The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Ekiti and FRC report

    SIR: The recently released Fiscal Responsibility Commission report for 2011 which claimed that Ekiti State is among the most heavily indebted states is inaccurate, incorrect and political.

    For a Federal Government agency to be bandying a 2011 report close to the end of 2013 (a period of two years) shows the level of statistical laziness and financial culpability of the agency, especially in this digital age where information on anything is just a click away.

    I think the FRC should be more concerned about educating the public on what the Federal Government owes rather than trying to use old statistics that has no direct bearing with current situations at the various states. What is even more worrisome is the fact that many of the states (at least as claimed by their respective commissioners of finance and other relevant agencies) have yet to receive the said report before it was published in the media.

    As a concerned Ekiti citizen, I see FRC report as calculated to embarrass the state and smear the image of the Fayemi Administration.

    Virtually all states indicted in the report Lagos, Edo, Ondo, Kwara, Ebonyi, have faulted it.

    One curious twist to the report is the jocose excitement exhibited by governorship aspirants of the two factions of PDP Ekiti State, while celebrating the report.

    I think the way forward is for all and sundry to seek for the current debt profile of the state and consider it in line with the ongoing physical, industrial and human capital development which is the hallmark of the Fayemi administration before coming to a conclusion whether the taxpayers money have been put to effective use or not. Or whether the N20 billion bond sourced from the capital market in 2011 has brought about a better life for the people of the state.

    The FRC should also endeavour to come out with the correct statistical data of debt profile of all the 36 states of the federation and that of the federal government, whom we reliably gathered has just sourced a one billion Eurobond. This, to me is the just and proper way to go about it.

    • Sina Pius,

    Ado Ekiti.

  • National anthem for sale?

    SIR: All over the world national anthems are recognized as the official songs of countries carefully composed and adopted to herald independence and sovereignty. They express patriotic sentiments and are played or sung on public occasions. In broadcasting, the national anthem is played at the opening and closing down of a station, or during grade ‘A’ Broadcast such as the speech of the Head of the State or Governor. A national anthem is a national statement inherited and preserved by successive governments of a country whether civilian or military, democratic or autocratic.

    Even in time of war and sports, the first salute goes to the national anthem!

    Some of the National anthems have peculiarities of note: for instance the American National Anthem, “Star Spangled Banner” was written by an American Lawyer and Poet, Francis Scott Key while on board a British naval ship during the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Maryland in 1814. The “La Marseillaise” of France was adopted in 1792 during the French Revolution, and named after troops from the city of Marseille who stormed the Palace of the King during the revolution.

    The United Kingdom’s “God save the Queen” was first printed in gentleman’s magazine in 1745 but the author is unknown. Also the composer of the melody is not known just as the composer of the American anthem who is wrongly regarded as John Stafford Smith who used the music for an arrangement of “To Anacreon in Heaven”.

    Ghana’s national anthem “Hail the Name of Ghana” which was put to music by Phillip Gbeho in 1956 and adopted in 1957 was revised by a government committee in 1966. Some national anthems are melodies without words while some rhythms like that of Germany are similar to popular Christian hymns. Yet the solemnity of all of them is unique and make them seen sacred.

    In Nigeria, the first national anthem adopted on October 1, 1960 was written by a British lady, Lilian Jean Williams and composed by Frances Benda. On October 1, 1978 a new national anthem, “Arise O’ Compatriots” was adopted. It was collectively written by five Nigerian lyricists and put to music by Benedict Elide Odiase.

    Like in other countries of the world, Nigeria’s national anthem is held in high esteem. It is our national statement. It calls us to attention and alerts us of an important speech or event. When it is playing nobody moves around or says anything except singing the lyrics. It is a salute to nationhood!

    But today, the anthem has been adulterated, abused, and disrespected by individuals and corporate citizens, particularly GSM operators. They use it as caller-tune which they sell to subscribers and realize huge amount thereby relegating the national anthem to the status of a marketing commodity. Everything should not be put on sale. There should be a limit to revenue drive, else we invoke the evil spirit of slave trade and even sell our nationhood! Nigeria as a member of the world international community should uphold international regulations and observations, and create a lawful society. Otherwise how can a GSM provider, a corporate citizen with over 40 million Nigerian subscribers sell the national anthem as a caller-tune at N50 per month, releasing about N200 billion naira in one month! Let the regulatory authority, that is the Nigerian Communication Commission, NCC put such practice to a stop and compel the defaulter to remit that huge amount to the treasury. It can be used to provide employment for teeming Nigerian graduates many of whom are perambulating the streets and selling mere recharge cards for the GSM operator.

    The national symbols of Nigeria particularly the National Flag, the armorial bearings and the national anthem are not articles for sale. They should be respected and protected and preserved for future generations unadulterated.

    • James Egbuchulam

    jameschulam@yahoo.co.uk.

  • That threat by NANS to shut private varsities

    Sir: I initially ignored the news because I couldn’t fathom how and why Nigerian students would contemplate shutting down private varsities.

    How did the students come to the erroneous conclusion that political office-holders who have failed to yield to the demands of their lecturers all send their children to private universities?

    I finished from a private university. While I can’t conclusively say that none of my coursemates has a politician parent, I can conveniently say that at least over 80% of them don’t have politician/political office-holder parents. Among us were those who were self-sponsored and really struggled to finance their tertiary education. To now disrupt activities in these universities just because of the negligible few who are not themselves directly responsible for the lingering strike would never be justifiable.

    Secondly, majority of students in these private universities are themselves victims of our moribund education sector. Many were forced to study in these universities after several failed attempts to study in public universities. Many left public universities for private varsities because of the perennial strikes which make their academic calendar uncertain – the same reason why some misinformed students would now shut down activities in private universities.

    Thirdly, if NANS would shut down private varsities because they think political office-holders’ children study in these schools, then, it may be justifiable for the populace to shut down private hospitals each time health workers are on strike. If these students are not cowards, they should rather shut down the Federal Ministry of Education and its agencies, the handlers of which are directly answerable to ASUU.

    Private varsities are private concerns and are distinct from government properties and businesses. That you or your sponsor should not be a political office-holder is not a requirement to gain admission into private varsities; why should it even be a requirement? These schools pay licence fees and several other levies to the government. It is also imperative to add that our private universities actually came to salvage the sector from the mess it was before they came into existence. Little is left to be imagined on what could have been the situation if these varsities were not in existence when we compare the number of admission seekers with spaces available in the public universities.

    The ugly development is yet another evidence of the sad state of affairs in our student associations. We hope for a vibrant NANS which will deal with issues the appropriate way and be led by responsible students.

    • Abbas Abdullah Adebayo ACA

    Ibadan, Nigeria.

     

  • Like Senegal, let’s consider abolishing the Senate

    SIR: “Our lives begin to end the day we keep silent about things that matter.”

    ……Martin Luther King

    Since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, a lot of things have been going wrong, but because our democracy is considered fragile and young, we have been keeping quiet all in the attempt to let the sleeping dogs lie without knowing that we are only postponing the evil day.

    One of the things that have been going wrong is the issue of the jumbo pay for political office holders at a time majority of Nigerians wallow in abject poverty.

    It was reported that it costs tax payers N290 million yearly to maintain each member of the Senate. Using a simple arithmetic, it means that a Senator takes approximately N24million a month. That is more than the annual income of a Medical Doctor; it is more than the monthly salary of 42 army generals, or 48 professors or 70 Commissioners of Police; it is more than twice the pay of American President or nine times the pay of American Congress men. It is incredible!

    Though, some lawmakers would claim that the monies include their constituency allowance, the question is what has really changed in the constituencies they are claiming to represent? For instance, some of these lawmakers only visit their constituencies once in a blue moon (probably during a festive period or electioneering). They are all living large in their big mansions and big offices in Abuja at the expenses of the people they are claiming to be representing.

    To save our economy from collapse and to prevent using 70% of our budget on recurrent expenditure, we need to borrow a leaf from a fellow West African country- Senegal, whose parliament recently voted to abolish the Senate as part to moves to help victims of last year deadly floods.

    Senegalese President Marky Sall would later explain that the $15million saved would be channelled towards flood mitigation. If Senegal can take that giant and bold step, Nigeria must not shy away from taking the right step of abolishing the Senate, leaving the lower chamber that have more members and are closer to their constituencies.

    In Senegal, it was not also easy at the initial stage because the 100 Senators fought to be retained, but they lost the vote in the joint session of the parliament. Political jobbers in Senegal tried to stop the move by claiming that the aim was to weaken the opposition as most of the Senators were supporters of the ex-President, but at the end of the day the wish of the majority of the Senegalese prevailed.

    Nigeria should also expect the 109 Senators to oppose the move for their selfish interest, but I believe that the wish of more than 150 million Nigerians must prevail over that of the Senators because sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria.

    Our current bi-cameral legislature is too expensive and the work of the two chambers is mere duplication of functions.

     

    • John Tosin Ajiboye,

    Lagos

     

  • FRSC’s new number plates is extortion

    SIR: On March 24, 2011, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) announced the introduction of a new set of Drivers licence and vehicle number plates.

    One of the reasons adduced was that the new plate numbers would assist security agencies to tackle the challenges of national security. While the motive seems laudable, the pursuit of national security is, with due respect, not part of the mandate of FRSC. It would be tantamount to pure naiveté to think that terrorist acts will only be carried out using cars that have been registered.

    If the government is serious about counter-terrorism and information gathering, it should do so in a way that encompasses all Nigerians whether or not they possess motor vehicles. The new number plate is disappointingly without any security attachment or difference from the old one whatsoever apart from its reordering of the characters and addition of colours. The material used is not even different talk less of a tracking device to be attached to it. It is highly unfortunate that this is what the Corps Marshall and his team want Nigerians to swallow hook line and sinker.

    If the genuine aspiration of the FRSC was to build a verifiable and reliable information system of all vehicles in Nigeria, I dare say that they would have been able to do this in the past one year. All that would be needed is simply ensuring that every vehicle that has its papers renewed are properly registered in the information system and then the checkpoints on the highways can check cars whose papers haven’t been renewed.

    The same applied to the drivers’ licence. Why demand that every driver renew their licences with the same deadline of October 1, when each of those licenses have their different expiry dates?

    By February 2014, the announcement of the new driver’s licence would have been three years, the same period within which the validity of the present driver’s licence lapses. If the new licences had been issued to first time drivers and those renewing since then, majority of the drivers in Nigeria would be carrying the new licence by now. This simply points to the fact that even after announcing a new drivers licence, FRSC continued to issue the old ones!

    As of today, the new plate numbers cost nothing less than N20,000 and as much as N40,000 in some cases. This is at least a 100% increase against the “N10000 Standard Replacement fee” promised by FRSC Corps Marshall, Osita Chidoka. The FRSC is now coming round to say that only the plates will cost N10,000 while other registration costs would be “decided by the state VIO and Joint Tax Board”. Why did he not announce this at the inception of introduction of the policy? This is barefaced deception.

    Some years ago, car owners were compelled to acquire a plastic device tagged “encoding”. To my knowledge, no one I know ever had the validity of their vehicle licensces checked through that device; it simply became useless and the government gave no explanation as to why that happened. Today it’s the new drivers’ licence and new number plates which have a curious manner of implementation. It smacks of extortion and insensitivity from a government which Nigerians expect so much and has delivered so little. Nigerians cannot continue to be handled like subjects; we are citizens and demand that our government be accountable to us.

     

    • Adekunle Adedoyin

    Mbora, Abuja

     

  • PDP is brain dead

    Sir: In medical parlance, coma is a state of extreme unresponsiveness in which an individual exhibits no voluntary movement or behaviour. In deep coma, even painful stimuli which when performed on a healthy individual result in reaction are unable to affect any response and normal reflexes may be lost. The individual in coma is still alive, but the brain is functioning at its lowest stage of alertness.

    The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), under the leadership of Alh. Bamanga Tukur can not be said to be different from the above situation as at today. A flock of sheep without shepherd is like a human body without a soul. The PDP does not have a soul. Despite all the pretensions or posturing that defy obvious reality, the party is in the state of coma. The funeral atmosphere that attended the party’s special convention had removed any vestige of doubt that the PDP is actually ill.

    A convention at which there were more long faces than smiling faces conveys ominous signal of the uncertain fate that await the party. Indeed, any one who had the curiosity to watch the proceeding on AIT live could not have failed to notice the bizarre features of the controversial convention. The atmosphere of conviviality and amiability that should attend a gathering of one family was palpably missing. Infact, the whole event appears like a wedding attended by reluctant or unhappy guests. Many of the delegates and participants,including the President, Governors, Ministers, Parliamentarians and party faithfuls wore the expression of minds on their faces, especially when the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and seven governors walked out of the venue of the convention. Wiill the factionalisation of the PDP mark the beginning and the end of the party’s dominance in Nigeria’s political arena? And what about strained relationship between the President and some governors; will it distort the parties masterplan come 2015?

    I must diagnose in tears that PDP will soon die of her curable disease if not urgently attended to.

    • John Akevi,

    Bauchi

     

  • Scrap the National Union of Pensioners

    SIR: A union or association is formed to positively represent the interest, common purposes of its members. Where the opposite is the case, the union or association becomes a fraud and should be scrapped. The latter is particularly so with the National Union of Pensioners (NUP).

    The world is now aware that the regularity of scams in the pension sector has turned to an epidemic. In spite of this, the Federal Government and her agencies are at best lukewarm and unperturbed in bringing pension thieves to justice. Instead, it is screening today, biometrics tomorrow. Pensioners are dying daily en route to and fro Abuja for complaints. And the NUP is in slumber.

    Individuals like this writer and others continue to cry out in newspapers. States like Oyo has gone as far as the Supreme Court to obtain ruling in favour of pensioners just as newspapers’ editorials are awash with tales on the plight of pensioners. Unfortunately, the NUP is in slumber.

    At stake is the rational and justiciable approval by late Sani Abacha, the erstwhile Head of State of pension harmonisation (a level 14 step 5 pensioner of 1980 should earn the same pension of a level 14 step 5 pensioner of 2013). The Supreme Court gave judgment in the pension harmonisation case on May 21, 2010 having gone through the High Court and Court of Appeal. Yet, the docile NUP cannot fight to validate the judgment which favours her members.

    Recently, the Senate (not the NUP) decried the physical, mental and psychological inconveniencies and deterioration in the health of pensioners. In consequence, it summoned and later ordered the arrest of Alhaji Abdulrasheed Maina to account for the N195 billion naira of pension funds. The NUP simply did nothing.

    Little did the pensioners know that the NUP was Maina‘s accomplice. In a full-page advertorial, NUP praised Maina to high heaven as the ‘Messiah’ of pensioners for providing plastic chairs for complaining pensioners to sit on at Abuja. But the most astonishing revelation was the whopping N2billon or more of pension fund said to have been siphoned through the accounts of NUP. Is this how a union should protect the interests of its members?

    Ironically, the NUP survives through a N100.00 monthly check-off dues across board from pensioners. These extortions merely go to enrich members of the national and state executives of the NUP (as in Edo State). Individual pensioners struggle on end to correct anomalies in their stipends. NUP accounts are never audited. You can never get a copy of its constitution.

    NUP is a dead union. No sane, live union will fold its hands, close its eyes and sleep when its members are being maimed, dehumanized and killed.

    NUP is an accomplice in pension fraud. It deserves to be scrapped.

    • Bernard Awijale Ajibode

    Akoko-Edo, Edo State.

     

  • Offa ruse and need for vigilance

    SIR: Everywhere the human hawks of the inordinately distended People’s Democratic Party (PDP) perch they often leave no one in doubt of their abhorrent lack of respect for the sanctity of the ballot box. Though they peddle smattering understanding that political parties must test their popularity at the sanctuary of the ballot box, they are never comfortable with the outcome of a free and fair election. Since the party has no viable programmes with which to convince the electorate, it often violently subverts the electoral process and grossly distorts the choice of voters. The rerun election held in Offa Local Government Area, Kwara State, a few weeks ago is a ringing reminder that the PDP rigging machine irredeemably remains the proverbial spots on the leopard’s skin which cannot be washed off however torrential the rain.

    If PDP is breaking into factions owing to indiscipline, threadbare internal democracy, injustice, and irreconcilable differences, the long-suffering electorate and the upcoming All Progressives Congress must not be too lost in celebration as to forget vigilance. Whether whole or dismembered, PDP cannot go to any election without perfecting plans to rig awfully. Seeing that it has riotously frittered away the goodwill of the people and is without honour from Abuja to the hindermost part of Maiduguri, the rudderless party will always worship at the infamous temple of rigging.

    As the ongoing abominable justification of the electoral robbery at Offa shows and as the actions of the various spokespersons for the party in Abuja indicate, nobody needs doubt that the PDP men ruling Nigeria always have ‘a high blood pressure of words and anaemia of deeds’. All economic indicators show that the ruling hawks in Abuja are incapable of providing effective leadership. Yet, in highly insufferable decibels, they talk of winning the 2015 elections.

    Even in Osun State where a consequential majority of the people agree that the Aregbesola-led administration is responsive and responsibly performing, the fractured and fractious PDP which has no enduring records of performance in about seven years that it was in power there is arrogantly about town saying it will take back the governorship seat in the state in 2014. We are talking of a party whose worth and exertions in power were as brief as a sigh!

    PDP is dangerously desperate. Freeze its past records of ignominy and look to its latest reckless behaviour at Offa. So perniciously desperate is the party that when its councillorship candidate in the rerun election, Afolabi Jimoh Olawale, came clean about his party’s electoral robbery, the party ploughed further the depth of idiocy and shenanigan by flagrantly denying his candidacy. The party is still out there laying invalid claims to the mandate which from all available evidence it inexpertly stole.

    What the electorate at Offa said with their votes is not different from what many Nigerians have said in the past and will still say about the PDP in any elections – the party is not wanted, for it devalues their human dignity and scuttles their noble aspirations. If the roundly rejected party behaves as we have seen again and again, efforts must be intensified at all levels to increase the tempo of vigilance.

    The Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission is a compromised umpire. No time should be wasted in unbundling it. There must be stiff sanctions against all those who collaborated to change the choice of the electorate at Offa.

    Let the winner be given his mandate. But above all, Nigerians must more than ever before be vigilant and be ready to defend their votes against the soulless beings in the PDP who are offensively desperate to retain or grab political powers.

    • Jamiu Oyeleke,

    Ogbomoso, Oyo State.

     

  • Open letter to the President

    SIR: I write on behalf of the millions of dreams that are getting dashed by the day as the total shut-down of our universities persists. I write on behalf of the future of the several hundreds of thousands who have been privileged, amidst the stiff competition for admission, to grab tertiary education but may end up worse than their disadvantaged counterparts since they may never finish on schedule.

    The handwriting on the wall, more than ever before, foretells of a dangerous twist to the continuing imbroglio between your administration and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). I do not know if the public keeps the date as much as we do, but it is well over 65 days already and I cannot help but wonder if anyone really cares as to what becomes of our street-wandering undergraduates.

    Our dear President, we are tired. We, the students in the federal universities are always at the receiving end of every impasse between ASUU and the government and all I can ask for now is that you and your think-tank reconsider your stand on the matter. We can only bear this much!

    I am not ASUU’s spokesman, but it is only logical that I expect your administration to honour the 2009 agreement with the union so normalcy can return to our campuses and of course, our disenchanted academic lives.

    I have spent more years than is required to have a second degree and yet I am grappling to take a Bachelor’s degree out of an institution that only recently had an internal strike because you would have our name ‘re-branded’.

    Mr. President, every day this strike continues, more dreams die and more

    future riffraff are born. Posterity will remember you for good or ill based on how you handle this crisis.

    It goes without saying that for 14 years that your party has held sway over the affairs of this nation, we cannot boast of a Nigerian university amongst the first two thousand in the world. This is more than enough reason to release the requisite fund for the upgrade of our educational infrastructure as well as the welfare of the future’s moulders. We can only get out of our educational system as much as we invest in it and though investment in educational is long term, it is also long-rewarding. The futures of our unborn children are in jeopardy even before their conception, but you can change all of these!

    Mr. President, help me and my fellow undergraduates live decent lives even if our parents are not among the top one per cent who squander our national earnings as political office holders. Would you do this for me, for us, for Nigeria’s future?

    • Joshua Oyeniyi,

    Lagos

  • Children’s education deserve more attention

    SIR: Lately there has been remarkable dip in the academic performance of students across the country. In the last couple of years, statistics from the various national examination bodies have been nothing to write home about. Naturally the country is worried over the high failure rate of students in national examinations. The question has been: why is it so, how can it be remedied?

    The blame for this unfortunate situation has often been placed at the doorsteps of inadequate educational infrastructure and instructional materials, undedicated and even unqualified instructors. These, however, are only part of the problem and by no means all of it. There’s a crucial but often ignored aspect of the present educational conundrum. This is the role of parents.

    From my vantage position as an active player in the field, I have noted that many parents seem to see their role in the education of their children as merely in paying their fees and buying them books. Many, once they do these, almost hands off the children. They rarely monitor their academic progress, ask them how they are faring, see if they are being given assignments and if so, whether they do them, whether they ever make out time at home to study etc. Many rarely visit the school and do not attend PTA meetings.

    The task of grooming the children into useful members of society is not for the teachers or the school alone. For success in this very important endeavour, there’s need for the support and collaboration of parents. Where the influence of the school terminates, the parents must take over. The children of nowadays face too many distractions. They seem to even have lesser incentive to excel academically; left on their own many relegate their books to the background. This is why parents must watch out.

    There seem to be a relationship between parent’s interest in education and the child’s academic performance. The level of importance a parent attaches to education to a large extent determines the seriousness with which the child will approach his/her studies. Children, whose parents closely monitor their academics, check their notes and assignments scrupulously examine their report cards and offer reward or impose sanction where necessary do better than those whose parents pay little or no attention to their academic life and show little interest in their end of term assessment. How would parents even know if their children are being properly taught unless they closely monitor their academics?

    Understandably the difficult economic situation in the country which sees many parents working for longer hours and often coming home exhausted makes the close monitoring even more tasking. However, this is one duty that must never be ignored; the future of our children is at stake here. All our struggles and efforts on their behalf would have come to naught if we fail to accord the deserving attention to their studies and they eventually turn out uneducated and ill-equipped.

     

    • Ananti Ifeoma Onyinyechi

    Aba, Abia State.