The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Re: The new Penkelemesi in Ekiti

    I read Mr. Bolade Omonijo’s column, Political Turf, of Sunday, June 29, 2014, in which he clothed the otherwise prodigy, nationalist and political icon, Adegoke Adelabu, alias “Penkelemisi”, in an undeserved toga of a rabble-rouser and confusionist, in his (Omonijo) piece titled “The new Penkelemesi in Ekiti”.

    Adelabu should never have been situated with any tongue-in-check, crude fellow of Mr. Omonijo’s fancy either in Ekiti State or elsewhere. For Adelabu was a well-educated, articulate and rationale politician and statesman who deservedly earned the respect of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, Chief Anthony Enahoro etc, his fellow politicians and nationalists in the 1950s.

    As I have had cause in the past, exactly on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 to correct an unfair jingoist, illiterate and spoilsport picture of Adelabu painted in the Sunday Punch newspaper (page 19) issue of Sunday, November 4, 2007 by one of the newspaper’s columnists, I am seeking your kind indulgence to refer to my rejoinder of 2007 to correct your (Mr. Omonijo’s) blurred vision of Adelabu, trusting your newspapers well-known sense of fair hearing and objectivity. Below was my published reaction:

    “As it is customary, I read your column of the above title on page 19 in “Sunday Punch” issue of November 4, 2007, and wish to correct the undeserved illiterate, fob and jingoist image your article under reference alluded to the otherwise academic prodigy, wit, nationalist and visionary, the late Honourable Adegoke Adelabu.

    “But, kindly permit me to first declare my interest in the matter of defending Adelabu and projecting the true and correct image of the first (African) indigenous manager of the UAC, former member for Ibadan Division in the defunct Western Region of Nigeria House of Assembly, former Chairman of the defunct Ibadan District Council (today comprising eleven local governments), former Federal Minister and former assistant National Secretary of the defunct NCNC led by the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.

    “My interests? My beloved late paternal grandmother, Mama Asimawu Odunola Alabi, the matriarch of the Ekerin Ajengbe clan in Ibadan, whose grandfather was the Ekerin Balogun of Ibadan during the reign of Baale Fijabi I (1890-1893), was the woman leader of the NCNC under the late Adelabu in Ibadan in the 1950s before she relinquished the position to her protege, the late Mama Humuani Apampa, alias Orababa, after Adelabu died in a road accident on March 25, 1958.

    “I am a trustee of the Adegoke Adelabu Foundation, the formation of which I played a key role in 1994.

    “If the above reasons for my advocacy are acceptable, then I proceed to seek your kind indulgence for space and time to exonerate Adelabu from the band of nincompoops, not well veiled by you in the article under reference. In the foreword to Adelabu’s book, “Africa in Ebullition” (published in 1952) the great Zik of Africa wrote inter alia: “Whether the world believes it or not, the fact remains that Africa is no longer an exclusive preserve for the depredation of Imperialists. Many factors are responsible, one of which has produced a new breed of nationalists (emphasis mine) of which Mr. Adelabu is typical”…………… without mincing of words, Mr. Adelabu has made it clear that the African is determined not to take a back seat when it comes to shapening his future”.

    “As they say: it takes the deep not only to call the deep, but to also hear the deep. With the above quoted few lines from Dr. Azikwe’s foreword to Adelabu’s book, I might as well rest my case in this ‘defence’ of the stormy petrel, Adelabu, but I am persuaded by the God-given chance of rubbing shoulders with my (three) learned children to prove my point beyond any reasonable doubt(s). Adegoke Adelabu does not deserve to be labelled or lumped with nitwits, imbeciles, cattawallers or what have you? Certainly not! In his contribution to the book titled “The Essential Adegoke Adelabu (1915-1958) “Ibadan-an historical, cultural and social-economic study of an African City (1998) sponsored by the Oluyole Club, Lagos, Dr. Siyan Oyeweso of the Department of History, Lagos State University, wrote inter alia: “Alhaji Adegoke Gbadamosi Oduola Akande Adelabu, the illustrious son of Ibadan, a great Nigerian statesman, the diminutive stormy petrel of Ibadan politics, the lion of the West and ‘Penkelemesi’ (I will come to this appellation shortly) lived a short but active and rich life.

    “Due to reasons that we all know very well, Adelabu and other nationalists in his hue (Adekunle Fajuyi, Aminu Kano, Eyo Ita, Adaka Boro, Mbonu Ojike, Benjamin Adekunle etc) are deprived of history’s fair treatment by an ungrateful country.

    “Born on September 13, 1915 to a successful weaver, Sanusi Ashiyanbi Adelabu, and Awujoola Ajoke, Adelabu had to change his name to Joseph before he was admitted into the Saint David’s CMS Elementary School, Kudeti, Ibadan. An exceptionally brilliant student, Adelabu gained double promotion at Saint David’s School.

    “In 1931, he proceeded to the famous Government College, Ibadan (GCI) on scholarship granted him by the Ibadan Progressive Union (IPU). He again gained double promotion at GCI and left the school in 1935 with a distinction while still in class four. The illuminating testimonials on the prodigy written by his school principal, Mr. V.P.V Powell, and others still continue to shine till today at GCI.

    “In 1936, Adelabu took the entrance examination to Yaba Higher College, then the highest educational institution in Nigeria. He came first in the entrance examination and became the first Nigerian student to win the UAC scholarship. With less than a year to the completion of his higher education at Yaba, UAC “lured” him from school to gainful employment. He subsequently held management positions with the UAC such as African Manager (1936-1937), Merchandise salesman (1937-1938), Inspector Cooperative Department (1943-1944) and Manager, UAC Haberdashery, Lagos (1945-1946).

    “In 1946, Adelabu resigned from UAC into private business before joining politics in 1947, and was a brilliant, active participant in the Nigerian Constitutional talks in London.

    With the foregoing, it will be most unfair, wicked, academic laziness and a clear sign of ignorance to lump Adegoke Adelabu with Nigeria’s political cattalwallers of whatever age – First, Second, Third, Current or Future Republics. Adegoke Adelabu was a genius. Please get a copy of his revolutionary book, “Africa in Ebullition”. Hear his description of himself: “I am a deliberate egoist. I do not regret it. I do not apologise for it. I am an artist. The artist has nothing worthwhile to offer you besides glimpses of his inner self. My philosophy is that the world would be much better and happier if we would only dare to be ourselves completely instead of trying to be faded copies of other unknown and misunderstood mythical heroes.”

    I pray that one will not again be compelled to correct blurred views, more so by people who are supposed to know, on the late prodigy and political icon, Adegoke Adelabu.

    Thank you.

     

    By Oloye ‘Lekan Alabi,

    Aare Alasa Olubadan of Ibadanland

  • OAU shutdown adds salt to injury

    SIR: Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, though, the best University in Nigeria (according to webometric rankings) has been running the slowest academic calendar in the country for the past few years. The school, no doubt, produces graduates that are of high intellect and competency in their chosen careers, but one thing the federal government cum the university management need to look into is the crawling academic calendar.

    It has become a common saying that students going to OAU must be ready to spend one or more extra non-academic year(s). This saying has been further confirmed by recent developments. One, fresh students admitted into the university for 2013/2014 academic session, did their post utme on July 13, 2013 but resumed on June 1, 2014 – about a year later.

    Can I hear someone say it’s because of ASUU strike? I disagree with that because most of the universities that are on strike with OAU during the last ASUU strike are now in their second semester of 2013/2014 session.

    Two, returning students, who resumed on June 14 and fresh students, who have already spent 11 months at home before resumption, were ordered to vacate the university premises on June 18 (four days after returning students resumed back to school) due to students’ protest against fee hike.

    The university management alleged that students were violent in their demonstrations even though they didn’t give an evidence to substantiate their claim. Be that as it may, I don’t think it is good for the management to take actions that affects the varsity negatively. Shutting down the school, in my own perspective, is like adding salt to the university’s injury because the academic calendar of the school that is already crawling will soon become stagnant. It

    is a common adage that “cutting off the head is not a cure for headache”. It is bad to create another problem for oneself in a bid to solving one’s particular problem.

    The management ought to have used another measure in handling the case. After all, it is a constituency of professors and professionals who are deemed to be of high intellectual ability. If they are now saying that there is no other measure they could take than the one that shatters the university’s image, I think we need to ask them questions.

    The most important thing now is that the school be re-opened so as to save students who are meant to spend five years in school from spending seven years.

    • Jamiu Idowu Esho,

    Eruwa, Oyo State.

  • Reviewing our practice of western democracy

    SIR: I have always wondered: should democracy be practised just for the sake of practising it? Should we all embrace democracy just because everyone embraces it?

    The statistics in Africa shows that African countries did not only thrive, but their people fared better before the west overturned their governments and ‘gave’ them ‘democracy’. With democracy, all the benefits enjoyed, disappears. They pay heavily for the democracy with their natural resources. Before ‘democracy’, what was growing was the way of life of the people, affordable education, cheap houses, free or cheap-but-quality health care system, but after ‘democracy’, all that stops increasing; the people can no longer have access to affordable education and free health care system and the governments now concern themselves with having figures and numbers that can be ‘presentable’ in international scenes.

    Somewhere along the line, their concept of growth changes from better living for their people, it becomes a series of figures and numbers that make them look good on the international scene and earn them pats on the back from IMF, World Bank and the big brothers from the west.

    Now when I question democracy, I am not questioning the right of the people to determine who their leaders are; I am questioning the concept that allows a group of nations to force their designs on a nation, thinking they know what’s best for them. If people go to the polls to vote and after electing their leaders, they don’t have to be scared that their leaders will mortgage their way of life and better conditions of living so they can get help from some bodies. Pre-’democratic’ in Libya saw so many social benefits for the Libyans; post-democracy sees those benefits withdrawn and the way of life of the people jerked up, while their oil is being looted heavily.

    African countries need to review this concept of democracy and determine their own mode of governance that doesn’t include the looting of their natural resources, that doesn’t include a drop in the quality of life of their people, that doesn’t include mortgaging the lives and future of their people as a prerequisite for getting ‘aid’ from the West. We have brains that are rotting away in foreign lands helping the West to maintain its stranglehold on African countries; it’s time for those brains to return home to help Africa design its own mode of governance that puts the quality of life of its people first and that ensures they keep their natural resources.

     

    • James Ogunjimi

    Ogun State.

  • NBA election: let the best emerge

    SIR: Periodic election is one of the enviable features of constitutional democracy. There is no doubt that elections are strategically designed not only to usher in new leadership but also and more importantly is the inflow of ideas and policies that it brings. It is in this light that I feel strongly about the forthcoming NBA election schedule to hold this July.

    If there is any professional body in the country that has relentlessly and persistently played a leading role in fostering the Nigerian project, it is hard to look elsewhere than the professional association of lawyers in the country – the NBA. And indeed the body has an unwritten and moral obligation not just to its members, but to the general public who have come to appreciate its unparallel significance.

    NBA needs leaders who would stake whatever they have for the protection and enhancement of the image of the profession and more importantly the welfare of its members, especially the young ones who have over time become the legal almajiris of a profession that seem to spare no thought for them. We need a leader that would address the humiliating standard of living of young lawyers.  We need a detribalised leader that would stand up for every lawyer, regardless of his place of origin; either it is Salihu Esq. in the North, Adebayo Esq. in the West or Chukwuemeka Esq. in the East. We don’t need a leader that would be selective in his criticism on critical national issues or leader that would soft-pedal because of some pecuniary interest. And this is why one strongly feels that the electoral organ of NBA must like, Ceaser’s wife, be above reproach. A level playing field should as a matter of fact be put in place for all the aspirants and transparent modalities be devised to ensure a free, fair and acceptable poll for all. For, this, we believe, would solidify the unity of our esteemed Bar.

    We believe strongly that it is only when the NBA leadership gets its act right in terms of election that it would have the moral authority to preach the gospel of free and fair election, especially as 2015 general elections draw closer and to avoid the saying that one cannot give what it does not possess! Nigerian politicians to a large extent are the same and they would stop at nothing to desecrate any institution, especially one that is considered by many to command the respect of Nigerians like the NBA. In this regard, NBA must continue to present its position devoid of political colouration.

    We need NBA to give us the “David” that would challenge the “Goliath” of bad leadership in the country. Whether its Dele Adesina SAN or Funke Adekoya SAN or Adeniyi Akintola or Augustine Alegeh, the message is the same: Give us a vibrant Bar.

    • Alatise Taofeeq Esq

    Ilorin

  • Okonjo-Iweala, where are our girls?

    SIR: The spontaneous uproar for the release of nearly 300 Chibok girls abducted from their Secondary School has done a lot of good. It has exposed the extent to which the Jonathan government has failed in its primary responsibility of protecting the lives and property of citizens, given that every other aspect of a good government remains secondary.

    We have seen how governments all over the world, especially those that we look up to, display uncompromising integrity and pride in the defense and security of their people. They pursue all political angles in order to protect the life of every one of their citizens. All political affiliations are secondary to the preservation of national pride and the contract between them and their electorate. The Israelis are well known for that, and only recently, the US government set an example by securing the release of one Marine, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. They released five (5) Taliban militants in exchange. Clearly, this demonstrates the high position on which they place the respect and love for their people. In Nigeria’s case is, this is a lot different.

    Last month when Abuja hosted the World Economic Forum (WEF), the international community lashed out at the President over his lackadaisical attitude to the plight of the abducted girls and that of their parents.  Just like a wingless bird, the claims by the government’s spokespersons that the President is concerned about the tale of the girls just could not fly. This was especially so in the face of notorious evidence to the contrary. So many questions posed by hosts of TV programmes about the President’s commitment and readiness to combat the hydra-headed monster of insurgency, especially the one waged by Boko Haram were either evaded or to the utter dismay of millions of viewers and the presenters, or  abrasively answered in an unsatisfactory manner.

    Barrage of attacks on the President and his administration have poured in, left, right and center from within and outside the country. Spokesmen for the government have taken turns to feature in prepaid interview sessions, whereupon they are saddled with the choice of either being the kings of their own silence or the slaves of their own false words.

    Amongst the many interviews that have featured is the one between Richard Quest and the Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on the programme “Best of Richard Quest”. In that memorable episode, even though it is in sharp contrast to what is clearly demonstrated by the actions of the government as proven by its many lies and misdirected anger at the people of Nigeria for demanding action from an inept administration, Dr. Iweala stood stoutly in defence of her Principal’s effort and commitment to the search for the abducted Chibok schoolgirls. As the interview progressed, so many things were revealed. Dr. Ngozi in her responses, frequently reminded viewers that she’s not a spokesperson for the government, but clearly at liberty to speak in its defence. She expressed her disgust for the unprecedented media attention and the constant searchlight beamed on the activities of the government she represents. She charged at Richard Quest by stating that: “Long after the limelight and long after CNN has ceased to cover the issue, we will continue to look for them”.

    And prophetically so, more than 80 days since the girls went missing, the parents of those girls and the nation are still waiting and hoping for their return. As each day passes by, and the whereabouts of the girls still unknown, we all must wonder why the minister asserted that the search will take so long. The CNN would forget. So, Madam minister, now that it is evident that you were right, when should we expect their return?

    • Lami Ladan

    Gwarinpa Estate, Abuja

  • Soldiers’ rampage condemnable

    SIR: The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress condemns in the strongest terms, the reign of terror and brigandage launched on the streets of Lagos by soldiers ostensibly protesting the alleged accidental death of a soldier who was involved in an accident with a BRT bus on IkoroduRoad Lagos. The untamed and uncivilized conduct of the soldiers, which involved burning many BRT buses and inflicting injuries and pains on other Lagosians is disgraceful and bodes danger to the peace and security of Lagos and Nigeria as a whole. Allowing these soldiers to get away with this act of brazen brigandage will send clear signals that democracy is endangered.

    We commiserate with the soldier that was involved in the accident and we express our heartfelt sympathy to him and his family. But then, it is an accident and could have happened to anybody.

    We do not know the grounds upon which these soldiers went on rampage. From reports we got, it was purely an accident. We wonder what can make soldiers, paid and maintained to guarantee the security of the country should go so brazenly against the people, burning buses that serve to alleviate the plight of the masses and inflicting injury to passers-by. We wonder  what is behind the raw anger displayed by these unruly soldiers on the streets of Lagos. We wonder what type of training these soldiers receive and we wonder what should turn those saddled with the defense of the nation to persecutors of the people.

    We are even more angry that the Army, instead of wading in and dousing the tension caused by this serious affront on the peace and security of Lagos, is busy trying to childishly obfuscate the issue, going by the statement by its spokesman,Olajide Olaleye, who was reported to state that area boys and not soldiers were responsible for the burning of the BRT buses.  We wonder what the spokesman was trying to tell the many people that witnessed the rampage, some of whom were injured in that moment of senseless mayhem.

    We call on the military high command to move in and order a full scale investigation into the  mayhem and ensure that all culprits are fished out and punished. We demand that an open investigation to ascertain the reason for that wild act that endangered the peace and security of Lagos andLagosians. We believe that the findings of the investigation panel will go a long way to prevent such ugly incidence in the future.”

     

    • Joe Igbokwe.

    APC Publicity Secretary,

    Lagos

     

  • Why confab will not yield positive result

    SIR: Ever since the fuel subsidy imbroglio, I have always doubted every step taken by this present administration. And this is not because I despise the president but because I expected President Jonathan to continue from where his former boss and predecessor, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua , stopped, instead of introducing new agenda.

    Afterall, he was involved in the creation of the seven-point agenda.

    Perhaps, this government would have done better if it had continued the good works started by the previous regime.

    However, the ongoing National Conference which most Nigerians believed may be the way out of the innumerable problems that have besieged the country over time has not yielded anything and will not yield any positive result because the most salient issues have not been discussed.

    In a country where innocent people are being killed everyday; where people are being abducted everyday; where people’s lives are being consumed by bad roads; where unemployment level skyrockets every year and where students sit at home hopelessly because of government’s refusal to do what it ought to do. Are these not supposed to be the primacy of the National Conference instead of bringing the idea of creating new states when there is no unity and harmony amongst the existing states?

    Creation of new states is just like adding salt to our wound. Do we actually need to consult a  soothsayer or a prophet to tell us that we have misplaced our priority? It is conspicuous that the rationale behind the insistence of this government to hold this National Conference is to achieve its personal expediency and to achieve unduly extension of tenure. In our education system, when a pupil or a student flunks promotional exams, the result is always that such pupil or student will repeat same class but if one is to apply this system to governance, it will be a total calamity and grave consequence to even conceive the idea that the present regime should remain beyond 2015.

    However, there would not have been the need to call for any gathering if our government had done what it ought to do. Our problems are categorical and it takes readiness, commitment and resoluteness on the part of the government and its people to solve their problems especially in a country like ours. Our government needs to be more original in its dealings; only then can we have a robust and peaceful co-existence.

     

    • Waziri Mohammed,

    IBB University, Lapai-Niger State

     

  • Open letter to Governor Fashola

    SIR: Your ability to do some things that are mundane to you and reasonable to the people vindicates you as a leader. Education is the superstructure that all other infrastructures can be built upon. Prophet Muhammed and Jesus Christ never built any infrastructure, yet they linger in the minds of the people today. They have been able to dig deep into the people’s consciousness till date because they have taken their time to educate the people. Ditto Obafemi Awolowo.

    The LASU fee hike has dealt a huge blow to the future of Lagosians and Nigerian youths. It negates the founding ideology of this great citadel of learning; which is- ACCESSIBILITY.

    Your Excellency, you called for a proposal of how much we can afford. The total breakdown of the fees was examined, and some unnecessary fees were expunged. We decided to embark on peaceful marches to sensitize the public and also demand that our school fees should be reduced as proposed by the leadership of the Students’ Union.

    On different occasions, the men of the Nigerian Police attacked, intimidated and harassed our students. They shot teargas and bullet at us, in their bid to disperse us, some student were arrested and arraigned before the Magistrate Court, Ikeja, while some were hospitalized. Despite all these, we defied all odds to exercise our inalienable rights as provided in Section 39 and 40 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, because we are fighting a just cause.

    The Lagos State Government resolved on the report of the Ad-hoc Exco Committee on review of LASU fees to approve the reduction of LASU fees ranging from 34% to 60%. We sincerely appreciate His Excellency Babatunde Raji Fashola’s unrelenting commitment and development of Lagos State University.  We key into his vision of not making an average graduate from LASU clueless, the vision to sort Lagos State University from the chaffs, the passion to rescue LASU from the ‘glorified secondary school status’, and enable it interact with the town.

    Sir, with the reduction, the fee still ranges between N133, 250 – 175,750 for Medicine, N106,750 – N140, 750 for Law, N96, 750 – N135, 750 for Science, N86,750 – 130,750 for Social Sciences and N76, 750 – 115, 750 for Arts to mention a few. This does not include accommodation, fee and other expenses incumbent on us students, and in Lagos State to be specific.

    The fee regime is contrary to the ruling party’s All Progressive Congress manifesto that promised free and qualitative education. In fact, on Febuary 15, at the Njala University in Sierra Leone, the National leader of the party and former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu upon receiving an award of Honourary Doctorate Degree of Civil Law, Honoris Causa said the following:

    “We found the APC so that Nigerians from all walks of life and social station might gather under one tenet to develop the nation on the basis of equity and shared prosperity. What we seek is a fair social compact so that we may avoid social calamity. A core element of our mission is to make all levels of education, from primary to university level accessible to all people, regardless of economic circumstances. To survive in the modern economy, education is a must. As such, responsible leadership must view education as a public right and no longer a luxury to be enjoyed only by those with the money to purchase it for themselves. Government must help financially those who can’t help themselves in this essential regard”.

    We urge the Lagos State government, the primus inter pares to show leadership by example upholding the core manifesto of the ruling party in Lagos. As Visitor and principal, you have been vested with the power of absolute ratification of the Governing Council’s decision.

    Sir, we plead with you to help us prevail over the Governing Council to consider us on the grounds of what is reasonable and affordable by our students. We plead with you passionately for further reduction of the fee to be in tandem with the economic realities and give us the best legacy that can be handed over to generations yet unborn.

     

    • Nurudeen, Yusuf Temilola

    President, LASU Students’ Union,

    Ojo, Lagos

  • Soldiers’ show of shame

    SIR: The brutality of ordinary citizens that pervaded public sphere under the military junta in Nigeria made a return in Lagos last Friday. And by the time the “Khaki boys” were through with the highly embarrassing action, properties worth millions of naira laid waste, while innocent citizens groaned in pains.

    Apparently on a revenge mission over the reported death of one of their colleagues, allegedly knocked down by a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) along Ikorodu Road Lagos, the soldiers threw caution to the wind, descending on BRT buses vandalising and setting same on fire. Though the Army, through its spokesman for the 81 Division, Lt Col OA Ochagwub, has absolved its members from the shameful act, placing the blame on the doorsteps of the street urchins, popularly known as Area Boys, it remains to be seen how such denial will stick, especially in the light of the almost live coverage given to the fracas by both the traditional and social media.

    To put it mildly, it is a shame that the soldiers have continuously gone berserk in public on a slightest provocation. It appears the military is yet to learn from its past ugly public shows. It also does appear that little or no action has been taken against its men found culpable in the previous acts by army’s to hierarchy, that is, if those involved were ever investigated. For whatever reason, the action of the soldiers were completely uncalled for, reprehensible and outrightly disgraceful. It was not for them to take laws into their hands assuming their colleague was actually killed. They should learn to follow the due process of law in ventilating their grievances. Imagine that every bereaved of an accident goes wild and violent in this manner? Of course, such can only lead the country to the Thomas Hobbes’ own society where life is short, nasty and brutish!

    In a time like this when Nigeria is passing through security challenges, the least the country needs is such a bully attitude by the soldiers, who ordinarily should be courting the support of the populace . Without the public support and confidence, there is little or nothing the army would achieve in terms of tackling the present insecurity in our nation. It goes without saying that such support and confidence cannot be earned by harassment and brutality. If for anything, the soldiers need be reminded that constant harassment of the members of the public is itself a recipe for more insecurity and violence.

    It is high time the soldiers recognised other Nigerians as equal stakeholders in the project Nigeria. But above all, the Friday’s fracas must be investigated and action(s) duly taken against the perpetrators.

     

    Barrister Okoro Gabriel,

    Ebonyi

     

  • Amnesty for Boko Haram: Where FG missed it

    SIR: I read with dismay and mixed feelings excerpts of President Jonathan’s on May 29, wherein the Boko Haram Youths were promised amnesty and assurance of series of integration programmes for those who will surrender their arms and embrace peace. Although this idea is good but it cannot achieve any meaningful.

    The amnesty idea is a bad one because it is a call for more militant groups to spring up or crystallize in any other part of the country. Who knows whether it was the Niger Delta amnesty that led to the current on-going insurgence? Amnesty at this point is like increasing the probability of occurrence of further insurgence in the future. Going by critical analysis of this insurgence, one would agree that it is a product of idleness on the part of our youths. Take for instance, most of our youth perceive their future as being bleak in all ramification. The priviledged few went to school, read and qualified to be employed but then, then cannot find jobs. Their contemporaries that are less priviledged to read much, struggle to learn one trade or the other, but they are disappointed because of the non-conductive prevailing environment to establish a business.

    What this connotes is that our youths are ready market for the Boko and other allied insurgences. It is the responsibility of the government to see to the well-being of her citizenry through proper, timely and adequate education, orientation and integration schemes. But it seems our three tiers of government today are shying away from these vital and responsibilities. Instead, they embark on trivialities and things that have little or no value to the life of a common man.

    If all the terrorist appendages were educated and employed, their sponsors and collaborators will not find it easy to convince or influence them to take arms against their fellow brothers and sisters. Although the issue of hidden agenda cannot be ruled out in this unfortunate scenario, the magnitude would not have assumed this alarming dimension.

    It is imperative for the Federal government to realize that the amnesty is a psychological game, the success of which hinges on chance. If it motivates the insurgents, they will down-tool their arms, if not, the struggle continues. However, government should not depend absolutely on this method; other means should be considered simultaneously to overcome this strange and hydra-headed problem ravaging the nation.

     

    • Ipadeola J. Adebayo,

    Ibadan