward, a company in the Unilever Group, where he rose to become Plant Coordinator. He then went into private business, specialising mainly in logistics support to companies in the foods, beverages and personal-care sector.

    Unusually for a full-time businessman, he also served as a columnist on several of Nigeria’s best-known papers, and his mix of perceptive insight, radical perspectives and ox-goring bluntness won him many admirers.May his soul rest in peace.

     

  • No end of year rice for Nigerians

    Sir: By next week it would be December, the month of Christmas, better put the last month of the year.  Every Merry Xmas since 1999 has witnessed an increase in the price of salt, bread, water, and when fuel has not been increased, it is the cost of transportation that would be increased, and this particular one, it will be rice!

    We have been on a progressive slide towards the tunnel of despair. Workers have either lost their jobs, or have not been paid their salaries, or those that have been paid, are in so much debt, to make a meaning out of the salary, pensions. Even after being disengaged, it is another tales by moonlight, and those that remain go through hell every day. We wake to an everyday existence of it is well when we know that all is not well.

    Another end of the year and Nigerians are finding it hard to really to say that we have been blessed with the dividends of democracy; in some cases we have seen the rich also cry which at least gives us hope that we have co-sufferers. The poor cannot cry anymore; the tears have long gone. We all suffer; cooking gas is more expensive than motor spirit!

    Read lso: LAKE Rice: Lagos to crash price

     

    The borders remain closed and so do not hold any hope for the ordinary man. Even eggs will not grace the table of the masses this yuletide. A bag of rice in the last month of the year would be dream come true for millions of families. Do we remember that same bag of rice that was barely N3000 in 1999 sells for N20000 thereabout depending whether you are buying local or foreign and things are supposedly at the next level?

    So, as the year ends, many plan resolutions, those decisions that are made at the beginning of each year. It is like a promise to be of good behavior.  The resolution by the APC controlled government to the Nigerian masses is one that has never been kept. That which the government said it would do, it never did, that which it did, it never said it would. Nobody can even say this is the worst hit sector in Nigeria as the year rounds up…the educational sector is not well, the health sector suffers acute malaria…our transport is now a case of recurrent migraine, our polity has been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. It is a sad Xmas in the horizon, families are groaning under debt, all kinds and manners. The robbers we have are not just touts but fresh graduates or those that have found solace in a system that has no future for them. Widows have multiplied; our society keeps no stats so we care less about the orphans let loose by our collective carefree attitude.

     

    • Prince Charles Dickson,

    <pcdbooks@gmail.com>

  • Fake police?

    INSPECTOR-GENERAL of Police (IGP) Mohammed Adamu’s claim that some politicians sewed police uniforms for thugs to use during the last governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states deserves investigation.

    Indeed, nothing can be more troubling than the details given by the IGP: “We were aware of the fact that or we were told that some politicians were going to sew police and military uniforms. So, we devised some other means of identifying those that were on elections duty. We gave them tags.”

    We find it concerning that the IGP reported such unwholesome behaviour by politicians matter-of-factly. What citizens have not heard from the IGP and need to hear is whether he made any effort to pre-empt the actions of the criminals who were emboldened by politicians to sabotage the highpoint of democracy in the country.

    We find it strange that the police had a foreknowledge of politicians putting counterfeit uniforms of the Nigeria police on political thugs, without being able to apprehend any of the so-called fake policemen before or during the elections in the two states. Where is any evidence of intelligence gathering in the police’s response, apart from just giving special tags to separate genuine police from fake ones? Did the genuine police do anything to prevent the fake police known ahead of their appearance from coming out?

    We consider the IGP’s attempts to assure the public that anyone found disrupting any elections could not have been those with special tags befuddling. Such confidence on the part of the IGP would have been more meaningful had his force been able to identify a few of the fake police created by those the IGP called the “Bad Guys.”

    Read Also: Nigeria Police ghosts

     

    With such announcement by the IGP, any surprise that some international and national observers felt uneasy about the level of violence before and during the elections in the two states? We believe that the genuine police force could have done better. The IGP has not helped anybody with his announcement. The police ought to have investigated the conspiracy between politicians and fake police, if only to scare the planners from moving forward on such nefarious plan.

    As the matter stands, the situation is not good for the image of the Nigeria Police. It is not enough for the IGP to issue special tags to absolve members of the Nigeria Police Force. Efforts by the IGP should have included seeking strong support from the State Security Service (SSS) to identify and arrest men in what looks like genuine police uniform but without the special tags given to the genuine police.

    It will be useful if Nigerians are assured by evidence of a few arrests of the fake police created by politicians, or of some politicians behind such a scam.We need to send such people to the courts for trial

    not only to serve as deterrence for others planning to commit such crimes during future elections but also to assure citizens that such well-planned conspiracy against free, fair and peaceful elections would not go unpunished. Were the 11 arrests in Kogi and Bayelsa made in connection with fake police? It will be helpful for the IGP to be clear on this point.

    If up till now no person—fake police or bad politician—has been caught, the police in collaboration with the SSS should investigate the matter thoroughly. And whoever is found to have been involved in such conspiracy against the state should be identified, prosecuted and punished accordingly.

    With such action, the IGP would have assured the public of its force’s capacity not only to identify criminals but also to prevent crimes. Democracy cannot gain ground if we keep treating electoral crimes with levity the way the IGP has done so far in this matter. What happened in the November 16 governorship elections in the two states; particularly in Kogi State, was a national embarrassment. Such must never be allowed to happen again.

     

  • Adedamola Willoughby, other matters arising

    I feel like getting out of the box today, and unbottling  events I have bottled up for some time. They may not necessarily be health matters. But they may bear a tinge or more of these matters because, ultimately, every path we tread impacts one way or the other on our health. I stumbled  about one week ago on the departure of my friend  Adedamola Willoughby and was all the more shocked to learn that he was killed in a train crash.

    Ify Onyegbule, host of the  DAILY REPORT (8.p.m to 9 p.m) programme on  STAR FM 101.5  radio in Lagos, reminded me of an article titled WALKING CORPSES  which appeared some decades ago in the ALLAH-DE Column of Alhaji Alade  Odunewu in the good, old DAILY TIMES newspaper. Walking corpses are people nearer the grave than they imagine themselves to be.  When I learned from Mr. Danson Sunday Danson  that cassava flour was now plentiful and cheaper  in Akwa Ibom State, and Udeme  Edet James told me it was the handiwork of a new cassava tuber nicknamed GIVE-me-   CHANCE, I thought the age of genetic modified foods may have finally fallen upon the nation, to smother it. Gastroenteritis showed its face in Lagos. Some residents were vomiting and stooling. One girl aged 12 was brought to my household last Saturday afternoon. Since about Wednesday, she had experienced anal blood flow which tracked down the back of her thigh to the heel. We ruled out the onset of menstruation. Because of her, I opened the last bottle of Maria Treben’s Swedish Bitters and gave every member of the household a capful dosage in a glass of water. I began to write this  column in the afternoon of last Sunday.  She was the last  of us  to empty her bowels for the day. By that time, the rest of us had done ours pretty easier than on other days. When this girl  made for the rest room in the afternoon, I asked her auntie to accompany her, my heart pounding somewhat. We all decided to have a goat meat meal on Christmas Day as a toast  to Maria Treben Bitters… the bleeding had stopped. I will speak more about this brand of Swedish bitters in short while.

    I received a telephone call from a gentleman in Lesotho who was troubled by hemorrhoids and erectile dysfunctions. Then, there was a young woman who  was battling with what may be a problem of blood circulation. About 15 minutes after a meal, she falls asleep .

     

    Adedamola Willoughby

     

    When I read in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, chat group that a comfort Fund had been set up for his family, I wondered about what may be going on. I was told he died in a train crash. I almost went blue! A train crash?  I wondered again. I was all the more devastated when I learned later  that he actually died on the rail track. I still do not wish to imagine what may have happened, except to wonder if he did not hear vibrations of an oncoming or passing train. For  no train has derailed that I knew of. In a way, I felt guilty because, for about two years, I had subdued inner prompting to criticise the rail system modernisation which Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi is carrying out and making noise about. Is it right to make Nigeria’s slow  trains run faster. But it is right to have faster trains on the same routes in which snail-speed trains kill people every day? If we were modernising speed, should we not also be modernising safety?  British colonialists gave  us the present rail system, perhaps unknown  to them that Land  use invasion  would one day extend our backyard across those rail routes. Thus, in Lagos, from Oyingbo and Yaba, Ojuelegba and Mushin to Ilupeju, Oshodi, Ikeja, Agege, Ashade,Pen Cinema,Fagba e.t.c,  we  hear of  slow trains crushing vehicles and killing people almost every day. My first personal experience at Pen Cinema was on a December Friday, about 12 years ago. A car ran under a coach which got stuck. In the car were  a  man and woman who were to get married next day, and four of the bridal girls they were driving to the home of the bride to be. We all thought no one in the car would survive the crash until a convoy  of cars arrived. The groom-to-be  had telephoned his folks back home to explain what had happened to them. Try as a rescue team did, the car could not be freed from under the coach until a heavy duty  fork lift arrived and lifted the coach away. Since, hardly any quarter has passed withoutnasty incident occurring. In one  such incidents, a train engine hit the rear of a truck which fell on passers-by a few metres away, killing some people. What I am trying to say is that our trains should run in the city about 40 or 50 feet below the roads in open canals dug for them over which  motor vehicles would drive and over which pedestrian will walk. The colonialists gave us a hint of this in the train under pass  on Airport Road, Ikeja. There would have been a four-level junction train level crossing on Abeokuta Road/AirportRoad had the British colonial government not sand filled  approches to and  from the Airport Road  and built a motor way across to create a train tunnel underpass. With increasing foot traffic across the underpass nowadays,  a pedestrian foot bridge should have been constructed there as well. Incidentally, this was where  Adedamola Willoughby was killed by a train. We missed this 19th century vision in the 21st Century, and we are hailing an outdated modernisation.

    Adedamola Willoughby and I grew up on Igi Olugbin Street, in the Ladilak Primary School area of Shomolu – Pedro axis. He came from the elite Willoughby family of Lagos Island. We were classmates at Igbobi College, Yaba, Lagos, with the likes of Femi Lanlehin, Lanre Keleko, Emmanuel Okocha, Sehindemi, Sikuade, Philips. At the University of Nigeria, he was two years my senior because I went to work at the Daily Times before I returned to school in 1974. Through him  I enjoyed the company of good friends such as  Bola Adeyemo and Bisi Olawunmi. I remember today one of the evenings we  shared together in Shomolu, and the lesson of his passage for me. He, his girlfriend and my goodself were chatting at  a road junction near my house. Suddenly, the overhead high-tension  electricity cables began to spark. No one taught of the safety of the other. We all fled in different directions. We would capture that event later with a Yoruba proverb which says “one bird does not tell another a stone aimed at them is on the way (Eiye ki i so fun aye wipe Oko n bo). Even the  timing of our departure from  this earth, do we inform ourselves?

    I still shudder at the thought of how Damola may have  gone. But I derive joy in the knowledge that, which ever way we go, there is no accident in this great and wonderful Universe. Everything which happens to us is meant for our good. What manner  of passage  would awaken  the ethereal senses of one person to that new environment, and, therefore, open him or her to a higher consciousness of existence, may not necessarily serve another person well. Every event  we experience here or there is specially tailored to our peculiar needs. My prayer, therefore, is that AdedamoIa  Willoughby awaken to a beautiful and joyful life more  beautiful and joyful than on this earth.

    Thank you Damola for that dream early last Tuesday morning in which I saw you in one of the hotels at Nsukka.

     

    Ify Onyegbulue

     

    This is a professional woman after my heart. I met her for the first time, through her  work, during the 2019 election crisis in  OKOTA area of Lagos, which may have spread to other parts of Lagos, the Southwest of Nigeria and, perhaps, other regions. At that time, there was a face-off between the  aborigenes and “shoulder- raising” immigrants who believed they had enough population numbers and the raw cash to dislodge the aborigenes from their land. I was active on FACE BOOK then,  advising the immigrants not to go too far near the cliff, believing, erroneously, that the aborigenes, in fright, would pull  back.  It is interesting that those among them  who derided these suggestions as  HATE SPEECHES against the immigrants would later not see vocal uprising against the RUGA settlement as HATE SPEECHES against the Fulani nation. It is interesting, also, that the Southeast, which is leading vehement opposition to the Hate Speech Bill, is the most vehement regional critic of President Muhammadu Buhari.These justify my hypothesis then and now that the hate speech idea is a moral handcuff to immobilise and destroy a self-defending opponent. It is a pity that the manuscript of my final reply on the OKOTA crisis got missing in the computer. It gave a reply to the question  Prof. Pat Utomi raised  on the motto of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) rubbing on or rubbing off some of its products. This motto is: TO RESTORE THE DIGNITY OF MAN. It contains three dominant elements….restoration, dignity, and man. Many people  understand it intellectually, that is in  the flesh. Anyone who  has had an  OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE (OBE) which is a department of study in THANATOLOGY, the science of dying, would, like me, who had OBEs before UNN see life in a different perspective, from the way  many pure intellectuals do. The intellect is a weapon of MAN on earth and is limited to earthly conceptions of TIME and space, having been  derived from matter. Man transcends matter. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and other co-founders of the UNN who gave it the motto were men and women of  fine insight who troubled themselves for an understanding of life and existence beyond the reach of the intellect. My first OBE before my UNN days enabled me, even at the UNN, to distinguish man from his intellect, recognise how undignified man’s intellect had made him become on earth and of how his dignity can be regained only when he recognises his high origin and  its values, and joyfully and unconditionally make them the basis of earth-life. This was the flag I flew against the red flags of hate speech champions of the Okota crisis.

    Ify surprised me in those  OKOTA days  because she did not follow the HERD INSTINCT. She searched and searched, instead, for peace, bringing to her programme for discussion only responsible  people on all sides. Boldly, she even told Igbos in one programme that YORUBA ARE YOUR LANDLORDS. All her programmes excite me. One of the latest was on why Lagos people do not use  over head pedestrian bridges, but would prefer to  cross the 10-lane motorway on Ikorodu Road at Palmgrove and Ojota,  for example. I know the two bridges there and use them. Many people  told Ify those bridges were either  too steep, they were height freaks, the bridges were dirty and smelling  and housed hoodlums or were too distant from road junctions and bus-stops. I love the design of those bridges. They help me to know if my heart is justifying my expenditure on health foods for it such as CoQ10, Hawthorn berries, Vitamin E, Vitamin B- Complex, Pomegranate, Buckthorn berries and the likes of them. Anyone who experiences chest pain simply because he or she climbs a flight of stairs had better go for a check up. On these bridges, I often found young girls and women looking depressed. They would rest at every landing.They may pass for ALLAH- DE’s WALKING CORPSES. Then some occasions, I would grab a complete stranger by the hand and, teasingly command her,” OK, let’s go”. I would take them on non-stop flight up. If they panted  on the last landing, I would explain to them I was older on the face, but younger within my body, they were younger on the face but older in theirs bodies… their heart were too weak to pump enough blood and glucose to their leg muscles. A series of lectures would follow thereafter. Many people are sick inwardly but do not  know it . So,  the  steep or normal foot bridge across a motor way is a test for the health of our heart and lungs, for example.

    Many thanks, Ify.

     

    Give-me-Chance  Cassava

     

    This is a species of cassava which has become very popular among farmers and the populace in  Ikot Ekpene, under Itam Town in  Itu Local Government Area of Akwa – Ibom State. I am told, also, it is the cassava-of-choice in other local government areas. The cassava species is nicknamed GIVE ME CHANCE because it is said to “scatter” the soil, pushing every thing aside to grow to a massive size than any cassava species known in this region before now. Yet, it is grown like any other cassava species and it takes between four months and six months to mature for harvest compared with one year for the older and natural  species. Which farmer would not like this species of cassava? It offers two planting seasons, instead of one, every year. For a region were cassava is a staple food, cheaper cassava products such as garri, fufu  are most welcome. In future, we may even have cassava tubers growing as big as a motor car. It would all depend on how the genes  are located in the formulae structure.

    The genetic code tells every cell, man, animals or plants, how to behave. We have already witnessed it in tomatoes, maize and wheat. The  restructured wheat, which we now consume in Nigeria, has been shown to damage the intestinal lining of many people.

    Nature created the genetic structure of our cells and created, also, the genetic codes of food crops which would perform  specific functions in our cells. Since the codes determine the functions food crops will perform in our cells, the genetic codes of food crops we are changing will perform in our cells functions other than those that nature created the original codes to perform. This is why organic farming is the way to follow in today’s Nigerian world. Now, I eat organic, green plantain and the peel made into  powder. I also  take as pap a wide varieties of whole grains such as white, yellow, millet and sorghum. Since ” fufu” makers in Lagos began to add HYPO to their production processes, I have secured my fufu powder from an organic source.

     

    Gastroenteritis

     

    The symptoms resemble those of cholera except that they are less  severe. Vomiting, stooling, imitable bowl and fever are present.  So are weakness, bleeding and even death. It can be confronted with Activated charcoal and Diatom. They suck up the irritating toxins and kill the offending germs. Golden seal Root tea or capsules kill the germs, too. Apple Cider Vinegar taken on empty stomach or before a meal gives the stomach enough acid content from which these germs cannot survive, let alone find their ways into the gastro-intestinal tract.

    Vervain stops spasms which cause vomiting. Basil help as well. On the pig farms, Basil fed raw to pigs distressed by diarrhoea can rescue them from this intestinal problem. If the intestine is inflamed and producing mucus, Fenugreek should be at the ready. It would cut blood sugar though. So, be prepared to eat more. Curcumin 2000X is one of the best proprietary anti-inflamatories for internal use. The liver and the kidneys may be protected and cleansed with appropriate herbs, including milk thistle, Dandelion root, Cilantro and Sweet Prayer Leaf. I never fail to add Maria  Treben Bitters, which I mentioned earlier.

     

    Maria Treben Bitters

     

    This formulae of Swedish Bitters comes from Maria  Treben, a legendary Austrian herbalist who wrote the book HELP THROUGH GOD’s PHARMACY in which she shares with us some of her clinical experiences. This product is not preserved with chemicals. And as she wrote in the book, it can serve about 50 purposes, including use in various forms of intestinal problems such as the stoppage of bleeding. In this regard, I would have liked to combine it with Shepherd’s Purse, in the case of the twelve-year-old girl earlier reported, as this herbs is well known for helping many cases of internal bleeding.

     

  • Foundation supports indigent students

    By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

    Fifteen indigent students of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife; University of Lagos (UNILAG), and Lagos State University (LASU) were presented with N75,000 each by the Ademola Segun Educational Foundation (ASEF) to support their education at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Ikeja, last Friday.

    The foundation was set up 15 years ago by the late Prof. Ademola Segun of OAU to assist indigent final year students in Biological Sciences to conclude  their education with ease.

    In an interview with The Nation, Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the foundation, Mr Sigismund Joseph said the beneficiaries were selected from schools that responded to ASEF’s request for students.

    “Today we are having the 15th ASEF scholarship awards to give scholarship to indigenous students but brilliant ones but who are handicapped  – those who have difficulties meeting their financial obligations in the university, specifically in the last year.

    “We selected 15 students for today.  It is significant because it is the 15th year since the foundation was set up.  Every year we write students from all universities in Nigeria but strangely only a few respond to our request,” he said.

    Speaking on the impact the fund would make, Christina Oye, from Department of Zoology OAU, said she wished the fund came earlier.

    “How I wish I have gotten this information early, especially when I was in Part One or Part Two.  It was not easy.  My dad is late; my mom is retired’’.

    Another student, Josephine Oluomo, said the funds would help her complete her final project.

    “In fact, I am actually happy with this money. It will help me to actually complete my project.  Now I cannot collect money from my parents at home for project again.  There was a time I called my mum and told her  we still needed money for project, she asked about the previous  fee  paid,” she said.

    Read Also: Foundation campaigns against child trafficking

     

    Oluomo also said the money would be useful for her to get a sewing machine as she is  learning to sew at present.

    Son of the late Prof Segun, Dapo, said his father, an emeritus professor of Zoology started the foundation on his 70th birthday, given the difficulties he experienced funding his own education.

    He called on Nigerians to support the foundation to expand its reach.

    “The foundation is only kept alive – even though it has my dad’s name- by the donations of people.  My dad is not here today but we just want to try and we  are trying to ensure that it goes on.

    Guest speaker at the event, Prof Adebayo Sanni counseled university authorities to establish entrepreneurship centres to imbue students with skills they need to succeed in life.

    He said universities were teaching the wrong things.

    Speaking on the topic, Bridging the 21st Century Gap, Sanni said: “For teaching to be relevant and meaningful, teachers, lecturers and professors must change and adapt.

    “Our curriculum, our teaching practice, our learning spaces and our approaches to education must change.”

     

  • Counselors seek govt’s recognition

    By Sampson Unamka

    An Associate Professor, Counseling Psychology, University of Lagos, Dr. Bola Makinde on behalf of Association of Professional Counsellors in Nigeria (APROCON), has appealed to the government to  focus more on counselors in universities across the country for the benefit of the society.

    Makinde who is also APROCON Lagos State chair, spoke  during the ‘First Lagos APROCON conference held at the University of Lagos.

    She said: “We want government to recognise the beauty of counselors in Nigeria and Lagos State so that these children who are drinking sniper and mixing gum and spirit inside sprite will stop.  They would have somebody to talk and open their mind to, and everybody will be happy,” said Makinde.

    She added that: “Today we have lead paper presentation, eminent professors talking about security and psychosocial wellness because the country is upside down. Many people are lonely and unhappy, they need counseling.We want government to recognise counselors the way it recognises scientists.In fact, science teachers are given extra allowances and we are not even talking about that, we are talking about wellness.

    Read Also: One-Day VC at Caleb University

    With the theme: Counseling for Security and Psycho-Social Wellness, Makinde decried the poor attitude of parents who neglect their wards.

    “Parents have failed; they do not have time for their children, they are looking for money. Some parents leave home by 5am, they come back by 10pm, nobody to guide their children and their diet is not balanced.

    “We know there is no money in town, yet you can manage very little and make the children happy even with our local food,” she said.

    Wife of the Lagos State  Governor, Dr Ibironke Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by Mrs Nike Osha  praised the association, adding that their importance cannot be overemphasised.

    She said the youths were facing many distractions in the society while  urging them to be professional in what they do.

     

  • Readysetwork flags off in LASU, LASPOTECH

    The fourth edition of the ReadySetWork (RSW) initiative of the Lagos State Government kicked off last Saturday with strict warning to the participants to adhere to the rules of the employability training programme or get disqualified.

    The programme which would continue for the next 12 Saturdays (with six weeks of face-to-face sessions and six weeks online sessions) flagged off on the campuses of the Lagos State University (LASU) Ojo, and the Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH), Ikorodu.

    The students were advised to play by the set of rules tagged “The Rule of Seven” meant to guide the overall conduct of the participants throughout the period of the RSW.

    Read Also: Should ReadySetWork not continue…

     

    Addressing the students in LASU, Consultant to the State Government on RSW, Sade Oshun, encouraged the students to be punctual as lateness would reduce their chance of graduating at the end of the programme.

    “Part of the cardinal message be championed by the RSW is punctuality and discipline. Each session starts by 7:15am every Saturday and ends by 5pm.  Anyone that comes in later than 7:15am or leaves earlier than 5pm stands the chance of forfeiting his/her participation in this programme,” she said.