The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • It is not over yet for Nigerians

    Sir, This message is for all Nigerians and the leaders. We need to be commited to God, which remains a way of showing gratitude for his provisions, despite the nation’s tragedies. In view of the myriad problems confronting Nigerians in the present day Nigeria, which make survival a herculean task for them, especially as it relates to insecurity, joblessness, poverty and uncertainty that they face daily, the miracle of life ought to be appreciated by Nigerians.

    It is highly regretting the irresponsible manner the country is being run, in which essential developmental amenities are denied the citizenry, with brazen corruption and embezzlement as the order of the day, as it has and will create a psyche of abandonment and uselessness in the minds of the younger generation of Nigerians, which in turn, have made many of them to become easy tools of exploitation for evil-minded people in the country, to foment trouble and become agents of destabilization in their own country.

    The situation of the country has got to the point where despair and recklessness has become the mindset of the youths, emanating from repressed aggression. It poses danger for the very survival of the country, moreso, as we gradually move towards another general elections.

    The government should do more to make life more meaningful to the citizenry, insisting that Nigeria is blessed with enough to take care of it people. The government need to resuscitate ailing industries and provide the enabling environment for entrepreneurial growth to guarantee job creation.

    I need to emphasis that the church is relevant in every facet of human endeavour. So religious leaders can no longer bury their heads in the sand and turn their face to the challenges facing the country. We need to wake-up to our responsibilities as the salt of the earth and the light of this world.

    The church is always able to change the nation. It follows therefore that the church must become whatever it wants the nation to be; in other words, we must become the change we desire.

    Prophet Oladipupo Funmilade-Joel

    The General Overseer, The Way of Reconciliation Evangelistic Ministries (TWOREM) Int’l, Lagos, Nigeria

  • Femi Segun: A tribute

    SIR: I met the late Femi Segun during my final year in secondary school when he came around with a group that we later learnt were members of the school’s old students association. Unlike most others, Segun was a jolly good-fellow who mingled freely with students, sharing thoughts and encouraged friendship, considering the fact that his set left secondary school way back (mid 70s’), when most of us were born.

    My deep impressions about him would later necessitate my involvement in old boys’ activities in the school while promoting friendship with him. His simplicity and humility were endearing.

    On my graduation from the university, he was one of the few I ran to for assistance to get a job. I recall that he not only gave me notes to two different places same day, but instructed his office to process my application to see if I could fit in.

    Recently when I was involved in road traffic accident, I sent him a text on my predicament; a week after when I was being moved to the theatre for surgery, quite early in the morning, we saw Femi Segun with bags of fruit and beverages! For me it was an honour from a very senior old boy. He followed-up on my recovery with calls and a promise of a meeting, which unfortunately never materialised. It was on social media platform that I saw Segun in full paraphernalia riding speed bike. One could not but marvel at what form of exercise was, given our country’s poor road network, but I knew Segun would have taken necessary precautions before taking into the sport.

    As it turned out, we lost him through the sport. I got the information of his accident through a mutual friend who really did not know the magnitude. We both agreed it would be hasty to see him then as we were sure doctors would still be battling to stabilize him. Later, the same friend would call on that Friday evening that we’ve lost Segun. I was shocked.

    Femi Segun’s contributions towards humanity will remain with those who had the opportunity of meeting him while on earth; his love and devotion to his alma mater, Igbobi College will remain evergreen.

    • Badejo Adedeji Nurudeen

    Surulere, Lagos State.

  • President’s toxic hustings while Nigeria burns

    SIR: I still can’t fathom the type of leeches and sycophants who surrounds and counsels President Goodluck Jonathan. For him to strut out and go on political campaign in Kano soon after  over 100 Nigerians lost their lives to a terrorist bomb blast at Nyanya Bus Stop in Abuja is quite inexplicable. However the part that is more baffling to me is the President’s own decision to engage in scurrilous attack on the governor of the state he went to campaign at. The fact that the campaign event also happened on a day Professor Wole Soyinka, Nigeria’s only Nobel laureate, called for a bipartisan solution to the ongoing terror war is quite numbing. The questions that kept coming to me are: what is wrong with Aso Rock? Are there no adults around anymore over there? But the most embarrassingly shocking thing for me are the content of the president’s words at the campaign event. This is indeed a case of Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

    Let’s take a look at the president campaign rhetoric at Kano, on a day he had just visited blast site and learned that additional 80 Nigerian school age girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists. According to Punch newspapers, “President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday took on Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso of Kano State, accusing him of embezzling the money his (President’s) campaign office provided to mobilize the state delegates for the 2011 presidential primary of the Peoples Democratic Party and the main election. “Even the little money that my campaign office provided for refreshment of the Kano delegates and for their transport, Kwakwanso refused to give to the delegates. “He did that so that the Kano delegates will be angry and they will not vote for me. “Even for the main election, the little money the campaign office sent to Kano State to facilitate the movement of people, Kwakwanso refused to give the money to anybody. How can Kwankwaso tell people that he voted for me?”

    Let’s set aside the propriety of the president making such a jejune issue a campaign talking point, (because if the money is “little money” it matters little to him and probably to politicians like him), and focus on legality of providing money to voters during election time (apparently to sway their votes), be it at the primary (it is expressly prohibited by PDP constitution) and general election (INEC statute actually makes this a ground for criminal investigation and disqualification). A president dumb enough to campaign on the day he lost a centurion of his citizens and over 80 young girls kidnapped is definitely not a serious leader.

    It is high time Nigerians of all hue begin to talk about a post Jonathan administration in Nigeria. Nigeria leadership of all hue needs to come together in a bipartisan way to address the terror stalking our land. The charade going on in the name of National Conference is not a vehicle that will get us there. You do not go ahead with a National Conference where only those who agree with you attend. You work out the kinks and reach out to the opposition to get them involved. So forget the sleepers at the National Conference. Let all Nigerians begins to clamour for the leadership of the two political parties to come together and establish a joint framework on how we can decisively deal with violence in our land whether it be those fomented by MEND, OPC, Kidnappers or Boko Haram. We cannot rely on this presidency to get us out of the quagmire that politicians drove us into. The time for change is now!

     

    • Francis Adewale

    Spokane, WA, USA

  • Grave dance called political rally

    SIR: As much as one hates to believe conspiracy theory out there that the government may not totally be innocent of the current siege bedeviling the country, however, the sustained malfeasance of the ruling party always gives credibility to this theory. Has the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria become this pedestrian for the President to descend this low and exchange diatribes with a subordinate at a time like this? If Governor Kwankanso did not vote for the President nor supported him at the last electioneering, so what gives?

    Does the President not realise that he is the embodiment of the corporate image of the federation, whose mien, demeanor, utterances and general conduct must at all times be pace-setting? I shuddered to behold the President at the Kano political rally dancing naked, as it were, just to get even with his political opponent, Governor Kwankwaso, while the mangled corpses of the innocent children of the land struggle for space in the morgue. This came barely after the horrific holocaust at Nyanya. Pray, beyond the usual banalities and platitudinous remarks of condemnations and feigned concern by the government officials in response to the incident, has the government even decided on any steps towards the burial of the helpless victims of this inhumanity before the entire machinery of government now moved to Kano for the morbid grave dance called political rally?

    Are we this jinxed? It calls to mind the immortal word of the Holy Writ “Woe to thee, oh land, when thy king is a child and thy princes eat in the morning” Eccl 10: 16. I weep for my beloved country, Nigeria. While Rome burns, Emperor Nero fiddles!

    •Chris Edache Agbiti, Esq.,

    Abuja

  • Nyanya bombing condemnable

    SIR: The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) condemns in strongest terms the unfortunate and dastardly bombing of the Nyanya Bus station which killed no fewer than hundreds of unsuspecting commuters and petty traders early hours of Monday April 14. We equally decry the reported weekend killing of about 98 people and burning of properties in Ngoshe, Kaigmari and Achaka in Gwoza, Konduga and Bama Local Government Areas of Borno State.

    We consider these horrendous, senseless and barbaric killings and maiming of innocent lives as attempt to destroy the peace and unity of Nigeria; and most importantly a calculated attempt to abort the 2015 General Elections.

    Although no group or individuals have claimed responsibility of the Nyanya mass murder, the perpetrators are indeed the greatest losers of all time and bound for hell fire. The defenseless victims, who met their untimely deaths on their way to work in pursuit of daily means of subsistence in our harsh economic situation, are innocent, unsuspecting, and indeed victorious heroes and heroines whose blood must not be seen to be shed in vain. Dying, we all must, but these deaths must push all and sundry to play a role. This is not the time to sit on the fence, not a time to stand aloof or hands akimbo. All hands must be on deck to confront this terror of our time.

    We call on Nigeria security agencies and the PDP-led government to summon the political will to expose the perpetrators of these heinous crimes and must not cover those that may be fingered one way or the other. Terrorism is not to be treated with kid gloves. The international laws on terror are no respecter of individuals no matter how highly placed and should start to take effect and take a toll on those deserving of prosecution and punishment. The government must stand up to its primary responsibility of protecting lives and properties. These killings can no longer be condoned and tolerated. Time has come for government; the legislature, judiciary and all security agencies and personnel, particularly the intelligence agencies to do things differently this time to prove their competence.  They must identify those behind the heinous acts, expose them, shame them and make them liable. We must dig deeper into every citizens or groups; be they in or out of government, past and present leaders, politicians, ruling party, the opposition, military personnel, the police, SSS, Navy, Air force, Civil Defense, Immigration, Customs, Traditional rulers, Religious leaders or adherents, and among ordinary Nigerians.

    Finally, TMG is disappointed that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has cut short the nationwide mourning of victims of Monday’s bomb blast to intensify their campaign ahead of 2015 elections. To overlook and ignore the loss of hundreds of lives and the mood of the nation at this critical time as done by the ruling party- PDP shows the light-heartedness, levity disdain and utter disregard to citizens lives and insecurity in the country.

    We condole with the family and relations of the Nyanya bomb blast victims and pray Almighty God to give them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss. We call on the Jonathan administration to take inventory of all the victims and pay handsome compensation to the families and dependants. Those who sustained injuries and loss of properties should also be compensated.

    •Comrade Ibrahim M. Zikirullahi & Chief Eddy Ezurike,

    Transition Monitoring Group,

    Abuja

  • COEASU/ASUP strike and ministerial irresponsibility

    SIR: If I were to put a hundred billion dollars in a fixed deposit account over the past months that the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) strike have lasted, we all can imagine how much it would have yielded. Has anyone put a value to the strike by ASUU (now resolved), COEASU and ASUP (still on going) – all totalling 12 months in two years of the academic calendar? If it is any worthwhile to monetise the lost academic value within these periods, how much have we lost?

    I remember in the early days of January 2012 when labour went on a national strike and how the federal government yelled about the countless barrels of oil lost each day; the adverse effect of the strike on foreign reserve and GDP; and other jargon incomprehensible to the common man? But in no time at all we came to a resolution. Why?

    In a nation where millions of students whose parents’ tax money adds up to the GDP and fosters infrastructural development, ought not the education of their children be seen as priority? ‘Education is the only weapon of emancipation’ has been our mantra fro decades. How true is this in the light of recent developments?

    In all of these, the response of the Federal Ministry of Education is most shameful. Of what use is a ministry that cannot minister mercy to her many subjects?

    We need more than a figure-head ministry. We need a proactive ministry that can hoist the hope of 50 million students to relevance; a ministry they can fly with.

    My complaints on ministerial decadence will hold no ground if this second complaint is not addressed. I am most importantly concerned about the Colleges of Education in Nigeria. It is clear to the blind, and audible to the deaf that they are not what they ought to be. In fact I see them as a third class higher institution in the country and nothing more. Any surprise? That’s what they have been recently designed to be.

    Take a look at the admission scheme of the various tertiary institutions in the country, then, you will understand. The less performed are today found in the Colleges of Education, as if to suggest that the teaching profession is reserved for the dreg of the education sector whereas the colleges should be filled with brilliant minds, students who outscored their university counterparts. I mean people who really want to be teachers and not teachers of performance circumstance.

    We need to raise the cut-off mark for admission into Colleges of Education higher than those of Polytechnics and Universities. We need a Ministry of Education that will go on strike on behalf of the academic industry. We need a Nigeria built on sound practicable education and not a facade of soon-to-dry-crude oil.

     

    • Kariola Mustapha

    Lagos

  • Abuja bombing: Unanswered questions

    SIR: We recall that President Goodluck Jonathan recently said that the security agencies had successfully kept the terrorists away from the Federal Capital. With the latest attack in the nation’s capital on Monday, April 15, it now appears nowhere is safe. One wonders how the President now feels hence the following posers.

    Can the President keep trusting those who give him the assurances that the situation is under control?

    In the aftermath of the deadly explosion at Sabon Gari Motor Park in Kano, shouldn’t the security agencies have been proactive enough to have their eyes on motor parks in the country?

    Given the trillions on naira that have been allotted to security agencies since the counter-insurgency started, why can’t the needed and functional technology such as close circuit cameras be installed at strategic places for effective monitoring?

    If the security chiefs cannot provide satisfactory answers to these questions, I think the President should relieve them of their appointments.

    Nowhere in the world do you rely heavily on men and riffles to tackle insurgents in this modern era.

    May God grant the bereaved families succour.

    • Mustapha Alhassan,

    IBB University, Lapai, Niger State

  • Boko Haram insurgency and FG’s ineptitude

    SIR: In recent times, Nigeria has had a terrible share of violence and conflicts that have plagued humankind throughout history. The latest twist is the terrorist attack in a busy location at an Abuja motor park, the capital of Nigeria. That was not the first or second time bomb blast would occur in Abuja. It took years of deceit for Nigeria to grudgingly designate Boko Haram as terrorist group- though not still official. For Nigeria to defeat this indigenous Islamic insurgency, we must win the people’s hearts and minds and get into action. Those l refer to people here are the youths who are indiscriminately used by the Boko Haram leadership. Such youths have become criminal tools in the hands of the sect simply because government at all levels have abdicated their social responsibilities. An idle hand is devil’s workshop.

    It appears Nigerian armed forces have exhaustedly tried to quell Boko Haram insurgency and violence through a dynamic approach which include weaponry and military personnel but it seems they cannot eliminate Boko Haram. From the way the sect operates, new threats constantly emerge, and the number of casualty continues to grow. It appears that even with more fully equipped police and paramilitary forces, the military will not be able to completely contain them. It is in place to predict that Boko Haram will soon start using portable, easily concealed weapons of mass destruction to launch their attacks around the nation. This must not happen!

    That Boko Haram is still waxing stronger simply shows that the administration of President Jonathan is incompetent, and cannot win the war over Boko Haram. In a decent society where the leadership possess conscience, the most honourable thing is for the president to step down or aside. There could never be a better time for the President to do the needful. The regular mantra that ‘we shall defeat Boko Haram’, ‘the issue of Boko Haram is temporary’ etc have become repetitive, boring and insulting. Let us see action. Let this sect be crushed.

    This unnecessary war can be prevented because they are human problems. Thus, they require a human solution. I understand that the government once set up a committee to liaise with the leadership of Boko Haram. However, it is disturbing that over a year since the committee submitted its report, nothing has been heard from, or done by the presidency. This nonchalant attitude of the executive leaves us to guess what the grouse of the sect could be. Social injustice and unfavorable economic conditions thrive in the northern part of Nigeria and contribute to chaotic environments. Unresolved religious, territorial, political, and cultural differences in the country further add to the unrest. Thus, a dissatisfied and frustrated population contributes to its own instability. The build-up of this sort of tension becomes dangerous to any nation’s sovereignty, producing an unfocused government that is more prone to distraction. However, if the collective social stress driving these problems could be prevented, such negative problems would cease. Therefore, it is pertinent that the continued unity of this country be robustly discussed at the on-going conference. There is nothing wrong for a couple to reappraise their relationship after many years of marriage. Such an exercise allows the couple to truly rebase, re-strategize and come up with workable plans to strengthen their bond. I therefore call on the president to allow the delegates discuss freely the entity called Nigeria with a view to determining how best to move ahead from where we are now.

    • Tola Osunnuga

    Dublin, Ireland.

  • What the confab will not achieve

    SIR: With more than three weeks out of the three months slated for the National Conference, any hope that the conference shall point the way forward for a new Nigeria is fast disappearing . If the delegates could allocate two weeks to discuss the speech of the president of the nation, it staggers the imagination of how many weeks would be devoted to the burning problems plaguing all of us.

    Is it the picture of sleeping delegates or that of security personnel fighting among themselves with the journalists being made the scapegoat?  If the delegates succeed in preventing journalists from covering some of the sensitive discussions, it boils down to one thing and a very sad one at that: the very people who are supposed to benefit from the deliberations of these few select Nigerians are deprived of the benefit of the type of country they want.

    The reports of previous conferences are gathering dust in federal government official cabinet. The better and wise choice was for the Jonathan administration to dust up such files and find out if the recommendations of such conferences could be beneficial to our present condition. But this government infamous for wastage and corruption would have none of that and would prefer to bring out its own conference. And that is the circus Nigerians are being fed with.

    The exercise is borne out of the vaulting ambition of a man who is enamoured with power and its retention, and that what matters is how to gain more political mileage from the National Conference.

    This conference will not solve corruption in the country as some of the people attending the conference were part of the people that brought us to this ugly past. Corruption will continue to be the national symbol and the likes of Robert Mugabe shall make us butt of dirty international jokes. And if the conference cannot solve the problem of corruption, it means that this nation despite the abundant crude oil and gas wealth will continue to wear the sackcloth of poverty, with progress and development perched in the realm of imagination.

    The conference will never solve the problem of lack of unity buffeting the nation. The reason is that our political elites believe in a game of delusion and dissembling.  This nation is not united and the concept of a ‘Nigerian‘ is just fictional. That is why people are not sincere about the implementation of fiscal federalism despite the fact that ours is called the Federal Republic. That is why one traditional ruler could boast of moving to Cameroun and leaving the country. That is the more reason the struggle to control the presidency is very fierce. This skewed federal system needs thorough overhaul but the indications from the National Conference are that most delegates are not patriotic enough to speak the truth about fiscal federalism and resource control.

    The National Conference will not be able to solve the issues of doctored and flawed elections because as it stands today, the delegates see Jonathan as doing them great favour by inviting them to Abuja.  And when you add the boast of the president in Enugu recently that PDP will capture the whole of South-east, it will be delusional to contemplate for a split second that next year polls shall be free and fair.

    In the governance of a nation, any nation for that matter, the key ingredients are sincerity and transparency. These are unfortunately in short supply in the Jonathan‘s administration. The circuses of political leaders around the man weave tortoise-like stories to him and goad him to believe that his transformational agenda is having the desired effects. It is the same set of people that schooled him into believing that by convoking a national conference, he will enter the history books as one of nature’s gifts to Nigeria. It is a lie that the looming failure of the National Conference shall expose.

    • Akpoyibo Unutemeta,

    Asaba.

  • 2015: My fears for Jega

    2015: My fears for Jega

    SIR: As 2015 elections beckon, my fear increases day in day out for what could be the fate of Nigerians and the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega after the elections. There is no doubt that the atmosphere is going to be tense as some Nigerians and outsiders have already predicted 2015 to be a year of anxiety and violence for Nigeria.

    Right from time, Nigerians are known to be flexible. They have the patience to endure and adapt to whatever situation that comes their way. Nigerians have compassion and are very religious. Owing to their long-suffering nature, they have endured the comatose state of the economy.

    Nigerians have however lost hope and faith in the country’s leadership. They believe that the country’s problems will not abate soon.

    Presently, the problem of insecurity has awakened the zeal of Nigerians into politics. Every Nigerian now seems to be calling for 2015. The situation has become unbearable as people are being killed

    everyday. Thus, every Nigerian is already looking forward and counting down to 2015 election. The forthcoming general election would be a determinant of our living together as one nation because every region, religion, group wants to dominate others. That is why the unity of the country is shaky.

    Meanwhile, the most attention is on Jega and his INEC.

    The bye-election recently conducted in Ondo State has further added to the doubt we have about Professor Jega’s INEC. If just a bye-election can be declared inconclusive because of misconduct, what then would happen in the general election?

    Nigerians are craving for change and the belief is that change can only be achieved through a free, fair and credible election. Jega ought to know the magnitude and implication of not achieving this come 2015. Nigerians would not hearken to excuses from INEC or Jega. He should go back to the drawing board and re-strategise or perhaps he should return to the Jega of those days. We used to know Professor Jega to be a radical-intellectual, upright and sincere man who fought against the military government of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida while as a chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    Again, Jega should know that many things are at stake; his reputation is at stake, the lives of innocent Nigerians are at stake, the desires of Nigerians to remain as one entity is at stake, infact, everything about Nigeria is at stake. Thus, we hope and pray that Jega’s INEC will not compromise.

     

    • Suleiman Yusuf,

    IBB University Lapai, Niger State.