The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Kudos to Aregbesola on Gbongan-Akoda road

    SIR: I crave your permission to express my unfeigned delight with the comforting news that Osun State government under the leadership of Governor Rauf Aregbesola has awarded the contract for the construction of a 30km-dual carriage way from Gbongan to Akoda in Ede. As a businessman resident in Osogbo, I travel at least two times every week to Lagos. I can reliably inform that it can be very uncomfortable navigating through the road, what with its narrowness and bumpy nature.

    Therefore, it is a soothing relief that the state government has decided to put a permanent end to the nightmarish experiences of motorists on that road. By reaching the decision to expand the road, construct about four pedestrian bridges at Gbongan Junction; erect streetlights, road markings and signs; build culverts and ditches; and do landscaping with quality aesthetics, this government has yet again demonstrated its unparalleled attentiveness to the yearnings and collective wishes of the people who by votes engineered its existence. From the reports I read about the project, the state government is just not contented with expanding the Gbongan-Akoda Motorway, it is very genuinely interested in doing it with strict compliance with standard practices such that the road can endure for another 30 years after construction.

    As any informed mind would readily concur, the provision of viable road infrastructure and the accordance of quality periodic maintenance to it are very critical and inexorable to the actualisation of lasting and advantageous socio-economic advancement. This explains why I often get deeply horrified each time I travel on that highly portentous death path called Lagos/Ibadan Expressway. I get more particularly confounded when I hear the past and present presidents of Nigeria and their infantile poodles praise themselves for making life more comfortable for Nigerians when that major expressway remains an immoveable, lugubrious reference point of their starkest failings as leaders. If, as important as that expressway is to Nigeria’s economic affairs Nigerian leaders of the PDP stock still find it intractable to repair and expand for our benefit, I mince no word to say we don’t have to look for any other evidence of the incapability and hopelessness of the present ‘messiahs’ in Aso Rock to translate the vision of the oft-quoted transformation agenda into reality! Were the present government in Osun to have been at the centre for say four years, the seemingly insolvable purulent boil (the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway disrepair) delicately perched on the skin of our country would have been clinically lanced to the calming comfort of all.

    The contractors, Ratcon Construction Nigeria Limited must get cracking on the Gbongan-Akoda Motorway post-haste. As it moves men and material to site, it must adhere unavoidably strictly to the specifications handed down to it by the state Ministry of Works. At the expiration of the 18-month period it agreed to get the job done, the construction company should be delivering nothing short of excellent work. And while I applaud the State Government of Osun for this significant move, I encourage it to keep hoisted aloft the expansive banner of distinguishing governance.

     

    • Gbenga Awodele,

    Osogbo, State of Osun.

  • Mimikoand governors forum election

    Mimikoand governors forum election

    SIR: Your ‘Hardball’ of Tuesday, May 28, made a wonderful reading. In addition to General Jonah Jang and Godswill Akpabio who have been unmasked, laid bare and demystified, another person who has lent himself to be used as a cannon fodder in the whole perfidy and treachery is Dr Rahman Mimiko of Ondo State.

    I can’t understand why this individual is crying more than the bereaved. This is not the way of an average Ondo person. An average Ondo person just like his cousin in Ekiti is an epitome of what is just and true. Why can’t this man dignify himself by being neutral in the whole scheme? I hope he won’t have himself to blame much much later.

    A University of Ife (OAU) trained medical doctor behaving this way! He it was who was quoted as saying that they almost exchanged fisticuffs during the voting exercise at the governors’ forum meeting. Many alumni of that great citadel of learning would be scandalized and disappointed.

    It goes to affirm all the negative things being said about him in time past about his serial betrayals and his legendary inclination to side with unjust causes.

    This is a big lesson for us in Ondo State. It’s therefore hoped that Ondo State people are taking notes. In any case, he doesn’t need the peoples’ votes anymore since he’s no longer qualified to stand for election as governor next time. That is why he can now afford to do anything he likes including fighting a cause that doesn’t concern him.

    My appeal to the good people of Ondo State is that next time, they should be discerning enough to know who and which party to vote for;not just anybody and not just any political party.

     

    • Olu Ajayi,

    Akure.

     

  • Pay pensioners’ arrears now

    SIR: This clearly is the season of monumental national scams and scandals. However, the mindless swindling of the nation’s hapless pensioners to the tune of billions of naira, certainly represents the most inexplicable and sadistic malfeasance ever perpetrated in Nigeria’s inglorious history.

    Only depraved and disoriented minds can ever contemplate depriving the nation’s senior citizens of their well-deserved benefits; those who in various capacities gave their best prime years to nation building.

    To redress this unmitigated injustice, the federal government is urged, as a matter of utmost urgency, to settle all outstanding arrears of federal pensioners.

    It will be a grave misjudgement to take these elderly citizens for granted. The nation, already prostrate from years of misrule, risks further negative spiritual backlash and consequences, if the authorities falsely assume that since Nigerian pensioners maybe unable to precipitate any effective industrial action, they can be persistently ignored.

    In the inimitable words of a great American President: ‘A nation which cannot help the poor and weak who are many, cannot save the few who are rich’.

    • Simeon Odugba,

    Gwarinpa, Abuja.

     

  • Military and subordination to civilian control

    Military and subordination to civilian control

    SIR: A recent report in the media brought to the public domain the lingering crisis between the leadership of the armed forces and the supervising ministry, the ministry of defence. Even though the authorities of the defence headquarters have denied the said report, but as the popular saying goes, “there is no smoke without fire”.

    Under the current political dispensation, direction of policy and funding for defence, like any other portfolio, rests squarely with the federal government, while the role of the ministry of defence is the management of human and material resources in order to optimize the combat effectiveness of the Nigerian armed forces.

    However, defence ministeries around the world share the basic problem of striking the right balance between centralization and decentralization of authority and process. Therefore the great dilemma rests on low to assert central control while delegating sufficient responsibility to the operational arms i.e the army, navy and the air force. For instance, while procurement of military hardware is often a political decision to be taken by the civil authority, the advice of the military as to type and make is not only desirous but also essential. Sidelining the military or discarding their advice may definitely not be in the nation’s interest on the long run.

    An example will suffice. In the 80’s during Alhaji Shehu Shagari’s presidency, the then government decided to procure military transport aircraft for the Nigerian air force. While the defence ministry preferred the Italian G222 tactical transport aircraft, the air force made a case for American C130 hercules transport aircraft, some of which it already had in its fleet. By way of comparison, the G222 is a twin engine tactical transport aircraft manufactured in Italy. Its first prototype flew in 1970 and since then had been in service in less than 10 countries by then. The aircrafts main drawbacks are its prohibitive cost of maintenance, limited range and lack of operational flexibility.

    The American C130 hercules on the other hand is a four-engined medium and long range combat transport aircraft. It was first produced in 1952 and was being used in almost 60 countries of the world by then. The government however went ahead and procured the Italian G222 aircrafts. Four years later, all the G222 aircrafts were grounded due to prohibitive costs of maintenance. And throughout Babangidas tenure as head of state into the early years of Obasanjo’s presidency, the aircrafts could be seen idling away at the Ilorin aircrafts terminal, probably now disposed off as scraps.

    The Babangida and Abacha regimes not only impoverished the nation, but also the military as an institution through corruption and mismanagement. Apart from the fact that there was no credible effort made to equip the forces there was also a general clampdown on all major military exercises. Consequently the armed forces withdrew into cocoons of impotence. And so at the inception of democratic rule in 1999, what was inherited by the Obasanjo administration was a military hardware that was not only largely unserviceable but almost obsolete.

    We must get away from the corrupt, uneconomical and inefficient practices of the past and bring about major but gradual systemic changes in defence management and procurement.

    And taking into consideration, the fact that available resources will remain limited so that it will not be possible to realize all projects that would be desirable from a military point of view, our second best alternative is the upgrading, retrofitting and modernization of weapon systems that are presently rotting away in the various barracks. Far instance, for the price of purchasing one Main Battle Tank (MBT) a number of existing ones can be upgraded and modernized to increase their lethality. The exercise could also be extended to fighter planes except for those nearing their fuselage fatigue lives.

    In conclusion, the military must accept both individually and institutionally as a profession the principle of civil supremacy. However it is also vital that policy formulators pay attention to opinion of the military and that policies when formulated are in the best interest of the armed forces and the country at large.

    • Lt. Col Oluwole Bright (Rtd)

    Lagos.

     

  • Why NECO, not JAMB, should go

    Why NECO, not JAMB, should go

    SIR: A recent survey by a national newspaper featured the view of a cross section of Nigerians. The respondents had been asked to comment on the federal government’s rumoured plan to scrap the National Examination Council (NECO) and Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), along with many other federal agencies.

    “NECO should be scrapped” snapped one of the respondents. “There is no point using the same mode of examination to test the ability of students, when one of them (GCE, WAEC, and NECO) will do for the same purpose. UTME (conducted by JAMB) should be allowed to stay for testing academic ability”

    Another respondent was no less blunt. “UTME should be left alone”. “The only thing is for the system to be restructured so that when you do well in JAMB, schools will be the ones sending letters of admission to the students. NECO is not necessary. It is a distraction”.

    It is against this backdrop that this writer, like millions of other compatriots out there, strongly feel that the authorities concerned must think deeply before deciding on which national examination body to abolish. Deep, discerning thinking or reasoning is crucial, given our tendency to coat every issue “with so much emotion,” as Dan Agbese’s eloquently stated in NEWSWATCH magazine of September 21, 1987.

    NECO, to be sure, has its advantage. At its conception many Nigerians had reasoned that since the West African Examination Council, WAEC already performs similar functions as NECO, there was no need to establish a new body that would essentially duplicate WAEC’s roles. Even though NECO has benefited a generation of Nigerians in sundry ways since its creation, the fact still remains that it more or less duplicates WAEC’s roles.

    That, however, is a matter for discussion another day. Our primary concern here, like that of the respondents quoted earlier, is the need for officialdom to be cautious vis-a-vis the alleged plan to scrap JAMB or UTME in favour of NECO. Abolishing JAMB, so the argument goes, would let universities admit candidates of their choice directly, apparently using the students’ performance in NECO as a basis.

    Granted, that argument has some basis, but I sincerely believe that this argument raises more posers than it answers. It is like contending, for example, that because we can transact business online, the Naira or Dollar should be abolished. Buying and selling online (and, by extension, making electronic payment) may be beneficial in countless ways, but, pray, does that justify the need to abolish the Naira as a legal tender?

    JAMB, as an institution, is certainly not perfect. Its limitations are well documented. But as even its most unfair critic would concede, this good old examination body has been performing fairly well in recent times, particularly since the advent of electronic mail. For instance, its hitherto cumbersome registration process has been comparatively simplified. Hitherto, checking results had been a nightmare to students, but with the introduction of e – mail, all that has now become history.

    JAMB has despite its limitations, played veritably important, nay significant, roles in the lives of generations of Nigerian students. Scrapping it in one fell swoop would, in my view, amount to throwing away the baby with the bath water. Neither emotion nor ego should be allowed to stampede the authorities concerned into abolishing JAMB. Instead, NECO should go.

    • Macekho Chukwuma

    Lagos.

     

  • Re: There was a Chinua

    Re: There was a Chinua

    SIR: Olakunle Abimbola’s piece in The Nation of May 21, titled “There was a Chinua” characterises Achebe’s work “There was a country” as “more censorious of Nigeria than Things fall apart was of Britain”. Why should that be a big deal? How many people in today’s Nigeria are less censorious of Nigeria and more of Britain?

    What Abimbola describes as “sterile controversy” between Achebe, Wole Soyinka and the Nobel Prize is still a controversy he was willing to indulge in the commentary. Anybody who knew about the comments credited to Achebe and Soyinka on the Prize know that Soyinka’s remarks were not jibes (as Achebe’s was not) but a simple statement that European perspectives cannot diminish Achebe’s contributions to African literature and those of anyone else. The two remained kindred spirits till the end.

    Abimbola also suggests that Achebe alludes to Igbo’s as “meek saints” in the civil strife of the 60’s. What makes war crimes, war crimes or genocide, genocide is not that the victims must be “saints”. If Achebe created Igbo characters in Things fall Apart et al who were all flawed characters who could lie, hate, cheat, be cruel and love etc. what is the logic in suggesting that Achebe alludes to his tribe as “meek saints” in his book written 40 to 50 years plus after he created those flawed but enduring characters?

    Abimbola believes that Achebe “himself died not exactly a nationalist”. Achebe died being what he intended to be all along and that is as “a fearless writer”. In Nigeria’s political vocabulary the expression “nationalist” is a title that has spawn a list of recipients so long and which includes the OBJ’s, IBB’s of this country and a host of politicians and bureaucrats. Achebe in that list is not really in good company. Achebe however shares the company of eternal lights. For example in The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, a canon of the West for the greatest critical essays of greatest thinkers, Achebe enjoys the company there of Plato, Aristotle, Horace etc.

    On the issue of Igbo elites not minding to dominate others one would expect instances (if such is true) so one could see whether there are no parallel experiences of same with the elites of other ethnic groups.

    The commentary portrays Achebe as impotent in the sphere of social activism, more as an Igbo jingoist. Well, all the crises that Achebe was allegedly “muffled” about were mostly if not all rooted in symptoms already diagnosed by Achebe and berated in The Trouble with Nigeria, not to mention his role as erstwhile Deputy National Leader of PRP all before he became paraplegic.

    The commentary is a clear case of a commentator angling for faults with Achebe, someone asking for another book on “pan Nigerian victimhood” from Achebe afterThe Trouble with Nigeria amongst other works. Does it stem from deep-seated chagrin that draws from the perception that Achebe’s work challenges Awo’s legacies? Both Awo’s unforgettable legacies in the old western Nigeria and Achebe’s observations in There was a countryare mutually exclusive (each cannot warrant that the other is invalid).

    I agree with the commentary that Wole Soyinka is a wordsmith. Wole Soyinka (who is presented as being a rival to Achebe) responding to “There was a country” in an interview with the Telegraph of London on October 17, 2012 said the Igbo’s were victims of genocide during the civil war. He also said of the Igbo’s “A people who were abused, who’d undergone genocide and…therefore decided to break away and form a nation of their own”.Soyinka speaks as one, to quote Mr. Abimbola, “that takes no prisoners” not minding who served in the federal war cabinet even Awo.

    • Pete Morah

    Lagos

     

  • Re: There was a Chinua

    Re: There was a Chinua

    SIR: Your ‘Hardball’ of Tuesday, May 28, made a wonderful reading. In addition to General Jonah Jang and Godswill Akpabio who have been unmasked, laid bare and demystified, another person who has lent himself to be used as a cannon fodder in the whole perfidy and treachery is Dr Rahman Mimiko of Ondo State.

    I can’t understand why this individual is crying more than the bereaved. This is not the way of an average Ondo person. An average Ondo person just like his cousin in Ekiti is an epitome of what is just and true. Why can’t this man dignify himself by being neutral in the whole scheme? I hope he won’t have himself to blame much much later.

    A University of Ife (OAU) trained medical doctor behaving this way! He it was who was quoted as saying that they almost exchanged fisticuffs during the voting exercise at the governors’ forum meeting. Many alumni of that great citadel of learning would be scandalized and disappointed.

    It goes to affirm all the negative things being said about him in time past about his serial betrayals and his legendary inclination to side with unjust causes.

    This is a big lesson for us in Ondo State. It’s therefore hoped that Ondo State people are taking notes. In any case, he doesn’t need the peoples’ votes anymore since he’s no longer qualified to stand for election as governor next time. That is why he can now afford to do anything he likes including fighting a cause that doesn’t concern him.

    My appeal to the good people of Ondo State is that next time, they should be discerning enough to know who and which party to vote for;not just anybody and not just any political party.

     

    • Olu Ajayi,

    Akure.

     

  • Nigerian Police and peace-keeping mission

    Nigerian Police and peace-keeping mission

    SIR: One of the many ironies of our national life as a country that I have had to grapple with is the accolades that the Nigerian Police Force always coast home with from international keeping missions, where such accolades are juxtaposed with their performance at the domestic front. On various international peace keeping missions that the Nigerian Police participated, it has always been tales of laurels and accolades. Pundits have tried to locate the reason in a number of theories. One of such postulations, usually supported by the police, is that on such missions as the UN Peace keeping, this school of thought holds that our Police are usually exposed to first class facilities that make for their excellent performance.

    The Nigerian Police and some acclaimed experts have always latched in on this testimony to further advance the corollary which, regrettably, they always reduce to the magical effects of cash. Thus, whenever there are critical challenges to policing such as the recent horrendous experience of the massacre of the Nigerian police both in Bama and Nasarawa, one always hears of such cheap argument as the assailant having superior fire power than the Nigerian Police as a result of the more sophisticated arms at the disposal of the assailants.

    That leads us to another irony. How come that the Nigerian Police, 30 years ago, were more efficient in policing with just mainly batons than now when over 90 AK 46-armed police officers would be deployed to arrest just a chief priest of a cult group?

    A calm but critical assessment of the policing system in Nigeria would reveal the absence of a significant component of effective policing, that is, people-oriented policing system, otherwise, tagged community policing, where policing policies directly derive from the social forces that shape the relationship between the police and the citizenry. In order words, the ordinary citizen of Nigeria to whom the platitudes of “the Police is your friend” always refers, is so removed from the utopian dynamics of police/citizen friendship as obtains in other climes as to be of any benefit to the police in the area of intelligence gathering, the sine qua non of acceptable modern policing system. Rather, our policing system, and indeed, the mentality of an average police officer in Nigeria is to conceive all conflict situations requiring police attention as war crisis situation necessitating maximum display of hardware of force at the expense of software of intelligence gathering.

    The perceived excellence of the Nigerian Police in international Peace-keeping missions is traceable to its orientation of militarism, which comes handy in war situations, where, for most times, foul is fair and fair is foul. Until there is a conscious policy formulation to make for a paradigm shift in the mentality and orientation of our policing system in Nigeria, protection of lives and property; peace, order and social justice, the raison d’être of modern police will yet remain a mirage.

    • Chris Edache Agbiti, Esq.,

    Abuja

     

  • North’s long wait for another Sardauna

    SIR: The state of emergency recently declared in the three north eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States is a manifestation of the open confession by General TY Danjuma earlier this year that the North is the middle of a civil war. The pre-independence and immediate post independence Northern Nigeria of which the late Sardauna, Sir Ahmadu Bello and Alhaji Tafawa Balewa were very visible has since January 15, 1966 evaporated. What remained had been the broken shells of a once monolithic, cohesive edifice whose inheritors are unable to concretely patch together.

    The North has witnessed many sacrileges committed under the cover of some primordial considerations alien to the North of the Gamjis and the Balewas. From the neglect of education to non-appreciation of positive development programmes, the North has seen it all. Now, it is harvesting these sacrileges that are blood chilling, confounding and distracting. There was Maitatsine. Now, there is Boko Haram, the emergence of which a worthy personality like the Sultan of Sokoto, His eminence, Alh. Saad Abubakar linked to the negligence of the Northern leadership sometimes earlier this year. Between the Sultan’s confession on the Northern backwardness and the horrendous attacks being witnessed in the region leading to the declaration of the state of emergence is a thin veil of the tragedy of leadership values decline.

    Many watchers of the Nigerian polity flimsily categorize power distribution in Nigeria into political, commerce and education with its advantages among the three dominant ethnic groups. The south western zone dominated by the Yoruba is said to be the custodian of education and public service. The East, the Igbo stock to be specific, is said to hold sway in commerce while power is said to be in the custody of the North. Unfortunately the trade-offs arising from this categorization have not been converted to national development gains. The North suffers the most. The other segments are also accomplices in the desolation of the nation.

    Now each of the legs on which Nigeria stands is weak and wobbling waiting for other solid trees to replace them. The Gamji was the tree on which the North stood in the first republic. Awolowo was the Iroko that revolutionized the West. Zik of Africa and the Owelle of Onitsha provided the shade in the East. Since these three mighty trees fell in the large compound called Nigeria, the leaves have been withering, their fruits dried, and their roots rotting. Now we wait for the rising of new Gamjis, Iroko and Arabas.

    With the elimination of Sardauna and Tafawa Balewa, the North lost its soul. The Sardauna was not celebrated for his wealth but for his worth and his work as the architect of the modern North. He inspired the establishment of GAMJI Bank, the Northern Nigeria Development Corporation, and New Nigerian newspaper. He worked for the North as an unforgettable icon, because in the politics of the late Premier of Northern Nigeria, he tried to weld the North into one. Under him, the slogan was One North, One destiny. But he also wanted a handshake across the Niger even though it was misconstrued as a subtle northernisation. He was personally responsible for discovering some of future leaders of the North, coaching and mentoring and fixing them where their potentials will be developed to the maximum.

    Many were northerners that the Sardauna personally drafted to the military and the police and the public service from Barewa College. Although the Sardauna had an aristocratic background, he did not despise the lower class, nor did he promote tribal chauvinism within the North. His influence was so strong that most major Northern landmarks are dedicated to his memory, beginning with the Ahmadu Bello University. If this is the esteem with which the Sardauna is held, it is regrettable that not many candidates have emerged to continue in his name.

     

    • Ridhwanullah Abdullah,

    Malumfashi, Katsina State.

     

  • PDP is bane to growth of our democracy

    PDP is bane to growth of our democracy

    SIR: If we are to be frank with ourselves, the main hurdle to the growth of our democracy is PDP. Our democracy is almost 14 years now, and the PDP still believe that they are the reason why our democracy still lives. For how long are we going to continue with this make-believe democracy?

    The reason why our democracy has lived so far is not the success or size of the ruling party but the steadfastness and the struggle of the good people of Nigeria. If Nigeria had been left with the PDP, it would have been a thing of the past.

    PDP has been associated with so many unpleasant and dishonest acts ranging from election manipulation, lack of respect for the rule of law, bad leadership, and false agenda. They have bound our judiciary and even crippled the mass media. They do not pave way for the people to participate in decision making; they make policies that will enrich them and impoverish the masses and thus face incessant criticism by Nigerians.

    Nigerians have not in one day lauded the performance of the PDP since 1999 and this is because they have failed woefully and completely. They have failed in all ramifications. The people are fed up with stories and false manifestoes.

    The truth about PDP is that they have nothing to offer and it is impossible for someone to give what he/she does have. The PDP have not for once accepted the blames for not doing well but rather they blame opposition parties for their non-performance.

    Meanwhile, the crises within the party today is a sign and message to Nigerians that we have missed the road and their nonchalant attitudes towards providing social amenities to raise the standard of living of the people is manifestation of the challenges we are facing now. We can not surmount these challenges, unless we are determined and ready to oust PDP from power.

    • Waziri Mohammed,

    Mokola, Ibadan.