The Nation Newspaper

Category: Tuesday

  • Let us pray

    As we commence a new year today in line with Gregorian calendar, it would be necessary as a country and a people to seek the face of God who led us through year 2012 successfully for another success in year 2013. After going through the events of 2012 I feel compelled to offer the following prayer for our dear country Nigeria and I invite you to join me.

    Let us pray.

    Almighty God, we thank thee for seeing us through the year 2012 successfully. Though not all that started the year twelve months ago are here today to witness the beginning of year 2013, it is not by our good deeds that those of us still alive today are here but by your grace, and those that have passed on can not be said to have offended you. It is Thy will that they come back home when they did and we should remain behind to complete our term. As we are enjoined to say always; let Thy will be done.

    Oh Lord, it is universally agreed that apart from corruption, bad leadership has been a major problem of this country, we know it but unfortunately we’ve been unable to correct that problem.

    After several decades of failed leadership we had the opportunity to turn a new leaf in 1999 with a new democratic dispensation and indeed we thought we have turned the page when retired General Olusegun Obasanjo, a one time military Head of State was elected president and commander-in-chief., but alas we ended up with 8 wasted years of that presidency.

    God you know the story. Obasanjo not only wasted that golden opportunity but inflicted further pains on us when, having failed to illegally extend his tenure, he forced a reluctant president on us as a successor in the person of late Umar Yar’Adua. God, the jury is still out on Yar’Adua’s tenure but certainly not a few Nigerians will declare his tenure a failure.

    When you decided to take Yar’Adua away, Obasanjo again manipulated the system and forced another colourless and reluctant leader on us in the person of President Goodluck Jonathan. Even though he still has two years to end his tenure the jury has already returned a verdict of failure on him.

    Oh God our Lord, even though we have no authority to question you we want to humbly ask why you have allowed those who never had the intention of ruling Nigeria become president or Prime Minister of this country, while those who genuinely aspired did not get there. From Tafawa Balewa to Jonathan, with the exception of the Babangida and Abacha interregnum, all the leaders got there either by accident or reluctantly. Babangida and Abacha wanted to rule Nigeria and they got there, but what did they make of that opportunity.

    God, power belongs to you and you only can give power and anoint leaders. We cannot question your judgment, but as we begin the countdown to the 2015 election we pray that you give us leaders at each tier of government, who are genuinely interested in serving us and not just ruling us, leaders with compassion who will feel what we feel not those who because they have power supply 24/7 in the government villas across the country forget that majority of us are still living in darkness or on “I better pass my neighbour” power generator. Not leaders who will fly their children and spouses to specialist hospitals in Germany even for common cold leaving the rest of us to attend the glorified clinics that we call hospitals here. Not those whose children and relations will attend elite schools in Europe, America, Asia and even in nearby Ghana while watching our educational system nose dive. Not those who because they can fly around in state funded executive jets forget that our roads are bad; not those who because they cruise around in fleets of government fueled limousines would want the rest of us to go around on bicycles or pay through our nose for a litre of fuel.

    God, the sins of our leaders are many but even in these closing stages of their tenure preparatory to the 2015 elections, we pray that you touch their hearts to turn away from their evil and wicked ways and serve the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. Beginning from today our Lord, we pray that our leaders will rule with the fear of God and respect for us the people.

    While not blaming our leaders entirely for the woes that have befallen our country, we equally recognize the ignoble role some of us followers have been playing in bringing the nation on to her knees. Just as we pray for guidance for our leaders we also pray for committed and sincere followers who will not sell their conscience or birthright for a mere pot of porridge.

    God we agree that not all our leaders are that bad, there are rays of hope of better leadership tomorrow within the ranks of our present State governors, and to a little extent members of the National Assembly. We are still waiting for those in the State assemblies and local governments to show their true colour.

    But of recent God there has been a disturbing trend within the ranks of our governors that is giving cause for concern. In the course of the year 2012 the ranks of our state governors have been visited by tragedy leading to death in at least one instance and on two occasions, close to death. Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State was flying a small aircraft from his home town in Taraba State to Yola airport in nearby Adamawa State when the aircraft crashed as he was approaching the airport. All on board were badly injured and Governor Suntai almost lost his life.

    Almighty God as you know, our health facilities are nothing to write home about, not even our best hospital; the National Hospital in Abuja could handle the treatment of Suntai and the others on board that aircraft; they had to be flown to Germany for treatment. As at the time of this prayer, we are not sure whether they would survive but we pray that through your mercies they will survive and come back home to their loved ones in good health. Our First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan recently returned from a medical treatment in a German hospital, we don’t even know what was wrong with her.

    God in this New Year please direct our leaders to establish that kind of German hospital that is good enough to treat our First Lady in at least each of the six geopolitical zones in the country, for the rest of us to also enjoy good healthcare.

    God as the year 2012 was drawing to a close you decided to recall back home Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State. He died in a military helicopter conveying him, former National Security Adviser Gen. Owoye Azazi and three others including the crew to Port Harcourt airport from Bayelsa when it crashed into the creeks killing all on board. God this is one air accident too many. We are yet to fully recover from the tragic air crash involving DANA Air in Lagos. We recall similar ones in the past involving some of our domestic airliners. If this was due to our sins please God forgive us and prevent such tragedies from befalling us this year and in years to come.

    Just as we are about drying the last drop of tears in our eyes as a result of the death of Governor Yakowa and co, Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State was involved in a fatal road accident that claimed the life of his ADC but left him badly injured. On top of all these accidents and death are wicked rumors flying around announcing the death of no fewer than three other State Governors. God what is happening to our governors? Please deliver them from all evils.

    The accident involving Governor Wada has once again highlighted the carnage that daily takes place on our roads, especially highways. God, in our country today, as you know, road accident has taken more lives than any known disease due in part to poor conditions of the roads and the reckless suicidal driving culture in this country. .God please in this New Year direct our leaders to fix our roads for us even if they won’t build new ones and touch the hearts of our drivers.

    Lord our prayers are by no means limited to these, but the space here is too small to accommodate them all, but you know what is in our hearts, please grant us those ones that will make us a better people and a better nation. In your mighty name we pray.

    Amen.

     

  • The lottery of life

    It is the tradition of the ECONOMIC INTELLIGENCE UNIT of the weekly British Magazine,THE ECONOMIST, to make a global survey of values of life in countries.

    A month ago,the unit published the result of its survey for the year 2013 in eighty countries.

    According to the UNIT, it was aware that despite global economic crises, times have in certain respect, never been good owing to decline in output growth rate.

    On page 85 of THE WORLD IN 2013, printed by THE ECONOMIST, Nigeria is listed as the worst place for a baby to be born in 2013.

    It was an article written by LezaKekic on the verdict of the ECONOMIC INTELLIGENCE UNIT. It earnestly attempts to measure which country will provide the best opportunities for a healthy, safe, and prosperous life in the years ahead.

    Switzerland is the best country to be born in 2013,according to the UNIT, followed byAustralia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Singapore, Newzealand, Netherland, Canada, Hong Kong, Finland, Ireland, Australia, Taiwan, Belgium, Germany and United States of America.

    South Africa is ahead of Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Iran, Morocco and Jordan, while Nigeria is below Kenya, Pakistan and even Syria, which is at present at war.

    ‘Its quality-of-life index links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys- how happy people say they are- to objective determinants of the quality of life across countries. Being rich helps more than anything else, but it is not all that counts; things like crime, trust in public institutions and the health of family life matter too. In all,the index takes 11 statistical significant indicators into account. They are a mixed bunch: some are fixed factors, such as geography; others change only very slowly over time (demography, many social and cultural characteristics); and some factors depend on policies and state of the world economy.

    A forward-looking element comes into play,too. Although many of the drivers of the quality of life are slow changing, for this ranking some variables, such as income per head, need to be forecast. We use the EIU’S economic forecast to 2030, which is roughly when children born in 2013 will reach adulthood’,Mr.Kekic declared.

    By co-incidence,the same magazine on page 81, published the Economic predictions of Nigeria’s Finance Minister,NgoziOkonjo-Iweala on Africa, Nigeria included.

    In the article titled,’EMERGING FROM THE FRONTIER’, Mrs.Iweala said Nigeria, Ethiopia and Angola will have a robust economy in 2013.

    She used all the economic jargons,typical of World Bank officials, which had never worked so far, to project Nigeria’s economic future in 2013.

    Reading the two articles,I got addled and befuddled on who is credible and plausible.

    If Mrs.Iweala, whom we regard as our economic miracle woman here, could be precise in her prediction, how come THE ECONOMIST,was able to regard Nigeria as the worst place to be born in 2013, If she can not convince THE ECONOMIST, how can she convince us all here.

    Anyway time will tell whether Mrs Iweala’s projection is a mere fantasy or day-dream typical of her or whether the findings of THE ECONOMIC INTELIGENCE UNIT could be precise and exact.

    As they say, NAPOLEON IS ALWAYS RIGHT.

    But morning shows the day.

    No American President has cared and loved Nigeria more than BILL CLINTON. In and out of office he has visited Nigeria several times.

    In his 953 page book titled ’MY LIFE’ which he wrote in 2004 after he left office, he revealed his hope for Nigeria while in power.

    On page 856 of that book, he wrote,’ I got up at four in the morning to watch the inaugural ceremonies for Nigeria’s new president, former general Olusegun Obasanjo, on TV. Ever since gaining independence, Nigeria had been riddled by corruption, regional ad religious strife, and deteriorating social conditions. Despite its large oil production, the country suffered periodic power outages and fuel shortages. Obasanjo had taken power briefly in a military coup in the 1970s, then had kept his promise to step aside as soon as new elections could be held. Later, he had been imprisoned for his political views and, while incarcerated, had become a devout Christian and had written books about his faith. It was hard to imagine a bright future or sub-Saharan Africa without a more successful Nigeria, by far its most populous nation. After listening to his compelling inaugural address, I hoped Obasanjo would be able to succeed where others had failed’.

    That was vintage Bill Clinton on Nigeria in 2004.

    Has there been any improvement so far?

    We are now in 2013, a fresh year and the year should offer us new opportunities and new challenges. Certainly 2013 should be a judgment year for Nigeria so as to avoid jumble and clutter in this country. Things can not go on as they are now.

    Our situation is near lamentable and our plight and agony was even mentioned by the Pope in his last Christmas message.

    My hope for Nigeria is the same hope you have for Nigeria too.

    May 2013 bring new light into our dark chambers of pessimism.

    May 2013 lift us from the mid-night of desperation to the day break of joy.

    May 2013 lead us through life’s dark valleys into sunlit pathways of hope and fulfilment.

    • Teniola is a retired Director in the Presidency, now lives in Lagos.

  • A President’ New Year promise

    A President’ New Year promise

    Welcome to 2013, a year declared by President Goodluck Jonathan as one that will witness improved governance. Just as it is natural at this time of the year for individuals and households to project on the promises of the immediate future, our President, in addition to his charming Goodluck, seems to have taken to the ancient mystical art of crystal-ball gazing in the bid to assure us that the journey to his Nigerian Eldorado is on course.

    First, was the occasion of the foundation laying ceremony of Living Faith Foundation Bible College in Kaduna on Christmas Eve where the President spoke of better times for the citizens in the New Year. His words: let me assure all of you and indeed Nigerians that 2013 will be better for us than 2012 in all aspects of the nation’s history (sic). The New Year shall be better for us in terms of job creation, wealth creation and improved security among others”.

    Days after – this time at the Christmas Service in Abuja, the President broached on the subject of perception of his administration as being a slow one.

    Again, his words: “people say this government is slow. Yes, by human thinking, we are slow; but I can say that we are not slow. He added, perhaps for emphasis, that “the government will not, because of the perception, begin to rush….”

    Although, the latter must have come to many Nigerians as a new one, from the President, it may well be evidence that the cries and anguish on the Main Street have finally pierced through the impervious walls of the Villa.

    A snail speed administration? C’mon, that would be far more tolerable than the astonishing inertia or even the outrageous but expensive presidential indulgence of outsourced governance – the variant of which finds expression in irrational fatalistic abdication; the practice of leaving routine matters of governance in the hand of the supernatural in a supposedly secular, presidential democracy.

    Without taking anything from the rare candour of the presidential admission that the past year was a colossal disaster as far as governance went, I have struggled in vain to find the substance in the so-called solid foundation on which the President plans to erect his transformational infrastructure.

    Let’s begin with the touted claims of achievement. The most obvious one of course is the “improved” performance in the power sector. Considering the state of power generation which is said to have hit the 4,500 Mw, it must be galling to most Nigerians that a federal government that has poured over $20 billion in the last decade has been on an orgy of wild jubilation over the incremental achievement – a notional improvement that is no more than 25 percent – in electricity supplies.

    Or the railways. Amazingly, the nation is supposed to be in frenzy that the railways has been primed to run –on the same old, disused Lugardian tracks. How about touting the “feat” of the overpaid Chinese contractors in fixing the relics in the age of high speed trains as “transformation”!

    In the last year, more industries closed shop than we have had new start-ups. We know why: the same old, worn, recycled but nonetheless valid tales of inclement policies, infrastructure deficit, high interest rates, and other countless bureaucratic impediments which constitute the body and soul of industries’ lack of competitiveness.

    And the result? Manufacturing remains at the abysmal low level of 4 percent contribution to the GDP – the level it was at independence. We remain net importer of just about anything – from refined fuel to domestic consumables, and to industrial spares.

    We have since found a magic in starting our charity abroad. Not for Olusegun Aganga, Jonathan’s Trade and Commerce minister, the reciprocity subsumed in global trade relations. Progress, Nigeria style, is denominated in foreign investment: the higher the number of those high-octane cocktails in off-shore hotels packaged as foreign investment drive, the more progress is said to be made. The question of how foreign investments would thrive in an environment littered with carcasses of dead industries hardly matter. How about herding our policy wonks for a refresher course in Globalisation 102?

    Today, the single greatest threat to the nation’s socio-economic stability is unemployment. The figure is said to be some 25 percent with youth unemployment put at a frightening 50 percent rate. That’s nearly twice the population of our neighbour, Ghana. What’s being done? The last I heard was that the inelegantly couched Sure-P headed by Christopher Kolade, an extra-constitutional contraption very much like the PTF, has been drafted to the rescue.

    What more can be written about the security situation that is not already known? There is war with the Boko Haram in the North; kidnappers are threatening to overrun the South. The capacity of the nation’s military is stretched thin – bogged down with internal security operations with no signs of respite on the horizon. The police, being no match for the sophistication of the criminal gangs on rampage appear overwhelmed.

    Why the picture of these realities? It is to show where the nation is coming from. It seems to me the only way to evaluate the President’s prognosis for the year. After all, isn’t it said that were wishes to be horses, beggars would ride?

    So much for the President’s exaggerated picture of 2013; last year for instance, it took a paralysing protest over the fuel price hikes to move the President to act on the racket of fuel subsidy funds administration. Twelve months after that holy rage forced the President to commit his administration to the establishment of three new refineries, it has since backtracked: the refineries are no longer on the table.

    In the year ended, the nation spent N1.3 trillion on fuel imports; this year, the figure is likely to be much higher. Lost on the hierarchs of the administration are the drag-on effects of the avoidable fuel import regime on the nation’s foreign exchange reserves and the economy as a whole.

    Consider also that it took the threat of impeachment to prod the President to implement the capital provisions of the 2012 budget. Thanks to executive-bureaucratic inertia, the roads remain a picture of abandonment. Sprucing up airport terminals may be Minister Stella Oduah’s idea of modernisation, the aviation sector is nowhere modern or safer any more than new entrants are willing to venture into the sector.

    My prognosis for the year? Nothing will change. Not in the quality and pace of governance. The bazaar driving its processes will continue no doubt. Industry capacity utilisation is likely to remain, pretty even. Surely, no one expects unemployment to come down; Not the interest rate. The monetary authorities will continue their ‘inflation targeting’ while the real economy grinds to a halt.

    You ask why? I say there is too much thinking within the box. Isn’t it said also that ‘what you see is what you get’?

    Happy New Year!

     

  • The year that was 2012

    The year that was 2012

    n a two-part column for this newspaper (December 6 and December 13), the historian Jide Osuntokun called the year just ended our annus horribilis. I doubt whether, if they are true to themselves, other persons reviewing the major occurrences in Nigeria over that period will come to a different conclusion.

    Right up to its closing hours, 2012 has been a year of horrors.

    It began with a callous ambuscade. Nigerians woke up on January 1 to find, contrary to assurances from on high, that the price at the gasoline pump had gone up 120 percent, ending, it was claimed, a subsidy that had for decades subverted the nation’s quest for economic greatness.

    Nine days of people’s power centered fittingly on the Gani Fawehihmi Freedom Square in Lagos forced the government to retreat somewhat. But the harm had been done. The uncertainty and confusion that heralded the New Year governed most of the year, putting investment decisions and the launch of new ventures in abeyance. A measure allegedly designed to perk up the economy ended up crippling it.

    As part of its climbdown, a panicked government embarked on what it called palliatives, to cushion the impact of the hike in gasoline prices. Suddenly, some more than 1000 passenger buses bobbed up in Abuja, as if conjured out of President Goodluck Jonathan’s fedora, to serve with several hundred more expected shortly. The full assembly would work out 2.5 buses for each of the nation’s 774 local government areas.

    Where are the buses today? What is the status today of another palliative, under which each state was going to get federal assistance to put 10, 000 young men and women to work? And just how much relief has the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) delivered with savings from the abolished “subsidies”?

    It would turn out, as was obvious to anyone paying even cursory attention to the matter, that subsidising was not petrol consumption but corruption of the most brazen kind, carried out on a scale almost beyond belief by government insiders, heir cronies and their proxies.The government has been going through the usual pretence of making them disgorge their loot and bringing them to justice.

    The pains arising from cutting the phantom subsidy continue and have in some cases grown worse, but relief is in short supply. Meanwhile, “subsidy” payments continue, almost doubling projections.

    Nigerians were still figuring out how to cope with this government-made disaster when they were zapped by a natural disaster of almost biblical proportions. From the parched Sahel to the mangrove swamps of Nigeria’s Atlantic coast, flood waters raged and swelled and swallowed everything in their path.

    An equal opportunity visitation, the flood waters spared neither the tin shacks of the poor nor the marbled palaces of the wealthy. Even Dr Jonathan’s country home in Otuoke, Bayelsa State, went under water.

    For the better part of a week, vehicular traffic from the south could not reach Abuja. And for the same period, millions of Nigerians displaced from their homes and farms were left to fend for themselves. When relief finally came, it was vitiated by poor distribution and corruption. Some families reported getting only a cup of noodles. For many of the displaced persons, life will never be the same again.

    And then, there was Boko Haram, carrying its campaign of terror to the heart of the military establishment – the Command and Staff College at Jaji, near Kaduna, after more or less completing what General TY Danjuma called the ‘ Somalianisation” of Northeastern Nigeria.

    Just this past week, some 40 gunmen believed to belong in its ranks attacked the Adamawa border town of Maiha, setting alight the police station, the court house, an official residence and freed prisoners in the jail house. It ended the year with a deadly note at the weekend, with the killing of 15 people in a Borno State village.

    Kidnappers stepped up their game. Among their trophies: Delta State commissioner for Higher Education, Dr Hope Eghagha; the 82-year-old mother of Finance Minister Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and retired professor of sociology, and the wife of retired Brigadier –General Oluwole Rotimi, lately Nigeria’s ambassador to the United States.

    All have returned to their families, but their experience just goes to illustrate how perilous life has become in Nigeria, even for people of privilege.

    Amidst these travails, the nation was treated to a harvest of deaths of the prominent and not-so-prominent, and to reprise of the UmaruYar’Adua health saga that is playing even at this writing. Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa and former National Security Adviser General Owoye Azazi were killed in a helicopter crash.

    The President’s wife dropped out of sight, reportedly “resting” in Dubai, exhausted after hosting a summit of the African First Ladies Peace Initiative, only to be traced later to a German sanatorium where she was being treated for an undisclosed ailment.

    Dame Patience’s prolonged stay led to rumours that she had died. Since her televised return some six weeks ago, she has stayed discreetly on the sideline. And the public is none the wiser about her condition.

    Rumours of death have also been swirling around the heads of Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime and Cross River State Governor Liyel Imoke. Chime left Nigeria last September for treatment of an undisclosed illness and was not heard of or from,until he reportedly issued two weeks ago a statement of condolence to the Yakowa and Azazi families.

    Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, who claims to have met with Imoke recently in the United States, says Imoke is not sick, much less dead. The governor, he said, was only enjoying a well-earned vacation

    But, according to government sources, Imoke actually served notice that he was travelling to the United States to attend to a minor ailment and formally transferred power to the Deputy Governor as required by law.

    Chime’s condition remains uncertain, and not even Imoke’s Facebook postings have settled the matter.

    Taraba State Governor Danbaba Suntai, who suffered critical injuries when the plane he was piloting crashed near Yola, Adamawa State, last October, is in a bad shape, according to a prominent Nigerian who saw him several weeks ago on his hospital bed in Germany. It is doubtful whether he can return to duty.

    A gruesome end-of-year crash near the state capital Lokoja almost claimed the life of Kogi State Governor Idris Wada.He is said to be responding to treatment in Abuja. His aide-de-camp Idris Mohammed was killed on the spot.

    But it has not been all doom and gloom.

    The government says it has finally taken measures that would help ascertain just how much crude is lifted from Nigeria’s oil fields, some 32 years after the University of Lagos polymath, Professor Ayodele Awojobi, established in testimony before the Irikefe Commission that the barrel being used in Nigerian oil fields was four gallons larger than the standard international barrel.

    The economy grew by 5.8 percent, slower than in previous years but still one of the highest rates in the world.The rehabilitated railways, a key element in the Transformation Agenda,ferried 450 newly recruited soldiers from Zaria to Lagos, completing the 613-mile journey in just under 26 hours.

    Above all, we have Dr Jonathan’s assurance that, while 2013 may not be annus mirabilis, it will be much better than 2012. Don’t mind those kvetching that he had said the same thing about 2102 at the end of 2011. And don’t mind those complaining that he is slow. He has himself admitted that much

    They conveniently forget that our GEJ is also steady. They forget the old saying that “slow and steady wins the race.”

     

     

  • Refugees, Refugees everywhere

    Refugees, Refugees everywhere

    Refugees, refugees everywhere – that is the story of Nigeria in 2012; and you would be amazed at the ‘democratisation’ of the victims, the spread of the suffering and the multiple direction of their panic fleeing.

    For starters, the commander-in-chief, chief symbol of state security, got banished from show-boating the power and the glory of the Nigerian state, at Abuja’s Eagles Square, at important national occasions.

    Though President Jonathan loves to project power in military ceremonial garbs with the Field Marshal’s epaulette sitting on his big shoulders and a blaze of medals bedecking his broad chest, the wise president, in 2012, was content to limit his heroics to the closet at Aso Villa.

    Besides, as Boko Haram blasted Maiduguri, Nigeria’s terrorism capital, and sent murderous ripples through most of the North East states of Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi and Adamawa, the president stayed away from this vortex of trouble. This self-imposed ban and the dash from Eagle Square into Aso Rock closet on ceremonial days, are the making of His Excellency as a presidential refugee!

    But that was only the high end of the refugee crisis. At the low end, when the masses, sore, confused and angry at the abject failure of the state to protect them, the fleeing has been more abject, more confusing and more desperate – with many even fleeing to neighbouring countries.

    Between November 30 and December 5, according to a report in The Punch, which quoted a NAN report which itself quoted a UN newsletter, the Nigerian Red Cross said some 1, 042 refugees, made up of 520 children and 306 women, had arrived at the Diffa region of Niger Republic, fleeing from Boko Haram violence in Nigeria. The refugees reportedly settled in the villages Guessere and Massa, 25 kilometres away from the Nigerian town of Diffa.

    Year 2012 ended as it started. In January, Boko Haram launched heavy bombs and gun attacks on Kano, with the police headquarters at its target. That attack claimed 150 lives. On Christmas Eve 2012, gunmen suspected to be Islamists attacked two churches during Christmas Eve services: First Baptist Church, Maiduguri, Borno State and another unnamed church in Firi village, near Potiskum, Yobe State, claiming 12 lives, including that of a pastor and a deacon, according to a report in The Nation of December 26.

    This attack echoed the one that presaged the horrible harvesting of death and limbs that 2012 would be; and the humongous refugee crises to result from those attacks: the horrendous Christmas Day 2011 bombings at Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madala, Niger State, which instantly transformed happy celebrants of Christmas mass into horrific body bags, that would make many Christmases to come anniversaries of grief, instead of the universal gaiety that Yuletide symbolises. No less than 29 worshippers perished in that attack.

    Boko Haram attacks on Christian shrines and worshippers came to a mad climax in June. Here is the tragic report, in the words of Human Rights Watch in its 96-page document, Spiralling Violence: Boko Haram Attacks and Security Force Abuses in Nigeria: “On three successive Sundays in June 2012, for example, suicide bombers detonated explosives at church services in Bauchi, Bauchi State; Jos, Plateau State; and Zaira and Kaduna, Kaduna State – all locations of past episodes of inter-communal violence. The June 17 attacks on two churches in Zaria and two churches in Kaduna killed at least 21 people and set off several days of reprisal and counter-reprisal killings between Christians and Muslims, resulting in some 80 more deaths.”

    Aside from churches, university campuses were not left out of the orgy of violence. The Mubi, Adamawa State tragedy, in which gunmen massacred no less than 26 students of The Federal Polytechnic, Mubi, the Adamawa State University and the Adamawa School of Health Technology, all in the Wuro Fatuje off-campus hostels. The massacre reportedly started at around 10 pm on October 3, with Nigeria still celebrating its 52nd independence anniversary. At the end, the casualty figures rose to no less that 40, according to unofficial sources.

    Neither were high-profile military and police targets: the church facility at the Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State (November 25), and gunmen storming the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Headquarters in Abuja (November 26); perhaps to underscore the impotence of the Nigerian state in the face of free-wheeling terrorism.

    These church and campus attacks left refugees streaming south-ward, with many of the youth swearing to abandon their studies rather than go back to risk their lives. The Mubi attacks were however not conclusively linked to Boko Haram.

    Indeed, in the first nine months of 2012, no less than 815 people had been killed from 275 attacks, according to the Human Rights Watch document already quoted. This number is more than half of the no less than 1, 500 casualty figure for three years: 2010, 2011 and 2012.

    At a period during this grim year, worst-hit governments in the South East of Nigeria often arranged transport to evacuate their indigenes from the troubled spots and also burials for victims of the attacks.

    The year 2012 has been Boko Haram’s bloodiest year, leading to the worst cases of internally displaced people in the country – a grim irony of Nigerians becoming refugees in their own country, which should be a natural refuge.

    The sad tale is, with the Federal Government’s tepid handling of the problem, the prospect does not appear better for 2013.

  • MEXAHNYIA; VIP or RIP? Nigeria is trillions rich; Resolutions Oteh Vs NASS: Who Wins the Moral War?

    MEXAHNYIA; VIP or RIP? Nigeria is trillions rich; Resolutions Oteh Vs NASS: Who Wins the Moral War?

    Suddenly it is Christmas and a Merry Christmas And Happy New Year in advance-MEXAHNYIA to you. It has been some year. The recognition of the VIP dead should not be so blatantly to the exclusion of the ‘equally dead’ as we are all equal before God. The VIP dead do not jump Heaven’s Gate queue. They have to line up for judgement in exactly the order in which they died, interspersed with the thousands of RIPs who died ‘unknown’ in that timeframe –nanosecond by nanosecond. A thousand years is like a second and a second is like a thousand years. Remember that all the victims in the helicopter crash, VIP and RIP are all equally dead and the families are equally bereaved and half-orphaned. We know the future differential difficulty of the widows in receiving benefits. So please remember all of them in your prayers. It is better to die alone or else you be forever among the ‘and 4 or 340 others’. But there is no choice.

    Nigeria is really, really rich as can be seen by the probably trillion naira corruption and the budget of N4,987,000,000,000 which is N 41,553/Nigerian. It is now clear that if we can kill, dehumanise and vilify corruption and corrupt acts and corrupt people in an acute, decisive manner, Nigeria will save trillions. You can take a New Year’s Resolution Oath that from Jan 1 2013 you and Nigeria will start ‘An Anticorruption Year’ we may jump further down the Most Corrupt Transparency International List and also up the Amnesty International List-since corruption is not just about money but how we treat or ill-treat or mistreat our fellow Nigerians through bad decisions, no decisions, delayed decisions etc.

    Can resolutions replace revolutions?

    Why can NASS members not see the opprobrium with which they are viewed by the massed poor people? There is very little that NASS membership can do that will increase the individual members and collective NASS reputation. Shouting and screaming at ‘witnesses’ and warrants of arrest are seen as mere playing to the gallery. NASS’s excessive acquisition of the nation’s funds for ‘personnel’ comfort, work and even self-imposed and undeserved disengagement, ‘soft landing’ pension schemes, kick-started the recent ‘salary grab’. At this time, NASS members should make a sacrificial 2013 New Year’s Resolution. Since they set their own funds, they should do the right thing and take a big pay-cut in SAP –‘Salaries and Perks’ which are now sapping Nigeria dry. It was this ‘self-imposed political office-holders greed’ that caused salary inflation nationwide. This politicians’ salary cut, if it comes, will help reverse inflation. NASS and the government political classes must know that corruption, political salaries and excesses are glaring abuses while over 100m live in poverty without housing, water, power, health or education or even adequate nutrition.

    After the cutting of political salaries and allowances it will be the turn of the CBN to deliberately improve the naira exchange rate as this will drag many Nigerians above the poverty line. If the value of the naira to the dollar improves by just N1 per month we will lift 10-20m out of poverty per annum. If we add to that a sincere effort to reduce bank lending rates from 20+% to a single digit and get 24 hour power, Nigeria could become heaven-on-earth provided we tackle the crime situation. The abysmal lack of police empowerment from the federal government and a culture of judicial tardiness are noted as major problems. These are not stupid dreams but today’s norms in normal countries.

    Is the NASS onslaught against Oteh a rear-guard action instigated by wounded NASS forces because she, in self-defence at being publicly tongue-lashed and ‘abused’, exposed the soft underbelly of NASS ‘corruption’ in ‘funded trips without travel’ and dared to confront NASS? Is this a genuine campaign against a bad Oteh based on facts? No doubt she will relocate and find herself in a cushy job abroad. Let this be a warning to foreign based ‘industry players’ seeking to ‘save Nigeria’. Nigeria wants people who will play ball. The home players do not like to be exposed and react with protective herd mentality.

    The attempt to starve Oteh out by starving SEC of funds for salaries etc is a typically Machiavellian move used by all dictators – collective punishment. It is sinister and evil. We may later use it on NASS to weed out those who ‘chop our money’ and SAP us dry from fat and indecent SAP- Salaries and Perks. No matter the victory of NASS it is a Pyrrhic victory, won at huge cost to a badly battered NASS reputation from allegations of payments for oversight, gifts, double payments at every point during tours and oversight functions. It is not so long ago that Ghana Must Go accompanied budgetary meetings and Bill approvals. We hope these have stopped but they are still part of NASS history and well documented thanks among others to the Oteh episode. Oteh has thus prevented much corruption in 2013. Does she deserve a National Honour? So what did Oteh do to make them unite against one woman? In America, Susan Rice fell before the Republican backlash against Obama. Oteh lost the battle but she has unwittingly led and won the moral war. No NASS member can ever again demand tickets and freebies during oversight without fearing exposure. The fear of Oteh may sanitise NASS.

  • Obi, Kwankwaso and knot of state creation

    Obi, Kwankwaso and knot of state creation

    Those who scoff at former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s increasing warnings about an impending revolution in Nigeria are probably caught in the complex of confusing the message with the messenger. Yes, Obasanjo’s privileged presence in the portals of power since 1967 make him an integral part of Nigeria’s leadership failure. But while the retired general’s share of the blame for Nigeria’s misfortunes cannot be downplayed, his expressed concerns are nonetheless not misplaced. The issue is not about his assumed self – righteousness but about the state of the nation. And one of the sore points of our narrative is that of an imbalanced federation. With states and local governments forming the basis of revenue sharing, allocation of infrastructure and high profile appointments, the relevance of states in the nation’s political economy cannot be overemphasized.

    For good reasons, attention has tended to converge on the South –east’s quest for the creation of at least one new state in the region. With the least number of states, the South – east assumes conspicuous minority status among the nation’s six geo – political zones. As such matters go in the context of Nigerian government and politics, some of the state creation demands in the South – east are among the oldest in the country and so comparatively elicit greater consideration.

    Seizing the moment, the South – east has given vent to as many as six new states agitations in the zone recently. However, rising to the responsibility of leadership, Anambra State Governor and chairman, South – east Governors’ Forum, Peter Obi, has moved to get the zone speak with one voice and in such a way to achieve satisfactory results at the end of the day. Between November and December alone, South – east political leaders have met twice in Enugu on the subject. Underscoring the resolve of the zone’s leadership to achieve result, efforts are on to streamline the different requests and come up with just one or two applications for state creation.

    Disturbing questions arise from the skewed regional distribution of these entities in the country. The north’s 19 states to the south’s 17 states obviously confers it with political and economic superiority; a scenario amplified by the contrast between the South – east’s five states and 95 local governments and the North – west’s seven states and 180 local governments. In terms of revenue profile alone, the sharp contrast in the fortunes of the South-east and other zones is glaring. Statistics from the Federation Account show that in the period January to June 2010, the South-east received the least allocation of approximately N99 billion; South-west N166 billion; North-west N168 billion; North-central N116 billion; North-east 119 billion and South-south N386 billion. Following a consistent pattern, the February 2012 allocations display a gnawing disparity between the South-east’s approximate N10 billion and the North-west’s N15 billion.

    Analysts believe Obi’s submissions were an indirect response to the stance of his Kano State counterpart Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who has demonstrated little restraint in opposing the proposal for a sixth state in the South-east. Kwankwaso was widely reported by the media in late September to have dismissed the calls for creating a sixth state in the South – east in favour of his own Kano State.

    While Kwankwaso is entitled to his views, it is however necessary to situate the discussion in its proper perspective. The Kano State Governor’s obsession with population and geographical size as the qualifications for state creation are misplaced.

    The composition of the United States of America, the country from which our federal and presidential systems is crudely derived, reveals a more egalitarian approach to state creation. Consider that the state of California has a population of 37 million with 570,374 square miles while the state of Delaware has a population of 897,000 and 1,955 square miles in size. Consider also that Texas with 25 million population and of 261,914 square miles is not any more greater than Rhode Island which has one million population and 1,045 squares miles. Similarly, Michigan, 23rd in size among America’s 50 states co-exists with Alaska, the biggest state in size but with just a population of 710,000.

    In the modern world, states are founded on the quest for self – determination. States provide the administrative platform for pursuit of development for groups with a shared sense of socio – cultural affinity. And especially in a diverse polity, as we have in Nigeria, states play a mediating role in the tensions arising from majority – minority relations.

    It is instructive to note that the Gowon junta created an equal number of six states in both the north and south. Apologists of the present lopsidedness in the structure of the country conveniently forget that this equilibrium endured for nearly 10 years before it was disrupted by the insensitivity of the Murtala Muhammed regime. A sober Yakubu Gowon who appreciated the dangers posed by sectional domination acted fairly on state creation but an over-confident Muhammed could afford to act irrationally believing that nothing would happen. Subsequent military rulers who created states, all from the north, progressively maintained the imbalance, deepened further in the distribution of local governments.

    It is hard to believe that these allocations of states and local governments decreed by military dictators without regard to the wishes of ordinary Nigerians can be seized upon by any enlightened person as the precedent that will guide future state creation exercises.

    As the leader of the South – east geo – political zone, Governor Peter Obi’s strong advocacy for empowering the zone with a new state should be viewed both against its benefits to the region and the national distress a continued denial will provoke. When the Ibrahim Babangida junta created Akwa Ibom and Katsina states in 1987, it belittled the well – reasoned recommendation of the Cookey – led Political Bureau for the creation of at least one state in the South-east to the chagrin of the people. Continued disadvantage of the South-east again compelled the National Political Reform Conference in 2005 to resolve on the desirability of an additional state for the zone.

    Obi has placed a core demand of the south-east on the table. Let the other zones do the same. With the recognition of the interdependence of the units of a whole, every group should accommodate the legitimate needs of others. This spirit will suffice to overcome the stringent constitutional requirements on state creation and other exigencies and move the country forward.

    • Afuba wrote from Nimo, Anambra State.

     

  • Beyond that chopper crash

    Beyond that chopper crash

    As we continue to dry the last drops of tears in our eyes following the death of Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa, former National Security Adviser Gen. Owoye Azazi and three others including the crew of a Nigerian Navy helicopter in a crash somewhere in the creeks in Bayelsa State penultimate Saturday, let us begin to ponder over how our rulers (as against leaders) abuse the resources and facilities of State put at their disposal.

    Too often, we’ve seen and heard of cases of top public officers, especially politicians, top level civil servants and military officers extending the privileges of their office to their spouses, children, relations and friends and even aides to the detriment and at the expense of the State.

    This malaise did not begin with this present crop of rulers but dates back to as long as one could remember and it’s about time we begin to take stock of the toll this abuse of office is taking on our resources and collective security and decide on what to do to either encourage or stop it.

    The Navy helicopter that crashed was for the umpteenth time conveying guests that attended the burial ceremony that weekend in Bayelsa State of the father of an aide to President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr Oronto Douglas to Port Harcourt airport in nearby Rivers State, for their return flight back to base. While the earlier batches made it safely to the airport in the same ‘copter Yakowa, Azazi and the others weren’t lucky, they all perished; a big loss not only to their respective families but also the whole nation and particularly to the military.

    There is no debating the fact that Oronto Douglas by virtue of the position he holds in Jonathan’s government is not entitled to assume the privileges he did by flying guests that came to commiserate with him on his father’s death and attend the burial (a private affair) in a military aircraft. We’ll come to that later, let’s look at similar instances in the past.

    Recall the Abacha years when one of his sons, Ibrahim died in one of two HS 125 presidential jets then in the presidential fleet? Ibrahim, his girl friend, a couple of friends and I am sure some secret service agents were reportedly celebrating Ibrahim’s birthday in the air, in the presidential jet when it crashed somewhere around Kano. While the nation grieved and sympathized with the Abachas and the other bereaved families, the fact that could not be raised then, for obvious reasons, was that Ibrahim Abacha and his friends had no business flying that aircraft let alone partying inside it in the air.

    That aircraft that cost Nigerian tax payers millions of dollars to acquire and meant to serve the interest of State was deployed on a frivolous assignment that had nothing to do with the interest of Nigeria, except as we often do here, we equate the personal interests of our leaders to that of the country. With all the monies his father had acquired over the years (the source notwithstanding) and his own vast business empire, Ibrahim could have hired a private jet for his birthday celebration and spared the nation the loss of millions of dollars in the crashed presidential jet. This is not without sympathy for the lives lost. I am sure the HS 125 series had been phased out of the presidential fleet and replaced with newer aircraft types, even when it still remains one of the best executive jets flying around the globe.

    In Nigeria once an aircraft crashes and lives are lost, that aircraft type is no longer good and must be banned from our air space even if it is in service in other countries with better aviation facilities as well as better understanding of aircraft and aviation in general. And this is a nation that cannot even manufacture the tiniest and simplest part of an aircraft.

    Recall the Nigeria Airways F27 crash at Emene in Enugu in 1983 killing, I think all on board, including a Senator and almost his entire family? In hysteria, Nigeria sold off the entire Fokker fleet in Nigeria Airways and I think Libya was a beneficiary. President Ibrahim Babangida was reportedly flown in one of those aircraft during a State visit to Libya years later. Meanwhile the Fokker series on which Nigeria Airways had built expertise up to D-check level was replaced by a more modern aircraft, Airbus A310-200 series on which we had none or few Nigerian engineers rated. No surprise then the A310s didn’t last for long in the airline’s fleet. Nigeria Airways, of course you know is dead, liquidated by Obasanjo and his Aviation Minister, Kema Chikwe.

    The same fate befell the BAC 1-11 series in our commercial aviation fleet here and since that aircraft type was phased out of our air space following a fatal crash, commercial aviation in Nigeria has been flying from one crisis into another. Sorry for the digression and back to the issue at hand; abuse of office by our rulers.

    I don’t know how you would classify this? I recall that the Nigerian Navy used to have a frigate named NNS Aradu as the nation’s flagship. I don’t know what has happened to Aradu now. It was reputed to be one of the best battleships of its era and used to carry three British made Lynx Helicopters. As a Defence Correspondent then, I, like my other colleagues was very proud of this and we were looking forward to not too distant a future when our Navy will acquire its own fleet of submarines. We are still waiting.

    But unfortunately before our eyes (pardon the cliche) Aradu started deteriorating and one after the other the helicopters were crashing, not during combat missions or military exercises, mind you, but during frivolous assignments. I remember one crashed in Calabar when Babangida was there on a state visit. Pray why did we have to deploy this chopper there just because the president was visiting? Except we are told why, that deployment was uncalled for and a misuse or abuse of office, being the Commander-In-Chief notwithstanding. Of course, another millions of dollars down the drain.

    There are instances as this in the past and not limited to aviation alone. Quite often we hear or even witness wives of State governors and even the President’s wife and their children driving around in long convoys of official vehicles as if they are officials of State. In the process some have been involved in accidents that even claimed the lives of innocent people. These are people that before their husbands or fathers got elected or appointed into public office could hardly afford more than a car let alone a fleet of luxury vehicles.

    Before Oronto Douglas became an aide to President Jonathan could he afford to fly his friends or even think of flying them to attend a private ceremony he was holding? If he was not in office would he do that even if he has all the millions in this world? Who is Oronto Douglas to be flying his guests in military aircraft? What is this country turning into? One thinks State resources and facilities are meant to be deployed to State use/events. Is Oronto Douglas now part of the State or his father’s burial a State event?

    I am not trying to make a scapegoat out of our friend Oronto Douglas, don’t forget he was in the trenches with others during the fight for this democracy, I am only trying to draw attention to the rot going on in high places under Jonathan’s watch, which though didn’t start with him, but must not be allowed to continue.

    In probing the cause of the Navy helicopter crash, the political fall out of the unfortunate incident should also be looked into, may be by a judicial commission of enquiry which should among other things look at the entire gamut of how our rulers deploy State resources to check not only abuse of office, but also of power. The technical report of the investigation carried out should also be made public and not treated as secret because a military aircraft was involved; aviation is universal. May be its about time we are also told of what caused the presidential jet crash involving Ibrahim Abacha earlier mentioned and who authorized him to fly and party in ‘our aircraft’. Enough of these cover ups. Did I hear you mention the FOI Act?

     

  • ”Benito Aderemi, Benito Aderemi …”

    ”Benito Aderemi, Benito Aderemi …”

    It is that time of year again, of peace on earth – as an aspiration, that is – and goodwill toward men or to us men.

    Apparently, the precise rendering of that phrase is one of the overarching issues in Christian theology.

    About 20 harmattans ago, I worshipped at a Christian service at an Anglican church during which the vicar, probably the most learned venerable gentleman in these parts never to have been translated to the episcopacy, discoursed at great length on the matter.

    He had studied and no doubt perfectly understoodthe original Greek text, and was thoroughly dissatisfied that the conflict had not been resolved definitively. The way he proceeded, one was almost led to believe that the laws of gravitation would suddenly cease to operate, and the earth would be plucked from its orbit, depending on whether the phrase in question was translated as goodwill toward men or to us men.

    That was many years before Gloria Steinem and the women’s liberation army launched themselves on the popular consciousness in America. And if there was a woman in that Christmas Day congregation who felt that her gender could do with some goodwill as well, she did what was then the proper Nigerian thing: She kept her views severely to herself.

    That we are once again in the season of aspirational goodwill was brought home to me the other day by the familiar strains of O Come, All Ye Faithful, wafted across by the harmattan wind from one of the schools that dot our neighbourhood.

    The children sang it with the kind of innocence that only the pure at heart can muster. There was not the slightest trace of anxiety about thefuture in their voices, about an economy that seems determined not to recover, despite what anyone may prescribe.

    Few of them, I am sure, are aware that this may be the last Christmas at which they can have wheat bread for breakfast. In such an eventuality, history is unlikely to repeat itself. There will be nobody who, on being told that the children are grumbling because they have no bread, will retort: “Let them eat cake.”

    For there may be no cake to cut on birthdays or to eat just for the fun of it. And there may be no biscuits or cookies. Those items may vanish from the supermarket shelves at the end of the year when the ban on wheat imports goes into effect.

    Wheat imports are being stopped to conserve foreign exchange, and to encourage all of us to structurally adjust our tastes in line with contemporary reality. Besides, there are adequate local substitutes that are just as good as, if not actually better than wheat for making all those foods that children love for their taste and adults cherish because such foods keep them away from the kitchen.

    The ban will create an opportunity to present the Nigerian people and indeed the entire world the unique, all-Nigerian bread, made entirely by Nigerians, from Nigerian raw materials, with machines fabricated or adapted entirely by Nigerians.

    In the end, instead ofwasting billions of Naira every year importing wheat, the nation stands to generate a great deal of foreign exchange from the export of the all-Nigerian bread for which the entire world has been waiting. If the protagonists of the wheat ban have not put forth its advantages in exactly those terms, it is because they are exceedingly modest people, seldom given to stating the obvious.

    Yet, if the nation’s experience in banning undesirable or unaffordable items is any indication, the wheat ban, if not deferred or rescinded, will in operation be a farce. That, at any rate, is what I hope will happen, indeed, what I am substantially sure will happen.

    About this time last year, a ban on rice imports was announced, to much editorial and popular acclaim, as part of yet another new beginning, a determined effort to”look inwards” and”to use what we have to get what we need.” Barely five months later, rice imports worth an estimated N40 million surfaced at Lagos port. Who placed the order for it, when, and how, remain mysteries to this day.

    It was speculated, when no one could claim ownership, that the rice was part of relief materials being sent to Chad. If so, why was the shipment not identified as such? Why had Chad not stepped forward to claim it?

    Part of the shipment later turned up in Benin Republic from where, according to newspaper accounts, it found its way back to Nigeria overland, and in much less contentious circumstances. And so, despite the official ban on rice importation, there has never been so much foreign rice in Nigeria since Shehu Shagari and Umaru Dikko launched their rice armada about six years ago.

    Allthis should bring some cheer to wheat bread addicts. There will be bread and cake and biscuits and cookies, for there will be wheat flour somehow. And only an insignificant fraction of it will be produced locally.

    As for the all-Nigerian bread that is supposed to replace wheat bread, I frankly cannot vouch for its future, if I were to judge only from personal experience. I recently had the displeasure of having a bite of the stuff made from corn or cassava or a blend of the two. It looked like caked, high-grade animal feed and tasted like sawdust.

    It cannot have been the same stuff that was served as lunch to members of the Armed Forces Ruling Council the other day and praised by some of them as being as finger-lickin’ good as the Colonel’s chicken, and just a shade less delicious than caviar.

    The pupils in the neighbourhood preparatory school are still where we left them, singing. Had the tune not been so familiar, I would have had to wonder what was going on in there as Benito Aderemi, Benito Aderemi drifted through the harmattan haze. They had completed adoring Him in English and had switched to the Latin. In their charmingly Nigerian minds and mouths, Venite adoremus had become Benito Aderemi.

    I wonder whether there was a pupil called Benito Aderemi in that school and what he thought of it all. I wonder what those innocent children would think of the all-Nigerian “bread” if and when it materializes. Who knows but that they may actually come to prefer it to cake, being the “new Nigerians” that members of my generationare not?

    They may even come to prefer oil-and-wick lamps to light bulbs, and the town-crier to John Momoh and Hauwa Baba Ahmed on television.

     

    *

    The foregoing, slightly abridged, was my column for The Guardian during the week leading to Christmas, 1986.

    Today, 26 years later, they are raising tariffs on wheat flour to discourage its importation, and planning ultimately to replace bread as we know it with “cassava bread.” But only Aso Rock has made that culinary transition, and President Goodluck Jonathan seems in no hurry to share its vaunted delights with his compatriots.

    They are talking of raising tariffs on rice imports, and are already furiously installing the mills that will process the local crop that is yet to be produced to meet surging demand. Only last week, they added raw sugar to the list of products marked for banning, and vegetable oil is sure to follow soon.

    And they are already touting as money in the bank the billions of Naira in foreign exchange they claim will be saved from banning wheat and rice and raw sugar imports.

    Meanwhile, nary a thought has been given to fixing the nation’s epileptic petroleum refineries so as to end gasoline imports and the attendant, ever-growing, “subsidies”.

    “Transformation” never came more cynically packaged.

     

  • Tertiary education in Yobe

    If education is the locomotive of the modern society, higher education is the oil that propels and sustains that engine. Higher educational institutions produce the teachers that teach our kids at the lower levels of the educational ladder, the engineers that build our roads, the doctors and nurses that treat the sick, the architects that design our houses, the agricultural extension workers that teach us new ways to nourish and improve our crops, and so on. So a boost in tertiary education is sure to trigger multiplier effects in all facets of our lives.

    Nations of the West and the so-called Asian Tigers were able to get to their present developmental stages because of their investment in mid-level, hands-on vocational and technical education. If history is any guide; that is the path we should tread in Nigeria as well.

    But how much attention is tertiary education receiving in our states, especially in northern states that struggle against a historical disadvantage in western education? I have read many persuasive articles about the spectacular transformation of Yobe State University from the educational backwater to the fastest growing university in the north and one of the best equipped and best funded in the country. This fact piqued my curiosity about how other institutions of higher learning are faring in the state.

    I am concerned because we have a tendency in Nigeria to give disproportionate attention to universities in our higher education policies. The elitism that such policies produce is responsible for the decline in enrolment in polytechnics, colleges of education, schools of health technology, schools of agriculture, etc. But we need these institutions not just to produce middle-level, hands-on technical manpower for our industries and civil service, but to take the pressure away from our already overpopulated universities.

    I was pleasantly relieved to discover that Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State is acutely aware of this, and has devoted the same amount of attention to other institutions of higher learning in the state that he has devoted to raising Yobe State University to its current enviable status. There is probably no better evidence for this than the fact that Yobe State has gone on record as one of the first states in the country to approve and implement the new salary scale for lecturers of the State College of Education and State Polytechnic called CONPCASS.

    This policy seeks to bridge the parity of esteem between university lecturers and their counterparts in polytechnics and colleges of education that has been the source of so much resentment and friction for years. If we claim to equally value other institutions of higher learning as we value universities, there is no better way to show that than to incentivize working in these other institutions. I am enormously impressed that Governor Gaidam has recognized this. The wild acclaim that his approval and implementation of the CONPCASS has provoked among the academic staff of state’s polytechnic and college of education is well-deserved.

    It isn’t just in the welfare of staff of the state polytechnic and college of education that Governor Gaidam has demonstrated even-handedness in his higher education policies; he has shown commitment to the physical and intellectual uplift of all of the state’s tertiary educational institutions. For instance, through his policies, the Mai Idris Alooma Polytechnic, the state’s only polytechnic located in the governor’s hometown of Gaidam, has been accredited by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), a feat many older polytechnics are still struggling to achieve. Many of the school’s lecturers have also been sent to Malaysian and UK universities to acquire advanced degrees in their fields.

    In his commitment to diversify higher education in the state, Governor Gaidam also upgraded the erstwhile School of Midwifery to a full-fledged college of nursing and midwifery, which he renamed the “Dr. Shehu Sule College of Nursing and Midwifery.” The upgrade is not just in name, it is also in substance and scope. Many Yobe indigenes, who cannot or did not wish, for various reasons, to find admission in university medical schools turn to this school, which has become a rich source of much-needed mid-level medical personnel for the state.

    The Yobe State College of Agriculture in Gujba has also received focused attention from the Gaidam administration in recent time. For instance, the government not long ago constructed and equipped a veterinary clinic for the school to help facilitate cutting-edge agricultural research. The Chemistry and Biology laboratories of the school have also been furnished and equipped to enviable standards. So are the school’s metal and wood workshops. Similarly, machinery shades have been erected in the school, and the quarters where the school’s academic and non-academic staff lives have been tastefully renovated. Realizing that the comfort of students is central to the success of education, especially one as critical as agricultural education, the governor also constructed a well-conceived male hostel and equipped it with first-class bedding materials.

    These and many other enviable strides that the college has recorded in the past few years have resulted in its getting accreditation for its programmes in Forestry Technology, Animal Health and Production, Agricultural Technology, and Fisheries Technology by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE). In the light of the renewed confidence that the school has gathered consequent upon its improved infrastructure and the intellectual preparedness of its students and staff—which are attested to by its NBTE accreditation—it has applied to the Board to start HND programmes in six agriculture-related courses to commence next academic session. For a state that is defined by its heavy reliance on agriculture for daily sustenance, the attention the government has given to this college is worthy of praise. Of course, more needs to be done in the coming years to improve the standing of the school.

    My research shows that other tertiary institutions in the state such asthe Umar Suleiman College of Education in Gashua, the School of Health Technology in Nuguru, the College of Administration and Basic Studies in Potiskum, and the Atiku Abubakar College of Legal and Islamic Studies in Nguru have received and continue to receive varying degrees of attention from the state government—with some more room for improvement.

    In addition to improving the standards of its own tertiary educational institutions, the Yobe State government also sponsors indigenes of the state for a special one-year remedial studies program at the University of Maiduguri. The intent of the program is to groom the state’s ill-prepared indigenes for admission into universities in the country. The program has helped young Yobe State indigenes with a potential for success in university education but who do not have stellar “O” level qualification to get into universities.

    It’s heartening that a state governor is bucking a general Nigerian trend: he is not paying exclusive attention to universities at the expense of other institutions of higher learning. That is reassuring. As the governor has said, education is the currency of today’s economy. With his commitment to continue to improve the sector and give the state’s children the best education possible, Yobe seems certain to rise and become the pride not just of its people but of all Nigerians as well.

    • Isa writes from Gashu’a Yobe State