The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • That extortion by Aero Contractors  

    Sir: I wish to draw the attention of the Consumer Protection Agency to the continuous rip-off of customers being perpetrated by Aero Contractors airline.

    Aero Contractors has this obnoxious charge of N160 per booking if the passenger is to receive notification of cancelled or rescheduled flights. Is this fair?

    From what we all know, flights have both fixed departure date and time and if an airline like Aero Contractors decides on their own to either reschedule or cancel the flight under whatever guise, must the passenger pay for this?

    The issue of the N160 for text message not being compulsory does not arise as without paying this, the passenger will never get to be informed of the flight change whereas flight cancellations or rescheduling comes at great inconvenience to the passenger.

    I expect the Consumer Protection Agency to not only get Aero Contractors to stop the practice, but to refund to all passengers the money so illegally extorted.

     

     • Donas Ofoka,

    Lagos

     

  • Plight of house-helps in Nigeria

    SIR: Girl Child Rights have hitherto been ignored across the country. Rapid population growth characterized by poverty and food insecurity has resulted in demand continuous for child labour to enhance agricultural productivity and fortify domestic services.

    The Rights of most Nigeria Children are far from being respected despite the country’s signing to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child since 1999 and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child that Nigeria signed in 2001.

    As confirmed by UNICEF, trafficking of girl children for the purpose of domestic service, prostitution and other forms of exploitative labour remains widespread in Nigeria. In Nigeria, hapless young women and girls in the age bracket of 10-21 years have fallen victims of human trafficking as they are deceptively procured by some barons through their Nigerian agents who traffic them to different countries abroad where they suffer sexual exploitation, emotional distress, disorientation, depression and sometimes death.

    Despite the fact that the Child Rights Acts was specific on rape and other forms of abuses directed at girl children, cases of sexual harassment against girls as domestic servants remain rampant in Nigeria.

    Instead of moral support, proper up-binging, good education and respect for Child Rights, thousands of girl children are enslaved by parents or guardians to engage as domestic workers or forced to early marriage across the country, primarily to mitigate socio-economic challenges facing their families as against AU Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights which promotes right to live and personal integrity. Section 33 and 35 of 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria promotes rights to live and personal liberty respectively; same with 2003 International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions on Child Rights.

    Poverty, high level of illiteracy, existing socio-cultural resistance, inadequate awareness, have threatened efforts to address challenges facing girl child in the country. Consequently, girls are paid maximum of N10, 000 monthly for domestic services. This is not isolated from unwarranted utilisation and abuses through frequent beating and raping by their employers.

    Experiences have revealed that many households in Nigeria are incapable of caring for another man’s child; they employ the services of house-helps who they (employers) subject to horrible experiences.

    There have several reported cases of dehumanisation, abuse, rapping and violation launched by employers against their house-helps across the country. These include infliction of injurious scars in their body; over-utilisation through restless and long working hours; regular panicking arising from frantic state of mind; and sometimes, death.

    It is time to demand for full implementation by all levels of governments, various regulations/laws backing child rights including access to education, to encourage and re-install personal liberty and dignity of girl child. There is need for concerted efforts by all level of governments, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), civil society, Community Based Organisations, Faith Based Organisations to effectively combat human trafficking scourge and abuses against girl child.

    Strengthening Nigeria’s criminal justice system to checkmate abuses and violation against girl child has become imperative.  Creation of massive employment opportunities and workable poverty alleviation structures across the country will help to avert girl child labour and early marriage for a living.

    All level of governments should improve access to education and eliminating gender gaps in education, proper individual orientation, mass public awareness and sensitization on the provisions of the Child Right Act. Also it is important to institute effective rehabilitation, recovery and reintegration programmes through medical, psychological and legal services for the victims of child labour, sexual abuse and human trafficking.

    • Tola Ojo

    Wuye, Abuja.

  • Gani: Five years after

    SIR: Tomorrow September 5, it will be exactly five years ago that Chief Gani Fawehinmi, popularly called Gani by all, died as a result of complications from Lung Cancer. He died at the age of 71 on September 5, 2009.
    We remember with sweet memory five years after the exit of an uncommon Nigerian who bestrode the nation as a colossus that he was. We celebrate his life and times because of his unflinching love for the oppressed, the cheated, the persecuted and the vulnerable who he virtually donated his entire life to serve at very high risk. For Gani’s loyalty to the cause of the poor and the struggle for a better, corruption-free Nigeria where no one is oppressed, successive government and the hated political class in Nigeria violently abridged his right through several illegal detentions, imprisonment, physical attacks, abductions and assassination attempts. Yet Gani remained absolutely undaunted till death in his peaceful and selfless course for the defence of human rights, freedom, democracy and good governance.
    As a radical legal luminary, and an acknowledged Senior Advocate of the Masses, Gani used law as a weapon to fight for social justice, equal rights, democracy and good governance. He would always be remembered for his decades of free legal services to the poor, through which many oppressed Nigerians including students, workers, peasants and artisans had unfettered access to justice.
    Perhaps Gani’s most remarkable among his countless remarkable feats in using the instrument of law for social change was the legal victory he secured at the Supreme Court for the registration of the National Conscience Party after a legendary legal battle with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). That singular judgment obtained from the highest court in Nigeria has helped to widen the vista of democracy, freedom of association, popular participation and legally simplified the formation of political parties in Nigeria as against the previous illegal hard rules and impediments set by INEC.
    On this occasion of the fifth anniversary of his death, the best way to remember Gani, the social crusader and man of the masses, is for all his ideological soul-mates to redouble our commitment to the struggle for social justice, human rights, democracy and good governance in Nigeria, the course that Gani Faweninmi lived and died for fearlessly.
    • Adeola Soetan
    Ijaye, Lagos

  • No to ‘stomach infrastructure’

    SIR: One addition to our national political lexicon that arose from the conduct of the Ekiti governorship election is ‘stomach infrastructure’ by which it is meant that people would rather have national or state resources shared into their private pockets than have them put to use in the provision of infrastructure in road construction, building of school blocks, provision of healthcare infrastructure, water and electricity.

    Nothing exemplifies this new trend in Nigerian politics than the recent movements by notable personages like former Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Tom Ikimi and the former boss of the anti-corruption agency, EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party. It is quite regrettable that the pursuit of self-interest has become the prime motivating factor for our political leaders and office holders. It is on record that Ikimi, as a national leader in the defunct ACN, played a leading role in the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He remained a leading light for the new party until he failed to secure the position of national chairman at the party’s National Convention. That fact of his inability to realise his political ambition made him dump the APC for PDP.

    No doubt, Chief Ikimi has, by his decision to decamp from the APC, left room for Nigerians to question his credentials as a leader and democrat. What manner of man is a leader who would leave the party he co-founded because he failed to gain a party office?

    Is it that the pursuit of one’s belle   overrides the pursuit of the general good of the people? Is it not evident that some Nigerian politicians, who have often been characterised as selfish, self-centred and corrupt, are living out this tag?

    Nuhu Ribadu on his part decamped to the PDP to seek nomination to contest the Adamawa governorship election scheduled for November this year. All Nigerians know that Ribadu contested the 2011 presidential election on the platform of the ACN. What will Ribadu do if he fails to secure the PDP ticket to the contest the Adamawa state governorship election? If he gets the ticket but fails to win the governorship, will he next seek the chairmanship of his local government council? True and committed democrats are not known to jump from one party to the other at the slighted rumbling in their belle.

    The old order during which public funds were routinely siphoned into private pockets to the detriment of the people is over. Physical infrastructural development in roads, healthcare delivery, education, water and light, transportation, agriculture, employment and human capital development must now take centre stage in governance and the management of public funds. This is as it should be.

    As the elections of 2015 approach, the basis for the choice of office holders cannot be the ability to distribute rice, beans and cash. It must be based on the credibility of those seeking to hold office on our behalf. Those who decamp to other parties simply because they fail to secure tickets to contest should be denied the privilege by their new parties especially if they had held political offices in the past. The fact of their inability to secure tickets casts a slur on their integrity and should be asked to stay home.

     

    • Nasamu Jacobson,

    Benin City, Edo State.

     

  • Ebola: African scientists must wake up

    SIR: We have been told that the federal government requested for the experimental drugs being developed by the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention for the treatment of Ebola victims in Nigeria. But the Americans rejected giving the country drugs for now on the grounds that it is only an experimental drug. Whenever the United States decides to accede to Nigeria’s request, the Centre for Disease Control should demand from American virologists the transparency of their work because US often uses its aids to attain its own interests.

    Now, US has dismissed claims that Nano–silver has the capacity to prevent the deadly Ebola virus shortly after the minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, announced that patients in Lagos would be treated with the experimental drug.

    African scientists should directly participate in researches about Ebola prevention and cure in order to checkmate any evil schemes of foreign scientists. The current Ebola outbreak has killed over 1000 people and portends bad omen for Africa. Officially there is no vaccine to prevent it yet. But it is known that the Pentagon actively works in this sphere, and some international experts doubt that if the US finds the vaccine against Ebola, it would readily help African countries with it without any strings attached.

     

    • Steve Mohammed

    Sapele, Delta State

     

  • Whither Transformation Agenda in South-west?

    SIR: Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, a group spearheading the second term campaign for President Goodluck Jonathan held its South-west rally in Ibadan on Saturday August 23, and appealed to the people to give President Jonathan their support in the 2015 election in order to continue his transformation agenda in the country.

    While I see nothing wrong for a group to canvass for any candidate and equally agree that second term ambition of President Jonathan is within the ambience of his fundamental human rights, what I detest is the false impression about non-existent transformation in the South-west, which was the kernel of the campaign by TAN.

    Until the appointments of some PDP stalwarts of Yoruba stock into key positions in the government of President Jonathan, the cry of marginalization of the region was deafening. The socio cultural group, Afenifere had to show its displeasure about the issue by sending a delegation to the president to protest the anomaly. The obvious marginalization was presumed to be the result of the poor showing of the PDP in the 2011 elections in the South-west. However, it will be the height of deceit to now say, as the stalwarts of the ruling party did at the rally, that President Jonathan has transformed the South-west and should be allowed to continue the agenda by voting en masse for him next year.

    As a matter of fact, it was an act of omission on the part of the President to marginalise the South-west because the people, except in Osun State, voted overwhelmingly for him in the presidential election. The rejection of the party at other elections showed how unacceptable its candidates were. With the support given to the President then, one expected the president to give South-west its dues in terms of appointments into strategic positions, and in his transformation agenda. However, the reverse was the case.

    As should be expected, none of the stalwarts of the PDP, save the minister of state for Federal Capital Territory, Jumoke Akinjide was able to spell out President Jonathan’s transformation feats in the South-west, which include rehabilitation of Lagos/Ibadan, Sagamu/Ore expressways and fixing the dilapidated railways to standard gauge.

    No new means of transportation was embarked upon by the federal government but rehabilitation of the existing means. Even, the most vital road linking the South with the North that is, Ibadan/Ilorin expressway, began in 2001 has been abandoned. One even expects that with the rapport between the Ondo State government and the federal government, the work on Ibadan/Akure expressway stopped at Osun State end of the road would have been contracted out. Again, the reverse is the case. Of the seven point programmes in the Transformation Agenda which include employment, power generation, roads, economic prosperity, education etc, in what area can we say the agenda has impacted on the South-west?

    Obviously, there are imperfections in the projects embarked upon by the South-west governments under the opposition APC and the Labour Party; the fact of the matter is that they are the architects of any transformation being witnessed in the zone, and these are impactful. The day is still young for the president to demonstrate that he needs the support of South-west by releasing fund for the completion of Oyo/Ogbomoso section of Ibadan/Ilorin expressway, the 132 KVA project in Ogbomoso, and other various projects that require federal government intervention that dot the region etc. This is the only way to win the hearts of the South-west people and not through deceptive means which TAN and South-west PDP now use.

    • Adewuyi Adegbite

    Apake, Ogbomoso.

     

  • Akunyili: Best female president Nigeria never had

    SIR: Honour, discipline, incorruptibility, patriotism and courage all ran, simultaneously, in her DNA, yes in Dora Nkem Akunyili. Current female world leaders like Angela Merkel of Germany, Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, Christina de Kirchner of Argentina and Helen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia are perhaps no match for her in all the indices. If all were individual sporting events in an Olympic Games, she would stand in pole position to clinch all gold medals!

    Even the amazons that have come and gone would freeze with envy wherever they are, either here with us or in the great beyond. The combination of modern world’s first female head of government, Sirimavo Bandaranaike and her daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka would have been hard put to it to match Dora’s grit and guts. The first and only woman in the world to defeat an incumbent president, Violeta Chamorro of Nicaragua would have bowed before her in the command of national and international attention.

    The “Woman of the Millennium” after whom the largest university in the world was named, Indira Gandhi of India would have hardly ranked above Nkem in the command of mass appeal. Longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th Century, Margaret Thatcher and the grandmother of the Jewish people who nonetheless was “the best man in government,” Golda Meir of Israel (both of them custodians of the iconic title “Iron Lady”) would have taken from her priceless lessons in fearlessness and willpower. The other “Iron Lady” and charismatic symbol of woman empowerment, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan would have found her a difficult nut to crack in the deployment of initiative and demonstration of astuteness.

    Time Person of the Year 1986 who stood out as the most prominent figure of the year’s People Power Revolution and country’s first President without any political experience, Corazon Acquino of the Philippines would not have outshined Akunyili in the ability to surmount and survive persistent attempts by evil plotters. The other Filipino amazon and Professor of Economics, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, would not have outclassed her in erudition and scholarship. All these women of  “timber and calibre” who had at one time or the other held the destiny of their nations in their tender feminine hands would have had to be at their very best to match the moral, intellectual and administrative credentials of the best female president Nigeria never had.

    As Director-General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) she did what any head of government anywhere in the world, armed with the requisite political will, was supposed to be doing in their respective villas. Her inimitable courage in confronting even ruthless political god-fathers was a study in the ultimate in manliness.

    Nigeria’s own “best man in government” laid down a legacy for reigning and aspiring leaders at all levels in Nigeria and beyond by fearlessly confronting challenges and checkmating problems she did not create. Auntie Dora did not create the problem of fake drugs. That problem, most probably, had been there before she was born. But with her courageous and decisive actions, she demonstrated beyond question that if her duties on her beat were all about solving problems she created, there would be no need for her services in the first place.

    Her DNA never synchronized with that of Nigeria’s political leaders who, reveling with flamboyance in criminal shamelessness, make curious and mind-boggling but heartily-embraced defections to soft-landing. While they play politics of no permanent friends and foes but permanent self-interest, she dedicated her entire life to permanent national interest. Her only enemies were the criminals and crime barons whose evil and blood “business” she terrorized.

    Dora Akunyili came, saw and conquered! She even conquered cancer and death, succumbing only to the conquest of her Creator, who, in His omniscience, only called her home before she would be done in by a nation most given to rubbishing her finest characters. She could have lost any election only because the country she found herself in was not ready for men and women of her tribe. Humanity has suffered no loss because incredibly virtuous mortals like her, by general rule, hardly ever live long.

    • Dele Akinola,

    Ikorodu, Lagos

     

  • Reminder to Governor Ajimobi on bursary

    SIR: The decision of Governor Abiola Ajimobi to resuscitate the hitherto moribund Oyo State Scholarship Board was greeted with warm applause from all quarters. Many considered this a good take-off for a leader who is passionate about education and human capital development. It was therefore not surprising when the board delivered its first assignment few months after its inauguration by releasing substantial amount of money for the payment of 2011/2012 Bursary and Scholarship Awards to Oyo State indigent but brilliant students in tertiary institutions. Therefore when the second edition of the awards was advertised in 2013, many students applied, including the ‘Thomases’ who ignored the first edition. Not even the N1,500 application fee could prevent students from applying; many considered it a profitable investment, having weighed the potential benefit of N100,000. Fear however heightened when their hope failed to materialize almost 11 months after the application.

    It is quite understandable that scholarships and bursaries are not rights but privileges. Nevertheless, the plight of the indigent students should not be taken for granted. Almost all tertiary institutions have begun 2013/2014 academic session while Oyo State government is yet to pay 2012/2013 bursary and scholarship which it promised. Majority of the affected students are of the opinion that the payment is being unnecessarily delayed.

    Governor Ajimobi may not be Jesus Christ of Nazareth, neither is he the biblical Simon of Cyrene or Joseph of Arimathaea, but this burden he has already placed on himself must be delivered without failure or further deferment. This is not an effort to malign the incumbent administration, but a passionate appeal to the governor to bear the weight of his highly extolled office in ensuring prompt disbursement of the fund.

    • Kunle Oguntegbe

    Ibadan

     

  • …And Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed too

    SIR: We the 2012/2013 law school set wish to use this medium to appeal to our amiable Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed to as a matter of urgency order the payment of our law school scholarship. We understand that the said scholarship has been approved by his Excellency and the continue delay in payment is causing excruciating and untold hardship to those affected.

    Senior Special Assistant (media and communication) to the Governor Muyideen Akorede had in a news article in Nigerian Tribune of March 31, assured the 2012/2013 set of the government readiness to pay all eligible students once the 2014 budget was signed into law.  Incidentally, the budget was signed into law that very day of the publication, and for more than five months after the budget has been signed into law and almost one year after the 2012/2013 have been called to the Bar, the 2012/2013 set have not been paid.

    As part of efforts to unravel the reason(s) for the delay, we met with the chairman of Kwara State Schorlaship Board, Hon Isiaka Mogaji, who also confirmed that the government has approved the scholarship but added that the Commissioner of Finance is yet to kick-start the process of disbursement. This is the point we are at the moment. All our attempts to reach the Commissioner of Finance have proved abortive.

    We are aware that it is only Kwara State that has not settled the 2012/2013 Law School Scholarship of all the states in the North-central Nigeria, and we are not happy with this development.  Giving scholarship to law students every year has become a tradition all over the country as part of government’s palliative measure to their indigenes in the Nigerian law school, whose fee is unbearably excessive. Some sold their belongings; many are currently in huge financial debts because of their inability to repay the loans they secured to pay law school fees. We have suffered enough. Please, help us.

    Kwara State is one of the few states in the country that is proud to have highest number of lawyers and this is partly because of the government desire to assist its indigenes in the payment of Law School fee, which many of us have come to appreciate.

    We appeal to our amiable Governor Ahmed who we strongly believe is a lover of education and very hardworking to address this issue and to ensure that the 2012/2013 set are paid once and for all.

    • Alatise Taofeeq Nasir,

    Ilorin, Kwara State

  • On Abuja’s land swap policy

    Sir; When Senator Bala Mohammed was appointed Minister in April 2010, he told FCT residents that the issue of infrastructural development was dear to his heart. He promised that comprehensive development of the city in terms of basic infrastructure will be his key focus. He also spoke of how he would achieve this in both the city centre and the satellite towns.

    It wasn’t long after the minister settled to the job that it dawned on him the enormity of the task of developing Abuja’s‘ infrastructure. As Nigerians trooped into the city in their thousands, demand for basic amenities like road networks, water supply, electricity and other infrastructure rose geometrically; on the other hand, the supply of revenue for these projects remained static with the usual budgetary allocation and other vague sources of fund like the internally generated revenue.

    Four years into his administration as FCT Minister, opinions remain divided over what he has really been able to achieve. But one certainly cannot take away the fact that Senator Mohammed has been able to bring to fore some innovations like the land swap policy that pundits are now hailing as the magic wand that has the potential to actually unlock Abuja’s development.

    In the reasoning of the minister, efforts to develop Abuja have not been so pleasant because previous administrations did not give the issue of infrastructural development the desired attention. As it were, previous ministers were allocating plots of land to Nigerians without due consideration for infrastructure and this meant that the allottees merely kept these land titles in their briefcases unsure of what to do with it. Of course, the absence of infrastructure did not also help matters as you do not expect one to go and develop a plot of land in a forest somewhere without consideration for access road, security, electricity and water supply.

    This was why the minister came up with the the innovative land swap policy whereby investors with the financial and technical capacity would invest in the infrastructural development and then take land in return as a substitute to the money invested.

    The investors are expected to develop these districts in line with the master plan and in line with the model of other districts developed.

    So far, the FCT administration has succeeded in introducing this model in such new districts of Katampe, Jahi, Wuye, Maitama extension, Goodluck District and Kagini. These six districts are currently witnessing unprecedented development and transformation which has never happened before in the Federal Capital Territory.

    As the minister stated recently, this approach to infrastructural development is expected to attract foreign direct investments to the tune of N3.2 trillion, which is quite commendable, being the first of its kind in the entire West African region.

     

    •Danladi Akilu,

    Durumi II District, Abuja