The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Freedom has no Father Christmas

    Freedom has no Father Christmas

    SIR: When those who have access to the public till, continue to squander the treasury without let, at the expense of the joint-owners, nobody needs tell the co-owners that the wealth that is being dissipated, should be questioned, as a “right”. But would such question arise, if the so-called disadvantaged or marginalised citizens sit-on-the-fence, and expect the miracle-of- freedom from the godfathers of dictatorship? Would the godfathers of tyranny ever agree to give freedom as a present to their subjects, whom they demand perpetual serfdom, servitude, and idiotic loyalty from?

    Knowing that the only way to continue to lord it over their subjects, is to continue to put them in the cage of submissiveness, dishing out occasional appeasement, through renting them as thugs, arsonists, terrorists, insurgents, assassins, bouncers, clowns, and hirelings, body-guards, with gifts not worth the sumptuous meals prepared for their dogs or pets, on a daily basis! Happily, we accept this vomit from our self-righteous masters, who if we summon-up the courage to confront, are not better than us, nor do they entertain nobler or worthier thoughts, or are they more gifted than us.

    They do not possess the unflinching believe in sacrifice, hard work, morality, values, that embody sane, refined humanity, which we represent. Yet, we entreat them to become our Father Christmas of freedom!

    Now, who has ever heard about any part of the universe, where freedom is presented on a platter of gold, with an e-mail, bearing liberation as an address?

    If freedom has a Father Christmas, then, it must be Nigerian rulers, who are known for their talent in fooling their subjects ( I mean the people), with all sorts of con-artistry, gimmicks, coupled with spoiling them with crumbs from their tables, and dulling their minds with fear and intimidation.

    And this type of freedom that forecloses positive thinking, and produces little minds that lynch great minds, and small men that kill giants, play devastating roles against the receivers of occasional presents, from the small men and little minds that govern them. But if the great minds and giants would someday recognise the fact that they have destroyed themselves, future, and posterity, by genuflecting on the altar of intellectual and moral midgets, at the helm of affairs in their country, and conclusively, seek among themselves for the liberators in their generation, and obstinately and massively queue behind them, freedom will be fought for, and won from small men and little minds, who have been their oppressors for ages.

    The example of South Africa is a living testament, of how the people identified, recognised their liberators, encapsulated in Nelson Mandela, and determinedly and massively queued behind them; today, they are respected globally, as mankind continues to eulogise the Madiba. There were Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, Aminu Kano, here yesterday, who were true Nigerian liberators, in every stretch of the imagination. But little minds and giant killers did not let them carry out total reformation, transformation, reinvention, reorientation of Nigeria! Yet, the Nigerian people whose plight have continued to nose-dive, fortunes mired in the greed and power-chasing madness of today’s Nigeria’s godfathers, god-sons and god-daughters, have refused to take their destinies in their hands!

     

    •Chinedu Ohaegbulam,

    Port Harcourt.

     

  • Come, let us reason together

    Come, let us reason together

    SIR: I hereby, appeal to all Nigerians to come and reason together. Let us reflect deeply on the various ethnic, religious or political crises that we have passed through as a nation from 1960 till date. The main actors have always been behind the scenes. The major foot soldiers and victims of these senseless crises have always been the poor Nigerian youth.

    I continue to be amazed that our reactions to the several challenges and issues we face as a country are consistently based on primordial sentiments of ethnicity and religious affiliations. Take the recent cases of Bugaje versus the Niger Delta; Sanusi versus Jonathan; Amaechi versus Jonathan and Oduahgate amidst many others. When are we going to stop being used by the political elites for their selfish purposes?

    We have had 14 Presidents/Heads of State – nine from the North, two from the South-East, two from the South-West and one from the South-South. Why are we so deeply and foolishly concerned about the particular ethnic origin of who becomes the President in 2015 instead of being more reflectively concerned about the candidate with the best visionary ideology on how to move the country forward?

    Why is the level of poverty so high in the North today despite the fact that nine of our Presidents/Heads of State are of northern origin? We are all agreed that one of the factors that fueled the Boko Haram crises is abject poverty in the North-east. Lest we forget, BH is also a creation of the political class!

    Why is there sustained poverty and infrastructural deficiencies in the South-south in the more than four years of a President from the region? Has the life of the average poor Niger Deltan fared better than before 2010 when compared to Nigerians from other regions?

    Lest we forget, the longest serving President (11 years) is from the South-west. The Nigerian economy is road-driven. Why were the Ilorin – Lagos (the main West-North route), Sagamu – Benin – Ore (the main West – East – South-South route) roads not completed under his presidency?

    How exactly have we, the Nigerian masses, fared better as Christians or Muslims under a Christian or Muslim President? Why can’t we deliver ourselves from our self-imposed socio-political delusions?

    When the elites meet and complain of their region being marginalized, they do not speak for us the masses being marginalized, but for the political elites who have lost out in the political control of our resources!

    Come to think of it: Which of the regions in Nigeria is not afflicted with poverty and infrastructural deficiencies? Which of the regions is free of poor roads, poorly – equipped schools and institutions, insufficient water supply or irregular power supply? Our problems are the same. Let us all work best to begin solving our problems by voting for the best President come 2015.

    The year 2015 is a defining moment for our nation. Let us reflect creatively on how to deliver Nigeria from the clutches of socio-political retrogression, poverty, infrastructural deficiencies and systemic corruption. Let us all agree to vote for a visionary leadership irrespective of whether the candidate is from the North, West, East or South-South. Let us all shed the toga of primordial attachments to ethnicity or religion, and embrace the collective destiny of a more prosperous Nigeria.

     

    • Akinlolu, Abdulazeez Adelaja,

    University of Ilorin, Kwara State.

     

  • North’s glorious state of ignominy

    SIR: It is like the beautiful sky is falling in the North.  The serene landscape of man’s harmony with nature is burning like a desert fire all in the name of fighting for a cause.  Some say it is political.  Some say it is religious.  The spilling of human blood like the slaughtering of rams to appease an unknown god reduces humanity to a glorious state of ignominy.  The nation buries its head in the sand like an ostrich and presumes ignorance of the genesis of the crisis. The responsibility is on all Nigerians to find a solution to remedy the idiosyncratic anomalies oppressing the country.

    Nigeria must grow in unison.  It is fundamentally unacceptable in this modern time for any part of the country to lag behind in any critical form.  Historically the North has been viewed as the region with the less inclination for modern schooling.  It is understandable that there might have been structures in place that necessitated this condition.  Today, it is in the best interest of Nigeria that the North is educated in equal pace with other regions.

    The reckless destruction of lives in the North cannot possibly be disassociated from the brutal consequences of group thinking – them against us – that may not allow for intellectual articulation of the facts.  No matter how one looks at the insurgency, it is the North that is being physically, morally and economically decimated.  One fears reason has been trounced.  If there is going to be an end to this fiasco, who gains?

    Viewing from a broader angle, the nation cannot afford to go backward while the rest of the world is moving forward especially when some regions are advancing in this state of modernism.  It is one’s understanding that a universally educated mind can be able to process the facts around its existence and push forward the best ideology for the betterment of humanity.  One is not canvassing for the abandonment of parochial philosophies but rather an alignment with the moving universe.

    The supervising minister for education, Nyesom Wike recently announced the re-location of students from five federal government colleges in the North-east to safer ones in the area.  Evidently, even the government expects escalation of the insurgent murderous attacks.  One would think that the government should fortify the schools against these aggressions.  But since life has no duplicate, perhaps the government should spread the umbrella of protection to cover free education for any student in the crisis prone areas who is willing to continue schooling in the safer states around the country.

     

    • Pius Okaneme

    Umuoji, Anambra State.

  • African language and writings on verge of extinction

    SIR: “When an old man dies in Africa, it is like a library burning down.” – Hampate Ba

    I am surprised at the level at which our languages are ‘disappearing’. Everybody wants to learn the lingua franca, we all want to learn other people’s languages while branding ours vernacular. While we demonise our languages and brand our poems and rhymes ‘incantation’, other people are paying to learn our language and are memorising our incantations. We are not students of history because if we are, we would know that our trip to societal ‘back seat’ started when we allowed our history and and rich cultural heritage to be branded evil, painted black and demonised. My fear is that years from now, our children will pay heavily to learn the same languages we neglected, then they may even be given scholarships to learn their own language from foreigners. Of course, you won’t expect them to teach it without distortion. It is very much possible if we don’t reconsider our ways.

    What happened to language writers? People who actually wrote in their mother tongue, where are they? Do they still exist? Today, everybody wants to write in English or French. We all want to write about big cities, beautiful sceneries filled with surveillance cameras and prompt security operatives who effectively combat crime. We write of peaceful nations and happy people. Our writings are disconnected from reality. A writer that cannot first of all write of the realities around him is no writer. If we cannot write things that our people can relate with, then we do not deserve to tell them to read our writings. The West doesn’t like writings that shows the imperfections of the world, they want writings that show what a perfect world we live in and how in control we are of developments and occurrences. But could anything be farther from the truth? The world isn’t perfect, every nation has its peculiarities, we all have challenges we have to battle with, we cannot wish them away by refusing to write about them. We cannot because of the prizes and awards that come with writings that depict peace and tranquility betray the realities that surround us.

    A call for us to awake is what this is. We cannot neglect our languages or refuse to write about the realities we are faced with. A writer’s first motivation should be the existing realities that abound and not the false illusion that comes with craving for the allures of prizes and awards. We must return because our journey to freedom and self-discovery will not start without first appreciating what is ours and working with that.

    • James Ogunjimi

    Ogun State

  • EFCC and its 117 convictions

    SIR: In a country where corruption is seen as the norms, a tradition and way of life, no meaningful development can be achieved. Corruption seems to have pervaded every sector of Nigeria system. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC despite all odds, gives hope to Nigerians in its fight against the malaise especially with its recent record of 117 convictions in 2013.

    Despite the numerous challenges faced by the commission in prosecuting cases, the rise in the number of convictions shows that obstacles are surmountable. Of the 533 cases filed within the year, it is worthy of note that the commission was able to secure 117 convictions. This to me is commendable effort.

    However, it is hoped that the commission will not rest on its oars in 2014. It is also expected that they will bite harder by securing more convictions especially of public officials who have looted the country’s commonwealth while holding our nation hostage through corruption. They enjoy their loot from the public’s treasury with their families and generations yet unborn. An instance is that of the son of a governor who was prosecuted by the commission and convicted for money laundering.

    Sadly too, these so called public officials who guzzle the nation’s fund take advantage of some constitutional loopholes to frustrate trials in court. They do not only frustrate trials, they also try all within their power to cripple the anti-graft agencies in an attempt to make them toothless bulldog and a puppet in the hands of the elite class.

    If the truth must be told, the fight against corruption in this country must not be left in the hands of the anti-graft agencies alone. It should be a collective fight. Our laws need to be strengthened in a way that corrupt people will be made to face stiffer penalties. The EFCC Act needs to be amended to make the commission truly independent. The judiciary needs to step up efforts towards ensuring quick dispensation of justice. Above all, against the backdrop of the public saying that EFCC is grossly under-funded, the anti-graft agency should be adequately funded for it to be able to fight corruption to a standstill.

    • Ngozi Alexander

    Maraba, Nassarawa State

  • Tribute to Prof. ‘Jenks’ Okwori: Words are not enough

    So, I finally caved in to reality. I garnered the courage to look at the photos we took together, again… A devastated acceptance that death had indeed done its worst, and that those smiles were forever frozen!

    Professor Jenkeri Okwori, erudite professor of Theatre Arts at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and one of the pioneers of Participatory Development Communication in Nigeria, a first class intellectual and pride of our Ukalegwu, Orokam clan back home in Benue State, had yielded to death’s inconsiderate claws on February 12. It was the complications from an accident he had earlier on February 7 along the Abuja-Kaduna road. Three others, Professor Sam Kafewo (HOD of the dept), Dr. Martins Ayegba (the department’s postgraduate coordinator) and a PHD student of the department, Ayishatu Nana, had perished alongside. Jenks was only 52.

    Jenkeri. Of course, everyone knows him – one of the first graduates and the first professor from my village. He was the reference point for the academic-tilting child, the prodigy, the shiny light in a region darkened by socio-economic and socio-political exclusion… the ‘land of palm trees’, sandwiched, as it were, on the tripartite red-soiled borders of Enugu, Kogi and Benue States, claimed by the latter, but mostly in name…

    Back in his roots, Jenks was always in the news… When he was not working with other elites, coordinating efforts to bring electricity to our village, providing the village with a new police post, he was supplying our Ukalegwu community with bore-hole water, coordinating medical outreaches or organising town hall meetings. Always doing something for his people, and so full of life!

    For a man ever on the move, I got very lucky to have an up-close and most memorable time with him in July last year in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He was one of our facilitators at the ‘Artists as Peace-Builders’ Course (Using Participatory Theatre for Conflict Transformation) at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). We bonded like old buddies and chatted for a long time. Chubby, lively and with his trademark boyish smiles, Oh! I had no inkling whatsoever that it would be our last physical meeting.

    Jenks the intellectual, stood out at the ISS training which took two weeks. He was with us for two days, conducting theory and practical training on how the writers, poets, actors, painters, among others, drawn from several African countries (with Chika Ede of the United Nations in South Sudan and I being the Nigerians in the group) could utilise the arts to bring about enduring peace in our turbulent world. When he finished the theory in the course of which he unravelled ‘behind-the-scene’ scary security facts (being a consultant to several international agencies on peace-building in the Niger Delta and the North), the class fell into a deep depression. But later on, we were revitalised by the practicals – drama sketches, song and dance… knowing we could make a difference. What a fantastic teacher!

    No doubt Jenks lived the good life, led the way and shone so brightly. He was the best graduating student in the Theatre Arts in ABU in his 1982 Drama class and was employed by his university soon after NYSC, owing to his exceptional brilliance which the school discovered would be an asset that could benefit generations of students. And he had remained in ABU in over three decades, impacting knowledge, training generations of actors and actresses, and others. But also venturing into several other areas such as peace building, women’s rights, helping with the setting up of several new universities and building human capacities in Nigeria and beyond while consulting for myriads of international agencies on dozens of projects. He was also an actor, director and film producer per excellence, and was the coordinator of the state of the art Development Communication Centre at ABU. So versatile!

    In his work, he garnered laurels and recognitions along the way. Most painfully, Prof had been nominated for the Centenary Awards in recognition of his great contributions to the development of the theatre in Nigeria and impacts on many fronts, but his death on February 12, only a few weeks to the award ceremony, robbed him of that glory.

    In a country where neither the roads nor air is safe, gems are never spared the crude hammer of extinction (The gnawing road had claimed similar genius Prof. Festus Iyayi only a few months ago). With progressively nose-diving standard of education, the tragic loss of these experienced hands at their most productive years is particularly colossal. Indeed, Jenks’ demise is not only a national but a continental and indeed a global loss—a loss beyond words.

    Adieu, Uncle Jenks. May your great soul rest peacefully with your Maker…

    Betty Abah

    Lagos.

  • Maku and unguarded utterances

    The Minister of Information Mr. Labaran Maku has courted controversies due to his various utterances as spokesperson of this administration.

    For instance, when some PDP governors decided to dump their former party for another Maku insulted one the most important ethnic groups in this country by calling the defecting governors as pastoral Fulani who move from one place to another.

    The same man sitting prettily in Abuja condemned Governor Ibrahim Shettimah of Borno State who has seen all and know where its pinches. Maku should understand how Gov. Shettimah is feeling and appreciate his efforts in bringing relief and succour to those affected in various attacks by the Boko Haram militants.

    The governor has been using the resources of the state to ensure the people’s needs are met and assuring them that government is with them at this trying period. The minister as spokesperson of this government need not overheat the polity through his unguarded utterances.

    By Bala Nayashi

    Lokoja, Kogi State.

  • As Jonathan breaks Second Niger Bridge jinx

    SIR: The jinx that has bedeviled the Second Niger Bridge is finally broken.  On Monday, March 10, President Goodluck Jonathan performed the historic ground-breaking ceremony for the second bridge across the Niger to link the eastern flank of the country with the West.

    The event is significant in many ways and it can better be appreciated on the premise that previous administrations made similar promises on the second Niger Bridge without fulfilling them. Former Presidents – from Ibrahim Babangida to Olusegun Obasanjo and his successor, the late President Umaru Yar ‘Adua, the project had always been touted as national priority with little done in concrete terms to actualize it. Obasanjo even went a step further in the last days of his administration to perform the foundation stone-laying ceremony in May 2007, but it was a ceremony that was full of symbolism but lacking in substance.

    Twelve months ago, Works Minister, Mike Onolememen, fired up expectation when he announced that the work would start before the third quarter of 2014 and would be completed during Jonathan’s administration.  As the President explained, the delay in starting off the project was simply to ensure that all financial and other logistics arrangements were in place before the ground-breaking ceremony to avoid abandonment.  Already, construction giant, Julius Berger Nigeria Ltd has since begun work on the six-kilometre road between the bridge head and Oko-Amakom community where the company plans to use as its base for the bridge project.

    The Jonathan administration has taken practical steps to demonstrate its commitment by producing the drawing, completing the bidding process won by Julius Berger PLC and awarding the contract.  The N117 billion project, which will span Oko in Delta State up to Ozubulu and Ogbaru areas of Anambra State will involve 12.4 kilometres of approach road while the bridge alone will span a length of 1.8 kilometres.

    The economic importance is better imagined and the fact of its political expediency is obvious.  It is a project whose relevance and national importance will continue to unfold in the years and decades to come.

     

    • Sylvester Okoro,

    Awka, Anambra State

  • The lingering ASUP strike

    SIR: The lingering strike of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has taken an unnecessarily long period. When the Academic Staff of Union of Universities (ASUU) was on strike, it was as though the whole of Nigerian students or parents would not sleep. Religious leaders, groups and individuals of influence had a lot to say about it as they pleaded with the government and ASUU to resolve their differences. It is not same with ASUP strike. Isn’t it because we place more emphasis on universities than their polytechnic counterparts?

    In Nigeria, education, especially tertiary education, has ceased to be a right long ago; it is a privilege. To be a university or polytechnic student is a thing of chance. There are those who are in not in any and there are many too who pursued university admission fervently but who ended up in polytechnics especially in a Nigeria where we fight for nearly everything. The preference for university graduate as against their polytechnic mates by employers does not help matters either. The dichotomy between a university and polytechnic graduate is an issue the government has not done enough to resolve.

    On the current elongated strike embarked upon by polytechnic teachers, it is regrettable just as it is totally unthinkable for tertiary institutions to be closed down for eight months due to an industrial action linked to government’s neglect.

    The most affected group in any industrial action affecting tertiary education institutions in Nigeria remains the students. Nigerian students (who are of the voting age) do not however know that there is a lot of power in their hands – particularly in their thumbs. The power they possess goes beyond taking to the streets to protest against unjust government actions and inactions. It goes beyond carrying placards on the street of Lagos or in a remote campus in any part of Nigeria.

    The population of the Nigerian youth is staggering and when it comes to election, they have a big role to play. The youth of today can decide who should be their head through the power of their vote. It is left for them and their parents to decide who leads them come 2015.

    The ASUP strike and the unnecessary dichotomy between the Bachelor of Science and the Higher National Diploma degrees need to be attended to. The employers of labour need to come to the full understanding that in getting the work done, delivery on the job and not paper qualification is what matters. There is hardly anybody who has not had enough of this unnecessary neglect of duties by the government. We need a change.

    • Anani Sunday,

    Lagos.

  • Governor Chime must hear this!

    SIR: On March 5, my wife and I were riding through Obinagu Road on route Nsukka. As the vehicle was about to join Nike Road from Obinagu Road at Liberty Junction, a man wearing light blue shirt and dark trousers approached the car. Before we could understand what he was saying, he forcibly opened the passenger front door and began to wrestle my driver over the key  and steering, insisting that we had contravened traffic laws. As the car came to a halt, two other men wearing the same uniform opened the back doors violently and tried to sandwich my wife and I inside the car but we quickly shut the doors. Whereupon one of them ran to the front of the car and violently ripped off the number plate. Then he darted to the back of the car like an enraged bull and tried to force the boot open. When he couldn’t, he descended angrily on the rear number plate and also pulled it off with superlative violence and undue energy, disfiguring it in the process.

    All the while we were still wondering  what the offence really was and whether there was no better and human way of confronting offenders. Was there no way of creating awareness for these traffic laws? As they kept mentioning obstruction, one wonders what really constitutes obstruction, and whether a vehicle waiting at a junction to join the traffic on an opposite or adjoining street is really obstructing any vehicles except those behind it which should logically wait until traffic is clear for all to move on. Even when one has run afoul of traffic laws, does it call for the worst in the human animal to the effect that offenders are treated like prisoners of war?

    The next day, at the same Liberty Junction, as we tried to join Nike Road, having been passed by the traffic warden, there was a little jam in the adjoining traffic. As my driver negotiated patiently, a young man in the same uniform jumped in. Initially, he blew hot and cold, refusing that we should stop by the filling station to buy some fuel. When he engaged my driver in the negotiation of bribe, I ordered them to go out of the car as I did not want to hear the negotiations. He refused to step down and ordered the driver to go to their office at Nkwo Nike. My driver later called me to say he got a written demand to pay N25,000 official penalty which was later reduced to a bribe of N6,000. This was paid in the afternoon of March 7, as the team leader of the men could not come to the office early enough to receive the money which, I am told, he said, was so-reduced “on grounds of pity.”

    I wonder where we are heading to in Enugu which has been the pride of the East. Societies enact laws to maintain order and discipline and to deter those who would do evil or cause harm to others. When society and its trappings become an albatross on the neck of the people, it loses humanity and ceases to be a society. Laws are made to create a better society and not to generate tension and terror; they are not to be used as instruments of ambush and aggression against the population.

    Enugu has developed in leaps and bounds in the last seven years under the guiding hands of Governor Sullivan Chime and his team. I am unsure whether the introduction of these uniformed men and their belligerent attitude to motorists will do Enugu any good. Uniformed men claiming to be in the pay of local governments and running after vehicles like hunters running after game in the bush only paint an unfriendly picture of Enugu and will undermine its prospects for tourism.

    I hope that this matter will be investigated and those concerned cautioned. If not, we are only cultivating a glorified jungle where only the fittest can survive.

     

    • Chuu Krydz Ikwuemesi

    Associate Professor,

    University of Nigeria, Nsukka