The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Repair our road in Osina

    GOVERNOR Rochas Okorocha of Imo State is working for the rapid development of the state.

    He has been doing this since the start of his government, and the people of the state are determined to re-elect him because of his great achievements.

    But the people of Osina will want the governor to repair their major road from the Afor Osina Roundabout to the Umuduru Road.

    The road is very bad. It has been in this shape for the past 40 years. It is the worst in the Ideato North Local Government Area.

    Governor Okorocha, we believe in you. You are a great man. You have done a lot for the people of Imo State.

    Do more for us by repairing this road. We are expecting your action.

     

    Okehi Ogadinma, Eluama Osina, Imo State.

  • Give us regular electricity in Bembo area of Apata

    PEOPLE living in the Bembo area of Apata, Ibadan, Oyo State have been in darkness for some months.

    The situation was irregular power supply before. Now, it is total darkness.

    I am, therefore, appealing to Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company to give us a new transformer and rectify all electrical faults disturbing the distribution of electricity in the area.

    This is a matter to be treated with seriousness because the situation has paralysed normal life whose resultant effect is sorrow for our people.

     

    Moses Elijah,

    Apata, Ibadan, Oyo State

  • Halting kidnapping in Kogi

    SIR: The menace of kidnapping in kogi state recently assumed perilous dimension thereby promoting intense fears amongst its inhabitants.

    Many people had been kidnapped for ransom and one sad occurrence of such was the kidnapping of an American missionary around Emeoro in Ajaokuta Local Government area. This incident remains a serious embarrassment to the state government in its drive for foreign investors. Also within one week of this sad incident, some Chinese workers were kidnapped at Zango Daji construction site culminating in the snatching of riffle of the security official on duty and injuring of other local and foreign workers on site.

    The security agencies in the state should be commended for responding promptly as their efforts yielded results because they were able to rescue some of the kidnapped people. But much work still needed to be done in this area. Kidnapping, until recently, is new in the state which is why the government must endeavor to be proactive in tackling the menace that is about becoming intractable nightmare to inhabitants of the state.

    We are calling on the relevant stakeholders to join hands in proffering solutions on how to nip this ugly trend in the bud. The rate at which kidnapping issues is rearing it ugly heads could scare away external investors to the state, thus resulting in halting the much expected economic prosperity in the state. The ugly trend must be stopped.

     

    • Abu Naya,

  • As PDP turns opposition party

    SIR: The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is on the verge of creating the record of being the first party that while still holding power in the centre, is in panic thereby behaving like an opposition party.

    After the elections of 2011, no rational person would believe that the acclaimed largest party in Africa would find itself in this tight corner of defending, with difficulty, most of its policies and programs.

    It is, until now, trite that if a candidate is contesting under PDP, such a candidate can go to sleep but that has changed now. Victory is no longer certain for members of the ruling party.

    The coming of All Progressives Congress (APC), as a formidable opposition to the ruling party, has made politics more interesting but exhilarating to PDP. The ruling party is finding it difficult to sell itself, again, to the people of this country despite its widely perceived unbeatable war chest. The people no longer want money but realistic development.

    The recent campaign that saw the ruling party went round the country really

    exposed the struggle within it to stay afloat and be relevant in the scheme of things in this land.

    The party is now so seriously divided as underscored in most of its campaigns where people were hired to attend after being induced with money. The stoning of the President Jonathan and other candidates of the ruling party and the destruction of posters and bill boards of the party by the same PDP members became rampant in states like Bauchi, Kastina and Taraba showing that the centre can no longer hold for the ruling party this time around.

    As the general elections of 28th March and 11th April, 2015 draw nearer, what fate waits the ruling party that is gradually turning into the opposition party? Let us keep our fingers crossed!

     

    • Bala Nayashi,

  • Gov. Amosun deserves second term

    SIR: It is an acceptable norm that a democratically elected government must aspire to meet the needs of the people that voted it into power. It is also mandatory for the same government, to listen, carry along and feed the people back about its activities. The strength of a good government lies in its legitimacy that comes from the ballot box.

    When a government voted into power refuses to perform or meet the yearnings and aspirations of the people, the electorate have the right to reject such government by voting it out of power in subsequent elections. This means that when a government becomes destructive and retrogressive, the same people that empowered it with their votes can abolish or terminate such government.

    Now getting back to the main issue, which is Senator Ibikunle Amosun: This amiable governor has within three and half years of being in the saddle proved critics wrong by being responsive and progressive in the discharge of his duties to the people of the state.  Upon his assumption of office and in his address to the people of the state, he openly exposed the debt profile of the state, and how government properties were being sold out with impunity.

    But he came into power with his reform agenda and managerial acumen to rebuild and recover the lost fortunes and glories of the state. Today, the common man is not only happy in the gateway state, but peace which once eluded the people some years ago has totally returned. Today the entire three senatorial zones in the state are witnessing massive reconstruction and rebuilding process with roads, schools and healthcare institutions top the list of agenda.

    Also, Senator Amosun has done very well to reposition the economy of the state. He has further demonstrated the servant role of a government to its people. The governor has taken the Internally Generated Revenue

    (IGR) to an enviable and sustainable position, thus deriving some funds to embark on infrastructural development. A government is worth protecting and supporting for continuity if it met the yearnings of the people. The people have seen this in the government of the day in Ogun state.

    No nation or state survives without paying major attention to its educational

    sector. Here in Gateway State in which he has given the primary, post primary and the state tertiary institutions very good attention, by increasing their funding and stabilizing the academic calendar. Students now learn in a

    better and more conducive environment.

    The people of the state can now see what the government is spending their money on. Amosun has further proved the essence and importance of taxation to rural and urban development, through the provision of essential services like good road network, water, health facilities and the rest to the people.

    In life, you don’t loose a winning team; rather you encourage them to do

    more. Senator Ibikunle Amosun has so far done well. We can only encourage him to do better, through mobilization and support for continuity beyond 2015.

     

    • Ademola Orunbon

    Federal Housing Estate, Olomore, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

     

  • Nigeria’s lingering but avoidable problems

    Sir: Every Nigerian now has to bear the brunt of a mismanaged economy courtesy of the Jonathan mal-administration. If only we knew we would not be better off now than we were four years ago, perhaps the story will be different. We are on the verge of making another choice as regards who will lead the country for another four years. It’s a choice between continuity, which President Jonathan represents, and change, which General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) promises to bring to bear if elected. Many Nigerians are torn between these two choices, which the New York Times editorial referred to as miserable.

    Regardless of this, we have to weigh our options. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s recent allusion to the lack of institutions, systems and process as the reason for persistent corruption and the current state of the Nigerian economy is an afterthought. Though institutions, systems and processes are needed but what has been done under the coordinating minister of the economy to address this problem and avoid this economic mess? Nobody has come out to tell Nigerians that the economy is in recession. Worst still, what the economic management team told us is that we need to start diversifying the economy in order to be able to cope with the current fall in oil prices. Nigeria’s economy is finally in recession.

    Former CBN Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo in his much criticised article titled: ‘Buhari versus Jonathan: Beyond 2015’, which was published in most newspapers stated that ‘’at a time of oil boom, Nigeria again went on a consumption spree such that the budgets of the last five years can be best described as consumption budget with new borrowing by the federal government exceeding the actual expenditure on critical infrastructure. Not one penny was added to the stock of foreign reserves at a period Nigeria earned hundreds of billions from oil.’’

    Professor Soludo continued; ‘’President Obasanjo met about $5 billion in foreign reserves and the average monthly oil price for the 72 months he was in office was $38 and yet he left $43 billion in foreign reserves after paying $12 billion to write-off Nigeria’s external debt. In the last five years, the average monthly oil price has been over $100 and the quantity also higher but our foreign reserves have been declining and exchange rate depreciating.’’

    The CBN’s further devaluation of the naira after that of 2014 and Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s warning that tough times await Nigerians are all pointers to the challenges ahead. All the indices for measuring government performance on the economy have been poor for Nigeria according to reputable statistical organisations. This has been the case for many years now and past administrations have done little to improve these indices so as to be able to improve the standard of living of Nigerians. The reasons for these are quite obvious. Leaders of government and politicians have failed to address the fundamental problems. They have refused to reduce the cost of governance as well as the salaries and emoluments of public office holders. Besides, the citizens have not tried to compel their representatives at the National and State Assemblies to work on cutting down government spending by at least 50 per cent.

    Countries that do not have as much natural resources like we do are managing their economy in such a way that the citizens are not made to suffer untoward hardship. Besides our over-reliance on crude oil as the major source of revenue has resulted in undermining the agricultural and mining sectors which are capable of solving most of our economic problems. Now, the current economic management team is looking at diversifying the economy as a result of the fall in oil prices but this should have been done a long time ago.

    However, we must see the present challenges as an opportunity to fundamentally restructure Nigeria’s political economy including its fiscal federalism and mineral rights. The current system guarantees cycles of consumption and one cannot see sustainable long term prosperity without major systemic overhaul.

     

    • Liman Abdullahi Isah

     Ibb University, Lapai.

  • Hope, as change beckons

    SIR: To begin with, not even my NOKIA charger seems to be working under this administration. Nigerian polity has always been a subject of ridicule within and beyond. Nigeria is a country where the plight of the masses are downplayed for partisan and sectional interests: It is a country where the divide between the rich and poor is immeasurable: Our dear Nigeria is one where President Goodluck Jonathan views internal problems as trash while external problem becomes his focal agenda. Indeed, nothing seems to count for now but our mandate surely would, come March 28.

    Nigerians have a way of addressing issues that leaves me wondering and pondering if I’m a citizen of this country. There is a beginning and end to everything and as such, the end of this trait has surfaced and should be laid to rest with urgency. We all have a duty to our fatherland and it is not by being regional, partisan or hiding under the pretext of religious and cultural unity that should abet us. Such would not but our collective unity of purpose. It is about time we understood that the office of the president is imperative and greater than its occupant.

    The average Nigerian man cannot go about his business without giving thoughts to security threats. The educational system is in shambles while the power sector is wide off the mark. Our roads are but accident traps and the hospitals appear to be sicker than sick patients. The list just goes on and on. Nigeria is on a fast lane to total collapse under this administration. Virtually every sector with little exception fidgets, due to mismanagement, like a helpless titanic ship.

    Nothing seems to work. Our beloved president continue to sing the melodious story of his poor upbringing to a point one would actually begin to wonder if he ever wore shoes during his university days.

    As if matters were not worst, the president has the effrontery of stepping into Maiduguri in pursuit of his bid for re-election despite having massively failed parents whose children remain in the company of the dreaded Boko Haram sect.

    One striking quality about Jonathan is the perfection of lip service. He talks as if the task before him is close to completion when the blueprint has not actually been drawn. This is not the kind of leader we desire. If 2011 was a year to vote for someone young with a seemingly bright future to steer the country towards development, indeed we had made a collective mistake. This is the chance to correct it by voting this president out of power.

    I therefore call on all Nigerians to display sagacity in their choice for the next president. We should remember the fact that even though our existence as citizens does not count to the incumbent administration, we have been endowed with the opportunity to send them parking. Our mandate surely counts albeit in a free and fair election. We are tired of endless kaput promises. We are tired of an administration that gives thumbs up to criminals and offer them official protection. Come March 28, we shall march to install the right man at the helm of affairs, as it would mark the beginning of a new dawn. We are massively motivated by the need to build a society enriched with bright hope for the future generation and devoid of endorsed social vices by the people currently at the helm of affairs. Change we must seek for.

     

    • Yahaya Ibrahim

    Minna

  • Nigeria and her religions

    SIR: Many scholarly religious books dating back to the 1980s hold that Nigeria has three major religions: African Traditional Religion (ATR), Christianity, and Islam. But, in recent times, many Christians and Muslims speak of “our two religions”. That type of expression can only dim all sense of religious freedom and social equity/peace. Here and there, particularly in southern Nigeria, Christians and Muslims clash with adherents of ATR, just because the former don’t think that the latter have the right to exist. Many Christians are also complaining of maltreatment in the Muslim-north.

    Jesus Christ emphasises humility; I learnt it, practically, from my parents and relatives who were adherents of ATR. Jesus stresses love of God and good neighbourliness as the kernel of divine law; the traditional Yoruba say: Ìwà leòwà oòmoò ènìyàn – good conduct, behaviour, and attitude determines a person’s beauty, not what a person believes; much less a person’s physical appearance.

    Unarguably, then, ATR is one of the world’s most civilised religions, where civilisation means the art of peaceful/loving co-existence. Problem/brouhaha arises where efforts are made to convert people by all means and impose a particular religion (Christianity or Islam) on an entire society. The beneficiaries incite their gullible followers who get impoverished by the status quo. Generally speaking, African traditional priests don’t live on clericalism. They have no reason whatsoever, therefore, to politicise ATR and paint it as the only “Godly” religion, as if one were advertising a competitive product. Indeed, a Yoruba traditional song holds that good behaviour (not religion) is humanity’s greatest treasure: Ìwà rere lòòsòóò ènìyàn. And when someone asks Jesus what one must do to attain eternal life, Jesus answers: love God and your neighbour, as written in the Law.

    Thus, no wonder Jesus expresses amazement at the level of virtue seen in many non-Jews. What has become of that attitude of Jesus today in Nigeria? In the traditional Yoruba-African worldview, only God knows everything: Eòni tó mòòràn tán d’Olódùmarè (Whoever knows everything becomes God). And God is unique to the extent that Irú Oòlóòrun ni ò sí; irú ènìyàn pòò (Nobody else but God is unique; human beings have look-alikes and equals). ATR adherents, just like Jesus, would not malign any religion, because, as the traditional Yoruba say, Orí leòléòjóò (God is the best judge). Of course if the adherents of any religion provoke them, they would react.

    ATR is beautiful for its emphasis on virtue. For instance in Yoruba context, Shangodare is a personal name meaning Shango the thunder divinity does justice/vindicates. And Faagunleka (Faigunleka in Oyo Yoruba) means Ifa Orunmila (the oracle divinity) does not ride on wicked acts, as the retired Catholic Bishop of Ekiti, Michael Fagun, explains his own name in his autobiography. I note it all in my African Ancestral Heritage in Christian Interpretations, published by Department of Religion and Human Values, University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Nigerians should eschew injustice and wicked acts in the name of religion!

     

    • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, PhD,

     University of Ilorin.

  • Fani-kayode’s flurry of fictions

    SIR: President Goodluck Jonathan left no one in doubt about the type of campaign he wanted to run when he picked well known loose cannon with no modicum of decency, Femi Fani-Kayode, as his campaign spokesperson. Fani-Kayode had earlier styled himself as a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), when he was actually never one, not having at no time been recognised as such by APC leadership when he was in the party.

    Known for throwing decency to the gutters with toxic Facebook posts, and error-ridden newspaper articles, the Osun State-born lawyer, had conducted himself in the last few years in a manner that makes one wonder if the globally respected Cambridge University will ever be proud of such product. Or how else do you think of someone that goes around writing on the number of women he had slept with as contribution to debates on the legality and morality of “deportation” of destitute of certain origin from Lagos?

    It is only in Nigeria that someone of Fani-Kayode’s standing, someone having an alleged money laundering case before the courts, will be appointed by a President as campaign spokesperson. In countries where choices of candidates by citizens are scientific, not based on religious and ethnic sentiments as exploited here, such faux pas is enough to lose elections.

    Fani-Kayode has since discharged his duty to type – daily regaling us with tissues of lies to demonize the candidacy of General Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the APC. First, he sold to the media the non-issue of Buhari’s certificate, and even when the Katsina school where General Buhari had his secondary education, released the statement of result of the general and the masterlist issued by Cambridge University which conducted the exam in 1961, he declared it fake. It did not occur to him that Cambridge would have come out to disclaim the result if it never originated from it. How anyone would attribute a fake document to Cambridge – of all places – in this age, and some gullible Nigerians bought it, is beyond me.

    Fani-Kayode and his Social Media hirelings have thrown everything – including the kitchen sink – in the direction of the General. They have forged medical reports in the name of a non-existent “Ahmadu Bello Teaching Hospital” to declare Buhari as having prostate cancer; they have circulated “minutes” of imaginary meetings to say Jega met with Northern elders in Kaduna  (in other reports, Dubai) on rigging elections; they have hired commercial protesters to embarrass General Buhari in London. They have paid millions of naira to put up adverts in national dailies in the name of a fictitious “Muslim” group in the South West endorsing Buhari because “they wanted Islamization of the South West”. It does not occur to these vendors of fictions that Jonathan was the first Nigerian president to attend OIC meeting since the country’s return to civil rule.

    Their fiction factory keeps churning out lies every other day. The country has never gone so low. Fani-Kayode was yet again at his lying best when he addressed the press few days ago accusing APC of having made its vice presidential candidate, Yemi Osinbajo, to sign an oath to resign after six months in office. It is more unfortunate that the press that should have by now been familiar with the wicked fabrications of Fani-Kayode, gave this hogwash an undeserved prominence. This allegation started from some vendors of misinformation on the social media, when some of us that are equally social media-savvy proved beyond reasonable doubt that this was not true; it is therefore very unfortunate that President Jonathan’s official campaign latched on to this beer parlour gist.

    In any case, even if Tinubu comes on board along the way (which is only a figment of their imagination), Tinubu is by far a better administrator than Jonathan.  I’m not a fan of Tinubu, but I will pick him over Jonathan as President. Between 1999-2007 when Nigeria was afflicted with probably the worst set of non-performing governors in its history, Tinubu stood tall as a decent performer in Lagos – even when the man at the helms in the center withheld the state’s allocations. His political recruitment strategy is also top-notch as those he backed for power, from Aregbesola to Amosun and Ajimobi, are testament to this.  The whole thing is just another figment of Fani-Kayode warped imagination.

    The election is less than four weeks, and I know Fani-Kayode’s fiction machine is still being oiled to produce more between now and the election date, if they ever allow the election to hold. The task of extricating Nigeria from these fiction vendors and setting it on the path of progress is the business of every patriotic Nigerian.

     

    • Suraj Oyewale,

    Ajah, Lagos

  • Passionate plea to Kwara Government

    SIR: One of the hallmarks of genuine leadership is the willingness/ability to keep to its words. It is this and many other features that distinguish a sincere government from the pool of dishonest administrations. It is in this light that we are compelled to express our deep disappointment towards the attitude of our dear Kwara State government over its failure to redeem its pledge to the 2012/2013 Law School set. More saddening and disturbing are reports about the government’s readiness to give scholarship to the 2013/2014 Law School set while abandoning the 2012/2013 set that has been pending for over a year ago.

    It is instructive to state at this point that a Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of the State in a publication sometime last year assured the 2012/2013 set of the government’s readiness to pay all eligible students once the 2014 budget is signed into law. The budget had since been signed into law and extinguished, and in fact we are now in another fiscal year, and up to this moment, the 2012/2013 set have not been paid, and so we ask: What is actually happening?

    It is not fair to jettison the 2012/2013 set while graciously according eminence to the 2013/2014 set. We are all Kwara State indigenes and we deserve to be treated on the same platform of equity. As we have maintained in our previous correspondence to the State government, the law school fee has constituted a barrier to the dreams of many would-be-lawyers in the State. Many of us underwent very harrowing and excruciating experience in our effort to conclude the Law school programme. Some sold their belongings others had to resort to loans from financial institutions in the hope that the government, in its usual practice, would provide some palliative measures to augment the little they gathered. This unfortunate development has become an albatross in the neck of many Law students as they continue to wallow under the burden of indebtedness.

    The government had promised to give scholarship to successful students from Law school among the 2012/2013 set and since most of those students have emerged successful from Law School and duly called to the Nigerian Bar, a contract has been created between the government and the successful Law students.

    Flowing from the above, we humbly submit that the decision of the government to introduce the policy of providing scholarships to law students has in no small measure assisted many indigent law students to achieve their dreams of becoming legal practitioners. However, we therefore urge our amiable Governor Abdul-fatah Ahmed to please pay the pending money to the 2012/2013 Law School set that hail from the state. We would appreciate this.

    • Alatise Taofeeq Esq., Bakare Idris Esq., Iyanda Ismail Esq. and Lawal Raflaw Esq. (alatise.taofeeq@yahoo.com)