The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • As ASUU members smile to the banks

    SIR: All things being equal, members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, in the next couple of weeks, will be smiling to their various banks to collect salaries for the five months they did not work. That is in addition to the contraption called earned allowance, where teachers collect pay for marking scripts and supervising students’ projects! That can only happen in Nigeria.

    Of course, a couple of ASUU members will tell you that they were doing research while the strike lasted. Yes, research via www.google.com! Let them publish the results of the research. A thorough appraisal of the quality of lecturers will show that at least half of those teaching our children now have no such intellectual capacity. What is, essentially, on parade now on our campuses is intellectual bankruptcy.

    If Prof Ukachukwu Awuzie got 40 per cent salary increase for ASUU after a four-month strike in 2009, including payment for the period of the strike and Dr Nasir Fagge got N40bn earned allowance, including payment for five months that ASUU did not work, any wonder what the next ASUU president will do?

    I feel personally pained that ASUU is merely deceiving the public and cheating the system just like the political class.

    Other labour unions are watching with keen interest.  If you collect salaries for going on strike for five months, we as well can go on strike for 10 or 12 months and then compel government to sign a non-victimisation clause, which, according to ASUU’s dictionary, menas payment for the period they were on strike!

    I once told my lecturer friend that he was free to resign, contest election to the Senate, so he could earn an ‘elephant salary’ a month. But with the caveat that he also risked being kidnapped or assassinated like any typical Nigerian politician. Yes, politics is big business but it’s also a big risk in Nigeria.

    Yes, ASUU members, go and smile to the banks at the expense of your students who stayed at home for five months, wasted their accommodation fees, year of graduation, NYSC (service year) and went into avoidable sundry crimes. We know so many children of members of ASUU in private universities in Nigeria and abroad. Can Dr Fagge contradict that?

    It does not matter how much you pump into the varsities, the funds will still be mismanaged by former ASUU members now in management positions (and they are mismanaging everything, including elections).

    As for the rot in the education sector, who are the profiteers?

     

    • Segun Adebiyi

    Yaba, Lagos

  • Mandela: A man of peace now at peace

    Mandela: A man of peace now at peace

    Sir: Since the news of the exit of the greatest son of Africa, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, on December 5, at the age of 95, words have failed me to convey my heartfelt condolence to his wonderful family who will miss a caring patriarch, the people of South Africa, who will miss a guide, Africa who will miss a role model and the world at large who will miss a leader for such an irreplaceable loss.

    Even when we realise that death is the ultimate end for all creations, its emanation often leaves us with a painful pang and a deep sense of nostalgia. It hurts me very pointedly to know that a man of peace who is widely respected, loved and idolised for his passionate commitment to the freedom of his people is no more. He was so loved by his people and they wanted him to live forever. Even when it is obvious that his extinction from the world of the mortals was imminent, they did all within human limits to keep him going. But all that is now history as Mandela, a man who stands for democracy, freedom and equality is finally free from the uncertainties and troubles of this mortal word.

    One intriguing fact about this man who swallowed apartheid in victory, a man who asked with his loudest voice, “Apartheid where is your sting? apartheid government where is your victory?; was his ability to unconditionally forgive those who subjected him to 27 years, 324 months, 1,404 weeks, 9,869 days of untold hardship. This, of course, helped him to lay the foundation for a united and prosperous South Africa.

    But beyond this, let all Nigeria’s leaders and politicians learn and follow his exemplary legacy of true patriotism, selflessness, incalculable sacrifice, true democracy, politics of peace and unity, and unfeigned love and struggle for his people, for their own good and that of the entire nation.

    I find it difficult to say goodbye to Mandela. He may not be in our midst in the physical sense, but he will continue to live in our minds. Recalling one of his inspiring quotes on his twitter page gave me the assurance he is at peace. It read, “Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace”.

    Madiba, the perfect gentleman, even when the sun goes behind a cloud, we know it’s still there, even though you are gone, we know you’re still with us. Your memories will live on forever.

     

    •Solomon Babatunde Ogundimu,

    Federal University of Agric. Abeokuta.

  • Abia and Orji’s social and economic life

    Abia State under the stewardship of Governor Theodore Ahamefule Orji is not developing. This is elementary to say, because of the pummelled social and economic life in the state, orchestrated by touts, charlatans in government and street urchins.

    No human society moves on when there abound shenanigans that cause discomfiture for today and future generations. These are causing Abia State to be sluggish in truly harnessing the social and economic life of the state for development.

    In a matter like this, what we have often been told is that no government develops a given state over night. Agreed. But we must also know that if Abia State government had been frontal with construction and reconstruction of the state the same way it trumpets its mirage achievements in the media, there would have been corresponding development we can see.

    In its dim-witted understanding of development, what the government claps its hand always for as development, are the relocations of Umuahia Main Market, Timber Market and the Allied and Motor Spare Parts Market, alias Mgbuka. But come to think of this, our people cannot forget in a hurry how traders in the former markets were displaced and many rendered useless, because of the exorbitant prices and levies they cannot afford as cost of renting stalls in the much-hyped markets.

    Gov. T.A Orji’s Abia State is not a safer and improved place to be, as hardship has become the preoccupation of residents, who did not bargain for the experiences they are passing through. The government tells the world that one of its developments or Legacy Projects, as persons like the disgraced and fired Ugochukwu Emezue, former Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, would coin the words and boast, is that it has been able to mange traffic gridlock in the state. Can we imagine this!

    Though, there are significant traffic-jams all over Abia State. But what actually happened why the government thinks that it has managed the situation is that many of our people have relocated to nearby states like Akwa Ibom and Rivers State, where they feel government works. Many are also relocating for greener pastures elsewhere. So, when Gov. Orji looks around on the roads and in the streets and does not see floods of vehicular movements, he beats his heart and boasts of controlling traffic-jam in Abia State.

    Odimegwu Onwumere,

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

  • A tale of two robbers

    These are certainly not the best of times for many Nigerians, who usually troop out en masse to vote for the people of their choice to represent them, with the expectation of delivery of dividends of democracy to their door steps, but the reverse is the case, as the dividends of democracy which many people of the country earnestly look forward to have not been forthcoming.

    Democracy has in no way changed for positive the living conditions of our people. If anything, people’s conditions are getting more deplorable with the rising cost of living. The only categories of people who have truly benefited from democracy are politicians, especially the political office holders.

    They are feeding fat on the nation, while the masses they are supposed to cater for continue to wallow in pains, hunger, and abject poverty.

    Nigeria today is under siege. The nation, particularly her masses, is whimpering under the whimsical grip of two types of robbers.

    The first category of robbers are the politicians and the political office holders. Ostensibly, because of the insensitivity, the recklessness and the corrupt practices of the political rulers, the new breed politicians would have learnt a lot of lessons.

    But not these new-breed politicians; many of them are in office today not to serve anybody but themselves; they are there to line up their pockets with public funds. The story is the same from the local government to the federal government level without putting the masses into consideration.

    The cavalier arrogance with which these people steal and share public funds is so nauseating that one desperately wishes for a change in government or even calls for a revolution to happen in this country, but not through a military coup-de-tat. All because people of this country have tensed up and want revamping, revitalisation and changes.

    In spite of the federal government’s declared war against corruption, this vice thrives most at the highest corridor of power. Imagine

    Princess Stella Oduah, Minister of Aviation, approving such exorbitant amount to buy just bullet-proof cars for herself, while millions of Nigerians are suffering and wallowing in abject poverty.

    The other category of robbers holding the nation hostage are the men of the underworld. Since the beginning of the democratic dispensation in this country, the wave of criminal activities, especially armed robbery, has been on the rise and after fourteen years of uninterrupted democratic rule, it is crystal clear that the government security apparatus can’t contain the excesses of these men of the night.

    The most astonishing part of it is that they no longer operate in the night alone. Their confidence seems to have soared so much that they can snatch a bullion van from security men in broad day light. Without addressing the gap between the rich and the poor, there will be no decrease in crime rate in this country.

    Ademola Orunbo

    Oke-Posun, Epe,

    Lagos State.

  • How IMF deceives Nigerians

    SIR: An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission recently visited Nigeria to evaluate her economy. The mission met with “the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; senior government officials; members of the legislature; and representatives of the private sector, with a verdict that Nigeria’s economy did very well during the year.” Given the group that the IMF mission met, no other form of verdict would have been possible. Even when you talk of “representatives of the private sector”, you have to ask: Who were those chosen representatives?

    The IMF report reads in part: “Nigeria’s economy has continued to perform strongly in 2013. Real GDP grew by 6.8 percent in the third quarter of 2013 (compared to third quarter 2012), supported by robust performances in agriculture, services, and trade.” But the next sentence reads: “Oil theft/production losses have adversely impacted export receipts and government revenues, leading to a significant drawdown from the Excess Crude Account.”

    And then in the next sentence: “Inflation declined to 7.8 percent (end-September 2013) from 12 percent at end 2012, in part owing to lower food prices and monetary policy implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The exchange rate has been stable, and the banking sector is well capitalized with low levels of non-performing loans.”

    What the IMF means by “inflation” should be defined for ordinary Nigerians to confirm whether it “declined”. But a “robust performance in agriculture” in a country that is importing food items in billions of dollar? Forget the mythological “lower food prices”.

    This is IMF’s second realistic observation: “But fiscal buffers are low and a sustained high rate of growth is needed to reduce unemployment, and poverty.” The next sentence however chips-in a mixed bag: “Fiscal consolidation is progressing well, and the momentum needs to be preserved through the ongoing election cycle.” A veiled reference to money stolen for elections? The next sentence is long and windy: “Key public financial management reforms are underway, including the implementation of a Treasury Single Account (TSA) and integrated information management systems, but lower-than-budgeted oil revenues are impacting budgetary plans at federal, state, and local levels and highlighting the need for rebuilding fiscal buffers to manage oil revenue volatility.”

    The IMF and World Bank are neither straightforward nor trustworthy. World Bank and IMF are never bothered about mass poverty, so long as they control money to lend-out to “poor nations”, and they charge “low interests”. Why did the report avoid the issues of debts and infrastructure when Nigeria is in darkness and many book-readers lose their sights and are wrecked?

    No reference to corruption and misappropriation which ruin Nigeria’s economy!

    • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D,

    University of Ilorin.

  • ASUU Vs the students

    SIR: University is like the garden that nurtures the crops of tomorrow.  What kind of a future does a nation expects that shrivels the seeds that will bear a bountiful harvest?  Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is on strike for alleging that the government reneged on their 2009 agreement.  When two elephants fight, the grass will suffer.  The country is struggling to come out of the malaise that has bedridden the society for awful long.  The strike by ASSU is threatening to put the education system back into a state of comatose.

    The malfeasance in the Nigerian system smells to high heaven.  The government is like a derailed train squeaking to get back on track.  Education has totally collapsed owing to a government that lost its conscience.  Officials devalued education to naira and kobo.  Politicians channel the fund for education to their private accounts.  University authorities will deny a student admission if he or she does not have money to pay for bribe.  The list of abuses on the education system indicates a nation that is on collision course with destiny.

    The products of this damaged system are like a wasted generation.  Workers who believe one can bribe one’s way to excellence.  Under-performance becomes an acceptable norm.  A bank clerk frowns at a customer for demanding a professional service.  She lacks the knowledge that it is the customer that keeps the bank in business.

    Majority of university graduates are unemployable because they did not pick up any valuable skill as students.  No wonder there is a high level of criminality in the society.  Full-fledged youths roaming the streets without an occupation, they will kidnap, rob, prostitute and engage in other vices for mere adventure, talk less of the necessity to survive.  The opportune ones will be a leach on their families and suffer depression for feeling worthless.

    There is a proverb in Igbo that one does not speak with an empty stomach.  It is pitiable, as terrible as it is, one rarely hears of a lecturer being kidnapped.  On the other hand, politicians guard their life like it is a bank safe.  Compare the lifestyle of a lecturer and that of a legislator for example.  They are both pivotal to the functioning of a civilized society.  The legislator makes laws that are barely visible in the sight of the suffering masses and lives in utmost luxury.  The lecturer teaches students under dilapidated roofs and lives on a salary that challenges a miser to scale through poverty.

    Lecturing can be compared to priesthood.  You become a lecturer because you have the elevation of the human condition at heart.  The future of the students is not enviable, and consequentially, the Nigerian condition worsens.  Democracy allows the populace the chance to vote out a government that is not trustworthy.  ASUU should be considerate.

    • Pius Okaneme

    Umuoji, Anambra State.

  • A good term deserves another

    SIR: A democratically elected government must meet the need of the people that voted them into power. Since governance derives it backing from the constitution and the people, it is mandatory for government, to listen, carry along and feed the people back, about its activities. The contrary view also  holds that when a government voted into power refuses to perform or meet the yearning or aspiration of the people that voted for them, same electorates or the people being governed have the right to reject such government by voting them out of power in subsequent elections.

    Senator Ibikunle Amosun has within two years in office proved critics wrong by being responsive and progressive in the discharge of his duties to the people of the state. Today, the common man is not only happy in the gateway state, the peace which was once eluded the people some years ago has returned. The entire senatorial zones in the state are witnessing massive reconstruction and rebuilding process. Senator Amosun has done very well to reposition the economy of the state. He has taken the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to an enviable and sustainable position, thus generating the funds to embark on infrastructural development. Today, peoples’ welfare and security are better off. As no nation or state survives without a major attention to its educational sector, here in gateway state, he has given the primary, post primary and the state tertiary institutions a very good attention, by increasing their funding and stabilizing the academy calendar. Students now, learn in a better and more conducive environment.

    The people of the state now see what the government is spending the money on. Amosun has further proved the essence and importance of taxation to rural and urban development, through the provision of essential services like good roads, water, health facilities and the rest to the people. In life, you don’t loose a winning team; rather you encourage them to do more. Amosun has so far done well. We can only encourage him to do better, through mobilization and support for continuity beyond 2015.

     

    • Ademola Orunbon

    Federal Housing Estate, Abeokuta

  • Mandela: His virtues absent in our leaders

    SIR: A British historian said, “Death is a consequence of birth.” One of the properties of living things is death. Our maker starts making our shroud of death as soon as we’re born. Death can snatch us away at anytime without giving us notice.

    Last week, the legendary Nelson Mandela became one of our ancestors; he went the way of all flesh. His death at the great age of 95 has thrown millions of peoples from diverse races across the world into deep mourning. Mandela was a great freedom fighter and political figure, who commanded universal respect. The tributes by world leaders and iconic figures that greeted his demise are proofs of his popularity and fame. But, our expression of grief for him is understandable, and not misplaced. He was clamped into jail, and he served time for 27 years as a prisoner of conscience. His relentless fight for the political emancipation of South Africa from white rule and the abolition of Apartheid earned him global acclaim.

    African leaders are strenuously striving to out-perform one another in their paying of tributes to the fallen Madiba. From South Africa to Ghana, to Cape Verde, From Tunisia to Nairobi, almost every President on the Africa continent has paid tribute to the dead Mandela.

    Sadly, those African leaders and former ones eulogizing Mandela are the very antithesis of Mandela. They have blatantly refused to maintain fidelity to the ethos and norms of democratic governance in their respective countries. They have deepened poverty in their countries with their visionless and wasteful governance. Africa’s economic and technological backwardness is inextricably linked to bad political leadership by African countries’ leaders, who have stayed too long on the throne. These men have run out of ideas on how to take their countries to the acme of economic prosperity and technological advancement. But, they erroneously believe that their countries cannot do without them.

    Africa teems with sit-tight civilian depots, who think that they are indispensable in the leaderships of their countries. They are now synonymous with the state they govern owing their long stay in offices.

    Can’t these African leaders borrow a leaf from Nelson Mandela’s life? Can’t these despotic civilian leaders on the African continent follow Madiba’s example, and leave the political stage when the ovation is loudest? Our leaders’ manipulation and tinkering of their constitutions as well as their political maneuvers to extend their stay in office cause tensions in their polities which often lead to political instabilities in their countries. Can political instability in a country conduce to the economic and technological development of that country? Peace and unity is the sine qua non for national development.

    As we mourn the greatest son of Africa, let us reflect on what he stands for, and emulate his positive qualities.

     

    • Chiedu Uche Okoye

    Uruowulu-Obosi,

    Anambra State.

  • Farewell Madiba, the global icon

    SIR: The late Nelson Mandela, the unrepentant crusader and freedom fighter against the obnoxious apartheid regime in South Africa became an instant toast of the entire world when soon after his release from prison at the notorious Robben Island in 1990, he preached the gospel of tolerance, forgiveness and reconciliation among the diverse racial and segregated groups in South Africa. He had spent 27 long years in solitary confinement for his role in the fight against the despotic and authoritarian white minority regime

    His uncommon spirit of tolerance and forgiveness largely facilitated the peaceful transition from the racist apartheid regime to non-racial democratic government in South Africa. Mandela’s amazing personality and his eventual election as the first black South African President in 1994 brought to an end almost a century of white minority domination against the 26 million black majority South Africans.

    His extraordinary humane disposition and forgiving spirit took the entire world by storm and utter amazement. It was no surprise that this singular attribute informed his choice for the most prestigious Nobel peace prize jointly awarded to him and his former political adversary and immediate predecessor, ex-president Fredrick W. De-Klerk.

    The exemplary life of Mandela should serve as a great lesson to many sit-tight African leaders whose democratic credentials, seriously lack credibility and legitimacy. The likes of Presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Al-Bashir of Sudan, Paul Biya of Cameroon and a host of other African dictators and despots masquerading as democrats should have a re-think and honourably leave the stage when the ovation is still loud.

    An important lesson to be learnt by the people of Nigeria is the need to jettison the negative and primordial spirit of ethnic cum religious bigotry in the politics and affairs of the country. It is worthy of note that the irrepressible “Madiba” came from one of the minority tribes in South Africa – the Xhosa tribe and yet as a foremost nationalist and freedom fighter he commanded the respect, loyalty and admiration of the entire South African people simply by virtue of his exemplary leadership qualities coupled with his great vision and steadfastness. The only way the people of South Africa, nay the peoples of African descent can immortalize the name of the departed great leader is to continue to uphold those legacies of tolerance, forgiveness, reconciliation and peaceful co-existence among all the diverse racial groups that the great and indefatigable “Madiba” had left behind for posterity.

     

    • Nze Nwabueze Akabogu (JP)

    Enugwu-Ukwu, Anambra State.

     

     

  • Patriotic ultimatum to ASUU/FG

    SIR: Sequel to the unpatriotic stance of the Federal Government and ASUU in resolving this five months long impasse, I hereby issue my own ultimatum albeit “patriotic” that if Federal Government and ASUU fail to amicably resolve this raging inferno, within one week or two, I shall take leave of Nigeria to go back to Ghana where people appreciate the value of education.

    I spent my sabbatical leave in the University of Cape Coast in 2008/2009 Academic session. It took patriotism to disengage from the university after the one year sabbatical leave.

    As I resumed in the University I was given a decent accommodation, I was entitled to one month free feeding at the University Guest house, my flight (travelling) expenses from Nigeria was fully refunded; I was given a new office properly furnished, the Secretary to the Department handed to me a realm of paper, a packet of markers, duster, a packet of blue, red biros, some files, some foolscap papers and already typed list of the second year, third year, final year and masters students I was going to teach in the semester.

    I went to the toilet it was so clean that I was not in a hurry to leave the toilet. What do you say about classrooms. I never had any reason to postpone or cancel my lecture because my period clashed with another lecturer. That is to say that they have enough classrooms and more were being built. The environment was quite conducive for research we did not experience power outage in my university for one year. It was there that my “Philosophy of Integrative Humanism” was given birth. What I could not achieve in my 29 years of teaching in the University of Calabar was achieved in one year in a conducive environment provided by the Federal Republic of Ghana.

    May, I therefore use this medium to appeal to Federal Government and ASUU to grant me leave of absence to fulfil this patriotic ultimatum of migrating to a country that appreciates the value of education, that allocates more than 36% of her yearly budget to education. There is no University in Ghana that is not qualitatively better than the universities we have in Nigeria. You can visit University of Ghana, Legon, the  University of Cape Coast and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, etc. I therefore once again plead that the Federal Government takes the bull by the horns and do the needful and ASUU should reciprocate to avoid further brain-drain.

    There is nothing left, let all that should be signed be signed and let our universities open in the next one week.

    • Prof. G. O. Ozumba

    Department of Philosophy

    University of Calabar