The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • ASUP strike: Calling on President Jonathan

    SIR: I wish to appeal to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to as matter of necessity listen to the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, who has been on strike since October 4, 2013. This strike has long term effects on our country’s political and economic development. Let these striking polytechnics teachers come back to classroom to continue with their academic programmes. As a one-time lecturer, a father and President of Nigeria, you know the importance of education to the national development and what strike does to a nation especially when it involves the education sector. Education is the driving force of other sectors. Without sound education, other sectors remain stagnant because it is through the training of manpower that available resources are effectively managed.

    Nigerian universities have not fully recovered from the effects of the recent strike that lasted for five months. Our country’s educational system has depressed so gravely, Mr President. One of the dangers of academic strike is the poor performance of the students. Any time students return from strike, most of the things they have been taught before they went on strike are often forgotten. Lecturers are not also left of this dilemma and so it will affect the country too.

    Ironically, in the 2012 World Universities Ranking, none of the Nigerian universities ranked among the first 1, 600 universities in the world. Our universities and polytechnics are not ranked among the best in the world, yet, we are not bothered about it. If we bother, why should we allow public polytechnics and universities to be closed for about five months and government doesn’t care to do anything about it? This careless attitude towards education sector has for a long time dealt a fatal blow other sectors including the political structures in this country.

    Which miracle does one expect lecturers to perform to produce sound intellectuals that would match the key sectors of our economy? If our universities and polytechnics must produce sound and competent graduates that would match key sectors of economy, education ought to be recognized as a major tool through adequate funding, good remunerations for our teachers and provision of functional and quality infrastructures.

    Why are we busy playing politics with the lives and future of youths? How can we equal other nations that have placed high premium on education and providing quality education for their children? What legacy would you leave for us to remember you with after you have left the office as president?

     

    • Yabagi Abubakar Akote,

    IBB University, Lapai-Niger State.

  • Govt, insurgents guilty of killing innocent Nigerians

    SIR: Few days ago, some young graduates and promising future leaders lost the battle no one has ever won in life (very early) due to their own government’s insensitivity. When it gets to a stage where the government kills its own people, such a nation is on life support.

    If the government cannot save the poor from the pool of poverty, why should they compound their problems? The government will always claim there is no money to create jobs whereas there is money to pay former governors, retired generals and professionals currently attending the national conference 12 million naira each. Imagine such money being given to people who are living in their own houses, individuals who are eating the kind of food they like at their convenient time while the poverty-stricken keeps wallowing in poverty.

    Both the insurgents and the government are killing the people. The only difference is that the insurgents are doing it directly while the government is doing it indirectly. What else can be said about this? Seven hundred thousand applicants invited for a physical exercise where only 4,000 of them will be employed in the long run? For people to think that the recruitment exercise is transparent given the rumour being peddled around that the politicians have already shared the slots?

    But whether it is a rumour or not, one thing I have learnt in this country is that for you to survive in Nigeria, your leg must be long. If your leg is not long, you must stay connected with people whose

    legs are long. If you can’t meet any of the two, you are finished.

    This is not happening only in government, it happens in private companies, schools, in fact in churches and mosques. When will the poor emerge from poverty?

    Now the government is giving the family of the victim three jobs each. That can only be a consolation. It can never heal the wounds. Ten different eyes cannot be like one’s biological eye.

    Honestly, the March 15 incident is very sad. Graduates whose parents are looking forward to seeing their greatness died suddenly. Parents expecting to reap the fruit of their labour have their hope

    dashed.

    • Idowu Esho Jamiu

    Eruwa, Oyo State.

     

  • On the Immigration tragedy

    SIR: The immigration recruitment debacle raises a lot of questions and says much about how low we have sunk as a people. First, those in leadership positions in this country (all of them without exception) love power but lack the basic knowledge of the responsibilities that go with it. In Nigeria, when a minister does what he/she is employed to do, you’ll see sycophants taking advertorials in national dailies to sing their praises to high heavens, but when the situations arise to question their competence and rationality, they blame every other person but themselves.

    And in all of this, what would Okonjo-Iweala have to say about over 600,000 jobless Nigerians pursuing 4,556 jobs until some of them met their death in an economy she is always quick to paint in bright colours?

    Now we also have a clue to why crime is on the increase: the government is taking money from jobless applicants.The conscience of those ruling us have taken leave of them. Now if that is not corruption, then that word has lost its meaning. And Jonathan has the audacity to tell the whole world that corruption in Nigeria is exagerated!

    Just some weeks ago, the President of Zimbabwe said you have to bribe your way to get anything done in Nigeria. What other proof do we need? Whither our morality? The message Jonathan is sending accross is that to get anything from government, you must first be prepared to suffer a tragedy like loosing a limb, be blinded, or sacrifice a member of your family.

    If anyone thinks Jonathan will sack Moro, that  person would be greatly disappointed because President Jonathan cannot differentiate between his ego and morality; he looks at everything through the prism of politics.

    I’m surprised Olisah Metuh has not blamed those who died for dying just to discredit the Jonathan government, after all, he just has to say something to convince his principal he is working, even if it exposes him as a man who is weak in thinking. To Jonathan, those dead are just another figure. Life goes on. It is all politics.-

    • Simon Oladapo,

    Ogbomoso.

  • Tragedies and public relations imperative

    SIR: On Saturday, March 15, 19 Nigerians died in a stampede during an ill-fated recruitment exercise for the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS). The exercise, which was carried out across different recruitment centres across the nation, allegedly had over 500, 000 applicants in attendance – a mammoth figure by any standard. The fallout from this was swift and criticisms from different quarters trailed the exercise; the Federal Interior Minister and the Comptroller General of the NIS were also officially queried by the presidency.

    The tragic incident exposed the NIS and the federal government to public scrutiny and ridicule, with many calling for reparations. In an attempt at damage control, the government announced the cancellation of further screening of candidates and also directed that employment slots be reserved for the families of those who died during the stampede. Not only that, President Goodluck Jonathan, also ordered that employment automatic be given to others who sustained injuries during the exercise and were subsequently hospitalised.

    The incident was a Public Relations disaster, as evidenced by the first, crucial mis-steps: at the initial stage, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Abba Moro, blamed the dead youths by saying that “the applicants lost their lives due to impatience and for not following the laid-down procedures spelt out to them before the exercise.” This reaction was widely condemned and tagged as showing insensitivity and a lack of remorse on the part of the government. It also showed a lack of skill, tact and preparation in dealing with sensitive issues; for example, a government that wishes to be seen as caring and responsible in times of crisis must show empathy to the affected parties, particularly when there is a loss of life and property.

    There is undoubtedly a need for governments around the world, Nigeria included, to incorporate Public Relations (PR) into every area of policy formulation, execution and management. Besides offering adequate publicity to every policy thrust or drive, it helps deal with crises when they occur – and they do occur. The NIS incident is a good example of a crisis that would have been better handled given proper PR management and ill-advised utterances such as Moro’s would never have found their way into the press.

    The government must learn from this incident and incorporate PR into all areas of administration. Proper crisis management plans must be put in place to mitigate damage and key government officials or spokespersons must be educated on just how to respond to sensitive issues to avoid instigating public ire. The art and practice of Public Relations by the government must to a large extent reflect honesty, openness, advocacy, fairness and most importantly; constant communication. If these tenets had been followed in handling the NIS crisis, the public backlash might have been potentially substantially reduced.

    • Adeolu Isadiran

    Lagos

  • Nigerians rise against forces of division

    SIR: Nigeria is at a defining moment of her history. To my brothers and sisters who believe Nigeria should break-up, I want us to please consider some realities. The amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates is now 100 years old. The crises at hand are self-created. We should rather think of finding solutions to our problems. I repeat with convictions that none of the regions in Nigeria can really go alone. We have gone too far, inter-married and have business concerns all over the country.

    I have traveled through all regions in Nigeria. I have seen Igbos, Yorubas, Hausa-Fulanis who are products of inter-tribal marriages. Just too many of them. Where then do they belong if not Nigeria? I have met several Yorubas, Igbos and southerners in the North who have never travelled to their home states and even with the state of origin problems. I have seen several products of inter-tribal marriages in the West, East and South-south. These are Nigerians who have no better homes than the states where they were raised up!

    Our problem is not the union, but the overt and covert establishments of poverty and infrastructural deficiencies by the political elites as well as the conformist nature of us the followers via primordial attachments to ethnicity or religion.

    Let this be clear: those who brought us to this mess cut across all regions, tribes, creeds or faiths. Not one can be exempted! Then what we need to do is to stop blaming the union, come out of our self-imposed socio-political delusions by refusing completely to dance to the music of ethnicity or religion. When we keep talking of ethnicity or religion, we are simply doing exactly what the political class wants us to do. They want us to be distracted with the amalgamation, ethnicity or religion while they keep denying us of dividends of democracy. They continue to amass wealth and say they are fighting for us.

    Which region is not afflicted with poverty or infrastructural deficiency? If we were to break-up today who else will provide political leadership if not the same political class? Take a look at any of the North-west, North-east, North-central, South-west, South-east and South-south regions; which region is free of intrinsic internal differences? Which of the regions is free of ethnic-related crises? Which of the regions is free of complaints of marginalization by ethnic minorities? Why are there continuous demands for the creation of more states across all regions if not because of cries of domination by larger ethnic groups? Which region is free of poverty, infrastructural deficiencies, poor standard of education, irregular or no power supply? The way forward is to demand for a new Nigeria where things work and where leaders are chosen based on their visionary capabilities and not ethnic or religious affiliations.

    Remember: We have done it before; we can still do it better. Sir Herbert Macaulay (from Western Nigeria) handed over the leadership of the National Youth Movement to Sir Azikwe (from Eastern Nigeria). In the First Republic, Umoru Altine from Sokoto (Northern Nigeria) and Dr Bashorun Balogun from Ogun (Western Nigeria) were mayors of Port Harcourt and Enugu respectively while Ebube Dike, an Igbo from Okigwe (Eastern Nigeria) represented Ajeromi-Ajegunle Constituency as an Honourable member of the Western House of Assembly.

    Stop primordial attachments to ethnicity or religion; recognize that our problems are the same across all regions and vote for visionary leaderships in 2015 across all levels or tiers of governments irrespective of ethnic or religious affiliations.

    • Akinlolu, Abdulazeez Adelaja

    University of Ilorin

  • To conquer Boko Haram

    o conquer Boko Haram, the military and the federal government should adopt new tactics. My suggestion to the federal government is to evacuate all the villagers to the cities in the three affected states, since Boko Haram have shifted their dastardly activities from the cities to the villages because of the concentration of security men in the cities.

    This will enable the military to engage the insurgents fully militarily without fear of civilian casualties. This can be carried out one state after the other and this will bring effective coordination between the Army/Airforce and other security agencies.

    As it is now, the military has been careful in their operations not to destroy the civilians they are trying to protect. If the civilians are evacuated from all the black spots in the three states, the military will be free to bombard all the Boko Haram’s hideouts or bunkers without fear of civilian casualties. By so doing, they will be routed out either by killing them or by capturing them. If this is done, I am sure within two months Boko Haram will be a forgotten issue; although this exercise will cost a lot of money, there will be instant result. For instance, if it is flood that occupies these three states, will the govt leave the people to die? Therefore, it is possible to evacuate the villagers to enable the military face Boko Haram squarely and professionally.

    The military are doing their best. It is easier said than done – some arm chair critics sit in the comfort of their offices to write whatever comes to their heads against the military not minding that the military we are talking about are human beings with their own families. They are not fighting a conventional warfare; what they are engaged in is a shadow war, where you hardly come face to face with the enemy before he strikes. Recently, some so-called elders from the north threatened to drag the former Chief of Army Staff to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, claiming that the military probably mistakenly killed about 20 civilians. How do we want the military to prosecute this war against Boko Haram successfully when we continue to demoralise them by our actions?

    Boko Haram mixed with civilians when they want to commit harvoc. Are Boko Haram not civilians too? They only wear military camouflage when they want to release communiqué. The military is in a dilemma regarding separating the chaff from the wheat because Boko Haram members live amongst the people and they have no symbol or mark to identify them.

    Now that school children have become endangered species, what do we do to put an end to Boko Haram’s dastardly acts against school children? Fifty-nine school children were killed in Buni Yadi, Yobe State, 37 children in Adamawa State, which were just the recent incidents. Sooner or later, parents will start the withdrawal of their children from schools which will surely make the north to be more educationally disadvantaged than before.

    My message to Mr. President is that it is high time to look for the sponsors of Boko Haram; it is not enough to pursue Boko Haram members, pursue the sponsors as well. When the police arrest an armed robber, he will recount his experiences from the first day he joined the robbery gang. Why don’t we apply the same method to captured Boko Haram members to spill the beans concerning their sponsors? Boko Haram mostly live in the jungle, how do they come about the Hilux buses in their convoys and the large caches of sophisticated weapons they are using. Where does the money come from? Let us be serious for once.

     

    Israel Oyegbile

    Sabo Tasha

    Kaduna.

     

  • Evil of kerosene and firewood

    Kerosene and firewood are the two most conventional sources of fuel for domestic cooking stoves in Nigeria. These two sources of domestic cooking fuel have been seen to have high level of carbon emission which in majority of cases have been found to be unhealthy to our human body let alone children. Over the past four decades, Nigerians living in townships and rural areas are used to either kerosene cook-stoves or firewood as the popular fuel for domestic cooking. This killer trend has a long history in our society; possibly due to the available resources, i.e. forest reserves and crude oil. But then as the world is drifting more into cleaner sources of energy, there is need for the Nigerian authorities to adopt these measures with adequate sensitisation programme, especially at the grassroots level and with the private sector’s support. Green energy is becoming popular in America, Asia and Europe due to their huge carbon footprint over the years with little or no penetration into most African countries.

    Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is not becoming a conventional source of fuel for cook-stoves in Nigeria. The use of LPG as source of fuel is common in the urban, particularly in places where its supply is readily accessible and not in the rural areas of Nigeria. The main reasons why LPG is widely adopted for household use are: it is convenient to operate, easy to control, and clean to use because of the blue flame emitted during cooking. However, because of the continued increase in the price of oil in the world market, the price of LPG fuel has gone up tremendously and is continuously increasing at a fast rate. At present, a 12.5-kg LPG, that is commonly used by common households for cooking, costs as high as 3,000 naira – 3,500 naira per cylinder in urban areas. For a typical household, having four children, one LPG tank can be consumed within 20 to 30 days only depending on the number and amount of food being cooked. Use of LPG is proving rather expensive for the government, consumer and the environment as well.

    For the past years, gasifier stoves using biomass as fuel have been developed in countries like the US, China, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and other developing countries in Asia. These gasifier stoves produce a flammable gas by burning the fuel with limited amount of air. These stoves can easily replace the conventional LPG stove. This stove has no problem of pollution and using the abundant rice husk and other biomass fuel, it can drastically reduce the cost of cooking fuel. Rice farmers in Nigeria can easily access the waste of rice husks from their individual farms or from rice processors as fuel needed for rice husk biomass gas stoves.

    Benefits of the Biomass Gas Stove:

    The rice husk gas stove technology is found to have the following advantages, not only to users but to the general public as well:

    1. It is a good replacement for LPG stove, particularly in terms of fuel savings and quality of flame (i.e., luminous blue flame) produced during cooking. By direct energy conversion, about 50 kg of rice husk can replace a cylinder.

    2. It will significantly reduce the cost of household spending on conventional fuel sources such as electricity, kerosene, wood, and wood charcoal.

    3. It will help reduce the carbon dioxide emission in the air brought about by the burning of LPG, wood and other biomass fuel in the traditional cook-stoves, which contributes to the ozone layer depletion and consequently in the “greenhouse effect” into the atmosphere.

    By Egun Sunday

    egunsunday@hotmail.com.

  • Now that the conference has begun

    SIR: Though some Nigerians have expressed scepticism that a National Conference at this time would be tantamount to a waste of time and financial resources, others have described it as a “Greek gift”, a ploy by the PDP-led government to pull diverse people together and enrich their pockets in order to ensure support in 2015 general elections.

    Now that the conference has finally started and members are at last settling for serious business, they should be mindful of the fact that beyond the scepticism and reservations about the viability of the conference to really address and redress some of our problems, most Nigerians who believes in this confab and indeed the common people look forward to them to arrive at recommendations that would turn their lives around for good.

    Nigerians expect recommendations and reports that would address issues of indigene-ship, we have a situation on our hands whereby an indigene of Kogi State for example, who was born and bred in Kwara State still cannot claim to be from Kwara despite spending about 40 years in that state. We have also heard of cases where women from a particular state get married to men from a different state yet they are not allowed the privileges of an indigene in their husband’s state of origin. All these should be looked into and addressed if this country is to move forward.

    Delegates need to look at issues like rotational presidency among the six geopolitical zones that make up this country and not the North-South arrangement that some politicians prefer. Even in the states, a situation whereby all the governors that had ruled a state since 1999 came from a particular senatorial district does not augur well and it is unacceptable; local government autonomy should not even be a matter for debate in this 21st Century if not that some people are hell bent at drawing back the wheels of progress of this county. Financial and economic autonomy should be returned to the local governments to give a sense of belonging to common Nigerians at the grass root.

    Creation of an anti-corruption tribunal to serve as a special court to speedily hear corruption cases should be on the cards of the delegates; declaring a state of emergency on unemployment as a means of checking youth restiveness and insurgency is not negotiable; the issue of BSc/HND differentiation should be made a criminal offence; NYSC reforms should be extensively looked into; agricultural revolution and an amicable resolution to issues of Fulani herdsmen/ farmers clashes should be on the card.

    The recommendation and outcome of this august conference should not fail to ensure that the rights of women and children are protected, wife battery and all forms of violence against women should be made a criminal offence as well as child hawking and other forms of abuse against children; a critical look should be made into the issue of public smoking and the proliferation of open-bars in the nook and crannies of this country. Common Nigerians look up to you the delegates to make things right again.

     

    • Hussain Obaro,

    Ilorin

  • Tinubu @ 62: National Conference beckons

    SIR: I wish to express my humble birthday wishes to this great Nigerian, humanist and political icon who clocks 62 this weekend. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu requires no introduction in our clime, having started as a senator in the botched third republic; he was in the trenches against the military during the annulment of June 12 elections, one of the darkest spots of our nation’s history.

    On the advent of the present political dispensation, he became governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007. He has since then remained a leading political figure with progressive spirit in our country. More than anything else, his tenure as the governor witnessed a revolution-like development both in human capital and infrastructures. His revolutionary developmental strides range from road construction, e.g. Awolowo road, Kudirat Abiola road,(formerly Oregun road), Itire-Ojuelegba-Yaba road, Abaranje road etc, to the health sector where the story of the conjoined twin ended well and the popular ‘jigi Bola’ to the private sector driven gigantic power generation plants brought-in to improve electricity supply. Indeed his administration set the template for his high performing successor, Babatunde Fashola who today has raised the stakes even higher.

    More than Tinubu’s 62 birthday anniversary, I must impress it upon this detribalized Nigerian the need for his political party to reconsider its non-participation in the on-going national conference. That a political party with progressive credentials is missing from the conference does not augur well for our polity. In fact, if for nothing at all, we need people who will keep the conference on its toes all day and in my opinion this can be provided by the All Progressives Congress (APC). More importantly, the calibre of the members of the conference will surely allow for cross breeding of ideas on some of the contending issues like fiscal federalism, state police, revenue allocation formula, industrialization and employment generation etc.

    It is in lieu of the above that I call on Asiwaju to cause a re-think of his party’s non-participation at the National Conference on the occasion of his 62nd birthday for the sake of generations unborn, for something good might still come out of this conference. We need to give the conference the benefit of the doubt. Happy birthday sir!

     

    • Badejo Adedeji Nurudeen.

    Surulere, Lagos.

  • 2015: Open letter to Prof Jega

    SIR: When you were first appointed as the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), by President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigerians went berserk with joy and elation because of your

    record as the chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the fact that you were able to face the threat of the then military government of Ibrahim Babangida in the early 1990s. Nigerians saw you as an astute intellectual with a strong sense of ethics, morality and a man of his words.

    As a Nigerian, I believe you are very conversant with what is happening in the country. Nigerians are being oppressed everyday by politicians who do not have anything to offer to move Nigeria forward.

    They want to win elections by all means and thus, could be looking to put pressure on you to compromise and go against the wish of Nigerians.

    Many groups had written to you to redeploy the top management and other officials who had been

    accused of electoral misconducts and bring in people of your calibre who can be trusted but you paid deaf ear and opted to work with the old firewoods which your predecessor left.

    That was not actually the problem; the problem was that you made a lot of pledges and that no misconduct would be tolerated. The notable one was the pledge you made that if the number of vote supersedes the number of voters registered in any state, such vote would be cancelled but sir, there were cases like that especially in the presidential election. Why did you not cancel the vote?

    The election that took place in Anambra state, in 2013 was marred with irregularities that even you, the electoral umpire publicly admitted, why did you not cancel the election and conduct fresh

    one?

    In 2011, your INEC was given an elephantine amount of money based on your request, and when you were asked to provide the ballot papers in the election petitions tribunal for cross examination, you could not. Ordinarily, if the money were channelled to some sectors of the economy, perhaps, education, it would have helped improve it tremendously if properly utilized.

    Sir, I hereby use this avenue to call on you to rise up to the big task ahead of you. The politicians are desperate; the president and his party are desperate too; all that Nigerians require of you is to create

    a level play ground for all parties that may be involved.

    Nigerians are hoping that you get it right come 2015; that may be the only chance you could get to re-polish your image and reputation which you took many years to build.

     

    • Waziri Mohammed,

    IBB University Lapai, Niger State.