The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • The scapegoat ten naira

    In Nigeria, it’s a mixed grill of events unfolding in thousands by the day. While some make you smile, some actually make you sad; and many others could best be described as totally insane.

    Currently in circulation are eight different denominations of the Nigeria’s national currency of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 naira respectively.

    However, since the federal government announced reduction in the official pump price of petrol in the land in 2012, one of the national legal tenders has been crying the wide river of ‘WHY ME’!!!

    “Why me, Ten naira, of all the denominations? If not a five naira reduction, why not N20 or N50 naira from the old pump price? WHY ME TEN NAIRA?

    “Could the pump price reduction by any chance be Political? Or a mere ethnic sentiment based on the tribe of the picture I carry?

    Why the poor me as victim of the 2015 electioneering circumstance?

    In the name of justice and equity, the unimpressed general consumers of petroleum products in Nigeria hereby advocate against the choice of making me, Ten Naira, the scape goat. We also offer the following recommendations:

    •Already, the reduction is perceived as tribal. But based on the tribal affiliation of the picture on the green currency, the same sentiment shall be expressed if 20 naira is taken off.

    •The public advocates recommend that government shall pronounce a 50 naira reduction from the old 97 naira pump price of petrol and other petroleum products like kerosene and cooking gas for Nigerian women.

    •Afterall, the 50 naira denomination carries the pictures of major tribes in the land and therefore no tribal sentiment can be read to it.

    Clamouring for change, only to get 10 naira PMS price reduction was such a smart response. At least it tallies with words of the good book in Mathew 7-7.   Ask for national change to get 10 naira!

    And though the Nigerian electorate did welcome the 10 naira reduction as a good gesture, do they consider it a good enough political move worth celebrating on day number 300, since Nigerians and the world began clamouring? Bring Back Our Girls… Bring Back Our Girls… Bring Back Our Girls?

    Indeed, the 10 naira pump price reduction was a ‘Smart’ response to the public call for National Change.   However, further effort at Bringing BackOurGirls without further delay would be better appreciated as a ‘smarter’ response by the federal government, amongst other national issues.

    The precious lives of the abducted Chibok girls do matter for the National Change being advocated, and more especially the lives of the non-abducted Nigerian masses. BringBackOurGirls!  God Bless Nigeria.

    •Sulaimon Salam Bamidele (thegreatssb@gmail.com) (Bamidele, a visually impaired journalist wrote in from the USA)

  • PRESIDENT JONATHAN Fix these federal roads

    THIS is to appeal to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to do something urgently about the federal roads which are in bad shape.

    I am not talking about a particular state. I am referring to all the states in the country. There is no state without a bad federal road.

    People die daily on these roads as a result of potholes, craters and other horrible features on them.

    To prevent untimely deaths, occurring everyday, something must be done urgently. This is not a matter to be politicized. It is the right of Nigerians that must be protected.

    As the president goes around the country, campaigning for re-election, he will be seeing the roads, if he travels by road. But I do not think he can see anything because he does his travelling by air.

    The bad conditions of these roads should be the concern of our president. He should go into action on them in the interest of all Nigerians.

     

    Akin Alabi Moses,

    Minna,

    Niger State.

  • GOVERNOR AREGBESOLA Give Ilesa Roundabout a facelift

    GOVERNOR Rauf Aregbesola has done a lot to develop Ilesa. I thank him for this and I pray that God will continue to give him strength and wisdom to govern Osun State.

    The Executive Secretary of the Ilesa Local Government Area is also doing well in the governance of the council. I praise him for his good work, and he should keep on working in the interest of the people of Ilesa.

    But I will like the governor and the secretary to give a facelift to the major roundabout in Ilesa. This roundabout is close to the Owa Palace and the Ogedengbe Staff is in its middle.

    The roundabout has been there for long.  It is part of the Ijesa heritage. It should be reconstructed to make the town more beautiful.

     

    Pastor Joshua Ola,

    Okesa, Ilesa,

    Osun State.

  • MINISTER OF YOUTH DEVELOPMENT Do something about street boys

    OF all the problems we have in this country, the most painful one, to me, is the case of the boys roaming our streets.

    In all our major towns, these boys move up and down day and night aimlessly. In the course of doing this, they commit crimes against their fellow Nigerians.

    Some of the crimes committed are stealing, rape, thuggery, robbery and destruction of public property.

    These boys are our future leaders. If they go on like this, they will surely develop to be bad leaders.

    To take these boys away from the streets, the Minister of Youth Development, Boni Haruna, should come up with a policy to be implemented in all states.

    It is my belief that if our governors support this policy, it will definitely be a success.

     

    Ebele Andrew,

    Enugu,

    Enugu State.

  • Our farmers need your help

    Our farmers need your help

    I AM using this opportunity to appeal to Governor Bala Ngilari of Adamawa State to bail the farmers in my local government area out of their problems.

    These problems are many, and it is my belief that the governor is the only person that can put a stop to them.

    I am from the Demsa Local Government Area of the state. The farmers here cannot carry out their duties efficiently because of problems of finance, land, water, accommodation and equipment.

    The governor should also provide hospitals, potable water, electricity, markets and other good facilities for the people of the local government area.

    I am sure our governor will find solutions to all these problems urgently.

     

    Bala Abubakar  Sadeeq,

    Demsa,

    Adamawa State.

  • SENATOR GEMADE I need a scholarship

    I WISH to use this opportunity to ask for a scholarship from my senator, Chief B. A. I. Gemade, and Hon. Iorwase Hembe who is representing my area in the House of Representatives.

    The scholarship is to complete a professional course in Health, Safety and Environment.

    I started the course at the Chartered Institute of Shipping, Port Harcourt, while working as a Safety Supervisor at Wonderland Park, Abuja. I no longer have the financial strength to continue the course because I recently lost my job.

    I am from the Mbatoo, Mbagusa/Mbaster ward in the konshisha Local Government Area of Benue State.

     

    Stephen Kwaglishe Iusu,

    Gwarinpa Estate,

  • Jonathan: Laughing at missing trillions

    SIR: President Goodluck Jonathan received the forensic audit report on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on February 2, 2015. It was served like revenge – cold! – almost one whole year after the Federal Government commissioned the audit in response to public outcry over the claim made by then Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Lamido Sanusi, that $20 billion was not remitted to the Federation Account by NNPC.

    The submission happened a day after former CBN governor, Charles Soludo, released a clincher on the state of the economy, a highly charged riposte to the judgment of his person and his tenure by Madam Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy.  Soludo estimated that a lot of money has disappeared under Okonjo-Iweala’s watch : N30 trillion!

    The submission of the report reawakened embers in the memory. Only very few people still remember that there was a shakedown of the NNPC, the holy of holies of corruption in Nigeria. We had moved on, not in the least because we supposed that meat will come out of the eater. There was a more current and important missing, the missing of human beings. Chibok girls and others taken into captivity by the death cult named Boko Haram. The submission had a necromantic effect. It recalled the ghost.

    On the day Okonjo-Iweala announced the appointment of PriceWaterHouseCoopers for the auditing, she said the investigation would take 16 weeks. PWC does not have a reputation for clumsiness. If anything, it has an almost unblemished track record professionalism and integrity. It is arguably the best pick anyone could make for such tasks. So why did the submission of the report take so long?

    Some reports say the audit was completed on schedule and was ready for submission. The only problem was that the Jonathan administration did not want to glimpse the picture of the secrets of its painted sepulcher.

    The submission was apparently arranged to extinguish the Soludo question. It is less than two weeks to the Presidential polls. This is the time you need weighty endorsements. Not a red capped Professor overseas stoking excitement in your challenger’s camp.

    In his campaign rallies, Jonathan talks up his capacity for leniency. While seeking to contrast himself with his apparently stern rival, Jonathan introduces himself as the hater of jails; the one who would rather shield you than permit you to get your deserts. No, I won’t send you to jail because some valuable was guilty of tempting you to make it disappear!

    In my own city of Enugu, President Jonathan, a PhD, asked a rally of thousands, ‘’how much did Jim Nwobodo stole? Money not up to the price of a Peugeot and Buhari regime send him to jail. Is that good enough?’’

    Now Jonathan has a sense of proportion that is difficult to calibrate. While you reckon that the theft of a coin makes a thief, Jonathan believes and propagates the idea that there is some threshold, a magic sum ostensibly known only to him, that someone has to labour hard to appropriate before they qualify to be numbered among transgressors. That concept of relativity spewed forth that viral and virulent wisecrack,’’ stealing is not corruption’’.

    So the odds are that if the amount established to have disappeared in the audit report is in the realms of stealing, that is, not equal to or greater than corruption, the audit is a wasted venture. The white paper will reach his desk and then end up in the disused part of his library labeled WHITE PAPERS.

    Now, the theft of ‘’ money not up to the price of a Peugeot’’ in the eighties has evolved to the  procurement of two bulletproof BMW cars at N225 million. The generation that stole ‘’money not up to a Peugeot’’ has begotten a much more ambitious one. The children sent to rob by their fathers are not sneaking in: they are kicking the door open!

    President Jonathan says ‘’ the kind of figure people bandy in the papers look so ridiculous’’. The kind of money he permits people to steal without consequence is anything but ridiculous. But when you have a warped sense of humor, you can see comedy in the figures that are reported stolen in the country you lead!

     

    • Emmanuel Uchenna Ugwu

    @emmaugwutheman

  • No to poll shift

    SIR: The cacophonous clamour for the postponement of February 14 and 28 elections is a cancer that can destroy the very foundation of our dear nation. There are many posers for its proponents.

    What happens to the billions of naira committed to electioneering campaigns, media showcase, foot soldiering, and the energy dissipated to the forthcoming polls? It is corollary with the allegation of kleptomania leveled against the ruling party at the centre. Our already tainted image will further reek in the global community. The acclaimed giant of Africa continues to fumble in the electoral process and yet approaches the advanced democracies for a good handshake; it is akin to the demented leper chasing a sane man about for an embrace. The scene is better imagined that witnessed.

    On a football pitch, the referee holds the ace, no matter how deft the match commissioner claims to be he cannot change the goal posts in the middle of the game nor can he challenge  the  referee during the match. The insinuation that the ruling PDP is behind the plot is rife. The party and its co-travellers owe Nigeria, Nigerians and posterity a debt of explanations. When a man is trapped in a mesh the more he tries to disentangle himself the deeper he is cocooned. Ill wind blows nobody any good. The centripetal/centrifugal forces are covertly beckoning to anarchy. And civil war looms in the process. The crux of it all is how to prognosticate whether Nigeria will remain one UNITED country thereafter. Let us remember the warning of America that Nigeria will break in the year 2015.

    The council of state should not bite the bileduct; it is bitter and poisonous. June 12, 1993 and its attendant debacle remain indelible in our national psyche.

    To this end, Professor Atahiru Jega led INEC should be allowed to do its job and announce the winners for the covert benefit of the unborn generations.

     

    • Adelani Olawuyi

    Ogbomoso, Oyo State      

     

  • The matter of Osun Poly registrar

    SIR: It has become very necessary for me to lend my voice to the current unwarranted controversy trailing the appointment of the Registrar of Osun State Polytechnic, Iree.

    As an alumnus, I watched, with keen interest, the process of the appointment of the registrar and I have taken time off to weigh the contending issues.

    I realised that the Governing Council of the Polytechnic stands on the side of the truth and integrity on the matter. The Council acted in the best interest of maintaining the positive image of the Polytechnic by appointing a man of integrity, knowledge and experience to the post.

    Therefore, there is need to put an end to this needless controversy. From my independent findings, I realised that the process of the appointment followed the due process and that there is no dispute over the certificate of the officer who is a product of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

    The new registrar possesses a Second Class Upper Degree in English Language in 1989 from OAU, Ile-Ife. He is also a member of many professional bodies such as Nigerian Institute of Management and

    Chartered Institute of Arbitrators of Nigeria.

    It is embarrassing to read in the newspapers the man was not qualified to hold the position.

    It is pertinent to note that Osun State is lucky to have a meticulous governor, Rauf Aregbesola who is always painstaking in handling issues. The governor, who is a catalyst of change and an apostle of integrity would not open his eyes and allow corruption under his watch. I congratulate the Council, once again, for the courage to toe the path of honour despite intimidations by some cabals.

    I appeal to those faceless individuals sponsoring unjustified write-ups in the newspapers against the registrar to desist and allow peace to reign at OSPOLY so that those of us carrying the certificates of the polytechnic would not be subjected to further ridicule in our places of work.

     

    • Hameed Oyegbade

    Osogbo, Osun State

     

  • Change undeterred by media diatribes

    SIR: As we inch closer to the February 14 poll, the media is being inundated with intense campaigns of calumny from desperate quarters working to suppress the storm of change sweeping across Nigeria’s political landscape! The obvious objective of the uncensored media offensives is to discredit the APC presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari and lower his estimation before right-thinking members of the society.

    Perhaps the most meretricious of these media contraptions is the television advertorial labeled “The Real Buhari”; which has been airing recurrently on major television stations recently, sponsored by a faceless group of political traducers! The masterminds of the pejorative advert intended to leverage on the Direct Effects Model (a media theory which assumes that audiences passively accepted media messages and would exhibit predictable reactions) to hoodwink the electorate into perceiving the retired general and dogged icon of anti-corruption as the devil’s incarnate; especially the younger generation of Nigerians who may not be conversant with Buhari’s antecedents when he served as Head of State from December 31st 1983 to 27th August, 1985.

    They however seem unaware that the Direct Effects Model has a flipside- the Active-Audience Theory (which emphasizes the assertive power of the audience)! Therefore I was not surprised when “the real Buhari” advert fell grossly short of hitting its intended mark. The enlightened citizenry read between the tissues of lies in that montage and rather than impair their perception of Buhari, became irritated at the level of desperation of the sources of the hogwash.

    The diversionary intent of the advert, to distract Nigerians from core developmental issues, is one of the usual chicaneries of the PDP and the incumbent PDP-led government. Emphasis over the last four years has been more on politics; or ‘politricks’, than on governance! So when they churn out their tales of Transformation, they tend to make us feel like aliens in our own land!

    Think about it, do we really need the minister of agriculture to expend taxpayers’ money in order to inform us via sponsored adverts, of the giant strides in the sector? I believe we are in a position to testify to agricultural transformation when we observe the relative availability of foodstuff across the country, a boost in farmers’ income and commendable reduction in food prices. The Jonathan administration and its multifarious mouthpieces are vocal about power sector transformation, but after over four years, our bulbs are getting dimmer and our communities darker! Industries and small businesses are rapidly closing shop due to epileptic power supply!

    So it appears that the arrowheads of the incumbent government and their supporters are living in utopia, completely isolated from current dystopian Nigerian state! A state of ravaging insecurity; where an estimated 50% of employable youths haplessly roam the streets or fend from the salaries or pensions of their parents, pensions which are not regularly forthcoming due to sharp practices at the pension offices. Ingrained corruption and wanton mismanagement has brought Nigeria to the verge of a bottomless pit!

    Graduates are currently exposed to the most debilitating conditions in their quests for employment! And just when we thought that employment racketeering was restricted to dubious private sector operators, the public sector gave us a rude shock with the shoddy Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment exercise of March 2014, in which about 18 graduates lost their lives, with scores more injured! Let’s remember that the jobless graduates paid N1,000 each for the recruitment exercise! But till date, not one graduate has been recruited from that slapdash exercise! Not a penny has been refunded to any of the over 600,000 graduates that allegedly applied for the vacancies meant for only about 4,000; yet not a single public official has been sacked, or has voluntarily resigned following the ignominious incident!

    Therefore if cleansing the Augean stables qualifies Buhari to be described as a monster, then Nigerians need him now more than ever, to unleash his monstrosity and salvage the nation from the brinks of cataclysm!

     

    • Joshua Otene,

    Asokoro, District, Abuja.