The Nation Newspaper

Category: Lekan Otufodunrin

  • Osinbajo’s message of love

    At a time when the federal government has come under attack from Christian leaders in the country for allegedly being insensitive to the plight of Christians in the north, one would have imagined that the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, would not have found it easy to address members of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) who gathered for their annual convention last Tuesday.

    Instead of being apologetic about the federal government’s inability to stem the tide of persecution faced by the northern Christians, Professor Osinbajo opted to preach the message of love in the season of hate.

    Against the background of reports of revenge message being preached by some Christian leaders, Osinbajo’s address should be real food for thought for not only Christian leaders, but all religious leaders in the interest of the peaceful co-existence of people of all faiths in the country.

    I found an account of Osinbajo’s address at the convention by Gbenga Osinaike, publisher of Church Times, very thought provoking and wish to republish for the benefit of many who may not have seen the facebook post.

    I am glad that the message rekindled Osinaike’s faith that Osinbajo is indeed a man who had encountered God in the real sense. The Acting President despite not being a politician is occupying his present exalted position for the kind of time we are going through now.

    Like Osinaike, I hope that the essence of the message was not lost on the audience. Love will always conquer hate.

    “Osinbajo’s voice pierced through the crowd as he noted that the greatest problem with Nigeria is “hate”. He chronicled various cases of religious riots in Nigeria from 1979 up to the present time; giving statistics of the attendant carnage and wondering why successive governments have not been able to put a stop to the menace.

    “He, however, told the large gathering of pastors that it is only the church that can solve the problem; noting that if the church could adhere to the message of Jesus and respond with love to the many instances of hate in the country, Nigeria would be a better place.

    “He called on church leaders to look again at the gospel of Jesus noting that the gospel of Jesus is contrary to human point of view. Quoting extensively from Jesus’ messages on love, he said: ‘in response to hate, we are to love. Jesus, in fact, asked us to pray for our enemies. He said if we want to be great we have to be the servant. He said if we want to save our lives we have to lose it. He said if somebody asks you to go with him one mile go with him two miles. If they strike the right cheek turn the left. He said vengeance belongs to him. So you see that the message of Jesus is contrary to human philosophy.’

    “Osinbajo wondered why God had to pick Apostle Paul, a former murderer and the leading “Boko Haram” figure of his time, to be the one who was greatly used to bring salvation to many souls who eventually wrote 2/3 of the New Testament bible.

    “But, then, he asked a probing question: ‘how will it be possible to love somebody who killed your pregnant wife and ripped her womb open in your presence?’ That question was left hanging, but he insisted as he rounded off his homily that the greatest weapon against hate is to respond with love. “He told the audience that Christians will not react when a Bible is torn into shreds and burnt because they know that the word of God is not the letter but the Spirit behind it.

    “While stressing that there is no other faith like the Christian faith, he urged the leaders to begin to preach a message of love and watch how the forces of darkness that specialise in terminating lives are brought to their knees…..it was one message for a lifetime….Just thinking, I hope that message registered!”

  • Fayemi’s hard truth for graduates

    Fayemi’s hard truth for graduates

    From the reaction on social media, not many youths were happy with the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, for his charge to graduates that they should stop whining because nobody owes them anything.

    In his 2016 convocation lecture at the University of Lagos, Fayemi, himself a graduate of the institution, had spoken on some life’s key lessons that are available within a university, which he said are enough to prepare the graduates for life after graduation.

    Speaking on what he termed debilitating entitlement mentality that is commonplace among young people today, Fayemi said the earlier they realise that no one owes them anything, the better for them, and the more prepared they would be to face life’s challenges.

    “We need to get off our high horses, quit whining and start doing – for ourselves and for our country. If something angers you so much, instead of whining, think hard about possible solutions and do something about it. Doers have a way of finding each other out, and before you know it, you are in good company with progressive minded people that exude positive energy – comrades with whom you can challenge the status quo, fight together, and succeed together,” Fayemi stated.

    For many fresh graduates, Fayemi’s charge amounted to saying that the government does not owe them the responsibility of providing jobs or creating the enabling environment to accomplish their goals and aspirations.

    Many felt scandalised that the minister was not sympathetic to the plight of youths who sacrifice so much to get education and end up without jobs. The lecture, they noted in their social media postings, was yet another typical unjustified youth bashing.

    Instead of taking offence by Fayemi’s advice, the lecture should be regarded as a frank and honest wake-up call for graduates who want to overcome the challenges ahead of them.

    Unlike a typical government official who would have painted an illusion of the reality the graduates will face on graduation, he chose to warn them about the danger of the entitlement mentality which has made many not to take their destinies in their hands.

    The real essence of the point he made about no one owing the youths anything is that they should not expect much from the society or government. Instead, they should utilise the education they have acquired to contribute their own quota to making Nigeria and the world a better place.

    Based on the various observations he made at the lecture, Fayemi is not in any way blaming the youths for the situation they have found themselves or excusing the government from its role of providing functional education and opportunities. The government and universities as Fayemi noted definitely have to do more than they are currently doing to secure the future of our youths.

    However, Fayemi’s advice at the occasion, among others, is to “dispense some hope about the bright prospects that the future holds, and offer some useful advice that would guide them going forward.”

    Fayemi and other government officials can be blamed for contributing to the not-too-impressive social and economic situation in the country based on their actions or inactions, but graduates have to come to terms with what lies ahead of them and what they have to do about it.

    The minister should know better having had to overcome similar challenges, including driving taxis and working as a security guard, amongst several other menial jobs he said did in the past to survive before attaining his present status.

    Truth sometimes may be bitter and offensive, but it still has to be told like Fayemi did.

  • Kidnapping: Are we this helpless? 

    With the rate at which kidnapping takes place in the country now, no one can really claim to be safe, except perhaps those who have full complements of security personnel around them.

    While some of the privileged few may be sure of their own safety, that of their families and relatives cannot be guaranteed as they are usually the target of kidnappers as it has been the case for some top personalities.

    The ease with which students and staff of the Turkish School in Lagos were recently abducted and later brought back near the school after payment of ransom is a clear indication of how helpless we seem to have become in ensuring the safety of our citizens.

    Apart from the major ones that get reported in the media, many other persons are being kidnapped almost on daily basis and their families forced to pay ransom which does not guarantee that they will be released alive. Kidnapping has suddenly become lucrative that many criminals have opted for it instead of other crimes like armed robbery.

    The perpetrators have become so bold that they almost seamlessly negotiate for huge amount for the release of their victims on phones without fear of being caught. Though some have been arrested, kidnappers have continued to have a field day with the police and other security personnel not being able to stop them when they and wherever they decide to strike.

    Obviously, one factor that is encouraging the kidnappers to continue to perpetrate their heinous act is the willingness of some families of victims to eagerly pay ransom even when the police say they should not. The excuse of the affected families is that the police don’t seem to, in most cases, have the capacity to take on the kidnappers.

    In some instances when the police have claimed to have rescued kidnapped persons, what actually happened is that the kidnappers, after collecting their ransom, drop their victims at a place where they can easily be found.

    In some high profile cases, the police have moved swiftly to rescue victims but in many other instances, they have simply been helpless. Families have therefore been left with no option but to negotiate with the kidnappers.

    It is very worrisome that the security situation in the country has degenerated to the present level where kidnapping has become so common. There is an urgent need to curb the very dangerous trend and discourage more criminals from forming their own kidnapping gang.

    Those who have been arrested for kidnapping must be promptly prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others. Revelations by those caught must be thoroughly reviewed and utilised to arrest other kingpins before they kidnap innocent people. If death sentence being proposed by some state governments will stop kidnappers from engaging in the crime, so be it.

    We cannot afford to allow the kidnappers to profit from kidnapping people and giving the country a bad image capable of scaring away foreign investors.

    While the police must improve on surveillance, intelligence gathering and device better strategies for nabbing the kidnappers, everyone needs to be more security conscious. We need to avoid situations that could make it easy to become victims of kidnappers. The police need as much information it can get to prevent kidnapping or to rescue victims. There is need for more vigilant community policing by all concerned.

  • Of rest & routine medical check up 

    Of rest & routine medical check up 

    With a number of local and regional issues demanding his urgent attention, the announcement of President Muhammadu Buhari‘s plan to embark on a sudden 10-day vacation in United Kingdom came as a surprise.

    The vacation, according to his spokesman, Femi Adesina, will avail the president the opportunity to rest, and also undertake his routine medical checkup.

    One would have thought that the crisis in The Gambia for which our troops have been dispatched to join the possible intervention force and the accidental bombing of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Borno were enough serious issues, among others, requiring the president’s personal attention.

    But for reasons best known to him, he has opted for take part of his personal leave at this crucial period.

    Those who think that there is more to the president’s decision to travel out of the country for leave and have been suggesting that it may have to do more with his medical condition have good reasons to speculate.

    Nigerians have every reason to be worried about the president’s health and need every assurance that he is very fit to cope with mounting challenges the country is going through.

    The federal government has its plate full and overflowing with all kinds of issues and all hands, especially that of the president, are expected to be on deck to accomplish the change promised Nigerians.

    I have no doubt that Vice President Yemi Osibajo is up to the task of acting for the president and want to believe the assurance by Adesina that Nigerians have no reason to be worried about the president’s health.

    As a clear departure from the past, I would, however, have preferred if the president and other top government officials don’t go to rest or for routine medical checkups abroad.

    What is it about our country that makes it unsuitable to rest in or have routine, not major, medical checkup? Considering the high costs of trips abroad, we would have been saving scarce foreign exchange if successive governments in the country have provided necessary facilities.

    Why should our government officials fly out of the country at our expense to rest when they have permanently created a situation of unrest for a majority of Nigerians who are constantly battling to cope with the economic situation in the country?

    With what we all have to go through to survive as Nigerians, we all need good rest like the kind our leaders enjoy when they travel abroad. If the leaders of the countries they usually escape to have not taken necessary steps to make their cities preferred tourist destinations, we would not have found them good enough.

    If our country is not good enough to rest in, we should all endure and work hard at making it conducive instead of squandering our resources on unnecessary foreign trips. There is nothing wrong with travelling to other countries once in a while, but when it becomes the usual option, we need to ask ourselves if we are serious about developing our country.

    As for routine medical checkup which many top government officials and personalities also indulge in, it is yet another waste of our money which should have been invested in providing necessary medical facilities.

    While our leaders go for routine, not critical, medical checkup abroad, the average Nigerian has had to do with what President Buhari himself called consulting centres. Not even enough basic primary health care is available for most Nigerians, yet our leaders get the best of medical care home and abroad at our expense.

    At this stage of our development and the money that has been supposedly allocated to the health sector in the country over the years, routine medical checkup should be available in the country and our president should not have to fly to the United Kingdom for it.

    Too many Nigerians have died due to lack of access to medical care in government hospitals and unaffordable fees in private facilities. Government at all levels should give health the priority it deserves and make good medical care available for all and not the president and other government officials alone.

  • Obaze: No, Buhari, No

    Obaze: No, Buhari, No

    The best of man under anointing is still a man – Bishop Oyedepo

    Considering the instant controversy which greeted the announcement of the unexpected stepping down of the much revered Pastor Enoch Adeboye as the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) and the sensitive nature of religion, it is understandable that the federal government should be alarmed that one of its agencies has stirred the hornet’s nest at a time it needs all the goodwill it can get.

    For a government already being accused of not being sensitive to the plight of Christians, especially against the background of the killings in southern Kaduna, it cannot afford to confirm such allegation by not taking necessary action to address the uproar over the code which is allegedly threatening to sweep away Church leaders who are almost regarded as ‘God’ by their followers.

    It is against the above background that a quick response by the federal government on the matter can be deemed necessary. However, the removal of the Executive Secretary of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) is an unnecessary overkill which could be counterproductive.

    By removing Obaze who is already about to complete his tenure, the federal government has succeeded in complicating the issue. If Pastor Adeboye had agreed to abide by the controversial law after a failed attempt by some groups to challenge it at the federal high court, the federal government need not panic by penalising a diligent civil servant who must have assumed that the Buhari government is committed to enforcing regulations.

    Instead of being seen as a law-abiding Church which believes in due corporate governance structure, the federal government’s action has exposed the RCCG and the person of Pastor Adeboye to unnecessary criticisms. If 89 out of 23, 216 registered churches in the country have complied with the regulation, why should RCCG be treated differently?

    By its action, the federal government has given the wrong impression that some individuals and organisations are above the law. RCCG had the option of not complying with the code like many others who have not. But having done so, the sanctity of the code needs to be protected instead of being suspended.

    Instead of being excited by Obaze’s removal and engaging in chest-beating like some Christian leaders have been doing, Pentecostal churches particularly should be worried about the negative image the controversy has earned them as organisations that do not believe in corporate governance.

    I am trying hard to understand the conflicting explanation the RCCG has been forced to offer over the status of Pastor Adeboye after the announcement of a new General Overseer. If Pastor Adeboye remains the General Overseer as the Church insists, how has the code, which requires that administrative heads of non-profit organisations step down after 20 years of service or attained the age of 70, affected him?

    I have read many arguments about how some Pentecostal churches are ‘God ordained’ and cannot be subjected to human laws. I do not accept this claim as the God we serve is a God of order. The best of man, as Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel once stated in the quote at the beginning of this piece, remains a man and should not be equated with the almighty, unquestionable God.

    Asking Church leaders to be accountable, which is the main reason for this code, should not in any way be equated to questioning any divine mandate. If churches have remained faithful to their divine mandate of soul-winning and evangelism and not been involved in commercial ventures, there would have been no need for the intense scrutiny they have been subjected to.

  • How to be happy in 2017

    You must have either greeted someone happy new year or received happy new year greetings after 12:00 a.m. on December 31, 2016. The greeting is a wish which may come to pass depending on many factors.

      Here are my suggestions on how to experience a happy 2017.

    • Resolve to be happy

     If the current state of the economy in the country and other challenges  Nigerian have to cope with in the new year are anything to go by, not many will be excited about 2017. For many Nigerians, nothing has really changed, except the calendar year to warrant the kind of excitement and celebration of the new year.

     If anything, indications are that 2017 will be a tougher year with little hope of improvement despite assurances by government at all levels.

     Notwithstanding, you must resolve to be happy that you survived 2016 unlike many others and be hopeful that you can weather the storm, however fierce.

     Your state of mind has a lot to do with your ability to survive yet another year and be able to stay above the depressing situation in the country.

     2016 might have been a very difficult year for you, but like the song by Bobby Macferrim says, “don’t worry, be happy.”

    • Make resolutions and work hard to keep them

     Making new year resolutions is one way to taking necessary  steps to redress  whatever didn’t work well for you in previous year. It  is an old  practice which many find difficult to keep except for those who are very disciplined and determined to get rid of old habits to make necessary progress.

     Right from the first day of the new year, some people break their resolutions and soon give up before the end of the first month.

      If you want to be happy in 2017, you must do a honest self-assessment of your life journey and decide on realistic resolutions which can help you achieve what you should accomplish at this time of your life.

     Resolutions may be hard to keep, but if you really don’t want to end up being miserable this new year, you must make the necessary sacrifice.

    • Plan your life

     Closely related to resolutions is planning your life. If in past years you have been guilty of leaving your life to time and chance, 2017 is the time to get serious about taking your destiny in your hands.

    What will be will not be except you make it to be. You must have a good plan, including timelines about your goals and aspirations.

     There are things to prioritise and there are things you must stop doing if you don’t want to look back in December 2017 and start wondering why you wasted the new year like other years.

    Like the popular saying, a failure to plan, is a plan to fail. The option is yours. It’s your life and what you make of it will depend on your decision.

    • Overcome your fears

    What keeps some people from making progress in life is the fear of their past failures and feeling of inadequacies. The fact that you didn’t achieve much in 2016 and past years should not stop you from being determined to succeed in 2017.

     Learn to put your past behind you and overcome your fears.

     Don’t judge yourself or allow others to judge you by your past; you are no longer there. 2017 is yet another opportunity to be what you are created to be.

      It’s never late to get things right if your default mindset is not failure. You need to give yourself the benefit of the doubt that you can succeed in 2017 and you will be surprised you can. Don’t write yourself off if you want 2017 to be a happy year for you.

    • Learn new things

     So much is changing in the world today and one of the major  keys to succeed  now is to acquire new knowledge in whatever one is engaged  in. With the rapidly changing technological advancements and information overload at the disposal of all, not even the knowledge of 2016 may be enough to succeed in 2017.

     You must go out of your way to know new ways of doing things.

     The world has truly become a global village with the Internet providing access to all the knowledge required for any interested person.

     Again, the choice is yours if you want to take advantage of what new technology offers to be the best at whatever you do.

    • Pray

     In the kind of troubled times we live, when many things defy logic and well known strategies, one crucial way to guarantee happiness is to pray and have faith in the almighty God who knows the end from the beginning.

     In my church, our slogan for the year is “My case is different”. Your case can be different if you hold on to God’s promise that when  men shall say there is a casting down, you shall say there is lifting up  for you.

     A thousand shall fall by your right hand and ten thousand by your left hand, but no evil shall come near you, if you believe.

  • What not to submit for media awards

    Entries for media awards are supposed to be the best publications and productions in the print, broadcast and online media by journalists.

    The awards are meant to reward excellence in various categories. It is not expected that journalists who qualify for the awards will submit substantial entries.

    However, if the observation of the Chair of the Judges’ Board of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting, Professor Lai Oso, is anything to go by, there is need for improvement in the quality of entries submitted for awards in the country.

    According to Oso, “Ninety per cent of all submitted entries for the award were routine one-time stories, opportunistic photographs, basic television features and radio magazine reports, of which most were badly edited, rarely investigative in nature and could only do well as feature stories.”

    He, however, commended the online entries assessed as being analytically better, more in-depth and clearly showing the future of reporting.

    Chairman of the Panel of Assessors for the Nigeria Media Merit Award (NMMA), Professor Ralph Akinfeleye, also lamented the quality of the 894 entries submitted for the 2015 edition of the award.

    He said the quality of many of the print entries were very poor and far below what was expected of national newspapers.

    Here is my take on the categories of poor entries noted by Professors Oso and Akinfeleye which journalists should avoid submitting for awards.

    Routine one-time stories

    If a story is mainly based on a press statements and regular assignments without any additional background, in-depth investigation, research and interviews, it does not qualify for consideration for any award.  Such stories are routine “He said,” “He added” reports which any journalist can write.

    Except in some peculiar instance, no matter how well written a routine story is or its placement, it cannot be the basis for winning awards.

    Award-winning stories are supposed to be products of follow-ups on routine stories or deep thinking, research and investigation on various perspectives on an issue or trend.

    Opportunistic photographs

    There is this joke about photojournalists taking what is called “putting heads together” pictures. They sometimes tell special guests at events to pretend to be discussing while the photojournalists take what they consider action photographs.

    Award-winning photographs are not supposed to be arranged. The eagle lens of the photojournalist is supposed to be alert to capture the action moment.

    Such pictures must tell a story like any well written story. Photojournalists must know that they are not just photographers who have to tell those they want to take their pictures to “look into the camera”.

    They are supposed to be journalists who tell stories with their camera.

    Basic Television features

    Like routine stories, basic television features are ordinary reports from routine assignments. It doesn’t matter how long the story is, if it is not a well-researched documentary or investigation with well edited interviews on various perspectives in the reports and appropriate shots, there is no point entering such features for awards. An award-winning television features must be very revealing and gripping.

    Basic radio magazine reports

    These kinds of reports are also not extraordinary. They are unnecessarily long news reports and interviews. They are at best extended reports based on routine reports and interviews. Many relevant issues are not covered and well analysed in the reports.

    Badly edited reports

    No matter how good a report is, if it is badly edited with typographical and grammatical errors, it cannot be selected as a winning entry.

    An excellent report should be well-written and well-edited. It should go through necessary editorial quality control to avoid avoidable errors.

    Award-winning reports should be fact-checked.

     

  • Numbering our days

    So soon, 2016 has ended and by this day next week, 2017 would have commenced another 365 days’ journey that makes a year. New Year always comes with a lot of promises, hopes and expectations.

    A typical year, made up of 12 months or 52 weeks, always seems like a long time to accomplish much, but like other years before the new one, it ends so soon.

    Not many individuals, organisations or even countries are usually able to accomplish their year-long resolutions or plans for one reason or the other, but the days never stop counting.

    Time, indeed, waits for no one and it is impossible to turn back the hands of the clock. Life is a race against time. Anyone who desires to accomplish anything must be time conscious. He or she must make a conscious effort to make the best use of time and days. Like the nursery rhyme says, ‘click says the clock, what you have to do, do quick’.

    Considering that no one is sure of how long he or she will live, the advice in the Bible which I find very appropriate for the end and beginning of the year is in Psalm 90: 12: Teach us to number our days aright, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

    Except one knows how to count his or her days, to be sure one is making the desired progress, he or she will wake up one day to find out time has run out.

    Young people are usually amazed when I tell them I graduated 30 years ago. Many of them were not born then. If someone had asked me to imagine 30 years after, while in the university, it would have seemed like an eternity. But here we are, 30 years after and it seems like yesterday. How time flies, indeed.

    Since God created us, He can teach us how to number our days if we ask, but it is left for one to do what is required.

    One of the best ways to number our days is to set realistic timelines to accomplish major milestones in our lives. Other variables may make it impossible to accomplish some deadlines, but it helps to know how close or how far one is to a target. Conscious assessment and measurement is helpful instead of leaving things to time and chance. There must be things we should accomplish at some particular time in our lives if we don’t want to end up regretting wasted opportunities.

    Even when one misses targets set, ability to catch up and probably surpass them will depend on the seriousness one attaches to making the best of the time left.

    I have missed some targets in 2016 but I am more determined to run faster than I have been running with my visions in 2017 and beyond. It will require double efforts but that is the attitude required to finish well in the race of life.

    The end of the year is a good time to take stock of life journey. Life is said not to be how long but how well. For it to be well, every moment must count. Some opportunities can always be available, but some are not. Learn to make hay while the sun shines.

    If 2017 is going to be a happy new year, it will depend on how well you are numbering your days. You don’t need a calculator; things required are divine direction, the will, and doing the right thing at the right time.

  • Super Falcons’ avoidable show of shame

    Following last Wednesday’s intervention by President Muhammadu Buhari, members of the Super Falcons that won the 10th African Women Championship (AWC) in Cameroon recently along with the Super Eagles participating in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers were last Friday paid their outstanding entitlements.

    According to an official statement, the office of the Accountant General of the Federation released $1,173,820.00 to pay outstanding win bonuses for the Super Eagles in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers and for the Super Falcons’ participation at the AWC.

    It is unfortunate that it took the Falcons’ protest to the National Assembly, where the president was to present the 2017 budget, for the presidency to take the girls seriously.

    If the money could be paid promptly after the protest, why did the presidency wait for the nation to be disgraced before taking necessary action? It is bad enough that the Ministry of Sports did not expect the girls to win the competition in Cameroun after winning seven previous editions.

    Having won contrary to expectations, the least the minister could have done, instead of exposing himself to ridicule, was to prevail on the presidency to hasten the payment, especially when the girls refused to be fooled this time as they have been done in the past.

    With the payment of the entitlement, it has been proved that what was stalling the payment was unnecessary bureaucracy, which should not have been allowed to apply in this instance.

    The Super Falcons and other sportsmen who sacrificed a lot to represent the country and win laurels despite all disadvantages compared with their colleagues from some other nations do not deserve the kind of shoddy treatment they are usually given.

    They should be treated as heroes that they are, and not be reduced to beggars before getting their entitlements.

    How do we expect our sportsmen to put in their best when they are not sure they will be adequately rewarded and recognised for doing the country proud?  Some of these allowances should not have been owed in the first place, but to delay the payment until the team members refused to release the cup they won in Cameroon and refusing to check out of their hotel is a national embarrassment that should not be allowed to happen again. It is a bad precedent that should not even have been allowed to happen in the first instance.

    While the footballers have now been paid, there must be some other sportsmen who don’t have the same clout to protest what they have not been paid in the past. The government should not wait until other lesser sportsmen decide to take a cue from the Falcons on how to get what is rightly theirs.

    Coaches and other officials should also be promptly paid when the need arise. When national football coaches are not paid for months as had always been the case in the past, it is an indication of how unserious we are about winning some of the competitions we participate in. An unpaid coach can only try to do his best, which may not be enough given the circumstance they have to endure.

    There have been reports that some members of the Super Falcons may be penalised for whatever embarrassment they may have reportedly caused the minister and officials of the Sports Ministry. This must not happen as the girls had no choice but to wash the dirty linen of the football authorities in the open once and for all, to stop the practice of delay or nonpayment of entitlements.

    The president should not hesitate to wield the big stick if that is what is required to sanitise the Sports Ministry, starting from the minister who has turned the sector to a theatre of comedy with his high profile gaffes since assuming office in September last year.

  • #ReopenLAUTECH

    #ReopenLAUTECH

    Almost six months after the institution was initially closed over strike by staff protesting non-payment of outstanding salaries, the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho,  has remained shut with the students denied the opportunity of learning.

    The crisis in the university has reportedly further degenerated over lack of necessary funding by the two state governments of Oyo and Osun. While Oyo in whose territory the institution is located is said to be paying part of its dues, Osun has allegedly not been living up to expectations.

    It is really sad that the authorities and owners of the university have not been able to resolve the crisis up till now. While students in other institutions, both public and private, have had their academic calendar uninterrupted, LAUTECH students have been left in the lurch, uncertain of their future.

    Those who should have graduated and joined their colleagues in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) are stuck, while irreparable damage must have been done to the lives of some of the students during the forced holidays.

    The agony that students and staff of the institution have been forced to endure due to no fault of theirs is just unimaginable and one can only hope that reasons will prevail soon as promised by the Oyo State Governor for the university to be re-opened before the end of the year.

    The committee, the governor said, has been sent to the institution to assess the situation and come up with recommendation on what can be done, should urgently do a thorough job that can ensure lasting peace in the university.

    Ordinarily, one would have expected cooperation between the two state governments headed by governors from the same party on this issue, but what is playing out at LAUTECH is a clear case of lack of concern for the plight of the students and lecturers.

    As long as the law establishing the university remains unamended, the two state governments concerned must discharge their responsibilities and not allow the kind of present situation that suggests that they don’t care about education as much as they claim to do.

    If for any reason, any of the state governments is no longer interested in owning the university and cannot afford to pay the required bill, it should declare its position and not give room for unnecessary speculations. Having been set up at a time when the two states were one, there will be nothing wrong to reconsider the continued joint ownership of the institution now that the states have been split and now have other commitments.

    What is playing out in LAUTECH presently amounts to playing unnecessary divisive politics with the future of the students, and all the stakeholders involved must resolve to settle the matter amicably immediately.

    Owning a university is not a joke. It is either state governments, who have the penchants for establishing universities for political reasons, have the capacity to fund them or not. Having established one like LAUTECH, the concerned state governments cannot afford to abandon their responsibilities.

    Education at all levels is a fundamental right which governments at all levels cannot deny its citizens. The time to #ReopenLAUTECH is now.