The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • How not to rig for PDP

    SIR: The travails of the Electoral Officers for Osogbo and Obokun Local Governments of Osun State are a lesson on how not to help the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The two officers have been suspended by INEC while investigation into their misconduct is on-going.

    The Electoral Officer for Osogbo, Tope Fabunmi, was suspended for the ignoble role he played before and during the August 9, governorship election in Osun State. Complaints were lodged against him that he was asking for the political affiliation of registered voters who had come to collect their permanent voters’ cards and would find a way to deny those who identified with APC. He was also reported to his superiors by the APC for not releasing the identity tags for the party’s agents on election day. He only released 70 tags out of 240 and only grudgingly released the rest after a petition was written to his superiors and the intervention of EU observers. But by then, accreditation had passed. The most egregious of the allegation against him was that he dumped the Form EC8C, where result for Osogbo Local Government would have been recorded, in a waste bin, thereby delayed the collation of result in the council area till the wee hours of the next day. This was done ostensibly to manipulate the result. He brought out the forms only after a petition had been written to INEC and stern warning issued to him by his boss.

    The EO for Obokun, Anthony Olusegun Eshinoye, was suspended for illegally diverting election materials before election day and was on the way to a PDP leader’s house in Ilase, prompting vigilant youths to stop him and he was arrested by the police. Strangely, he was released to a PDP national leader from the state.

    Curiously, immediately they were suspended by INEC, PDP twisted the facts and smuggled a story into the media, that they were suspended for rigging for APC. INEC was forced to categorically deny this and make public the real reasons they were suspended.

    Their suspension was meant to be an in-house affair, now it has been blown open and all eyes are now on INEC. They thought they were working for the PDP, but now they have been ditched and their career is on the line.

    The same applies to some misguided civil servants, especially two permanent secretaries and a director who took on the garb of partisanship during the election, throwing decency and all rules in the book to the gutters. They were openly campaigning for the candidate of the PDP and were seen distributing his vests. One even stood for him as a party agent. It is the height of insanity for civil servants to be so brazenly partisan.

    These civil servants naively believed the assurances of the PDP that they had wrapped up the election and at worst, the result would be written and announced from Abuja. To their regret and eternal shame, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola won in a landslide. The affected civil servants have since been thrown into panic and unspeakable grief after Omisore lost the election. They cannot face their colleagues again and are sorely afraid of the inevitable consequences of their indiscretion.

    The just retribution that awaits these ignoble conducts are a good lesson for those who may be tempted to align with the devil at the expense of professionalism and integrity.

     

    • Remi Adebowale,

    Osogbo, Osun State

     

  • Still on our endangered educational sector

    SIR: The suggestion made by one Muyiwa Idowu in The Nation of September 11, drew my attention. It was captioned ‘Still on 2014 WAEC result’. He recommended preliminary exams  in SSII  before  WAEC examination  as one solution to  reduce,  if  not  stop  the  recurring  decimal  of  mass failures  in  the  exam. This idea would  have  been feasible  if  Nigeria were a  bit  a  better  nation  than  it  is now.

    In Nigeria, what is practiced today is not fit to be called education. The educational system is in doldrums. This is  because  the  love  most  Nigerians  have  for  proper  education can  be  likened  to  the  to  one  that  exists between  a  cat  and mouse. It is  not  unusual  to  see  fungus-like schools  sprouting in  every  cranny  of  the  nation. They are owned  by  business  men who  view  the  so called  schools  as  another  profit making enterprise. Like saprophytes,  these  schools  carry out  their  job  of  educational  decay  religiously  and efficiently. These proprietors most of whom are educated do not see beyond the need to make profit. As a result, they go  to the  extent  of  cooking  their  students  result, there by misleading the  ignorant  parents and  also  the  children  who  believe  they have  performed  well and grow complacent. Some  of  these  victims might  realize  too  late  that  they have  actually  learnt  nothing when  they  meet  their  counterparts  from  better  schools.

    Like the  mythological  Pandora’s box  that  did  not  stop  at  one evil, when  such  schools  are  faced  with  standard exams  like  WAEC or  JAMB, they  know  that  their  half-baked students  will  inevitably  fail, since  it  is  garbage–in-garbage-out  all  the  way,  particularly as  you  cannot  teach  a man  to  use  his left  hand in  old  age. In the  effort  to  salvage  the  school  from the  likely  prospect  of  losing  customers, they  resort  to  all forms  of  vices, examination  malpractice  being  the  most prominent.

    Even in  the  most  unlikely  as  common  entrance  exams  and  junior WAEC , the  rate  of  malpractice  is  appalling.

    Going back to Muyiwa’s proposition, where are the assurances that  preliminary  exams  in  SSII  would  not  be infected  with  the  ravaging  expo virus? What  of  mock examinations  that  are  supposedly  taken  to  prepare  the students? What  of  that  tentative  feeling  created  by  majority of  the  students  that  they  would  never  be  able  to  pass standard  exams unaided?

    Unless stringent  measures  are  taken  to  properly  accredit  and monitor schools, and  to  curtail  the  already  acute  academic decadence, we might  as  well  form  a  procession and  drop  wreaths at  the  sepulchre  of  quality  education.

     

    • Akunna James-Ibe,

    Imo State.

     

  • Why APC is best for Igbos

    SIR: As the general election is fast drawing near, a lot of dust is being raised by different political players and parties. All the six geo-political zones of the country are hosting the political rallies of one party or the other and the cacophony of noise is making reasonable assessment difficult especially for the real interest of the people.

    Igbos are concentrated in the five South-east states of Abia, Ebonyi, Anambra, Enugu and Imo. All the South-east states have been governed by the People Democratic Party (PDP) from 1999 until 2006 when Peter Obi of Anambra came in through the All People Grand Alliance (APGA). APGA extended its hold into Imo State through Rochas Okorocha in 2011. But as APGA has woefully failed to identify what Igbo interests are, not to talk about championing them. Okorocha and a faction of APGA defected to the APC. The PDP has held on to the three states of Abia, Enugu and Ebonyi since 1999.  The PPA that ruled Abia State between 2003 and 2007 was just another face of the PDP.

    The lie was that the Igbo has to be in the PDP to be fully integrated in the mainstream of Nigeria politics and thereby have the opportunity of taking a shot at the nation presidency which has for the 53 years of post-colonial Nigeria eluded them, if not for the ceremonial Presidency of late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and the six months of late Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi as military head of state.  A most unreasonable agreement was mouthed during 2011 election campaign by self-minded politicians that supporting President Jonathan will pave way for an Igbo man to contest come 2015.  With 2015 in close view, the goal post has been shifted again.  It is only the discerning patriotic Igbo leaders like Governor Rochas Okorocha, Senator Chris Ngige, and few others that are able to see through the facade of lies. As it is now, the Igbo are at the greatest disadvantage in the PDP contraption and for as long as they remain therein.

    If the South-west, North-west, North-east and North-central see the sense in joining the APC, only short-sightedness would debar the entire South-east from embracing the APC. The South-south rode on their back and will lose nothing if Igbo misses it again or forever. The greatest leader of the Igbo, late Dim Chwukuemeka Ojukwu, would have so directed, if alive today.

    Simple calculation of another four years for President Jonathan, followed by eight years for anybody from the North will mean 12 years of waiting for the ultimate South-east dream. But with the APC looking set to put a northerner as candidate if even for two terms, the coast will be clear for a candidate from the zone.

    To tell the hand truth, come 2015, it is either the Igbos vote APC and position themselves for 2023 or vote PDP and push their chance to 2027.

    • Wale Lagoke,

    Ibadan

     

  • Needless feud between NERC and EMSL

    SIR: The acrimonious relationship between the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Electricity Management Services Limited (EMSL) is indeed unfortunate, a needles rivalry between sister agencies. Nigerians got wind of it at the public hearing on the Bill for the establishment of the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Authority (NEMSA) organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Power on Wednesday, July 16. The Bill seeks to grant EMSL the authority to enforce Technical and Safety Standards, Inspection, Testing and Certification in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry among numerous other mandates.

    Those who couched the draft bill must have relied on the transfer of the duties and responsibilities of Electrical Inspectorate Services (EIS) of the Federal Ministry of Power to EMSL. The initiators of the bill, Senator Phillip Aduda and Hon. Patrick A. Ikhariale believes that the strengthening of enforcement, standards, safety and certification of operations in the sector, hitherto performed by a mere department in the ministry of power, ought to devolve to a new agency created by law.

    This view is not shared by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) which sees the bill as derogating from its sole duties of regulating the power sector.  It contended that the bill would be at complete variance with the ESPR Act 2005.

    The two agencies should be mindful of the ripple effect this war of words would create on the psyche of potential investors in the power sector. The clash and struggle for responsibilities is uncalled for at the moment. The public war of words should not undermine the essence of the power sector reforms which established the two agencies in the first place. Both were established to work in synergy, cooperation and unrestricted interface to further the interest of the sector. In fact, only robust collaborative effort and positive interface can speed up attainments of the goals of the power sector reforms.

    The blame for the ruckus should be placed at the door steps of the National Assembly. The National Assembly ought to have done its home work on the bill to remove possible areas of conflict and overlap. One expected the National Assembly to be at home with previous laws they passed and the limit of their operations.

     

    • Sunday Onyemaechi Eze

    Samaru, Zaria

     

  • Grant autonomy to traffic police

    SIR: I wish to express my views on the abnormalities going on, the descrimination and injustices being meted to officers of the Motor Traffic Department of the Nigeria Police.

    Much as we salute the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan as visibly seen in his efforts of at alleviating poverty, the Motor Traffic Department has been left behind;  indeed, the organisation is in bondage.

    Officers of the organisation are denied due allowances, motivation and promotion. This continues to dampen their morale. This writer enlisted into the section seven years ago, preciesly in August 2007. Despite serving the organisation dilligently and with humility, I have not enjoyed any promotion. This is in spite of winning laurels for my command as a member of police football machine during the period.

    Besides, I have served as a station writer for a year and a traffic control officer for two years. These two are just a few of the duties performed by many a traffic warden without being given the necessary allowances and promotion by the police authorities. It is like the section does not exist.

    Police authorities continue to discriminate against traffic wardens, seeing them as lesser police officers or attachees with no legal authority or autonomy to carry out their duties. The result is that they are neither respected by the police nor appreciated by the public.

    As if the situation was not bad enough,the police stopped the recruitment of traffic warden officers since 2008 hence reducing the manpower of the section making the workload more tedious.

    Presently, the traffic warden uniforms can no longer be provided neither can it be found in the market to buy.

    Recently,  the promotion list of men and officers of the force on general duties enlisted between 2007 to 2010 was released, but alas, those of the traffic warden fro the same period were not  released without any justifiable reason.

    It is imperative that the police authorities explain to Nigerians why the traffic wardens are denied their rights like hazard  and welfare allowances. The traffic wardens are neglected, deprived and marginalised despite the hazards we encounter in the course of performing our duties.

    A quick way to address these injstices and bring the abnormalities to an end is to grant the organisation total autonomy from the Nigerian police force.This will not only help to boost the

    morale of the officers and men of the section, it will bring in efficiency, smooth running of the organisation and enhance the nation’s growth.

    It is to be noted that the men and officers enlisted into the department are talented, able-bodied and educated as well as civilised enough to contribute their quota to the growth of Nigeria and the

    world at large.

    Autonomy will also go a long way to create more jobs for the army of unemployed graduates.  Above all, autonomy to this organisation is the right thing to do; it will help to write the name of this administration in gold.

    • Agboola Alabi,

    Ilorin, Kwara State

  • Youths and the change we want

    SIR:  Some believe that the tragedy of Africa and Nigeria in particular is the exclusion of excellence and preference for mediocrity. This school of thought equally believes that the country can be saved by gravitating to the centre and engage issues of institutions by changing the mindset. It argues further that to expect God to do something while we don’t do anything is not a belief but superstition. Mass action by the people brings about change, not by writing commentaries on papers and radio. When truth overtakes falsehood, the people will celebrate. The danger society faces is when good men leave the game of politics for the bad men and society suffers.

    People stand up for the general good else they bequeath a hopeless legacy for future generations. People learn how to organize and not to agonize in building new political platform. Often times they have to challenge the status quo by pouring into the street and demand for change.

    For the young ones according to Franz Fanon, ‘that future will not forgive them if they refuse to fight injustice by mute impassibility’. The young and active young of societies of the world over are dynamic change agents. They need alternative political platforms provided by mass action to decide their destiny. The stark realities of neo-liberal capitalism have continually denied them the empowerment and a voice in the political space.

    In the vortex of the current economic order, what the Nigerian youths can do differently is challenge the status quo by taking up leadership positions. The must cue into the wave of change as the baton of leadership changes hand as it is the trend in the world today. Youth as a period of life is not an opportunity to be wasteful, parasitic and unproductive. There are hopes of a lot more for the youths of every nation to advance the cause of change to make it forward to greatness.

    The Nigerian youths are advised to think literally out of the box. We live in a fast pace and challenging word. We must not be doing things in the old ways and expect positive results. We can make that dream happen if only everyone goes out to propagate the ideas, values, visions and the desired energy. There is urgent need for the youths to take the National Assembly up on the constitutional impediments culminating in political exclusion. The reality is that those who were active political actors in the Second Republic are still much occupying the political space. This was evident in the low representation of youths in the just concluded National Conference.

    The youths also affirm that some of them are often used by the political elites to perpetuate rigging of elections, constitute militants and fundamentalist insurgents. These are systematic regime tendencies designed and stage managed by the status quo which goes beyond protecting votes at the polling centres by voters. The youths are admonished to play the game to rule their destiny. To pay the price for change and stand up to take power as the old will not give up easily without a fight.

    • Com. Ogbu Alexander Ameh,

     Abuja

  • Entrepreneurship, the missing factor

    SIR: The grief and fear of low or inconsistency of pension and retirement benefits, the terror of not having steady salary and other domestic challenges mostly lead our retirees to a short life span after retirement.

    More than 90% of those that tried to start up a business usually fails because of lack of financial literacy. Our country is blessed with variety of natural resources.  We are front runners in the continent as an economic power. We are the giant of Africa; we have several opportunities at our disposal.

    Universities and colleges taught us to become good employees so that we can have good and secure jobs but nothing is taught on  entrepreneurship. Although most universities are trying to bring entrepreneurship courses into our curriculum but  they are entirely different from what it is in real sense.

    Nigerian government has failed to provide employment for its citizens; the rate of unemployment continues to rise as new entrants graduate from our institutions with no certainty of having employment.

    No graduate has to die seeking for employment . Let us seek entrepreneurship education so that we can exploit the God-given gifts our dear country is endowed with.

    The sky should be our beginning towards making our country a better one .

    • Ahmad Shehu Kano,

    Kano State

  • Lamido’s stride in Jigawa

    When Jigawa State was created in 1991 with other states in the country, much was expected from the infant state to achieve the progress to the delight of the founding fathers of the state.

    The state was credited with past administrators who did their best to ensure development was evenly spread to all nooks and crannies of the state.

    When Governor Sule Lamido assumed the leadership of state in 2007, the state was in the news as a state where the then governor ruled it from outside the country or being a state that imported various items that had no direct impact on  the ordinary people of the state.

    The state that is blessed with resources to transform the state in the whole northern part of the country, did not utilise its full potential until the current regime of Governor Sule Lamido came to power.

    Many Nigerian past leaders were in past invited to inaugurate one project or another. What they saw with the transformation of Jigawa State under Gov. Sule Lamido with prudent management of resources made them to praise his efforts and called on other states in the country to emulate his qualities of bringing the much needed development to their people.

    The development of Jigawa State under the administration of Gov. Sule Lamido could be likened to the kind of transformation going on in Lagos and Kano states, hence the call by some people in the country that other states that are not performing optimally should send their team of expert to states like Jigawa and Kano and study how development with little resources that they receive from federation account and the internal generated revenue should be used for the overall development of their people who elected them into offices.

    We know of many states in the country that receive higher allocation from federation accounts and with buoyant IGR and yet the development in their states is not anything to write about. Gov. Sule Lamido two term in office has been able to turn around the socio-economic status of the entire Jigawa State that made the entire people of Jigawa State to be proud and be  associated the administration of Gov. Sule Lamido laudable infrastructure development he is able to bequeath the people of the state.

    The celebration marking the creation of any state created is done to show case the giant stride recorded while in office.

    The good people of Jigawa State would continue to remember the

    administration of Gov. Sule Lamido because it’s the only state in the country which always celebrates the creation of the states with the inauguration of various projects that have touched the lives of the ordinary people of the state.

    The airport which was constructed by the administration of Gov. Sule Lamido has been described as of the best airport in the country and this prompted the national hajj commission to flag off this year’s hajj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.

    The physical development and other strides noticed in Jigawa State was made possible by the focus, visionary  purposeful leadership exhibited by Gov. Lamido in leaving enduring legacy for the people to remember him after office.

    We hope other states in the country would live up to expectation of their people by providing them with dividend of democracy like what we witness now going on in Jigawa State.

    Bala Nayashi

    No 1 Yashi Area

    Lokoja

  • The Ribadu debacle

    Have you seen the deceit President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP have come to personify? Nuhu Ribadu is their latest trophy. They promised him the party’s ticket, and by extension, the Governor’s Lodge. Now they have thoroughly rubbished him, they have exposed Ribadu as an opportunist, how he’ll live with that is left for him to fashion out.

    But one thing is certain, he has been wounded and from now on, very few will attach any importance to whatever he says or does. Anyone investing any trust in the president and his band in the PDP does so at his or her own risk.

    By Simon Oladapo,

    Ogbomoso, Oyo State.

  • Ban candidates who run from public debates

    In advanced democracies and in modern trend of politicking in civilised nations of the world, it has become a norm for politicians seeking public office through election to submit themselves to public debates during which voters get to know them better before election.  However, this is not the case in our country today, where impunity, undue strong belief in money politics and lately, the newly introduced poverty-induced stomach politics through which voters are being enticed by rice and salt all in a bid to make them have a temporary satisfaction and relief from hunger as against a long term satisfaction to be derived from good governance that will in the end provide them with adequate food through election of the right candidate for public office, encourage and embolden our politicians to run away from public debates, forgetting that public debate is a necessary and an important tool and medium that will enable the electorate to know the level of preparedness, suitability, seriousness and eligibility of party candidates who aspire to hold any political office beginning with the presidency down to councillorship.

    It would be recalled that during a much-awaited TV public debate that was organised for all the governorship candidates in Osun State for the July 30, 2014 election, only the candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC) was seated at the public debate for the crucial election with all other contenders disappointingly not present.

    It is high time all politicians embraced the use of public debate as a veritable public opinion tool that will ultimately guide the electorate in choosing right candidates for public offices as this is a stepping stone towards achievement of purposeful, serious and good governance in our country.  Any public office seeker who has no skeleton in the cupboard should not be afraid in subjecting himself or herself to public debate and since all the processes that lead to electing any public office holder in an election enjoy the funding of public funds and not that of political parties and their candidates, any candidate seeking any elective office in a country that shies away from public debate or radio phone-in programme for purpose of election should be disqualified from contesting in the election for which the public debate or a radio programme has been organised in the first place. There is need for immediate enactment of a law by the National Assembly or an act by state assemblies that will back up a last-minute disqualification of any candidate who shuns pre-election public debate or radio-phone-in programme in this country commencing with the forthcoming 2015 elections in our country.

     

    Odunayo Joseph

    Publicity Secretary, Lagos/Ogun Branch of Okun Dev. Association

    odunayo_joseph2006@yahoo.com