The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Tribute to Alhaja Abibat Mogaji

    SIR: Death has once claimed a woman of substance; a true Awoist, a formidable business woman (Iya’Loja). Alhaja was politically literate and highly enlightened. I remember her glorious past as leader of leaders of Iya’Loja that supported my ambition to contest the Federal House of Representatives seat vacated by late Hon. Ajimotokan who was made commissioner by Alhaji Lateef Jakande in 1979.

    That I won the primary and general election on the platform of UPN to represent the then Ikeja Federal House of Representatives seat in the Second Republic was largely due to the support of Alhaja Abibat Mogaji-led women support.  History will remember her as one of those who ensured women are not relegated to the background but given equal opportunity and she helped to produce women trailblazers in elective positions in Nigeria. Alhaja Mogaji lived a fulfilled life and deserves to be well celebrated in death. She left good legacies and stood as a role model and mentor for young women.

    After the second Republic, our political path did not cross but I always remember her with fond memories. Alhaja successfully added value to Lagos State political legacy and by inference the nation. She never contested any election but no one wins an election without her support especially in her area. She was a political ‘Guru’; and an ‘Amazon’ well loved by her people.  Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu gained prominence and acceptability under her as his mother.

    Rest in perfect peace with Allah that you served well on earth. I commiserate with the children and the immediate family members. May the good Lord console them. Adieu my dear political Mama; your good deed of the past can never be forgotten. God will give you your due eternal rest.

    Hon. Josephine Olatomi Soboyejo,

    Fmr. member, Federal House of Representatives;

    &Fmr. Commissioner for Women Affairs & Social Development, Ogun State

     

  • Point missed by Oshiomhole on NGF election

    SIR: Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, will be remembered as one of the best Presidents of the Nigeria Labour Congress. Oshiomhole explained, recently, how 35 governors were present for the Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum (NGF) election. “They counted 35 papers; we voted one by one in the open ballot, and counted the votes one by one; Jang got 16 votes and Amaechi 19. However, immediately, the very people that voted said no, no, no, we are going to walk out.”

    Understandably, “the very people that voted” refers to Jang and his co-losers, including Governor Olusegun Mimiko of the Labour Party.

    Did Oshiomhole lie? No, he simply confirmed what every conscious and conscientious person already knew. From the end of the election until now, only 16 governors recognise Jang as their chairman, while all the others remain with Amaechi. Oshiomhole rightly chided the NLC for appealing to the two parties to behave, instead of telling the losers point blank to repent. But, why did Oshiomhole himself not identify President Goodluck Jonathan as the one beating the drum for the reed dancing on the ocean, while (rightly) expecting the NLC to call the spade a spade?

    Most Nigerians saw nothing wrong with rotational presidency among the six geopolitical zones, as good for order, equity and stability, until President Jonathan’s inordinate ambition in 2011.

    Yes, my hope is the All Progressive Congress (APC), and I pray all reasonable and well-meaning Nigerians will unite to reposition Nigeria along the path of order, peace, and stability.

    Those who brought the rotational idea meant well. Every zone certainly has presidential materials, and rotation connotes equity and inclusion. It will end arbitrariness in our highly heterogeneous society. Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Audu Ogbe, Oshiomhole, and all of us must reinstate it.

     

    • Pius Oyeniran Abioje, Ph. D,

    University of Ilorin.

     

  • Leave the Interior Minister alone

    SIR: In the recent past, I have read series of write-ups – the good, the bad and the ugly about the Minister of Interior, Patrick Abba Moro, and I wish to crave the indulgence of all to leave this man alone to focus on his job in our national interest.

    Much as this piece is not intended to hold brief for the Hon. Minister in any way over his actions and/or inactions, I think it is of utmost importance that we take into consideration the enormous task of maintaining the internal security of the country before him, particularly now that we are beset with so many security issues like never before in our history as a country.

    Gradually, Nigeria is scaling negative heights in terrorism against efforts by the Federal Government to tame this man-made monster. Apparently defying solution, President Goodluck Jonathan was recently compelled to declare a state of emergency in the northern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. Also towards this end, a new Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service has just been sworn in.

    What could be more germane to a nation than an issue that threatens the safety of the citizenry and ultimately her national unity? As it stands today, youth corpers, other natives and even natives dread parts of Northern Nigeria. Imagine Jos that was hitherto the number one choice city of so many Nigerians and foreigners alike, has become ‘a no go area’.

    While Boko Haram constantly showcases man’s inhumanity to fellow man in the North, kidnapping is becoming a big business for hoodlums in the East and spreading like wildfire across the nation. The costs of these security challenges bedeviling the country are manifold: difficulty in attracting foreign investors, unwarranted security budgets, distraction from President Jonathan’s transformation agenda and many more.

    It stands to reason that it is difficult if not impossible to find a lasting solution to these challenges without the active involvement of the minister charged with the responsibility of maintaining the internal security of the nation. It is on record for instance, that the minister has made remarkable progress in the various agencies under his ministry deserving national commendation. These achievements include but are not limited to the following: deportation of over 19,000 illegal immigrants, efforts towards the deployment of modern electronic surveillance equipment to help man our porous borders, provision of facilities for e-passport in Lagos and in our missions abroad, training of over 1,000 officers and men drawn from public and private organizations across the country to combat fire and his initiative to construct 227 fire service stations across the country.

    Others include significant reduction in cases of pipeline vandalism across the country, his initiative to implement the expatriate quota (part of the labour law of 1963) aimed at creating more jobs for Nigerians and the prison reform which led to the construction of modern block of buildings for prisoners in so many states of the federation. Interestingly, it also charts a course for inmates. Whoever thought in this country that serving prisoners could go to University, write WAEC, farm and accumulate salaries to be paid after serving their terms?

    It is in the light of the aforementioned responsibilities placed on the minister, the glaring achievements so far recorded and in recognition of the fact that safety comes first, that I am imploring all patrotic Nigerians to leave Comrade Abba Moro alone to focus on his job as he has capacity to do more.

    Godwin Otache Abah

    Lagos

     

  • Plight of drivers plying Onitsha-P/Harcourt road

    SIR: Who does not know that good roads play a vital role in the transportation system of a country? Efficient modes of transportation are incentive to the economic growth of a country as cash crops and goods are transported from remote areas to markets in urban towns.

    Road transportation is the commonest type of transportation in Nigeria, although most of our roads are death- traps that are filled with pot-holes and craters, which cause road mishaps. Not a few drivers have lost their lives while conveying goods and passengers from one major city to another.

    Lorry drivers in Nigeria encounter problems while engaging in their business. In the past, policemen would mount roadblocks on major highways to extort money from commercial lorry and bus drivers. Thankfully, the Inspector General of Police, M.D. Abubakar ordered the dismantling and removal of roadblocks on major highways and thoroughfares in our major cities. This measure has led to the easing up of traffic on our roads.

    Just when the drivers thought that their problems were over, another problem has cropped up. Now, jobless and violent touts have constituted menace and threat to the safety of lives of lorry drivers. These criminals who masquerade as agents of the government have been causing sleepless nights for motorists plying major roads, especially the Onitsha- Port-Harcourt route. They claim that they were hired by the state governments of Anambra, Imo and Rivers to collect dues and levies from lorry drivers. These lorry drivers are groaning under the exploitation of the so-called road workers. The monies or profits they realise from hauling goods from Onitsha to Port Harcourt are used to appease those men who harass them daily on the roads. From bridge-head, Onitsha to Port-court, these lorry drivers are coerced to pay illegal money to people who claim that that they are agents of government. They print many different tickets, which thy issue to motorists.

    Sadly, the crime happens in the full glare of policemen and soldiers. So, it is an indisputable fact that those touts work in connivance with policemen to brow-beat lorry drivers into parting with their money.

    As we are in a democratic era, no Nigerian should be exploited and denied his human rights. These lorry drivers have been suffering indignities and abuse of their rights for a long time. However, being law –abiding citizens who do not want to create anarchy, they have not resorted to violence to redress the ugly situation.

    So they are beseeching the government to investigate the activities of those hoodlums who perpetrate crime under the guise of collecting levy for the government. A stitch in time saves nine. • Chiedu Uche Okoye

    Obosi Anambra State.

     

  • FERMA and Osun’s federal roads

    SIR: On Thursday June 20, the House of Representatives committee on works visited Governor Rauf Aregbesola in his office in Osogbo. The week before, the governor turned the sod on the dualisation of Gbongan-Akoda road and the planned interchange at Gbongan.

    However, to my chagrin, I saw FERMA signboards on various spots on the road and the evidence of the patch-patch job the Federal Ministry of Works pretends to be doing on this road.

    This to me does not make sense. Osun State got the licence to rehabilitate the road under former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola who could only complete the project halfway from Osogbo to Akoda, leaving the other half a death-trap. Concerned with the condition of this important road, Governor Aregbesola decided to fix it from the meagre resources of the state. What is expected of any decent government is to commend Aregbesola and support him in every way possible.

    This road has failed and it is evident patchwork can no longer work. Even with the patching, a ride on this road is always dangerous and bumpy, the greatest danger being the narrowness of the road and its inability to cope with the volume of traffic on it.

    Everyday, vehicles from opposing sides run into each other while trying to avoid the bad portions leading to avoidable accidents occasioning deaths and injuries.

    It is therefore shocking to see FERMA still pretending to be patching this road. FERMA is hereby advised not to waste scarce funds patching a road that is being scraped in preparation for a brand new dual carriage way. It is foolish, unreasonable and insensitive.

    There are sleuths of federal roads scattered in Osun State that have become impassable. A good example is the Osogbo-Ilobu-Ogbomoso Road where at least a quarter of Osogbo residents are quartered. There are federal roads in Ilesa, Ife, Iwo, Ede, Ejigbo and so on begging for attention. Please, FERMA, go to these bad roads and not on a road being reconstructed by Governor Aregbesola on behalf of the good people of the state.

    There is no room for bad politics here.

    • Mike Opatola,

    Osogbo, Osun State

  • Governors, private jets and states’ treasuries

    SIR: In Nigeria, the culture of impunity continues to assume frightening dimensions. We have enshrined mediocrity and selfishness as a nation. Those privileged to occupy one position of trust or the other have seized such opportunities to glorify absurdities. Some practices hitherto considered as alien to our system of governance and even to our lifestyles have become the fads nowadays. These practices have crept into our system of governance eroding values.

    Particularly, state governors have since constituted themselves as purveyors of financial recklessness and perhaps scandals. I have always argued that state governors remain one of the biggest challenges to development.

    Their Excellencies have unarguably become clogs in the wheel of progress. They have become so powerful and utterly influential that they decide whatever goes on in their domain. Governors control so much money that some of them now buy jets as toys. Clearly most of the governors are competing when it comes to the class of jets.

    Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State in October 7, 2012 acquired a Bombardier Global 5000 jet for the state government. The jet was said to have been bought at the sum of $45.7 million (N7.4 billion). In 2012, the state’s Embracer Legacy 600 jet was traded off to the Cross River state government. Recall that in 2005, former governor of the state, Sir Peter Odili bought two aircrafts, one an air ambulance and the other a private jet. The aircrafts were procured in the name of Rivers State government.

    In June 2011, the Akwa Ibom State government bought a $45 million jet. The state-of- the- art aircraft was manufactured in 2011.

    Former governor of Delta State, James Onanefe Ibori was also enmeshed in a private jet case. Elsewhere in Bauchi State, former Governor Alhaji Ahmed Muazu acquired aircraft for N3 billion. Taraba State governor Danbaba Suntai also crashed the state-owned Cessna 28 aircraft into a farm near the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depot in Yola, the Adamawa State capital recently.

    Besides the purchase of these aircrafts, most state governments have embarked on the construction of airports and airstrips. Even some states that are battling with road challenges have gone on to construct private airstrips.

    What is the justification for such humongous expenditures on jets when the people battle with penury and poverty? In states where majority of the people are feeding from hand to mouth and where living daily has been an uphill task, wasting millions of dollars in private aircrafts is rather unwise, selfish and uncalled for.

    This kind of scenario tells what happens with our treasuries. How people who have access to our funds appropriate monies. It is clear that our treasuries are ‘loose’. The age-long question about the relevance and otherwise efficiency of the states’ Houses of Assembly comes into play here. What was the input of the states’ Houses of Assembly when these jets were purchased?

    This gross misplacement of priorities show how our governors spend monies perhaps to suit their jamborees, merry go round, et al. The purchase of jets by states at this time is unfathomable. We must curb the impunity before it becomes a natural order.

     

    • Stanley Ibeku,

    Africa Regional Centre for information Science,

    University of Ibadan.

  • FCT minister and his traducers

    SIR: I have watched with considerable concern nay disdain the smear campaign of calumny targeted against the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed with respect to the attempt to extort money from him by a Kaduna-based publisher under dubious circumstances.

    Since the controversy, which started with the desperate attempt by this publisher to extort money from the minister, ostensibly to forgo the publication of a book the former claimed to writing on the latter, Nigerians have been waiting expectantly that with time, the whole brouhaha would come to an end.

    From all intents and purposes, what this publisher did smacks of unprofessionalism, a backhanded attempt to coerce the minister into parting with huge sums of public money to ‘settle’ him. From whichever angle the issue is viewed from, it is morally and ethically indefensible.

    As a former journalist himself, the minister is conversant with the ethics of the profession, one of which expressly forbids extortion by journalists. And that is why he has decided to attack the virus of this ungodly game by refusing to settle his heckler, a commendable act that should be emulated by other public officials that have been helplessly fleeced by conmen masquerading as journalists.

    No doubt, some people would have preferred the minister settling this extortionist silently without raising an uproar, but methinks that is a defeatist way of reasoning. It takes a lot of guts to do what the minister has done. As a matter of fact, somebody has to muster courage, the same way the he did, to stand up this dangerous practice that is fast depleting our national treasury and ravaging the media profession once and for all. For this singular act, he deserves commendation and not condemnation.

    Contrary to what some spoilsports are saying, the minister scored the bulls’ eye by reporting the matter to the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), the umbrella body of all media practitioners. The point must once again be orchestrated that it is unprofessional to hide under the canopy of journalism to perpetrate acts that are detrimental or inimical to the interest of the highly revered profession. Agreed, journalists are to hold public officials accountable to the people, but it should be done within the confines of the ethics of the profession.

    Those troubling the minister should profit from the lessons of history. Publishing gladiators and worse propagandists have passed through this land in the past. They had left the people nay government officials traumatized. When they spoke, acted or wrote, it was to trample on or to offend the sensibilities of Nigerians. Some even boasted, like this publisher is currently doing, that no power could render them irrelevant. But when denouement came like a whirlwind, they were all swept into the dustbin of history. So history is like gallows, it hangs those who ignore its poignant lesson.

     

    • Ray Edmund Oche

    Bwari, Abuja.

  • Abiola and some tales in Nigeria

    You can only go round a pepper tree, you cannot climb it.”

    The crab may swim across big and small rivers but it will eventually end up in an old woman’s soup pot.

    “How are you celebrating Yoruba democracy day.’They’ like the man but no gree make dey change ‘unilag’ to his name. Na UNN name dey want make dey give am”

    The above was sent to me by my friend, on June 12, as I read it I recalled that phrase “oso abiola” (refers to how ibos reacted in the aftermath of the elections) the date was like any other day except it has become a reference point for some of the nation’s many fairy tales.

    IBB has been our pillar—Abiola’s family. Misquoted, or misrepresentation. It tells it all, it is true, and it is a lie. Already, I seem to enjoy the tragi-comedy in the Abiola family, on who is the greatest and the revelation that even Obasanjo gave some ‘smart’ members of the family a few millions to keep body and soul.

    I have gone through countless opinions, commentaries and figments of June 12. This is my admonition…

    There are several hundred stories about June 12, so there is about Nigeria, depends on who is telling it.. Whether it is about Vatsa or IBB, or it’s about Idiagbon or Ojukwu, the document that says we should split by 2014. How Ironsi was killed or was Balewa shot?

    Rumours, and small facts, myths and outright moonlighting tales and the actors keep dying one after the other. Former example anything said against Abacha, no Abacha to defend it… And how about that document that killed June 12, signed by the Sule Lamidos, Ciromas, Dongoyaros, Marks, Gusaus, Musa Yar’adua, Rimis, Nwobodos…and some several dozen fellows dead and alive to establish the ‘fi edi ha’ (take small part of yansh siddon) interim govt.

    When a woman has ten children, there is nothing that happens in the night that she does not know about

    I have used the term ‘rumours’, because most important events about Nigeria are only available at elite men parties and commoners’ beer parlors and palm wine joints.

    A sizable amount of Nigerians believe that MKO got what he deserved, after his long romance with the military with business interests that were largely fronts for top military brass. All these businesses are dead today anyway.

    Rumours: that once upon a time, despite all that claim of Nigerians voted for the first time a Muslim/Muslim ticket. Many Christians and others till tomorrow believe that folklore of him ‘sinking’ a ship load of bibles. Or wait, that he and IBB basically put Nigeria into Organisation of Islamic Countries.

    Many Nigerians benefitted from the MKO salt, wrapper, sugar and monies, but why did IBB and his men not stop the process when they could—forget that lame excuse of ‘pressure’ to hand over as promised?

    If there was a particular group so against MKO emerging president after the military class, it was the Yoruba elite that fought against him.. And while everyone who claimed NADECO went on to better their lot via asylums that came like VISA lotteries, the man died alone.

    Many elite would say, after all he stabbed Awo and worked for Obasanjo to stop the Yorubas and was rewarded with money for Concord to fight Tribune…His bakery served ECOMOG and was responsible for that ‘wheat policy’…so?

    How strange that our democratic symbols are rife with all manner of controversies, MKO was labelled International Thief-Thief by none other than Fela, a democracy without democrats and caricature activists.

    I recall this factual tale, from an inside player that what hurt Abacha was the fact that after the brouhaha, he met with MKO and made him an offer (some big sum). MKO accepted, only to renege.

    Is it not an irony NADECO today is headed by Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, an Igbo son?

    I have stopped since to preach our false unity, preferring to engage on the strength of our diversity. We are not one, cannot be one and the earlier we face that rumour the better.

    While some celebrated the dictator that Abacha was, some even rate him higher than Jonathan in all spheres, after all even his looting records have been broken by the current crop.

    If anyone had the chance of immortalising MKO, it would have been Obasanjo, but here’s a man that has never hidden his scorn for the name MKO for reasons only more tales can tell.

    Just before you ask me my drive in this admonition, my take or stand. I will tell you, 80% of Nigerian young people aged around the 35year point don’t understand June 12, and these include the Akokites that prefer their ‘sexy’, name Unilag against some MAU-MAU acronym.

    Many young Nigerians beyond book theorisation do not know themselves or Nigeria except rumours, fairy tales and perceptions, few real, but many largely false.

    I say categorically the problem with Nigeria is not PDP, nor APC, but a politically bankrupt class and a grossly diminished intellectual yard.

    That Nigeria itself is a tale celebrated and argued based on ethnic groups and religion, whims and caprices of a few that will continue to lord it over us because we are yet to find out whether MKO drank a poisoned cup of tea or Abacha ate poisoned apple.

    We are not a united nation; we are not even a nation, we never may become one, till we are ready to move forward with the truth, stop all the tales, start to appreciate our diversity and ‘steal less’ and ‘lie less’ ever year we will keep June 12-ing—only time will tell.

    Charles Dickson

  • Curbing street beggars in Efurrun

    There is growing trend in Effurun which demands urgent attention of government and her agencies. It is the proliferation of beggars in our streets and major junctions such as Airport, Jakpa and Enerhen junctions. The worrisome part of this trend is that over 95% of them are women with children that range from few months to 12 years and are from a certain part of northern Nigeria. These children are used to pursue passers-by to beg for money. This is abnormal in any right-thinking society. I have also noticed that the babies in the hands of these women are always sleeping and I have wondered why. Out of curiosity, I made a private investigation and discovered that most of these toddlers are drugged, making them to sleep for hours so that they can carry out their acts undisturbed. This again is the highest form of child abuse. The government must do something fast and get this people off the roads and streets. Most of these people are not even ready to work and I have always asked them, any time I meet with them where are their husbands?. Their actions are callous and demeaning. I believe if they are serious-minded people, they should have relatives, friends and tribes men who could help them start small scale businesses, but the question still remains, are they ready to engage in meaningful trade?

    Alexander Ighoro

    Effurun, Delta State

  • President’s sermon on death warrant

    SIR: President Goodluck Jonathan appeared to have expressed his long years burden and pain, last week when he frowned at the governors’ seeming non-committal attitudes towards the implementation of capital punishment aspect of the country’s criminal laws. However legal the President’s comment might appear on the surface of it, it is unfortunate that the agitation for the gallow system would be so championed by the country’s number one citizen. It is even more curious that the same president, who recently pleaded with countries like Indonesia to stop execution of some Nigerians convicted for drug- related offences in that country, would suddenly begin to agitate for death warrant for offenders here. Talk of hypocrisy?

    The said expression was made by the President in his bid to justify the place of discipline in preserving the society at the Fathers’ Day Sunday service organised by the Aso Villa Chapel. Specifically, he said: “Even governors sometimes find it difficult to sign and I have been telling the governors that they must sign because that is the law…”

    Much as one does not have qualms with the President position on this, it however, suffices to state that he did not direct his mind to the effectiveness of such approach in crime reduction in the society. The President did not realise that capital punishment has never proved effective in crimes fighting in any jurisdiction. As a matter of fact, countries like the USA, Iran, China, North Korea, etc, which still retain this primitive approach in their laws have not in anyway exterminated crimes out of their societies.

    It is, indeed, against this backdrop that most countries are abolishing capital punishment of whatsoever nature from their criminal law realms. For instance, 18 out of 54 independent states in Africa have abolished this barbaric method of punishment from their laws. Even those which still retain it have not applied it in the last 10 years. Specifically, Burundi, Benin, Togo, Gabon and Madagascar have few years ago phased out any form of capital punishment from their system.

    In Nigeria, also, the Delta State Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, has refused to sign any death warrant since assumption of office in 2007. The governor’s recent refusal of assent to the Anti-Kidnapping Bill, which stipulates death sentence to convicted kidnappers, squared him up with state lawmakers, who eventually vetoed it into law. Maybe the governor has come to realise that such punishment is not what is needed to tackle crimes in the land.

    It is, therefore, highly regrettable that, out of the myriad challenges confronting the country, the most that bothers the President is the refusal of the governors to endorse the death warrant of the condemned criminals! The President ought to be in the vanguard of not only urging the governors to deliver good governance and justice to their people, but also leading the entire country out of the throes of hardship and flagrant abuse of powers.

    It is my submission that the effective management of crimes in our societies is not a creation of law as the President would want to assume. A daily execution of these criminals can never abate crimes here. The best way to tackle the menace is by uprooting its causes: unemployment, poverty, corruption and other forms of injustice.

    • Barrister Okoro Gabriel,

    Lagos.