The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • I started business washing clothes for neighours

    I started business washing clothes for neighours

    The life of Chief (Mrs.) Yetunde Babajide can no doubt serve as an inspiration to many young jobless Nigerians. The product of a not-so-rich parent, young Yetunde set out for Lagos from her Ikire, Osun State base after acquiring her National Certificate of Education (NCE) certificate, hoping to get a white collar job.

    But after several long fruitless searches for a job, she took up the challenge to fend for herself. After a quick meditation on what she could do, she opted for a one-man dry cleaning service. Moving from one house to another, Yetunde went through her neighbourhood, soliciting customers. “After leaving school, I came to Lagos to live with my uncle. I thought I would get a job as soon as I got to Lagos, but weeks soon passed into months, with no sign of a job in the horizon. But after I got tired of the fruitless search, I woke one day and decided that I would be doing dry cleaning for people around my neighbourhood. I became a washerwoman.

    “I could not just sit down and do nothing. I was very lucky to have the kind of parents that I have. My mother sold food items in Ikire, while my dad was a driver. We were brought up to be up and doing early every day, as early as 4am. From that time, there would be no sleeping again, because we would all be doing one thing or the other. My dad did not discriminate between the boys and the girls. So there was nothing the boys could do that I could not do. We washed our dad’s clothes and iron them. So the job of washing clothes was not really new to me.”

    With that little and humble beginning, which started in the backyard of his uncle’s home, the business has grown into a company with five branches scattered across Lagos. “At the beginning, I was doing the job alone. It got to a point that I could no longer handle it alone, and I had to invite another person. From that point, it just started growing. And it came to a point that I had to register it as a company. I ran the company for about 18 years, with a staff strength of more than 20.”

    With a thriving business, there came new challenges to be explored. The first challenge was thrown at her by an elderly client who advised her on the need to improve her education. And as a woman with a firm belief that no condition is big enough to discourage a man from pursuing set goals, she took up the challenge and went back to the university to study business administration.

    “Among my clients was an old man. He is a Ghanaian and a lecturer at the University of Lagos. One day, he came to my office and asked if I was educated. I told him that I had an NCE certificate. But he was not sure, and so he asked me to bring the certificate. At first, I forgot to bring it on the first appointed day. So when he came, he simply aid that he knew that I was lying. I felt very sad about it, and asked him to come back the following day. After I showed him the certificate, he said he saw a lot of potentials in me, and that I could do better than I was doing. He said I needed to get a better education.”

    And truly, the university education soon opened her eyes to better opportunities around her. Then she made the first move to diversify her business, as she added a sachet water business to her profile. “I started seeing opportunities that I didn’t know existed even before I finished the degree course. The truth was that I didn’t go back to school because I wanted to work with the certificate, but to expand my scope and view of doing business.”

    Her expectation of an expanded scope came to pass one day when a seemingly impossible business fell on her laps. According to her, she went to repair a faulty power generating set. But while waiting, a man approached the repairer, and asked if he had any parcel of land for sale. “While I was waiting for the man to finish the repairs, a man came and asked him if he had any parcel of land for sale. The man replied that he didn’t have any. But before the man left, I drew his attention and told that I have one for sale. But the truth was that I didn’t have any land to give to him t the time. We agreed on an appointment for the next day for the inspection of the land.”

    With what seemed an impossible task, she set out immediately in search of a land that may be up for sale. And to her surprise, the man repairing the generating set suddenly came to the realization that his family had some parcel of land somewhere not too far away. “I asked him to take me there immediately. We went there with me sitting behind him on an okada, and I saw this large expanse of land. From there, we went to meet the head of their family to negotiate, and before I knew it, a deal was sealed. After that business was completed, other family members began to approach me to help their land. That is why I always say my involvement in real estate business is a miracle.”

    With a profit well in excess of N1 million, she soon realized the huge potential in real estate business. And she promptly grabbed the opportunity, and going back to learn the tricks of the trade from established real estate agents around.

    Twelve years after that ‘miraculous’ breakthrough, she has grown in the real estate business, with her company, Yefadot Positive Property Ltd, breaking the barriers in property development in Lagos and Ogun states.

    Interestingly, her real estate business goes beyond building houses and helping clients get accommodation. She has added a new thing, which hitherto was known to practitioners of the business- advocacy and conflict resolution.

    She explained the reason behind her new-found love. “I came to the realization that lots of people who want to build houses don’t know much about the laws guiding the construction of buildings. For instance, most people believe that having a Certificate of Occupancy (C-of-O) is all they need to own a land. But it is not so, because that are other things they need to get. You need to get the receipt of the family that originally owned the land.

    “I also realized that there are too many land cases everywhere. Where two parties are fighting over a piece of land, you should know that one of the parties is not telling the truth. So, I encourage people to always say the truth about their purchase of land any time there is a conflict. I have been able to settle age-long land tussles involving families and individuals in and around Lagos.”

    For her efforts at resolving conflicts, the Ojokoro community in Lagos honoured her with a chieftaincy title of Iyalode, a title she holds close to her chest.

    Her activities have also led her into politics. She is a member of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Lagos, and also a prominent member of the Asiwaju Total Loyalty group.

  • I spend my spare time reading or counselling young businessmen

    I spend my spare time reading or counselling young businessmen

    Oluwatomisin Omojuwa graduated with a first class honours in Economics from the Obafemi Awolowo University, lle-Ife, Osun State in1989. While many may marvel at his brilliant exploit, but Tomi, as he is known to many, attributes the performance to his upbringing.

    According to him, living with an uncle who was a school principal helped in molding him into an excellent student. “Growing up was quite interesting. I was with my parents up to my primary school. But when I entered secondary school, I had to move away from home to stay with my uncle who was also the principal of the secondary school I attended.

    “That experience also helped me to become very responsible early in life, because I was doing practically everything in the house like washing my uncle’s car, clothes, and taking care of his children who were much younger than me, though I was just 11 years old.”

    That experience has also helped him to build a happy family, most times employing the strategies he learnt from his uncle. “That experience has helped me in my marriage, because I assist my wife in the house a lot. We have been able to train our three children without any assistance from anybody, not even maids.”

    Armed with a first-class university degree, Tomi started out his working career in the banking hall when he joined the Oceanic Bank in 1992 in audit department. But the job did not come on a platter of gold, as he had to wait for 18 long months before luck smiled on him.

    To kill time, he joined his uncle’s business on a zero-salary basis. “I had to wait for about 18 months before I got my first job. During the period, I was assisting one of my uncles in his business without any salary because I was staying with him at the time. I got my first job through an advert in the newspaper. I was invited for an aptitude test, and later for an oral interview. Finally, I was invited for final interview.”

    However, one very unpleasant experience almost truncated his banking career even before it took off. The discovery of an attempted fraud in the unit he was heading landed him in a police cell where he slept for eleven nights. He spent about eight months at home before he was finally vindicated, earning him a recall to his duty post. “The first challenge was the attempted fraud that happened in the unit l was supervising. I was locked up in a police cell for eleven nights before I could secure my bail. But thank God that at the end of the day, after staying at home for eight months, I was vindicated and restored back to my position.”

    After spending about 20 years in the industry, Tomi finally threw in the towel, opting to establish his own outfit, Pathlead, a consulting firm for small and medium scales industries. He listed the challenges to include attitude of small scale industries in Nigeria to consulting firms and the high cost of doing business in the country.

    “The first major challenge is getting small scale businesses to buy into what we are offering. For instance, you see SMEs with a staff strength of about 20, but with no structures like management, human resource, accounting and operations among others. But if ask tell them to pay for your service to help them address these issues, they would rather look at the cost instead of the value. The second challenge is high running cost. There is a minimum standard that is expected of a consulting firm like ours.”

    With his experience, Tomi would advise anybody coming into private business to first ensure that every second is very important. He also harps on the need for proper training before the commencement of business. “Anybody who wants to start a business should first ensure that he no longer has any time to waste. Also, a business plan is very key before you go into any business. In my experience as a consultant, this is the reason why a lot of businesses fail even before they start operations. It is the lack of a business plan that would make a businessman with a capital of N1million go into a business that requires a minimum start-up capital of N3million. Such businessman failed from the first day of business. Private business is not for lazy person.”

    Similarly, he explained that most family businesses die soon after their founders pass away because of lack of system and structure. According to him, “Any company that is built around an individual cannot survive after the owner may have died. The only lasting legacy is to put a proper system and structure in place, such that even if you are not there, the business will continue to grow.”

    He also has some suggestions for the government to help boost small scale businesses in the country. “The number one thing the government should do is to address the issue of power. A lot of SMEs have closed shops because of the high cost of buying diesel. As a matter of fact, no small scale business whose job relies largely on power can survive in Nigeria. Government should also assist in the area of funding. You see, if most of the states in Nigeria would emulate the Federal Government to operate the YouWin project, I can tell you that it would definitely expand the small businesses by the youths.

    “Government should also assist in the area of capacity building. Most small scale businesses are not ready to spend money on training. But government can do this by partnering with some organizations to sponsor the businesses for training, especially in entrepreneurship skills.”

    Though he would admit that there are many challenges limiting the growth of consulting firms like his own, he would also declare that he is happy and fulfilled. “Yes I have no regret at all. I am fulfilled about everything.”

    However, despite the very tough challenges of the job, Tomi still enough space in his schedule to enjoy his books. And when he is not reading, he can only catch him offering counseling young men and women. He also spends his holidays at home with family whenever the luxury presents itself.

  • More barbs, please

    More barbs, please

    IF Zimbabweans had any doubt that they were going to endure five more years of Robert Mugabe, that was settled on Tuesday when the court ruled that the election of the 89-year old was free and fair.

    His opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, denounced the election as “a farce” and “a massive fraud”. Local observers said it was a sham and western powers were critical of the poll, but the African Union (AU) whose observers were led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo said it was all free and fair. In his first public speech after the rancorous poll, Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, poured invectives on his opponents, telling those who accused him of vote grabbing to “go hang”. Tsvangirai was lucky the old man was in a good mood. Even before the voting began during his first attempt in 2008, he was given a black eye.

    In Britain, a professor has just condemned Winston Churchill’s speeches as uninspiring, saying it was wrong to claim that they stirred his compatriots to beat Nazi Germany. Prof Richard Tonye, in a new book, also asserted that the Second World War leader’s “finest hour” radio address, one of his most famous, lacked impact “because many people thought he was drunk”, according to “The Mail”.

    Back home in Nigeria, the barbs are flying. All Progressives Congress (APC) Chair Bisi Akande, in a widely publicised interview, told President Goodluck Jonathan that the presidency “is not for kindergarten”. For the Presidency, that was like a jab in the stomach. Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s aides were falling over one another to reply Chief Akande. One said he should respect his age. Fine. But, is it not said that with age comes wisdom, an attribute which nobody has accused the chief of lacking? If Chief Akande believes Jonathan’s handling of some critical issues is not good enough, what is wrong in saying so? Shouldn’t a lucid presentation of facts and figures have been deployed in replying him, rather than mere abuses? The debate is on for the phrase of the year. When the verdict eventually comes, I have no doubt that “kindergarten presidency” will snatch away the prize.

    The rain of blows in the Rivers State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) crisis seems to have subsided. Now, the two sides in the fratricidal war are launching verbal missiles. The other day in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, Minister of State for Education Nyesom Wike told his supporters to ignore what he said they must have read in the newspapers – that his opponents asked the President to remove him as a condition for peace. He said: “I have even overstayed. If you can be minister for two years, you must thank your God.” Many sneered at Wike’s comment. They do not need to. Given the chance, how many would not want to be minister for just one month? Just one month.

    Wike, who has his eyes on the governor’s seat in 2015, delivered a tirade in which he said: “We’ll make sure they will not sleep again, as they are sleeping now. They will not sleep with their two eyes closed. One eye will be open because they know there is danger.” It was not really clear if his listeners were inspired. What seems evident is that not many residents are sleeping deeply nowadays, with the return of kidnappers, rusty ex-militants and other criminals from what was like a long long holiday.

    Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi was a bit philosophical in his reaction to Wike’s broadside. He said: “I heard he’s going all over town, saying I didn’t appoint him; the President appointed him, but I nominated him…but, you know character doesn’t come easily; character is a very difficult thing and I am a man of character.”

    Amaechi, who was hosting some Niger Delta Bishops who had earlier visited First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan to resolve the differences between the duo, recalled how it all started and concluded: “As wife of the President who is the head of the government and head of the nation, she is my mother, and you expect that as my mother she should be able to protect her son. No mother takes away a police commissioner to the detriment of her son. So when next you see my mother, please, tell her that she should try and protect her son.”

    That was thought-provoking. Did the First Lady influence the posting of Police Commissioner Mbu Joseph Mbu to Rivers? His tenure has been as turbulent as a flight in a bad weather, yet the authorities keep saying Mbu would not be moved, even as the National Assembly has resolved that he should leave.

    Mbu himself has defended his integrity, saying he is a professional and not a politician – an assertion backed by no less a personality than Inspector-General Mohammed Abubakar. Whoever will pick the Policeman of the Year will surely have a problem choosing between Mbu and former Kogi State Police Commissioner Amanana Ababakasanga -remember him? – the one who barred Osun politicians from travelling to Abuja because, according to him, they showed no convincing reason for embarking on the trip.

    Whichever way the Rivers crisis is resolved, it will be difficult to find a sarcasm that will be as biting as Amaechi’s on our dear First Lady. In other words, the first family’s spokespersons surely have their job well cut out for them.

    In Imo State, Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha has dumped the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) for the APC. APGA is angry. Before one could say nna, which faction, Okorocha had been slammed with suspension. But the governor said he was not disturbed because Ndigbo’s interest is paramount in his mind. Such interest, he said, could be well served in the APC. “APC remains the best vehicle to promote the interest of our people. PDP has marginalised the Southeast and has nothing to show for all its years in power,” said the governor.

    Adamawa Governor Murtala Nyako told the world why he is not at peace with PDP Chair Bamanga Tukur. He cited what he described as Tukur’s dictatorial attitude. He believed Tukur is not the best for the job, adding: “Tukur is killing PDP. He has been setting up reconciliation committees, left, right and centre…without results. He has just made Umaru Dikko chairman of PDP disciplinary committee. Dikko was indicted during the military era; he would have been brought home from UK to Nigeria if not for the vigilance of the Scotland Yard Police. Now, Tukur glorified such a character, bringing integrity problem to PDP.”

    Nyako, who spoke through the party’s factional secretary, went on: “We are sure many Nigerians will lose confidence in the party… .” You can say that again, sir.

    Tukur has taken up the gauntlet, asking those pushing for his resignation to forget it. “I’m not resigning,” he said in a statement he personally signed. He added: “I am not looking for anything at my age other than putting it on record that God has helped me, and then I am using the opportunities he gave me to serve the rest of Nigeria to the best of my abilities.” Fine. But, chairman, some people are wondering whether Adamawa’s governorship isn’t big enough a toy for your son.

    Asked by this newspaper’s Edo State Reporter to comment on the Rivers crisis, Patrick Obahiagbon, the inimitable former member of the House of Representatives who is now the Chief of Staff to Governor Adams Oshiomhole, replied: “What are Amaechi’s transgressions? That he regularly gives vent to the collective decisions of his brother governors? That he nurses vice presidential ambition, which he has even denied? That he habilimented himself with a perfume of recusancy and not decumbency when he suspected a foul play on the oil wells that he insists belong to Rivers State? That he hobnobs with progressive governors? That he insists on the exercise of his inalienable right to recontest as chairman of the Governors’ Forum? Is this why the apparatchik and coercive apparatus of state sustained by taxpayers’ money has been arrayed against him? I see in this malodorous script the hands of Esau though the voice of Jacob and this is certainly an eschewable socio-political asphyxia cascading into a Frankenstein monster that does not dignify the Presidency and this Makosa dance must stop forthwith.” Mouthful. Indeed.

    Whether they are blabbing or babbling or sneering or sniggering, our politicians are surely an exciting lot. How I wish they could keep it all at this – no cudgels, no cutlasses, guns, bombs and bullets. After all, didn’t the late songster, the weird one, Fela Anikulapo- Kuti, a politician in his own right – MOP, Movement of the People (you remember? ) – say yabis is no case? Let the barbs fly, please.

  • Obj, IBB, Oldbreed and New

    Obj, IBB, Oldbreed and New

    For the second time in recent years, former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), has begged to differ from his “boss,” as he often likes to call General Olusegun Obasanjo (Obj), on the seemingly perennial debate about the Oldbreed political class versus the New.

    Tuesday August 13, Obasanjo, the only person to have served Nigeria as its leader in khaki (1976 to 1979) and mufti (1999 to 2007), came down heavily on the latter class of politicians like a ton of bricks. As a group they were, he said in effect, worse than useless. The occasion was the Fourth Annual Ibadan Sustainable Summit at Le Chateau, Bodija, Ibadan, where he was the guest speaker. His topic was Leadership in Africa’s Quest for Sustainable Development.

    As often happens on such occasions, what made the banner headlines the following day was not the paper the former president delivered. Rather, it was the extempore remarks he made in response to comments and questions by discussants of the paper and from the audience. The comment by Professor Mojeed Alabi, the first of the two discussants and a former Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, that the country’s problems stems mainly from the refusal of the Oldbreed to “step aside” – to borrow Babangida’s now famous phrase when he not-so-voluntarily left office in August 1993 – for the Newbreed apparently got old man Obasanjo’s dander up.

    The professor, he said in effect in a counterpoint, was talking so much rubbish. Many governors during his tenure were less than 50. The first Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Salisu Buhari, was even much younger, he pointed out. Yet the record of these Newbreed politicians on the whole was, he said, dismal.

    “We had some people who were under 50 years in leadership positions. One of them was James Ibori. Where is he today? One of them was Alamieyesiegha, where is he today? Lucky Igbinidion, where is he today? The youngest was the Speaker, Buhari. You can still recall what happened to him. You said Bola Tinubu is your master. What Buhari did was not any worse than what Bola Tinubu did. We got them impeached. But in this part of the world some people covered up the other man.”

    Trust the man not to leave out his deputy and eventual nemesis, Atiku Abubakar, in his list of villainous Newbreeds; the former vice-president, he found out after studying him for a year, he said, was too corrupt for him to have groomed as his possible successor.

    In short, the Newbreed, he seemed to say, should not complain anymore since they had their chance but blew it.

    This was the conclusion General Babangida, not surprisingly, found somewhat disagreeable, as a well known champion of the Newbreed even though he had had cause in recent times to express his disappointment at their record of performance in power, a complain which I once loudly thought on these pages meant he has at last broken faith with them.

    In a rejoinder to my article in question entitled “A Newbreed apart” (July 7, 2010), which was a tribute to Honourable Isa Kawu, a Newbreed member of the Niger State House of Assembly who had stood virtually alone as a thorn in the flesh of the state’s executive and has also stood almost alone as an example of a rare exception which proves the rule that, generally speaking, our politicians’ first commitment is to themselves and everyone else a distant second, Professor Sam Oyovbaire, my Political Science teacher at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in the early seventies and much later, Babangida’s minister of Information, said his principal never lost faith in the Newbreed.

    “It’s not true,” Oyovbaire said in his rejoinder, “that IBB has changed his views about the historic role and value of the ‘new breed’ segment of the political class. His well-honed critique of its disappointing performance from the Abacha era through the OBJ’s horrible legacy to date has been, as usual with the press mindset on anything IBB, badly twisted and made to hang! He believes in the potentials of the youths/new breed in the development process. Believe me on IBB’s thoughts.”

    On the occasion of his 72nd birthday last Saturday, the general seized the opportunity of an encounter with the press to re-iterate his faith in the Newbreed and disagree with his “boss” over his (the boss’s) expression of lack of faith in the competence and integrity of the Newbreed in politics.

    “I am not sure,” Babangida said during the encounter, “I read what he said neither am I sure he said so. In any case this is a matter of opinion…There are other young men who have done equally well.”

    The former military president is absolutely right to say Obasanjo is wrong to tar all Newbreed politicians with one brush. However, he too is wrong to think the role of the Oldbreed in bringing about development in society is essentially marginal simply because the future belongs to the Newbreed.

    In other words, both of them are wrong to think leadership is essentially a matter of age. It is not. The virtues of leadership have never been a preserve of any age group. There are good and bad, wise and foolish, etc, old men and women, just as there are good and bad, wise and foolish, etc, young men and women.

    Obasanjo may be right to say that right now the preponderance of Newbreed politicians have proved incompetent and corrupt but to conclude, as he seemed to have done in his counterpoint to Professor Alabi, that governance is therefore best left largely, if not solely, in the hands of the Oldbreed is to mistake correlation for causation.

    Not only does he seem to have mixed correlation and causation in his conclusion, the old man was characteristically selective in his choice of examples to buttress his condemnation of the Newbreed. Conspicuously missing from his list of villainous Newbreed politicians was his own daughter, Dr. Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello who rode into the Senate more on his coattail as president than on her own merit but whose tenure as chairman of the important Senate Committee on Health was scandal ridden.

    Even worse for the selective amnesia was his remark that the media and the leadership of a section of the country employed double standards in their treatment of the accusations against Speaker Buhari and Governor Tinubu in 1999 that they forged their university certificates. While he made sure, he said, that Buhari was impeached – itself an admission of his interference in the internal affairs of the federal legislators, something he had often denied – “in this part of the world some people covered up the other man,” meaning, of course, Tinubu.

    What the former president forgot to mention was, first, he wilfully ignored to check out information in the open that the young man might have forged not only his university certificate but also that of his age, all in his bid to impose a leadership on the House which he could easily manipulate. Second and worst of all, he conveniently forgot to mention that he quickly granted the former speaker presidential pardon after he was tried and convicted and sentenced to jail with an option of fine which he quickly paid.

    However, the one point the former president made which is hard, if not impossible, to disagree with is that development is not just about leadership alone. “If you talk about good leadership,” he said, “you should also talk about good followers.”

    The Encarta Concise English Dictionary defines leadership as “the ability to guide, direct, or influence people.” We have remained underdeveloped precisely because we all think the virtues needed to be able to guide, direct or influence others are different from those needed to be good followers. In this sense, the leader/follower dichotomy is a false one. The fact is that only a good follower can make a good leader because, leader or follower, you need a sense of equity, self-sacrifice, self-discipline, compassion, personal integrity, competence, among others, to be the good and honest person any society needs a preponderance of to make any progress.

    However, in so far as the leader/follower dichotomy exits in our minds, the burden of cultivating these virtues lies more with leaders, elected or self-imposed, than with followers. For, without enough leaders willing and able to practice the virtues of being good and honest men and women, the vicious circle between bad leadership and bad followership will never be broken.

    The problem with Nigeria is that we have engaged for far too long in a futile debate about the false dichotomy between Oldbreed and Newbreed politicians when it is pretty obvious that the answer is Good-breed.

    To that extent, the Oldbreed, Obasanjo included, must accept greater responsibility than the Newbreed for our lack of development because, by merely preaching virtues they hardly practiced, they have only succeeded in creating a Newbreed of leaders – and followers – after their own poor image.

     

  • Still on the Child-bride

    The debate following the decision of the Nigerian Senate’s vote to keep the controversial clause in Section 29 of the 1999 Constitution has been rather interesting to follow. The thorny Section 29 (4) (a)(b) of the Constitution stipulates (in paraphrase) that a married female of any age at all shall be considered to be “full of age,” meaning that it is valid to get married to a female-minor. This further presupposes that a girl-child automatically assumes the status of an adult irrespective of the age at which she becomes married.

    Of course, the exercise started as an innocuous vote to determine the age at which a Nigerian female could be regarded as being old enough to repudiate her citizenship if she wishes. It became such a prominent vexed issue mostly because of the histrionics of Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, who began to act as though calling for any sort of debate on any subject remotely connected to religion is equivalent to cutting off his oxygen supply. With or without Yerima’s antics, the opprobrium that has trailed the decision of the Senate not to yank off that clause has been right all the same. This is because, somehow, the vote ended up strengthening the position of the likes of Yerima, who has unsurprisingly been at the head of the vanguard for the retention of the vexing Section 29. It has simply given them a good platform to continue to exploit minors under the guise of marriage.

    Having abstained from writing about this issue all along, what really got me ticking this time around were the comments recently credited to a respected Islamic scholar, Professor Ishaq Akintola. Akintola is the Director of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC). In his contribution to the raging debate, Akintola said: “The conditions of marriage in Islam are four, namely: proposal and acceptance, approval by both parents, payment of dowry by the groom and the presence of at least two male witnesses at the ceremony. Age is, therefore, not part of the conditions which must be met before marriage can be solemnised in Islam. He added: “Where the bride is a minor, Islam prescribes protective solemnisation of marriage without consummation. This means that the girl, who is deemed to be of tender age, is left untouched by the man until she attains puberty. Another condition for child marriage is that the girl herself has the right to repudiate the marriage, when she attains maturity if she does not like her spouse.”

    Now, one needs to ask: Why would a religion in which Allah Himself is said to detest divorce more than anything else in a marriage, a religion in which the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is said to have admonished couples to strive with every ability within their means to keep a marriage together, turn around and encourage such a flimsy marital environment, knowing that there is a high risk of the ‘bride’ deciding to exercise her “right (to) repudiate the marriage when she attains maturity?” If truly, even by Akintola’s own admission, it is stated in Islam that a minor, upon coming of age, can opt out of an arranged marriage, then, surely, we can agree that this means that either these proponents of child marriage are reading from a different scripture or, as it is now more apparent, are merely twisting the tenets of Islam to suit their personal cravings and those of their co-conspirators.

    From what I know about this issue from across the globe, more than 80 per cent of Muslim countries are firmly opposed to child marriage. Even in Saudi Arabia, the guardian home of the Islamic faith, child-marriage is not a state-sanctioned practice. Hence, there have been heated debates on the subject for decades now. One of the more prominent ongoing critics on the issue in Saudi Arabia is Sheik Abdullah al-Manie, a member of the Council of Senior Ulamma. In a widely circulated criticism of the practice as published in the Saudi Gazzette as well as the Okaz newspaper in Saudi Arabia, Sheik al-Manie argues that even though child marriage was condoned in the time of Prophet Muhammad, the circumstances today are grossly different from what obtained then. The Sheik said further: “It is a grave error to burden a child with responsibilities beyond her years. Marriage should be put off until the wife is of mentally and physically mature age and can care for both herself and her family.”

    I happen to also understand from some of my friends who are Muslims that, in the Sunnah (sayings and practices of Prophet Muhammad, SAW), it was reported that a young girl once ran to the prophet complaining that her parents were on the verge of forcing her to marry a man she did not want to marry. The prophet was said to have admonished the parents not to force any marriage on her. This evidently further puts a lie to the claims by the likes of Yerima and Akintola, who have drummed the religious beat all along.

    But aside from being made to come across as a touchy Islam versus Western civilization subject (which it is not), the issue at hand is one that poses all-too-real socio-economic challenges to the society today and into the long-term future. The truth here is that by bending for this sort of practice, we plant poverty and diseases even more firmly in our society. And heaven knows that the North especially already suffers too much poverty and disease without having to face even grimmer prospects by legitimizing the child-marriage. So, to borrow words from Sheik al-Manie, it would be “a grave error” if the Senate does not retrace its steps and do the right thing as far as this issue is concerned. A grave error it will be indeed if we have to continue to keep northern Nigeria as the home of the highest cases of Vesico-Vagina Fistula in the world. This is a health condition that directly results from under-age sex (or pregnancy), which is, in turn, almost always a direct result of under-age marriage. Are we really supposed to continue to close our eyes and watch more and more girls, mainly from the North, lose their right to education whilst we continue to spread poverty by so doing? The truth is that a girl who gets married off at a tender age does not have a chance to compete mentally and intellectually with her peers.

    I shiver to imagine what sort of wife material my under-13-year-old daughter could really make to anyone at her age. Imagine how grievously her mother and I would have injured her dreams if we suddenly decide to hand her over in marriage at this age. Here is a girl who is constantly reminding everyone who cares to listen of her dream to become a doctor or an engineer in the future. How barbaric it would be for me to be party to taking that future away from her!

    Amidst all of the debate, we are also inadvertently making even more apparent a point that we all know already about our political reality in this country, namely: that the Nigerian politician, nay parliamentarian, does not actually represent the interest of the general populace. Rather, the Nigerian parliamentarian is merely self-serving. How else do you explain the disdain with which the likes of Yerima have continued to treat the millions of voices that have been rising against their decision? As so-called representatives of the people, one would have expected them to begin to come around given the sheer din of voices against their action, especially voices from Yerima’s own North and even the Islamic community. But no, they can’t be bothered at all because democratic representation, as far as the Nigerian politician is concerned, places the representative as an all-wise master over the people. To these senators, therefore, even this most salient of touchy issues of broad social, economic, political and moral ramification for the wider population and generations to come must suitably cater to the perks of the lawmakers first and above all else, even to the mortal detriment of everyone else.

  • Slash Political ‘SAP’ by 75%; ‘24 Hour Power’ in 3 months-Solar; Are checkpoints legal?

    Politicians are often selfish but are they ignorant also? Many are playing with fire, insulting the electorate in their lifestyle and speech and expecting praise. Did you not shudder at the Egypt’s political upheaval gunfire? Patience Jonathan’s expensive, traffic snarling ‘Peace Rally’ flies in the face of poverty, angers the nation and is not the answer! Better governance is the only answer! Politicians should see the effect of bad politics on the faces in Egypt and Borno, in Plateau states and the murderous fire fight on the North-South cattle corridor.

    Politicians would be enlightened if Nigerian newspapers kept a ‘Cumulative Death List’ and counted refugees. Blankets and buckets do not replace loved ones or livelihoods. Refugees deserve large cash handouts and business support. Politicians should learn about the killed and kidnapped. They also voted. The dead are not ‘only 25 died’ or mere numbers. They were living people with life ahead. Politicians should calculate the cost of violence inflicted by their decisions. The River’s State crisis mirrors the Oyo State violence four years ago. The peace in Oyo State today is ‘normal’ and credit to Governor Ajimobi’s strategy of saying “No” to thugs’. The NURTW needs re-education, ID cards, speed limit controls and registration.

    Politicians must be reminded that their exorbitant ‘Salaries and Perks’, SAP, scam since 1999, allowed them to ‘legally but immorally steal billions’, distort the economy and precipitate the current national wages crisis.

    As suggested by this column and by NUC, political SAP should be political issue for APC party and the 2015 elections. The citizens should only vote for politicians signing a ‘Personal 50-75% Salary and Perks Reduction Agreement’. Nigeria cannot afford the hundreds of billions of naira spent on politicians. This dividend of democracy, no Nigerians except the politicians want! Meanwhile government politicians have no money for ASUU bills.

    Never forget that since 1999 every single politician of all political parties, without moral exception, appears to have happily taken their allowances or fees for furniture, hotel, vehicle, sitting, standing-in, out-of-station, bush, travel, overnight, per diem, appearance, brown envelope and cash-under-hat as and when due. In fact we should be forcing a change in politics towards cheaper politics, a Parliamentary rather than a Presidential System or at least a ‘Part Time Parliament’ paid per diem.

    Politicians must accept that their Salary and Perks’ structure SAPed Nigeria dry, post Babangida’s SAP, and is the catalyst for nationwide unrest and inflation in rent and other prices. It has increased those in poverty by devaluing the naira and undermining anti-poverty strategies. SAP are the stick beating down the masses for politicians to earn a minimum of N12m/year rising to N30m while millions are on N15,000-18,000/month or N490-590/day.

    ‘Politics’ is just another subject with an examination every four years or so. ‘The Mass Failure’ of politicians cannot be swept aside by elections, bought and paid for by money largely stolen from the electorate and diverted from development. Politicians must know that nothing is secret. They should not be deceived by the Al Mustaphas or the thieves who stole the petroleum and electricity money and are now big philanthropists to cover their tracks.

    Nigeria is in need of ‘Emergency Measures’. Nigeria is populated by millions of hard working Nigerians trying to be self-sufficient who deserve the rights of 21st century human beings, including cheap grid electricity -100,000Mw. The hopeless power situation is not a game or a joke but a Nigerian yoke. Though this government has power it fails to give the citizens power. This government has held ‘Uninterrupted Political Power’ since 1999, and government was held by others before this government. Old or young, the leadership including every single president during the last 30 years is disgraced by this lack of power which has taken up to half of the earnings of many businesses. If Nigerians ran such businesses in a Nigeria with ’24-hour Power’ like in many African countries and worldwide, imagine the savings, profits, service delivery, silence, lack of noise and air pollution and how many Nigerians would be above the poverty line. In spite of this, government demands more taxes. Government complains about food imports but is silent on fuel and generator imports resulting from government’s power incompetence.

    The questions all Nigerians ask are: ‘How dare governments provide every electricity need for its political and civil servant members, using tax funds, to the exclusion of the people’s needs?’ and ‘Why is there no apology?’

    Nigeria’s government has no excuse not to get the USA, UK, Germany and Japan to provide the ‘Emergency Power Supply’. They are also leaders in new solar battery technology. The Japanese replaced the losses at Fujiyama within three months. It got emergency power because Japanese politicians know that the people’s needs today are more important than long term solutions bedevilled by corruption and never-executed contracts. Here Nigerian politicians ignore even God-sent solar power which needs no grid, gas contracts or distribution networks. Government should invite the Japanese as an emergency measure, now!

    The lesson from ‘The Festus Osugwor Extortion Case’ is ‘Always Turn on Phones’. With many Nigerians owning a phone, we can join the anti-corruption war as the FOP, ‘Fear of Phones’ should reduce corruption and save lives. Has the IGP reversed the law banning static police checkpoints? They are back with one nearly permanent checkpoint now on the Ibadan’s Bodija-Awolowo Road, near SSPeter and Paul.

    IGP, is it legal?

     

  • Only in Nigeria

    Only in Nigeria

    It had been a long day.

    The Lady of the Rock had just emerged from the Situation Room where officials had been summoned to brief her on the latest intelligence from Rivers State and the struggle for survival of its beleaguered governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.

    Earlier, senior representatives from the security and intelligence services had given her a detailed briefing, a battle plan actually, on her latest project: a national rally in Abuja to “sensitise” Nigerian women to the Federal Government’s epochal achievements in the areas of peace and women empowerment.

    She was about to settle down to a late afternoon snack of fresh-baked cassava bread and steaming fish pepper soup fortified with orisirisi when the AfDB’s searing report on the Nigerian economy bobbed up on the large television screen in the room that serves as her private study.

    “A-f-D-B.” She called out the letters slowly and deliberately, with more than a hint of disdain. “Wetin’ be dat one again?”

    “African Dèvèlopement Bank,” Your Excellency, one of six personal assistants waiting on her volunteered with a deep curtsey.

    “Dis world don spoil o, I swear. Yeye people. Wetin’ dem know about dèvèlopement?”

    Her Excellency had every right to be miffed. A month had scarcely passed since she was presented with the International Telecommunication Union’s Online Child Protection Award, in Geneva, Switzerland. Now, the ITU is one of world’s oldest international organisations, going back to 1869.

    That award recognising Nigeria’s leadership role in protecting children – the leaders of tomorrow — from the snares of cyberspace where anything goes was fundamentally an award honouring Nigeria’s commitment to development in the finest sense of the term.

    And yet, the so-called AfDB, an ordinary regional body funded in large part by Nigeria, has the temerity to issue an adverse report on the Nigerian economy and even contradict facts and figures that the responsible officials have painstakingly complied and dutifully checked?

    What, indeed, is the world coming to?

    Does the official who signed that contumacious report not know that Her Excellency could by a mere clearing of the throat get him deported, regardless of his diplomatic status? Or get the AfDB expelled from these shores? Or, for that matter, cause Nigeria to end its membership in the organisation and the financial support that constitutes such a large chunk of its operating funds?

    But on this day, she was exceedingly agreeable.

    The briefing on preparations for the National Rally for Peace and Women Empowerment, conducted by top officials from the National Security Agency and the armed services, had gone very well. The logistics had been worked out to the minutest detail. Nothing was being left to chance. All those who had been ranting that there were no clues at the top and no vision would be put to shame big-time.

    The rally, it has to be said at the outset, was a triumph of planning, organisation, and execution. Abuja is like a basket; it leaks at every point. Yet, the rally took even long-time residents of the town by surprise. They had no idea it was coming. Neither did Boko Haram.

    Withal, it must be accounted an astonishing feat that tens of thousands f women from all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory were outfitted, flown or bused to Abuja and housed in suitable lodgings without disruption to air travel and inter-state road transportation, without straining the city’s resources, and without attracting undue attention from the usual interlopers.

    And when it was staged last Thursday, the rally was quite a spectacle. Abuja had never seen anything like that. As a matter of fact, no city in Nigeria has ever seen anything like it. The recent week-long siege on Port Harcourt did not even come close. Someone who follows such matters closely tells me that we would have to go back to Romania, in the time of Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, to find a modern precedent.

    Thisday’s terse, summative headline captured it best: “Residents Groan as First Lady’s Rally Shuts down Abuja.” The city finally got a taste of what the Lady of the Rock had worked up in Lagos, Makurdi, Lokoja and Port Harcourt, to name just some of the cities she has favoured with a visitation.

    All approaches to the venue, Eagle Square, were blocked to vehicular traffic. Hundreds of residents heading to the adjacent Federal Secretariat to resume work were reduced to sulking in impotent rage in their cars, immobilised, according to one account, by “stern-looking and gun-toting” men who had descended on the venue before dawn.

    Hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of empowered women clad in dresses bearing a portrait of President Goodluck Jonathan in black on a yellow background marched in close military formation to express gratitude to the man who had changed their fortunes, not forgetting the woman – I take that back: the Lady — behind him.

    Women in the armed services were not left out. Decked out in their official uniforms, women soldiers and police officers imparted to the march past the military precision their civilian sisters could not muster. You could see gratitude for their empowerment and a deep yearning for peace written not only on their faces but across their well-starched uniforms.

    So as not to be left out of the great occasion, women security operatives shed, at least in part, their accustomed anonymity. They wore tight black masks that covered just about the entire face except their eyes, nostrils, and mouths. In itself, that spectacle bespoke awesome power. It is frightening to think of what it would convey when the operatives are empowered all over again.

    Easily the most awesome demonstration of power on that day of power, however, was taking place in the skies above the parade ground, where a squadron of fighter jets streaked overhead, with orders to interdict, neutralise, or destroy any would-be saboteurs. Boko Haram finally got the message. It could pre-empt the National Day parade, but it cannot mess with the First Lady’s Rally for Peace and Empowerment.

    Meanwhile, on the ground, The First Lady looked on serenely from a covered stand and beamed with benevolent satisfaction as the empowered women in their tens of thousands marched past. First ladies from several African countries invited to the rally watched in awe and envy.

    I am told that a debate is now raging in the usual circles as to whether the terms “First Lady” and “Firstladyism” adequately depict the current Nigerian reality, and whether it would not be much more helpful to replace them, respectively, with “Maximum First Lady” and “Extreme Firstladyism.”

    The debate makes sense, especially after it was made clear the other day that the Office of the President is inseparable from the Office of the First Lady. Or do I have it backwards, with the Office of First Lady being inseparable from the Office of the President?

    In whatever case, the word from that corner is: You ain’t seen nothing yet.

     

  • Toying with our future

    Once again the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has shut down academic activities in most of Nigeria’s public universities save in just a few where the local ASUU branches have broken ranks with the national body to assert their ‘autonomy’.

    And expectedly, both the union and the federal government have gone on the charm offensive to get the public behind their different positions which paint the other as the devil in the battle to save our ‘crumbling’ university education.

    While ASUU would want the rest of us to believe that it is fighting to restore the glory back to our universities, the government is convinced that the lecturers are only interested in their own wellbeing but using alleged infrastructural decay in the universities as a screen to push for better pay.

    It is over a month now since the students were asked to go home indefinitely and both ASUU and the federal government are nowhere near an agreement even as they were locked in another round of negotiation yesterday. But things could change for the better as news emerged yesterday that the government had approved about N400 billion for infrastructure upgrade in the universities.

    But if no agreement was reached on the N92 billion or so that the lecturers are asking for to augment their pay along with the approval for the infrastructure upgrade, the truth behind ASUU’s indefinite strike could soon be revealed. Should the government release the funds for the infrastructural development and stuck to its guns that it cannot afford the N92 billion ASUU wants for its members, Nigerians could be forced to ask whether the lecturers are truly interested in the health of the universities and the students or simply their pocket?

    But should government do this, it would only further damage its reputation as an unreliable partner in any agreement and further foul the already strained relationship the students and their parents are having with ASUU over the spate of strikes that have brought academics activities in our universities to their knees more often than not in the last decades or so.

    The federal government had reneged several times on agreements reached with ASUU in recent times, the same way it has done with similar agreements with several other unions. Even in the economic sector, the government appears incapable or unwilling to act its own part of an agreement or perform as expected. Joint venture partners in the oil sector have cried out several times that the government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had been lagging behind in fulfilling its own side of the funding of the sector. Ditto with the health sector and virtually every other sectors where government counterpart funding was required. The Nigerian government it appears is good at entering into an agreement but unwilling or reluctant to fulfil it to the letter.

    The unfulfilled agreement that led to the latest strike action by ASUU was signed with the government in 2009. The federal government went into it with its eyes wide open. If it wasn’t willing to fulfil it or knew it wouldn’t be able to fulfil it, why did the government sign? Agreed that ASUU has a way of bullying its way through every agreement with government, but the government shouldn’t allow itself to be bullied. When ASUU wants something from government all it does is send the students home to put pressure on their parents who would in turn put pressure on government to accede to the lecturers demands. Nowhere in the world has the government or other employers met all the demands of workers. The best that had ever happened was reaching an agreement that satisfied both parties; an implementable agreement. Is the 2009 ASUU/FG agreement implementable? To the government, No, while ASUU says YES if the will is there.

    The union and its sympathisers are quick to point at the astronomical pay of our politicians especially members of the National Assembly to buttress the point that government could pay if it is willing. They could have a point here. But government that says it cannot accommodate N92 billion or thereabout that the lecturers are asking for as this would shoot the recurrent expenditure to an unbearable level also has a point here. So what do we do?

    Can or should we pay the lecturers all they ask for at the expense of other workers or we should pay all workers all they ask for at the expense of the health of the economy? Should we say because our politicians are paying themselves ‘too much’ all government/public sector workers should also earn ‘too much’?

    This is not a defence of irresponsibility on the part of government but a call for give and take on both sides for the sake of the students and our future. The health sector just like every other sector is not perfect, but if doctors shut down the hospitals (or mere consulting clinics as some would like to call them) as often as lecturers shut down the universities, half of Nigerians would be dead by now. There has to be a better way of resolving the problem of funding of our universities and other tertiary institutions other than strikes and ASUU’s arm twisting tactics.

    Think of the students and our future. On the average, students spend between five and seven years in our public universities for a four-year Bachelors programme, no thanks to ASUU strikes. Majority of these students either because of JAMB or WAEC disappointments or a combination of both don’t enter university until they are about age 20. They graduate at about age 26/27, if they are lucky. They spend one year on NYSC. So, by the time they are ready for the employment market, they are already in their late 20s, already overage, as most employers go for graduate under 25 years of age. So, these graduates in order to fit in to the requirements of the employers including government would now begin to ‘doctor’ their ages. So the system is forcing them to be dishonest. Imagine the multiplier effect of that on the society, no thanks to ASUU’s incessant strikes and our irresponsible governments that never kept to agreement.

    So as we continue another round of ASUU strike let whoever is responsible both on the part of the lecturers, university administrators and government remember that our future as a people and a nation is at stake. These children that are being half baked would be our leaders tomorrow and whatever we teach them now is what they would use to lead us when their time comes. We might be too weak to intervene then if they do the wrong thing. We’ll suffer then for the stupid things we are doing today. Let’s come together now and address the problem of the education sector for the sake of our tomorrow.

     

  • FG vs. AfDB

    The federal government’s indignation at the African Development Bank AfDBs unflattering scorecard was perhaps expected. Having sunk so much energy into convincing Nigerians of its deft handling of the economy, its touchiness over comments remotely deemed to negate its exaggerated claims of performance should be understandable. Even at that, it seems that the Jonathan coterie of self-scorers barely read, not to talk of digest, what could in fact pass as a generous assessment by the continental finance institution.

    The details of the AfDB report are of course already in the public domain. To start with, I do not think the so-called report contains anything new or different that Nigerians are not already familiar with on the economy and its vulnerabilities.

    Let me however, attempt a summary of the main elements of the report. The report starts by acknowledging that the economy has been on a steady cruise hovering between 6.5 to 7 percent. That despite government’s best intentions to turn the tide in agriculture, the sector remains largely hobbled by lack of modernisation on one hand and poor linkage with manufacturing on the other. That unemployment, despite the impressive growth rates actually increased from 21% in 2010 to 24% in 2011; it attributes this to the fact that the sectors driving the economic growth are not high job-creating sectors. It gave the federal government credit for fiscal consolidation which has helped to contain the fiscal deficit below 3.0% of gross domestic product (GDP). So also is the tight monetary policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which kept inflation at around 12.0% in 2012. Over all, it projects a flattering picture of positive growth in the future.

    Indeed, it seems to me that only the Federal Government considers the AfDB’s presentation on the “enclave” economy of crude oil, which powers an annual 8.0% growth, (the corresponding figure for non-oil sector is -0.35%) while leaving youth unemployment at a monstrous 37 percent as anything but objective. Or more still – its prescription of the need to broaden the base of the economy through diversification, harnessing its potentials in agriculture, manufacturing and services to broaden the growth and to create employment and reduce poverty.

    It was therefore not sufficient that the lynch mob at the Presidency found the presentation disagreeable – it had to be passed off by Jonathan’s information minister Labaran Maku as containing “bogus claims and disingenuous innuendos” only because it dared to draw attention to the vulnerabilities of the economy. Coincidentally, the Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had only a week before in an interview with Thisday admitted the vulnerability to be real!

    Of course, the federal government counter-argument to the AfDB could only be revealing. First, it argues that the growth rate of the Nigerian economy projected at 6.7 percent this year would be the fastest on the continent. That, courtesy of the Jonathan administration’s transformation agenda, Nigeria remains the destination of choice for Foreign Direct Investment in Africa, over and above South Africa and Egypt. It awards it awards itself high marks for the recovery of the capital market, celebrates its “successful” realignment of the Lugardian Lagos-Kano rail lines; sings the high praise for the still-in-the-womb standard gauge rail lines from Lagos-Ibadan; Abuja-Kaduna; Warri-Ajaokuta-Itakpe; Abuja City Light Rail; etc.

    It goes on to celebrate the creation of 12,000 YouWin jobs; looks forward to another 80,000 more jobs by 2015. As for the SURE-P funded Community Services Scheme, it claims that 178,000 youths are already employed out of the 370,000 expected while the Graduate Internship Scheme is expected to place about 50,000 graduates across the country. Now, all of the above merely represent a fraction of the achievement which the administration claims it has in its kitty.

    Of course, you would be mistaken to imagine that the minister was not talking about a nation that spends an annual $11 billion – representing 35 percent of its entire budget- to import staple food for its population; an economy powered by generators and where basic manufactures are still sourced abroad. We are talking of an economy where more than 40 million are out work; where factory closures are more than start-ups, and where the only ‘productive’ activity going on is politics!

    While it seems that the poor grasp of the fundamentals of the economy by the likes of Maku is troubling enough, the greater danger is when officials choose to live in denial of the reality. Contrary to the picture often painted, the arithmetic of the economy is neither nor too complex to grasp. Excess crude means nothing more than surplus of earnings over projected receipts. You do not need experts from the World Bank to understand that it does not require special intelligence! The same with foreign reserves; it is growing because the nation is earning more – not consuming less!

    That the economy enjoys a semblance of macro-stability is simply a function of oil receipts.

    By the way, no one needs to look far to understand why all manners of portfolio investors are swooning on Abuja: it is precisely because the nation has enough reserves to guarantee safe exit for the investors whenever the bubble burst. What the like of Maku is yet to appreciate is that our present capacity to pay for imports remains dependent on oil prices holding steady. Even then, there are increasing signs that the economy is heading for troubling times as oil receipts dwindle due to theft and tumbling oil prices.

    The second leg of the report is the aspect dealing with unemployment and poverty. The federal government, not surprisingly thinks it is doing enough on both counts. What have they done? It is unimaginable that the government thinks so much of the high-octane affairs in Abuja during which some 100 youths are presented with wheel barrows all in the name of job creation? Is that job creation?

    Let me end by praying that this revelry last; it seems to me that the nation is due for a shocker. Contrary to the AfDB’s prognosis, I do not even think that the prognosis is good. Soon enough, the reality would dawn on everyone.

  • FG Vs. ASUU: The game goes on

    What has consistently escaped most Nigerians in this entire travesty is the fact that mediocrity destroys the very fabric of a country…ushering in all sorts of banality, ineptitude, corruption and debauchery. That…is precisely where Nigeria finds itself today! —Chinua Achebe

     

     

    Since the beginning of yet another strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU last month, which not surprisingly has entered its second month, one wonders when we as a nation would remove ourselves form this wanton mortification of making the education a laughing stock among comity of nations. The question all stakeholders enmeshed in this opprobrium should be asking is whether something fundamental is not wrong with our collective consciousness, else, how come that in every two to three years, the news of ASUU demanding that its overlords in Abuja implement an agreement both entered into and which in turn leads to a painful strike, reverberates the whole nation?

    Are we lacking in foresight as to understand that the Nigerian universities are dying gradually? Have we looked around to ask ourselves why the nation, whose youth out-numbers the old and very young, cannot remove itself from the shackles of societal malfeasance and hold forth the appellation: “we are the future leaders of tomorrow” by taking their destinies into their hands? For as long as the Nigerian youth accepts redundancy, fails to think for himself, cannot see where the rain began to beat him or take the bull by the horn, like many of their counterparts in developed nations, then it will be succinct to claim that the education sector which is supposed to train, build, inculcate, mould and educate vibrant youths against the morrow have failed in its entirety to bequeath such for a people who will take up the reigns of leadership from the old guards, a fault which is not theirs anyway.

    If ASUU once again and for the umpteenth time has called for a strike, it is not because they do not see the peck in their own eyes, as it is evidently known that their own house is also not in order, but because from the very first day government whose responsibility is to pay very good attention to the education sector keeps faltering and reneging on agreements she entered into. For many who are of the belief that ASUU has no reason or justification to embark on this strike which has become one too many in recent times, they must understand that though it may look more like Oliver Twist asking for more, in the situation our education sector finds itself, once and for all, drastic measures ought to be taken in ensuring we do not become a pointer to ridicule anywhere in the world anymore.

    If we have to look well enough the reason ASUU had decided embark on this strike and we feel the shame our universities have put up with, especially if we have to balance it with the education the likes of our parents had in the 60s, 70s and 80s and the pitiable ones our children have today, we then must understand ASUU’s pain and anger. Nobody likes to strike, nobody wishes to allow it take so long, in fact, it is not a good story to tell in our nascent democracy. Yet when a country is bequeathed with leaders who have no foresight, lack understanding of the socio-political terrain, remain clueless in tackling simple political arithmetic, and is occupied with how to remain in power until 2090, then strike becomes an option and a weapon to bring such government to its senses.

    Many Nigerians cannot understand how we practice democracy in the country. Democracy and good governance go hand in hand and therefore, policies embarked upon by one government or the other must necessary be a continuum and should not shift unless necessary. One finds it very difficult to grasp well the story peddled by this government that the agreement it voluntarily entered into in 2009 with ASUU should be re-negotiated. It is the worst of arguments this writer has heard in decades and one wonders if this government is truly committed to transforming the education sector, if the so called campaign promise in 2011 is anything to go by. One would have thought the government of the day should have put forward the same argument during negotiations with the Nigerian Labour Congress NLC in the last subsidy protest. Perhaps, the vast majority of Nigerians wouldn’t be where they are today looking weary, fatigued and hopeless in the midst of plenty.

    Even if government in its usual volte-face had thought the agreement needed to be re-negotiated, why didn’t it bring it to ASUU’s table long before the latter deemed it fit to embark on its ignoble strike? From this, there is no disputing the fact that there is so much insincerity among those in power and it is the reason the vast majority of Nigerians do not trust their leaders.

    It is an irony that the education sector, more than ever, faces this type of humiliation, especially when the president of this country was once a university teacher and his minister of education, a professor in a vibrant field of academic study. No country in its right senses would have such individuals in power and watch as rot engulfs their education sector. With leaders like that who cannot engineer viable transformations within the sector they once held sway, we cannot but feel sorry for the entire country.

    Our universities are no more role models for other countries to follow. Even the so called first generation universities have lost it, while mediocrity reigns supreme in the new ones. Individuals who lack the capacity to teach or engage in ground-breaking discoveries now fill our faculties and departments. Students who lack the intellectual vigour to learn now fill our departments with little or no capacity to communicate, write or engage their lecturers in intellectual debates. Most worrisome is the fact that one cannot find viable tools to hold experiments in our respective laboratories, reminding one of the total neglect in our secondary school laboratories. The structures which the Sardauna, Azikiwe and Awolowo had patriotically erected over 48 years ago still stand rickety today with nothing to show for a better one or even critical repair of the old. One could count the number of ICT-driven universities in the country and if one is lucky to find any, the structure is not enough to train students who are supposed to have pre-requisite knowledge of the ICT world like their counterparts elsewhere.

    Our classrooms have become a national embarrassment where students now sit on windows and outside to receive lectures. University libraries are littered with books the like of Isaac Newton had used during his time yet librarians are employed year in and out without any innovation coming from them to transform their departments into world class. It is most saddening that more than 80 Nigerian universities cannot boast of a state-of-the-art library where students can get up-to-date books to embark on their research. It is no wonder that even reference materials used for PhD thesis today are as old as the country itself, when new materials have been churned out by the same author over five times. Most PhD thesis today appears unconstructive, lack coherence and almost adds nothing to problem-solving. A don once pathetically noted that there are a lot of questionable PhD’s today in Nigeria.

    We seem to forget that strikes in our ivory towers have lasting implications for the future direction of the country. A medical student who is supposed to spend seven uninterrupted years in medical school suddenly faces a three month strike in his quest to become a medical doctor. At the end, he spends about eight to nine years for a seven year medical programme and is in turn given license to practice thereafter. If we do not know, we have bred a murderer and with his shaky training as a medical doctor in the murky world of medical school as a result of incessant ASUU strikes, we are bound to find our loved ones at their mercy. God help us if they survive with the way things keep going in this country!

    If we continue to pretend as if all is well, we will only find ourselves to blame if not now then tomorrow, as the future does not even hold anything to cheer about.

    • Oluwafuminiyi, writes from Lagos.