Category: Letters

Sir: Research has shown that art education in primary schools plays a valuable role in a child’s development. The Cambridge Primary Art and Design curriculum was created on this premise. In the African context of education, the arts are not considered as important as STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Studies show that the cultivation of arts subjects creates the necessary balance to enhance performance in other learning areas that require more intense cerebral activity and are seen as more important.

According to art historian, Amy Herman, art improves problem-solving skills, helping us discover why and how things go wrong and how to fix them.

Art develops concentration skills and perseverance – as children explore different tools and materials, mastering their use to create beautiful objects and designs. These are important skills, necessary to excel in all other subjects.

The free exploration of art tools further supports the development of accurate letter and number formation in English and mathematics. When making models in art, learners have opportunities to explore the properties of materials. They also discover which materials can be joined and learn about their density and weight. This enhances and supports their learning about materials in science.

Art and design provides a platform for all learners to communicate and express themselves, which especially aids learners who find communication and interaction challenging, including learners with autism.

The focus on experimental learning allows learners to develop and challenge their motor skills in ways that are appropriate to their physical abilities. The subject also supports those with visual impairments to touch and manipulate materials with different textures and properties, thereby providing a wide range of sensory opportunities. This has created a safe, supportive, and inclusive space for learners to experiment and develop.

Primary education is a pivotal time for developing creativity as this is when learners are most open to new ideas. An early introduction to art and design helps learners develop positive attitudes to creative thinking and creative subjects, which benefits future learning. The subject encourages them to celebrate their own and others’ artistic experiences. This builds a sense of community in the classroom from an early age and fosters an openness to diversity as they experience art and design from different times and cultures.

Expression through art, therefore, aids emotional development as learners develop skills such as perseverance and collaboration. They are better equipped to deal with criticism positively as they give, receive, and respond to feedback.

Art has a place in day-to- day life which learners get to experience as they see its use in architecture and decoration. This leads them to appreciate the commercial benefit of art, further amplifying its practicality and financial benefit to artists and the broader economy. If they choose to pursue art later in life, they are better equipped to create value from it.

To best support this invaluable development, it’s important to engage children in art – both at home and at school – and to continue with their creative experience throughout their schooling.

• Lloyd Jeeves, Cambridge, Lagos.

• Federal Government stopping funding to bodies that can pay their way is smart policy, but…

That the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) — Nigeria’s premier body of certified accountants — moved fast to dissociate itself from alleged funding, from the Federal Government’s yearly budget, just showed the ludicrousness of it all.

Why, indeed, should the Federal Government continue to fund professional bodies, which members are high net-worth industry players, whose dues and donations could conveniently fund the bodies’ activities?

Yet, the matter is not quite cut-and-dried, as the sensational ICAN example suggests.

For one, ICAN is commercially viable: Nigeria’s first accounting body that got its charter in 1965 — 58 years ago.  It would appear more commercially viable than the rival Association of Nigerian Accountants (ANAN) — chartered 1993 —  with perhaps far less members.  Yet, ANAN runs an accounting college, the Nigerian College of Accountancy, in Jos, Plateau State (started 2006), as part of its certifying processes, and part of its market entry strategy.

For another, the notice to stop this subvention does not affect professional bodies alone.  Also affected are sundry professional boards which, as regulatory bodies, perform a quasi-government role of setting industry standards.

“I wish to inform you that the Presidential Committee on Salaries (PCS) at its 13th meeting approved the discontinuation of budgetary allocation to professional bodies/councils effective 1st January 2024,” went the memo from Ben Akabueze, director-general, Budget Office of the Federation.  ”For the avoidance of doubt, you will be required, effective 1st January 2024, to be responsible  for your personnel, overhead and capital expenditures.”

Two among the bodies the memo was fired to were the Optometrist and Dispensing Optics Board (ODOB) and the National Council of Food Science and Technology (NiCFoST).  

NiCFoST and ODOB hardly belong to the same commercial pedestal as ICAN, which further reinforces the ludicrousness of ICAN being listed among the bodies affected, by a classical piece of mis-reportage.  But neither are other crucial regulatory bodies like the Medical and Dental Council, the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria and the nurses council — all vital bodies in the health sector, regulating standards; and with which public health could float or sink.

Inasmuch as that memo was reportedly inspired by the Oronsaye report to cut public sector costs, more clarity is needed, if the “no subvention” policy must be implemented without hiccups, far costlier than the coins it would save.

For starters, the affected bodies must be rigorously categorised in commercially viable and non-viable blocs.  Then, boards that do government regulations, thus set standards, should continue to enjoy government funding.  It’s the right thing to do — and the reason is manifest common sense.

That means pressing needs for vanishing resources should not amount to blanket blackmail of “subsidy”, in this era when public support for such appears thinning out.  But that itself does not equate piling scarce resources on areas where they are least needed, at the expense of crucial ones.

But again, what is needed is pin-point, rigorous analysis to justify needs or otherwise.  ICAN itself enjoyed take-off government grants — it got weaned of such since 1990 — by its perceived strategic role in Nigeria’s manpower development mix.  Such needs are never frozen in history or in a time warp.  

ICAN could be out of that loop now but other bodies could just fit in just nicely, in a country’s long and dynamic continuum.  For instance, realising the strategic role of renewed rail in a re-charged economy, it would be no policy crime to emplace a government-funded board devoted to constant rail research, development, upgrade and manpower training, so much so that the end results justify that funding.

So, iron-clad funding or not is not the issue.  The main criterion should be to cut out the wasting of public funds on bodies that can do without them.  With such rigour, old bodies would drop off, as new ones enter the scheme, dictated by extant economic policies.  Such a dynamic approach far outweighs a blanket and rigid ban.

SIR: It would always be unfair to pin the hopes of an entire people on one man’s shoulders. But many times, life throws up heroes just for those occasions.

The moment Muhammadu Buhari signed out of office as Nigeria’s 15th president on May 29, the people of Southern Kaduna breathed a sigh of relief, and it was not just because Bola Ahmed Tinubu came into office. The palpable relief was also because Buhari’s exit meant the exit of Nasir El-Rufai who had been in power in Kaduna for eight years.

Under Buhari and El-Rufai, the security situation in Kaduna State, which ironically hosts some of Nigeria’s premier military institutions had rapidly deteriorated with ruthless terrorists taking advantage of the historic fragility of the state to seed terror and sow chaos.

In Southern Kaduna, long a flash point of the ethnic and religious tensions the state has come to be known for, hardly a week passed without terrorists carrying out deadly attacks on defenceless villagers. Dozens were brutally killed with countless livelihoods reduced to dust.

Bandits in the state also made sure to target students of different institutions as banditry quickly became one of the most lucrative businesses in the country. When an audacious attack breached the defences of the Nigeria Defence Academy in August 2021, Nigerians felt a forceful surge of humiliation.

While the killings raged through Southern Kaduna in the past eight years, the Kaduna State government and, crucially, the federal government struck a posture of helplessness. It broke many Nigerian hearts that while a region was being systemically decimated, the government conveniently chose to ignore its obligations under the unwritten social contract it had with the people.

Thus, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu stepped in with his “Renewed Hope” agenda, there was hope that the killers would be put in their place.

Nigeria’s toxic brand of dysfunctional diversity ensures that everything, no matter how little or insignificant, quickly takes a religious or ethnic shade. While the killings persisted in Southern Kaduna, there were allegations and suggestions that they had more to do with the religion and ethnicity of the victims than the government’s seeming helplessness.

Read Also: Exemplifying Eccentricity: Emefiele, en passant, El-Rufai?

In many ways, President Tinubu appears to be the most political of all the presidents Nigeria has had since 1999. His political life, especially as governor in Lagos State and as a kingmaker in the southwest and Nigeria as a whole, show the trajectory of a man who has mentored many political heavyweights and navigated treacherous political waters specifically because he knows how to play politics.

He may just have the Midas touch for a country fractured by many fractious issues.

While for many years his predecessor ignored calls to diversify the appointments of the country’s security chiefs despite abundant evidence that those in office were faltering badly, Tinubu has moved to give each of Nigeria’s regions a sense of belonging in the security stakes of the country.

But his masterstroke in the appointments of the security chiefs appears to be in his choice of Major General Christopher G Musa as the Chief of Defence Staff.

In going for a minority Christian from Zangon Kataf in the minority Southern Kaduna where people have suffered unspeakably in the past eight years, Tinubu may have hit the bull’s eye of insecurity in the region.

In taking someone from a long-suffering people and putting him in charge, Tinubu may just have made the most audacious move made in eight years to strangle insecurity in the region.

As the Chief of Defence Staff, General Musa would have his hands full not just with the insecurity which engulfs his native Southern Kaduna, but that which infuriatingly afflicts Nigeria as a whole.

If he can solve the puzzle, he will go down in Nigerian lore as the man under whose unflinching gaze Nigeria returned to peace.

•Kenechukwu Obiezu,

 <keneobiezu@gmail.com

SIR: The online dictionary, Wikipedia, defines national anthem as a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation.

Drawing from this definition, we can aver that the national anthem of a nation is its operative mantra which acts as a guide for state actors and citizens alike on the right conduct in public life.

Rightly, the national anthem is an offshoot of the very fabric of society expressing its aspirations, national ethos and etiquette.

The essence of the national anthem, therefore, is the drive towards patriotism and altruistic or selfless service among the citizenry for the pursuit of national goals such as unity in diversity, religious tolerance, love, peace, development, progress, amongst others.

It is against this backdrop that one takes a cursory look at the national anthem of Nigeria, adjudged as one of the best composed national anthems in the world.

It is indeed disheartening to note that the vast majority of Nigerian people, including top public office holders, are not guided by the patriotic call of the anthem in piloting the affairs of the country.

This worrisome detachment from the dictates of the national anthem in the conduct of public affairs may not be divorced from the country’s political culture, history and background since its amalgamation over a century ago.

For instance, the anthem opens with a call on all compatriots or citizens to arise and serve their fatherland with love, strength and faith. Seen from the Nigerian experience, this critically important part of the anthem has mostly been observed in the breach.

Can we confidently say with all sense of responsibility that the gallant Nigerian soldiers, including civilians, that got killed in the line of duty to keep Nigeria together as one indivisible sovereign nation in the 30-month civil war and other combustive internal unrests like the Boko Haram insurgency died worthily for a country that deserves the sacrifice they gave it? 

Read Also: National anthem: Ogunnaike in history

Suffice it to say that if the people, especially the political leaders, had over the years allowed themselves to be guided by the national anthem, in their conduct in public office, Nigeria would possibly have been a truly great and accomplished nation.

Today, the Nigerian political ecology has been so polluted and contaminated that the beautifully versed anthem has simply lost its relevance in the scheme of things as the creed that undergirds our national conscience.

Is it therefore any surprise that where there should be love, we have hate; where there should be honesty, it is dishonesty that holds way, and where there should be truth and patriotism, we have falsehood and atavistic prebendalism?

Thus the glory and honour of Nigeria have so been miniaturized that its epithet, the giant of Africa, has become a butt of rude jokes in the global community. 

According to Uthman Dan Fodio, “Conscience is an open wound; only the truth can heal it.”

Therefore, it is high time the generality of the people responded positively to the call of patriotism embedded in the national anthem to deliberately change the ugly narrative of their potentially great, endowed and blessed country. 

This clarion call is directed mainly at the political class whose unpatriotic actions and decisions have in no small measure contributed to pauperization of the masses, inevitably bringing about the kwashiorkor of quintessential national leadership, massive corruption and pre-bendalistic idiosyncrasies in the polity. 

For the desired change to happen in Nigeria, the political class must necessarily take the decisive first step by changing their modus operandi in order to engender trust and confidence in the average Nigerian citizen, that all hope is not lost in the task of building a truly democratized and egalitarian Nigeria. 

•Dennis Alemu,

dennisalemu@gmail.com

Sir: A few days ago, Israel moved into the Jenin Refugee Camp in the occupied West Bank region for an operation that turned out to be its largest in the camp since 2002. The two-day operation which left 12 people dead would again lay bare the fault lines and friction that abound in the Middle East.

Their targets were said to be armed Palestinian groups who had consolidated their presence in Jenin. It appears that a couple of deadly attacks in the last few weeks finally forced Israeli hands after Jenin had long become a flash point for Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

Over the years, Israel’s occupation of the disputed West Bank region has become a nightmare for the international community, which has had to tread carefully, having to cautiously balance Israel’s genuine apprehension over its security with the right of the Palestinians to lands they claim are ancestral.

As it is, Jenin is already a symbol of the failure of the international community to clarify things and apply international law with forceful certainty as far as the rights of people in their territories are concerned.

There is really no description of the extent to which Palestinian women, children, and entire families have suffered for generations because the world has failed to find a solution to the horrors in the region.

With such powerful allies like the United States on its side, Israel has always been able to successfully shut down questions about its activities in the Palestine region. To deflect the question, Israel usually calls on its considerable commitments to some of the world’s most powerful countries and causes, the threat of radical Islamism and the unspeakable sufferings Jews endured during WW2. But for how long?

Resolving the humanitarian situation in the region as well as getting Israel to scale back on its occupation is critical if one of the most pressing questions of the century is to be put to bed once and for all. To do these, the State of Israel must go beyond commitments to cogent and credible actions to resolve the situation. This would mean a great deal of sacrifice and compromise.

Every side will have something to give up in commitments that will define how even unborn generations come to experience two states that were once at each other’s throats. For humanity to win, all those with drawn swords in the conflict must sheath them and work for peace that is the only guarantee of genuine progress and prosperity.

• Kene Obiezu, keneobiezu@gmail.com

Sir : It is concerning that a section of the southeast is not, in the immediate, prioritising needed public ingredients and development convenience for the zone. The dominating interest appears to be securing the freedom of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). A cluster of the region’s citizens seems to have abandoned elemental conversations of development critical to the growth of the zone for this lone vocation in their entreaties to the government.

At a time other zones are tabling critical interest and matters pivotal to their development, the southeast appears to be pursuing the solitary cause of securing the freedom of a man whose industry led to the brutal murder of many Nigerians, including that of the husband of the late Dora Akunyili, former minister of information, in the crimson streets of Nkpor in Anambra.

Conversations on the southeast in the past eight years have not changed. It is a new administration, but the same conversations have been reacquainted and sounded as the commanding and defining motif of the next four years. When are we going to start discussing the fundamentals of development as they relate to the zone?

Some say the release of Nnamdi Kanu will bring peace to the southeast. How could this be? Is this the only option for peace? Seeking peace on bended knee? But we forget that Kanu was released at a time with guarantees from prominent Nigerians from the southeast and traditional rulers from the zone, but he reneged on all pledges after his release and unleashed a monstrosity of evil belched from the bowels of hell on the people.

It is important to pursue peace, but it is more important to pursue it from the bearings of strength. It is injustice to those killed, and those still being killed to seek the release of the progenitor of the barbarism while their blood still colours the ground red. Really, I doubt that the release of Nnamdi Kanu will bring peace to the southeast. What are the guarantees?

The security agencies had succeeded in decimating IPOB. At the close of 2022, security agencies had succeeded in degrading the capacity of the insurgents to launch attacks, pulverising their camps, and arresting their leaders. The insurgents were becoming but whispers in a noisy concourse. Peace was returning at last. However, a wraith of fear hovered around the region – residents still observed the abominable sit-at-home every Monday.

What some governors of the zone failed to do at the time – on the success of the security interventions – was to seize the moment and build residents’ confidence in the capacity of the government to protect them. I recall Chukwuma Soludo, governor of Anambra State, took initiative, seized the moment, and launched a campaign to retake citizens’ trust and confidence. I see this is what Peter Mbah, governor of Enugu State, is doing now – with his public ban on the ludicrous sit-at-home oppression. This is also what Ifeanyi Ubah, senator representing Anambra South, seems to be doing in Nnewi at the moment, with the campaign against the sit-at-home criminality.

The IPOB-hostage situation in the southeast will need, principally, the residents’ commitment, sincerity, and courage to break. A gang of routed insurgents cannot keep a people in its thrall in perpetuity. When the people are willing to rise and break free, the troublers of the nation will retreat into the void.

Today, the insurgents are re-emerging from oblivion and defeat. On Monday, they reportedly attacked a public place in Ebonyi; on the same day, they were reported to have attacked a school in Enugu, where they assaulted some pupils.

The trenchant cry for the release of Nnamdi Kanu could be emboldening his insurgents to seize the zeitgeist and press for the same demand in the language of violence. To them, it is now a bounden duty; a righteous cause since prominent citizens are demanding the same of the government. They feel justified in their actions. It is a tightrope to walk.

It is disturbing that the leader of IPOB whose hands are darkened by guiltless blood is being framed as a victim who is unjustly held by the government.

It is important for us as a people to re-assess our priorities. If the overarching priority of the southeast is to secure the freedom of Nnamdi Kanu; then so be it. I am only but a voice calling for reason, tact, and deep reflection on our choices.

• Fredrick Nwabufo,  <fredricknwabufo@yahoo.com>

Sir: The recently released Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) results for 2023 have sparked quite a number of controversies. However, a close look at the English Language scores of the top four candidates revealed that though they had almost hundred percent scores in other science subjects such as Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, their English scores pulled their marks down drastically. While the top four highest scorers had a cumulative mark of 360, 355, 351 and 350 points respectively, their English Language scores: 66, 64, 60 and 62 accordingly showed that the seemingly low scores must be as a result of the issue of correct usage which both teachers and students alike are guilty of.

Pointedly, many students, possibly out of indifference or little contact with the English vocabulary, usually make mistakes in choosing the word with the correct spelling. For instance, words like ‘privilege’, ‘separate’, ‘occasion’, ‘louvre’, ‘somersault’, ‘diarrhea’ and many other often misspelled words are what the candidates are tested on. More often than not, the candidates are equally assessed based on words that best complete a sentence. Here, a string of expression is written with a particular word which is the best match to give desired meaning to the expression that is missing. This aspect of the JAMB test usually lays emphasis on register — a variety of language used for a particular purpose, profession or setting. For example, in ‘Cosmetics are sometimes used to cover the ………. of nature’, the best word that fits in is ‘defects’.

Also worthy of note is the erroneous conception of many idiomatic expressions. Many candidates who were unfortunate to have been taught by half-baked tutors who have little or no understanding of the correct expressions openly use them wrongly, thereby making their students wallow in same mistakes. For instance, such common expressions as ‘as you lay your bed, so shall you lie on it’; ‘separate the chaff or shaft from the grain’; ‘’half a loaf is better than none’, ‘… on a platter of gold’, are the nonstandard varieties of the expression, while ‘as you make your bed, so you must lie in it’, ‘separate the wheat from the chaff, ‘half a loaf is better than no bread’, ‘… on a silver platter’ are the standard forms respectively. Efforts must then be made to ensure that the standard forms of these expressions are constantly used to right the already existing wrongs.

Another very area of concern is that of sentence interpretation. In this part, candidates are required to supply the denotative or surface meaning of a particular expression, usually in connotation. It requires deep thought to unravel the ‘deep meaning’ of such expressions. In the sentence: ‘Everyone agreed that his account of the incident was a tall story’ denotes that the story was unbelievable. Similarly, in ‘the new policy of the government has come under fire’, the meaning of the expression has nothing to do with the policy being set ablaze, rather, it means the policy is being criticized.

To sum it up, the right step to be taken in order to forestall recurrent low scores in English Language test is to jettison the act of putting a square peg in a round hole. First, teachers must be ready to keep themselves up-to-date with the trends in their various areas of specialization. Though teaching might not be very lucrative, teachers must develop passion and be intentional in their efforts to make their learners achieve a near native-like competence in the English language. Students, and by extension, candidates, must be ready to take the bull by its horns by intensifying efforts to attain excellence in English as it is not only useful to them as a medium of communication, but also as a language of wider acceptance.

• Wasiu Oluwasegun, Alli, Lagos State University, Ojo.

Sir: For a nation that fought itself fiercely at the last general polls looking for a Messiah as president, it remains to be seen whether there is a sense of urgency to do what is right, or change our old ways. In Edo last week, we saw police brutality again on display, this time, via a viral video which show a police car running over a handcuffed man.

In the almost 20 seconds clip, the handcuffed man is seen lying on a road while a police vehicle – a Sienna car – runs over him. People screamed for the officers to stop while the handcuffed man was powerless beneath the vehicle. Immediately the car ran over the man, the angry crowd surged towards it. The driver stopped, opened the car door and fled the scene.

Nigerian Police spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi, while announcing that he had contacted the commissioner of police in Edo State described the incident thus: “I don’t think a normal human being can do this. To crush a man with a car? This is unbelievable. We need to take urgent action on this. It is strange to me as a person”, he said in a Twitter post.

Despite the poor and degrading nature of our prisons, most police barracks are not different from rehabilitation homes for juveniles. The police have been reduced to an agency of ridicule and hatred amongst the populace. The only robbers they shoot are ordinary citizens who refuse to give them the N20 toll. When they conclude an investigation successfully, it must have been that of a landlord and tenant or two-fighting at a bus stop.

Right from the days of Anini the great robber, the police rather than be the combatants of crime, has been partners in progress to armed robbers, robberies and all manners of social vices. It is that bad that if you have an encounter with robbers you are 70% likely to escape with your life intact and the same encounter with a policeman in possession of a pistol, you will have less than 30% chance of survival.

With no equipment, poor funding, unavailability of logistics, the police resort to the very crimes they are supposed to protect us from. Divisional Police Offices are now banks; the Divisional Police Officers’ are branch managers waiting daily for ‘returns’ (bribe) from marketing executhiefs (junior ranks).

The problem is not necessarily just that of the Nigerian police but that of a nation whose leaders have thrown their responsibilities to the gutters.

Talking about the police, it is interesting to look at the police from what it should be. Police are agents or agencies empowered to enforce the law and to affect public and social order through the legitimate use of force. In our experience the police have contributed negatively to an increasingly disjointed social order in the nation. The Nigeria Police has failed the nation in its primary function of providing safety, ensuring public order, enforcing criminal law, traffic regulations, crowd control, criminal investigation etc.

Like the teaching profession, these days’ people join the force as a last resort, so naturally they vent all the frustrations of life on the job. Bail is free on paper but in practice the price you pay all depends on the offense and the officer in charge.

I once narrated the tale of an officer who stopped the police commissioner in his state and asked for a bribe of N20 or else he was going to arrest him for driving at night alone when the roads were dangerous. How many times have we seen policemen disappear on occasion of an armed robbery? Everyone wants to get to heaven, but none wants to die?

With our police everything is wrong; there is a public apathy against the police so much that even if they wore white they would desecrate the colour.

The situation is bad; let it not be said that we did not talk, write, and even beg the government to act! May Nigeria win!

• Prince Charles Dickson PhD, <pcdbooks@gmail.com>