The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Super Eagles: The coach we do not need

    SIR: Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi, might have effectively made a tacit admission: his February, 2013 African Cup of Nations victory came only through sheer luck and providence. He came on board in November, 2011 promoting the usual Nigerian football musical chart-buster starring the weather-beaten title track, “Building a New Team.” As Nigerians eagerly expected the emergence of a formidable squad, his team remained “work in progress.” Almost three years on, the music has not changed. After crashing out of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, he described his collection as “a very young team.” Only sheer luck and providence could have, 16 months ago, given a title as big and competitive as AFCON to a team which even today still remains a young, new work-in-progress over other teams that were not only good and established but also solid, compact and ready.

    FIFA, the world’s football governing body, never expects a young team at the World Cup. That is why the Under-17 championship was put in place. The world does not expect a new team at the highly competitive global show. The Under-20 tournament has been institutionalized for such teams. The football family does not deploy so much time and resources just to watch works-in-progress in action. That is why nations have the option of not registering to participate in the competition. Administrators, organizers, analysts, commentators, enthusiasts, die-hards and fee-paying spectators converge at multi-billion dollars state-of-the-art stadia, sports studios, viewing centres and family lounges to watch a football world war being prosecuted by nations’ best generals and formidable armies.

    There is perhaps nothing shameful in being beaten at any stage at the World Cup. There are several strong and exceptional teams but only one would go home with the title at the end of the day. Defending champions Spain, with all their “world-class” stars, were humiliated and did not go beyond the group stage. Former champions, Italy and England, fared no better. But when it becomes easily discernible that a nation’s woes were consequent upon ego-inducing man-made factors, including going to a world war with the best generals shut out of reckoning, nothing could be more disheartening.

    Genuine title-chasing teams at the World Cup are not only complete, formidable and loaded up to the hilt, but also operating at full capacity. Unlike works-in-progress, they not only parade a strong field, but also maintain a quality bench. Unlike Nigeria’s Super Eagles, they substitute a Pele and bring on a Maradona; they take off a Messi and introduce a Ronaldo. Yet, Nigeria left behind the country’s hottest attacking and striking property in the close season, Ike Uche, with the coach giving certain excuses and reasons that were better told to the marines. With Coach Keshi’s comments after Osaze Odemwingie came on to change the complexion of the game against Iran, we now know what it means not to play to instructions under the “Big Boss.” Imagine Arjen Robben being left out of the Netherlands team on such questionable grounds!

    Whether he is retained or not, whoever emerges as the next Super Eagles coach (local or foreign) should focus on the real deal of preparing for Nigeria a squad that is, at any point in time, solid, compact and formidable. Denmark did not even qualify for Euro 1992. They were only invited to take the place of disqualified warring Yugoslavia only 11 (!) days to the commencement of the competition. But because they had a standing army, they went all the way to clinch the title.

    Some ex-internationals and commentators have counseled that we focus now on the 2018 World Cup. That is why we do not need a coach that will embark on building a “new team.” That notion is a fallacy, as a national team, like life itself, is a continuum. Or else, I feel cool to prophesy again, that by the time the next edition in Russia comes around, we will still be building a new team.

     

    • Dele Akinola,

    Ikorodu, Lagos.

  • Re: N9.9 billion fund… Still a long way to cassava bread

    SIR: The feature “N9.9 billion fund… still a long way to cassava bread” written by Sina Fadare as published on pages 2 and 3 of Wednesday July 2, edition of The Nation refers.

    We are constrained to respond to the story as the story looks like a deliberate effort to fit our institution into preconceived mindset based on half-truths and absolute falsehood.

    To start with, as the official spokesperson of Bank of Agriculture (BOA), I wish to state that I received no enquiry of any sort or any contact whatsoever from Sina Fadare, the author of the said feature.

    It is important to put this in perspective as the introduction of the feature attempted to present the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) as an unresponsive and unaccountable public institution that was “dodging enquiries”. This is not true.

    I wish to affirm that the Bank of Agriculture is committed to the Cassava Fund Development Fund (CBDF) programme. It should be noted that prior to the CBDF BOA disbursed N1.1 billion to 7,372 cassava farmers in 2013 alone.

    The author premised his story on the assumption that the Cassava Bread Development Fund (CBDF) programme started one year ago. This is also not true. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and BOA to signal the commencement of the CBDF was signed on November 28, 2013. The story on the MOU signing was published in The Nation of December 8, 2013.

    This fallacy notwithstanding, the MOU signing ceremony has been followed by several processes which has involved the leadership of Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA) in the 36 states of the federation and the FCT. For the fair minded, it is important to state that the majority of the fund is not designed to be disbursed as cash, but as inputs. These include improved cassava stems, mechanization services, herbicides etc. The only cash element is for working capital, part of which is to pay labour engaged in the business.

    It is understandable that putting the necessary structures in place for the procurement of these inputs is a process. The processes are on stream. This much has been attested to by the national president of the NCGA. Rather than misinform the public that “one year after,…….” Fadare should have left out what he is unsure of and at least, protect the integrity of the medium.

    It is however important to point out that the CBDF is on course as Pastor Segun Adewumi, the National President of the Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA) was reported to have told the writer. Adewumi affirmed that “his members have benefitted”, and that “the process is the most simplified process since Nigeria was birthed”. The writer unfortunately found it convenient to put a negative slant on his story, painting the picture that the Cassava Bread initiative is a failed project. This is not true. This is one project that is on stream. Passing judgement on the Cassava Bread Development Fund in six months is extremely unfair when it is common knowledge that the cycle from planting to harvesting for cassava is at least 10 months. While your correspondents are free to publish, it is expedient that they approach affected institutions for facts before publishing.

    • Oluremi Olaoye

    Bank of Agriculture,

    Kaduna.

     

  • NBA president must hear this!

    SIR: I humbly wish to draw your attention to the challenges being faced by new wigs/lawyers especially during their service year.  This letter is neither calculated to attract unnecessary attention nor in any manner to expose our noble profession to ridicule. As a matter of fact, I duly and sincerely apologize beforehand if any unexpected event or reaction becomes direct or probable fallout of this letter. I just did not figure how else to bring the instant issues directly to your attention.

    The legal profession is an enviable and respectable profession. In fact, the first set of fields that immediately come to the mind of a layman as to who a professional is, are Law, Medicine and Engineering. If you agree with me that law is as professional a field as the medicine, then you must equally, agree with me that the practitioners of the former profession deserve no less a treatment than the practitioners of the latter. Lawyers and doctors ought to be accorded similar rights and privileges, mutatis mutandis.

    I regret to inform you that this is far from the case as far as the government and NYSC are concerned. Or how else could one explain a situation where there is a huge disparity in the duo’s general welfare; a situation whereby qualified legal practitioners are posted to secondary and primary schools for their primary assignment under the NYSC scheme? How could one explain the reason doctors are accorded preferential treatment in being afforded the time and facilities to practice their profession during NYSC while lawyers are not?

    On postings, it would interest you to know that doctors are strictly posted to hospitals and health institutions for their primary assignment. However, in the case of lawyers, the somewhat fortunate ones are posted to the Ministry of Justice and private law firms (where, more often than not, they are rejected), the rest are shipped off to secondary schools, local governments, the judiciary etc.

    I humbly ask, what are lawyers expected to be doing in furtherance of their skills and profession working in Local Government Areas which are usually over-staffed, or in secondary schools, or in a High Court Library?

    On allowances, the federal government pays Corp members N19,800 monthly. Unlike doctors, who receive as much as N50,000.00 excluding the NYSC allowance, most lawyer/corps members receive only what the federal government pays them and no more. Even the set of lawyers posted to private law firms are either paid paltry sum or are not paid at all.

    I could go on and on and on. I, however, am certain you would not hesitate in verifying the veracity or otherwise of these several claims. I also humbly urge you sir, to liaise with the appropriate authorities with a view to finding immediate and lasting palliatives to these ills bedeviling the legal profession especially as regards NYSC lawyers.

     

    • Mascot Okeke,

    Ado–Ekiti, Ekiti State.

     

  • Open letter to new education minister

    SIR: I congratulate you, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, on your well deserved appointment as minister of education and to also pray to God, Almighty, to lead you as you settle down  to confront myriads problems bisecting the sector.

    In appointing you to this portfolio, the President must have reckoned with your eyes for excellence and bias for equity to all who come in contact with you. It is this attribute of yours that ginger a humble citizen and secret admirer of yours like me to write about an apparent injustice and inequity that has been perpetrated in the “appointment” of the Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, Dr. Shetima Saidu on February 3. I strongly feel that due process was not followed and that some group of persons are out to circumvent the due process.

    The following are some of my reasons which informed my conclusion that there is more to the emergence of Dr Shetima as Rector than meet the eyes.

    Shetima emerged in distance third position in the interview conducted by the institution’s Governing Council, with Mal. Shuaibu Omame Madaki coming top. Although, this is not the first time the last is becoming the first in this country, but I feel as a serious nation with eye for merit and excellence we don’t have to continue that way.

    Another reason is that the person who came first was not in any way disqualified by reason of federal character, as he hails from Nasarawa State, rose through the rank to become senior lecturer having joined the institution from the scratch, passed all the security tests and was a two time Deputy Rector of the school. He has never been administratively or otherwise found wanting as a civil servant of the federal civil service.

    And now, wait for the most curious aspect of the whole saga; as the Deputy Rector of the school, Madaki was made Acting Rector on February 3, while Shetima emerged with a letter a week later, dated January 31, claiming he had been confirmed the substantive Rector via a letter. By this letter, it means the federal government went ahead to appoint Madaki as Acting Rector even when it had already confirmed Dr Shetima as the substantive Rector!

    These are some of the inconsistencies that informed my conclusion that it is either government has ceased to do things right, or a cabal exists and has arrogated to itself the duty of hiring and firing on behalf government and this cabal care less for decency, decorum and pursuit of excellence.

    I end this letter believing that as soon as it comes to your attention, you shall cause investigation to be carried out and the right thing is done.

     

    • Musa Adamu

    Keffi,  Nasarawa State.

     

  • SOS from Nigerians on scholarship in Russia

    SIR: This is a save-our-souls call from Nigerian students in Russia under the Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA) programme of the Federal Scholarship Board. If something is not urgently done to help our situation, Nigerians should expect to see screaming headlines like Russian Government deports Nigerian Scholarship Students for begging for alms on the streets of Russia; Russia set to deport Nigerian scholarship students for working without work permits; Nigerian students starve to death in Russia; Female Nigerian students prostitute for food in Russia.

    The BEA scheme is a joint program run by the Nigerian government (through the Federal Ministry of Education) in collaboration with governments of other countries such as Russia, China, Cuba, Morocco, Algeria, Ukraine, etc. Under the scheme, outstanding students from all the states of the federation are nominated by the Nigerian government to the foreign governments. The receiving-country then places the scholars in universities and pays their tuition while the Nigerian government pays for students’ visas, flight, and a monthly allowance of US$500.

    In the last seven months, we have not received our stipends from the Federal Scholarship Board (FSB), Abuja. Not a kobo or a single cent. Having not received a single cent in the last seven months from the government that sent us abroad, how are we expected to survive? The average cost of living in most Russian cities is about US$750 monthly; in cities like St. Petersburg and Moscow, it gets as high as US$1,000. This means that the US$500 the FSB is supposed to pay us is grossly inadequate. That notwithstanding, the US$500 is never paid as at when due. The earliest we have received our stipends in the last four years is six months late. Every year, the Association of Nigerian Scholarship Students in Russia (ANSSIR) keeps writing newspaper articles as this, including letters to the House of Representatives, Senate and to the Federal Scholarship Board. Our numerous requests to increase our stipends and to pay them as at and when due has always gone unanswered. The excuse always given is that the budget has not been passed. Does it take seven months to pass the budget every year? What about the supplementary budget? Why can’t provisions be made for our stipends in the supplementary budget? Why can’t our stipends be paid monthly like Nigerian workers (such as the staff of the FSB) and students from other countries such as Botswana and Ghana?

    Nigerians need to understand that the visas issued us by the Russian government are student visas, which preclude any form of employment. This means that we are not permitted by law to work even as cleaners, waiters or waitress, not part-time, not even during the holidays. Russian immigration laws are very strict and the Russian authorities are quick to punish offenders. Earlier this year, some foreign students were deported for working at a restaurant, in addition to the owners of the restaurant being made to pay huge fines. We would have loved to work to support ourselves but we are not permitted to work.

    More worrisome is that that our yearly student visa expires in another four weeks. To renew it, we need a US$40 renewal fee. Failure to renew it 20 days before expiry could lead to deportation. Our problems still does not end there. Some of us our currently doing internship either at the hospital (medical students) or airport (aeronautical engineering students) and need money for transportation.

    We plead with the federal government to speedily come to our rescue to save us from trauma.

    • Samuel Mbakwe,

    Moscow

  • Aregbesola not wooing workers with salaries

    Aregbesola not wooing workers with salaries

    SIR: Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State recently paid the outstanding salaries of workers in the state. This was received with joy and much commendation by the workers who appreciated this as a product of great financial engineering, knowing that the monthly allocation to the state from the federation account had dropped by 40 per cent since last year. However, a section of the media, reported this as the governor wooing workers.

    The slant of the story is disturbing and betrays a poor professional judgement, not just in being speculative and tendentious, but in portraying opinion as news.

    Workers in the state were owed May salary, but this was in late June. However, as soon as the cheque from the federation account allocation cleared on Tuesday June 24, salaries were paid and workers started receiving alerts from their banks that very moment.

    Pray, how then does that translate into wooing? Is payment of salaries not a statutory responsibility? When an employer pays its workers, does that amount to wooing them?

    Governor Rauf Aregbesola has been ‘wooing’ the workers since December 2010 when it gave them 25 per cent of their salary as 13th month bonus, which has never happened in the state. He progressively increased the percentage every year until December 2013 when he gave them 100 per cent as bonus. He has given workers in the state housing loans and, earlier this year, car loans. He has restored foreign training trips to the senior cadre which had been suspended more than 15 years ago.

    These are what wooed the workers, not paying salaries. The tendentious report of wooing workers with salaries is innocuous except that it was done with the intention of portraying the governor as using salaries as campaign instrument; that he has only paid salaries because of the impending election, or else, he would not have paid them at all.

    A newspaper as an organisation, can take sides, but as professionals, let us stick to the facts and not pass opinion as news.

     

    • Sola Fasure,

    Osogbo, Osun State

  • Aturu: Nigeria has lost a voice

    SIR: Words alone cannot adequately express the quantum of loss and vacuum created in the civil rights community, in particular and Nigeria in general, by the shocking demise of the famous and fearless human rights activist, Bamidele Francis Aturu, who died at 49. As I write, so many people (including yours truly) are yet to overcome the rude shock of the sudden demise of the Lagos-based and people’s lawyer!

    Aturu, who died in the morning of last Wednesday, was a gift to the country’s legal profession but more particularly to the downtrodden Nigerian who are victims of successive government oppressive policies and misrule. He did not only employ his uncommon skills towards the development of the legal profession in Nigeria, he fought for a just society where the rule of law, as opposed to whims and caprices, would prevail.

    Aturu was a thorn on the flesh of vicious leadership in Nigeria. He was equally a voice to the oppressed. It dated back to the military junta when he aligned with other progressive forces to reject a system of government obtained at gun point. Like other human right activists, he was not left out from the state brutality and clampdown, but he never compromised. In the heydays of Abacha regime, he was among those who gave the late maximum ruler sleepless nights. He was part of those who formed Youths Against Misguided Youths (YAMY) in a strong opposition to the Aso Rock bought-over Youth Earnestly Asks for Abacha (YEAA) led by one Daniel Kalu. He led several other movements that eventually sent the military to the barracks.

    The struggle to enthrone transparency and accountability in public service landscape was kick started by the late human rights activist and few others. The end result of that struggle was the eventual passage of the Free of Information Bill into law in 2011. He had  also tested that law when, in 2012, he wrote to the former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi asking him to disclose his salary, allowances and other entitlements which the latter reluctantly responded.

    Worried that most law graduates could not attend law school due to excessive and cut-throat school fees, the late civil rights activist dragged the Council for Legal Education to court in 2010 asking for the reduction in the oppressive fees. But unfortunately, the suit was struck out for want of locus standi. That didn’t deter him from continuing his philanthropic work as he kept sponsoring handful of indigent students to Nigerian Law School. With just a letter of request by the Law Students Society (LSS), UI, the late Aturu accepted to foot the bill of the inter-university moot court competition at the University of Ibadan few years ago, later to be renamed “Bamidele Aturu Annual Inter-Universities Moot Court Competition”. I was taken aback by such gesture. He did all of this and many more without attracting unnecessary publicity to himself.

    There is no degree of tributes and national monument that will quantify the late lawyer’s contributions into the nation’s jurisprudence as well as his dogged fight towards the entrenchment of good governance in Nigeria. The national leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association and the entire civil rights community should ensure that this dream is sustained.

    • Barrister Okoro Gabriel,

    Ebonyi

     

  • Stopping examination malpractices

    SIR: Malpractices at examination centres these days have snowballed into uncontrollable proportion. And if no drastic measures are taken urgently to nip the monster in the bud, the standard of education in the country would definitely be dragged to the mud.

    It is no longer a secret that students are being assisted by their subject teachers in collaboration with the WAEC and NECO invigilators in the examination halls. All the students need to do is to pay what they call signing fees and other financial benefits to the invigilators and subject teachers who in turn take the question papers to a secluded corner to solve. The solved questions, which are carbonated, are later shared to the students who finally copy them into their answer scripts.

    In other words, students no longer cudgel their brain for anything since their subject teachers do the entire job. This practice is now commonplace in virtually all the centres in the country. The financial benefit derived from the practice by their subject teachers and the invigilators is so juicy that exam invigilation is being lobbied for by teachers.

    Unfortunately, this irregularity is taking preeminence now the federal government is striving to restore the standard of education. The year 2015, the utopian year education is expected to regain its sterling quality, in addition to being available and affordable for all is very much at the corner but apparently little or nothing has been done to attain the enviable height.

    Because of the monetary benefits derived from the deal by the players, it cannot be stopped unless our examination bodies, including the educational system are sanitized and restructured.

    To achieve this aim, proper orientation should be given to WAEC and NECO staff especially those that are dispatched for invigilation. Proper screening should be carried out on schools applying for exam centre, and only when they satisfy all the Ministry of Education conditions that approval should be given to them. Furthermore, any invigilator found guilty of the offence should be disciplined.

    I therefore call on the Minister of Education to intervene in this crucial matter with every amount of seriousness in order to save the country from total collapse. Otherwise, the country is likely to be infested with uneducated graduates in the near future.

     

    • Nkemakolam Gabriel

    Port Harcourt    

  • Do we really need additional states?

    SIR: Some Nigerians rolled out drums in celebration following the recent recommendation by delegates at the on-going National Conference for the creation of 19 additional states. In the breakdown, three additional states will be created in each geo-political zone with the South-east, which already has a state less be given four additional states.

    Rather than jubilate, I think Nigerians and of course the delegates should take a critical look at the consequences especially at this stage of our national life. Indeed, concerned Nigerians have stressed the need to cut down on the cost of running the government as the only way out to ensure availability of more money to fund capital projects and to generate employment.

    It has been said that the bulk of the annual budgets of states is being spent to maintain the structure of government. Apart from this, most of the existing states have internally generated revenue (IGR) that is nothing to write home about, hence, their dependence on federal allocations. More than 60 percent of these allocations are spent on the structure of government.

    Payment of workers’ salaries is increasingly becoming a challenge in most of the already existing states. Workers are being owed their monthly wages; the plight of state pensioners are better imagined than experienced as these senior citizens are often subjected to unnecessary hardship and treated like out-casts, ex- convicts and second class citizens by state governments. Mass retrenchment of workers has often times become a means devised by some of the governors to cut-down on spending.

    Some inter-state boundary disputes that followed the May 27, 1967 creation of states have not been resolved till date as border communities in different states have continued to maim and kill each other even after so many years and subsequent creations of states was not devoid of inter-state boundary crisis and bloodletting.

    Nigeria cannot afford another round of inter-state boundary disputes which would eventually follow the creation of the recommended states in view of the present security challenges. With due respect to delegates at the on-going national conference, Nigeria doesn’t need new states for now.

     

    • Hussain Obaro

    Ilorin – Kwara State.

  • Why Nigerians should conserve power

    SIR: Energy management entails reducing the cost of energy used by an individual, organisations, households, schools, businesses and various offices in order to minimise waste.  With a population of 160 million people, only about 40% of Nigerians have access to electricity supply and a very large majority of these people reside in the urban areas.

    Energy efficiency management entails improvement in practices and products that reduce the energy necessary to provide services. For example, to light a room with an incandescent light bulb of 60W for one hour requires 60 W/h (that is 60 watts per hour). A compact fluorescent light bulb would provide the same or better light at 11 W and only use 11 W/h. This means that 49 W (82% of energy) is saved for each hour the light is turned on. If we use energy efficient appliances, it will help to reduce the energy necessary to provide services like lighting, cooling, heating, manufacturing, cooking, transport, entertainment etc.

    Energy efficiency helps to save money, while increasing Nigerians access to electricity.

    Unlike vandalism which is a common and visible malaise, energy loss is a hidden cankerworm which has silently affected performance and revenue generation. Loss of energy amounts to revenue loss. Nobody needs to be told that for the realisation of stable power supply in Nigeria, energy loss must be tackled.

    Essentially, power is needed daily throughout the year for national growth and development. But in and around major cities, loss of energy is evident in the number of incandescent electric bulbs turned and wasting away on in the day time which ranges from street lights adorning major roads, that of Mai suya to various residential and organisational security lights which are never switched off year in year out.

    Energy tends to lose its form, strength and weight as it travels from the transmission networks to distribution substations. Functional meters that will accurately plug energy leakages at all metering levels all over the nation should be in place. The new distribution companies should aggressively promote the Credit Advanced Payment Metering Implementation (CAPMI), a scheme designed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for customers to access meters without delay. This scheme is voluntary for customers who do not want to wait until meters are provided for them. This scheme encourages customers to pay an advance into a designated escrow account; while he will be repaid overtime through a percentage reduction in the amount billed him for fixed charge. It is in the interest of customers to take advantage of this CAPMI, but for the scheme to succeed, it must be dissected for customers benefit and aggressively promoted through an enlightenment campaign by the distribution companies.

    A state of emergency on energy loss should be declared in Nigeria. This should form a strategy to activating the consciousness of Nigerians to honestly cultivate the habit saving energy, remind the operators of the sector of the need for better and efficient service delivery and for the sustenance and survival of the new distribution companies. Finally, Nigeria should tap from the UNDP report on Promoting Energy Efficiency in Residential and Public Sectors in Nigeria which called for the need to phase out inefficient incandescent lighting in all applications; put in place energy efficiency policy and legislations; set minimum energy performance standards (MEPS), and create awareness to change behaviour.

     

    • Sunday Onyemaechi Eze

     Samaru Zaria