The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Ijaws should build bridges, not fences

    SIR: I have observed with keen interest, comments and opinions from my fellow Ijaw brothers and elders as regards the 2015 general elections and as it affects the interest of our president and the Ijaw nation at large. An Ijaw president, I believe is the best thing that has happened to Ijaws as one of the minority ethnic groups in Nigeria. When Jonathan emerged as president, it gave hope to Nigeria as a dawn of a new beginning to strengthen our unity as a nation. The minorities had hope and confidence in the nation called Nigeria. However, this feat was not achieved through guns, threats, fighting and clamour for war. Rather, it was achieved through Divine intervention and consensus among political leaders and maybe the luck in Goodluck.

    Today I hear my brothers spitting fire, threatening all sorts and even insulting those who in one way or the other supported us in the process to achieve the success in Goodluck Jonathan. I think this is a very wrong approach towards achieving our goal of retaining power because the antecedents of the President do not support this approach. The Goodluck I know believes that no man’s blood is worth his success. The Goodluck I know believes in stooping to conquer; he has shown so much strength in weakness.

    The Goodluck I know has a large heart to carry both supporters and antagonists. The Goodluck I know has the courage to thrive in stormy weather. All these qualities he has demonstrated all through his career as a politician from 1999 till he became President. If Jonathan has achieved being president through the demonstration of all these characteristics, why don’t we as his kinsmen encourage him in that path rather than pushing him to war?

    Are we trying to say luck has eluded him? Or has he lost that confidence that has driven him this far? We should understand that we are building more fences than bridges as a people. We as a people also need other Nigerians so I suggest we should bring down all these fences we are building all over and rather build more bridges for the generation behind us. Ijaws should be reminded that another four years of presidency, cannot address all the injustice and deprivation our people have suffered since 1956 to date and let us not use our actions of today to mortgage the future of the generation behind us by sowing seed of discord .

    Yes, Jonathan should contest for 2015 because that is his right and our right as a people, but that does not mean he will be the last Ijaw man to be president of Nigeria. If we cannot properly negotiate ourselves back to power and rather choose the option of threat, then we might be reminded tomorrow of how we were ungrateful as a people. Politics is all about negotiation and interest. Whoever interest that does not align with ours, should be negotiated and not threatened. As much as I do not also support threat from some northern elders, we must not play into their hands because their opinion may not represent the entire northern interest. After all, these threats were there in 2011 and yet the North voted massively for Jonathan.

    More importantly we cannot go into any election with a divided house. Today, it is very obvious that we are divided and those who are benefiting from this division do not see any need for us to be united believing they alone can handle issues. Let us not be deceived that if we go into election today, we are going to get that bulk vote we got in 2011. We can see these divisions in IYC and INC that’s why they can’t speak for us anymore in unity. Rather, ex militants are now our mouthpieces.

     

    • Samuel Ogbuku

    samogbuku@yahoo.com

  • A country in chaos

    SIR: Nigeria is in a chaotic situation now. Almost everything is topsy- turvy. Nothing works here. There is pervasive insecurity of lives and property as armed robbers and kidnappers carry out their nefarious activities in broad daylight. Our educational system has collapsed; our crater-marked roads are death traps; and, corruption has been firmly entrenched as part of our culture. Is Nigeria not in chaos?

    Although the Jonathan administration has published articles in national newspapers to show that our economy is growing, there is a palpable feeling of discontent among the populace. Our leaders’ postulation that our economy is growing in leaps and bounds is stranger than fiction. Nothing can be further from the truth. Nothing advertises our leaders’ incompetence and poor performance more than the millions of unemployed graduates that roam our streets daily searching for jobs. In addition to this regime’s poor performance, the ruling party has imploded. The PDP is now factionalized, and members of the two factions are engaged in a bitter battle of supremacy that portends grave danger to the indivisibility of Nigeria.

    State PDP chapters across the country are sundered into factions. In Anambra State, the PDP conducted two parallel governorship primaries; consequently, two people are laying claim to the party’s governorship ticket ahead of the November 16, governorship election. In Rivers, the crisis snow-balled into a free-for-all fight on the floor of the state Assembly, leaving some law-makers with deep injuries.

    The President’s plan to seek re-election in 2015 has polarized the party. The PDP, as a party, has not enunciated great policies and executed them, which will lead to the positive transformation of Nigeria. It is a party of selfish and thieving politicians. And, sadly, the party’s strangle-hold on power for 14 years has brought us hardship instead of improved standards of living.

    Now, we have the old PDP and the New PDP. The New PDP led by Kawu Baraje is composed of Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso of Kano, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, Aliyu Babangida Muazu of Niger and Murtala Nyako, the Adamawa State governor. Their major grouse is about President Jonathan’s intention to run for the President in 2015.

    But, why the governors chose not to form a new party and seek for its registration baffles me. Members of a party who feel dissatisfied with how their party is run should defect to another party or form their own party. Rather, the new PDP is setting up new parallel offices across the country, thereby causing chaos.

    We are not unconscious of the stark fact that the PDP’s internal war is not about our welfare. Neither of the two PDPS can produce a visionary and incorruptible leader for us. We know the life-stories and antecedents of people who occupy the party’s top echelons.

    I would like the warring politicians to know that Nigeria is on the precipice now. So, we should not engage in acts that will make our country bowl over. The angry unemployed university graduates, the militants, kidnappers and the Boko Haram insurgents constitute combustible entity, whose anger can be sparked off by our leaders’ selfish acts. Do we know the anger of youth? Can we control it? An act of self-immolation by a poor deprived vegetable seller caused the Tunisian political upheaval.

    Instead of bickering and fighting over the 2015 general elections, our leaders should return to the business of governing this country.

     

    • Chiedu Uche Okoye Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State.

  • NCC must hear this!

    SIR: Ever since I have been hearing of GSM operators in Nigeria illegally deducting charges and different network issues from subscribers, I have never been a part to such fraud until last week Friday, September 13. On that day, I called MTN customer care (180) from my MTN line and the voice at the other end that introduced herself as Amaka introduced a package to me called “MTN GOODY BAG”.

    She convinced me about the package and immediately, I opted for it. The sum of N750 was deducted from my available credit after sending G750 to 131. I was told I could now enjoy the package for a validity period of 30 days which include 150 minutes of free MTN to MTN calls, 200free sms messages to other MTN lines and more. Alas, I never enjoyed such goodies. After calling for free within two days and a cumulative 69 minutes used, MTN started deducting from my normal available credit whenever I called. I made several frantic efforts to call the customer care but on five different occasions within three days, their personnel were always telling me that they were trying to fix the problem and will get back within 24hours which they never did. One of them (Bukola) even told me to sum up my last call duration for the previous three days that it should be up to the 150 minutes but as luck would have it, I use an android mobile phone so I was able to calculate it from my call logs and told her it was just 69mins in total. She promised to call back and lodged the complaint on my behalf but she never did.

    I call on the appropriate authorities on behalf of other subscribers that are victims of such fraudulent acts by our GSM operators to please look into this matter as a matter of urgency even as I seek immediate reversal of my N750 credit by MTN as soon as possible. It was indeed MTN “Bad Bag” for me!

    • Bayo Eniasoro

    Ibadan

     

     

  • Shackled by jackals

    SIR: PDP represents everything ugly with politics in Nigeria.  The more the party attempts to clean up its monstrosity, the messier it looks.  Everyone with checkered personality one knows in politics is a powerful member of PDP, and one is talking from a personal experience.  Greed appears to be the sole motivation for membership.  Sharks battle to gorge on the nation’s resources.  No one with conscience is spared.  Gangsters have no loyalty to democracy.

    That is the catastrophe of Nigeria today.  The PDP family that is in a perpetual warmongering cannot build a strong nation.  The in-fighting and the one-upmanship in PDP cannot necessitate sanity.  Poor Nigerians are shackled by jackals.  The depth of incapacitation of PDP government becomes glaring when one digs to the bugs feasting at its roots.  The foundation of PDP was built on political expediency and not a strong ideological foresightedness, a forum for imposters to exhibit their pomposity.

    A critical consideration of PDP administration shows a government that cannot meaningfully effect its policies.  It is agreeable by many Nigerians that corruption is the cancer eating at the heart of the country.  It becomes a challenging argument since most politicians indicted on corruption charges are members of PDP.  To make matters worse, few of them that are convicted are gallantly welcome back to the party after serving their prison terms.

    Watching the PDP post-convention dinner on NTA recently, one could easily mistake the lavish affair for the glitzy American Academy Awards show.  Yet this is in a country where many families struggle to find one decent meal a day.  The aloofness of PDP towards the suffering masses smacks at the face of decency.  Flare of celebrations by the party suggests being deserving.

    Nigerians must be deceiving themselves if they are expecting a quick turnaround in their misfortune.  There is a saying that one does not expect anything sweet to spill from palm gruel.  The burden of redeeming PDP appears overwhelming that it will drown a repentant voice.  Any effort to sanitize the party becomes counterproductive since the core is rotten.  PDP has no moral underpinning to push it out of its morass.

    It will be intellectual laziness to enumerate the doom of PDP without proffering a solution.  An observer of world events will acknowledge that narcissists are born to self-destroy.  That will be the hope for Nigeria that PDP gladiators will tear themselves down.  The signs seem to be in the air.  It will truly be a breath of fresh air when the flower of an endowed nation blossoms.

    • Pius Okaneme

    Umuoji, Anambra State.

  • Port-Harcourt/Maiduguri rail lines timely

    SIR: My joy knew no bounds when I listened to the news recently and heard that the Port-Harcourt/Maiduguri rail lines would become functional by December. In other words, the usual beehive of activities that is characteristic of railway stations would resume in all the stations along the Port-Harcourt/Maiduguri axis by the end of this year. This revelation can only be appreciated by those who lived before the civil war in the country and who are very much used to rail system. They would be in a better position to understand the great turn-around this life-enhancing phenomenon would impact on the economy in particular and on the lives of the masses in general.

    Kudos to the federal government under the leadership of Dr Goodluck Jonathan for the frantic effort at making sure that functional rail transportation which is pivotal in taking the country to the promised land is now in the offing.

    In fact the joy of many Nigerians, especially the flotsam and jetsam in the society would know no bounds if rail transportation regains its lost glory in the country. This is because, food, the most essential basic need of man would become easily affordable as a result of fall in their prices. Low income earners would be able to own houses as prices of cement and other building materials fall.

    In the meantime, the usual long queue that was characteristic of our filling stations has fizzled out as motorists fuel their vehicles at will. From the look of things, owners of generating plants would soon start to dispose them as epileptic power supply is gradually fading away.

    My humble advice to President Jonathan is to ignore the present political turbulence rocking the country and stick to his guns in his endeavour to return smiles on the faces of the down-trodden, for if this age long dream comes true, posterity would always remember him.

     

    • Nkemakolam Gabriel

    Port-Harcourt

     

  • Oriire LG educational policy commendable

    SIR “Appreciation of the good contributions of others humanises us all. When you recognize the goodness in others, you are actually laying the building blocks that will make mankind endure and survive, it does not diminish you, and the world is increasingly richer for it”.

    It is in line with this submission of a prominent journalist, Kunle Ajibade that I want to use this medium to appreciate the giant strides of Hon. Jacob Bamigboye, chairman Interim Management Committee, Oriire Local Government, Ikoyi-Ile Oyo State in the educational sector of the local government since he became the chairman. The local government is one of the largest local governments in Oyo State in terms of land mass and population. It is rural and agrarian. Hitherto, previous administrators had unconsciously maintained the status quo ante by empowering the people in the local government through the provision of farm implements, commercial motorcycles and vehicles at a subsidised rate to encourage major occupation which were farming and transport services. Inversely, little effort was made to change the perception of the people towards education which can lead the local government out of the woods. If efforts were made, they did not yield much impact in terms of candidate’s performances in the WAEC/NECO examinations, student’s admission into tertiary institution and increment in the number of indigenes in the workforce of Oyo State. It is so pathetic that Oriire Local Government has just two of its indigenes in the workforce of the Emmanuel Alayande College of Education and in the lowest cadre.

    However, the appointment of Bamigboye as interim management chairman of the local government has brought about a major change in the educational policy of the local government. He was a teacher before his appointment. This in fact could be said to be a contributory factor to the priority he gives education and for the huge success he made in this wise. As a matter of fact, the administration has been paying the SSCE NECO/WAEC fees of the SS3 students of the local government since 2011 when he became the chairman. In addition, he made it a duty to distribute writing and other learning materials to pupils and students of both public primary and secondary schools in the local government at the beginning of a new session. Besides, many blocks of classroom have been built or renovated in the last two years. Most importantly, two strides that forced me to write to commend him perhaps are the distribution of new benches and tables to all primary schools in the local government and payment of bursary to the students of Oriire origin in the nation’s tertiary institutions. The former is significant because the previous table and benches were withdrawn from the schools. The latter is equally important because of the number of beneficiary and the amount paid. In actual fact, students pursuing courses like medicine, engineering and law were paid N20,000 each, while students in other discipline got N10,000 each. Although, the allowance may be meagre in view of the inflation in the country, the motive of the chairman which is to encourage educational advancement of Oriire is commendable.

    Obviously, a new chapter has been opened in the local government as far as educational pursuit is concerned with the giant strides mentioned above which is unprecedented. It is hoped that the parents would grab the opportunity and give education of their wards the priority it deserves and to stop using them as labourers in the farm, wheel-barrow pushers in the market and conductors for pick-up vans and other articulated vehicles.

    • Adewuyi Adegbite

    Apake, Ogbomoso.

  • Onitsha and its security challenges

    I wish to use this medium to draw the attention of the Anambra State Government and the general public over the recent spate of armed robbery attack, intimidation, hooliganism and other criminal activities that are ravaging the city of Onitsha and its environ.

    First, I must commend the Peter Obi-led administration which since its inception has drastically tackled the security challenges confronting the state. Onitsha in previous times was a “no-go area.” It was known for its series of armed robbery attack, ritual killings and several other criminal activities.

    This prompted the then governor of the state Dr. Chinweoke Mbadinuju to bring in the notorious Bakassi Boys. Although the activities of the group scared armed robbers and ritualists away from the state, they were strongly criticised by some human right group for indiscriminately setting human beings ablaze. They were also alleged to have killed innocent citizens. When Dr. Chris Ngige became the governor of the state, the Bakassi boys were sent packing because their services were no longer needed by government but some of them regrouped and were later found to engage in armed robbery.

    The situation changed lately when some group of youth who hide under the guise of Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Association of Igbo Youth (AIYO) terrorises, rob, harass and dispossess innocent residents of Onitsha and environs of their properties.

    The worst part is that this group of youth carries out this unholy practice with impunity. They defy security personnel to attack their victims because they were believed to possess a special kind of “odeshi charm” which make bullet not to penetrate their body.

    They carry out this operation in group and often with motorcycles and tricycle popularly known as Keke-Napep. They demand money from wholesale importers before allowing them to offload their containers. They attack road side traders and dispossess them of their hard-earned money even in broad daylight; they forcefully dispossess their victims of jewelleries, phones and other valuables.

    A look at what the present situation reveals to us is enough to issue a Clarion Call on every Anambrarian to eschew violence and embrace peace. As the spokesman of the apex youth body, I call on Anambra youths to resist any attempt by any politician to use them as political thugs or entice them with money in order to vote against their conscience. I enjoin Anambraians to vote wisely and to maintain peace within themselves and their various communities.

    By Oluchukwu Charles Igwe and Nelson Anyiam,

    National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN)

    Onitsha South L.G.A.

  • Jonathan and burden of leadership

    SIR: Dr Jonathan’s presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace and there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of Africa’s presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether GEJ as fondly called will be remembered as the very worst president in all of Nigerian history.

    Many Nigerian youths who bought the President’s candidacy based on his exaggerated ‘l had no shoe’ campaign mantra have now realised it was a deceit. It has become clear to them that the president sold them a dummy when he portrayed himself as a disadvantaged child who shared similar background with a typical Nigerian child. At present, his obstinate refusal to honour agreement the government entered into with ASUU is a clear indication of his disdain for the progress of Nigerian youths. So unfortunate that the president has allowed too many people within the political class to be rewarded for impoverishing the Nigerian youths than turning their fortunes around for better. Needless to say that the President is pursuing a destructive educational agenda that will continue to profit his cronies who run private universities on one hand and perpetually keep the students in the public universities at home.

    GEJ has divided the nation, governed mischievously and may in 2015 likely leave the nation worse off. Disastrous domestic policies, foreign-policy blunders, security setbacks, executive misconduct, unpresidential utterances, crises of credibility and lack of public trust are the contributing factors to the failure of his presidency. He has to a large extent become one of the rarities in presidential history: He has not only stumbled badly in every one of these key areas, he has also displayed a weakness common among the greatest presidential failures — an unswerving adherence to a simplistic ideology that abjures deviation from dogma as heresy, thus preventing any pragmatic adjustment to changing realities. Repeatedly, GEJ has undone himself, a failing revealed in each major area of presidential performance.

    No previous president appears to have squandered the public’s trust more than GEJ has. In the last two years, nothing better and humane has happened to the citizens of this country. Food is expensive. Several families have died of hunger and malnutrition.  Education has collapsed such that the affluent among us prefer Ghanaian education to ours that is destabilized by government’s unpopular and selfish agenda. More children roam the streets and sleep under bridges.  No health care services. Many have died of simplest form of illness that ordinarily should not kill even a fowl if the government was responsible. Lives and property are so unsecured that many have lengthened their hours of prayers at night to ward off the bandits. Electricity is as epileptic as the ruling party. It has never been so bad in our national history. Water is as expensive as petroleum products. Apart from Abuja, there is no any other community that can boast of water supply much less of its regularity.  Nigerian roads are deadlier than ever before. Everything seems to be upside down in the country with no foreseeable hope for common men.  These are political tragedies for President Jonathan and his team.

    Upon all these the presidency prides itself, scores itself high and dances about as if everything was fine. Out of the blues, kidnapping has become a lucrative business where millions, despite denials, are handsomely paid for ransom.  We now live in fear and sleep in fear of known and unknown.  We have been managing to cope with criminality as a result of inept leadership with no relief in sight. The verdict remains clear and loud: the president has indeed failed to discharge his duties to the good of humanity.

    • Tola Osunnuga,

    Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State

  • Why ASUU should not call off its strike

    SIR: I recently listened to a call-in program on radio in which the topic of discussion was the strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU. The forum soon turned into a platform for apportioning blame. But while few persons looked in the direction of government, majority went after ASUU. Some appealed to the lecturers to consider the interest of the students and call off the strike. Some others admonished them to be reasonable and accept what the government has offered and return to work immediately. Still some others lambasted them for being self-centered and unpatriotic.

    The issue at hand is not really complex as some people are wont to make it appear. ASUU declared the strike action after the federal government failed to implement the 2009 agreement the two parties signed. Among other things, the agreement sought to put a stop to the embarrassing collapse of our education system. Now who is to blame here?

    After negotiation, government had offered to release N30 billion- a shift from its initial posture that there was no money. Meeting ASUU’s demand, it said, can shut down the country. Interesting! Experience has shown that there is enough resource to meet the unquantifiable greed of those in power but not for the basic needs of the country.

    The body language of government since the start of the strike action could largely be described as lukewarm. It has never really shown real seriousness or urgency to resolve the issue. Well, can one blame the officials; who among them is his/her children affected? It is the children of unfortunate Nigerians who bear the consequences of their irresponsibility.

    There’s no money to develop our education sector but there is for government officials to send their children to schools abroad. There’s money to buy and service the many jets in the presidential fleet (of a country that does not manufacture a single aircraft part), there’s money to service the outrageous pay and allowances of officials, there’s enough money to sacrifice to subsidy thieves, there’s enough money to burn at the altar of corruption. Who is fooling who? The gullibility and docility of Nigerians are their undoing. Where really is the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS? What then is the essence of its existence?

    How many of those berating ASUU have demanded transparency from government? How many bother about the incredible cost of governance, how many bated an eyelid when the Economist magazine released a report that placed our legislators as the highest paid in the world? How many question why we should have battalion of ministers? People should leave ASUU alone.

    If we cannot demand justice and good governance then we should endure (and even learn to enjoy) the suffering we deserve. ASUU should not call off the strike until the agreement is fully honoured; government should curb its own waste.

    • Nnoli Chidiebere

        Aba, Abia State.

  • Life is difficult in Nigeria

    SIR: Generally, life is difficult everywhere. Speak to an average American, and he or she will tell you the hell that President Barrack Obama is facing from the Republican Party that has the majority in the legislature, to the detriment of ordinary Americans who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of Obama’s pro-people policies. But still he is making some headway, and very many Americans understood the terrain on which he is operating, and so they voted him for a second term.

    There is a saying that too much damage would have been done before a wicked person dies or is killed. That is a wakeup call to Nigerians to strategise against impoverisation and the rich-poor gap that is the bane of development and progress in our country. 1999-2013 is not a total loss, but too much more could have been done without political turmoil, corruption and deception. Standard of living for the overwhelming majority is just too miserable.

    Civil servants, and not just the Academic Staff Union of Universities, can imagine how better their lives would be without electric generator and fuel expenditure, and if the government were equitable in salaries and allowances. Imagine all the promises the former President Olusegun Obasanjo made in 1999 to provide electricity in six months. After he spent eight years without success, his successor, Umar Musa Yar’Adua, deceived us that he would declare a state of emergency on electricity if elected. Yar’Adua and Vice-President (Dr. Goodluck Jonathan) failed, 2007-2011. Then Jonathan brought-in some people from Asian countries just to fool us about immediate electricity in 2011. This is 2013, and electricity is still a far cry, to the detriment of our lives and industries.

    I am convinced that generator producers and marketers put too much money into the campaigns of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), even if the only evidence that I have is the loss of political will to stabilize Nigeria’s electricity. Perpetually voting for corrupt and deceptive people will perpetually yield the same result; political indifference does not help either.

    • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D,

    University of Ilorin.