All activities were last Tuesday and Wednesday, brought to a halt at the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY) in Abeokuta, Ogun State, as part-time students shut the main gate to protest the suspension of lectures by the school’s chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP).
The protest followed an indefinite suspension of lectures in part-time classes by the teachers’ union, which declared a work-to-rule action over the non-payment of their salaries and arrears for 12 months.
The lecturers at their emergency meeting, where the decision was taken, vowed not to return to work until their salaries and arrears are paid by the government.
The protesters converged in their numbers on the school entrance in the early hours of Tuesday and Wednesday, preventing movement of workers and visitors to the school. Since their lecturers stopped coming to classes, the part-time students complained that they had been rendered useless.
Some of them, who spoke with our correspondent, expressed displeasure over the decision by their lecturers. They vowed to continue to disrupt activities in the school until its management and their lecturers resolve their differences.
The part-time students condemned what they termed “preferential treatment” being accorded their full-time colleagues, wondering why ASUP did not extend its decision to those in full-time programmes. They accused the school’s management and ASUP of not giving “appropriate concentration” to part-time programmes
While expressing their grievances during the protest, the part-time students demanded “immediate resolution” of issues that led to the suspension of lectures.
Speaking on behalf of the aggrieved students, the protest organiser, Adekunle Sanusi, alleged that the school management used the tuition fees paid by part-time students to mobilise lecturers to teach full-time students.
According to him, the protest became necessary after the management and the lecturers failed to give them what they deserved, adding that part-time students paid the highest fee in the school.
Adekunle the protesters would not leave the school gate until the school and ASUP yielded to their demands.
He said: “We are blocking the school entrance because the school and lecturers teaching us have shown that they don’t care about us. It has been two weeks now that ASUP suspended all academic activities for part-time students. And ever since then, there have been no meeting between the management and the lecturers on when lectures will resume. The lecturers declared work-to-rule for the full-time students, while lectures have been completely suspended for the part-time programmes.
“We have tried to talk to all quarters to settle all these issues because we don’t want it to look like we are coming to the streets for no reason. But, all efforts proved abortive. We gave them an ultimatum to meet and resolve their disagreement, but they failed.
“Until our demands are met, we are not going to leave the school gate because part-time programme the major source of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the school. So, it is not right for the school to allow ASUP suspend lectures and watch us suffer, while the same lecturers go to teach our colleagues in the full-time programmes.
“We believe that if any disagreement happens between the school and our lecturers, we, as part-time students, should not be affected based on the exorbitant fees we pay for our programmes. It is our tuition fees that are being used to pay the lecturers, who are teaching our colleagues in full-time programmes.”
Meanwhile, all efforts to speak with the school’s Public Relations Officer, Yemi Ajibola proved abortive up till the time of filling this report.
National Association of Ogun State Students (NAOSS) Social Director, Lukmon Abolade, described the suspension of part-time lectures as an “act of injustice” against part-time students, asking: “How can the management and ASUP treat part-time students who pay the highest fees like that?”
He urged the lecturers to re-consider their decision, noting that ASUP could not justify its decision when full-time students, who pay lesser, receive lectures.
Abolade said: “The school should give the part-time students what is due to them. Every well-meaning student should join this protest to express displeasure over the way part-time students are being treated in MAPOLY. We cannot stop ASUP from embarking on the strike, but the lecturers should know that part-time students are also paying school fees, which the management is using to pay them. We believe every student, irrespective of the timing of their programmes, deserves to be treated equally. If full-time students get lectures, let the part-time students get lectures too.”
A National Diploma (ND) II Business Administration student, Azeez Adegbola, lamented: “We are not going to stop this protest until our lecturers are back to classroom. The management of the school has failed us. How can we be paying that kind of money and the school cannot convince ASUP not to stop lectures? They are using our money to pay full-time lecturers at the expense of ours. For the past two weeks, there has been no lecture for part-time students.”
Also, Gbenga Shobowale, a Higher National Diploma (HND) II part-time Mass Communication student, said the protesters would continue to hold the school to ransom until the lecturers return to classroom.
He said: “The management and our lecturers need to meet very fast and resolve their disagreement. We cannot afford to go home, while our colleagues in the full-time programmes get lectures. We will continue to hold the whole school to ransom. They claimed we are going to start examination by December and they are not giving us lectures, unlike our colleagues on full-time. How do they want us to pass? How many years do they want us to spend on our programme?
“We will not allow the school to rest until they do something about this issue. We must get lectures just like the full-time students, because we have equal rights in the school. When and how are we going to prepare for our examination if lecturers don’t come to classes? We have our various plans after the programmes; the issues between the school and ASUP are affecting our plans. It seems these people take joy in truncating academic calendar at will. This is not done anywhere. We just need to move ahead with our lives. And this is the time we can talk to them to allow us return to lecture rooms.”
Category: Campus Life
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Protest rocks MAPOLY over suspension of lectures
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Demographics on my mind
Alarmed by its rapidly growing population, the government of China, in 1979, took a radical step by introducing the one-child population policy as part of its larger family planning policy. According to the Chinese government, 400 million births were prevented through the policy. However, in November 2013, following the Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, China announced the decision to relax the one-child policy. In between the policy – 1979 and 2013 – China had developed and lifted over 500 million people out of poverty.
The National Population Commission (NPC) – through its Chairman, Mr. Eze Duruiheoma – earlier this year released Nigeria’s current population estimate which was put at 198 million people with urban population growing at an average annual growth rate of about 6.5 per cent. “Nigeria remains the most populous in Africa, the seventh globally with an estimated population of over 198 million. The recent World Population Prospects report predicts that by 2050, Nigeria will become the third most populated country in the world,” he said.
He added that over the last 50 years, the Nigeria’s urban population has grown at an average annual growth rate of more than 6.5 per cent without commensurate increase in social amenities and infrastructure. It grew substantially from 17.3 per cent in 1967 to 49.4 per cent of the country’s total population in 2017. In addition, the 2014 World Urbanisation Prospects report, predicts that by 2050, most Nigerians – 70 per cent – will be residing in cities.
In terms of demographics, the class of the population mostly engaged in urbanisation and migration were young people, adolescent girls and boys, women of child bearing age and the working age population. Existing urbanisation trends, coupled with internally displaced persons (IDPs) in cities, pose critical challenges to securing sustainability in Nigerian urban centres, including efforts to make them smart and responsive to the human influx.
“The Displacement Tracking Matrix Round XXI of January 2018 identified an estimated 1.7 million IDPs in over 321,580 households across six states of North-east Nigeria with 40 per cent residing in camp-like settings in urban areas plus 1.4 million returnees. The number of IDPs represented a 4.5 per cent increase compared to the 1,702,680 identified in Round XX (Dec. 2017),” Mr. Duruiheoma added.
He also rightly pointed out that Nigerian cities host wide spread poverty, under-employment and unemployment at an average of 18.4 per cent. Add this to the insecurity in the country – which is fueling the upsurge in IDPs – and inadequate and inequitable healthcare services and access to education and you will come to the inevitable conclusion that we are in trouble.
It has often been said that “Nigeria’s population is a strength.” But if we look at it critically, is it really a strength? As far as I’m concerned, our population can only be a strength if it is well-educated and healthy and if the economy has the capacity to provide them with employment that sustains households’ income to buy the goods and services produced by several businesses. If we want to be fair on ourselves, we know this is not the case.
Today, Nigerians spend billions of naira on education and medical tourism. The reason for this is because our education and health sectors have virtually collapsed. Yet, these are two key sectors vital to the development of any nation. Bill Gates – and lately, the World Bank – have both emphasise the urgent need for the revitalisation of our health facilities and investment in human capital. With over 10 million out-of-school children, and millions others with substandard education, Nigeria is in a bind. But we carry on as if all is well.
So, how do we begin to fix this? The government must undertake unpopular policies such as population control, cutting of costs, enforcement of tax compliances and relinquishment of government control over infrastructure spending. Government can also look at the option of selling some of our oil and gas assets and use the proceeds to improve critical infrastructure such as the ports, railways, roads, schools, hospitals and a robust national grid. The NLNG example shows that this is possible.
I must however point out that this can only be carried out in a very transparent way devoid of corruption. Transparent mechanism must be put in place to track every kobo that would be invested on the infrastructure. Prior to this, there must also be a clear-cut roadmap detailing immediate, short, medium and long term goals of what need to be done and the anticipated outcomes. The anticipated plan must also include what will be done with the out-of-school children and how to correct the substandard education received by millions of Nigerians.
Of course, you cannot move a step without carrying the people along. In essence, a lot of work will go in the area of massive awareness creation. Government will need to convince people -with appropriate data – on the need for population control. People need to know that uncontrolled population growth will ultimately put pressure on critical infrastructure like hospitals and schools. The problem of waste management is also there as being experienced in major cities across the country.
During a recent road trip, we passed a convoy of youths wielding various tools – cutlasses, hoes, spears, bows and arrows and what have you. I counted over twenty truck loads. I was visibly shocked about the huge number wondering where they are headed. Throughout the journey I kept reflecting what would happen if these youths are unleashed on a community. This is the other side of our uncontrolled population growth.
The population issue is a ticking time bomb, especially for a country that hardly plans. Beyond investing in infrastructure, how do we intend to provide employment which is the other side of the coin? Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, who built billion-dollar technology companies in two very different areas, see more seismic problems ahead.
At his Harvard University commencement speech, Zuckerberg said: “Our generation will have to deal with tens of millions of jobs replaced by automation like self-driving cars and trucks. When our parents graduated, purpose reliably came from your job, your church, your community. But today, technology and automation are eliminating many jobs. Membership in communities is declining. Many people feel disconnected and depressed, and are trying to fill a void.”
For us, that “void” has manifested in the increasing cases of kidnapping for ransom, armed robbery, cultist activities, ritual killing, excessive gambling and a plethora of societal problems. Gates, on the other hand, said: “I just want to say one word to you. That word would likely be robots.” What was his point? Robots are already taking jobs meant for humans. It won’t be an overstatement to assert that we’re already feeling the pangs of unemployment.
We should all be concerned because population explosion may be considered positive hindrance in the way of economic development of a country because of the pressures it put on infrastructure and other facilities. In a ‘capital poor’ and technologically backward country like Nigeria, growth of population reduces output by lowering the per capita availability of capital.
Due to higher birth rate and low expectation, the percentage of dependents is very high. A large part of the population is in the non-productive group which simply consumes and does not produce much. The rapid growth of population thus diminishes the availability of capital per head which reduces the productivity of the labour force. Income is reduced because it caters for the “consumers” thereby curtailing the capacity to save which, in turn, adversely affects capital formation.
A rapidly growing population also increases the requirements of demographic investment which at the same time reduces the capacity of the people to save. Beyond corruption, our investment requirements are going beyond our investing capacity. I visited a teaching hospital recently and I was silently weeping. I couldn’t believe what I saw; this use to be a centre of excellence in the past but now looks like a “mere consulting clinic,” (apologies to Lt. Gen. Joshua Dogonyaro (retd)).
Visit a normal maternity clinic in any of our general hospitals and you’d be amazed by the number of expectant mothers you’ll see – doctors and facilities are often stretched beyond breaking point. The time to act is now.
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Provost urges support for college
Provost of the Federal College of Education, Technical (FCET) in Umunze, Anambra State, Dr Tessy Okoli, has urged leaders of the school’s alumni association to work together for the progress of the school and strive for excellence, which she said is the school’s watchword.
Dr Okoli gave the advice during the convention and swearing-in event of the association at the Dr Alex Ekwueme Auditorium on the main campus.
According to her, alumni members are part of stakeholders in the college, and, as such, the association has a vital role to play in the development of the college. She said the association was the bridge between the past, present and future students of the school.
Okoli added: “Your participation in the affairs of the alumni association of the college would bring a wealth of experience from both the academicia, politicians and businessmen all geared towards uplifting and developing the school. As alumni members, who have passed through the college, you are best placed to offer advice on the relevance of the curriculum to the demand of the professional workplace as well as volunteer your services for seminars and workshops.”
The provost urged the alumni to support the school with resources that could be used for improving infrastructure, equip the main library and laboratories. According to her, members of the alumni association can offer professional services to the college for free of charge.
The college Registrar, Sir Augustine Udensi, urged the executives to carry every member of the association along in the affairs of the association and always be good ambassadors of the College.
In his valedictory speech, the outgone National President of the association, Comrade Ejimofor Chibuike Emmannuel noted that the major challenge of the association was the lack of commitment of members, and the lukewarm attitude of members towards alumni affairs.
President of the association, Laeticia Ugwu Udodiri, praised her predecessor for the “great work” to uplift the association, calling on members to join hands with executive members with the aim of repositioning the association.
Other members of the executive include the Vice President, Okechukwu Nzewuike; National Secretary, Innocent Nwafor; Financial Secretary, Nnaemeka Nwafor; Assistant National Secretary, Peter Ewenike; National Treasurer, Chukwudi Ogbonna; National Provost, ThankGod Ezidimma; Public Relations Officer (PRO), Benjamin Anya and Director of Welfare, Maureen Nwenyi.
Mr Emma Onwu administered the oath of office on the executive members.
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Sixth Ngozi Agbo lecture holds today
The sixth Ngozi Agbo Media Lecture and Summit, organised by the Press Club of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) will hold today at the Centre of Excellence Hall, Department of Mass Communication.
The event is held yearly in honour of the late Mrs Ngozi Agbo, a doyenne of campus journalism and pioneer Editor of CAMPUSLIFE – a campus-focused pullout in The Nation newspaper – who died on May 28, 2012.
The event with the theme: Journalism and the challenges of today, starts at 10am and will feature a lecture on media practice in modern times, debate, essay contest, training, and discussion panel, among others.
Renowned journalists and professionals making excellent contribution to the media practice are expected to grace the event.
Mr Dayo Aiyetan, executive director of the International Center for Investigative Reporting, a non-profit organisation promoting the culture of journalism investigation, will be the guest speaker.
The event will be chaired by UNILAG Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Prof Folasade Ogunsola, while the duo of Mr Lekan Otufodunrin, The Nation Online Editor, and Mrs Joy-Rita Mogbogu of the Mass Communication Department, will co-host the sessions.
The panel session will host ace journalists, who cut their professional teeth through campus journalism. They include the late Mrs Agbo’s protégé and current Editor of CAMPUSLIFE, Wale Ajetunmobi, a multiple award-winning Education correspondent with the New Telegraph, Mojeed Alabi, ex-Punch campus reporter, Sodiq Oyeleke, Prince Oyeniyi Joshua of The Ambassador Summit, and Tayo Popoola of the Mass Communication Department.
Also, Chief Executive Officer of Broadway Africa, Samuel Olatunji, Director of PVG Publivision Concept, Yemi Olalemi and Solomon Samuel of Media and Youth Advocacy, will train students on modern technology tools used in storytelling.
Special guests at the event include founder, Liberty Life Hospital and Benjamin Olowojebutu Foundation (BOF), Dr Benjamin Olowojebutu, among others.
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ABU students in U.S. for Enactus World Cup challenge
Osinbajo, el-Rufa’i meet team confident of victory
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Governor Nasir el-Rufa’i met with the Enactus team of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, just before the team members travelled to the United States to represent Nigeria at the ongoing Enactus World Cup Challenge holding in Silicon Valley in California.
The ABU team won the national championship of Enactus held in Lagos last July, earning the ticket to represent Nigeria in the global entrepreneurship contest.
As the students prepared to depart for the U.S., they were invited to the Kaduna Information and Communication Technology (KADICT) Hub in Kaduna State to meet with the Vice President and the governor as part of the move to rekindle the entrepreneurial spirit of the team members.
At an interactive session with Prof Osinbajo and el-Rufa’i, the students were tipped to bring the Enactus World Cup trophy, while also urging them to continue to use their innovative skills to improve livelihoods.
Prof Osinbajo said he was pleased with the impact the team made with its entrepreneurial project which addressed the challenges that followed Lead poisoning in Zamfara State. The students developed an innovative solution to the challenges faced by the people affected in the Lead poisoning by creating sustainable economic growth through an aqua-ponic device.
To effectively prepare the team for the World Cup Challenge, the ABU team participated in the eight-day boot camp organised by the Enactus Country Office in Lagos, where team members’ presentation skills were assessed.
When briefed about the aqua-ponic project designed by the ABU team, the Vice President described the students’ efforts as “brilliant”, expressing optimism the team would win the global contest, given the impact of the project.
The team arrived U.S. on Tuesday to contest for $50,000 prize. Enactus World Cup is a world-class entrepreneurial social innovation contest, hosting students, academic and business leaders from 36 countries from around the world.
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Liberty group builds capacity of volunteers
African Students For Liberty (ASFL) has organised a leadership training workshop for pro-liberty students’ leaders at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) in Ogun State.
The event was held at the CENT Auditorium on campus, with the objectives to develop the leadership capacity of the participants.
Over 70 students participated in the capacity building in various areas, including event planning, students’ activism, public relations, leadership, and promoting sensible drug policies.
The event started with a remark by Local Coordinator of ASFL in the school, Adeniyi Adebayo, who told the participants about vision and mission of the organisation.
ASFL’s Alumni Relations and Programs Director, Lilian David, shared tips on how the participants could organise successful events on their campuses.
She said: “Evaluating the success of your event will require that you set goals and expectations, get feedbacks, evaluate your finances and set success indicators prior to the event.”
ASFL’s African Programs Associate, Oluwafemi Ogunjobi, who spoke on Driving students activism on campus, listed ways the students’ leaders could use to promote freedom on their campuses.
Personal Assistant to the FUNAAB Vice-Chancellor, Mr Olasunkanmi Olajide, spoke on Impact of public relations in today’s society, during which he told that participants that public relation was regarded as “credible promotion” of a message to the public. He said a good public relations strategy should create a unified message that would help in marketing and business development.
Assistant Director of International Programs at Students For Liberty (SFL), Olumayowa Okediran, spoke on How to combine liberty and academics. He said the leaders needed to sell the success stories on campus and highlighted the gains recorded in promoting liberty on campuses. He advised the participants to continually engage in discussion in tackling challenges they faced in the cause on advancing liberty and freedom on campus.
Leadership Director at SFL, Moronfolu Adeniyi, who spoke on Youths and drugs, described abuse of drug as “a serious public health problem”, but said outright ban on drugs was not the solution to the abuse. He said government and non-governmental organisations should intensify awareness and campaign in sensitising young people on the effect of excessive drug intake.
The event ended with presentation of books and branded shirts to three participants who gave a live publicity to the event on Twitter and other social media platforms.
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‘Academic culture supports plagiarism’
English Language Department Head, Benson Idahosa University (BIU), Dr A. Esimaje, has said the current academic culture in the country supports plagiarism because of the importance placed on paper qualification, and not on knowledge.
Esimaje, who spoke against the backdrop of the rising tide of plagiarism, said scholars who plagiarised were encouraged to do so because there was no strict guideline and measures in place to discourage the action. Those that engage in plagiarism, she said, are impatient to seek knowledge, noting that they found it easy to copy other people’s work than expending their energy on research.
She said: “If you know something you will be happy to write about it, with the aim to educate people. So, it is the absence of knowledge that encourages people to engage in plagiarism. If the so-called scholars have requisite knowledge and are not lazy to engage in research, they will not plagiarise.
“Most times, it is not always the fault of the students or scholars who do that, it is the fault of the system. That is the academic culture we have in this country. I believe that we are inching towards a systematic failure. This is a period when students are not being equipped with what it takes to conduct brilliant research and write the project reports.
“The culture we have is, write project papers that fall in line with the template of project writing. Students are forced to write project reports anyhow. This way, the academic culture has been encouraging plagiarism. There are people called academic vendors, who put together projects for students.”
Dr Esimaje noted that students, nowadays, usually engaged academic vendors to help them source materials from different places, after which they do patch-writing without linking the materials together. The student, she said, would submit the poorly written materials for defense and get marks for ideas not original theirs.
She said the fault should not be fully seen in students who plagiarised, but in the system that failed to prepare and equip them with knowledge on how to conduct proper research.
She said: “It is also the failure of our society, which places value on paper qualification. A lecturer in the United Kingdom (UK) is assessed based on the research he has written in reputable journals within the UK. In Nigeria, different system produces a lecturer and a different system is used to assess the lecturer.”
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Politics is dirtier in this clime
There is a cliché frequently used, but which helps us understand reasons why we should never, in the slightest manner, trust politicians, especially those playing the game of politics in the terrain of the most populous black nation on this planet. Our politicians are the geniuses the devil himself created from the pit of hell.
Politics, it is said, is a dirty game. The chorus from the youth on social media each time we have a trendy political issue in Nigeria is usually reduced to ordinary rants and may not count because their lifespan is always short-lived.
As a matter of fact, politics is a dirty game and it remains such all over the world, even in climes we hold in high esteem. If it was not so, Mr Donald Trump, shortly before he was pronounced as 45th President of the United States (U.S.), would not raise a voice, calling his close rival, Hilary Clinton, “a total sham”. He also threatened to march on Washington and resist the outcome unknowing to him that he would ‘miraculously’ coast home to victory eventually.
Again, if it was not so, the same Trump who had regarded himself as the worst nightmare of his predecessor, President Barrack Obama, would have been mindful of his past allusions when he idolised the first Black American president as ‘a very, very good man’ – just barely a week after he was announced president-elect. The Telegraph reported this.
Instances abound. One of such is Yahya Jammeh’s refusal to relinquish power after 23 years of in The Gambia. And there was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claiming early victory in the controversial election, despite being in power since 2003. There are countless examples.
Our own mere attaching that adjective – “dirty” – to the game of politics is befitting, because in it, there is such an admixture of betrayal instead of trust, warfare instead of peace and backstabbing instead loyalty. Today, someone whom you were an ardent contributor to his ascension into power soon forgets your existence because new and fewer friends – not up to the population of voters – wooed him or her at the corridor of power. You are soon sidelined from the scheme of things.
All these depict desperation at its peak and hypocrisy for selfish purposes only. That is why the parlance – politics is a dirty game – will continue to ring bell in our ears.
As we approach 2019 elections, we should pick lessons from the Osun State gubernatorial election for our adventure. Nearly, all the political observers would have a conviction to raise a fuss about that election, especially the second leg of it – save the winning side that may kill the conscience. In simple English, that election was not free and fair and it would be unfit for President Muhammadu Buhari to say the country was again proud of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after the election.
Even, the European Union and our home-based civil organisations complained of gross vote-buying, manipulation of voters and the prevention of voters from exercising their civic responsibility. With all proofs available, journalists told us stories unpalatable for a democratic nation as Nigeria and to say the worst, these fellows were brutalised at the line of their duty and seen as enemies by the real enemies of democracy.
Few things were more acoustic before the D-day in the Osun election. To suppress the pains of the losers, one would spend a little time eulogising the energy of the Nigerian pop artiste, David ‘Davido’ Adeleke for bringing vibes to local politics with his ’30 billion gang’. ‘Common Sense Senator’ Ben Murray Bruce, on his Twitter handle, wrote: “Anyone that has a son or a nephew like you (Davido) does not even need federal power. God has blessed that person with a power mightier than that wielded by the clueless All Progressives Congress. The Peoples Democratic Party has a lot to be grateful to God over you and your steadfastness!”.
With the benefit of hindsight, it appears Senator Bruce lied. Subsequent events denied the PDP the glory of cheap scores. That aside, I still haven’t found a sound reason why Davido absconded from National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camp in Lagos to join political campaign of his uncle, Senator Ademola Nurudeen Adeleke, the PDP standard bearer in the election, at such dangerous time Nigerian politicians were having themselves enmeshed in the pit of NYSC certificate scandal.
Theatrical light beamed on Senator Iyiola Omisore, the governorship candidate of Social Democratic Party (PDP) from September 23 till September 27, but quite disappointedly, the party under which he contested was evidently bypassed in the scheme of things. Both the PDP and APC thronged Omisore’s house because he had the deciding power to sway victory to either of the parties at the polling units where the rerun was to be conducted, even though he would not have converted that to victory for SDP which he was standard bearer.
PDP chieftains queued up at the doorstep of Omisore, while members of the ruling APC also stormed Ife with its squad of influencers, including its national chairman, a Federal minister, state governors and even a governor-elect. Omisore, who has a pending case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), became the bride of both camps. Swiftly, the strength of the electorate shifted to a single man.
This is what I regard as the dirt of politics.
Since 2007 – in my own observations – Osun state has been determining the stakes for the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) that is now part of the mega party, APC. Rauf Aregbesola had defeated the incumbent, Chief Olagunsoye Oyinlola, at the poll that but he was denied the seat for three and half years. As he finally got there, he was excellent to have garnered the lone southwest victory for ACN with Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as the presidential candidate, against the incumbent PDP’s Dr Goodluck Jonathan.
This was quite astonishing as Lagos state, the acclaimed stronghold of APC, could not even do that. Osun became the cynosure of all politicians’ eyes ever since.
As APC was not willing to lose resourceful Osun against 2019, PDP, too, was staging a comeback in the same year and the winner between the two major players would be resolute on leveraging on that success.
But, the end did not justify the means for the two major political parties. They simply got boisterously disorderly and the aftermath implication is that, Nigerian electorate are now discouraged that 2019 may still end up as same old story. The Osun election may have delivered to us, a template ahead of 2019 clash of titans.
Here are the moral lessons to unravel in this narrative: “He that kills the elephant with a cap, his honor lasts just for a day”. Omisore could have shown his bias to the APC in furtherance of the rerun election, but he could have done better than selling the loyalty of Ife people with a shiny present. Neutrality could have been a virtue for him at the time. Buhari may have been surviving storms since 2015 but that quote should be his anchor if he would end well like his predecessor humbly did despite all banters on him.
And, to Nigerians, keep striving. We are almost there. That they wrestle so hard to get it shows clearly that never would anyone earn it so cheaply any more. That communicates to them, a message of not just running against something, but for something to expand opportunity for all of us and to restore dignity, honor and compassion to public service.
- Gabriel is a Corps member, NYSC Owerri
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The digital doctor
I’m indisposed; I need medical attention. I pick up my Smartphone, using the Global Positioning System (GPS) to locate the nearest hospital. I make a video call with a doctor. He looks into his tablet for my medical records, evaluates me, proceeds with his clinical diagnosis and forwards his prescriptions to the nearest pharmacy. In less than an hour, my medications are right at my doorstep. I take them and moments later, I’m back on my feet. What could be more convenient to have such a digitalised healthcare service?
With the advancement of technology in recent time, life has been made a lot easier. The biggest offices are no longer the largest organisations. Gadgets of huge sizes could not perform in the past, on very little, handy, portable devices, one could easily execute them with little or no effort. We no longer dwell in an analogue world. The manual age has made it into the limbo of oblivion. Here is the era of digitalisation, where mountains are reduced with just a click; where ultimate power lies at the fingertip.
It is baffling, however, that in spite of the level of technology development, services in the healthcare sector are still being carried out manually across the globe. The medical record room is still cluttered up with piles of ambiguous paper files. Patients still arrive at the hospital, only to be informed that they have no medical records, or that their files are missing. The doctors still prescribe medications on leaflets. Long queues of patients, unavoidably patient, waiting to see a physician, still persists in health centers. Yet, it’s the digital age.
There is no gainsaying the fact that, the advent of such sophisticated devices as Smartphone and tablet could impact a great deal on the services being rendered by a physician. They are potential in reducing clinical workload, and equally allow for flexible working conditions. They are as well bound to subsidize work pressure, so that with their incorporation into the healthcare space, attending to patients will be made much easier and convenient for a doctor.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the doctor-patient ratio should be 1:1,000. But in many parts of the world, this standard is yet to be met. Nigeria, for instance, maintains 1:6,000 – far below WHO’s recommendation. An efficient and cost-effective alternative to solving this problem, much better than looking for more hands to do the job, which rather culminates in a larger payroll, is digitisation of medical services.
In other words, when patients get to reach a doctor at anytime from anywhere, via the internet, which most people, even in rural areas, now have access to, it is of certainty that healthcare is bound to be more easily accessible, despite the discouraging doctor-patient ratio in Nigeria.
In connection with the digitisation of the medical space is “Telemedicine”, an emerging field which involves the use of telecommunications and information technology to provide health care services to patients across distance. With a grasp of telemedicine, the digital doctor overcomes distance barriers and provides medical services to patients, particularly from the rural communities. In most emergency situation, victims often drop dead on the way to the hospital— owning to distance, poor transportation, or traffic jam (mostly in metropolis).
But often times, some pieces of first-aid information offered to the ‘good Samaritans’ around such victims could have saved their lives. Hence, at such moments, the service of a digital doctor is most needed. A video call with a doctor, or any other means of telecommunication, could keep a patient alive prior to arrival of medical personnel. Such is the power of a digital doctor.
More to that, doctors can better interact with each other with the help of digital tools. A doctor may, at some point, need the assistance of a colleague in diagnosing a patient. Without having to ask the patient to come back some other time, or risking proceeding with the diagnosis in uncertainty, he could leverage on any of his technological devices to connect with a colleague and get the right information needed. It’s just within his fingertip.
Medical experts from different parts of the world could be made to participate in ongoing surgical procedures, live, contributing their own knowledge, with the help of video call. Via platforms, such as Skype, medical students from other parts of the world now get to witness and learn from live surgical operations in another part of the world. All of these being made possible by digitisation.
Smartphone applications are another means through which a doctor can migrate from the analogue world into a digital one. There are a handful of medical-related apps through which patients relate and interact with doctors, discussing health issues. A digital doctor thus avails himself on such platforms, respond to inquiries, check patients’ medical records, evaluate and diagnose, and refer them to pharmacy, or to a specialist.
The digital doctor uses the Youtube to improve his medical and surgical skills. He learns clinical procedures just by watching videos on Youtube. He surfs the internet for materials and e-books that could enhance his knowledge in the practice of medicine. Those he can’t get for free, he purchases them via online retail platforms, such as Amazon. He is ubiquitous in all social media platforms, where he builds strong relationships with patients as well as medical colleague in other parts of the world.
The digital doctor doesn’t mind venturing into blogging, through which he provides consultation services to people on health-related issues. He extends his healthcare services beyond the precincts of the hospital leveraging on technology. With the aid of the internet, he is able to reach out to people living in rural areas with little or no access to medical healthcare.
Yet, a digital doctor does all these without stress, without having to spend half of his salary on transport alone. He delivers clinical services within the comfort of his office or home. Patients that need post-treatment services can be saved the stress. They could check up with a digital doctor somewhere from their home, without necessarily having to drag themselves down to the health center.
Indeed, the health sector is in great need of digital physicians. It is only through these digital experts that the clinical health care services can be immensely enhanced. It is by the services of the digital doctor that medical services may reach every nook and cranny of the world. The digital doctor better relates with the patient, with colleagues, and with other stakeholders in the health business.
It is high time our doctors went digital.
- Muneer is a student of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto
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Is education a future investment?
Education was adopted as a basic human right since the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Right (UDHR). In Nigeria, education policies and operations are overseen by the Ministry of Education. The state of the education in a given country is a determinant of growth, but the case has never been that way in Nigeria. Instead, there has been a decline in the standard of our education, which has cast a doubt in the minds of many students, who are continue wonder to if education is truly a future investment.
The state of our country’s development has, in no way, helped education. Political power and positions are the focus of the ruling elite. But, how will the political world flourish positively when those who need to be educated are not educated?
The government gives little or no attention to the parlous state of education in the country. Politics is the major focus of the government. The rate of insecurity in the country is alarming, and this ostensibly resulted from poor quality of education our youths get. If people are properly educated and opportunities are given to them, no one would have such an expensive time to waste on harming and killing people just to make money.
In the area of fiscal appropriation, the government gives little budget to the education, neglecting our schools. They forget the fact that, when education is not made available and affordable to the people, the students will be charged higher to pay for school. In that manner, government leaves education to private school operators who charge exorbitantly. People who cannot afford to pay are robbed of the opportunity to acquire education. How then can education be a future investment when the education sector is not recognised by the government as the basic rights of the citizens?
When good allocation is provided in the national budget for education, there will be provision of basic facilities and equipment that is needed to equip the students with quality education that will make them to dream of better tomorrow.
Taking a look at the rate of unemployment in the country, the number of graduates being churned out by universities, the time spent in school while pursuing a degree, and the money spent through the years; but, after all, what they get is unemployment. One can’t describe such education model as “future investment”. If education were a future investment in this clime, there won’t be jobless youths and graduates on the streets.
Government has all resources to make this country a better place. If there is adequate invention in education, students would be sure of being employed after school.
They would give in their best to attain good grades while in school. They would unleash their potential and built upon their abilities. But, the case has been different. We have digressed from the quality education we need to make our country better.
Are we going to leave corruption behind in this discourse? Of course not. Corruption has left no good story in this country; it has even ingrained in our education, which has made it seem like investment in education is no good investment to earn assured future. Funds meant to provide facilities, modern equipment and resource materials are mismanaged and embezzled. Tertiary institutions are poorly funded; workers are denied their payments and strike is seen as the only option for them to get paid, which might lead to lack of dedication on the side of the workers. All of these extend the duration of study for a student. Naturally, it discourages students not to have interest in academic and excellence. They see examinations as something to pass out from the school, because they definitely see it as a waste of time studying hard.
Why do graduates who further their education to Master’s level prefer migrating to foreign countries to study? It is not because they don’t like their country; it is because of the state of our education, which is poor.
The world presently has the largest population of young people in history with lots of potentials, yet unable to explore. In order to realise quality education in Nigeria, proper investment must be made by the government, focusing on empowerment and employment. Let’s make education a reliable future investment. The more educated our youngsters are, with the basic requirements to get them equipped, the better for the country. This will not only yield result in the area of economic growth and development of our nation at large.