The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • I weep for Baga town

    SIR: I join lovers of humanity to lament the brutal and malodorous massacre of innocent civilians at Baga town. I also deprecate and publicly deplore in strong terms the killings of security forces by men who have since sold their soul to the devil.

    It beat my imagination that at a time when peace process effort had begun, few species of “gallow birds” still hide under the cover of terrorism to desecrate the sanctity of humanity. We must not forget that an attack on our security forces is indeed an attack on the state. I believe members of our forces have the right to life just as others civilians. Consequently, I think the rules of engagement do not dictate to security agents to fold their hands and watch with amusement when they are under life-threatening attack. The Baga ‘comdie noire’ would have been averted if community leaders were on the quivive and sincere. The onus is on them to alert security forces of the presence of criminally minded characters in their abode. They kept silent and allowed their land to serve as safe haven for wanted agents of doom. If they had provided the security forces with security report, a more professional approach could have been adopted to smoke them out. It is a known fact that terrorists all over the world use human shields and civilian populated areas to plan and launch attacks. So trying to fish them is usually very difficult especially during an emergency response operation.

    Let me use these medium to appeal to Nigerians regardless of religious and other social divides to support the proposed amnesty to those murderous machinators and children of Erebus who have killed and promised to kill more in a shell display of satanic braggadocio. We must never be tempted to see the amnesty approach as weakness but sign of political cum spiritual maturity. While those opposed to the amnesty should not forget the powerful mantra of Desmond Tutu which says that “if you want to make peace, you do not talk to your friends, you talk to your enemies”, for the umpteenth time I want to submit that violence does not pay and we must reject violence. The Baga ‘cause celebre’ accentuate the vantage point of John .F. Kennedy that man must put an end to war or war will put and end to man. Please let there be peace in the Land.

    • Ehi G.O.

    Benin City

  • Amnesty for Aba residents

    SIR: There was a time Aba, the Enyimba city and the commercial nerve center of Abia State was a no-go area in terms of insecurity, ranging from kidnapping, armed robbery, ritual killing and other related vices. The development brought almost to a halt all social, political, commercial and developmental activities in the town and even culminated to people relocating to other less violent areas for safety.

    However, the situation was later laid to rest by the intervention of the federal troops. Thanks to Governor Theodore Ahamefula Orji who initiated the move.

    Aba has been a wonderful and vibrant city since inception. In fact it was the envy of the neighbourhood states until after sometime when it became an eyesore as a result of infestation of dilapidated and moribund industries including myriad of deplorable roads. This pitiable situation made people’s lives unbearable and boring.

    Now normalcy has returned to the town the residents expect the rehabilitation of those moribund industries like: Aba Textile mills, Aba Metallurgical complex, Aba Glass Industry and many others including the reconstruction of the abandoned roads that was truncated as a result of the insecurity situation to continue in order to bring succor to their lives like other residents in the neighbourhood states.

    No doubt, the kidnap saga discouraged and diverted the state and federal governments attention from making the town a befitting edifice. But that notion should not linger so long.

    I therefore plead on behalf of Aba residents for amnesty as the town has been the pride of the state in particular and the nation in general. It should not be forgotten that Aba is the home of the former CAF champion, Enyimba Football Club and the site of Ariaria International market.

    President Goodluck Jonathan should help rebuild Aba

     

    • Nkemakolam Gabriel

    Port Harcourt

     

  • An appeal to First Bank

    An appeal to First Bank

    SIR: Oka-Akoko branch of First Bank Nigeria Plc came on stream in 1978.This writer was among the first callers to have eagerly opened an account with the bank; and it has remained the only bank I have patronised so far. Even though the populace is largely agrarian, it was nevertheless sited in the place because of the town’s huge population and its potential to attract a large number of customers. Happily, this has been largely achieved.

    Curiously, since its berth in the town, the bank has remained in the same old one storey building it has rented and occupied for more than three decades. It’s not as if this is bad in itself but obviously, the building is too narrow and too small. If it was considered ideal then at inception, the same thing cannot be said about it now. The clientele has grown so large that it now becomes increasingly difficult for users and customers alike to do business with ease and comfortably. The place is always choked up that it feels like one is in an oven. The space has shrunk so much so that more often than not, customers would queue up from inside and spill over onto the ever busy highway at the risk of being knocked down by daredevil “okada” riders and commercial drivers plying the road to and from Abuja. Why it’s been such a Herculean task for the FBN to have its own building is very curious and difficult to conjecture.

    Any time I visit home and in an attempt to do business with the bank, each time I’m disappointed. When the ATMs are not malfunctioning, the bank will be closing to customers as early as 12 in the afternoon. I was at the bank on Thursday and Friday, April 25 and 26 respectively when there was no one to attend to me. The reason as usual was that the servers were down and had been like this for all of one week and without any solution in sight. And to imagine that this is the only FBN bank serving the whole of Akoko currently. The nearest bank is in Owo and Emure in Ekiti, a distance of about 40 kilometres away! The one in Ikare which is close by is yet to commence operation after it was looted and vandalized by armed robbers a while ago. This is not good enough. The people of Oka and indeed the whole of Akoko deserve better treatment than they are currently getting.

    I therefore call on the FBN authorities to do something very urgent to reverse and improve on this situation by building a more befitting, enduring, bigger and spacious FBN office building in Oka and the reopening of the Ikare branch forthwith so as to lessen the people’s financial headaches as they seem to be facing now.

    • Alana Olusegun,

    Abeokuta.

  • Osun’s health-friendly environment initiatives

    SIR: I dare say that it feels good to be a citizen of the State of Osun, where evidently a visionary, purposeful government is fully on ground adding values to lives through structured and disciplined implementation of well-designed programmes. There is ample evidence that the present administration – led by Governor Rauf Aregbesola – places a high premium on the conditions of the environment and the health of the people.

    The dutifully observed monthly and weekly sanitation exercises; the clearing of waterways, canals and drainages; the organised and improved waste-disposal system; the landscaping, beautification of major junctions and road medians; and the introduction of environmental health officers, are part of the deft moves being made by the Aregbesola administration to create health-friendly environments across the state.

    What inspires my applause of the state government’s concern for promoting healthy living through sanitisation of the environment is the unmistakable impacts of the idea on socio-economic development. When people inhabit environments devoid of avoidable causes of illnesses and diseases, they are healthy and psychologically well-adjusted to bring about improved productivity. Equally remarkable is the fact that the efforts at ensuring clean environment makes the empowerment of many hitherto idle hands feasible. Surely, only a rigorously introspective government like the present one in Osun can make this happen.

    I recall that during the better-forgotten years of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the cities, towns, markets, and major roads in Osun were largely defaced and made eyesores by heaps of refuse and waste items carelessly disposed.

    It was so disturbing that even the masked afro-beat maestro, Lagbaja, made it a subject of his masterful rendition, lamenting actually that “dirty full everywhere, no be small/dirty full anyhow, no be small ooo/ … for Osogbo, the same thing ni …”.

    The profusely hazardous environment (the subsisting conditions of the places where people lived and worked) had negative impacts on the well-being of the people as mosquitoes and their vectors found comfy breeding habitats from where they freely lobbed the lethal missiles of malaria into human bodies. No doubt, the capricious government of the time was out of tune with the modern method of waste disposal and management, even as it was abominably ignorant of the fact that environmental conditions can cause and worsen health challenges.

    Those horrible realities defined the interred years of the PDP-led government in Osun. Since Governor Aregbesola took office, remarkable changes have occurred in the areas of health and environmental cleanliness. The reprehensible habit of improper disposal of waste and unsightly scenes that were roundabouts on major roads across the state have yielded space for effective system of waste disposal and beautification projects that now give engaging aesthetics to parks, motorway medians and bus-stops. Through its O’Clean programme, the government has been able to convince and mobilise the people to always ensure that their environments are in sanitary condition.

    Truth be told, the current health-friendly environment initiatives of the state government deserves not only applause but continuous support by citizens, clean environment advocates, and even the harshest traducers of the helmsman – if only for the sanitary environment in which they labour lucklessly to pooh-pooh the unprecedented changes birthed by Aregbesola. I counsel the government to not by any means take off or slacken its hands on the plough of health-friendly environment programmes and other socio-economic development efforts.

    • Idowu Adediran,

    Ipetumodu, Osun State.

  • CBN’s somersault on polymer notes

    SIR: Despite public apathy to the introduction of polymer Naira notes in year 2006, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo the then rabid and super Central Bank governor ignored every dissenting voices and went ahead to launch N10, N20 and N50 notes at the whopping sum ofN750 million Naira. In fact, the policy was a done deal forced down our throats for the governor and his team had their mind made up despite our ranting so to say.

    The only cogent reason he adduced then was that polymer notes were better and could last longer than paper notes. Today the aesthetics and texture of the notes cannot compete favourably with pure water nylons littering our streets. Seven years on, the pessimists of that time have been proved right as CBN is ready to revert back to the same paper notes.

    According to Tunde Lemo, deputy governor Banking Supervision, the apex bank decided to scrap the polymer notes because they fade easily, despite earlier experiments which showed that the notes could last longer than paper notes.

    If earlier experiment has shown that polymer lasts longer than paper currency, what went wrong with ours? I suspect that somebody encouraged made in China polymer naira notes instead of that of an Australian note-printing firm – Securency which won the contract. Why should it take CBN seven odd years to realise that the project they spent so much tax payers money in promoting was a complete failure? This matter needs to be thoroughly investigated by the National Assembly and other relevant security agencies.

    Mismanagement of public fund for any reason is a crime. The apex bank only succeeded in mismanaging the resources of Nigeria and at the same time shamelessly appeals to the sensibilities of the same poor people to bear the brunt of their mistakes. In developed climes people should be talking of resigning their appointments instead of self-exoneration. It should be noted that the same Tunde Lemo who released the statement was deputy governor banking operations when the polymer notes were introduced.

    It is common for Nigerians in position of authority to go about with the impression of being omniscient. Their ideas are the best and worst at last. The country itself is unfortunately run with myriads of inconsistencies and policy somersaults. However, if we are ready as a nation to get out of this doldrums, Public views should be taken into cognisance in policy making while errant leaders should be made accountable for their negligence in the discharge of their duties no matter how highly placed.

    • Sunday Onyemaechi Eze ,

    Zaria, Kaduna State

  • Olayinka: When death is honour

    SIR: “To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?”- Socrates

    The first time I read the above quote by Socrates, I couldn’t but disagree, for being alive while he wrote it, how could Socrates have know that death could be the greatest good? If Socrates knew so much about death, why didn’t he kill himself at the time to enjoy the greatest good?

    Whatever misgivings I had against Socrates, these past few days changed that. For the first time in my life, I see people envying the death of another. A young man said to me that if not that it would sound out of place and weird, he could have wished to die. As a friend later joked, even if this young man gets his weird request to die, can his death be as honourable as the one that he covets – that of Adunni Funmilayo Olayinka, the late Deputy Governor of Ekiti State?

    The issue here is not about whether the young man’s death would be as honourable; the issue is that he was moved enough to covet death just because that of Adunni Olayinka is honourable. This young man’s weird but meaningful covetousness and the empathy that the death of the Deputy Governor has generated changed my mind towards Socrates’ quote, making me agree further with him that “Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.”

    It is also at times like this that we know who love us, the dead and the people they leave behind. It is in identifying with the grief of those left behind by the dead that one knows whether the dead or the people he/she left behind were/are good people. That the whole world is identifying with Ekiti shows beyond words that Adunni Funmilayo Olayinka was a good person. It shows also that those she left behind, her husband, her children, her relations, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and Erelu Bisi Fayemi are good people, people who have overtime demonstrated the ability to be above board.

    • ‘Dimeji Daniels

    Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State

  • ….And amnesty is not the answer

    ….And amnesty is not the answer

    Abraham Lincoln got it right when he said “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and under a just God cannot retain it.” Nigeria is now home to the world most despicable ogres that kill in the name of religion & education. Young boys and girls, men and women who congregate in places of worship in part of northern Nigeria transit in pieces to the grave beyond. While others end up being victims of permanent disability.

    It is in the news that those merchant of sudden death who specialise in transmuting birth certificates into death certificates via weapons of ‘mass destruction’ are on the verge of getting amnesty. Oh what a country!

    Even if they get the so-called amnesty from man, I doubt if they will ever get the real amnesty that cometh from God alone. To kill a man in the presence of his God in the mode of worship is not an expression of strength but of weakness and cowardice.

    I think the solution is not amnesty but a genuine renouncement of violence against citizen’s regardless of their faith. Granting amnesty to men who operate under the mask is nothing but an abuse of amnesty. Even the Lord, our God, identifies sinners before he forgives them of their sin. As at today, no body has come out to say he is a member, leader or sponsor of the deadly sect yet they claim they need amnesty. Amnesty from who? God, the devil or from Mr. President? All we know is that men in masks give press release threatening violence against innocent souls with religious inclination.

    Those who are calling for amnesty for men who kill in the name of religion and education should be courageous and fearless to also compel the group to lay down their weapons and embrace dialogue. They should be admonished to respect others, right to freedom of worship. We must learn to resist the temptation of using force to expand the boundaries of our faith.

    God bless Nigeria.

     

    G. O. Ehi

    Benin City.

  • The youth as engines of democracy

    I suggest that there should be youth assemblies in the three tiers of government which include, the local, state, and federal levels.

    Let’s make use of the upcoming review and amendment of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and give the youth their constitutional role to play in piloting the affairs of this nation (Nigeria). This is because youths in any society constitute the major breakthrough which the success or failure of any kind of developmental initiatives by the government, corporate organisation or philanthropist gestures can be adequately rated or utilised.

    The Nigerian youth association should, therefore, wake up to their dreams and visions of discovering, catching, arresting and transforming a better future for the present and future Nigerian youths through ensuring that the proposed constitutional review and amendment by the national assembly in Nigeria provides for vital roles for their assembly to effectively play their various roles as regarding youth development in Nigeria democracy.

    The youth assembly of Nigeria has recognised individuals between the classified ages of 12-40 for a common aim and objective geared towards achieving a positive development and transforming influence on them. if this particular age group is developed in this county it will certainly stand for a better chance for the future of democracy in Nigeria.

     

    Muhammed Bala Musa,

    Dept of Mass Comm.

    IBB University, Lapai, Niger State

  • The Boko Haram menace

    The Boko Haram menace

    Nigeria is a complex entity and sometimes I just pity our leaders’ helplessness in a system where people who are in positions and are expected to be very objective in state matters do otherwise. I am referring to the call by the highly respected Sultan of Sokoto, that Boko Haram should be granted amnesty. Without mincing words, I have great respect for the Sultan because from the little I have known and followed about him, he is a detribalised Nigerian. But on this issue of giving amnesty to Boko Haram, I wish to say, he goofed.

    On the other hand, my thinking tells me, going by his precedence, that he may have been under pressure from some unknown forces, or is this call a cry of helplessness? If the issue of Boko Haram is politicised then the end will not be close. You can only grant amnesty to a known offender. The question now is that who are the representatives or leaders of Boko Haram, what are their grievances, what are the objects of their rebellion? For me, we are shying away from the root of the crises staring glaringly at us.

    My worry is the daily emasculation of socioeconomic life of northern Nigeria and by extension the whole nation by the actions of Boko Haram.These are trying times for our nation, but we must all stand for what is right regardless of whose ox is gored. I can still remember during the critical days of militancy in the Niger Delta, that the militant groups and their leaders were known. That was why elders from the region, like Chief E.K. Clark, went to the creek several times to negotiate with them. Can you negotiate with spirits? Let’s face the fact, Boko Haram is faceless and have not been able to state categorically what their grievances are except that western education is forbidden according to them. If that premise is anything to go by, then it will be safe to conclude that Boko Haram is an ideology. Even at that, let the leaders come out and identify themselves. It is at this juncture that I call on the elders from the north to stand up to the situation, after all what are elders for? Granting amnesty to Boko Haram is like running around the issue. We must rise up collectively to fight against this crippling phenomenon. If we must see the end of this ugly trend, the north has a major role to play. May God keep and strengthen our nation.

     

    Alexander Ighoro

    Warri, Delta State.

  • Still on the APC merger

    SIR: When the G-34 was formed to challenge Late General Sani Abacha, it was hailed as one of the most progressive groups in the nation’s chequered history. It took a rare form of courage for defenceless civilians to stand up to the country’s number one goon.

    Sadly with the formation of the Peoples Democratic Party which the group metamorphosed, it turned out to be the case of the hunted becoming the hunter. Since 1999, the nation has watched with despair how the behemoth mismanaged the resources which nature in her kindness bequeathed to the Giant of Africa.

    The lack of vision is so comical that the Boko Haram insurgents are now dictating the terms and conditions for peace to the hapless Federal Government.

    Mergers of political parties are not a novel trend in Nigeria. In the First Republic, two dominant alliances – the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA) and the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) were formed in 1964. The NNA had the ruling Northern Peoples Congress leading the pack of other less influential parties which included the Nigerian National Democratic Party, Mid-West Democratic Front, Niger Delta Congress, Dynamic Party. UPGA had the National Council for Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) and the Action Group, Northern Elements Progressive Union, United Middle Belt Congress in a futile attempt to wrestle power from the NPC.

    In the Second Republic, the National Peoples Party led by Zik of Africa and Peoples Redemption Party led by Mallam Aminu Kano had a strategic alliance.

    It is no surprise that the ACN is leading a group of other like minded political parties which include the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) amongst other groups to form the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    A look at some of the key arrowheads shows that indeed there is some hope when their antecedents are taken into consideration. Former Lagos State Governor and ACN National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu played a key role in the struggle for the actualisation of democracy as a founding member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). Major-General Muhammadu Buhari has proven to be an incorruptible leader from his days as Petroleum Minister, his stint as the Head of State and Chairman of the Petroleum Task Force where his hands were not soiled with filthy lucre.

    Fighting corruption should be the major focus of the APC. This should be its overriding ideology to give it a strong wave of focus. One reason why many of such noble mergers fail is that personal interest among some of the key players is put above the common good. The performance of some of the Governors under the APC, notably in Edo, Lagos and Ekiti is a clear indication that the welfare of Nigerians will be paramount. The lot of Nigerians has worsened under the mismanagement and greed of the ruling PDP. Nigerians have become poorer because of corruption. The Federal Government’s efforts at combating it have been so dismal that it is nothing short of a cruel joke. The APC has a lot of work to do here if it is to win the confidence and trust of Nigerians who are on the brink of despondency at the moment.

    No progress can be achieved in an atmosphere of insecurity. The Jonathan administration has been clueless on the way to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency. It is so bad that they are dictating the terms claiming that they are not criminals and so don’t need any form of amnesty.

    Did US President Barack Obama beg the bombers in the Boston massacre? He took decisive action in a manner that gave pride to the American presidency. The APC must fashion a clear cut agenda on how to tackle the security crisis that is threatening our very existence.

    • Tony Ademiluyi

    Lagos