The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • New dawn at Nigeria Customs Service

    The recent takeover of destination inspection by Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, from service providers, who are operating as regulators of all imported goods into the country, is a welcome development to improve trade facilitation and make the nation be at par with other countries of the world in modern customs technique all over the world.

    Before the takeover of this destination inspection, the country’s

    importation was solely the responsibilities of those private

    operators, whose duty the NCS were required to do

    and see to the realisation of the country’s economic development.

    For the past thirty years, those private operators have been the only agencies whose activities were to oversee the importation of goods into the country while the Nigeria Customs who are the core institution to carry out these activities were made to just play a second fiddle to the detriment of the nation’s economic well-being.

    After various postponements of taking over the destination inspection, the realistic date of 1st December 2013 has made the NCS the singular institution to see to import administration in the country, which is a land mark achievement.

    The present comptroller-general of the customs service, Alhaji Dikko Abdullahi Inde, whom the country would not forget in a hurry by ensuring this new dawn is achieved, had prepared his officers and men, by sending them for re-training to take over the destination inspection, also the service has created a trade hub portal for easy access for importers to key in realising the clearance of good without delay as regard the destination inspection.

    The customs service had equally designed and developed the pre-arrival assessment reports, PAAR, for importers for the quick service delivery at any port of entry in Nigeria.

    We hope that as the NCS assumes full responsibilities of

    this destination inspection, other stake holders would key into this modern customs to ensure easy clearance of goods in our sea, air and land entry points for not only the good of Nigeria but the benefits of the service who are ready and fully prepared

    to give their best as they assume their lawful aspect of improving the revenue generation of the nation.

    Bala Nayashi,

    Lokoja,

    Kogi State

  • How two Nigerian students died in Ukraine

    SIR: The entire Nigerian student community in Donetsk, Ukraine, has been in state of mourning since last week due to the sudden death of two of us.

    While we mourn our dead, it has however been painful to watch the Ukrainian media portray a totally untrue account of what actually happened to the two Nigerians who died.

    Laolu Oresanya Teresa was a third year Electrical Engineering student of Donetsk National Technical University. She was admitted to the hospital on December 8, and was diagnosed by the doctors of having acute anaemia. Immediately after the diagnosis, money was paid to the hospital for the treatment that might be required. Oddly, the doctors never commenced serious treatment till December 12, saying she was under some medication and they were monitoring her.

    The next day, December 13, the news came that her situation was critical and she has been moved to the intensive care unit, where she later passed on at around 7:p.m. So the issue of not having money as painted in the Ukrainian media is not true. What is even more annoying and embarrassing is that the result of the diagnosis and that of the autopsy were opposite. Why the autopsy result indicated that she died of Sepsis, the doctors’ diagnosis claimed she died of acute anaemia.

    As for the second deceased, Obede Ogbu, he was a postgraduate Electrical Engineering student of Donetsk National Technical University. He died on December 18; his case was one of total neglect by the doctors. According to the doctors on duty, he was suffering from cardiac arrest; rather than give him the urgent attention needed, they abandoned him. When we tried to enquire why no attention was given to him, the doctors responded by saying we should give them five minute to smoke cigarette.

    When the situation became critical and a nurse rushed to call the doctors, it was too late for Obede Ogbu. The question many of us have continued to ask since then is whether the Ukrainian doctors would have left their own citizens in critical condition to smoke for five minutes. Would they have treated fellow European or Russian citizens the same way?

    There is no need for the Ukrainian media to twist the story, because neither our embassy in Kiev nor the federal government cares if we all perish in the hospital. The entire Nigerian students in Donetsk must be commended for having the courage to come out in large numbers to protest the uncaring attitude of Ukrainian doctors to Africans. Though we know nothing would be done to remedy the situation, at least, the truth deserves to be told.

     

    • Comrade Ahmed Omeiza Lukman

    Donetsk National Technical University,

    Ukraine

  • Lessons from South Sudan

    SIR: The month of July, 2011 marked a turning point in the history of South Sudan. Not only did it come out of over two and half decades of a bloody civil war, it succeeded in becoming the newest independent state in Africa.

    As a landlocked country, South Sudan is among the world’s most impoverished country with less than one per cent of its population having access to electricity. Despite being the third-largest oil exporter in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria and Angola, the new nation is not only awash with guns after a long battle with Khartoum, but has been grappling with corruption and lawlessness since independence.

    The current president, Salva Kiir is from the Dinka ethnic group, the country’s largest, while his main rival and former Vice President, Riek Machar belongs to the Nuer ethnic group, the country’s second largest. This ethnic rivalry forms part of the current crisis bedevilling the country with each group systematically killing one another in their respective places of domicile. The political angle to the crisis which has seen tensions rise between Kiir and Machar since July of this year stems from the latter’s intention to win the leadership of the ruling party ahead of presidential elections in 2015. This quickly led to his sacking by Kiir and his cabinet. The political tension soon snowballed when Kiir accused Machar of attempting a coup on December 15, a situation which saw the arrest of opposition figures and former cabinet members.

    Apart from the fact that the crisis have left hundreds dead, with figures quoting about 500, the number of people displaced as a result of the crisis has tripled to about 81,000 with the number increasing by the day. Also, the United Nations has asked for another 5,500 troops from other UN missions in Arica to complement the 7,000 already deployed across the country. It is saddening that the African continent has failed to learn from history and have therefore consumed by its lack of it.

    As the crisis in South Sudan continues, the lesson we must learn therefore, is that disunity breeds nothing but further bloodshed. Those who call for division do not understand the pains and horror of war and think it is going to take a smooth transmission. Events in South Sudan paint this sad picture of a path we must not follow. The political elites must realise that the Nigerian state may not be able to hold itself for long if the massive disconnect between the ruler and ruled continues. It is therefore imperative that a workable solution is engineered in order to remove the pangs of mutual distrust that has remained part of us since the days of amalgamation. Those who fail to learn from history are condemned by it. South Sudan is a reminder and example of this apt truth.

    • Raheem Oluwafunminiyi

    Lagos

  • Time to industrialise Benue State

    SIR: Benue State as one of the economically backward states of the Nigerian federation deserves a holistic revamping of its moribund and ruined industries. Although described as the food basket of the nation, that claim does not extend beyond peasant farming characterised by poor harvest storage.

    In the 80’s when the state’s owned industries where a common sight among the new states created in 1976, Benue State was leading the pack with Benue Cement and its ancillaries in the production and packaging sector. There were many others too like the Taraku Mills, Burnt Bricks, Agro -Millers and other lesser ones.

    All these, like many even at the national level never survived due to rabid culture of mismanagement, nepotism, patronage, and outright embezzlement. All the management theories studied in Europe, USA and Asia could not be brought to bear on these earlier efforts at industrialization as a precedent for emulation by successive generations. Today, the younger generations who saw no evil, did no evil or said nothing evil are the unlucky victims of the recklessness done by their visionless forebearers.

    The irony of it all is that those who squander the fortune of the nation are yet alive and unrelenting; unrepentant in their greed to amass more for their yet unborn children. They have forgotten that those children will live in the same country with those they dispossessed of their rights to economic empowerment and self actualization. These people like nemesis are now fighting back to reclaim their inheritance. Today, the demand is on the increase as we see the manifestation in different guise which we have to contend with at a very high cost.

    • Ogbu Alexander Ameh

    Owukpa Akatewe Ogwu Kingdom

    Benue State

  • Labour Party’s abracadabra in Ekiti

    SIR: Labour party, by today, should earn a reputation for itself as a stop-gap party in Ekiti State, if not a fringe party nationwide.

    When former PDP governor, Ayodele Fayose, was toppled via declaration of State of Emergency in 2006, it was the Labour Party that he fell back upon as a ready substitute to the PDP that had apparently let him down.

    Under the Labour Party, he lost thegovernorship election in 2007 and had to back Dr. John Kayode Fayemi of the Action Congress during the 2009 re-run election against the then governor of Ekiti State, Engr. Segun Oni, who was PDP candidate.

    With the House of Representatives member, Hon. Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB), currently falling back on the Labour Party as a ready substitute to his desired APC, the Labour Party should be noted for its flaming ambition and, particularly, for its adventurer’s inclinations.

    The current adventure would have been founded virtually on nothing but for the new twist in the politics of President Goodluck Jonathan ; there would have been no Labour Party members to take off with since the former LP members had either decamped to AC (now APC) after working for Fayemi during the 2009 re-run election or returned to PDP with Ayo Fayose thereafter.

    Until former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, alleged in his recent open letter that President Goodluck Jonathan now sponsors opposition parties against his own PDP in political bargains for an anticipated 2015 victory, the grand pretense in the re-emergence of Labour Party in Ekiti State had been puzzling.

    You can call it abracadabra, the magical word which translates to the more you look, the less you see!

    Familiar PDP faces were the ones seen at Labour Party gatherings; they were the ones operating as organizers, who rented offices and recruited new members, all of which culminated in the emergence of a former PDP assemblyman, Hon. Akin Omole , as the state chairman of Labour Party without a history of his defection, at all, from his ‘former’ PDP to the Labour Party!

    We were being left to wonder and guess if there was soon to be a merger of the Labour Party with the PDP; whether an understanding already existed in secrecy that could be inimical to free and fair election in 2014.

    However the picture was later becoming clearer why Hon. Michael Opeyemi Bamidele had to abandon his highly-performing and fast-growing party to take an apparent big risk!

    MOB must have presumed his risk as being so well-calculated with the president himself behind it all. Well, we shall see how his magic works. The waiting game is worth it.

     

    • JideOguntoye

    Oye-Ekiti)

  • Open letter to ordinary Nigerians

    SIR: Several letters have already been written and addressed to those at the corridors of power, their cronies and establishments. I have lost count of the number of well-written, thought-provoking and soul-piercing articles I personally authored and addressed to those in power; high-profile personalities and government establishments. As usual, such articles were basically targeted at ensuring that our leaders don’t veer off the lane of commonsense, resist the temptation to promote personal interests and constantly remind them of the sacredness of the tasks in their hands.

    Whether such letters have produced desired outcomes is a different thing altogether.

    Fellow countrymen and women, I’m very sad and worried. I’m alarmed by the way we allow our appointed or elected representatives to choke us with practices considered very harmful and detrimental to our lives and that of our dear nation. No nation grows in an environment where laws are breached with impunity. No nation attains greatness in an environment where a negligible percentage of its population bury themselves in affluence, while a large chunk of its population still live from hand to mouth. This is a country where social and economic rights of its citizens are serially abused by those in authority.

    We, the citizenry allow so many ills to go unchecked. Through our unified silence, we have indirectly endorsed some ill practices. In extreme cases, we even offer support to these leaders to further impoverish, insult and shortchange us with impunity. Like sheep without shepherds, our leaders have led us astray into dangerous lands. We have groped in the dark for too long. Our leaders have since realized that we are too fearful, too naïve and not daring enough to question their profligate disposition, ostentatious lifestyles, greed, avarice and primitive accumulation of our commonwealth.

    We have become so used to the mess that our country has become. Nothing seems to bother us anymore. Many have lost interest in the project called Nigeria. This is very sad. Ideally, as citizens, we should all be benefiting from the nation’s wealth. As citizens, irrespective of tribe, creed and political persuasion, we have equal stake in the sharing and allocation of Nigeria’s vast resources. Unfortunately, the sad reality is that our leaders have cornered the resources to serve their interests and those of their cronies. This gross injustice is so obvious to be left unchallenged.

    Challenging them doesn’t imply taking up arms or inciting others to attack our leaders. It’s about reminding them of the need to redistribute the resources among Nigerians. It is about telling them of the consequences of their actions.

    Strangely, we, those often called ordinary Nigerians tend to defend and hold brief for leaders accused of graft. Instead of naming and shaming those cornering our collective patrimony through contract splitting, kickbacks, contract inflation, misappropriation, we often rise to defend their action for very stupid reasons. It is sickening to see ordinary Nigerians rise in defence of leaders found to have abused public office simply because such a leader shares blood or certain affinities with them. I recall with pain how some young men in Imo State took to the street to defend Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah who was alleged to have directed heads of parastatals under her supervision to get her two bullet-proof cars with funds not captured in the budget.

    This is not how to build a country. We have stayed too long on the wrong path. No matter how far we have gone on the wrong lane, we can still retrace our steps back to the drawing board to start again. Let us begin the year 2014 on a promising note. Fellow ordinary Nigerians, I wish that we could all take our pride of place in how this nation is governed. We were once blind, but we can now see. Do have a hitch-free festive season and a prosperous new year in advance.

    • Abdullahi Yunusa

    Imane, Kogi State.

  • Osun schools’ reclassification here to stay

    SIR: My attention has been drawn to a comment by Mr. Iyiola Omisore calling on the Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to reverse the schools reclassification exercise recently implemented by the administration.

    Omisore has yet again displayed a crass ignorance of the kind of surgical operation needed in the education sector to reverse the years of rot and decadence under the erstwhile PDP administration in the state. Seven and a half years of PDP governance left the education sector comatose, with heavily dilapidated infrastructure, highly demoralized teachers and a quality of teaching so poor that only three percent of the pupils could earn enough credits in their final examination to proceed to tertiary education.

    Omisore was part and parcel of a discredited administration that neglected education in the state and is now unashamedly criticizing a revival process that was transparently planned and implemented and is already very well imbibed by parents, students and teachers as well as well-meaning citizens with a genuine desire to uplift education in the state. A planning committee personally supervised by Governor Aregbesola worked flat-out for six months, making consultations at the state and local government levels, and preparing the logistics necessary for a successful implementation.  Omisore’s allegation that the implementation of the reclassification exercise was not thought through is laughable to say the least.

    There were post-implementation challenges which have been largely resolved excepting the shallow concerns of self-serving politicians. We deliberately chose not to be distracted by those who think education is game for cheap politicking.  I have gone round schools and happy to see teachers and students well settled into the new system. Reclassification has begun to yield very positive results and it is here to stay. The likes of Omisore should look for something else to politicise.

    •Isiaka Ayodele Owoade (PhD)

    Osun Schools Reclassification Committee, Osogbo

  • To salvage Nigeria’s a task that must be done

    To salvage Nigeria’s a task that must be done

    SIR: In 1982, the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo wrote a letter to President Shehu Shagari to warn him about the precarious state of the Nigerian economy unless the President as the anchor man rose up to save the situation. However, those who never liked the face of the sage called him different names. The rest is now history. The letter from former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to President Goodluck Jonathan could be likened to Awo’s letter mentioned above.

    One thing that is certain is that the nation is at a crossroad, and just like Awo pointed out then, there is need for our sailors to wake up to save the situation. Therefore, the rescue mission embarked upon by the leadership of the All Progressive Congress is a right step in a right direction. It is obvious that Nigeria is not at war at present; however, she is at the crossroad.

    Fifty three years after flag independence, 14 years after the dawn of a democratic dispensation, it is not yet Uhuru for this nation. With the enormous human and material resources this nation is endowed with, she is supposed to be the power house of Africa and indeed the developing nations of the world.

    The story of this nation is a story of lost opportunities. Economically, our economic experts are telling us that our economy is growing at six percent or more annually, which may seem encouraging by international standards but in reality the impact is not felt by the common man on the street.

    Local industries have been crippled due to competition from inferior but cheap foreign goods. Agriculture which was the mainstay of the Nigerian economy before the discovery of oil in commercial quantity has been neglected.

    There is endemic corruption at all tiers of government. Political power is sought by leaders for the sake of power and not to better the lots of the nation and its people. Governments at all tiers of government have alienated government from the governed. The effect is that the needs of the people are not always considered in the execution of government programmes but the parochial interest of the ruling class. That is why poverty is so endemic and living has become a hell for most people.

    Politics, being the major means of production has become a zero sum game. Elections as witnessed recently in Delta and Anambra states have become bloody battle with INEC which supposed to be impartial umpire becoming accomplice in the brazen rigging that characterized those elections. As a matter of fact, if morning determines the day, the abracadabra that the gubernatorial election held recently in Anambra State was, portends grave danger for this nation in 2015. This is because people are fed up with inept and wicked leadership who feed fat on people’s ignorance and cowardice and ready to do away with them.

    In view of the above, it is glaring that the country needs to be saved from the stranglehold of the cabal bent on keeping her perpetually under developed. This is why the rescue mission embarked upon by the All Progressive Congress leaders in Nigeria and the rainbow coalition in readiness for epic 2015 elections are welcome development. It is heart warming that not all elders in Nigeria are blindfolded to the reality of the abyss the country is at present. Therefore, it is time for other stakeholders to join hands in rescuing this nation from its present predicament.

     

    • Adewuyi Adegbite

    Apake, Ogbomoso.

  • Of high , discrepancies in varsities’ fees

    SIR: The federal government owned tertiary institutions, despite their irregularities and shortcomings remain the hope of many Nigerians in acquiring tertiary education. This is as a result of their low fee charges. These institutions are comparatively cheaper than their state and private counterparts, in terms of fees charged.

    The Federal Government has always subsidized these fees to the benefit of the average masses, which many of our today’s leaders and public officials benefited from. However, this practice of low fee charges is ebbing away, giving room to such practices one can hardly imagine.

    How can one understand or explain the situation where the federal universities have wide differences amongst them in the fees charged? How can one understand or explain the case where the rates of these differences are as high as 50%, 100% and above? In the 2012/2013 session, a fresh student was required to pay N45, 000 in Obafemi Awolowo University; N70, 000 in University of Lagos; N91, 000 in University of Benin; N70, 000 in University of Port Harcourt; N86,000 in Nnamdi Azikiwe University during registration.

    The mind boggling questions are: what are the causes for the non-harmonized charges in these institutions? What are really the bases for the great margin of differences in fees amongst federal schools?

    It is not only the disparities in fees charged that have to be called to question, but also the high amount; caused by the incessant increments by some of these schools. Many of the federal universities have become places where fees are hiked indiscriminately without considering the plight of the students some of who barely survive on campus.

    In the University of Port Harcourt, school fees have been on regular increase. In 2010/2011 session, the fee in the faculty of Management Sciences was N53, 300 for fresh students. In 2012/2013 session, it was increased to N69, 850. In the 2013/2014 session yet to commence, the system was totally changed with another increment. The school usually has all fees (except the accommodation fee) captured in the school fees payment receipt, including the acceptance fee. Now, in this new session, the acceptance fee of N30, 000 has to be paid, first, before access to the online registration. It was really alarming to discover that the acceptance fee was not captured in the school fees nalysis; which, now, amount to N77,000. Going by the information on the webpage of the institution, it is clear that anyone given admission by the school this 2013/2014 session would have to pay whooping amount of N107, 000, aside accommodation fee (N19,500). Isn’t this outrageous?It is

    high time the federal government, through its relevant agencies, looked into these excesses. Government, through its agencies, must be all out in monitoring the management processes of our institutions to rid them of corruption at all levels. Also a platform that would enable students make necessary complaints of the unjust practices by school authorities without fear should be provided by the government as this will promote accountability.

    It will amount to defeating the objectives of revamping our tertiary education if many people are denied access to them through unscrupulously high and increasing fees.

    • Simon Tochi

    University of PortHarcourt

    Rivers State

  • Separate message from the messenger

    Separate message from the messenger

    SIR: The issues raised in the much-talked-about letter written by former president Olusegun Obasanjo to President Goodluck Jonathan were germane but cannot be said to be anything new. First, is it not appropriate according to Obasanjo that we must all do everything to guard, protect and defend our fledgling democracy, nourish it, and prevent bloodshed? Two, that we must move away from advertently or inadvertently dividing the country along weak seams of North-South and Christian-Moslem. Third, that nothing should be done to allow the country to degenerate into economic dormancy, stagnation or retrogression. Should we also claim that we do not rank first on the corruption index of the whole world? It is apparent that strategies exerted to improve the security situation in the country need to be redefined.

    The letter merely re-echoed the problems with Nigeria and the facts why she has remained a toddler after 53 years of independence. It became the latest political bombshell of the year because people whose opinions matter in situations like this lack the will power to speak up. We are in this state of hopelessness because of the inability of previous and successive governments to put in place policies and structures that will better the lives of Nigerians and make it difficult for corruption and other vices to thrive.

    Some trouble makers said the letter was mischievous and an affront which denigrates the office of the president while others aver that it was a necessary push that will propel the president to sit up or at least be on his toes. Most Nigerians stand by the latter. Issues like this should not be trivialised. Obasanjo should not be upbraided for doing the needful. If a former president did not talk, who will?

    It is a wake-up call to all of us and the nucleus was a reminder to those presently at the helm of affairs that Nigeria is on a life-support and possibly drifting to a precipice. This was not because these problems were not in existence before the second coming of Obasanjo until his exit in 2007 but because it came from someone who knew all of these but neglected to tackle them in his time only to bring them as charges against another. Should that suffice to throw away the baby with the bath water?

    The letter should be seen and interpreted in the context of the message and not the messenger. Did the letter touch the very essence of the lingering crisis and predicaments rocking Nigeria as a nation?

    It therefore behoves on President Jonathan to look objectively into the issues raised and act in the best interest of Nigeria and in accordance with the oath of office he took. President Jonathan should as a matter of urgent national importance act now before it is too late. If he does, posterity will remember him for adhering to wise counsel.

     

    • Sunday Onyemaechi Eze

    Samaru, Zaria